Foodie Capital of British Columbia?

I've been in Vancouver for about a month and change, and the food scene so far hasn't rocked my world. It has lightly nudged me and caressed my soul but Victoria was the one who brought me down to my knees. Hail great island of deliciousness!

An hour after stepping off the ferry and dumping our luggage, we were in line at Red Fish, Blue Fish: Victoria's equivalent to Vancouver's Go Fish. But after 15 min of standing still, we abandoned that idea and moved on to The Drake Eatery for some brewskies, cause you know, sunny day and all. Unfortunately, the menu here was sparse so we just split a bratwurst and moved on. Just as we turned the corner, there stood a knight in shining armour in the form of Ayo Eat.

I mean, look how cute! It literally is a takeout window with three stools in the corner of a courtyard and manned by one person, Ali Syahbana (Bana), who has cooked for the Dalai Lama and was also head of Asian cuisine at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Prague! Random, but awesome for us! We plopped on the stools waiting for the rendang and the chicken satays. Bana was super hospitable, asking us a few times if we wanted some water and how much spice we could handle. It was such a warm, personal experience. Fuzziness aside, let's talk about the food.

Let me take a moment to contain my drool. The beef curry was on point - spicy and coconuty - sitting next to white rice and accompanied by some righteous spicy potato chips, prawn crackers and a dollop of pickle. I honestly felt like I was on a beach after devouring this. The chicken satay was delightful and slathered with salty sweet peanut sauce. It usually comes with rice and pickle, but Bana let us have just only the satay skewers for a cheaper price. With our bellies more than happy, we explored on.

But wait! We need something sweet - introducing La Roux Patisserie. I wish I took a photo of this bakery - from its black and white checkered flooring to the flowery chairs, it was so pretty, so...very...well...French! They also have blankets if you want to sit outside. LOVE! I was pretty stuffed from lunch, so I decided to share the bread pudding.

Now, I love bread pudding as much as the next person, but this one was alright. Granted, it was made using their house-baked croissants but I felt a splash of orange liquer would have made it come alive. Points for the staff heating it up though! It was actually quite serendipitous that we landed here, since one of the staff pointed us toward our dinner destination aka Ferris' Grill.

It was quite a chilly night strolling down to Ferris, so boy was I glad when we walked into this cozy, brick-walled space. It oozed comfort, which is exactly what we needed after a day of sightseeing. The menu is quite extensive, so I would suggest perusing their website before you get there. They have a full-page spread dedicated to oysters! WHHHAAAT! As someone from Ontario, this was quite exciting; so obvi we got some oysters, the pan-fried oysters to be exact.

These were not just any oysters, they were papa oysters from Baynes Sound! I've never seen oysters so big in my life! Swimming in butter, garlic and lemon, they were perfection. So meaty and juicy...mmmmm. I didn't quite understand the herbed garlic toast pairing until we were done with the oysters and there was a pool of that garlic/lemon sauce left behind. Fighting over the bread, we almost cleaned the plate; if only there was more bread. Hmmmm. I swear our server and I had a telepathic connection because, like lightening, he came over asking if we wanted more bread. Yes, please! Oh, it would be very remiss of me not to give props to the wine recommended by our server - a pinot blanc from Nk'mip (ink-a-meep) Cellars in the Okanagan. It's the first Aboriginal-owned winery in North America. Yay! The pinot blanc was a perfect accompaniment to our meal; crisp and balanced with underlying citrus notes. Damn good!

For our mains, I couldn't leave without trying the bouillabaisse. I was craving something soup-like all day but nothing would prepare me for this. I'm pretty sure the chef threw in every type of seafood imaginable in this dish - there were salmon, clams, oysters, scallops and prawns - and those were the ones I could identify! The spicy tomato stew enhanced by the roasted pepper rouille (a Provencal sauce made from red chillies, garlic, saffron and bread crumbs) gave it this wonderfully creamy texture that was to die for. One of the best bouillabaisses I have had! Main #2 was the jambalaya.

Similar to the bouillabaisse, this was jam packed with seafood (clams, mussels, shrimp, oysters), chorizo and chicken. Go big or go home I suppose. No kidding, this dish was big, like a mountain big. I was shocked that we ate all of it - standing O for us, thank you very much! It had a kick of spice and big bold flavours. There was much debate on whose main was better, but since this is my blog, the bouillabaisse wins hands down. This was one of those rare times where we didn't do dessert but, you know what, I was okay with it. The food was that good!

Thank you Victoria; you have piqued my interest. Till we meet again.