Our Motto:

Dulcius ex Asperis (sweeter after struggle)

Thursday, June 27, 2013

A Bee-View of the Drive - The Daily Catch Food Truck

So....you're staying at the Bee & Thistle Guest House in Vancouver, the sun is shining (hey, it happens - even in Vancouver!), you're feeling like chillin' out on the Drive instead of yet another action packed day visiting all the tourist spots in our lovely city - what would make the day even better?  We think that wandering the Drive, people watching, and sampling from definitely more than one of the multitude of international restaurants in the neighborhood, is essential for at least one day of any real vacation in Vancouver!  And one foodie destination that we would definitely recommend for consideration is the Daily Catch Seafood Truck.

Any "foodie" visiting Vancouver, and probably most of us regular travellers too, would be familiar with the recent trend of numerous food trucks in the downtown core, offering a fantastic variety of gastronomic delights.  So we knew that Comnmercial Drive had really "arrived" when we heard that we were getting our very own food truck! And Fish Store Outside 2not just any food truck, but one with a focus on "west coast", wholesome and eco friendly, not to mention delicious, food!  The truck is usually located near the affiliated Daily Catch Seafood Company at 1418 Commercial Drive, or at a park across the street.  According to their website, the goal of owners Dylan McCulloch and Ryan Johnson was to bring the flavors of the Sunshine Coast to Vancouver by offering fresh, sustainable seafood from both their Commercial Drive store front and subsequently the food truck. What a fantastic idea and a wonderful addition to Commercial Drive!

We chose a sunny Spring afternoon for our first visit to the Daily Catch truck, with the idea of picking up some food and enjoying the afternoon in the nearby park. Lunch for us at the Bee & Thistle often consists of a left over scone or muffin along with a few gulps of coffee, grabbed on the run between Fish Truck Menukitchen duty, chatting with the lovely guests, shopping for food and numerous other little tasks that keep us going from morning till night. So it was a great treat to take time out and just enjoy wonderful food while sitting in the sun in the park! Our most difficult task was deciding what to have to eat because we had heard great things about the fish tacos but the fish & chips also looked delicious. In the end we decided (as we usually do) to have both - an order of halibut fish & chips and one of fish tacos, sharing them so we could try a little bit of each. But we also looked longingly at the chowder and other items on the menu.

After sampling both of these menu items, I still honestly could not recommend one over the other because we really liked both of them. Both were fresh, lightly battered, the fries were crispy and the sauce delicious.  The only thing I do have to say is that we loved the food from the truck, and theFish truck food wonderfully "neighborhood" experience of eating out in the park, so much that we went back another day with our children and grand children. Unfortunately, it was again a very sunny day and the lineup was long, so a couple of us did have a cold and somewhat soggy fish taco.  This was definitely not our experience with our first visit, so we suspect that they were just not quite prepared for the crowds on the second day.
One thing that we found quite intriguing is the very interesting selection of unique vinegar flavors to add that bit of zip to your fries - infusions such as chipotle, dill, rosemary and many others. It would take numerous trips to Fish Truck Vinegarsthe Daily Catch in order to sample them all, but we are quite willing to make it yet another foodie project to add to our list!

Yelpers rate the Daily Catch on Commercial Drive at 4 1/2 stars, Urban Spoon 4 stars and, as for us, we would give it a definite 4 1/2 stars (the 1/2 off is for the cold tacos on our second visit, but we truly suspect that it was an anomaly. We will definitely give them another try, and maybe another and another (well, until I get on my bathroom scale and realize that I have to go back to kale salad and water for a month or two before eating more wonderfully battered and fried, delicious food!).  We would also highly recommend a visit to the Daily Catch Seafood Company shop the next time you have an urge for spot prawns, west coast salmon, or even pickled herring!  Here's a glimpse of the product list from their website: http://dailycatch.org/content/our-100-ocean-wise-product-list-0

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