Bites, Brews, and Butchart

We began our morning with breakfast at home and a quick latte at Habit Coffee before going on our Victoria Food Tour.

We met our guide, Andy, and other tour mates (two families from North Carolina and a British pair) at the Victoria Public Market. Our first stop was inside the market at Roast, where we sampled chicharrone and meatballs with a salsa verde. We were off to a tasty start!

Next, we sampled macarons from a French patisserie in Chinatown. I had the espresso and the passion fruit macarons, while Brad tried the rose and pistachio macarons. Our next stop was a little Italian bakery where we sampled focaccia with braised onions and a brioche, which was less sweet than the French kind. To slow down our consumption of food, our next location was a matcha tea store. There, the owner showed us how to make matcha and explained the benefits of it before we got to have matcha lemonades. On this hot and sunny day, the lemonade really hit the spot.

We walked for a bit before we reached the biscuit shop that would be our next stop. They make Southern style biscuits and we tried a savoury and a sweet version. The savoury has sausage gravy and bacon on it while the sweet version had Nutella and banana. Our second last location was more of a treat for our American guests than us, but the roasted garlic and potato perogies were still amazing! They came with housemade sauerkraut and confit bacon, so they were pretty special bites. Lastly, we stopped at Rogers chocolates, which is the official chocolate of Canada for the British monarchy. We tried the Queen’s favourite as the final bite of our tour.Read more