On my last trip to Canada I spent some days in Vancouver and decided to discover the city from a different point of view: by booking a foodie tour around the city’s food trucks! Travel, job mobility and cultural influences have shaped the ethnic mix of the Canadian cuisine over the past decades and consumers are forever trying to find the magic balance between taste, quality, convenience, variety and value for the dollar – the stunning food trucks just have it all. Vancouver Foodie tours offers a two hour walk through the heart of downtown Vancouver, passing by several mobile eateries and making you try a variety of dishes from these mini gourmet outposts. Manuela Sosa, our very entertaining and savy guide, did not only introduce us to excellent food experiences, but also to the city’s history, architecture and local culture along the way.

The first truck we stopped by was the famous Japadog, which by now has several trucks and one restaurant in the city. Already opened in 2005, Japadog is one of Vancouver’s oldest food trucks and their Japanese-inspired hot dogs became an instant sensation right from the start. Their signature Hot Dog is the Terymayo, which is prepared with teriyaki sauce, mayo and seaweed, followed by the Okonomi, a juicy Kurobuta sausage topped with bonito flakes. Kurobuta is a high-end pork, known as the highest quality pork in the world due to its rich marbling, tenderness and flavour. What a discovery! Another one worth a try is the Yakisoba, which combines the popular Japanese noodles with an arabiki sausage, a finger sized, smoky pork sausage.

The next stop we made during our six block walk was a truck called “Eat Chicken Wraps”, offering unusal combinations of wraps with an Asian twist such as the Hoisin wrap, a grilled chicken salad served in a crispy Chinese green onion pancake or a rice box, which contains grilled chicken, salad, fried egg, fried onions and a bed of rice. (On the corner of Robson Square).

Another revelation was Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck on Howe Street & West Georgia. The owner Cindy Hamilton is the friendliest vendor you can imagine and quite a personality. She has catered for several movie sets (among others for Kill Bill) and speaks fluent Chinese after having lived in Beijing. The Cheese sandwiches are not that spectacular but a great type of comfort food for a tasty lunch. Cindy prebakes them in her oven to melt the cheese and then brushes the bread with butter and finishes them off on the grill. I loved the Olive Bread & Cheddar Grilled Cheese Sandwich which I combined with the roasted tomato soup covered with mascarpone cream. In case you visit on a Monday, try their meatloaf grilled cheese!

You can imagine, that after the third food truck I was hesitating to continue as I was not at all hungry anymore, but in the end could not resist the Tacofino truck. When they launched, they tried to “create a unique experience by offering quality, freshness and affordability with an environmental and nutritional conscience” and I guess they succeeded. The fish Taco consists of crispy ling cod, cabbage, salsa fresca, chipotle mayo and their Fish Burrito adds to the cod re-fried black beans and, basmati rice. That is where I finished off my foodie truck tour with the Tacofino’s chocolate-diablo cookie full of milk chocolate chunks, spiced with fresh ginger and chili and covered with salty sprinkles. Uffff – no more food for that day!

Our superbe guide Manuela, who seemed to be an actor and singer at the same time, entertained us on our goodbyes with a stunning song – wow! The food truck tour by Vancouver Foodie tours starts from 49 Canadian Dollar and can be booked via their homepage www.foodietours.ca.