Today’s post is a bit different from my usual recipe posts; instead, I’m posting a review of the new summer menu items at Virtuous Pie–a Vancouver-based vegan restaurant that specializes in vegan pizza and ice cream.
Last evening, I had the pleasure of joining seven other women at Virtuous Pie on Main Street to sample items from their new summer menu for their first ever Test Kitchen Evening!
In case you’ve lived under a rock for the past several years, Virtuous Pie is a hip little vegan pizza and ice cream place in Chinatown in Vancouver:
The menu for the evening…
We were greeted by the head chef, Matt Blandy, who explained how the evening would unfold and then started off our meal with a pre-prandial cocktail: a glass of boozy lemonade that was the perfect blend of tartness, sweetness…and booziness!
The appetizer was a creamy roasted Corn Dip spiced with chipotle and smoked paprika and topped with pickled red onions and a smidge of cilantro. The consistency was perfect. Sometimes cashew-based vegan dips can be a little thick, but this was slightly loose and the corn kernels added a nice bit of texture. I would’ve liked a bigger pile of the pickled onions and a touch more chopped cilantro on top, but my only real criticism is that the chipotle was a bit…profound.
I’ve always felt that if chipotle were a person, he would monopolize the conversation at a dinner party.
And it doesn’t seem to matter if you add an eighth of a teaspoon or a tablespoon: it still makes everything it touches taste like nothing but chipotle
The accompanying focaccia was excellent: very soft with a slightly crispy crust.
Next on the menu was the Virtuous Power Bowl–a robust buddha bowl of roasted potatoes, vegan oregano chicken, kalamata olives, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, and pickled red onions on a bed of chopped kale and dressed with a tahini dressing. In the centre was a chunk of the best vegan feta I’ve ever tasted–super creamy and salty–and on the side was a sizeable blob of avocado dip.
I loved this bowl–especially the chicken, which was spiced with oregano, and the roasted potatoes.
Indeed, the only thing I don’t love is the name of the bowl–Virtuous Power Bowl. Considering the ingredients, I’d call it simply “The Greek.”
Or if I were feeling particularly precious, I might call it the “Arete Bowl,” since Arete was the Greek goddess of virtue.
Next up were two versions of the same dish: the Superfunghi Pizza, old vs. new.
The central difference is that the old version was topped with vegan ricotta and the new drizzled with truffle oil and sprinkled with sea salt flakes.
This was a tough one because I love a mushroom pizza, and both were pretty amazing. If I were forced to choose, I would likely take the new version because the salt flakes are a perfect accent to the flavours of the two kinds of mushrooms.
If I had one suggestion, I would use hickory smoked sea salt flakes, however, and perhaps reduce or forgo the truffle oil since it might compete with the smokiness of the salt.
Next, we were served the vegan Chicken Chipotle Pizza. Matt explained that the pizza was meant to evoke a chicken taco in flavour and texture. I was most impressed with the texture of the crust which had the crispness and crunch reminiscent of a taco. The vegan chicken was perfect–moist, but crisp–and it was topped with a cilantro mayo that was to die for. Oh, and another nice helping of those amazing pickled red onions.
I wasn’t crazy about the tomato-chipotle sauce because, well, you know my stand on that pesky dinner guest, chipotle. I would have preferred a taco seasoning like Alton Brown’s Taco Seasoning Number 19 because it gives a more layered spiciness rather than the undifferentiated nature of chipotle.
I was cheeky enough to ask Matt how he achieved the cripsy taco-like crust on this one, but he dodged my question. I’ll likely spend the summer attempting to replicate this taco crust!
The final item on the tasting menu was a trio of cashew-and-coconut-milk ice creams. Matt explained that Virtuous Pie endeavours to collaborate with local vegan food merchants, and each of the three ice creams were just that: collaborations. The first is with Mindful Fud Hunnie and the second and third with East Van Jam.
I made the mistake of trying the Hot Hunnie Comb ice cream first. The hunnie was hot and sweet and poured over the smoothest scoop of vegan ice cream I’ve ever tasted. And the ice cream had little chunks of hunnie comb throughout. In my sixty-six years of ice-cream loving, this ice cream was second only to the homemade licorice ice cream Biddy makes me for my birthday every year. Okay, she made it once, but I think if I keep repeating that she makes it for me every year, she eventually will.
The next two ice creams–Rhubarb Cheesecake and Strawberry and Rose Water Cheesecake–were also delicious. Now, I’m a sucker for anything with chunks of cookie in it, but I was so distracted by the Hot Hunnie that I couldn’t taste straight by this point. I’ll have to go back and try them both without having my head turned by that seductress, Hot Hunnie (and what a perfect name for her).
As we were getting ready to leave, Matt presented us each with a little container of Double Chocolate Brownie Bites to take home! These are moist little nuggets of boozy double chocolate–super rich and absolutely delicious.
A perfect end to a great evening of amazing food and wonderful conversations with a group of lovely young women.
And Annie reminded me that Andrew Bird’s new album–Sunday Morning Put On–is out, so our song of the day has to be “I Fall in Love Too Easily.” My favourite version of this song has to be Chet Baker’s, but Bird’s version is also beautiful.
Oh, and what the hell, here’s Chet Baker’s version just because it’s so damn good:
Sideways Cottage... 