Visited Sol Sun Belt Cookery last week to taste many new dishes from Executive Chef Abdel Elatouabi joined by my friend Nikki Caine who shared them all with me.

1^st dish:

Morroccan Flat bread

2^nd dish:

Grilled Harissa Drummettes

3^rd dish:

Mushroom Bruschetta – grilled foccacia topped with mixed mushrooms, chervil, parmesan reggiano, reduced balsamic and truffle oil. Nourished option, served over Valley greens

4^th dish:

Humbolt Squid Steak with feta & kalamata olives and olive oil.

5^th dish:

Moroccan Sausages, spiced North African Angus beef short rib sausages with house made harissa

6th dish: 

Confit Leg of Duck & Breast risotto cake, arugula salad and cranberry orange reduction

^7th dish:

Grilled Marinated Hangar Steak with Cerignola olives & feta salad & purple potatoes chervil salad

^8th dish:

Blackened Halibut Moroccan spice dry rub, wilted kale and wild mushrooms, orange scented extra virgin olive oil

^9th dish:

Golden Beet Salad with dried apricots, figs, goat cheese & rose water vinaigrette

^10th dish:

Panko Breaded Olives stuffed with anchovies

11^th dish:

Avocado Chocolate Mousse & Chocolate Espresso Truffles & chocolate sponge toffee

My take:

This Moroccan Flat bread is so addicting and always a treat to go with the appetizers. The Grilled Harissa Drummettes with mango salsa was created for my best chicken wings challenge and was done with some Moroccan flavours. We both loved the Mushroom Bruschetta  and the flavours of the mushrooms & balsamic were so good. The Humbolt Squid Steak was outstanding with feta & kalamata olives and light olive oil. This chef certainly knows how to cook duck and the Confit Leg of Duck & Breast meat was so tender, the meat fell right off the bone. Another outstanding dish was the Hangar Steak with Russian purple potatoes, Cerignola olives & feta and the presentation was stunning as well.  The Rose Water vinaigrette was light and refreshing and made the Golden Beet Salad with dried apricots, figs, goat cheese stellar. The Avocado Chocolate Mousse & Chocolate Espresso Truffles & chocolate sponge toffee was truly amazing, having avocado in a dessert is a fairly recent trend and it worked perfectly in this mousse.

Sol Sun Belt Cookery is located at 550 Denman Street, Vancouver

Tel: 604-568-2235

Web: http://www.solsunbelt.com/

Twitter: @SolSunBelt

By: Richard Wolak