Welcome to the Vancouver Foodster Calamari Challenge. Restaurants from all over the city were invited to enter their calamari creations into this challenge. Each restaurant will be featuring their calamari creations on their menu from June 11 – July 5, 2015.
How Does this all Work? For the public challenge, you are invited to go out and order any or all of the calamari creations in this challenge, then you decide who you think has the best calamari creation for the People’s Choice award winners.
Share your experiences: Tweet (and don’t forget to tweet or instagram your photos) throughout the challenge, our twitter and instagram address is @vanfoodster and the hashtag is #CalamariChallengeYVR please include this hashtag in all your tweets during the challenge.
Voting criteria – some things to help you judge your favourite calamari creations – keep these things in mind: originality, creativity, uniqueness, traditional, non-traditional, price, value and most importantly taste.
Get some friends together and make a day or night of it, visit 2 places or more to share and taste the different calamari creations or go solo or with a friend– just remember to VOTE for your favourites
Watch – – > The Vancouver Calamari Challenge on the Global TV Saturday Morning News “Saturday Chef” with hosts Leigh Kjekstad and Jay Janower on June 13, 2015.
Here are the 7 Calamari dishes in this challenge, listed in no particular order other than when they were received by us.
Linh Café
Cha Muc – Calamari Cake
Cha Muc – Calamari Cake
Price: $7.50
Created by: Chef Tai Luong Nguyen
Description: Fresh herbs, fish sauce for dipping.
Offered: Wednesday to Sunday between 9AM – 9:30PM.
Linh Cafe
2836 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver
Tel: 604-559-4668
Web: http://linhcafe.com/
Twitter: @LinhCafeVan
Instagram: linhcafe_yvr
Malt & Marrow
Crispy Confit Calamari
Crispy Confit Calamari
Price: $11
Created by: Chefs Francis Liew and Nathan Pacheco
Description: Humboldt squid confit in duck fat, breaded and flash fried. Paired with a light tatziki sauce and pickled beets
Offered: Tuesday – Sunday from 11am until closing.
Malt & Marrow
1269 Hamilton Street, Vancouver
Tel: (778) 379-6678
Web: http://www.maltandmarrow.com/
Twitter @MaltandMarrow
Instagram: maltandmarrow
Blue Canoe Restaurant
Calamari Provencal
Calamari Provencal
Price: $16.80
Created by: Executive Chef David Friedman
Description: Grilled calamari with gem tomatoes, nicoise olives, capers, garlic, lemon zest, parsley and evoo.
Offered: All day
Blue Canoe Restaurant
140-3866 Bayview Street, Richmond
Tel: 604-275-7811
Web: http://www.bluecanoerestaurant.com
Twitter: @bluecanoeresto
Instagram:
C Prime Modern Italian Steakhouse & Wine Bar
Calamari
C Prime Calamari
Price: $14
Created by: Executive Chef Elliott Hashimoto
Description: Shrimp and mascarpone stuffed calamari with lobster reduction and spicy greens.
Offered: Lunch and dinner, daily
C Prime Modern Italian Steakhouse & Wine Bar
1015 Burrard Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-684-3474
Twitter @cprimesteak
Instagram: cprimesteak
American Grille
Calmar Farci
Calmar Farci
Price: $12
Description: Chorizo stuffed squid, pepperade with fresh grape tomato salsa
Created by: Chef Danilo Ibara
Offered: all the time
American Grille
7571 Westminster Highway, Richmond
Tel: 604-232-2804
Web: http://www.american-grille.com
Twitter: @GrilleYVR
Instagram: grilleyvr
The Vancouver Fish Co.
VFC Calamari
VFC Calamari
Price: $15.99
Created by: Chef John McManus
Description: gluten free, and is served with fresno chiles, arugula, spicy marinara, parm aioli, grilled lemon.
Offered: After 11:30am until closing, daily.
The Vancouver Fish Co.
1517 Anderson Street, Vancouver
Tel: (604 559 3474
Twitter: @VanFishCo
Instagram: VanFishCo
Argan Bistro
West Coast Blackened Squid Trio
West Coast Blackened Squid Trio
Price: $28
Created by: Chef Jeff Miller
Description: Citrus-soy marinated sous-vide tube, black sesame and squid ink beer-battered tentacles, mesquite-smoked jerky, kelp and jellyfish salad, sake heirloom, kasu foam, fresh wasabi and avocado crema, golden tobiko, micro-shiso.
Offered: Dinner only.
Argan Bistro
795 Jervis Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-563-8466
Twitter: @ArganBistro
Instagram: ArganBistro
Make sure you pick up one of the Calamari Challenge postcards available at each of the participating restaurants. Remember to Vote for your favourites daily, all the voting details are at
https://vancouverfoodster.com/calamari-challenge/
Our Media judges for this challenge are:
Karl Kliparchuk
Wine, Food & Travel Writer for MyWinePal
Twitter: @MyWinePal
Louisa Chan
Writer and Editor of L for Life
Twitter: @L_FOR_LIFE
Valerie van der Gracht
Editor for MyVanCity
Twitter: @myvancity