In addition to being a beautiful place to live in, the west coast provides a bounty of gourmet wild food that can be foraged. We joined a long table dinner featuring wild spring greens at Rocky Mountain Flatbread. It was a wonderful evening spent with delicious food by Chef Oliver Zaulauf, great company, and an informative discussion about nutrition.
The wild greens were brought by West Coast Wild Foods and they spoke to us about the health benefits of food that can be foraged locally. The menu included ingredients such as cattails, fiddleheads, mustard greens, knotweed, wild fennel fronds, onion flowers and spruce tips.
Cocktails and Bruschetta
We started with a refreshing cocktail flavoured with steeped spruce tips syrup. It was followed by the Wild Greens and Mushroom Bruschetta, a savoury appetizer featuring wild mushrooms picked at the Sunshine Coast. I learned that mushrooms are a good, non-animal source of vitamin D.
Salad
Next was a tasty salad with ingredients from the farmer’s market and foraged mustard greens which was adorned with onion flowers.
Nettle Pesto Pasta
The most surprising dish for me was the Nettle Pesto Pasta. It featured a nettle pesto with knotwood and cattails, topped with fennel fronds. As a gardener, I’ve only known nettle and knotwood as weeds. Nettle made for a tasty pesto and the knotwood stem had a surprising bright, lemony taste.
Farmers’ Market Pizza
Then there were pizzas! The Farmers’ Market Pizza had fiddleheads, cattails, tomatoes, and goat cheese. Fiddleheads are curled, edible shoots of the ostrich fern and are amongst my favourite seasonal delicacy. They are only available for eight weeks and must be prepared properly. Fiddleheads are a nutritional powerhouse rich in antioxidants and a great source of fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. If you ever see them available at the farmers’ market, snap them up, cook them properly, and you’ll be rewarded with a delicious and nutritious meal.
Fig and Brie Pizza
Fig and Brie Pizza is one of their signature artisanal pizza. It is my favourite and you should definitely order it next time you visit Rocky Mountain Flatbread!
Chaga Mushroom Tea
Instead of coffee with our brownie dessert, we had chaga mushroom tea. Considered to be the “King of medicinal mushrooms”, chaga can be found on birch trees and is rich in antioxidants. It’s an anti-inflammatory, boosts immunity, and aids digestion. The tea blend is a mix of chaga mushroom, dandelion root, roasted chicory root, cinnamon, and orange. It tastes like a traditional christmas tea, and paired nicely with the brownie.
Address:
1876 W 1st Ave, Vancouver
Website: http://rockymountainflatbread.ca/
