I was at Langley’s Food by Fanta, as a judge for the Vancouver Foodster Chowder Challenge. that they are currently competing in. Here to try their chowder entry, but excited to see what else is new to their fresh sheet.
Seated in their robust jungles of green vines and bright florals. We started with a couple of their cocktails. My guest has not been in a while, so she had to try their signature Rainbow Sangria Flight. A fantasy fuelled fight with three sangrias. A white wine with lychee and butterfly pea flower, a rose with simple syrup, and a red wine sangria with strawberries.
The Pink Cloudy cocktail is so new that it isn’t even printed on the menu for ordering. They have jumped on the smoke bubble train with vodka, cranberry jam, lychee, and rose wine. You pop the bubble to unleash a plume of strawberry scented smoke. This tasted as sweet and candy-like as it looked. Easy drinking, it reminded me of a Cosmo.
I was very intrigued by the Tom Yamgarita, listed as a mocktail, you can add a shot of tequila to make it a wonderful savoury cocktail that stands well alone. Tom yum paste, margarita mix, sweetness lemongrass, galangal and lime leaves syrup, preserved cherry tomato jam, freshly squeezed lime juice, Thai chilis, and a tom yum spice salt rim. This was such a unique cocktail and gave me the sweet and tangy lemongrass citrus I expected from the classic Thai soup. It was recommended that we stir up, take a sip, chase with a bite of the raw lemon leaf, then follow it with another sip. The cocktail changes and grows with a nibble of the bitter leaf.
As expected all Fanta’s plates are artful, but none more than this masterpiece. Another speciality dish that is not on the menu, that we had the honour of trying. I have never seen a dish built high like this. Noodle wrapped shrimp that defied gravity with gold leaf flecks. Made before hand, given the pagentry, the shrimp was a little tough as a result. Luckily the texture of the crispy noodles did well to hide this. It was the single centre piece sitting over a bed of more sweet than tangy grapefruit, pomello and mango salad. Crunchy and refreshing this was a great apertif and palate refresher.
For something more fulsome we had the Namprik Ong Prawn Baos with prawns, swiss cheese, and green salad served with namorik sauce. The juicy chopped prawns were coated in curry gel-like sauce. I was not a fan of the bitter undressed greens and thought a chilli cucumber slaw might have been a nicer coupling.
The Khao Yum was another new featured dish. A rainbow salad composed of 22 fresh ingredients. Sliced and mixed table side with a dressing of tamarind to finish. The joy of this is being able to appracoate the wide variety of textures and tastes, haphazardly mixed, so there is no two bites like. However, overall juicy with tropical fruit like mango, pineapple, and toasted coconut. And equally crunchy with slivered almonds and crisped rice.
For dessert we were lured in by the Thairamisu, the classic Italian dessert given a Thai twist with thai iced tea & coffee, cream, spiced biscuits, and white chocolate. It was made ahead of time and had to be thawed before we could penetrate through the ice cream shell to reach the cakey centre. A wonderful take and another great fusion creation that I have grown to expect from Fanta.
It is always a pleasure to visit Food by Fanta, and I will take any excuse to drive down. As always, utterly impressed by everything I saw and ate; and I will be recommending them time and time again.
Food by Fanta
102 – 20542 Fraser Hwy, Langley, BC V3A 4G2
604-530-6803
foodbyfanta.com
