Post Last Modified – May 07, 2021
Enjoy An Historical Walking Food Tour In Victoria BC
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One of the things we love to do when traveling to new and exciting destinations around the globe, is to take a guided walking food tour. If your travels have you visiting the beautiful city of Victoria British Columbia, then do not miss out on A Taste of Victoria Food Tours.
This fully guided walking tour will take you through some of the most historical sites in the city, and where you will discover a few of the cities true hidden gem eateries at the same time!
Visit Chinatown – Olde Town And The Inner Harbour
This full 2 hour walking tour will begin at the Victoria Public Market downtown. This historical building dates back to the early 1920’s and for over 80 years, served as the Hudson’s Bay Company retail store in the city.
Today, the ground floor houses a wonderful public market place for shopping and specialty eateries. The floors above, have since been renovated to residential condominium housing.
The tour will then lead you into Chinatown and on to some of the historical and intriguing parts of the city, finishing up at downtowns beautiful inner harbour area and across from the historical Fairmont Empress Hotel.
This walking tour will cover about 2.5 km or 1.5 miles, or about 30 minutes of very slow and casual strolling.
A Taste of Victoria Food Tours – Your Guide And Owner
One of the stand out features of this tour is your guide and owner of A Taste of Victoria Food Tours … Andy. In all the walking tours my wife and I have enjoyed over the years, none has been more informative and historically interesting than with Andy.
With a vibrant personality and extensive knowledge of the local history, accompanied with the excellent venues visited along the way, made for a wonderful walking food tour in the city!
Andy has an educational history background, has also worked previously in the travel industry, and has spent time as an historical interpreter. Of course, he points out that he has always been a serious ‘Foodie’.
Walk Through Victoria’s Historical Sites
Andy will lead you to some of downtown Victoria’s most historical and interesting sites. Many of these sites are now very popular tourist attractions in the city, and definitely not to be missed!
Some of these include;
“The Harmonious Gates of Interest in Chinatown, Fan Tan Alley, Market Square, Bastion Square, Trounce Alley, Government St., the Inner Harbour Causeway and more.”
A Taste of Victoria Food Tours – The Food
On our tour with Andy, we made a total of seven venue stops along the way. Sampling some very unique and tasty items from local small businesses in the area, that Andy is proud to support.
Below, is just a sneak peak of some of the samplings we enjoyed on our recent tour.
Balsamic Vinegar Pairings
Our tour started off with a tasting of a variety of amazing balsamic vinegar pairings, just to enough to tantalize your taste buds and kick start you off on the tour.
These vinegar’s come in a huge variety of flavors that are great with all kinds of your favorite foods!
Beef Arrabbiata Meat Balls
It was then on to try mouth watering naturally raised beef meatballs at an very popular eatery among locals.
Served with grana perdano (a hard, slow-ripened, semi-fat cheese from Italy, comparable to Parmesan), salsa verde (a type of spicy, green sauce based on tomatillo and chili peppers) and crisp crumbs, was absolutely delicious!
Silk Road Tea
Before leaving the Public Market, we sampled one of the many very popular Silk Road Organic Teas. Since 1992, they’ve been creating the world’s finest, freshest, organic teas! All of their fine organic teas are made with premium quality, fresh, organic botanicals.
Very tasty and healthy at the same time! 🙂
Walking just a couple of easy blocks, we made our way to the renowned “Harmonious Gates of Interest,” locatedd at the entrance to historic Chinatown in the city. It’s the oldest Chinatown in Canada and the second oldest in North America, after San Francisco in California U.S.A.
Strolling the streets and alleys, Andy made brief stops along the way, pointing out some of the historical sites and history of this part of town. Of notable stops, was famous “Fan Tan Alley”, which holds the record for the narrowest street in Canada!
The Alley also has a remarkable history within the city of Victoria, which Andy explains in detail.
French Macarons
Time to sweeten the taste buds with a stop at a very unique French Patisserri in the area. Here, we sampled freshly made Macarons, (a French style cookie) filled with a variety of flavors.
Very tasty and very sweet! 🙂
Authentic Italian Pastries
It’s then on to a different country, with a stop at a very authentic and small Italian bakery. Here, Andy passed around freshly baked samples of some of their more popular baking.
The very happy bakery owner enlightened us with a history of his home country Milan Italy, and the authentic baking he does in his store!
A real treat and such a hidden gem in the downtown core!
Southern Style Biscuits
Andy certainly has included quite a variety of samplings that originate from various parts of the globe, now to be found in various establishments in downtown Victoria.
It’s now time to taste some very unique homemade and fresh Southern Style Biscuits.
Definitely one of my favorites on this tour – Delicious!
Walking through Market Square, on to historic Bastion Square and then Government Street, we received some excellent history lessons from Andy along the way.
It was time to wet the whistle at a very old establishment in town, by trying some outstanding ice cold local craft beer. There’s also a variety of other tasty beverages for you to sample, should you not prefer alcohol or beer.
A great way to finish up with beer samplings on our tour!
It was then just a short stroll down historic Government Street to the very popular inner harbor area, where sadly, our tour came to an end.
If your plans have you visiting the Capital City of British Columbia, whether on your own or arriving for the day by cruise ship, then I highly recommend taking a couple of hours out of your day to experience this excellent walking food and downtown historical tour.
You will not be disappointed!
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Below, I’ve listed A Taste Of Victoria Food Tours official website link for your convenience. Here you can access much more detailed information on this tour, and book directly online as well! 🙂
🍲 A Taste Of Victoria
I’ve also listed the Official Victoria Tourism link below to their website page for your convenience. It’s filled with excellent information on everything this Beautiful City has to offer.
💐 Victoria British Columbia Tourism
Safe and Healthy Travels! 🙂
Although our tour was in collaboration with A Taste Of Victoria Food Tours, rest assured all content and opinions are that of the author and reflect my personal experience only.
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✨ Did You Know …
“Victoria, British Columbia Was Named The Most Romantic City In Canada & As One Of The 15 Most Friendliest Cities In The World.”
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