A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

COMFORT FOOD GUIDE // Hundy’s Tater Tots Dusted With Housemade Ketchup Powder

This series maps out our editors’ picks for Vancouver’s best and most legendary comfort foods. We encourage readers to steer us towards their favourites in the comments or by using the hashtag #ScoutYVR on social media.

Tater tots have been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years, appearing as a low-hanging comfort side on menus across the city, nostalgic nods to “how things once were”. We’ve seen ’em them drenched in chili-cheese sauce, supplanting chips in nachos, even given the poutine treatment. All of that is fun and tasty, but none are blasts from any past that I remember, and they all miss the point of a tot’s purpose, which is to deliver a seasoned, crispy potato gift that retains its heat and textured edge from first to last. That’s hard for a tot to do when it’s covered in gravy or melted cheese, and why I prefer the much simpler ones offered at Kitsilano’s Hundy. Here, they are served hot and naked save for a dusting of housemade ketchup powder that makes them glow ever so unnaturally and attractively.


Hundy
Neighbourhood: Kitsilano
2042 West 4th Ave.

COMFORT FOOD GUIDE // The Gently Spiced Spaghetti Vongole at Nightingale

This simple, classic Italian comfort dish sees a tiny but impactful upgrade in its recipe at Chef David Hawksworth's Nightingale.

COMFORT FOOD GUIDE // The Best Biscuit Sandwich in Vancouver Is Kind of Absurd

It's too much to ask of a biscuit to contain such a load and maintain any structural integrity, so embrace the mess.

Ceramicist Shuobi Wu Shares Recipe For Special ‘Homecoming’ Lotus Root Soup

"No matter how old I get, wherever I go, that one or two times every year that I went home, the first meal was always the Lotus Root soup."

COMFORT FOOD GUIDE // Flourist’s Addictively Simple Hazelnut Jam Cookies

Bag up a couple of these beauties and nibble 'em as you wander this always interesting block of Commercial Street.