A mobile feast À la carte online guide aims to sate inquisitive eaters with DIY tours By: David Sanderson Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/10/2022 (797 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eat, walk, repeat.

Ticketed food tours were one of the fastest growing travel trends in 2019. COVID-19 obviously had something to say about that, but now that the hospitality industry has largely returned to normal, groups of people are again being afforded the opportunity to head out on gastronomic adventures, by following a learned guide from one dining spot to another, to sample fare in a specific part of a city or region.

That brings us to Matthew Singer, a project archeologist who is as adept at uncovering comestible gems as he is the igneous and metamorphic variety. The 49-year-old, who’s been with White Spruce Archeology since 2005, recently introduced DIY Food Tours, an online endeavour that offers recommendations to Winnipeggers who want to try something new, but aren’t sure where to go.

Let’s say you’re not overly familiar with the Exchange District and its cornucopia of funky restos. Singer has you covered.

What about the West End? Perhaps you haven’t visited that neck of the woods lately, and don’t know where to go for some of the tastiest shawarma in town, a hearty bowl of beef-noodle soup or pupusa, a stuffed griddle cake that stands as El Salvador’s national dish.

No worries. Singer, who has lived in the area for years, will happily point you in the direction of Altanour, 587 Notre Dame Ave., for the Middle Eastern dish, to Ha Long Bay, 772 Notre Dame Ave., for the Vietnamese potage and to Mercadito Latino, 570 Sargent Ave., for the Central American delight.

Best of all, as the DIY in his tag implies, his suggestions won’t cost you a dime, aside from what’s resting on the plate in front of you.

“This is strictly a labour of love, I’m not trying to monetize it, in any way,” he says, seated in the Hargrave St. Market food hall, situated on the second floor of downtown’s True North Square.

“This is strictly a labour of love, I’m not trying to monetize it, in any way.”–Matthew Singer

“I’ve always enjoyed studying up on places I don’t know too much about before heading down for a bite, so I thought why not share the information I was coming up with, by creating a website (diyfoodtours.com) that would let people know about all these absolutely incredible dishes I was finding.”

Singer may have been a fussy eater growing up — his mother will attest to that, he says with a chuckle — but that is no longer the case. During his student days at the University of Manitoba, he participated in archeological expeditions in various parts of the world, including South Africa and Israel. He figured since he’d traveled all that distance, he may as well broaden his horizons, food-wise, by trying out local delicacies.

Also, his work takes him to remote First Nations communities in Manitoba and Ontario, where he’s always willing to try anything once. He joined people living near Tadoule Lake on a caribou hunt, and while he found kidney “a bit gristly,” tongue turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

He was vacationing in Mexico about 10 years ago, when he and members of his family signed up for a three-hour food tour. The walkabout took them to a slew of hole-in-the-wall-type places he doubts they would have discovered on their own, ones that served mouth-watering tacos, ceviche and mole, the latter being a sort of sauce containing a mix of chilies, nuts, seeds and vegetables.

It was such a positive experience he began seeking out registered food tours, wherever he happened to be holidaying. One he took in Bangkok was particularly memorable, as was another in the Yucatan Peninsula. They weren’t all winners. Occasionally Singer didn’t necessarily agree with all of his guide’s suggestions; other times he was still famished at a tour’s conclusion, owing to the various samples not adding up to the equivalent of a full repast.

Since a large part of his professional duties involves performing extensive research, he began applying that same attention to detail to mealtime, be it at home or abroad. First, he’d use Google Maps to identify what restaurants were situated in an area he was homing in on. Then, after eliminating any chains — independently-run, mom-and-pop joints are more his jam — he checked any online reviews, to see what menu selections were drawing the most praise.

“Following that, I’d go on Instagram, to see what people were posting pictures of, then I’d go out and eat it,” he explains.

The decision to compile his findings into tours of sorts came in the spring, after he spent a few weeks in Spain, visiting his sister. He made copious notes ahead of his arrival there, detailing where the two of them should dine. Later, he showed her similar jottings he’d compiled, in regard to Winnipeg.

“That’s a lot of work; you should really put that stuff out there,” she suggested.

To date, Singer has posted three Winnipeg-centric tours, along with two others that highlight dining spots in eastern and central Manitoba. He isn’t telling you to hit every place he mentions. On his tour of The Forks, for example, it would be difficult saving room for a cinnamon bun from Tall Grass Bread Company, after diving into a plate of deep-fried pickerel from Fergie’s Fish ’n Chips, then washing it down with a gaucho sandwich (grilled steak topped with Swiss cheese, fresh veggies, a sunny-side up egg, chimichurri, mayo and horseradish) from Simon’s Steaks.

What you could do, he says, is try a few places on his list one day, and save the rest for another outing. Or, if you really want to cover the tour in one fell swoop, go with a group of friends, and share a plate, as you move from place to place.

“The toughest part was deciding on just one thing from each spot,” he goes on. “Also, I had to make sure it was something that was always on the menu. For my tour of the Exchange, I absolutely love the sandwiches at King + Bannatyne, but because they change on a near-weekly basis, it’s impossible to list which one you should order.”

Singer is currently putting the finishing touches on his fourth city-based food tour, one that will feature hot spots in St. Boniface. He’s heard nothing but good things about Dwarf no Cachette Café, a Japanese restaurant on Provencher Boulevard, and can’t wait to sing the praises of another spot blocks from there that serves meat pies to go.

“In the past, I was only offering restaurant suggestions, but the tourtière from Molly’s (Meat Pies, 390 Provencher Blvd.) is so fantastic, I’m including it, as well,” he says, adding the plan going forward is to also cite noteworthy landmarks along a chosen route, such as St. B’s old city hall building, or, in the West End, the Valour Road memorial.

Something else he’s working on is an undertaking he’s dubbed Eat Your Own Adventure (eatyourownadventure.com). For that one, he’s picking a specific type of cuisine — be it Thai, Mexican or Ukrainian — then doing a deep dive into the history of the food from that region, along with recipe suggestions.

Furthermore, he’ll be offering advice to those anxious to try something like dim sum, but don’t know where to start.

“I get how going to certain places can be intimidating because I’m that way with Korean barbecue where everything looks fantastic, but I don’t have much of a clue what to pick,” he says. “Chinese hot pot is another one that can be difficult, if you haven’t had it before.”

By the way, if you’re wondering whether Singer is a whiz in the kitchen himself, no, he says, shaking his head.

“I can follow recipes OK but I find it difficult to season food properly — most things I make are either too salty, or not salty enough. Right now, I’m teaching myself how to make pad thai, so maybe check back in in a month or so, and I’ll let you know how that’s going.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca