Snack City

Autumn is the season most distinctly associated with food, especially feasting and huge family meals. But there’s a type of appetite less overtly explored when it comes to the chillier seasons, and here in Vancouver we’re particularly attuned to what drizzly greyness makes us crave. Namely, snacks. A lot of them.  Here are a few treats we graze on like baby-goats when we need a little somethin’.

crunchy: Ayoub’s saffron and lime-roasted pistachios are like a tastebud defibrillator with their creamy-nutty-crunchy cohesion, just salty enough to satiate a junk food craving, but with a sophisticated flavor profile (we dig handfuls of them paired with a glass of vanilla almond milk to provide a sweet counterpoint). www.ayoubs.ca 

cripsy: When Pappa Roti opened on the corner of Nicola and Robson we didn’t quite know what to make of them (buns? Ok…) but a hunger pang incited us to grab one of their toasty pastries to go. We’re glad it did. The Malaysian specialty is characterized by an ineffably pillowy, butter-spiked interior beneath a crispy, latte-coloured crust (a textural triumph). We ate it so quickly straight out of the bag we forgot about our accompanying Nutella-packet. Think about that. www.papparoti.ca 

creamy: These days, preferring milk chocolate to dark is practically sacrilege, so we’re glad Chocolate Arts created their Allure Bar, a rich-but-not-bitter custom cocoa bean blend with a fruity note and a luscious ganache-meltiness that’s finally won us over to the dark side. Good thing, too, because our M&M habit was getting majorly judged ‘round the office. www.chocolatearts.com 

If you need us, we’ll be in snack city.

—Adrienne Matei