Time flies. It’s been a short year and a half since Glowbal Groups Black + Blue opened on October 30th, 2011, and on April 24th, 2013 they celebrated the opening of their brand spanking new rooftop patio. It contains a complete kitchen and a Wood Stone Charcoal Broiler oven! No words, just pictures.
Since 2008, the Chinese Restaurant Awards has recognized the best Chinese food Metro Vancouver has to offer through its Critics’ Choice Awards and its Diners’ Choice Awards. On February 26, 2013, Founding Director Mr. Craig Stowe and seven esteemed Greater Vancouver judges celebrated the winners of 20 Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Awards of Greater Vancouver and, for the first time, the winners of 10 Critics’ Choice Signature Dish Awards of Greater Toronto.
Hosted at the Show Theatre at the River Rock Casino Resort with emcees Dawn Chubai (Breakfast Television, CityTV) & Sunny Chiu (OMNI Television), I watched some live cooking demonstrations, tasted some creations by Executive Chef Andy Liu of Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant, Executive Chef Wing Ho of Fortune House Seafood Restaurant, and Chef Hung Ching-Lung of Chef Hung’s Beef Noodle.
From Chef Wing Ho, pan-fried Alberta beef skewers with cumin powder.
From Chef Hung Ching-Lung, champion beef shank and tendon and handmade noodles in soup, also the recipient of 2013′s best Taiwanase Beef Noodle.
Not bad..you can get it for $11 in the restaurant, which…I haven’t tried (yet?). read more
I was invited to visit Leonidas last Friday to try some of their hot chocolates being featured in the 3rd Annual Hot Chocolate Festival. To my surprise, I found myself in a cute little shop with a gorgeous display of confectionery goodness.
Leonidas is a world renowned name in the chocolate circuit. With more than 1400 stores in 40 different countries, it boasts Belgian excellence everywhere it is sold. What makes them unique is that their chocolates are 100% cocoa butter, with no added wax or vegetable oils. read more
Back in October, I was invited to a dinner event called Hot Chefs, Cool Jazz, held in the Burnaby Dominion hotel. The proceeds from the ticket sales were to support CCFCC Bocuse d’Or Canada and this year’s representative/candidate Alex Chen, it was also to help the local and regional efforts of a local charity, Breakfast for Learning. In total, 16 chefs came out to cook and support.
As this was a fundraiser, I’ll just let the pictures show for itself the amazing spread of food that was available that night. read more
On December 20th, 2012, 6 young women put together a fundraising event called Operation: Full Kettle for the The Salvation Army Vancouver Community & Family Services.
“Why the name “Operation: Full Kettle”?
The Salvation Army is renowned for their red kettle that appears every year during Christmas for street donations. Our mission this Christmas is to fill their kettle at a fast and impressive rate!
This is a guest post by Sally Chan, my dear friend in Toronto. I broke the phone with her and we’ve eaten at Lee and Burrito Boyz. She attended this event for me and here’s her write up!
I’ve been to the SOMA Chocolatemaker several times at the Distillery District location. It’s always tough to decide what to get, but each time I make sure I leave with something either for myself or as gifts. Surprisingly I haven’t been to their King Street West location even though I walk by pretty often. This was where the Inniskillin and SOMA Chocolatemaker tasting event was held. It was an indulging evening of wine and chocolate pairings crafted by winemaker, Bruce Nicholson, and chocolatier, David Castellan. Inniskillin Estate Chef David Penny also prepared three appetizers with suggested wine pairings.
I honestly know very little about wine. Even though I visited several wineries in Niagara during a wine tour this summer, I still find the whole experience around it very overwhelming. But I know for a fact that I’m starting to love whites and ice wines. And a chance to indulge in chocolate? Yes please!
There were a total of five tasting stations throughout the store, each with a different wine and chocolate pairing:
I must begin this post by saying that aside from breakfast, dessert is my favourite meal. So, when the opportunity to attend a whole event dedicated to Vancouver’s finest in desserts came knocking, I literally jumped for joy.
The dessert festival was hosted by Swallow Tail, who are known for their pop-up restaurants and unique culinary tours. For this specific event, the theme was the retro 50′s (think poodle skirts and slicked back hair). I wish I had been able to snap some shots of the attendees because everyone really was into the spirit of dressing up – it made all the difference in atmosphere!
The brightly lit bar definitely lured me over with all its buzzing activity. Shawm Soole (pictured below) was nominated this year as International Bartender of the Year by Tales Of The Cocktail.
Ultima Foods has launched a new yogurt brand at the last week of August, iögo (pronounced yo-go), uses no artificial colours or flavours and is made in Canada. It’s hard to not notice the two dots over loads of advertisements around Vancouver, especially with all the free samples around skytrain stations!
I had a chance to attend their launch party on the last week of August to sample their yogurts and foods cooked with yogurt!
iögo has over 7 verities of yogurt catered to all kinds of people with over 40 different flavours. At the launch party, I had a chance to samples some of varieties of yogurt like the zip, nano and nomad.
The bartender at this event had a feature drink with their nano that was mixed with vodka! Who would have thought vodka and yogurt went well together? The sweetness of the yogurt and fruit toned down the vodka making it a perfect way of mixing an adult yogurt drink. read more
About Dîner en Blanc:
Launched with just a handful of friends by François Pasquier nearly 25 years ago, Paris’ Dîner en Blanc now assembles nearly 15,000 white-clad guests each year in a dozen cities throughout Europe and North America. People simply place their names on an online waiting list and those who attend a Dîner en Blanc can become members, are invited back the following year, and in turn, can invite their friends.
Dîner en Blanc is about building a pyramid of friends and a network that links memories. The French capital’s most recognizable sites have played host to it: the Pont des Arts, the Eiffel Tower site, the Louvre Pyramid, the Champs-Élysées, and last year: The Plaza of Notre Dame basilica. In Canada, 4 cities will play host to Dîner en Blanc, including Toronto (Aug 9 : 1st edition) Montreal (Aug 16 : 4th edition), Quebec City (Aug 16 : 2nd edition), and Vancouver (Aug 30 first edition). www.dinerenblanc.
We started off with a short walk through the Vancouver Chinatown Market and tried some cha siew bao (pork buns), sui mai (open face dumplings), potstickers, spring rolls and green onion pancakes. Some of the items were decent, but it’s obvious they’ve been sitting there in the warmers for a while.
While we munched away, Executive Chef Todd Bright from Wild Rice would take the time to explain and talk about the traditional ways of preparation and the ingredients used.
Just a little further East, we stopped at a few grocery stores where Todd reveled in and expressed delight at the variety of produce available, all of which are mostly local. read more
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