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West Oak – Five Years in the Yaletown Neighbourhood

Posted in Baked Goods, Canadian, Cheese, Cocktails, Dinner, Fine dining, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Meat, Patio, Restaurants, Seafood, Sustainable, Vancouver, West Coast, Yaletown, tagged Burrata, charcuterie, Cocktails, cookies, Ebi Mayo, halibut, lamb shank, Mac & Cheese, prosciutto, scallops, West Oak, Yaletown on July 17, 2018| 1 Comment »

West Oak recently celebrated its 5th anniversary in the Yaletown neighbourhood. As a follow-up, Areta, Alice (Double A!) and I were invited to a hosted dinner at the restaurant. I’ve been here a couple of times beforehand, one of which was an evening out with a few of my girlfriends a few years ago.

Disclosure: This meal was provided to me complimentary of the restaurant. However, the views and opinions are my own.

Food

We got a sneak peek of some of their new cocktails (from left):

The Aperol Spritzer Mimosa is their new take on the classic brunch cocktail. This is available only during brunch, but the restaurant made one for us to try. Aperol, prosecco, fresh juice (orange, grapefruit, etc.) — it was juicy, citrusy, fizzy, refreshing. Great for a patio brunch. There’s no reason a mimosa fan wouldn’t enjoy this.

Tiffany Blue could become a local IG sensation. The Ciroc Apple came through and gave it some tartness, almost face puckering. You can really taste the apple here. The addition of edible silver makes it sparkle like a precious piece of jewelry.

The last cocktail, at the time this was written, hasn’t been named. It just had a nickname “Green Thumb“. It had gin, elderflower liquer, basil, cucumber. It reminded me a bit of mojito – it’s light and crisp, and herbaceous.

Then, we dove into dinner, with a couple of appies to share. (more…)

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Science of Cocktails 2018 – Recap

Posted in Beverage, Cocktails, Culinary Events, Drinks, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Meat, News, Vancouver, tagged Andrea Civettini, Aubrey Pingitore, Cocktail, Cocktail Competition, Cocktails, David Robertson, Event, Fermentation, Fun, Jesse Hochhausen, liquid nitrogen, Michael Chan, Science, Science of Cocktails, Science World, Science World Class Field Trip Bursary, smoked, Sous vide on February 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Earlier this month, as media, I was invited to attend the 3rd annual Science of Cocktails event at the Science World. It was the perfect venue as the Science World was transformed into a giant lab where drinks were changing from blue to pink, bananas being sous vide in honey, popcorn was frozen with liquid nitrogen, a “toothpaste” palate cleanser, smoking herbs, vaporized gin & tonic, fermentation, a sniffing station, foodies pulling themselves up a lift… the list goes on!

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Taste of Yaletown 2017 – House Special $45 Menu

Posted in Culinary Events, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Meat, Media Events, Restaurants, Steak, Taste of Yaletown, Vancouver, Vietnamese, Yaletown, tagged Banh Hoi, Canh Chua Ca, Cao Lanh, House Special, Lettuce Wrap, Media Event, Mekong Wonton, Pork Jowl, Prix Fixe, Talk Shop Media, Taste of Yaletown, Tenderloin, vietnamese, Wontons, Yaletown on October 20, 2017| 3 Comments »

I was invited to the menu preview of the 2017 Taste of Yaletown. Organized by the Yaletown BIA and similar to Dine Out Vancouver, participating restaurants in Yaletown are offering a $25, $35, or $45 menu until Oct 27. At the preview event, I got to sample the menus at two restaurants, one of which was House Special, serving Modern Vietnamese cuisine.

Food

House Special offers a 4-course menu for $45. The first course was Mekong Wonton. Shrimp and monkfish mousse wontons were sitting in a sweet, sour and spicy tamarind seafood broth, which was inspired by a traditional Vietnamese dish Canh Chua Ca. It’s different from other types of Asian sweet and sour, or hot and sour soup. I could taste the sweet and sour combo from the tamarind but I was definitely caught by surprise when the pineapple flavour hit my palate. Being so familiar with the Chinese style wonton soup, this Vietnamese version was almost refreshing to me.

The second course was Caramelized Pork Jowl Banh Hoi, which is their take on a lettuce wrap but with endives. (more…)

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Provence Marinaside – Taste of Yaletown 2016 Preview

Posted in Chocolate, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dinner, Fine dining, Food Bloggers, French, Joyce, Meat, Media Events, Restaurants, Seafood, Steak, Taste of Yaletown, Vancouver, Wine Pairing, Yaletown, tagged Bavette Steak, Bouillabaisse, Chocolate Mousse Cake, Gruyere et la Rouille, lemon tart, Provence Marinaside, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Smoked Trout, Steelhead Salmon, Talk Shop Media, Taste of Yaletown on October 17, 2016| 4 Comments »

Taste of Yaletown is back! For the 12th year, 31 restaurants in the Yaletown area are each offering a special menu at $25, $35 or $45. Running from Oct 13 to Oct 27, this event has a “Sharing and Pairing” theme this year. Some menus are created grazing, share-plate style, allowing diners to to share with each other while pairing the food with wine, beer or a cocktail; and with smaller portions it would allow diners to even plan a restaurant hopping experience around the neighbourhood.

As part of the media preview, a number of us were whisked away to one of the participating restaurants. I was lucky enough to sample the menu at Provence Marinaside. It’s been awhile since I last ate there, so I’m glad to go back for a re-visit.

Food

Provence’s Taste of Yaletown menu is $45. To start, you would receive a Provence Tasting Plate. It includes 1) Tomato and Bocconcini Salad; 2) Rustic Country Style Pate; and 3) House Smoked Ruby Red Trout. You can’t go wrong with the classic tomato and bocconcini combination, and the basil added a herbaceous note. The pate was rich and flavourful; the meat had a nice, chunky texture. My favourite, and it’s a close call, was the smoked trout. It was flaky, lightly smoked, and for me it wasn’t fishy at all. I may have a favourite, but honestly I would eat any of the three appies again. And the good news is, you get all three!

For entree, you have three options. We were able to try all three – but the pictures below are not actual portion size so I’ll try to help you visualize the actual portion as best as I can.

The Dijon and Fresh Herb Crusted Lois Lake Steelhead had a nice crispy skin, and the meat was moist and flaky. I personally found the dijon mustard to be a bit overpowering. The beurre blanc was creamy, perfect pairing for the salmon; the warm potato salad was pleasant on the eyes, and on the palate. The actual portion should be about two pieces of salmon on our tasting plate.

The second option is the West Coast Bouillabaisse. (more…)

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Golden Eats Seafood Restaurant 佳坊海鮮食館

Posted in Chinese, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Group Dinner, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Vancouver, tagged ChineseBites, clams, Crab, Dungeness Crab, eel, Golden Eats Seafood Restaurant, Kingsway, Lettuce Wrap, Lobster, Peking Duck, sticky rice, 佳坊海鮮食館 on July 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It started with an express of interest in visiting a recently opened dessert place, then led to a scheduled visit to that place, but we needed a dinner first, so the ChineseBites crew ended up having dinner at Golden Eats on Kingsway near Victoria. For some reason I thought the restaurant has been around for ages and I just never went; turns out it’s only been open for about two years.

Food

We ordered a total of 12 dishes, and here are some highlights:

Served in Hong Kong style, the Peking Duck (片皮鴨) is served over two courses. First, the roasted duck was skinned, and served with crepes and scallion and hoi sin sauce. The skin was crispy, flavourful, but the crepe was a bit too thick for my liking. The highlight of the plate was the bed of lobster crackers. Typically restaurants use shrimp crackers because they come in different colours and more common, but they don’t have much flavour and can get soggy after absorbing the grease from the roasted duck. The lobster crackers here seemed to hold up quite well. They were firmer and thicker, yet still crispy and crunchy, and had some “seafood” flavour.

Meat from the duck carcass was then used for the second course, Lettuce Wrap (生菜包). The meat filling had a decent amount of meat. By the time we could dig in, though, the crisp at the bottom had become a bit soggy, relying on the iceberg lettuce to offer the crunchy texture.