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Posts Tagged ‘Beef Short Rib’

[Dine Out Vancouver 2017] Notch8 Restaurant & Bar – What Beautiful Plating! #DOVF

Posted in Culinary Events, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Hotel Dining, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2017| 2 Comments »

Since the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver renovated the ground floor restaurant space, naming it Notch8 Restaurant, I’ve been wanting to eat there. I really like the big light fixture in the middle of the restaurant (in case you forgot, I’m often fascinated by lights!) and it just looks like a huge upgrade/improvement from what it was before. Then, without much hesitation, I made a reservation there for Dine Out.

Notch8 Restaurant & Bar

Priced at $40, Notch8’s menu was intriguing and interesting. The menu has items or ingredient combinations that you don’t often see on a Dine Out menu, or they have some unique way of preparing the usual ingredients, so I was quite excited going into it.

Food

The dinner was off to a good start. I was immediately blown away by how pretty my appetizer was. Look at this Savoury Macaron! Caviar, smoked salmon, scallop mousse, roe…all sitting on a piece of slightly sweet, slightly chewy macaron cookie. There was a good balance of sweet and savoury, and umami flavours from the seafood. It’s so pretty!!

Savory Macaron

It was a bit puzzling to us why they would serve the Forest Mushroom Tart on such a big plate, but I guess having negative space on a plate is also a thing. (more…)

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[Dine Out Vancouver 2017] WildTale Coastal Grill Menu Preview #DOVF

Posted in Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Vancouver, West Coast, Yaletown, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 17, 2017| 1 Comment »

Did you know WildTale’s Dine Out menu is only $30 this year? When my family and I went there for Dine Out last year it was $40! I was invited to a preview of this year’s menu and I was curious to see how it has changed.

Turns out there are a couple repeating items on the menu, which makes this $30 menu a pretty good deal.

Food

One of the repeating items is the WildTale Seafood Chowder. Well, it’s not entirely the same as last year’s, but the idea is there. The chowder was the most memorable appetizer last year, and this year’s chowder was my favourite appetizer on the menu. It was rich, creamy, flavourful – and the corn and crab fritter was nice and crispy, adding some texture to the soup.

WildTale Seafood Chowder

If you look for something lighter in the appetizer, either the Organic Beets & Watercress salad or the Albacore Tuna Carpaccio would make a great option. I love beets, so any beet salad could easily win my heart. These beets were sweet, balanced by the hint of bitterness in watercress. It’s missing some tang and acidity, though – I love me some goat cheese in my beet salad. (more…)

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2014 Healthy Chef Competition Recap

Posted in Culinary Events, Dessert, Dinner, Healthy Eating, Joyce, Meat, Salad, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

For the past 4 years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to attend the BC Healthy Chef Competition. Co-sponsored by the BC Chefs’ Association and the BC Produce Marketing Association, the purpose of this event is to promote a healthier diet with the use of fruit and vegetables, while raising money for the Mix it Up! campaign, Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Chefs representing 8 units were competing against each other by cooking up some tasty entrees and desserts using fruit and vegetables. Despite I received a media invitation this year, I once again joined a few other colleagues at work at this event. Here is the list of competing units this year:

  • The Art Institute of Vancouver
  • Beach Grove Golf Club
  • Burnaby Central Secondary School
  • Delta Hotels (Burnaby and Vancouver Airport)
  • The Hyatt Regency Vancouver
  • Pretty Estates Resort
  • Rational
  • Vancouver Community College

Healthy Chef Competition 2014

Before we followed the tradition and opened our envelope to retrieve our entree and dessert tickets, we each received a plate of Salmon Carpaccio prepared by the team at Hyatt Regency Vancouver. Because the team was led by Chef Thomas Heinrich, it had the resemblance of the beef carpaccio we previously had at the Mosaic Bar & Grille downstairs from the ballroom. A different protein but this still composed a good flavour and texture combination using fish, crispy garlic chives, the aioli and liquid vinegar gel.

Salmon Carpaccio

I couldn’t resist. In addition to my assigned entree and dessert, I also picked up a couple more dishes after we were allowed for “seconds”; therefore, I have tried a total of 3 entrees and 3 desserts. Ooops hehe!

Entrees

The Hyatt Regency Vancouver’s Braised Beef Short Rib was very tender. (more…)

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The Observatory [Dine Out Vancouver 2014]

Posted in Bread, Chocolate, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Fine dining, Great Views, Joyce, North Vancouver, Restaurants, Seafood, Special Occasion, Sustainable, West Coast, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2014| 3 Comments »

For every Dine Out, in addition to the new restaurants that pop up throughout the year, my family and I also have a wishlist of restaurants that we would look for. It has been a few years since we wanted to go to The Observatory on Grouse Mountain, but every time the menu just wasn’t very interesting to us. Finally this year’s menu seemed to have something for everyone so we booked it as part of our Chinese New Year celebration.

The Observatory

Food

I should give a caveat that The Observatory isn’t a typical Westcoast restaurant. There are elements of molecular gastronomy that you will see below. But before I even talk about the actual menu, I must compliment on the Epi French Bread (Pain d’Epi) that they offer each table. First of all, it’s free; secondly, it’s of generous amount; and thirdly, it’s hot and tastes good. It came with a compound butter with some smokey and apricot flavours topped with some sea salt. It was some really good-tasting bread, crunchy but not jaw-breaking, and we finished it rather quickly.

Bread

Because there were 3 of us, we got all three appetizers. The Duck Confit wasn’t a whole duck leg; it was shredded duck meat in a ring mold along with some micro green salad. The grapefruit gel was basically the dressing, adding a bit of sweetness, bitterness and tartness to the salad.

Duck Confit

The Roasted Heirloom Beets was just too pretty to eat. The two preparations (crispy and soft roasted) really showcased the beets and its natural sweetness was very pronounced. The ricotta cheese cake replaced the usual goat cheese but still brought in some creaminess to the salad.

Roasted Heirloom Beets

The Black Cod Brandade was quite good (what is brandade?). (more…)

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#PopUpDinner at Vancouver Home + Design Show 2013

Posted in By Invitations, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Joyce, Meat, Media Events, Vancouver, Wine Pairing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 20, 2013| 1 Comment »

To kick off the 30th Vancouver Home + Design Show, I was invited to a pop up dinner party on the show floor on opening night.

30th Anniversary of VHDS

Taking turn on the Vancouver Magazine Cooking Stage were local chefs who put together a great three-course dinner for the 20 or so of us. To start the dinner we received a glass of cocktail that was inspired by the new Samsung fridge that dispenses sparkling water. It had Alize, vodka and sparkling water.

Sparking Cocktail

By the way, at the event we also learned that Samsung has released a cooking range with an oven that can be split into two smaller ovens (with two different temperature settings) with a smart divider. It would probably cost you a fortune but I thought it was neat.

The three courses were:

A Taste of the East by Chef Curtis Luk of The Parker – chawanmushi, celeriac, pine mushroom broth, yaki onigiri. It’s great for the cold fall/winter weather. (more…)

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