Posted in Drinks, Joyce, Meat, Okanagan, Travel, Wine, Wine Series, tagged BC wines, British Columbia, charcuterie, Covert Farms, ExploreBC, Farm to Table, Farm Tour, Okanagan, Oliver, Route 97, South Okanagan, Thompson Okanagan, Tour, U-Pick, Vintage Mercury Pickup, VQA, Wine Tasting, Wines of British Columbia on August 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »
What is it like to be driven around in a 1952 Vintage Mercury Pickup? An experience only found at Covert Farm! It’s an 1.5-hour tour on the 650-acre farm, and let me tell you all about it.
As soon as Mr. and I arrived at the farmhouse and signed in, we were ushered towards the vintage truck. It’s in a bright red colour and you couldn’t miss it. (more…)
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.
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…)
Posted in Asian, Coquitlam, Dessert, Dinner, Hotel Dining, Joyce, Meat, Pan Asian, Restaurants, Steak, West Coast, tagged Bread Pudding, Certified Angus Beef, charcuterie, Executive Plaza Hotel Coquitlam, lamb shank, prawns, The Wild Fig, Yakitori on January 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Perhaps with the exception of downtown Vancouver and some Richmond hotels, hotel dining doesn’t usually have a good reputation. That doesn’t stop me from being curious and wanting to try. So when the Executive Hotel in Coquitlam got a new restaurant, the Wild Fig, and was offering a coupon deal, CC and I gave it a try.
Our coupon covered 1 appetizer, 2 entrees and 1 dessert. They actually have many appetizer options and some interesting ones so we couldn’t really decide on just one. With extra charge we ordered two appies instead. The Charcuterie Plate had a good combination of cured meat, including cold smoked chuck flat, pork loin, salami and sausage, with Little Qualicum cheese. Overall we were quite happy with this; the cured meat had good texture (some drier, some more moist) and a mix of flavours (smokiness and spices), but some could be borderline salty for my liking. My favourite was the cured pork loin. What also caught our attention on this plate was the Brie & Fig Chutney Pastry Rolls; you could order this as a separate item but it came with the charcuterie plate so bonus for us. It was freshly baked – warm (almost too hot to hold at the beginning), crispy on the outside and soft inside. I liked the sweet fig filling (I’m a sucker for anything fig too) but they could put more filling in the pastry.
The Coconut Breaded Prawns had prominent Asian and tropical flavours. The prawns had a nice bite, a crunchy meat texture, although the breading was a bit too dark for my liking. It didn’t taste burnt, though. The menu said “horseradish marmalade” but I didn’t taste the pungent horseradish flavour; the sauce just reminded me of a house-made Thai chili sauce, more on the sweet and spicy note, which I thought worked well with the prawns and tasted quite good. Perhaps they just didn’t add enough horseradish in the marmalade.
As for entree, I had the Zinfandel Lamb Shank. Huge portion! (more…)
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