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[Dine Out Vancouver 2016] Beach Bay Cafe #DOVF

Posted in Bistro, Casual, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Great Views, Joyce, Oysters, Restaurants, Seafood, Vancouver, West Coast, tagged Beach Bay Cafe, cheesecake, Duck Confit, English Bay, ling cod, oysters, Seafood Chowder, Sticky toffee pudding, West End on February 1, 2016| 1 Comment »

Last year, Beach Bay Cafe popped up in the space where Raincity Grill used to be. Since then, they’ve made some slight adjustments on the menu direction, as well as found a new executive chef, so with their Dine Out participation, I decided to give it a try.

Food

To start, Mr. ordered the Seafood Chowder. It’s creamy, wasn’t super thick, yet loaded with lots of ingredients. Every spoonful there were chunks of potato and carrot and seafood such as shrimp, mussels and squid. There’s smokiness and savoury flavours coming from the bacon as well as crispy leeks. I had a few spoons and I quite liked it; Mr. had most of it and thought it’s a bit too salty for him.

For an extra $4, I had 1/2 Dozen Oysters for appetizer. The night’s feature was Little Wing oysters; they were not too big in size, but had a deep cup shell. The flesh tasted clean and crisp with a hint of sweetness. I’ve never had this kind before and thought they were pretty good. The oysters were paired with an apple mignonette, which was on the sweet side, so you had to add a squeeze of lemon juice to bring a bit more acidity.

I’ve ordered mostly seafood dishes during Dine Out, so I switched things up with an order of the Confit Duck Leg. Wow loved the crispy skin on the duck leg! (more…)

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Chef’s Table at Earls Port Coquitlam

Posted in American, Bread, By Invitations, Dessert, Drinks, Family-friendly, Group Dinner, Joyce, Port Coquitlam, Restaurants, Steak, tagged apprenticeship, Chef's Table, Earls Restaurant, kung pao, Mai Tai, port coquitlam, Pumpkin pie, Red Seal, Simon Zanotto, sourdough, Steak, Sticky toffee pudding, strawberry and rhubarb crumble, sushi, taco on December 16, 2013| 1 Comment »

We were invited by the Earls in Poco to one of its exclusive Chef’s Table evenings. The intention of the evening was to provide an opportunity to meet Head Chef Simon Zanotto, sample a number of their signature dishes, and gain a better understanding of the restaurant chain. I turned this into a triple-date and invited WK+MS and CC+DF to join Mr. and me for dinner.

At a young age of 25, Chef Simon Zanotto is currently the head chef of Earls Port Coquitlam. Since he’s a child, he has learned to love and appreciate food and through his families, he believes that food should be served fresh, simple and be bold in flavour. Simon went to the Pierre Dubrulle Culinary Art Institute, worked with the Glowbal Restaurant Group, completed his Red Seal certification, and has been with Earls for 7 years now. At the Chef’s Table, Chef Simon spent a lot of time with us and his passion for food was definitely shown through the food and our conversations.

Food

Here are the dishes we tried that evening. Chef Simon emphasized his belief in depth of flavours, and it’s clearly demonstrated in the layers of flavour that he developed in each dish.

Los Cabos Chicken Tacos – I liked how the cheese was melted on the tortilla (instead of sprinkled) and the tender chicken was met with the creamy avocado corn salsa and crunchy shredded lettuce. An excessive amount of valentina hot sauce could just kill your taste buds, but this was just the right amount to bring you some heat.

In House Sourdough with Confit Garlic Oil and Fresh Herbs – This was very good! You can taste the subtle sourness in the sourdough, and that herbs infused confit garlic oil added savouriness and a bit of spice, as well as introduced an Asian note to it. The grinding part was fun too! If we didn’t have that many dishes to go through, I think we could finish a few plates of this!

Dynamite Prawn + Mango Roll – Chef Simon made this fresh right at the table. (more…)

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Event Recap: Take a Bite benefiting the Take a Hike Foundation

Posted in Culinary Events, Dessert, Interviews, Joyce, Mr., Snacks, Tapas, Vancouver, tagged Chambar Restaurant, fundraiser, Leah Gamache, MARKET at Shangri-La, My Loud Speaker, pumpkin pie pops, Sticky toffee pudding, Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation, Trevor Bird, Tuesday Night Food and Run Club on November 22, 2011| 4 Comments »

Last week Mr. and I had the opportunity to attend a fundraising event called Take a Bite. Hosted by the Tuesday Night Food and Run Club, it’s a foodie event to raise awareness for the Take a Hike – Youth at Risk Foundation. Two local chefs, Trevor Bird from MARKET at Shangri-La and Leah Gamache from Chambar Restaurant, put together the evening’s menu and volunteer theirs and their helpers’ time for this event. Chef Leah unfortunately couldn’t come to the event herself, but she had prepared a couple of yummy desserts which I’ll touch on in a bit.

Event Benefiting the Take a Hike Youth at Risk Foundation

As soon as we arrived we were immediately greeted with rounds and rounds of bite-size items. With an empty stomach, I just started eating and completely forgot about pictures. By the time I remembered about the camera, it’s halfway through the event and some of the events were not being served already. What you won’t get to see in pictures are 1) Dried dates with goat cheese and walnut, 2) Pulled pork mini sliders, and 3) Deep fried chick peas mini sliders.