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Posts Tagged ‘Sustainable Seafood’

In addition to the traditional prix fixe menu offered by restaurants in Vancouver, the Dine Out Vancouver organizer also put together a number of culinary events, including the popular Street Food City. Returning for its second year, a dozen or so food trucks gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery, allowing food truck enthusiasts to experience street food all in one spot!

So I made it over to the Vancouver Art Gallery with my colleagues. Of the list of participating food trucks, some I have already tried, some I’m not particularly interested in. I had my eyes set on the Kaboom Box and that’s exactly where I headed.

The Kaboom Box

The Kaboom Box

Food

Some food carts had a special DOV creation on their menu, not for the Kaboom Box. Of its regular menu, I was choosing between the Hot Smoked Salmon Sandwich and the Venison Burger. In the end, I ordered the Hot Smoked Salmon Sandwich because it claims to be “world famous” and appears to be the most popular menu item.

To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’m not really a salmon burger person. (more…)

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I received an invitation to a sit-down media dinner at C Restaurant, to sample its Dine Out menu. I said yes without a blink. C Restaurant and I go way back. In fact, it all started with a DOV dinner back in 2004, when the menu was – hold your breath – only $25. That was before my photo-taking/food-blogging time, but I remember it was a very enjoyable dinner, especially for the value of it. Then, I went back for another DOV dinner in 2008, and the price already went up to $35, nonetheless a wonderful meal. In 2011, I visited C again for one of its tasting menus, courtesy of deal coupon discounts; it was a different experience because the dishes were smaller in portion and I could tell that the culinary direction had changed since my 2008 visit (sorry, was in hiatus mode so there wasn’t a post on this). This media invite has piqued my interest in trying the now more upscale C Restaurant, at an affordable $38 DOV price.

C Restaurant by False Creek

C Restaurant by False Creek

Food

Keep in mind that this is a media event so it may not necessarily reflect the true quality of food, but this should serve as a good indication of what you should expect from this restaurant. And I won’t be commenting on its service quality because it’s hard for me to judge when we were considered the “VIPs”.

I must start by saying that C’s DOV 2012 menu includes four courses. Actually, it’s amuse bouche + 4 courses, so by the sound of it, it’s already a better deal than other $38 restaurants. The only down side is that there’s no option for each course. Well, there is, but at extra cost. On the positive side, the menu is more focused since chefs and cooks are making same dishes, so they should have better control on quality assurance and consistency.

Shall we begin? The Amuse Bouche were presented beautifully on skewers. On the menu it lists smoked cannelloni as the only item, but I was watching other diners and they seemed to have received a variety of skewers like we did. It probably depends on the number of people at each table.

Amuse Bouche

Amuse Bouche

Here is the list of items we got:

  • Organic Ocean Spot Prawn
  • Golden Beet & cheese
  • Quail Egg
  • Wild Pacific Smoked Salmon
  • Albacore Tuna Tataki

Because there was not enough for everyone to try everything, I only tried three of the five items. They were simple, one-bite skewers that whet your appetite for the meal ahead.

The first course is Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad. Panzanella is a dressed salad of greens and stale bread. It’s basic, but in this case the beets and harissa dressing brought a lot of flavour to the dish. Beets were sweet, and a bit sour from the pickling, and the harissa dressing added a tiny kick and was probably the highlight of this dish for me.

Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad

Pickled Beet Panzanella Salad

Throughout the dinner we received bonus dishes, so we could have a better understanding of what the entire menu has to offer. At extra cost, $9 to be exact, you could substitute your salad with Sauteed Spot Prawns. (more…)

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After doing the research for my last post, I was intrigued by some of the menu items. One of which was Blue Water Cafe’s Unsung Heroes Festival that took place through to end of January. If my memory serves me right, I went to Blue Water once years ago, before my foodie years. At that time I didn’t quite know how to enjoy good food. So when I got a hold of a $50 gift certificate for the restaurant, I invited a friend along and gave it another try.

Food

While the food quality didn’t disappoint me, it didn’t wow me either. For a restaurant with such a good reputation, to me it’s somewhat a let-down. Don’t get me wrong. I think the Unsung Heroes idea was brilliant, but the execution of the menu wasn’t bold enough. How so? Read on.

Before we started munching on the food, we each ordered a drink of Jacob’s Ladder and Bread. Jacob’s Ladder was a very refreshing drink, flavoured with herbs and botanicals. The julienned cucumber garnish on top of the crushed ice was crunchy and ice cold. Bread came with two spread, seaweed butter and red chili pepper & chick pea spread. I found the seaweed butter rather ordinary; I couldn’t really taste the seaweed. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the chick pea spread. The chick pea was grounded finely and the texture and flavouring was just right on the bread. Wish the bread crust was a bit softer, though.

For the two of us, we had three dishes. First, a Sashimi Platter that had 14 pieces of fish including Sablefish, Amaebi (raw sweet prawn), Albacore tuna, Sockeye salmon, Red tuna, Scallops and Hamachi (yellow tail). Initially we were going for a separate order of sablefish, but since it’s included in the platter, we opted for this instead, giving us the opportunity to try a variety of sashimi. The sashimi were overall quite fresh and tasty. First time trying it, the sablefish was silky, very sweet and soft. I wish each type of fish came in pairs, though, so we could split it easily.

Then we picked out two items from the Unsung Heroes Festival. The Periwinkles were an interesting treat. There were a good 40 something periwinkles in the bowl and it’s a rather time consuming dish. Why, you ask? (more…)

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