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Posts Tagged ‘Wine Pairing’

[Travel] Dinner at the Naramata Inn – Add To Your Must-Visit Okanagan List!

Posted in Canadian, Dinner, Eat Local, Favourites, Fine dining, Hotel Dining, Joyce, Meat, Okanagan, Restaurants, Seafood, Travel, West Coast, Winery Dining, tagged beef tartare, duck breast, halibut, Naramata, Naramata Inn, Ned Bell, Okanagan, Recommendation, scallops, Thompson Okanagan, Wine Pairing on July 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Whenever we go on our winecation with our friends B&K, we always include a “fancy night out” with a wine dinner at one of the restaurants in the area. For our trip in June, I had my eyes on the 112-year-old Naramata Inn.

Two years ago, famed Canadian chef and Okanagan-born Ned Bell, his wife Kate Colley, and two business partners have taken over Naramata Inn and breathed new life into this heritage building. Naturally, the kitchen is led by Ned, who is no stranger to the Vancouver restaurant scene and local foodies. The menu is all about fresh, local, seasonal ingredients, and quality is basically guaranteed. And with that, it’s been on my radar ever since and now was the perfect time to dine there.

Food

The menu is a prix fixe 2-course or 3-course menu, and we all opted for 2 courses.

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[Wine] Gusto Latinoamericano Wine Lunch at Vancouver International Wine Festival

Posted in Culinary Events, Joyce, Lunch, Vancouver, Vancouver International Wine Festival, Wine, Wine Pairing, Wine Series, tagged Achaval Ferrer, Bodega Argento, Bodega Trivento Argentina, Carmenere, Chardonnay, Cono Sur, Domaine Bousquet, Malbec, Santa Ema, Vancouver International Wine Festival, wine event, Wine Pairing, Wine Tasting on March 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Even though the theme region for this year’s Vancouver International Wine Festival was California, there were many events featuring other wine-making countries/regions. Lucky for me I was able to attend the Gusto Latinoamericano wine lunch at Lift Bar Grill View. As you may have guessed already, this wine lunch highlighted wines from Argentina and Chile.

Event guests were treated to a 3-course lunch here, along with wine pairing. But before that, there was the amuse Argentinean Prawn with Chimichurri. The prawn was sweet and plump, and the chimichurri brought bright acidity. It was paired with the Domaine Bousquet Organic Brut NV — a dry, crisp, easy-drinking bubbly with 25% pinot noir and 75% chardonnay.

For our appetizer, it was a Chilled Seafood Salad, with a mix of wine braised octopus, mussels, clams and squid, along with some chorizo chips and warm garlic bread. (more…)

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[Dine Out Vancouver 2018] Granville Room Menu with Wine Pairing #DOVF

Posted in Bar, Casual, Culinary Events, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Joyce, Meat, Pub, Restaurants, Scotch/Whisky, Vancouver, Wine Pairing, tagged Chocolate Praline Bar, Crispy Pork Belly, Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Out Vancouver 2018, Donnelly Group, Empanadas, Glenlivet, Grilled Cheese, meatloaf, Menu Tasting, Monkey Shoulder, panna cotta, prawns, The Granville Room, whisky, Wine Pairing on January 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Having done Dine Out Vancouver for so many years now, frankly I’m feeling burnout. To me, a lot of the menus are not very inspiring; or I question the value for the money. So this year, I set out to try to discover gems that don’t require you to pay $40 yet still feel hungry afterwards.

I was invited to bring a guest (guess whom I brought?) to sample the Dine Out menu of a Donnelly Group restaurant of my choice, including wine pairings. They are all $20 menus. After perusing them, I decided on the Granville Room. Why? I will get to that in a moment.

Food

There are two choices for appetizer. Naturally, we ordered one of each. The Coconut Fried Prawns were nice and crunchy. Mr. (ding-ding!) thought the coating was too thick to taste the prawns but I thought it’s okay. The prawns had good texture, a bit bouncy and not mushy. What’s intriguing is the dipping sauce. It’s a coconut hoisin sauce. When it said hoisin I expected the sauce to be darker in colour, but it’s just a tinted creamy white colour. It had a lot of coconut flavour but it’s not too sweet thanks to the subtle use of hoisin sauce. The prawns themselves did not have any coconut; it’s all in the sauce.

Wine pairing: Desert Hills Viognier – The fried prawns actually mellowed out the acidity in the viognier.

Beef Rib Empanada was also a hand-held appy. There were two pieces on the plate, served with a mole sauce. The sauce was rich, thick, and had some smokey flavour that didn’t overpower everything. (more…)

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[VanFoodies eat Okanagan] Wine & Dine at Evolve Cellars

Posted in Bistro, Dessert, Great Views, Joyce, Lunch, Meat, Neighbourhood Gem, Okanagan, Outdoor Dining, Patio, Restaurants, Seafood, Travel, West Coast, Wine Pairing, Wine Series, Winery Dining, tagged BC wines, Beef Carpaccio, Bottleneck Drive, Bruschetta, Cabernet Merlot, cheesecake, Cherry, Cioppino, Duck Confit, Evolve Cellars, Gewurztraminer, Okanagan, Pinot Grigio, Rose, Route 97, scallops, Summerland, Thompson Okanagan, Wine, Wine Pairing, Wine Tasting, Winery on August 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »

While we were in the Okanagan, of course Hester Creek wasn’t the only winery we visited. On this trip, we ventured out to Summerland, specifically the Bottleneck Drive area, and we discovered Evolve Cellars.

Evolve Cellars was open in 2015 and above the tasting room is e, its dining room. Simple decor – white wall, white table cloth, with big window panes overlooking a gorgeous view of its vineyard and Lake Okanagan. Bryan, Kathryn, Mr. and I made a lunch reservation prior to getting there, and we’re patting our back for making a good choice.

Food

e’s lunch menu is quite interesting. I like that they incorporate their wine into many of the dishes. We shared a few appies, including the Seared Scallops. There was nice caramelization on one side of the scallops, the scallops were cooked to the right temperature, tender and sweet. The roasted corn salsa gave it some smokey flavours and crunch. For us, they were served on a spoon and it made a perfect bite (Mr. really liked it, because he always wants “a bit of everything in each bite”).

The Bruschetta was probably my least favourite appetizer. Don’t get me wrong, it was quite good.

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Donnelly Group Dine Out Preview Tour #DOVF

Posted in By Invitations, Chocolate, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, Joyce, Pasta, Pub, Restaurants, Salad, Soup, Vancouver, Yaletown, tagged #DOVF, Bangers & Mash, BC Beer, BC wines, Clough Club, Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Out Vancouver 2016, Donnelly Group, Downtown Vancouver, gastown, ice cream, Mac & Cheese, pub, public house, S'more, The Blackbird Public House, The Lamplighter Public House, The New Oxford, Wine Pairing, Yaletown on January 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

We were invited to go on a tour to check out the various Donnelly Group properties and their Dine Out Vancouver menu. Executive Chef Alvin Pillay has recently returned to the company group, and he’s quite proud of the menus that he’s put together. Ten of the Donnelly Group properties are offering similar items. Specifically, there are 6 core items that can be found at all these locations, which we tried on this tour, along with their respective beverage pairing. Each Donnelly Group location also offers an additional entree option on their Dine Out menu.

Food

Our first stop was at The New Oxford, where we tried the two appetizers.

The Curried Parsnip Soup could definitely warm you up on a chilly winter day. The curry spices really came through; I could taste a lot of ginger. Soup was creamy, and the roasted apple offered some texture in contrast. Suggested wine pairing is the Volcanic Hills Pinot Gris. The apple note in the white wine was a great match with the soup.

The Winter Salad sounded and seemed simple, but there’s an interesting depth to it. The buttermilk sumac dressing brought tartness and spice, black sesame added some nutty flavours, and the Moroccan pita bread gave it some crunch. The 50th Parallel Riesling isn’t as sweet as a typical Riesling, which worked well with this light salad.