CityFood Magazine - Postings for March 2009

EVENTS - ( March 31, 2009 )
FIRST PHOTOS OF THE NEW VANCOUVER CONVENTION CENTRE
BC RESTAURANT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION DINNER 2009

See photos of New Convention Centre here .
See photos of Dinner Event here .

On Monday night, the BC Restaurant & Food Services Association inducted 12 new industry leaders into its 5th Annual Hall of Fame . Except for a few minor hiccups (prematurely introducing Thomas Haas a couple of times being one example), this year’s show was the most streamlined presentation yet. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in RESTAURANTS/ News .

__________________________________________________

DINE & DASH - ( March 31, 2009 )
CHANGES AT FIGMINT

Sounds like Figmint is in a bit of turmoil, Chef Lee Humphries gave notice two weeks ago, upon which his sous chef followed suit, as did the acting restaurant manager Tim Scholfield .

So who will fill Humphries clogs at the Cambie Street location? Apparently it is Chef Dennis Peckham who will leave Hart House in Burnaby to go to FigMint. We understand he starts next week for a few days of duties handover from Chef Lee, and as of next Friday, will be at the helm.

This town is like a stack of straws. Can't pull out one without unsettling the others.

Other Changes: We heard yesterday that Chef Angus An will be giving up on his westcoast inspired menu in favour of a high end Thai concept. He will close Gastropod and reopen as Maenam .

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Dine & Dash .

_____________________________________________

WINE FESTIVAL LOG - ( March 28, 2009 )
NEW WINES TO TRY AT THE FESTIVAL - BLACK CLOUD

When we first heard that there was a new wine in the Okanagan by the name of " Black Cloud " we assumed that the wine was a romantic tribute to the dramatic, billowing black clouds that often sweep over the Okanagan mountainsides in the early morning. However, winemaker Bradley Cooper informed that wasn't the cause.

Cooper is best known on the Okanagan wine scene as the winemaker for Township 7 in Naramata, although the Black Cloud Pinot Noir is his and wife Audralee Daum 's own personal project. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in DRINK/ Wine Festival Log ... also ....REGIONAL/OKANAGAN

___________________________________________________

WINE FESTIVAL LOG - ( March 27, 2008 )
NOTA BENE VERTICAL TASTING AT THE FESTIVAL

On Friday, Black Hills Estate Winery hosted a vertical tasting at the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festiva l, offering fans of its Nota Bene label a chance to compare 9 consecutive vintages from 1999 to 2007. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in DRINK/ Wine Festival Log ... also ... REGIONAL/Okanagan

__________________________________________________

WINE FESTIVAL LOG - (March 26, 2008)
NEW WINES TO TRY AT THE FESTIVAL: PINK ELEPHANT

I recently became suspicious that my camera might be colour blind. Not a happy discovery.

I learned this while trying to take a photo of the front label for Elephant Island Orchard Winery 's new ruby-coloured sparkling wine. The label, designed by Elephant Orchard co-owner Miranda Halladay, resembled those eyesight tests you have to take when you get your driver's license ... CONTINUE READING .

Filed in DRINK/ Wine Festival Log ... also... REGIONAL/Okanagan

__________________________________________________

WINE FESTIVAL LOG - ( March 26, 2009 )
DIVAS AT THE MET
The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival

In order to be a proper diva it is mandatory to be late for events in which you are the guest of honour. It's a law of Divadom. However, at the Wine Festival 's new featured event, Divas at the Met , only one diva kept up the standards.... CONTINUE FOR MORE TEXT AND PHOTOS .

Filed in DRINK/ Wine Festival Log .

__________________________________________________

NEW RESTAURANTS - ( March 25, 2009 )
RAUDZ - A PREVIEW

These people have marketing genius. They release the mother of all press releases on a day when the press are so busy they haven't a minute to spend whittling it down. So here it is in full. There's good stuff in there alright. Points taken away for the use of the word "brainchild" (most hated after mouth-watering), but bonus points given for "liquid chefs".

Liquid chefs? .... CONTINUED AFTER THE JUMP .

Filed in RESTAURANTS/ Previews ... and REGIONAL/Okanagan.

__________________________________________________

LETTERS - ( March 25, 2009 )

Michael Dinn and Heidi Noble , proprietors of JoieFarm write an open letter to take issue with today's article on the BC Wine Industry in the Globe and Mail.

READ IT HERE .

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Comments and Letters .

___________________________________________________

WINE FESTIVAL LOG 2009
( March 24, 2009 )

And we're off ... I started my week at the Wine Festival in the best possible way -- with the Cedar Creek Estate Winemakers Dinner at Bishop's Restaurant . ... CONTINUE FOR TEXT AND PHOTOS .

Filed in DRINK/ Wine Festival Log 2009 .

___________________________________________________

DINE & DASH ( March 23, 2009 )

Sequoia Grill is ditching its marketing plan and returning its name to the historical one of the Teahouse in Stanley Park . New manager will be Janet McGuire (formerly the owner of Beachside Cafe), and her former employee, Chef Carol Chow, has joined the team as chef. The new Teahouse is hosting a contest to mark the occasion. Read the complete press release here .

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Greater Details .

_____________________________________________

VIDEO - (March 21, 2009)
WE HEART TED

We're so loving the TED website, the thinking person's YouTube. Here's a couple of our favourites from the food topics area. Left , Jennifer 8 presents a humourous speech on the bastardization of Chinese cuisine in American culture, and right , Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwel l discusses what corporate manufacturers discovered about human requirements for happiness during their search for the perfect spaghetti sauce recipe. For another example of a TED brain-kickstart, follow the link below to Chef Dan Barber's speech on ethical foie gras .

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Videos .

__________________________________________________

DINE AND DASH - ( March 20, 2009 )

More gossip. We hear that the stork will soon be winging its way to the Okanagan in about 4 months time. Kelowna chef Ned Bell ( Cabana Bar & Grille ) and his PR lady girlfriend, Kate Colley, are about to become parents. Congratulations you two!

And yes, unfortunately, it appears to be true that Plan B restaurant in Yaletown will close within 10 days.

__________________________________________________

DINE AND DASH - ( March 18, 2009 )

Yes, Pinkys in Yaletown is no more and this is what we were able to learn from a company spokesperson: ... CONTINUE READING ...

MORE DINE AND DASH AFTER THE JUMP : Jillian Harris, New Farmers Market in Gastown, L'Atro Buca, Osvaldo Fabro.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Dine & Dash .

__________________________________________________

ANNOUNCEMENTS - ( March 17, 2009 )
( All items on this page were either edited from, or excerpted directly from official press releases .)

COCKTAILS

No green beer at George Ultra Lounge . Mixologist Shaun Layton has more creative things in mind such as his "Bloody Cork", (muddled stewed tomatoes shaken with potato vodka, bacon infused Jameson Irish whiskey, jus, horseradish, a drip of balsamic and lemon. Then finished with a chipotle garlic salt rim and a fried rosemary potato -- a meal in a glass. .... CONTINUE READING ...

MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS AFTER THE JUMP : Raincity Grill, Magnolia Hotel, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, Farmers Market, Fairburne Farm, Tinorn Creek Winery, VancDusen Egg Hunt, Island Wineries, Tasting, Bike the Blossoms, Art in Bloom, EAT Vancouver Show, Defending Our Backyard.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Announcements .

______________________________________________

EVENTS - ( March 17, 2009 )
ST PATRICKS DAY

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you.

For myself, I doubt that I will be dying my beer green, but I may well be cooking with it. Perhaps making a Guinness stew with sage and ginger, or a Guinness Stout Ginger Cake , and washing that down with a shot of Irish Whiskey. ... CONTINUE READING...

Filed in EVENTS/March 2009

__________________________________________________

EDITOR'S UPDATE - ( March 16, 2009 )
CITYFOOD JOINS TWITTER

Yes, CityFood has joined the flock and is now on Twitter. Look for the link under the handle CityFood_mag . For now, you can assess the link directly from the CF home page where the " Daily Photo " box is usually located. This too is temporary until our tech designers can give the icon its own permanent spot. The Twitter hook up is just one of a number of new features you are going to see on CityFood Online as we give the site a major overhaul to bring it up to date. Whew! A lot of heavy lifting going on the back room these days but it will be worth it, once the job is done.

___________________________________________________

VIDEO - (March 15)
DAN BARBER ON ETHICAL FOIE GRAS

"Foie Gras so good that chefs don't deserve it. "

Filed in FOOD/ Trends and Issues .

__________________________________________________

WHAT WE'RE READING NOW
( March 14, 2009 )

If you only read one thing today this should be it. In " Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable ", Clay Shirky gives a profound explanation of why we are living in 1500. ( www.shirky.com ). Shirky's book , Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations -- about what happens when people are given the tools to do things together, without needing traditional organizational structures -- was published in 2008 by Penguin Press.

In today's Telegraph , " Clicking Your Fingers at the Waiter is the Biggest First Date Faux Pas". Funny how, at No. 10, "not tipping the waiter" is considered to be the least serious of the offenses. [Alert from Tim Pawsey].

... KEEP CHECKING BACK HERE . We'll adding the links we love all day today.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ What We're Reading Now .

__________________________________________________

SHOP - ( March 13, 2009 )
FAREWELL TO THE PIG

End of an era. Yes, it's farewell to the Flying Pig neon sign, a landmark on East Hastings for as long as most Vancouverites can remember. After 52 years, Save-On-Meats , a popular shop for discount priced meat is closing its doors, and tomorrow (March 14th) will be the last day of business.

But everything is already on sale and the regulars are in there buying up a storm - we spotted one women buying three large shopping bags of meat and then a roll of plastic bags (25 for a dollar) to pack it all away in the freezer when she got home.

Alas, it's goodbye to those big slabs of Gambozola cheese at $2 a piece, or porterhouse steaks at $5.98 a pound, plus all that other stuff in the window that was difficult to find elsewhere (pig legs, etc.) Ourselves, we stocked up on the bacon ends at $1 a pound, plus those spicy German Gingerbread cookies that we can't find anywhere else. Although we understand that the cafe and dry goods area of the store is to remain open.

Sad. :-(

Filed in SHOP/shop news.

___________________________________________________

FILM - ( March 12, 2009 )
THOSE KINKY FOOD MOVIES

Une Affaire de Goût (a Matter of Taste)
France, 2000
( Available as a rental at the Vancouver Public Library. )

From the opening titles -- scenes of chefs intently at work in a restaurant kitchen, carving chops from sides of beef, plucking chickens, mincing herbs with a mandoline – one might expect that Une Affaire de Goût is yet another food obsessed movie. And one would almost be right. Obsession is certainly the predominant flavour in this recipe, but although scenes of cooking, eating and Michelin-starred restaurants are ever present, in this film, food is merely obsession’s instrument and sometime weapon, not its central ingredient. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Cinema .

__________________________________________________

BOOKS - ( March 12, 2009 )
SPROUT AWARDS 2009

The 2009 Sprout Cookbook Award s took place last night at Barbara-Jo's Books to Cooks , with the honours going to Jennifer McLagan 's book " Fat ". ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Books .

__________________________________________________

WHAT WE'RE READING NOW
( March 12, 2009 )

From the Times Online : gutsy chef plans foie gras museum for his bistro in Chicago. [Alert from Angela Murrills]

Coffee taster's tongue insured for nearly 14 million . ( BBC News ) [Alert from Tim Pawsey]

Perrier-Jouët recently uncorked a bottle in their collection that dated back to 1825 -- the oldest vintage Champagne in the world . ... MORE ...

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ What We're Reading Now .

__________________________________________________

DINE AND DASH - ( March 11, 2009 )

Vikram Vij will be expanding his operation to Delta, but he is not opening a new restaurant. He needs larger facilities for producing the house made spice mixtures and frozen packaged meat/curry dishes that were originally produced from the Vij’s restaurant kitchen and sold at the next door Rangoli . Greater production capacity could mean that the Vij’s products will be available at a grocery near to you. But what is this talk that the building will have a goat on the roof?

Joe Fortes has completed another major reno to its top floor outdoor dining deck and will be ready to take the wraps off that project as soon as the weather warms up. New is a large horseshoe shaped bar with dramatic backlit liquor shelving display, an on-site raw bar (so the waiters will no longer have to run down two flights of stairs to Oyster Bob ’s shucking station on the ground floor), expanding seating, more retractable roof coverage and an arty topiary wall (see photo above) for soundproofing and sightline improvements.

... MORE LOCAL NEWS AND GOSSIP HERE ....

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Dine & Dash .

__________________________________________________

BLAST FROM THE PAST
( March 9, 2009 )

Happy Birthday Barbie ! The ultra vixen with the Dream life and 100+ career path under her pink belt turns 50 today.

Barbie was our cover girl in 1997 (when she was still a young thing approaching her 40th), and our issue themed around the doll as social icon became one of our most notorious. Advertisers cancelled their contracts after that foray outside the conventional lines of food publishing, but the issue also became a collector's item for Barbie fan clubs worldwide, as well as a favourite with certain members of the local gay community.

Filed in ARCHIVES/Blast From the Past .

__________________________________________________

WHAT WE'RE READING NOW
( March 6, 2009 )

The future was so yesterday. Our thanks to Angela Murrills for the link to this fascinating (and often hilarious) flashback to tomorrow's kitchen at www.paleofuture.com . It seems that back in 1959 it was assumed we'd all have personal helicopters, giant-sized fruit, dust-free floors and ultrasonic laundry by now .... although the picturephone thing did come through.

Instead we can look forward to this ... Wallpaper magazine features the most conceptual if not exactly consumer functional ideas in German product design .

More chat from Toronto regarding Chef Mark McEwan 's ambitious foray into the big box grocery retail biz. From Toronto Life .

A dippy little commercial from Frito-Lay's "Made For Each Other" campaign.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ What We're Reading Now .

___________________________________________________

DAILY BUZZ COUNTER ( top visits for the day by keyword search )
MARCH 6, 2009

Person: JILLIAN HARRIS (Restaurant Designer/Bachelorette, Vancouver, BC.)
Place: STAGE (restaurant, Victoria, BC)
Thing: FOOD MAGAZINES IN CANADA
Most visitors from outside of BC: DON MILLS, ONTARIO
Most visitors from outside Canada : NEW YORK, NY
Longest visit: KAO-HSIUG, TAIWAN (pages), BERLIN (time)
Countries visited year to date: 176
Cities worldwide visited year to date: 9,736

__________________________________________________

DINE AND DASH - ( March 5, 2009 )
IS GILL THE NEXT TO GO?

Latest unfounded gossip shocker. Is Alexandra Gill 's weekly restaurant review gig at the Globe and Mail the latest victim of the recession?

News at 11.

"Nope", says Alex, "That one's not true." Unlike so many other newspapers that have been cutting loose their freelance contributors, the G&M isn't taking any drastic measures yet. Side Dish has fallen victim to the budget cuts, but the main review column is still safe. In fact, the next restaurant going under the heat lamps could very well be Market . Alex promises that it will be "interesting". Uh oh.

Filed in DAILY NEWS/ Dine & Dash .

__________________________________________________

BLOGS - ( March 4, 2009 )
MARK LABA MOVES TO BLOGVILLE

So what we want to know is this ... Why it is when newspapers decide to put themselves on an economic diet, the first person they let go of is the food columnist? Especially if he/she is good at the job.

Well, it's just too sad. The local guy with humour to burn and a unique perspective gets a boot in the bagels, while we the readers get stranded with the same old syndicated home economists and their recipes for pineapple cheesecake squares. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Online .

__________________________________________________

GUESS THE CONNECTION
( March 3, 2009 )

Q: What's the link between this video by British dance popper Just Jack , Okanagan wine, and the 1964 Tokyo Olympic s?

... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Art and Design .

___________________________________________________

TIP JAR - ( March 3, 2009)
LATEST BUDGET MEAL OFFERS

The Glowbal Group Restaurants will begin their Passport program as of March 16th. Enjoy the special "passport" menus at all five of their restaurants (priced between $20 and $35) and you could win a luxury wine and dine trip to Mission Hill Family Estate Winery in Kelowna. See all details and menus here . Glowbal group restaurants include glowbal grill and satay bar , Coast Restaurant , Sanafir restaurant and lounge, Italian Kitchen and Italian Trattoria .

Get together and sip and savour happy hour tonics and flavours. Beginning March 16th, Zin Restaurant presents a $2 lounge menu featuring the likes of Mac and Jack, Braised Short Rib Poutine, Chili Lime Glazed Wings and Corn Dogs. Executive Chef, Karen Gin teases the palate to pair with libations from classic to cool. Tasting menu in effect until April 30, 2009. Monday through Saturday. 4 to 7 p.m. See the complete menu here .

If you have a Provence Marinaside 's Family Membership you qualify for the $37 price on their prix fixe menu for March. A three course menu that features such Provence favourites as seared sablefish or wild mushroom ravioli. See the complete menu here .

From Papi's Ristorante in Richmond. Early Bird dinners featuring both a salad and a pasta of the day for $24.95 if you order between 5 to 6 p.m. Table d'hote dinner of three courses @$34.95 available every evening. Wine tastings are ongoing in the Wine Bar every Tuesday ... 5 wines matched with 5 tasting plates for $25.00. First come first served. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in RESTAURANTS/ Best Deals ... and ... DAILY NEWS/ Tip Jar .

_________________________________________________

SEATTLE - ( March 2, 2009 )
COCHON555

Here's one for Chef Rob Belcham .. .

The pig may have been THE culinary mascot of 2008, but he's still going strong in 2009, especially in Seattle.

On Sunday, March 8th, our neighbouring Pacific Northwest city to the south will host Cochon555 , a porcine event featuring 5 chefs, 5 locally-raised pigs and 5 local vintners in a friendly contest. Each chef will prepare a 70 pound heritage pig from head to toe for 200 pork enthusiasts. Guests and professional judges will determine the winner, who will then go on to compete against winners from similar events in 9 other US cities at the Grand Cochon later in the year (details TBA). ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in REGIONAL/ Seattle .

__________________________________________________

FILM - (March 2, 2009)
THE GLEANERS AND I

Agnes Varda ’s cult hit, The Gleaners and I , ma y have been shot in 1999, yet ten years later its subject matter is more timely and relevant than ever.

In the documentary film, the 80-year-old Varda (known as the “grandmother of the French new wave cinema”), focuses the lens of her portable digi-cam on gleaners -- those who 'glean' or collect, from the ground, the remnants of a harvest. ... CONTINUE READING ...

Filed in ARTS & CULTURE/ Cinema .

__________________________________________________

TO CONTINUE BACK TO FEBRUARY 2009, CLICK HERE.

Designed and Developed by Backbonetechnology.com