From tasting tours and cookery classes, to dining dates and culinary celebrations, here’s our collection of Christmas gift ideas for the foodie in your life this year.
By Jenni Sheppard As we adjust to the social distancing and self-isolation required due to COVID-19, many of us are no longer able to venture out to our favourite restaurants. For local restaurant owners, this drop in custom can be tough, but thankfully, there is a way you can help—by ordering takeout or delivery! Happily, many great restaurants in the region have been able to pivot to takeout and delivery services, instead of opening to the public. So to help you show your support for your local restaurants, we’ve put together this list of the best takeout and delivery options across Coquitlam, Surrey, Langley, Langley City and White Rock. Enjoy! [For take-out in Burnaby, New Westminster and Richmond, click here.] [For take-out in Vancouver and the North Shore, click here.] Surrey Dominion Bar + Kitchen (13475 Central Avenue | 604 330 0229) This downtown hub’s mash-up menu aims to reflect…
By Jenni Sheppard As the chilly nights draw in, Metro Vancouver still has plenty of warm and welcoming foodie hubs to keep you filled up this winter—including the inimitable Kozak Eatery & Bakery. This Ukrainian bakery, run by Irina Karpenko and her husband Sergiy Kuznietsov, serves up homemade breakfast, lunch, dinner, and baked goods just like grandma used to make. The couple originally began serving their tasty treats at farmers markets under the name Solodko Bakery, but soon became popular enough to open their first eatery. Renamed Kozak Bakery, their business has gone from strength to strength, and now boasts two locations, in New Westminster and East Vancouver, with a third coming to Gastown. To find out more, we spoke to Irina about the family history of this delicious bakery, where she and Sergiy get their inspiration, and what makes Ukrainian food so good. How did you first become interested…
By Jenni Sheppard It’s been a delicious summer in Vancouver, full of hearty beach barbecues, thirst-quenching patio cocktails, and tasty farmer’s markets bursting with fresh fruit and vegetables. Now, as glorious summer sunshine fades into refreshing fall rain, we’re looking for ways to keep those seasonal flavours lingering on our taste buds a little longer. For inspiration, we spoke to Chef Shaun Maclean at H Tasting Lounge about his love of desserts, summer in the city, and how his new galette could make summer last all year. What was the first dessert you ever created and why? My mother has always had a love for a good cheesecake, so that was the first thing I made sure I knew how to do well. What do you love most about creating desserts? It’s the final dish to hit the table. Like the encore of a concert, it has to be a…
By Jenni Sheppard Calling all chocolate lovers! We have a treat for you—some of the best bean-to-bar chocolates you will ever taste, right here in Metro Vancouver. But what is bean-to-bar chocolate? Simply put, this is small-batch, craft chocolate, produced from scratch by artisan chocolate makers in a true labour of love. These chocolatiers buy their cacao beans directly from farmers around the world, building a real connection with the people who grow, harvest, and ferment their beans. Once back in British Columbia, these hand selected cacao beans are roasted, ground, and conched into tasty craft chocolate, over a process that can take weeks. Bean-to-bar chocolate is pure, created to bring out the true flavours of each kind of cacao bean and each growing region. Every small batch is a deeply unique treat. To tease your tastebuds, we’ve put together this ultimate list of six of the best craft chocolatiers…
By Jenni Sheppard Andrea Alridge’s lifelong passion for food and cooking may have had simple beginnings during her childhood in Jamaica, but these days she’s cooking up a storm at CinCin. Alongside Executive Chef Andrew Richardson, the Chef de Cuisine and her talented team serve up award winning modern Italian fare in downtown Vancouver every night. The seasonal dishes on the menu are myriad, including fried zucchini blossoms with montasio, stinging nettle and ricotta tortelli, and whole branzino with lemon and cavolo nero. To find out more about the heart behind the heat, we spoke to Alridge about her remarkable rise from irrepressible childhood foodie to inspirational chef extraordinaire. How did you first get interested in cooking? I became interested in cooking when I was eight years old. I was in Jamaica with my family and my dad and uncle had taught me about the art of butchery. My grandmother…
By Jenni Sheppard Fridays on Front is back, bringing artisan markets, live music, delicious food, and craft beers to Front Street in New Westminster every Friday evening this summer. Now in its third year, the free series showcases a myriad of food trucks and micro breweries, with new vendors joining each week, for eight weeks in July and August. Fridays on Front will also feature guest food trucks from New Westminster’s Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Fest, North America’s largest one-day food truck festival, in July. Of course, with so many tasty options, it can be tough to know where to tickle your tastebuds first. To help you out, here’s our guide to where to eat at Fridays on Front. Prebāk Prebāk is a cute little food truck that serves up raw cookie dough made with heat-treated flour, organic cane sugar, and chia seeds instead of egg. Flavours bound to bring…
By Jenni Sheppard Springtime is a magical season in Metro Vancouver, as gorgeous clouds of pink and white blossoms burst forth from cherry trees across the region. Metro Vancouver’s streets are lined with more than 43,000 glorious plum and cherry trees, many of which were gifts from Japan after WWII. Nowadays, these extraordinary trees and their joyous petals are springtime symbols of romance, renewal, inspiration, and change. And where better than in a natural setting to spend a long lunch or a dinner date? Here’s our guide to 9 perfect spots to dine surrounded by blushing blooms and emerald canopy. Minami Flowering wisteria grows over the Yaletown patio at Minami in Vancouver, while diners enjoy an upmarket combination of Japanese and West Coast cuisine, including sushi, sashimi, and nigiri. During cherry blossom season, you’ll also be able to try a special menu of culinary creations named after sakura, the Japanese…
Leading the pack of microbreweries pushing the beer boundaries here is Dageraad Brewing, which creates Belgian-style beers in Burnaby, BC. The award winning artisan brewery is known for its small batch creations, especially the enigmatic Entropy Series. To learn more, we spoke to owner and brewer Ben Coli.
Soup dumplings are steamed buns filled with hot, savoury soup. They originated in Shanghai and are a must-eat food when visiting the city, and are becoming popular in Vancouver.
By Jenni Sheppard Whether you yearn for a single strong cup of coffee to start your day or you’re a caffeine addict who loves touring espresso cafes, we have one question for you–which coffee roast do you prefer? The answer might not be as simple as you think. Around Metro Vancouver, it’s fair to say we’re spoiled for choice with so many specialist coffee shops and roasters around town. One of these is Spent Grounds Coffee Roasters, a coffee bean roastery and tasting bar in Surrey, BC. Spent Grounds focuses solely on hand-crafted, hand-poured coffee that is freshly roasted weekly at their facility. To learn more about how to choose the perfect coffee roast, we spoke to Spent Grounds owner, Karen Lopez. What kind of coffee roasts do you produce? “We have light, medium and dark roasts available by the cup or by the bag. The Ethiopian is roasted light…