Eat! Vancouver Festival 2014
The Eat!Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival is an event at BC Place for the weekend. I saw advertisements for the event going up so I told Anata I wanted to go. Buying the tickets online saves you $2 per ticket, so I recommend doing that rather than buying at the door! :)
This blog post has lots of photos (and not even enough to cover the whole festival!) so a warning~
Anata and I headed out to BC place and enjoyed the sunshine outside. But we were looking forward to all the samples and yummy stuff to try! We skipped breakfast and showed up with lots of room in our bellies to nom all the goodies - I definitely recommend doing the same thing if you go!
There are a lot of free items, and others that you have to pay for. Some are cash amounts, and others are available for x amount of tasting tickets, which are purchased in 10s or 20s ($5/10tickets, $10/20 tickets).
There were two yoghurt trucks on site giving out free yoghurt. I went to the Liberté one and skipped the Oikos one. At Liberté there were 7 flavours available, most of which I'd tried before. Lemon, Blueberry, Caramel, Strawberry, White Chocolate, Black Cherry, and Coconut. I decided to try the Wild Blueberry flavour (but the white choco one sounded good too! I should have gotten Anata to get that one for me hehe) and I really enjoyed it. They give you a wooden spoon made out of material similar to popsicle sticks, which I thought was nice and more environmentally friendly.
The yoghurt was nice and thick, not too sweet, and I was really impressed with how the blueberries were whole pieces that really popped with flavour. Yummy~ I love eating Liberté yoghurt, and it's always nice to get free samples when you see the trucks around (usually outside of Safeway) as they'll pass you coupons for $1 off!
There were also quite a few groups promoting ocean wise seafood along with salmon-based products. Anata tried some and thought it was really great. We spent a few tickets (6 tickets for 3 ounce portion) and had the choice of freshly grilled salmon with a green curry aioli or the larger portion of the smoked salmon. Anata wanted more smoked salmon so that's what we had.
I've always been more partial to lox than smoked salmon, but as I try more and more I realised that the stuff I had in the past was not that good quality, which was what turned me off. I always kind of found it dry and not very flavourful, but since trying more stuff from Granville Island I've been getting a better appreciation of proper smoked salmon. But I still prefer lox, hehe.
The salmon was nice caramelised and had great colour to it. It was also really juicy and flavourful with what I think was a maple syrup based marinade. However, I didn't think it was really smokey, not in the way that some other wood-smoked salmon that I've had that really had the smoke infused into the meat. This one was more subtle, but it was still really yummy and the sweetness made the pieces almost between a smoked and candied salmon.
We passed the Island Farms booth and Anata bought an ice cream - we tried the Moose Tracks flavour as we'd not had it before. The woman described it to us as peanut butter cups in a vanilla base ice cream, and it wasn't quite what I thought. The peanut flavour was really muted, and it took a backseat to the chocolate and vanilla.
The ice cream was also not as sweet and rich as I thought it would be, but it was just the thing when you want to flavour but don't want to waddle in the regret of eating a too rich dessert. It hit the spot for us, being refreshing and yummy without bogging us down :)
There was a display of Hawaiian Papayas with lots of samples :) I found the fruit slightly sweet, but retaining some good texture. It was really clean and bright in flavour, and the colouration wasn't as intense as other papayas I've seen.
Spolumbo's had a booth with two types of sausages out - an apple chicken and an italian pork sausage. We sampled both and were really impressed. They were so juicy! You could really taste the ingredients in there, without any fillers. Even though they were fairly lean, they were still really flavourful and juicy.
I stopped by and sampled the food at the Pulo booth. I don't know much about the style of cuisine, so I generally look to Anata for pointers. The coconut adobo tasted quite similar to the Thai coconut-based soup, the Tom Kha, and Anata said he felt it could have been sweeter compared to other adobo he's used to. The chicken was grilled really well but I didn't taste too much of the marinade - I think they said it was supposed to be lemongrass, and I had notes of tanginess mixed with a kind of sweet and savoury sauce. It was really tasty and the chicken was nice and juicy, but we couldn't tell if it was the marinade or the cookery on the samples.
Good Drink had a small square set up with lots of their different types of drinks. Anata and I stopped by their bottled tea and tried different ones, but ultimately we liked the mango best. It was really hard to pick because they were all so yummy and were really about the flavour without being overwhelmingly sweet. I liked the green tea that had been sweetened with honey, and I am a sucker for the white tea and blueberry pairing... well, Anata had his favourite pick of the mango black tea, I just thought they were all really yummy.
We bought a bottle ($2, or $6 for 4 bottles) to walk around with for the show :)
Of course we had to stop by the PICA booth and have a chat with Chef Tim and Sara. PICA is one of the sponsors for the festival, and it's really great how they're involved with promoting and fostering the passion for food in the city at all sorts of events :)
There was an Italian pasta sauce booth giving three types of sauces. I asked for half and half of the capers and the regular marinara on my piece. Anata and I really liked it because the sauce was really simple, and you could taste all the different ingredients. The flavours were really clear and simple, very homey without any pretense of extra additions.
I didn't guess the pistachios, but I did try their lemon and saffron flavour. Really yummy! Really kind of intense flavour but so much better than chips. Of course the only downside is dealing with the shells ;( Really great flavour from the pistachios here. I'll probably pick some up later on as gifts for people I know that are pistachio lovers. Think the guy said they're sold at safeway. (A lot of the vendors at the fair had stuff at Safeway, Whole Foods, IGA, etc. Just not the Superstore/T&T chains)
We headed over to the liquor area, which costs you two tickets as a down payment for your tasting glass. But don't worry, return the glass and you get your tickets back :)
We stopped by the Vancouver Island Brewery and sampled their selection of 5 ales and a stout. I'm not much of a drinker, but I had a bit of everything. Poor Anata drank most of it and it was just a lot for a really quick period of time, haha. Anata really liked the Hermann's because it wasn't heavy - still had a good dark chocolatey taste without the weight. I think my favoured one was the sea dog.
The Beachcomber and High Trail were really nice and light beers, meant for chilling and easy drinking. The piper's was kind of in between, but I think I like their India Session Ale (all the way on the left) over the Piper's. It was really crisp and had a stronger bite from the hops to it.
I forgot to take pictures, but we also sampled some chocolate and red wine drink and it was really intense but yummy. The chocolate really hit you at first and then the red wine kind of came up on the back to take over, and the drink was super creamy and kind of like a velvety chocolate embrace. I can see it being a good dessert wine option :)
Outside, we queued up for the Tuscan Sliders from Urban Fare. They were offered for Donation, and the proceeds would go to BC Children's Hospital :)
The meat had peppers and onions and stuff mixed it, was juicy, and a really nice bite for the slider. The bun was simple and they hadn't grilled or toasted it, but with a bit of mayo it held well with the meat.
General sitting areas next to the Food Network cooking classes :)
Anata and I also sat down for the free cheese tasting seminar!
After some cheesey jokes, we started the seminar...
We had a total of 7 cheeses but I put away my phone when the seminar started, so I don't have all the pictures of the cheeses :(
We started with the bocconcini as pictured and moved onto the camembert, which is my favourite. The other cheeses were heavier cheddars and some were really amazing in how flavourful and strong they were. There was a smokey cheese, and potato-flavoured cheese... really cool! They told us tidbits too like generally a cow produces 30L on average a day, and it takes about 10L to make a cheese.. it was really fun and informative.
There were a few knife booths, amongst other kitchen tools and accessories, but we stopped by to take a look at the vegetable art on display. Also, my brother just bought one of these.. the small green handled one.
The tapenades and pestos here were sooooo yummy! Anata and I circled back after to buy some, along with pear jam that he really liked. We picked up the paprika pesto and the truffle pesto. I'm planning on using these for a dinner I have in the works later in the month :)
Overall we had a really good time at the festival, and I know I missed out on a lot of pictures. There was a blueberry booth that was just out of this world with how sweet and wonderful their blueberries were. I bought two bottles of their blueberry tea, and we went and got some more salmon... there was a lot of other stuff that we didn't get a chance to try, but we were getting quite full from all the samples and were ready to head home with all the goodies we picked up. Next time I'll know to bring some kind of cart or basket so I can pick up more stuff :)
What a fun day! It was great to see people wandering around and trying things and seeing other people engaging with the vendors.
This blog post has lots of photos (and not even enough to cover the whole festival!) so a warning~
Anata and I headed out to BC place and enjoyed the sunshine outside. But we were looking forward to all the samples and yummy stuff to try! We skipped breakfast and showed up with lots of room in our bellies to nom all the goodies - I definitely recommend doing the same thing if you go!
There are a lot of free items, and others that you have to pay for. Some are cash amounts, and others are available for x amount of tasting tickets, which are purchased in 10s or 20s ($5/10tickets, $10/20 tickets).
There were two yoghurt trucks on site giving out free yoghurt. I went to the Liberté one and skipped the Oikos one. At Liberté there were 7 flavours available, most of which I'd tried before. Lemon, Blueberry, Caramel, Strawberry, White Chocolate, Black Cherry, and Coconut. I decided to try the Wild Blueberry flavour (but the white choco one sounded good too! I should have gotten Anata to get that one for me hehe) and I really enjoyed it. They give you a wooden spoon made out of material similar to popsicle sticks, which I thought was nice and more environmentally friendly.
The yoghurt was nice and thick, not too sweet, and I was really impressed with how the blueberries were whole pieces that really popped with flavour. Yummy~ I love eating Liberté yoghurt, and it's always nice to get free samples when you see the trucks around (usually outside of Safeway) as they'll pass you coupons for $1 off!
There were also quite a few groups promoting ocean wise seafood along with salmon-based products. Anata tried some and thought it was really great. We spent a few tickets (6 tickets for 3 ounce portion) and had the choice of freshly grilled salmon with a green curry aioli or the larger portion of the smoked salmon. Anata wanted more smoked salmon so that's what we had.
I've always been more partial to lox than smoked salmon, but as I try more and more I realised that the stuff I had in the past was not that good quality, which was what turned me off. I always kind of found it dry and not very flavourful, but since trying more stuff from Granville Island I've been getting a better appreciation of proper smoked salmon. But I still prefer lox, hehe.
The salmon was nice caramelised and had great colour to it. It was also really juicy and flavourful with what I think was a maple syrup based marinade. However, I didn't think it was really smokey, not in the way that some other wood-smoked salmon that I've had that really had the smoke infused into the meat. This one was more subtle, but it was still really yummy and the sweetness made the pieces almost between a smoked and candied salmon.
We passed the Island Farms booth and Anata bought an ice cream - we tried the Moose Tracks flavour as we'd not had it before. The woman described it to us as peanut butter cups in a vanilla base ice cream, and it wasn't quite what I thought. The peanut flavour was really muted, and it took a backseat to the chocolate and vanilla.
The ice cream was also not as sweet and rich as I thought it would be, but it was just the thing when you want to flavour but don't want to waddle in the regret of eating a too rich dessert. It hit the spot for us, being refreshing and yummy without bogging us down :)
There was a display of Hawaiian Papayas with lots of samples :) I found the fruit slightly sweet, but retaining some good texture. It was really clean and bright in flavour, and the colouration wasn't as intense as other papayas I've seen.
Spolumbo's had a booth with two types of sausages out - an apple chicken and an italian pork sausage. We sampled both and were really impressed. They were so juicy! You could really taste the ingredients in there, without any fillers. Even though they were fairly lean, they were still really flavourful and juicy.
I stopped by and sampled the food at the Pulo booth. I don't know much about the style of cuisine, so I generally look to Anata for pointers. The coconut adobo tasted quite similar to the Thai coconut-based soup, the Tom Kha, and Anata said he felt it could have been sweeter compared to other adobo he's used to. The chicken was grilled really well but I didn't taste too much of the marinade - I think they said it was supposed to be lemongrass, and I had notes of tanginess mixed with a kind of sweet and savoury sauce. It was really tasty and the chicken was nice and juicy, but we couldn't tell if it was the marinade or the cookery on the samples.
Good Drink had a small square set up with lots of their different types of drinks. Anata and I stopped by their bottled tea and tried different ones, but ultimately we liked the mango best. It was really hard to pick because they were all so yummy and were really about the flavour without being overwhelmingly sweet. I liked the green tea that had been sweetened with honey, and I am a sucker for the white tea and blueberry pairing... well, Anata had his favourite pick of the mango black tea, I just thought they were all really yummy.
We bought a bottle ($2, or $6 for 4 bottles) to walk around with for the show :)
Of course we had to stop by the PICA booth and have a chat with Chef Tim and Sara. PICA is one of the sponsors for the festival, and it's really great how they're involved with promoting and fostering the passion for food in the city at all sorts of events :)
There was an Italian pasta sauce booth giving three types of sauces. I asked for half and half of the capers and the regular marinara on my piece. Anata and I really liked it because the sauce was really simple, and you could taste all the different ingredients. The flavours were really clear and simple, very homey without any pretense of extra additions.
I didn't guess the pistachios, but I did try their lemon and saffron flavour. Really yummy! Really kind of intense flavour but so much better than chips. Of course the only downside is dealing with the shells ;( Really great flavour from the pistachios here. I'll probably pick some up later on as gifts for people I know that are pistachio lovers. Think the guy said they're sold at safeway. (A lot of the vendors at the fair had stuff at Safeway, Whole Foods, IGA, etc. Just not the Superstore/T&T chains)
We headed over to the liquor area, which costs you two tickets as a down payment for your tasting glass. But don't worry, return the glass and you get your tickets back :)
We stopped by the Vancouver Island Brewery and sampled their selection of 5 ales and a stout. I'm not much of a drinker, but I had a bit of everything. Poor Anata drank most of it and it was just a lot for a really quick period of time, haha. Anata really liked the Hermann's because it wasn't heavy - still had a good dark chocolatey taste without the weight. I think my favoured one was the sea dog.
The Beachcomber and High Trail were really nice and light beers, meant for chilling and easy drinking. The piper's was kind of in between, but I think I like their India Session Ale (all the way on the left) over the Piper's. It was really crisp and had a stronger bite from the hops to it.
I forgot to take pictures, but we also sampled some chocolate and red wine drink and it was really intense but yummy. The chocolate really hit you at first and then the red wine kind of came up on the back to take over, and the drink was super creamy and kind of like a velvety chocolate embrace. I can see it being a good dessert wine option :)
Outside, we queued up for the Tuscan Sliders from Urban Fare. They were offered for Donation, and the proceeds would go to BC Children's Hospital :)
The meat had peppers and onions and stuff mixed it, was juicy, and a really nice bite for the slider. The bun was simple and they hadn't grilled or toasted it, but with a bit of mayo it held well with the meat.
General sitting areas next to the Food Network cooking classes :)
Anata and I also sat down for the free cheese tasting seminar!
After some cheesey jokes, we started the seminar...
We had a total of 7 cheeses but I put away my phone when the seminar started, so I don't have all the pictures of the cheeses :(
We started with the bocconcini as pictured and moved onto the camembert, which is my favourite. The other cheeses were heavier cheddars and some were really amazing in how flavourful and strong they were. There was a smokey cheese, and potato-flavoured cheese... really cool! They told us tidbits too like generally a cow produces 30L on average a day, and it takes about 10L to make a cheese.. it was really fun and informative.
There were a few knife booths, amongst other kitchen tools and accessories, but we stopped by to take a look at the vegetable art on display. Also, my brother just bought one of these.. the small green handled one.
The tapenades and pestos here were sooooo yummy! Anata and I circled back after to buy some, along with pear jam that he really liked. We picked up the paprika pesto and the truffle pesto. I'm planning on using these for a dinner I have in the works later in the month :)
Overall we had a really good time at the festival, and I know I missed out on a lot of pictures. There was a blueberry booth that was just out of this world with how sweet and wonderful their blueberries were. I bought two bottles of their blueberry tea, and we went and got some more salmon... there was a lot of other stuff that we didn't get a chance to try, but we were getting quite full from all the samples and were ready to head home with all the goodies we picked up. Next time I'll know to bring some kind of cart or basket so I can pick up more stuff :)
What a fun day! It was great to see people wandering around and trying things and seeing other people engaging with the vendors.