1st Annual Foodie Feast Recap

Yesterday was an epic night at the 1st Annual Foodie Feast at District 319. The event was put together by Follow Me Foodie, Sherman’s Food Adventures and Urbanspoon ! It was an event to bring together foodies from all over Vancouver to support the Vancouver Food Bank.

There were 11 restaurants participating in the feast including Bella Gelateria, El Barrio, EBO Restaurant, Falconetti’s, Hapa Izakaya, Kitchening with Carly, La Belle Auberge, ManCakes Bakery, Mochikas, One Planet Catering, and Red Star Seafood.

The tickets sold out quickly and I was glad I bought the tickets early! I know several people were not successful at getting tickets.

Photo Credit: Three Sixty Photography

@FloYVR, @irvlau, myself and Non-Twittering Terry arrived at the Foodie Feast! We dropped off our things at the coast check and proceeded to take pictures in front of the red carpet. Props to Three Sixty Photography for taking our amazing photos!

We started lining up for the booths held by the various restaurants. We first lined up for La Belle Auberge, they were serving Brome Lake duck croquette with yam puree, cinnamon spiced breast and parmesan risotto.

Next up was El Barrio. They were serving Tostada Carnitas which is a deep fried corn tortilla layered with creamy beans, pulled pork and curdito.

One Planet Catering had some amazing items lined up for guests. Spicy tuna tartar, 5 spice duck confit and this raspberry cookie dessert.

Hapa Izakaya has these special items – Tuna Avo Salsa and Yuzu Ceviche. It was like a fusion between Japanese and Mexican cuisine.

After finishing the first half of the main floor, Sherman (Sherman Food Adventures), Mijune (Follow Me Foodie) and James (Bella Gelateria) gave an opening speech to everyone at the event. As you can tell the floor was packed!

Mijune thought she was not going to make it to the event, so she prepared a hilarious video! Lots of people thought it was a fake video, but I think most people were glad that she did make it back to Vancouver in time for the event!

Check it out  here.

Mochikas served a yummy ceviche and a pork belly sandwich! It was really really good!!!

Red Star Seafood was hard at work preparing their dishes. They even had a draw for more prizes.

All their dishes were on spoons – sui mai, pan fried radish cake with shrimp paste, and fresh prawn and fruit in salad dressing.

I am a sucker for food served in spoons. My parents would never serve me food in spoons… I remember watching Food Network as a kid and envy the people on the shows eating finger food off spoons. I was SO jealous!

Falconetti’s probably had one of the longest line up at the event! Not exactly sure why, but people must love their sausages.

They were serving up 2 types of gourmet sausages – hot and polish sausages on bread.

EBO Restaurant had probably the most exciting dishes at the Foodie Feast. You are probably wondering why… look at the pictures to see why.

They were serving their smoking orchard shooter. When your food contains a bit of science and razzle dazzle. Who wouldn’t love the look of this drink. People were walking by asking about the drink.

You would feel the dry ice in action as it bubbled away in the drink.

The other items EBO Restaurant had were albacore tuna, beef short ribs, and Peanut Butter bar. They basically provided a mini meal for us. hahaha.

Now onto desserts. No meal is ever complete without sweet sweet desserts!

ManCakes Bakery had a twist on the typical cupcakes. This is not your regular cupcake… this is a MANs cupcake!

The cupcakes that they offered were:

• Pink Peppercorn Grapefruit ManCake
• Buffalo Wing
  
• Breakfast ManCake
  

I honestly love the concept. No man should ever feel ashamed about devour a cupcake ever again!

Kitchening with Carly was there with her AMAZING macarons!

The flavours here were:

• Vanilla Bean Macaron with Lavender Butter Cream
• Natural Almond Macaron with Rosemary Salted Caramel and Vanilla Cream
• Chai Macaron with Cardamom Cream

I really loved the almond macaron! Starts off sweet and BAM you taste the salty caramel. Yum Yum

Bella Gelateria was offering 3 types of gelato – yuzu, espresso and dark chocolate. The girls of Bella Gelateria was serving from the outdoors cart! Delicious as usual!

After a few hours we managed to finish all the restaurants on the list. We were stuffed beyond belief. I needed to take a walk around the block to empty my stomach.

Even though this event is called “Foodie Feast” it is not only about the food, but it’s about the people you meet and the cause we are supporting – Vancouver Food Bank!

Through out the night, there was a twitter feed on the big screen. There were 2 columns. If you were twittering and using the tag @vanfoodiefest, it would show up on the left. If you used the tag – #foodiefeast, it would show up on the right.

I was super amazed by this so I used both through out the night. You don’t understand, I was SOO addicted to this twitter feed that I thought I would make it a game to see how many times I could see my tweets pop up. Clearly I am crazy so I twittered so quickly that 2 popped up in a row.

There was also live music going on by DJ Goremay and Oker!

(L to R) @FloYVR, @IrvLau, @followmefoodie, and me (@foodologyca)

I met many amazing people throughout the night! I finally met Mijune! I was super excited but I really didn’t say that much to her since I was super shy (and super full).

I also met a few of the crew at Urbanspoon! I even got a shirt from them as well!

At the end of the night came the big draw for the 51? 60? Some large amount of raffle prizes. @FloYVR had her $20 worth of tickets ready, but unfortunately she did not win the grand prize that was announced. Perhaps she won other prizes… but I’ll follow up with her to see if she won anything.

At the end of the event, we all left with gift bags from Natures Path! There were different types of  granola bars, cereal, and a cook book!

Overall, I had a great time despite the long line ups for the booths. You do meet some of the best people lining up and waiting. Too bad there were no name tags, I could have stalked so many more people!

Props to Sherman (Sherman Food Adventures), Mijune (Follow Me Foodie), James (Bella Gelateria) and Urbanspoon for hosting such a great event to bring the foodie community together! Also, to all the participating restaurant for donating their time and food for such a great cause! I’m looking forward to the next Food Feast already!