February 2016

In British Columbia

Science of Cocktails: Recap #SOC16

February 7, 2016

Last week, Science World at TELUS World of Science was lit blue to welcome guests to the Science of Cocktails. I was invited as a media guest for the evening to see all the amazing local bartenders showing off for the crowds. If you missed the event, check out all awesome bartenders and their drinks.

Science World was transformed into Vancouver’s largest cocktail laboratory. Vancouverites attended to mix, mingle and be merry, for a great cause. This fundraising event, for Science World’s Class Field Trip Program provides kids from underfunded schools free access to Science World.

Through this night alone, they were able to raise $185,000!

Welcome Drink – Science of Gravity

Once you get inside, you are greeted with a drink called El Ritmo made by Giancarlo Quiroz Jesus from The Diamond. It was a great way to start the night as it has stronger tastes of pineapple and coconut cream. The rum and cynar in it isn’t too strong.

Different Receptors, Different Perceptions

Mike Shum from Fairmont Pacific Rim put together a Daiquiri with Bacardi Superior, lime sugar and dextrose.

Science of Flavour Pairing

Wesley Feist, the sous chef at Showcase Restaurant and Bar put together a Frozen Honey Mousse, Kaffir Lime Gel with a lemon grass crumble on top. I loved how they really put on a show with the liquid nitrogen.

Although it didn’t have alcohol in it, I love the different textures especially the pop rocks on top.

Cocktails and Centrifuges

Blood & Sand was the creation of Robyn Gray from Prohibition. It is a combination of Glenmorangie Single malt Whiskey, vermouth, Cherry Heering, clarified orange and citric acid.

Demonstration Stations

A few booths around Science World would have some neat science experiments. What happens when you put balloon animals in liquid nitrogen?

Don’t worry, no balloon animals were harmed in the making if this science experiment.

Dry Ice Aromatics

This was a pretty weird booth where they make you breath in the vapours of Ardbeg Whiskey. You can really feel it burning down your throat without ingesting anything.

Science of Botanical Brewing

Fentimans Sodas was showcased as another non-alcoholic option. I wished they did something more with the drink like turn it into a cocktail.

Science of Brewing

Parallel 49 had 3 of their brews to try — Gypsy Tears, Tricycle Grapefruit Radler, and their Craft Lager. They were the only brewery present at the event.

As a beer lover, I wish there were more beer booths.

The Tricycle Grapefruit Radler was my favourite. It’s light and refreshing.

Science of Fermentation

Traditional Collins and Kombucha Collins were demonstrated here.

Never realized kombucha would be good mixed in a cocktail.

Dehydration and Changing States of Liquid and Solids

A fancy drink put together by Alex Black of Vancouver Club is a drink topped with Campari Candy floss. Below it, you can see Aperol, Prosecco and soda. A fun drink to consume.

Whisky and Chocolate

Beta 5 chocolates were paired with Glenlivet’s Founder Reserve.

It was served neat.

Flair Physics

Dave Simps of the Bartenders Guild did some gravity defying stunts while he mixed a Lynchberg Lemonade for everyone.

Carbonation on the Spot

Cooper Tardival of Hawksworth created Paloma on the Spot, which has grapefruit syrup, water, line, Hornitos, and CO2.

Alcoholic Air

Tarquin Melnyk from Bambudda created the Bubble, Airs and Foams drink with Jack Daniels, Lemon Lime, verawhip, and red wine.

It looks quite impressive and you can see the different layers that make up the drink. At first, it was a bit weird with the addition of the red wine, but once you mix it together, it’s not bad at all.

Railtown Catering

With all that alcohol, Railtown catering put together an amazing spread of food through out the entire building. The had stations on both floors with sliders, charcuterie, sushi, poutine, dessert. With all the hungry people in the building, they were able to churn out the food very quickly.

I loved the charcuterie sections. I had a lot of meat and cheese!

Bartender Showdown at Center Stage

Besides drinking all night, there were a few demos and cocktail competitions happening on the main stage.

Vancouver’s top bartenders competed to win the evening’s Cocktail Competition, awarded by a panel of industry judges. Guests also voted for their favourite cocktails through their drink passports; the winning bartender will be given The People’s Choice award.

People’s Choice Bartender (tie)

Jon Smolensky -“A Match Made in Heaven”
Keenan Hood -“Moscow Mule”

Cocktail Competition

Mike Shum

VIP Lounge

There were 2 tiers of tickets – $145 general admission and $250 for VIP. The difference is that with VIP access, they get early event access to the event, valet parking, access to the Diageo Reserve World Class VIP Lounge, a selection of premium cocktail offerings, passed canapes service, exclusive event programming, VIP photo booth and a special thank you gift at the end of the night. If you hate crowds, then that might be the option for you if you can afford it.

It’s a nice experience not lining up for drinks, drinking from glass cups and ample seats to just relax.

Overall, it was a very well-organized event. A few booths had long line ups, but you can always go to another booth and return later. To some people it felt like one huge open bar where you can try so many different types of alcohols. They tried educating people with some of the science behind the cocktails, but it a bit hard to make the connection at some booths. Nonetheless, it was a great event to raise funds for Science World’s Class Field Trip Program. An average class field trip to Science World, including transportation to and from the facility, a workshop, an OMNIMAX film and a take-home activity, costs between $900 and $1,100 per class. Since they raised $185,000, that will fund 168 classes to be able to go to Science World.

Website: http://scienceworld.ca/cocktails

In Event

Romer’s: Red Truck Beer Brewmaster Dinner

February 6, 2016

Romer’s Burger occasionally offers a special 3-course Brewmaster Dinner to showcase local breweries with food pairings for $25. It’s open to everyone until they sell out of tickets. For the past 3 years, Romer’s has created the Craft Bowl, which pits local breweries against each other to compete for the title of Vancouver’s Most Popular Craft Beer.

I was invited to attend this event to try the food pairings with the different Red Truck Beers. Look at all the food being prepared.

Red Truck IPA Organic Beet Salad is made with goat cheese, wild baby arugula, sweet onions, and a IPA mustard vinaigrette. A nice way to start the meal. There were nice big chunks of beets, which were great because I love beets. The salad was paired with the Red Truck Lager.

Red Truck Lager is one of my favourite beers from them. It’s light and has a citrus finish. I usually tend to gravitate towards lighter beers.

Red Truck Lager Braised Rib Duo has beef short ribs and Maui pork ribs on top of wild mushroom risotto and topped with some veggies and a Red Truck Lager jus. The short ribs were nice and tender but the pork ribs were a bit tougher.

It was paired with the Red Truck IPA.

Red Truck IPA has floral, pine, and citrus aromas and flavours. It is a bit more hoppy especially with the aftertaste.

Maple Bacon Doughnuts came with 4 pieces on a plate. It has maple frosting, fresh thyme, and a Red Truck Ale caramel Sauce. I found that there was too much of the maple frosting that it just overpowered the dish. Can’t go wrong with the bacon. Some of the donuts turned out to be quite oily inside for some reason. It was paired with Red Truck Ale.

Red Truck Ale has a blend of Belgian malts, plus German and Pacific Northwest hop varieties giving a nice copper-hued ale with a nice aroma.

Keep an eye open on their Facebook or Twitter to find out when the next one is being held. For $25, it’s a pretty good deal, but you have no idea what the menu will be until you get there. It’s still a great way to support local craft breweries as BC has so many stellar breweries. All the dishes aren’t on their regular menu. I thought they would at least have a burger on the menu to showcase their signature item at the restaurant. Especially when beer and burgers are the best combination. Nonetheless, it was interesting to see what the chefs could come up with to pair with the beers.

Address:
1039 Mainland Street, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.romersburgerbar.com/

In Japanese

Ramen Danbo: Fukuoka Style Tonkotsu Ramen on Robson

February 5, 2016

Ramen Danbo has their 2nd location on Robson Street. With Robson Street already having a huge cluster of ramen shops, you would think its hard adding another into the mix. On a Sunday night, this place was packed for dinner. I’ve been to their West 4th location and loved it.

What makes them unique is that you can customize the ramen you order by selecting:

amount of spicy tare sauce
firmness of noodles
amount of lard
thickness of broth

At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

I took my food blogger friend – Sherman and MissVancouverPiggy to indulge in some good ramen.

They have taken over the VanVan Izakaya and made slight modifications to the interior. Mostly removed the chalkboard walls and put the white textured pattern on the walls which is much nicer.

After waiting about 15 minutes, we got a seat at the bar.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen with egg has their signature Tonkotsu Pork Broth and is essential to those who are new to Ramen Danbo. Don’t forget to order it with their egg!

It makes the whole bowl like a smiley face…a delicious smiley face.

Classic Tonkotsu Ramen ‘Shio’ is slightly different with their simple Tonkotsu soup broth and special Shio ramen-dare soup base. Can’t go wrong with this either.

Blazing Hot Rekka Ramen is 5x the spiciness of their classic ramen. It uses their Ichimi Togarashi red pepper imported from Japan to ignite your palete. You can select from 5, 10, 15, or 20 times the standard spiciness. I went and got the 15x amount of spiciness. It is awesome for people who love spicy. Good flavours.

Pan-fried Yaki Gyoza is a pork and scallion dumpling. Crispy on one side. These were ok.

Overall, I love their rich broth and the ability to customize a lot aspect of the dish.

We Rate Ramen Danbo:

Address:
1333 Robson Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramendanbo.com/

In Bakery

Sweetery Cafe + Dessert: Open on Saturdays

February 4, 2016

Sweetery Cafe + Dessert finally opens up on Saturdays. Even thought I work close by, it was always just out of reach. Seeing all their mouth water photos on Instagram, made me go a little bit nuts. I came with a friend to indulge on some coffee and waffles during brunch.

It’s located on 2nd close to the Granville St Bridge. There’s free parking out front for 1 hour.

There is a good amount of seating inside. We got here at around 10:30am and stayed here for both their breakfast and lunch menu.

We put in our order and waited patiently for the wonderful food to arrive.

Cappuccino was what I needed this morning. Nice and frothy.

Eggs Benedict on Waffles comes with potatoes on the side. You have the option to have it on waffles or english muffins. Highly recommended item!

We chose to have our eggs soft and they did deliver! Once I cut inside, it was so delicious and gooey.

I love the option of having it on a waffle.

Chicken and Waffles is what I was craving. We had to wait till 11am till they started taking orders for their lunch menu. It comes with maple syrup and hot sauce.

The chicken was tender on the inside, but the exterior could have been more crisp. On the other hand, the waffle was very delicious and crisp. I guess it kinda makes up for it.

Overall it was a good experience. You must get their Eggs Benedict and double baked croissants.

We Rate Sweetery Cafe + Dessert:

Address:
340 W. 2nd Ave, Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.sweeterycafe.com/

In Coquitlam

Hee Rae Deung: Chinese Korean Food

February 3, 2016

Hee Rae Deung is a Korean Chinese Restaurant on North Road in the same plaza as the Independent Grocer. Since we knew it was a busy day, we came here at 5:45pm on a weekend for dinner, to our surprise, there was already a long wait ahead of us. We waited for about 30 minutes until we got seated.

To start off the meal, they give us pickled radish, bean paste and onion. You take a piece of the raw onion and put a little bit of bean paste to it. It changes the flavour completely.

Deep fried dumplings are a must if you are in a group. There are about 10 dumplings to an order.

Packed full of delicious pork and veggies inside the deep-fried shell.

Sweet and Sour Fried Pork comes with a lot for one dish. Plenty to go around the table. They serve the sauce and pork separately to ensure the pork remains crisp until you devour it with the sauce.

The pieces are pretty big, so you may want to cut them up into smaller pieces.

You definitely need the sauce since it’s not the same without it.

Gan Ja Jang is noodles with a mixture of stir fried veggies, pork and black bean sauce. This is one of the specialty items here, plus some Koreans have said this is the best place to get Ja Jang Myun.

Look at that delicious bowl.

You have to mix vigorously with your chopsticks to combine the sauce and noodles together. It takes a bit of effort, but its so worth it.

Messy bowl, but it sure is delicious.

Stir Fried Rice is my absolute favourite! There is the fried rice with egg on top, with a salad and black bean sauce. It is also served with a spicy seafood soup.

Overall, we enjoyed all the dishes. We think all groups should order the above items. We came in a group of 4 and had a little bit of leftovers.

We Rate Hee Rae Deung:

Address:
435 North Road
Coquitlam, BC

In Chinese

Chang’An: Chinese Fine Dining in Vancouver

February 2, 2016

Chang’An is a Chinese fine dining restaurant in Downtown Vancouver right under the Granville Bridge. The restaurant was opened by China Folks Restaurant Group and named Chang’An after an ancient capital in China, which we know today as Xi’an China. This is their first restaurant outside of China. Chang’An focuses on Shanxi cuisine, derived from the cooking styles of Shanxi Province in Northern China where you would find noodles, flatbread, and other dishes with heavy use of vinegar and hot spices.

First authentic Chinese restaurant in Vancouver to join OpenTable
2015 winner of Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice for ‘Best Fine Dining’

Once you walk inside, you will instantly notice the decor. This isn’t your normal everyday Chinese restaurant. They cater towards affluent newcomers from Mainland China. As the first high-end Chinese restaurant in Downtown Vancouver, more will open up in the future to cater to those people.

As a middle-class Chinese born Canadian, this is not a place I would usually think of dining at. When ChineseBites invited me to attend a 21 course feast here, how could I say no?

We all started with a drink to kick off the evening. I went with a white wine from Oyster Bay.

Guo Kui Pita 鍋盔 came as a complimentary appetizer instead of bread like in Western restaurants. The pita is on the dried side with a crisp exterior. You eat it with the spicy bean mixture in the bowl.

Chang’an Roasted Duck 長安炙鴨 is their specialty item and you must order in advance. Only A-grade ducks are selected and processed for 72 hours. Then it is roasted in-house for over an hour.

Chang’an schedules the cooking process according to your time of reservation to ensure ideal tenderness of the meat and crispness of the skin.

The chef comes out to cut up the duck skin on top of the beautiful duck plates.

The first dish is the duck skin with sugar. The crispy skin and the sugar work surprisingly well together.

With the other duck meat, it comes with hand-made flour wrappers, which you will turn into delicious duck wraps.

They also come with hoisin sauce with cucumbers or strawberry sauce with pears. The strawberry sauce and pear was a weird combination for me, so I stuck with the hoisin and cucumbers.

Mmmmm all wrapped up and ready to go into my belly.

The meat is just so good! You can’t go wrong with this dish. At $88 for the duck, it was prepared very well and I like the effort of having it roasted in-house and ready when you arrive. It is definitely more expensive than other restaurants.

An assorted appetizer plate arrived with:

Tossed Cilantro, Scallion & Red Peanut Salad 陕西大拌菜
Marinated Mushroom 迷你小香菇
Crispy Beef Tongue 脆皮牛舌
Honey Grapefruit Spare Ribs 西柚蜜汁糖醋排

The marinated mushroom had a delicious savoury flavour. I could keep on eating these since I love mushrooms. Tossed Cilantro, Scallion & Red Peanut Salad was ok, it was nice to have the freshness of the cilantro. Honey Grapefruit Spare Ribs had a nice sweet sauce and the meat was tender. The crispy beef tongue was pretty bad since it was mushy and oily. I would have just preferred the slices of tongue without any breading.

Braised Sea Cucumber 長安蔥燒海參 is braised for 48 hours with 20 different herbs and spices. What’s great about sea cucumbers is that it takes on the flavours of the marinade to really intensify the flavour. Sea cucumbers on its own really tastes like plain jelly. The herbs and spices really elevate this dish. They don’t have a great presentation because of its look. The dish is definitely an asian delicacy and isn’t cheap.

Imperial Hot & Sour Soup 回坊酸辣湯 is presented in an ornate golden bowl served with a Chinese donut.

The first couple of sips were good, but as time went on, it turned out quite spicy due to the intense amount of white pepper. I couldn’t even finish it.

House Special Fried Chili Lobster 香辣龍蝦 has a beautiful presentation and I did like this dish. The lobster was very tender and I enjoyed the sauce they had with it. There was a lot of dried peppers in the dish, but it wasn’t very hot. What was interesting about this dish is that there were crinkle-cut fries on top. A bit odd since you don’t normally see fries in Chinese dishes.

Chang’an Gourd Chicken 長安一品葫蘆雞 is deep-fried to crispy perfection. They cut the chicken up for the entire table so its easier to serve.

Szechwan Peppercorn Sliced Beef 鮮椒木桶肥牛 also has enoki mushroom and tofu noodles in it. It’s hidden under the pile of beef. The flavours were nice but it would be good if it was spicier.

Sweet & Sour Lychee & Prawns 貴妃荔枝蝦球 had a super crisp and tough pastry sell that held most of the nuts, prawns and lychee. It was ok, but it didn’t wow me.

Qin Style Roast Lamb Leg 秦味烤羊腿 came on a 2-tier plate with the lamb on top and the flat bread on the bottom.

There were good flavours in the lamb and the crisp flat bread with sesame seeds went well together and you can pile lots of the lamb on top.

Three Sauce Noodle 三合一臊子扯麵 has minced beef, tomato, egg, celery, carrot, potato and tofu.

Biang Biang Noodles 油潑辣子麵 has Shaanxi special hot chili sauce with thick hand-made noodles. I liked this one more than the three sauce noodle.

Braised Whole Chili & Spring Onion Cod 蔥椒魚 was really good. One of the better dishes of the bunch. The cod was tender and the broth had a delicious taste with a kick of chili.

Pork Belly Mini Sliders 老陝臘汁肉夾饃 is presented on the plate with an old man figurine. The pork belly is stewed in slow heat in a sauce containing over 20 spices and ingredients added to it, such as clove, nutmeg, ginger and cooking wine. The bun isn’t as soft as it’s a bit crisp on the outside.

King Mushroom Casserole 石板菌菇 looks like a pile of mushrooms. Can’t go wrong with mushrooms.

5 Spice Duck Ribs 椒鹽鴨架 is the 2nd part of the roasted duck. Alternatively, you can order noodle in duck soup. I felt it was a bit dry and its deep-fried.

Yellow Bean Cake, Red Bean Cake 豌豆黃, 紅豆年糕 ended the night.

With all the dishes I tried at Chang’An, I still felt like it was pretty average. The only dishes that stood out for me out of the 21 dishes were the duck dishes and the Braised Whole Chili & Spring Onion Cod. Since its more high-end and expensive that other Chinese restaurants, the taste hasn’t elevated to match the price. Of course, this restaurant isn’t marketed to people like me as I enjoy more casual dining.

We did get the dishes to be on the mild side, but I wonder if there would be a significant change in taste if it was more spicy.

We Rate Chang’An:

Address:
1661 Granville St, Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.tastechangan.com/

In Event

An Evening with Johnnie Walker: #JWATHOME Recap

February 1, 2016

An Evening with Johnnie Walker is an opportunity for scotch-lovers or scotch-newbies to host a private, in-home, scotch tasting for up to 15 guests. Your friends can deepen their knowledge of Johnnie Walker, through an in-depth immersion into scotch and its history. Currently, the tastings are only available in Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Once a date and time are confirmed by their concierge, ambassadors arrive at your home or office with all the tools necessary to execute a tasting and they guide you through an experience with scotch.

Tastings are completely free, but hosts are asked to provide adequate table space for each guest to stand or sit in front of, such as a dining room table or coffee table. Dee of Gastrofork was kind enough to host a bunch of us at her place.

The ambassador spends the first part of the evening talking about the history of Johnnie Walker and then we dive into the tasting of their:

Red Label
Black Label
Blue Label

All three of the whiskies were linked up and ready for you when you begin the tasting.

A sampling of berries and chocolate are paired with the whiskies, however, hosts are asked to provide food to balance alcohol consumption in the evening. Dee got us some Church’s Chicken, Sushi, and a few other snacks to make sure we don’t get too drunk.

Johnnie Walker Red Label is their Pioneer Blend, the one that has introduced their brand of whisky to the world.

Highly versatile and with universal appeal, it has a bold, characterful flavour that shines through even when mixed. Johnnie Walker Red Label is now the best-selling Scotch Whisky around the globe.

It retails for about $40 at local BC liquor stores.

It has a bright brass colour, light smoke, wood and vanilla toffee and spicy flavours. We most dominant flavour when we smelled it was caramel. Its a light style of scotch, so most people end up using the Red Label for mixing drinks rather than sipping on it all night long.

They paired the Red Label with Strawberries dipped in pepper to really help enhance the flavour. Surprisingly, it was a good combination.

Johnnie Walker Black Label was next and it acts as the benchmark for all other deluxe blends. It is created using only whiskies aged for a minimum of 12 years from the four corners of Scotland, Johnnie Walker Black Label has a smooth, deep, complex character. Definitely more popular than the Red, but of course a tad more expensive at around $50 a bottle at the local liquor store.

It was paired with dark chocolate to bring balance out the flavours.

In the Black Label, there are notes of wood smoke and dry spice, hints of barley and cereal with creamy toffee and a distinct herbal note. The finish is quite fruity and long with a note of sultanas and mixed peels.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label is a blend made from some of Scotland’s rarest and most exceptional whiskies. Only one in every ten thousand casks has the elusive quality, character and flavour to deliver the’ remarkable signature taste of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. People tend to crack this open for big occasions or celebrations.

Each bottle retails for around $280 locally.

To really enjoy the best from the Blue Label, they suggest it should be served neat, or with a dash of water to open up the flavours a bit more. It tastes like toffee with hints of very wistful smoke.

It was good to try Johnnie Walker’s Whiskies side by side and I discovered that Whisky isn’t my drink of choice. I still prefer wine or beer.

Thats basically what the tasting experience is like, if you want to host your own with your friends, definitely contact their concierge to set one up.

Website:
https://www.johnniewalker.com/en-ca/mentorship-program/