Saturday May 5, 2012 sees the 6th annual spotted prawn festival coming to Vancouver. I am yet to actually attend this event myself, but as always hear such great things about it! Put on every year by the Chefs Table Society, this event runs during the day with spotted prawns being served up right off the boat. $12 gets you a plate from the boil and access to try some local beer & wine. The festival is staged on the Fishermen’s Wharf right next to Granville Island!

Click here to purchase your meal tickets in advance! Let us support our local fisherman.

Food.ee’s corporate ordering service has officially launched and they have given us a gift certificate to give away for letting you all know! Details below.

Picture this common scenario – on top of your busy day you have to order food for the client meeting & lunch for everyone in the office. Food.ee, the latest innovation from Invoke Media, allows you to effortlessly place a meal order for your office with the click of a button.

From fresh sushi and authentic Szechuan cuisine, to hot, fresh pastries and gourmet juice, Food.ee has you covered with a variety of restaurant options to satisfy everyone’s cravings. Some of our great restaurant partners include Kiisu, Rasoee, Ensemble Tap, Bonchaz, and Notturno Paninoteca.

Here’s how it works in 5 easy steps:

1. Visit food.ee to begin
2. Specify a time, date & location for delivery
3. Choose a restaurant to view their menu
4. Click ‘order from here’ to add your food to your cart
5. Check out, wait for a confirmation call & enjoy!

Not convinced its that easy? Watch the video!

Let Food.ee’s corporate ordering service help your office with the difficult and routine task of ordering food for large groups of people. They’re celebrating the launch with a giveaway!

Follow Food.ee on Twitter @foodee and Like them on Facebook to catch up with all the latest updates.

Overall we loved it. You really get that nice potato taste that most chips lack. If we didn’t know it came out of a package, we could of easily been believed that they were made by aunt Selma. The flavours are mild and at first we thought a bit too mild, but after trying a few and finishing the bags, we realized that this was a good thing. We can actually taste potato! Like eating fries. We agreed that the best way to describe the chips is Homemade, rustic and not too oily.

Wild Onion & Yogurt:
Not our favourite. The chips taste great but we got confused with the name and lack of onion and yogurt flavour. This chips mostly tasted like “natural” chips. Having said that, some people don’t like a strong flavour and this is mild without being ‘natural’.

Rock Salt & Vinegar:
A pleasant natural taste for a well known flavour. You can tell the flavours are natural because salt and vinegar chips are usually really intense. We all liked it, but if you like a strong artificial taste, maybe this one isn’t for you. If you don’t like salt and vinegar because of the strong taste, this is a good option.

All Natural:
This favor really highlights the taste of the potatoes themselves. The closest we can compare it to is Miss Vickies but clearly way better. I don’t know how they do it without baking the chips, but these chips don’t taste like oil. Yay!

Jalapeno:
Awesome! Probably the strongest flavour out of the bunch. Classic Jalapeno!

Smokin’ BBQ:
Totally our favourite! This doesn’t just taste like BBQ chips, it taste like a mix of awesomeness. Picture mixing the flavour of mild BBQ chip, hickory sticks, and baked chips and this is what you get. We would all pick the Hardbite BBQ over competitors. Again, milder than usual, but this was obviously done to appreciate the potato chip itself.

Lastly, we definitely need to give them a kudos for offering and labeling their products as Vegan. Both the Jalapeno and Rock Salt and Vinegar have the word ‘Vegan’ on the bag so that those interested can find out right away. Sounds like a small thing, but who knew most potato chips aren’t vegan. Most of them have modified milk ingredients in them… why?

Our two cents…

After seeing the Comfort Food Class on their schedule I promptly signed up for it. I thought it would be a nice compliment to my preference for rustic homey cooking. On the menu was Lobster Mac N’ Cheese, Wild Mushroom and Truffle Chicken Pot Pie and then we finished off with a Coffee and Bailey’s Sticky Toffee Pudding. Sounds too good to be true……well it pretty much is!

Unfortunately I can’t share the recipes with you, but I can tell you what I thought about them! The Mac N’ Cheese was absolutely delicious, if you don’t think about what’s actually in it. Whipping cream, butter and mascarpone cheese make up the base for this one. A little zing of lemon and wonderfully rich pieces of lobster meat round it out; perhaps the richest, most decadent thing I’ve ever cooked. If I were to make this again I would lighten the sauce with milk instead of whipping cream and since lobster is a bit cost-prohibitive I’d throw in some crab meat.

The chicken pot pie was next up, with a wonderful mix of wild mushrooms (chanterelle, morels and button), roasted corn and other standard veg. Again, a creamy white sauce forms the base, and then it’s topped with some white truffle oil and puff pastry. This dish is also very heavy and rich, great for a special occasion, but not something you’d want to eat on a weekly basis. Want to lighten up your chicken pot pie? Try topping it with mashed potatoes instead of puff pastry. It becomes a shepherd’s pie/pot pie hybrid and is much healthier.

Lastly we prepared a sticky toffee pudding. Not what I expected as it was more of a cake than a pudding. We simmered down some dates and added ground coffee (which I would omit next time, the flavor was too overpowering), and then mixed that into our cake batter. Baked it, and then drizzled a bailey’s caramel sauce over top. Served with a little apple cinnamon ice cream (that was made for us in advance), it was the perfect end to a delicious meal and would be great to serve at any holiday celebration.

I walked home with my belly full, a heavy bag of leftovers and a huge smile on my face. If you haven’t experienced the Dirty Apron yet go and sign up for a class, you won’t regret it! If you don’t want to commit to a class, go by and check out their delicatessen, they’ve got all sorts of delicious food prepared on-site and a good selection of high end products.

The famous President’s Choice is, in my opinion, an underrated brand. When I was little, I remember my parents and other parents were skeptical about it was dirt cheap. I was looking at a friend’s blog the other day and she was raving about this blood orange and lime Italian soda she had. Blood orange flavor? Yum but who guessed that it was a PC’s product?

I haven’t gone to Superstore or Loblaws for a while, so I decided to visit the website before traveling to a store. And goodness gracious, President’s Choice has beautiful photography, web design and tons of food products! You can search through categories, courses, ingredients, products and much more. My favorite section was the “Ready in…” and “Skill Level”. I like how PC recognize foodies like me who are not as kitchen savvy as well as those busy bees do not have much time to cook at home.

PC has its own unique and recognizable branding, style and product lines such as President’s Choice, Blue Menu and Black Label. If you are all about organic and organic ocean, PC has your back with its own Green and Organic labels too. It’s rare for supermarkets not have their own organic or healthy choice section nowadays. It doesn’t really matter which supermarket you go to pick up your organic goods because that will not decrease the carbon footprint it already had by coming from Brazil or Peru. So why not buy your groceries at a reasonable price? Great food and successful dinner parties do not have to come from brand names and super expensive ingredients.

Speaking of dinner parties….. Don’t know how to cook for your Christmas Party guests? Screw the traditional food! Roast a chicken instead. Have small appies like the PC Festive Sliders or serve a Buttery Tomato Tart! You can be more creative by substituting the Turkey stuffing with Stuffed Sweet Mini Peppers!

With the recipes featured on the website and affordable materials at your local Superstore and Loblaws, I’m sure you will be able to host the best and most one of a kind Christmas party! But just be sure to invite us over and we will write about your food!

Any product you like online are available at Superstore, Loblaws, and Extra Food. President’s Choice is indeed worth switching supermarket for(TM) !

Niche concepts for restaurants have always done well and barbecue/comfort food is no exception. Two weeks before 9/11, George Siu and Park Heffelfinger opened their barbecue restaurant Memphis Blues in Vancouver and haven’t looked back since.

Initially thinking that they would they would have 5 restaurants under their ownership, they changed course a few years ago and have moved forward with franchising their niche food style across Canada.

Franchising
When I asked them what they wished they knew then that they know now, they said “Do it faster”. In their 4th year, they were inundated with requests for franchises but were too busy to act on all the requests. They finally decided that franchising was the way to go for a few reasons. Owners will care more than employees. They didn’t want to travel as much as they would have to if they owned all the stores. And they knew that they would just be spread too thin to make it really work – they would lose the soul.

Now in 2011, with competitors nipping at their heels, Memphis Blues is setting out to dominate the barbecue/comfort food arena in Canada. Memphis Blues currently has 6 restaurants in BC with another 9 slated for Alberta. It’s taken Park and George a year to complete their operations manual and their first Alberta franchisee is part of a group who already has 32 franchised restaurants under their belt.

Instead of handing off the whole franchising project to a 3rd party, Park and George are heavily involved as they feel that a franchisee is not only buying the recipes and concept but the soul that they both bring to the restaurant and the food. They continue to think of their restaurants as a work in progress that should always be tweaked to stay ahead.

Currently, Russell beer is the BC house beer and Memphis Blues teamed up with Russell to have a beer specifically crafted for them. They expect to do the same with an an Alberta craft beer producer for the new franchises. Franchisees can also expect a full wine and bourbon education as well, as nothing goes better with ribs than your favourite beverage.

Rubs and Sauces
Set to launch in spring 2012 (just in time for outdoor grilling season) is their line of rubs and barbecue sauces. George said that the sauce category is the most competitive in the grocery store so their plan is to sell their products in the restaurants and in small independent grocery stores and chains. Although not a loss leader, they don’t expect to make millions on their products – they are using them as a vehicle to stay fresh in the minds of the media and consumers – thereby increasing traffic to their stores and bolstering the franchises.

It’s taken them 9 months to do the sourcing for their all natural range of rubs and sauces – everything from the cap, to the bottles, to the barcodes and the branding has to be worked through before you can launch a new product. Since it’s about quality, they had to find a manufacturer who understood that the colour, consistency and natural ingredients were integral to their small batch ideology for their new line of products.

Food Quality
That eye for quality is even more important when it comes to the meat they serve. With selling over 8 and half tons of meat per month, they needed to find sources that had great quality but could also provide the volume. No skinny, saline plumped, Nebraska feed lot pork and beef for them. All of their meat comes from Alberta and BC farmers and when they need a whole pig for a special occasion, there are 5 dutch farmers in the BC Fraser Valley who they turn to first.

I found it fascinating when Park and George started talking about buying pork futures a year in advance so they know what their meat prices are going to be for that year. Who knew you had to also be a stock market analyst to run a restaurant empire!!

I asked them if they would consider doing a television show of the trials and tribulations of franchising. George told me that he had been asked to audition to be the host of Eat St. but they gave it to an actor instead. Park suggested that since they love to eat and critique food, there should be a show about the two of them eating across Canada and reviewing (skewering) the food.

If you are interested in owning a Memphis Blues franchise, you can contact them here.

The secret ingredient to making a great grilled cheese is butter. Lots of butter. For anyone who does not already know, margarine is not butter – FYI.

Take two pieces of a yummy, good for you brown bread. Cut up 6 pieces of old chedder cheese. Butter one side of each piece of bread and then lay 3 pieces of cheese on each slice of bread. Sandwich both of the pieces of bread together, cheese side in. Butter the upside of the piece of bread that is now facing you.

Melt butter at medium/low heat in a frying pan. When melted, places the buttered side of the sandwich down into the pan. Now butter the last side of the 4 sides that have not been buttered. Fry for a minute or two and flip your sandwich over. Continue to fry and flip until both sides of your sandwich are toasty brown or the cheese is threatening to ooze out of the sandwich altogether.

Place sandwich on a plate. Cut diagonally. Do not cut horizontally or heaven forbid, into quarters. Add Heinz ketchup on the side to your liking (or not). If you want to get super fancy, you could cut up a pickle and enjoyed it with your grilled cheese or you could have a bowl of tomato soup. It’s up to you.

Now you’ll noticed that my recipe called for brown bread. That is because it’s good for you and my general feeling about white bread is that the bag and the twist tie have more nutritional value than the bread itself. But white bread does make a killer grilled cheese.

So the abbreviated recipe for white bread is butter the whole thing and this time add not one but two slices of processed cheese singles to EACH side of the bread before you sandwich it together. Yes that’s right – 4 slices of processed cheese goodness.

Bon Appetit!

I’ve been a huge fan of the Cypress Honey Lager for years. I used to cart it home to Oregon by the case at Christmas because even my beer snob brother adored it. Somewhat of a staple in my house, it’s perfect for those hot summer afternoons on the patio, and cool fall evenings on the couch watching football. I would venture to say that if I had to pick one beer to drink for the rest of my life, this would be it!

After learning a bit more about GIB’s overall beer philosophy I’m even more impressed with these guys. We all know they were bought by Molson a few years ago, but I honestly don’t think the quality or integrity of their product has been affected. GIB is still a local company brewing the craft beers we have come to expect here on the west coast. This year they introduced us to their raspberry ale, made with fresh berries from the Fraser Valley, which I think shows their commitment to staying local.

Currently it seems that they’re staying local and only selling their beer in select locations outside of BC. It’s a shame for the rest of Canada, but I take comfort knowing that we’re retaining a little bit of a good thing right here in BC.

Whilst renewing my love affair with the Lions Winter Ale at the Prestons tasting event I learned that every year the recipes for the seasonal ales are slightly different based on the hops, formula and other ingredients. In the past the winter ale has tasted very strongly of vanilla to me, but this year it’s got more of a subtle bitterness, combined with a hint of chocolate and then a smooth vanilla finish. It’s simply divine.

To me this is one of the great things about craft brewing. There’s a level of consistency you don’t get with wine, but subtle changes to keep you interested year after year. I also now have a renewed appreciation for the Robson Street Heffeweizen. I tried it the first year it was offered and absolutely hated. It didn’t have the usual sediment and had a very sour taste to me. But, after sampling it again at Prestons I’m gonna give it a second shot next summer! Now it tastes like a traditional Heffeweizen and after learning that GIB doesn’t add any lemon or other citrus flavor I was sold (I like to add my own lemon).

So as the fine folks at GIB say…It’s Good To Be Here!