Edward Koh: When he’s not re-feuling planes he’s making wine, gardening, cooking up a storm, or telling crazy stories. Let’s face it, Edward is a man of many talents.

Justin Davey: A master of mixing music, he’s got a lot to learn when it comes to mixing ingredients.

Dennis Wan: Gets creative with the dish he brings to the table and likes to think out of the box.

Angela Wan: Food obsessed designer, a grocery store tourist and loves to have dinner parties.

These lines were part of our intro script for the Food Network’s Family Cook-off show that aired last night. Families went head-to-head  battling a ticking clock to prepare homestyle dishes before chef judges Anthony Sedlak and Trish Magwood, hosted by the lovely and gorgeous Kim D’eon with a live audience to cheer us on. The film set was erected at Leg in Boot Square in False Creek with scenic marina, sailboats and glassy high-rise backdrop, very Vancouver.

Anthony Sedlak, Trish Magwood & host Kim D'eon

Talk about having stage fright! Somebody give me a sedative or couple shots of tequila or something! Edward, or Steady Eddie as Anthony Sedlak deemed him, might have been a little nervous too, did he really burn the first round of garlic bread or was it to test the oven, even I don’t know. But he pulled through nicely and later seemed cool in front of the camera, hugging and holding his grandson Justin, darkened shades on, nurse betty tattoo showing. Nice capture camera man! Edwards fav line is…”You have to cook with lurv.”. And his tumeric rubbed seared sable fish and garlic bread was lurved by the judges all right. Here is a gorgeous photo of their Seafood Slam.

Steady Eddie & Justin's Seafood Slam

Justin looked good on camera, strapping young hapa cooking up mussels + lobster with lemongrass infused coconut sauce. A natural in front of the camera for sure. Justin has been enjoying the fruits of grandpa’s foodie labour all his young life and has now cooked with him for the first time, and on tv! You didn’t reveal your tat to the tatted up chef Sedlak but that probably wouldn’t have been appropriate?

Steady Eddie & Justin

There was friendly jibbing going across the work stations with the orange team, team Wimbush from Montreal and across Canada, lovely ladies who can do anything from scratch! Aimée, which I think headed up this team is a foodie extraordinaire, her site is simplebites.net. I should have snatched a taste of their Revolutionary Ravioli when no one was looking, ok unlikely, will have to make it from the recipe instead. And the Wimbush’s desert looked finger licking good, check out the Tasty Trifle.

Wimbush's Revolutionary Ravioli

Wimbush's Tasty Trifle

Then it came to my bro Dennis and I, our turn at battle honey for the desert half. For our Tropical Rolls + Lassie Dennis calmly assembled his ingredients for the mango+ginger lassie topped with roasted pistacios while responding cheerfully to Kim D’eon’s questions, while I, feeling very cold and excited started rolling up the nutella+banana spring rolls. Yes we actually make this food at home all the time, so no problemo right? We pulled it off without a hitch, even got to add rum to the honey butter drizzle.  (mmm, think I’m going to whip some this very moment.)

Dennis & Angela's Tropical Rolls

Thanks to all the people involved in letting us showcase our wanna-be-a-chef talents on tv. Margaret Gallagher(CBC Radio 1) who introduced me to Meribeth Deen(Force Four Entertainment), my awesome family and friends(this is like the oscars), cool host and hot judges!

“Cook with Lurv” -Steady Eddie

Compliments of the chef! Bet you’d never guess that this lovely dish was fish gonands, swimming in a citrus sesame ponzu sauce, with its pale creamy lobes all delicate like. They had the mildest of sea flavours and quite plesant. Dean washed his down with beer really fast, I think it was a mind over matter moment.

Let’s say these gonads were not from a Black Cod but from a different fish, the infamous Puffer Fish, called Fugu in Japan, you may get very sick and probably die from strong neurotoxins (luckily Homer did not).

A pinch of the white powder form, about the amount found in one prime-sized tiger fugu is enough to kill more than 30 people. The estimated lethal dose for an adult, a mere one to two milligrams, could be put on a pinhead. Wow! Don’t eat Fugu gonads!

All fish have the pair of reproductive organs and some are hermaphrodites (that’s handy). So where are these reproductive blobs located in a fish you might want to know, they’re at the top of the gut cavity, just below the fish’s backbone:

Another delicious gonad that some people like to eat and others fake pleasure is uni. Yes folks, you didn’t know you were eating both male and female urchin gonads?

I dove for urchin in the Mediterranean once, opened them up on the beach and ate the salty narrow ‘roe’ fresh as can be, didn’t like them, still don’t but I pretended that I like them and that it was all so adventurous of me, haha.

Ok, on to other seafood now…

Well we pulled it off! Chez D, part of the Powell Street Festival, was a hit. With a great bunch of fun luvin food luvin artists, we created, sang, cooked, danced and they ate, ate, ate their way through the night. It was a blast I must say!

“Local artists trade their instruments and paint brushes for chef hats in Chez D, where art and cuisine meet in a tantalizing feast for the senses.

For one night only, artists normally accustomed to wowing audiences in theatres and galleries will don their chef hats and coats at Gudrun Tasting Room in Steveston and create new works of edible art celebrating the theme of migration.

Commissioned by the Powell Street Festival, Chez D artists will plate delicacies in a five-course menu that pays homage to ethnic roots, migratory paths (the ‘D’ stands for ‘Diaspora’), new lands, family restaurants and neighbourhood survival foods. As event curator Michael Speier puts it, Chez D presents “a meal full of strong cross currents and pollinations here at the tastebud’s edge of the Pacific Ocean.”

Chez D artists include Open Sesame (Michael Speier), Komodo House (Margaret Gallagher and Angela Wan), Patrick Tubajon (Gudrun Tasting Room), Ari Tomita, and Cynthia Low & Leslie Komori. Each candlelit course will be accompanied by a design element representative of the artist’s discipline, as well as the “mallow dinner music” of local music innovators Guimauves.”

Michael Speier

Not sure why it was surprising to me that it was so fun. I suppose the mind forgets what live music sounds like, how performance and dance can be so fun, how food is better enjoyed at a long feast table with friends and strangers, how all these things combined is ridiculously rare. We just get bogged down in the every day and forget to look up and smell the flowers.

We definately need more of these events in Vancouver, actually we were in Steveston at Patrick Tubajon’s Gudrun Tasting Room. Steveston itself has a varied history of Japanese immigrants living and working, many in the cannery industry. So really, this is a very suitable setting to have the Powell Street Festival event.

The set up was really a well planed migratory guerilla kitchen set up with portable tables, stoves, tents(hey its Vancouver you never know), utensils and containers of food and water. While Margaret and I were plating inside at the bar, the rest of the gang were cooking, steaming and plating outside. It wasn’t all work back there though, I did get to tear away for a minute to have a sip of Mezcal.

In the back-lot kitchen, Ari was painting with mango dressing and plating her Enso Salmon Salad, Michael was chillin keeping one eye on his New World Longboat Tamale (and pouring Tequila and Mezcal for the cooks) but it was the smell of searing venison that got me intoxicated, I found myself standing in the smoky goodness (it tasted sublime!), taking it in. Laughing robustly Cynthia and her sister recall their father bringing home whole venison and hanging the animal from a tree in the city backyard, I hope they had a fence. Their Venison o-nigiri ‘hamburger’ with jicama/beets/daikon ‘fries’ was so fun. And last but not least was Patrick’s dessert course, Isdro’s Drift mango mouse, ever so delicately adorned with chocolate drizzle hat and candy ballet slippers.

Take a look…

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Here is the menu.

photos by: flying_designs

This little pasture fed piggy got roasted and devoured.

Our friend decided to bring on the next decade of his life with a full on pig roast party, what wonderful friends we have. This magical animal was a pretty young one judging by its size, it was stuffed with apples and potatoes(not sure why), sewn up then twirled around on the spit for 8 hours, periodically squirted with salt water to crisp up the skin and give flavour.

As guest arrived, their children excitedly ran to see the pig roasting, toddlers pointed at it in wonderment, nobody freaked out or cried, hey animals have heads right? One 3 year old who had never eaten mammal watched for hours then devoured three helpings with his greasy paws right from the carving table.

I can say that this was the freshest and tastiest pork that I have ever eaten!

home-made spit

Birthday guy carving

Overseer

Would have loved to have checked out local rock n roller Rich Hope(been a long time fan) at the Alibi Room which has an amazing selection of local craft beers ala Nigel(owner), but alas it is sold out. That’s what you get for being a dilly-dallier.

If I had to pick one fav it would be Driftwood Brewery’s Farmhand Ale, inspired by Belgium farm ale, a bit malty, citrus notes, um very drinkable, hints of banana. And I really like the branding, yes you can sell me a product on good branding, I’m a sucker.

BeerBrats - with Philips Brewing Company beer

Since we are on the subject of beery things to consume, I had bought three different packs of BeerBrats from the Trout Lake Farmers market that opened this last Weekend. Writing this, I couldn’t resist frying some up, mmm, the house smells like sausage! Made with local organic meats, and craft brews from Philips Beer(in pic), Red Truck Beer, R&B Brewing Co and Driftwood Brewery. They were less greasy, less salty and nice and beery, first thing that hits your palate is the beer. There are no preservatives in these sausages so we had to eat them all fast, well I gave away the chorizo for mother’s day.

What other beer wonders are to come this week…

Photograph by Evgeni Chekanov

• Social Media will spoil the opening ceremonies surprise? – ctv.ca
• sneak peak at the fireworks around the fully inflated stadium – straight.com
• volunteers sneak peak at opening ceramonies today – cbc.ca
• Cambie Bridge is closed
• where is Neil Young when you need him?
• flickr search hmmm, line-ups

• google map of opening day torch route
• google map of venues
• Vancouver Sun picks of fun stuff to check out
• Cultural Olympiad features – official games site
• Vancouver 2010 Free Events Guide
• Olympic Drinking Pavilions. Some truths, beware!
• Georgia Straits calendar of free concerts
• off the beaten path – VirtualTourist
• food food food – UrbanDiner
• the dope on Restaurants in VanCity

The other night, dia de los muertos night at Zocalo Restaurant I heard the familiar music from a memory, el Mariachis! The music and the attire conjure up the images of mariachis my friend and I hung out with in the wistful Oaxaca city zocalo(town square) 10 years ago, before the ‘reno’ of the square and before the intense labour demonstrations.

I love the bigness of music when its live. Its true, its bright, you physically feel the music. Mariachi Los Dorados played loud, played at various tables throughout their set, serenading dinner goers and even had one diner join in to sing a song. Along with the others I swayed from side to side with the music feeling all warm and fuzzy while sipping on some excellent Patron tequila, one of many that proprietor Tanya has to offer from Vancouver’s largest collection.

The food experience is unlike other Mexican restaurants in Vancouver. The dishes are interesting, not the standard burritos or enchiladas, instead they have dishes like Puerco con Chile Ancho – pork, slow cooked in chilies, spices and oranges, served with warm tortillas. I could eat a lot of this. Or Chile en Nougada – Ancho chili stuffed with turkey breast, nuts and sun-dried fruit. Served with pecan crèma.

Another fav is Fish Tacos with habanero mayonnaise. And for some cheesy goodness, Queso Fundido – queso Oaxaca and Monterrey jack, black beans, Mexican chorizo. Served with homemade tortilla chips. You must of course join the most interesting academy and have a Dos Equis.

They use local, in some cases sustainable, ingredients with traditional techniques all made from scratch.

And the Mariachis; I must find out where they play next, got to get another dose of charro outfits and emotional folk songs soon.

Hands down the best Vietnamese subs in Vancouver are at Balé on Kingsway. A Bánh mì sandwich does taste better while on vacation in steamy vibrant bustling Saigon, but when you can get the same baked-that-morning baguettes and fresh ingredients right here in VanCity one must be thankful each and every time you bite into one. Mmmmm…pictured here is the ‘special’, an assortment of cold cuts(pork pork & pork), paté, lightly pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, jalapenos and light mayo(home-made?)

They have recently renovated and are about to fire up their new big gleaming oven. You want to take the sub to a park or eat it on the run, or the car if you can’t wait even a few minutes to get home.

Bale Sandwich Shop(take-out)
21-701 Kingsway
(604) 875-6322

Best discovery of the night? Victoria Gin! Yes the olives were fantastic, the production lesson was informative but the gin martini was stupendous! All I wanted was another one. The initial flavours are star anise, then orange peel, finishing with woody oris root, gins are complex. With salt cured Italian Cerignola and Castelvetrano olives the martini is complete.