Eat! Vancouver 2011 Food and Cooking Festival (guest post by @DianneChow)

Photos and content of this post were contributed by Dianne Chow of Fabulously Innovative Marketing in exclusive coverage for Hummingbird604.com. You can read more of Dianne’s awesome Fabulously Frugal Vancouver content on her site, and you can follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.

50 BITES AND 50 SIPS IN 50 MINUTES AT EAT VANCOUVER

50 bites and 50 sips in 50 minutes at Eat Vancouver? Not very likely unless I’m the Galloping Gourmet but apparently, that handle’s already been taken. With 250 exhibitors and speakers galore, the six hours I spent was still not enough time to cover it all. So I’ll just summarize what I thought were the ultimate highlights that no one should miss:

Food Celebrities

Contrary to his popular series “The Galloping Gourmet” from 1969 to 1971 in which he used butter and wine liberally in his dishes and galloped across the stage leaping over chairs, Graham Kerr’s new approach to food is to take the H factor out of eating habits that are a “threat” to your health and turn them into a “treat”. “If you grow it, you know it” a new cooking regime Graham advocates by eliminating synthetic additives and saturated fats from your daily diet which in turn, can save you $1000 a year: $500 of which you can in turn invest back into your own personal well-being and the remaining $500 being donated to charities. His new book, “Growing at the Speed of Life” highlights his gardening adventures.

Rob Feenie, once owner of now defunct Lumiere, Food TV celebrity and Food Concept Architect of Cactus Club explains that their success (200 restaurants and 500 chefs) is based on casual fine dining with the emphasis on keeping it simple and affordable but with new twists. In his demonstration of making the Smoked Salmon flatbread, he even goes so far as to advocate reducing costs by buying ingredients at Costco. Now that’s a man I think deserves the fabulously frugal cooking reward.

New Tools of the Trade

Having once been the designated cook of the household, I am fascinated by the variety of cooking tools designed for every aspect of cooking ranging from orange peelers, potato cutters and vegetable sharpeners. In my dream kitchen, these would be the new cooking implements I’d recommend: Rosetta Stone Soapstone Kitchenware is completely environmental friendly made with 100% non-toxic materials that reduce energy consumption while maintaining the heat twice as long as any metal pot and lasts for a lifetime.

Handpresso (www.wespresso.com) is a “believe it not” espresso coffeemaker on the go – its compact, has a temperature gauge and doesn’t compromise on the taste. Moreover, if parts break, the company will repair it for a nominal price as it is based on an easy design. Great to have when you travel to foreign designations where there isn’t a Starbucks for miles around.

Groovy things for beautiful people! Its Posh Accessories Ltd. glams up your kitchen nook with these stylish cooking utensils which make a great gift for all the culinary stars in your life Eat drink and be sparkle!

Samples, Sips and Swallows

Forget about plain boring balsamic vinegar, Crescendo (www.crescendocanada.com) has arrived with their line of amazing flavored vinegars: Fig-Chili Balsam Creme, Star Date, Mango Balsam, Star Forest Raspberry and much, much more

Peanut Butter is all grown up and has left the kid’s playground and entered the grown up’s world with amazing wacky flavors of Dark Chocolate, The Heat is On, White Chocolate Wonderful and more (http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/), straight from New York but available at Whole Foods. I bought the Eat!Vancouver discount price of a six pack for $18.

Hot Mammas (http://hotmamasjelly.com/) proves that you can have your jellies and drink them too as I absolutely adored the Strawberry Daiquiri and Lime and Tequila Jelly. Should I add that they also make the more traditional flavors like Lime, Mango, Raspberry, etc. They served them up on cheese and crackers which only made me crave a nice glass of wine.

On the Wine, Beer and Spirits Tasting Pavilion: I was told that no dead frogs were harmed in the making of Dead Frogs Pepper Lime Lager. Then straight fromEngland, Samuel Smith, Organic Strawberry Ale minus the taste of brew, a simple summer sipper of strawberry fields forever. And from one fruit to the next, Luxardo Limoncello with Prosecco whose soft lemony bubbles filled me with citrus delight. Then from your Backyard comes a great Riesling that has the perfect degree of sweetness and dry to add to your summertime barbecues.

Things I couldn’t even eat with a Nine Foot Spoon – I place this in its own special category as the civet coffee (Kopi Luwak) from www.doichaangecoffee.com is made from the beans of coffee berries eaten by a civet, and then passed through their digestive tract and then defecated. The beans apparently keep their shape after defecation and are then washed and sun dried, yielding an aromatic coffee with less bitterness. Should be coffee be on fear factor, I think so! At the Eat Vancouver, you can get it the reduced price of $45 per pound, a discount of $10 a pound.

Jack Link’s beef jerky (http://www.jacklinks.com/) deserves accolades as they make you stand around their booth for a long time as you watch their funny commercials featuring the Saquatch while nibbling on samples.

This was just a pure sample of the grazing I did during my six hours as I sampled Jack Link’s beef jerky, Zen Matcha lemonade, Divina Olives, Liberte blueberry yogurt, Green and Black organic chocolate bars, Bosa Foods espresso, Fresh is Best Sala, organic coffee from Asante, the list goes on and on.

Editor’s note: Thanks, Dianne, for representing me and covering Eat! Vancouver 2011. I really, really appreciate it.

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