Friday, June 29, 2012

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Multicultural Festival
11:00am - 4:00pm
Bonsor Recreation Complex, 6550 Bonsor Avenue, Burnaby
Celebrate the cultural diversity of South Burnaby with entertainment, children’s arts and crafts and a variety of tasty treats

Carnaval del sol 2012
10:00am - 10:00pm
Granville Street, between Smithe and Hastings, Vancouver
The 4th Annual Carnaval del Sol, the day we all shine together Vancouver's Latin American Celebration of Art and Culture, present by LatinCouver, the Latin American plaza in Vancouver is a two-day, highly publicized cultural festival attracting more than 50,000 children and adults.

East Side Pride
11:00am - 6:00pm
McSpadden Park, Commercial Drive, Vancouver
TD presents our signature grassroots event, East Side Pride. This is the first Pride festival of our season which celebrates Pride in our community, specifically, that of East Vancouver. Located in McSpadden Park, just minutes away from the Commercial/Broadway skytrain station, East Side Pride draws over 2500 people to our Pride Market, a showcase of 30 local artisans, small businesses and community organizations. This year we feature an eclectic mix of live music on our festival stage.

Sunday, July 1, 2012 - Happy Canada Day!

67th Annual Steveston Salmon Festival
6:30am - 5:00pm
10:00am parade through historic Steveston village
Stevenston, Richmond
Festival highlights include attractions such as the Japanese Cultural Show, Craft Fair, Trade Show, an awesome Children’s Festival, Carnival, Martial Arts Demonstrations, Youth Rock Fest, Food Fair plus an Art Show & Exhibit. The main attraction is our famous salmon barbecue where over 1200 pounds of wild salmon filets are grilled over open fire pits. This popular treat sells out every year!

PAL Canada Day Celebration
9:00am - evening
PAL Studio Theatre, 300 - 581 Cardero Street, Vancouver
The day starts at 9:30 a.m. with an amazing home-made pancake breakfast in the beautiful rooftop garden at PAL while crowds are treated to wonderful music by The Rhythm Vultures (with drummer Gary Glacken who is also the Executive Director of PAL).  You won’t want to miss the dynamic PALS Chorus as they perform their rocking repertoire in the PAL Studio Theatre; and new this year, a Show‘n’Shine vintage car show on Hastings Street adjacent to PAL.  In the evening, there’s a fantastic dance party with a live band and cash bar in the theatre  - and you don’t have to be a “couple” to attend- singles from 19 to 99 are most welcome too.

Canada Day at Canada Place
Waterfront Party - 10am to 6pm (Headline Performance from 6pm to 7pm)                 
This year, come down to Canada Place and to celebrate Canada's birthday. Attractions and activities include the Canuck Road, the Great Canadian Art Experience, an interactive Spectacular Northwest Territories Dome, and music and entertainers on 3 stages. Headliners for 2012 include Spirit of the West, Alex Cuba, and ShowStoppers.

Canada Day Celebration at Granville Island
Approx 10:00am - 7:00pm (Check program for exact times PDF)
Granville Island, Vancouver
Get your flags ready! Canada Day is on its way again and as always we’ll be throwing the best party in the city! With free jazz performances courtesy of Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, face painting, roving characters, tattoos, a parade, and more, this is a birthday bash that everyone can enjoy!

Canada Day at Ron McLean Park
11:00am - 2:30pm
Ron McLean Park, Rumble Street & Hedley Avenue, Burnaby
Come join us to Celebrate Canada with multicultural entertainment, activities for all ages, displays and demonstrations, a variety of food offerings and free Birthday cake for all!


Ships to Shore Steveston
12:30pm - 5:00 pm
Imperial Landing, Steveston. Just east of Bayview Street and No. 1 Road, along the Steveston boardwalk.
History, adventure and fun will sail into Richmond again for Ships to Shore Steveston 2012.   For the second year in a row, you can relive the days when Richmond’s Steveston Village was a major port-of-call for fleets of sailing ships from around the world. A small flotilla of tall ships and other sailing ships and historical vessels of note will be on display and available for free public boarding at Imperial Landing. Select ships will also be offering day sails (paid tickets required).

Canada Day Block Party and Food Cart Festival
12:00pm - 7:00pm
Waldorf parking lot, 1489 E Hastings St, Vancouver

The Waldorf, Yelp and the Street Food Vancouver Society present a day of Food, Live Music and Fun. This free and family-friendly event will feature food from Vancouver’s top food carts and live music programmed by After Dinner Mint’s Joy Mullen. The event will take place outdoors in the Waldorf’s Parking Lot.  Vancouver’s top food carts will be on hand to roll out their summer menus for their largest gathering ever. This event is being produced in conjunction with the Street Food Vancouver Society. Participating food carts so far include: La Brasserie, Soho Road, Tacofino, Off the Wagon, Re-Up, Juice Truck, Mom’s Grilled Cheese, Didi’s Greek, Street Meet, and more!

Grace Langlois has been blogging on her site La Mia Vita Dolce for many years now, sharing her passion for cooking with the world. What started out as a blog has now turned into a 200 page cookbook! Grace's Sweet Life: Homemade Italian Desserts from Cannoli, Tiramisu and Panna Cotta to Torte, Pizzelle and Struffolli is her first foray into the printed world and finally showcases the all her Italian dessert recipes in full glory. Same with her blog, this cookbook features beautiful photography of the desserts and in-depth instruction for recreating her recipes.


The cookbook is divided into dessert categories and after looking through it (making my mouth water in the process), I decided to try my hand at making the Nutella Soufflé. I found I had no trouble following along the recipe - Grace's detailed instructions let even newbie in the kitchen like me understand the cooking process! But being a newbie, I learned that I should have prepared all of my equipment ahead of time though. I scrambled a bit looking for that spatula or that measuring cup.









Not bad for my first attempt, eh? lol I over-cooked them a little bit but my Dad gave his nod of approval as he was eating it, so I say success!


The Nutella soufflé was so yummy! I can't wait to try out more recipes from Grace's Sweet Life. Many of these Italian desserts I have never heard of and the photos are really helpful at showing me how they look like. I think it's a great addition to any cookbook collection especially if you like desserts!


Disclosure: I received a free copy of Grace’s Sweet Life to review. No compensation was received. The opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any other way.

When my friends organized a dinner at Aki, I was automatically on board! I've read that Aki is one of the best authentic Japanese Restaurants in Vancouver and they have been open since 1963. They originally were located on Thurlow but moved to this swanky new establishment on Pender Street.




 They have a regular menu and also a fresh sheet with all the sashimi and other kitchen creations.


I ordered salmon sashimi (which was so melt-in-your mouth delicious!),


Tempura Udon,

Nabeyaki Udon

Some of the other items my friends ordered:



I had a great meal! And wanted to order even more but alas, I can't finish everything by myself. I was looking at all the dishes the people across from us ordered and I wanted to try them out too! Definitely a repeat visit is in order.

The first ever Caffeine Crawl in Canada and the 5th crawl in North America was held yesterday. Caffeine lovers spent a fun day in Vancouver visiting six artisan coffee and chocolate shops and the weather even cooperated! It was a beautiful day!

The crawl started at 10am at Salt Spring Coffee at 4295 Main Street. There were a few fellow crawlers already there when I arrived. Some crawlers came from out of town from Seattle and Texas just to attend this crawl in Vancouver! Each crawler were given a goodie bag that contained a bag of Salt Spring Coffee, a bottle of water (to remind us to keep hydrated), and a Barista Magazine.




We were told each stop will have an unique presentation prepared for us. Salt Spring Coffee made us a Orange Spice Mocha. Yummy mocha with a kick. Delicious! Just the drink to start the day off with!

 
Our second stop was Momento Coffeehouse located at 2766 West 4th Avenue.



Rick, the owner of the coffee house, brought in some pastries for us to go with the coffee. Don't drink coffee on an empty stomach!

 He showed us how to prepare pour over coffee using Salt Spring coffee.


 The result was a coffee that has fruity taste.


 Third stop was the chocolate shop, Xoxolat at 2391 Burrard Street.


 Look at these cool chocolate stilettos!

Mmmm! Look at all these chocolates! Every kind you can imagine! There's even a bacon chocolate!


 We were given chocolate samples and drinkable chocolate to taste.

 Blood and cherry chocolate! I also tried a lime and tortilla chip chocolate. So good!

We tried two drinkable chocolates: Milk chocolate with orange (which I LOVED) and Dark chocolate with chili.

Next stop was Prado Cafe on the Drive (1938 Commercial Drive).



Sammy Piccolo the owner of Prado is a world champion barista!

He prepared an iced coffee for us - coffee that was brew over ice (coffee was dripped onto the ice).



The next two places were downtown and as we were walking to them, we passed by Medina Cafe which was not part of the crawl but had a sign that fit the theme of the day! =)

Salty Tongue Cafe located at 213 Carrall Street in Gastown, next to The Irish Heather was our second to last stop in the crawl and we were treated to a long but interesting presentation that comprised of three parts.





First we did a coffee cupping which is a coffee tasting to evaluate coffee on taste, flavor, fragrance, and aroma. The practice involves sniffing the coffee, taking a spoonful then slurping the coffee loudly! LOL The coffees we tasted were from Costa Rica, Columbia and Ethiopia. They went from mild to bold flavours. I couldn't really tell them apart except for the bolder flavours.

Mike from Seattle Stumptown Coffee showed us the proper way of slurping coffee. The cup is for spitting out the coffee if you want.


 Next was a pour over coffee tasting. They ground the beans and prepared the coffee right in front of us.



The third station was a beer tasting! Coffee beer that is!

Brad from R&B Brewery explained how a coffee beer was made. The beer was swished back and forth through a tube of coffee beans I think.




I'm not a beer drinker so I can't really evaluate how it tastes compared to other beer. It is very carbonated and has the coffee colour but I'm not sure if I can taste the coffee flavour? Brad said that this beer was very boring until they added the coffee so I'll have to take his word for it. =)

 The last stop on the Caffeine Crawl was the Caffé Artigiano located at 740 West Hastings.








The two coffees we tried were La Marianela from Colombia (pour over coffee) and Murago from Burundi (French press).

 After the coffee tasting, we were given a Latte art demonstration by Darko.




Very cool.

I enjoyed the Caffeine Crawl very much though I was feeling the effects of caffeine overdose long after the crawl ended! I learned a lot about coffee and made some new friends!


Disclaimer: I had won a contest from Salt Spring Coffee to attend this concert. I was not expected to write anything and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any other way.