EAT! Vancouver was in BC Place for the second year in a row. The arrangement of the various booths was more spread out compared to last year and there was definitely less vendors in comparison to previous years. Another trend that I realized after the fact? Many of the vendors were all about being gluten-free and vegan friendly. There wasn't as much variety in terms of different kinds of foods either. But, still a good time overall. :)
Our first purchase of the day was Dad's Original BBQ Sauce from Honey Bunny. The company specializes in making products with all-natural organic honey. It tastes very different from your normal BBQ sauce, and has a really nice zing to it. I also tried their Honey Garlic sauce, which was much sweeter compared to the BBQ sauce, but again had a nice zing to it as well.
Our next visit was easily our favorite of the day. The company is Coconut Bliss and they make delectable ice cream-like desserts with coconut milk and agave nectar. I tried the chocolate peanut butter ice cream: WOW. It has the same texture as ice cream, and yet the coconut flavor is not even present! It was easily the most delicious ice cream I've ever tasted. We also tried one of their fruit ice creams, and again, all we could taste was yummy yummy fruit. They apparently are stocked at Save-On-Foods, so methinks we will be visiting our local Save-On in the near future!
Our next visit was the CheeCha Puffs booth. They are essentially like Cheetos, but far more variety in flavors, and WAY low on the calorie count. They are very light and crispy, and the flavors are very strong but not overpowering. We tried pretty much every flavor they had to offer, and ending up their three for five deal: blue cheese, dill, and Mesquite BBQ (probably one of the better BBQ-flavored chips I've tasted).
It was by this point that I was starting to feel a little more peckish, but I wanted to watch some of Anna Olson's show. We parked ourselves in the show area and hubby decided to crack open his Almond Milk sample from Earth's Own Almond Fresh (found in all the grab bags). I've had the Blue Diamond brand before, and it's good, but a little grainy for my tastes. I was pretty much expecting the same thing when trying the chocolate flavor of Earth's Own, but was very pleasantly surprised. The milk is very smooth and chocolatey, pretty much just like chocolate milk. We made sure to pass by their booth on the way out and I tried their coconut almond milk. It was DELISH, a million times better than the coconut milk that I've bought in the past. They are also supposedly at Save-On, so we have two things to keep an eye out for!
I then felt hungry enough for some bites, so hubby parked at a table and I proceeded to bring back various bites to share. The first bite I brought back was from Glowbal, clam chowder in a hallowed out bun. It was just too cute to not pass up! Luckily, it was also very tasty and filling. Hubby also went off to get us drinks and brought back a mango tea for me from Good Drink Company. It was very fruity, but not overpoweringly sweet either. The next bite that I brought back was a chicken skewer with peanut sauce and fresh made roti from Ebo. The roti was fantastic, very crisp with just the right amount of sweetness. The peanut sauce topping was very different from your standard peanut sauce; it definitely had a bit more kick to it, but still very good. My last bite came from Dunn's, an Eastern Canada import that quite recently opened in Vancouver. Their specialty? Montreal smoked meat. I got an open-faced Montreal smoked meat sandwich. The meat was extremely tender and fell apart quite easily. Yum! My only complaint with the Bites of Vancouver section was the lack of variety of foods; there were four different Indian restaurants (which they didn't have last year).
We finished off by heading to the Wine & Beer pavillion. We didn't stay too long, but we did try some ginger beer (surprisingly tasty) and chocolate wine (also quite surprisingly tasty). We also found these fantastic little chocolates from La Chocolaterie; the chef had fantastic flavors of Earl Grey tea, Green tea, strawberry, raspberry, mango and lemon basil (surprisingly tasty). We ended up purchasing a small container of the strawberry chocolates.
After a few hours of shopping, we headed to La Brasserie for dinner. I decided to go with my usual theme of French restaurants (even though we'll soon be experiencing the real thing in a little less than a month!). The restaurant is small and cozy, and by the time we were ready to leave, the restaurant was quite busy.
We didn't do any appetizers and went straight for the mains. I had the house-smoked duck breast with potatoes chamonix, vegetable ragu and orange demi-glaze. Hubby had the beer brined chicken on a bed of kale & mushrooms with confit garlic jus and frites. They offered hubby a choice of house made ketchup or mayonnaise to go with his frites; he opted for the ketchup.
My duck was pure perfection; perfectly crisp skin, very flavorful and tender. The vegetable ragout was made with shaved zucchini, asparagus, peas and roasted onions and went quite well with my duck. Absolutely delish! The potatoes chamonix were extremely crisp on the outside and fluffy and creamy on the inside. They had a slight taste of Dijon, just enough to give a little flavor. YUM. Hubby gave me a couple bites of his chicken, which was DIVINE. The beer brine made the chicken incredibly tender and added so much flavor to it. Hubby's frites were quite good as well, but I had a bit of a surprise with my first taste of the ketchup: it has fennel! It was a little too strong for my liking (never been a fan of licorice), so hubby asked for the mayonnaise as well. It was much nicer, and had a zing from the extra vinegar they added. Very tasty!
We then ordered the chocolate pate with chantilly and shaved walnut for dessert. It was incredibly rich and smooth, and the chantilly and walnut added just that little bit more dimension to the pate overall. Absolutely delicious! Overall, we had a great meal at La Brasserie! Definitely worth another visit for the amazing food. Enjoy the rest of the week and happy cooking all!