After we went back to the Legislature and then to West Edmonton Mall (no, it was only one visit to WEM, I am narrating things slightly out of sequence), some of Trinh’s friends were having dinner and they were very gracious to let me join them. The real kicker/interesting part? The person cooking (“L”) is a food blogger who drove from Calgary to cook the dinner! (No, he wasn’t there cooking for me but for their friends. I just happened to be there at the right time… Lucky? ). Here are the dishes “L” cooked.
OK, actually, this is a drink prepared for me…
(Warning, this post is a photo-essay of sorts. It contains a lot of pictures and, as a result, I have broken it in part 1 and this part 2).
About a month ago, I wrote about an out of town guest whom I called TNG (and, from here on, after given authorization to use her real name, I will refer her as such: Trinh). Truth is Trinh is from Edmonton and has been in Vancouver a couple of times. As for myself, living in Vancouver for 8+ years, I have seldom been around town other than usual places. So, when my task was to showcase some “other locations”, well, I had to resort to the help of others. And I believe it actually worked, as Trinh seemed to enjoy the places we went, not to mention the dinner we had at City Temple of Shanghai in the end (not necessarily the food but, at least, the company). So, a couple of weeks prior to BC Day, somehow the idea pops out: Would I consider visit Edmonton, given I haven never been there? (Just in case, they celebrate Heritage Day on that same long weekend). At first, I was hesitant but, in the end, why not! So I checked with Trinh and that seemed to be a good idea. So, I booked myself a ticket to the place a lot of us diss (and sometimes even themselves) as “Deadmonton”.
(Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the airport or some major sign saying “Edmonton”. However, given the high price of gas in BC, I think this works quite well…)
(Warning, this post is a photo-essay of sorts. It contains a lot of pictures and, as a result, I have broken it in part 1 and part 2).
If you live in Canada or are Canadian, yes, it is that time of the year…. If you are NOT from Canada or do not have a Canadian connection, today is Canada Day! Despite some crazy things that have occured in the last 365 days, some great, like the Winter Olympic Games, some embarrasing, like what happened during the G8/G20 (though I wonder how/why those who incited these “riots” can love this country… Assuming, that is, if they are Canadian to being with), I will have to say I love this country.
My last year post, I made reference to a hilarious song called “Canadian Please” and, today, it is as funny as it was last year. For this year, I was thinking what is most appropriate… While several things came to my head, I think this song fits the best… Young Artists For Haiti – Wavin’ Flag
(As for runner up, I was thinking on food, specifically, what dish represents Canada – with poutine being the front runner. So, just in case, if you are not Canadian, you might want to check this video blog series by fellow blogger Mijune of Follow Me Foodie about exactly that, poutine in Davie Street in Vancouver!)
“One of the most “interesting” food related news in Vancouver is that of rumours/hearsay/almost certain that Vancouver City Hall will be allowing street food vendors to expand their menu by allowing other dishes (aside from the current chestnut and hot dogs menu). So far, pretty much every body sounds excited about this… Probably except me. See, Toronto tried it some time ago and, as somebody mentioned, it was doomed to failure. While I haven’t read the full details yet whether restrictions that plagued Toronto will happen also in Vancouver, some entrepreneurs are almost ready to go ahead. So, why I am not as optimistic as them?
Those who know me personally can vouch for what I going to say: At times, I could need a disclaimer simliar to the one you see at the beginning of South Park. Haven’t watched South Park? It goes something like this:
All characters and events in this show—even those based on real people—are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…..poorly. The following program contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by anyone.
Yes, a lot of times, I don’t hold back and profanity/vulgarity is used every other word if necessary. Furthermore, I can be *really* sarcastic. While I won’t match Salam (of Le Charcuterie), I can piss a lot of people off if I want to (even at times, I do it un-intentionally!). Anyway, the reason I mention this is because this post is a tongue-in-cheek one I wrote some time ago but chose not to publish it. However, for some reason, I though “why not?”. That is despite I know it might… No, it WILL offend some people (even alienating some of my own readers, not to mention some food bloggers). As a result, proceed at your risk! (If you have a thick skin or sick sense of humour, of course, go ahead!).
So, what it is about? This is a twits of a couple of articles I read long time ago about the seven levels of artists and surfers. In this case, my twist is that of food bloggers (though, it can easily be extended into “social media”… Darn, I hate that term!). Without further ado…
Level 7: The equivalent of heaven. Those who are in this level have achieved the perfection… They are paid to eat/talk/write about food and people enjoy that. Their might be a detractor or two but it is mainly because of their jealousy and the fact they will never be able to achieve this level. Anthony Bourdain is among the few who have achieved this.
In the last year or so, a new type of “restaurants” have hit Vancouver silently. How secret? Well, how about it not necessarily registered as a “restaurant” at all? Yes, I am talking about underground restaurants, where cooks (sometime professionals, other times, regular John Doe who are skilled cooks) open their kitchen and, for a “donation”, they will cook a meal for you. It has been feature in local printed media like The Vancouver Sun and The Globe and Mail. While fellow food bloggers have visited and written about it, I have told them I wasn’t that interested in visiting them (more in a moment). However, in a “you can’t comment about it before you have done it” line of thought, I decided to tag along on an outing organized by Jonathan of Food and Tell. The chosen “underground” restaurant? Swallow Tail Super Club.
This is the last part of my series on what I have learned all these years taking pictures. As mentioned, in my previous three post, these are the planned topics:
This final part is about post-processing. In a way, for most people, they would have stopped in the previous step, i.e., after taking the picture, they would use the JPEG file and that would be end of the story. However, there are times that, well, those pictures didn’t necessarily turn out the way you want it. For example, if a setting was wrong, white balance was incorrect or so on. True, while you can see it in the preview, the in camera preview is that big and can only show that much. Here is for the remaining cases – which, unfortunately for me, that would be >80% of the time. Yes, I am making a confession here: I am not a big shot photographer as people believe. I have still a lot to learn and need some help to produce those results you see here…
). Here are the dishes “L” cooked.
Why Street Food Will Fail in Vancouver
by KimHo on June 27, 2010 under: British Columbia,Comments,Random
“One of the most “interesting” food related news in Vancouver is that of rumours/hearsay/almost certain that Vancouver City Hall will be allowing street food vendors to expand their menu by allowing other dishes (aside from the current chestnut and hot dogs menu). So far, pretty much every body sounds excited about this… Probably except me. See, Toronto tried it some time ago and, as somebody mentioned, it was doomed to failure. While I haven’t read the full details yet whether restrictions that plagued Toronto will happen also in Vancouver, some entrepreneurs are almost ready to go ahead. So, why I am not as optimistic as them?
Read more…!
Tagged as: Random