This weekend the annual Eat! Vancouver food festival is taking place in BC Place. I went to the first day of the show after work with Pat. The ticket price is $12 regular, $10 with a donation to the food bank. So I bring along some old canned food digged up from my self that I will never eat. There are many free food samples in the show. On top of that, I bought some tickets to try larger sampling plate and alcohol drinks. The best part of the festival is the Food Channel cooking show hosted by Iron Chef winner Rob Feenie. His show is quite funny, I am not bored for hour long show. Best of all, I get the chance to try his dishes after the show. Most people just left after he is done without expecting they can actually taste the dish. Me and Pat went to the front to try our luck. Only a few people was standing there and we were just looking at the dishes at first. Somehow I’m brave enough to ask the host whether can I taste it. Out of my expectation, the host cut up the steak and fios gras, bring out four forks, and tell us to help ourself. Obviously they are not prepared to share the dishes with the audience, otherwise they should have prepared more folks. Pat also bought a recipe book written by Feenie and have him autographed. The food festival is definitely a good event to be to have a date with your girlfriend. Tasting the dish prepared by the Iron Chef is my highlight of the day, I guess I will have a good dream tonight.
Tag Archives: food
wine tasting festival
Tonight I went to wine tasting festival with Pat. The festival has vineyard from all over the world, provides sampling over 300 different labels. The theme of this year is South Africa wine, and there is live South African music performance. I never had that much wine in a single day, I had tried over 50 different kind of wine, including some expensive ones that are over hundred dollars.
The most expensive one I tasted is almost $300 a bottle, the booth use a dripper to measure the amount of wine to serve. Each serving worth almost $10, I don’t think I will drink this wine if I have to pay for it myself. That wine is too concentrated, a bit strong, not the type I like. On top of all the wines, the festival also has chess and snack tasting and a cooking show. I happened to be at the cooking show when the chef just finish the dishes. So I get to try out the halibat and duck breast, very delicious. There are quite some other freebes in the show too, I drank a few bottles of water, even brough two bootle home. To help the shower goeres go home safely, it gives out free skytrain ticket when we leave.
I don’t know much in wine drinking and actually I can’t even taste the difference between all those wines. All I can tell is whether the wine is sweet or bitter, whether it irritate my throat or not. At the end, the only guideline I use is the price of the wine to determine which one I will try. I think use the information of the market to determine quality should be most accurate. The event really worth the ticket price I pay for. I feel pity for my cheap friends who don’t come just because they think it is too expensive. Since I had consumed too much alcohol, I had a bad headache right now. Hopefully it will go away after I had a good night of sleep.
There is an intering small thing I had noticed today. When I was tasting wine at one booth, there was an old man come by and try some wine. The exhibitionist offer him to try out their best bottle. He replied that he can’t afford it and walked away without trying. Didn’t we all come to the festival to drink free expensive wine to optimize our return on the ticket fee? I can never understand the mind of those who refuse a shot from a a $80 bottle, yet taste some cheap $20 bottle from the same vineyard.
relaxing weekend
I had a pretty relaxing weekend. Originally I planned to go to Whistler with Pat to try out her new snowboard, but at the end my friends planed the ski trip. So I end up stay here in Vancouver and have a date with Pat. We went to lunch, movie, then dinner yesterday, and church and had a hair cut today. My new hair style is pretty short, looks kinda weird. We also tried out the new shaved ice place in Aberdeen center, quite tasty, very different from normal shaved ice. Highly recommanded.