Creme de la Crumb for Custom Beverages

The other day, I met up with my one of my food blog idols in Vancouver, Follow Me Foodie. She is a dynamo with a passion and enthusiasm for food that is simply infectious....we worked together a bit last fall on a project and she is one of my favourite gals to gab about food with.
She suggested that we meet up at Creme de la Crumb so I could try some custom drinks that she designed/created for their menu. This new-ish bakery/cafe is tucked in the CBC Plaza at Hamilton and Georgia.

Of her three drinks, we had:

Pear and Almond Matte

"A concoction of real pear puree, almond milk and a hint of vanilla bean"

For me this drink was all about a mellow mix of subtle flavours. I used to drink steamed almond milk when I was 10, and this is a real sophisticated twist on that. The pear and vanilla worked really well together- aromatically and taste-wise. Smooth and luxourious.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

"A frozen malt of premium dark chocolates and cocoa topped with whipped cream"

I was impressed because it was lighter tasting than it looks and not as heavy and filling as many other cold chocolate drinks. You definitely get more malt and cocoa than the syrupy sweet "yo-hoo" flavour that I usually get with iced chocolate drinks.

700 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC V6B6G5www.cremedelacrumb.com

Overall, I was really impressed with this café/bakery. The interior was clean and bright, the deli counter case was full of tasty looking entrees, salads and baked goods. Two small things I loved: SAMPLES of their scones at the cash register (I tried a yummy, flaky one with coconut) and a pitcher of water garnished and infused with orange slices (so refreshing and an easy way to make the customer feel special.)

Creme De La Crumb Bakeshop

A taste of summer patio flava' on a cold and rainy day: The Roughrider

I'm usually a beer or vodka/tonic kinda girl...but when I met an old friend for a post-work bevvy and she said she had been craving one of these all day, I had to try one.

The Roughrider ($8) is Canadian Rye Whiskey shaken with pureed raspberries, black raspberry liqueur & fresh lime juice juice topped with ginger beer, served tall.

Holy crap- this drink goes down easy. Not too sweet, a little dry, with a slight bite, and sooooo refreshing. I could drink about 6 of these on a perfect summer patio afternoon.......

The Greedy Pig

307 Cordova St, Vancouver BC

http://thegreedypig.ca/

Cross Border Road Trip Eats with the Ladies

I went away to Seattle for the weekend with my BCIT ladies to celebrate a 30^th birthday. What did we do this weekend? We shopped and we ATE!

We left on the Friday evening and on our way to Tulalip, we decided to stop for dinner. The ladies wanted something classic and very “American”, so I suggested we hit Bob’s Burgers and Brew just over the border, right off the highway, around Bellingham. The place was packed and after a short wait, we were seated at a comfy booth, ordered and devoured our food. Our server was awesome- friendly, polite, enthusiastic, with a little bit of sass….we all agreed that if we lived there, we’d want to be her friend.  

Where's the lettuce?

K and S each ordered the Southwest Chicken Salad (10.99)- Romaine Lettuce with parmesan cheese and southwest dressing. Topped with slices of grilled chicken breast, black beans, corn, chopped tomatoes, red onion and crispy tortilla chips. These ladies were impressed with their meals- they marvelled at the overflowing salad plate, and were pleasantly surprised at all of the fresh ingredients – especially the corn. They both ordered dressing on the side, and although it looked a little sketchy, they both were surprised at how much they both liked the sweet, subtle flavour.

B fell in love with the menu description of the Stuffed Spud (13.99) and when it came out, it didn’t disappoint. It was a huge Washington grown bakers potato stuffed with swiss cheese, sautéed onions and hot grilled ham. Topped off with butter, real bacon, sour cream and chives. This massive meal also came with bread and a salad.

 T got a Classic 6oz Broiled Burger (8.99). This is Bob’s basic burger and T thought it was great: juicy, flavourful, it exceeded her expectations and she thought the fries were nice and crisp too. JB and I both got the Fresh Mushroom Burger (9.99), a 6oz juicy beef patty covered with cheese and smothered with a gargantuan amount of hot sautéed mushrooms on a bed of lettuce with sliced tomato, pickles, and savoury sauce.  The sautéed mushrooms were absolutely amazing,piled high on the bun, packed full of meaty, buttery, rich flavour. Thumbs up for giant portions of simple, classic, tasty, American comfort food.

The next morning our Holiday Inn provided a continental breakfast. It was pretty standard- 3 cereals, instant oatmeal, token pastries and muffins, toast and bagels, yogurt, coffee and juice- but for me, the bar has now been raised for all continental breakfasts with a MAKE YOUR OWN WAFFLE STATION (waffle batter and cast iron waffle iron). This was stellar and a great culinary start to the day. I topped mine with sliced banana, peanut butter, and a light maple syrup drizzle. B customized hers with a jam and cream cheese topping for a cheesecake style waffle.

The rest of the girls hit Nordstorm Café at Northgate Mall for a late lunch. I didn’t partake in this meal, but I’ve had lunch here in the past and loved it, in particular their tomato basil soup and Bistro Club Sandwich- sliced chicken breast, crisp bacon, tomato, avocado and French green beans with garlic aioli on toasted rustic bread.

The birthday girl got to late dinner spot and she had her heart set on PF Chang’s.  This place was like American-style Aasian fusion Earls/Cactus Club/Joey’s. We had a short wait at the upper bar area- service was fantastic and I enjoyed the bartender’s recommendation of Mac and Jack’s, a locally brewed beer. My first impression wasn’t that great- our service was kind of cranky and the strong smell of Lush cosmetics was impacting my taste buds (we were seated near the front of house and the restaurant was in a mall). Our server mixed up delicious dipping and hot sauces and warmed up a bit, was very helpful in helping JB order around her food allergies. The food came and it was good, but not great. Pretty much your basic Americanized Chinese food: saucy, without a real strong flavour.

For me, the stand-outs were the Chang’s Chicken/Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps- quickly cooked chicken/tofu with cool lettuce cups, and the stir-fried eggplant tossed with scallions in a savoury chili pepper sauce, the banana spring roll- warm, crispy bites with coconut-pineapple ice cream and drizzled with caramel and vanilla sauces- AND the plastic dessert models that our server brought out to show us what the desserts looked like.

The next morning, we took a stroll to Pike Place Market. I love Pike Place….the area is foodie paradise with soooo many amazing coffee shops, the crazy fish mongers, the aggressive produce vendors dishing out samples with sass, bakeries (Le Panier), ethnic foods (piroshkis), cheese shops (beecher’s), and much more.

My fantastic friend, Heather is a travel and food encyclopedia and for a previous trip she had recommended Etta’s for a proper “market brunch.” I saw its awning and large giant plate glass window that looks across to the bustle of Pike Place and the Seattle waterfront. The atmosphere is classy, yet laid back. Service was a little slow, but we all though our extremely earnest and knowlegible server was  fantastic from start to finish. He really impressed us by acknowledging any kind of delay or problem and being extremely apologetic, and being really friendly and nice.

K and S ordered house made granola, fresh fruit, willapa hills yogurt  12- they let me have a spoonful and the yogurt was out-of-this-world thick and creamy.

T, B and JB ordered etta's breakfast: two farm eggs, chicken sausage or bacon, home fries and artisan toast 14- I tried the hashbrowns (crispy, well-seasoned and delicious) the bacon (crispy, well-seasoned and delicious), and although I was eying JB’s chicken sausage, I didn’t want to interrupt because she was really enjoying it.

I ordered the Daily Special: Pozole- a tomato based mexican soup with braised pork butt, hominy (a type of corn), shredded cabbage and cilantro, topped with two poached eggs and shredded tortilla 14- This was a fantastic dish in terms of flavour, texture, and quality ingredients. The meat was tender and falling apart, the broth was rich and velvety, the hominy gave the dish an earthiness, the crunch of the fresh veg was a nice touch, and when the yolk from the eggs started oozing all over the other ingredients….well, it was a thing of beauty. Simple, yet complex, and all over delicious.

Other memorable food moments included trips to Albertson’s (Old Fashioned Glazed Donuts) and Walmart (Mammoth Cheez Balls and other atrocities).

Superbowl Gluttony





This year, was my first appearance at a long-standing super bowl party that has become a serious tradition...this was the fifth year that this group of friend’s has held a pre-super bowl game of touch football on the same soggy Burnaby field, before heading back to the host house to watch the game, drink a lot of beer, and eat a lot of food.

Cheer-off: The Pyramids!

This year, some new elements were woven into the tapestry of this tradition: along with the usual “kick to win: field goal distance kick-off”(this year’s winner: Kyle Murphy), there was a “cheer-off” at half time, and this year, this group took excessive eating to a whole new level by adding a weight gain competition (I'm calling it The Gluttony Bowl).




Pre-game weigh in

 At the beginning of the Super Bowl, brave and hungry participants stepped up to the scale with a seemingly simple goal: to reach the end of the game with highest percentage of weight gain.

Tasty tradition: the ham

There was quite a selection of food to help these brave food warriors with their goal- a stock pot full of chilli, a glazed ham
, pulled pork, a variety of dips (seven layer, Indian cumin, eggplant, salsa), 5 varieties of chips, Schwartz (a baked cheesy potato dish), stuffed mushroom caps, pasta salad, chicken wings, a veggie platter, buns, sausage, cookies, cinnamon buns, a chocolate football cake,

a Steelers cake (rainbow chip), a Green Bay cake (chocolate), and Guiness cupcakes with a light guiness frosting.


You could've bathed a small child in this tub of chili



Also contributing were a fridge and two coolers full of beer….with many participants chugging a beer between each quarter.

A half-time weigh in had my “sous-chef” looking like he might have victory wrapped up with an jaw-dropping 7 lb weight gain… but at the end of the fourth quarter, the winner of the 1^st annual Belt-Busting-Bloated Bowl was Adam with an awe-inspiring 7.6 lb weight gain. Adam was the actually the lightest guy going into the competition and with a lot of strategy, grit, and determination to avoid any kind of lb.- dropping excretion, Adam walked away with the win.

7.6 lb weight gain!

Adam thanked his wife, Leah, for all of her support and credited his win to chugging a lot of beer (and water) right before the final weigh in…although the 4 pulled pork/ham sandwiches certainly played a big role too.

Clockwise from top centre: pulled pork on pita with hot sauce, 7 layer dip on chip, cumin spiked indian dip on cucumber, Schwartz and mushroom caps. This was probably my 2nd of 4 full plates that afternoon. I felt like I had a Gremlin in my stomach trying to claw his way out......

My food highlights were the pulled pork (it wasn’t very saucy so I added Frank’s hot sauce), the cheese and veggie stuffed mushroom caps, and the seven layer dip. The desserts were all pretty epic: amazing cinnamon buns with just the right amount of icing, beautifully decorated football and helmet cakes, and the inspired Guiness cupcakes (makes for a dense texture and rich flavour).

The actual game itself was pretty good too- with a few nail-biting moments, it was nice to see the Green Bay Packers finish a great season with a big Super Bowl victory.

MyChef South Indian Cooking Class

For Christmas, I received a “gift of experience”, a cooking class (of my choice.) Now, I love to research (especially when it comes to food) and this definitely required some research to meet my desire for a class that was A. hands-on B. featured some meat-less/dairy-free items on the menu for my cooking partner C. was reasonably priced (I don’t feel comfortable making someone spend too much on me…)I stumbled across MyChef on Yelp, liked the sound of the “South Indian wonders” class in January, and made a call to inquire about the menu and the hands-on factor. I received a lovely call back from Chef Francois who let me know that the group was small so we would be pretty hands-on and let me know that only one of the dishes had meat and dairy in it. Done and done!

We arrived on a Monday night at the Kingsway community centre and after a bit of confusion, found ourselves in a generic meeting room with a kitchen set-up. We were a group of 8, and there was room for us to stand and lean across the long counter facing the stove-top as Chef Francois introduced himself and explained that the night would go through 6 South Indian Dishes and that we would sit down and eat at the end (7:30-10pm). There was enough space, but the room didn’t have much atmosphere or anything in the way of cool décor- also, some bar stools for us to sit on would have been nice. In his introduction, he said he loved Indian food, and gave a shout out to the neighbouring Chutney Villa as a favourite place (me too! Love their katrika chops eggplant dish!) He had a laid-back approach to this cooking class, and said he would talk and demo through each recipe and get us to help along the way. He encouraged us to ask questions and wasn’t afraid to let us get in there.

We started learning some basics of Indian cooking with the preparation of the filling for the Mushroom and Cashew Nut Samosas- making your own Ghee from butter, going through the different basic spices, powders and seeds- where we could buy them and how long they would last. He got almost everyone involved at this stage with chopping.

The next dish, we started was the Guava Coconut Salad. More chopping, peeling, and slicing. Things started to speed up around this point and multi-tasking really kicked in. He showed us and then had us, de-bone and chop chicken thighs, started making chicken stock for the rice, and started the execution of the Chicken Curry. Once, all the crucial ingredients were in the curry, he taught us show to stove-top roast red peppers, peel the skin off, and then had a few girls in the class basically finish making the Red Pepper Chutney.

After de-boning the chicken thighs for a while, I got a quick demo on Samosa wrapping (using spring roll wrappers and sealing with an egg) and I dove into that task.

 Things were a bit chaotic, and I feel like instructions and demo went a bit out the window while a few people worked on the Carrot Halwa dessert dish and the Spinach with Baby Potato side dish (in fact I kind of missed out on this because I was busy wrapping samosas).

 After every dish was finished it was around 9:30am and we all went down to the Mychef café in the community centre. This had beautiful, funky décor and a cool atmosphere. It was great to sit down with our group, relax, and enjoy the dishes. Everything was delicious!

Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. Our group was three other extremely nice couples, Francois was also very nice, talented, and knowledgeable, the menu featured a great variety and the food was damn tasty…and for the most part pretty healthy. My complaint would be that things started at a great pace and everyone was learning a lot, but as the night went on, things got rushed and I think a lot of the teaching and demo were sacrificed in order to complete all three dishes. I think if Chef Francois had an assistant it would help to run things along a bit more smoothly with pre-chopping, stove management, and cleaning knives/cutting boards/plates and bowls.

MyChef

http://www.mychefsolutions.com/?q=node/10