The 41th annual Vancouver International Wine Festival event is returning between February 23 to March 03, 2019. This year’s themed wine region is California! The wine festival will feature 175 Wineries and 15 Countries – with 53 participating wineries from California. Tickets sales for the public events starts Wednesday, January 9th, 2019. Get them before it sells out! Aside from the Tasting Room itself, there are lots of wine events including Winery Dinners (this and this),  Wine Seminars, Wine Minglers, popular Vintners Brunch, etc. The wine festival’s tasting room is a great place to familiarize yourself with different species, discover new wines and return to your favourite premium wines.

Vancouver International Wine Festival is described as “the largest wine festival in the Western Hemisphere” with 25,000+ admissions. It is Canada’s premier wine show and widely considered to be one of the best wine events in the world.

I remember the first time I went to a Wine Festival many years ago and I did not pace myself for the event. Meaning… I was drunk before I even made it past the second row. It’s all laughs and giggles now, but gosh I had to sit down. If you’ve never been to a wine festival, you should! It is also useful to familiarize yourself with a few etiquettes to help you feel more comfortable. Here you 10 useful tips to maximizing your wine-festival enjoyment!

TEN THINGS TO KNOW FOR THE BEST WINE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Eat: A wine festival is not a food event. Make sure you have a meal before you arrive and snack throughout your time at the festival. Food samples (ex. crackers, cheeses, olive oil and bread) are available to enhance your wine tasting experience.

Footwear: Expect a lot of walking and standing. For example, the Vancouver International Wine Festival is held at the Vancouver Convention Centre and has carpeted floors. Wearing heels will tire you out quickly. If you are at an outdoor wine festival, you may take a guided tour that leads you into a vineyard (gravel, green lawn). Better to trade in your heels for a pair of feel good footwear like these or these.

More Room: If you want more room and time to try the wines and to talk with the winery principals, option to attend Thursday evening and Saturday matinee sessions. Fridays and weekend evenings are most busy.

Sip and Spit: If you swallow every wine you taste you will be drunk pretty quick! Each booth will have spittoon/container for you to spit and pour your wine away. Don’t think of spitting as uncouth. Only drink the wines you absolutely adore!

No Perfume: Please don’t wear perfume, cologne or overly scented personal products. Your scent can impact others tasting experience and you will upset a lot of people.

Designated Driver: Bring along a designated driver. Or take transit. BC Liquor Stores offers a free transit ticket at their Get Home Safe booth as you exit. Another great option is to book a hotel room for the evening.

Keep Score: Keep track of your wine tastings of what you like. Keep track of the wine and what you liked about the flavor. This will help you remember which wines you liked the day after if you wanted to purchase them at your local liquor store.

Free bottle check/Wine Delivery: The Vancouver International Wine Festival offers free wine bottle checks. All wine served are available for purchase. Make sure to ask the winery principal if the one you like is available for purchase at your local liquor store. Some are sold in very limited supply at the festival itself like this creamy marmalade Oyster Bay Riesling Botrytised 2011.

Wear White with Caution: I would suggest not to wear white unless it’s the color in your wardrobe. Be caution of spilling or other people bumping into you. If you must, bring an instant stain remover with you ok?

Have Fun: Seriously. Have fun!

more: GUSTO LATINOAMERICANO | Italian Dinner at Yew Seafood LA VITA RUFFINO | WINES OF VENETO & SICILY 

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The Vancouver International Wine Festival
URL: http://vanwinefest.ca/
Cuisine: Wine

Vancouver Convention Centre West, Ballroom D
1055 Canada Place Way, Vancouver

Com Vietnamese is a brand spanking new restaurant in Richmond on the corner of Lansdowne and Alderbridge Way. The 2 story high loft ceiling restaurant is beautiful, bright and well designed by Ste. Marie Design Studio Glasfurd & Walker, who worked together on Coquille, Kissa Tanto, Botanist, Savio Volpe – just to name a few. This modern looking Vietnamese restaurant menu focuses on traditional Southern Vietnamese cuisine – just how Grandma makes it. And in case you were wondering, the name Co’m means “rice” in Vietnamese.

The 75 seater restaurant features tables, booth seats, and bar area with an impressive cocktail program. Come summer 2019 you will also be able to enjoy their 20 seat patio.

Where To Park?

There are plenty of free parking in the Tempo Building off Alderbridge, street parking on Cedarbridge Way, and paid parking at the ORA Building around the corner.

Chả Giò (Pork Spring Roll) 8.50: This crispy spring roll is made with minced pork, carrot, taro, black mushrooms and glass noodles. Served with lettuce, fresh mixed herbs and nước mắm.

Papaya Salad 16.50: This is one of my favourite Vietnamese salads. Loaded with fresh papaya, carrot, lemon, onion, mixed herbs, prawn, pork loin, peanuts and house made dressing. Tangy and sweet with lots of different textures for a great mouth feel.

Thank You, Com Vietnamese for having me as a guest!

more: Anh and Chi, Chi Modern Vietnamese, Burma Superstar

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Com Vietnamese
URL: https://www.comvietnamese.com
Cuisine: Southern Vietnamese Cuisine

Hours:
Mon 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Tue 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Wed 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Thu 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Fri 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Sat 11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Sun 11:00 am – 9:00 pm

7688 Alderbridge Way #120, Richmond, BC V6X 2A2
Phone: (604) 285-2654

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the weather gets colder, I crave hearty, stew like dishes. Chicken Cacciatore is the perfect rustic poultry-vegetable ‘hunter’s stew.’ Making chicken cacciatore is super easy and it pairs great with rice, grains or pasta. And I love that it is filled with lots of delicious heirloom tomatoes. For this recipe, we’ve partnered with Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry (@fraservalleyspecialtypoultry), Buy BC (@eatdrinkbuybc) and Chef Clement Chan  of Torafuku (@clementkitchan) on a very special project called “Cook Poultry Like A Pro.” #cookpoultrylikeapro #buybc

The key concept to the “Cook Poultry Like A Pro” is to raise awareness to support Buy BC Poultry For Freshness & Quality, Like the Pros Do! There are many benefits of buying high quality ethically and sustainably raised products that are raised locally here in British Columbia. “This province-wide networking event brings together chefs, farmers and food producers from across British Columbia to create more opportunities to bring BC food to plates around the province.” Not only are you buying fresh, in-season products but you are also supporting BC’s agriculture sector! #EatDrinkLocal #BuyBC #BCTastesBetter

The “Cook Poultry Like A Pro” project includes five dishes that were created by five different local celebrity chefs. Four food bloggers, like myself, will recreate these dishes at home. For this project, I choose the Chicken Cacciatore recipe from Clement Chan because I love his incorporation of Asian flavours in this classic rustic Italian dish. Something I often do when I’m at home too!

Meet The Five Celebrity Chef Recipes

• Chicken Cacciatore by Chef Clement Chan (Torafuku)
• Whole Roasted Chicken by Chef Alex Hon (West)
• Whole Roasted Duck by Chef Trevor Bird (Fable Kitchen)
• Roasted Squab by Chef Connor Sperling (Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar)
• Roasted Goose by Chef David Hawksworth (Hawksworth Restaurant, Nightingale, and Bel Café)

When it comes to grocery shopping, we usually don’t like stocking more than 2 day’s worth. I love shopping at local farmers market and when it comes to poultry, I highly recommend Buy BC Poultry for freshness and quality, like the pros do! Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry are organic and raised without the use of antibiotics. The products are also available at The Farm Store in Chilliwack and at the following locations listed on their website.

Follow along our recipe below and also entered the online contest and vote for “The Recipe You Want to Challenge the Most.“

Sometimes when you order Chicken Cacciatore at restaurants, a lot of times it tends to have an overly sweet sauce with a overcooked piece of chicken. For Clement’s Hunter’s Stew we used both chicken leg quarters (bone-in) and full chicken wings. This is perfect because I’m a dark meat kind of girl and definitely a wings fan! The use of thighs will give this dish the needed juiciness.

After I removed the legs quarters and wings, I saved the remaining meat cuts and carcass to make a pot of nourishing Chinese soup.

To make the brine, in a small pot, toast coriander and cumin until fragrant. Add water, salt, sugar and bay leaf and bring up to a simmer. Strain the brine to a container and add ice so the brining water cools down and doesn’t cook the chicken when you place the chicken into the liquid. Allow the chicken to marinade for 2 hours in the fridge.

Meanwhile the chicken is being marinated, rough chop your vegetables. This is rustic cooking. I love that you don’t have to worry about size or anything else. Chicken Cacciatore in Northern Italy includes onions, carrots and celery. In the South, anchovies, olives and chili peppers are often used. Clement Chan version, incorporates bonito flakes, dashi, yuzu peel and also uses sake to deglaze the pan.

Fold in canned tomatoes, fresh heirloom tomatoes and jubilee cherry tomatoes. Add in peppers, mushrooms and organic baby carrots.

Pin the above image to your Comfort Meal recipe board to bookmark this page. We are so excited to share delicious recipes with you!

more: INSTANTPOT TAIWANESE GREEN ONION BEEF ROLLS RECIPE | 牛肉捲餅 | MOTT 32 卅二公館 | Torafuku Summer Menu | PIG TROTTER WITH BLACK VINEGAR AND GINGER RECIPE 豬腳薑醋

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry and may contain affiliate links and/or products submitted to Nomss for editorial consideration. To find out more, please visit our About/Disclaimer page.. All opinions are my own. 

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This post contains affiliate links and/or products submitted to Nomss for editorial consideration. To find out more, please visit our About/Disclaimer page.

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