It’s a new year, and you’ve been fasting and cleansing right? Well January is over, and it’s time to get decadent again — and what better way to break promises and resolutions than with Tales of the Cocktail, happening in our fair city February 12-15.

It’s the 2^nd year for the New Orleans-based booze-fest to hit our city, and local mixologists are getting ready to put their own twists on classic cocktails. The event, in many ways, is a preview of what’s to come at this summer’s Tales of the Cocktail main event in New Orleans. Lucky for Vancouverites, we’re getting an early nip.

With seminars celebrating the classic Canadian Ceasar to tea-based drinks, the festival has something for every imbiber. I’m particularly looking forward to “Around the World in Whisky Days” where Eddie Russell will walk participants through Wild Turkey’s newest whiskeys that are making their Canadian debut this year. Also on my agenda is “Born to Mix” where Dushan Zaric gives a beginner course in the creation of the cocktail using Aperol and Campari, as well as SKYY Vodka. If you’re used to just knocking them back, you’ll learn to slow down and savour as sugar content, place of origin, aging and infusion, distilling and filtering are all explored.

Oh…and there are parties too. If you aren’t staying at the Fairmont, where it’s all taking place, it would be wise to set up shop nearby for the suggested costume changes (30s themed party, red Valentines themed night), naps and maybe just a quiet corner to sober up in.

We fiercely promote all the fun times, food, culture, and entertainment the city has to offer along with the creative minds behind them.

Follow more of my work/coverage over at RICKCHUNG.COM and on Twitter at @RICKCHUNG.

You can pitch me HERE.

Volume 55: BC Tree Fruits‘ 52nd annual Apple Month celebration at V-Lounge at Earls Restaurant in Yaletown on February 6, 2012. Hashtag: #AppleMonth. More photos available on Flickr.

I had no idea February did double duty as not only Black History Month, but also, Apple Month. Interesting.

I hit up BC Tree Fruits’ celebration of the 52nd annual Apple Month at V-Lounge in Yaletown. Mijune Pak of Follow Me Foodie fame presented her apple pie in-a-jar dish, a modified version of her Canadian pie featured on the Food Network‘s Recipes to Riches.

“Each February, Apple Month encourages Canadians to enjoy and celebrate the variety of delicious apples grown in our own backyard.”

Earls Head Chef Martin Keyer created an apple inspired menu. We sampled the tasty creations including apple spiked beverages. It basically tasted like an Apple mojito.

I chomped on some delicious grilled chicken mini sandwiches with brie, apple slices on ciabatta bread.

Be sure to check out Mijune’s apple pie in-a-jar public tasting at Salty Tongue Cafe on February 18.and enjoy the rest of Apple Month.

FestEVOLVE marks the occasion of Charles Darwin’s birthday with activities that explore Darwin’s adventures, how evolution happens, and how it helps us understand the biodiversity on Earth. Charles Darwin, who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the giant tree of life, would have turned 203-years-old this February.

Enter Darwin’s world through daily evolution-themed tours, interactive stations and games, as well as special weekend programs. Put yourself in Darwin’s shoes and get hands-on with specimens in the lab, learn about Darwin’s journey in our special weekend lectures, and participate in daily programming that highlights relationships among species.

FestEVOLVE events include:

Daily Programming

• Museum Tours: Tour the museum through the lens of evolution, and hear stories that reveal what we know about past biodiversity, change, heritage, and adaptation
• Evolution Activities: Explore the collections as visitors search for evolutionary stories, and complete a scavenger hunt for a chance to win a museum prize
• Interactive activities and scavenger hunt

Weekend Programming

• Puppet Shows: What specimens had taught Darwin about how organisms change over time to survive better in their environment
• DNA extraction demonstrations: Learn about our genetic blueprint and how it is passed down from generation to generation

Bake a Cake for Darwin contest
(Friday, February 10 at 3:30 p.m.)
Bake the best evolution-themed cake and bring it to the Museum to celebrate Darwin’s 203^rd for a chance to win a prize.

The Life and Times of Charles Darwin
Saturday, February 11 at 1:00 p.m.
A presentation by Greg Bole as a young Charles Darwin talking about his life and family, his adventures on the Beagle and the development of his most important ideas.

Darwin’s Shadows
Sunday, February 12 at 1:00 p.m.
A lecture by Greg Bole about Charles Darwin, as well as the family and friends who influenced Darwin’s life. What is the origin of The Origin of Species?

Stranger than Fiction: Virus Outbreaks in the Movies and the World
(Sunday, February 19, at 2:30 p.m.)
Learn about the evolving world of viruses in contagious diseases as we reveal the fact and fiction behind disaster film diseases (e.g. Outbreak, Contagion) and discuss some recent real-world outbreaks.

For more information, please visit http://www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/events#festevolve.

This week I got to see two awesome Toque Sessions performances at the CBC, including Yukon Blonde playing their new album front to back. Which makes me anxious for the rest of you to hear it! Hope to see you at some shows this week!…

OH! And did you see the new music video for Said The Whale? They’re releasing one every Tuesday until their album is out, and guess who created them? Our wonderful pals at Amazing Factory. CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC: is busy busy! Wednesday go check out Jody Glenham at the Biltmore with The Butterfield Review, and Old Mare. Thursday Sad Mag is having a Valentines Day comedy show at the Colbalt (I’m running a photobooth!). Friday is busy busy! Mother Mother has their Toque Session at the CBC at 7:30pm, Hey Ocean!, and Elias are at Venue, The Lost Soul Revue is happening at the Waldorf, and Yacht is performing at the Media Club with Oh No! Yoko. Saturday is equally as full of goodness, The Be Good Tanyas are at The Vogue Theatre, and Carpenter, Cory Woodward, and more are at The Media Club. Finally after a nice rest on Sunday, head to the Biltmore on Monday to see Gold & Youth!!!

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Our friends in the wonderful Vancouver band Elias not only have a show coming up this Friday with Hey Ocean (at Venue as part of the City and Slope festival) but they have a brand new record out NEXT WEEK! Since we like THEM so much we asked for a playlist of THEIR favourite Vancouver-y bands and they delivered:

If you work in marketing and advertising I can promise an interesting night of conversation followed by a musical set by the Junebugs. HERE is all of the info and below is Dave from Hootsuite’s recent TEDxCAPU talk to give you an idea of what you’re in for, just in case you’ve never met him or seen/heard him speak…

So instead of scrapping my post all together for fear of underwhelming readers with an all too similar post, I thought that I would write more about FeastVan and what it means to the community it is supporting – and why you should in turn support it for its final few days.

For those of you who don’t know what FeastVan is, here is a crash course:

FeastVan is a two and a half week dining event running from January 20th to February 5th which was created to help introduce diners to the incredible array of restaurants that East Vancouver has to offer.  FeastVan is a chance for foodies, casual eaters and Vancouver visitors alike to enjoy a selection of specially priced three-course meals from some of East Vancouver’s best restaurants.

Okay so this sounds a bit familiar, right?  Vancouver abounds with dining events throughout the year – what makes FeastVan so special?

First of all it focuses on and showcases the incredible and thriving East Side and the restaurants that make it a foodies dream come true.  With most menus ranging between $30-$35 for three courses, even those on a budget can afford to treat themselves all while supporting the Vancouver Inner City Back Pack Food Program .

So how exactly does your dinner help the program?  $1 from every specially priced three-course meal for lunch and/or dinner will go towards the Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program, and a percentage of the proceeds from every keg of R&B Brewing East Side Bitter will also go towards the program.

Participating Restaurants:

• Au Petit Chavignol
• Cafeteria
• Campagnolo Roma
• The Cascade Room
• Founders Lounge (@ the Cultch)
• Fray
• Habit
• Latitude
• les amis du FROMAGE
• Les Faux Bourgeois
• R&B Brewing Co.
• The Red Wagon
• Two Chef’s and a Table
• The Union Bar
• Vancouver Alpen Club
• The Waldorf

So that leads to the next question – what is Food Insecurity and how does the Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program help to combat this?

While I am well aware that people go hungry every single day in our city, it wasn’t until I became familiar with FeastVan that I had ever heard the term Food Insecurity.  For some reason this term hit me really hard emotionally – while I know what it is like to go hungry, I have no idea what it is like to suffer on a continual basis with not knowing where my next meal will come from, nor the brutal reality of having to choose safe shelter over food security and watch my children go to bed hungry night after night.

This is a choice that families who live in the Downtown East Side and Strathacona neighbourhoods must make, and it is an unfortunate reality that for many people living in those areas it is impossible to achieve both safe shelter and food security at the same time.

What the Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program does is assist some of the most in need people of these areas – inner-city elementary school aged children.  These children, who are from families that have the lowest median incomes in all of Canada, do not have consistent access to nutritious food staples.  This program aims to bridge the weekend gaps when school food programs are not running.  The Vancouver Inner-city Backpack Food Program will provide kid friendly, nutritious snacks and meals for food insecure children from Strathacona Elementary Schools over the weekend.

Access to healthy food on the weekends is vitally important for these children as hungry or undernourished children are more likely to become sick, miss school, exhibit behaviour problems, and fall behind in class.

The Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program and the food being provided will offer many benefits including increased ability to participate in recreation, closing the gap of food insecurity over the weekend, helping to improve both attention span and behaviour during the week in school, mentoring interpersonal and communications skills to the children who receive backpacks, as well as providing leadership and pre-employment training to youth volunteers.

Can’t make it out to dinner during FeastVan?  The Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program needs donations as well.  Here is a list of items that they are most in need of:

• Brown/White rice cakes
• Seaweed snack
• Whole grain crackers
• Granola bars without chocolate
• Small snack boxes of raisins
• Small packs of unsweetened apple/fruit sauce
• Low sodium tetra pack or canned soups
• Pasta and jarred pasta sauce
• Low sugar/salt cereals
• Canned salmon
• Baby bel individual cheese portions
• Cheese strings
• Low sugar individual yogurt cups

For more information on FeastVan and the Vancouver Inner-city Back Pack Food Program visit the FeastVan website.

We fiercely promote all the fun times, food, culture, and entertainment the city has to offer along with the creative minds behind them.

Follow more of my work/coverage over at RICKCHUNG.COM and on Twitter at @RICKCHUNG.

You can pitch me HERE.

Volume 54: The Social Feed long table communal dinner for Dine Out Vancouver 2012 at Save On Meats butcher shop in Gastown on January 27, 2012. Hashtag: #DineOutFeed. More photos available on Flickr.

Apparently, due to my first article on The Social Feed’s delicious dinner at Nelson the Seagull, Dine Out approached them to do a special pop up dinner at Save on Meats butcher next door to its diner.

The idea of the night was food served in a social fashion as the food was prepared. We dined on the special pop-up “Noise-to-Tail” menu.

I hoofed it solo to Hastings on the end of Gastown to the new Save On Meats for a special pop-up dinner served in the butcher shop after hours, sipping on one of my favourite beers, Phillips Brewing Blue Buck Ale.

My stranger dining mates and I munched on some fresh brioche bread loaf and head cheese with pickled winter veggies to break the ice.

For appetizers, we gobbled up some tasty pork shoulder sausage with boozy prunes and buttermilk whipped mashed potatoes.

Keeping with the different cuts of meat and part of the pig, we were served roasted pork belly, apple compote, sunchoke and spot prawn salade with bisque sauce.

The main attraction was some ridiculously large portioned cuts of pork roast that was really thick and meaty. After our fill of white meat, I ate some salty sweet and decadent pieces of bacon chocolate.

The honey panna cotta dessert was very tasty and delicious. Its candied pork crackling accompaniment was really harsh and well, crackly. It was a meaty, epic five-course dinner at everyone’s favourite neighbourhood butcher shop. The social communal dining experience was again one of a kind.

Awesome week last week in music for Vancouver, including the first ever Steamwhistle Unsigned show! I also managed to get out and see a PuSh festival play: Do You Want What I Have Got?: A Craigslist Cantata…YOU SHOULD GO SEE THIS! It was hilarious and very entertaining…and it runs until February 11th, so there is still lots of time.

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC: will start off with another PuSh Festival event: Making Art Noises at Performance Works on Wednesday w/ Ryan Beil and Charlie Demers!  Thursday you can check out Hilary Grist for free at the CBC for another Toque Sessions show! and I hope you got your seat for the Yukon Blonde one the next day! Also on Friday you can check out this week’s playlist maker, No Sinner, at the Biltmore! Have a great one!

(Craigslist Cantata photos by David Cooper)
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I’m excited for this week’s playlist makers! I’ve heard nothing but great things about one of Vancouver’s newest bands: No Sinner. And since they’re playing a show at the Biltmore on Friday we asked them to put a playlist together of some of their favourite Vancouver music!

Also, their video for their song Boo Hoo Hoo was filmed at the Waldorf Hotel. It’s awesome, so click below to hear the playlist, check out the video and we’ll see you Friday at the Biltmore!