Meet your Urban Farmer will introduce you to urban farmers in the Metro Vancouver area. If you’ve never had the opportunity to meet any of the array of passionate individuals behind the urban farming movement, and the wonderful food they grow for the community, this will be an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Episodes of Meet Your Urban Farmer will begin appearing here once or twice a month in March of 2012, for a total of about 18. For now check out this trailer and please help us share it far and wide!

Support your local urban farmers and know where your food comes from.

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.

In the third year of their Birds Nest Project, an army of their employees volunteered to construct 700 of these wind/waterproof capes for the homeless and impoverished in the Lower Mainland.

HERE is a link with all of the info.

Photos courtesy Arc’teryx

Stay tuned for more Random Acts!

Running until February 5th, Feast Van is a culinary and social venture taking place at 16 of Vancouver’s east side restaurants. Feast Van was started by Joe Chaput, proprietor of Au Petit Chavignol and Les Amis du Fromage, as a way to raise money for the Strathcona Community Center Backpack Food Program. Throughout the 2 weeks of Feast Van, participating restaurants will be donating $1 from every fixed price 3 course meal towards the program. The objective of the program is to help feed children on the weekends when their school feeding programs don’t run. Children from both Seymour and Strathcona Elementary Schools receive backpacks each Friday afternoon. Here is what they receive in the bags.

Food each child takes home for the weekend

The idea is to help families maintain consistent and healthy nutrition for underprivileged inner city youth, which in turn helps their performance and overall health. The program currently feeds 300 children through its current structure and is always looking for volunteers and community sponsorships to help out. Feast Van serves to buttress the programs’ effort with both direct contributions and latently by raising awareness.

I visited my first restaurant on Friday evening, which was Andrey Durbach and Chris Stewart’s restaurant Cafeteria on Main street. Durbach and Stewart are also the ones behind Pied-à-Terre and La Buca restaurants. Cafeteria’s menu for Feast Van included 4 appetizers, 4 main courses and 3 desserts. I started out with the Moules(mussels) Bisque which was delicious. It is a light curry over mussels, asparagus, carrots and other various accoutrements. For the main course I had the Tagine of chicken with green olives, preserved lemon, sundried apricot, almonds, couscous. Being of Moroccan descent this was an immediate go to for me. The chicken fell off the bone and the harissa was a welcomed spicy addition. The biggest mention (and I say that lightly because all the food was great) was the Peanut butter and sour cherry jam pie. The combination speaks for itself. All you PB&J fans out there have a must try now on your plate.

Grilled beef tenderloin teriyaki, tempura kimchi maki roll, shishito peppers, mizuna salad

If you are interested in helping out you can either visit one of the restaurants participating in Feast Van or you can donate to the Strathcona Community Center Backpack Food Program directly. Here is a list of items they are in most need of to provide the nutrition that they are going for.

-brown/white rice cakes   -whole grain crackers   -granola bars without chocolate

-seaweed snack   -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 sodium yogurt cups

The front and back staff at Cafeteria were amazing and nice enough to let me come back and snap some photos for our readers. Enjoy the pics and go enjoy some food!

Mussel bisque “mouclade” with light curry & asparagus

Ling cod with herbs & olive oil, rock shrimp & clam risotto

Tagine of chicken w/ green olives, preserved lemon, sundried apricot, almonds, couscous, harissa

Peanut butter pie w/ sour cherry jam

Despite these ‘subcultures’ being deeply engrained in our city’s identity, the ‘Bros’ and ‘Bro-ettes’ who partake in them are often still perceived in a negative light.  Being charged with clinging to adolescent ideals and fuelling an ambitionless path with parties and substance abuse, the Bros seem to have the odds stacked against them. In terms of legitimizing their pursuits and finding a place in the ‘real world’ to apply them, it is often misconstrued that they showed up to the skate park late… and are pushing mongo.

Ray Gordon’s Throttled exhibit takes us into the world of traditional hod rods and vintage motorcycles through pictures. The 25 colour photos show us Gordon’s favourite spots including drag strips, bike shops, and “secret forts”.

However, this view that the Bros of the world are ill-equipped to tighten up their shoelace belts and button down their plaids when it comes to doing business, is one that the KnowShow confronts head on.  Last week, the bi-annual, Vancouver based KnowShow (in 2010 it was held in Calgary) saw over 300 brands hold down real estate in the convention centre to interact with over 2000 retailers from across the country.  The reps were repping, buyers were buying and bigtime orders were made over Caesars and PBRs that could prove to sink or swim brands through the upcoming seasons.

Once inside, it becomes clear that KnowShow is much more than just a ‘tradeshow’.  Since its’ inception, KnowShow has established itself as as a channel through which Vancouver takes its’ distinctive home-grown action-sports ‘Bro’ culture, and uses it to promote and foster business growth.  While conventions and tradeshows are typically uninspiring, the fundamental creativity of the industry makes KnowShow stand out, even to outsiders.  Well-designed custom showrooms and booths lined the rows of exhibitors, providing comfortable setups to display product and interact with retailers and consumers.  While design heavy brands like RVCA, Lifetime, WeSC and Insight all upheld their house’s aesthetics at their booths, distributors like Vancouver’s Timebomb Trading also stood out, displaying even basic streetwear with stylish wooden fixtures and alongside eye-catching artwork.  There are DJs, art installations, and a whole array of stimulus to prevent you from even realizing you’re surrounded by business, until you accidentally stumble into someone’s sales session.  The creative energy that defines Vancouver’s favourite action-sports is apparent throughout the show, where these paramount values are stongly conveyed to the onlooker.

Time-Bomb Trading

Time Bomb Trading Shoe Display

Regardless of how you feel about the tightness of 2012’s jeans or next years’ colour palates, KnowShow is definitely a testament to Vancouver’s awesomeness.  To promote and protect the culture they were raised with, Vancouver’s Bros are growing up and evolving whether they like it or not.  With their presentations polished and product lines scrupulously studied, the Bros take over twice a year to put their otherwise useless relationships, passion, and product knowledge to use.

In the end, after the booths come down, the orders are placed and office / retail jobs are resumed, the KnowShow is more of a mechanism for growth than a Bro-down. Serving as a vehicle for people to develop their careers, sports and ultimately themselves, it is clear KnowShow isn’t giving up its spot anytime soon as the national hub for culture and commerce for Bros growing up.

Article by: Paul GT

Photos by: Joel Levy

New Era Display

HUF’s Hat Display

Some 70s throwback backpacks by Jansport paying homage to founder Skip.

Some really nice bags from Nixon

DC Boards

DC Boots

One of my favourite companies Element had a nice cabin setup

Justin, a new Dakine Rep was comfortable and professional as he took us through the line, despite it being his first KnowShow.

Dixon over at Time Bomb Trading taking potential buyers through their Boot selections

Popped in to say hello to our friends at Native Shoes.

They had a great shoe display

As well as boots

I am a big fan of The Berrics so was stoked to see that they had a booth.

It’s finally here…17 days of delicious food for amazing prices! Canada’s largest restaurant festival, Dine Out Vancouver is back for it’s tenth year, this time with 231 restaurants offering prix-fix menus for $18, $28 or $38!
You can check out the list of participating restaurants HERE and other events that are happening HERE.

And then check out the photos below to wet your appetite from  some of Glowbal Group’s restaurants: Black & Blue, Society, Glowbal Grill, and Sanafir – where I got to have a little preview of the Dine Out Vancouver action!

BLACK & BLUE: “Bacon ‘n’ Eggs”: thick cut double smoked bacon, fried duck egg, spicy maple syrup, wild arugula
SOCIETY: Sweet Pulled Pork Croquette: tarragon aioli, granny smith apple and green onion slaw

SOCIETY: Prawn Linguini – lobster bisque sauce, garlic butter toast


GLOWBAL GRILL: Grilled Beef Tataki – flank steak, truffle aioli, tempura enoki mushroom, sweet soy sauce

GLOWBAL GRILL: Beef Tenderloin – roasted garlic whipped potato, shallot confit, red win jus

SANAFIR: some of their delicious desserts! (The Dine Out dessert is: Cardamom Dusted Zelbias – cinnamon creme anglaise, chocolate bark)

Have a delicious 17 days!!!

The next question the folks at This Space have for you is ““Which graphic designer should brand 243 Union?”, and they’ve produced this video that introduces you to all 6 who are in the running.

I personally voted for Shawn Parkinson, a friend of mine who I often lunch with here in Chinatown. But don’t let that sway you! Watch the video above, check out the links to all of the 6 designers work on the This Space site and then cast your vote on who you think is best suited to design the branding for this local business.

Nevertheless, the comedy mini-series about a semi-fictional doomed video store must go on! Here is the latest chapter, there are two more on the way.

Dinner With…is back! It was a busy end of summer and start to fall but I got hungry so I scheduled myself…

DINNER WITH… SARAH SZLOBODA!

Sarah is our VIA Theatre Editor aka Cue To Cue, and an actress and director herself! In fact she artistic directs GIANTS comedy, and the next show is Nov 26th.

Anyways, I actually met Sarah a few hours before dinner as we participated in an Amazing-Race-esque photo-scavenger hunt (with Anne, whose “Dinner With…” you can see here).
So it was nice to sit down in the warm and delicious environment that is Dockside (at the Granville Island Hotel).

Dockside has an in-house brewery with some AMAZING beers. I had my favourite, the Johnson Pilsner.

In the past I’ve had interviewees who were keen on sharing appies, and in this case Sarah was no different.

For appetizers we picked the Legendary Chili Squid, and the Seafood Mushroom Caps while we warmed up with a view of False Creek.


We chatted about the arts, and our mutual friends and just how small a place like Vancouver is…and seeing as Sarah is the theatre editor, I also felt I should ask what the best play she saw recently was…her answer?: The Penelopiad at the Stanley Theatre

Then I brought out our DW Standard Questions…

Favourite Foods?: ”Kronenbourg Blanc, usually anything in a shell, 5-cent sour keys”


For dinner Sarah picked the Manila Clam Carbonara and I chose the Smoked Salmon Penne and we filled our bellies with as much pasta and seafood as we could manage!

Favourite Vancouver Restaurants?: Foundation, Cobre, Rodney’s, Dai Tung (“at Kingsway and Knight, best dim sum in the city, go to there!”)

If you could have dinner with one person, who would it be…?: “Jon Stewart, Russel Brand (pure entertainment), Omar from The Wire. All three at one table. Dinner party for four.”

Based on her answers I knew we had a pretty awesome editor working for us…so I dragged our dinner out a little longer and we shared some cheesecake, which we may or may not have gotten everywhere due to pure exhaustion. But OH, was it amazing.

Thanks SO much to Dockside for hosting us and creating some mouthwatering dishes!
Stay tuned for the next installment in our Dinner With… series, set at another one of Vancouver’s best restaurants with another one of Vancouver’s best humans.

But judging by the amount of people I saw there this is likely something you already saw because you yourself were there this weekend: they had to open up the overflow parking at the stadium due to the hordes of people that attended the inaugural Market of the winter season. It was chilly but that didn’t seem to stop anyone from making it out to pick up their local vegetables, fruit, baked and prepared foods, meat, fish, dairy and crafts. And that new street food isn’t leaving any holes when it comes to people serving up hot lunch at the market either. If you weren’t one of the many who were at the market this weekend then don’t miss it this coming Saturday, 10AM-2PM just outside Nat Bailey Stadium.

Seeya this Saturday! Learn more about Vancouver Farmers Markets at EatLocal.org