Fun Food in the Mail!

November 23, 2010November 23, 20105 Comments

Recently I have received some fun pieces of mail, more than your average spam of grocery store flyers. Since I like to share all things beyond the dough, I had to share:

Macarons & Makeup! French Macarons are extremely trendy right now! They certainly delicious enough to deserve that title, and I hope they stick around in a permanent way! …All pastry chefs that I have met this year, have raved about them. The little tasty light morsels, that melt in your mouth, can be seen in infinite colours and flavour pairs. I’ve seen them on hit TV series such as Gossip Girl served at a cocktail party dessert display, and they are frequently in wedding magazines as a new favour – with French flavour! Recently I received a Clinique makeup promo flyer, and usually it falls in the pile with the rest of my spam…. but this piece caught my attention more than usual.

Where have you seen macarons lately??

Macarons and makeup - by Clinique

Italian Kitchen’s Extraordinary Customer Service! Not too long ago I dinned at Italian Kitchen downtown on Alberni Street. The food was great – I love their Bruschetta – the wine list was wonderful and the service was delivered with a smile. It was actually a short dining experience, followed by some window shopping, but not so short that I didn’t feel well taken care of. When the bill arrived with customer service cards, I decided to fill one out. Usually this leads to your name being added to a mailing list, you might get a birthday month promotion generically addressed to the “residents” of your mailing address. I still felt like my server, Alistair, deserved positive feedback. So often customer service is only used to share complaints, but I like to give credit where credit is due.

A week later I received this in the mail. At first, I assumed it was a simple “welcome to our mailing list” card.

A simple note of thanks...goes a long way!

But I misjudged, I smiled when I opened the mail, to read a hand written thank you note personalized from my server! My earlier instincts of great customer service were spot on: Italian Kitchen knows how to treat their guests.

For this, I will return Italian Kitchen, thank you and keep it up! So the next time you dine out, take the time to give some feedback in your fast paced routine – a hand written note means a lot and really it can only serve the customer better in the end..

A hand written note of thanks.

#28 – A Day in the Life of a Vancouver Food Blogger

October 30, 2010October 29, 20103 Comments

Photo credit: @Sherman38

“Wherever there is food I will go and eat it – I just think food is great wherever you find it.”

On Monday Sherman will celebrate two years of food blogging in Vancouver. A Teacher by day who never thought he’d have time to blog, soon found himself blogging daily and capturing a hearty audience with Sherman’s Food Adventures. He now sits atop the UrbanSpoonVancouver Blog Leader Board. His then to now story is a humble one all the way, as I learned when we met recently.

Do you blog full time? No, it’s just my hobby still.

How did it start? We would go out and eat after [hockey] and I would Tweet or Facebook that I’m at this restaurant. Then people would say, ‘hey Sherman, why don’t you tell us more about the food you’re eating?” But I wasn’t really into it. I just liked eating and taking pictures. One teammate continued to bug me about it, saying you like it, so you should write about it. I said, I’m busy I have a full time job, a family, there is no way I can do this. People kept pestering me, then, I signed up for an account. I wrote one post… The writing was simple… I posted it up, and a few more posts. Then, finally I got my first comment!

Were you promoting your blog? No …I thought, someone is reading this other than my friends? Like Julie & Julia. Then I’d write some more, and I started carrying a better camera around. I don’t know when it happened, but it became that I wanted to do it, I wanted to do it better, and so I did.

Which of your posts generate the most activity? The posts that I get the most hits on are for La Charcuterie, it’s just this sandwich shop in Port Kells [Surrey] with this sandwich guy called the Sandwich Nazi who berates his customers. The sandwiches are ok, they are good value; I guess people want to experience ‘the Sandwich Nazi’. Other than that, a lot of trendy restaurants from tourists and people looking for the hot spots in town.

Do you follow other bloggers? You have to, because no one person can follow everything. I guess that’s why people read blogs in general, because I want new ideas to eat out too. I can’t drive around and try everything. I’ll read other blogs and if it looks good I’ll check it out…to confirm it, or dispel if it is bad. I’ve met a lot of other bloggers too…we are sort of like a little community.

Describe an average blogging day? I generally blog about every meal. Blogging used to be a lot busier, but now I’ve built up a bank of posts… Before work was busy, I would intentionally go out to eat after work and meet up with some other bloggers. Go home. Download photos. Post-process them. Maybe write the article, maybe not, if I’m tired, I won’t. Refer to my notes… Sometimes, I wouldn’t be done until 2am.

[On posting schedules] Some of them I post right away, strike the coal while it’s hot. Like some of these new food carts, people want to know about them. If I leave it to two months later it will be old. So I post it right away.

Have you tried many of the food carts? Yes I have been to a few of them. The best one I’ve been to is Re-Up BBQ: it’s a pulled pork sandwich. It’s right near the art gallery. For what it’s worth, it’s really good. Obviously someone from down south might think otherwise, but we are in Vancouver…. It’s good, it’s $6 and it’s filling.

Are most of your adventures in Vancouver? Mostly Vancouver, I traveled a lot prior to blogging – I wish I started [blogging] earlier. …But I do blog about restaurants when I’m out of town. Recently I came back from Portland in August, there are some really good restaurants down there, it is very eclectic.

What did you like in Portland? I went to a place that was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives: Pine State Biscuits. They just make biscuits. There is one called the Reggie, it is a biscuit, a piece of fried chicken, bacon, cheddar, and option of a fried egg with country gravy. It puts the double down to shame. But it’s delicious. You can’t get that here.

Pine State Biscuits: The Reggie

Do you cover a diverse range when eating out? I like anything. From the dives to the best restaurant in town. To Langley, to downtown, to the North Shore, to Abbotsford. Wherever there is food I will go and eat it – I just think food is great wherever you find it.

We wrapped up talking about an industry event we both had recently attended. We agreed how it is nice to meet the people (i.e. chefs) behind the scenes, he added, “You know what is surprising about Vancouver: you walk into Bishop’s and John Bishop greets you, you walk into Vij’s and Vikram Vij greets you, you walk into Cioppino’s and Pino is cooking in the kitchen. You don’t get a lot of that in some of the other cities… Every time I’ve been to these restaurants, they are there; and that provides a personal touch that they really do care about their business and are there for their customers.”

Sherman is a genuine foodie through and through! A delight to talk to, and is well known in the food blogging community. He’s even joining some fellow bloggers at a food blog convention in San Francisco soon. I kind of wish I was going too…

Blog or Bust Share #28: Sherman's Food Adventures

#14 – Bookmark this food blog / restaurant directory!

October 14, 2010Leave a comment

Their home page says it all: URBANSPOON Vancouver! UrbanSpoon is a resourceful food site, that includes contributions by many of the food bloggers I’ve already mentioned, and have yet to mention. Their TOP rated lists are helpful, when searching for a particular style of dining or cuisine; and they include reviews of all the great eats around town.

The Vancouver page, is just one of many other great Urban Spoon city pages within the larger mother-site, including Melbourne, Calgary, Toronto, Seattle, New York, Florida, Atlanta, and more.

Simply said, who wouldn’t love convenient referrals to good local eats?

UrbanSpoon Vancouver

#10 & #11 Finding Tiny Bites & Casual Baking in Vancouver

October 11, 2010Leave a comment

To wrap up the long weekend, and double up on my blogs (in lieu of missing yesterday, due to giving thanks) here are a couple more quality sites to add to the Vancouver food blog repertoire in my blog or bust challenge include TINY BITES and the CASUAL BAKER.

#10 – Tiny Bites is a blog lead by one, Karen Hamilton, with two additional contributors. Karen is a women after my own heart, as her blog encourages local tourism and helping Vancouverites decide what to ‘bite’ on. The blog is another award-winning site in the food blogging community – check it out!

Tiny Bites food blog

#11 – Casual Baker, is sweet blog written by Sheena, a Vancouver women with a self proclaimed penchant for sweets – bake on my fellow foodie! Her blog is simply baking, since 2006, and covers an array of recipes, handy to have in your shortcuts toolbar as a cookbook in your virtual library (She even has a recipe index – convenient!). Her stories paired with the recipes are great, sometimes including music video YouTube links and other fun-interesting parallels.

Her photography is rustic reflecting the baking and recipes; looking oh so tastefully homemade. I would definitely support this casual baker if passed in a farmer’s market.

Casual Baker food blog

#6 – For the love of food

October 6, 2010December 23, 2010Leave a comment

LOVE sculpture on Georgia Street, downtown Vancouver

Many locals should recognize this piece of artwork that graces Georgia street in downtown Vancouver. I’ve been past it countless times in my 11 years here, and every time it grabs my attention, with a rubber neck. Secretly, I’ve always thought it would be rather (hopelessly) romantic for anyone to meet their true love in front of this statue. Yes, I know, it may be quite ridiculous but there is nothing wrong with dreaming, right?

The other day as I walked past, to take the photo, I took the time to look up this piece of artwork for the first time. I learned that it is not the only one in the world surprisingly. We are a piece of the LOVE sculpture collection around the world, including other major cities like New York, Montreal, Lisbon, Bangkok, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, and more… I am not familiar with the criteria behind the city selection for each sculpture replica, but all of these cities have great food too so could it be correlated? One can dream, right? Art and food in great cities around the world… Vancouver loves food and we do it well.

There are many writers out there who agree, including the Foodists, a popular Vancouver food blog that includes a list of contributing writers who have also found food love in the Vancouver area and beyond. The blog includes food news, events, restaurants, great photography, and an appropriate tag line, “enlightened appetite”.

My blog or bust #6 post is Foodists. I met one of the contributors to the Foodists blog at my PC Confections tasting with Paul Croteau; it was fun to meet other food bloggers from around the city – offline.

The Rational Experience of a Corporate Chef with Dwayne Botchar

September 12, 2010October 9, 2010Leave a comment

Every time I dine in a restaurant, if I can, I always glance through the kitchen window – where dishes wait to be served, and the restaurant’s front and back of house teams connect. It fascinates me to see how others operate in kitchens; I think life in a professional kitchen may easily be my Pandora’s box.

Fortunately, as I journey Beyond The Dough, meeting people like Dwayne Botchar help me piece together real kitchen experiences from a distance.

Dwayne is a trained Chef with over 33 years of industry experience. Now, he sits on the board of directors of the BC Chef’s Association and is a Corporate Chef and Regional Sales Manager for Rational-Canada – an international company that manufactures specialty kitchen equipment, specifically, combi steamer ovens.

Dwayne Botchar in between meetings in downtown Vancouver.

Due to frequent business travel, Dwayne’s office is mobile, so we met in downtown Vancouver, at Café Artigiano. Among the barista buzz and café chatter, I tuned in to learn about combi ovens, kitchen life, and some food philosophy.

“Being in a kitchen is very difficult. There is a lot of stress – a lot of stress. Especially working on the line, which is where everything happens. It’s very stressful. Would I like to work on the line again? I don’t think so. Would l like to have my own kitchen again? Maybe,” said Dwayne, after I asked if he missed being in a professional kitchen setting.

Later he also added, “It is a very difficult industry. Everyone says look at this great restaurant, great food, and this Chef is famous; he must be rich, etc. It’s not like that. The average salary of the average Chef, is a lot of work for little pay.”

Although he does not work directly in a kitchen anymore, he said, “I don’t have to miss anything really, I still get to do everything I like to do. I cook at home, I volunteer with the Chef’s association and we’re always cooking and doing things. I don’t feel I lack in that area. I could get my hands as dirty as I want, as we say.”

On working for Rational, Dwayne shared that the company only hires Chefs and the oven was also originally designed by a Chef. Among the fun facts I learned about their product line, I was most impressed to hear 95% of kitchens in Europe use them, compared to a mere 10% in Canada. Dwayne said, “we’re about 5-10 years behind Europe in that regard”.

Rational's Self Cooking Center product line. Source: Rational-Canada

What do you enjoy about this role vs. being in a kitchen? There are several things. First and foremost, the machine is an amazing tool and it actually can save time in the kitchen, so it can make a chef’s life easier. One of the reasons I like this company is because I can actually help cooks like myself to breathe a littler easier at end of the day, have more time for creativity, more time to train staff and manage production much simpler. The other reason is I can now have long weekends and holidays…. When you’re out eating that’s when we [Chefs] are in business.

Where do you recommend going for dinner in Vancouver? Well do you have a lot of paper? [pause] A fun and interesting place to go to is SALT. It’s a great little place, like going to a French charcuterie…. There are tons of places though, the Chef [Jean-George] at the new Shangri-La’s Market is fantastic, and smaller places like Cioppino’s are great.

I could tell he wanted to list dozens more, but then he added, “There is a place I bring people to all the time. It’s a burger joint, but it has the single best view in the entire city. The Galley at Jericho Sailing Club…has a 160-degree view of everything from English bay all the way over to Vancouver Island…The food is fantastic. The Chef there is solid.”

As we wrapped up, I was left with a bit of food philosophy, “Vancouver really is a great place for food. It really is. Food, besides the obvious that you have to eat to survive, as humans, we have taken it to a whole other level – its an experience now.”

He added with strong conviction, “And food is social. You can break down more barriers of multiculturalism through food, than you can of any other method. When people sit down and break bread together, you learn about customs and so much happens. What happens around the table is what matters.”

As we walked away from the table to go our separate ways, I felt like our conversation definitely mattered.

PC Confections opening soon by Paul Croteau

September 12, 2010October 9, 20104 Comments

Paul and team prepping the tasting plates.

Not too long ago, I sat down to a Refuel table with some fellow Vancouver food bloggers, where two small plates of decadent sweets – also known as mignardises – were presented to us.

The sweets are the work of Paul Croteau, a pastry chef at Refuel, who also runs the pastry program at Campagnolo Restaurant, which is the production kitchen for Paul’s debut high-end confectionery, PC Confections.

PC Confections, first plate.

My inner child was forced to hold back from devouring all the sweets in one continuous motion as Paul began the tour, complete with his Quebec French accent and bits of broken English.

“Our main confection is the macaron, we have seven flavours right now, and we’re going to have more” he began. With, “a sweet breakfast this morning… [your] front plate from left to right, it’s a good balance, it will not destroy your palate”

The first, a passion fruit jelly, he explained how it was made and as we tasted the first light jelly bite silence found room along with several

smiles. “The passion fruit is very bright, you can see the flavour go through all the sugar. Next is the raspberry jelly. It tastes more like a jam… but its pretty good. They come together in the packaging, nice accompaniment to each.”

Paul Croteau leading the tasting tour of his work.

Nougat was next, “basically egg white with cooked honey and then we add cooked sugar. …it’s hard and soft in texture, with hazelnut, almond, pistachio, cocoa nibs, and covered with chocolate.…to protect the nougat”

Onward to the almond Florentine square – served untraditionally on a sweet dough with a subtle candied grapefruit flavour. He said, “I think it’s my favourite!”

Crackles of parchment unwrapping in the room revealed next, “The little candy is a soft salted caramel, like a caramel but very very soft and very buttery. It’s almost same amount of sugar and butter. And we add cream a little bit. It’s salty a little bit, so it comes through very nice”

We finished the first plate with the grignotines, “…hazelnut caramelized, with salt, and then covered with chocolate, and finished with cocoa powder. It’s very nice when you watch a movie you can eat them instead of popcorn, I like to do that – sometimes.” He smiled and we laughed.

Paul's Macarons

My sugar buzz began to peak, but I forged on with pleasure to the next plate of macarons – French almond meringue sandwich cookies with seasonal flavoured ganache fillings. From vanilla

pistachio, to salted caramel, to chocolate, the light heaven bites of macaron crumble at first in your mouth and then simply melt away. “The

finish should always have a nice sheen to it, and be soft inside with a light crumbly soft texture outside. That’s the sign of a good quality macaron,” he said and I believe him because he makes up to 1000 of them each week!

PC Confection Macarons, plate two.

What makes Macarons so tricky? Pretty much everything. First the egg whites need to be a little bit old. It’s easier to whisk a good strong meringue. Then, this technique…the temperature of the oven, how long you have to cook them, and then the packaging [or they break]. …So it’s a long process.

Why are they more popular out west now? They are so popular in Paris. In New York they started maybe 5 years ago, in Montréal started maybe two to three years ago. Everyone loves macarons. They are delicate, very nice texture and flavour of it. I hope that in Vancouver we are going to have the same trend.

PC Confections packaging

What is your favourite macaron? The caramel one. I love doing the ganache but its too sweet for me. Yesterday I was cutting [almond] Florentines in the squares and I ate all the edges; and as I was wrapping the caramels, I ate a few of them too! So I go for run too.

A sweet guy with a sweet job, check out Paul Croteau’s PC Confections coming soon to 1020 Main Street.

Paul Croteau, photo credit: PC Confections

Perfect Preview to PC Confections

August 21, 2010October 9, 20103 Comments

All of these things is not like the other, but I assure you they all belong… Individually they each have their own flavour, and it was an amazing way to start my day this past Thursday. This is a preview post, of how I recently sampled just a few of pastry chef Paul Croteau’s amazing confections for his new business: PC Confections…

Stay tuned for full story – its a sweet one!

Perfectly plated PC Confections for a delightful tasting session.

Mr. Mikes Gives A Buck!

August 2, 2010October 9, 20103 Comments

MikeBurger Madness runs from July 18 – August 26, 2010: Mr Mikes’ aims to raise $50,000 for local charities!

Claire Booth, of Mr Mikes Steakhouse & Bar, stands next to some fun artwork displayed at their corporate office - same artwork found in the franchises.

Not many places in BC can say they’ve been making the same burger for 50 years. Well Mr Mikes steakhouse chain can, and are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year by highlighting an original menu item: the MikeBurger. Fifty years later, they are still making MikeBurgers and now are giving back to local charities through the sale of each MikeBurger.

At their head office in Vancouver recently, I chatted with Claire Booth, Vice President of Brand Strategy, to learn more about Mr Mikes story and this anniversary campaign.

What is the story behind Mr.Mike’s? It was a coupe of brothers. It was on Granville st. [911 Granville St to be exact]. They started off with this ‘steak for everyone’ making steak inexpensive. And they had this salad bar concept and when people think back to the Mr.Mikes they know and love, they think about the salad bar. They remember the baked potato wrapped in foil. ….But times have changed and we’ve moved on. Comparable to other steakhouses, our steaks are much better quality now. There is no story to the name though. [Just the name the brothers chose]

Tell me more about MikeBurger Madness? This is our 50^th anniversary campaign. We wanted it to be community focused. We wanted to highlight out MikeBurger because that is the only product that is still on our menu from 50 years ago. It is the same MikeBurger served in the same way. So we wanted to make that the focus. …[It was key for us] to ensure we were giving back the community that is supporting us. …We aim to sell 50,000 MikeBurgers, and so far we are on track, we’ve already sold over 11,000 [as of day nine of the six-week campaign].

For a list of the charities each franchise is supporting, visit MrMikes.ca!

What are the franchises saying about MikeBurger Madness? They are really supportive. Corporate office is going to match the winner [most sold burgers], so if the winner manages to raise $5000 then we’ll match it. A great example is Dawson Creek, they are using the money to go towards building the community a new water park. Chilliwack is also a good example, they sold the most MikeBurgers on the first day [and are going strong still].

On a personal note, have you always worked in the food industry? [Claire joined the Mr. Mikes earlier this year, but has always worked in food related industries] I really enjoy working in the food & beverage world. You’ve got to be so cutting edge and so aware of what’s going on competitively. …It keeps you on your toes, because there are so many trends when it comes to food and beverage.

…Working for a company like Mr.Mikes, and being so community focused, you can’t help but have a good time at work as well. Because what you are doing is bringing joy to other people so it reflects in the corporate culture as well.

Mr Mikes menu Mike Burger options! Source: MrMikes.ca

Can you describe a MikeBurger? It’s different from other hamburgers. Its one of those foods that Mr.Mikes is known for. …It comes on a garlic buttered toast, and the bun itself is a piece of French loaf. A large oval beef patty, our special sauce and served with fries. Its one of those burgers that you bite in and it is just messy, yummy, and rich! You have to try one if you haven’t! There are different types as well, I just described the Classic MikeBurger, but there is the Bacon, Avalanche, or Mushroom MikeBurger too.

The massive MikeBurger experience is worth the trip to Langley, Coquitlam, or Surrey for GVRD residents. Summer is the perfect time to explore new places, burgers, and give back to charity as well!

Beyond The Dough

Sharing my sweet kitchen adventures, with an eye on the Vancouver food scene.

Tag: Restaurants