BC Home and Garden Show 2012

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Sean

BC Place is home this year to the BC Home and Garden Show and I was more than happy to check it out seeing a couple of good friends house was featured on the cover and in the official publication for the show plus they had one of my favorite things-BBQ!

On the opening day there was a pulled pork cook off that featured the Memphis Blues crew, Re-Up BBQ and the entrée winner from Recipe To Riches Robert Luft and the event was judged by Follow Me Foodie as well as a couple other local journalist’s. Robert came out the winner in the end and faced some stiff competition and I wish I could have been their to check out the action.

I finally made the show on the weekend and luckily I got to catch the owners of Memphis Blues BBQ~George Siu and Park Heffelfinger take the Outdoor Entertaining stage with their BBQ presentation to a packed house with Karen Barnaby of the Fish House in Stanley Park doing the commentary.

With plenty of interaction with the audience George and Park whipped up some of their signature house rub and made some of the house classics like BBQ rub seasoned shrimp, brisket and ribs with a side of pulled pork of course!

Karen picked some random seats before the presentation and those lucky 4 people were treated to a chow down and beer pairing for the eats made on stage.

Memphis Blues had a booth set up with their selection of rubs and sauces available for purchase and to sample of there pulled pork, also they are available to pick up in their restaurants and soon to be in fine grocery and kitchen specialty stores. The sauces were good and the new mustard based sauce was my favorite hands down, also there rubs are MSG free.

Chester and Michael from Re-Up BBQ did a stage show also but later on in the evening doing a chicken dish and a matching bourbon cocktail to go with it.

ManCakes Bakery was also there with samples of some of the ManCakes line up of unique flavor combinations. The Buffalo Wing, King Kong and the Apple Brie were available for tasting, I wolfed down the Buffalo Wing mini~a very interesting flavor combo that I quite liked.

The King Kong was a rich chocolate cake with an espresso hint and a banana butter cream, I got more chocolate flavor and coffee than banana in this one but still it was delicious.

Apple Brie was what I would describe as the underdog flavor and it was my favorite out of all that tried, the spice cake with the brie butter cream and crushed pretzel brittle on top was a prefect flavor combo that used the creaminess of the brie perfectly. I’ll be surely ordering a 6 pack of their “day pack” flavors to chow down on.

At the end of the day I had a great tome at the home show and got to see some interesting things that just went beyond food for a change and I’ll definitely be back next year to the 2013 BC Home and Garden Show.

To Die For Bacon Banana Bread

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Sean

The lovely lady who brought us To Die For Banana Bread~Erin Ireland has come up with a new addition to the banana bread line up and it’s available exclusively at the Save On Meats Butcher Shop and as a dessert item at the Save On Meats Diner next door. You can pick up whole loaves at the butcher shop, there priced as follows-$10 for a medium and $15 for a large (the one I purchased was a medium size) and the desert size~2 slices for $5 in the diner

It’s that perfect mix of sweet and salty that is addictive as all heck and is a definite must try. It’s got candied double smoked Save On Meats bacon added to the wonderful banana bread recipe that Erin Ireland’s become so famous for, the Callebaut Chocolate runs through out this beast and adds a great color and flavor to the loaf, Erin also uses organic bananas in her recipe. You can pick up whole loaves at the Save On Meats Butcher shop, there priced as follows-$10 for a medium and $15 for a large (the one I purchased was a medium size).

The bread sells out quick in the butcher shop, it’s restocked daily but I’d advise getting there early if you would like to purchase some and you could also try giving them a call to see what quantity’s are like.

Dirty Apron Deli and Cooking School

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Sean

The Dirty Apron is one of the more unique places to grab lunch in the downtown area. Nico and Karri Schuermans~the owners of Chambar and Cafe Medina have combined a deli of fine meats and cheese’s, ready to eat freshly made sandwiches and salads, a hot carvery and a gourmet grocery store all in one but to cap it off the also have a great cooking school with a variety of classes all in one cleverly designed space.

Great meats

Killer sandwiches

Tempting baked goods

The seating is communal at long tables and the have their house made chili sambal oil for you to jazz up your food if you like to.

I went with one of the baguette sandwiches~roasted chicken, arugula and sun-dried tomatoes with grana padano Parmesan and pesto mayo. They make their bread fresh all through out the day in small batches so whenever you get your sandwich have no worry~you bread is usually no more than an hour old. There was two halves to this sandwich and it was wrapped up nicely in paper, the chicken was moist and tender and all the ingredients worked well together.

I also got some of their fresh salads, they sell them on a /100 gram rate that’s around $3.50 (ish). I went split it up choice wise seeing everything was the same price so the hardest thing was choosing what to get out of the 6 different choices.

This is a Brussel sprout salad with prosciutto and broccoli. It was a nice fresh salad and the sprouts were cooked nicely but still crisp but without that cabbage taste, one thing I wish there was more of was the prosciutto.

The Mediterranean couscous was the other salad I got, it was a brightly flavored salad with the roasted red pepper and roasted onion being a balance to the vinaigrette.

With my sandwich and salad~I bought 100 grams of each my bill was around $17 with tax, seeing it’s really fresh great quality food the price is justified and I’ll totally be back.