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Bob Blumer Is Bringing It Back To Food Network

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About  month ago I was contacted and asked if wanted to have the opportunity to interview someone who has an upcoming new series on the Foodnetwork~World’s Wierdest Restaurants and it just so happens this person is someone who I have personally followed and have been a fan of for around 11 years now~Bob Blumer!, I totally said I would love to and then the countdown began!

photo from the World's Weirdest Restaurants Facebook page

Culinary adventurer, chef, artist and seven time Guinness World Record holder Bob Blumer is the creator and host of the award-winning “Glutton for Punishment” and “Surreal Gourmet.”

In his new series “World’s Weirdest Restaurants,” the passionate and tireless gastronaut circles the globe in his quest to find the world’s weirdest and wackiest restaurants. Some of his discoveries include a Japanese tavern where monkeys serve beer, a New York City pop-up restaurant where patrons dine in the nude, and an eatery in Taipei where curry is served in miniature porcelain toilet bowls!

On “Glutton for Punishment,” Blumer channels his passion for food and his competitive nature into a series of culinary adventures that are inspiring, entertaining and often amusing. In every episode, he has five days to learn a physically daunting culinary skill, then he is thrown to the wolves as he competes in a related professional competition, or attempts to rise to the occasion of a challenge. In the fifth and final season of the show, Blumer successfully broke or established six food-related Guinness World Records.

On “Surreal Gourmet” and in his books, Blumer transforms ordinary ingredients into wow-inspiring dishes through simple cooking methods and whimsical presentations that along with his iconic Toastermobile, have become his culinary trademark. His artful approach to cooking, confidence-inspiring instructions, and contagious enthusiasm endear him to a loyal following in North America, Asia, and Europe—territories where he travels regularly.

Blumer is also the author of five acclaimed cookbooks and the co-author of the best-selling Pizza on the Grill. His most recent book Glutton for Pleasure: signature recipes, epic stories and surreal etiquette was summed up by Publisher’s Weekly as “equal parts memoir, lavish art book, multi-genre soundtrack and culinary tour de force.”

SN:You’ve managed to rack up 7 Guinness Book World Records with your last series Glutton For Punishment, is it still just as exiting to think back on now as when you did it back during the series?

BB: “Yes it was really exiting and the thrill lives on, I was never one of those kids who had the book and grew up pouring over the records but when we did the 1st attempt in Calgary I really had no idea what I was getting into but it became such a big thing with all the media and excitement that I kinda caught the fever and when we came back and did 6 attempts I kinda got totally sucked into it.”

SN:With your newest series World’s Weirdest Restaurants and your other shows how involved are you in the selection of places to check out or do you like it to be a surprise?

BB: “Well being a producer on this show and on Glutton For Punishment I’m pretty involved in every aspect of the shows, a junior development person suggested the idea for World’s Weirdest Restaurants and we’ve been to so many weird places with Glutton for Punishment that it was a great idea and we just make it happen.“

SN:With the preview episode we were given to check out, did you get to eat a lot of good food in the series or were most of the restaurants more gimmick than good food?

BB: “Umm a lot of them were more focused on the environment than the food let’s just say to put it politely but we were lucky along they way to eat in some really fabulous restaurants.“

SN:Yourself and Michael Smith are the only 2 original hosts on Food Network Canada since it started, being the accomplished writer and producer that you are do you still get exited or nervous with each new project that launches?

BB: “Oh for sure!, because every one is completely different and frankly in this day and age even though I have a great relationship with everyone at the Food Network, if the shows don’t rate, they wont last so on one hand were making a show that excites us but at the same time it has to excite the audience and that is always nerve-racking to discover of that’s true or not.“

SN:Without naming restaurant names was there anything that was just to weird to eat that you encountered in the series?

BB: “Oh there was this one restaurant that we did in Tokyo that was a mayonnaise restaurant where EVERYTHING had mayonnaise in it and it was such a bad idea that night~in fact it was the beginning of a typhoon coming in that night that there wasn’t another soul in the restaurant and no one came in that night but us, the food was just unbearable and we didn’t end up even including that one in the series.“

SN:In your life what would you say the scariest thing that you have ever eaten was? I know from as a viewer It was hard to watch you butcher and eat the Fugu!

BB: “God that was really scary, also the stinging nettles was pretty brutal because I had to do that for an hour but and in this series the point wasn’t to eat weird things but along the way I ended up eating deep-fried grasshoppers and killer bee larva~LIVE SQUIRMING KILLER BEE LARVA! and that’s not to mention a deep-fried killer bee as well.“

SN:With the pop-up restaurant that you’re doing in Toronto at The Drake Hotel and here in Vancouver at The Waldorf, what can diners expect?

BB: “Well I can tell you a few things about it, there’s definitely going to be some surprises for diners, were going to show 4 clips from the show and after the clip we’ll serve a course that was inspired by that segment and I’ve collaborated with the Head Chefs at the Drake and Waldorf to do dishes from their menus so it’s going to be really delicious food presented in the theme of the restaurants on the show.“

A Paperny Entertainment production, “World’s Weirdest Restaurants” airs Weds. at 9 and 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on Food Network Canada beginning April 4, 2012. The show also airs Weds. at 6 and 6:30 p.m. PT and 12 and 12:30 ET.

I’m really looking forward to checking out the dinner at the Waldorf and getting to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity, stay tuned for a blog post that will feature the dinner and the festivities surrounding whats going to be an awesome night.

Lovers of All Things Sweet Unite

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March 13, 2012, Vancouver (BC) – Social Bites Networking Services presents Indulge n’ Dance, the newest culinary adventure in Vancouver. On Saturday, April 14 lovers of the sweeter things in life will convene at the W2 Media Café & Performance Centre to enjoy some fine treats by local artisans and dance off their guilty pleasures.

“Judging from the amount of amazing bakeries, chocolate, macaroon and now doughnut shops, it does not come as a surprise that Vancouverites love their sweet treats,” says Annika Reinhardt, the founder of Indulge n’ Dance. “I thought, why not create an after-dinner event that features some of Vancouver’s most talented new pastry makers in a relaxed, fun, yet mature atmosphere. Add some great 80s and 90s dance music and you have an event that is one of its kind in the city.”

What makes Indulge n’ Dance unique is that all participating artisans are up-and-coming entrepreneurs that don’t have a brick and mortar presence. You might see their creations at the baker’s market and some of them sell online. Indulge n’ Dance Vol. 1 features seven local pastry makers and their creations.

Some Kind of Wonderful – Vanilla buttermilk cake pop coated in white Belgium chocolate & candied maple bacon

Guava Jelly Cupcakes – Pina colada cupcake: pineapple cake, coconut custard, pineapple cream cheese icing, toasted coconut

Kawaii Eats – Matcha macaron with white chocolate yuzu ganache

Hyggelig – Dark chocolate baked donut, whiskey orange glaze

The Pie Hole – Apple caramel pie pop

Yummy Workshop – Chocolate ganache tart with salted caramel

Rosy’s Bake Shoppe – Molasses spice cookie ball coated in chocolate + rosemary shortbread cookie

Event tickets can be purchased online for only $18 and include admission, one treat as well as one Salt Spring coffee beverage. Dieheart dessert fans can also buy additional treat tickets to avoid missing any of the delicious bites. In addition, guests get to try some sweet delights out of the W2 Media Café kitchen. “We are excited to host Indulge n’ Dance at our media, arts and culture hub,” says Irwin Oostindie, Executive Director of W2. The cafe is a social enterprise that not only serves healthy, high quality food and drink but also employes DTES residents to connect the neighborhood.

About Social Bites Networking Services
Annika Reinhardt is the owner of Social Bites Networking Services, a company producing culinary events in Vancouver. The most successful one being Social Bites dinner and brunch excursions bringing foodies who love to cook and dine together. Her newest venture, Indulge n’ Dance features local artisans and their favourite treats followed by a fun dance party in a relaxed, yet mature atmosphere. For more information, visit www.indulgendance.com

The Boathouse English Bay

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For my next Dine Out 2012 dinner I was in the mood for some steak and with a long day behind me I didn’t want to go far so going to the Boathouse restaurant at English Bay was a no brainer seeing I live around the corner from it.

The views of English Bay are great and the patio that is open in the summertime is one of Vancouver’s best and should not be missed if you’re visiting the city.

They are offering 2 choices of menu’s~one for $28 and one for $38, both are 3 courses and offer some pretty appealing dishes, I went with the $28 choice and I was really happy with that choice.

For my appy I went with the Firecracker Shrimp, in this Dine Out portion size I got 10 nice big shrimp, the sauce was buttery and there was some heat in it form chili and some grape tomatoes in the dish, served along with it was a black olive bread that was perfect for dunking in that nice sauce that came with the shrimp~I’d order this again without hesitation on a future visit.

For my main I went with their 7oz Sirloin with Lobster Thermidor topping, the topping included shrimp, lobster, mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce.

The steak was cooked perfectly to my liking and was juicy and tender, I would have liked to see more lobster in the topping on my steak but it was delicious none the less.

The dish was served with a side of broccolini and buttered mashed potatoes~both were great and a nice accompaniment to the steak.  This dish alone is $28 on the menu so the rest of the meal was like a bonus!

For my dessert I went with their New York Cheesecake with a berry compote, it was a killer, rich thick cheesecake that anybody that likes cheesecake would dig!

Over all my Dine Out meal was totally worth $28 and shows a great value for money with you leaving with a full belly.

Boathouse (West End) on Urbanspoon

Food Truck Trends 2011:Can’t get enough bacon and cupcakes

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Perfect cupcake topping, Yum Yum Cupcake Truck (Orlando). Photo courtesy of Droolius blog.

Bacon was far and away one of the most popular ingredients in the food truck scene, with many trucks entirely dedicated to the protein. On the flip side of this flavour profile, we also saw a big boom in sugary sweet mobile cupcakeries. In the most ideal scenario, we even spotted bacon-topped and bacon infused cupcakes for the best combo of salty-sweet deliciousness.

B A C O N

“The Rico” – An all beef hot dog with chunks of Applewood and hickory smoked bacon. Bacon Mania ( Orange County)

If you’ve been following along with us on Twitter, you’ll likely have noticed a compendium of #bacon-related tweets. There was no shortage of bacon news and information in 2011, and we’ve certainly covered a lot of bacon on the show. Whether it’s used as a topping (such as in the case of “The Rico” here from Bacon Mania in Orange County) or simply standing on its own, There’s just a lot of shameless bacon lovin’ happening both online and offline.

Track down more bacon and bacon love at:

Bacon Bacon (San Francisco)

Re-Up BBQ (Vancouver)

Maximus Minimus (Seattle)

The Bacon Wagon (Dallas)

C U P C A K E S

“Buttermilk Maple Cupcake” Buttermilk flavored cake topped with a maple buttercream and real bacon. Cupcakin’ (Dallas) Photo courtesy of DFW Food Truck Foodie

It was really no surprise that this major trend in baked goods would extend itself to the food truck arena, and we’re glad it did. We saw some beautiful confections this year, and bacon-topped cupcakes (like this one from the Cupcakin’ machine in Dallas) was definitely on our list of favourites.

Here are some more sweet mobile cupcakeries to check out:

Yum Yum Cupcake Truck (Florida)

Curbside Cupcakes (Washington, DC)

Flirty Cupcakes (Chicago)

Saweet Cupcakes (San Antonio)

Silver Spoon Contributors

Special thanks to some of our Eat St. Silver Spoons for offering up their trend suggestions and wonderful photos for us to use in this series! Here’s a short introduction to who they are:

DFW Food Truck Foodie

Stephanie Hawkes, aka DFW Food Truck Foodie

Hi I’m Stephanie Hawkes, aka DFW Food Truck Foodie. I’ve always loved food and travel and was excited when the street food culture came to Dallas/Ft Worth and I could combine both loves. By day I work for a large corporation, so blogging allows me an excuse to get away from the office for lunch and go have fun!

You can find me online at:
Blog: www.dfwfoodtruckfoodie.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dfwfoodtruckfoodie
Twitter: @dfwtruckfoodie

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Gyudon Ya

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Gyudon Ya opened it’s big wooden doors last year and I’ve passed by it a million times. They serve up Japanese fast food in the form of donburi rice bowls or in other words~Japanese rice bowl or dish.

It’s usually packed at lunchtime with office workers getting a quick lunch and is generally slower on the weekends so when I was walking past on a Saturday I stopped in to give them a try.

This place used to be a little cafe for many, many years and these guy’s took it over just over a year ago. The seating inside is limited to the bar and the window bar behind that, there are a couple of 2-top tables but that’s it. I wasn’t a fan of what they did with the place~it looked kinda dirty or “grungy” looking.

Food wise I went with something that totally sounded good:

The “grilled” beef short rib bowl, the quotes I used were also on the menu like that so it should have been a warning sign!, I chose to make it a value meal and my choices were kind of limited~potato salad or cabbage salad and miso soup

the cabbage salad was a total miss, the mix was a bag coleslaw mix and it wasn’t very fresh and the dressing had a sweet taste to it that I couldn’t put my finger on. The miso soup would have been OK but for the fact they put so much kombu in it that it wasted like the ocean.

My “grilled” Short Rib bowl consisted of 90% rice and about 10 thin slices of beef that has an odd rubbery texture to them and a sweet sauce in them, I don’t think they were freshly “grilled” and I have no clue why they use quotes around the word grilled other than to mean “grilled like?”, there was also some Japanese pickles and lettuce as well in the bowl but like I said~it was mostly rice.

With all the good food in this city it really stands out to me when I get a bad meal and boy I can say I didn’t feel good after eating this, I don’t think I’ll be back.

Gyudon Ya on Urbanspoon

Ebisu Robson

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I was lucky enough to win a Cheers Ebisu dinning package from @vaneatsca a couple of weeks ago. I took @maryinvancity with me to check this out and it was good times all around .
This package ended up selling out in a couple of days and I can see why-it’s great bang for your buck and is a great way to try a number of items off a menu and a new restaurant as well, it consisted of a pitcher of Sapporo Premium draft beer and a selection of 6 set menu items for $25.

photo credit for this to Mary

We were served this right away-my kinda place when the beer starts flowing quickly!, the Sapporo was nice and cold and stayed that way thanks to the chiller pitcher. Normally the beer is $15 alone.

The Cajun Tuna Tacos topped with caviar and Japanese mayo, these were ok but kinda bland, I tasted the tuna on it own and it was cooked perfectly still being rare in the middle but the mayo kinda killed any Cajun flavor, if you order these make sure you eat them with a small plate under because the shell breaks apart really easy.  There were 2 of them in the package.

Their version of Ebi mayo~Tiger mayo, was pretty good and was a favorite of Mary and myself, the chefs special chili mayo was served under the shrimp and there was a good amount, the tempura prawn was cooked perfectly and I’d definitely order this from the menu.  There were 2 of them in the package.

Boneless Chicken Karaage is part of the deal and was really good,it was moist and tender and the pieces were pretty big, the lemon totally worked to add a great tartness. They really know how to fry up some good chicken here and it shows,despite it being deep fried it wasn’t greasy.  There was 4 pieces of Karaage in the package.

This was a first for me, they call this Chikuwa Cheese, its deep fried fish cake stuffed with melted mozzarella cheese.  After reading about this I was really curious to try it, the last time I had deep fried fish cake it was made with a really oily heavy fish so it wasn’t a good experience but this was so subtle you couldn’t tell it was fish, the sauces on top was where the flavor was coming from, there was a heavy flavor of nutmeg and allspice and I actually really liked this.  There were 4 pieces of this in the package.

                                       Photo credit to Mary for this picture.

We got a basket of what they call Thunder fries in the deal, there really big sweet potato fries served with a Cajun mayo dip.  These were some of the best sweet potato fries I have ever had, they were nice and thick and the tempura batter was perfect.  Also in the basket was a fry filled with cream cheese.  Other restaurants should take a lesson from Ebisu on sweet potato fries and ditch the frozen Sysco product.

Lastly we have Kansai Steak Sliders, they consisted of sautéed sliced beef marinated in yakiniku sauce and topped with avocado, onions, mushrooms, mayo and a pickled jalapeno slice.

When we arrived and ordered our package we also order a couple other items off the menu so there would be some other selections that weren’t deep fried so we grabbed these:

Prawn Gyoza $5.95, hand wrapped tiger prawn dumplings pan fried to perfection.  I’ve never had prawn gyoza where the tail is sticking out before and it was a great touch and presentation, the wrapper was thin and tender.

Volcano rolls were lastly on the menu for us, for $6.97 you get a spicy salmon roll topped with tempura bits, tobiko, avocado and drizzled with a spicy sauce.  I personally didn’t like this~too spicy for my taste but I will say that they make quality sushi here and I look forward to trying some of their other rolls.

Keep your eyes tuned to the Vaneats.ca website and follow them on twitter to get the next great deal that they come out with.

Ebisu on Robson on Urbanspoon

Jack Layton’s Final Letter Turned Into Art

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Art director Stuart Thursby has taken Jack Layton’s final message to Canadians and turned it into visual art that can be appreciated by one and all in my eyes and I wanted to share it with you all and can seen with the creators other work on Stuart Thursby’s webpage.

 

The Actions Of A Small Few

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Yesterday a small group of idiots gave the city of Vancouver a black eye.  With the loss of the hockey game things turned ugly and ’94 reared its ugly head, it seems some people saw fit to start car fires

threaten TV crews and assault them

quickly after taking this picture the camera man was punched in the face and his camera was grabbed and pulled, the fear of god quickly was evident by the terrified look on his face.

Things quickly went down hill from here and a mob mentality took over with some people who began fighting just because, I was threatened and pushed, the police were completely over whelmed and its totally understandable.

This is where things turned real ugly, I walked down towards the art gallery to get away from all this and head back towards home and was quickly was surrounded by 3 men that were stabbed and collapsed to the ground

and even with all this craziness going on people saw fit to fight on front of the police and were quickly brought down with steel batons

With all this disgusting behavior on display for the world to see I just want everyone who is reading this from other country’s I want you all to know that this isn’t what we wanted to happen and please don’t let actions turn you off about visiting Vancouver and also if anybody has pictures/video/witness evidence of crimes being committed please email robbery@vpd.ca or call 604.717.2541.

In closing I just want to say this~rioters your not Canucks fans, if you burned your jersey~ good~you don’t deserve to have one~your bum’s and loser’s, looters~you will be publicly identified and brought to justice like the rioters in Toronto during the G8 Summit and all us real Canucks fans will be warm with joy.

Eat! Vancouver 2011

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Saturday afternoon and its sunny and beautiful out so what should I do??, go to the Vancouver trade and convention center for Eat! Vancouver. It’s the 1st year that its been hosted at the new trade and convention center and its also my first time going to the event so I was really exited to say the least!

After walking into the event and getting my swag bag I saw Graham Kerr doing an interview with Red Robinson!

This for me was a happy moment seeing I used to watch the Galloping Gourmet when I was a child and found it hilarious at the end of each show when he would run up into the audience and grab a fan to come up and taste the dishes cooked in that episode~he has great interaction skills with a live audience.

I got my food vendor tickets~20 for $10 so I picked up 40 tickets to be safe and I was off into the throngs of foodies.  A large part of the space was for vendors selling sauces, oils, vinegar’s and the obligatory PNE showmart slicer’s and dicer’s, pots and pans and magic mops~not very impressive to me.  Another part of the space was a 19+ area featuring alcoholic bevies to sample for a reasonable amount of tickets

There were some vendors offering samples and putting on demos in this case but for a fee

this brought a big smile to my face

Bossa & Co were giving out free samples of Parmesan Reggiano~why yes I’ll have 2 or 3!

Another big part of this years even was the 2011 National Chef’s Conference and Competition, there was an area for Chefs to take part in timed competitions with all us foodies watching eagerly!

for some of the competitions you could buy extra tickets and eat the submissions by the competing chefs but at $75 and $100 it was quite the impulse buy, you could also check out the Chefs plates that were presented for viewing

this was Team Canada’s entry, due to the small area and the amount of people viewing I wasn’t able to get all the pictures I wanted so the following series of pictures are from the other country’s~Team USA and Team Venezuela

The Dairy Farmers of Canada had an area set up to take a free cheese class~gotta check that out next year~2 sessions that I tried to attend were both filled up quick

The Food Network Canada celebrity Chef stage was a busy place with shows put on by Graham Kerr and Connie DeSusa of Top Chef Canada and Co-Executive Chef and Co-Owner of CHARCUT Roast House in Calgary during the time I was there but also Dale MacKay of Top Chef Canada and the owner of Ensemble Restaurant and the ever so famous Rob Fennie

at the end of Graham’s show he was presented with an Eat! Vancouver platter by the founders of the festival

By after walking around looking at the exhibitors, watching Graham Kerr cook a healthy omelet I was ready to do some eating myself so I headed over to the Taste of Vancouver area, there was a good line up of restaurants:

Calabash Bistro
Crave Restaurant
Dona Cata Mexican Restaurant
Ebo Restaurant
Fishworks
Fleuri Restaurant at the Sutton Place Hotel
Goldilocks Bakery Restaurant
Gorilla Food
Gramercy Grill
Maurya Indian Cuisine
Milestones Grill & Bar
Mochikas Peruvian Cafe
New India Buffet & Restaurant
Organic Lives

I didn’t eat at every station because some of the items were sold out by the time I got to them or I didn’t see the price wanted for some items was reasonable so here’s a selection of what I had to sample

Blue Cheese mac and cheese from Gramercy Grill, this was really good and not to heavy on the blue cheese so you could eat a normal sized portion of this and it wouldn’t be over powering~it would be a great side to a good steak I think.

Pulled Pork soft tacos from Crave, these were good but the salsa on them really took away from the dish so the pulled pork flavor didn’t really come thru~they would be better if they had a traditional coleslaw on them like pulled pork sandwiches do but for 4 tickets I didn’t feel ripped off.

One of the more popular stations was the Fishwork’s booth, they were selling fresh shucked oysters and I got to see a dude eat his first ever oyster

I have to stay away from these but it was a real good show watching them get shucked right in front of you.

Butter Chicken from Maurya Indian Cuisine, this was my ugliest plate of the night, the flavors were all spot on, the chicken was tender and the sauce was creamy and flavorful but the rice had hard bits inside~not sure if it was another ingredient or just poorly cooked rice, needless to say I didn’t finish my plate but ate all the chicken.

next up is Ebo in the Burnaby Delta Hotel, I’ve heard great things from Sherman’s Food Adventures about this place so I was looking forward to what they were offering

this was paired with the dessert option and was good, it had the taste of berry but I didn’t pick up the vanilla but that was ok because it was good anyway and the dry ice was a great effect!

Rare Albacore Tuna with Serrano Ham, Soya Gel, Asparagus and Avocado, I could have eaten 4 or 5 of these!, the tuna was cook nicely and the ham added a great salty bite to the dish, because of the size of this I was able to eat it in one bite so I can imagine what a full size appy of this would be like~yumm!, I missed the Salmon BLT on my way back cuz it sold out but it looked really good!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar with Peanut Ice cream and Passion Fruit Gelee, chocolate and peanut butter~the perfect combo to start with but paired with the ice cream it was the bomb!, I’m not going to lie, this was the 1st thing I ate here and man I wasn’t disappointed!, the chocolate bar was firm enough to hold together but melted in your mouth as soon as you ate it and the ice cream was smooth and rich without being over powering with peanut flavor.

food created for my mood eh~we’ll just see about that!

Butterscotch Pot De Creme, this was a complete disaster, they really should have given you a straw to eat it with because it was runny like water and extremely sweet, I ended up going back to Ebo and having another peanut butter bar so I wouldn’t leave with a  bad taste in my mouth so to speak.

At the end of the day I had  a great time at Eat! Vancouver 2011 and will definitely be back next year and am already looking forward to the event!