donnadupuis.ca

Twice a year (one for Thanksgiving and one for Christmas), Capers community markets puts on a gem of an event – ‘Taste of the Holidays’.

If you don’t know Capers, it’s a pricey ‘Natural and Organic Foods’ retailer. It has a fantastic bulk foods selection, and is an ideal place to shop for those trying to meet specialty diet requirements (i.e., vegan / organic / sugar-free / gluten-free). The baked goods, salads, and deli offerings they prepare daily are particular delicious. Since it does tend to be on the pricey side, I rarely shop there.

However, tonight, from 5pm to 8pm, the Capers at 4th and Vine decided to offer generous seasonal food samples (set up at stations all throughout the store). For a $5 donation, you were treated to the following extensive holiday menu:

Prepared Foods (a full plate of the following!)
-Carved Turkey
-Country Mashed Potatoes (with fresh sage! great idea)
-Fruit & Herb Stuffing
-Turkey Gravy*
-Cranberry Sauce* (wonderfully spiced)
-Baked Winter Squash (with celantro – interesting choice. totally delicious!)
-Gardien Protein Turkey Cutlets (soy-based vegan option, and pretty tasty)
-Mushroom Gravy*
-Green Beans Almondine

*made on-site from scratch

Seafood
-Cooked Shrimp in a cocktail sauce

Bakery
-Mince Meat Pie
-Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies
-White Lake Organics: Orange CranaBickies (a ‘healthy-choice’ biscuit similar to biscotti; there were also chocolate-zucchini biscuits and banana varieties, all served with your choice of melted dark, milk, or white chocolate!)

Specialty
-Baked Brie with mixed nuts and Cranberry Balsamic preserve (served on your choice of cranberry baguette slices or crackers – ZOMG SO GOOD)
-Torrone (a.k.a. white nougat, with pistachios, dangerously addictive)
-49th Parallel Coffee (they say it’s the best coffee in Vancouver)

Grocery
-Bottle Green Cranberry Orange Sparkling Beverage
-Denman Island Chocolate (the owner of the company himself was quite generously handing out samples – orange chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, extra dark chocolate, love!)

Produce
-Seasonal Citrus (i.e., a few clementine slices)
-Roasted Italian Chestnuts (score an ‘X’ into the chestnuts, 425 degrees in the oven for 25 minutes – wonderful!! I’ve never actually done this before, but this sample inspired me to try it this Christmas)

Whole Body
-Ester-C chewable vitamin c tablets.

Yeah. I know. FIVE BUCKS. Great quality too, nothing short of delicious! The baked brie, roasted chestnuts, turkey, squash, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce were particularly good.

As far as I could tell, apart from word-of-mouth, the only advertisement for this event was painted on the storefront windows (which is how I learned of it, walking by yesterday). Happy discovery!

All proceeds go towards the Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, so you get warm fuzzy feelings with dinner too.

I’m a big fan of Sunday brunch. And there is, happily, no shortage of brunch nooks in this city – thus inspiring my mission to check out as many of them as I can, and be bloggy about them after.

So this past weekend, a few friends and I headed to the Revel Room in Gastown, after seeing the long lineup outside of Medina – a popular brunch spot a few blocks away, and our originally-planned destination. Any feelings of disappointment at not getting into Medina were soon replaced by warm fuzzies upon entering the  cozy redbrick interior of the Revel Room, filled with the sounds of live jazz.

Yup, every Sunday, free live jazz. And GOOD jazz, too. Totally awesome!!! It wasn’t even crowded or noisy in there either. We had front row seats. Happy discovery!

As for the food, everyone was more or less in agreement – tasty, satisfying, good (but not overwhelming) portion sizes, plated and presented with care…definitely a class above ‘greasy spoon’, but nothing spectacular or outstanding.  But then , at around $10 a plate including live music and lovely ambiance, you’re getting some solid value.

The drip coffee was quite good too (and free refills).

Overall, a charming experience.

What M and I each ordered. Two poached eggs on cooked spinach and chorizo sausage, home fries on the side. Wasn't bad, but definitely not memorable. Could have used more chorizo. A little underseasoned / unfocused / bland.

Smoked salmon and cream cheese on an english muffin, home fries on the side. B was pretty happy with it, said the salmon was good quality, but the dish arrived a little cold.

Tal's order FTW. Her quote: "excellent burger, fantastic salad!".

Complete with strawberries and whipped cream, 'cept a little too shy on the berries. Ty was a bit disappointed.

Spuds on the side. Not bad.

“La Cantinetta di Rignana”.

Chianti region, Tuscany, Italy.

Dining al fresca, overlooking the rolling hills of vineyards and olive groves glowing in legendary, late-afternoon Tuscan light. Like stepping into a fairytale.

The food, so simple. All made from fresh, local ingredients. Shown here is home-made caprini cheese and wild-boar carpaccio. We also enjoyed gooey oven-baked tomino cheese, and mushroom linguine. The pasta was almost stark in its simplicity – homemade noodles, local porcini mushrooms, and a drizzle of good olive oil. I still recall its fresh, earthy smell.

The experience reinforced something I heard once:  good quality ingredients speak for themselves and hardly require any preparation, but even the best chef can’t make poor quality ingredients taste good.

Love, love, love.