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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.