EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival 2012

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Looking for a delicious way to spend a couple hours this weekend? EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival easily provides the city’s largest buffet in a sense — endless samples offered from local restaurants, vendors, producers, growers and importers. Previously held in the Vancouver Convention Centre, EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival moved to the recently renovated BC Place Stadium in a venue change. With the sun peeking through the new retractable roof — which was closed of course — foodies perused a massive selection of tasty treats from sweet-and-tangy imported Balsamic vinegar to hefty chunks of local salmon and more.

As usual, a selection of the Vancouver’s many restaurants set up booths to offer smaller portions of their menu items. Line-ups easily formed at a number of the booths for people waiting to dish out tickets for a taste. While the prices for a page of tickets ($10 for 20 tickets or $5 for 10) had remained the same, some booths were asking for seven to eight tickets for a single item — up from perhaps four or five tickets in past years.

I’m a sucker for anything with basil or a really good pesto – one booth, run by Le Grand, had a selection of different pesto on toasted flatbread that I had trouble putting down. One of the exhibitors saw that I had my camera around my neck and asked if I could take their picture for their Facebook page, which I happily agreed to. McDonalds had staked out a spot just inside of the entrance to the event and offered small cups of their fruit smoothies with a coupon for a dollar off a full sized one at their restaurants. I’m hooked on the Blueberry Pomegranate smoothie – quite flavourful with a hint of yogourt. I’m not much of a fan of tofu, but a booth run by a group from Japan was handing out a cube of white stuff dashed with a green hot sauce. There was a nice bit of heat to it and was actually quite tasty. One of the girls behind the table noticed I was wearing a Naruto shirt and we connected for a few minutes over the manga. Awesome!

I have to give credit for the booth handing out the salmon served with a very sweet, but savoury maple glaze. I kept going back for more free samples, and they even had a plate available for a couple of tickets. Another booth lined their table with trays of pickled green beans – some in a tiny paper cup filled with a Caesar mix – for a refreshingly crunchy snack.

A number of local restaurants returned to the Bite of Vancouver section – including the Gramercy Grill and Doña Cata Mexican Restaurant and Taqueria. I’m not going to say no to sliders or a nice carnitas-filled taco. Plus, there was pie from the aptly named Her Majesty’s Pie Company – though the portions seemed to tiny for something so scrumptious, such as the delectable apple-strawberry pie.

It’s always best to attend the EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival on a slightly empty stomach and to arrive as early as possible. BC Place filled up quickly but having a large open overhead space seemed to make things slightly less cramped. Be prepared to spend a couple of hours using your eyes, nose and mouth of course.

EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival runs until 9:00 pm PDT tonight and from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm PDT on Sunday. Ticket prices are $2.00 off if purchased online.

 

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One reply to “EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival 2012”

  1. This year of EAT! was wonderful event and I’d say it was the best year so far. We have especially appreciated plentiful activities for children. The largest consumer food festival in whole Canada (I got to know about this only thereafter) surprised me by its diversity of seminars and presentations. It’s undoubtedly one of top ten June events in Vancouver!

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