Dine Out Vancouver, Canada’s largest restaurant festival gets under way January 20th and runs to February 5th. Each year the line up of delicious events gets better and better. One of many that caught our eye was Vancouver Foodster’s East Village Brunch Crawl happening Saturday, January 28th in the Hastings Sunrise area. The event will begin at The Waldorf Hotel, 1489 East Hastings Street, with registration which takes place between 9:30 am and 10:30 am. You will pick up your “passport” which is your guide to a number of restaurants in the Hastings Sunrise/Grandview Woodlands area. Some of the delish foods you will enjoy include fresh juices, smoothies, coffees, eggs benedict, pancakes, waffles, omelettes, brunch pizza, meats, seafood, hash browns, baked goods and a few more goodies. Some of the stops we hear include Nonna’s Table, Gourmet Warehouse, Italia Bakery, Platform 7 Coffee and Di Oliva Tasting Bar with more to be announced soon. Outside of your passport, we do recommend you bring your appetite. We don’t expect you will leave this event hungry. Cost for the Dine Out East Village Brunch Crawl is $52.50 and includes all food and beverage samples at each participating location. To purchase your tickets for this Brunch Crawl, visit Tickets Tonight. The event runs from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. If you’d prefer to do a brunch crawl along Commercial Drive, that one is happening on Sunday, February 5th which kicks off at Federico’s Supper Club. For more information, visit Vancouver Foodster.
Dine Out East Village Brunch Crawl Saturday, January 28th
21 Dec
Giving Locally: Vancouver BC SPCA Wish List 2016
19 Dec
We at ILiveInEastVan.com are big supporters of all the great work the staff and volunteers do at the Vancouver SPCA. The SPCA is a non-profit organization that helps nearly 37,000 injured, abused and homeless animals each year and relies on generous donations from supporters. We provide our support wherever we can. If you follow us, you know we regularly feature many of the pets waiting for adoption. Today, we would like to tell you about a different way you can support the Vancouver SPCA. That is by contributing some much needed items from their Wish List. Maybe you have some extra items at home that they could use, or maybe you would like to purchase a few items from their Wish List for them this Christmas. Which ever way you choose to support them, these items go a long way to helping them do the great work they do. If you do purchase new items to be donated, keep your receipt and drop it off with some identification and you are eligible for a tax receipt for income tax purposes. We have set out below a short list of some of the most wanted items that would help them immensely, we invite you to take a peek:
Animal Care
- Gently Used Bedding, Towels & Blankets
- Clumping litter for cats
- Fancy Feast or Tiki cat tuna for adult cats & senior cats
- Treats for cats: They love Temptations
- Smart toys and kongs of any kind
- Leashes/collars
- Bully sticks and hard chew toys for dogs (big need, few donations)
- Training treats for dogs
- Small animal toys for -chinchillas, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats & gerbils
- Craisins, Cheerios, Shreddies
- Romaine lettuce, bok choy, carrots, cilantro & parsley for the rabbits
Cleaning – Office
- Eco friendly cleaning products
- Paper Towels
- Dishwashing soap
- Photocopy paper
Donations can be dropped off at the Vancouver Shelter at 1205 East 7th Avenue (at the corner of East 6th Avenue & Keith Drive). For those taking transit, the Vancouver SPCA Shelter is located across the street from the VCC-Clark Skytrain Station. The shelter is open Monday to Friday 10:30 am – 5:00 pm and Saturday & Sunday from Noon – 4:00 pm and items can be dropped anytime during those times. If you have any questions, you can phone or email the Vancouver shelter directly at T: 604-879-7721 or vancouver@spca.bc.ca. For those that are cat lovers, VOKRA- Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue Association is another great East Vancouver based non-profit that seeks your assistance. Visit their Wish List available online for more information. We thank you in advance for helping support the great work these folks do speaking for all those that cannot speak for themselves
Share this:
Gourmet Warehouse Cooking Class Line Up For 2017
14 Dec
The Gourmet Warehouse has another great line up of cooking classes for 2017. These classes are a great way to spend an afternoon and meet some like-minded food lovers. We recently did just that with a class led by Caren McSherry featuring holiday appetizers. Not only do you get to taste everything you make, but you leave with amazing recipes and great tips from an expert. Personally, we like the shopping after the cooking class as participants are offered a 10% discount for purchases made the day of your class. We have set out below some of the upcoming classes that caught our eye. For a full line up of all the classes Gourmet Warehouse is offering visit Cooking Classes.
PHO-Fabulous – Thursday, March 23rd 6:00 pm ($65)
You are invited to join Chef Thompson Tran to learn the essential techniques for making authentic Pho (PH-UH) broth. In this cool weather, there is nothing like an aromatic bowl of Pho to warm you up. The menu Chef Tran has lined up for this class includes:
• GOI DU-DU VA THIT HEO THOM, Green papaya and cabbage salad prawn and pork
• PHO BO DAC BIET, Authentic South Vietnamese Pho
• BANH LOT, a Chestnut Jelly in Ginger Syrup
Asian Bistro – Saturday, March 25th 11:00 am ($65) SOLD OUT
Chef Cindy Low teaches you how to make casual Asian food. Best of all, easy and fast dishes including potstickers, bao (filled steamed buns), Asian sticky chicken and a fav among many we know spicy green beans finished off with mango coconut ice cream.
• Potstickers – Class pork and vegetable dumpling, pan-friend with dipping sauce
• Asian turkey ragu bao – Asian Sloppy Joes in steamed buns
• Indodesian sticky chicken
• Szechuan spicy green beans wok fried with garlic and chili
• Steamed rice
• Mango coconut yogurt ice cream
Sunday Supper: France – Saturday April 8th 11:00 am ($69)
If you want to invite the family or friends for Sunday Supper with a French twist, Chef Cindy Low will teach you the ins and outs of putting on a casually elegant French dinner. Chef Low will teach you how to make a classic lamb stew, an easy spinach and strawberry salad, cherry clafouti and more. Menu for this upcoming class includes:
• Tartine with saute mushrooms in a creamy tarragon sauce
• Spinach salad with fresh strawberries, toasted almonds, raspberry vinaigrette
• Lamb navarin printainere – class lamb stew with spring vegetables
• Roast potatoes with rosemary and sea salt
• Cherry clafouti – baked custard with cherries
If you are interested in any of these cooking classes, be sure to register early to avoid disappointment. If you are unable to attend for any reason, refunds are not offered, but you can send someone in your place. Bon Appetit.
Share this:
Holiday Giftshop In SPACE – Collaborative Workshop December 9 – 21
12 Dec
You are invited to a collaborative workspace and showroom at SPACE, 552 Clark Drive for their 2nd Annual Holiday Giftshop. The event runs from December 9th – December 21st from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. They will be featuring over 25 local producers that make a variety of items including art work, leather goods, jewellery, ceramics and much more. Some of the local producers featured include Wasted Effort, By Nature Design, Willow and Stump, Ben Barber Studio, DMR Ceramics, Propellor Design, Nocturnal Workshop, Daly Co., OGA Designs, Pot Inc, Hand and Sew and Shrapnel Design. Pat Christie, Founder of SPACE has created “a playful environment to encourage people to ask questions and interact with products in a new way.” Their Holiday Giftshop is building momentum for what will soon be a permanent showroom which will have an online store. To learn more about SPACE and the products featured visit their online showroom.
Share this:
Trinity Street Christmas Lights 2016
8 Dec
We see that many people have been searching for information on the Annual Trinity Street Christmas Light Festival. This is one in which East Van residents of the 2400 – 2900 blocks of Trinity Street put up an amazing display of Christmas lights. Residents hosted Winter Walks and raised funds for local charities such as Kiwassa Neighbourhood House The Trinity Street Christmas Light Festival started over 15 years ago to lift residents’ spirits after two elderly women were killed in their homes in the neighbourhood. The event has brought thousands of people in from all corners of the City and was a victim of its own success. Unfortunately for residents, damage was done to vehicles of residents in the area, people didn’t heed the residents repeated requests to park and walk in, so the official festival has been cancelled. You can learn more about the cancellation of the festival by visiting CBC’s story featured last Christmas. Now having said this, many residents are still putting up their Christmas lights which are on display for all to see. Should you wish to see the lights, PLEASE respect the residents that live in the area and park and walk in. Of course, if you wish to make an online donation to Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, it is a great community resource providing much needed programs.
Share this:
The Wood Shop Offers Do It Yourself Classes
7 Dec
Are you interested in making a table or storage trunk by hand? Maybe you don’t have the space or tools on hand to tackle that kind of project. You may wish to check out the upcoming do it yourself classes being offered by The Wood Shop. The Wood Shop crafts one-of-a-kind wood furniture and home decor items out of reclaimed wood in and around Vancouver. They also offer workshops that help you tackle a wood working project in one day. One upcoming workshop features a Reclaimed Wood Table which is designed to your preferences such as style, height and base. You will learn how to use a variety of tools and in case you were wondering, no experience is required. In the second workshop, you will learn how to make a Reclaimed Wood Storage Trunk, again to your design preferences. Cost of each class is $160 plus materials. Workshops take place at 251 Southern Street in the False Creek Flats near Main & Terminal. There is availability in their classes for 2017 and gift certificates are available for those that wish to make it a gift for someone this Christmas. For more information or to register, visit their website at The Wood Shop.
Share this:
Giving Local Gifts For The Foodie In Your Life
6 Dec
Here at ILiveInEastVan.com, we love food. Whether it’s making it, eating it, or some variation thereof. In the last few months alone we’ve taken a Pie Making Workshop at The Pie Shoppe, an Appetizer Cooking Class with Caren McSherry at Gourmet Warehouse and most recently a Chocolate Making Workshop at The Soap Dispensary. We have found a lot more friends and family favouring edible items as gifts whether food, spirits or accessories that compliment cooking, baking or creating delish refreshments at home. With that in mind, we have set out some gift suggestions for the foodie in your life:
We’ve recently had the pleasure of putting our hands on a copy of The East Van Foodie just released mere weeks ago. This beautiful hard cover book is the work of Brad Hill and Chris Dagenais and is part cookbook, but at the same time features great stories about many of the amazing foodie spots in East Van. You will find smoking tips from the folks at The Acorn, the recipe for Pulled Pork Pancakes from The Red Wagon Café and the recipe for Vegan Tinga Tacos from Sal Y Limon. Did you know that Fets Whiskey Kitchen has the largest whiskey collection in Canada and the world’s largest collection of Scotch Malt Whiskey? This is just one of many interesting tidbits you will find in this book. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the stunning photography that accompanies each foodie spot featured. We think this is a great gift for the foodie in your life. The book retails for $44.95 and is available at Chapters Indigo as well as long list of East Van spots including Havana Restaurant, Earnest Ice Cream, Cabrito’s Tapas, Odd Society Spirts, Bomber Brewing, Biercraft, Red Wagon Café, The Cascade Room, Pizza Farina, The Union, ChiCha Restaurant to name but a few. To see the full list of where it’s available, visit The East Van Foodie online.
Craft Beer
No way we could just skip over craft beer as a gift for the beer lover. So many great breweries to choose from each with their own unique offering, but pretty much all offer growlers, many gift packs with glasses such as our friends at Dogwood Brewing which includes a growler fill in the cost of the gift pack. If you prefer to give the gift of a brewery tour, our friends at Vancouver Brewery Tours have that covered.
Do you have someone with a sweet tooth in your life? We wouldn’t pass up an amazing box of French macarons from French Made Baking. Located in Mount Pleasant, French Made Baking has 13 to 18 flavours on hand every day which now include some holiday flavours such as peppermint dark chocolate, eggnog cream, orange gingerbread and black forest. They offer beautiful gift boxes in two sizes, one with 6 macarons for $11.00 or a box of 12 macarons for $24.00. These make a perfect hostess gift, stocking stuffer or thank you.
Whether you are looking for stocking stuffers for the cook or baker in your life, or for someone that just loves to eat food, you have lots to choose from at Gourmet Warehouse. The choices can in fact be overwhelming if you don’t know what you have in mind. If that’s you, Gourmet Warehouse has great gift baskets that they will make and send for you. Prices range from $50 – $175 and can be ordered online and delivered right to the person’s home. We have personally sent The Crates featured in the wooden boxes to rave reviews.
If you are looking for local spirits to give, we are pretty fond of Odd Society Spirits which has a great selection with their East Van Vodka, Wallflower Gin, Cassis, Bittersweet Vermouth and Oaken Wallflower Gin. During the holidays, we love to serve the cassis with prosecco, an easy cocktail when entertaining.
Do you have someone that is into the art of making cocktails? Then you may wish to pop into Sips Cocktail Emporium in Mount Pleasant. They have everything on hand for making the perfect cocktail save for the alcohol. Whether it’s tumblers, glasses, bitters, syrups, cocktail shakers, books with recipes, they have you covered. You can visit them in person at 339 East Broadway, but you can also visit them online at GoodSips.ca.
Japanese Knives
So we’ve learnt quite by accident that when it comes to quality knives in the kitchen, there is great demand and a culture around this art form. This is evidenced by the arrival of two great stores in East Van offering high quality knives. One being, KnifeWear at 4215 Main Street and Ai & Om Knives at 129 East Pender Street in Chinatown. If you are buying a gift for someone that loves to cook, either of these spots will help you find that perfect knife that will last a lifetime.
Now if you have a chocolate lover in your life, you may wish to check out Lisa Lou’s Chocolate Bar at 1007 Main Street. We hear they have some amazing hot chocolates with flavours such as Salted Caramel, Peppermint, Chai, Dark & Mayan Elixir. We are these would make the perfect stocking stuffer or hostess gift. We’d be happy with any one of these flavours.
So if you are looking for cool stocking stuffers, what about artisan ice cream. Yes we know ice cream melts, but thankfully Earnest Ice Cream has gift cards in $5 and $25 denominations. Something we’d love to find in our stocking. Just pop into either one of their two locations whether Fraser Street or Quebec Street. 
These are just a few suggestions, there are of course so many more. If you wish to give the gift of experience as it relates to food, we invite you to check out our recent feature ‘Giving The Gift of Experience’ which features foodie tours and much more.
Share this:
Fire & Feast – Beer & BBQ At Dogwood Brewing December 10th
1 Dec
You are invited to a special event by our friends at Dogwood Brewing which in case you don’t know are the City’s only organic brewer. They will be hosting a delish night of beer & BBQ with Fire & Feast on Saturday, December 10th. The event will feature an indoor fire pit where you can get cozy with your friends or make some new friends and nosh on delish BBQ while enjoying some locally made beverages. The BBQ will be catered by Memphis Blues BBQ House with the option of BBQ chicken, ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork or double-smoked farmer sausage. We hear veggie options will be available. For refreshments, they will have a limited release of a S’more Stout befitting the occasion as well as mulled wine and cider. Tickets for this event are a very reasonable $28 which includes your meal and two drink tickets. Advance tickets are available through Eventbrite.
Share this:
Rescue Me: Sweet Georgia Girl Would Love A FURever Home
30 Nov
Welcome to the next installment of Rescue Me in which we feature pets waiting for adoption at the Vancouver SPCA. Today we would like to re- introduce you to a lovely girl named Georgia who we featured earlier this year. She is a 2 year old Labrador Retriever crossed with Pit Bull Terrier. Georgia is a sweet, smart and energetic girl. She loves playing with other dogs and could easily live with a canine companion that has her rough and tumble style of play, but likely not cats. She’s a little too into them. The girl has had a bit of a rough year though. Being an energetic young dog with that lab energy, she tore her ACL. She has had surgery to repair it, so she spent a fair bit of time in foster on the mend, but is now fully recovered. Her foster family is now caring for a litter of kittens, so Georgia is now back to kennel life at the Vancouver SPCA. Georgia would really love a FURever home to call her own where she gets to stay and make new friends. The Vancouver SPCA thinks she is best suited for a house with a yard as well as an adult only home. Ideally, Georgia needs her people to have bit of time and attention to give her initially while she settles in before being left home alone for periods of more than 3 – 4 hours. She quite likes bully sticks and they keep her occupied and entertained whilst hanging out at the kennel. I’m sure if you brought her one, she’d be a friend for life. If you think you could give this fire ball of energy a FURever home, Vancouver SPCA Shelter would love to hear from you. You can find them at 1205 East 7th Avenue or by telephone at 604-879-7721 or by email at vancouver@spca.bc.ca
Share this:
Story Story Lie Is Back At Café Deux Soleils December 10th
28 Nov
If you have yet to catch Story Story Lie, you are in luck it’s back at Café Deux Soleils on Saturday, December 10th. Are you good at reading people? Do you think you can spot a liar a mile away? Well now you can find out, in a rather fun way. The show is part storytelling and part game show. You will hear five embarrassing and intimate stories and one lie. Through some interrogation the audience gets to guess who the liar is. First one to guess wins a prize. Storytellers for the upcoming show include Jayson MacDonald (Famed Fringe Performer), RC Weslowski (Waxed Poetic Radio), Yumi Nagashima (International Stand up comedian), Nyla Carpentier (Poet, Actor and Powwow Dancer) and Steve Allen (Komedy at Kino). The evening will be hosted and produced by Jo Dworschak. The show gets under way at 8:00 pm. You can purchase your tickets in advance on Eventbrite for $6, or at the door for $8. Come out and see if you can spot the liar.
ILiveInEastVan.com 