This category covers groceries, restaurants, bars, alcohol, entertaining and recipes.

Easy Appie #3: Herb & Pepper Goat Cheese

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Stellar food stylist/writer Béatrice Peltre makes goat cheese look amazing.

ENTERTAIN SMART | Some things are so stunningly beautiful that you just want to eat them up—like the arresting food photographs taken by Béatrice Peltre, a French expat who lives in Boston and writes, styles and shoots a food column for the Boston Globe. Peltre also shares her adventures in cooking and eating on her seriously addictive blog, La Tartine Gourmande, which has been (among its many well-deserved accolades) recognized as the best special interest food blog of 2010 by Saveur magazine. Read more

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton Hussey

Easy Appie #2: Lesley Stowe’s Big City Bar Nuts

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Before treating the world to her signature Raincoast Crisps, Vancouver chef Lesley Stowe served this sinfully simple—and quick—appetizer to her catering clients.

Big City Bar Nuts - Clinton HusseyENTERTAIN SMART | Long before Lesley Stowe began producing Raincoast Crisps, the one-of-a-kind, gourmet cracker-alternative she manufactures locally and distributes throughout North America, she owned and operated the most celebrated catering and specialty food emporium in Vancouver. From her charming (now closed) shop off Burrard Street, she and her team offered prepared dishes and imported food products from around the world and treated Vancouverites to a taste of delicacies previously unavailable in the city.

Known for her inventive mix of ingredients (to which Raincoast Crisps are a testament), Stowe says that Big City Bar Nuts were a favourite on her catering menu. “There are quite a few sweet and salty things out there, but our recipe added something on the savoury side. It’s the hint of rosemary that makes them stand out.”

This nut mixture, made in under 10 minutes, was a show-stopper then—and now! Read more

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani

One Of These Masalas Is Not Like The Others . . .

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Which of these masalas has chef Glenys Morgan planning a Bollywood night: Patak’s, The Curry Queen or Asian Home Gourmet?

Tikka Masala - C. Phaisalakani Read more

Lacy Cheddar Crisps

Easy Appie #1: Pamela Anderson’s Yummy Cheddar Crisps

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With fall parties on the horizon, here’s Pamela Anderson’s slam-dunk one-ingredient appetizer made in less than 10 minutes. Flat.

Lacy Cheddar CrispsENTERTAIN SMART | Fall is easily the appie (est) time of the year. With house parties and holiday mixers to attend and/or throw, who isn’t on the lookout for easy hors d’oeuvres for hostess gifts or to serve to guests? My rule for homemade appetizers is that they need to be seriously tasty, gorgeous to look at and made in 10 minutes or less. Pamela Anderson’s (not that Pamela Anderson) lacy cheddar crisps will not disappoint. Read more

Dijon style mustards

One Of These Mustards Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these Dijons cuts the mustard with chef Glenys Morgan: French’s, President’s Choice or Western Family?

Dijon style mustards Read more

Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star Chef

It’s Hip To Cook Retro With Vintage Cookbooks

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It’s fashionable to cook retro right now, and to do it using old recipes from outdated cookbooks.

 

Cookbook: Cooking at Home with a Four Star ChefFOOD FOR THOUGHT Blame it on Julie & Julia (both the book and the movie) if you want to, but it’s fashionable to cook retro right now. Who could have guessed that when New Yorker Julie Powell spent 365 days in the early oughties cooking every dish from Julia Child’s 1961 classic, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking (volume one), that both her book and Child’s classic would reach the top ranks of The New York Times bestsellers list—and that curious cooks across North America would take a new interest in making old dishes from recipes found in outdated cookbooks? Read more

One Of These Pickles Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these baby dill brands has chef Glenys Morgan in a pickle: Safeway, Western Family or Bicks?

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Don Genova Shops & Noshes In Vancouver

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Noted B.C. food journalist Don Genova shops, slurps and noshs his way around Vancouver.

Don Genova At Legendary Noodle - C. PhaisalakaniDon Genova is a food journalist and educator who splits his time between Vancouver and an acreage in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. His work is heard regularly on CBC Radio and seen in Aqua magazine with a column called Pacific Palate. Don teaches food and travel writing at UBC with in-person and online courses and offers sustainable eating courses at the University of Victoria. You may also catch him teaching cooking classes at Thrifty Foods or the French Mint cooking school in Victoria. You can follow Don’s adventures in eating on his blog, blog.dongenova.com, and get information on his classes on his website, www.dongenova.com. He also tweets @dongenova.

Don Genova’s 5 free, cheap or worth it things to see, do or buy in Vancouver Read more

Why Buy Perrier? Fizzy Water Is Easy To Make

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If tapwater leaves you flat, home carbonation devices will add fizz to your drink and loonies to your pocket.

Bottled Tapwater - C. PhaisalakaniWASTE NOT | Last summer I had dinner at the home of a stylish and gracious friend whose table setting included a tall glass pitcher filled with tapwater, ice cubes and slices of lime. It was refreshing in every way: simple, elegant and thirst-quenching. For a more casual presentation, another friend recycles the rubber-stoppered bottles from French lemonade, filling them with tapwater that she keeps chilled in the fridge. You can buy similar stoppered bottles without the lemonade (Bella Vita in Park Royal has attractive ones in green or blue from Maxwell & Williams for $5.95).

The advantages of tapwater are well known—better regulated and better for you than bottled water, better for the environment, really really local—yet having imported bottled water on the table has become almost as essential as knowing what wine to serve. Perhaps it’s the bubbles. I’m not a fan of fizz myself, but many of those who are have been turning to home carbonation devices. Read more

One Of These Tunas Is Not Like The Others

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Which of these tuna brands sends chef Glenys Morgan fishin’ in the back of the cupboard: Rio Mare, Western Family Solid Yellowfin Tuna in Olive Oil, Cloverleaf Flaked Light Tuna in Vegetable Broth and Oil?

Three tins of tuna Read more