One thing that John and I look forward to most on the weekends is a proper breakfast. From Monday to Friday we’re starting the day with coffee and a muffin, or sometimes a breakfast sandwich. When Saturday and Sunday roll around, we either take a morning trip to the market or try out some of our city’s best eateries to get our dose of eggs.
The Egg Farmers of Canada have recently launched a mobile application (for iPhone and Android) that helps you cook eggs at home. Whether you’re boiling, poaching, frying, scrambling, or combining them with other ingredients, the app set out to educate Canadians about the seemingly endless array of egg preparations – for any meal.
I downloaded the free app to give it a whirl. It caught John’s eye right and we played around with the settings. We usually get our eggs over medium so I clicked on the pre-set timer. You could just use your iPhone’s default timer for this, but the benefit of using the one within the app is that it will pair up with recipes, and let you know when to flip.
I do cook from home often and I use various recipe applications. The Egg Timer app has dozens of recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, kids meals, and quick snacks. It’s been added to my food app arsenal for my future endeavours with quiche, macaroni bake, risotto, gnocchi, or burger melts.
To promote this new tool, the Egg Farmers of Canada have offered up 5 egg-tastic prize packages to give away. Each package includes:
- A Get Cracking apron
- A cookbook: The Perfect Egg Cookbook, by Alex Barker
- A cookbook in French: Les Oeufs, Plus de 130 recettes, par Michel Roux
- A microwave egg cooker
- Spiced French Toast mix
- A Get Cracking egg turner
To enter to win, leave a comment on this post naming your favourite place to eat eggs in Vancouver. You could say eggs benedict at Cafe Medina, the big bowl breakfast at White Spot, a frittata from Campagnolo, or the scrambled eggs you make with your kids at home.
I will draw 5 winners next Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 10:00am. Prize packages will be delivered to each of the winner.
Update The winners are Shelley, Rachel, Jan, Mike, and Vaughn!
Dunn’s Famous opened their doors in Vancouver last November, serving up their well-known Montreal smoked meat alongside a menu full of rich, gravy-topped, comfort foods.
My brother-in-law previously introduced us to Estrella’s in Langley, which was my first taste of a sky-high stacked Montreal smoked meat sandwich. For this reason, I sent my sister and my brother-in-law, who grew up just outside of Montreal, to the launch event when Dunn’s first opened on Seymour, just off Robson. He sent me an email the same night: “It rocked! They officially have best poutine on the West Coast now.”
I soon realized that upon mentioning “Dunn’s is now in Vancouver”, anyone within earshot who is from Eastern Canada will perk up and salivate. Dunn’s has been smoked meat favourite in Montreal since it was founded in 1927 by Myer Dunn.
My first (and only experience) at Dunn’s was with Lucy Hyslop recently. It was a great lunch however I did not get smacked with the aroma of smoked meats upon entering the restaurant, something one might expect or anticipate. Nevertheless, I soon discovered that the reason for this place’s legendary status lay between the pages of its menu.
The menu was large both in size and in terms of offerings. Bright images of the meals appear on every second page to illustrate what “Two Rivers free run chicken breast on sliced white bread covered in gravy, topped with ‘mushy’ peas” might look like. I decided to go the traditional route and order one of their Super Sandwiches.
Super Montreal Smoked Meat $10.99
6 oz hand sliced smoked beef brisket on light sourdough rye, sliced to order. Lucy informed me ahead of ordering that I could get “light, medium, or fat” meat and that “fat” would be the most tasty due to an even marbling throughout the slices. I decided to go with “medium” for my first run.
All Super Sandwiches are served with French fries, Dunn’s special coleslaw and a kosher pickle. I “up-sized” to a poutine Quebecoise and other side options include onion rings, seafood chowder, or a caesar salad. After considering the knife and fork on the table in front of me, I dove into my generous stack of sliced brisket (that was smoked for 17 hours then steamed for 3 hours). It takes a full pair of bites to break through from bread slice to bread slice. I came away from the meal with fairly clean hands as the sandwich wasn’t over-run with dripping sauce or juices. The coleslaw wasn’t drenched in dressing either, which was nice, and the crunchy pickle completed the meal.
The side poutine was tasty, definitely different, but tasty. One could argue I’ve never had “real” poutine since I’ve never been to Quebec. My Quebecois was just one of their poutine offerings along with Dunn’s (cheese curds, Dunn’s special gravy & chopped Montréal smoked meat), Peppercorn (cheese curds & peppercorn sauce), Italienne (cheese curds & meat sauce), Dunn’s Italienne (cheese curds & meat sauce with chopped Montréal smoked meat), and Vegetarian (cheese curds, vegetarian gravy).
The staff was very attentive and helpful to us Dunn’s first-timers. I left with half of my sandwich in a take-away box, to be enjoyed again later. Next time I’ll try something different like one of their poutines or entrees. I know John would also want to try their all-day breakfast since it’s his favourite meal of the day.
Dunn’s Famous is open from 10:00am daily at 827 Seymour Street. Find them on Twitter and Facebook for restaurant information and updates.
The Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival returns for a second year January 14 to February 14, 2012. I heard mention of this on Twitter yesterday and found details on Erin Ireland’s blog which linked to the event host, CityFood Magazine.
The month-long festival has a massive line up of daily flavours and treats that will be served up at the 15 participating cafes and restaurants. In case you’re wondering if that many flavours of hot chocolate exist, believe me they do! The Hot Chocolate Festival has a Flavour Index listing over 20 dark chocolate, over 15 milk chocolate, 5 white chocolate, and 5 non-dairy options. You can look up flavours by date and follow the festival on Facebook for daily information.
Participating venues are: Bel Cafe, Bella Gelateria + It’s to Die For Banana Bread, Beta5 Chocolates + The Juice Truck, Chocolaterie de la Nouvelle France, CocoaNymph, French Made Baking, Gem Chocolates, Leonidas Chocolates, Mink – A Chocolate Cafe, Schokolade, Terra Breads, Thierry Chocolaterie Patisserie Cafe, and Thomas Haas. Click on a day in the calendar/listings to see what they’ll be serving up.
Proceeds from featured festival drinks will benefit the food program at the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre. With the weather dipping mid-month, it’s the perfect time to try a new silky sweet hot chocolate flavour and support a very worthy cause in the process.
You can also pick up a Hot Chocolate Passport for the festival which you can stamp at the various locations when you pick up a participating beverage.
Chances are you’ve passed by quite a few of Charles Marega’s pieces around Vancouver, perhaps several times daily. The Italian-born sculptor moved to Vancouver in 1909 and taught art in town for 30 years. He was commissioned to create some of the city’s most popular public art pieces including the following:
Oppenheimer Monument
Archives Item# Mon P60
David Oppenheimer
The 1911 bust commemorating Vancouver’s Mayor (1888-1891) is located along the Beach Ave entrance to Stanley Park. “The original budget for the project was $50,000, but by the time Marega was commissioned in 1910, the project had become a bust for $4500, of which Marega was paid $3600 and the balance paid for an elaborate unveiling ceremony.”1 Read: Vancouver History: Oppenheimer.
Photo:
JMV on Flickr
Captain George Vancouver
Marega was commissioned by the Vancouver Canadian Club (for $5,000) to build this life-size tribute to Captain Vancouver. This full figure bronze statute stands on the North side of City Hall and points toward the harbour. “The statue was cleaned in 2001, 65 years after its installation and in time for the city’s 115th birthday. The bill for cost of cleaning was $5800, almost the same amount as the original statue cost.”2
President Harding Memorial
This bronze and granite piece is located in Stanley Park between the pavilion and Malkin Bowl, where President Harding gave a speech just a short time before he passed. The Kiwanis Club pooled funds and hosted a competition to see who be commissioned for the piece. Marega won.3 Read: Vancouver History: American Presidents
Joe Fortes Fountain
Lifeguard Joe Fortes, who lived down in English Bay, was named Vancouver’s “Citizen of the Century” and taught hundreds of local children to swim. His funeral in 1922 was the biggest in Vancouver history. The drinking fountain is in Alexandra Park along Beach Ave. Read: Vancouver History: Joe Fortes
King Edward VII Fountain
This fountain tucked beside the Vancouver Art Gallery along Hornby. Marega was commissioned in 1912 and the fountain was prominently displayed on the front lawn until 1966 then it was put away in storage. In 1983, when the art gallery moved into the space, the fountain was placed on the West side of the building. Read: Vancouver History: Fountains
Lions Gate Lions
The two lions at the South side of the Lions Gate Bridge were Marega’s last commissioned work in 1938. Marega enthusiast Peggy Imredy said that after his wife passed away in 1936, “all his vitality left him then. He was devoted to her throughout his life. People who knew him only in the late ’30s have a different view of him. They see him as a shrunken and poverty-stricken artist.”4
Two months after the lions were placed at the bridge, in January of 1939, Marega passed away at the age of 67. His obituary in The Province said he was “acknowledged to be the greatest sculptor in Western Canada.”5 Additional works include the heads of Vancouver and Burrard on the Burrard Bridge, and a crest on the Seaforth Armory.
1 City of Vancouver Public Art Registry
2 City of Vancouver Public Art Registry
3 City of Vancouver Public Art Registry
4 Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver
5 Chuck Davis’ History of Metropolitan Vancouver
Reservations for Dine Out Vancouver opened up this week as the highly-anticipated restaurant festival kicks off January 20, 2012. Aside from the $18, $28, and $38 prix-fixe menu offerings (with wine or beer pairing options) there are also several special events happening around the city including one on Granville Island.
Photo credit:
Photodreamz_ on Flickr – Submitted to the Miss604 Flickr Pool.
Plated and Paired
Taking place on the opening night of Dine Out Vancouver, Plated and Paired participants will be dining after-hours at the world famous Granville Island Market. The fare for the evening will be prepared by local chefs from The Dockside Restaurant, Bridges Restaurant, The Keg on Granville Island, Sandbar Seafood Restaurant, Whet kitchen-Bar-Patio, and Edible Canada.
They’ll be creating the menu for the evening with ingredients right from the market vendors including Dussa’s Ham & Cheese, Granville Island Tea Company, La Baguette et L’Echalot, The Salmon Shop, The Stock Market, Stuart’s Bakery, Terra Breads, Zara’s, and more.
Guests will enjoy floral arrangements from V & J Plants and over two dozen BC wine selections – from Saturna Island to Hester Creek. This is a special event that’s only happening on one night. Tickets are currently available online for $38.
You can still enter to win a Dine & Stay prize package from Dine Out Vancouver & Miss604.
