VIVA! – A LIQUID REVOLUTION
VIVA! Bar Tools is the latest brain child from Victoria-based, award winning bartender, recognized mixologist and Liquid Revolutionist, Shawn Soole. Shawn is a natural pointing out how bar products can be made better and more functional, and over the past ten plus years he has come up with a number of improvements to existing tools of the trade. Many bar products in use today – muddlers in particular -have changed little in the past hundred years or more. It only makes sense that the time has come to revamp and redesign this bartending basic.
Blame the ever growing popularity of the Mojito on the new VIVA! Stick Muddler. Its superiority to other muddlers comes via its larger size, better grip, larger muddling area and aggressive waffled base – all resulting in your bartender releasing more juice and oils are into your drink. Dishwasher safe, made of high grade food quality plastic and priced at under $10, it should make any mixologists’ wish list.
The VIVA! Tag line says it all – “Mixology for the People!” The idea is to produce well designed, well thought out top quality bar products and supplies without the massive mark up applied to most other custom designs. This produces a highly functional product with the professional bartender in mind at a cost that doesn’t require you to chain it to the bar.
Watch for Treve’s interview with Shawn in August, when she chats him over cocktails and gets the scoop on his cocktail competitions, New York based magazine, mixology blog, position at Moxie’s Victoria and plans for his VIVA! line.
KOREAN BBQ RIBS – by Stephanie Yuen
I am not a big ribs fan, but love Korean style barbequed short ribs.
Some fancy Korean restaurants serve the short ribs with the meat carefully carved and wrapped around a 2” chunk of bone. There are 4 to 6 pieces in one order and is served with leaf lettuces, slices of raw garlic and spicy bean sauce. Most of the time, the waitress will grill and serve for you. But sorry, this way is too fancy and too expensive; besides, I don’t think short ribs and lettuces go together.
My style of Korean short ribs is simple: Grilled and savour! No sauce is needed, because the ribs are so intensely flavoured already. The cut is quite different from the fancy bulk & bone style. Here, short ribs are machine-cut perpendicularly to the bones, ¼” thick and are very meaty. The marinade is a bowl of sugar water mixed with soy, garlic, wine and a touch of Korean Miso. Each slice of rib is massaged so thoroughly, the meat is tender and moist and even the bones are tasty.
So what do I order in a Korean restaurant? Just give me a pile of the thin ribs, a bowl of Korean rice and a few dishes of Korean vegetable cold plates and I’ll say to myself cheerfully: Bon appetit!
WINESPEAK: MISSION HILL SLC SAUVIGNON BLANC/SEMILLON 2006 VQA – by Treve Ring
Who – Mission Hill Family Estate Winery
What – SLC Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon 2006 VQA
Where – Kelowna, BC
Why – A summertime dilemma: I like drinking white wines in the warm summer nights, but light whites don’t always stand up to my bbq fare. What to do? Choose full bodied whites of course! And they’re out there – you just need to be selective. Mission Hill’s SLC Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon fits the bill perfectly. Food friendly, with a French oak influenced heft, you can pour this with ease throughout dinner. Perfumed fresh lime nose with a ripe pear, spice and tangerine palate, medium-full body and a balanced sweet vanillan finish.
When – Perfect for grilled chicken, creamy white sauced pastas and juicy local crab and prawns.
How (much) – $29.99 at winery, VQA shops, private wine stores
Winespeak of the Week – SLC stands for Mission Hill’s Select Lot Collection – a range of ultra-premium wines carefully selected from designated vineyard plots and barrel aged in French oak. Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blends are traditional in France’s Bordeaux region, and wines labeled White Bordeaux are typically a blend of the two grapes – oft with the addition of Muscadelle.
FIRST ANNUAL WILD BC SEAFOOD FEST
The first annual Wild BC Seafood Fest will take place on Saturday, August 30th at the Steveston Harbour Authority Fisherman’s Park in the fishing community of Steveston, Richmond. This free outdoor public event is meant to celebrate and enjoy BC’s wild salmon, sablefish and sardines.
Join members of BC’s commercial fishing industry and some of BC’s most acclaimed chefs and seafood experts as they demonstrate a variety of amazing wild BC seafood recipes and provide tips on buying, storing, preparing and even eating some of our favourite wild BC seafood. And the best part? You get to sample their amazing creations and receive copies of the featured recipes to savour them at home.
This year’s special guest chefs include: Jeff Van Geest (Aurora Bistro), Manuel Ferreira (Le Gavroche, Senova), and Stephen Wong (cookbook author). Award-winning fishmonger from The Salmon Shop and Screaming Mimi’s in North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay Market, Kosta Zogaris will add much information and enthusiasm as the cooking stage MC.
THIS IS THE WAY WE ROLL
You may have seen clips on the internet. Perhaps you’ve been a spectator during your European sojourn (this is a major sport in the UK). But now, at long last, you can be a participant.
The first, historic (and hysterical) Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival is coming to Whistler on August 16th. Entrants will race downhill after an 11 pound wheel of Natural Pastures Verdelait. They’ll be men and womens’ heats throughout the afternoon, with kids’ uphill races in-between. Adult racers who’ve made it past the finish line first get to compete in the gloried Race of Champions. Oh – and the grand prize? An 11 pound wheel of Verdelait.
Sean Cullen, the Canadian finalist on NBC’s current LAST COMIC STANDING, will be the MC, so expect the festivities to ensue on and off the course. And of course, befitting a rolling cheese festival, there will be many opportunities to sample Canada’s finest cheeses. Cheese seminars, sales, cheese trivia, cheese bowling, local cheesemakers – a full day of fromage fun- and definitely worth throwing yourself down a mountain for. Sign up here.
Sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Canada, the event takes place during the annual Kokanee Crankworx Freeride Mountain Bike Festival – just another extreme sport for adrenalin junkies.
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