It’s your Choice for Dine Around – Victoria or Seattle
Dine Around & Stay In Town Victoria
Now until March 7th, travel to Victoria for the capitol city’s mouth-watering dining event of the year. Dine Around & Stay in Town: Victoria boasts the second highest number of restaurants per capita in North America and you’ll have no trouble finding the perfect place to recharge with special offers from accommodation members. Dine Around Participating restaurants offer three-course menus for $20, $30 or $40 CDN per person and are all paired with BC VQA wine suggestions. View participating restaurants and menus here.
Dine Around Seattle
Dine Around Seattle is a fine-dining experience you don’t want to miss. Now in its eighth year, this bi-annual promotion has become so woven into the culinary culture of the area, that locals and visitors alike eagerly await its arrival.
Here’s how Dine Around Seattle works… Each March and November, Sundays through Thursdays, Seattle area’s finest restaurants offer 3-course dinners for a mere $30. This includes selections for appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Many of the restaurants also offer lunch for $15. Prices do not include beverage, tax and gratuity.
You can view the restaurants and menus here.
Kanata Cuisine – Aboriginal Fine Feasting
In Short:
Nk’Mip Cellars is proud has partnered with Kanata Cuisine and the BC Aboriginal Culinary Team to provide the world with gourmet Aboriginal dining experiences during the 2010 Winter Games. As North America’s first Aboriginal winery, the award-winning Osoyoos Indian Band venture winery is excited to share their passion for excellence in modern Aboriginal wine and cuisine.
In detail:
The event takes place at the Native Education College’s Longhouse, located at 285 East 5th Ave in Vancouver, near the trendy Main St. district. The Longhouse – a place of positive energy, teaching and sharing is the perfect venue to host this unique opportunity highlighting Aboriginal cuisine. The 14 days of feasting will begin on February 14 and will run the duration of the Games. This intimate gathering has two seatings per evening, allowing 80 people per night to share in the experience.
The night will begin with a traditional welcome song that greets patrons in the longhouse’s firelit gathering hall. Entertainment will be provided by Tzo’kam, an acclaimed family of performers from the Lil’wat Nation. The songs of Tzo’Kam share their culture and heritage. The entertainment will be followed by an authentic seven course aboriginal feast by Kanata Cuisine with wine pairings from Nk’Mip Cellars. The fine dining menu features delicious pairing such as braised bison short ribs with watercress and parsnip puree served with Nk’Mip’s 2006 Qwam Qwmt Meritage. Chef Ben Genaille, an instructor at Vancouver Community College’s Aboriginal Culinary program, and Theresa Contois of Kanata Cuisine explain that they “have developed a well balanced menu that showcases local and traditional ingredients prepared and plated for the gourmet palate.” This exclusive and unique event displays the best of Aboriginal pride and passion.
Partial proceeds from this venture will fund the Aboriginal Culinary Team’s journey to the IKA Culinary Olympics being held in Erfurt, Germany in 2012. Kanata Cuisine’s goal is to demonstrate the elegance of Aboriginal food and wine as well as showcase our talented Culinary Team to the world.
Tickets for this event are $245.00 excluding gratuities and can be purchased online through www.ticketweb.ca or over the phone at 1.888.222.6608.
Contact Thesesa Contois for more information at 604.831.1215; cuisinekanata@gmail.com
Paint the House Red, White & Bubbly
Wendenburg and Blair
The red and white flavours of BC VQA wine made it into the Canadian Olympic Committee’s Paint the Town Red campaign when Sumac Ridge Estate Winery senior winemaker Mark Wendenburg added some commemorative sparkling Tribute wine to some white RONA paint, and Brooke Blair, winemaker for Jackson-Triggs Okanagan, added some commemorative Esprit VQA Merlot to some red RONA paint. The wines were then used on February 5 at a sponsor preview of the Vancouver Canada House location at HBC.
The small quantity of “wine-coloured” paint was applied to maple leaf stencils and applied on one signature wall in the hope to spread not only the colours of the winter games, but a bit of BC wine country and good luck for Canada.
**When the Canadian Olympic Committee and the Hudson’s Bay Company open Canada Olympic House on the 11th of February, the full décor and paint results will be revealed.
Inniskillin Ice Gate
Gordon Halloran’sIce Gate, a spectacular ice art installation, will officially open at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, February 9, in the Richmond O Zone, the City of Richmond’s official celebration site for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Presented by Inniskillin Wines, Ice Gate is a mammoth wall of painted ice, stretching 30 metres in length and nearly four metres in height.
A Sunshine Coast artist, Gordon Halloran’s unique Paintings Below Zero have won him international acclaim. His works have drawn hundreds of thousands to special exhibitions in Toronto and Chicago and the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games. Halloran met Inniskillin Wines founder Donald Ziraldo in Torino, and the mutual reliance on ice for their respective crafts led to a connection. This resulted in Halloran’s artwork being featured on the Inniskillin Commemorative Icewine and Inniskillin’s Sponsorship of Ice Gate.
The official opening will feature a special dance performance by 80 Sunshine Coast youth. The ceremonies will also feature remarks by the artist, along with Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie and Debi Pratt, representing Inniskillin Wines, a Vincor Canada winery.
The Inniskillin Icewine Gallery will also be officially opened along with the launch of the Ice Gate. The Icewine Gallery will house two 36-foot tasting bars constructed to resemble ice. Screens will play videos showing the magic of crafting Icewine, and samples of Inniskillin Icewine will be for sale. Also available for sale in the Icewine Gallery will be a stunning poster of Ice Gate for $10.
What: Ice Gate Official Opening, plus special dance performance
Where: Richmond City Hall, 6911 No. 3 Road*
When: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 5:30 p.m.
Vancouver’s Top Chefs Unite for Haiti
Vancouver’s culinary community is responding in full force to the disaster in Haiti: ‘Strength through Unity: A Gala Affair for Haiti Relief’, 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, February 3, 2010, at the Terminal City Club in Vancouver. For the first time ever, a group of iconic local chefs will be uniting efforts to pledge support and raise money for the crisis in Haiti.
The ‘Strength Through Unity’ gala evening will be uniting efforts to pledge support and raise money for the crisis in Haiti. The event will showcase an all-star cast of repeat winners from the Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards. One hundred percent of the proceeds will be directed towards disaster relief in Haiti.
This unity is reflected in the cast itself, a Jules Verne-worthy gastronomic escapade with top Vancouver chefs Jeff Van Geest (Diva at the Metropolitan Hotel), David Hawksworth (Hawksworth), Andrey Durbach (Pied-à-Terre, La Buca), Angus An (Maenam), Jeremie Bastien (Boneta Restaurant), and Eleanor Chow (Chambar).
Guests will dine to the music of local singing talent Michelle Richard and be delighted by an intimate performance by legendary bluesman Jim Byrnes.
“We are so grateful that the Terminal City Club has generously opened their doors for this event,” said Jeff Van Geest, local chef and chair of the event. “The Terminal City Club is a perfect venue for showcasing the incredible world-renowned talent of the generous volunteer chefs. It’s not often that you’ll find these people in one room, let alone cooking together. I’m so glad that the “Strength through Unity” gala has been able to rally the local restaurant community for such a necessary cause.”
Guests will dine on dishes reflecting the global community as it collaborates in response to Haiti’s disaster. Van Geest of Diva will use British Columbia as inspiration. Course four (of seven) will feature local Polderside duck, French lentils, and silky celeriac purée with mulled wine jus, paired with the acclaimed 2007 Fairview Cellars MadCap Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon.
The gala evening will include a Chef’s Services Auction (where chefs will donate their time and talent to provide private culinary instruction or preparation) and a Silent Auction featuring unique and exciting prize packages, including an ultimate Whistler experience featuring a $400 gift certificate for the Coast Hotel.
Only 150 tickets will be available at a cost of $150.00 per plate until Monday, February 1.
Tickets can be purchased online at www.crwrc.com/strengththroughunity
For further information, to book your tickets, or for sponsorship inquiries, please call “Strength through Unity” spokesperson Melissa Janke at 604-889-3456 or email strengththroughunity.crwrc@gmail.com
For information on the disaster relief efforts in Haiti, please visit http://www.crcna.org/pages/crwrc_ir_haiti.cfm
About the “Strength Through Unity” Gala & The CRWRC
The “Strength Through Unity” Gala Affair was inspired by a brother’s response to his family’s need. Jeff Van Geest (head chef at Diva at the Metropolitan Hotel) has familial ties to the disaster in Port-au-Prince. Upon receiving the good news that his loved ones were safe, thoughts turned to those who weren’t. Within 48 hours, “Strength Through Unity” had seven chefs and ties to a Canadian charity on the ground in Haiti. The CRWRC, who has been working in Haiti for over 30 years, is bringing emergency aid and constructing long term recovery and rehabilitation plans with local Haitian agencies.
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