Pucker up! Here it comes!

If you’re as gaga for tea as Gaga here, you won’t want to miss the 5th Annual Prêt-A-Pour-Tea & Inaugural Prêt-A-Pour-Nuit events in October. By day, wear your crispest suit and snappiest trilby; by night, wear your slinkiest dress and a fascinating fascinator (well, that’s not a look that flatters all genders, but you can make anything work, can’t you?) and have fun raising funds for the BC and Yukon branch of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Last year with only one event they raised $75,000. With this swanky dinner and cocktail party as an addition, they’re set to do even better.

My personal pick of the party attractions? The chance to have your portrait painted by internationally known Vancouver artist Pamela Masik; and for only $20! The Masik Mosaik Project is a groundbreaking art piece, and you can be a part of it! Meet her now, before the rest of the world catches on to this local meteor of talent.

The Masik Mosaik Photo Project invites ALL women and C.B.C.F. supporters to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate the women in your life.  Become part of “The Bigger Picture”!  Make a $20 donation, which will buy you a place on the Masik Mosaik, to help in the quest to eliminate this disease that affects so many women.

Send us photos of women that you love, cherish, miss, admire or sadly, have lost to breast cancer…Each photo is a $20 donation - send in as many as you’d like!  The year 2020 has been earmarked by the C.B.C.F. as the year to end breast cancer – in commemoration of that date ONLY 2,020 photos will be accepted. Each photo will become a pixel on a large canvas – part of “The Bigger Picture” so to speak!

Pamela Masik will create an awe-inspiring piece of art with the photo covered canvas, which will be auctioned at our new Prêt a Pour Nuit~Evening Fundraising Event for the CBCF. All of the donations from this photo project will be added to the donation from our signature daytime event, the 5th Annual Prêt a Pour Tea~High Tea & High Fashion Gal’s Day Out Luncheon on October 27^th, 2010.

The Land of the Rising Sun usually evokes images of sashimi, sushi and other raw sea products that bring out the natural flavour of food. However, there is another side of Japanese cuisine that has been quite popular among the young professionals of this highly-developed yet deeply-traditional nation in the western part of the Pacific.

You can download the this week’s  format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

Episode 5 – Japadog Eat Your Heart Out

Image cutline:The only word that can describe Zakkushi’s legendary chicken meatball aka Tsukune is … ‘YUM!’

If you ever wondered how the creators of Japadog got inspired into making their acclaimed street meat, look no further than your local Izakaya.

Fury: An Izakaya is a Japanese after-work drinking and unwinding destination that serves up small dishes in a communal atmosphere. Uncomplicated, fast, and fun.

Raj: When I lived in Japan, ultimately my coworkers and I lived for one thing – getting to the Izakaya for a dozen after-work bevies. Heck, most of our business entertaining was done in Izakayas.

Fury: You mean when the clients weren’t taking you to hostess bars, right?

Raj: … You mean… Karaoke bars…

Fury: I know you love public humiliation… anyways, back to Izakayas. There many types of Izakayas out there.  Yakitori, literally translated to “barbequed-bird” is essentially meat and vegetable skewers that are grilled to perfection over a charcoal grill.  Zakkushi’s topmost chefs take this whole charcoal grill business to a new level in their quick-paced open kitchen-bar.

Raj: If there’s one thing that Zakkushi is really known for, it’s their Tsukune (pronounced skoo-nay), a Japanese chicken meatball that’s grilled over intense heat generated from special charcoal imported from Japan. Retaining up to 1000 degrees of heat, even the charcoal in Japan has an outrageous work ethic!

Fury: They grill their chicken-ball skewers from raw as opposed to par- boiling them, resulting in a much juicier and more flavourful meatball.  A squeeze of Japanese mayo, a hit of seaweed, a two-litre bottle of Asahi’s “Bigboy” beer, and you’re ready to rock!

Editor: Raj and Fury also enjoyed the newly launched Kobe beef-ball skewers on their beer-fueled rampage that evening.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, entrepreneur, social media juggernaut and foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com and publishes a miscellany of musings at raj.jp and on twitter @tinhead. Melody Fury is the founder of Vancouver Food Tour.  Follow this YVR lifestyle ambassador on twitter @GourmetFury.

“Adventure is a worthwhile in itself” – Amelia Earheart

Indeed, it was a worthwhile adventure into the Land of the Sleeping Dragon right in the heart of Vancouver. The ‘Lion’s Head’ is a customary dish in Shanghai, which usually has pork as its main ingredient, and is normally boiled or steamed. There is also a Cantonese version of the dish, which makes use of beef instead of pork and is considered a dim sum dish. Another variant of this dish is made of pulverized fish instead of meat. This is definitely an appetizing dish which more than a billion people would never go wrong with.

You can download the this week’s  format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

Episode 4 – Raiders of the Lost Meatball

Image cutline: The leafy green vegetables surrounding this delicious meat-boulder represent the mane of the Lion’s Head.

The quest for Vancouver’s ultimate meatball has taken us to many foreign culinary lands and this episode is no exception.

Raj: Legend has it that there’s a mystical meatball known only as the “Lion’s Head” in the Far East.

Fury: Hailing from the heart of China, we dared to try this specialty at Shanghai Village on Cambie Street. Traditionally, the Lion’s Head is a dish comprised of several meatballs in a sizzling claypot.

Raj: What was initially just a quest for a new flavor played out like the most famous Indiana Jones scene ever!  Picture this: you’re in a booby-trap filled temple, and all of a sudden you’re running for your life to avoid being crushed by a two ton boulder.

Fury: To our amazement, Shanghai Village only serves one prolific meat-boulder.  You can’t stuff the whole ball into your mouth here!

Raj: Aside from the size, this was the first pork meatball we’ve tried on this journey.  It tastes like it’s infused with some sort of tea.

Fury: That would be the preserved cabbage that brings a touch of sweetness and smokiness to the mix.

Raj: And what about that mystery brown sauce that they slather on everything? What’s up with that?

Fury: Don’t diss it until you try it mixed into a bowl of steamy rice.  It’s the ultimate comfort staple, yo.

Editor: Fury and Raj completed this voyage unscathed and lived to write about it.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, entrepreneur, social media juggernaut and foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com and publishes a miscellany of musings at raj.jp and on twitter @tinhead. Melody Fury is the founder of Vancouver Food Tour.  Follow this YVR lifestyle ambassador on twitter @GourmetFury.

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery” – James Joyce

And this was one error that allowed us to come across something wonderful. After peeling off the layers that has wrapped Bin 942 with the false impression of being just another hyped-up tapas bar, the secret that lay within was discovered . . . and what a satisfying discovery it was.

You can download the this week’s  format HERE (or grab the full newspaper HERE,) or just keep reading (the unrated version) below.

Episode 3 – Uncovering the Secret Recipe

Image cutline: Bin 942’s secret recipe is the essence of simplicity – patience, a whole lotta onions and a dash of port make the best base for extremely juicy meatballs.

Up until recently, we deemed Gord Martin’s menus at his infamous Bin Restaurants as simply glorified tapas items, dished up to the late-night wine bar crowd.  Not the most discerning clique from our standpoint, that is, until we ­­sampled their meatballs.

F: Personally, Bin has always been a wine-forward establishment for me, with their dolled-up bar food served as an amenity.  This is a spot where truffle oil is not a subtle enhancement, but merely a liberally used condiment on every other menu item.

R: You know, Fury, itwas really worth checking out Bin 942 to take a peek at what’s under all that sass.

F: When we peeled off the superficial layers, we were surprised to discover the labour intensive secret behind the balls’ extreme juiciness.  There’s actually no slight of hand going on here.

R: That Gord guy has some serious patience.  I mean making the base of his meatballs by caramelizing a potful of onions for hours? What type of maniac does that?

F: Sometimes subtlety is the best approach – like the dash of port to coax out the onion’s complex sweetness.

R: Just throw in the meat and we’ve got some good good balls.  In the esteemed words of Glenn Quagmire, the best summation would be “giggitygiggity, alright!”

Editor: To their horror, Raj and Fury later discovered that there was truffle in the accompanying Pinot Noir sauce. They weren’t able to escape it.

—

Raj Taneja is part technologist, entrepreneur, social media juggernaut and foodie. He runs urbanmixer.com and publishes a miscellany of musings at raj.jp and on twitter @tinhead. Melody Fury is the founder of Vancouver Food Tour.  Follow this YVR lifestyle ambassador on twitter @GourmetFury.