Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry (FSVP) invited me to dinner at Edible Canada to find out what happens when poultry meets wine!

FSVP coordinated this event at Edible Canada with Ripples Winery to share a 4 course meal, designed by Edible Canada’s own Director of Culinary, Tobias Grignon, and wine pairings chosen by Sommelier at Home’s, Ashley West.  Chef Tobias put on a great demo before the meal started, and taught us the best way to make a quick and delicious chicken (250°C for about 20 to 25 minutes in the toaster oven!):

Prior to the demo and the introductory speeches about FSVP, they served a generous amount of crispy duck hearts…

…and duck liver pate on a bit of sourdough…

…which I was very grateful to for, having just rushed over from the office.  The Radiance Blueberry Sparkling Refresher paired extremely well with both of these, and warmed everybody up for the dinner party. H was sitting across from me at one of the long community tables, and we both sat between complete strangers, which made for interesting dinner conversation throughout the meal.

Before the Fraser Valley Smoked Duck Salad, paired with the Cheam Gewurtztraminer Blend (photo above of the flavourful, juicy smoked duck breast slices on top of the endives), we learned a lot about the history of FSVP from their General Manager, Joe Falk himself. He talked about the history of the FSVP farm, which has been a local source of poultry since the 1970’s, and now provides duck, goose, specialty chicken, and squab to the Lower Mainland. They’ve been very resourceful with diversifying their products, and now, they even have their line of ready-to-eat products, including a duck sausage, and of course, the smoked Pekin duck breast, which was creatively paired in our salad with the huge duck egg.

The next course was the squab, which I did not get a good photo of due to the fact that it had been a long day already and the wine was very good. I’ve had squab before at many Chinese restaurants, and usually it is fully roasted. This time, it was a medium rare meat, with honey on top, served with a croquette on the side. INTERESTING…

The wonderful men and women around H and I all enjoyed the squab the most, because it had the most original flavour, and I cleared it off the plate too. However, for me, the best was the chicken breast dish after this one. Even though it looks like just a small piece of white meat, it wasn’t just boring old chicken! It was the juiciest, most perfectly poached free range chicken breast I had ever had the chance to taste.

My knife slid through it like it was butter, there was no resistance from the meat at all. Check out how tender it looked:

Wiped the plate clean, with only a small piece of greenery left behind as evidence that there used to be food here.

The squab and the chicken both went well with Intemperance, the blueberry table wine from Ripples.

To close the meal, they served a butter cake, topped with fresh Okanagan peaches and cream, garnished with basil: 

The sweetness of the dessert was matched by Cupere, a dark blueberry dessert wine:

I know for sure I won’t be able to recreate the poached chicken breast without more work and practice on my end, but I was happy to find out that FSVP’s ready-to-eat smoked duck breast from the salad was available at Edible Canada’s market from Aug. 17th to Sept. 30th. Stocking up on these to throw in my salads for lunch (well probably not mine, because I get lunch from work, but H would love it):

One of the reasons I really enjoyed this dinner was that the sources were all local. It always eases my conscience to be able to contribute to the buying local movement. If you’re interested in learning more about buying local meats from the Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry group, check out their website and social medias.

It was also pleasantly surprising to be able to meet interesting new people at an event like this, and spend just that brief moment of my life with them, learning about their families and hobbies and jobs. I would definitely recommend this type of event, as a way to learn more about your food and meet new people around the city.

Drove from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, not all in one go, but with a break in between at Harrisburg. What did I find in the middle of rural Pennsylvania? A really great place to eat – Rubicon:



I am slightly obsessed with ginger beer, so I was ecstatic to see that their Four Season cocktail contained ginger beer, along with Oloroso sherry, Maker's Mark, fresh pineapple, Peychaud's… They pour strong drinks here, but I guess it is America and not the watered down drinks of Canada.
Couple of other easy choices from the menu, included their appetizer, which had truffles:



The main course of the poulet colombo, with a very tenderly braised curried chicken, was a more difficult choice to make. There were so many other amazing options on the menu for the main course!



I had a whole lot of rice leftover, but I did wipe the plate clean. D had the lobster roll, found in the back there. He said it was acceptable, and was quite satisfied with the meal overall. The combination of the service and the decor in the restaurant helped quite a lot to keep the homesickness away. They also played a mix of electronic and trance music in the background, so if you’re not into that, I’d say stay away. Otherwise, amazing food, and a great assortment of cocktails to try out.



It’s tough being on the road, but it’s even harder staying still at home. Gotta keep on moving… Next trip to Toronto in a 2 weeks!

Visited this new location of Pallet with M. I’ve already lost the sunglasses in this photo…

Despite having beautiful latte art, this spot was a tad disappointing. It didn’t have the same cozy feeling as the Pallet on Kingsway. Come to think of it, I’ve only ever had coffee at the other location, and I’ve never made a point of trying the food… Anyways, the brisket sandwich was dry: 

I might not come back here, just because I’m never in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver.



I think that my appetite was also quite challenged that day because of stress. Starting to really feel the pressure of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world! Mortgage rates keep going up lately, and mine is just about to kick in.

I think part of it is caused by the chaotic state of my room too – I haven’t bothered reorganizing things since last year, because I should be moving soon, and because everytime I try, everything gets messy again in a day. I should re-read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo…

It’s taken me a while to write about the 2nd part of P&V’s wedding (Part 1 can be found here), because it was such a packed day, full of memorable moments that I want to blog about all of it, but which would take forever to actually write up. When in doubt, go back to the basics, so I’m going to start by writing about the feast that P&V treated us to. The dinner portion was at Fortune House, located in Metrotown. We had a typical Chinese-style menu, with multiple courses, including abalone (these were a good size, for larger fist sized image of abalone, see my post about B&S’s wedding)

…and a whole slice of shark fin, versus the usual bits that are used for soup:

Traditional Chinese weddings are not for animal lovers. Don’t hate me for eating this and enjoying it, it was already cooked, so might as well not waste it. I know for sure I won’t be having this at my wedding. The rest of the food was fine, I don’t remember too much else from the dinner because of too much red wine.

The other very memorable part was the door games, which J, H, and I prepared for in great detail. P loves Winnie the Pooh (which I might have forgotten to mention in this post about her bachelorette at Disneyworld), so we planned around this theme. We made them dress up in Winnie the Pooh themed onesies, and sing Disney love songs before they were allowed into the house to see P (for those who want to see how this went down, leave a comment or email me and I can show you the video). Here’s a shot of the groom in the Winnie the Pooh onesie, and all the other groomsmen:


Onesies were purchased online by J. They were a bit pricier, ranging from $30 to about $50CAD, but you pay for what you get, and I think P will be keeping these for a while. The Eeyore suit actually has a tail that attaches/detaches via a button. They were all very warm and cozy, and roomy enough to slip over all their suits. Links here, for those who want to purchse some:

Piglet: https://amzn.to/2KtUd0U
Pooh: https://amzn.to/2AKBP4p
Eeyore: https://amzn.to/2vot36Q
Tigger: https://amzn.to/2M4VOz3

Finally, here’s a photo of me and my lovely fiancé in the morning. We will be taking lots of photos in preparation for our upcoming wedding/engagement photoshoots, and this truly shows how I feel about that (scared and worried about having to smile all day, in case you’re wondering):


Congratulations P&V.