EAT! Vancouver

Had so much fun at EAT!Vanocuver with hubby yesterday at BC place (777 Pacific Blvd, Vancouver, BC)! EAT! Vancouver is one of Canada's largest food + cooking festival lasting a week long (This year from April 26th - May 3rd). There were hands-on workshops in selective restaurants in Vancouver, special dinners held throughout Vancouver at famous restaurants including celebrity chefs and lots of other activities throughout the week. This year, hubby and I only went to the festival held in BC place (only from May 1st - May 3rd).

Yesterday, we went early in the morning because I signed up for two culinary classes presented by Pacific Institute of Culinary ARTS: "Knife Skills- The Sharp Side of Culinary Techniques" at 10:30AM and "The Eggcellent Brunch" at 12:30pm. They were both an hour long class with chef Julian Bond in BC place. Although each class wasn't very cheap ($32 plus tax/class), I had so much fun and learned so much. The money was definitely worth it!

Hubby took the Knife Skills last year and highly recommended me to take it this year. At first I thought it might be boring, but turned out to be the opposite! Not only did we learn about handling / sharpening / honing the knife and cutting methods, but also we each made a bowl of yummy and healthy gazpacho from all the ingredients we cut during the class! All the tips chef Julian told us were so useful in everyday cooking as well =)

Hubby and I did the Egg class together. We learned how to crush (never crack) eggs properly, how to make excellent creamy scrambled eggs and perfectly poached eggs! The best thing was, we ate what we cooked! We had waffles and sausages with the truffled scrambled eggs we made ourselves. For our poached eggs, we plated with salad, avocado and Urban Cultivator-grown greens we picked ourselves! I love fresh organic herbs =)

Chef Julian even demonstrated and made us all healthy morning smoothies for us to drink along with our food! It was so good and healthy, made with strawberries, blueberries, green apple, kale, cucumber, celery, coconut water, apple juice, ground flax seeds, hemp heart and chia seeds!

Here is a picture of chef Julian and I with my poached egg =)

And some pics we took in class =)

Besides culinary classes, there were also Sips Stage, Talk & Taste Master Classes you could take, as well as Celebrity Stage which was free. We wathched a great presentation by iron chef Rob Feenie on how to poach fish and made a simple sauce. Of course at the end we had to take a picture with him =)

If you don't want to take any classes or are only interested in food but not cooking, there were also hundreds of vendors (local and international) showcasing food, drinks, kitchen essentials and culinary travel informations in BC place. We tried so many yummy and healthy foods and drinks and even got some free stuff and so many recipies. At the end of the day, we were both super full. I didn't even have space for dinner yesterday night!

If you don't want to spend a lot at EAT! Vancouver, you really only need to buy the ticket to go into BC place (hubby bought it, I think it was around $15CAD per person? Might have been cheaper) and just trying out free samples from different vendors is worth it. We tried so many things for free, including pizza, fruits, baked goods, pasta, cheese, all kinds of sauce and dips and jam, almond milk, tea, coffee, chocolates, pancakes, healthy smoothies, superfoods, etc... I can't even name them all.

At the end, we bought some goodies home, including natural fig jam, 100% pure pomegranate juice (not from concentrate, with no added sugar, water or preservatives) and a box of whole frozen BC grown gogi berries. I was so happy with what we bought: healthy, rarely seen and not expensive. We even got a jar of 500g all natural unpasteurized honey from BC buzz Honey Corporation from chef Julian as a present =)

Overall, EAT! Vancouver was a really fun festival that I would definitely go again next year, taking different classes and maybe attending dinner series by celebrity chef. Hubby and I almost spent the entire day there. If you missed it this your, you definitely need to check it out next year =)

Love,

Emily

#Vancouver #Vancouvereats