Pacific Palate – Contest Winners Announced and My Secret Revealed

Posted on November 13, 2006 by Don Genova

Panini This morning I broadcast my last edition of Pacific Palate on The Early Edition, after 10 years of memorable meals. 

On Saturday I climb on board a plane in Vancouver and late on Sunday afternoon I’ll arrive in Parma, Italy.  From there it’s a short hop to Colorno, where I will be living for the next year while I take a Masters of Food Culture program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences, otherwise known as Slow Food U!

Don’t worry, I’ll keep writing on my blog as often as possible, and will still be producing my Food For Thought program for CBC Radio One, and my Podcast, All You Can Eat for Podshow.com.

If you want to try the lasagna recipe I talked about on the Early Edition, which was very ably executed by my wife Ramona this weekend, you’ll find it here.

And thanks to everyone who entered the contest, there are some truly great stories, and I encourage you to read them by going to the bottom of this posting.

The winner of the dinners for two at Nu, Rare and Senova is Dee Taylor of Maple Ridge.

Daphne Spencer of West Vancouver won 11 different culinary books from Raincoast Books, Douglas & McIntyre and Whitecap Books.

And Nancy Carpenter of Vancouver won the Breville Panini Press pictured above, courtesy of Breville and Ming Wo Cookware in Chinatown.

Thanks to all of my listeners over the years of Pacific Palate and to all the people I have interviewed who helped make the show what it was, the best-tasting show on the radio!

Thesa_033_1 Ciao for now,

Don

Posted in Announcements, Contests, Pacific Palate | 1 Comment

Pacific Palate – even more prizes!

Posted on November 10, 2006 by Don Genova

Cook Great news…Raincoast Books has thrown a veritable pot pourri of culinary books into the Big Bang prize package, including:

How I Learned to Cook
Kathy Casey’s Northwest Table
Michael Chiarello’s Flavoured Oils and Vinagars
World Food Cafe
The LAtin American Kitchen
The World of Spice
Duchy Originals Cookbook

You only have until Monday, November 13th to enter the contest to win these books and more from Douglas and McIntyre and Whitecap Books, as well as a Breville Panini Press from Ming Wo Cookware and dinners for two from Nu, Rare and Senova.  Tell me about your Most Memorable Meal!  Go to this page to enter.

Posted in Contests, Pacific Palate | Leave a comment

Pacific Palate – My Secrets of the City

Posted on November 6, 2006 by Don Genova

Thesa_033 This week on Pacific Palate, my secrets of the city…and the Cowichan Valley.  These are my favourite haunts, not the high-end, white tablecloth places, but spots I can go to on my budget and not worry about breaking the bank. 

Don’t forget to enter my ‘Most Memorable Meal Contest’ to have a chance at some fabulous prizes:

Dinners for two at Nu, Rare and Senova.

Copies of Mama Now Cooks Like This, by Susan Mendelson, and Had a Glass 2007:  Top 200 wines for under $20, by James Nevison and Kenji Hodgson, courtesy of Whitecap Books.

As well as copies of Vij’s: Elegant and Inspired Indian Cuisine by Vikram Vij and Meeru Dhalwala, and The Cocktail Chef: Simple, Chic Entertaining by Dinah Koo and Janice Poon, wine notes by John Szabo, courtesy of Douglas & McIntyre.

Panini_1 And a Breville stainless steel panini grill from Ming Wo Cookware.

To enter the contest, go to the bottom of this blog entry.

Now for the list:  I haven’t had time to look up all the addresses and phone numbers or websites of these places, so please try searching on your own before asking me for more info.  I’ll try to add to the listings in the next week or so.

Vancouver:

– In Chinatown, I love the prawn turnovers and Pina Coco Buns at the New Town Bakery on East Pender Street just west of Main
-down the street, Ming Wo Cookware, for the best selection of anything you need in the kitchen
-on the other side of the Skytrain station from the CBC, T and T Supermarket for fresh Asian groceries and dried and canned goods.  I also just like hanging out at the seafood tanks and watching all the live stuff wriggle around
-In Yaletown, Rodney’s for oysters and mussels and clams
-Urban Fare to shop the world
-any branch of Hon’s Chinese restaurants.  I like to sit near the kitchen at the one on Robson Street and watch the chefs make stir-fries under the huge wok burners in less than 30 seconds

I used to live around the Main and King Edward area…and still have a few favourites there:
-Legendary Noodle, where you can watch them make the noodles at the back of the restaurant, try the noodles in spicy peanut sauce!
-Windsor Meats, the best butcher shop in the area for quality meats at good prices
-Jasmine Halal Meats and Deli for anything you need from the Middle East, and just north of King Edward, Sun Sui Wah for great dim sum, including duck tongues

-my new neighbourhood centers around West 10th Avenue near UBC…
-Ginger and Chili Restaurant for ginger beef and spicy green beans
-Mix the Bakery for great baked goods and bread, of course
-Hime Sushi for well-made sushi at great prices
-Perfetto’s pizza, for the Sicilian
-Gold Train Express Noodle House for fragrant Vietnamese beef noodle soup
-on campus…One More Sushi for the excellent agadashi tofu

-on West 4th and Vine, Simpatico for great lamb shoulder and ribs
-and Memphis Blues on West Broadway for excellent barbecue
-Osteria Napoli at 1st and Renfrew for what they call casa linga food, homestyle cooking from Joe.

-On West 2nd at Burrard and at Granville Island, Barbara-jo’s Books to Cooks for the best cookbook selection in the city
-on East Hastings, Gourmet Warehouse, a foodies delight of cookware and tasty products

-stores like Capers and Choices and Whole Foods for bringing people more organic and local foods than ever before…

In Victoria and the Cowichan Valley (my weekend and summer place is in Cobble Hill)

-Zambri’s, in Victoria, an excellent Italian restaurant that has been a regular hangout…
-the Market on Yates
-Thrifty’s Supermarkets, anywhere
-Sooke Harbour House….for culinary innovation, romantic settings and  devotion to organic and local all year round.
-Cowichan Bay Farms
-Chuck Ford’s asparagus
-Hilary’s Cheese
-True Grain Bakery
-downtown Duncan Farmers market
-Mad Dog Crabs

Why am I divulging all of the secrets now?  I’m moving to Italy for a year, and I want you to patronize all these places while I’m gone!  More details next week…and if you’d like to add your own favourite places in Vancouver or Vancouver Island to this list feel free to do so in the ‘comments’ box below.

Posted in Pacific Palate | 2 Comments

So Much On My Plate – Tea!

Posted on November 3, 2006 by Don Genova

If you’re looking for the Pacific Palate ‘Most Memorable Meal’ contest, please click here.Brewt204

This week on So Much On My Plate I talked about the latest innovations in the world of tea.  One of the great new things I’ve tried lately is this Brewt tea and coffee infusers I found at the Coffee and Tea Expo in Vancouver.  The Cornelia Bean folks from Winnipeg are distributing this product in Canada.  What I love about it is that is makes it very easy to brew loose leaf tea.  Put a ‘three-fingered pinch’ of tea in the Brewt, add hot water, let steep.  Then place the Brewt on top of your teacup.  A special one-way valve opens and dispenses the tea.  The moment you lift up the Brewt, the tea stops pouring!  No muss, no fuss of teaballs or strainers, and then just rinse out the Brewt and you’re ready to go again.

Twoleaves_1  You can learn much more about tea by going to the Tea Council of Canada website.  A common trend I spotted at the Coffee and Tea Expo was the appearance of the pyramid-shaped tea bag, or ‘sachet’ as they’re known in the industry.  These bags allow for more free-flow brewing and leave room for whole-leaf tea to expand.  A company from Aspen, Colorado called Two Leaves and a Bud was promoting its single origin teas, another big trend.

Flowering_teas The final exciting trend I spoke about today are flowering teas.  These are hand-sewn tea leaves and sometimes some real flower buds that expand when you brew them for a magnificent display.  The ones pictured here are from the Numi Organic Tea company.

Of course the key to serving these teas at home is to have a nice clear teapot to brew them in!

Posted in So Much On My Plate | 4 Comments

Food For Thought – En Route Best New Restaurants

Posted on October 31, 2006 by Don Genova

Enroute_scan_1 This week Food For Thought examined the November issue of En Route magazine which unveils Canada’s Best New Restaurants.    If you’re looking for the Most Memorable Meal Contest, it’s here.

I’m still waiting for En Route magazine to post the results on its website, but they will eventually appear here. 

Img_0102 Pictured from right are Chris Johns, who write the lead feature on the best new restaurants, En Route magazine editor Charlene Rooke, and Harry Kambolis, owner of Nu, the Vancouver restaurant that was named best new restaurant in Canada.

To listen to an MP3 of my Food For Thought documentary, click here .

Posted in Food For Thought | Leave a comment

Pacific Palate Contest – Your Most Memorable Meal

Posted on October 30, 2006 by Don Genova

November 13, 2006Front_bang  UPDATE:  Contest entries are now closed.  Thanks to all of you for sending in some wonderful entries.  Winners will be announced and notified on November 14th. After ten years, Pacific Palate on CBC Radio’s The Early Edition is coming to an end. There’s a reason behind my departure, and I’ll reveal all the why’s and where’s on November the 14th.

In the meantime, to reward my loyal listeners, we are running a fantastic contest you can win by telling me about your most memorable meal…all you have to do is scroll down to the comments section of this page, and write no more than TWO PARAGRAPHS about your most memorable meal ever.  We’ll read some of the entries on the air, and on November 14th we’ll announce the grand prize winner.  The deadline is noon, Monday, November 13th.

The grand prize so far includes dinners for two at three of the best new restaurants in Vancouver:

Nu

Rare

and Senova.  For an updated list of prizes, (yes, there’s more!) click here.

Memorable_meal For me, my most memorable meal of recent times came this spring in Italy, with my wife Ramona at a tiny little bistro in Rome.  It was the perfect lunch, joking with the waiter, being able to point at a dish of large, tenderly braised artichokes in the kitchen and having them delivered seconds later to our table, toothsome pastas, and an amazing appetizer of fresh cantaloupe, arugula and prosciutto.

I look forward to hearing your stories about your most memorable meal!  …and good luck in the contest.

Posted in Contests, Pacific Palate | 54 Comments