And The Best of The Armoury District

Elegance and quality strike you as soon as you step foot in Chocolate Arts Café.

Red and chocolate colours fill up the place starting with the beautiful art piece by Janice Wong made of many paint films mounted on different sized squares in different red colours.

The café decor is warm, elegant, welcoming and the smell of chocolates and baked goods will break down any resistance or diet commitments.

Then you see a buffet with dozens of chocolate pieces of varied unique colours and flavours. Who can resist... 

I had the honour of meeting the chocolatier behind the café, Greg Hook, who took the time to showcase the kitchen and some of the projects he was working on.

An artist as well as chocolatier, he uses coloured coca butter to produce chocolate cakes that can, if it's your style, be over the top.

Every piece of chocolate is also a divine artistic production in shape and ingredients. 

The Rhubarb Rhapsody is very Canadian with its incorporation of rhubarb.




The Kalamansi Truffle can turn anyone on to white chocolate and never look back.

There are not words to describe the quality of chocolate at Chocolate Arts Café. 

Make sure you visit when in The Armoury District, have a cup of hot chocolate, sample the world's sustainable chocolates, grab a sandwich or a baked good and definitely walk out with a box of chocolates - you won't go wrong with any piece you choose.

Chocolate Arts Café

1620 West 3rd Avenue

Vancouver, BC

www.chocolatearts.com 

 

The Armoury District Tour - Part 2

In The Armoury District Tour - Part 1, I mentioned unique art galleries and shops and who I referred to as the Mayor of the District.

The Mayor is a talented Canadian Artist, Janice Wong, who I am proud to call a friend; with a neat gallery in the District.

Another worthwhile stop is Casa Home Decor. Lovely owner with an eye for elegant tasty home related objects.

Products from all over the world, with the highlight those ceramic and hand painted food objects by a Brazilian artist.

Casa Home Decor

101-1636 West 2nd Avenue

Vancouver, BC

www.casahomedecor.ca

After all the elegance of all the places I discovered in the District, it was a shame that the sit-down food experience at Café Bica did not match the elegance and quality of every other District discoveries.

Service slow and borderline rude. Food expensive and nothing to come back for. 

The Brunch special, eggs with smoked salmon, chives and toast sounded tempting; delivery was small portion, microwaves scrambled eggs and mini slices of salmon on top - and is not cheap.

Café Bica

1809 Fir Street

Vancouver, BC

www.cafebica.com

And leaving the best of The Armoury District for last... you'd have to tune back for that tomorrow.

I Love Sundays

A nice dry Sunday with no plans. I did my Sunday morning rituals (that story for another Sunday), had a long afternoon nap and decided that the best way to keep the chill of the day is not to do any food experimentation tonight. 

I opted to repeat my latest roasted chicken adventure (read Dinner with a Centaur) where the perfect roasted chicken is:

- Stuffed with rosemary, thyme and garlic;
- Roasted on its side on high temperature until it sizzles;
- Turned around and roasted slowly on low temperature until it is ready.

What's a roasted chicken dinner without Janice Wong's Chow's Popovers (most of you have read about those a dozen times already, but if new to the blog, check out the Sunday Dinner Accompaniments article).

I am not sure how long Ms. Wong will tolerate my messing up her recipes (see last time I did this at Gung Hay Fat Choy), but I felt bratty and wanted to experiment with replacing milk with buttermilk (just because I had some in the fridge).

Those on the left hand side are tonight's with buttermilk; those on the right are previous ones with milk. The milk ones taste more savoury, are crunchier inside, and look more "right". 

Well, at least they turned out and did not bake into a burnt lump.

Mashed potatoes and somerville kitchen's coleslaw (recipe at Soup & Salad) saved the dinner.

And the best part of Sunday is playing with the food (popover chicken sandwiches), then playing with pictures of the food.

Gung hay fat choy

Year of the Dragon was welcomed at somerville kitchen with a feast inspired by Janice Wong's lovely cookbook Chow (more @ c-h-o-w.blogspot.com).

The dinner featured:
- A new version of Chow's 3 Green Beans recipes
- Asparagus, Mushrooms + Pork
- Gai Fun (Chicken Rice)

I wanted to do something different with the green beans so an experiment with Rick's Rub was in order.

Given the occasion, I thought Rick's Rub Asian will be the best choice. But with a guest allergic to onions and garlic, I opted for Rick's Rub Heat.  

An amazingly tasty and easy recipe that I will be making again and again. 

Simply heat up some oil, add the green beans, sprinkle with a generous amount of Rick's Rub Heat, a bit of soy sauce and you have a deliciously eye tearing hot beans. Try it (A list of outlets where you can buy Rick's Rub can be found at Ricksdryrub.com).

Gai Fun - my favourite recipe in Chow. I got this fancy clay pot as a gift and wanted to use it, so, for the second time in one night, I adjusted the recipe (Forgive me JW?).

I got the chicken and rice going on stove top (half the process) then poured all into the pot and put it in the oven to wrap up. Delicious taste, fancy look. Repeat!

For the Asparagus, Mushrooms + Pork recipe, I stuck to the book's instructions (and yes, the Scotch whisky is part of the recipe).

This was the first time I try making this dish and it was easy, tasty, smelled great and disappeared off the table in no time.

None of us spoke any Asian language, but we sure had fun, ate well and enjoyed our small scale somerville kitchen Chinese New Year celebration.

 

Dining on Pieces of Art, Again

Dining at the talented artist Janice Wong is like dining on pieces of art.

And, as a big fan of somerville kitchen, an invite for a blogiversary has been pending since the beginning of the month, and it was arranged for tonight.

Well worth the wait and I am thrilled to share this dining journey with you all.

The Takeoff

Gnudi (or nude gnocchi) are flourless balls made from goat ricotta mixed with parmesan cheese, egg, lemon peel and lemon juice. They are covered with semolina over night that drains the moisture out and turns them into balls ready to boil.


As the gnudi are cooking, fresh garden sage is fried with prosciutto - I have never tasted fried sage and I think I will make it a habit of eating it this way.

All are then served with mini greens and cherry tomatoes with a simple oil balsamic dressing - a smooth, tantalizing take off.

Refreshments

A beautiful jug of water infused with a chunk of ginger, a slice of lemon, and fresh garden lavender, lemon balm and rose petals. Amazing...

Since I grow all those ingredients in le jardin, I asked the artist if she has a patent for this creation. Luckily no, so I will have to try it soon.

Destination

Guests were then lead to the hosts' garden where lamb loin chops were BBQ'ed along with chunks of peaches and black figs. Those were served with boiled new potatoes drizzled with butter and lemon juice.

Side Trip

A side trip leading to a refreshing salad of baby greens, figs, sliced peaches, almonds and blueberry. All seasoned with olive oil and pear cinnamon balsamic - how inventive is that. Not much of that salad plate was left.

Eastern Diversion

Inspired by Croatian salads, this was a chopped cabbage and yellow peppers salad. Instead of the basic Croatian dressing of oil and vinegar, this salad was dressed by an adventurous mixture of oil, vinegar, mustard seeds, lemon juice, white balsamic and fennel pollen; and sprinkled with celery leafs and capers.

The Landing

A simple sponge cake with whipped cream and almonds and packed with fresh blueberries, blackberries, cherries and peach was served upon landing.

Thank you JaG!




More on Janice Wong's inventive cooking and her cookbook Chow can be found under Janice Wong Chow within the labels section on the right.

Jardin & Chow

First, I go out to le jardin and see what is ready to eat.

Today's bounty included snow peas (yes, they keep on giving) and few gai lan florets.

Brought in, washed and now what to do with them.

With gai lan on the ingredient list, a Chinese cook book was required. 

And what better than one of my favourite cook books - Janice Wong's signed copy of Chow (more @ c-h-o-w.blogspot.com)

Two easy recipes were identified: (1) Snow peas, pickled radish + Barbequed Pork (page 77) and (2) a version for cooking green beans (page 106) that I used for the gai lan.

Jardin ingredients were not enough for the chosen production. A quick walk and a bit of creativity solved all outstanding issues.

Rather than pickled radish, I used my own pickled turnips (see Lefett). And a quick walk to Fraser street brought back the best fresh barbequed pork.



Few minutes later, a delicious Jardin & Chow meal was enjoyed.

Who Needs Chocolate When You Can Have Mashed Potatoes

A valentine weekend of mashed potatoes at somerville kitchen. Calorie counts are not allowed until tomorrow. Happy Valentine everyone.

Saturday - Braised Chicken with Mashed Potatoes

A tasty braised chicken recipe from the January issue of Bon Appetit. Chicken simmering in a mixture of tomatoes, wine, port, dijon mustard, red peppers, onions, garlic, and bay leaves produced a delicious thick tomato gravy to go over the potatoes.

Served with steamed-then-butter-glazed carrots and fried chard with garlic and lemon.

Sunday - Meat Loaf with Mashed Potatoes

Somerville meat loaf (click for recipe) with mashed potatoes, Knorr Swiss roast gravy enhanced with mushrooms and wilted spinach with onions and lemon.

And a Sunday dinner is not complete without Janice Wong's Chow popovers (more on those at Sunday Dinner Accompaniments entry).



Monday - Popovers with Mashed Potatoes

Those popovers yesterday were so good that I made them again (and more of them) today. 

They were then split in half, stuffed with mashed potatoes and covered with what would typically be the filling of chicken pot pie (chicken, vegetables and dill in a creamy sauce).

Sunday Dinner Accompaniments

Brussel Sprouts

Research on Sunday Dinner Accompaniments shows a range of vegetables including turnips, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, peas, corn, broccoli, but no mentions of brussel sprouts. Well, brussel sprouts are a favourite at somerville kitchen and have been featured twice over the past six months (Happy (American) Thanksgiving and Salmon in Cedar Papers). So it is time to share the somerville kitchen brussel sprouts recipe.

Cut the brussel sprouts in half. Melt some butter (or butter/vegetable oil combo) in a frying pan and fry the brussel sprouts on medium heat. 3 to 4 minutes on each side seems to do the trick. Once they are a bit charred on each side, sprinkle with salt, pepper and parmesan cheese and serve hot. Delicious.

Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire pudding repeatedly comes up as a Sunday Dinner Accompaniment. While those may look like Yorkshire pudding, they are in fact Janice Wong's Chow cookbook's popovers (page 163). The original recipe from her dad includes the basics of many Yorkshire pudding recipes (milk, flour, oil and eggs); but I love Chow's simpler approach to baking them (no pre-heating of oil, butter or pan). Simple, and if you follow the instructions carefully, they come out perfect.

You can buy Chow directly from the author at Chow Book Store and Janice will most likely sign it for you. The cookbook has its own blog as well at www.c-h-o-w.blogspot.com. And if that does not convince you, you can see Chow in action here at Dining on Pieces of Art and Chow.