Eat vancouver

2011 June 12th .

Eat Vancouver is an annual event that none of our Hosts had attended before. I saw a TV advert for the event and suggested it might be fun to visit. It is held over three days, Friday Saturday and Sunday at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Center. The event turned out to be a day long, fun filled, eating and drinking bash.
Sunday began a lovely warm sunny day and we all piled in the car to drive into Vancouver. Parking, it was decided would be cheaper than taking the Sky transit. Downtown Vancouver the glass highrise office blocks in the Business area sparkle and gleam in the sun.

We parked easily in the hugh underground car park and took the elevators to the Conference Center street level entrance, then down thee levels to the Exhibition halls. Before we even get into the Exhibition Hall we are all given a bag of sample goodies, Crisps, sweets and a drink. This bodes well!

The space is hugh but well set out in different areas, but never the less the largeness of it all is daunting and a little confusing.
At one side of the hall is the cooking competition area, where chefs from all over BC all dressed in in their spotless whites compete in several different competitions. Within this area there's a space where tables are set for formal dining. It's served by smart waiters and is for the judges and members of the public who have payed $75 for the privilege , sit, taste and judge.
There's another area set out for formal tastings with a platform for the expert to talk from. Again you have to pay for this.
There are two smaller demo theaters, one is where Canada's Celebrate Chefs demonstrate from. Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet is one of them and Rob Feenie, Vancouver's Iron Chef is another.

Along one side of the room are small booths where many of the celebrated restaurants in Vancouver cook and sell small tasting samples of their restaurant dishes. In rows covering the center of the room are numerous stalls and booths were shops and organisations demonstrate and give out samples of their foods and drinks. Soon, we are all loaded down with bags of samples and are quite full from all the tastings.

In the wine and beer tasting section we all meet up. Ralph and Daniel are at the venue as well. I'm not sure if we found them or they found us. Anyway we all sit and rest for a while sipping wine and comparing the best stands before separating and continuing our journey round the stands.

Ralph and Daniel

Nancylee and John

The Italian Bosa stand fron the store in Burnaby is probably the best stand in the exhibition and always busy. A good place for a good cup of reviving Italian coffee.

Eventually a consensus is reached. We've all had enough, so we leave the cavernous halls of the Convention Center with our stash of samples. Back in the car and out in the sunshine John stops the car in the convenient parking area to see the impressive 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic torch

Our stash of food samples from the convention.