On June 29, The Food Connection hosted flavoured herbal vinegar and oil making workshop. This evening was my first Food Connection event. I brought my partner’s mother, Deasy, who is visiting from Indonesia. Right from the beginning we noticed the welcoming Food Connection environment. It’s always a bit intimidating to go to a group where you know no one. Soon after entering the room at Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House, our nerves were put at ease. This warm environment was

What comes to mind when you think of Indonesian cuisine? This is a question many of us pondered heading into last week’s workshop on Indonesian cooking. Thanks to our gracious leaders, Emil and Idris, we can now answer with confidence – and have added staple recipes to our repertoires for extra credibility. Heading into the workshop many of us wondered if Indonesian was similar to Thai cooking? Or Malaysian? Others had exposure through their Dutch heritage and the recipes tha

Slow-cooked comfort food: right on time for the winter rains! Despite the rainy evening we had on Wednesday, some 15 of us showed up at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House for another one of the monthly potluck, cooking, and all-things-food-related sessions run by The Food Connection. The theme for this month’s event was slow cookers—very timely, now that the winter seems to have finally decided to show up. The selling point of this workshop? It promised an easy way to pro

The Grape September Relay How do you get jam from 66 pounds of grapes? With the help of the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project, we tackled the challenge in a vine-to-jar relay this harvest season. First up, the backyard grower. These local grapes were grown by octogenarian Iris, a neighbour from around 17th Avenue and Cambie Street. She told us they were a little like Concord grapes, but not quite as sweet, and perfect for jam-making. Second, the harvesting team. The grapes were pi

Bitters, Ginger Beer, Kombucha – Oh My! I’ve attended a few Food Connection potlucks over the past 6 months, but August’s potluck is my favorite to date as the workshop focused on two of my favorite things: fermented drinks (ginger beer and kombucha) and bitters (for cocktails or ‘mocktails’ – the non-acoholic variety). Back in April, Joey and I were chatting and I mentioned that my boyfriend Thomas has a food blog (shameless plug for Shady Morels here: shadymorels.com). I th

Ready, steady....cook! With nervous anticipation, my team pulled back a cloth to reveal the three ingredients we had been allocated for July's creative cooking competition; black beans, onion and zucchini. Now the challenge for our team, self-titled “Team Survivor”, was to use these base ingredients along with other pantry items to whip up a tasty dinner dish. All within 30 minutes! A daunting task for those of us like myself, who follow recipe books to the letter, or who hav

Every month we give people goodies to bring home from our free food workshops -- whether it's tea blends or spices, pickled vegetables or Irish soda bread. For our two-year anniversary this May, things got a whole lot meatier! We gave out 23 "goodie bags" of fresh chicken breasts, legs and thighs, bones for stock, and (for a lucky few) wings for wing night. Our neighbourhood supermarket, Buy-Low Foods made the whole thing possible, by donating thirteen whole chickens for our

The Bread Workshop was my introduction to The Food Connection, I love bread, and most food in general so I was really looking forward to the evening getting started. As people arrived, they said their hellos and began setting up their pot-luck contribution on the long table. Most seemed to be familiar with The Food Connection, but as I chatted, I discovered that there were also a few “newbies”, like myself. A very friendly and welcoming group though, it must be said. Once th

Participants travelled from both near and far in torrential rain to our Show and Tea evening. The third event of the year was an intimate gathering, and as we arrived into the cosy, warm neighbourhood house, the entire group huddled around the table together to enjoy a delicious potluck supper of salads, pasta and fresh homemade bread. On the table beside us sat a wonderful array of teas brought along from our kitchens, cupboards and tea collections. After supper, we enjoyed

For our second event of the year, Sachiko shared her knowledge of the fabulous cuisine of Japan. Living in Vancouver surrounded by sushi restaurants, this workshop enlightened us on other aspects of Japanese home cooking, such as dashi, miso and onigri. Firstly, everyone had a chance to introduce themselves at their table, meet their neighbours andshare their own experience of Japanese cuisine. It was especially fascinating to hear stories from those who have travelled in Jap