Kicking off Alfresco 2012

Thursday night, we went to the first Alfresco dinner of 2012. Basically what happens is that you get an invite and then you have to quickly respond, as there are only 100 seats. You don't know where the dinner's going to be until the day before, which is part of the fun, but it's always at an outdoor public space in Vancouver. Last night's venue was at the Laughing Man statues, in Morton Park next to English Bay.

You bring a dish to share and your own dinnerware. The organizers provide the table, seats (carpet circles), flowers and tea lights in mason jars.Once everyone has arrived and set their dishes out, you just wander around and fill your plate with whatever you like. There's always a good selection of amazing food. I made garlic ginger chicken legs and brought some of the pickled beets I made from beets my husband grew in our garden. Both disappeared quickly. (The woman in the photo above is getting beets. The chicken I made is in the white dish in front.)

There is always a really interesting mix of people and happily, alot of interesting artsy people! Apparently I was the go-to girl to ask what other events are going on in the city this weekend. I swear I've missed my calling as a tour guide. 

Since we're a pretty big crowd, people wander by and ask what we're doing, which I find kind of funny-it looks exactly like we're having a picnic/party, so I find that question kind of silly. We explain it though and everyone thinks it's really cool. Someone asked last night if we need a permit. Nope! We're in a public space, having a picnic. You don't need a permit for that!

Since we're in Vancouver, dinner always comes with a spectacular view. Ocean and mountains and a beautiful sunset-what could be better?

The perfect ending to the day!

Today, after getting my morning dose of the Olympics, I'm off to Gather Pop Up in Gastown. I'm taking a workshop, which I'll tell you all about tomorrow!

August Alfresco

Last night was the second Alfresco dinner of summer 2011. The secret location was on Robson Street, in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery. They've closed that section of the street off for the summer, so it was a safe place to set up a rather large flash-mob style picnic. (100 people!)

This was the first time they've set up on an actual street and it made things interesting. For one thing, this particular area is high traffic for tourist who seemed to think we were actually photo worthy. See all those people standing at the end of the table? Those are onlookers, not diners! Every now and again I would look up and they would be half a dozen people shooting photos or videos of us eating.

Lots of people stopped to ask us what was going on and a few wanted to know if dinner was free. (Um, no!) One homeless woman asked Colleen (the girl who made the crazy delicious bacon tarts last time) if she could have something and she gave her one of her bacon corn muffins. The homeless woman trundled off down the street munching happily away.

Since my marinated chicken was such a hit last time, I decided to stick to a meat dish and made sweet and sour meatballs. They were success-there wasn't anything left to take home and several people came up to tell me how good they were. Yay! I love cooking for people who love to eat!

The girl sitting next to us made this lemon pie. My husband was delighted when she sat down next to us-lemon pie is his favourite!

 This green bean dish was my favourite of the night. It was nutty and garlicky and so delicious. Kelly, who had come for the first time made it. She's an interior designer and we had a long conversation about photography. I told her all about Wading In, Light Hunters and Swan Dive.

In the end, I asked her for the recipe and she gave it to me. We've got an insane amount of beans coming out of our garden right now and I want to make this to take to our neighbour's Eid celebration next weekend. (Eid is a Muslim holiday that follows Ramadan. It's the end of a period of fasting and prayer, when you have a big celebration meal. Our lovely neighbours invited us to join them again this year. We had such a good time last year.)

 More yummy food!

 Some of what was on my plate. The shot glass had a yummy dessert that was some sort of cheese that was like a custard with berries and a reduction on top. MMM! The little muffin was orange liquor flavoured and so good. The thing wrapped in tinfoil was an ear of roasted corn.

I'm hoping there will be one more Alfresco before the weather turns. I think everyone who attended last night agrees. It's such a good time and a great way to meet new people. If you missed reading about the first one we went to, it's here.

Just a couple more photos to share.There is a surrealism exhibit on at the Vancouver Art Gallery right now. I took a class in High School called Western Civilization. When I signed up for it, I thought it was going to be about culture, but it turned out to be about fine arts. It was like an art appreciation class on steroids. (Very dry subject matter and we had to do things like look at a painting and be able to say who did it, what style it represented, when it was created and so on.) This banner was up and I knew that I knew the artist. It's Edith Rimmington's The Oneiroscopist. Seeing it this big was pretty disconcerting!

As we were making our way to where Alfresco was set up, we were tripping over all sorts of filming equipment. Apparently they are filming Innocent with Bill Pullman inside the art gallery right now. We're pretty blase about this sort of thing because Vancouver is Hollywood North. We see this sort of thing all the time. My husband's aunt ran into Matt Damon in a local restaurant a couple weeks ago. That's par for the course around here.

We also passed this tribute to much-loved NDP leader Jack Layton whose life was ended far too soon by cancer. I think we're still all in shock here. As someone said, "He was the best Prime Minister we never had." I think we all feel cheated that cancer stole his life just when he'd really got started. No matter what their political leanings, people genuinely liked him for who he was. He was a good man who loved his country deeply and will be missed. He will be laid to rest with a state funeral tomorrow.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This!

Last the week, my friend Jenn and I had been discussing the raptor show the aquarium has on from now till September and I mentioned that I wanted to take my husband because he loves eagles. Jenn arranged via her generous boyfriend Matt for my guys and I to have free admission to the Vancouver Aquarium. (Matt works there, lucky guy!) We decided to go yesterday. We couldn't have picked a better day-the weather was gorgeous!

Here's a slide show of some of the photos I took while we were there: (Mouse over the image to read caption.)

I always enjoy the Jellyfish-it's so relaxing to watch them floating gently, like some weird creature from outer space. I think if I ever win the lottery, I am going to have a tank of jellyfish. Watching them is like a Zen meditation.

The dolphin trio was amazing. I love the shot I got of Spinnaker in the air, high above the rooftop of the dock. (The sport multi shot setting on my new Rebel is fabulous for capturing the speed and power of these beautiful animals.) At one point, when each of them was asked to vocalize three of the different sounds they make, it brought tears to my eyes. I can't help but love them-they are so intelligent and charming. The dolphins at our aquarium are rescues-each one was tangled and injured in fishermens' nets off the coast of Japan.

The raptor show was abbreviated because the turkey vulture they brought out first, Judge Dred, didn't want to return to his handler. They can't bring out other birds of prey until the previous one is gone, so we just got to see one bird, unfortunately. Sometimes the birds run the show! We did enjoy seeing JD though, he was pretty interesting.

The other fabulous thing we did was attend an Alfresco dinner party. It's a "flash mob" sort of thing where you get an invite and then RSVP to sign up. 24 hours before the event, you get an email revealing a location somewhere in Vancouver. Each person brings either an appetizer, entree or dessert to share with everyone else, along with their own plates, cutlery and beverages. The organizers provide the "table" and "seats". (The table is this funky accordion type thing made of tyveck. It's very environmentally friendly, as it can be reused and transported by bicycle. The seats are little round carpet mats.)

It was our first time going-I signed up late last summer after seeing a story about it on the news. I'd forgotten all about it until I got an email last week about the first one of the summer. It's a lovely way to meet people you'd never met otherwise and to share some fabulous food in a beautiful setting. The people we sat with were super nice and amazing cooks. (And artistically inclined! I happened to sit with people who love art!) They brought these bacon tarts that were a pecan type tart with crisp bacon in it. I know it sounds a bit odd, but I can tell you they were the hit of the party and utterly delicious!

I made Japanese chicken drumettes which were marinated in soya sauce, ginger and garlic and baked in the oven. People kept wandering over to where I was sitting to ask "Where are those chicken legs?!?" and I came home with an empty dish, so I guess they were good!

My husband said he didn't care what were were doing the next time an invite pops up-he'll go no matter what. I am just so pleased he had a good time. I figured he would-he likes meeting new people and going to picnics/potlucks, so I was pretty sure he'd want to do it again. It was so much fun!

After a whole day outside in Stanley Park, we slept like rocks. It was a Sunday well spent-the best one of the summer, so far!