On Nov 15th, CTV posted an article about how local food carts near the Art Gallery were being affected by the Occupy Vancouver movement, stating sales drops of up to 70% and some even going so far as to say they may need to close up shop if there wasn’t a change soon (read the full article here):

Well, it wasn’t long after posting this article to my twitter feed that some of my fellow tweeps and I started discussing the idea of organizing a tweet up to support them, and the hashtag #supportYVRfoodcarts was born. A blog post by well-known Vancouver blogger @maryinvancity officially started the event and the response was overwhelming. By that night, the hashtag #supportYVRfoodcarts was trending on twitter first in Vancouver, then in Canada! The date was set for Friday, November 18th, and myself and some of the Drew Cooks! staff (along with many others) set out that afternoon with hunger in our bellies and fire in our eyes.

Our goal was to hit not just one food cart, but several (a goal that was met, BIG TIME; the food coma was epic) and we hoped others would do the same. We weren’t disappointed. Huge line ups of supporters were at every cart, people were on their phones taking pictures of food, tweeting like crazy inbetween huge bites of delicious street food, and vendors at the carts were all astounded at the outpouring of support. So where did we go first?

One of the most active twitter accounts of the food carts belongs to Re-up BBQ, serving delicious smoked pulled pork, brisket and sides.

Even though they had to move from their original spot due to Occupy Vancouver, there was a big line up when we got there, and the guys said they had been smokin’ busy all day. Great to hear. These guys really took advantage of the #supportYVRfoodcarts event and invited many of their visitors to an event they were planning on Nov 26th in New West.

A sucker for good beef brisket, I ordered their brisket sandwich ($9), while some of my colleagues tried their famous pulled pork sandwich ($7). They served it with their tangy coleslaw and a great BBQ sauce that wasn’t too sweet and had a nice kick of spice. What could be a better up-sell than a really attractive photo of us eating it? You tell me.

The guys at Re-Up BBQ were awesome, friendly, and had some great recommendations for other food carts to try. Their first pick was Mangal Kiss Mid-East BBQ, showcased here by my posing skills:

This was another cart featured in the CTV article that had been shifted from its original spot near the Art Gallery and was struggling to find the same volume at its new spot. Yet again we were greeted by a large line-up at Mangal Kiss, which specializes in shishlik wraps (Shishlik is quite simply the practice of grilling meat – sounds fine by me). Where the big difference is for me is the inventive and uber flavourful vegetables and other ingredients they place in their shishlik wraps. Each wrap (choice of beef or chicken) contains:

Hummus, tahini, purple cabbage, beets, pickled turnips, pickles, onions, tomatos, cucumbers, spiced Moroccan carrots, radish, Tabbouleh

It seems like a lot going on, but all I can really say is you need to go down there right now, order it, and take a bite. FLAVOUR. It all works, and it’s unlike anything I’ve tried on the streets of Vancouver to date. Here’s what it looks like:

The folks at Mangal Kiss are as nice as can be too, I can’t say enough good things about their food. It’s a must-try!

________________

If someone had told me that morning I would be eating a huge grilled cheese sandwich out of a paper cone later in the day, I would have called them crazy. Then I would have hugged them. But turns out that is exactly what I was doing at Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck. And look at the line at this one too!

Now, the guys at Re-Up BBQ had recommended the “Jackson 3″ which is their triple decker grilled cheese sandwich, with 3 kinds of cheese. They also suggested we get it with bacon added, because they smoke and supply the bacon Mom’s grilled cheese truck uses! How cool is that? Despite the fact I’ve already eaten two large lunches, I threw caution to the wind and ordered it. One of the other guys ordered another of their sandwiches, a “meatloaf” sandwich with marinara and cheese.

Here is Mom herself, working the flat top like a champ while chatting with customers, she’s awesome.

Before long, we all had delicious cheesey sandwiches in our hot little hands.

Here’s our head bartender Carmond taking a break from photo duties to handle the “Jackson 3″ with bacon he ordered:

The rest of us looking confused as to how to handle the monstrosities of deliciousness in front of us.

Though they are known for Grilled Cheese (obviously) the Meatloaf sandwich is not to be missed. The beef is incredibly well seasoned and flavourful, the marinara is delicious and the melted provolone on top is perfect. Most of all, go say hi to Mom and let her fill you up right!

___________

Alright, at this point we had hit 3 food carts and eaten 3 large lunches within about an hour, and we were losing the ability to stand under our own power. Though it was wintery out, the meat sweats were imminent. We sat down briefly to compose ourselves and think of our next move, and no sooner did we take a short breather, we received a tweet from a friend of mine and amazing cake artist, Cake Tease saying she was heading downtown to give away some of her amazing cupcakes to people who came out for #supportYVRfoodcarts!

This was all the second wind we needed. We marched on, in search of the 4th stop on our tour de foodcart, Soho Road Tandoori Kebab.

I was totally impressed that this cart had an actual tandoor oven onboard! They were even kind of to let us come around and take some pictures of it in action as they made fresh naan bread to order for each of us.

Best of all, we were given some complimentary chai tea while we waited, which was delicious. (PS I have difficulty smiling normally for pictures, I’m working on it.)

No sooner did we get our wraps, but look who showed up

She immediately began tweeting that the next person to come and order from Soho Road and retweet got a free box of mini-cupcakes, and it took a grand total of about 45 seconds for someone to come and claim it!

After chowing down on this insanely delicious, flavourful butter chicken and naan wrap from Soho Road, I could eat no more, though luckily, many, many more supporters continued to chow down all day, with some of the vendors completely selling out due to overwhelming demand. We couldn’t be happier with how #supportYVRfoodcarts turned out, and we sincerely hope that those who tried these carts for the first time on Friday, will continue to return to these great vendors again. The quality of food on our streets is amazing, go eat it!

From Drew Cooks! and Cake Tease, stay classy Vancouver!

Photography by Carmond Ng

Not going to lie, we’re a little jealous of all these restaurants who get to do dine-out Vancouver every year. Being caterers we’re a bit of a different beast as we do most of our work at venues around the city, or in people’s homes. Well, this year we have decided to give one lucky twitter follower and 5 of their closest friends their own in-home 4 course dine-out Vancouver experience, completely free!

We will be selecting the lucky winner at random at noon on Friday, January 14th. Here’s what you need to do to enter:

1. Follow us on twitter here.

2. Retweet our post about the Giveaway contest.

3. Comment on this blog post, answering the question “What is the one dine out Vancouver restaurant you want to try this year and why?”

We will be posting the winner on our twitter page at 12pm on Friday, January 14th!*

How do our dinner parties work? We bring all our own pots, pans, knives, plates and other equipment necessary to serve your gourmet meal, and make use of your kitchen to do final cooking and plating of your customized menu. A server is included to re-create a restaurant experience in your own home! View some of our sample menus here.

Best of luck!

*Contest only eligible to residents of Vancouver, BC or the surrounding areas (Burnaby, New West, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam, Delta).

I love wine. A lot.

If I was on “Survivor” one of my items I’d bring to the island would be a case of good red wine, and every tribal council meeting I would be sitting there amidst all the drama with a nice big glass of red wine. How cool would that be?

Now, pairing wine with food has been going on for hundreds of years, and yes, certain foods can go better with certain wines than others, no ones arguing that. What I’m not a huge fan of is the “rules” that have developed over the years that some seem to follow with fervor and determination when eating out, or even at home for that matter.

No red wine with fish.

White wine with beef? You can just get out right now.

Merlot with your chicken? Sacrelig!

I drink red wine probably 90% of the time, it’s just what I prefer, though I know people who drink white just as much, and aren’t huge red fans. Why should someone be forced to to have wine they aren’t crazy about just to enjoy their food? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of good wine and food in the first place?

If you’re eating a beautifully cooked piece of salmon, with gorgeous sauce and sides, is it going to spontaneously combust in your mouth if you have a nice glass of red with it? Probably not.

If the food is good, and the wine is good, then life is good! Stop worrying about rules and pairings to the point of not enjoying your meal to the fullest, life’s too short for that kind of thing. 

I’ve had this discussion on numerous occasions and thought I’d write a bit about it here on the ol’ Drew Cooks! food blog. The question is pretty simple:

Is life too short to eat out at chain restaurants?

Let me get this out of the way first, I am not completely anti-chain, stick it to the man, against corporate North America, or whatever you want to call it. Hey, I’ve even worked in more than one chain restaurant over the years. As with anything, there are good ones and there are definitely bad ones.

But at the end of the day, if forced to give an answer, mine would have to be yes. Life IS too short to dine at chain restaurants for all our gatherings, special occasions and those times when we just don’t feel like cooking.

We are creatures of habit, we know we like that 6″ roasted chicken with southwest sauce from Subway on our lunch break, so we don’t want to risk trying that little deli around the corner with the cured meats and cheeses and grilled paninis. Hey, we may not like it. On the flip side, it could be the greatest sandwich we’ve ever eaten and we’ll never go back to boring mass produced subs ever again. At the very least, we may discover an ingredient, a method, a condiment or even a vegetable we never even knew existed, or thought we enjoyed. Wouldn’t that alone make trying a new place worth it?

Wouldn’t you rather give your business to a place where the head chef doesn’t get his new menu items from the “head office” but toils, perfects them and cooks them with passion? Don’t get me wrong, there are some extremely talented head chefs working at chain restaurants, but if you asked them I would bet nearly all would love to have their own little restaurant somewhere, complete control over their ingredients and food and glowing reviews. The reason many don’t do this is simple: it takes a lot of money and it’s hard. Very hard. Putting yourself out there on the chopping block (bad pun alert), going for it, being married to your restaurant for 16 hours a day, trying to turn a profit; like I said before, one thing makes that happen: passion.

This hard work and dedication is exactly the reason why we should visit the little guys instead of the big guys and see what we’re missing. Get a wood fired pizza from Commercial Dr. instead of Panago. Try some West Coast Italian cuisine from Vita Bella Ristorante on Hastings instead of Olive Garden, I could go on for hours.

Vancouver is a restaurant and foodie hot-bed waiting for your empty bellies, so get out there and try something new!