EAT! Vancouver 2007

Well, yesterday was the last day of EAT! Vancouver. A wonderful cooking and everything food exhibition held at BC Place Stadium. It ran from May 25th to the 27th... and it was AWESOME! Yes, this is the first year I've been to EAT! Vancouver but it definitely won't be the last. The exhibits were amazing and the variety of foods that were available for sample was incredible. I went with my parents on the Friday and we had a great time. I first suggested that we go to the exhibit only the night before and my mom was very hyped to go... we suggested it to my dad and he agreed that it would be a fun time. The tickets were $14, but only $12 if you brought a canned good for the Union Gospel Mission (being people who love to save money, we brought some spam, chilli and salmon).

We decided to drive downtown and managed to find a decent parking spot, not to far from the building and free! (We actually took the car because we were planning on going out for siew yeh after... but didn't because we were full from sampling :P I think next year, we'll take the skytrain... it'll save on gas and searching for a good parking spot.) We then bought our tickets and entered the stadium. I've actually never been inside BC Place before, it's pretty daunting the first time you go in. It was 4pm and we were ready to rock-n-roll. But, we had to think of a systematic way to visit each booth and still see some of the great shows that were going on (I really wanted to see Rob Feenie and the Master Chefs Competition).

We started on the right, and moved down the aisles of exhibits... sampling all the food and grabbing all the free loot! What loot, you ask? Well, we got sample bags of potatoes, rice and a ton of doggy treats/food (for Jacques). We sampled a ton of stuff: the many smoothies, kozy shack pudding, smoked fish, chocolate, bbq chicken, hemp cereal, fondue, ice cream, coffee, mussles, pasta, schneider's vegetarian nuggets & meatballs (my dad and I went crazy over these... they didn't taste like soy at all!), flax, cereal, sushi and much, much more.

After filling up on samples it was already 6pm and we wanted to watch Rob Feenie (Iron Chef America) cook at the foodnetwork stage.I was really excited... not sure why, I guess maybe because I wanted to get more familiar with cooking and not just baking. Feenie's a really cool guy, seems down to earth and really into family and food :) the perfect combination! I took some videos of his show, take a look...

Notice that he mentioned something about some lucky individual winning the short-rib dish that he prepared? Well, the lucky winner was my mother!!! Feenie then said, "Whoever wins must share." because the dish was too big for 1 person... so my mom, dad and I go to try Feenie's Short-Rib. Now I can say that the Iron Chef Rob Feenie cooked for me :P He also made some Mini short-rib burgers which another lucky couple won. It was the best short-rib I have ever tasted! Feenie is a very talented guy.

The winners of these dishes, my family and that other couple were truly lucky... and there are really cool stories behind the wins. When I first picked a seat for the show, I wanted to sit in the middle (even though it was kinda far back) but my mom persuaded me to sit on the right side as the seats were closer to the stage and still at a good angle. If we hadn't moved to sit in those seats, my mom would't have had the winning ticket on her chair. The couple who won the burgers actually didn't have seats at the beginning of the show. But half-way through another couple left (foolish, foolish people) and so they took those seats. Lucky for them, the seats that they got had the winning ticket! Crazy I tell ya!

Well, we will definitely be going back next year... and I think my sisters are wanting to come with us. They didn't know how much fun could be had, so they decided they'd stay home :( The day ended great (except that the last competitor for the Master Chef's Competition decided not to show... but who cares!) with tons of loot, a free short-rib dinner to go along with a belly full of free samples, and a picture with Rob Feenie!

And now to leave you with some parting words of wisdom from Rob Feenie himself!