This post has been brewing for days, almost past its expiration date. All that’s needed to be said about the conference sessions has probably been posted by my fellow IFBC attendees. It doesn’t help that I have a tarnished history of not blogging about conferences past. My excuse is that I usually continue traveling after each event, as is the case right now, thus pushing post statuses to Never. However, let me turn over a new leaf and tell you about that memorable weekend in Seattle, hopefully with a different perspective than what you’ve already read out there.

Having been a part of conferences in different capacities (as an assistant to the hosting organization, booth planner/manager, coordinator, and as an attendee, but thank god never as a sponsor-haggler), I’ve learned that I needed to be clear about what my goals and expectations are for going, or I’d just be wasting my time, energy, and money. Essentially, we invest in ourselves and/or our businesses when we go to these events, so why not make the most of it?

I went to Seattle to see old friends and meet new ones, enjoy a relaxing girls re{treat} at Hotel Dana Treat, and attend the International Food Blogging Conference and learn something new to improve this blog. And I’ve accomplished all of that and more, coming home a happy sappy camper, filled with pocketful of good memories.

What I Gained at IFBC

1. Inspiration

For me, there are two kinds of invaluable speakers in conferences: those who inform and teach, and those who inspire. It’s very rare to find someone who’s really good at what they do, whose zeal for it oozes like fine honey, and who can convey a message that we can easily digest. We were so lucky to be in the midst of such individuals. They have an infectious passion that lingers about. We were transported from Theo’s Chocolate Factory and lived in their shoes even for just a moment. That in itself makes the conference worth it.

I left the conference and bid the weekend goodbye with a renewed zest for life. It wasn’t just about food, writing or photography — it’s about living and breathing whatever you love to do, without reservations.

2. A chance to reinforce old friendships, make new friends, and meet other food blogging ‘crazies’

The other half of my IFBC Seattle weekend has something to do with friendships, which I will be talking about in my next post. I’ll be a complete sap here in a moment, so prepare your barf bag if you want. The thing that really makes a conference (for me) are The People. A conference is nothing without the connections you establish, and I’m not talking about “connections” in the they-will-be-useful-to-me-in-the-future or it’s-who-you-know sense. I’m talking about making a real connection with individuals you value as a person. Of course, I came to the event for personal, rather than professional, reasons. If I’ve met one new friend and kept the old ones close, that’s good enough for me. And I don’t use the term “friend” loosely, either.

From a food blogging point of view, there’s nowhere else you can easily find someone to babble about food and blogging within close proximity other than at food blogging event. For a weekend, we can be ourselves unabashedly and be among “our people”. We come armed with our cameras, photographing food before and after taking a bite, after the last bite, and after we’ve consumed everything on the plate. We hold someone’s plate for them so they can use both hands to take a photo. We gladly hold a candle to light the dish for a better shot. We tweet about how damn good each bite is. We can’t wait to post about what we’ve eaten. To the outside world, we must look comical like a pair of dancing/mating blue-footed boobies. For a weekend, we fit right in.

3. Knowledge

Here’s the agenda. Like I said in the beginning, my beloved peers have probably posted about it already and I’ll add links to their posts as I compile them.

Megan took excellent notes during the Recipe Writing panel with Amy, Dianne, and Kristin, and you should go read that. The semicolon was a point of contention. I personally like using semi-colons;

{Grins}

When they said: Do not give recipes for free! I also heard that as, “Value yourself and your work.”

I kind of glossed over the SEO part, because it’s part of what I do professionally. I’m here to share recipes and photos, and I don’t like intermingling work with pleasure. I try to write meaningful recipe titles and head notes, but cooking or writing a post to follow a trending topic, long tail…short tail, is absolutely against what I am willing to do in the name of SEO for my personal blog. I don’t eat SEO for lunch and I’ll have no tail on my plate, thank you. If you’ve been visiting this blog long enough, you’ll know that I like going for the unusual and never-before’s. I don’t think there will ever be a big buzz about sweet beet pie with yogurt syrup, but that’s what I like to make.

If you’re looking here for info they provided to help you with your food blog’s SEO, here are some important tips you can use:

• Use Google Insights to track rising trends
• Use core words to describe content. Use them in the URL, blog title, and 1st sentence of the 1st paragraph. Also use them in sub titles, photo captions and “alt” attribute.

As you’ve probably read in the tweets during our Writing with All 5 Senses session, the compositions quickly dived from lyrical to downright carnal. That’s food writing for you. Here’s my take on it: I like reading winding, complex, and 3-D descriptions when I’m reading for pleasure. However, when I’m at someone’s website and I want to get cooking — show me the friggin’ recipe! I don’t want to wade through lilting or flowery words. I want clear, understandable and executable information at my disposal. My voice is not wishy-washy, Alice-in-Wonderland-overcame-the-evil-sister pitchy. I write like I talk. If I get into crazy food talk with you, I’m either depressed or you need to ask me what I’m smoking! My background is scientific and technical, and it’s gut-wrenching to even try to write otherwise. I write descriptions and instructions as if we’re in a lab minus the, “In conclusion…” And that’s me.

We were unethical enough to skip the Law & Ethics panel, but the tweets about the supposed “hot” lawyer were entertaining. We traded it for Kate McDermott‘s apple pie, drank wine and took photos.

We got our food geek on with the session on truffles, chocolates and fresh organic person vegetables (I swear, last night I typed person!). We learned about assuming a “position of the utmost congeniality“. Oh dear.

James Oseland‘s keynote, as I said in my tweet, was the best aperitif we could ever have. He could very well be a food blogger, plus he loves us.

The next morning’s panel on Blogging for Specialized Diets with Shauna and Alex was an eye opener and made me think of making a change to create food that is inclusive, instead of exclusive. I wanted to do a group hug after that.

Penny de los Santos‘s session on digital photography made such a huge impact on me. It was a journey through her lens. She’s inspirational and motivational. I love that she doesn’t say you need the most expensive and complicated camera you can get your hands on. She stresses the importance of practice. I just wish it was the first session of conference, because that would certainly make me think differently about the way I take photos.

4. Weight

Ahaha! And the great thing is, no one’s calorie-counting. If you did–did the flying Bambu plate frisbee hit you on your way out?

5. Extra doses of food blogging mojo

I have so many ideas in my head, I can’t wait to just get back into aggressive blogging in contrast to aggressive tweeting (a conference joke). I can’t wait to get back posting regularly and hopefully show you how I’ve grown.

Overall, this is a well-balanced food blogging conference and certainly worth registering for next year.

IFBC and Other Major Food Blogger/Blogging Events

Please remember that these are all based on my own experiences and personal biases of past events. There may be significant changes in succeeding years, and I can’t comment on that unless I go. Others who have attended any of these events may not also agree with me, if you are one of them, please add to the discussion. I would love to hear and share your point of view.

I am also not someone who: blogs for the money, is trying to get a book deal or break in print publish, or is trying to switch careers.

I am passionate about food and cooking, and I just choose to blog about it.

It also happens that not a lot of my friends are not into food/cooking or blogging, but my online friends are. I’ve built friendships all over the world through this blog. I’m in it for the food and friends.

As of Sunday, I’ve participated in each of the triumvirate of food blogging events once: BlogHer Food, Foodbuzz Blogger Festival and most recently, the International Food Blogger Festival (IFBC) in Seattle, Washington. I really wanted to experience them all and try to decide in the future which would be the best one to attend for my needs. But the problem is, they’re all different.

Below are my opinions on the three, which may help those who are deciding which one/s to attend. These are my own thoughts, and if you have something to share, please do so in the comments.

• Lectures and Sessions
  There was a fixed agenda at IFBC and if we weren’t interested in a panel, we could either can endure it or skip it. Both BlogHer Food and Foodbuzz provided options, but the latter required us to sign up for each session of those sessions. At the first one-day BlogHer Food (it’s 2 days this year), we were able to panel-hop between floors because it was in one hotel. However, Foodbuzz sessions were not exactly “educational” (food blogging wise) in the same way as the IFBC and BlogHer Food ones were; they’re more informational.
  There were also official extra/optional sessions at IFBC and Foodbuzz, but the difference is that for IFBC, they were outside of the cost of the conference and were on days before and after the event. Announcements for some of these had been ‘late’ travel planning-wise, and people from out of town and who had already booked flights and made hotel reservations were out of luck.
• Panelists
  IFBC  had a good mix of well-known traditional and new media professionals, and food and culinary artisans.
  BlogHer Food was mostly (not all) headed and curated by food bloggers, some of whom had made it into print publishing.
  Foodbuzz had mostly food and culinary artisans who taught us about their food/products and how to taste them.
• Food quality, variety, abundance
  Foodbuzz and IFBC had rounded up the best chefs and food in their respective cities. The main difference is with the abundance and variety of food. We had a Tasting Pavilion at FB, where we were “unleashed” for an afternoon, and enjoyed a lavish sit-down dinner. I don’t remember a spotlight on specialized diets at FB, compared to IFBC, where gluten-free was the star and almost had vegetarian fares as an afterthought. My friend Dana had to go buy her own food during the Food Truck lunch. BlogHer Food made an unforgettable food faux pas by serving us frozen dinners on big plates. Really.
• Median age of attendees
  I would say that IFBC had a more mature crowd compared to Blogher Food and Foodbuzz Festival, where as a 32-year old I felt older than younger.
• Cost
  Both IFBC and Foodbuzz Festival cost $350 for 2 days, but eligible Foodbuzz publishers’ registration fees are wavied. Blogher Food was previously $101.48 incl fees for one day, and it’s $153.71/day for 2 days this 2010.
• Pressure to promote event sponsors
  Food bloggers inherently know the requisite need to promote sponsors when they go anywhere or receive anything for free. Sponsorships are needed to make events happen. We know that. However, there is fine line between classy and tacky, and unfortunately I think IFBC crossed that during our food cart lunch break. Bloggers will tweet or talk about things if they like them, there’s no need to shove it down our throats.
• Swag
  A lot of people always ask about the the swag and giveaways, and I admit that it made me curious and excited at BlogHer Food. It still does because it’s like being a kid and opening a bag of presents. I think the event swag with items I most use is the one from BlogHer Food, and it wasn’t even from BlogHer, it was from the after-party hosted by by Jaden, Ree and Elise. Foodbuzz had an excellent selection, too, but the ones I really liked were the ones I got at the taste pavilion, which not everyone received (so I didn’t take that into consideration). The IFBC bag had gems in there, too.That said, the swag should never be your main reason to go.

So, where should you go? It’s really entirely up to you.

From my personal observation of past events**, if you want to:

• Be inspired and to learn, go to IFBC;
• Be able to choose panels you would like to attend and meet as many food bloggers and food blogging A-listers in one event, go to Blogher Food;
• Meet food artisans, learn about food and drinks through tastings in a class environment, EAT and mingle with other food bloggers, go to Foodbuzz Festival.

All three are great avenues to build offline relationships with people you know online. Be willing to share, be kind, be generous, and be open. We are a growing community of bloggers who focus on what nourishes each of us on a daily basis — just how wonderful is that?

Before I start talking about food, let me just assure you that you are on the right website. We just got a face lift. I’ve been wanting to have a new design for ever but never found the time until now. You know how the full moon makes you do crazy things? This was mine. Part of the reason I couldn’t blog, aside from training for my first 5K (perhaps I’ll tell you about that some other time) and working too much, I just couldn’t stand the old layout. Let’s just say I could breathe easier now.

We’d love to get some feedback. If you don’t like something, please let me know what and why. If something’s not readable, definitely stop me in my tracks here, via email or on Twitter!

The sideblog of links has been revamped. We now have an FAQs page, which also addresses the missing-in-action monthly newsletter. There’s a link to our OpenSky shop, and I promise we’ll add more to the store after the busy IFBC weekend. What? Yes, you heard me!

Woohoo? WOOHOO!

Can you see me jumping in excitement?

I’m absolutely looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and learning from them this weekend. We will be eating well, too. So much fun! See you there in a wink!

* * * * * * *

Now that’s out of the way, I’d like you to meet my brother’s Mamon with Coconut Lemon Buttercream birthday cake:

“Mamon” (pronounced as ma-mon’ as if saying c’mon) is a common snack or dessert in the Philippines. It is a soft and moist sponge cake that’s lightly sweetened. They are commonly sold as small cakes, with fluted sides similar to brioche, and come in flavors such as mocha, ube, and pandan. Instead of making small cakes, I created one big cake for my brother’s birthday.

This sponge cake is not as airy as its smaller counterpart; but delicate without falling apart. The toasted coconut adds a taste of the tropics and complements the texture of the silky frosting. It’s light enough to pair with a piña colada or white wine on a hot summer day, or a warm cup of floral tea or dark coffee.

I’ll tell you what else this cake partied with in my belly: I ate it with Caramilk Liqueur. {ducks} {giggles}

It’s no secret that I enjoy putting a Filipino/Asian twist to my cooking and baking, and this one’s no different. This cake tastes like Hawaii meets California on a hot summer day. Surf’s up and let’s eat!

   Get the recipe for this Coconut Lemon Frosted Mamon Cake

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• Pandan Spiral Moon Cake Recipe [recipe]
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• Seed to Sausage, Ferme Baradieu [video + vote!]
• D’Lish Peppadew Peppers [recipe + fundraising for a great cause]

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I know I do! Sure, in some supermarkets in the US selling liquor, they have those wine chillers so you can cool your wine before hitting the checkout counter. However, if you’re home and you already have your room-temperature bottle of wine, it would be a hassle to go out just to buy some wine. And if you’re like me who have impulse cravings for wine that doesn’t leave enough time to chill anything (and don’t own a wine chiller), that puts a damper on saying yes to instant gratification.

That’s where ravi comes in! ravi is an “instant wine refresher”. I prefer to call it my enabler of instant wine gravification. I just have to take out the inner cartridge out of the freezer, assemble the unit in two snaps and place on the mouth of the bottle of my preferred wine and I’m good to go!

ravi looks like the cartridge of a faucet tap water purifier, and is almost the same size. Yes, the liquid passes through it as it’s being cooled down. Instead of cooling the bottle, wine is being cooled as it’s poured. It doesn’t change the flavor in any way.

I put it to the test with a bottle of red wine. The wine’s original temperature is 25°C, as you can see here.

I took out the ravi cartridge out of the freezer and set it up as indicated. The first two glasses I poured registered an almost 10-degree drop in temperature right there. You will see that even after 30 and 60 minutes, ravi was still able to hold the chill and cooled the wine to about 17°C. That’s pretty good, I think. I drank the wine at the “start” and “ravi” temperatures and they difference is noticeable.

I mentioned above that ravi has a valve that you can block with a thumb. This valve controls the flow of liquid through the  cooling tube. The principle is simple: slow down the flow and the liquid stays in longer, thus chilling it longer. Based on experience, I didn’t have to do this for the first 3 glasses. It cooled down quite nicely to a nice 15°C.

The possibilities are endless: you can use ravi for red, white, or rose wines. Just like your ice cream maker bucket, you can place it in the freezer and forget about it until you need it. I put the cartridge in a resealable sandwich bag in the freezer door. Cleanup is a breeze–just rinse and dry the internal tubing with the included pump.

I can definitely see this coming to potlucks (at private residences) for instant wine chilling, and placed in a tiny cooler, or even in those lined keep-frozen bags when traveling. As a self-confessed “girl scout” who brings whatever may be needed, this is another great gadget to have on hand!

We have partnered with OpenSky to bring products that we love to you, our dear readers. We do earn a small portion of each sale made through our store, but we will never recommend products we’ve never tried or don’t believe in. That much we can promise you.

If you like this product, you can purchase it here right now for USD$40. If you order anytime between today and August 16 and use the coupon code FREESHIPPING, you’ll get free shipping!

After several years of skipping out on seeing the Celebration of Light fireworks competition, I revisited this summer spectator crowd sport in Vancouver with my family to watch the pyrotechnic tribute to China, last year’s winner. [Before the Canadian and Chinese national anthems, it was announced that Spain won this year's festival.]

We had an unexpected guest of a massive downpour within 10 minutes of setting up our picnic mats. Not only was I in warm weather running gear, my change of clothes obviously did not anticipate the sudden drop in temperature. Oops. Yeah, I was freezing in my dri-fit clothes.

We were troopers and braved it through the rain, damp grounds, cooler-than-expected ocean breeze, massive crowds and the additional 2 hour trip back because of the slower-than-toirtoise-pace traffic. I didn’t come home empty-handed though. And for all that, I need to show you at least some of the photos I took under the trees, where we ended up staying. Hope you enjoy!!!

Now time for a “nap” before I watch the matinee showing of Inception with a gal pal who’ll watch it for the second time. Yes, I could be the last person who hasn’t seen it!

What are you up to this Sunday? Or what did you do this past weekend (for those of you waking up to Monday already)?

In any case, Happy Sunday and have a fantastic first week of August. Rabbit, Rabbit!

Head out to Deep Cove and start off the day with a breakfast of donuts and coffee from Honey Doughnuts. The donuts there are, quite frankly, my favorite of all donuts. If I remember it right, the family even went there during the dead of winter just to have some donuts. That’s how much we love them. Everything is right with the world when your first bite on your birthday is on crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-inside, dense, mmm-inducing donut dipped in dark chocolate.

I turned a year older last weekend. I requested that instead of throwing and catering my own party again (yes, I was insane), I wanted to just relax and have a picnic by the park.

Of course, it’s not all eating as I made my family “work out” by kayaking for a couple of hours before the feast. I mean, it’s not intentional that these days half the time one ends up doing some sort of physical activity when you see me. That’s a good thing, right? At least I don’t get blamed anymore for all the calories from my cooking and baking.

Say OHMMMMM. YOOOHHHMM.

Yeah, you’ll have to work for it, but it will be worth it! :-)

It was a super gorgeous day to be out. There were a lot of people in the park, in good spirits.

Back in Manila, my birthday always falls on days of inclement weather…typhoons, heavy rains, gusts of winds and hey, no school or work because the typhoon warning is off the charts! It’s great that there are no classes back when I was studying, but heck, I couldn’t do anything during the day either! Here in Vancouver, my birthday is almost always sunshiney. LOVE!

We really had a super fun day in the sun, and I really think all birthdays should be spent like this. ;-)

It will be another beautiful summer (long) weekend here, so cheers to that! Hope you’re having a great weekend where you are, too!

Who doesn’t love tart? From savory to sweet, tarts are pretty little things that seem to make its way to everyone’s hearts. I, for one, have a lifelong love affair with tarts because I used to help my mom make personal size fruit tarts for the family, and for my grade school canteen that used to sell her stuff for dessert. It would always be a treat to finish one on the way to school on delivery days. She would set them with gelatin to make them all shiny and enticing, and to prevent the tops from getting watery in the humid tropical weather of Manila. The cream custard that holds the fruit up conjures up memories of childhood for me and my brother. We’ve been bugging our mom to make some of her fruit tarts, with no success. I even got her the small tart shells from Williams-Sonoma, but nope…she still hasn’t gotten around to them. Hah.

For now, all we could hang on to, is my humble tart with frangipane filling.

One evening a couple of weeks back, I was insane enough to arrange the blueberries right side up one by one. it was worth it for the photos, even if they weren’t perfectly aligned. Who wants perfection when you can have homemade? Or so, I tell myself!

And what is it about the scalloped edges of tarts that make me all warm and fuzzy inside?

Don’t get me wrong, I love eating fresh, sweet and local blueberries as is, but it’s always nice to have some good fruit go into something baked:

Making something out of Mother Earth’s bounty is one of the simplest joys the home kitchen can produce…especially summer fruits!

Hmm…and guess what? Something exciting is coming–we’re opening up an online shoppe of our favorite goodies soon! Tick-tock-tick-tock check out the countdown on the right block! More on this later. In the meantime, click that link and be signed up for some cool prizes! Thanks for your support!

  Get the recipe for this BLUEBERRY FRANGINPANE TART

I love oats. I grew up eating sweetened oatmeal topped with Nido powder milk. One of my earliest childhood memories in the kitchen was baking oatmeal cookies with my grandma. I eat it raw. I’ve also been known to eat it with asparagus. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I went so far as making it congee-like and topped with my all-time favorite viand, the (Filipino) adobo.

That's not a pond of oil, it just looks like oil from this angle. Whoops.

I’ve turned into a heathen in the world of adobo because its appointed wife is a bowl of steamy white rice (or garlic fried rice). How could I defame such a cult-following of adobo lovers?

The reason, my friends, is that I’m dead serious about improving my health and losing weight. I packed on so much weight even I couldn’t believe it. This is what the 30′s does to you, I guess. I was joking that I got an early 32nd birthday gift. There is just no room for error in food choices and laziness (with regards to physical activities). To remedy that, I run almost every other day (depending on how my body is, if I’m too sore I don’t run) using a modified Couch-to-5K running program (it’s 12 weeks instead of 9), and have gone to Bikram yoga since the beginning of June. I run and do yoga on Sundays. So for all that hard work, I am more careful of what I eat. Since I got back from my carefree vacation, it’s been tough to think of what recipes to post here because you might think I am going nuts with the healthful turn of events. I mainly stick to eating fresh fruits, and just one meal with rice a day. Woe, my beloved rice!

So, anyway, back to oats. It’s like my almost-guilt-free ally in all of this. In the morning, I eat a steel-cut oats porridge, a little sugar, and skim milk powder (gotta have the powder there) for breakfast. Sometimes I would eat it with something savory, such as chicken adobo. [Again, my apologies to my Filipino roots.] It does curb my hunger pangs. Honestly, I can put almost anything in it. I prefer steel-cut oats because it doesn’t turn into complete mush and I still get those solid (rice-like) bits when it’s not overcooked.

The result after a month of proactively living healthy? I lost 10 pounds (!!!), I feel the best I’ve ever felt in a year. It didn’t come without a lot of ‘work’ though–it took 4 months for my metabolism to get back to into gear. Effortless metabolism doesn’t come free anymore in my thirties. Ouch.

So, uhm, how do you keep healthy fellow foodies, food bloggers, and food lovers? Any tips?

Living in a gorgeous city like Vancouver, there is no shortage of good views. When it comes to choosing a place to enjoy Sunday brunch, it really is just a matter of thinking where you’d like to go to or what you’d like to do afterward. I love Stanley Park, I love walking or taking a leisurely bicycle ride along the seawall, and with running in mind, I suggested that the whole family have brunch there. I can push my personal agenda and make family time around it sound like fun. Haha. I’m kidding. Of course, there is something for everyone at Stanley Park, so there’s no need to make a case…

My favorite these days is the Teahouse, which offers a scenic view as you sip mimosas by the glass windows or glass-walled heated patio.

Weekend brunch is offered from 10:30am to 3:00pm. The freshly baked croissants with homemade jam (CAD$6.50) are not to be missed, and so is the mimosa to start. I’m such a lush.

I’ve tried their Belgian waffles, classic eggs benny, steak and eggs, but my favorite so far is what I ordered today: the Ferguson Point Benedict. Those wild mushrooms made me do a happy dance in my seat this afternoon because they were so good. And I always enjoy the roasted potatoes and tomatoes. Mmmmm.

Scrumptious brunch in the midst of a cool summer day is a treat I’ll take whenever I can, and I case I’ll make when no one in the family can make a decision over what to do on Sundays. Everybody can agree that today was a good day, and it all started with a delicious meal. That’s what it’s all about, right? :-)

P.S. I love seeing raccoons at the park. I find them so endearingly cute, and I really wish I could hug and take them home! [Yes, I do know better.]

What’s your favorite Sunday brunch spot? Do you cook at home? Do you eat out?

**Disclaimer: I do not work, and have not worked, for/with the Teahouse in Stanley Park, and have not received remuneration in any way, shape, or form to write this post. All views are personal, and all monies paid for food consumed were personal.

My history with blogging photos of things I’ve done or places I’ve gone to shows that this shouldn’t be happening. That less than 24 hours of being out, I’m already showing you photos I took. But look here, this is real blogging progress. I’m posting Canada Day (July 1) photos for you guys! Hope my fellow Canadians enjoyed this holiday.

I ventured out with family to Granville Island. We were there for the activities, I swear, but we ended up either eating or buying food. We haven’t even been a few hundred meters  past the bridge and we were already holding plates of Canadian lobster from The Lobster Man:

We were happy campers eating $16 lobsters.

After eating lunch, we decided to walk again. We stopped to watch a street performer balancing on a ladder, while juggling knives. I squeezed into La Baguette to grab a loaf of bread and a bag of half baked potato baguettes. Why yes, more food! A few more steps and I was hoarding the last few donuts at Lee’s Donuts after being so patient waiting in line. On our way to the False Creek Community Center, we got so distracted and no sooner, entranced, by the scent of barbecued seafood: squid!

Fresh, tasty squid in a small plate for $4. Not bad, not bad at all, considering that we’ve been talking about having bbq squid for the longest time. To be honest, I think we all miss our Asian street food, too.

They do sell other barbecued food, such as chicken, tofu, and lamb, but there was no question that we only had eyes for the tentacled kind.

Yeah, I didn’t take a lot of photos, mainly because I was busy eating or buying food. No trip to Granville Island would be complete without a good few pounds hauled from the farmer’s market: Rainier cherries, local cherries, raspberries, and blueberries, avocado, figs, and fresh herbs. Can’t wait to make stuff in the kitchen this weekend! Fig galette anyone?

The year flew by and half of it is over. Happy July to you all. Hope the first half has been fun, now time to really bask in the summer fun. :)