Homorazzi Vancouver Restaurant Recommendations

As the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games are on our doorstep I thought I might share some of our favorite restaurants.  As locals and tourists alike have know for years, Vancouver has an excellent restaurant culture.  Many restaurant guides will highlight the best in the city; a sampling of the most delicious and expensive spots -I am making my recommendations based on my favorite spots to have excellent affordable food and drink.  I have separated the selections out by neighborhood, with a spot in each burrow of downtown.

1.  Davie Village:  Check out the delicious creations at Lolita’s restaurant on Davie Street.  This small but essential restaurant is my favorite place to eat in the Village!  The Plántanos con crema are a simply delicious start to a spectacular dining experience.  Armed with one of Lolita’s signature cocktails such as the Matador Mojito I cozy up in the friendly surroundings.  A friend favorite is the Lolita’s tacos. I would recommend the tacos to anyone I’m bringing to Lolita’s for the first time.  They are truly special in their flavor, texture, and presentation.  Lolita’s is a must if you enjoy a cozy local cultural experience with some, one of a kind, delicious tastes.

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This week, Sci-fi and fashion geeks unite with the launch of a collaboration born in a galaxy far far away. Adidas has just launched its limited edition Star Wars fashion and runners. I can’t help but want a pair of the Skywalker sneakers!!

Check out the whole collection here.

My brother, sister and I grew up in a house where Star Wars was frequently playing in our VCR. My dad always enjoyed sci-fi movies… Everything from the Terminator to Star Trek were his favorites on TV and Screen. As such, we were no stranger to the genre of film. We would watch on a Sunday morning, then go outside and make ice forts as if we were on the ice planets we would see in the movies. Strong fortresses that would keep us safe from the creatures depicted in the classic films.

When I was in high school, there would be an occasional movie night featuring the classics especially as the new series was being launched. I think it was at this point that it became “cool” to have kept your star wars toys from when you were a kid. I watched episode 1, 2, and 3 as they were released into the theaters; you couldn’t help but want to be part of it. The series shaped so much of my childhood imagination and captivated my attention during my first visit to Disneyland via the epic StarTours.

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In the past week Donovan and I hosted a larger than usual gathering of our friends… Call it a party, a rager, a mess?!?  After having close to 75 people through our house over the course of the evening I started remembering some of the excellent and poorly planned aspects of the evening.

Post gathering… My top 10 recommendations you should do when you host a party:

10. Have ample cups on hand.

I know this seems like something you can’t screw up; after all if you’ve invited 20 people then all you need is 20 cups… NO… Get 40 unless you want to be doing dishes part way through the night.  If you are hosting folks for more than a couple of hours they’re going to loose their glass and want a new one.

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I thought writing this post on this US Thanksgiving Day would be perfect. This past weekend, Stephen, Brian, Redd, Saleem, Patrick and myself spent our Sunday afternoon/evening assisting our favorite local charity. If you’re fans of the site, “Friends For Life” may sound familiar. During our “Pride Weekend Kickoff Penthouse Party“, we managed to raise $500 from the event. This time we wanted to donate our time and do something more personal.

Back in May, Kevin approached Patrick and myself with regards to volunteering our time to prepare a Sunday dinner. We didn’t even hesitate for a second and immediately jumped on board. We originally booked a date in August to serve dinner. Unfortunately, due to a kitchen renovation, our scheduled day was pushed back to November. With Kevin spearheading that project and the postponement, I completely forgot about it until the three week email reminder I received from one of the Friends for Life coordinators.

With Kevin’s recent move to Toronto, Patrick and I started to freak out a little because neither of us really cook all that much, let alone for almost 30 people. I was advised by Kevin that 5-7 people would be ideal to help out with the event as it can get quite cramp and hot in the kitchen. Once we sent out the email asking for volunteers, we received the interest we needed to pull off this task- and some of them even had cooking experience. Now the biggest hurdle was what to make? When it comes to most things, I like to think I can provide some useful input BUT NOT when it comes to cooking. I’m not a very picky or discerning eater, so you can just imagine if left to my own devices what would result from my cooking.

watch our video, look at pics and try out the recipes we used

Do I worry about getting sick, getting the flu, working too hard, running too fast, staying up too late, drinking too much, etc? No.

Should I worry about it? No. I am in that lovely age bracket between 9 & 55 where most things aren’t likely to kill me. And the way that Brian Cs it - what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger (tiny Glee shout out - thanks Sue).

This week I have been stricken with the flu… Common or h1n1 is still up for debate. After having had this horrendous illness for 4 days I was well enough to visit my doctor, he listened to my symptoms, which were severe, and offered the following diagnosis: probably not h1n1 but you’ve got the flu for sure. I wish it was h1n1, at least I’d have a good survival story!

Holly crap I thought to myself… I’ve been ridiculously ill for over half a week and it isn’t even swine flu!? Part of what made this sucky experience tolerable was that I believed it was swine flu and I remember my mom telling me you can only get the same flu once (plus the story of my pandemic survival).

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On the evening of Saturday November 7th, I attended my first Prairie Supper. Donovan persuaded Adam to take me as off of his hands, so he could have a drama free Saturday night working with Patrick. I couldn’t have been happier than to attend with Adam and see what everyone is talking about. The supper is a benefit to raise money for the Fillmore Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that funds several community programs in the areas of Nutrition, Housing and Health. The supper is a great idea too; hundreds from Vancouver’s community showed up in support of the group (the tickets sell out each year).

Some traditions are well established to help raise some additional $$ for the charity; there is a silent auction, the bar of course, and several hundred pounds of cold hard CASH. Almost everyone in the room, except Adam and I, knew that they were expected to spend the afternoon, prior to the supper, rolling their coins. The table to eat first was the one with the highest Dollar Value of only Rolled Coins on it and no paper money allowed. There were tables with THOUSANDS of dollars of rolled coins. If I remember correctly they raised close to $15,000 in rolled coins!! Our table ate last :(

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Hollywood North definitely lived up to its name this weekend. With the 28th annual Vancouver International Film Festival underway, the team at Jet Set Crew threw its annual Red Carpet VIP Film Party. This year’s festivities were held at the ultra cool, ultra hip Canvas Lounge. On deck with hosting duties again this year, Rick Campanelli greeted celebrities and film VIPs as they sashayed their way into the Gastown venue. Donovan, Brian and myself attended the 3rd black tie annual party. Armed with our digital SLR, video camera and our winning personalities, we interviewed a multitude of actors and producers promoting their film screening at VIFF and upcoming projects.

Although quite spacious at the Canvas Lounge, it was a full house and quite an intimate evening. Donovan took care of the still photography and celeb corralling, Brian took charge of filming while I took over interviewing the guests. On the red carpet, I had the opportunity to interview such familiar faces as Patrick Gallagher (Ken Tanaka) from the new hit show Glee, Keegan Connor Tracy from Battlestar Galactica, and faces you will soon know better, including Terry Chen from the A-Team movie and the adorable Jodell Ferland from The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Since Vancouver is an industry fave to film television shows, we also were able to mingle and take pictures with Smallville stars, Allison Mack and Kristin Kreuk.

Check out the video montage of the ET, Glee, and we three red carpet event after the jump…

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend about the transit systems in place in Vancouver. In particular the possible benefits of installing turnstiles into the mass transit stations. I’m sure the debate over the cost/benefits of the automation has been looming in the minds of transit operators worldwide since the dawn of the concept. Most, if not all, of the worlds private transit systems include an automated transit fare collection system- If for no other reason than to collect a more fairly calculated cost (maybe that’s where the word fare came from) for the route traveled; this encourages travel and makes it a reasonable purchase for persons traveling based on their use of the system. Here’s where the Vancouver SkyTrain system demonstrates the “bad”. With a fare calculated based on large zones, people are paying ridiculous sums of $$ to ride the one stop from Burrard to Granville?  $2.50 for a 1 minute (or less) ride is robbery! As such, people will cheat and avoid paying all together, drive, or walk. All three options provide no benefit to the financial well-being of the system.

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This App snuck in just under the August wire.  I hadn’t been browsing for many new apps in August.  I was thinking about trying out the Men’s Health app after reading about it in the magazine but was dissuaded to do so after reading that there is some ongoing cost to operating it.  Leave it to the folks at Rodale to milk it for all they can - really!  I had read on a blog that I frequent that the new Facebook app had been submitted to Apple for approval.  Finally, I thought to myself as I didn’t particularly like the current version.  I read that quite a while ago, maybe even in June, so it was quite a wait for this one to come through.  I guess the waiting is worth it though - the new Facebook iPhone app is the best re-design I have seen come out of the folks at Facebook yet!

I will start my review of this app by telling you to, if you already haven’t, download it. Now! I can’t find any reason not to. The functionality of the app far surpasses it predecessor and it has way more to offer as well.  From events, to birthdays, dialing, etc. this application inigrates with the capabilities of the iPhone much better and beyond that provides me the information I want while I’m on the go.  With the previous version there was no way to view events or the address, phone, etc of an event.  This is one of the best improvements. You check what happening tonight on your phone, head to the address of the event, and see the buzzer number. If you buddies post their phone numbers on their facebook info page… voila, you can dial direct from the friends list on Facebook 3.0.  The list of benefits could just go on and on.

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