GOODS: “Pizzeria Farina” At Main & Prior Has Joined The Growing Scout Community

We’ve invited Pizzeria Farina to join our GOODS section as a recommended local business that is worth checking out. They’re now proud members of Scout, and as such we’ll be posting their news front and center and hosting a page for them on our curated list of independent goodnesses. We’d like to take this chance to thank them for their support of Scout, and for making Vancouver a more delicious place to live!

ALL THE LOCAL “GOODS”

DINER: Adam Chandler & Jess Rosinski Set To Open Chocolate Shop BETA 5 On Oct. 1st

We’re really excited about BETA 5, a new chocolate maker/vendor that should be opening up in our neighbourhood this Saturday, October 1st. Here’s what I wrote about it in the paper a few weeks ago, as well as some shots that show owners Adam Chandler and Jess Rosinski hard at work in the space…

Hardcore chocoholics will rejoice at the soon-to-arrive Beta 5 shop, so named after the form-5 beta crystal structure, the most stable form of cocoa butter crystallization which is arrived at with the controlled melting and subsequent cooling of liquid chocolate. It’s a new high quality chocolate company from Adam Chandler and Jess Rosinski, whose business philosophy is of the “do no evil” sort. In this case, that means all of their high quality plantation chocolate will be ethically sourced from France’s storied chocolatier Michel Cluizel, who takes ingredient traceability, land stewardship, and fair labour practices very seriously. I’m told that we can expect plenty of truffles, lots of different types of chocolate covered fruits and nuts, a line of branded chocolate bars and hand-painted chocolates (ie. not done with commercially available transfer sheets). “Our visual aesthetic will be unique,” says Chandler, who once upon a time worked for chef Marc-Andre Choquette at Voya and toiled alongside David Wong at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel. The 4,000sqft production facility will supply hotels and gourmet food shops, and will include a retail front. Unfortunately, when Beta5 opens later this month, it will only be on Saturdays, which is to say don’t budge! I’m quite certain that I was ahead of you in line…

VANCOUVER AT WORK #6: “Farmboy Fine Arts” Crew Hard At Work In Gastown

FBFA Staff | Farmboy Fine Arts | Gastown | 11:55am

With Vancouver At Work, we invite Scout readers to send in photos of their work spaces, be they home offices, corporate cubicles, artist studios, fishing boats, bars or kitchen lines. It’s a lot like our View From Your Window feature, only you tell us your initials, your title at work, your place of work (optional), the neighbourhood, and the time the photo was taken with “Vancouver At Work” in the subject line. Photos and info should be sent to scoutmagazine [at] gmail [dot com], and need to be as high res as the sender can manage. Cell phone shots will do if they are no smaller than 588px wide. Now get snapping!

Seen In Vancouver #316: “The Wilder Snail” Guides Folks Through To Success In Life

As seen on the chalk sandwich board outside The Wilder Snail at Keefer and Hawkes in Strathcona.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER

BEYOND CHEDDAR: On The Rouzaire’s Brie-Like “Fougerus” From Ile-de-France

by Joe Chaput | One of the more easily recognized products in our store is the Fougerus; a soft brie-like cheese that is considered part of the Coloummiers family. Robert Rouzaire (of the Fromagerie Rouzaire) originally produced it in the 1960’s for personal use, but its popularity increased over the years to the point that it has become a huge commercial success. While Rouzaire is not a small company by any means, it is nevertheless family-run and independent, and the cheese is the end result of three generations of cheese0making and affinage.

The name Fougerus comes from the word “Fougere” which is French for “fern”. Because the fern frond is added just prior to packaging, it doesn’t impact the flavour, but it does looks pretty on top. While I’m sure it’s edible, I don’t recommend eating it.

Milk is collected daily from 25 farms in Seine & Marne, part of Ile-de-France, which is east and south of Paris. The herd is composed of around 900 Prim Holstein cattle. Natural grazing in summer and winter feeding of farm-produced hay is encouraged. All farmers are members of the Good Production Practices Charter. It takes 6 litres of milk to make one 750 gram wheel of Fougerus. Everything is done by hand, including cutting the curd, ladling the curd into the moulds, turning, flipping, and salting. After production, the cheeses are then ripened in their old underground cellars in Tournan en Brie.

The outside of the cheese has a white bloomy rind, and is distinguished by the sole fern on top. The interior is straw coloured. The pate is firmer when young, and runny when fully ripe. I personally like it when it still has that slight band of chalkiness in the center. Fougerus has earthy, almost vegetal aromas. The flavour is also vegetal, with hints of mushrooms when younger, and leaning towards turnip or cauliflower when riper. You may find it a bit saltier than other brie, with a lingering sharpness on the finish.

Fougerus is $4.50 per 100 grams, and is only sold by the quarter wheel. Enjoy it with a full-bodied chardonnay or pinot noir.

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Joe Chaput is the Cheese Editor of Scout Magazine (because of course we have a Cheese Editor!), the co-proprietor and fromager of East Hastings’ Au Petit Chavignol, a member of the Guilde des Fromagers Confrerie du Saint-Uguzon and a Red Seal-certified cook. His by-weekly column – Beyond Cheddar – deals with all things stinky, oozy, sharp, soft, creamy and delicious.

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Eight Minutes With Local Artist And Super-Creator Zoë Pawlak

photo: Jamie Mann

Zoë Pawlak is that rare strain of artist who creates, curates, promotes, engages and still has energy left over to create some more. Let’s call her a super-creator. Case in point: Zoë is currently busy in her studio working on a new body of work that will premier at the IDSWest show (September 29-October 1, 2011) while simultaneously curating an upcoming (opening night is Friday, September 16 | 6 -11 pm) gig at the Catalog Gallery of works by Mike Macri (Check back next week for more on that…). On the side she’s taking commissions, pulling together the always stunning window display at the Lululemon lab on Broadway and Cambie (check it) and gearing up for the 2011 Eastside Culture Crawl. See what I mean? Super-creator!  So, in between those activities, Scout caught up with her to ask a few questions…

Three things about Cambie and Broadway that make you want to live there: We love the Canada Line, and the general access to transit. We can also hop onto the seawall with our bikes, get down to my dad’s boat at Heather Marina or enjoy the beach in any direction. Also, Elysian Coffee.
Architectural style that you most identify with: Modern, open, clean…though my current abode is none of those things. Read more

GOODS: Polderside Spring Lamb Supper Set For “Two Chefs And A Table” On Sept. 14th

Two Chefs And A Table is located at 305 Alexander Street | 778- 233-1303 | www.twochefsandatable.com

The GOODS from Two Chefs And A Table

Vancouver, BC | This year, we were lucky to receive an exclusive delivery of Polderside Spring Lamb at Big Lou’s Butcher Shop. We were the only supplier in town to receive these lambs and it’s been a pleasure to work with them and watch our customers enjoy taking them home to cook and eat.

We held back some of the best lamb with the idea of doing a special meal based around a variety of lamb dishes and products and we’re really excited to announce our Polderside Lamb Dinner to be held on the evening of September 14th in the bistro. The five-course meal will include dishes made from a variety of lamb parts, everything from loin and leg entrées to lamb heart and kidney paté, lamb head ravioli and a lamb broth soup. We’re even making our signature lamb merguez into a sausage roll that we’re serving as the amuse bouche.

The meal will also serve as a way to remember our good friend Jens-Hugo Jacobsen of Polderside Farms who passed away while working on the farm he loved. Hopefully, a meal like this is the best tribute we can pay to him. You can find all the details and the full menu after the jump… Read more

VANCOUVER CREATIVE: A Look Inside The Studio Of Local Painter Jada-Gabriele Pape

There’s nothing quite like visiting someone’s studio. The beautiful chaos, the small clues to personality, the detritus of process – it’s all pretty great, particularly for those with talent envy. We recently made a quick stop by Jada-Gabriele Pape’s space on Victoria Drive to check out some of her work. Her paintings are guided by happy mistakes, layers of texture and the urge to create calm and balance.  ”I find natural occurrences delicious; whether it’s cracks in rocks or whatever grows in them,” she says. “Rust at any stage is beautiful. I love the warmth and pock-marks in bones and the way peeling paint wants you to touch it.” Delightful studio. Beautiful work. Amazing woman. Note that some of these paintings will be on sale at her “Everything Old is New Again” show this weekend, plus some that have hung at previous shows but were listed as Not For Sale (NFS).

Jada Pape | “Everything Old is New Again” | 1160 Victoria Drive | Friday, September 9th (6 – 10pm), Saturday, September 10th (11am- 7pm) or Sunday, September 11th (11am- 7pm)

GOODS: Gastown’s “Cork & Fin” Hosting 2nd Annual Oyster Shucking Fest Wednesday

Cork & Fin is located at 221 Carrall St. in the heart of Gastown | 604-569-2215 | CorkAndFin.ca

The GOODS from Cork & Fin

Vancouver, BC | We’re hosting our 2nd Annual Oyster Shucking Festival at the restaurant this Wednesday, September 7th at 3pm. Entrance is $10, which gets diners bivalves and drink.

SECRET CITY: On Why Vancouver Has So Many Flat-Iron Buildings

by Ian Granville | From the iconic Hotel Europe (above) to the Holland Block at the conflux of Water and Cordova Streets (below), Gastown has many triangular-shaped buildings, also known as “flatiron” buildings.

For some, the term “flatiron” evokes Eastern architectural icons like Toronto’s Gooderham or, most probably, Manhattan’s eponymous Flatiron (Fuller) building. In modern parlance it has come to mean any wedge-shaped building that resembles the sole of a clothes iron. It’s only natural that the triangular buildings of Gastown share a common architectural lineage with their Eastern cousins. They are all products of an urban need to maximize space on irregularly shaped parcels of land. Read more

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