Field Trip Photo: On Camping For Food And Throwing Up Rocks

(posted via iPhone) We’re still in Tofino, enjoying the last throes of this, our final expedition of a summer that has been blessedly full of them. Yesterday, after watching the kids try in earnest to dig to China and a healthy twirl through the skateboard park, we spent hours at the beachfront cabin of a friend enjoying a marvellous spread of barbecued spot prawns, freshly shucked oysters, beach-fire smoked chicken, sweet corn, addictive flatbread, local sockeye, cold beer and crisp wine. This was followed by a game of “Welfare Skeet Shooting”, a very sporting endeavour that sees one person throwing up a large rock and the rest trying to boozily pick it off in mid-flight with stones of their own to giggled yells of “pull!” (despite a few close calls, no one was injured). Sated and long-shadowed, we then went on a seriously tripped-out jaunt through the Botanical Gardens for this small but always enthusiastic town’s annual Lantern Festival. The citizenry really get deep into it with costumes, stunning mobiles that look as if they’re about to burst into dangerous flames, and enough rolled and aromatic recreational fun tubes to steer a herd of elephants into forgetting where they put their trunks. Today, everyone in my party is either going surfing, kayaking or engaging in something called yoga, which leaves me largely alone at our beach camp to drink hot coffee and write by an omnipresent fire that seems to have an appetite equal to my own. The weather, which has been drearily reported since we arrived, dawned mercifully wrong once again. The sand is warm and the crows are well-fed in a blue sky that is, at noon, nearly free of clouds. Beyond them, oppressive billions of stars float in waiting. When they pop for this one last time, we will quietly obscure them with our smoke, drinking long and happy and smelling of the place we loathe to bid goodbye.

Scout Jobs: “Tapenade Bistro” Seeks Commis And Chef De Partie

Job posting from Scout supporter Tapenade Bistro

Richmond, BC | Chef Alex Tung of Tapenade Bistro is currently looking for a chef de partie and commis to join his kitchen team. Tapenade Bistro has earned the reputation of being an exceptional neighbourhood bistro with great food, outstanding service and fantastic wine. The menu is steeped in French tradition, though is updated with west coast sensibility and is presented in an approachable and informal setting. The philosophy behind the Tapenade kitchen is to showcase the natural beauty of local, sustainable and seasonal ingredients in an appropriate and sumptuous manner. We’re looking for passionate people who are enthused by hard work, interested in learning all aspects/stations of the kitchen and takes pride in getting it done properly. Please forward your resume to bistrotapenade@gmail.com.

Scout Jobs: Two Chefs & A Table On The Hunt For Servers

Job Posting from Scout supporter Two Chefs And A Table

Vancouver, BC | Two Chefs and a Table are looking for servers to join our open kitchen concept. We offer locally inspired, sourced and quality driven food with a focus on house made ingredients.

We are looking for candidates with:

- a minimum of 3 years serving experience in a similar bistro or upscale dining room
- flexible schedule for Lunch, Brunch and Dinner service
- detailed wine knowledge
- spirit and cocktail basics
- exceptional service style
- excellent communication and organizational skills

Please email your resume to info@twochefsandatable.com (we will not be accepting resumes at the restaurant). To learn more about us, click after the jump… [ Keep reading ]

Field Trip Photo: Smoky Arrival On Tofino’s Mackenzie Beach

(posted via iPhone) Finally seated and cooking cheddar smokies for the kids while my friend Bobby tends to ears of fresh corn in the fire. A food writer colleague and her family are next to us, and we’ve joined our two campsites together for optimum enjoyment. We’re going foraging for chanterelle mushrooms today with cold beers. Good times are in the offing.

A Random Thought From The Road On The BC Ferries Book Ban

The outstanding book “The Golden Mean” by Annabel Lyon has been banned for sale on BC Ferries because the committee of asshats that decides such things believes children shouldn’t be exposed to the naked boy’s bum gracing the cover. I’d be a lot more interested in their moral dipshittery if they had a problem with making money off kids playing video games that include running pedestrians down in Hummers and blowing away lines of people with machine guns, but they don’t, so screw them and their self-righteous idiocy.

Field Trip Photo: Joy Road With JoieFarm On God’s Mountain Top

Pretty set up: a Joy Road catered supper paired with JoieFarm wines at God’s Mountain on the edge of Lake Skaha outside Penticton last night. Worthy of a run on sentence and then some and then some more.

Another Terribly Hard Round Of Name That Blurry Restaurant

We’ve just come back from a week of given’r in the Okanagan and are now about to pass out before taking the Westy for an extra week’s worth of whirl in Tofino. That means our crazy restaurant scene readers that can identify an establishment based on the type of floor polish used are in for a genuine treat. Guess this one, and its lifelong glory. I will chime in when a particularly amazing reader gets it and sharing Field Trip photo notes from the road via super phone. Adieu and good luck.

Tea & Two Slices: On Drunk Cows And Homeless Removal Systems

by Sean Orr | Homeless man accidentally trapped in garbage truck. I know the city is desperate to get the homeless off the streets but this is not the way to go about things…

Alleged terrorist was on Canadian Idol. Apparently, he bombed.

Use of opiate doda spreading in B.C. I’d condemn this, but you know…”don’t knock it until you’ve tried it” and all that.

Proposed Vancouver bike lane will have catastrophic effects, businesses say. Yeah, I mean look at Dunsmuir or Burrard. They’re total wastelands now, because people on bikes can’t also be customers.

I’m sure Andrew can go into more detail on this, but Wine-sipping cattle start B.C. culinary trend. Call me naive, but something tells me you don’t want to have a bunch of drunk cows wandering around.

City Hall faces series of citywide political flare-ups. Are you sure you’re not the one fanning the flames, Mike?

Score A Pair Of Tickets To The Lower Mainland Feast Of Fields

We’re a proud sponsor of the kickass outdoor roaming feast that is going down this Sunday, August 29th from 1-5pm out at Wellbrook Winery on Delta’s Bremner Farm. We have two tickets to give away to whoever can relate for us in the comments below their best food experience so far this summer. It could be as simple as scarfing back barbecued salmon on a beach or feasting in some far secluded field. The more you can make our mouths water the better…

If you don’t win, there are still a few $85 tickets left to purchase online. [ Keep reading ]

The “Hapa Izakaya” Joints Have Joined The Scout Community…

All three locations of Hapa Izakaya are now proud member supporters of Scout. We will be publishing their news and press releases on our front page and hosting a page for them in our list of recommended places to check out. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support of our little website. Click ahead to read on or jump directly to their Scout page… [ Keep reading ]