Saturday tongue twisters

I am spending the weekend with my parents, who are visiting from Revelstoke. From yesterday, two new tongue twisters. Say them five times fast:

Local spot prawns are sustainable

At Fisherman's Wharf by Granville Island, the Chef's Table Society held their 1st Annual Spot Prawn Festival. Calling this a festival is a bit overboard (heheh... get it, overboard - like overboard off the boats) because it consisted of an information booth for sustainable seafood choices, some local chefs demonstrating how to prepare the spot prawns, and awaiting the arrival of the boats with their catch of the local prawns.

The message that the festival was trying to promote local and sustainable alternatives in food choices. Tiger prawns caught off the coast of the SE Asian countries - not local, not sustainable; spot prawns are caught just off of Howe Sound - local and sustainable.

We received a taster dish from the pans of Neil Wyles from Hamilton Street Grill: Spot prawn on top of grits. The grits were cooked with heavy cream and butter, so was similar to a risotto - rich and taking on the flavours of all the seasonings. The service was on biodegradable plates and forks made from potato. Afterwards, we popped into Granville Island to pick up some bread for dinner.


African Violets in Floral Hall at Van Dusen

A show and sale of African Violets consisted of three tables of show flowers and by mid-to-late afternoon, a few bagged leaves and small cuttings in plastic pill cups for propogating your own plants at home.

I got a kick out of the scoring sheets. With criteria like "Very floriferous," "Well clothed with foliage," and "Needs grooming," it's obvious that there is a lot to know to be a legitimate violet critic. The highest score I saw was 99.5 out of a possible 100, and the lowest score was still in the 90s. Also, it seemed like every plant had a ribbon beside it, so it seems that Vancouver has some very good floriferizers, clothiers, and groomers.