Tap & Barrel Officially Opens

The newest addition to Olympic Village, Tap and Barrel, had their official grand opening celebration last week. Open for business for several months already, Tap and Barrel serves local craft beer and premium wines on tap, along with some delicious food. Owner Daniel Frankel celebrated by having a special VIP tweet-up for Twitter followers prior to the 8pm public opening. Everyone was treated to two drink tickets to sample the wines and beers on tap, and there were small appetizers for everyone to try. Dawn Chubai from Breakfast Television stopped by to MC, as well as Deputy mayor Raymond Louie giving a few words about the opening of Tap and Barrel in the Olympic Village community.

There is a spacious patio on two levels.

Dawn Chubai of Breakfast Television announces the grand opening celebrations.

Owner Daniel Frankel welcoming everyone and doing a ribbon cutting.

Sweet fennel sausage handcrafted pizza - peppers, roasted tomato sauce, provolone.

Local wild mushrooms handcrafted pizza - smoked mozzarella, fresh baby arugula, truffle oil.

Steak bite with a sweet cherry tomato and potato wedge.

PB&J burger - chipotle peanut butter, bacon jelly, angus beef with pulled pork. Peanut butter in a burger seems to be the new thing at restaurants!

Pumpkin ale.

We decided to stay for dinner after the special VIP party, and ordered a few dishes to share.

1lb drunken mussels - salt spring island mussels and wood stone artisanal flatbread. While very good, the mussels tasted a tad to much like the sea, and may not have been as fresh as I would have liked.

Infamous sticky yam fries - an intriguing combination of yam fries (sweet) and melted marshmallow (sweeter). The end result was a very dessert like dish, but one worth trying at least once.

Sweet fennel sausage handcrafted pizza - I enjoyed the sample of this so much I decided to go with the full version. The crust was not as thin and crispy as I thought it would be, but it was still delicious.

To take a look at Tap and Barrel's menu or make reservations, check out their website here.

$1 Specialty Coffees @ Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons has small Cafe Mochas, Lattes or Classic French Vanilla on for only $1 each once again! This offer is at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time.

The Zombie Syndrome - Zombies in Vancouver!

I had the chance to participate in The Zombie Syndrome today, an interactive, site-specific theatre adventure presented by The Virtual Stage. Just in time for Halloween, The Zombie Sydrome gets audience members to use their smart phones to navigate through the show and find clues to the next location in a scavenger-hunt style race through Vancouver to find the cure to save the world from a deadly zombie invasion! You begin at a secret location in Vancouver (a phone call the day before will inform you where the rendezvous point is), and are searching for a missing scientist's secret laboratory while trying to avoid zombies. It was great fun working with the other audience members to solve clues and figure out where to head next. Because my show was in the afternoon, it wasn't as scary, so I suggest purchasing a ticket for an evening show. 

Zombies running amok in Vancouver!

The Zombie Syndrome has five shows a day and runs until October 31st. Be prepared to walk for 2 hours, rain or shine. Tickets are selling out quickly, so get yours now, you won't regret it! There will also be a special Halloween showing. For more details or to purchase your tickets, check out The Virtual Stage.

Community Day @ Cineplex Theatres

Community Day at Cineplex theatres will be on October 20th this year, with free movies showing on the big screen. Many are pretty recent movies, such as Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and family favorites Puss in Boots and Kung Fu Panda 2. Various items at the concession will be sold at only $2, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Starlight Children's Foundation. For more information about Community Day, or to check which movies are playing in your local theatre, check out the Cinplex website.

Free Bottle of Nail Polish @ American Apparel

Visit any participating American Apparel store and receive a free bottle of nail polishes! There are eight colours to choose from. This offer is only valid until October 16th. No purchase necessary! For more details, go here.

La Pentola della Quercia - Traditional Italian Cuisine

La Pentola opened in Opus Hotel (replacing Cento Notti) last month, serving Northern Italian cuisine. The menu is divided into the traditional Italian structure of a meal, including stuzzichini, antipasti, primi, secondi, and contorni. There were plenty of interesting sounding items on the menu.

Nothing new, but always delicious, I opted for the bruschetta to start off. As a second starter, I tried roast bone marrow for the first time, and it was delicious! It was a soft and very flavourful, spread on crostini with a dollop of the salsa verde. I definitely will have to order bone marrow again in the future! Not really a fan of pasta, I went with the stuffed trout for the main course. It was good, but the zucchini sides were a tad too salty. As a side dish, I ordered a bowl of mixed mushrooms. Of course, I couldn't leave without having dessert! I wanted a traditional Italian dessert, so I got a semifreddo - a frozen pudding. This was also the first time I tried a semifreddo. It was much like ice cream, and very good. I only wished the serving size was larger! After all, you can never have too much dessert!

All the dishes were presented beautifully, and the service was excellent. La Pentola is a great little place to go for a good Italian meal, cooked and presented with care. To check out their menus and make your own reservations, check out their website.

La Pentola, located in Opus Hotel in Yaletown.

A little bread box with olive oil to start off.

Bruschetta to start. It was very good with sweet tomatoes on toasted bread.

Antipasti: Roast bone marrow, salsa verde, crostini.

Trout involtini and zucchini trifolati.

Mushroom trifolati.

Semifreddo with almond praline, biscotti and chocolate sauce.

Sugar biscuit to end the meal.

$2 Fall Drinks @ Safeway Starbucks

This week, Starbucks located in Safeway stores will be offering any grande fall drink for only $2 after 2pm. The flavours to choose from are Pumpkin Spice Latter, Salted Caramel Mocha, or Tazo Chai Tea Latte. You must have a Safeway Club Card to get this promotion, at participating stores only.

That Barista Thing 2012 - Latte Art Competition

The Vancouver International Latte Art Competition is back again, sponsored by Blenz Coffee. Happening Saturday, October 20 from 11am to 4pm at Vancouver Library Square (Robson & Homer), there will be a free pour latte art competition as well as an etching competition. There will also be free lattes, coffee and hot chocolate, as well as a tea tasting and matcha demo. Other family friendly events will be happening as well, including button making, performances, canvas painting and more. For more information, check out That Barista Thing.

Free Admission to Science World (Oct 13-14)

In celebration of science, Science World will be offering free admission all weekend October 13 and 14. courtesy of BC Hydro and Genome BC. This Community Science Celebration is a part of Around the Dome in 30 Days: A Month-long Science Extravaganza. There will be tons to see, with the kick-off on Saturday morning (with cake!), interactive shows and the regular exhibits. For more details, visit Science World.

Free Woolite Sample

Healthy Lives Happy Homes is offering free samples of Woolie laundry detergent. Just fill out the form here and the sample will be on it's way!

Jamie Oliver's Fifteen

On our last night in London, we were taken to Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen. Fifteen was founded by Jamie Oliver in 2002, when he started the Apprentice Programme - giving young unemployed people a chance to have a better future. They study cooking in college, get hands-on training at Fifteen and also get work experience at some top restaurants.

The restaurant serves Italian food, and has a simple menu. We were given a set menu with a few selections for our mains, sides and desserts. I ordered the salmon, which came with sea asparagus, which I really like! The portion was good and the saltiness of the sea asparagus went very well with the salmon. It was good, but nothing outstanding. I also ordered a side of Northumberland Aura potatoes with mint and butter (no picture), though it wasn't very good (who thought potatoes wouldn't be good) and I didn't finish it. I was quite disappointed with dessert though. I had the brownie, but instead of a fresh and warm brownie, it tasted like something out of a grocery store. I wasn't expecting that to come out of a Jamie Oliver restaurant! Overall it wasn't a very spectacular meal, which was a little disappointing, from all the hype surrounding Jamie Oliver's restaurants. The tables weren't set up so that our large group could talk easily either. It was still a nice evening, though very sad because everyone was parting ways back to their own country the next day. Here's to everyone meeting again in the future!

We started off with a glass of champagne to celebrate the end of the Olympics and our time together.

Strawberry lemonade - the glass is a very cool oval shape.

Fifteen's signature antipasti - meats, seasonal vegetables, mozzarella and olives.

Pan-fried Shetland organic Salmond with Crown Prince squash, rock samphire and almond pesto.

Chocolate brownie with vanilla cream and crushed honeycomb.

Free Blogger Opportunity - Have it your way Giveaway Sign ups

FREE Blogger Opportunity!  We will be giving away $200, in their Have it your way event!  How will this work?  Whatever the winner wants, the winner will get!  Kindle Fire, PayPal Cash, Amazing, Wal-Mart, Target!  Who cares, they get just what they want!

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November 5, 2012 and end on December 5, 2012

   

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Bella Italia - A Night of Italian Food

I can't say we didn't get to try many different types of foods and restaurants while I was in London! One night we headed for Italian at Bella Italia. A chain restaurant located all around London, Bella Italia serves up authentic Italian style foods, with the names of the dishes in Italian on the menu. I tried the Italian hunter's stew, which was okay, but not really what I was expecting. It had a whole chicken breast in soup, and it was a little difficult to cut and eat in a small bowl. For dessert, I ordered the chocolate fudge brownie, but it was extremely sweet and sticky, I wasn't able to finish it. A little too sweet for my taste! The restaurant also gives out 2 for 1 passes to the London Aquarium, so make sure to ask for those before you leave!

Bruschetta - plum tomatoes, rocket, red onion, garlic, olive oil and fresh basil on toasted ciabatta.

Mozzarella Pomodoro - Buffalo bocconcini mozzearella, plum tomatoes, and rocket.

Antipasto Misto - Italian salami, smoked speck ham, red pepper salsa, buffalo bocconcini mozzarella, bruschetta, ciabatta, grissini sticks and olives.

Pollo Cacciatore - Italian hunter's stew with chicken breast and roasted red onions in a tomato, smoked bacon and mushroom sauce.

Pollo Ciabatta - chargrilled chicken breast.

Filetto di Spigaola - seabass with herb and garlic salsa verde.

Cioccolato Diavola - chocolate fudge brownie with praline pieces and vanilla ice cream.

Godfather - fudge brownies, ice cream, chocolate sauce, fresh cream.

Cookie Dough Lava Cake.

Troia - Mediterranean Restaurant

The first evening in London, we headed to a Troia, a Mediterranean restaurant just across the street from our hotel. We went back a couple more times after that when we needed a quick meal. The first night, we only had the small dishes, which was actually pretty filling, and there was a lot of variety in the food and great for sharing. The second time, we got to order our own dishes and I chose a salad. The food was okay, but it's not really suited to my taste. Troia is a nice place to go for a quick bite!

Cool decor.

Sesame bread, samosa, eggplant.

Tomato salad and other mixed veggies.

Hummus with meat and a yogurt-y dip.

Bread for dipping.

Salmon and avocado salad.

Prawn salad.

Chicken and avocado salad, though they forgot to put in the avocados!

Iskender - lamb, chicken and minced lamb with yoghurt.

$100 off Xbox 360 Console

Currently Futureshop and Best Buy are both offering $100 off the Xbox 360 consoles if you purchase online, or a $100 gift card if you purchase in store. This makes the 4gb Xbox 360 console only $99! This offer applies to the consoles with larger memory size as well. Keep in mind that a newer version of the Xbox will be coming out in the future, but this is definitely a great deal for those who just want the console to play games on it now, especially with Christmas just around the corner...!