Vancouver/Western Canada Ingredient Sources Topic

[HKDave]

Call JE Hastings' BC sales rep and ask him which local retailers carry that product. He's Stu Wintemute, tel (604) 272-6844.

[maxmillan]

Thanks HKDave. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago with no reply. But I will try calling him.

Two weeks ago I emailed Safeway twice already, and all I got was a message reading, "We will respond as quick as possible...."

[Jeni Hicks]

Can anyone help? I'm trying to locate a place to buy chicken (specifically boneless breasts, as I'm really lazy about stuff like deboning ) that is organic and/or hormone free (are they one and the same?). I will be ordering beef from Blue Goose later today, but don't have any leads for chicken.

I live in Langley, and so would rather avoid a drive to the city - there must be somewhere in the Langley/Surrey/White Rock area? Thanks in advance for any help - it's appreciated!

[~cayenne~]

Can anyone help?  I'm trying to locate a place to buy chicken (specifically boneless breasts, as I'm really lazy about stuff like deboning  ) that is organic and/or hormone free (are they one and the same?).  I will be ordering beef from Blue Goose later today, but don't have any leads for chicken.

I live in Langley, and so would rather avoid a drive to the city - there must be somewhere in the Langley/Surrey/White Rock area?  Thanks in advance for any help - it's appreciated!

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K & M Farms

604 857-8916

JD Farms Specialty Turkey Store

604 756-2431

Woodfield Farm Organics

604 539-8614

Capella Farm Market 604 576-2465

I copied the above from the Farm Fresh Reference Guide

which also shows the web address of BC Farm Fresh on the cover.

I know someone who purchases products frequently from the JD Farms store and loves it, the others I don't know about, but thought you might like to check them out.

Let us know if you like any of them. I bought lovely jumbo free range eggs from the free range poultry store on Commercial Drive, what a great little place for those of us in the city!

[Jeni Hicks]

Wow - thanks for all the links!

I am familiar with JD farms - we get turkeys from them every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are great quality and very, very tasty - I highly recommend them.

Thanks again.

[Badiane]

Little Farmhouse Country Market, on the Abbotsford end of Yarrow.

http://www.littlefarmhousecountrymarket.ca/index.html

[canucklehead]

Does'nt Thrifty's have a branch in Tsawassen? Surely they must stock some organic chicken?

[~cayenne~]

Does'nt Thrifty's have a branch in Tsawassen?  Surely they must stock some organic chicken?

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You're right, yes they do. But if one wants to drive there from the general locale that she describes, and pay the price they demand, one may as well drive to Famous Foods or Granville Island or Commercial Drive, well, you know what I mean. Hey, what about Choices (light just went on in brain!), new store on King George Highway, South Surrey/White Rock? I'm guessing that the Thrifty's location is why Choices chose to establish their newest store, rather than locating in Richmond or........

[Keith Talent]

The missus has taken the notion that our hospitality ergo our love will be incomplete until we can finish meals with a Vietnamese coffee. We need those little pressed tin drip utensils, Anyone have a line on a Vietnamese housewares shop? My initial response was we could steal them from cafes, but I was reminded that this was both unetical and immature. Damn being a grown up sucks. Looked at Daisio. No joy. Assorted Richmond asian housewares/kitchen/weird crap shops were no luck either. Somewhere on Kingsway perhaps?

Gracias

[SBonner]

Keith,

I've seen them in a couple of the Chinese shops on Keefer Street. If I remeber the shop name I'll pm you.

Cheers,

Stephen

[sanrensho]

I would recommend the Vietnam Market at 1691 Kingsway (north side). I think the filters are about $4-5 each. I'm sure they can be found for a buck or two cheaper in Chinatown, but this store also carries the Trung Nguyen brand of Vietnamese coffee in the large 2-bag boxes. (My previous Vietnamese grocer only carried the small packages.) I highly recommend the Trung Nguyen brand for cafe dua sa, etc.

Also a great place to pick up large bags of Thai basil, mint, etc. for about a buck each. Nice people, too, and not far from the Trout Lake Farmer's Market.

I also have a request: If anyone knows of any other Vietnamese (not Chinese) grocers, could you please post or PM me the info? Apologies to KT for hijacking this thread.

Edited September 16, 2005 by sanrensho (log)

[shelora]

I absolutely LOVE Vietnamese coffee.

From the patience required for every last drip to make its way into your glass to stirring the coffee into the sweetened condensed milk to pouring it over ice, its one of my favourite coffee rituals.

You can buy the units in Chinatown in Victoria or at Cairo Coffee on Fort St., but I doubt Mr. Talent would want to venture that far.

[Mooshmouse]

I remembered reading a post from a while back in Roland Tanglao's blog, VanEats, regarding this very subject.

Lo and behold, here's the post in question that talks about a store called Sate located at 1520 West 13th Avenue.

I love Vietnamese coffee too, particularly the iced version. It's the perfect double-whammy of supercharged caffeine and sugar, all in one cup/glass.

[Keith Talent]

Thanks to all that replied, either by pm or here. Now I've got another question, why is Vietnamese coffee not more prevelant at home? I hate to break it to you folks that spent fifteen hunded bucks on a Saeco automatic esspresso machine down at ECM, but your after dinner esspresso tastes like crap. Seriously. Good esspresso is near impossible at home, only made well by those obsessive coffee geeks, and I have none of them in my aquaintence. Vietnamese coffee would seem to be the perfect substitute, surely I'm not the first to conclude this, google has lots of people making it at home. Why not more? Why not 99.9% of Vancouver restaurants that serve embarrassingly bad coffee? Is it hard to do? There some trick that I don't get, because on the surface it looks pretty simple and yields the best homebrew I've yet tasted.

Results pending.

[Keith Talent]

And I'd totally love to spend more time in Victoria, it's a shame that I know my way around downtown Portland better than Victoria, and Seattle about a hundred times better. Stupid un-fixed link. Can we build a bridge already, those ferries seem to work about as much as me on a Friday afternoon. With a bridge I could be in the inner harbour sooner than I could be in Bellingham. Criminal. I'm heading over to the Eastern Canada forum to vent my frusteration at the Confederation bridge. Don't be alarmed if you see smoke eminating from the board.

[sanrensho]

Thanks to all that replied, either by pm or here.

Any chance you could PM me some of that info? As I mentioned, I'm always on the lookout for Vietnamese grocers. TIA.

[DRColby]

The Vietnamese restaurant supply store in Seattle carries them. I think I paid 3 or 4 bucks a piece for four of them.

If you want to add a nice kick to your caffine add a shot of Kaluha to each coffee.

Dave

[vandan]

forum appliance china town mall $4.99, international plumbing supplies 245 e pender $3.99(ya i know plumbing supplies and a whloe lot more)

[appreciator]

Just bought some of these today from Choice's on West 16th Avenue. Not sure what I'm going to do with them but they looked so nice that I had to indulge. Well, not really, only $2.98 for a 100 grams. They smell a bit odd though so am a tad worried about pesticides.... seem to have been imported from Columbia.

Oh and of note... the ones available in the summer at South Alder Farms in Aldergrove and Driediger Farms in Langley... are not the same thing as what I bought tonight. Will have to do a bit more research to be sure but Cape Gooseberries and regular gooseberries seem to differ in that I believe (though am not positive) that only the cape gooseberry is covered by a paper shell, similar to what covers a tomatillo. I believe that regular gooseberries, as we see here in BC, are missing that exterior protection.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong

Edited September 17, 2005 by appreciator (log)

[Zucchini Mama]

The ground cherries are $3.25 a pint at UBC farms. No pesticides. The BC farms you mentioned may grow regular gooseberries as well as ground cherries. I don't know- but you're right, they're not the same thing. I always just eat the ground cherries raw.

Umm, like the pint I ate this morning....

Zuke

[appreciator]

The ground cherries are $3.25 a pint at UBC farms. No pesticides. The BC farms you mentioned may grow regular gooseberries as well as ground cherries. I don't know- but you're right, they're not the same thing. I always just eat the ground cherries raw.

Umm, like the pint I ate this morning....

Zuke

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Just one more reason to get my butt up to the UBC Farm before it closes for the season... guess I'll have to make it next Saturday.... fer sure

Thanks for the tip!

[Saffy]

Will have to do a bit more research to be sure but Cape Gooseberries and regular gooseberries seem to differ in that I believe (though am not positive) that only the cape gooseberry is covered by a paper shell, similar to what covers a tomatillo.  I believe that regular gooseberries, as we see here in BC, are missing that exterior protection. 

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong 

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Sorry! I had to do it.

Gooseberry and Cape Gooseberry are not even related. However you were right about the Cape Gooseberry being related to Tomatillos

Gooseberry: Ribes spp. Saxifragaceae

Cape Gooseberry Physalis peruviana L. Solanaceae ( also known as Ground cherry)

Related species are Clammy Ground Cherry (Physalis heterophylla), Tomatillo (P. ixocarpa), Purple Ground Cherry (P. philadelphica), Strawberry Tomato (P. pruinosa), Ground Cherry, Husk Tomato (P. pubescens), Sticky Ground Cherry (P. viscosa).

There ya go.. more than you ever wanted to know!

and btw.. My mother grows them in her garden.. if you live close to NZ you are welcome to come get some

Edited September 18, 2005 by Saffy (log)

[saveur2]

Does anyone know a local shop that carries the Chef Revival line of uniforms? I can't seem to find any, besides the original website, which only does mail order. I'm looking for short sleeve jackets. Thanks in advance!

[shelora]

Does anyone know a local shop that carries the Chef Revival line of uniforms? I can't seem to find any, besides the original website, which only does mail order. I'm looking for short sleeve jackets. Thanks in advance!

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Have you tried Blackwood Career Apparel? They may be able to help you.

1055 Clark Dr. ph. 604-872-5088 or toll free 1-800-325-2322

[saveur2]

Does anyone know a local shop that carries the Chef Revival line of uniforms? I can't seem to find any, besides the original website, which only does mail order. I'm looking for short sleeve jackets. Thanks in advance!

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Have you tried Blackwood Career Apparel? They may be able to help you.

1055 Clark Dr. ph. 604-872-5088 or toll free 1-800-325-2322

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Shelora,

I did take a look. They actually offer their own line of clothing, and not Chef Revival. I called and asked. Also, I think it's a bit misleading when they call themselves "Chef Wear", when there's another major company called that same name!