Wild Food Adventures with Jeffrey Alford & Mark Hills

It's been a wild couple of weeks here at the shop. Jeffrey Alford entertained us on Friday night with stories and a slideshow from his travels through China, the muse for his latest book Beyond the Great Wall. Chef Adrienne O'Callaghan and Mark Holmes prepared a colourful menu from Jeffrey's masterpiece while he reflected on his cultural and culinary adventures with wife and co-author Naomi Duguid. The evening's menu included earlobe noodles with laghman sauce, chicken pulao with pumpkin, pressed tofu with scallions and ginger, chile-hot bright green soybeans with garlic, napa and red onion salad, cucumbers in black rice vinegar and green tea shortbread with poppy seeds.

The exotic cuisine did not stop with Jeffrey's visit. Mark Hills of Hills Fine Foods stepped into the shop on Monday with armfulls of organic game meats, ranging from quail to kangaroo and alligator. His selection of organic meats educated guests' palates, and Mark's extensive knowledge of game meats sparked a new perspective in many of his listeners. This season's social club, a series of meat classes occurring on Mondays throughout the fall, compiled the evening's guest-list. Each guest took home a signed copy of Martin Picard's Au Pied de Couchon. The next lesson for the social club is on butchering, and will take the group on a field trip to the organic butcher shop Sebastian & Co Fine Organic Meats. There are still a few spaces in some of the meat series events, so call 604.688.6755 to register.