As my birthday was on a Wednesday, our celebration was a little bit low key. Justine had found a very fun looking event on the Friday night, “Eat the Invaders”! It was a really interesting approach to exploring the local food scene, and we had an amazing night out!

On the bus on the way to the event we went past Science World and it’s new FIFA-inspired World Cup wrap going up over the sphere.

The event was called “Eat the Invaders!”, positioned as “a chef led tasting event for food + nature lovers. Can we re-balance damaged ecosystems through smart food choices + eat like royalty?” It was put together by Chef Robin, a local chef (who also has a place on Galiano) that we have done a number of events with over the years. She’s big into foraging, and this was focused on invasive and over abundant local species. The event was held at Lesalle College, a local college that has a cooking school. They used the venue well, spreading out the tasting stations between the lobby where we entered and the commercial kitchens in the school.

Across the street from the college, the building had this amazing mural.

Since I’m lazy, I’m going to steal some details from the web site…

What Was on the Menu?
Invasive or over-abundant edible species like..

Sea urchin, venison, rabbit, Manila clam, blackberry, burdock, dandelion, stinging nettle, European green crab, bamboo, Japanese knotweed, invasive seaweed, Pacific oyster.

Tasting Format:
Participating chefs will create dishes featuring one or more invasive species. Guests will tour through the brand new teaching kitchen’s at LaSalle College, meeting the chefs and tasting their creations. This is a stand up tasting event where along with mouth-watering culinary creations, guests will enjoy some lovely drink pairings; beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be poured.

Participating Chefs…

Chef Andrea Carlson – Burdock & Co.
Chef Robin Kort – Swallow Tail
Chef Ly Thi Nguyen – Anh and Chi
Chef Kenta Takahashi – Boulevard
Chef Kenji Nguyen – Good Thief
Chef Tushar Tondvalkar – Kavita Restaurant
Chefs William Lew & Sharon Chan – Pacific Reach – MamaInTheKitchen
Chef Matt Gostelow – Acorn Restaurant
Dylan Eyers Team of Eat Wild
Chef Cheryl Chang – Nourish
Chef Thoshan – Secret Chef
Guest Chef Joel Barohn from NYC
Chef Julian Bond + Student Team – LaSalle Culinary Program

We had booked an early slot and arrived a bit ahead of time. On entering, we had a Gin and Tonic shot with a piece of sea urchin in it. It was interesting and a proper start to eat the invaders. The stations were spread throughout the venue, so we started working our way through it all. Sadly, I didn’t get photos of everything, but enough that you’ll get a feel for it.

Our first appetiser. Rice and green crab (an invasive species) in a green crab sauce, served in the crab shells.

One of the first appetizers - rabbit on these homemade crackers.

They were quite tasty - you took the bite with the rabbit on them, then you had a nice little tasty cracker to have a second bite with the beer.

Manilla clams in a coconut broth - delicious! The clams are quite abundant here.

Spelt pasta with a green crab (invasive) and seaweed pasta. It was surprisingly flavorful and very good.

This was probably the dish of the day. There were 4-5 people putting together this amazing fish dumpling with an assortment of seaweed. It was spectacular.

A few of the seaweeds that went along with the dish.

The final presentation. I wish it had been more than 2-3 bites as it was delicious.

A little venison sampler.

This was an Indian dish, with interesting curry flavours, also pulling in more of the invasive crabs.

Delicious beef tacos with a green crab sauce to tie it into the theme of the event.

Some of the crabs that went into our meals.

One of the first desserts.

There was a heavy blackberry theme to the desserts. This was delicious.

As was the Ernest Ice Cream - so many big blackberries in the cones - we may have gone back for seconds.

After working our way through all the stations, we had a final drink and a second ice cream cone. And with that it was time to head out. We decided that it was still too early to call it a night, so we headed over to R&B Brewing to have a drink and wrap up our very fun day. We took a couple of Lime scooters, which is always fun! But mine struggled on the hills - I had to power myself up in places!

Near the Skytrain station, ICBC (provincial insurance company) is building a new headquarters. It’s a stunning building, all done in mass timber - so all wood. Looking up at the distinctive architecture.

It was a really fun evening and a great way to wrap up my birthday week!