Strolling down the hill to the monthly Blim market on a sunny spring day makes me a very happy lady, especially as I know there will be inspiring crafts and really good food. Today the market was held in a new location at Heritage Hall which is an elegant venue that really suited the variety of eclectic vendors. It was also a fantastic venue for the Izakaya menu offered by Michael Tora Speier's Open Sesame catering company which he labels as "fission" cuisine. One of the plates on offer was this trio of Cortez oysters served with a shooter of Siberian Hunter sake. One oyster was cooked on a skewer in a white miso sauce, one was home-smoked, and the final oyster was served as sashimi on the half shell. They all scored high points for me, with the house-smoked oyster was a pleasant surprise--thankfully lacking that oily metallic flavor one gets from the tinned variety.
Speier was raised in California with both Jewish and Japanese Heritage. He's a volunteer for the Powell Street Society and a mixed media artist. I've encountered his food before at the the All Soul's Night at the Mountainview Cemetery where he feeds the crew. (Potential volunteers take note--last year he served us a DIY taco bar which rocked.) Speier also makes tiny jewel-like tidbits for the tea room during All Soul's which are always whimsical and inspiring. Today I had to try his Lunar Stealth Pasta bowl with a choice of either rice or semolina noodles mixed with black mushrooms, haijiki, mountain yam and orange caviar. The dish's bright flavors and juxtaposition of textures made it a hit with me. I was daydreaming about having this kind of creative and affordable lunch every day. The oysters with sake were 3$ and the noodle bowl was $6.
At the Open Sesame booth I was invited to pick a fortune for the Lunar New Year. Mine said "Show someone your love by jumping on a jet plane." Sounds good to me! If you want to know where Open Sesame will be appearing next you can follow them on
twitter.
For those of you who haven't been to the Blim Market, it is a hodgepodge of crafts with a bit of home-business baking thrown in. Today there were a few flea-market tables as well, and one even had a few jars of organic honey from his dad's hives in Prince George. In the summer the market is open to anyone who wants to pay for a table. (The current price is $50 and you can include up to two vendors.) The rest of the year it is an indoor curated market. Admission for the public is by donation.
I bought some delicious cupcakes from Lyndsay Sung's
Coco Cake cupcake catering and discovered her charming
blog. Check out her salmon nigiri cake!
These brown velvet cupcakes were moist with a fine crumb and a light icing with a hint of cream cheese. They disappeared fast in our household!
These festive party hats are by
Fort Design. This boutique design firm creates some of the labels for other vendors at the Blim market.
I find more and more people are seeking gluten-free goods, so it's great that
The Gluten Free Epicurean has treats without wheat. The pecan tarts (which are also dairy free) got a good review from my partner and my son and I gave the triple chocolate chip cookies top marks. So now you have the local knowledge. While hundreds of people are lining up down the hill at the Saskatchewan Pavilion for bison burgers and perogies, the locals in the know are grooving to the hip vibe of the Blim market and its tasty food vendors every third Sunday of the month, unless stated otherwise on the Blim
website.
Strolling down the hill to the monthly Blim market on a sunny spring day makes me a very happy lady, especially as I know there will be inspiring crafts and really good food. Today the market was held in a new location at Heritage Hall which is an elegant venue that really suited the variety of eclectic vendors. It was also a fantastic venue for the Izakaya menu offered by Michael Tora Speier's Open Sesame catering company which he labels as "fission" cuisine. One of the plates on offer was this trio of Cortez oysters served with a shooter of Siberian Hunter sake. One oyster was cooked on a skewer in a white miso sauce, one was home-smoked, and the final oyster was served as sashimi on the half shell. They all scored high points for me, with the house-smoked oyster was a pleasant surprise--thankfully lacking that oily metallic flavor one gets from the tinned variety.
Speier was raised in California with both Jewish and Japanese Heritage. He's a volunteer for the Powell Street Society and a mixed media artist. I've encountered his food before at the the All Soul's Night at the Mountainview Cemetery where he feeds the crew. (Potential volunteers take note--last year he served us a DIY taco bar which rocked.) Speier also makes tiny jewel-like tidbits for the tea room during All Soul's which are always whimsical and inspiring. Today I had to try his Lunar Stealth Pasta bowl with a choice of either rice or semolina noodles mixed with black mushrooms, haijiki, mountain yam and orange caviar. The dish's bright flavors and juxtaposition of textures made it a hit with me. I was daydreaming about having this kind of creative and affordable lunch every day. The oysters with sake were 3$ and the noodle bowl was $6.
At the Open Sesame booth I was invited to pick a fortune for the Lunar New Year. Mine said "Show someone your love by jumping on a jet plane." Sounds good to me! If you want to know where Open Sesame will be appearing next you can follow them on twitter.
For those of you who haven't been to the Blim Market, it is a hodgepodge of crafts with a bit of home-business baking thrown in. Today there were a few flea-market tables as well, and one even had a few jars of organic honey from his dad's hives in Prince George. In the summer the market is open to anyone who wants to pay for a table. (The current price is $50 and you can include up to two vendors.) The rest of the year it is an indoor curated market. Admission for the public is by donation.
I bought some delicious cupcakes from Lyndsay Sung's Coco Cake cupcake catering and discovered her charming blog. Check out her salmon nigiri cake!
These brown velvet cupcakes were moist with a fine crumb and a light icing with a hint of cream cheese. They disappeared fast in our household!
These festive party hats are by Fort Design. This boutique design firm creates some of the labels for other vendors at the Blim market.
I find more and more people are seeking gluten-free goods, so it's great that The Gluten Free Epicurean has treats without wheat. The pecan tarts (which are also dairy free) got a good review from my partner and my son and I gave the triple chocolate chip cookies top marks. So now you have the local knowledge. While hundreds of people are lining up down the hill at the Saskatchewan Pavilion for bison burgers and perogies, the locals in the know are grooving to the hip vibe of the Blim market and its tasty food vendors every third Sunday of the month, unless stated otherwise on the Blim website.
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