Thousands of LEGO fans flocked to RiverRock Casino Hotel this past week to attend BrickCan, the inaugural LEGO convention held in Richmond. The four-day event featured keynote talks, games and an exhibit full of astounding LEGO models. The first two days were geared towards AFOLs (adult fan of LEGO) while the weekend was open to families who enjoy viewing LEGO builds or were looking to buy LEGO sets. Vendors had plenty of LEGO for purchase, as well as LEGO-related art, jewelry and clothing. Half the fun while browsing the vendor tables was digging though the minifigure bins, trying to look for that elusive figure needed to complete your own collection.

Avocados From Mexico's Avoshowdown cooking competition returned last Sunday, April 10th, at the Northwest Culinary Academy on Main Street. This year saw 16 amature chefs, home cooks and bakers battle it out, trying to impress judges with their creations featuring Avocados from Mexico.

While the competitors put their finishing touches on their dishes, the team at Northwest Culinary Academy went around with some delicious appetizers, which showcased the versatility of Avocados from Mexico.





At the beginning of the event we were introduced to the food and lifestyle experts who were going to be judging the competition (from left to right) by emcee Alyssa Dawson from Novus TV:

• Jim Tobler, editor, Montecristo Magazine 
• Rebecca Coleman, instructor & food blogger, Cooking By Laptop
• Alyssa Dawson, host, producer, emcee & actor, Novus TV
• Cassandra Anderton, food writer & editor, Good Life Vancouver 
• Crystal Allen, culinary nutritional expert & creative director Hello Creative Family
• Angie Quaale, food expert & BBQ champion, Well Seasoned Gourmet Food Store 

We were first asked why we love avocados so much? Because they taste good AND are full of nutrients that are good for your health! Avocados contain the good type of fat that our bodies need. That is the whole point of this competition - to spread the word about how good Avocados from Mexico are in terms of health benefits, taste, versatility and availability. Did you know that 90% of the avocados in Canada are imported from Mexico? They are also the only avocado that are available year round - pretty important when you love to eat them so much like me!

We were then let go to mingle and try the competitors' dishes.


The competitors really stepped up their game this year! Many of the dishes prepared were like they were made by professional chefs!





Meanwhile, the judges hid in the back of the establishment, blind tasting the entrants' creations.

Such a tough job!

After the judges scurried away, Chef Jonathan Kinney, from the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, showed us how to make an Avocado Parfait. One trick he taught us was how to cut an avocado. Apparently, cutting an avocado length-wise is an American thing. The proper way to cut an avcodo is across width-wise, then squish out the seed. I tried it last night and it is a game changer! It's so easy!

The parfait is easy to make with pineapple, mango, strawberry, granola, avocado and yogurt. We were then sent off to make our own avocado parfaits.

Here is @ch0c0tam and her sister making the parfait.

She's so creative with the strawberry garnish on the rim!


Next demo was from Justin Darnes of Drinks Undressed, who unveiled a special cocktail created just for this event the Persea Fumée, made from smoked avocado purée. Persea is the Latin name of the avocado plant.

Justin shared his trick to making avocados ripen faster: wrapping them up with a bunch of bananas! Bananas are also a good complement to avocados because of their creaminess.

This drink was so tasty! I wish I could have more!

Finally, the judging was done and it was time to unveil the champions of the AvoShowdown of 2016!

The Cannoli Santo dessert made by Caitlin Connolly, who also happens to be a student at the Northwest Culinary Academy, won the grand prize: a trip to Mexico courtesy of Club Med! I guess they are doing something right because last year's competition was won by someone who studied there, too!

This Avocado Tuna Roll was amazing and had a lot of flavour! Alex Dodge of Truffles Fine Foods took home second prize - a Kitchen Aid blender.

These delicious Siamese style tiger prawns stuffed with avocado were made by Priyanka Deshmkh, which awarded her the 2nd runner-up prize.

Avocado Jewel Box made by Angel Chu (@alsotheresthis). This beautiful dish was voted "Foodie's Choice" by the attendees!

All the winners of the 2nd annual Avoshowdown presented by Avocados from Mexico! Congratulations!

The newest Cook Culture store in Lonsdale, North Vancouver has a full kitchen and teaching space for holding cooking classes. I was fortunate enough to win a spot at the Autumn Harvest class on November 23rd, thanks to Cook Culture and Helijet.


Two local chefs were teaching the class - Chef Peter Zambri of Zambris Restaurant in Victoria, and Chef Jonathan Chovancek, co-founder of Vancouver's Bittered Sling Bitters, and was most recently the Executive Chef for Café Medina. The Autumn Harvest class is more of a demostration class than a hands-on (Cookworks offers both types of classes), but some of us had the chance to make some of the food.


Chef Peter Zambri showed us how to prepare fresh pasta dough first because the pasta dough needs to rest after you make it.

It's so easy to make pasta dough! You just need '00' flour, egg, olive oil and water.


We let the dough sit covered under a bowl while we continued on with the rest of the lesson.


Chef Jonathan Chovancek started showing us how to make sea buckthorn cornmeal cake. He says you sometimes need to cook out of order otherwise your dinner guests will never get to eat.

He moved on to the autumn squash and seafood stufato agrodolce, which is a pretty quick and easy soup to make! (Especially if you have a pressure cooker, it only take 1 minute to cook the shellfish! Amazing!)


The best part of the cooking class - eating the dishes. This is an awesome tasting soup!

 Chef Peter made Risotto alla Parmigiano for us, Sooo good.

Making fettuccine with the pasta machine with our dough.

Fresh pasta does take time to make but the end result is worth it. This AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. I was blown away. The sauce was made with tomato paste, fresh tomatoes, olive oil and anchovies!

Meanwhile, the cake was done and we topped it with brown butter mascarpone, pistachio & honey roasted pears.


The cooking class was educational and fun. The two amazing chefs really know their stuff! I had a great time, though I might have to eat a snack before class next time. Haha. I'd love to take another class!

Cook Culture is holding open houses in all their stores this Saturday to celebrate the re-brand of the Cookworks stores and also the opening of the Lonsdale location. There will be deals, demos, giveaways, and food! Find out more on their website: http://cookculture.com/pages/open-house.



Disclosure: I won a ticket to the class on Facebook and was not expected to make a post. All opinions are my own.

Halo 5: Guardians is finally released!!! For those that don't know me, I'm a bit of a gamer. Sometimes I have difficult choice between blogging and gaming. (If I'm not updating, that means I'm gaming. Sorry!) One of my favourite games is Halo. Usually I line up for the midnight launch at BestBuy, but this year I heard that the Microsoft Store at Metropolis at Metrotown was going to hold a launch party with Halo themed food and music so I decided to check it out since I had to wait until midnight to be able to play my digital copy of the game anyways.


 I was 41st in line. My friend was 7th! At 6pm, we were let into the party.

The line was very organized. We were given these lanyards and a code to enter for prizes that were drawn throughout the night.


A few TVs were set up around the store so people could try out Halo 5 before the midnight release. Nothing spoilery of course!

 A live DJ played some tunes.

The Halo LIVE broadcast event was put on the big screen but it was very hard to hear any thing with the music on.

I was kind of disappointed with the food...This was not at all Halo themed.

Apparently Halo themed meant a small Chipotle burrito with a Halo sticker stuck to it... -____- *FAIL* But I guess food is food. Other people weren't complaining.


 The store was decorated with some of these Spartan heads around.


We also were able to get our heads pasted onto a suit of armour. I did it but I must have entered the wrong email address and how my photo is going to be forever floating in cyberspace.

I read that BestBuy was going to have Master Chief and Locke show up so I expected something similar at a Microsoft store but when I asked they said NO! WHAT?! They weren't going to be showing up at the Metrotown location! It was still early so I hopped onto a train to the Pacific Centre Microsoft store where I saw through updates on social media that Master Chief WAS in attendance!

 The party was still going strong at Pacific Centre.

 Right away I found the Master Chief and Cortana!

There were a lot of cosplayers there! Here's Master Chief playing some Halo 5. He seems to be enjoying it! I also heard that there was an epic entrance where all the cosplayers marched in, while Halo music played, that I missed because I was CLEARLY AT THE WRONG LOCATION.

This location seemed to have more game stations to play at as well.


 Oh, Chief! Why are you ignoring Cortana?!
 Cool drink station! They had pizza and desserts as well, I think.

 Awww I missed the cake!

It used to look like this:

At the Halo 5 Launch Party :DD #awesome#MicrosoftBC#MasterChief

A photo posted by Catherine (@cat_nguyen1) on Oct 26, 2015 at 6:13pm PDT

So cool!

 There was a DJ here playing music as well.


I'm so glad I went to this Microsoft store, because I got a photo with this guy! This guy is so tall, he is the perfect spartan!

 Look at this guy! He towered over everyone! So cool!

The parties at the Microsoft stores were cool. I enjoyed myself and I'm glad I found the Chief and his friends finally!

Now excuse me while I play Halo 5! See you out on the battlefield!