Nosh Pit

Joy of Feeding: Vancouver’s Tribute to the World’s Home Cooks

The passport-worthy foodfest is the pet project of Meeru Dhalwala. And she wants to bring it to Seattle next year.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on May 17, 2012 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

A participant in last year’s festival serves up Zimbabwean cornmeal mash with greens and beef stew. Photo via UBC Farm Blog.

While she will be plenty busy opening her forthcoming restaurant Shanik in South Lake Union, Meeru Dhalwala also wants to bring her Joy of Feeding festival to Seattle in 2013. The gathering of home cooks of various ethnic backgrounds debuted in Vancouver last year, and returns on June 10. It’s an all-day outdoor foodfest that’s absolutely worth a road trip; Seattleites who do venture north can also consider it an introduction to the woman who is about to make a major mark on Seattle’s restaurant landscape.

Most people know her as the wife of chef Vikram Vij, and the culinary force overseeing the kitchen at renowned Indian restaurant Vij’s and its sibling Rangoli. But Dhalwala says Joy of Feeding is even more personal: “If I have one thing on my tombstone, this would be it.”

She’s quick to acknowledge that her livelihood depends in part on Vij’s culinary star power, but Joy of Feeding is Dhalwala’s tribute to the undercelebrated home cooks, most of them women, who keep their families nourished and connected. She hunted up 16 men and women, hailing from places like Syria, Sweden, and Sierra Leone, and charged each one with making a simple, comforting dish.

A $50 ticket buys you a day spent wandering the UBC farm (blankets welcome), sampling a multicultural array of home-cooked food that feels more personal than your average food festival. Dhalwala also hopes that eating a dish from, say, Ghana might, in its own small way, increase someone’s awareness of that country.

All the information on this year’s Joy of Feeding is right over here. Dhalwala says she has already begun talking to cooks for Seattle—now all she needs is a good space and a great cause.

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Tags: Culinary Events, Outdoor Events, Road Trip, Meeru Dhalwala, Joy of Feeding

Tickets on Sale for This Season’s Walrus and Carpenter Oyster Picnics

The oyster eating, wine swilling tradition returns December 21.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 02, 2011 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

Eat oysters by night at this magical annual picnic.

Seattle has a few truly legendary culinary experiences. One of them is about to resume for the winter oyster season. Before Renee Erickson’s Walrus and the Carpenter oyster bar started racking up national acclaim in Ballard, the namesake Lewis Carroll poem signified for locals the Walrus and Carpenter nighttime oyster picnic. The lantern-lit oyster outings to the Totten Inlet at low tide offer wine, fresh oysters, a bonfire, and, in all likelihood, more oysters and wine. The first of three scheduled outings is December 21, and the $75 cost includes the round-trip bus ride from Elliott’s Oyster House to the Taylor Shellfish Farms oyster beds.

The nocturnal picnics are the brainchild of Taylor oyster guru Jon Rowley. The man whose own oyster-eating adventures could probably fill a ripping good memoir describes these outings as an experience “by which all subsequent oyster experiences will be judged.” Visiting the oyster beds by night adds an air of romance, sure, but according to Rowley it’s also the time when oysters are naturally at their coldest, and the best to eat. But before the eating must come the shucking. You can gather up oysters and do this yourself, or leave the tough stuff to the professionals (and turn your attention back to the wine).

The other Walrus picnics are January 7 and February 6. A wise idea: buy tickets now. And remember, all this wintry outdoor oyster eating happens whatever the whims of the weather.

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Tags: Drinking Events, Oysters, Seattle Food Events, Outdoor Events, Elliott's Oyster House