President’s Choice Holiday Insiders Collection Party at Nourish Café

Yesterday was my most favourite day of the year: the President’s Choice holiday party! This year it was held at Nourish Café and Cooking School located at 3742 West 10th Avenue. You can find all the President’s Choice Holidays Insiders Collection products here.

The Venue

What a gorgeous setting! It was immaculately decorated with President’s Choice home decorations and goodies, of course.

Everything looked festive and gorgeous. I was so excited that on top of eating fabulous food we would actually be cooking food in Nourish’s teaching kitchen.

Every Christmasy detail helped put us all in the holiday spirit as local Vancouver foodies arrived.

The Finger Foods

There were a lot of nibbles to snack on right away including PC’s new Olive Tapenade Hummus Roll Chickpea Spread.

There was also a “sea-cuterie” plate with their Gigantico Black Tiger Shrimp with Mild Cocktail that lived up to its name! A massive 16/20 count (per pound)! The shrimp are peeled, deveined, cooked and chilled.

This year’s theme is PC Twists on Traditions which you could tell by the addition of their Tuna Tataki Sustainably Sourced Seared Wild Albacore Tuna. I love the idea of tuna that is all seared, sliced and ready to serve for parties. Brilliant. It also comes with an incredible sesame sauce.

This was my first plate of food. I also enjoyed PC Black Label Pomegranate Lemon Sparkling Beverage which I highly recommend as a holiday beverage for non-alcohol drinkers like myself.

I began with the PC Roasted Cauliflower Ravioli Traditional Italian Filled Egg Pasta.

They dredged the fresh pasta containing roasted cauliflower, provolone and ricotta cheeses and then deep fried it. They served it with a sauce they made with the PC Black Label Harissa Spice Blend and it was delicious. A smart way to sneak some cauliflower not only into your diet but onto your appetizer plate. 

The Gigantico Black Tiger Shrimp really is so very large but is also unbelievably tender! I could not believe how succulent such a large piece of shrimp could be. It comes in a party-ready platter and would be top of my list for the holidays. Delicious. The Tuna Tatami was stunningly tender as well, and man, I just love that sesame sauce. 

The Olive Tapenade Hummus Roll Chickpea Spread was super earthy with its olive and hummus combo and was much sturdier than I was expecting. A great choice for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Yummy and filling although I must admit it looks a bit like a marrow bone to me, LOL. 

PC Waffle Cone Chicken with Spicy Maple Syrup Boneless Chicken Breast Fillets was the biggest shock of the evening for me. I LOVED it! This is where I really tasted the fun twist to traditional holiday finger food. Inspired by carnival flavours, this unbelievably tender (yes, again, tender) chicken’s sweet and spicy combination was delightful. It literally made me smile, it was such a happy surprise. 

The Party Begins

Lifestyle expert Janette Ewen and Chef Tom Filippou

The large group of us foodies was divided into two groups. I was in Group 2 and was invited to go into the kitchen to try some more food and get ready for a cooking demonstration.

There were more PC bites to delight in being prepped at the back of the café. 

Korean Fried Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon

There was a fabulous potato dish seasoned with PC Memories Of Seoul Gojuchang Spicy Chili Sauce which is a Korean condiment and really did add “piquant flavour”. As one blogger said, it was reminiscent of Kimchee. This was damn tasty! I loved it. Fiery but not too hot and yes, a new twist for a holiday flavour but I say, bring it!

PC Memories Of Eggs Benedict Hollandaise Sauce is a genius idea! If you make Hollandaise yourself, you will be shocked at how decadent (AKA filled with butter) the sauce is so this way you can just heat up the contents of this bottle and NOT think about how rich it really is. The only problem? It was served on rapini was has such a strong flavour. Sadly, I can not honestly say what the sauce tastes like. The rapini overwhelmed the sauce.

Normally I would be disappointed but to be honest, I want to try this on actual Eggs Benedict. This sauce is made with real butter, cream and lemon juice so why not buy it ready-to-use? I will be purchasing it myself and reviewing it on my site soon.

The PC Butter-Infused Seasoned Young Turkey was gorgeous and what gives it a seasonal twist? It has TWO stuffings: bread stuffing with apples, and savoury stuffing with pork sausage.

I know I have said it again and again… So tender!!! Both stuffings were delicious but the apple stuffing was my favourite. Moist and fabulous.

I swear, the chef said he cooked it from frozen in six hours but do not quote me on that! I will see what I can find out about the cooking time for you because that just seems too miraculous to me. 

Cooking Time

We had a fun class on learning how to make kind of a deconstructed sushi starting with making homemade rice cakes topped with PC Tuna Tataki.

I had no idea how easy it was to make rice cakes! I will be sharing a DIY video very soon. 

We fried the rice cakes which were coated on each side with sesame seeds. 

We topped it with PC Sriracha Mayo Sandwich Spread. 

Added the PC Tuna Tatami and topped with green onion. 

I personally would have added some shaved or flaked nori so it really would be like deconstructed sushi. 

This was my favourite bite of the night. Absolutely delicious and that tuna is out of this world. I am going to try and make this in my own kitchen soon! Totally buying some of that PC Tuna Tataki.

Switch!

Then we were off to the other side of the café for wreath-making with The Flower Factory. 

I went for a more “natural” look with pinecones and real cotton puffs. Hey, I am a foodie not a wreath-maker! Although I am pretty damn arts and craftsy when it comes to pottery and jewelry making. 

Dessert!

Yes, there was even MORE food! It is President’s Choice foodies! Of course there was dessert…

I was thrilled when I heard about PC Black Label Pistachio Spread. You know I am a huge fan of the Black Label products and pistachio is one of my most favourite flavours ever.

The chefs made a pudding with it and it was divine!!! So divine. OMG, I loved it. If you like pistachios, you have to try this. If I can find this spread, I will buy some and share the pudding recipe with you.

I was curious what they were going to do with the PC The Decadent Chocolate Ganache Pots for dessert. 

Of course! Dip cookies into it! The chef also suggested adding this to hot milk to make your own ganache-melted hot chocolate. I think selling pre-made ganache made with their famous Decadent semi-sweet chocolate is genius. Saves on time and energy at Christmas but still ensures high quality chocolatey goodness. 

Yes, I had three desserts at the party including Avocado Lime and Coconut No-Bake Cheesecake made with PC Frozen Avocado Chunks. You can read my review of the product here.

I thought this was quite the luscious cheesecake but Reg, who had arrived at this time to pick me up to take me home, was not as much a fan. I told you he did not like avocado! Clever man… He sussed it out!

I personally did not like the coconut and graham cracker crust but I did enjoy the filling. That is just me though. I am super picky about coconut and just do not like graham crackers. An excellent effort though and a great tropical twist on classic cheesecake.

Thank You

Thank you President’s Choice for another unbelievably fantastic Christmas party!

I personally adored the twists on tradition you came up with and whole heartedly loved the addition of fish and spiciness to the holiday menu. 

Thank you also for my bag of goodies! Product testing will continue here on my site. 

I did not think anyone or thing could put me in a holiday spirit so early in the year but you did it again this year! So many fantastic products to explore and you can find them all here.

Thank you for making the holidays that much easier and tastier. We foodies appreciate all your efforts.