// Drinking from the bottle

Who says it isn't classy to drink wine from the bottle? I'm in love with these hand cut, sandblasted wine bottle cups/containers from designer Plastolux. What a perfect, unique drinking vessel for a wine bar, restaurant... or your home.

The cups are currently sold out, but will hopefully be available here soon.

// Vancouver Eats

Our fair city, Vancouver BC, is in the midst of hosting the 2010 winter Olympics. While we're trilled to be here in Croatia, a part of us wishes we were home to celebrate, take in some of the Olympic festivities... and eat at our favorite restaurants that we miss dearly!

If you happen to be in Vancouver for the Olympics (or anytime, really!) here are our top three places to eat/drink in Vancouver...

You can't beat the Black Frog pub in Gastown for casual drinks/eats with friends. Not only do they have impeccable musical taste (seriously... where else can you hear Black Mountain, Andrew Bird and Smog within seven minutes), but the drinks & food are cheap, the staff are great and the crowd is diverse. I'm a sucker for their grilled cheese & a pint of the local lager. ($)

For sushi, venture West to The Eatery for a less traditional dining experience. Eclectic music & decor, hipster waitresses, university crowd... and sushi that makes all that worthwhile. Try the Bob Marley roll, full of avocado, mango and tuna, topped with a cucumber wasabi paste. ($$)

M & my all time favorite place to indulge gastronomically in Vancouver is BIN 942 tapas bar. Heavenly tapas made with fresh local ingredients, lots of wine by the glass (so you can try a few!) and a cozy, but loud, atmosphere. Try the Garlic Butter Mussels and Beef Tenderloin Wellington. Go early to avoid waiting in a looong line. ($$$)

Think Pink

M & I, as I've likely mentioned before, are big wine nuts and have been drinking a lot of great rose wines of late. I'd mentioned the Joie rose & the Kettle Valley pinot gris earlier (both from the interior of BC), but our new favorite has got to be the Vieille Ferme rose that our friends B & L recently introduced us to.

Light & dry - perfect for the patio and reasonably priced at about $13/bottle.

[photo of the boys from Sunday night... when a lot of La Vielle Ferme, Joie & Kettle Valley were consumed]

Heaven

When M & I first started talking about our wedding, we took the advice of so many before us and decided what was important to us - where did we want to save and where did we want to spend. We are both very passionate about food & wine, so this is where we have decided to focus our funds. There are so many fabulous ways to create a beautiful wedding on a budget, but it's hard to fake good food & drink.

So, on that note... I'm going to talk about wine... Pink wine.

M & I have over the past couple years become big fans of GOOD rosé wines. I'm not talking about crap pink wines... I'm talking about GOOD rosés. I think it takes a confident male to admit that he enjoys pink wine (which is yet another reason I love M).

We were out last night with friends having a couple glasses of wine at Mon Bella and got talking to Marty(?) of the always fabulous Village VQA Wines who was sitting next to us at the bar with a friend.

Marty(?) had recommended a great rosé to me a few weeks back so we got on a bit of a wine tangent. His friend was very adamant that he would never drink pink wine, no matter how great we claimed it to be.

I'm kind of rambling here (maybe it's the effects of all the wine last night!) but bottom line - if you don't think you'd like pink wine, try these two beauties: Joie Rose & Kettle Valley Pinot Gris. They'll run you about $24 and you can most likely get them at Liberty wines. I'm telling you - they're heavenly.