The Vancouver Fall Food Festival invites locals to try out season-inspired dishes

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As the sun sets earlier and dreary weather encroaches, Noms Magazine has created the new Vancouver Fall Food Festival to encourage locals to make the best of this season. 

The festival, which started on Oct. 13 and will run until Nov. 12, serves as an opportunity for locals to go out for some incredible bites and support the food service industry. Over 30 Metro Vancouver restaurants and cafes are showcasing their uniquely crafted fall festival dishes in addition to promoting their signature menu items. 

“There’s so many amazing restaurants, cafes, and food spots in the city that we want to highlight them during this fall season,” says Jason Yeh, editor in chief and founder of Noms Magazine. 

“We’re trying to make it where people are able to try new spots or return to old favorites for our festivals.” 

The festival has missions where participants can earn prize entries by visiting festival vendors, trying a festival item, and sharing the adventure on social media with #VanFallFoodFest and tagging @nomsmag. Missions include “Food Buddies” where participants can visit a festival vendor with a friend, or “New Kid on the Block” which encourages people to try an item from a vendor that’s less than two years old. 

Participants can also pick up a festival passport from any festival vendor where each dish or drink purchased gains a value-based sticker that can be used to enter an even larger festival sweepstake. 

Yeh says the festival aims to give locals an excuse to go out for a meal with loved ones. 

“When you think of food, it’s [a] happy feeling,” he says. “When you’re able to try a new spot or go to a spot you haven’t been to in a while, and if you’re going with friends or family, we’re hoping that this festival does bring that sort of happiness.” 

The festival also pushed for flavours and dishes to be innovative, illustrating personal takes on what fall means for the vendors. 

Yeh says they wanted restaurants and cafes participating to have creativity in expressing fall and to match their brand. Each restaurant was given a list of recommended fall flavour ingredients, which Yeh says have been used by most of them. 

Participants can expect to taste a range of flavors ranging from hazelnut infusions and cherry glazes to kabocha squash, ginger custard, and crystalized pistachios. Seasonal specials participants can expect to try include BETA5’s kimchi fried rice chocolate bar, Little Karp’s duck confit with plum sauce, and Boketto Tea Bar’s Harvest Moon Sundae with apple compote. 

Hung Nguyen, owner of B House Restaurant, is one of the participating chefs and says the festival gave him the incentive to bring back his slow braised, “5 Spice Beef Noodle Soup,” as well create an entirely new entrée, the “Maple Soy Glazed Chicken.” 

The chicken entrée highlights fall flavours with maple in the glaze, cinnamon and garlic roasted butternut squash purée, and sun dried cranberries within the wild rice pilaf. 

Nguyen says the festival gives restaurants like his a platform to get noticed and gain foot traffic.

“It’s just a chance to stand out and invite people to come to my restaurant,” he says. 

“They can come and try my food, and if they like a festival food [dish] and maybe they say ‘Oh this is a great idea,’ and they can come back next time and try a different [dish], not just the one from the festival.”

Yeh says the festival is about supporting the food industry and its staff, and that vendors, partners, and other competing publications have all been very supportive in spreading the word about this initiative. 

“We’re just trying to make sure that the food industry is moving towards a more positive environment and state because it has been very big struggles for them,” Yeh says. 

“We’re hoping that more people go out and support them if they’re able to financially. And we hope to do more of these [festivals] and continue that.”

To learn more about the festival and participating vendors, visit Noms Magazine’s website.