Atlas Steak + Fish may be the crown jewel at Gateway Casinos’ Grand Villa Casino in Burnaby, but it’s only one of a host of impressive gems within the property that are some of the region’s best kept dining secrets.

If you’ve heard of oat milk, you may be part of a minority of Canadians. If you’ve tried the dairy-alternative, you’re part of a small but rapidly growing group of consumers. And that number is, indeed, growing fast. Earth’s Own director of marketing, Brittany Hull, said the Burnaby-based business has seen its oat milk products flying off the shelves – sales in the last year grew 250 per cent over the year prior.

I love experiencing the tastes of different cuisines and I use any excuse I can find to switch things up a bit at the dinner table. Celebratory dates from around the globe are perfect for this and May fifth marks Cinco de Mayo: a celebration of Mexican Heritage and Pride. A common misconception is that Cinco de Mayois Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually on Sept. 16. Cinco de Mayois simply Spanish for Fifth of Mayand is a regional holiday that commemorates Mexico’s defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Regardless however, of this distinction, it is a perfect day to prepare and enjoy Mexican food. I have tasted a number of homemade salsas and guacamoles and many of them have fallen short of being incredible, let alone worthy of being called Mexican cuisine. True guacamole (pronounced gwahk-ah-MOLE-lee) is not avocados that have been mashed together with an envelope of powders called “guacamole mix”. I know there are a number of people that may struggle in the kitchen, or don’t believe they have the time in their schedules, to successfully chop a few handfuls of ingredients, but once you try this recipe you will never want to go back to the powdered mix. The only ingredient in this recipe that may seem foreign to you is “sambal oelek”. It is a crushed chili product that comes in a liquid/paste form that is basically a re-hydrated form of the dried crushed chilies you have on your spice rack. It can usually be found in any major grocery store down the Asian food aisle or imported food aisle or in any gourmet food store. Even if you have always made your guacamole from fresh ingredients, I am certain that you will still appreciate the complexity and balance of flavour this recipe has to offer, as well as the texture. Eat, enjoy, and be merry this fifth of May… but try not to dance around the sombrero too much.

Summer is the perfect time of year to experiment with different ways to use peaches.

Step aside Vito Corleone – there’s a new godfather in town. Sam Fabbro, executive chef at El Santo on Columbia Street and Amaranthus in River Market at the Quay, is among the 40 finalists for Western Living magazine’s Foodies of the Year.

Buddha-Full has big plans for its mobile vegan food truck

Eating ants and other insects could soon be recommended to protect against cancer, and it is believed that us Westerners will be eating them very soon. Experiments have shown that many insects including grasshoppers and crickets – contain high concentrations of antioxidants, found in orange juice or olive oil. Extracts of grasshoppers, silkworm and crickets have the highest amounts of antioxidants – some five times more than orange juice. These antioxidants help reduce chemical reactions in the body that produce cancer causing free radicals also linked to cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Grasshoppers, ants and mealworms contain the highest levels of total polyphenols: micronutrients packed with antioxidants that help treat digestion issues, weight management difficulties, diabetes, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases. Beetles are the most commonly consumed insect, followed by caterpillars, bees, wasps, ants, grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets.

River Market has two new eateries for foodies to enjoy. Angelina’s Dutch Corner has taken up residence in River Market, after outgrowing its former home at a nearby building. As part of the move a larger space that was formerly occupied by Wild Rice, the restaurant plans to add dinner service to its popular breakfast and lunch menu.

If you have a favourite fast food restaurant, a place through which you indulge your guilty pleasures, there is likely no reasoning with you about it. Say it is a burger place you have in mind, I could tell you all about how Two Rivers likely trounces your guilty burger on every measure from the quality of base ingredients to the meticulous preparation. But it would not make a difference; you know why you like your go-to fast food joint and no academic arguments are going to dissuade you from visiting it again.

After a recent column on how to make a burrito bowl, a few readers asked if I could offer a recipe for a poke bowl. It sounded like a tasty, on-trend idea, so here it is. Poke, pronounced “POH-kay,” is a palate-awakening, Hawaiian-style raw, marinated fish dish, often seasoned with ingredients Asian immigrants introduced to those islands.

My love for sushi is inversely proportional to my disdain for writing about it. What is there left to say? I don’t know how many sushi reviews I have done and I certainly have no clue how many sushi meals I have eaten, here and abroad.

New Central Lonsdale restaurant offers high quality fare at remarkably good prices. Mia Kaye offers up a plate of nachos at Tacomio on Lonsdale. According to the edicts of the prevailing market economy, competition is a good thing.

When John Skinner, proprietor of Painted RocK discovered the perfect property to situate a winery, it was like the writing was on the wall. Beginning his search in 2000, he knew the property he purchased needed to tick all of the boxes; he would take his time, the perfect piece of land was out there waiting for him in the wine region known as the Napa Valley of the North. Finally, in 2014, after four years of searching, a 60-acre fallow apricot orchard resting on a bench that overlooks Skaha Lake near Penticton caught his attention. Once the largest apricot orchard in the British Commonwealth, the property was the perfect micro-climate for a vineyard, and after the painstaking year-long work of removing the apricot trees one by one, Skinner was ready to plant 25 acres of varieties of Syrah and Bordeaux reds, as well as a little Chardonnay.

CM Bhatt of Aroma Indian Restaurant and Lounge in Port Moody has been serving award-winning Indian cuisine to the people of the Lower Mainland for years. So he knows that you need a wide variety of spices, flavours and meats to satisfy local taste buds. “A common misconception is that all Indian foods are spicy,” says Bhatt. “But here at Aroma Indian Restaurant and Lounge, we put that notion to rest pretty quickly. We have something for every taste, no matter how mild. In fact, there are lots of Indian dishes for people who don’t typically eat spicy food.”