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Eat Alfresco, Vancouver

Aug. 27, 2009

We may live in cities with parks, plazas and collective spaces, but how often do we use them?  And how?

The Annual Parisan White Dinner
The Annual Parisan White Dinner

That was the question on local bon-vivants and urbanscape explorers Rob MacDonald and Scott Hawthorn’s minds, when they created the “Eat Alfresco Vancouver” concept.  Inspired by Paris’s annual White Dinners, an event held usually in June, as summer sets into the City of Lights, Eat Alfresco also presents guests with a date and theme, but withholds the secret location.  It is announced only the night before the soiree.

The Vancouver Approach

The setting right in Yaletown's Heart: we transported our food + blankets in eoin's silver bike trailer
The setting right in Yaletown’s Heart: we transported our food + blankets in eoin’s silver bike trailer

As 7 p.m. approached on Wednesday August 26, a group of almost fifty of us filed into the plaza right at the intersection of Davie St. and Mainland in the heart of Yaletown for the 3rd eat_alfresco dinner this summer.

Sharing food + conversations
Sharing food + conversations

Here, instead of a motley crew of skateboarders or little dogs more at home in their Louis Vuitton carriers than on the street; we were greeted with a sleek, snaking, accordion-like, low shelf table – actually four low “softwalls” connected together – by Vancouver darlings, Molo Design.

Food (and sipped discreetly, wine) was plentiful
Food (and sipped discreetly, wine) was plentiful

The white tables were adorned with some fresh flowers and lots of food.  So much food that I worried if the paper tables would hold – thankfully, they didn’t collapse all night long!

A sampling of food
A sampling of food
local designers Steven + Jane Cox, I love Jane's stylish feather hat.
local designers Steven + Jane Cox, I love Jane's stylish feather hat.

And so the night proceeded with this eclectic group of strangers and new friends in a redefined urban setting.

candle-lit dusk
candle-lit dusk

Curious passers-by definitely gawked, but that did not deter us from sampling home-made deliciousness; everything from olive stuffed roast lamb, thanks to Melody li of Bouchon for 2 ; a delicious mint, kalamata olive and macedonian feta with pasta salad, cumin spiced cauliflower and plenty of sweet treats including fruit-topped meringues and decadent brownies.  Local restaurant Brown’s Social Club even added to the feast, stopping by with some appetizers – as though we needed more!!!

Molo Design's soft-wall "tables"
Molo Design's soft-wall "tables"

At the end of the night, with the tables folded up, our plates and cutlery stashed in our individual bags, the square looked forlorn and quiet,  awaiting its transformation for another al fresco night.

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Category: Life, Blog Tags: alfresco vancouver, dinner, eat, eco style, eco-chic, outdoor living, urban, vancouver, yaletown

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  1. insiyar says

    August 27, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    to get onto the list for the next event, email eat@alfrescovancouver.com

    Reply

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ABOUT YOGUE  Hi, I'm Insiya. Journey with me as we live slow, scatter beauty and tread lightly on the planet.

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insiyafinn

My internal world has been full of questioning lat My internal world has been full of questioning lately… the ones that keep coming up are: who am I? What do I want to do - with this re-birth into life? Where am I going? What is my purpose? What do I want to create? The questions that emerge when everything under our feet seems like quicksand, when life has seemed contracting and you finally begin to see new openings and light.

I’m allowing space for those answers to emerge, supporting myself w a mindful art course with @bccancer and a weekly women’s circle. BecUse I need to. The emotional whorl is here and real; and while I know it has been a lot I don’t actually realize it until things come up and I feel all the feels.

The body I am in feels different, it is and it will take time to regain my strength and movement ability. And yet life continues and I feel its press: the pull of many roles I bear as a woman, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a teacher, an entrepreneur… and it can feel like a lot!!! 

But then, there is a walk w the sunshine or moonlight on the horizon a meal that celebrates our senses and I remember that I have to stay on my path and begin again…

Photo sprinkles L to R:
1, 2: holiday sparkles w mum and dad 
3. The most delicious lunch ever @belovevictoria 
4. Turmeric, ginger, coriander and fennel: what I made to help me move through a sticky cold this last week.
5. Making herbal salves w @andreapenagos.wellness and @iye.herstories 💖🌱
6. This branch was so beautiful 
7. Lion made a tiramisu (I halved the sugar it was still v sweet)!
8. An appt at BC cancer - I’ll have check ups every 3 months. Each time I see my oncologist I remember how far I have come
9. Today: a walk in the sunshine w my little guy. 

Always counting my roses every day. Have not been writing much recently and need to commit to writing everything down about this last 15 months before I forget… still receiving messages from others encountering cancer and so happy that my story can help give inspiration and hope. Thanks for being here. 
💖💫🙏🏼

#family #growth #exhale #breathe #yogateacher #healcancer #healinsiya #insiyafinn
The roots of where I come from ie. India have alwa The roots of where I come from ie. India have always been an integral part of my practice and study of yoga and Ayurveda, even though my family is Muslim - yoga has always been both and integral and secular practice for me - yet connected deeply to Hindu philosophy - as is Ayurveda. Also so much of what I have learned I also owe to committed teachers and lineage in the west. As someone who has experienced this sort of transnational identity - of space, place, race and more - from living and moving and being in so many countries - i cherish and hold the threads that connect me to meaning and illumination. And I am committed to sharing those threads with lightness of heart and depth of experience.

Super honored to announce that I will be sharing Ayurveda and more @sedonayogafestival this March 2024. If you are considering it say yes. It will be a weekend to cherish. @theblissologist will also be there bringing his incredible Blissology yoga teachings.

And a host of amazing teachers.

Hope to see you there. Ticket prices on a super sale until tonight. Head over to @sedonayogafestival for more. 💖🙏🏼💫

#yogafestivals #yogateacher #growth #ayurveda #modernayurveda #healing #health #india 

Happy Saturday!!!
It’s cold and I awoke this morning feeling like It’s cold and I awoke this morning feeling like I was coming down w a flu. But going outside is always my medicine and the sunshine put on its A game tonight…

One thing I am focusing on right now is how to heal myself by tuning into the rhythms of nature / to our circadian rhythms… this is at the heart of Ayurveda. Happily a lovely yogi sent me a book called “the rhythms of wellness” by Alberta teacher Jaki Daniels, which offers a Chinese medicine perspective on bio rhythms. 🙌

Here’s what is helping me these days:
👇🏽
🌞Getting sunshine when it’s strongest - these days I walk our dog at around 3:30 or 4 pm and soak up whatever light I can.
🥣making lunch my main meal and dinner lighter - this helps our digestive fire to work harder when it can (ie during the afternoon) 
Winding down before 10 pm (trying)!!! But I notice how much better I sleep before getting that second wind of energy.

Lots more about this on my blog if you are interested. Look up « Dinacharya » @ yogue.ça and it will honestly transform your days. 

Saw my surgeon today which was a reminder again of where I was a year ago and where I am today. 

Grateful for a little space of light and sending out as much peace and love as I possibly can. The world needs it. We all do! 💫🙏🏼💖
Loss and grief: it feels both personal (in my body Loss and grief: it feels both personal (in my body and mind after all the surgeries and treatment) and planetary right now with wars that keep on going. 😢

This week I had the opportunity to join a circle of courageous women led by a wise woman who held space for us all to speak out loud the grief we hold. 

We spoke our losses holding onto a stone - their weight in our hands an anchor point - I found my stones earlier that day… walking to a beach w my son and his friend… I chose each one because it felt a certain way in my hands, because I felt their shape and beauty. 

As we moved around the circle, time stopped. 

Words don’t always allow us to fully feel what we are trying to express, but they try their best. And it can be simple words that sometimes express big, unspeakable things…

Tears were shed. The lights were dim and as I held my stone and spoke and then placed it into the vessel of water; I realized that it was only in walking through the curtain of pain that I felt whole once again. 

There is a lot of suffering in life. And most often we cause suffering through our perception of what happened or is happening. What a relief to speak it out and make space for a new way of seeing and feeling.

I don’t have any solutions to the suffering around us. But I do know that it begins with each one of us. And the seed of healing lies in being more kind and more clear and making space for light and love to illuminate our shadows. 

Grief is the other side of bliss. But we have to move through it to get there.

#womenscircles #grief #griefritual #suffering #war #peace #ceasewar #growth #blissology @blissology #healinsiya #healcancer
Happy Diwali!!! May we be reminded of our illumi Happy Diwali!!! 

May we be reminded of our illumination especially at a time when we need all the light we can and cannot see… 🙏🏼❤️‍🩹💖💫🪔

#diwali2023 #insiyafinn #blissedandblessed #family @theblissologist
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