The Microsoft Zune Party Train Takes a Spill in Vancouver

Yesterday, the Dot Com Pho Crew went out to toast the launch of the Microsoft Zune in Canada. The head of the launch took place in Vancouver and will travel across the country to five other locations including Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Halifax. Unfortunately, the Zune train derailed in Vancouver…

Microsoft tried to be “Edgy” and “Extreme” with their Zune launch by renting out a local indoor skatepark known as “The Sweatshop“. At first, I thought it’d be cool to have a live band and some skateboarding demos and that was what I was expecting. Turns out the place had a flood and the whole skatepark is now in ruins. Desperate for cash, Microsoft saved them by renting out the whole place. However, there seemed to be something peculiar about the whole arrangement as the venue didn’t seem too thankful throughout the night.

The invitations said to be there at 9PM, but while it sounded like people were already having a good time inside, we were left outside wondering if we’d ended up at the wrong place. This made Michael Kwan (above) very upset. He may look thin and FOB like, but he’ll whip you like a branch! We got in around 9:30PM only to find that no one was inside. WTF?

The first sign of trouble was when we went to grab our free drinks. The girls behind the counter started demanding tips from all the guests. Wait a sec? Why would you demand tips when you are getting paid? Turns out no one paid them and they kept harassing the guests for tips before they would hand over the booze. Classy. So where did Microsoft’s money go? Obviously not to Yahoo.

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Up To The Task of Tasting Food? You Bet!

As evident by my many food posts, I have a love affair with food. I love cooking it, I love cutting it, but most importantly, I love eating it! When Brice said that he needed help tasting a food, he called the right man! Where there’s food, Stephen Fung is on the move!

The tasting was to be held at the 500 Plaza Hotel, which is also home to Figmint Restaurant and Lounge; a place that I had a chance to go to earlier this year for their Dine Out Vancouver promotion. Although Figmint shares the same address, the hotel itself has its own kitchen for banquets and special events including a bakery. On with the tasting!

Poached Eggs Benedict

First up was the eggs benedict. Now, the only way to screw up a benny for me is to overcook the eggs or serve it with a crappy sauce. The dish featured a tarragon hollandaise sauce ladled over a pair of slightly runny poached eggs on a bed of ham and served on an English muffin. It’s flanked by some home fried hash brown potatoes with a fruit garnish.

I’m a bit of an eggs benny afficianado and was impressed by how light and tangy the hollandaise was. It was very well balanced. Most places serve a sauce that is either too thick or made radioactive looking by an over-abundance of food colouring so I was pleased to see them getting it right. The only criticism I had was that the English muffin was a bit tough, however, knowing that the dish will likely need to wait for 40 minutes in a buffet before service, that should give it sufficient time to soften up.

Roasted Corn and Potato Chowder

This was probably one of my favourite dishes. I really enjoyed the smokey bacon flavour along with the fresh corn. You’ll typically find too often that restaurants will sub in the frozen stuff, but nope, it tasted like fresh off the cob to me. It was finished with green onions and was very savoury. I had to finish it.

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