Deighton Cup’s Thoroughbred: A Day at the Races – Premium food & cocktail event RECAP

Follow Me Foodie to a Recap of Deighton Cup Thoroughbred: A Day at the Races

A Recap of A Day at the Races… in the shoes and the hat of a Foodie.

Oh where do I start with this event? How many ways can I write gong show? No, I’m kidding! It was fun and entertaining with pretty visuals, jockeys (and jocks), and it was essentially Yaletown pumped into one giant outdoor patio under tents.

While that sentence could make some of you click the “x” on the top right hand corner of this window, it’s hard not to be the slightest bit curious… right? Well if it’s not for the scene, then at least for the food! If you’re on Follow Me Foodie (… wow that sounds bad), but if you’re on this blog, then the food is always the main event anyways.

It was the third year for Thoroughbred’s: A Day at the Races, one of Vancouver’s “social elite” parties of the year. It’s a premium event inspired by the Kentucky Derby meets summer in the Hamptons and it all went down Saturday August 6, at the Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, BC.

Photo by The Social Concierge

Yes it really was about who you were wearing and who you were eating… no! I mean what you were eating! Actually it wasn’t really, but that’s the part I was interested in.

Half of me thought it was a pretentious party that made me want to roll my eyes, then the other half of me couldn’t wait to finally wear my vintage Parisian hat I had boxed up after wearing only once. I don’t know, let’s blame it on me being a Gemini. But just like food, you can’t snub something you haven’t tried. So I figured the best way to enjoy the Deighton Cup’s Thoroughbred: A Day at the Races, was to embrace every moment, have a good laugh and eat it all up, and that’s exactly what I did. I lived, I laughed, I gossiped, and I ate!

Cocktails & Canapés Caterings & Events is the newest member of The Adelphia Group companies, who also own The Charles Bar, PIVO, and other restaurants and nightclubs in Vancouver. They provided the eco-friendly catering and sustainable and local food, along with desserts from SweeTease Cupcakes. Drinks included cocktails, incredibly strong Woodford Reserve mint juleps, Bourbons, Playboy’s new energy drink and espresso from the Milano Espresso Bar.

By the time 4:30pm rolled by I don’t know if people really knew what they were eating or drinking anymore, or which horses they were still bidding on. I was surprised to smell no acidity in the air after those mint juleps though… unless that was just masked by the smell of cigars from the cigar lounge.

Anyways I’m not going to go into too much detail with the food considering the circumstances… not my personal circumstances, but just the circumstances in general. The cooking methods were very limited with this environment and it might not be representable of what they would normally do.

Sloping Hills Mini Pulled Pork Sandwiches

With the amount of pulled pork bursting out of these sliders, it was like the ones I would prepare myself. I actually thought it might have been the same pulled pork featured at their sister restaurant The Charles Bar – see here, but it wasn’t.

The only problem was the bun, which was GFS, and a bit dry, hard and thick. Sadly that kind of ruined just how good the pulled pork was. I know GFS does a pretty good brioche slider bun so that would have been a better alternative.

The pulled pork was marinated in a molasses BBQ sauce with reduced Guinness, a hint of maple syrup and house made ketchup, which I found quite apparent. I think it would have been nice to use the Thoroughbred Woodford Reserve Bourbon instead of the Guinness to tie in with the theme. Besides, Maple and Bourbon is a match made in heaven.

See my post for: Home made Maple Bourbon Ice Cream Sandwiches.

BLT Scallops: Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato Scallops

This was a generous appetizer. If you’re serving 2 large pieces of scallops like that, almost anything can go in the middle and it will taste good. This was filled with lettuce, a strip of salty crisp bacon and a tangy house made tomato jam which was a bit ketchupy.

Panko Crusted Risotto Balls

It was made with lemony thyme, Italian parsley and then the centre was stuffed with a cube of melted Tellegio cheese for that extra burst of richness. This could have used a dipping sauce.

Pistachio Crusted Moroccan Chicken Balls

These tender chicken meatballs were generously crusted with lots of pistachios and seasoned with garlic, cilantro, cloves, cardamom, and other Indian and African spices. The cloves and cardamom were really apparent and I was impressed with how much pistachio was being used. It was served with an orange and lemon Indian raita which was a unique twist to the traditional cucumber mint raita.

Capicola, Genoa Salami & Provolone Sandwiches

This was my “filler” appetizer. I wasn’t a fan of the GFS baguette which was a bit hard and chewy and the meat and cheese combo was what it was. There was also some grainy mustard aioli and it would have been better grilled and pressed as a panini.

Photo credit to Rick Chung.

And of course what’s a party without dessert, and in this case cupcakes! With hats on them! And it matched my outfit!

A variety of Mini Cupcakes from SweeTease Cupcakes

Mini Cupcake Pops

Also created by SweeTease Cupcakes, these were their spin on cake pops. Mini Cupcake Pops are mini chocolate covered cupcake pops that sit on top of mini chocolate cups that look like mini Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups, but without the creamy centre or peanut butter. It was basically a ball of chocolate candy covered cake on top of a chocolate cup.

I’ve never had these before and they were much richer, heavier and sweeter compared to the mini cupcakes and they were dangerously delicious. I wasn’t huge on the chocolate covered shell, but the cake was super dense and moist and almost like a brownie!

This was my favourite, but being that I’m a fan of almonds, it wasn’t that surprising. The cake tasted like a super moist and dense marzipan brownie. I wasn’t too keen on the white chocolate covered candy shell again, but the cake was great and so was the idea. Definitely a sweet ending to a fun and funny afternoon.

Working the FaceBox Media photo booth with the lovely @Cwistal.