Interview with Melody Fury of GourmetFury.com

I had the great fortune of having an interview with Melody Fury of GourmetFury.com.  Melody is the founder of The Original Vancouver Food Tour and is a professional Vancouver food blogger (and a true inspiration for foodies like myself). She was awarded (among others) Local Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011 and Best Local Blog 2011 by The Westender.  She has also appeared on television numerous times, including Urban Rush, has been published in several cookbooks and has contributed to The Province, 24 Hours, Tourism Vancouver and many others.  Her most recent contribution is to Mainly Main Magazine. 

Melody’s interest in food started as a young age with cooking with her family, who is very food oriented.  She also has a writing background and majored in English, so the natural progression to writing about food was inevitable, as was starting her own business in culinary tourism.

Melody’s company, Vancouver Food Tour, offers high-end tours of local restaurants and best-kept secrets in Vancouver and Salt Spring Island.   However, these tours are so much more than a few drinks and tasty dishes.  What makes Vancouver Food Tours so unique is that it is suitable for locals AND visitors.  It provides them with a local’s perspective on the city.

Melody Fury

“When we get it going, it’s more like just a bunch of friends having fun touring around the city, eating and drinking, and we try to provide that kind of friendly, local kind of experience.  And we like to feature places that we personally would go to on a regular basis, and they really get to see the personalities behind all of the destinations and get to experience it as anyone would, any Vancouverite would.”

Vancouver Food Tour also provides customized, self-guided tours for those who want a specific kind of food or specific area of the city or want to go at their own pace.

“When I travel sometimes, I have a hard time doing all the research for where I want to eat, and I don’t want to feel like I’ve missed out on anything.  And that’s the purpose of the self-guided tour.  We customize it according to preference, and also we arrange it so it’s easy for people to, say, get from one place to the next by walking.  And you give them the insider’s tips on all the places like what to order, who to talk to, what to see around the places.  So it’s a much richer experience than, say, going on Yelp and trying to find all the four star places and going in blindly that way.”

Much of Melody’s local fame comes from her blog, gourmetfury.com.   I asked Melody what are the key ingredients to a great/successful blog that sets itself apart from all the rest.

“It’s a real voice rather than something generic.  I know some blogs are pretty generic, and you go, ‘Here is where I went, blah, blah, blah.’  I like to engage my readers by really showing them who I am as a personality, and they can give me feedback and I’ll respond.  And that is me as a person.  So that for one.  And secondly, I’m more of a quality-over-quantity person, so I’d rather put out a really good post than a bunch of filler posts. But at the same time, being busy sometimes I can’t blog as often as I’d like to.  But, yeah, I would say those two.  It’s just qualityand being a real, true voice, a real person, somebody that people can relate to and sometimes even being a little bit controversial if need be to engage people in discussion and conversations.”

Melody is incredibly busy with the business, the blog, her friends and family and travelling between Vancouver and Texas on a regular basis.  I asked her if it’s been a challenge finding that balance between personal life and career, as I’m sure many busy career women and active moms in Vancouver can relate.

“I used to have a real problem with balancing because I would feel like I have to do everything now at the immediate moment, but I’ve learned over time that some things can just wait and the world’s not going to end if I don’t do it right away.”

“My personal life I’ve learned over time is exponentially more important than say putting a blog post up for example, whatever obligations I have to do.  So I prioritize because I prioritize people that are important to me and the things that truly bring me fulfillment.  And not to say my career isn’t important; it’s just being responsible and diligent in what I have to do but not letting that rule my life.”

Sage advice I think.

The Lions

As Vancouverites we see so many restaurants, bars and cafes come and go all the time.  I asked Melody what she saw as the essential thing food businesses need to be doing to stand the test of time.  She believes that service is number one.

“A lot of people say it.  They’ll say, ‘I would come back if the service was a little bit better’ or ‘the food is good, but the service wasn’t great.’  So people don’t feel that draw to come back.   I also would forgive a place if their food isn’t top notch if the service is so awesome and I love the people that are behind it and I see that they’re working hard.  I want to support them.  So I think service is definitely number one.  I love it when the owners put themselves to the forefront and they’ll say, hey, this is me; this is what I’m trying to do; this is what I’m trying to accomplish, rather than just having again a generic presentation.  For example, a lot of the chains, I don’t visit those chains because I have no connection to those places.  And so I think that’s really important.”

Melody became another girl after my heart when she went on to talk about the importance of restaurants being transparent in terms of where they source their food and whether they are partnering with other food businesses, who their meat provider or bakery is.

“… being as transparent as possible makes a consumer feel at ease they’re spending their money there and knowing that it’s going toward something that they value.”

Melody’s biggest strength I think is her ability to find these great little hidden gems.  I asked her for some tips and tricks for the hungry consumer that wants to find a great place on the fly without spending a fortune.  Her advice?

“Try it.  Just try it.  Don’t be phased.  Try anything.  Don’t be phased by how a place looks on the outside. What Vancouver has is we sell in our ethnic cuisine, absolutely.  And a lot of these places, they’re not going to look good, and that for me a lot of times is a sign that the food’s really good because they don’t spend the money on décor and making the place look fancy.  I would say just learning how to spot authentic restaurants.  And once you know what an authentic menu looks like, then I could just look at the menu and know whether or not I want to eat there.  ‘Authentic’ being that they’re not just trying to throw everything that they can possibly make onto a menu but really focusing on what they’re good at and even if language is a barrier, just talking to them and saying, hey, what is this? And figuring out what it is and just trying it out.”

She admits there will be some trial and error, but talking with friends for tips and recommendations is a great way to exchange information.  That’s essentially how Melody and the other judges at the Chinese Restaurant Awards did it.  They bounced notes off each other and discussed who had tried what little hidden gem where and whatnot.

Lastly I asked Melody what is in store for her in the near future.  She got a little mysterious tone in her voice and revealed that she does have some surprises in store but that she is keeping them “under wraps.”  She will say, though, that she will be putting more attention to her food photography portfolio since the writing has been the focus thus far.  The readers can also expect to see more of Texas in the near future as well!

Yay!   (Or should I say “yeehaw!”)

Melody loves connecting with anyone with a passion for food, so feel free to ask her any questions via blog, Facebook or Twitter and book a tour with Vancouver Food Tour.  She made a point of letting me know they do lots of stagettes and really know how to show the ladies a good time!

Raw pizza

And I shall leave this article with a few food shots from my own dinner post-interview-with-Melody and her advice to “just try it.”  I had the fortune of checking out Indigo Food Cafe, which is on 16th Avenue just east of MacDonald in Kitsilano.  The cafe is owned by Lovena Galyide, who is a certified raw vegan chef and instructor.  Everything in the cafe is organic, and all food and supplies are researched and chosen personally by Lovena.  After 7:30 on Fridays and Saturdays, the cafe hosts live music to entertain the guests.  Lovena endeavors to continually educate herself with the gurus in the raw food industry and also offers classes for the public to learn about raw food.

For dinner, I had the raw pizza special.  The crust is done with dehydrators at a low temperature to preserve the nutrients and not overheat (and therefore destroy) them.  Most raw pizza toppings include sundried tomato and other yummy veggies.

Rose arugula salad

Enchilada

My friends’ dinners included a rosewater arugula salad and corn flax enchiladas.

Berry cheesecake

For dessert I had the berry cheesecake, while my friends had chocolate truffles and double-layered berry/chocolate mousse.

Berry chocolate mousse

The flavours were deliciously intense and satisfying, although my friends did comment the next day that they had felt hungry towards bedtime later on.  To me, that just says we should have had bigger/more desserts…  and by that, I mean more protein of course

I myself  had made the decision a short while ago to become certified as a raw vegan chef with Lovena and will be blogging about my journey in accomplishing that as well.   As I become more versed in the art of combining and preparing raw foods for health and vitality, I will be gladly sharing my experiences and perhaps some of my own conjured-up recipes … if you ask nicely, that is!

My first class is raw desserts.  Imagine eating rich cheesecake, mousse and truffles like we had for dinner but at home and whenever you want …  AND getting healthy while doing so!  I think my friends were just as excited as I was that I would be learning these since I invariably always need taste testers at my house on weekends when I do my big blog cooking (or uncooking in this case).

Indigo Cafe is at 2589 West 16th Avenue in Kitsilano and reservations (recommended for dinner Fridays and Saturdays) can be made at 604-568 6549.

Cheers and good eats,

Silver

***I love showcasing local food establishments, food products, food services and food businesses and the amazing people behind them. I’m always looking for people to feature in my articles, so don’t hesitate to contact me; I’d love to tell your story!***