With the plethora of awesome restaurants within walking distance of my home, I generally don't go twice to the same place within a few weeks, and I had just recently enjoyed a Kampachi dinner with friends, at Provence Marinaside. But my family visitors wanted to do brunch, and I had not had brunch at Provence in ages. So off we went, 5 adults, two kids and a baby in stroller.

Two years ago I was in Honolulu for a dance competition and took advantage of my brief time there to check out a small sample of the local restaurant scene (Fine Food in Honolulu). I love the simplicity and freshness of raw fish in its myriad forms whether called sashimi, crudo or carpaccio, marinated as in ceviche, or dressed with other ingredients as in poke, so my eyes inevitably sought out the sashimi options on the menus. At home one of my favorite sashimi choices has always been hamachi, usually called yellowtail here.

At the 12th Annual ChefmeetsBCGrape event, 9 of BC's top restaurant chefs created small plates, each paired with a BC wine for the sipping and supping pleasure of the very large crowd in attendance. As well there were 80 different wineries offering tastings. Jointly hosted by the British Columbia Wine Institute and the Arts Club Theatre Company this was a fund-raiser for the Arts Club.

Since I seldom eat breakfast out on weekdays and my mid-morning meetings tend to be at coffee shops rather than at full service restaurants, I didn't know that Provence Marinaside serves breakfasts.  But searching for a location in walking distance from home, with a water view for a celebratory and farewell breakfast with family, I found out that Provence Marinaside is open from from 8 am to 10:30 pm and has a great breakfast menu.