Hiphop, raw white chocolate mousse, interval training, falafels, pilates, lucuma caramel, black truffles, Thai summer rolls with red bean-coconut dipping sauce, and boxing match-style hooting and hollering turned this friendly cooking competition in a bar in the Village into a Saturday night all-out, no-holds-barred vegan happening. Who won? Find out after the jump...

Last Saturday Midnight Poutine got its BBQ on at Parc Jeanne-Mance. To celebrate the 300th Midnight Poutine podcast, started back in 2006 by a duo of indie music devotees, we invited our closest friends (you) to come hang out in a park with us, eat some sausages and poutine waffles from our incredible sponsors, strum a little guitar, rock some old-school hiphop on an actual ghetto-blaster (yeah, it dates from pre-2006, but we're over it), do a little slack-lining, have a couple drinks and do what every good Montrealer does on a Saturday afternoon in a park - be happy it's summer in our beautiful city.

Local restaurants serving up gourmet bites and bartenders pouring local beers, cocktails and wine tastings while all-unplugged acoustic folk acts including Mia Verko, Ronley Teper, Ben Hermann and Saxsyndrum rock the crowd at a sunny Plateau park - Sounds good? Throw in some local non-profits including the Native Women's Shelter reaching out for volunteers and support and you've got yourself one heck of a good cause.

There's a really good reason to go to Pointe-Claire. I didn't have to bike or brave gridlock to take advantage of it, though. All I had to do was stand on my head to enjoy a vegan, mostly organic, gluten-free feast at Yocomo's Yoga Festival Montreal a few weeks ago. But YOU! You should go to Pointe-Claire. Here's why...

"Those vegans are at it again," said one high and mighty carnivore about the upcoming Vegan Rumble and Shake at Le Drugstore on June 15th at 8:30pm.

The schtick: ChuChai, Crudessence and Green Panther get a little bit of time, a boxing match style atmosphere, and some awesome DJ music at a new cool spot in the Village to come up with 300 appetizers for the crowd of soon-to-be-dancing vegetarians and omnivores. Attendees sign-up for to support of the three teams. Then the chefs will recruit assistants to help them assemble the dish.

Prizes: All fifteen recruited helpers (five per team) receive a prize - Twelve prizes with a value of two hundred dollars will be given including extravagant dinners, free sports and dance training, organic vegetable baskets and food tours as well as three prizes of a value of $75: food, food and more food.

After the 'Rumble' comes the tasting and the 'Shake' (dancing).

There's a new kid on the maple block. Actually, there's a family. Quebec is pushing its new maple product - water. Slightly sweet, it's being marketed as a refreshing, hydrating drink and gourmet product. But I sampled the maple water of two companies, Oviva and Seva, and was scratching my head trying to figure out how to use such a gently flavoured water. It would need to be for something where maple syrup wouldn't work, diluted or undiluted. What I came up with: