[sometimes I'm a dreamer and sometimes my cat sits on my head friendly side first.
either way this site is a summons for all things quasi me.
READ: content is for my mental exercise only. It�s a gentle elliptical machine, not the real 5k. . .
route 4 to the seashore]
September 3, 2007 at 2:09 pm · Filed under chow notes
“come for the night, stay for the market”
12631 Vulcan Way, Richmond behind some huge taipei warehouse
So the manic feeling of summer exists at night in Richmond right by the Knight Street bridge on the water. It’s four rows of vendor tents stretching probably 1/4 mile each! That’s a lot of knock-off sunglasses, USB cable coffee mug warmers, and cheap jewelry. A good 1/4 of the vendor area is split into basically three rows of food vendors!!!
And it is meat on a stick haven! There’s beef skewers, pork shumai on sticks, lamb kabobs, chicken satay, sausages, fish and octopus balls on sticks…I even think I saw egg on a stick - any protein and it’s on a stick. Those not so keen on meat or skeptical of its quality, should know there are other options like recommended takoyaki - a batter ball filled with tako (octopus). it might be a bit undercooked, but worth a try. For the veggie friendly, there were a few veggie pancakes that were tasty along with the cocowater in a coconut and bubble tea drinks. For me, the highlight is shaved ice and all of the goodies you can get - then again, I’m on a litchi kick lately.
For big time meat-stick enthusiasts, the food goes from $2-3 per stick on down to the loonie range after 11:30pm. “stick around” if you dare. Be sure to try out the Dragon Beard’s candy too. Make sure you take a breath before you do though, chaser needed, it’s like eating desert - not dessert, desert.
i didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but the owner said to go in the back and hollar for the old man.
so I did…
and now I know. we hauled in 7.5lbs in an hour!
ching!
August 29, 2007 at 9:47 pm · Filed under chow notes
“beware the kiss of the buzzer”
#202 — 1833 Anderson St, south granville
hey it probably looks like i’ve been eating out all the dern time, but this is a series of overdue updates.
so just outside “the market tonsil” of granville, in what is basically a clustered strip mall sits a HUGE umbrella on the second floor - ever walk across granville bridge on the west side? you can’t miss it with it’s brown grass strips sticking out - that’s the horsemen, moved from fairview area to anderson which gets TONS of foot traffic - nice.
we had the pleasure of eating with buddies, and if you do, my recommendation is to get the room with pillows, sit on the floor and share a platter or two, take your time to eat and recline like a happy slob. careful not to get lamb drippings on your button down. oh yeah - order a buzzer - they bowl/giant lip cup with arm-length straws make it worth it. i kept thinking a belly dancer was going to burst in at any second, but that’s my amusement. the only difficult part about the place is having to stand up from the floor to leave! the baked eggplant and lamb shoulder make bellies happy.
August 29, 2007 at 8:38 pm · Filed under chow notes
“you’ll feel like you’re in a video game”
#132—4200 3 road, richmond
so this is a story of what happens when you are going to the airport late (after 9:30p), maybe arriving flight is delayed a bit, maybe luggage or *cough* c-ustoms is holding up your style a bit. you’re right near richmond yes? and with gas $50-60 a fill maybe it’s worth swerving over to the island-by-nature. well, if you find yourself in the quasi-cambie mess on 3 road, there is this little chinese bistro north of kusshi and hon’s and all of the others - spicy vegetarian cuisine.
i’m not going to say this place is a gem, infact i was tired and quite starving, so this should be taken into consideration. however, the restaurant was closed at 9:30 and we trickled by around 10:15p curious about a strictly vegetarian restaurant in richmond. i was totally expecting the “we’re closed just haven’t turned off the open sign” - there was only one other lady eating in there and she was chatting on her cell tell, sucking in air and burping quite a lot. instead we got a set of welcome smiles to come in and make ourselves at restaurant.
now here’s why i’m raving about this place. it was an hour after closing time. after we ordered our food and got drinks, the last lady in the place left which is usually when the service turns up their “i wanna go home we’re soddy closed” attitude, however it was contrare. i almost equate it to having a chef’s meal - we let them point out what was still good and they went to town. some shanghai noodles and cashew stir fry (with lots of mock ham and basil) we moved onto the recommended fried avocados - normally an appetizer, were sweetened and citrusized to form desert. it was very enjoyable, you could tell they were enjoying the fact that we were enjoying their food. enjoyment orgy.
the cashew dish was full of flavour and i recommend. it’s not fine dining here. there was a unique soundtrack that made me feel like i was in final fantasy vii upping my hit points ala river city ransom. the bathrooms probably had the cutest door signs i’ve seen - everything there was happy. and so full belly and with leftovers, i left a later dinner, satisfied and glad i didn’t suck down a bunch of grease.
so a plug for this place. it’s quaint and very conversiony feeling in there, no brownie points for fanciness, but most tables are set up for family style and the people who run the place deserve a raise.
August 27, 2007 at 8:59 pm · Filed under chow notes
“stuffed cabbage, really”
815 denman st, west west end
you can’t miss this one on denman! well, i had lunch with some mates there recently and would like to announce that lunch was under ten and they split the bill up! wOOt for interac! the cabbage rolls, however, were not splittable - infact they were dense - knife was needed. drinking soda from a straw while looking at an igloo of artifacts was spinny-fun though! and getting sprayed in the chest on a warm afternoon while waiting for my atm card to process was a bonus!
I did these up at a getogether and they did a’ight the orange inside surprise
- small piece of nice wild salmon, the wilder and more orange the better, skin off, bones out
- 1 sweet mango w/quasi orange flesh, skin off, token seed out
- 1/2 of a small red onion
- depending on your vibe 1 or 2 firm cloves of garlic
- a nice healthy dribble of toasted sesame oil
- a healthy pinch of salt
- a 3 second splash of soy sauce (like a tablespoon)
- a few shimmies of sugar
- IMPORTANT - about at least a sugarcube’s worth of fresh ginger
- a green scallion or onion
- a palm’s worth of fresh mint
- a palms’s worth of cilantro
- some panko bread crumbs do a good job of lightening it up a bit and sucking up leftover flavors
- the zest of a lime and small sprinkle of fish sauce if you wanna go nuts, or if you want spicy then add some red chili pepper flakes or small amount of fresh jalapeño.
so you take all of the above and chop up, maybe like finely chop the powbammers like the garlic and ginger and coarsely chop the other stuff (it’s all gonna get fried so it’s all good). you may want to marinate the salmon in the soy sauce and sesame oil before hand. toss it all up in a bowl and cover in the fridge while you do the next bit. if you forget anything it’s cool, but just take a mental taste of it before you put it away - it should be packed full o flavor!
the orange jacket
- 1 egg
- aboat 2 good size orange-as-the-sunset yams (nix sweet potato)
- another palm size bunch of mint and/or cilantro
- healthy pinch of salt and pepper
take either a box grater or mandolin slicer and basically grate the potato down into small strips, then grab another bowl. toss in the yams, and finely chopped greens, and the egg and mix it up a bit - you can squeeze together the strands of yam and they should be sticky and gooey but not soaked - if soaked, drain some of the yam juice, add another egg and/or panko bread crumbs.
then just layout a flat palm-size bit of the orange jacket, plop in a small mouth-size portion the orange surprise and squeeze into a ball. repeat. cover these balls in the fridge and let then chill out for a bit.
find some frying oil and fry them up good! they take a while to fry up, and they stay burning hot for a while, but are crunchy and tasty on the outside and savoury and of substance in the middle.
April 25, 2007 at 10:04 am · Filed under chow notes
…or as they say in Spain - ¿dónde está el amor?
as read here
no canadian restaurants made the leap onto restaurant magazine’s top 50 in the world for the 2007 list. not even in the next groupings of 50-100!
I guess as someone looking for the love up here in Canada, as well as being an avid fan of foodtv Canada, I’m surprisingly bummed about this.
I guess with Rob Feenie off selling out with White Spot, past Canadian winners “Eigensinn Farm” seems to have disappeared (at least from the media), and Susur Lee, chef of 2002’s listmaker “Susur”, seems to have also gone the lucrative celebrity route leaving his restaurants to fray.
There are good good food sources up here, more than just maple syrup and cured bacon, surely there should be a restaurant in the top 100! I’m not saying I could ever afford to eat at any of these restaurants, but still…
In the US - 7 (though I counted eight) restaurants made the list. here’s the breakdown by area incase you were thinking about moving.
Bay Area/Napa 11 (best in north america here)
New York City 1111 (trump eats good)
Chicago 11 (highest new entry here)
I’m going to go listen to Morissey songs and sulk.
Apparently, the most common topic that people searched for in the process of stumbling across this blog is the theme song from jamie oliver’s new cooking show jamie at home. so I’ll see if I can help with that.
here’s a photo of the artist (the other guy sans afro or hat)
theme song name: “My World” by Tim Kay (I’m fairly sure bout this, not postive*)
and here are the lyrics as I interpret them. enjoy.
take time to make yourself feel good
and you do whatever you want
cause you can now, in my world
make it up for losing so much time
cause you can now, in my world
the theme song is played at the very beginning of his show as well as during end credits. I also heard that a few more his songs are tucked into the podcasts on jamie’s website, free for download now.
Tim Kay sounds like a good guy. According to his myspace page, he plays free gigs at a hostel to raise awareness about homelessness related to a man named Tony who is homeless and tries to afford nightstay at this hostel. Good man, and good tune for the show and for jamie.
