Wine Country

Tomorrow I head off on a much needed and well-deserved (if I do say so myself) vacation that includes a bit of time in the Okanagan, which is beautiful wine country as nice as I've seen anywhere. I've been to vineyards in Europe (Germany and France), Australia (both Victoria and South Australia), and Washington State; the Okanagan has places that are every bit as nice as those locales. To be sure, they are different experiences, but they all have a certain conviviality and joie de vivre about them.

Part of the pleasure of going to wine country is sampling. One blog I particularly enjoy reading talked about wine tastings and asked "what wine tasting type are you?" I laughed when I read it since I've seen all those types at various wine and food events I've been to; it was the laugh of recognition. I myself like to live in mostly in the Happy Drinker category, but I also have enough interest about wines and personal edification that I am also frequently to be found in the Student group.

I don't know how many wineries we might get to with a 16 month old in tow, but I will at least be able to report back on Tinhorn Creek as we'll be spending a few nights in their guest facilities.

BC has come a long way with their wines and indeed, there are some truly spectacular wines to be had.

Soup!

As I mentioned yesterday, I made veal stock. I ended up with 17 liters of it when all was said and done.

Stock is a wonderful thing. It’s amazingly versatile. You can cook rice or vegetables in it and they will taste richer without having added any fat or many calories. It’s a great base for sauces of all kinds, and I love what Bourdain calls dinosaur sauces (the old fashioned kind with a roux base).

Best of all though, I now have plenty of stock to keep me going this fall and winter with soup; nothing like a nice bowl of hot soup on a cold wet rainy slimy day in late autumn.

I won’t even resist the pun – my freezer’s well stocked!

Memphis Blues

If you like barbecue, as in slow cooked southern style ribs and all the fixings, then run, don’t walk, to Memphis Blues. They have two locations, one on Broadway near Granville (east of Granville), and one on Commercial Drive north of 1^st. I live closer to the latter and although the former is the original restaurant, I think the latter does it better. Don’t know why that should be, but there you go.

Memphis Blues is not a place to be a vegetarian. Everything has meat in it. The collard greens (the one thing I’ve tried there I haven’t liked) have meat in them. The beans have meat. The coleslaw and potato salad don’t have meat, but I wouldn’t risk feeding it to a vegetarian even so. It’s a carnivore’s paradise!

If you’re on your own, I highly recommend the classic pulled pork sandwich with all the trimmings. If you’re feeding a small group (4 say), get the Memphis platter, which has a sampling of everything – sausage, ribs, short ribs, roast chicken, pulled pork, beef brisket, beans, corn bread, seasoned fries, coleslaw, potato salad, and barbecue sauce. Larger groups, say 6-8 will get by with the Elvis platter, which is the Memphis platter with double the meat.

The food there is delicious! Serve with lots of beer and a stack of napkins.

M^HTaking Stock

Today is a warm day. Notwithstanding the heat, I'm making veal stock today using the Cajun cooker I bought for the deep fried turkey. So as the stock simmers happily outside, I'm inside enjoying a quiet afternoon.

It's funny, but having taken the trouble to attend my 20th high school reunion, I've been thinking about what the heck I've managed to accomplish since those days of potential, when theoretically all options were open to me...

I started an engineering degree, which turned into a comp sci degree, which turned into giving up on the university experience altogether, although that in itself took several years and many thousands of dollars. No surprise really; although I had graduated high school with honours, looking at my transcript from those days, all my A's were in literature, French, German, English, ... and all my B's were in computer science, math, physics, chemistry... Let's just say that my undergrad grades from those days were atrocious.

I had a series of part and full time jobs doing things that were interesting and fun; at one point I had one full time night job and two extensive part time jobs at the same time. There was one week where I went literally from one to the next with no break in between followed by a scant opportunity to sleep, and culminated with a sleep of the dead.

I muddled along happily enough.

But then I had enough of just muddling along and decided to go back to school. I'd picked the program I wanted to do at UCFV in Abbotsford, was making plans on how I was going to pitch it to my parents whose basement I would have had to live in for the duration, even though it would have meant a commute from their place in Chilliwack.

That was right around the time opportunity knocked and I damn ripped the door off its hinges to let it in; I was hired by a high tech company in Vancouver in the winter of 1998, a balmy west coast February, and they required me to have a BA but as part of the benefits package, paid for it.

Life's been pretty rosy ever since. Finished the BA with honours in 2002. Got married a month after graduation to TOIL (the one I love :-). Was laid off by the company that brought me to Vancouver in September and was still an official employee there the day my current employer hired me. Bought a home in Vancouver four or five months after that. Delighted father of a beautiful daughter a touch over a year after that. Started graduate school when she was four months old. I'm looking forward to her being one of the cute little kids that hands their parents flowers when they walk off the podium after getting their degree.

So here I am, making a lovely veal stock, living a modest lifestyle in the beautiful city of Vancouver, working for a high tech company with an education degree and working on a liberal arts masters.

La vie est belle.

A Poetic Salad

This little gem popped into my mailbox today…

Recipe for a Salad
Sydney Smith

To make this condiment your poet begs
The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs;
Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen seive,
Smoothness and softness to the salad give.
Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And, half-suspected, animate the whole.
Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,
Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;
But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault
To add a double quantity of salt;
Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,
And twice with vinegar procur'd from town;
And lastly o'er the flavour'd compound toss
A magic soupcon of anchovy sauce.
Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;
Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,
And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl!
Serenely full, the epicure would say,
`Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.

Pondok Indonesia

To celebrate the rain finally coming to give a break to the seemingly and I might add unusually endless series of hot days, we ordered out for dinner. Around the corner from us is a place called Pondok; we've been meaning to try then out ever since we moved into the neighborhood.

I can say I'm sorry I waited so long! While three dishes (satay chicken, a spicy beef stew, and mixed vegetables, plus two orders of rice) came to almost $40, it was an ample quantity for the two of us and it was all delicious.

The satay particularly impressed me - this was no simple peanut butter based peanut sauce but rather a rich complex sauce that kept my palate guessing as to the next flavour that would burst onto my tongue.

The beef stew (Rendang Sapi) was hot, but not the burning heat of chilis like you might get from Szechuan cuisine; while it packed the same punch, the other herbs and seasonings in the dish mitigated the chili oil and left a pleasant taste and feeling behind.

Even the mixed vegetables were exceptionally flavourful and cooked just so.

Highly recommended and a new favourite local locale!

"You haven't changed a bit!"

So my 20th high school reunion was last Friday, and I had a really good time. I took the 3pm ferry to Victoria, and a good thing I'd made a reservation as there was a one sailing wait already. I went stright to my friend J's house (his wedding was in 1991, so my memory's not that bad) and had fun chatting with his wife L and their two very sweet kids.

As we were heading out, J's daughter asked "why do you have to go out again?"
J: We're going to a reunion.
E: What's a reunion?
J: Your mother can tell you all about it, but it's a meeting for people who knew each other once upon a time.

The event was at Swans, which is one of the brewpubs in Victoria.

I had a great time. I reconnected with a few people who were in the "I wonder what happened to..." camp, and had my general curiosity satisfied about how everyone turned out. Of the roughly 50 people who turned up, most were married, some were divorced, many had kids but not all. Several people were, like me, doing a masters degree of one kind or another. In short, results you might expect from a random group of people if you were to do a study.

Kierkegaard said "Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward."

What surprised me the most was how far some people had come to attend. From Vancouver, it's a plausible trip, but people had come from various cities in Alberta and as far away as Saskatchewan.

Of course, despite being 20 years older, everyone kept saying, as they recognized yet another face "You haven't changed a bit!"

That's why we go to reunions. Because for just a brief slice of time, we get to revisit the fork in the road...

To Boldly Go...

Tonight I’m heading to Victoria for my 20^th high school reunion.

If you asked me why, I would be hard pressed to give you an answer save perhaps “I missed the 10 year reunion”, which happened while I was still living in Victoria.

So why am I going?

There’s a series of documentary films, the first of which is called “7 Up!” In 1964, the filmmaker took a group of children, all age 7, and has since revisited them every seven years to see where they are. I watched “35 Up” and it compelling viewing, even though I didn’t know any of the people being documented.“ 42 Up” is the latest and possibly final installment.

So, if nothing else, I’m curious as to how other people turned out. High school at the time I experienced it was a pressure cooker. Every situation was the Most Important Life Event Thing Ever™! Everything that happened was writ large; of course, the perspective of time makes one realize that high school is merely a phase in life, and a rather insignificant one at that.

Of the 203 grads of 1985, there’s only one with whom I have anything one might call regular contact; I was best man at his wedding oh so many years ago (1990? 91? See, I can’t even remember), and we exchange Christmas emails and birth announcements. That’s roughly the extent of it. My good friend S who’s back in town at Emily Carr is a friend from high school days, but he graduated the year before me.

The woman who was our student council president in 1985 is organizing this 20^th reunion; as I browsed through my yearbook last night before bed, reading the little blurbs beside photos of the grads of 2005, I noticed next to her entry that she hoped to become the first female prime minister of Canada. I said I wanted to “design a popular computer” and “make gobs of money”.

And yet, here I go, to meet people who are essentially strangers to see how their lives turned out. I wasn't one of the popular kids in school; indeed, I was one of the nerdy geeks in the enriched program.

Oh well; it’s being held at Swans, a fabulous brewpub I frequented while I was still living in Victoria. If nothing else, the beer will be good!

Cheese Please!

“How can anyone be expected to govern a country with 325 cheeses?”

– General Charles De Gaulle

I love cheese. Among the many things my ancient French genetics have contributed, it’s my liking of all kinds of cheese, everything from hard cheeses like Gruyere and Gouda, to runny Camembert and soft Brie and the deliciously creamy Brillat-Savarin, to the really smelly cheeses like Roquefort and Livarot and Munster.

A couple summer ago, I made an off hand remark that my wife may never let me forget; I said BC cheeses “weren’t there yet”.

She took this to mean I didn’t care for the cheese she had asked me to purchase, but that was not it at all. At the time, the artisan cheese industry in BC was still in its youth; in start up mode you could say. They were producing all manner of things, experimenting and developing flavours for consumption by an eager public. While it was all a lot of fun to try these early efforts, compared to what you could get in Quebec (not that you can buy Quebec cheese here by and large, and a pity it is too) it was nothing special; and in terms of bang for the buck, it was hard for a BC soft cheese to compare to a soft cheese like Le Coutances from France when the latter not only tasted better but also cost less than the former!

Today, two summers later, I am happily eating those words – BC cheese has arrived. Every Saturday at the Farmer’s Market I’m buying curd (as good as anything I ever had in my youth in la belle province) from Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, who also make a very nice Brie and what they call Qualicum Spice, which is a Gouda style cheese infused with garlic, onion, and bell pepper. I love the Tiger Blue from Poplar Grove in the Okanagan. I like the sheep and goat cheeses that are available now too.

Prices for the local cheeses are also now very competitive with the imported stuff, the effect of both maturation of the industry and the strength of the Canadian dollar relative to the Euro.

BC truly is a foodie's paradise.

The Trout Lake Farmer’s Market on Saturdays usually has two cheese makers on site, but most of these cheeses are available from either La Grotta del Formaggio on Commercial Drive or at Les Amis du Fromage on 2^nd between Fir & Burrard.

A Liberal Education

One of the joys of a liberal education, and the term is being used here in the classic context of an interdisciplinary broad based schooling, is that you get to explore ideas, topics, and places that are not part of ones usual quotidian experience.

In the GLS program at SFU, they usually have a travel-study course during the summer. This year, a group went to Italy and Switzerland following the trail of the poet Shelley (among other things).

Next May, a group is going to Scotland – Islay, Isle of Skye, and Edinburgh (and points in between). My wife is keen on the idea, the prof escorting the trip has said my family is welcome to come along, my boss has said I can take the time off, and I get credit toward my degree. Three weeks sampling scotch, talking about literature, visiting sites with a professor who's contributing erudite lectures, I don’t think a liberal education gets better than that!

The Hundred Mile Diet Part Three

The Tyee has an ongoing series called the Hundred Mile Diet; they recently posted the third installment.

The third installment was one I quite enjoyed and could feel kinship with – YES! Finally talking about what’s possible and available locally instead of ranting about the evils of fossil fuels and globalization (both of which are facts of life, like gravity).

Peach season is finally upon us, the tail end of cherry and blueberry season is overlapping this nicely, and there is a bounty of fresh local produce available.

It’s a great time of year!

And once the local fruits and vegetables fade into fall and winter, we’ll start buying bananas and oranges again. Because they’ll be in season, even if they’re not local.

As I Please II...

After nearly a month of houseguests, first my friend S who stayed with us for two and a half weeks followed quickly by my in-laws for the past nine days, we finally have the house back to ourselves. I think it’ll take the next two weeks to recover enough to be fit to go on vacation at the end of the month. Sociable as I am, I am at heart an introvert and need some away-from-everyone time to recharge…

Why I Hate Buffets

Last Wednesday, there was a BBQ held at MOA for the ChemEd 2005 conference. Since my father in law and my wife were both presenting, and my father in law’s friend had a booth at the show, yours truly was a “registered participant” at the event so we all went.

ChemEd is an event for Chemistry teachers. From the outside looking in, I can’t say I was impressed with the event – the session my wife participated ostensibly for two hours when in fact it ended up only being booked for one hour and she had to do all the running around to change rooms an so forth when it wasn’t even her responsibility to do so. However, nobody else seemed interested in taking up the torch… Sigh.

Anyways, the BBQ…

The BBQ was of the usual variety – many buffet tables set up with food and a server at the end doling out the freshly grilled salmon.

The food was quite good, but it was definitely cattle call. There was a rush for seating and we didn’t sit with anyone we knew (not that we knew anyone anyways), there was a line for the food, there was negotiating two plates of food among the gaggle to get back to where my wife and daughter were. URGH!!!

I far prefer table service. I like to relax at my meals.

Culinary Capers

Saturday was a great day from a culinary perspective. My folks came for lunch to see their granddaughter (and visit with us and my in-laws) so I made pizza on the grill.

Pizza on the grill is really quite easy. You need pizza dough (of course), and whatever toppings you care to put on the pizza. We had pepperoni, green peppers, mushrooms, grated mozzarella, pizza sauce, thinly sliced onion, slivers of smoked side bacon from the JN&Z deli and sour cream with nutmeg. The latter three ingredients are for a favourite of mine, the classic Alasace tarte flambée.

To make pizza on the grill you need to make small pizza crusts about half a centimeter thick. Get your grill nice and hot, brush the crust with olive oil, and put it on. It will puff up, so be prepared to deflate it by poking it with your grill tongs. After a few minutes, brush the top with olive oil, flip it over, work quickly to put on your toppings (and only use a thin layer of them, otherwise they won’t cook) and then close the lid. After a few minutes, you have lovely thin crust pizza.

It’s easy, delicious, and will impress your guests. It’s also rustic enough to make a nice communal meal outdoors.

Deep Fried Turkey

Saturday night, I finally made use of the Cajun Cooker I’d bought at Magnet Hardware (it’s the Home Hardware on Commercial Drive) and deep-fried a turkey.

Let me begin with the end result – it was DELICIOUS!!! I’ve never had turkey that moist and juicy before. It was not at all greasy.

Now for the sequence of events… I bought everything I needed, oil, bird, potatoes for fries, and prepped it all. I started heating the oil a little after 4pm, anticipating a 5:30 or so frying… Well, it didn’t work out that way.

I think I need a more powerful burner – the one that came with the kit is a 70K BTU burner, and full out, the oil was rising about 2F every minute. One error was blanching the fries (using the approved Anthony Bourdain Les Halles method) since that caused some water to get into the oil and it took a lot of heat energy to evaporate it off.

It then took a while for the oil to get hot. Once it got to about 330F, the room temperature turkey was lowered into the oil. The oil bubbled happily around the turkey, but the temperature dropped and dropped and dropped some more until it got to 225F and stayed there.

The end result of all this was that the turkey took the 3-3.5 minutes per pound to cook, as advertised; it browned beautifully; it was absolutely delicious! The skin was only crispy in some places, but also fabulous.

There were nine of us feasting that night. Much Riesling was drunk, a beet and potato salad was devoured, a green salad likewise, and the fries, well, they’re an experiment for another day (and in small batches on the stovetop methinks!)

More importantly, it was a lot of FUN! Who knew you could entertain so many people with a boiling pot of oil?

Cats and Turkey

My cat is profoundly fond of turkey, and so, it turns out, was the young female kitten that came to visit while we were sitting outside on Saturday night.

I can only assume she is the cat of someone who moved into the neighborhood recently, as the 1^st would have been moving day and it’s common practice to keep your cat indoors for a week to get used to its surroundings before you let it out. However, she had no collar.

Last night, she came to visit again, and even snuck into the garage, apparently to settle for the night, and after we managed to extract her, found an open window to climb through (sneaking past my cat who’d chased her off Saturday morning when he saw her on the deck) and found my wife and I upstairs!

I put her out, but if she’s around again tonight, I’m going to fill the litter box in the garage and keep her safe until her owners can be found…

Taking Stock

Now that the Great Turkey Experiment has been completed, I need to figure out how to clean the pot – a 30qt pot doesn’t exactly fit in the sink. I have over 40lbs of veal bones and about 10lbs of chicken backs taking up space in my freezer and I’m out of stock of any kind! Inconceivable!

Stock is just convenient to have around. It’s easy to make, but it takes time to simmer and do its thing. It’s also summertime and it’s been very hot lately. Finally, stock is something that is best made in big batches.

As time permits in the near future, I’ll be making stock, outdoors, where it can simmer away happily without turning the house into a sauna.

Veal stock is particularly good as it has a very neutral flavour and is fabulous in both soups and sauces. With such an excess of riches in veal bones, I’m even going to make some demi-glace.

Vancouver’s New Landfill

On Sunday morning I went for a ride around the Stanley Park sea wall. As the summer’s progressed, I’ve been getting fitter and able to sustain a better speed; yesterday I managed to shave 10 minutes off my usual time (admittedly, I was in “workout” mode rather than my usual sightseeing one). Since I was driving my in-laws to the airport later that morning, I was underway before 7am.

As I went past English Bay, it occurred to me that Vancouver doesn’t need to find new landfill site, they could simply use the beach. The amount of garbage on the beach and sidewalks was absolutely disgusting. Even though the city crews had already been working for an hour, they had barely put a dent in the massive amounts of plastic bags and empty 7-11 cups and Subway wrappers.

And on a tangential note, how long does a “temporary detour” need to be in place before it’s actually deemed permanent? More importantly, how long should one tolerate private interests usurping public property?

On the stretch spanning roughly from Plaza of Nations to a little past the Granville Bridge, the Seawall cycle path has been on permanent “detour” for over a year now. The latter stretch is understandable as there has been ongoing condo tower construction. At least there, when they finish various phases, they have made the path accessible and they have even installed pavement to link up a segment that’s currently blocked by construction fencing.

Plaza of Nations is more disturbing however. The Edgewater Casino is there now, and the event planners there have seen fit to extend the modular fencing right to the edge of the retaining wall, thus forcing any pedestrian and cycle traffic out onto Pacific Boulevard. I want my public space back!

Deep Fried Goodness

Today is the day! An experiment in silliness, I bought a Cajun cooker - a device one uses to do, among other silly things, deep fried whole turkeys!

After spending the time and effort to acquire all the bits, we're going to have some friends over to join in on the silliness and eat turkey and pommes frites.