no fruit left behind
Well, hello internets. It has been a while. A year, give or take, and I’ve since eaten all of my tomatoes and then a few more. I guess the thing about food is that to write about it one really should be inspired. And summer is the best time for foodspiration. And well, for all things good for that matter.
In the last year a few notable things have occurred. We moved two floors up and now see much more sunshine. We’ve ventured to new waterfalls, trails and hot springs in British Columbia. We sampled much of the wines of the beautiful Okanagan. We went to an Olympic curling match. I got a job as a baker that I thoroughly enjoy. And we’ve had a bevy of wonderful visits from wonderful visitors.
And indeed, now after a frightful and rainy start, summer is here and with it wonderful, colorful, perfect summer foods.
I have a bad habit of buying massive amounts of said wonderful, colorful, perfect foods and then storing them in anticipation of the perfect dish… just to see a day too late that they’ve since grown moldy in my fridge. Today, to ward off such unfortunate realizations I am baking a “no fruit left behind” crisp.
Maybe you know this already, but fruit crisps are amazingly delicious. Perhaps more importantly they are amazingly easy.
This one contains:
About 6 cherries
A handful or two of blueberries
As much as I could salvage from a wrinkling mango
Maybe 10 wee raspberries
Two shriveling apricots
So I mixed these delicious things together with some orange marmalade to coat them. A bit of flour to absorb some of the juiciness and some grated ginger and fresh chopped mint.
For the crumble I used some maple granola, cornmeal, a bit of whole wheat flour and butter. Mix until it is crumbly and the butter is evenly distributed. Dump on top and bake for about 20 minutes
.
There is the old saying “easy as pie!” but pie really is not that easy. It may go down easy enough, but getting crust right can be a darn tricky business.
So there you are. Easy as crisp
!
Tomato Overload
It has been a while since my last post but that is because I have been so very busy enjoying Vancouver in the summertime. I was told it would be lovely, but admittedly I was not quite expecting it to be this perfect. But for the last few days of unacceptable summer temperatures( < 70F), this heat-loving, sun-sipping girl has been happier than a California Raisin in a conga line.
Yes, while friends and family have been suffering under the blanket of an unusually cool and wet summer in the East, we here have been having picnics on the beach, margaritas on our porch, camping trips, ocean dips and most importantly, the beautiful fruit and veg bounty of summertime.
While all this sun and fun is great, sometimes it goes a bit to my head. In a vitamin D overdosed weekend , I bought several pounds of beautiful tomatoes on 3 separate occasions over the course of three days. Imagine my surprise when I realized tomatoes were magically multiplying in my home. And none from my numerous barren tomato plants on my back patio.
There are endless numbers of things one can do with an abundance of tomatoes and I am sure you all have been here before; over buying at the farmer’s market in a panicked rush of zealous, vegetable-loving euphoria. Veggie overloads calls for creativity. Whether you deliver daily zucchinis to your coworkers or decide to delve into the forgotten art of canning, we food folk will find a way to put summer harvests to good use. And slowly but surely we are working through our accidental tomato bounty, and the first of my many meals was what I will call ‘Bruschetta Salad’.
This salad is divinely simple and perfectly delicious. You need several large ripe tomatoes, 4 oz of fresh mozzarella, a handful of basil leaves and some day-old sourdough bread.
Wash and dice the tomatoes and mozzarella and put in a large bowl. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Add coarsely chopped basil and a few slices of cubed sourdough bread and finis! Let the salad marinate for a half an hour or so at room temperature. (In fact, don’t ever refrigerate your tomatoes if you don’t have to.) The sourdough bread will soak up a lot of the flavor of the tomato-balsamic juices.
We paired this salad with some lightly sauteed garden fresh zucchini with lemon, butter and pepper. Add a glass of dry white wine or a crisp Peroni and what a perfect summer meal.
The Question of Organic
Sure we would all love to buy only organic, locally grown, hand picked produce, seasoned only with the sweat from the brow of the ruggedly handsome farmer as he shakes the damp earth loose, golden muscles glistening under a setting red sun. Unfortunately, here in Vancouver we have barely even seen the sun for the last 6 months and any farmers willing to break their backs in the cold and wet probably aren’t selling what we are needing for dinner tonight.
I, like many of you, know and hate that the songbirds are dying in Central America due to our obtuse consumption of out of season veggies that are mass produced using harmful chemicals. But sometimes beggars just can’t be choosers. And, especially of late, many of us are feeling a much closer bond to those raggedly folks on the street corners holding out their hands for spare change.
Just where can you get a break on food prices in Vancouver? I was shocked at the prices of basic goods when I moved out here from Boston, a city not known for inexpensive anything. Flour, eggs, sugar, milk… all of the pantry basics are so much pricier than I could believe. And buying organic adds another 20% to my bill. Sometimes we just can’t make it work. And yes, we will feel the guilt with each pestacized bite of overly shiny apple.
We can’t always get what we want.
If I can’t always have organic then at least I want cheap. So you can imagine my extreme elation at discovering the lovely gem of a market that it Sunrise Grocery. No, their produce is not organic, but yes I can buy 12 items that will provide me with nutrients for a week that one organic yam will cost at a downtown market.
Tucked down a side street between Gastown and Chinatown, Sunrise was the answer to my prayers for inexpensive produce. As a vegetarian I will not speak for their meat and fish department, though they do have one, but their produce, while not being the very best quality, is plentiful and 50-70% cheaper than your city grocery store. Though you may have to fight off old Chinese ladies for a highly sought after shopping basket, Sunrise will provide you with most of what you need from any grocery outing, in record time. The shelves are packed close together, and the patrons there shop with determination. Sunrise is not for the faint of heart, and not for the grocery browsers— those of us who perhaps enjoy a leisurely saunter through the aisles of $100 olive oil. No, Sunrise has a time limit, and even if you don’t have what you came for, after ten minutes you will have a basket full of produce and Asian delicacies that will break your arm before they break your budget.
We usually cannot spend more than 10 minutes and over $20 on two full baskets of colorful veg-, a trip that would cost 5 times the amount at Safeway or Choices.
By far my favorite item at Sunrise is the one dollar bag of chop suey vegetables. This 3 lb bag is a mixture of ready to use chopped veggies, including carrots, celery, bok choy, peppers of every color, onions, broccoli and more. Though like most of Sunrise produce, their fridge life is limited, still this delightful bag of such exquisite value makes me feel like the best darn shopper on the planet.
Below is our favorite created recipe using our favorite sunrise vegetables in our newly purchased favorite Chinatown wok. (CA $7.99!) You can make it in a regular frying pan, we had been until recently, though a wok is much more fun and distributes the heat more evenly. The best thing about this recipe is that you can use whatever you got that day. It takes at most 15 minutes to prepare and it will make enough for leftovers. Try it with tofu too, for added yum.
Coconut Sweet Chilli Vegetable Stirfry
Serves 4
1 large onion
2 carrots, cut into thick discs
2 stalks celery, cut into sticks
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 head broccoli
2 heads bok choy
½ c cherry tomatoes, cut in half
6 oz coconut milk
¼ sweet chilli sauce
1-4 tbl chilli sauce
2 cups Basmati Rice
1.Boil water and cook rice according to instructions for 4.
2.Sautee onions on medium heat in tablespoon of cooking oil until translucent. Add carrots, and celery and sautee for 1 minute. Add chopped peppers, broccoli and bok choy and cook for another 4 minutes.
3.Add coconut milk, sweet chilli and chilli sauce (adjust to taste! We like it hot). Stir, cover and let simmer on low heat for several minutes. Add sliced tomatoes and cook until tomatoes are just puckered.
4.Serve vegetables on top of rice and enjoy!
Two Pleased Stomachs at Two Chefs and A Table
Sitting on the one remaining item of “furniture” in our empty loft space, a giant red bean bag chair I shout, “I’m hungry!” Bryan, being the amazing and accommodating man that he is tells me he is taking me out for brunch.
OK. Twist my arm…
While taking an alternate route to our favorite market he had stumbled upon a small restaurant called Two Chefs and a Table and had been waiting to try it out ever since. Just a few minutes walk from Gastown, east of Main St on Alexander Street sits this unassuming, french country style catering and occasional dining restaurant.
One Room Wonder
We were greeted by a very friendly young woman when we arrived in the bright single room. There are perhaps 7 tables total including one large family style table as the centerpiece. Half of the space is taken up by an open, organized kitchen where two chefs are hard at work preparing our meals. Often when restaurants experiment with an open concept kitchen patrons are left feeling part of the staff, laughing at the sous chef’s jokes and shouting over the clanging of pots and pans. Not here though. With only two chefs working in synch you barely notice they are there, and certainly are not distracted by the sound.
The walls are painted white brick with unique custom artwork including a framed bottle of champagne, and a tree painted directly on the brick. The ceilings are high and barn like. The tables and chairs did not all match. There is a rustic elegance that makes you comfortable and warm. And we were not seated by the door.
Simple, Fine Food
Their food was typical brunch fare but with flair. Strawberry-apple pancakes, an autumn vegetable omelet, a chicken, spinach, tomato and brie omelet and the monsieur andre breakfast, which was a creative take on eggs benedict, using butcher block cheese and cured meats with hollendaise sauce on top of a perfectly cooked over-easy egg.
My omelet was too big to finish and included unusual (to me) omelet ingredients like carrots and celery. The eggs were seasoned with thyme and it was fluffy and light. My dish came with multigrain toast and kitchen potatoes that were not greasy or heavy, though could have had more seasoning.
Our coffee was french press, and thus delicious. Served with a side of cream and small plate of raw sugar, the presentation was simple but impressive.
Service was quick, friendly and attentive at Two Chefs and it made me want more. I am sure we will back for their dinner service and I would recommend you do the same.
The new Nuba
This week we are packing up our loft in trendy Gastown in preparation for our move next weekend for the quiet tree-lined streets of Kitsilano. Because I have some time on my hands, I decided to get a jump start on packing up our pantry. Somewhere in the back of my mind (OK, maybe not that far back…) I knew that if the food we have is difficult to access, it would mean we get to eat out.
Nuba has recently moved its second location to the corner of West Hastings and Cambie Streets. I had been to the previous location on several occasions. It was the perfect place to stop on my walk home from work, starved after only eating office Nutrigrain bars and stale coffee. Nuba was my Vancouver combination of Cambridge, MA favorites Zuzu and Moody’s Falafel Palace. Their former location was tiny, barely enough table space to fit the massive plates given to you. The staff was hipster enough to be charming, but not so aloof to be too cool and irritating. They had excellent fresh Lebanese food, with decent prices and a plethora of vegetarian options. Service was fast. Food was filling and I would leave feeling like I got a great meal.
The new Nuba is less café and more restaurant dining. The stairs lead you down into a cool basement setting, with minimal decoration and a lot of open space. We were greeted at the door by the owner himself, and seated immidiately though unfortunately at a table extremely close to the door. (Bryan and I have had the strange experience of being seated by the front door of nearly every restaurant we’ve dined in while in Vancouver. This city does not have the double door system of the East Coast which keeps out drafts. Frequently we’ve asked to move due to the bath of cold air let in each time the door opens. What is it about us that screams “we love to be cold?” I can only assume it is our rugged New England good looks that seats us by the doorway.) We decided to bear with the drafts in the hopes that a glass of wine and some food would warm us.
Perhaps ten minutes later we were finally given menus by a rushed server. Ten minutes after that we were asked for our drink order, Las Rocas Grenach ($6) and Mission Hill Pinot Noir ($6.25) and ten minutes after that placed our food order, La Feast ($24), a vegetarian mezze sampler that we had always wanted to try. Their menu has expanded from the café menu of the past to include more entrees and meat dishes. Everything looked good, but we figured a sampler platter would be a good way to get our feet wet in this new Nuba dining experience.
Our first round of mezze included whole wheat pita with a trio of dips of hummous, baba ghanoush and a cilantro sauce. By this time we were ready to naw our arms off so dipped in with excitement. Each dip was tasty, though overall it was hard to tell one from the other. None of the flavors stood out from the others and we didn’t have enough pita finish the dips.
The second round of mezza was a beautiful dish of marinated cauliflower, mixed olives and feta, lentils with fried onions, falafal patties and a mushroom and vegetable marinade. These came with a smaller tray of dipping sauces, including a tahini dressing, yogurt-cucumber sauce and a mint dip, as well as more pita. Each mezza was good, but the cauliflower and falafel really stood out. The lentil and onion dish was my least favorite. The lentils lacked flavor and the onions were not as crisp as they should have been.
By the end of the meal and another glass of wine we were quite full and no longer feeling the affects of the icy air as we had at the beginning of the meal. Overall it was a fine dining experience, but the new Nuba location still has a few kinks to work out. Their staff seemed rushed , and though there was one bigger group, the restaurant was not overly busy. Service was slow and not as attentive as I would have liked. The ambiance is not warm; outfitted with cold stone floors and mirrored walls, and a sleek curved bar. This may be the theme they were going for, but if the environment is not inviting the food and service should make up for it. And for goodness sake, please, please get a curtain for that door!
I would return to this Nuba if I was back in the area, but I am not sure I would make a special trip. I think from now on I will stick to the small Nuba café on Seymour street for my Lebanese food fix in the form of a simple falafel wrap.
For the Love of Food
Moose
Bryan and I will often joke about how utterly obsessed our dog Moose is with food of any sort. Now that he nears his twelfth year, it is nearly impossible to wake Moose up in the morning, or mid afternoon, or evening when he is fast asleep dreaming his puppydog dreams of chasing fairies or rainbows or butterflies. I’ve frequently shaken him, nuzzled him and tickled him to rouse him from slumber, all with little effect. But, as soon as a bag rustles or drawer opens Moose’s hungry subconscious kicks him in the keester and carries him expertly to our feet, anxiously awaiting any morsel that may fall to the pool of drool he has created on the floor.
This dog loves food. I realized recently, that we are no different. Perhaps slightly more dignified, with perhaps more refined tastes (or so I like to believe) but we too live each day in anticipation for our next meal. Bryan and I fight over cooking space in our small kitchen (or rather, I fight, he encourages sharing, a thing I have never been good at. Just ask Amy O’Neil, my high school cooking partner.) We desperately seek out reviews and new restaurants. Our idea of a fun Sunday afternoon includes loading up on vegetables at the market down the street and challenging ourselves to see how much we can use in one meal. I badger Bryan daily about where he went for lunch and what he ate and was it good? I peruse epicurious.com to pass time and wait impatiently each month for our Cooking Lite to arrive.
In short, we love food. Just as much, if not more, than Moose.
And so, here I am to blog about the things I love.
