This is my friend Chris Kendal. He is a raw food enthusiast. I heard the hardest thing about a 100% raw vegan diet is telling your parents you’re gay. Naturally I kid to deflect from my fears about my own lazy ‘diet’ which is three parts coffee and bread and one part taste based impulses. Chris recently indulged my curiosity and answered some burning questions I had about his experiences eating this way. You can view his website the-raw-advantage.com for even more information. As for my diet, just eat like Micheal Phelps with a hangover.
SPICY MAYO
Stuff about food and food-related stuff
Design loves irony
Troy showed me one of these fine looking travel mugs the other day. Smooth ceramic with a soft rubber lid. Its reminiscent design also lends with curbing my Starbucks habit, which actually has nothing to do with their specialty coffees(my drink, tallmediumblendnoroom, pretty easy to recreate at home) but more to do with their cups. There must be some intangible quality about those cups that plays on the same ritualistic impulse that drives music nerds to enjoy listening to records, even though everything about them is a pain in the ass.
Wine. What You May Not Know
Being the obsessive wine enthusiast that I am, I thought I would share for you all some info I’ve picked up recently from my first ever wine course. Currently I’m taking my Level 1 of the WSET or Wine Spirit Education Trust here in Vancouver. With the WSET being the most respected course in the world, I’ve tried my best to sit back and learn from the best.
The Greatness of Port
I’ve decided to go against the status quo today, I realize that this here blog centres predominantly on food, but I feel as an avid wine drinker that it is my duty to put forth my feelings and thoughts on the great fermented grape. Anyone who knows me should know that I’ve had pretty much all there is to drink when it comes to wine; from red, to white, to sparkling, to ice, to sherry and my new current obsession port. Having a fondness for sweeter style wines, I’ve always come to love port and its rich velvety texture, but like most I never came to exploring it much further than the odd glass here and there. However, as of late I’ve come to, or should I say, I’ve become quite addicted to it.
Baked Beans
My Quebecois Grandpa from was famous for his baked beans. My Uncle Bob and I still make them. Naturally I tweaked Bob’s recipe, but Bob tweaked Grandpa Hector’s recipe who was likely a tweaker as well. Tweak it yourself if you feel so inclined. I like this dish cause it makes me feel connected to some of my family roots.
Urban Homesteaders
Usually I would think the latter part of March would be a great time to plan for a summer veg patch, but with minus 10 weather and feet of snow in the yard, maybe I have extra time for R&D. Here’s a book I picked up on gardening recently. Well more than gardening, these guys call it ‘urban homesteading’ They teach you how to grow all kinds of vegetables and fruits in a small city lot, even raising chickens. They may get a little preachy about how everyone should be living like this and there is no excuse not to, but that may be due to there SoCal locale where mother nature hovers around 21 degrees. They have some pretty cool projects for saving and distributing rain water, and also ways to grow on balconies or in apartments. It’s kinda like gardening for hipsters. That said it would likely be good for mother earth to make ideas like this hip.
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) like around 10 bucks on amazon.
What’s the deal with breakfast?
Over and over again I’ve racked my head around this simple question. The word itself has quite the simple meaning “to break the fast” usually from a nights sleep. Yet as easy an explanation that is, I still find myself vexed at why everyone I know loves it, especially when dining out for brunch. Constantly I find myself running into people who can’t stop raving at “how that brunch was today” or “I wish there was someplace serving breakfast at 6pm”. Seriously what’s with eating eggs, bacon and toast that has people jumping out of bed. Am I missing something or am I just the only one who thinks eating breakfast and going for brunch, dim sum or whatever else is totally overrated? Having worked in various styles of restaurants over the years, I’ve come to witness people abounding with joy at the greasy slop of food before them as they guzzle down cup after cup of coffee, which to me I find disgusting, 6 cups of coffee buddy, really you need that much?. Ah I feel my inner Jerry Seinfeld coming out at this very moment. My list of questions is as follows.
Cassava
I tried to make Cassava. It used to be my staple lunch starch when I lived in the Caribbean, and I assumed I could fashion a similar way. Or that I could improve on it maybe. I figure anything that is tasty boiled, should be extra tasted mashed with garlic and butter. But no, it didn’t turn out very well at all. Very sticky and SO filling. I remember them being light and a little waxy, but delicious. But this. This was something else. I later found out that potatoes and cassavas have gluten and that would explain the gluey mess.
PS mego’s sirloin tacos were delicious and should actually be the topic of this post
