WorldWideWaterCooler

Now that we’re not going anywhere, we’ve picked right back up on our micro-farming project.

You may remember posts from last summer and this past spring on our construction efforts on building the pig shelter and fencing in the yard. Well, they’re finally being put to use!

Except, we’ve gone from pigs to sheep!

Between Neil and I thinking we were moving, then my in-laws’ phone going down for a week or so (hazards of living at the edge of the grid), the pig thing fell through. Our original source sold all their piglets, and you’d be surprised at how hard it is to find piglets for sale!

Neil and I eventually went to the Fraser Valley Auctions to see if we could find any pigs that suppliers were unloading, but goats seemed to be the order of the day, along with a good assortment of sheep!

We left with a lovely lamb who lamented her way down the highway in the back of our car. And lamented in the ferry line. And lamented during the ferry ride. And lamented up the island highway (while she wasn’t busy nibbling on the poor dog’s tail). And lamented all the way into her pen, and all night, and most of the next morning until we put her with the neighbour’s sheep while my inlaws found her some friends.

The lamenting inspired her name: Agnes – short for Agnus Dei, the lamb of god. Also a movement in Mozart’s Requiem.

A few days later, Agnes was joined by two other lambs, Gloria and Miserere (have mercy), who were also known by their voices, raised to the heavens.

Thankfully (for my inlaws anyhow, I obviously can’t hear them from here), they have apparently quieted down and are now lovely little lawnmowers.

And come September (because we need to get them slaughtered before hunting season gets underway and any potential fall floods happen), we’ll have our own Requiem for a Lamb, and end up with a bunch of fleece and a freezer full of tasty sheep meat.

Besides, if you’re doing bio-dynamic farming anyhow, you really want to start off with ruminants, then follow with chickens, and finally end up with pigs. I think it might be a harder sell to convince my in-laws to go for the chickens, but we’ve got a year or so to work on them….

Blog posts I started to write and (thankfully) didn’t publish today:

• Why I think you might be an idiot
• Here, let me beat you down with logic
• I don’t care that humans are inherently illogical, I WILL DROWN YOU IN REASON ANYHOW

What can I say, I have a wickedly sore shoulder and a hearty case of didn’t sleep well last night.

But! What I also have is an incredibly tasty lunch. Let me share the recipe with you!

This is my new favorite burger recipe. It sounds like it will please no one, since it has too little meat for the carnivores and too much meat for the vegetarians, but I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I love it every time I make it. Perhaps you will be too.

Meat-and-Grain loaf, burgers, balls
adapted from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 lb raw spinach leaves (blanched, drained, water squeezed out and roughly chopped – feel free to skip this by just buying a packet of frozen spinach and thawing)
• 1 onion chopped fine
• 2-3 cloves garlic pressed, grated or chopped fine
• 2 cups cooked grains (I like it with Millet best, but barley or brown rice also work well)
• Cumin (to taste)
• Cayenne (to taste)
• Salt (to taste)
• Pepper (to taste)
• 1 egg

Put everything in a bowl. Squish about gently with fingers until evenly mixed.

Form into a loaf (in a loaf pan), burger patties (I make 8 large patties with this recipe) or balls of any size.

Bake at 400 F until done (about 30 minutes for burgers)

I love this, because it’s got some extra veggies in it, but still tastes really meaty. The grains soak up the meat-juice as it bakes, so the patties stay moist and the flavour permeates everything.

Try it out! And tell me if you like it. I will probably be much less grumpy by then.

I got some email today from YouTube, stating that a couple old videos of mine (Eating Live Octopus in Korea) are popular enough qualify for their affiliate program (they put ads on my video, I collect a few pennies a year).

Comments on the videos (mostly “ewww!”) come through every now and again, but I hadn’t thought much about them. Until the emails. So I checked them out. Apparently eating strange things is intensely popular on YouTube, since my videos are at a little over 33,000 views each! Certainly not because of anything I did (other than eating the octopus & posting video).

Clearly we should’ve taken video of eating a smoked sheep’s head and snails right out of their shells in Morocco.

And I’ll be sure to take a camera that shoots video to Thailand in February, in case there are any delicacies that make the average North American go “Hmmm” (or “ewww!”) that we stumble across.

In the meantime, some video from the watercooler archives:

As Neil and I get more and more into sourcing alternate avenues for food that distance us from the industrial agricultural machine, opportunities keep cropping up that we’d never have thought of.

The latest: our very own hog!

We’ve been looking around for some sources for purchasing an ethically-raised pig, but the local suppliers we’ve found so far have been somewhat reluctant to sell us a whole hog, wholesale. It’s understandable, since most of the local, ethically-raised pork product around here is in high demand, and what isn’t already claimed by restaurants can be sold at a much higher premium by the piece & pound than by the pig.

We were a bit stuck, until one visit from my mother-in-law. She casually mentioned that with all the food-waste from the lodge they run, their compost pile was getting out of hand and wouldn’t it be nice to have a pig or two around to eat it, and then have some lovely pork afterward?

JACKPOT!

She was concerned with the work it would take to make the pen, so we instantly volunteered to take care of it next time we visited, on the condition that we’d get a pig of our own out of the deal. She was sold, so the plans began.

(Backstory: the in-laws used to live on a farm. Neil’s a 4-H Champion Hogsman. Rearing livestock is not a foreign endeavor to them as it is to a city-dweller like myself.)

We also lucked out since they happened to have a whole bunch of spare wood around the lodge from some renos, so we were able to make the pigpen with $100 in new wood/concrete and the rest out of scraps. Had we been more ambitious with our salvaging, we might’ve been able to reduce that by another $10-$20 and building the walls entirely out of 1×6 rather than OSB.

You can view the entire set of pen-pics on Flickr. It looks a bit like a bus-shelter on a patch of grass right now, but come Spring when we fence in the yard and add some hay, a trough and the piglets, hopefully it’ll look less forlorn and more farm-y.

And if all goes well (and the bears don’t do them in first) we should have an amazing porky feast in September 2010!

Last night, in honour of my 29th year, we finally FINALLY went to Vij’s. I can’t say “I don’t know why we waited so long” because I know precisely why I’d never been there – the actual matter of “waiting so long.”

Vij’s doesn’t take reservations. They open promptly at 5:30pm and it’s first come-first served. They do make the wait very pleasant, serving chai and Indian equivalents of amuse bouche (bouches? how does the plural work?) while people are waiting – but I am not the type who waits for things. I am impatient and usually busy and squish as much into my calendar as possible. Waiting an indeterminate amount of time to get into a restaurant to eat is not my bag.

And frankly, if that’s who you are, you do not deserve to dine at Vij’s. I certainly didn’t. Until I put away my manic, control-freak nature, went with the flow, and let the experience unfold.

We did show up at about 5:10, and were the 2nd people to be waiting outside the door. We wanted to show up extra early, since we had a large group. By the time the restaurant opened, there were enough people waiting to fill the dining room, and then some. Other than that, don’t worry too much about showing up a bit later. It looked like they’re pretty adept at turning tables, so if you’re not starving or on a deadline, chill out in the lounge and enjoy some chai.

The extra-awesome part about dining at Vij’s with a large group was sharing the food. I’m a big fan of Family Style dining, and can’t think of a better way to enjoy Indian food anywhere – let alone a place where everything on the menu looks so good, it’s hard to decide what to order!

We ultimately left the dining decision in the hands of the staff, asking them to bring six appetizers and six entrees for our table of nine. It was more than enough food for all of us!

Starters were:

Garam Masala sauteed portobello mushrooms in porcini cream curry (2 orders)
Mutton Kebobs with Bengali-style curry
Jackfruit in black cardamom and cumin masala (2 orders)
Curried Organic Chicken Liver Pate

Mains were:

Saag paneer with Lentil Curry and Chapati
Rajasthani-style goat curry with lightly-spiced bell peppers and cabbage
Wine-marinated Lamb Popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes (2 orders)
Beef Shortribs in cinnamon and red wine curry with warm greens (2 orders)

And this came with plates of naan and bowls of rice to soak up all the amazing sauces.

Vij’s focus is on fresh, local food served Indian-style, and the freshness makes all the difference in the world. From roasting their own spices and making their own paneer & breads every day, to picking fresh and seasonal meats and produce, every dish at Vij’s highlights the quality of the ingredients.

I was also surprised, considering the classification of “fine dining” at the prices. After dinner, drinks (one for most people, two for some), tax and tip, nine of us managed to dine for a little under $50 each. It’s easy to spend that at yet another disappointing ‘fast casual’ chain, so this was phenomenal value. When Vij’s says they are running a restaurant that is truly for everyone, they really aren’t kidding!

The food is unexpectedly life-changing, and the lineup is worth changing your life & expectations for.

I will return. Often.

One of the pet peeves I had while I was looking for cleanse info/reviews was finding people saying “oh hey I’m starting this cleanse” and that was the last thing they had to say about it. For future googlers, I’m halfway through this godforsaken Wild Rose D-Tox cleanse. Here’s how it’s going:

If you asked me today whether or not I’d ever do this again, the answer is a resounding NO.

I might be a bit slimmer (that’s a big might, and remember, brought on by having liquefied my digestive tract for nearly 2 weeks), but I don’t otherwise feel any notable benefits from doing this so far.

And the negatives (being highly annoyed all the time, making everyone feel awkward by refusing cake/beer/anything except green tea and the blueberries my poor mom went out and got for me at my dad’s birthday, being insanely tired most of the time, did I mention the crankiness? and the pooping?) far outweigh the positives.

I’ll check in again once it’s all done, and once I’ve hopefully regained my usually cheerier outlook.

I mentioned in my last post that our CSA is keeping me well in veggies for this cleanse I’m doing. I’ve had a lot of questions about the CSA, what is it, where is it, how much does it cost and what do we get – so after picking up our share last night, I took a picture and compared some costs to share… uh… the share.

First off, for those unfamiliar with a CSA, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. From Wikipedia:

[It] consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production.

We pay for an entire season’s worth of produce up front, and

Thus, individuals, families or groups do not pay for x pounds or kilograms of produce, but rather support the budget of the whole farm and receive weekly what is seasonally ripe. This approach eliminates the marketing risks and costs for the producer and an enormous amount of time, often manpower too, and allows producers to focus on quality care of soils, crops, animals, co-workers — and on serving the customers. There is financial stability in this system which allows for thorough planning on the part of the farmer, and emotional investment on the part of the members. (Wikipedia)

Our particular CSA is Kitsilano Farms. And from what you can see, we certainly receive a LOT of produce in a typical week (click to go to the flickr page where there are notes, to see the specifics of what we get):

In terms of value for dollar, the share purchase was $475 for 20 weeks of produce (which turned into 21 weeks because of an early boom of harvest-ready produce). That puts us at $22.62 per week. We’ve always felt like we were getting amazing value for the haul of goods we brought home every week, but just for kicks, I priced out what our share would cost in the grocery store downstairs, the local farmer’s market or from a local grocery delivery. I’ve picked the average prices for everything, here’s how it all adds up:

Spring Onions – $0.89/bunch
Komatsuna – $0.99/bunch
Rhubarb – $1.50/500g
Garlic – $0.85/head
Radishes – 1.50/bunch
3 big heads leaf lettuce – $1.50 each
Beet Greens – $1.99/bunch
Raspberries – $5.99/pint
2 heads Red Romaine – $1.50 each
3 Turnips – $2.25/lb (about 1 lb)

That all adds up to $23.46. It’s not a big savings, but it is a savings over time for the entire growing season. It’s also forcing us to eat a LOT more veggies, since we know a new batch is coming every week, and we’ve already paid for it (no “stopping delivery because we’ve tossed the last two weeks’ worth in the compost” for this).

In fact, we went a bit CSA happy this year, we’ve also signed up for a Grain CSA, and will visit our wheat in a couple weeks, with delivery of our 20kg of whole wheat flour showing up sometime in late summer/early fall (baking anyone?).

We also have plans to join a Wine CSA, and are actively keeping our eyes out for a meat CSA as well if anyone knows of anything going on.

Now we didn’t leap suddenly into farm-sourced eating. We’ve been moving down this road over the past year or so. Thankfully, with the larger influence of food-security related movements, it’s becoming much easier to source things that are being grown in a sustainable way and develop relationships with the producers.

CSA’s aren’t for everyone – it’s a big stretch in mindset and lifestyle to go from planning meals based on what you want (or not planning, and just grabbing things at the last minute) to figuring out from week to week “what can I make out of what these farmers have given me?”. At least, it’s a stretch in North America for the way most of us live. It’s actually just the way of things in much of the rest of the world, and was the same here until the dawn of industrial agriculture.

Despite the shock and awe value of films coming out now like Food, Inc., the writings of Michael Pollan and the fuss over the White House organic food garden, I don’t expect a sea-change in the way many people in the industrialized world get their food. But if I can have a hand in making sure a few more small farmers survive, ensure a biodiversity of crops, and reduce the risk of salmonella in my (and a few others’) spinach as a result, well that’s a pretty exciting thing to me.

As Wendel Berry famously said, “Eating is an Agricultural Act,” and I’m certainly enjoying playing my part.

Apologies for the radio silence! I was out of town, and had a draft all queued up and ready to go, but wordpress ate it.

Anyhow, A while back I started writing about a few of the cookbooks that have made a big difference to me, and the way I cook. Turning me from a heater & assembler of pre-packaged food-like-substances to an enthusiastic cook.

First, the Joy of Cooking reminded me what real, from-scratch cooking looks like. Then Jamie’s Dinners got me cooking by taste, instead of strictly measurement and instruction.

Number three in the collection of cookbooks that really helped turn me into an enthusiastic cook is The Improvisational Cook by Sally Schneider.

I’ve tried to get others excited about this book as an amazing tool for working with food, but its lack of photos for any of the recipes is a turn off for a lot of cookbook enthusiasts – especially those who get off on the food porn craze of glossy, sumptuous photos of every dish.

But fear not! The lack of photos will set you free! There is time to worry about presentation later, for now, this book is all about focusing on the flavours.

What Schneider does in this book is take some of her favourite dishes, present them in their original form, then goes through an “Understanding” section, explaining how the ingredients work, finally re-creating them three other ways by swapping out the starch, protein, oil or vegetable to improvise new dishes with whatever’s handy.

For example, one of the “core” recipes is Chicken with Root Vegetables in Fragrant Lemongrass Broth (inspired by the classic French “poulet au pot”). By understanding the components of a flavourful broth, and how chicken turns out after cooking in liquid in a closed casserole, it’s a quick step to Rabbit Rillettes (rabbit’s a very similar meat to chicken), made with Madeira and herbs, and from there to Chicken with Red Wine, Bacon and Mushrooms (the traditional flavours of coq au vin), finally combining some of the flavours between the previous two recipes to create Guinea Hen with Bacon and Madeira.

Before this book I hadn’t thought about the relationships between ingredients and how they come together. After working through a few of the variations and learning how to tweak small things in recipes in meaningful ways, I now almost never have a dish that doesn’t turn out (unless, of course, it involves tempering eggs).

I still don’t create my own recipes, but I do a pretty good job of adapting existing ingredient lists to what I’ve got on hand, make the best use of seasonal ingredients, or insert flavours I prefer. It has, quite literally, changed the way I cook. I couldn’t have done it without slowly building my confidence following recipes to the letter, then focusing on flavour, and finally switching things up on the fly.

But don’t take my word for it – try it yourself. And if you have, comment and let me know what your kitchen-changing cookbooks are!

I had dinner at db bistro in Vancouver the other night, and it was fantastic! better than I expected!

I’ll admit, when db bistro first opened its doors in Vancouver I was curious, but not quite chomping at the bit to try it out. I’d already been to the db brasserie in Las Vegas, which was good, but not great. I expected much of the same in Vancouver.

In fact, I went to db bistro shortly after it opened for lunch on a Wednesday in December 2008. The food was fine, but the service was downright awful. Forgotten cutlery, missed drinks, mixed-up orders, and a constant need to flag down our server (even though there were only 3 tables in the entire place) plagued the whole meal. I chalked it up to new-opening jitters, but man was it ever disappointing.

(For the record: I had planned to write an email to the restaurant shortly after my visit tell them about my experience, but snowmageddon happened and I got distracted.)

So when I saw the usual cadre of local food bloggers and journalists pumping up its perfection a week or two later, I figured the restaurant was on its best behavior and had brought in a few service ringers to ensure things would go smoothly for the media. Meanwhile, I’d decided to wait awhile for my next visit. Hopefully by the time I returned, they’d have ironed things out enough that the hoi palloy would have a good time too.

My second visit happened to be a couple nights ago, and it was much, much better!

We wandered down to the restaurant at about 7:30pm on a whim, without a reservation. It was about 75% full and we were seated promptly. Our server was just the right mix of attentive and friendly (without being aloof or too familiar). Now that the service experience was sorted out, the food absolutely shone. We started with the shared charcuterie plate, which was perfect. For mains, Neil had the infamous db burger and I had the night’s special, which was a broiled skate wing over spring vegetables and new potatoes in a white wine & butter sauce. It was heavenly. Dessert was the apple tart for Neil and the raspberry napoleon for me.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience. And when we left, despite being “nobodys” on the local food scene – just a couple of neighbourhood locals who popped in for a late Tuesday dinner – we were given a fond sendoff that made me want to plan my next return.

Except, I have this day-after sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about what’s on the menu.

Looking at the Seafood Watch guide, Atlantic Skate are on the “avoid” list. I was told this was a Pacific Skate, but information on them is really sparse. Despite the well-reported and much hailed opening of the local spot prawn season, the May menu at db bistro features a Nova Scotia Lobster Salad. And while my dessert was indeed delicious, raspberries aren’t growing anywhere in the northern hemisphere at this time of year.

I am also highly skeptical of the whole concept of the “May 2009 Menu” considering it’s almost identical to the “December 2008 Menu” from when I dined there last. I have no problem with keeping signature dishes and specialties on a static restaurant menu, but I’d like to see more of a demarcation and highlight on the true features and seasonal dishes – both so I don’t miss them, and so I get a better feel for what will be there next time and what’s a special treat that may not stick around for long.

I know these things aren’t important to everyone, and they in no way detract from the deliciousness of the food we had – it takes quality ingredients and a dedication to good cooking to produce a quality meal – but it is something that’s important to me.

db bistro and its sister restaurant lumiere live the birthplace of the 100-mile diet, where decades old restaurants like Bishop’s (and later Raincity Grill) started, grew up, and continue to flourish because of their commitment to local, sustainable products, and where our farmer’s markets regularly land in continental and international top 10 lists.

It’s pretty obvious that while Chefs Boulud and Istel are already doing a fantastic job, they could be doing much better on the local and sustainable front. And it’s a challenge I’m looking forward to seeing them rise to!

When I first started taking cooking more seriously, I aimed straight for the Joy of Cooking.

After cooking many of the recipes therein, I’d gotten a bit more comfortable with the idea of cooking rather than assembling and picked up a copy of Jamie’s Dinners. It’s a beautiful book, full of outright food porn (and Oliver’s pretty easy on the eyes as well) and the message that one can just “throw a few things together” and end up with a delicious meal!

It is true that one can do that. And wonderful things occasionally come out the other end. But for those of us who knew only how to follow directions, but not how food works (read: me) the book results in much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

I will say now that Jamie Oliver’s recipes stack up as some of my favourites and this book holds such treasures as the first meal Neil ever cooked for me, a few go-to recipes for dinner parties and some handy tricks for packing tastier sandwiches.

But it took me quite a few spoiled dishes and a scrambled carbonara (confession: I still can’t temper eggs*) before I learned the cardinal rule of pretty much all cooking, and an essential element of success with this particular cookbook: TASTE EVERYTHING AS YOU GO!

When making food that you’re going to eat it would seem like common sense to focus on the taste of what you’re preparing. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. It’s easy to get distracted during the cooking process by remembering all the ingredients, trying to prepare them without slicing off pieces of one’s digits, not burning whatever’s on a heat source and trying to finish a few dishes all at the same time so the beans aren’t stone cold and the potatoes dried out because the meat’s still resting.

However, the recipes in Jamie’s Dinners ONLY WORK if you are tasting as you go. I learned that lesson the hard way, but I did finally learn it. I learned that a bit of lemon juice or zest brightens up a dish, tasting pasta while it’s cooking is much more reliable than timing it, a pinch of salt is a lot bigger than I’d thought and adding a little bit more than a little bit makes all the flavours sing. Also, there are no hard and fast rules about how much of any herb or spice you should add to a dish. It all depends on the volume and condition of the ingredients you’re using. If you taste it and like it and want more of that flavour, add a little more.

Suddenly, everything I cooked started turning out much, much better. Not only was I making tastier dishes, I was also salvaging dishes that were starting to go south by adjusting the ingredients and seasonings as I went.

Finally, thanks to the Joy of Cooking and Jamie’s Dinners, I’d become comfortable with what I was making, as well as the food-saving habit of tasting as I went. But I still didn’t really understand how ingredients work together to make dishes. That started to come together after I picked up The Improvisational Cook…

(*by the by, if you’re interested in hearing more about how my continued lack of ability in combining uncooked eggs with hot food, check out my latest disaster on the Menus from an Orchard Table cook the book blog – coming up later this evening!)

Ever since Karen’s Post on the meal that turned her into a foodist, I’ve been thinking about how I ended up going from a re-heater and assembler of things that come in boxes and cans to a competent, enthusiastic, and dare I say pretty good cook.

For me, a lover of processes and gleeful follower of directions, it all started with the acquisition of some key cookbooks.

While I’ve always been an enthusiastic consumer of great food it was never something I felt the need to investigate further. Good food just appeared on my plate, why question it when there is eating to do?

Unfortunately, when I moved out on my own to go to university, the food ceased to be as good. My complete disinterest in learning how to reproduce the food that had effortlessly (at least on my part) shown up on my plate finally caught up with me. After my millionth meal of Chunky Soup with Pillsbury Crescents (which alternated with a pre-packaged freezer section stir fry and pasta with a jar of sauce dumped on top) I’d had enough. I saved my pennies and invested in the tome my mother always referred to for all things culinary: The Joy of Cooking.

Cue Whole New World soundtrack, complete with flying carpets and cheeky monkeys.

Stupid things that had never occurred to me all started coming together. Broth doesn’t have to come out of a carton? Ranch dressing didn’t originate in a bottle? Doughnuts don’t have to come from Tim Horton’s? AMAZING!

I have no idea why these things didn’t ever occur to me. I grew up eating (even helping to make) homemade jams, preserves and pickles. Homemade bread was a regular occurrence. And there was always a TON of baking around. Again, I just never put much thought into it.

But once I started reading the Joy of Cooking, I started trying out a lot of the recipes. It did not go well at first.

The biggest piece of advice I can give to any aspiring cook is don’t be afraid to throw it away. You will make some entirely inedible things. And the more you practice, the less often that will happen.

After a year or so of using the Joy of Cooking as my kitchen companion I started getting more comfortable with ingredients. Mistakes were happening less and less often. The best part of The Joy of Cooking for me is the level of detail it goes into explaining the ingredients and processes. Not only do I learn how, I also learn why.

Any time I thought about a food I’d have normally bought pre-made, I instead roamed through the book, reading up on the origins of recipes, then trying them out for myself.

Eventually I figured I was ready for something a little less structured and more challenging. So moved onto my next critical cookbook acquisition: Jamie’s Dinners by Jamie Oliver, which I’ll pick up on in the next post…

(in the meantime, if you’re curious about what else I’m cooking up these days, check out CookTheBook.ca)

We were invited out to Chai for a friend’s birthday last night. It’s one of those places we’d never think to go on our own, and being dragged out by other people is one of my favourite ways to discover a new restaurant.

I always check out restaurant reviews and websites before I go for the first time so I have some idea what to expect. When I found reviews and eventually pricing on the website, I was ready to be indignant and annoyed and write a scathing review on this overpriced gimmick as soon as I got home.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised!

For some inexplicable reason, health food or whole food or vegetarian/vegan restaurants seem to go hand-in-hand with questionably grungy atmospheres and service staff who have tripped the light fantastic a few too many times, and can’t focus long enough to bring the table some drinks, let alone process orders in a reasonable amount of time. Granted, sometimes that’s what you want, and if that’s the expectation you have, and you feel it’s a good value for your dollars, it doesn’t matter.

And my dollar:value equation stops far short of the $27 per person Chai charges for their buffet if it were the typical lacklustre space, spacy staff and limited selection of veggies and tofu.

Thankfully, Chai has kicked it up a few notches to balance out the value equation.

The space is stunning, and though I was skeptical when I read that it’s like you’ve been “whisked away to another land” it really is. It reminded me of a Berber camp. Or a Middle-Eastern place we went to in London. And though I doubt the decor is truly authentic to any specific culture, I didn’t feel like i was tied in any way to Kitsilano, or even Vancouver while we were there. It was obviously put together thoughtfully and deliberately, and it shows.

The buffet was also delicious. The restaurant boasts an Ayurvedic menu with all organic ingredients that are sourced locally wherever possible. The main buffet has fully a dozen different vegetarian, meat and fish curry-type dishes; there’s also a raw salad bar, and a delightful dessert buffet.

I think it’s especially hard to strike a good balance of value for price at ethnic buffets, where the cuisine is based on some of the least expensive food in the world. But by providing a great variety of dishes, not limiting the menu to vegetarian, including dessert, and serving it all in a lovely, unique atmosphere, Chai has managed.

if that wasn’t enough, they completely sealed the deal with the service. The staff were helpful, attentive, kept our plates cleared and drinks replenished, and were completely, genuinely friendly. We were free to eat, rest, lounge, eat some more, and just linger in each other’s company as long as we pleased. I know in the restaurant industry, the ability to turn tables is crucial to success. If Chai has managed to find a mix that allows them to complete the experience by letting us linger, I can’t find fault with that.

Oh, and there is a bellydancer!

So while Chai certainly isn’t cheap, it is one of those places where you get what you pay for, in a very good way.

One of the most fun things about getting into cooking has been learning more about the food that goes into recipes. I’m not particularly interested in the different ways and things that can come together to make yet another condensed-soup casserole, but I love getting right down to the ingredients: how do I know this or that foodstuff is going to be the right one in any given recipe, and how does the quality of it affect the end result.

Now pair this with a husband who grew up on an organic farm and wants to get back to eating food that’s good for the body, the farmer and the planet, then shake it all up with the fact that there is a huge trend throughout the culinary world these days toward “sane eating” and getting back to the origins of ingredients.

What do you end up with? Provenance.

This series seems like it was tailor-made for us. I’m so excited that we’re going, and I hope I’ll see you there:

Tuesday, April 21
Join Anthony Nicalo for the official book launch of Provenance: a blueprint for the modern eater. Guests will learn to assess the sources for food they eat and will learn practical tips for buying clean, healthy food.

Monday, April 27
Special guests include Mike McDermid, Program Manager of Ocean Wise, and Chef Robert Clark of [C] Restaurant discussing the importance of understanding seafood’s impacts on our oceans. Guests will enjoy sustainable seafood hors d’oeuvres prepared by Chef Robert Clark and fish-friendly wines.

Tuesday May 5
Jason Pleym, founder of Two Rivers Specialty Meats will shed light on what is really going on in grocers and butcher shops, while guests taste naturally raised meats.

Wednesday May 20
Mark Bomford, the Program Coordinator for the Centre of Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm will share tips for buying and growing sustainable produce.

Tuesday May 26
Farmstead Wines founder Anthony Nicalo lifts the veil on wine marketing and connects guests to authentic wine and artisan farmers.

Saturday June 6 at UBC Farm
This special fundraiser features international food expert and author of In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan. Pollan will share his manifesto for eating. Guests who participate in the full series will receive a gourmet picnic lunch at UBC Farm.

And by the by, this ain’t no “blogger promo” post – I’m genuinely excited by this, and we’re paying the full shot. Support what you’re passionate about. I think it’s worth it.

Are you reading the FoodTV.ca blogs? If you aren’t, and you like to cook and/or watch the food channel, you should be!

Not least of all because their shopping blog, Bazaar, does regular book giveaways. Of which I’ve won two. Because apparently not too many people are reading yet (since I’m certainly not naturally that lucky).

Anyhow, I was super excited to get my copy of Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters, and managed to read it in just a few hours. Mostly because I totally skimmed the first half.

The book’s content falls on an interesting line: the first half seems to be fully already preaching to the choir. If you haven’t already read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, both by Michael Pollan, Bittman’s content in the narrative part of the book seems a bit thin. But if you have read either or both of those books (especially the latter), again the first half of Food Matters seems like unnecessary overkill.

Where this book really shines is in the latter parts, where Bittman gets into instructions and recipes for what he calls “Sane Eating” (or eating like food matters).

For those of us with whom Pollan’s books have resonated, but who are still floundering a bit with how exactly to eat mostly plants when so many of our meals have been meat-centric for so long, this book is pure gold. Bittman’s plan is to eat mostly vegan (though he has limited dairy, like cream in his coffee) until dinner, then whatever the hell he wants.

His recipes are also really elemental – breaking down ways to change up each recipe by changing the vegetables, starches, sauces, legumes, etc. depending on what’s local, in season and in your pantry. I’d be highly intimidated by most of these recipes if I were a novice cook, but as someone who’s just looking for new ways to put basic ingredients together to achieve a filling, nutritious and “sane” diet, this totally fits the bill.

Bittman’s been publishing a lot about his book and some of the recipes on his blog; check it out for a taste of what’s in the dead-tree version.

It’s been in the works for a little while as I’ve been kicking at it when I’ve got some spare time, and I’m happy to say that my latest wee project, CooktheBook.ca is finally up and running!

Inspired by blogs like Alinea at Home and others who cook their way through entire cookbooks, I’m hoping this site will turn into a bit of a community for Canadian hobby chefs and home cooks who want to do the same.

Currenty I’m cooking my way through Menus from an Orchard Table, and my friend Jen is making all the recipes in Super Natural Cooking.

Stop on by and tell me what you think!