Zucchini Mama

I'd love to have a hot pot on the roof of my building.maybe next no non rainy fall day i should get some foodies together ← So do you guys use the traditional charcoal hotpot that sits in the middle of the table? My Malaysian Auntie used to do that for special occasions. I love the smell of the burning charcoal. Is there a restaurant in Vancouver that does this, or is it more of a home cookin' kind of thing here? Zuke

Shaktea Tea Lounge opening soon on Main and 21st. I have a good feeling about this one. Zuke

My in laws are quite traditional, and serve up a lovely Thanksgiving feast for about twenty of us. The turkey is always cooked in the BBQ and served with a fantastic Riesling. My MIL makes brussel sprouts, mashed squash, and roast potatoes. There is never enough stuffing! She makes a wonderful uncooked cranberry-orange relish. I usually make a pumpkin cheesecake with pumpkinseed brittle on top. Besides all this, we usually start with bubbly and end with some form of dessert wine, so you know where I get my love of alcohol from! ( I married into a good wine cellar--single eGullet grrrls take note!) Vancouver Lee, I'd love the recipe for your gravy--sounds delicious! Maybe we'll make that for our Rocky Mountain Christmas. Yes, everyone post photos please. Thanksgiving food porn is the best! Zuke

I would also check out the apple festival at UBC Botanical gardens on Oct 15 and 16. They grow a variety of apples, and may be able to help you out with your search. Zuke

He is talking about finding a venue, but until then Chris sells special treats at the winter Farmer's market in Heritage Hall near Christmas. Went to the last UBC market and got some of those coveted UBC eggs for the first time. People usually line up early for those eggs, but not as many early birds this time due to it being an add- on market. Mark Bomford said that the UBC vet comes to check the chickens over from time to time, and he actually witnessed them "playing" a game of keep-away with a piece of paper. The vet says he's never seen such happy chickens. Occasionally one escapes and when they do they they doggedly search for the farmer who resides in a trailer on the site. Can't wait to eat those happy eggs with some chanterelles and fromage frais! Zuke

pssst - chris' operation is called Rise... ← D'ohhh! Thanks 3WC. Zuke

UBC farm has added one extra market, tomorrow, October first. Chris from Arise Bakery is making his Schiacciata-Italian grape bread, and will most likely by a Trout Lake tomorrow, but he tells me it sells out early! Zuke

Dude, I would skip the shark's fin and go for sustainable gourmet seafood at C. There is a thread devoted to an eGullet lunch we had there that was Mondo delish. Given that this is a grand experiment, I'm wondering which restaurants people are reccomending have a chef's table, where you leave the menu in the hands of the chef and he/she creates something special. Be sure to ask the servers for their help with matching the wine with the food, and ask them what they like the best. I am very jealous of the challenging task ahead of you. Have courage, soldier. Take the time to savor each morsel. Pace yourself. You may want to take photos or notes, save menues, as food and wine can cloud the memory pretty quickly. Zuke

Curious, when and where is this pumpkin market? What time? Will there be more than just pumpkins? The bread from Arise sounds intriguing. Where can one get a loaf of the grape bread? Thanks! ← The pumpkin market will be announced closer to Halloween. I will post it on this thread. I don't know if there will be more than pumpkins, but there's still many ground cherries and tomatilloes that aren't ripe yet, so I imagine there might be a few other treats for sale. Chris from Arise only sells at the markets right now, although I think he's looking for a venue. I am anticipating the Italian grape bread should be for sale very soon. He's usually at Trout Lake and sometimes at Nat Bailey. If you like grapes, you will swoon over this bread. I can't remember the Italian name, but it sells out fast. Zuke

Another Installment of Zucchini Mama's Market Meals This week my favorite at home dish was sautéed chanterelles from the mushroom lady at Nat Bailey on polenta made with chicken stock. We've been eating a lot of naked food-naked tiny tomatoes, ground cherries, grapes, and apples. Maybe we'll finally get that raw food glow! Our B.C. wine this week was Gehringer Bros. 2004 Classic Riesling, which I really love. It's got a good strong backbone, with lots of grapefruit. It went really well with the spaetzle and ham dish we had, but it's also fine for a stir fry. This week was the last UBC farmer's market, but there will be a pumpkin market before Halloween. I got the last jar of UBC farm honey for the season. Like Maxmillan, I have really been enjoying local grapes, and stole a few from the vines at the farm, which are struggling amidst blackberry brambles. They are just exploding with flavor. I can't wait for Chris from Arise to make his grape bread, which is my favorite market food ever. He only makes it when grapes are in season. Zuke

I like ginger cookies and my five-year-old son likes chocolate chip cookies, so we make regular choc chip cookies sometimes, and other times we make choc chip ginger cookies, which we had the other day. Zucchini Bambino took one bite, then he said "Ah mom, I wish ginger had never been invented." (He did dip his chicken pieces into Hainan chicken ginger sauce the other day, so there is hope that he will come around to liking the "invention" of ginger.) He also recently made the following statement, which must have been inspired from a fairy tale: "Mom, did you know the wolf's coat was made of wolf skin?" I guess that means he ate a wolf for dinner." Zuke

I got a blasted cold this week, so went for our old comfort food standbys. 1) Lunch before music class: Bacon and Applestroop pannakoek for me at the Dutch Wooden Shoe on Cambie, and Poffertjes for U. The waitress was very sweet and gave my son a little pair of doll-sized wooden shoes-a gesture which was lost on him, but I thought it was very sweet. That place is so kooky. Reminds me of Saskatchewan- souvenirs from the homeland on cheap wood paneling. Actually, reminds me of the home I grew up in! 2) Zucchini family at Au Petit Café: We went for dinner at 5:45 p.m. and it was almost empty. It closes at seven. It was kind of nice to avoid the lunch lineups for a change. We had Hainan Chicken, Vietnamese Rolls on Vermicelli, and Won Ton Soup. Everything was excellent-better than the food we had at the Brentwood Bay Arbutus Room this summer and $3!!!! for wonton soup that is simple, clean, and bang on. I asked what's in the Hainan ginger sauce? "Ginger." "Ginger, sugar, chilies, fish sauce?" I inquire. "Ginger. Oh and maybe some chilies for color. Oh, and you might want a side of fish sauce to put in it." Eureka. I heart Au Petit Café. My son, who recently said "I wish ginger had never been invented!" was dipping his chicken in the ginger sauce." It does an eGullet mom's heart proud. (I think there is quite a bit of sugar in their sauce.) 3) Mom's day off: Mushroom Risotto and fresh fruit tart (with GOLDEN raspberries) at Trafalger's. I have been making myself strong medicinal cups of masala chai at home after reading the chai thread in the Coffee/Tea forum-very interesting reading, BTW. Zuke

Wow, you are the DIVA of sweets in the city. I was going to post this anyway, but inspired by your post- try the fresh fruit tarts at Sweet Obsession right now. I had one at Trafalger's and it had golden raspberries on top. It also had strawberries and a regular raspberry and was served with chocolate whipped cream and reg whipped cream and chocolate sauce-maybe with a hint of orange liqeur in it. The crust is shortbread, and then there's a chocolate mouse and a touch of vanilla pudding under the berries. It was garnished with a strawberry dipped in white and dark chocolate. I think at the dessert café they might not add all those extras, but grab those golden raspberry-topped tarts while you can. They also have a lemon berry tart with the raspberries on top. I would stay away from the ones with blackberries in the mix, because I feel they would overwhelm the golden raspberries. The lemon tarts look more creamy than tart, but I bet they're really good. Zuke

I've tried a few of the gourmet takeout options in Vancouver, and I'm always disappointed and feel like I've been ripped off. When U. was a baby I would get a takeout lasagne, cabbage rolls, or even occasionally a squid ink rissotto from our local deli-Tognina's about once a week. However, if we do takeout now it's from Wingnuts once or twice a month. I do miss my frozen options from Shanghai Y.Y. I like the frozen croissants from Anona's for a special occasion treat. I do like some gourmet deli items once in a while just for the novelty. A few years back I visited my sister when she was living in Calgary and there was this odd gourmet meal take home place where all the meals were in big silver drawers-very Brave Nouveau Riche. I think it was popular with the Double Income No Kids Set. Now that she has children, sis is very into Costco. I guess living in the prairie for so long has made me crazy about freshly made food. Sometimes I wonder how long the food in those gourmet takeout places has been sitting around. I'd rather spend my money at the farmer's market. Zuke

Oh Busboy, Your top o' the thread post is poetic, poignant, and HOT! You must write a book. You'll have a international harem in no time. It hit a nerve in me, because I have such a love-hate relationship with washing the dishes. Some days I do get into the Zen groove, and enjoy every sensual aspect of the task. Some days it's the loneliest time of the day-when I feel like I'm caught in the hausfrau trap. You reminded me of those days when I was in university (fifteen years ago) and we all used to chip in and have low-cost dinner parties with Bob Dylan music in the background. You've inspired me to have a dinner party just for the sheer pleasure of it. And now I must go have a cold shower. ;-) Zuke

Carob Fondue? Sounds like an item off the menu from Purgatory. Zuke

Thanks for the photo tour Matt. I love the picture of the pigs licking out the soup bowls-hilarious! Epigureans! Those goat milk tarts totally intrigue me. Can you talk more about the dish that you served up? Those display crates are ingenious. Zuke

Ling, have you discovered the Sprouts store/ I think it's in the basement of the SUB? They sell fresh organic wraps and organic brownies and fair trade chocolate. I was wondering if that might be a decent place to grab a bite on campus. Have you eaten at the Sage Bistro on campus? Zuke

The ground cherries are $3.25 a pint at UBC farms. No pesticides. The BC farms you mentioned may grow regular gooseberries as well as ground cherries. I don't know- but you're right, they're not the same thing. I always just eat the ground cherries raw. Umm, like the pint I ate this morning.... Zuke

After hiking around UBC campus on a wild goose chase, I ended at The Museum of Anthropology up angry as a hornet and hungry as an eGulleter miles from a decent lunch. Found little green signs that read "Matcha Tea Festival". Followed them, thinking of Alice in Wonderland. Ended up near the Nitobe Gardens sampling a cornucopia of green delights. From a woman (Sachiko Hill) who is the "Matcha Sweets Factory" I tasted a green tea scone, cookie (with white chocolate and macadamia nuts, shortbread cookies, cream cheese brownies, and almond madelines. My favorite were the madelines, flavorful and moist with lots of ground almonds-they would have been good with plain green tea. I also had a green tea lattea from Infuse, which was good, but a tad too sweet for my taste. I found some salmon sushi and umebushi plum sushi. I forgot how much I love the saltiness of those plums. I also spent some time at the edge of the pond at the Nitobe garden, watching the Koi paint living pictures under the water. I don't know anything about haiku, I know you'll all take the piss, but indulge me ;-). Black and orange koi swim side by side, almost yin and yang. Green and brown leaves blown from the same tree. One falls in water, the other on moss. Under the big oak, I eat two madelines, one for hunger, another for memory. Zuke

Zucchini Mama's Market Meal Highlights For our neighbor's potluck this week I prepared sliced Russian heritage tomatoes from Nat Bailey market with thinly sliced Walla Walla onions, toasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed oil, salt and freshly ground pepper. We ate this on pumpkin seed bread my friend brought along with her roasted Russian garlic from Granville Island, and chevre rolled in poppy seeds. One of the highlights of this week was Chris's (Arise) rustic scone with Wildflower honey from UBC farm. The honey is dark and nutty with pungeant savory notes. The scone has exotic fennel and orange peel flavors. Bad Girl truffle of the week: single plantation chocolate from Cuba-creamy caramel, buttery and smoky. Dinner tonight: beef, pork, and bison sausages from the lavender and gentle beef lady at Nat Bailey Market with Langley OG salad greens and store-bought perogies with fried Walla Walla onions. The sausages were quite moist, but a bit on the salty side. Dessert: Georgian baguette purchased from Mainly Organics, Little Qualicum Fromage Frais and UBC farm wildflower honey. Tomorrow is the second last UBC farm market for the year. Last week tomatillos were $1 a pound! Wine of the week was the mead we bought from Tugwell Creek Farm and Meadery near Sooke. Actually this wine really grew on me over the week. It tastes of buckwheat honey, clove, wildflowers, and oddly enough, vinegar. It's sort of sweet and savory, like a honey tonic. It was very good with the coconut sauce from the Beef Brisket curry at Mui Garden we had for takeout. (Our oven's on the fritz). I also liked it with milky Chai chocolate I'm addicted to, but it doesn't work with dark chocolate. The mead went well with Little Qualicum's Light Blue Cheese. I've had mead made by monks off the coast of Scotland which I really didn't like, but this is something completely different. I wish we'd bought more. Notes on the wine from the farm's web site: "Metheglin $16.00 Can., 750 ml, sweetness code 1, 13% alcohol An old world mead brought to the new world by the first settlers in North America. This ancient mead style descends from the many generations that created their own secret recipes. Wildflower Honey and a blend of spices is added to pure water and fermented with special yeast. Aged in French Oak barrels, this off dry mead, with its complex aromas and taste, is sure to please the most discerning palates." That's from www.tugwellcreekfarm.com. Zuke

Market Meals Picked up a little chunk of Coho for lunch and popped it in the oven while I prepared some steamed scarlet runner beans from UBC market. Had this over rice noodles with Thai basil from UBC, grated carrots from Langley OG, and I was out of fish sauce, so just used simple soya sauce. Sometimes soya sauce is all you need to let the flavors sing out, as BCinBC reminded me in his post this morning in the Chinese food thread. For dinner Wednesday night we enjoyed our spoils of Nat Bailey. I made a salad with sliced black cherry tomatoes from Klipper's, crumbled Light Blue cheese from Little Qualicum, salad greens and sliced cukes from Langley OG. Over this I sprinkled toasted pumpkin seeds and drizzled pumpkin seed oil from Gegenbauer that Peter just brought back from Vienna, (along with Apricot schnappes and copious amounts of chocolate!!!!) P. scored a hotel right by the Naschmarkt and picked up some Zotter chocolate bars there for me as well: www.zotter.at. Oh my pumpkin seed oil, I've missed you so much and that deep loden color really picked up the "black" in the tomatoes. We also had bowtie pasta with salsa and gnocchi with sautéed zukes, green beans and asparagus. (I was cleaning out the larder, so there were leftover bits and pieces of this and that.) We drank a 2004 Inniskillin Okanagan Reserve Pinot Grigio which was big and applely enough to match the intense flavors of the meal. It says 14.2% on the bottle, but either I'm getting dangerously good at absorbing alcohol, or the number's a bit high. Bad Girl truffle of the week was cocoa nibs-fabulous as ever. Tomorrow at UBC farm the Mayan gardeners are having a special fundraiser for children in Guatemala, so will be cooking up some treats for sale. Apparently there's a ton o'corn at the UBC farm right now. Zuke

What about lamb popsicles? I've seen them on menues online, and I bet a quick google would round them up. Did Vij originate these? Also, the stuffed chicken wing. You used to see them only on Thai menues, but now Nu has their version. Are there others? One thing I also really like in B.C. is creative use of the Bento Box- i.e. Bin 942 Bento box "tv dinner" and Dock 503's vegetarian tasting Bento Box. Go go Bento! Zuke

Bates Motel...! Canucklehead, you slay me. Yes, this little tea room is a little bit gothic, but it is very sweet and well-intentioned. I guess it appeals to me as a woman who enjoys a good British murder mystery, or even a tea-room mystery. I like the Bourban Street vanilla rooibus tea with a bit of milk, and I like the pear bread pudding-sweet derision on an pre-autumnal evening. Zuke

Mia Stainsby says: "The duck confit is delicious as is the foie gras "pull-apart" it comes with. It's a spirally bun with foie gras baked into it." Is that like a foie gras kolachy? :-) I can't wait to take my SO to Nu. He missed out on the C Sustainabililty lunch, so now I can let him know what he missed! He will be all over those chicken wings stuffed with goat cheese. Zuke