Beebs

What ever happened to no minors in bars?

I like to add a dash or two of it when marinating meat for stir-fries. Seasons the meat without over-powering the entire dish.

A couple days ago I snarfed down most of a bag of cheese twists, the puffy kind. A large bag. It was store brand, not even Cheetos. I followed up with pate and melba crackers.

Resurrecting an ancient, ancient thread.... This evening I discovered Los Guerreros, a Mexican food mart on Kingsway just east of Joyce (next to the Congee Noodle King). Wow! There aren't too many places where one can get a good selection of Mexican/Latin foodstuffs in Vancouver (that I've found), but Los Guerreros is definitely one to check out. Large variety of Mexican imports - beverages, pozole, all sorts of chiles, canned goods, sauces, a few brands of masa flour, pinatas, baked goods, herbs & spices that I couldn't recognize because I can't read Spanish.... I came home with only a can of pozole, chipotles in adobo, dried ancho chiles, and a packet of Mexican chocolate. Could have gotten more ingredients to play with but hubby would have a fit if I brought home any more stuff!

My uncle got stomach ulcers some years ago, and he was told by the doctor that he would have to lay off chiles and hot foods (amongst other things). So I suppose if one had stomach ulcers and persisted in eating chiles, you could die from internal bleeding.....

Another example is braised bok choy and large shitake mushrooms in brown sauce. The bok choy is left whole (or sliced in half length-wise, for the larger types), as are the mushrooms arranged over top. It's certainly not convenient to pick up entire slippery mushrooms & veg, shoving them into your mouth, but the dish is always prepared this way because it is aesthetically pleasing.

Sometimes I like to leave choi sum and gai lan in long, uncut pieces because it looks nicer that way, like little tree branches. Cutting them up makes the dish look too...stalk-y...if it's just a plate of gai lan on its own. Long pieces of veg don't really bother us much, we just gnaw and slurp them up.

It seems to me that the ethnic/overseas offerings is most representative of Vancouver, and is what makes our food culture here interesting, different. Afterall, Vancouver is a mishmash of cultures with a strong Asian influence, and the restaurants reviewed reflect this. Sure, there are fantastic French/Italian/etc. restaurants in Vancouver that receive plenty of kudos, and definitely flesh out the dining scene here. But if I were a New Yorker regularly reading the NYT...I dunno...I think I would be much more captivated by the overall mishmash-ness of Vancouver than by reviews of French/Italian/etc. restaurants, of which New York has many and do plenty well.

I usually say that I like to eat good food. So I guess I would call myself...a good-food-eater?

Yay Vancouver! Although I selfishly don't want Chen's Shanghai mentioned and keep it a hidden treasure.

I usually get my beef noodle fix at Cabin 5555 in Kerrisdale (W. Boulevard). It's busy in there, they do a decent, reasonably-priced beef noodle, and that it's close to home is a bonus. I've been told that Beefy Beef on Main & King Ed. is a well-reputed noodle chain from Taiwan, although I personally didn't think it was anything to write home about. Has anyone tried Taiwan Beef Noodle King on Oak & 67th-ish? They haven't been open too long, just less than a year, maybe. I *think* it was opened by the same guy that originally opened Tony's Beef Noodle, as well as starting a bunch of other beef noodle restaurants in the Marpole area (it's got the same name, and the logo of the chef's head looks the same, too).

There is help available.... I didn't think there was room for such a high horse in a discussion about the Hall of Shame for food. That being said, I, too, consume hot dogs with ketchup on them. So there... I have also been known to add tuna to my blue box mac and cheese and once in a rare while will get a hankering for those horrendous tamales in a can and eat every last one of them. I like hot dogs with ketchup, ballpark mustard, AND relish. I really like the $1.00 hot dogs from IKEA. So there. (I also like IKEA's Swedish meatballs with the gloopy gravy. There is a bag of them in my freezer right now, just asking to be consumed... which I shall do for dinner tonight.)

I've seen hatched bug larvae in whole coriander seeds (you can tell if it's been infested, because each seed has a little tiny hole in it). But your coriander is ground, so that couldn't be it....

Thanks to this thread...I went all-out at the supermarket last night, and filled a basket with shameful items. I'll be making tuna noodle casserole this weekend, which I've only made once before (and not even real casserole at that - it was boxed mac & cheese with a tin of tuna stirred in). I now have hanging out in my kitchen a couple cans of cheddar cheese soup & a couple cans of mushroom (No Name brand), some tins of tuna (President's Choice), and bow tie pasta. I also bought a bag of cheese puffs, which I shall not-so-shamefully consume while constructing the tuna noodle casserole.

Try Jackson's Meats on 4th Ave. If they don't have it, they might be able to point you towards it. I've also seen foie gras at the Granville Island Public Market. I can't remember if it was duck or goose liver, and unfortunately I also can't remember which meat seller it was either.

Got one more shame to add.... Margarine. I use it on toast & sandwiches. I have no good reason to use margarine - I don't like the taste better than butter, I know it's not really good for you, and I'm not lactose intolerant. I don't even cook with margarine (except sometimes for grilled cheese sandwiches). I am simply cannot be bothered to wait for the butter to soften up to spreadable consistency.

I use canned/tetra-pak chicken and beef broth. And bouillion cubes. About 90% of the time, too. I have never made roast beef. Neither have I roasted a turkey. I use el cheapo wine for wine-based stews, saving the good stuff for the table. (Does it still count if I am not exactly hanging my head in shame? Except for the roast beef & turkey thing. That is downright embarassing.)

I could see myself doing this if I'm making potato salad or mashed potatoes, since I usually cook them in their skins anyways.... Would this work on thin-skinned potatoes too, like Yukon Gold? Or sweet potatoes?

Pappa al pomodoro - tomato bread soup - is a quick delicious soup. Onions, lots of garlic, chili flakes, canned tomotoes and broth simmered together (I also use anchovies, but you can leave it out). Then stale bread dumped in at the end, and drizzle of EVOO. Makes a tasty breakfast the next day too, with a poached egg on top.

How do your potential employers know your age? Are they asking how old you are? Or are you putting it on your resume? I don't know what the employment laws are in your state, but here in British Columbia there are certain interview questions that are considered "illegal" - ie, questions that have no direct bearing on the position being hired for, such as those about marital status, religion and age. If an interviewer asks an illegal question, the applicant can decline to answer, or phrase it in such a way that answers the question without giving away the details ("I'm over 18 yrs old, and within the legal working age"). And if you've got your age/birthdate on your resume, definitely take it off! Good luck!

Fun topic! I'm going to try zatar, juniper berries, mustard seeds, shrimp paste, and pigs' feet and ears - but not necessarily together.

Galloway's in Richmond has pearl sugar. They ran out of the Belgian brand when I was there a couple weeks ago, but I bought a big huge box of Danish pearl sugar for around $6.

Those Lunchables package thingies with crackers, cheese, and ham rounds that are $5.00 a pack (I forget what they're called). Seriously?!? There's already no cooking involved - it can't get easier than assembling crackers, cheese, ham & tossing them in a plastic container yourself. Oh, and premade, canned tuna salad (especially the ones packed with crackers). Tuna + mayo + handful of crackers is only assembly, not cooking.

Roasted red peppers. Seeing those jars of roasted peppers on supermarket shelves, in the olive bar, and in deli cases drives me crazy.

Thanks for the responses, Chris, Tracey! I found three recipes that I think I'll try: Ruhlman's Savory Baconin the NY Times; Saveur's Home-Cured Bacon; and one from the Guardian.co.uk. None of them require smoking, which would be perfect. I wonder how they'd turn out without the oven-roasting, and just slicing and frying? The Guardian recipe is a little different. It says to pour out the accumulated liquid, but give the meat new applications of the cure every 24 hrs, and it'll be ready in 4 days. Any thoughts on leaving in liquid vs. reapplying cure? For the pink salt, I'll have to see if I can find it - I'll pester the butcher. From reading some of the posts upthread, pink salt is partly for aesthetics, right? And as for keeping spoilage at bay, I guess it's not crucial, since whatever I can't finish in a few days is getting bunged into the freezer anyway. Can't wait to start playing around with this!