There used to be a Hooters in Vancouver, on Robson St., right in the heart of the tourist centre of downtown Vancouver - it didn’t last.
I don’t know if it had anything to do with the Earls across the street, or the Cactus Clubdown the block, but really when it comes to titillation and hot wings, the market is cornered in Vancouver.
Toss in Joey Tomatoes and .. well .. it was a fight that was never going to be won by the blonde siliconed wannabe cheerleaders from down south.
We took Z out for his first real restaurant meal on Sunday night. He was 1 and he could handle a high chair and picking off Mom and Dad’s plates - his first big boy meal.
Jen and I are fans of the Cactus Club, and while we couldnt dig into the new menu offerings from Chief Food Architect Rob Feenie (we had to think of Z’s diet options) we did have a fun night on the patio staring at the girls in their tight tops and short skirts trying to avoid personal wardrobe malfunctions.
Yes, Hooters never had a chance to succeed in Vancouver, because while it offers blatant sexiness, Vancouver’s upscale casual eateries have been serving upscale sexiness for decades.
It’s kind of embarassing, actually.
It hits you the moment you walk into any Joeys, Cactus or Earls - a harem of hostesses, all dressed in black, all long tressed, all over made up, all plunged down to there and hiked up to here. The poor things try so hard to be sexy and then spend the whole night tugging on their seams to avoid showing too much. In the end they just look awkward and uncomfortable.
Then again, I’m just an old man now, and should stick to the Pantry and White Spot for my son’s big boy nights out to a restaurant.
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This isn’t new. When I was freaking out about BPA in baby bottles and drink bottles, all the info I was reading listed BPA as a common ingredient in the lining of canned food.
CTV and the Globe and Mail did tests on canned goods and discovered that not only is the BPA there, it’s in higher concentrations than was found in plastics.
While baby bottles leach about 6 parts per billion of bisphenol A (BPA), the exclusive tests of food cans show:
* A can of children’s ravioli leached 6 parts per billion.
* A can of peas and carrots leached 7 parts per billion.
* A can of tomato juice leached 14 parts per billion.
Studies have shown when cans are heated in the manufacturing process, BPA leaches out of the linings. Foods are first sealed in cans and heated to kill bacteria in the food. Cans are heated to temperatures between 116 C and 121 C, and the length of time varies according to the type of food.
Because these findings show that BPA leached out of the cans and into water, it can be assumed that the chemical is leaching into the food itself when the cans are heated during the pasteurization process. [source]
I quickly removed ALL plastic with a bad plastics number from my house, what will I do about the cans?
Yes. Eden Foods made the switch almost a decade ago - but it’s costly.
Eden Organic Beans are packed in lead free tin covered steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel lining that does not contain bisphenol-A (BPA). (Oleoresin is a natural mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir). These cans cost 14 percent more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. This costs Eden $300,000 more a year. To our knowledge Eden is the only U.S. company that uses this custom made BPA-free can. [source]
Eden Foods are available locally at Whole Foods, Nesters, BuyLow and other more organically inclined grocers, check the store locator on their site for a full list.
I prefer frozen vegetables to canned, as there isnt as much sodium in a bag of corn kernels, vs a can. But I buy canned tomatoes and beans to make sauces. What about canned tuna?
Oh, don’t worry about canned beer (for now) - the temperatures aren’t high enough during the canning process to leach out the BPA - but it’s there.
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As devoured for the first time, by a young boy 1 week shy of his first birthday.
Last night Z also got his first taste of La Casa Gelato .. unfortunately no cameras were present .. he didnt like it at first, but was soon grabbing and clawing to get his face buried in my bowl of creamy goodness.
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We’ve been tossing around ways to try and get Z motivated to feed himself. He’ll eat Cheerios and toast and small things, but he’s not really into trying to do it on his own.
My mother said she used to give us mango pits when we were kids. They were a fun puzzle for us to chew on and try to get the mango off, plus they were great as a relief from teething.
Perfect, we tried it today.
Mom’s always right.
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This is the recipe for Bolognese Sauce I use for Z’s spaghetti.
1 tbsp vegetable oil
50g finely chopped onion
20g chopped celery
1 small clove garlic, crushed
1 medium carrot (approx 85g), peeled and grated
100 g lean minced beef
150 ml Passata
100 ml unsalted stock or boiling water
1/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves or a pinch of dried thyme
a pinch of sugar
3 tbsp Annabel Karmel’s Mini Pasta Shells
Method:
Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the onion and celery over a low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the grated carrot and sauté for 4 minutes. In a separate pan, dry fry the minced beef until browned, stirring occasionally. Add to the onion and carrot. Pour over the tomato and basil sauce, boiling water or stock and add the thyme and pinch of sugar. Cover and cook over a low heat for about 12 minutes. Remove from the pan and pulse for a second or two in a blender to make a smoother texture.
Meanwhile, cook the shell pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain and mix with the Bolognese sauce.
Information
Suitable for freezing
From 9 months
MAKES 3 PORTIONS [source]
I don’t use the pasta shells. I make a batch of the sauce and then sprinkle in La Molisana’s Spinagarda pasta. It’s shaped like grains of rice and is the perfect length for Z. I don’t actually cook the pasta, I just toss it in when the sauce is done and it soaks up the extra water and cooks itself.
Make the oatmeal as per the package. In a saucepan sautee the diced apples and pears in 1 1/2c of water. I toss in a pat of butter and a cinnamon stick too. Just sautee and boil the apples and pears until they break down like mashed potatos. Add extra water if you need to.
When they’re done, mash the apples up and mix with the oatmeal. Put in ice cube trays and freeze.
We give Z two or three cubes of oatmeal for breakfast each day mixed with a piece of fresh banana, or some mango or blueberries. It’s the perfect breakfast!
It’s so easy to make your own baby food. Try it!
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I’ve made all of Zacharie’s food since we switched him to solids. My dear friend Erin Davis gave us Annabel Karmel’s book as a baby gift and the ease of the recipes was simply inspiring.
Each weekend I boil up potatoes, apples, tomatoes, chives, leeks and more. I grind up chicken, and turkey, and puree away. I make pasta and sauce and oatmeal and freeze it in trays for the week ahead.
It’s a great system.
But I gotta tell you, if we lived in France, I don’t think I would be going through the trouble. I just can’t compete.
The baby food the french babies get to snack on is spectacular.
Carrots, turkey, lamb, salmon, spaghetti, squash, couscous, apricots, apples, pears. Sure, all similar staples to back home, but it’s when you open the food bowls you see the difference.
In Canada, the food looks processed, pureed, and boiled into non-descript fecal matter. In France, you could crack open one of the ready to feed serving bowls and swear you had heated up your own freezer meal for lunch.
Come on, we all lick our fingers when we feed our children, and after sampling the stuff Z got to snack on the past 2 weeks, I was tempted to dig in right alongside him. Pot Au Feu, Turkey Stew, Apples with biscuits and more.
The Bledina baby meals are also broken down more consistently by age with a more gradual and visible texture added to the meals as the babies get older. 4, 6, 8, 12, 15, 18 mos+ all get their own individual meal plan.
Going to France we overstuffed the bag with diapers to use on the trip, coming home, we overstuffed with baby food.
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To celebrate our engagement on Monday night, Jen and I opted for a romantic dinner in.
A couple of boxes of takeout from Mezzo di Pasta and a bottle of Tavelfrom the marche.
Again, we’re not pairing this properly, but Jen was so excited to see this half bottle on the shelf, she dropped it (must have been the extra weight from that engagement ring;). It didnt break, we bought it.
This wine is only available in the spring and is ripe for the hot Mediterranean days to sip on a patio with a bucket of mussels. It’s about +2 and raining in Paris and we’re having bolognese pasta. So the pairing is off - way off. But this is Paris, and Jen and I got engaged today, and Zacharie is sleeping. All that makes a perfect pairing.
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Vancouver is a vibrant multicultural city, that’s easy to see. Live in Richmond? Even if you’re not from Hong Kong, you’re definitely down with Chinese New Year. If you live in Surrey you know all about Diwali, regardless of your ethnicity.
This week everyone’s Irish, there isnt a “real” Irish district of Vancouver, so everyone’s down with St Patrick’s Day. Our family is Persian this week, because we live in North Vancouver and this week is Persian New Year.
Jen, Z and I went down to Yaas Bazaar on Lonsdale to pick up some fab kebabs and rice for dinner last night. Just to make it all right for the season, I served up a Guinness on the side. Now that’s multicultural!
Norooz is the Persian New Year, and it happens when the vernal equinox happens in Iran. This year that’s 9:18a on March 20 in Tehran, which means the new year actually happens at 10:18p on Wednesday here in North Vancouver.
There’s a pretty cool collection of customs associated with the new year, most associated with the same rebirth we see with the season. As we switch from winter to spring and the buds start blooming, and the life cycle starts again seems like a perfect time to celebrate the new year.
Yesterday there was a big festival at Mahon Park in North Vancouver, but if you missed that, you still have a chance to check out some great celebrations of the season. Tomorrow night, you need to take a walk down to Ambleside Park for the 2008 Red Wednesday Bonfire Festival, better known as Chahar Shanbeh Soori.
It happens on the last Tuesday evening of the year. Every family gathers several piles of wood or brush in the streets or parks to be lit shortly after the sunset. Then all the family members line up and take turns jumping over the burning fire and singing “sorkheeyeh toe az man, Zardeeyeh man az toe” (I give my paleness to the fire and take fire red healthy color.) Yellow or paleness symbolizes the sickness and pain and red symbolizes heath.
The symbolism doesn’t end there. When we were at Yaas, the place was packed. As you walk down Lonsdale you see racks and racks of wheat grass outside the shop. Inside, everyone was crowded around a huge fishtank filled with goldfish. The corner with the bakery was squeezed tight with pistachio treats. The smells and smiles of the season filled the entire place.
Just as we rush to get a turkey with trimmings for Thanksgiving or Christmas, the Persians have a similar hustle for a very specific shopping list. They need 7 things on their table as they celebrate Haft Seen, each with a separate and important symbolism.
The Haft Seen is a spread with seven items which each symbolizes a wish or theme. All seven items in this ceremonial table starts with the Persian letter seen or S in English.
Get ready to go on a scavenger hunt, here’s what you need:
Sabzeh (grown wheat or lentil) for rebirth
Samanu (flour and sugar) for sweetness of life
Sekeh (coin ) for prosperity and wealth
Senjed ( dried fruit of Lotus tree) for love
Seer (garlic) for health
Somaq ( sumac berries) for warmth
Serkeh ( vinegar) for patience
There are some other random things you can toss on your table, such as painted eggs, which represent fertility, a mirror that represents image and reflection of life, and a goldfish in a bowl that represents life.
So while you’re raising a pint of green beer today, come up to North Van and grab some fresh green grass and a goldfish.
Aidee Shoma Mobarak!
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Jen just got home from her “Dinner Club.” Her girlfriends get together once a month and have a pow-wow at a hot spot. Tonight it was Jules Bistro in Gastown. Last month it was La Terrazza.
To show you how badly needed this Dinner Club is for Jen and her social life, the nice coat she wore tonight hasnt been worn since last month’s soiree. How did she know? She found someone else’s car keys in her pocket, probably dumped by a coat check or valet.
All that we had was a Volvo fob, and a Tiffany’s charm.
On the back of the charm was engraved a first name, and a company. That’s it. Put them in Google together and we found a matching person who had donated to the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. With that entry we discovered her last name.
Put the first and last name into Google and we discover a bulletin board post she made 2 years ago complete with phone number and email address. Now the email address has expired, as she has switched companies, but we will try the home phone number listed tomorrow.
So… good news / bad news. Google will help you get your keys back if you lost them, but it will also give out a lot of information about you to anyone who has a little bit of information about you.
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We took Z out for his first real restaurant meal on Sunday night. He was 1 and he could handle a high chair and picking off Mom and Dad’s plates - his first big boy meal. 
Eden Organic Beans are packed in lead free tin covered steel cans coated with a baked on oleoresinous c-enamel lining that does not contain bisphenol-A (BPA). (Oleoresin is a natural mixture of an oil and a resin extracted from various plants, such as pine or balsam fir). These cans cost 14 percent more than the industry standard cans that do contain BPA. This costs Eden $300,000 more a year. To our knowledge Eden is the only U.S. company that uses this custom made BPA-free can. 
The baby food the french babies get to snack on is spectacular.
Jen, Z and I went down to Yaas Bazaar on Lonsdale to pick up some fab kebabs and rice for dinner last night. Just to make it all right for the season, I served up a Guinness on the side. Now that’s multicultural!
It happens on the last Tuesday evening of the year. Every family gathers several piles of wood or brush in the streets or parks to be lit shortly after the sunset. Then all the family members line up and take turns jumping over the burning fire and singing “sorkheeyeh toe az man, Zardeeyeh man az toe” (I give my paleness to the fire and take fire red healthy color.) Yellow or paleness symbolizes the sickness and pain and red symbolizes heath.
There are some other random things you can toss on your table, such as painted eggs, which represent fertility, a mirror that represents image and reflection of life, and a goldfish in a bowl that represents life.
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