I saw some cabbage that my friend had grown in Saskatoon last year that turned out great, so I decided to plant it this year. I thought that it would do well because cabbages are hearty and could stand up to the Saskatchewan weather.
Above is a picture of my purple cabbage when I first planted it and the next picture is after a flock of sparrows came down and ate my purple cabbage to the bone. Every time a new leaf would form the birds would peck it. In the first picture it looks so young and purple and promising and in the next it looks so haggard and beaten down, it made me feel bad. Next year I will cover them. I tried tying the outside leaves up over the center to protect the middle but they ate around the string.

I read a post on Michael Rhulman’s blog about a sour dough starter that he made from an organic purple cabbage leaf. I left my starter in Vancouver, it was a good one and I was sad when I realized what I had done. It was from a pastry friend and Lidbin and I named the starter Black Betty, it was 3 years old but Myra said it was funny tasting so, I got some of Lidbin’s starter (Amelie) that she got from Joachim at Boneta. I named it Goldie Bambi and that is the one that got left behind. I was going to use my cabbage to start one, but now will have to use somthing else. The important thing to me is that is be a Saskatoon starter. I want natural yeasts unique to the area. I might try some rhubarb that is still kicking in my backyard.

Every Saturday at noon I serve a brunch in my house, it is restaurant style, by donation. People show up at 12 and I serve different things each week. Every week more and more people come as word spreads. Soon it will be reservation only. I chose to do a brunch because it is less formal and people love it, plus it is cheap. I get a discount at the local food restaurant that I work at. I only serve the best local, organic eggs I can find. I use the best ingredients I can get, including heirloom tomatoes from my grandmother’s garden. When I was on garde-manger at Chow I would scrape out the seeds of any exceptional tomatoes that came across my station and I would mail the seeds to my grandma. She has been growing the best tomatoes in Saskatoon ever since. My grandma also gives me big fragrant roses from her yard and she gave me a case of 50 “pheasant tumblers” for water and juice glasses. She used to have big parties and entertain a lot back in the day. I’ve been making my own bacon, and baking my own bread. Every week I get more and more organized, and I add more tables.

I got some itty bitty, flavorful wild blueberries foraged from up north in Saskatchewan. So I made blue berry pancakes for my friends for brunch. Brunch is a whole other story I’ll tell you about later. I don’t have a killer pancake recipe, but I used to work at a fancy brunch place in Toronto as a hostess and they had the best buttermilk blueberry pancakes I’ve ever had. So I tried to recreate them.

I got a basic pancake recipe and substituted butter milk for the milk, and I upped the butter content by a lot, because I remember the pancakes I loved were really rich and would melt in your mouth, so you only needed to eat a little stack, to be satisfied. They were good but I still need to tweak the seasoning a little more to get the perfect balance between salty and sweet. Does anyone have a good buttermilk pancake recipe?

I have a big juniper tree in my back yard and yesterday I spent some time gathering juniper berries. I want to use them when I cure a big slab of pork belly for bacon. I got a belly from Pine View Farms just outside of Saskatoon, all natural meat. I also want to use the juniper berries to make sausages, and choucroute. They were really time consuming to collect. I think they are very beautiful, and I like being outside.

I pickled and preserved for 9 hours today at my new job. In Fall everything comes in mass amounts from the local organic farms. I got to work side by each with the chef all day and he was such a pleasure to be around. So fun, genuine and passionate. I really lucked out with this job, because I was so sad leaving Vancouver that I wouldn’t get to spend the Autumn canning on Sundays with my friends, so I’m lucky that I at least get paid to do it. I’m learning a lot from this chef too, about preserving.

I’m also learning how to not waste anything, this chef is the king of finding a use for everything. They are good uses to, not gross bullshit like chanterelle trim soup for staff meal, “mmm, tastes like the real forest, like pine needles and dirt…”

There were mustard seeds, some crushed black pepper and some sliced garlic that was left in the bottom of the pot after our brine was poured out, he told me to save them and use them for mustard in the next vinaigrette I make. I would of just put the pot in dish. I got a good 250ml full of juicy, briny mustard seeds that blended nicely into my vinaigrette. Which was made with the juice the roasted red peppers give off.

Another thing was he made crabapple jelly. He cooked down the apples whole with sugar then hung them in an apron for the jelly. Then he took what was left and put it through a food mill and cooked that down to make delicious apple butter.

I was straining the lentils and he got me to keep the grey liquid they cooked in for soup base. I tasted it and it was delicious, it tasted lentily and seasoned and full of nutrients. No waste, no waste at all, opposite of the waste.

I was in my grandma’s garden and I came across a zucchini bigger than my leg. “Grandma, what the hell!?” I said.
She told me she just noticed it and was saving it for me to pick. I expected it to be all hollow in the inside and spongy, but when I picked it up it was super heavy. I gave it a bath in the sink then cut it up and went to work. When I cut it open it was solid and juicy, so I made a huge chocolate zucchini cake, two zucchini loaves, and a big pot of ratatouille. My grandma talked me through the icing on the cake, it is real old lady icing that is just icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla extract. It was super funny, it tasted really good, like grandma cake, none of that fancy restaurant ganache or what ever the shit real pastry chefs ice cakes with. That zucchini made enough food to feed 15 people!

Vancouver restaurants
A sparkling cocktail parlour in the rough

ALEXANDRA GILL
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
Last updated on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009 03:25AM EDT
agill@globeandmail.com

For years I’ve been complaining that Vancouver izakayas – and the foodies who frequent them – take themselves way too seriously. In Japan, these cheap and cheerful watering holes are modest places that serve simple dishes, primarily to soak up the alcohol.

Sure, Canada is a free country. Anyone can elevate the concept as haute as they want. But after trying many lacklustre fusion experiments, I’ve only now found a sparkling Western izakaya in the rough.

The Diamond is a new Gastown cocktail parlour that puts its Asian-inspired plates in their proper place – after the drinks. Located on the second floor of the historic Ferguson Block, this smartly updated gin joint looks like a lovely place to get mildly soused.

On a sweltering hot evening, we make a beeline for a table next to one of the soaring arched windows overlooking Maple Tree Square. There isn’t a ripple of breeze to be felt. But the lengthy, leather-bound cocktail list, conveniently organized into such categories as “refreshing,” “boozy,” “not so boozy” and “proper,” promises quick relief.

The bar program is a fairly sophisticated affair, as one would expect from any establishment operated by three of Vancouver’s top mixologists: Josh Pape (formerly of Chambar), Sophie Taverner (ex-Cascades) and Mark Brand (who is also a co-owner of the nearby Boneta). The menu descriptions include the provenance of each drink and little icons that show you what type of glass your drink will be served in (champagne, rocks, martini, saucer, and so on).

We start off slowly with a “delicate” Isadora ($8), circa 2009, The Diamond. The sparkling wine and cantaloupe-juice spritzer is almost too delicate, with a very subtle hint of ginger and nearly indiscernible basil finish.

Much more pleasing is the “not so boozy” Diamond Cup 6 ($8), another original that puts a slightly bitter herbal twist on the classic Pimm’s Cup, with splashes of orancio vermouth, Dubonnet and ginger ale in addition to the standard gin and lemon. Loaded with mint and cucumber, it’s a delicious summer sipper.

After a couple more not-so-boozy cocktails chased with plenty of water, we finally turn our attention to the nosh.

Christie Peters (who previously cooked at Chow and Feenie’s) and Pierre Natarani (Feenie’s, Boneta) have created small sharing dishes that range from $3 to $12 and are presented on a dim sum-style checklist with a pencil. Although unpretentious, the nibbles are satisfying and stylishly plated.

Pickled egg and beets ($4) is awfully pretty – think Gourmet magazine, not dusty tavern fare. The quartered hard-boiled eggs have been pickled in beet juice, giving them a bright purple rim that contrasts stunningly with their mustard-yellow yolks. The salad comes with crunchy tri-colour beets, a smear of slightly sweet soy mayonnaise and a sprinkling of pea shoots.

Red snapper carpaccio ($12) is thinly sliced and quiveringly fresh, topped with another tangle of pea shoots (some of the ingredients become a bit repetitive) and splashed in a bright chili, lime, sesame and cilantro dressing.

Pork gyoza ($5 for six) is loosely stuffed with luscious mirin, shiitake and Sloping Hills organic pork mince. Although I’m tempted to say the meat is too tasty to be overwhelmed by all the chili powder piled on top, this would probably be taking the menu more seriously than it’s meant to be.

Likewise, I have no idea what kind of cocktail should be paired with the Peking duck and chicken sandwich ($8), although the bartenders have probably given it some thought. We didn’t ask and ended up with some strange combinations.

This sandwich, a toasted salute to Vietnamese banh mi retrofitted with pickled raisins, Asian pear and sweet mayonnaise, stymies the light peach and rhubarb flavours in the vodka-based Stonewall ($9). And it actually clashes horribly with the green chartreuse Rumble ($10), shaken with egg white and muddled blackberries, basil and apple.

But I bet this addictively good sandwich will fast become a munchies-fulfilling, late-night favourite. As will some of the ramen soups. (The duck broth was slightly pedestrian, but the lemon-grass broth with glass noodles was freshly fragrant.)

As the sun sets and the drinks cool us off, we lean back in our antique wooden seats to admire what a nice job the owners have done with the design. The funky crystal chandeliers, custom diamond-motif wallpaper and handsomely finished bathrooms give it a distinguished grown-up feel, without being stuffy.

It’s heartening to see this significant heritage building, which was one of the first to be rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1886, occupied again.

Although many stories abound about it being Vancouver’s first brothel or a temporary site for City Hall, according to Donald Luxton, president of Heritage Vancouver, the second floor was actually a CPR land office. The Victorian Italianate building is one of the oldest buildings in Vancouver still standing in its original location.

In recent history, the top floor was home to the Savoy, a notorious music hall that was the place to be seen during Expo 86. This part of the building has been closed since 2003, when three people were killed in a shooting at the Loft Six nightclub.

Though the streets outside are still almost as rough-and-tumble as they were in the days when Gassy Jack ruled the roost, the neighbourhood certainly is gentrifying fast. Looking down at the recently renovated Byrnes Block across the street, which now houses a Vera’s Burger Shack and will soon see the arrival of a Nando’s Chicken chain restaurant, we wonder how long it will take before Gastown becomes as commercially bland as Yaletown or Robson Street.

So three cheers for The Diamond, an independently owned joint that remains true to the neighbourhood’s roots yet tastes refreshingly unique.

The Diamond: 6 Powell St.,

info@di6mond.com (no phone number)

Omnivore’s Dilemma taught me about ethical meat, I just started reading Bottemfeeder. I heard about it form Bryan who was borrowing Lucas’ copy. Since I’m back in s’toon and bored as fuck I’m reading shitloads again. Bottemfeeder is very interesting. I want to do things as good for the environment as I can, except no one can stop me from driving my 1980 Camero. It’s 3 am, I gotta go, but this shit is important, the stuff about the fish. For real.