Culture Shock Part 2 The Equipment

Culture Shock

We're here in Vancouver enjoying  a long weekend. Our first stop after dropping the bags in our fabulous condo was HONS in Chinatown.

We hiked from our place Hons.

 Checking the multi-page menu was sort of overwhelming.

Tipsy Tuesdays

We have a semi-regular institution of tipsy Tuesdays at which good food and good wine are consumed by friends. Sometimes we even end up at wasted Wednesdays or Thirsty Thursdays.... it just depends on the invitees and the week. This evening's line-up included; a selection of cheeses + crackers; Caesar salad, BBQ pork chops + barley risotto; Chocolate Claim desserts, pecan pie and ice cream. And of course, the following wines in approximate order of appearance... LIFE IS GOOD!!!

+ n

Summer Faith Shaken

So this morning I awoke to this view;

Summer will Come...

At this time of year there is a certain degree of faith required to believe, really truly in your heart of hearts, believe that the winter will end. The nights and days are still bone chillingly cold, down to -19 on Thursday last. The sun is back, but its power feels sapped each night by winter's icy grip. Only true believers start flowers for the summer the faithless don't believe will arrive. I'm a believer-

Bottega/Bottarga

So there's this 'umami rich' stuff called 'bottega' that is made from the salted, pressed and smoked roe of the grey mullet. A sort of fish, not the hair cut, althought I guess the hair cut could be said to have a certain 'funk' about it similar to the umami flavour of this fish roe. I have hatched a plan to make some ourselves. Christopher's aboriginal grandma May is still actively setting nets and fishing. She shares fish with Christopher when he is around and she's got some. Some of that fish has roe.

Can you feel my plan hatching?

There's also the good chance that Christopher will be working fish camp with grandma this summer and pulling nets full of Yukon River Chinook - if there's fish this year. Last year was really sad for everyone with the lowest return ever recorded. We have smoked the roe and frozen it in the past. Perhaps this year we'll get more creative...

Silver Cruet Set

Friends are downsizing and moving to the next phase of their peripetatic lives and gifted us this lovely family heirloom. Each time we use it will think if the good friends who've given it to us, their stories and hopefully more stories to come... and the twists and turns of life.