Van Duesen Gardens

Culture Shock Part 4; Public Transit

Our good friend Eric had a lot of firsts on this trip. After seeing his face on the bus I had to ask if it was his first time on public transit.... He said no, but I still wonder...

It is a wonderful thing to travel with people who are open to new experiences and just taking it in. It makes the whole experience new for me too. As uncomfortable as culture shock is, I think it's an important thing to feel once in a while, we're all the same, but we're all different.

Culture Shock Part 3; Granville Island

Our condo is centrally located for all our Vancouver adventures. Just 5 blocks downhill to the bottom or Hormby St. and the little water taxi to Granville Island. Coming off the ferry was a fellow Yukoner, a Yukon neighbour was shopping at Stuart's just behind us, then we saw another at the sausage place. Small world.

Resto Recommends: The Italian Kitchen

I work with a number of foodies and so when I travel, I always ask for recommendations. The Italian Kitchen was one such recommendation, and we were very pleased. The service was good without being obsequious, the food was lovely to the eyes and the tongue and the small mistakes made were well compensated for. The Chef brought us a lovely desert and the house made it complimentary. By which point, we'd had a good time, so there's no photos!

The Barbering

 I booked the boys a barbering experience at FortKnight in Gastown.

Who's that? The hot towel straight razor shave...

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.