Greetings from Vancouver

I'm a week into my vacation and I feel utterly relaxed. I left 90 degree weather and arrived to 65 degree weather and I'm sitting at the kitchen table in Py's apartment. There's an absolutely amazing view of English Bay from here (the photo above is pretty much exactly what I'm looking at right now, if you add in a few more clouds) and I've got a mug of tea. These are good conditions for blogging, my friends. (Even if I've only got a tiny little netbook at my disposal! It's cute and functional but dang does it make me feel like I have giant fingers!)


On my first day, we went to Wreck Beach and listened to music and waited for the sun to set. Actually before we did that, we went to Japadog and I had a spicy cheese terimayo; Py has a photo of me looking positively gleeful but you'll have to wait until he uploads it to see. But anyway, back to the beach.


This guy showed up with a shovel and started digging an enormous hole--eventually he ended up planting a bunch of tree trunks in the ground, as you can see above. I dunno if he was out for some exercise or what, but...okay! It looks kind of neat.


This was as close as we got to sunset, as eventually it just got toooo cold. So we adjourned to Chutney Villa and ate entirely too much food. But it was delicious. And then the good eating continued:


One of my Flickr friends is always posting shots of awesome looking food on her stream, and she happens to be from Vancouver! And ever since I saw her photos of Sun Yee Cafe, I knew we had to go check it out. And we did! This is really far out from where we are, but it happened to be on the way to Rice Lake, so we hopped in the Zipcar (man, what a brilliant service) and drove over to East Hastings. Sun Yee Cafe is kind of an HK style coffee shop and they have absurdly cheap prices. Py got the chicken chop above and I ordered a lunch special of stir fried beef and hor fun noodles (which I neglected to take a photo of). What arrived was an absolutely enormous platter of flat noodles. ENORMOUS. Like, enough for 3 people huge. And that was $6 or $7! It included a drink (lemon tea for me!) and because we had no idea that the portion sizes would be so enormous, we also ordered an appetizer of fried squid:


Salt and pepper style. Delicious, especially the bits of spicy chili. A bit tough, but for the price, I'm not going to complain. We rolled out of there with leftovers and made our way to Rice Lake for a much needed walk. Rice Lake is pretty, but it was starting to drizzle when we got there so we probably didn't get to experience its full glory. Nice for a walk, though!


On another day we went to Stanley Park and saw a couple of raccoon families--I love raccoons! They are so cute and make the best noises.


There were a couple of young ones which were extra cute; you can see a short video that Py made. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the place we had dinner that night but they had a very reasonably priced set menu which included the new-to-me "tofu cheese". I think it was pretty much cream cheese (possibly mascarpone) and tofu, topped with honey and strawberries and it was surprisingly good. Not enough tofu, though.


Apparently I arrived at the tail end (no pun intended) of the wild sockeye salmon season; from what I've been reading, they've had the largest run in 100 years. Lucky me! I picked up this gorgeous salmon fillet for something like $7 CAD; do you know how much this would cost in NY???? Probably triple that amount.


We made a really simple dinner with it; the salmon was just salted and then pan-seared for a crispy skin. It was amazing, and I'm not sure I can ever go back to eating farmed salmon. (The roasted potatoes and sauteed sugar snap peas were tasty too, but man, that salmon.) Just what the doctor ordered!

Tomorrow we're hopping on a sea plane (exciting!!) and going up to visit our friends' marina. Hope I get to see some seals!

The Best Scallion Pancakes

I'm going to start this one off by saying that my mother is an amazing cook. We've always eaten really delicious food, and I like to think that I've absorbed some lessons through the years, although most of my attempts come nowhere near hers. However, there are a few recipes I've learned and perfected, and in the case of scallion pancakes, I think mine are better now. (Don't tell my mom I said that.)

To make 16 5-6" pancakes, combine 3 cups of all purpose flour and a teaspoon of salt. Pour in 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups of boiling water; stir with chopsticks (or a fork) until mostly combined. You'll have a fairly dry, shaggy looking mass. Turn it out onto a clean countertop and knead until you have a smooth, pliable dough. You may need to add a tablespoon or more of water, but don't add much more than that--the dough should not be sticky at all. Cover with a towel and set aside while you prepare the filling.

For the oil, combine 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil. Finely chop approximately 4 scallions, greens and whites--you should have about 3/4 of a cup total. If you have any available, you can add some finely chopped garlic chives as well.


Divide dough into two parts, and keep the one you're not working with covered with a towel. Roll the half into a rope and cut into 8 equal portions. Working with one at a time, roll out into a circle; try to roll it out thinly (less than 1/8" thick). Brush all over with a thin layer of oil, and sprinkle with a bit of salt.


Scatter some scallions evenly across your dough circle. I use about a teaspoon, but obviously you can increase or decrease depending on how scallion-y you like your pancakes. Roll your pancake up snugly into a sausage, like you would a cinnamon roll. Don't worry too much about pinching the seams shut or anything.


Form your sausage into a coil and tuck the end under into the center. These last two steps are what give the pancakes their flakiness. Flatten down into a round patty. You should end up with something that looks like this:



Dust both sides with flour and roll out again into a 5-6" round circle. Don't worry if some of the filling is forced out--you can just poke it back in. Similary, don't worry if you can't get them completely round; they'll still taste good, I promise.


As you roll them out, stack them on a plate with a layer of parchment or plastic wrap between each one. If you aren't planning on eating all 16 right away (tempting, but I don't recommend it if you don't have a large group of people. Trust me.), then once you have them rolled out, pack them into a freezer bag and store in the freezer. They'll keep for quite a while and it's convenient to have a stash on hand for emergencies.


When you're ready to cook them, heat a splash of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, put a pancake in; it should sizzle a bit, but keep the heat controlled so it doesn't brown too fast. When there are browned spots and the surface looks dry, flip the pancake and press down with your spatula. (For reasons I can't explain, this helps to encourage the pancake to puff up a bit, forming flaky layers). Cook until the second side has browned spots. Remove from the heat, cut into quarters, and serve plain or with dipping sauce (in this case, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, a dollop of sambal oelek, a few drops of sesame oil, and half a clove of garlic, smashed). Repeat as necessary!