Pender Harbour Weekend

It's been about a week since I've gotten back and dudes--I am SO SAD to be back from vacation. I had such an awesome time and man is it hard coming back to reality. (Also I came home and found approximately 30 pears and about 20 apples in my fridge from the CSA share my brother picked up for me--egad!! More sauce on the agenda....) I've got a couple more posts about the trip coming but for this one I wanted to focus on the weekend we spent at our friends' marina. It can be summed up thusly:OMG SEALS!!!


Although, I'm getting ahead of myself. We took a floatplane up to Sechelt (so much faster than the ferry) and it was super fun. As you can tell from the photo above, it is a very small plane (a 6 seater!) and the pilot is right there with you. And the view is amazing. And before you know it, you're coming in for landing:




And here's the airport! By airport, I mean a series of docks, and a pub. It's pretty sweet actually, you can land, refuel your plane, get a beer, eat some boiled shrimp...not bad. We had to wait around a while for our friend to come collect us, but eventually he arrived and we drove to breakfast.


If you ever get to Pender Harbour, a must-do is to go eat at Laverne's. That's the boater's breakfast above (I exercise a little restraint and went with a breakfast that only had bacon instead of bacon AND sausage!) and it's just the thing when you've been awake since the crack of dawn and need fuel for a kayak trip. (And after your kayak trip, you can go back for a burger and delicious fries, and a shake. Mmm, shake.)


Plus there are quirky things all over the restaurant, like this army of salt and pepper shakers.


And here I am, in a kayak for the first time ever!! It was so much fun. It took me a little while to get the hang of paddling (I kept bashing my knuckles against the side of the kayak) but once I did it was tremendously fun. We paddled from the marina to the mouth of the harbour (a lot further than it sounds--a good solid hour or so of paddling!) because I was promised real live wild seals!


And seals there were! (These were taken on a second trip the next day, when we went back in a motorboat; I didn't want to take the expensive camera in the kayak, I mean, what if I dropped it!)


They were just chilling on these floating logs, a whole group of them! It was amazing! I'm frankly surprised I didn't tip my kayak over in excitement. IT WAS SO COOL!!! FREAKING SEALS!!!! (The photo at the top of the post was also taken during our kayak trip--it's a heron flying away.)


Ahem. Okay, I'm calm again. Anyway, all that paddling worked up an appetite and thirst so we adjourned to the bar for some beer and the biggest plate of nachos ever (and this is the small portion!) and some interesting conversation with other bar patrons (our friend now has lots of business ideas for his boat). Then it was time to hop in his little motorboat and head over to the nearby town for more food to cook onboard. You can click here to see a short video of the trip over; you can hear me laughing maniacally and mumbling something unintelligible. Dinner was short ribs, which I did not take a picture of because it was too dark!


We woke up on Sunday to rain! I guess that was to be expected, because despite the name Sunshine Coast, there's definitely a rainy season (which seems to last, you know, 9 months). And there were forecasts of a major storm moving in, so that put a damper on my plans to go take another kayak trip. We settled for breakfast (an entire package of bacon! haha) and coffee and I don't know why but coffee tastes better on the boat.


It was kind of a weird day, weather-wise! And by the time we were getting ready to go and catch the ferry back, the sky had cleared up and it turned gorgeous, if also still windy. (We took another trip over to see the seals, too! Yay!) I'm told we passed a black bear on the way to the ferry but I think I might have dozed off at that point. An excellent time, all around.

More photos from the weekend are here, in case this post wasn't already long enough!

More Vancouver: More Food, the Bard, Canada Day, and A Whole Lot of Flowers

Sigh, as usual, life is getting in the way of blogging--I really don't know how daily bloggers do it! They must not need sleep. Anyway, things have been busy and hectic; you'd think summer would mean things would slow down at work, but someone somewhere has not gotten the memo. So I'm a bit behind in my posting, as you can tell from the fact that I am just now getting around to finishing up writing about my vacation back in the end of June! This one is a long one...but there is food involved!

On Canada Day, we headed over to Canada Place (along with lots of other people!) to see what there was to see. There were tons of food vendors (I was intrigued by the Poutinerie, but passed. Next time...), live music, and displays from the Canadian military branches. I tried to talk Py into getting a photo of himself holding a bazooka, but he declined. Hmph.


The Olympic torch was all lit up for the occasion, and man, what a view you get from Canada Place. We walked a bit further around Coal Harbor, eventually ducking into a waterfront pub for a snack and some beer. But I know--I'm babbling. You want to see the food...


Check it out! We wanted to try out the Feastro truck and wandered over on a gorgeous, sunny day for a late lunch. I like the fact that this truck is purple--it's hard to miss, and I imagine that it's even more hard to miss now that they've been featured on the Food Networks' Eat Street.


I got the salmon fish and chips, which was pretty good, although probably not the ideal way to enjoy good salmon. Still tasty, though!


Py had the far more virtuous albacore tuna carpaccio. I like that they sauteed the capers. Of course, any virtue in this dish was undone by the yam fries.


But holy crap were these yam fries ever good! Served with a little cup of aioli, these were awesome. I really wish I had a plate right now.


My trip happened to coincide with Bard on the Beach, so it was a no-brainer to go see a show. The location (in Vanier Park with rather nice views of the water) really adds something, and I hear people will bring picnics with them, which sounds like a nice idea. We opted for beer from the concession stand and a bag of popcorn (caramel and cheese). Anyway, this is the view of False Creek from the Burrard Street Bridge (we decided to walk to the festival)--nice, right? And one of my favorite tiny ferry boats...We saw the Merchant of Venice, which I really enjoyed, particularly the (non-period) gorgeous costumes. (Actually, if I'm lucky, I may make it to another show at the end of the season!)


Okay the only reason I'm putting up this not very good photo is so that you can see the sign. Yes, it does say that they have 218 FLAVORS ON LOCATION. That is a LOT of freaking flavors!! They had some really wild ones like Vegemite, garlic, and gin and tonic, but in the end, I opted for cherry pie.


It was good, too.


On one of the (many) gray days, I headed out to the UBC Botanical Garden and went a little snap happy. Actually I guess I was also thrilled that it didn't rain! (And that I can use Zipcar in Canada--that's pretty convenient.) They had a really nice collection of plants, and my one complaint is that not everything is labelled (or if it was, the sign was hidden.) I've only included a couple of my favorite photos here (this post is already getting too long), but if you click through any of them you can see more.


One of my favorites, they remind me of icicles.



I really loved this one! So vibrant!


You could buy a combo ticket for the botanical garden as well as the Nitobe Memorial Garden (which was a short drive away), so of course I did (we'd also been foiled on a previous attempt to visit). It was a little bit underwhelming, but certainly was tranquil and green, so I wasn't too disappointed. I suppose the biggest let down to me was that the informational pamphlet was basically just speculation, and no one actually knows what the layout of the garden or some of the elements of it mean.


Someone on Flickr was kind enough to translate this; it reads "I want to become a bridge that spans the Pacific Ocean." A nice thought.


Py is perfecting his Caesar, and I personally think these little flag picks add a little something extra. (Except when they fall into your drink...)


And then it was time to go. At least I got a nice sunset before I had to get on the plane! Another nice trip.

Another Vancouver Post

So the reason we had early Thanksgiving was because I had a little trip planned to Vancouver to see Py, and look at what greeted me--snow! (Well, okay, actually this is what I saw when I woke up--the flight I take always gets me there in the middle of the night.) It was snowing pretty hard, as you can tell from this photo, and I was excited to see it as it's still in the 50s in NYC. (Not that I'm complaining!) Unfortunately, it rained the rest of the time I was there, which is fine, but not so great for photos (or walking around outside).


Nevertheless, we ate well, with some revisits to favorite places like Honjin Sushi and Alpha (mmmm garlic pepper tuna). We also checked out Gyoza King (where the food is great and the signs are hilarious, I especially liked their options for smokers) and Campagnolo, another keeper. I had a great pizza there, and if I had had room, would have gone for the zeppoles--alas. Next time, maybe! Of course, the egg tart above has nothing to do with any of those restaurants; I picked that up at T&T, an awesome Asian grocery. Oh man, their bakery section is amazing! And the people who work there are soooooo much friendlier than at the NYC equivalent (where they are surly at best). They had like 18 types of pineapple buns! Egg tarts (Portugese and regular)! All kinds of seafood, including lots of different kinds of fishballs! The egg tart was yummy, but of course, not quite as awesome as the one we had in Macau. Anyway, I love this supermarket and could spend hours there.


I did get to drop by Kimono Koi Crepes, which I had found out about from Panda Fresh Bakery (sadly, I did not get a chance to visit them this time--sniffle, I really wanted to try their pumpkin pie croissant!!!). It was a really rainy day, so you totally can't tell, but their cart is bright pink. It's very girly AND it's got plastic food models. (It's parked on the corner of Georgia and Granville.) And of course, the proprietors are super friendly (a theme of this city, I find).


After extensive evaluation of the menu, I went with a brownie banana crepe; mounds of whipped cream, banana slices, nutella drizzle, a chunk of brownie, sprinkles, and a strawberry Pocky, all rolled into a crepe. Over the top? Definitely. Delicious? Yes! A bit rich, maybe, but this is an indulgence, not an everyday kind of thing (they do have savory options, too, which sound like they would make a good lunch). It was much prettier when I first got it, but since it was raining, I took it back to the apartment to eat in comfortable dryness, so it's a bit messy looking.


And then over the weekend we discovered an event that is pretty much designed for me: the Bakers Market! It's only on for two more weekends but if you like baked goods at all (and are in Vancouver) you must go! It's so great! If I lived in Vancouver, you can bet I would be there selling stuff. We ate a lot of samples, and, as seems to be a theme in Vancouver, all of the bakers were super friendly.


I wanted to buy pretty much everything I saw, but restricted myself to this pack of macarons from Für Elise Patisserie and a bag of parmesan rosemary shortbreads (which I forgot to take a photo of) from Bah! (what a great name, huh?) Actually the shortbreads were for Py, but we shared :) I kind of hope they make this a year round event so the next time I'm there, I can check out some more yummy stuff.


And since the Olympic Village was right next to the Bakers Market, we went to go check it out. It's a fairly uninteresting block of apartments (apparently quite controversial) but there are, inexplicably, two enormous bird statues in the courtyard. I'm pretty sure they are planning to destroy Vancouver...

Another fab trip, if way too short. I am really bummed to be back, but at least December is a really busy month, then Py will be here for a visit, woohoo!

Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck

What's that you say? Where's the food in my alleged food blog? Don't worry--there's some food in this post, and hey, there's even a recipe at the end! But I have to admit, I have not been doing much baking (or interesting eating) lately because I've been so freaking busy!! Still, it's my favorite season and I've had a few moments to enjoy the cool weather (perfect tea-drinking weather), sunshine, and this past weekend, we escaped the city for a little while to pet sheepies at the Sheep and Wool Festival! Yay sheep!! How can you resist a face like this?


Okay, that's not a sheep, it's an alpaca. But how gorgeous is she? I desperately want to move somewhere where I can have a mini farm which will be the home of a mini sheep, mini alpaca, mini pony, mini donkey...you get the idea, right?


This sheep reminds me of a friend of mine (same haircut, heh).


Rhinebeck is about a 2 hour drive north of NYC, so with that in mind, I made a batch of pumpkin muffins to tide us over until we could eat an appropriately unhealthy fair lunch. What's not to like about pumpkin muffins? These have a sprinkling of crystallized ginger inside and a dusting of pearl sugar on top; when I make them again (and you know I will!), I'll double the amount of ginger. In the end though, we were too busy talking on the drive to actually eat any--I ate one afterwards :) (Recipe is at the bottom of this post!)


It was a gorgeous day for a drive and along the way we saw lots and lots of fall foliage (I was driving though, so mostly I saw road, hah!). And when we finally arrived, we browsed a couple of buildings' worth of yarns and fleeces before we stopped for a snack:


It's not a fair unless you have something fried, and this fit the bill. I felt mildly queasy afterwards and so skipped the fried dough and other fried goodies available. Actually now that I think about it, those cheese fries were pretty much all we ate all day (except for my muffin later on). Oh wait, we also had cups of cocoa on the way out, more to warm up our chilly fingers! Enough babbling, here are some more pictures of sheepies and alpacas and goats!


An extremely regal and aloof alpaca. I don't know if you can quite see it, but his name tag is Emperor Alexander. Indeed!


Hooves.


Smiley sheep.


Eeeeevil sheep.


Inquisitive horned sheep!


We spotted this on the bouncy castle; I'm pretty sure this is a knight wearing assless armor-chaps. What's up with that? We remain befuddled.


An Ewok. No, no. It's a miniature sheep! And I desperately, desperately want one. Even though we left with no sheep, I had a lovely day out, so thanks to my buds for coming along, and thanks to the sheep for letting me pet you (soooo soft and squishy).

Gingery Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 12 muffins, one loaf, or 3 mini-loaves

1 cup pumpkin (canned is fine, but make sure you use plain pumpkin, not pumpkin PIE filling)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup flavorless vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 - 3/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
Additional ginger or pearl sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 12 muffin cups with papers (or whatever baking vessel you are using). Sift flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt together into a small bowl. Toss in the crystallized ginger bits and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, sugars, syrup, and vegetable oil and beat until combined. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir the flour mixture in with a wooden spoon, just until combined. This is a fairly soft batter, so this should not be difficult. Spoon batter into muffin cups, about 2/3rd full (or pour into a greased and floured loaf pan or mini pans). Sprinkle with pearl sugar or additional ginger chips, if desired. Bake muffins about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. A full sized loaf pan will take about 45 minutes and mini pans will take about 30. Enjoy! Preferably with some hot tea...or maybe hot cider. Mmmm, cider...

Stuffing My Face in Vancouver

I promised in the second to last post that this one would be all about the food, so LET'S GO! You've seen the ice cream croissants...well, that wasn't all I ate, not by a long shot. I ate a lot in Vancouver. A LOT. I didn't get photos of all of it, but I certainly took plenty of photos of the desserts I had :) But I'm starting with something savory first (okay, well it's also kind of sweet)--an early evening snack of salmon candy and a honey lager from Granville Island Brewery. As far as I can tell, salmon candy is pretty much salmon jerky, smoked and glazed with maple syrup. The smoking makes the fish very dense, almost meaty in texture, and the syrup...delicious. It makes such a great snack with beer.


One of my favorite things to do in Vancouver is to hop on one of the tiny ferry boats and go wandering around Granville Island. (You may be interested to know that it is not actually an island.) There is a great market here full of all kinds of interesting food stalls, lots of fresh produce, fishmongers, butchers, sausage makers, bakeries....then there is the totem pole workshop and lots of little shops to browse in. It seems mostly to be full of tourists, but I've been a bunch of times and still enjoy it every time I go. Plus it's hard to resist all the piles of fresh fruit (a lot of it grown in B.C.). And I get to eat things like the smoked meat sandwich above! It came wrapped in greaseproof paper with a pickle and mustard and is oh so yummy.


This, people, is a regular portion. And can I point out that that's a bagel, not sandwich bread? Still despite its size, I have no problem polishing the whole thing off, and unlike my run-in with the aggressive seagull at English Bay, this time I was able to eat my sandwich in peace. (The seagulls were otherwise occupied by someone who was actually feeding them.) But I digress--vacations are all about indulgence so hold on to your hats because the desserts, they are coming:


Butter tart! I think the pastry might have been made with shortening because it was surprisingly lacking in flavor, but the filling was sticky and delicious (and had raisins buried in the bottom.)


I bought this peach tart from the same bakery on Granville Island; this was actually for Py (I only snuck a quarter of it!). This was good, with a poached peach half baked into some almond cream. (Screen-cleaner Cat also did not eat any.)


I cannot get enough of riding the ferry to Granville Island! This is from another trip (apparently I also cannot resist buying food there) and a different bakery than the previous desserts. This was labeled as an apple focaccia and it certainly is on a bready base but it's definitely more dessert. Or decadent breakfast. There was quite the pool of caramel on it before I carried it home upside down. Which turned out to be good, because I think that would have been too sweet for me.


Aaaand, from the same bakery, a simple but completely delicious blueberry galette. As you might have gathered from my bento posts, I love blueberries. Ergo, I love this galette.


I did pick up a couple of souvenirs (all of which are the edible type); this is a box of caramels from a local chocolatier, Wendy Boys. Unfortunately, I have not yet tasted one; I'm pretty sure I can convince the recipient to give me one though. In the meantime, I have sneakily opened the package and taken a photo:


My god, do these look amazing or what? You have to congratulate me on my willpower, I have managed not to eat these myself. :)


Finally, here is one more raccoon photo! So cute. Happy Wednesday!