how to be a human being
housewarming hummus, green curry noodles, and the city's donut offerings
Iain and Cass’s visit last week was both healing (because we got to spend a lot of time with friends) and bittersweet (because it reminded me how much I miss them). I always thought it was an autism thing, that I tend not to miss people when they aren’t around, it’s only when I see them that I’m reminded of their absence in my life. But maybe it’s more universally human than I thought— I saw a post recently that I can’t seem to find again, a piece from an article saying something about how in isolation our problems seem insurmountable, but in the company of a friend, they feel manageable again. I’m reminded, too, of feeling stuck creatively, like I’m destined to never make progress or write anything good again, and how nine times out of ten if I just talk about the thing I’m stuck on with Jeff or another writer friend, by the end of the conversation I’ve found a way forward.
Capitalism’s push to make us increasingly individual and self-sufficient is so much more damaging than we realise. We buy more when things like work, commuting, and childcare eat up most of our day-to-day, if our problems trick us into believing they aren’t things other people struggle with, if we feel helpless and miserable. We’re promised that things— a meal prep kit, a workout regime, an app, a kitchen appliance— will make our lives easier, give us back our stolen energy and time. Maybe it works for awhile, because we can’t see how thin we’ve spread ourselves, but it can only be a band-aid solution, because another problem will pop up in its place eventually. It’s the demands of capitalism that have robbed us of our energy and time, but it’s done at least partially by convincing us of the idea that we’re weak if we can’t go it alone, that we don’t need and deserve support from people outside of ourselves.
On their first night in town we visited them at the apartment where they were staying, because Arthur (three years old) was struggling from the jet lag after his first flight, and needed a nap. We watched/ignored the hockey game (I don’t want to talk about it), had some beers, and ordered pizza from Sopra Sotto, catching up and never running out of things to talk about, which is the best feeling. Even at 10pm, when those who’d flown in from Ontario felt like it was 1am, we were all reluctant to say goodnight.
Jeff and I used their visit as an excuse to host a some people at our place, which we haven’t done really more than incidentally, because we were still getting set up. But we’ve finally started to get some art on the walls, which makes it feel more homey even if you still have a few boxes you don’t know what you’re doing with yet. So it was somewhat of a housewarming, too. We made hummus and baba ganoush for dinner, because it allowed us to put out a bunch of food people could graze on if they arrived at different times, and meant we didn’t need to be in the kitchen much longer than it took to put things in serving dishes. I use this recipe for the baba ganoush, with a bit less garlic, and more spices. The hummus is my instant pot method. Dousing both with olive oil and flaky salt is essential, and I usually add some cumin and smoked paprika.
Chris and Denai had just come from Bellingham, and kindly brought me some peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joes (bless you), and all the ingredients for guacamole, which they made in our kitchen after they arrived. Recently Jeff purchased an old CD player off craigslist to hook up in the living room, a 6-disc magazine style from 1987. I was initially against his vehemence to put a CD player there, being that we have CD players in both the bedroom and Jeff’s office, and a computer and a blu-ray player in the living room, but it’s his $50, so who am I to tell him how to spend it. Anyway, we’d filled it up with nostalgic albums to listen to in the background all night and it was a hit; I don’t think we have a disc in our collection more recent than 2008. Sadly, I could not fill Arthur’s request to listen to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, because that’s one track neither of us seems to have.
We were also excited to introduce Cass, a certified cake donut hater, to the excellent risen donuts at Cream Pony, so we picked up a dozen there. Krystyna also brought a half dozen from Cartems (sadly Cream Pony’s donuts are not vegan), and I’m not too proud to admit I was eating leftover donut pieces for breakfast the next day.
On their last night in town, the three of them came to the North Shore to celebrate Jeff’s birthday with us by visiting a couple of the breweries in the Shipyards area, our old neighbourhood. We sat on the patio for some food and a round at La Cerveceria Astilleros— I ordered their nachos, which are a satisfying ‘push for cheese’ type that makes me think of going to the movies, only these have fresh pico de gallo and pickled jalapeños. The tacos are also pretty good, though I do think it’s time they expanded from jackfruit as the one vegetarian option (for contrast, there are five others that all have meat). Considering they already have a bean burrito on the menu and the option to add beans to the nachos, I don’t think it’d be too hard to do.
I got the Paloma grapefruit lager because their lagers are in general very good and I love grapefruit, but I tasted the piña colada sour that Jeff ordered and it was excellent too. We moved on to Beere, where the music choices made by the one person working were unfortunate, but the beers are always good; I went for a west coast IPA this time. Iain had been kind enough to bring donuts from Lucky’s as a birthday treat for Jeff, so we really had a pretty full tasting menu of the city’s donuts over the week (I chose one with pineapple cream filling). Cass and Arthur headed off shortly after, and the rest of us headed to House of Funk for one more drink. We didn’t order more food there, but I come bearing good news: they have vegan dumplings now! For a long time they had just pork and shrimp, and I’m glad to see they’ve expanded.
Oh, and if you’re curious, I think SuzyQ in Ottawa still beats most donuts Vancouver has to offer, but Lucky’s is probably the local winner in terms of variety and quality. Cream Pony’s donuts have an amazing texture and flavour, but they just aren’t as creative with their toppings and fillings as they could be. And Cartems earl grey, despite being a cake donut, is still a favourite.
We had so many leftovers from the housewarming party on the Victoria Day long weekend, I spend that whole week using them up and not cooking! I think I need to start keeping hummus in the fridge more often, because it means I’ll actually eat the cucumbers I buy instead of what usually happens (I use half of it and then it turns to slime by the time I think about it again).
A lot of the time when someone sends me a cooking video on instagram it’s a pastry or something else complicated that I know I’ll never make, it’s just something I watch in order to enjoy the soothing process. But every once in awhile something shows up that actually inspires me to make a similar thing, and after seeing this this green noodle soup I kept thinking about it, figuring I could make something like it using a green curry paste instead of making the whole broth purée in the recipe from scratch. I almost never have spinach around, so my broth didn’t come out as beautifully bright green, but it still had a great flavour. I just mixed the coconut milk and broth in the pot and whisked in a couple tablespoons of curry paste, a little miso and sugar, and a spoon or two of peanut butter, a lot like how I’d make a ramen base.
For the rest of it, I cooked some broccoli and oyster mushrooms in a cast iron pan, doing the broccoli first. The oyster mushrooms I left mostly whole, just broken apart from the main stem a bit, and used the trick of smushing them down flat by setting another smaller cast iron on top (a 10” on top of a 12” pan, or whatever) after warming it on another burner. This increases the surface area that gets browned, and gets them to cook faster without making them too soft. While the vegetables were cooking, I boiled the noodles and shredded a carrot. There was enough broth and enough toppings for much more than the two servings the recipe says, which is good because if I’m gonna be washing two pots, two pans, and the food processor afterwards, I better be able to get more than one meal out of it.
I will forever fight against reels and tiktoks as actually being useful as a cooking guide, though, because I can’t even tell you how many times I opened up my phone while standing in the kitchen in order to bring up the saved post to look over it, and got distracted by responding to messages or some other crap. I don’t like to look at my phone while I’m cooking, leave me alone!
After my last newsletter, discussing ways to eat cabbage, a friend reminded me of okonomiyaki, which I love. I didn’t really make okonomiyaki, though, because I didn’t have all the right things for it, and instead made something like this, which I’d thrown together previously. A bit less crunchy and more eggy, using potato instead of the traditional yam, and a few pinches of dulse flakes. This used up the last of my bottle of kewpie mayo— which I keep hoping to find at Costco again, and keep being disappointed when I don’t— and a little of a dwindling bottle of teriyaki sauce. I also put ketchup on mine, and Jeff refused to the last two bites I couldn’t finish because he thinks ketchup and eggs is a crime.
I don’t write about our pizzas too often, because we make them almost the same week to week, but last weekend’s were particularly nice! We made one that was a bit like a classic deluxe: olives, cured sausage, and bell peppers with fresh basil; the other a mix of mushrooms, fresh rosemary, and some grilled fennel. The fennel had been in a bag with peppers on the dollar rack and we grilled it at the same time as the eggplants without having a plan for it. It turned out to be perfect here.
Thanks for reading— if you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with someone new! I like providing this to you for free, but it does still involve time and effort, so any donations, especially while I’m still looking for work, are greatly appreciated. Anyway, here’s a nice reminder of how great fungi are.