make a deal with god
treating yourself vs. oops! all salads!
Last Friday night when I got home from a long day of work I didn’t have the energy to think of something to cook, so Jeff and I decided to go to The Gull for dinner. When we got there they had a 45-minute wait, and with both of our stomachs growling we decided to go up the street to Farina a Legna instead. The weather had gotten nice so I was expecting to be able to sit on the patio, but I guess the patchy rain throughout the day meant they hadn’t opened it up. Since the vaccine pass requirement was removed I haven’t really eaten inside a restaurant and I was pretty anxious, but relaxed a bit once we were sitting down with cold glasses of bicicletta.
The irony is that we went out so we wouldn’t have to eat leftover pasta, but because Jeff hadn’t brought the lactaid necessary for pizza we ended up eating… pasta. But it’s different when it’s fresh! We shared the carbonara and their cavolo nero salad, which normally isn’t my favourite Caesar in the world (it needs a bit more leaf variety, or else a heavier hand with the dressing) but I was really craving something green so it was satisfying. Afterwards we contemplated getting ice cream at Earnest, but instead ended up heading back to The Gull for a cocktail. The drinks menu there is lovely and they always have a nice feature, too. I like their St George Soda, a refreshing rosemary-infused lillet and gin drink that tastes a bit like a gimlet. We recognized the bartender and eventually realized she used to work at Il Castello, the pizza place that was previously in the spot Farina a Legna is in now! We were regulars there and she recognized us as well.
I’d been wanting to try the new feature donut at Cream Pony (lemon curd), so the next day while Jeff went to buy produce, I went to get us a donut. I was expecting to have to settle for whatever was left at nearly 3pm on a Saturday, but there were still lots to choose from and I couldn’t decide, so I got us a half dozen. I loved the lemon curd, but their raspberry jam-filled remains the most perfect donut ever. These tasted extra good after spending the day planting tomatoes and squash in the afternoon sun.
On Sunday my mom and stepdad wanted to come visit and take us out to dinner, and I was having a hard time finding a non-chain restaurant in North Van that was open on Sundays. Instead of choosing a place we weren’t enthusiastic about, we offered to meet them in Langley at The Barley Merchant— a 30-minute drive for each of us instead of a 60-minute drive for them. A friend of Jeff’s is the executive chef there (he also did the menu for our wedding), and they make a great variety of things while keeping the menu fairly small and approachable. We first visited in early fall last year, and I love that most of the dishes are different now with only a couple of mainstays. They also have a taplist of 50 B.C. beers and ciders, so it’s always worth it to get a flight.
This week I received a head of red leaf lettuce in my produce bin instead of the expected bunch of spinach, which wouldn’t be a problem, except I had already just bought a head of red leaf lettuce. So pretty much every meal we ate involved salad, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On Monday after work I crisped up some leftover chickpeas in a frying pan and added salt and chili flakes, and used those plus some tiny cubes of local fennel salami to garnish a green salad in red wine vinaigrette. After cooking the chickpeas, I used the pan to make oven-fried potatoes (my method of doing this can be found here) with smoked paprika garlic mayo— nothing wrong with an all-appetizers dinner!
I make this Smitten Kitchen quiche so much in the spring that I no longer need to look at the recipe. It’s so tasty and, incidentally, perfect with a salad on the side. It also lends itself well to substitutions: I’ll use onion and chives if I don’t have a leek, any other sturdy green instead of chard, add mushrooms or cheese or even asparagus. Using frozen and thawed puff pastry tastes takes the effort out of it because all you need to do is roll it out once you’ve prepared the filling, and the flavour is way better than a pre-made pie crust.
Since we were missing the greens I used a good amount of sliced mushrooms instead, cooked down in the pan so they don’t release too much water while the quiche bakes. I also added some gruyère because mushrooms and cheese are great together. On the side we obviously had another green salad, with honey mustard vinaigrette this time. And I don’t know why I find cold quiche leftovers to be a satisfying breakfast or lunch when I won’t go near a slice of cold leftover pizza, but life is a rich tapestry.
I planted radishes in the garden at the end of April, but possibly due to the unseasonably cold weather in May, or the seedlings being trampled by random dogs or eaten by birds, most of them didn’t make it. We reseeded them this past weekend, and since I was then thinking about eating radishes I was happy to find them on the dollar rack at the produce store. They’ve been going into all my salads, but I also think radishes with butter is an underrated and luxurious combo. We had fresh sourdough which I spread thick with butter and sprinkled with flaked salt, and then piled on radishes cut thin on a mandoline, and some baby arugula from the garden. However much butter you’re thinking about putting on the bread, use more. Let there be teeth marks in it after you take a bite.
Since this was such a quick meal to make, it meant I could get a batch of chocolate chip cookies going on a whim while waiting for Jeff to finish work so we could eat dinner together. I appreciate the recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar for this, because you only need one bowl and don’t have to wait for butter to come to room temperature (and no refrigeration step, either). I like to add a tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary to the batter and flaked salt to the tops before baking, which makes a fabulous but standard cookie into something just a little special.
Media:
After making kimchi fried rice last week when I looked through Eric Kim’s new cookbook, I revisited his wonderful coming out piece on Food52, which feels appropriate to share again now in Pride month. I too came out to my parents over a lengthy dinner, crying into my plate of ravioli at a trattoria in my hometown while the server silently refilled our wine glasses.
The act of feeding someone is one of the simplest ways we have of showing them that we care. In the piece, he reflects on how they drank four bottles of wine together that evening while his parents struggled to accept this news, and his mother eventually went to the kitchen hours later to make his favourite dish:
“…somehow she and I could seek refuge in this one thing that would never change. I was still her son and she was still my mom, and kimchi fried rice—something only she could make—was still my favorite thing to eat in the entire world.”
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