somebody's knocking
spring greens, new brews, and homemade chili crisp
There are a lot of stereotypes about Vancouver that I will gladly fight back against: people aren’t unfriendly, it doesn’t rain all the time, some of us do know how to dress in clothes that aren’t from MEC or Arc’teryx. But if you want to talk about how wildly obsessed most of the lower mainland is with craft beer… yeah, I’m guilty. So obviously, Jeff and I were thrilled to go check out Threefold during their soft opening earlier this month in the old Andina’s space on Powell St. I was a little sad when Andina’s closed, since I went there often when I was working in the area and they had lovely sours and good nachos. But the this is a brewing collective I’m really excited about. I’m already a huge fan of Temporal Ales and Boombox, both of whom were brewing out of larger breweries’ spaces previously, which obviously limited their production. Slow Hand is the third brewery in the mix, and I’m not as familiar with them, but the taps list implies that each brewer is bringing something a little different to the table. Temporal is doing their thing with barrel-aged sours and darks and infused saisons; Boombox has a rotation of fragrant, hop-forward IPAs and pales, with a couple of wild cards; and Slow Hand appears to be focusing more on the lighter side of things.
While we were there I ran into someone I recognised from my old job at the yoga studio, and we chatted for a bit. We were both a bit disappointed that the brewery wasn’t yet serving pizza, just snacks, and she recommended the chicken or eggplant parm sandwich from the food truck Burdy, outside Container Brewing nearby. Sadly when we got there, it happened to be the one Saturday they weren’t there, but we did get some very good tacos from Tacosaurus, which was there instead.
I decided the time had finally come to replace my ancient, horrible IKEA desk chair, which I got at a time when my primary desk-related tasks were things like posting on tumblr, not spending my day working at it and a significant number of my off-hours writing at it, too. Jeff found one on craigslist for $10 that was similar to the one he has, so we drove out to New West to pick it up. It was lunchtime, so afterwards we ended up at a placed called the Notorious Grey Fox, which is in a building that always fascinated me as a child when we drove past it, and which I only recently learned was once a penitentiary. It was another nice afternoon, so we sat on the patio and drank good beer and ate decent pizza (which we both agreed would be more enjoyable if it didn’t fall victim to the belief most pubs have which is that more cheese = more better).
For Trav’s birthday (yes, my family is full of Aries) we went to Sidebar Grill in Langley. I was overwhelmed by the menu options and ended up ordering fish and chips for my main, which was good, but the starters we got for the table— jalapeño cornbread with honey butter, and baked brie in filo pastry with caramelized onions— were amazing. They have an extensive wine list and some unique cocktails, so the drinks were also really nice. Jeff ordered their version of a caesar which shocked all of us when it arrived, because it was almost clear: I don’t know how one clarifies tomato juice, but it tasted basically the same. I am also fascinated by their huge crystal-clear ice cubes; that is a level of commitment I am simply not willing to put forth for the beauty of my beverage, but I respect it.
We keep getting sent bunches of green onions in our produce box and not knowing what to do with them before they start wilting. Of course you can just put the root ends in a little jar of water in the fridge with a ziploc bag over the tops if they start looking sad, which works with most herbs, too— I always store parsley and cilantro this way— but either way I need to be responsible for two bunches of green onions within a week. Anyway, I used one bunch to make this spicy noodle bowl (I used broccoli instead of green beans, because that’s what we had), which has you char them the way you would any other vegetable for a stir fry, and it was really good. The flavour of the green onions after cooking them like this is excellent— if you’ve ever had calçots con romesco you’re familar with it.
I had never made my own chili oil before, but I had everything to do it, so I did, and it was super easy and amazingly tasty. It’s more like a chili crisp, really, since you don’t strain it, so there are nice crunchy bits of garlic and ginger in it, and if you use sichuan peppercorns in it as I did, those bloom open nicely in the hot oil, too. I made a half batch of the dish but a full batch of the chili crisp, and I’ve been loving having it to drizzle over other dishes. I’ve been making quick cucumber salads with it: just cutting a cucumber up into chunks and tossing it with a couple spoonfuls of the chili crisp and a splash of seasoned rice vinegar. Definitely will be making more once it’s gone.
Two zucchinis showed up in the bin recently, too, so I revisited this summer fave: zucchini & lemon orzo with herbs & parmesan. This one is a little creamier than the one-pan orzo dishes I often make; the coconut milk works perfectly here with the light and fresh flavours of the herbs and lemon. It’s only April, so my balcony isn’t exactly rife with fresh herbs, but it works with whatever you have; I used a handful of parsley and a few oregano leaves, and a little dried thyme since I didn’t have fresh. Toasted breadcrumbs are great for garnish if you’ve got ‘em.
With the remaining zucchini, I made a quick weeknight dinner by shredding it and wilting it in a cast iron pan with some garlic and green onions (yes, they’re sneaking into everything), and then added a can of oil-packed tuna, some chili flakes and lemon, and topped it all with cheese and baked for about ten minutes in the oven to result in something tuna melt-esque. I think the idea for this came from Six Seasons originally, but that one is more basic and meant to be eaten more like a casserole, which doesn’t appeal to me as much as scooping it onto toasty bread and eating it with a nice crunchy salad on the side (in this case, the cucumber and chili crisp salad I mentioned above).
Over the long weekend Jeff’s family got together at Adrian and Kirsten’s in Tsawwassen, and everyone was tasked to bring a different salad, and we would do a buffet with some cheeses, and a few loaves sourdough that Kirsten had made. Last year they did a ham and there was so, so much leftover ham, so I think they were trying to avoid a repeat of that. I don’t much like ham so I was happy with this development. The potato salad got forgotten in someone’s fridge, but no one noticed because there was still so. much. food: roasted beet salad with feta and arugula, classic deli-style orzo salad, something with garlic sausage and pickles and smoked gouda (that’s Swiss people for you— do not ask how many times Martin joked that he made the ‘wurst’ salad), and green salad of course. Jeff and I made a quinoa and black bean salad with mango. This is a basic recipe from the Veganomicon which is yours to modify however you like, swapping different fruits or herbs to fit whatever vibe you’re going for or what’s in season. I used lemon vinaigrette and added chopped kale since the lettuce leaves wouldn’t work very well buffet-style. I’m glad to report that this was delicious, because I still have more quinoa and beans in the fridge to use up.
Jeff also made a beautiful vegan blackberry ice cream for dessert, which was well-received and got 100% eaten, despite the fact that everyone had been feasting on jelly beans, gummy worms, and Cadbury mini eggs, which are my personal kryptonite this time of year. Sorry for taking zero pictures of it. And I don’t have more to share because lately we’ve been so busy this week that we’ve relied on takeout and sandwiches more than usual! It’s also round one of the playoffs, which means there’s hockey basically every night that is simply fun to watch, because my team isn’t playing and I don’t have to get emotionally invested.
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 are greatly appreciated. Anyway, hope those of you who celebrate had a happy 4/20.