temporal investigations
summer pasta, two ways to bake beans, and the East Van brewery dichotomy
Hi, friends. Hope everyone’s been having a good week. If the air is bad where you are, I hope you’ve been wearing a mask, and I hope the winds change (and the rains come) soon. It’s a long weekend here this weekend, and we’ve been promised nice weather. I’m looking forward to a sweaty bike ride, maybe some barbecue, and definitely some friendship and chilling in the yard.
I won’t get into the gory details of my wisdom tooth removal, but as it has heavily factored into what I’ve eaten the past little while, I will talk about it a little bit. I didn’t write last week because I was not feeling very enthusiastic about my diet of goos, slimes, and pastes with only a hint of bread, and though I was in less pain than I’d expected, I still had less energy than usual. It’s easy to forget that your body actually does need extra rest when you’re healing!
This was my first time being sedated for any reason and it was quite a surreal experience. I likened it to time travel, because you remember a little bit from just before it knocks you out and then suddenly you wake up in a daze and something completely different is happening because a bunch of time has passed. The surgeon was asking me about my tattoos, and I shifted in my chair a little bit and got dizzy, said, “I feel dizzy,” and they all laughed, and the next thing that happened was the technician helping me out of my seat and leading me to another room with Jeff while I tried not to drool on myself. Then I came home and fell asleep watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture (yes, again, let me live).
Anyway, once my week of food purgatory ended, I went to Meet in Yaletown with Jeff and Natalie and Tyrion (our nephew), so we could do something nice before he leaves to be with his dad all next month. We ordered for the table because Natalie, who is vegan, always gets excited at the prospect of being able to order more than one thing off the menu (and when you’ve got a kid to feed as well it’s easier if there’s a variety, in case they end up not liking something).
We started with the poutine which is always delicious— the fries are skin-on and always perfectly cooked— and sweet chili cauliflower which other people always seem to enjoy more than I do (I like the batter and sauce but I think I want the cauliflower to be either smaller pieces, or softer). We also had the new spinach and artichoke dip, which is a chunkier version with a pesto base rather than the 90s-style creamy kind, and I think I slightly prefer the old one, but this was still very good, and the focaccia it comes with is the perfect texture. The biggest hit was the pesto gnocchi, though, with crispy toasted pepitas and a delicious house-made whipped feta I could eat with a spoon.
The day before my surgery, I made a big batch of black bean soup in the instant pot. I put half in the freezer because as much as I love this soup, it’s not soup season and I am very grouchy about eating the same meal more than three times the same week. I also had a frozen broccoli cheese soup my mom had given me from her freezer; she’d made too much for an event and can’t eat it herself because of the dairy and my stepdad can’t eat it because of his diabetes. It’s based off the Panera Bread broccoli cheese soup which I’ve never had, so I don’t know how similar it is, and I had to blend it first which it normally isn’t, but it was still really tasty. I’m not sure if this recipe is the one my mom used but I checked out a few and they’re all fairly similar. I might try making it myself when fall comes around again, though I really love the vegan broccoli cheeze soup from Isa Does It, which has converted even staunch broccoli dislikers.
I got tired of soup pretty quickly, so (presumably to stop me from complaining about soup all the time) Jeff made hummus in the instant pot— we’d bought a big bag of garlic naan at Costco which was a lifesaver. I had one good side for chewing and I was not going to let it go to waste! The other Costco thing that saved me was a variety pack of Greek yogurt; normally I buy plain and eat it for breakfast with granola, but, as unsophisticated as this might make me, I cannot bear plain yogurt on its own as anything other than a garnish. The variety pack did help me remember that I also don’t like cherry yogurt. Why does it taste like that?
By Friday, I was ready for something a bit more substantial, since my lack of enthusiasm for soup had left me feeling like I hadn’t been full since Monday, and I opted for a version of this tuna and white bean bake with cheese. I generally skip the chip topping in favour of just eating it with toast, and I always double the amount of liquid and herbs, so it’s much more flavourful and creamy. Anchovy paste instead of whole fish let me avoid the tiny bones, and I also (sadly) skipped the capers I usually like to add. I’ve never used the recommended cooking time and temperature, either— I always bake 12 minutes at 425°F, and broil for 2 to really brown the cheese. Although I missed the crunch of the toast, this was still really good with naan to scoop it up. Jeff got to eat his with tortilla chips— we had an open bag that was going to get stale, and he said he felt guilty eating them in front of me, but I insisted.
With the other half of the beans I’d cooked for this, I made a variation on these cheesy tomato white beans. The original recipe is pretty basic, with just garlic and broth and tomato paste, but you can amp it up in lots of ways pretty easily. I went for something puttanesca-inspired, using anchovy paste (if you’re vegetarian, use capers and a little brine), two kinds of olives, and a chopped ripe tomato cooked down before adding the beans and broth. I also added fresh basil and oregano from the garden. On top, I used a mix of mozzarella and parmesan: I love the way mozza melts and browns in the oven, but it’s nice to have the parmesan so that the mild taste of the cheese isn’t lost under the potent olives. These were really satisfying and I’d definitely make them like this again.
Since it’s that time of year again, I remembered this delicious zucchini butter pasta and had to make it immediately. This is so, so good for how little work is involved (unless you don’t have a food processor to grate the zucchini, in which case, I am sorry) and I love the way this process completely transforms the taste and texture of the zucchini. I also add chopped kalamata olives to mine towards the end of the process of cooking down the zucchini, just a couple minutes before adding the pasta water. I’m sure it’s a really good recipe without the olives, too, but I love the way their salty, briny flavour works with the butteriness of the sauce. We just picked the first yellow zucchini from the garden a couple of days ago, and there are lots more to come, so I’m sure I’ll be reminding you of this recipe again very soon.
I got a surprising craving for banana bread, and made some on one of the days I was at home recuperating. Jeff’s recipe is very good, but it’s a little more involved, and I wanted something simple. I opted for this marbled vegan version, also in Isa Does It. It made kind of a small loaf compared to what I’m used to (who even has a 4”x8” loaf pan, what is that), or maybe I overmixed it, but it was very soft and delicious, and not too sweet. The marbling is fun too, especially if you tend to get tired of banana— the chocolate is nice for balance.
It seems so far away now, but we also had a nice time visiting with Iain while he was here the other week. He’d just come from visiting a friend in Yukon, and it doesn’t get dark in Dawson Creek this time of year, just a few hours of twilight from around ten at night until three in the morning, which is something I’ve always wanted to experience (though Iain said he deeply regretted forgetting his sleep mask at home). We visited our favourite North Van breweries, Beere and House of Funk, the day he arrived, and then had dinner at The Gull before coming home to watch the Strange New Worlds premiere and a couple episodes of Clone High. The guys each got the veggie sandwich, and I had the chickpea and eggplant dip with marinated cucumbers and mint, which was delicious.
On the Friday, we met up when I finished work and got a pre-beers slice of pizza at Pizza Garden on Commercial, discussing how a ‘Vancouver slice’ is its own thing, distinct from other cities’ slices of pizza. We both deeply miss actual dollar pizza, and Granville Street’s long-defunct Love At First Bite, but the good variety of vegetarian pies at Pizza Garden is nothing to sneeze at. We headed to Storm Brewing, one of East Van’s oldest, punkest, and dankest breweries. I really genuinely appreciate that they’ve felt little need to change in the thirty-odd years they’ve been around, except that now some of their mainstay and experimental beers are available in cans at the liquor store, and they’ve got some shade structures up in the loading bay now if you want to take your plastic cup of beer outside.
We met up with Jeff at Superflux, which is kind of the opposite of that: a clean and modern tasting room (though not too fancy) that will even serve you a delicious hot dog. I enjoyed both the sour and the IPA I had, but I decided to branch out and order the tuna salad sandwich instead of a dog and was kind of disappointed. The sandwich itself was pretty good, but it came with a red cabbage slaw that was almost too bitter to eat. And I wouldn’t have minded the plain potato chips on my plate, except that the guys, who ordered hot dogs, both got ruffled chips which are obviously superior. Lesson learned.
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 donations I can use towards cookbooks or future treats are much appreciated. And here’s something important to remember (in my opinion this falls under the movement towards body neutrality— we don’t need to believe all bodies are ‘good’ in order to believe that they deserve care and respect).