Category: Reflections

2016 Gift Guide : Bistro Cookbooks

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27_septime3_11172The weirdest year most of us can remember has almost lurched across the finish line, but before we can all raise a glass to 2017 there’s still the matter of Christmas. I ‘dunno about ya’ll but this year we plan to keep our holiday festivities as low key as possible and focus on family, with moments set aside here and there to escape to the blanket fort with a good book.

The last couple of years I’ve suggested all manner of gadgets and do-dads for the kitchen, but this Christmas I’d like to go oldschool and point out a couple great cookbooks that I’ve collected over the years that have inspired me. Some of them were given to me as gifts and many I have gifted to others with similar results so they are 100% vetted for giftabillity! Read More

Brian Wood’s Starve Volume 2 Gets Real

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starve vol 2

“I came back here determined to burn toxic food TV to the ground. Junkie that I am, it nearly seduced me all over again. But as we said back in the day… We cook, we fight, we win.” – Gavin Cruikshank

 

Starve Volume 2 hit shelves (both virtual and brick ‘n mortar) last month, collecting issues six to ten of Brian Wood’s critically acclaimed pre-apocalyptic, food-culture comic book. It’s been hailed by fans, critics and dust jackets as the second coming of edgy counterculture comics  the likes of which haven’t been seen since Transmetropolitan… And in the comic book nerd circles that I sometimes frequent that’s damn fine praise. Read More

Ten Inspirational TV Series About Food

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Ten Inspirational TV Shows About Food
Via : http://blog.cookingchanneltv.com

It’s another weekend of near-constant rainfall and everyone in our house is stuck inside. Our podcasts are engaged and we’re moving about the house on one chore or another at the pace of snails in peanut butter. But there are only so many towels to fold, so many Gastropod episodes to listen to and so many trolls to slay in Skyrim… Everyone is getting board. I suggest taking the dog for a walk or maybe some mushroom hunting and Crystal visibly recoils, “you mean out there!?” pointing into the moist, grey world of perpetual misery beyond the window. *sigh*

A decade ago I would have flipped on the TV to Food Network and we would happily watch a couple early afternoon shows and let it run throughout the evening as background noise, but now cable TV is a far different (and much less interesting) beast. The once mighty metropolis has been reduced to a salted wasteland of bland talking heads, awkward diner crawls and ridiculous competitions.

We’ve adapted to the times. This is to say we don’t subscribe to or watch cable TV at all anymore. Most of our friends and co-workers are the same. A quick prowl around Youtube will reveal a vast array of shows that will actually inspire you to travel, eat and cook!

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Long Time, No See

Shawn 6 Comments

long-time-no-seeIt’s been a hell of a summer.

Crystal, Jen, Sean and me went on a whirlwind tour of the mainland’s most vaulted and exciting mountain biking destinations; shredding mountains, sailing across undulating oceans of terrain and man-made wooden structures like the badasses we want to be and coming in to land at various breweries and eateries all over BC. It was glorious! Read More