Won’t you come visit
To view my cherry blossoms
In my sake jar?
– Gerald Cawdell, Victoria, British Columbia (2014 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Honourable Mention) Read More
Cherry Blossoms!
Cherry blossom petals
The wind carries them away
Taking me with them
– Sean Condon, Vancouver, British Columbia (2014 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, Honourable Mention)
One of the more profound moments of my short time living in Vancouver occurred by accident on a frigid spring morning at the Burrard skytrain station. It was crazy early and I had my headphones on to blot out the world as much as possible. I exited the train amidst the rest of the rabble and had begun the long climb up the central staircase to the street when a teenage Japanese girl beside me squealed.
It wasn’t a terror squeal, or a “look, its Johnny Depp!” noise, but it was enough to make me look up just in time to see a massive cloud of cherry blossoms descend down the staircase towards us. All the sakura trees up top had dropped their collective payloads simultaneously to form a dense, beautiful and unnervingly slow-moving tsunami of pink petals.
Whoooosh! The station filled with flowers and everyone gasped. Children whooped and spun. Couples drew closer. Even the proto-hipster guy (who hadn’t looked up from his book, even while disembarking the train) acknowledged the moment with a “huh”. The spell lasted about four magical, luxurious minutes before reality resumed… And I’d realized that by tallying amongst the cherry blossoms I missed my bus and was going to be late for work. Read More
Nettle Pesto
Mother Nature has finally pulled herself together and ended the treachley tyranny of wind and rain that we West coasters call winter. Now that the sun’s out the world becomes a psychedelic dreamscape of bright pink cherry blossoms, purple crocuses, and deep green salmonberry shoots. I roll back the rock and stumble blindly, yet eagerly out of my cave and into the backyard with a pair of gloves and a plastic bag to collect the first edible greenery of the year: The mighty Stinging Nettle! Read More
Ten Documentaries That Celebrate Food
Last month’s weekends were pretty gross weather-wise, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time indoors tuning up my bike, working on some secret online projects (bacon anyone?) and watching a lot of food documentaries on Netflix.
These movies generally come in two types: The ones that dig deep into a localized corner of the culinary world and celebrate it and the ones that show you the horrors of the modern industrial food complex and make you wish you weren’t born into this cruel world. Read More
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Oyster Mushrooms and Crispy Sage
Alright, follow my logic:
Oyster mushrooms really love butter. Butter really loves sage. Sage is absolute best buddies with sweet potatoes. It therefore stands to reason that a dish containing all of the aforementioned ingredients will be a pretty harmonious eating experience. Its flavour so mighty it may convert someone to liking elements they previously held only in disdain.