Fried Chicken and Waffles

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Chic Waffles1I like to imagine the moment when Chicken and Waffles were first united like this:

It’s 5:30am. The all-night fry-joint is just getting ready to flip over for morning service. The waitress is giving the corner table it’s millionth wipe before putting on coffee. Hasn’t been a customer for two hours, and won’t be for another hour and a half. The lone dude in the kitchen has pre-maturely drained the fryers, and is soaking the flat-top in grease, preparing it for the 7am landslide of eggs and breakfast sausages. He’s completely on autopilot, eyes un-focused. He hates the night shift, and wonders if there’s any coffee left… Then the door bell sounds.

What the hell? Who wants to eat at 5:45am? Read More

The Nest Bistro (Nanaimo, BC)

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The Nest BistroCrystal and I spent almost twenty minutes prowling the middle of freaking nowhere Nanaimo looking for The Nest Bistro, a highly recommended chef-owned joint which we had made dinner reservations for. We’d already passed a Phillipino mother smoking and breastfeeding in her doorway, a drunken soon-to-be domestic call two doors down and an elderly man with no shirt and one shoe chasing a cat back and forth across the road. It felt, magically, like we were back in our old neighbourhood in East Van – At first glance kind of ghetto, but the Tibetan prayer flags over everyone’s door made it okay. Read More

BBQ Pork Spareribs with Blackberry Hoisin Sauce

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BBQRib1This BBQ Sauce is as close to an original recipe as I’ve ever come up with. I know, nothing is new and every recipe has already been thought of by someone, but I take some pride piecing this frankensauce concept together. It’s a traditional American backyard BBQ sauce at heart (with a built-in balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty that I learned from Nick at Memphis Blues BBQ House) with summer blackberry sweet-tartness as it’s body and the brain of a Chinese fire-roasted duck. It’s just thing to slather all over fatty pork ribs. Read More

Space Invaders – A Word on Himalayan Blackberries

Shawn 6 Comments

bb1Here in Beautiful British Columbia we get a lot of immigrants from all over the world. Sure it’s Canada, the “melting pot” and all that, but here in BC it’s especially common to run into people, products and flavours from far off places. It’s one of the things that I love the most about the West coast. Sometimes though, adding some new spice into the pot can be disruptive. A brief story to illustrate:

Once upon a time an immigrant came to the Northwestern Coast of BC.  Read More

Thai Chilie Sauce

Shawn 1 Comment

Thai Chilie1Tucked up next to the house is a motley collection of Rubbermaid containers filled with dirt and bushes of chilies. Big green Jalapenos, long thin Kung Pows, bright red Tabascos and tiny yet volcanically-hot Thai Bird’s Beak chilies. The cat avoids this part of the garden, as do the deer. In fact, I’ll bet even the bee’s start sweating with all the capsicum in the air. Read More