Cucumber Cup Gazpacho Shots

 

Cucumber cup gazpacho

 

Sorry, I have been terribly lazy of late! Seriously, what have I been doing? Nothing much. Besides work and watching anime and painting my Nausicaa model and eating a lot… nothing much at all. 

Perhaps it’s time for an end of summer post… I realize I have an affinity for cold foods. It’s not that I dislike hot food though, I just don’t shun cold things… I’m a warm (perhaps hot?) blooded human, after all. For some weird reason, things that should be eaten hot I often just eat at 4C. ie. from the fridge. Or even lower. I like salads, and cold, “liquid salads” are certainly great. OK, probably not to the point of the whole fadish veggie smoothies stuff, I’m talking about gazpachos! It is the end of summer, so there is not much chance left for this cold soup. 

I made this simple gazpacho from 1 tomato, 1/2 sweet Vadalia onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1t balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. I used 1 long English cucumber and threw in the scoopings that came out of the cucumber cups. Just mix everything to a consistency of your liking in a food processor, and serve. I had quite a fun time with the cucumber cups. But you can just serve in an old fashion bowl, of course!

Grill pan | Grilled Scallops

I own one of those large panini press style “healthy” table top grills, which I occasionally bring out for things like pork medallions, slabs of chicken, shellfish. Occasionally would be the key word here, let’s just say it’s a bit of hassle to clean up. So, a more handy stove top grill pan has been on my wish list for quite some time. I recently bought one and I love it. I can use it to grill bread, make sandwiches, or for things like this:

Grill pan. With shrimp in it.

Or grilling scallops… HMMMMMMMMMM:
 

Grilled scallops

When I grill scallops, I buy fresh, large sea scallops, and don’t add anything to them except for a tiny bit of salt and pepper. The scallops will release their own scallopy juices and, combined with the dark color and aroma you can only get from a grill, taste totally awesome. With this grill pan, I don’t have to wait for sunny weather to enjoy my scallops! This time, I added a bit of color using some chopped red bell peppers, and green onions and lemon balm that came from my garden. I wish I had more of this to go on top, more like a tapenade, because it looked so pretty like that, and it wasn’t so strong tasting that it stole the show from the scallops at all.

La Boheme Crepes @ Kitsilano Farmer’s Market

 

La Forestiere

This is what I came for! Well, mostly, anyway, and the produce too. More about this later…

Summer weekends means farmer’s markets. I went to the one in Kits the past weekend. It was pretty small, compared to both Steveston and Ladner, but it had more produce in terms of quantity and variety… It could be just the particular vendors present, or the time of the season (even 2 weeks could mean the end of a certain produce). 

Kitsilano Farmer's Market

 
There were a lot of different types of fresh vegetables and a lot of apricots and many different kinds of cherries. Lineups were long for most of the veggie places, especially this one tomato stand. The only bread place for this bread fanatic was A Bread Apart, who, for 3 markets in a row, had out that fruity cranberry loaf. I found squash blossoms again, and I got some but they were a bit more expensive (50 cents each) than the farm that sold them at the Steveston market (6 for 50 cents). The ones with the zucchini attached were for a buck each. Yikes.
 

Apricots

 

Greens

 

Of course, the best, BEST thing about this Kits Farmer’s Market is La Boheme Creperie:
 

La Boheme

They make these awesome buckwheat crepes in their little purple van, in many many savoury and sweet varieties. The one I tried and pictured above was the Forestiere – a cheese, mushroom and spinach crepe. It was sooooo good, and the lineups get a little long here too. Basically everybody I saw at the market was having their giant crepes. I think they also visit the Trout Lake farmer’s market, anyway, definitely check them out, they are awesome.

Lima bean “humous”

 

lima bean "humous"

 

If you can make humous out of chickpeas, you can make it from any other bean. I haven’t attempted the edamame puree that has been rather popular with foodies, though I probably should since there are always bags of edamame in the freezer. I like to snack on them as is though. So I resorted to killing some other beans. I tried making a lima bean puree (since I couldn’t see making a snack of of lima beans). 

This is a low-fat version, though I guess you could always add a spoonful of olive oil to help the pureeing process. I found a bit of water was enough, but the texture is for sure a bit more coarse without oil. I used this as a spread on crackers and it was OK. It didn’t lack flavor but I think it was slightly on the bland side, then again, adding more stuff to it would definitely make it too complex. I think this would be best suited for crackers that are flavored.

 

Lima Bean “Humous”

1 can lima beans

2 cloves garlic

1t cumin

1/2t salt

 

Blend all in food processor. Serve immediately or refrigerate in air tight container (should last a few days).

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters

 

49th Parallel Latte

 

Ah, it is Friday, and since my plans to do a giant experiment today at work went down the drain due to …. [my laziness], I will write about…. coffee!

Today was a decent coffee day: I went to the Starbucks at work and was happy to find pretty much all my favorite baristas to be present. So, as per usual, I put down my mug without saying a word and I got my Americano made perfectly to my specifications – without my mug being all dripping with coffee on the outside and that little piece of white sticky note with my order scrawled on it still stuck to my mug, and room still remaining. (That, of course, would constitute a bad coffee day, and that happens when that one Least-Favorite Barista Boy – LFBB – is present. I swear he does it on purpose because he dislikes me for some reason.)

Anyway, yesterday though, was a good coffee day: I didn’t have my Starbucks.

I went instead to 49th Parallel Roasters – this is a coffee house not to be missed – their espresso is excellent, their lattes pretty, their couches chocolate brown, and their cups sky blue. This is, indeed, a chic little cafe sitting on Vancouver’s 4th Ave. 49th Parallel Roasters are founded by the same guys who created Caffe Artigiano,  so naturally, their coffee scores high points with me. It’s too bad I don’t live or work in that neighbourhood. I really like their Americano.

If you can’t get down to their cafe, their locally roasted coffee can be found at markets like Meinhardt, Whole Foods and Capers, as well as some other coffee places. I have a bag of their organic Ethiopia Yergacheffe Konga. 

 

49th Parallel Roasters

2152 W 4th Avenue, between Arbutus and Yew

604-420-4901

Taverna Gorgona – A little Greek paradise

 

Taverna Gorgona

 

We came to Taverna Gorgona for lunch after strolling around the Ladner Farmer’s Market. It was Sunday noon, hot, and the patio looked pretty full from the outside. W had suggested we grab a quick sandwich and coffee and find somewhere to sit and eat outside, but I had my eye set on the Taverna. Luckily, right after arriving we were seated by the friendly owner Niko in the rear patio (the other one faces the main street). The rear patio is cozy, there are large umbrellas for shade and greenery surrounds, and there is even a little gazebo in the corner that can seat a small party. Like a little Mediterranean paradise!

 

Taverna Patio

 

 

The service is very friendly and fast here. There are a lot of servers running around. We were told that because I had made a little request for my meal (no cheese, sub rice for salad) that the food would arrive a little slower – but it was not slow at all. Actually, compared to many restaurants (save for Chinese noodle houses maybe  hahaha), the food came really fast. Every table gets a basket of pita bread, which is drizzled with what appears to be herbed butter. Their pita is not like typical pita … It’s thick and fluffly, rather like bread.  It was good.

 

Taverna Pita

 

Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve had lamb (lamb being my favorite in the red meat category even though I don’t really eat red meat.) I had already ate half of Fieldstone’s Cranberry and Currant loaf by this time, but I was still feeling incredibly indulgent :-D. Enough to consider getting one of their lamb gyro’s, but seeing how gigantic they are I was glad I didn’t. I decided on souvlaki, and since W ordered the chicken, I went for the lamb souvlaki. Gawd… was it ever delicious lamb! 

 

lamb souvlaki

 

 

This was W’s chicken souvlaki – chicken grilled to perfection! All their souvlaki’s come with rice, potato, tzatziki and Greek salad.

 

Chicken Souvlaki

 

Beer and Calamari:

Calamari

 

The inside is quite festively decorated, there is some skylight too so if you don’t end up out on the patio you could still get a bit of sun:

Inside the Taverna

 

This place is both casual and classy. It’s like you can totally get your fried squid, fried oysters, whatever, with your beer, and sit and relax, or you can come in at night, get a bottle of fancy wine, have a lamb rack. Cheers!

Beer!!

 

Taverna Gorgona

5047 48 Ave, Delta

604 946 9111

Panini’s @ Neptune Bistro

I don’t know how long Neptune Bistro has been opened, probably because it’s in that back corner of Coppersmith Place Mall that I never pay attention to, although I shop frequently at the Kin’s Farm that just a few feet across the parking lot from it. (And Coppersmith Mall – I didn’t actually know it had a name – I thought it was just Ironwood Mall’s other side… I guess not!)

Anyway, I wanted to check this place out so I dragged NF here with me. (NF didn’t realize there was a cafe at the back of Coppersmith, either.) On the menu are panini’s, donairs, salads, sandwiches, wraps coffee, soup, hot entrees like tandoori chicken and pasta, various pastries… lots to choose from. There are also things like sandwich/soup deals for something like $6.99. 

The service is pretty nice, neighbourhoody. We ordered, took a seat inside (there are two tables outside) our sandwiches came in about 10 minutes.

 

NF ordered the chicken turino panini, and a coffee:

Chicken panini

 

And I had the roasted veggie panini, with an Americano:

veggie panini

 

The ciabatta they used had a thin crispy crust and very soft fluffy crumb, it was pretty good, light bread. They didn’t use a panini press though, seems like the bread is just toasted. The veggie panini I liked- I think it was like this pepper relish that dressed it and that tasted really good. The portion sizes aren’t huge, but just good for me, though larger appetites may need something more.

This is a nice spacious spot and pretty cozy. There is free wireless access and a big screen TV with several couches in front of it, but the TV wasn’t on. It was lunch time so it was obvious that a lot of customers were from surrounding offices.

I’d definitely come back to try out their other menu items. For a fast, good, casual lunch spot, the selection and quality sure beats the other similar choices in the mall (Tim Hortons, McD’s etc). At least they’ll have decent coffee!

 

Neptune Bistro

Coppersmith Place Mall

#100 – 11331 Coppersmith Way, Richmond
604.277.6647

Quick Strawberry Yogurt Parfait

 

Strawberry Yogurt Parfait

It is summer! And strawberries!

I think of parfaits as breakfast food, typically because all its ingredients (yogurt, granola, fruit) are associated with breakfast. But this was a nice, super quick dessert on a hot night. I love yogurty desserts like this: crunchy granola, sweet fruit, cold gooey yogurt. It is so healthy, yet desserty at the same time! Of course, if you wanted to indulge you could sub the yogurt with ice cream. And you can layer it with whatever fruit or granola or cereal you desire. Though berries are the best choice. I just happened to have some fresh local strawberries from W&A Farms on hand, and some yogurt and granola. Just layer, and repeat. 

Parfaits are fun to make! You can dress it up pretty fancy Gourmet-cover-shot style, but I think it will turn out pretty decent looking even if you’re just throwing things together randomly and messily like I did here. Just find a pretty glass. You can’t really go wrong. Great for entertaining when time (and skill) are limiting! 😉

Ladner Village Market

  

 

Ladner Market

 

Drove down to Ladner on Sunday to check out the Ladner Village Market, held 10AM-4PM, every other Sunday until September. It is one of the biggest open air markets around, and spans several blocks, so naturally I was excited about going, despite having to wake up early on a Sunday to get there just before 10AM. The market had already opened and there were quite a few people already, and not long after I had arrived the music started! Early birds!

 

music

 

It wasn’t even 10:30AM and there was already a huge line-up in front of the Fieldstone stand (I knew they would be here, it was the first stand I looked for. The same two friendly ladies are working here as when I went to the Steveston Farmer’s Market last weekend 🙂 ). The line up was so long that it blocked the next stand over, and we were told to nicely shuffle over and not stand in the way. Hahaha. 

 

Fieldstone

After standing in line for a bit we got a parisian baguette and a cranberry and currant loaf:

Cranberry and currant

 

Since I didn’t really have breakfast I found that in a little under an hour I had already nibbled through half of the cranberry loaf. I liked it: it was whole grain, and had a lot of dried fruit in it. The crust was hard and tough, and the crumb was dense but not too moist. The bread itself was not sweetened, just kind of like a regular loaf of bread. There was a similar cranberry loaf out for sampling at A Bread Affair‘s stand that day (they were also at Steveston), and that one I found to be sweeter and softer and more like a fruity bread (Fieldstone’s is more like a bread, with some fruit. If that made any sense at all).  

 

Stopped by the Granola King‘s little tent. I’m not sure if this guy is Granola King but he sure looks the part! And was really nice and friendly too! I have never tried their granola before, but there were several samples out and they were all great! All their stuff is natural and have no preservatives, or added sugar. 

granola king

 

So I bought a small bag of the hazelnut hemp heaven (because it just sounded so… hmm… exciting!)  and some almond butter which the King also graciously shared on a bit of apple. I liked it a lot and even though I could get natural almond butter at the supermarket for cheaper I decided to get a small jar here. More on the granola in another post.

Hemp heaven and almond butter

 

More cheese from Little Qualicum. This time I tried their raspberry Fromage Frais – it was really really good! Definitely get some if you’re passing by here.

More cheese?

 

There were many craft stands here. My favorite was the canned planes one:

canned planes... plane cans. Recyclables

 

There are also the usual jams and preserves and some dried fruit stands. Some coffee places. I didn’t find there to be a whole lot of produce (for the size of the market). There was the one Okanagan cherry stand, one large tomato stand, some strawberries/berries, some carrots and potatos and such. Nothing too out of the ordinary. And for some reason there was a lot of garlic. The produce wasn’t that cheap either, so I didn’t buy any.

 

It got busy really fast! All the dogs were out in full force too! There was pretty constant entertainment and music, there were tons of people, the sun was shining… So it felt very summery and festive. What I really liked about this market- even though there wasn’t as much produce as I had wanted- was its size compared to the others. It takes up several streets. There are also more food stands (pizzas, gyros, hotdogs, the mini donut truck, not to mention all the bakeries), so you could grab a decent lunch/snack/dessert while strolling around. I ended up having lunch at the awesome Taverna Gorgona though, that will be in a later post! 

Ladner Market

 

Ladner Village Market

@ the Ladner Village on 48th Avenue, Delta

Sundays 10AM-4PM
June 08 & 22 – July 13 & 27 – August 10 & 24 – September 7

A sea of Siegel’s day old bagels

Made a trip to Granville Island just to buy 2 bags of Siegel’s day olds… hmmm 2 dozen bagels.

 … YUM!

You never know what you’re getting (well, you do, you can see it, but what I guess I’m saying is that you never know what kinds they have left over and bagged up), but still…both T and I agree it is simply.. aaahhhhhhh. Bagelicious. This time it was a dozen poppy seed and a dozen of mixed (mostly rosemary and rocksalt, some cranberry). Went through half a bag before the rest made it into the freezer (hence the two bags. I made the mistake the first time I got these: I bought only one bag and had only 3 bagels left to freeze).

Now when I open my freezer I see a sea of bagels. Hm, in fact the freezer is mostly bagels and bread right now. There’s some frozen halibut (emergency rations for when it’s no longer halibut season), several bags of shelled edamame (my snacks), some frozen berries and mango (for shakes), a pack of smoked salmon, and a few small bags of frozen fish and meats. But seriously, over 80% is bagels and bread. MWAHAHA!

Steveston Series IV: Sockeye City Grill

view of the pier from Sockeye City

Sockeye City Grill is one of the most popular restaurants at the Steveston pier. Especially on sunny days, their patio will be packed, and there will be lineups. Their fish and chips platters are always giant and look pretty good, but I prefer the other seafood dishes. 

 

crabcake

 

For shellfish fanatics, both their Fisherman’s pot and seafood paella offer a variety of shellfish and other seafood, and I find both are quite substantial and can feed 2-3 (especially the paella- what they say serves two can probably serve 4):

Fisherman's Pot

 

As for the other seafood, their fish is pretty ok, and you often get a big slab of fish. The pesto that comes with this halibut is really nicely done (I had ordered on the side):

Halibut

 

 This is the wild salmon salad… Although I like their salmon, I find that the salad underneath is a bit plain:

 

Service is OK here, nothing out of the ordinary. They are happy to accommodate special requests on menu items. House bread comes with dinner, but it is just plain white bread. If you don’t mind sitting inside you don’t usually have to wait. But on a sunny day it’s worth waiting a bit to get a seat outside and watch the all goings on at the pier and out on the water. I’d say the seafood paella is one of the best dishes on the menu (just because I’m not at all a big fan of fish and chips). 

 

Sockeye City Grill

108-3800 Bayview Street, at the Steveston Pier

604-275-4347

Steveston Series III: Cimona Cafe

If you are feeling like a casual, down-to-earth meal, and pretty generous-sized, value-for-money deals, this is the place to go. Cimona Cafe makes the kind of food you can probably make in your own kitchen, so don’t expect anything fancy, but the quality will not disappoint. This place is like a homey diner. It is in a second floor/elevated log house, with a patio where you can watch the Steveston hustle bustle on Bayview Street from above. They’re really friendly here, and it feels like it is a family owned and operated little cafe, but don’t count on super speedy service, and on weekends they tend to be quite busy during brunch/lunch and there tends to be lineups. Have a little patience.

Many healthy options are offered on the menu: whole wheat wraps and breads, low fat dressings, egg white omelets, vegetarian dishes. It’s a casual spot with casual food but there are a lot of more “exotic” options too, and for a good price – Veal. Lamb. Sole. Halibut. Salmon. I’ve come here for dinner which I have enjoyed, but definitely find that it’s an awesome lunch/brunch place. Probably because breakfast is served till 3pm.

W and I came here for lunch recently, so I figured I will throw this post into my Steveston Series. We grabbed a menu and luckily found a table outside in the patio, which was almost full, and had a nice, relaxing time watching the …er… action… on Bayview:

cimona view

Looking around I noticed that many people order the wraps here. W chose the chicken wrap with pineapple curry sauce. I tried a bit of it. It was pretty big and stuffed with tons of lettuce. The sauce was good too (you can choose from 3 different ones) – It wasn’t so heavy that W ate the whole thing (when usually she can only eat half a big wrap).

 

Cimona chicken wrap

 
 

I was feeling like a lighter lunch so I had the tzatziki and grilled pita:

Pita and Tzatziki

 

With a green salad:

 

Green salad

I thought this was a pretty big size for the “small” portion. Veggies were quite fresh and crisp. The pita bread I liked – it didn’t seem like crappy quality packaged pita thrown in a toaster (though I am not sure exactly what type it was). The tzatziki was pretty standard tasting, but not bad. Couldn’t tell if it was homemade. You can also get hummous if you wanted.

Overall, both W and I were happy with our lunch. I still have to try a lot of the other stuff on their menu so I am going to keep coming back (on days when I have time to spare and relax though)!

Oh, and I’m not sure if this is an “issue” for anyone, it is for me on thirsty days when I down literally gallons of pop, because I would go to restaurants and get refills until my server gives me funny looks and offers me a jug since they get so tired of coming back every few minutes to refill my glass. Since this place is a cafe/diner, the pop you order will come in a can, and you won’t get refills.

 

Cimona Cafe and Catering

#201-3791 Bayview Street, Steveston

604-275-3753

Steveston Series II: Fieldstone Artisan Breads @ the Market

Baguette

 OK, so this is not so much a Steveston post than it is a Surrey post, since Fieldstone is actually located in south Surrey. Nevertheless, they have decided to grace those of us up north with their fine, fine breads and pastries at the Steveston’s Farmer’s Market. Hence, Part II of the Steveston Series is entirely devoted to Fieldstone. 

Fieldstone uses organic flour, and all of their country breads are made by natural leavening. Basically, to me, their naturally leavened breads taste much less yeasty and has a nice, mild and not commercial tanginess to them. Of course one of the very first breads I pick at a bakery is a plain baguette, so I tried their Parisian Baguette, pictured above. It was delicious, one of the best. Really chewy, crispy crust, chewy inside. I had it with some of the lobster oil I got from the Cannery. Really good.

This past weekend I went and got their multiseed baguette. The various seeds that I could find were poppy, fennel, and pumpkin. The fennel was definitely present but not too overpowering, which I liked because I don’t really like licuorice-y tasting things. And it coupled nicely with the poppy seeds- fragrant, aromatic, chewy and tastey! This was so good I went through almost a whole baguette while walking around the market and went back to get another one. 

Multiseed Baguette

I liked how they shaped their multiseed baguette- it’s definitely rustic looking, and it’s got two horns at the end! (It’s not that long though, didn’t seem as long as your typical baguette- either because flour prices have gone up, or those horns were the results of some shaping screwup.) ^___^

 

 

Multiseed and Bar

 

Also tried their cranberry granola: pretty good like a home-made bar. Hard, partly crunch and partly chewy, and sweet. Also awesome were their large ooeygooey cinnamon buns and croissants.

 

Granola Bar

 

This bakery is not to be missed, hence all the line ups. If you only come by here (or south Surrey) once in a blue moon, stock up!

 

 

Fieldstone Artisan Breads

#2- 12823 Crescent Rd, South Surrey

(604) 531-7880

Steveston Series (Part 1): Sunday Farmer’s Market

Here is Part 1 of my multi-part series on historic Steveston: the first annual Steveston Farmer’s Market.

 

The market is located next to Gulf of Georgia Cannery at the end of Moncton St. It’s been on for several weeks now, and runs every Sunday from 11AM-4PM. (Which I like, because a lot of markets run from 9-1…hm, let’s just say my day starts at about 1PM.) This was arriving right when the market opens:

Steveston market

The first stop was the Fieldstone Bread‘s stand, because from previous visits to this market we know the longest lineups are here. More on Fieldstone later in the series.

Fieldstone stand

 

European Breads Bakery: Another popular one. A lot of people were seen holding their Georgian baguettes: 

 

European Bread Bakery

 

 

Try the cheese at Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, they have awesome cheese, and the guys are really friendly. My favorite was their Island Brie:

 

The CHEESE stand!

I’d have taken more pics of the fruits and veggies- there were mainly strawberries, cherries, summer veggies, organic tomotos (bought a pound of sweeeet cherry tomatos)… but the giant pods of okra were cool, and of course the squash blossoms from my previous post. They were fat, and about 6 inches long, probably almost twice as big as the okra that I usually get at supermarkets! 

Giant okra

 

Also bought some locally grown, Richmond strawberries, which were quite sweet, but not super sweet. A pint for 5 bucks… Tried out some Okanagan cherries but they weren’t as sweet or as crunchy as some of the US of A ones I’ve been buying. So didn’t get those. Overall it kind of sucked that these “local, organic” foods were a lot more expensive than what I find at Asian markets. Pricier, and not necessarily as good. 

 

In terms of entertainment, there was a cooking lesson/show, live music, and dancing!

Dancing

 

Still, you can spend a fun day here, even though some stands aren’t really worth the time. Just make sure you get here early, you’ll be sure to find a free, nearby parking spot, and get first pick at fresh produce. Once you get bored you can always take a stroll out to Garry Point or the Steveston Village. That’s all for now! Next up in the series: review of Fieldstone Breads! 

 

 

Steveston Farmer’s Market

Sundays 11AM-4PM

At the end of Moncton St, by Gulf of Georgia Cannery

Zucchini blossoms stuffed with shrimp and garlic

The first time I heard about zucchini blossoms was on an episode of Bobby Flay’s Boy Meets Grill, where he fried these yellow squash blossoms that were stuffed with pork and cheese. I have never seen them in markets here, but finally came across these beautiful blossoms at the Steveston’s Farmer’s Market this Sunday. (More posts about the Market later! Stay tuned!)

 

Since I’ve never tried them before, I only bought a few flowers. I got about 1/2 a dozen for 50 cents! I’m going back to get more for sure. I didn’t cook them like most people do, ie. batter, deep fry in oil, because, heck, I am always looking for the healthier way out. Since I happened to have bought over a pound of fresh shrimp from one of the boats parked at the Steveston Pier that day, I decided to stuff these blossoms with a few of the smaller shrimp I had. And nothing else accents shrimp like garlic. So it was a whole clove of garlic too. It was great! 

 

 

Zucchini Blossoms Stuffed With Shrimp and Garlic:

1. Cut the stems off the blossoms and soak the blossoms in water/ rinse very well but very gently. Rip out the stamen/ style/stigma inside. Pat them dry on a piece of paper towel.

2. Carefully place a small shrimp (cooked, I used fresh, but can be from frozen) inside the blossom, then place a clove of garlic on top of the shrimp. If one clove is too much for you, just mince some up and throw a bit in instead.

3. Twist the top of the blossom to close. 

4. Grill on high for about 5 minutes, turning once (again, careful, because it’s easy to un-twist the blossom and have everything fall out.)

5. Eat! Just stuff the whole blossom into your mouth!