Damn Fine Pie
Our favourite house guest brought us some mighty fine pie from Tartine this week. Flaky crust in the tradition of my dear departed mother, and fillings that would be worth a bit of penance, if it were still Lent. We liked the bumbleberry a whole lot, and the strawberry rhubarb even more. Their bakery at 770 Beach Avenue, almost under the Granville Bridge, has a full breakfast and lunch menu, and lots of goodies, for take out. Did I mention their pies?

Ahhh, Artigiano
The new owners of local coffee roaster, Caffè Artigiano, have been growing their business, and have recently opened their newest location, near Hastings and Willingdon in Burnaby. It’s not close enough to our house to walk, but we’re delighted to no longer have to foray into downtown Vancouver to buy their Private Reserve Espresso beans.

Five Names, One Lucky New GM
Five names for new Canucks GM have been bandied about by the The Vancouver Sun. At our house, the money is on Jim Nill.

Kitchen Goodness
Some day, some way, we’ll get a new kitchen and quit bumping into each other and the fridge door. In the meantime, we dream, and I like this French kitchen a whole lot.

Don’t Take Your Cat On Skytrain
Tasers are meant to be used sparingly, as a substitute for lethal force. Unfortunately, for some of the “authorities,” tasers are toys, and for others, an easy and convenient way to keep people in line, witness the BC Transit Police tactics since they got their tasers into their hot little hands. If you wouldn’t shoot someone for skiving on their transit fare, then why taser them? Unless of course, the skiver is a cat…like the one that was fighting with another member of its species, or the other that may have accidentally wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time. RIP, kitties.

A girl’s gotta eat, even when her tendons are troubling her. And Mr. V. and I have been doing our share of eating, most of it pretty mundane. Even so, there are a couple of cheap and cheerful joints we’ve recently visited that deserve a mention.

The Kabab Hut, just east of Main Street, at 219 East 49th, sells Indian/Halal street food. This cramped and cluttered hole in the wall hasn’t seen a paintbrush since well back into the last century. It offers a number of dishes, includng biryani, tikka, kabab, and mango lassi, mainly for takeout. Try their chicken roll–freshly cooked tandoori chicken, lettuce, tomato, and secret sauce, rolled up in an equally fresh naan. Very tasty, very filling, and very reasonable, at $5, including tax.

On a somewhat different plane is Kitsilano’s Heart Attack and Vine, just off Broadway at 2480 Vine Street. The room is pleasant, with nary a Tom Waits clone in site, and the food, though delicious, is healthy enough. Definitely not the sort that would leave one living in fear of a coronary occlusion.

On a recent visit Mr. V. and I had lovely maple butternut squash soup, a turkey panini, and a breakfast wrap for well under $20.

Heart Attack and Vine offers a range of soups, sandwiches, salads, baking, and full entrees including lasagna, curried chicken, to either eat in or take away.

By the time we finally decided where to eat one recent Friday night, we were pretty hungry. It was nearing 8 pm when we arrived at the door of Rekados, which, despite graphically stylish signage, was oddly tucked away in an unassuming strip mall. The room, done mainly in red and black, was comfortably sleek and modern.

Rekados, which translates to English as “ingredients,” specializes in what it describes as modern Filipino cuisine. Since it was Mr. V’s and my first experience with Filipino food, we wouldn’t know modern from traditional, we agreed that we would start with stuff that didn’t sound too exotic. The pigs ears and beef tendons would have to wait for a later visit.

We started with kamote (sweet potato) fries, which were accompanied by hot banana ketchup and calamansi mayo. Sweet potato fries are never as crisp as their distant Irish relatives, but these had a rich, dense taste. The ketchup was tasty, with well concentrated tomato flavours, though not banana-like and not particularly spicy. The calamansi mayo was as delicious as any lemon aioli, with a lovely citrus note.

We also ordered the Adobo Special, a chicken and pork dish, and Curry Chicken Pina, which also contained coconut, pineapple, and peppers. Both dishes were attractively plated and tasty, though perhaps not the most adventuresome items on the menu. These two dishes, along with the kamote fries and some steamed rice, provided more than enough food for the two of us, despite the advanced state of our hunger that night.

Service was hospitable and warm, though a little slow in the starting and the getting of the cheque. Otherwise, it was attentive and well-paced. Our bill, including a bottle of Stella Artois for Mr. V., came to a very reasonable $36, not including tip. Rekados has a small wine and beer list plus a full bar and cocktail service, along with bubble teas and slush-type drinks.

We will definitely return, though most likely with someone who is more acquainted with Filipino cuisine and can encourage us to eat more adventurously.

Rekados. 4063 Main Street, 604-873-3133.

Vancouver writer, Douglas Coupland, coined the expression “McJob” in Generation X, which was published in 1991. By 2001, the expression was memorialized in The Oxford English Dictionary as: “An unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sector.”

According to this story from the BBC, last year, McDonald’s tried to improve its image among potential employees with the tag line: “McProspects - over half of our executive team started in our restaurants. Not bad for a McJob.”

Rumour has it McDonald’s is also considering a public campaign to try to get the definition of McJob changed.

McDonald’s. If a steady diet of their food won’t kill you, then working for them probably will. And if that doesn’t kill you, at least it will deep fry your mind.

“The World’s Best Commercials” is showing at the Ridge Theatre for the next two nights. It features 88 entertaining minutes of this year’s winners of the London International Ad Awards.

Plays March 14-15, 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at the Ridge Theatre, 3131 Arbutus St., 604-738-6311, www.festivalcinemas.ca

Last spring, I wrote a positive review about Finch’s House of Tea and Coffee. I’d always managed to get a decent lunch there, tasty and reasonably priced, but others had different, less positive experiences. Commenters on this site, and others who spoke to me personally, said Finch’s food was all right, but the service was just too slow.

Recently, I decided to give Finch’s another shot. Had I been too easy on them when I reviewed them? Maybe it was time for the “acid test”–the single diner in a hurry. I popped in on my way to a client’s office and ordered a take out sandwich. It only took a minute to place my order, and then I stood about half way between the front door and the cash register and proceeded to wait.

It didn’t look good. The restaurant was fairly full, and there were people at tables who appeared to be waiting for their food. Meanwhile, behind the counter, a line of “sandwich artists” slowly fussed about, looking as if they had all the time in the world to make artful towers of cucumber slices. “Damn,” I thought, “I’ve made a big mistake. I’ll be here at least 20 minutes.”

Six minutes later, my sandwich was handed to me, wrapped in Finch’s trademark butcher paper tied with raffia. Ten minutes later, I took my first bite. And it was very good, plenty of roasted walnuts and avocado.

I’ve never had bad service at Finch’s, but in the past other people haven’t been as satisfied. Maybe Finch’s has pulled up its socks. Or maybe I just got lucky.

On a winter night, the Chinatown block of Georgia Street that Vancouver’s Phnom Penh restaurant inhabits is dark and desolate. Most nearby businesses are closed. First timers might have a spot of trouble finding this Cambodian and Vietnamese restaurant run by the Huynh family. But it is worth the search. 

Upon entering, the light greets you first, then the warmth of many faces, and finally the aroma, which is garlicky but fragrant, lifted by a dozen other Asian spices. This greeting is a welcome contrast to the somber street outside.

Otherwise, the room is unremarkable, a typical family-style Asian restaurant with basic tables and a few ornaments and paintings, save one small detail—an altar in a small alcove at floor level, which, along with the requisite flowers and images, contains what appears to be a Gordon’s Gin bottle filled half-way with a dark black liquid. One only notices it on the way to the washroom, which though a touch sketchy, is clean and tidy enough.

Why does Anthony Bourdain like this restaurant so much? Why did the New York Times rave about it? And why was it a favourite of the late, great Julia Child?

Was it the deep-fried squid, with the lemon garlic sauce? Mr. V. certainly thought so, and not just for the absence of wedding rings and tentacles. I thought the squid was all right, a bit greasy for me, even after a day of hard-at-it Christmas shopping, though the lemon pepper sauce did staunch the greasiness a little.

The dish that blew me away was the clams in basil and lemongrass. Fabulous, and perfectly accompanied by my jackfruit moo shake, and by Mr. V.’s beer.

For our last dish, we ordered a chicken and onion hot pot. We were told this would take thirty minutes to prepare, and it was served just as we’d finished the clams and squid. This was a plainer dish, solid enough in its own way.

Other favourites appear to be the Cambodian hot and sour soup, the deep-fried chicken wings, the dry noodles, and the durian rice dessert. We may pass on the latter, but we’ll definitely be back to Phnom Penh again soon. Mr. V. is already jonesing for more of that famous squid.

Prices were very reasonable. Service was welcoming, unpretentious, unhurried, and relaxed. Despite the crowds, it was nice to know the Phnom Penh was not in a rush to send us back out into the dark street.

244 East Georgia Street, Vancouver
604-682-5777

Although it was a late fall day when I visited Stella’s Tap and Tapas Bar on Commercial Drive, it was sunny. My companion and I opted for lunch on the patio, which the staff advised was heated. And it was, at least some of the time.

I’d heard nothing bad about the place but as soon as I looked at the menu, I knew that even if we weren’t in trouble, we weren’t in for a memorable culinary adventure either. In short, the menu was too long.

First, there was a lunch menu, which consisted mostly of the usual suspects of soup, sandwiches, and salads. And then there was a tapas menu, which was clearly trying to be all things to all people and clever at the same time. Not an easy task.

Our server was a winsome and slightly fey young man who addressed my guest and me as “girls” as in “Have you girls decided what you’d like?” and “How are you girls doing?” Given that my dining companion was clearly a nun well into her 60s, and I was old enough to be the fellow’s mother, this was not only inappropriate but also absurdly funny. We decided to ride with it.

Our server recommended the Cobb salad, assuring us he ate it as often as he could. We each ordered one, along with some frites, and a couple of bowls of the daily soup. As suspected, all was unremarkable, except for the lemon aioli served with the frites, which had a lovely, light taste.

The Cobb salad was a mixed up, cobbled-together, and wilted version, with only a hint of the classic ingredients, and too much lettuce. It was disappointing and far from what even a small kitchen should be capable of.

Towards the end of lunch, I ordered a double shot of espresso with water on the side. What I got was a coffee cup filled almost to the brim with hot water along with a small jug of espresso. It was impossible to do anything with it. I suppose I could have requested a third vessel to mix the water and coffee, but by then I had given up.

Stella’s has a good variety of beer on offer, including the ubiquitous Stella Artois, for which it is presumably named. It also has eight versions of moules. With a little luck, some of these might work with beer and frites.

If you must go to Stella’s, then go for the beer. Keep your gustatory expectations low, and you will not be disappointed.

1191 Commercial Drive
604-254-2437

Momofuku Ando, the Japanese creator of Instant Ramen noodles has died at age 96. No doubt his longevity can be credited to something other than a steady diet of his instant noodle inventions.

Galiano artist Dorrie Ratzlaff is nothing if not busy. She’s been studying Traditional Chinese Medicine in Victoria, BC, since last fall. And if that wasn’t enough, she’s also been fostering a new storefront, “The Galiano Twirly Tree Shop” that features local artists, and that will be moving to larger quarters on the island for its grand re-opening on February 10.

Even so, she still finds time to eat, and to write the occasional food review. Take it away, Dorrie! And keep those reviews coming.

Imagine thinly sliced corned beef, a stack two inches thick, steaming hot, juicy in the middle of a layer of sauerkraut, melted Swiss cheese and warm rye bread slices. Serve it up with a big bowl of beet borscht topped with a generous dollop of sour cream. Bite into it and it is deliciously warm and cozy, juicy with the almost-sweet smoked meat and the delicately tangy sauerkraut. Mmmm! Mmmmm! Mmmmm! Comfort food, at $9.95. Perhaps a bit expensive for some, however, the sandwich is large, the soup warms the cockles of your heart and the meal will last “all day”.

This delicious repast can be had at the Galiano Grand Central Emporium, aka “The Redneck Cafe”, on Sturdies Bay Road on Galiano Island (here’s the link to the “entertainment” page of Grand Central’s webpage. ). The surroundings are comforting, there is a Franklin stove, front and centre, with a warm fire burning when the weather outside is cold and wet and miserable. A Reuben by the fire is the perfect antidote for the gloom of the dark months of winter.

Now there is nothing on Grand Central’s menu that could be compared, bargain-wise, with the five and six dollar plates of rice and stir-fried meats and vegetables that you can get at Vancouver or Victoria Chinatown cafes. However, Redneck Cafe does have some less expensive and delicious items, such as the Wimpy Burger (not wimpy in the beef and cheese department) with side of creamy coleslaw, many times on sale for a mere $4.95, usually $5.95. Now, does that not beat the “golden arches” for a deal, home-made pattie, big puffy burger bun, fresh tomato, lettuce and cheddar cheese, and the side of yummie coleslaw?