enroute is the glossy zine on board each Air Canada flight. The latest issue focuses on some of the most sumptious food and service that can be found in Canada. I found that funny given the food and service provided on my flight home from Vancouver this past Sunday. Parts of southern B.C. got pounded with a snow storm on the day of my flight. That meant my Sunday flight was delayed from 2.30pm to 5.00pm. That was understandable. I went shopping in Richmond and bought chopstick holders and placemats. By 5.00pm I was at my departure gate. By 5.30pm we were all inside the plane. But it wasn’t until 11.00pm that my flight took off. We spent almost six hours sitting in the airplane on the tarmac. Six hours of tired passengers, crying children and forced small talk with the traveller next to you. We sat through what should have been dinner time – with nothing more than water. By hour three the flight crew decided to show us a movie. And it was somewhere by hour five that we learned from the pilot that our flight was getting bumped for flights going to Montreal and Toronto. Those airports have curfews (no flights allowed to land between certain hours, because it’s too noisy for people living near the airports). Also, one of the de-icing workers had injured himself so the line-up for de-icing was moving even slower than before. Our plane was attached to the departure gate. You would think we could have been let off at some point. I would have suggested hour three. But the rationale for not letting us out is that the flight could get clearance for de-icing and departure at any time. Collecting all the passengers after such an announcement would take too long. I spent most of the six hours writing Christmas cards. (Got half of them done). The person sitting beside me worked. Federal cabinet minister David Emerson and MPs Chuck Strahl and Herb Dhaliwal were also on the plane. I wondered if they were amusing themselves with Pirates of the Caribbean 2. When the pilots finally announced that we were leaving (new ones brought in around Hour Four, because the old ones would have worked 20 hours if they had piloted the flight), people cheered. As an apology, the crew served free drinks, sandwiches and snacks, instead of charging the customary in-flight cafe prices. Big whoop. I understand it was out of Air Canada’s control when our flight would be given the thumbs up to depart. And it is not Air Canada’s fault that Vancouver was victim of a freak snow storm. But at some point, someone at Air Canada should have made the decision that passengers on Flight AC138 had been sitting too long in the airplane and should be let off. That it was better to try and accomodate them on another flight than to have them spend 12 hours in a plane, half of that time on the airport tarmac. That the compensation should have been more than a $5 sandwich and glass of red wine. I do blame Air Canada for that.

Putting the funk in sushi

I went for dinner last night with Jocelyn and Kristin at The Eatery. The restaurant calls itself "The Funkiest Place for Japanese Food". Think of it as sushi if Andy Warhol was working the kitchen. It's near UBC so on a Friday night it's packed with students and young people. I felt a bit like I was stepping into a bar when I opened the door. Dimly lit, music is blaring, the place is packed with young people (it's near UBC so it's a popular place for students) and Astroboy cartoons are playing on a sheet behind diners. Kind of has a gritty feel to it. Sculptures of crazed/angry fish and crabs dangle from the ceiling. And pop art paintings of Mao and the Queen line the walls. Actually, half the restaurant feels more like a lounge than a restaurant -- with funky coloured ottomans and couches scattered in the room. We didn't make reservations so me, Kristin and Jocelyn waited in the loungey area for about 45 minutes for a table. That was fine with me because I got to chat with my cousins (I don't see them that often) and it gave us more time to go through the really big menu - it comes in a laminated binder. Half the menu is a list of cocktails and beer options, the other half is food -- including some crazy maki rolls. Like the Miss Piggy, which is bacon, scallop, asparagus, roe & unagi sauce. By the time we were seated at a table (right next to the Queen painting, nonetheless), we had made up our minds on what we wanted. I ordered an appetizer and two maki rolls. The appetizer was tuna tempura -- which was delicious. Very light in flavour and texture. It actually tasted like chicken to me. It came drizzled with unagi sauce and mayo. Jocelyn got the fat elvis, which basically avocado slices that have been dunked in tempura. I sampled one of the slices and I liked the contrasting textures of smooth and crunch. My two maki picks were the godzilla roll, which includes avacado and eel, and the captain crunch, which is basically a california roll that's battered in tempura and fried. Now that was decadent. Actually, it was a bit too rich after the tuna tempura. So halfway through I began peeling off the outer layer of batter. I think I will pare down the number of dishes I order the next time I go. They have some interesting rice bowls that I might try. My one thought though is that they seem to rely a lot on drizzling unagi sauce and mayo on their creations as a finishing touch, which I don't think is always necessary, and can get a bit reptetitive. I really like how there is an appreciation for sushi in this city. I've seen soccer moms munching next to trucker types, next to international students. There are some places that churn out ho-hum sushi -- where it's more about quantity than freshness and good ingredients. But there are others that do some wacky stuff to sushi that gets you thinking about it in a different way.

Back West

I've had no access to a computer for the past four days. Which is why I'm writing this at a computer terminal in a cafeteria. Behind me, people are eating breakfast or chatting on couches. I feel very exposed right now. It's been a bit odd, being disconnected from my email and the internet. I'm back in Vancouver on a training course for work. The training is going well. There's seven of us, along with two course instructors. My head is sometimes a bit sore by the end of the day from thinking big thoughts. But it's a luxery to be able to get away from the daily churn to think the big thoughts. I will say I've had the most satisfying food experiences on this trip to Vancouver. In spite of the week-long boil-water order (people here have been surprising patient with the boil-water order). My favourite restaurant was the Afghan Horsemen, a restaurant I went with my cousin to on Tuesday night, on Broadway and Cambie. We had a vegetarian platter that included hummus, a spinach dip, eggplant, pototo pancake-things (which I'm going to have to learn more about) and a pasta dish. It was a little greasy, but a good change. The decor was charming. We sat on ground, surrounded by cushions. Tapestries hung from the ceiling and covered the floors. I've also had dinner with my parents in Richmond and on Robson Street -- the Chinese standards, though I'm trying to get them to try a Japanese restaurant I've heard about on Robson, Guu with Garlic. Supposed to go to Vij's sometime before I leave as well. Did I talk about the lunch options? No boring paninis here. The noodle soup and sushi options are heavenly. For five bucks. Five bucks!

Sick and Tired

I've been sick for the past week and a half with what started as the flu. It has since morphed into a hacking cough and cold that I can't seem to shake. I become a bit of a baby when I get sick. I need to surround myself with comforts such as my wooly slipper and a big, plump comforter. And one thing I definately need when sick is rice. Plain. Not fried or pilafed or wrapped in a banana leaf. Just plain white rice, freshly cooked. I love stepping into a house and breathing in the aroma of rice cooking. It's very soothing, same as how some people feel about the smell of bread baking. Second best to freshly cooked rice is a bowl of congee. Kind of like oatmeal except it's made from rice instead of oats and it's savoury. It's basically rice that's been slowly simmered with water until the grains fall apart to form milky rice gruel. Sounds a bit Dickensian. But it's delicious when you load it with pork, or fish balls or scallions and chicken. I remember getting the rice and the congee when I was sick as a child, which is likely the reason why it's so appealing to me today. So I've been loading up on the rice as well as all the citrus fruit I can get my hands on. Hoping I can shake this bug before I fly to Vancouver next week.

Comfort Foods When Sick with the Flu

1. Steamed egg with white rice.
2. Orange juice (or orange juice popsicles)
3. Rice gruel.
4. Winter melon soup.
5. Jasmine tea.

sau bao

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Vancouver was getting more recipes from my mother. I was in the city for my dad’s birthday and we celebrated in the morning by steaming up some sau bau. They’re steamed buns filled with an eggy custard filling called lai wong haam in Cantonese. The buns are painted with pink dye so that they look more like the stylized Chinese peach. Mom had freezed a bag full of sau bao before her surgery. It took her awhile to figure out how to paint the buns, back when she was first figuring out how to make sau bao. I think she was pretty proud of the method she finally settled on – dip a toothbrush in the food colouring and then flick the dye onto the buns. Beats buying an air brusher. I have yet to make the buns myself but I’m eager to try it. Peaches are supposed to symbolize immortality. People are also supposed to eat chow mein on their birthdays because the long noodles symbolize longevity. I wonder if the focus on long life is an offshoot of the concept of showing respect for elders. Birthdays of elderly people carry more weight and importance than that of children. I think the thinking is that celebrating a seven-year-old’s birthday is pretty common – but how many people can say they’ve celebrated their 81st birthday?

Cookie thief

Remember what I said about cut-out cookies being more about looks than taste? I take that back. I made another batch of cookies last night. This time, I left them a bit thicker – three times the thickness of the Halloween cookies. And I think they’re far more yummy. These ones were all chocolate flowers. I baked them for Alex’s birthday today and decorated them with pastel yellow and purple icing. They were the prettiest cookies I’ve ever made. This morning, I packaged them up in parchment paper, tucked them into a white cardboard box, scribbled a happy birthday on the box and then delivered them to Alex’s. She’d already left for work so I left the cookies on her front porch, hidden from sidewalk-view under a wooden bench. But Alex never got them. When I got to work, I sent her an email saying I’d left her the cookies and joked we now had a chance to test the trustworthiess of her neighbours. Turns out they’re not very trustworthy. When I came home tonight, Alex had left me a message on my phone. She said she had found the box when she got home from work. But the cookies were gone. Can you believe that? Someone stole her cookies. Even after I had written "To: Alex Graham, Apt.2" and "Happy Birthday Alex". The worst part was leaving the box behind. If you’re going to steal cookies, take the container they came in as well. Otherwise you’re just taunting whoever the cookies were destined for. I'd like to catch the cookie thief, though. Or at least try to make him or her feel guilt for eating the cookies. Maybe I'll leave another box on Alex's porch with a note inside and see if the cookie thief will pick it up.