victoria food fest.

after a hockey game that got me home at 1 am last night and asleep, maybe, by 1:30 am...i was back up and heading towards the 7 am ferry at tsawwassen today. and not sleepy one bit.

it was a day of eating - not a lot of food but a good variety of food - today in the provincial capital. a shredded chicken mexican number on home made tortillas and a, slightly, spicy chipotle sauce with poached eggs. then for lunch, very french bagette sandwiched, grilled, with roast beef and cheese and such...very nice...followed by a pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw and a side of mac and cheese...pretty good but, sadly, not as good as garnyard pulled pork - if i do say so...

it was nice to see floyd and janine and roam around town with them. they are off to mexico soon so today seemed like a good time to go over and see what they were up to. kinda cold over there today and blustery...and awesome rain on and off...mainly on early on...
on the way home i stopped by scotty stofer's place - all around good guy and fellow fx guy - as he moved to the island a few years ago and has told me if i was ever over at floyd's and had a few extra minutes to stop by...so today was the day. i got to see his place - very, very nice...and to finally meet his wife, allie. also, very, very nice...he's got a good thing going on over there.
the...more ferry action to get home.
and now...
sleep.

have fun.

g. xo

meet you in the woods.

the holidays have moved past me quickly and i feel like i haven't done an update in ages...not truly but, it feels like that.
yesterday found us at ailsa's place thinking about going out into the woods for a look see and walk...well, you can't have one without the other so - off we went. we packed up ailsa's car and tucked fiona in the back seat and away we went to the north shore - where it looked like rain. and it did. rain. but it was actually ok. afterwards - wet and even a little sweaty, we ate soup like champs and ate cheese in the form of pizza and grilled sandwiches. nice.

last night 'he who can not be named on the blog' came by, as he has a few times over the holidays and watched the hockey game and then, after showing off his new boxing day purchased leather jacket, was gone back to crazydale.
here's some stuff i know...i'll be back to bombing tonight with the boys and happy to be doing so. picking up soon-to-be dad corie along the way. (i think we're down to the last few strokes on this baby making he and katherine have been working on for nearly nine months now...truth be told, as always, his 'work', in the making of the baby wasn't really work. ) start the countdown from ten...starting....now!

i was just looking through the georgia straight and saw an ad for tickets to the walfdorf hotel new year's eve party. the pre-sale tickets are sold out. ok. the 'come early' tickets go on sale at 8 pm. ok. and all tickets will be 20 bucks off after 1 am....huh? i don't now how much the tickets were to begin with but to pay nearly anything after 1 am seems retarded. shit, i'll be deep into freaky dreams by 1 am...
the holidays make me, and i mean, make me, watch more tv and thank god for the gym down the hall...i will say this, i've noticed that all these cooking shows have the same cast of characters on them. or a lot of them do. one chef could be one five shows. one or two as a the 'boss' and the rest as some form of competitor. i should have learned to cook well...maybe i could have made a bunch of money, in a short amount of time making food on tv...or attempting to.
cooking and reno shows rule the holiday viewing.
i have watched some of the world juniors hockey tourney as well, when not off in the woods or looking out at the people boxing day/week shopping from my gym window...but after goal five or six or seven, i get a little bored, if not pissed off, at the players celebrating the same way after goal eight as they did in goal number one. no arm raising after a five goal lead.
ok. have fun today.

g. xo

around town.

a few pics from around town yesterday.

g. xo

sleepy.

how did my place get so messy?

g. xo

for the love of stuffing.

 

after a short relax at home i, after giving the garbs a ride to his mom's place so he could have dinner with bob and the family unit such that it is, headed out to issy's for a visit and dinner.
it was a nice to have a loungaround followed by a tasty turkey dinner followed by some nice pie....thanks issy!
afterwards issy and i headed down in larry to the brown's - tom and dorothy - to have visit and be tempted by more desserts made by dorothy. it was a nice visit with ailsa, fiona, family friend michael and tom and dorothy's neighbours....if i wasn't so tired i'd be able to remember their names...shit...margaret and .....shit. very nice folks.
my place is s a bit of a shit show but i'll sort it out tomorrow...others can do the boxing day sales....i'll tidy up.

g. xo

more grove, less sauce.

 

for many years now - i think it first started in or around 1993 - i have been eating christmas day breakfast at the grove restaurant on denman street.

 
 the garbs wakes up and smells the sweet smells of the grove.

today was no different. what has become different is the the hollandaise sauce on the eggs florentine has become somewhat watery. last year it was looking like it was going that way...this year it's official - next year i'll be switching to something else, but as long as the grove is there and serving breakfast, i'll be there in the morning.
this year it was just me and the garbs hossing down on eggs and bad coffee. afterwards we went driving around admiring the empty streets and drinking better coffee.


my nice new rockmount shirt made it's debut at the grove this morning. 

i stopped by garvie's to have a look at what santa had brought fiona - holy cow! - and having a short visit before they headed out to tom and dorothy's for the next couple of days. i'll be heading out to issy's soon and hanging out there and maybe later, just maybe, going to see a retarded xmas blockbuster.

have fun today. drive safely.

g. xo

pipeline.

i had to share this picture that was just sent to me.
it's of my friend marv surfing in 1964 - somewhere in california i'd assume.
so great.
i love that guy.

g. xo

larry gets out for the holidays.

sure, it's a time for seeing friends and family you/we have all ignored/neglected/forgotten about/avoided/missed for the last year or so...but it's also a time to get out in larry and go for a fun ride to ladner.
yes. ladner.

there is a barn i pass by often that i look at and think of as accidental art. they have fixed the side of it with different colors of corrugated metal and created a great look. sort of, if you squint just so, a mondrian look to it. i love it. so today i drove out and took some pictures of it after thinking about doing so for too many years. i once, as a kid, wrote something on the roof of the same barn...or i was drunk and there the night it happened...or...i had something to do with it. it was a grad thing. it was 1982 and i didn't know any better.
anyhow.
today was something else.

g. xo

next stop...MOMA

we had decided that one of the main things - besides eating and drinking coffee and walking around - was to go to the MOMA. so. we did. decidely smaller than the MOMA in NYC...it's still a pretty great place.

g. xo

A few pics for your eyeballs from s.f.

g. xo

some long winded range review....

or not. 
i will tell you this about Range on valencia st. in san francisco - it's amazing. great food (we had a small salad - that they gave to us, we think, because of our insane cab ride over - that had a light dressing on it that was amazing. i had some mushroom and goat cheese filled ravioli that had a citrus taste in the buttery sauce that was maybe the best ravioli i have ever had. ailsa had leeks with a poached egg and aged cheddar. for the main ailsa had california swordfish with sweet potato, escarole, portobella mushrooms and a grain mustard sauce (menu listing...) that was great and i had a oven roasted chicken with spaetzel, pancetta, baby broccoli rabe, fromage blanc and arugula-pistachio pistou (from the menu)... 
anyhow...it was awesome. my pal laurie and her girlfriend gizelle showed up - she is the manager of range - bought us a couple of drinks and had a short chit chat...so great to see them. 
yesterday was roaming around, drinking some coffee, getting the garbs his giants t-shirt, me a new hat, some odds and ends...then dinner at pancho villa. so great. ailsa was loving her prawn quesadilla...then home to relax and watch some bad tv. 
there's a ongoing protest across the street at another hotel that wakes us around seven every morning. no wake up call needed...


ok we're off to get a snack. (blue bottle coffee already in us..)


g. xo

insanity in san fran.

i could try and tell you about the cab right we had in san francisico last night. i really could. i could tell you that we couldn't find a cab to get to our restaurant and that we had to get in a cab with two other people - each going different places themselves - like a colectivo in mexico....i could tell you that the driver didn't go the right way for the first passenger jennifer and she started telling him he was going the wrong way and the driver started getting mad at her. then i could try and tell you how upset the driver got when ramesh, the other passenger, told him he had no idea where he was going. then stopped and starting yelling and at ramesh and kicked him out of the cab near our hotel. he finally got jennifer to her place and we started to our restaurant. i could try and somehow relate the erratic driving, the hard on the brakes followed by excessive speeds down market street. the turning up loud of the classic rock station. the swearing that came out of his mouth made me blush. really.
wen we finally got near Range, late, the traffic was crawling and he was still driving like an asshole and we decided to get out of the cab and walk. i threw some money on his front seat and we fucked off. then we heard him yelling from his car at me/us. driving slowly along following us as we walked towards the restaurant. he was laughing out the car window at us. telling me i was an idiot. that i was a fucking stupid white boy. telling us to fuck off. over and over. i gave him my best spanish swearing and away we went.
to dinner.
we had a few drinks.
the report on range will come later. i can't tell you right now how great it was...but it was.

i need some coffee.

g. xo

United 378

one more sleep.

the boss left the salt mine yesterday and headed for a hot spot in mexico with his family and i'm not far behind him - at least in heading out the door towards elsewhere and less phone calls and text messages. garvie and i are heading to san francisco tomorrow afternoon and, shortly after landing, will be dining at range tomorrow night then sleeping soundly at the world famous king george hotel. ok. not world famous. but after a great meal at range it'll be nice to lie down and have a long nap and have coffee at blue bottle in the morning.
it'll be a weekend of hanging out, drinking coffee, eating, hanging out, sleeping and more eating. hopefully the MOMA, pancho villa, giants clubhouse, valencia blvd., etc....good times.
look for updates...and food pics.

g. xo

seating options

hi...

issy is looking for two piano stools...used is super duper...anyone have some they wanna sell or...?

give me a dingle.

g. xo

passed out past in.

sunday i started my day off getting dinner ready for that night...well, after some coffee of course. ailsa and i were making dinner for her neighbours and i was gung-ho to get going and make some tasty short ribs. and they turned out great - if i do say so myself.

it was a great team effort. they were a mustard seed dry rubbed short rib cooked in a bourbon and beef stock, etc., sauce for almost six hours...tender goodness.
some nice action.

i have no pics of the finished product but it was great and eaten and gone.

g. xo

best of the blog 2011 in pictures part six

g. xo