During the Winter Olympics I helped out at Lazy Gourmet which was very busy catering to French House, General Electric Hosting, Price Waterhouse Coopers, events for the Polish Government, Vanoc, Richard Branson and a bunch of other stuff. Given this line up, and knowing Lazy Gourmet’s reputation as being the best catering in Vancouver, I expected to be working in a high stress environment. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in an easy-going but highly efficient kitchen full of interesting and widely varied people. I realised in the 11 days I spent working there, how much I have missed the special sort of community you get when you cook together.

Read more ...

There was so much going on for Valentines Day this year that I didn’t have time to think about chocolates and roses. Instead, I was thinking about joining in the celebrations to welcome in the Year of the Tiger and eager to get to Chinatown before the whole show was over since rumors said the festivities would be closed down early due to the Olympics. In fact, our bus couldn’t get through downtown, as soon as we realised this we headed for the nearest skytrain station and squeezed ourselves in among the throngs of people and headed for the Chinatown/Stadium stop.

Read more ...

I first broke ground in Vancouver BC, on June 7th, 2009. For me this was a very symbolic act. This was the day I finally got the stamp in my passport that said I was an official resident of Canada. Living in an apartment I didn’t have a piece of ground of my own, but I had been scouting out the nearby possibilities for about a year and a half while waiting for my residency to come through.

Read more ...

As some of you may know from my snail mail New Years letter in December, I had a scheme to work for the winter Olympics and make a ton of money in a short time period. I used to work large sporting events (catered for the APGA golf tournament in 2000 and the NZ V-8 car races in 2004) and had found that huge sports events usually pay the best money. So I was pretty shocked to discover that to work for the Molson Canadian Hockey House, and provide the food for Concord Place during the 2010 Winter Olympics would only be an hourly rate of $15.

Read more ...

The Chinese Year of the Tiger begins on Valentines day this year, making it extra special in my book… 14/2/2010. I was born in the year of the tiger so I confess to being prejudiced in this area . In honor of the upcoming New Year and because I was just going through an old folder full of some favorite quotes from years ago and discovered this wonderful tale of a lost tiger:

A tigress, pregnant and nearly ready to deliver, walked stealthily along the edge of a high cliff foraging for food. She looked over into the grassland below and spied a flock of goats grazing in the sunshine. Hungry as she was, she hesitated because the drop was precipitous. Then she took a great leap, and in the fall she lost her balance. The noise sent the goats scurrying into the forest for shelter. The neck of the tigress was broken as she hit the ground, but in her death throes she managed to give birth to her cub. Then all was silent.

Read more ...

I consider myself extremely fortunate to be living in Vancouver, BC for many reasons, but one of the main ones is the extremely active Ubuntu group here. Some of you may have noticed in my last post about Ubuntu that after I installed the latest release called Karmic Koala, I immediately got a warning that my hard-drive was failing and I was able to update my hardware without loosing any info–a very smooth switch, unlike many I have been through. Shortly after getting my computer upgraded the Vancouver Ubuntu group hosted a Support Saturday, and I took my computer with a bunch of questions down to get some help.

Read more ...

After reading Anna’s positive experiences with the GAPs diet I ordered the book and have just finished reading it, I have tried a lot of diets over the years especially after living in a moldy apartment in Wellington, NZ which has resulted in problems with my digestive tract ever since. November last year was a month of non-stop rain here in Vancouver, BC and with the temperature change, was the perfect breeding ground for mushrooms, mold and yeasts. As a result our health problems reared their ugly heads again and showed us that we still have an overgrowth of harmful yeast in our systems. In some ways this is good because we at least know that we need to deal with it.

Read more ...

We welcomed the new year in bed watching Monk with our noses running and throats sore, snacking on rose-hip jam for vitamin C and drinking ginger and pau d’ arco tea to boost our immune systems. According to the once renowned but now forgotten Antoine Bechamp this process is a cleansing that occurs cyclically and is necessary to remove toxins that cause our tissues to rot or oxidize. The well known Pasteur set our world on the germ theory course, which has led us to the current terror of micro-organisms which has given the pharmaceutical industry it’s hold on our state of health and our belief that we are being ‘attacked’ by nature. We become victims with no control over our own health. This is absolutely not true.

Read more ...

MindSpice is a specially created spice mix that is designed to uplift the spirits and refresh the mind. It includes cardamom, clove, rosemary and cinnamon. On sniff will clear the mind during an afternoon mind-fog and will raise the spirits or assist with memory.

Cardamom has restoring and balancing abilities and is good for lifting depression and clearing the mind. Rosemary is well known for memory, as well as being a gentle stimulant. Clove is a powerful antiseptic and kills bacteria, viruses and fungus, it reassures the body and also raises the spirits. Cinnamon is energizing as well as warming and also is useful against unfriendly micro-organisms.

The boxes are made with photos of the cherry blossoms that they are stuffed with. They fit into any purse and can be helpful to sniff when on public transport during flu season. They make fun and trippy treats for a rave or as an aromatic and unique party treat.

Read more ...

I was given a special treat this year for my birthday–lunch out at the Sha Lin Noodle House in Vancouver, BC. They don’t take reservations so we crowded into the doorway to get out of the rain and hovered hungrily over the nearest table, the wait wasn’t long and we were soon seated with a great view of the glass-enclosed kitchen where noodles were being tossed, cut, pulled and cooked. We ordered noodles in various states as well as cucumbers in a toasted sesame dressing which was fantastic. The helpings were huge, even though we were stuffed we walked out the door with some hefty doggy-bags.

Read more ...