VanEats

We heard about Fraserview Spice House through Nattalia, the mom of our friend Toni. As Nattalia is one of the best home chefs we know, we completely trust any of her recommendations on Indian cooking and we had to check it out.

Tucked in between a banquet hall and fabric store and just on the south side of Marine Drive, FSH is surprisingly bright and tidy. They stock just about all the dry ingredients you would ever need to cook Indian food. I particularly like the variety of dry goods that are available from bulk bins.

The mouthwatering images of the omakase dishes ("chef make me what's good") tonight on Tojo's website makes us want to eat there!

We'll probably go there and eat omakase at the bar for my birthday in July!

I agree with Dave Winer that the three useful ways to view the Web are: 1. Search 2. Hierarchy 3. Time

VanEats already has search and is organized by time, so the only thing missing is hierarchy.

From our referrers log, I found out that the recently started Kiplog's Foodblog is linking to us on their list of food blogs and food resources. Thanks!

Kiplog's Foodblog looks to be a great food blog from Chicago.

This weekend I made a simple old-fashioned gingerbread from a recent issue of Gourmet. It turned out very moist, with a rich molasses flavour.

Because I'm a ginger fanatic, I added about 1/2 cup diced crystallized ginger to the batter. I highly recommend it--I don't think I would make it without the extra ginger! Although I served it with vanilla gelato from Mario's, next time I might drizzle it with a lemon glaze.

Today we had brunch with our friends, Susan and Lisa, at Picasso Cafe where one of our fellow Lindy Hoppers, Aaron, works as a mentor to at-risk youth and as a waiter.

The brunch was excellent and inexpensive. I had the hearty classic breakfast with two mini-buttermilk pancakes (I love butter milk pancakes and these were great!) , two eggs, bacon and toast for $6.95 and Barb had Eggs Benedict for $7.50.

I erred yesterday. The delicious chick pea dish that I enjoyed Saturday at Granville Island was not channa masala.

It was a chick pea dish with spinach and tomato. As far as I know, channa masala does not contain spinach!

Until recently, you really could not satisfy your Indian food cravings at Granville Island.

Luckily, Rubina Grill, an offshoot of the excellent Rubina Tandoori (who did a fabulous job catering Toni and Kerrie's wedding), opened a few weeks ago. This makes Granville Island a great setting for a gentle non-threatening introduction to Indian cuisine.Today Barb, myself and our friend Anna tried it out.

Mixing cultures is like breathing. It's something that I have always taken for granted and couldn't do without.

And food is part of culture! So mixing cuisines or "fusion" is something that makes sense to me.

The Green Lettuce Cafe Restaurant at 1949 Kingsway (604 876-9883) presents a unique Chinese and Indian mix.

Apparently, alot of Chinese people have lived in the cosmopolitan Indian city of Bombay for many years and over the years they have created a unique blend of Chinese and Indian Cuisine.

Fortunately, we don't have to go to Bombay to try this out.

From the "I-don't know how we missed it department", we missed the opening of the UBC Farm Market last Saturday.

Anyways, the UBC Farm Market (6182 South Campus Road) runs every Saturday throughout the summer (starting last Saturday) from 9am to 1p.m.

See you there!