Changes on Main

Goodbye, good friend. I will visit you in your new location.

Monsoon, neighbouring business and same building, is open only until the end of March and has not yet reported, to my knowledge, finding a location to reopen at.

Vera's Burger Shack, located next to Cobs Bakery, is now open. It's starting to look a lot like Kits here...

Ryan's Oscars picks

Last year, at an Oscars party hosted by Janet and Joe, I made selections for who I thought would take home a golden sworded man, and commited to these picks by writing them down. My efforts led me to winning (2nd place finish) a bottle of Pimm's (which then led me to discovering my summer drink for 2006).

I don't know if I will be invited to a party on Academy Awards night coming up or if I will even watch the awards show, but here are my picks for the big six awards:

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy. He can act without wearing a fat suit!

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson. First musicals-then films are not best pictures, but Eddie and J-Hud made it fun to watch and listen to.

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker. Haven't seen LKoS, but I've got to toss in a few of the unanimous front-runners for some categories.

Best Actress: Meryl Strep. Helen Mirren may be The Queen, but Meryl is the queen of Hollywood. I can't wait to see her on stage telling it like she sees it, not caring a bit that the music is playing over her acceptance speech, and biting off a final "That's all."

Best Director: Martin Scorsese. Haven't seen The Departed, but it has to be better than the crap piece GoNY that everyone said would finally win Marty an Oscar.

Best Picture: Babel. It's big and grand with interwoven stories. I watched it feeling completely tense throughout the entire film. I think that is what the Academy voters like and it will also allow the cameras to pan over to big smiles from Cate and Brad (gorgeous and gorgeous) when its win is announced. Secretly, I'm hoping that Little Miss Sunshine takes the big prize so I can see Abigail Breslin run onto stage and steal all of the highlight spots from Ellen.

Dine-Out Vancouver wrap-up

This year for Dine-Out Vancouver, I visited three restaurants that I have never been to before. The results of these dining experiences varied.

At Sunset Grill, I dined with Mike. I had the squash and granny smith apple soup, braised lamb shank, and bread pudding. The Sunset appears to be a great neighbourhood bar and I think that in that setting, good pub food is the stuff that should be served. Having the kitchen go beyond to serve up more delicate foods to a bar table was a mistake. However, at $15 for the three courses and being able to enjoy a good pint of beer, I can not complain.

Gastropod provided the biggest disappointment for me. After watching the restaurant's creation from my daily #84 bus ride and reading good buzz about the new kid, I was stoked to get there. I think that Alyssa and Andrew came with the same anticipation. The food (beef stew, chicken breast with couscous, and banana bread) was good, but it did not put my tastebuds into the riot that they wanted to be in. The servers were flat and grey, much like their restaurant uniforms. The interior design and decoration were nice, but the lights and traffic on West 4th Avenue are big distractions to compete against.

Tonight, the underdog of the line-up came out the winner. JJ's Fine Dining is located just off the crowded school hallways and cafeteria at Vancouver Community College. After you sit down, it is very easy to think you are dining in a hotel restaurant downtown. The service is friendly and professional - a few gaffes in promptness, but considering the situation, I chalked them up to nerves rather than intentionally poor behaviour from the staff, the food (for me, prawns with orange martini (?), rack of lamb, and caramelized banana tart) is beautifully presented and tasted great, and the dining area is pleasantly decorated and roomy. I think that my positive review will be shared by the entire dinner party tonight (Alice, Hazrah, Katina, MJ, and Brett). And to wrap up my description of this evening, happy birthday, Bobo!

Last minute dinners

My most recent of quick and easy meals requires homemade gnocchi. Tonina makes a great one. It is made fresh, then frozen, each Tuesday, and can be found in the back freezer of her deli and store. When you're in to buy some gnocchi, check if they have any pizza freshly baked. It is topped with lots of meat from ends in the deli coolers and is Yummy (with a capital y)!

Ryan's Really Quick and Really Simple Gnocchi

Several handfuls of frozen gnocchi
Fresh flat-leaf parsley
Parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Drop gnocchi, still frozen, into water and cook for 7-8 minutes. Drain. Top with chopped parsley, grated parmesan cheese, fresh ground black pepper, and olive oil.

I know that this gnocchi will taste fantastic with a red or cream sauce. I just haven't taken the time to thaw out the tomato sauce from my freezer or create a cream sauce. The simple oil/herb/cheese topping has been too good!

Complex math

Last Friday, Tamas and I attempted to surprise Andy for his birthday. We assembled a group of his friends together, unknowingly to him, for dinner at Monsoon. Our night continued afterwards with going downtown for drinks.

One 38th birthday + 2 kofta balls (due to my confusion about the non-dinner this was the entirety of my meal) + 9% alcohol + yellow cab 97 + 1181 = one crazy night + 176 snaps on my camera.

Ryan's new music

I've purchased a bunch of CDs recently. Here are my reviews of them after just a few spins each so far.

Joanna Newsom - Ys. Grabbed my attention because of all the critical praise -- through the year and at year's end -- that it received. It is strange and beautiful.

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black. Old jazz/soul sound from a young troublefinder. I think that she's lining herself up for big mass appeal.

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away. I was hoping for more happy, hoppy sounds from them. I got a few jumps, then a pleasant stroll.

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? Yes! Stuff that makes indie kids pump their skinny arms in the arm in glee. Sounds good, looks good (fantastic packaging), and feels good on the bus when you think you're the only one cool enough to be listening to it on your iPod.

Other stuff that I am previewing or, by some other means than buying, is regularly catching my ears are Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder, Mika, Vienna Teng - Waking Hour or Warm Strangers, and Beyonce - Listen (single).

Vector Watch

$3.99 for the 400 g package at Buy Low Foods. Includes one free Vector wrist/ankle weight.

I am... Out in the Ether

First there was this. It coughed and sputtered, but it gave me a small taste of things to come.

Then there was this. Going in I knew that it was only going to be a temporary thing, so we definitely lived it up right and had a fantastic time through the month or so that our relationship lasted.

Both of those had their times in the limelight, but I have officially retired them (and I am curious when Blogger/Google/whatever it is will also pull them from their active roster and take back the numbers that they've been wearing of their jerseys). So now I am Out in the Ether.

Points of clarification below

Fresh salsa is so friggin' easy to make. I noticed that my tomatoes were going bad, so I threw them into the food processor with an onion, a green pepper, a bit of red pepper from the bottom of the crisper, a handful of cilantro, some salt and pepper, and whizzed it around a little. It's mighty tasty!

Point 1: I was not looking for an excuse to eat more Que Pasa chips.

Point 1.1: My favourite salty snack is Que Pasa chips. They offer me a perfect balance of crispness and saltiness, and I fool myself into believing that they are a healthy choice even when I consume one-half bag per sitting.

Point 2: I love my food processor but rarely use it. It is a Cuisinart big-ass monster. It can eat through leather shoes, I think, and chop or dice enough of them to serve up a family of six without even working up a sweat.

Point 3: I didn't even pre-chop the stuff! I just carved out the non-appetizing bits and tossed the rest into the food processor. On my second go, I will probably seed and juice the tomatoes to make the salsa it a bit chunkier, but otherwise I don't expect to change things up much. Not bad for a non-recipe directed experiment.

Point 4: Yes, I had cilantro in my fridge. My hate of the soapy taste of the herb is over.