We're going posh tonight with steak and chips. On a bloody Monday night? Isn't Canada great?

I'm going to fry some shrimp to eat while the chicken livers thaw, then I'll dice some bacon ends and make pate with thyme and pepper and butter and have a little picnic. Canada's Food Guide is more a set of loose recommendations than actual regulations, I've always felt. Votes for the booze to deglaze? I have some of that black Curzon rum, think that's a Christmasy deglazer.

Chicken and leek soup

HID came home with a massive tray of homemade samosas with sauce, that a parent gave her. They were the, OMG, bolloxy bollocks.

I don't really feel like cooking anything so I'm going to take buns out of the freezer now and have pastrami sandwiches at Superbowl halftime and as many beer as I want. I have rye bread, but decided on buns. If I want I can have both - what a country! In the meantime I'm snacking on some hot pepperoni from Ukrainian Co-op, and while it isn't quite as dry as the JNnZ's sticks on Commercial Drive it's very good (I'll have to take some to my friends in Van when I go there this spring.

I like pepperoni.

JNnZ's on Commercial - you got it from me. If you want to buy a rack of smoked anything this is where to go. A family business, (Croatian), they don't let anyone behiind the counter who isn't family so when they have holidays in the summer they close the store. One girl who brought pepperoni back for me said, "How did you find this place? It's like being inside the cow!

Tonight's was a muledeer tenderloin and chips and oh man was it good! There's a piece left for a snack on a bun in about 3 hours..... oh, too late.

HID wants to go out of a meal for our tea tonight and she don't want pizza nor Chinese but I got to choose. Got any suggestions for Vancouver because I've got nothing?

Keg?

Not on since the incident with the waitress at the Christmas party.

There's the bbq smoked ribs place about a block up from Havana & on the same side on the Drive. It turns into a blues venue at night and the ribs are good. Generous with the curly fries, cheap with the beans.

I rather like curly fries. In the end, we went to Earl's, mainly from my perspective to see if they still had Albino Rhino beer. They still do. I had a steak and chips. What's wrong with these Canadians still not doing peas?

ST Augustine's on The Drive - nice new Cauliflower dish to rival Nuba!

There were 13 big Mexican tomatoes just on the verge of over-ripe at work so I took them and got cilantro and jalapenos and made salsa last night, and now I'm making samozas to put it on. It's the classic scenario of opportunity and found materials inspiring art.