2011.06.21
Posted in Food, Friends at 8:58 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
On Sunday, my friend Arman and I went to check out a new pub that opened on 10th Avenue called the Craft Beer Market.
They opened in the space that used to be Mother Tucker’s which is quite large and in an excellent location. They also managed to open a few weeks before Stampede, and I have no doubt that was the plan.
What makes this place different from many others in town is its focus on (and selection of) craft beers. With 104 different varieties on tap, they’re making a serious move into a market that is (in my opinion) very neglected in Calgary. It’s not a brewpub; all of the beer comes from other breweries, but it’s still a great addition to the Calgary scene.
The makeover from Mother Tucker’s is pretty astonishing – the main room is up a short flight of stairs from the entrance, and has huge windows and high ceilings. The lines from the kegs (located in a huge refridgerator in the back) to the bars run through large steel tubing mounted to the ceiling and give an interesting look to the space. There are also several and several other rooms are off to the East and West, up a few more stairs; The East room can be closed off for private parties. Overall, the feel is very open and spacious, not crowded like so many other pubs in Calgary are.
For my first trip, I drank several German beers that I last enjoyed 10 years ago when I was in Germany for a summer, and then had strawberry fruli for dessert, after enjoying a very tasty inferno burger and yam fries. Arman opted for the impossibly large 20-napkin burger (totalling 20oz of meat) which he was unsurprisingly unable to finish. I’m pretty sure a family of 4 could have split it and not been left hungry.
Another highlight of the visit was meeting the owner and being able to talk about the place with him and also gaining access to the generally employee-only beer fridge to get a closer look at the setup in there. Very impressive and something that is long overdue in Calgary. I suspect this place will do very well.
And will I go back? You bet your dunkelwiezen.
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2010.09.19
Posted in Food, House and Home at 5:49 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
… I should have brought back better weather. And some lemongrass as you’ll see in a moment.
Less than a week ago I was enjoying 42C and sunshine in Palm Springs, and now I’m home to single-digit temperatures and rain. I guess autumn arrived while I was gone. At least the trees still have their leaves here.
And given the weather I decided it was time to make a good soup for supper, so while I was grocery shopping I picked up most of the things I needed for a nice lemongrass and salmon soup, except for the lemongrass and ginger (both of which the store was sold out of). No big deal, other stores were bound to have it.
I went to a total of four grocery stores. Of the four, only two had root ginger (and in one of the stores it was going moldy). None of the four had any lemongrass. Including the ones where they have it every time I look. I’m not sure why, but nobody seems to have lemongrass in Calgary.
So I made the soup without lemongrass, substituting some lemon juice and additional onions and ginger. The flavour isn’t quite the same as it should be, but it’s close, and the soup is still quite delicious.
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2009.03.29
Posted in Food, Friends at 4:36 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Recently, a coworker and I were discussuing how our generation seems to have lost the knack of cooking. It seems like a lot of people my age don’t cook as often as I do, and they also don’t seem as creative in the kitchen.
Why is this? I ‘m betting the reason is that they don’t have the time (or make the time) to cook a good meal. It’s really not that difficult to do, and there are tons of cookbooks and web sites full of recipes to try, so it’s got to be the time factor.
The pace at which we all move through life can make it difficult to make time to cook, but it’s a big part of my life and I really enjoy it (and I eat very well too).
I feel pretty strongly that sometimes we need to just slow down and take the time to enjoy the simple things, like a home cooked meal with family and / or friends. This is one of the ideas behind the Slow Food movement, and resonates strongly with me.
If you don’t take the time to cook regularly, why not?
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2008.06.14
Posted in Board Games, Food, Friends at 2:15 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
Last night, one of my friends turned the corner, as it were. I had Arman and Ben over for dinner and drinks, and Arman asked to play a board game. And not just, “Hey, let’s play a game.” He requested a specific game.
I guess this is the second time I’ve corrupted him since I’ve known him. First, I introduced him to tea. His experience with tea in the past had primarily been with well-known mass-market store brands, and high-quality tea is an entirely different beast altogether. Now, he’s addicted to board games.
And this is a good thing, since it’s sometimes hard to get a really good group together for a game night. More people are always welcome.
The game he asked to play? Kingdoms. Apparently he was missing his Dragon fix.
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2008.03.12
Posted in Board Games, Food, Friends at 7:52 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
When I moved to my current address, one of the many upsides was that the balcony had a gas hookup for a barbecue on the balcony. I had always intended on buying one, but somehow I never quite got around to it. Until now.
Last Friday I went shopping and bought myself a barbecue. The beginning of the adventure was fitting it in the car.
Those of you who know me, and know what I drive, are probably wondering how I managed to fit a regular-sized barbecue in my car. It turns out that it fit perfectly well when everything was removed from the box, and divided between the back seat and the trunk.
In any case, my friend and coworker Brian used to work in a store that sold barbecues, and he has assembled many in his time. He offered to help me put it together, and I countered with dinner if he did. So, it was set. He and Pam (his wife) would come over for dinner on Sunday, and Arman would join us (he helped me carry the pieces in from the car). Brian arrived Sunday afternoon, and I had already perused the assembly instructions, figured out what was what, and had the first part of the base assembled.
We soon discovered that the cap the builder put on the gas hookup was pretty much welded to the nipple. The nipple came apart from the valve easily enough, but the cap wouldn’t budge, so I made a last-minute run to Home Depot to buy a replacement nipple. Aside from that small snag, everything went together quickly and painlessly. By the time I got back from the store with my $0.69 piece of pipe, Pam and Arman had arrived and taken over my sofa, and Brian had all but finished the assembly.
I had the foresight to set the steaks marinating in the morning, and had prepped the couscous salad in the afternoon, so there was little to do but assemble some veggie skewers and grill it all up.
It was delicious.
After dinner, we broke out Ticket to Ride: Europe, which none of the others had played before. We played in about 90 minutes, which is typical for a four-player game with new players. Everyone enjoyed the game, and it was definitely an interesting one. Pam set about hoarding locomotives, Brian played spoiler to Arman’s plans, and I managed to wiggle and weave my way from Lisbon to Stockholm to complete a number of tickets.
After we finished, the group wanted to play some more, so I got out Blokus and we played a few quick games. I’m not sure who gave it the name “the anti-Tetris“, but it stuck for the rest of the evening. Blokus is one of those subtle games where you pick up the basics really easily, but which can take a while to learn all the tricks. I had a large advantage, being the only one who had played before, but the others picked on me so it evened out somewhat.
And so it was that Sunday was a day that combined three of my favorite things: good food, good company, and good gaming.
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2007.11.29
Posted in Food at 8:41 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
OK, so it may not be perfect, but here’s my recipe for Tuna Casserole. It’s based on mom’s recipe, but it’s not the same.
Ingredients:
- 3-6 potatoes of whatever type you want (quantity dependent on size), sliced 1/8 in. (4 mm) thick. You need enough potatoes to make 2 layers in the dish when sliced.
- 1 medium white onion, sliced 1/8 in. (4mm) thick, and quartered
- 1 medium red onion, sliced 1/8 in (4mm) thick, and quartered
- 2 cans of condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 2 cans of tuna packed in water (drained)
- 1-2 tbsp. canola oil
- 1/4 cup grated aged cheddar (24 months or older)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F.
Coat the bottom and sides of a 2.8L baking dish with the oil. Place 1/2 of the potatoes in a single layer at the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper as desired. Layer the white onion on top, followed by 1 can of tuna. Mix 1 can of mushroom soup with 1/2 can of water, and pour over the three layers in the dish.
Repeat the layering process with the rest of the potatoes, the red onion, and the other cans of tuna and soup.
Cover and bake for 90 minutes or until the potatoes are completely cooked.
Remove dish from the oven, and sprinkle with the cheese. Replace the lid and let stand for 5 minutes until the cheese has completely melted. Remove lid and let stand for 5 more minutes before serving.
Serves 4.
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2007.06.25
Posted in Food at 9:43 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
I know a number of people who seem to view food as being little more than fuel; it is something to be endured, a necessity of survival, but it certainly is not something that can possibly be enjoyed. I suspect you know some of them too:
- The shoveler, who finishes each meal in 3 minutes flat and rushes off
- The ketchuper, who slathers so much ketchup on everything as to drown out all other flavours
- The hot-saucer, who cannot even tolerate the taste of ketchup, and thus uses copious amounts hot sauce so as to eradicate flavour altogether
- The take-outer, who never cooks anything if it can be avoided
There also seem to be an ever-increasing number of people who eat while sitting in front of the television. While I admit to being guilty of eating lunch in front of my computer from time to time, every day I try to eat at least one meal (usually supper) in my dining room or at least at the breakfast bar. This is my time to slow down, relax, and enjoy the food I’m eating. Yes, enjoy.
Perhaps it helps that I also enjoy cooking, and take the time to cook something for supper most days. I live alone, so there are almost always leftovers for those days when I don’t have a lot of time to cook.
What surprises me most about this wholesale devaluation of food in North American society is how widespread it seems to be. As a whole, people just don’t take time for food any more, and many people seem to not enjoy food at all.
Perhaps not by coincidence, anglo-saxon North American culture is lacking in a customary phrase spoken before a meal.
The French say, “bon appétit.” The Germans, “guten appetit.” The Italians, “buon appetito.” It’s not just a Western thing either; in Japanese, it is customary to say, “いただきます (itadakimasu)” before eating. In English, we sometimes say “enjoy your meal”, but it carries no real cutlural weight compared to the equivalent phrases in other languages.
From a historical perspective, the saying of grace before a meal would have taken the place of such a phrase, but there are now many English-speaking North Americans who do not practice Christianity in any of its forms, and so grace is not said. We have nothing to take its place.
You might be wondering why the lack of such a phrase in English is a problem. There are two reasons:
- Speaking such a phrase before the meal becomes a ritual of a sort. It forces us to slow down for a moment, and consciously acknowledge the meal we are about to eat. And acknowledging the meal automatically gives it some value.
- The words have more meaning when others are present. Part of the purpose of saying the words is to wish others a good meal. Eating with others makes it a lot more likely that the meal will be eaten slowly and enjoyed, not just gobbled down.
The more I ponder this, the more I think I should start using one of the phrases before meals. It is high time that food returned to its former status as more than mere sustenance.
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2006.07.16
Posted in Art, Museums, Galleries, Board Games, Food, House and Home at 10:13 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
890 days. That’s how long it’s been since I signed the agreement to purchase my condo. But on July 11, my patience was rewarded – I got the keys to my new home.
For the past few weeks, my life has literally revolved around the new place. Packing, tossing, selling, giving away, and other prep work consumed far more time than I ever imagined they would, but I got it all done. Then, after getting the keys, there was moving, unpacking, getting the place measured for blinds, getting my phone and internet moved, and shopping shopping shopping. I’m already best friends with Home Depot, and my credit card feels warm to the touch.
The move went very well with the exception of a minor situation with the refridgerator (which was resolved very quickly), and now I’m mostly settled, though not completely unpacked. In fact, I’m a little surprised that Stampede didn’t cause more troubles with the move, given the increase of traffic and decrease of parking (since I’m only a few blocks away). I suspect that moving mid-week probably helped a lot, since things were much crazier on the weekends.
I’m not totally sure why, but it hasn’t yet sunk in that I actually live here. Right now it feels more like I’m a guest in someone else’s home. Maybe that will change when I get some art on the walls, and finish replacing some of the light fixtures with ones more to my taste. I’m enjoying it so far, and I have had a few interesting experiences in the new place. Some of these may sound odd unless you know me fairly well:
- Finding the perfect shower curtain at Sears
- Finding the perfect bath mat at Chintz + Company, only to discover that it doesn’t match the aforementioned shower curtain
- Having several housewives comment on my choice of colors for my bath towels
- Doing my first load of laundry using a washing machine I don’t have to put coins into
- Making a meal in my kitchen and not having to do the “cutting board shuffle” while prepping
- Spending a day in the apartment without hearing a freight train rumble past
- Sifting through my boxes and thinking, “Wow, do I really have 4 boxes full of board games?”
After all the stuff going on this week, I’m looking forward to going back to work tomorrow and returning to a more normal pace of life.
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2006.01.23
Posted in Food, This Site at 11:26 pm by Jeremiah Wittevrongel
A while back, I kept a simple little food journal in a cool little black book. I’ve stopped using this journal, as it started to get unwieldy. There were odd little snippets, and cross referencing things and updating the index was a chore. Since I now have a wiki, I thought I would maybe try moving the content of my notebook there.
The wiki seems more ideal since it provides a natural way to cross reference things, it’s easy to reorganize should I need to, and I can access my random food notes from places other than home should I want to replicate an experiment while I’m cooking away from home.
So, here goes nothing. I have no idea how this little experiment is going to work, and I doubt my random notes will have much meaning to anyone besides myself and possibly my friend Jason, but I guess time will tell.
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