Dinner in the Yellow House

Orale Mexican Food

Just an FYI for Victoria people.  The name of the company that makes the wonderful tamales that are sold at the Moss Street Market is ¡Orale!.  Looks like they do catering, and may open a restaurant as well.  In the meantime, you can stock up on their frozen tamales and steam them at home yourself (or get lazy and use the microwave). 

Arni Psito at Victoria's Greek Festival

Every year I see the signs and hear the ads on the radio, but every year the last week of August is too jam-packed with events for me to visit the Greek Festival.  This year, with my spouse and daughter out of town, things have quieted down, allowing M'hijo and I to take in this meaty extravaganza.  Vegetarians, look away now.

Arni psito (Greek-style lamb on a spit):

Here is the lamb guy, holding the fruits of his labour. 

I'd love to be able to tell you his name, and how long he cooked the lamb, and where he got the lamb, and what spices he used, and how much he misses his mother in Greece and all that, but you try taking an overactive 20-month-old to a loud and exciting ethnic festival and see how many questions you get to ask people.  Aside from "Did you see a baby run by here?", I mean.

My mom and I were very clever and ordered both the lamb and the spanakopita dinners, then split them both.  Everything was very tasty, aside from the tomatoes, which were a little hard and tasteless.  It's August, yes, but it's been a rainy and cold August and my backyard tomatoes haven't ripened either.  I feel your pain, Hellenic Society.

Here is the lamb plate:

and here is the vegetarian plate:

The dessert menu offered a choice of kourambiedes (shortbread), baklava, loukomades (little honey doughnuts), and koulouria (butter cookies), along with Greek coffee.  I tried the coffee, the kourambiedes and the loukomades and liked the loukomades best.  The coffee, I think, may be a developed taste.  I found it way too strong and it also kept me up half the night.  Which wasn't so bad, actually, because it allowed me to watch more of Zorba the Greek, which I couldn't resist picking up at the video store on the way home from the festival. 

My Moss Street Market Haul

Hello!  I am still alive!

Very sorry to have taken two weeks off blogging unannounced.  Every day I thought I would find some time to blog and I just didn't.  You see, since August 17, my spouse has been travelling, making me a temporary single mom.  Somehow, that, combined with a big work project, has resulted in my having very little time for myself :)

But I'm back now and with lots of foody things to report on.  The first is my haul at the Moss Street Market yesterday.  Moss Street Market is sort of a miniature urban farmer's market (not that the farmers are urban, I mean, the market is in an urban location) with a bunch of crafts and stuff thrown in.  I don't go there much, but when I do go, I always love it.  My two favourite things about it are the International Women's catering co-op tent (always a huge line for their delectable samosas, empanadas, curries, and more) and the playground.  Whoever came up with the idea to have the market in the parking lot of Sir James Douglas school, with a playground right there, was a genius.  Even fiesty little anti-shoppers like 20-month-old M'hijo can be cajoled into visiting a market like this.  Here's my little monkey right after he took the pint of baby squash I bought and poured them all over himself.  He's also holding a bear-shaped bottle of B's honey.

Apart from squash and honey, I was thrilled to find, for the first time ever, rapini.  I have read about this dark leafy green, also known as broccoli rabe, and wanted to try it for a long time.  But I've never seen it for sale.  The closest I've found is something called broccolini, which is less leafy, more broccoliesque.  I'm hoping to cook it up with some Galloping Goose Italian sausage tomorrow.

I also bought a spider wort plant, having fallen in love with the electric purple blooms the day before when I saw them for the first time in a garden.  But the pièce de résistance was this:

TAMALES!

Real good Mexican tamales!  Hot to eat right away or frozen to take home!  3.50 a piece!

Mole, salsa verde, and poblano!  For sale in Victoria, which is located, don't forget, in the Great White North.  A real miracle find, to be sure.  I was so excited that I forgot I hardly had any cash left.  Luckily, the owner of the tamale stand, called, appropriately, Mexican Tamales, took pity on me and gave me a two for one deal.  He also had agua de fresa (strawberry water), a glass of which he gave to the very thirsty and grateful M'hijo.

So, quite a good little shopping trip, if I may say so.  There were plenty of other tempting veggies (bitter melon and Japanese eggplant among them) and plants (fig tree), and I didn't even get around to visiting the International Women's Catering Co-op, so I'll be returning to the Moss Street Market soon.

Spanish Day at Ottavio

This past Saturday was Spanish Day at Ottavio and I, blessed among women, managed to score some childcare and a hot date and went to check out the action.

There were flamenco dancers!

There were tastings! 

I tried two organic Spanish wines, jamon serrano, manchego (swoon!) and arbequina olives, which are totally new to me.  They are tiny little green beauties from Catalonia, with a very subtle flavour.  Although I typically prefer strong flavours, these arbequinas were quite addictive. 

Ottavio was selling bottles of arbequina olive oil and I wanted one, but my hot date gave me one of those looks which means "Too much" so I didn't get one.  They were 19.25, marked down to 16.25 for the day.  Later we went to the Village Butcher and found the same amount of arbequina olive oil for 12.75, so if you want to try this stuff, mosey across the street and save a few bucks.

Tastings are all well and good, but after enjoying some dancing and music and nibbles, we wanted a proper lunch, so we grabbed a table and ordered three tapas and two glasses of sangria. 

Anchovies and red peppers with olives and lemon:

Manchego with quince paste and almonds:

And octopus (apologies for the angle of this shot.  Apparently it didn't occur to the photographer (me) to turn the plate around so the photo would show the actual octopus and not just the bread!):

We are toying with the idea of taking the kids on a trip to Spain and Portugal this winter.  I am leaning towards not doing it, simply because M'hijo is too active for plane and train travel.  But Spanish Day at Ottavio weakened my resolve a little bit, I must admit.  I could definitely get used to this.

Adios, Mark Anthony

In more bad news for Victoria shoppers, the Mark Anthony wine shop in Cadboro Bay is closing this week, and moving to Bear Mountain.  Curse you, Bear Mountain!   Mark Anthony's has been the main supplier for the Yellow House's wine needs, including education and recipes from Micheline, Nick, Peter, and others. 

I hear an Artisan wine shop will be opening in the new, horrendously-named Tuscany Village on McKenzie.  This is cold comfort for me, since what made MA so great was firstly, that I could walk there, and secondly, the staff. 

Pictured above is our last big haul from MA, including Perrin & Fils Vacqueyras 2005 (France, Grenache/Syrah), Casas del Bosque Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (Chile), Pierre Sparr Reserve Pinot Gris 2004 (France), Sannio Falanghina 2004 (Italy), Burgans Albariño 2005 (Spain), Torcicado Primitivo Salento 2003 (Italy).  The Peller Estates Shiraz was a gift from my mother-in-law. 

I dream of Vij's

There are a lot of reasons I won't be going to Vij's anytime soon:

• cost of travel to Vancouver
• time required to travel to  Vancouver
• once I get to Vancouver, lack of babysitter
• impossibility of taking M'hijo (my 18-month-old)  anywhere NEAR a restaurant which is known for making people wait for up to an hour for a table (because they don't take reservations)

The New York Times said that Vij's was "easily one of the best Indian restaurants in the world".  And it's just right there, over the water!  Right there

It might as well be in Mumbai (sniff!). 

Lucky for us Vancouver Islanders, however, Vij's now sells some of their entrees frozen in little metallic bags, suitable for boiling in the bag, or you can heat them up in the oven or microwave if you prefer.  Here is the list of available dishes. (Click for a version you may actually be able to read).

And where can you purchase some of these goodies?  The wonderful Charelli's, of course.  Call ahead to see when they're getting a shipment in (598-4794).

I took four shiny bags of Vij's goodness up camping this weekend and they were great.  We were a little skeptical that boil-in-the-bag dinner could be good, but we were happily surprised with the result.  We tried the Punjabi daal, Punjabi lamb curry, saag paneer, and garnet yam and green chili dumplings.  Thank goodness I had the forethought to toss the bowl of my rice cooker (half full with leftover rice) into the back of our van before we went off into the wilderness, because the sauce on the lamb in particular was really delicious, and without the rice to sop it up, it would have been wasted. 

Tobias claims this was the best Indian meal he'd ever had, but this was after two bottles of IPA, and really, doesn't everything taste better when it's eaten beside a river, in front of a roaring campfire?  I'd say it was certainly the best Indian meal I'd had outside of a restaurant. 

For Victoria BC Coffee Lovers

There are a bunch of new café reviews on CoffeeCrew.com since I last checked.  I would like to try them all, but especially want to check out The Village Bakery and Café in Estevan village.  According to the CoffeeCrew, their coffee is from Discovery, the second project of Sam Jones, El Jefe de café in Victoria.

I wonder if they sell beans.  Caffe Fantastico is wonderful, but so far away from the Yellow House. 

Fixing My Karma

I just got on the top-secret, only available to serious food bloggers, by invitation-only strawberry list at Dan's Farm and Country Market.  I get to go pick up my flat of strawberries on June 18th in a location and at a time that will only be revealed 60 minutes in advance, by a phone call from a blacked-out number. 

Just kidding.  I just called Dan's and told them I wanted some strawberries.  If you live in Victoria, you should too.  Oh, and also get on the list for blueberries and raspberries.  Blackberries, well, you can pick them yourselves. 

Merridale Cider

For Father's Day, Tobias asked for a camping trip.  Because I teach choir at church every Sunday, it's not easy to get away on a Saturday night.  I usually have other weekend commitments as well, and I have to make a lot of phone calls and emails in order to sneak out of the city on a Saturday night.  But that's not what this post is about.  It's about where we went on our way back from camping: Merridale Cidery.  It was our first visit to this very popular stop on the island wine tour, and man, was I surprised. 

First of all, when you arrive, a young woman meets your car at the gate and welcomes you, then radios down to see if they have a parking spot for you.  Then, you drive down a little gravel road and another person meets you at the bottom and directs you to the parking spot.  Since there were loads of people (and cars) there this weekend -- they were celebrating the summer solstice -- this help with the parking was much appreciated. 

Then, you get to look around at the extremely attractive grounds surrounding the cidery and orchards.  They have orchard tours, a bistro that I'm dying to try out, and, of course, tastings.  They have obviously got a marketing genius on staff there, because everything is so well-done, and so much grander and more exciting than any of the other wineries around. 

They've even thought about how to amuse and enchant kids, which is not a target market that a lot of adult-oriented attractions think about.  But the longer the kids are happy, the longer mom and dad can shop, and more businesses should realize this, I think.  (DEATH to grocery stores without infant seat carts!)  The way Merridale appeals to kids is by creating this story about fairies that work in the orchard.  They have pretty little signs up everywhere talking about how to spot fairies (I can't do "faeries" as they do, it's just too cheesy) and they have a fairy house and a fairy general store and all of this sort of dreck that I usually think is really stupid.  But when you have an almost-seven-year-old who is heavily into fairies at the moment, it's not stupid, it's magical. 

And the cider tastes great!  Really, surprisingly great! We tried the Cidre Normandie, the Traditional Cider, the Scrumpy, the MerriBerri, the Cyser, and the Winter Apple.  All were very tasty.  We bought a bottle each of Traditional, Cyser and Winter Apple for ourselves, a bottle of the MerriBerri for Abu, and a bottle of the Winter Apple for my dad for his Father's Day gift. 

Once home on Sunday, we popped a bottle of the Cyser (honey cider) into the freezer for a bit, then split the bottle between us while the kids visited with Abu.  Sahsez gave Tobias six Riedel Riesling glasses for Father's Day, and we drank the cider out of these.  It was as cold as the dickens.  The woman who did our tasting said that with the Cyser you should hold it in your mouth for a second to melt the honey and get the sweetness out of it.  It really does make a difference to the flavour when you do this.  We had some on its own, then with some salty peanuts.  The peanuts were a good match. 

Last night, after a particularly hectic evening (Tae Kwon-Do, a dinner guest,  five separate unexpected pop-in guests, topped off by a baby that absolutely did not want to go to bed), Tobias and treated ourselves to an adults-only dessert.  No, I didn't cover myself in whipped cream or chocolate body paint (that's next week), we just had some plain vanilla ice cream, topped with a generous splash of the winter apple cider, which is like an apple liquer. 

For me, this was ambrosial.  For Tobias, who does not like boozy sweets, it was simply "pretty good".  High praise from a trifle/crepes Suzette/flambee-anything hater.  Even better, I think, would be a scoop of ice cream in one of those teeny little dark chocolate cups you can buy at the grocery store.  I'll have to try that soon. 

I'll have to return to Merridale soon, as well.  We made the idiotic decision to eat brunch in Nanaimo before we headed down-Island, so weren't able to partake of this barbecue they had going on at the cidery.  Seeing the pizza oven was like a dagger in my heart, especially because the Nanaimo brunch was so untasty.  I see they have Sunday pizza nights all summer.  Can't wait!