unexpected things in Vancouver

Consult Google Maps. Look for Vancouver, BC. Found it? Good. It's in western Canada, you may note. Not the Deep South.

And yet, there is southern BBQ to be found there.

I LOATHE food chauvinism even if I'm guilty of it myself. I find myself wanting to smack people who think, for example, that the British cannot offer good food. I despair of the unwarranted bagel snobbery of New York City. I laugh at the notion that east coast blue crabs are superior. All of which, of course, exposes my biases (I think British food has many fine points; Montreal bagels rock; west coast Dungeness and snow crab are the best).

And so it is that I snicker at the idea that the South is the only place that can conjure up BBQ. Whatever. Insert eyeroll here. And still, I was excited this past weekend while I was on a quick trip to Vancouver to get to a place new to me, Peckinpah in Gastown. Southern BBQ... mmmmmm! And I've stopped eating pork and beef!

No matter, there were a few options on the menu for me. Good beer for starters - White Bark. I enjoyed two pints. Also, the best darn chicken wings I've ever had. Smoked, and I added my own sauce. Tender, salty, good.

But in the end, it was just fun. Food that encourages finger licking. Friends and my sister,

all of us lined up at the bar to eat. A fun evening, managing to dodge the on and off heavy rain last Saturday. A place to take Conrad to some time in the future. An unexpected delight, and thank goodness for that. A little culinary surprise now and then is much welcome, I have to say.

no, it doesn't really fit in with New Year's resolutions, does it

Not that I make resolutions, no. I tell myself I work to improve myself throughout the year and make changes when I feel they are warranted. Which is never, of course. Perfection or laziness, either excuse works.

In any case, the BBQ pork platter

at the Carolina Brewery should NOT be considered a step on the road back to high school reunion fitness/weight. At least I was back in the pool this morning, I suppose...

Deep South culinary delights

As soon as I typed that title, I thought, "Someone - Dale, for example - will come along and lecture me on how Canadians don't know the South from the Deep South and that North Carolina isn't anywhere near the Deep South."

To which I say: accents, heat and humidity, and food like hush puppies. Deep South enough from my perspective.

Again, no work chat on this blog, but a dip into a work-related thing (and heck, why not? I blog social activities when I'm away at library conferences, after all).

These, my friends, are some of the culinary delights I experiences last week in Chapel Hill. No, that is not snark. I rather enjoyed the food I ate, simple as that.

For starters (though not a the first meal), I had lizard chips. How cool would it be if they actually were going out to the back yard, snaring some iguanas (they must roam free in those tropical climes, right?) and slice and dice them into tasty chips? Well, maybe not, and I admit the name was a little too bar-food chic/cheesy. But come on, pickles and jalapeno rings batter dipped and fried? Good stuff.

The South is known for barbecue. A lot of places are known for barbecue, of course. In this case, it was a vinegary-tasting shredded pork dish - pulled pork for the one or two of you in Canada who are reading this.
Don't look at me like that: it's not common outside of the South, truly. The Hopping John on the plate, however, was nothing more special than rice, beans,and salsa. The collard greens, not pictured, were fine. That was at a place called Crook's Corner on the Tuesday night. Good as it was, the dessert was better: banana pudding. Nicely done, topped with a fluff of meringue lightly browned. Good.

Dianne and Meredith do not look happy with the meal, and fairly so: the vegetarian option wasn't quite as good as what we had. But see? Carolyn and Jake also partook of the barbecue-laden Carolina sampler and were mighty happy.

Back to the home of lizard chips, the Top of the Hill. Oddly, I didn't photograph my steak dinner, a tender and tasty piece of meat. Instead, I caught Dianne, happier with her dinner, portabello grits cakes. Oh, and Richard,
the adorable and whipsmart roomie from this past week. I don't know what he had for dinner, however. Steak?

My last night in Chapel Hill I went with Dianne and Meredith, Jason and Hilde (shown in the photo) for some music and a drink on the lawn of the Carolina Inn. Hilde went back to the dorms after that, but the rest of us continued on to the Carolina Brewery for dinner. Cheap, and good beer. Jason's Tarheel Burger looked impressive, I admit. I had the barbecue again, and it was fine, but not as good as the Tuesday night meal. Dessert was lovely, though: gelato from a little sweets shop in the thick of the Franklin Street crowd. A cup of pistachio and pomegranate gelati brought out my best come-hither look. And that capped a week of North Carolina dining quite well, I do think.

Korean BBQ night

Three posts in one day? Wow. After a slow start to the month, I'm blogging full-bore. Yay me.

Last night the Smelts revisited San Soo Gab San for Korean BBQ. I have to say, it's a hoot. The food is tasty (especially the strong, garlicky or pickled sides), hanging with the teammates is fun, and we all come home stinking of grilled beef. Hazy photos? Of course - we're all grilling the meat at the table. Fun times.

I wish I had taken better photos, but at least a few turned out. I was parked at one end of the table with Carl and Romel beside me and Christopher and Scott across from me, so not too many photos beyond them. Sorry about that. Conrad has visited Korea in his work travels, so he was sorry to have to miss Korean BBQ this time. Jeph, does this bring back fond memories for you?

Smelts BBQ, 2007 edition

I'd point anyone reading this blog entry back to 2006 photos of the annual barbecue at Liz and Adrian's, but I wasn't there. I can't quite believe I missed it. I am sorry. These events are always quite fun, and this year was no exception. In fact, it was a more intimate group than usual, and I think that the food contributions were especially good.

Curiously enough, though, I took no photos of the spread of food. Oh sure, photos of people and their plates, but none of the tables laden with bowls and platters. I didn't even photograph the chicken wings I made, or the brown butter mango tart. Ah well.

Lots of teammate photos, though. Names included where I can think of them:


I can pick out Rudy in the pale blue, Joe in white just to Rudy's left, and Anthony blocking the view of Joe. Ross is in back with the printed shirt, and that's Heidi's hair colour and jacket. The other guy is Anthony's BF, I would guess.


Chris, Ross, Stuart, and a glimpse of Corinne.


Another pre-dinner knot of chatting Smelts. Michael, Scot, and Hal are gathered while Paul is in the background.

Some individual shots:

Tim. Too cool for school?


Scot.


Steve. Nice to see him back from a year in Argentina!


Steve. A different Steve. Too many Steves and Dans on this team, I sometimes think, though hardly as problematic as the overabundance of Andrés and Jean-Hyphenates on ACC.


Daniel. We got lots of shots of him tonight, and Tim and Corinne for that matter. The people I found myself chatting with most, I suppose.


Romel

But this was about recent birthd on the team, the families. It was a shower of sorts for Amber and Bill, and for Ron and Carrie.
Bill, Kate, and Amber.


Ron, Why am I blanking on the name of his son?, and Ross.


Steve, Deborah (visiting us from Minnesota), Channing, and Kate.

Dinnertime, and there was no shortage of food. Or wine, for that matter.
Deborah, again. Delightful to see her!


Heidi


You all know who this guy is.


Tim


Stuart


Heidi and Barry.


Michael


Steve


Scot


Conrad. It was a smart thing to pack a sweater - a wonderful temperature out for running!


Carl and Romel. Brad is in the background.

The team had gifts for the new parents. As you can see, Liz is in line for a shower at some point soon as well. Channing co-presents the gists with her.




After dinner, more chit chat and snacking on the food still laid out.
Romel and Deborah.


Corinne and Tim. Cute couple.


Look, I'm in a photo. Or in many. With Rudy in this one.


With Corinne.


With Tim.


Tim and Corinne again. I chatted with them a good bit, though not just with them. We'll work on the ANTM poses when next they come for dinner.


Daniel, Tim, and Corinne.


John, Michael, and Paul. A miniature gathering of apostles?


A terrific shot of Conrad and Daniel.

And finally, two photos of Conrad and me. We have thousands of photos on our hard drive, yet so few of us together since one of us is usually taking the shots.




I expect that next year we'll be doing a bigger event of some sort to mark the team's 20th anniversary, and I hope that we'll have a substantial turn out. But no complaints about the missing folk tonight. There were others at the dinner whose photos did not turn out so well and so are not shown here. A very pleasant evening.

Now then, to bed. Up since 4:55 makes for a long and tiring day, as you might expect.