A Bit of an Ode to Granville Island

I often tell people that living near and shopping regularly for food at Granville Island has ‘changed my life’. It’s true, and I thought I’d spend a little time trying to explain how and why.

First of all, it’s changed the food that I buy. I rarely get food that comes in a box or is pre-processed, and get mostly fresh meat and vegetables. The things I do buy that are cooked or prepared include sausages and other meats and paté from Oyama Sausage company, soup from the Stock Market soup kitchen, the occasional pie (dessert or entree) from À la Mode, and bread from any of the 3 bakeries (French – La Baguette & L’Echalote, Artisanal – Terra Breads, or English/North American – Stuarts). I try to buy what’s in season (although that can be hard in January or February), and look forward to certain months when I know something will be appearing and gradually (or swiftly) going down in price. We are about to hit the summer fruit season, and I love seeing the arrival of peaches, apricots, plums and blueberries. Because of this, I’ve learned which vendors have the best of each variety of fruit, vegetable or meat. While I do get some organic vegetables (onions and potatoes), I also try to buy things that are grown locally. Again, this makes the winter months a time when I have to compromise a bit, but most of the year it’s quite possible.

We are very lucky in that we live a short walk from the market, and I quite frankly can’t imagine living farther away from it. The fact that we walk there and carry our groceries back adds just a little bit of exercise (or at least the excuse to go outside and get some air, even if the weather is rainy or simply dreary.) For the vast majority of visitors to Granville Island, the market is a curiosity, a kind of living museum of the way people used to shop for food (and still do in many other countries outside of North America). I’m always amused to see someone taking a photograph of a stack of cherries or strawberries (although they are pretty); They’re getting a snapshot of my grocery store, and in a few cases where they flood the aisle and are oblivious to the rest of us, I wish they’d just get out of the way and let me get on my shopping. That doesn’t happen too often, but some days, when a tourist bus lets off, the market has to walk the thin line between attraction and grocery store.

I shop at the market often, and nearly always bring a sack. Since I’m there so much, I’m recognized by nearly all of the merchants, and am on a first name basis with several of them. I’ve also learned about their families, heard some stories, found out their likes and dislikes, and think of them as people, not just someone at a cash register. I’m impressed with the close-knit families who work in the Market, and am often been cheered up (or calmed down) by simply entering the market, especially when it’s not crowded with tourists, which unlike a Supermarket, is not lit solely by fluorescents. (I should add that on Foursquare, the social media ‘game’, I’m the mayor of Granville Island Market, and have yet to be replaced by someone who checks-in there more.)

Speaking of Supermarkets, I do go to Costco about once every 2 months or so for a few items (olive oil, paper goods, maple syrup), and also go to an organic grocer on Broadway (who used to be the Dan-De-Pak home office, or so it seemed) for rice, the odd box of breakfast cereal or crackers, etc.) I always feel kind of disappointed and maybe even a little depressed when I walk into a cavernous Safeway, IGA or Save-On Foods, all lit by those fluorescent lights, and very cold from the frozen aisles.

Back to the Granville Market: In addition to the people, the food and the light, there are the smells. I can nearly navigate the market by my nose. In the fish market, I can smell the brine of today’s catch. There’s frequently the aroma of freshly baked bread by the bakeries (and La Baguette has that marvelous yeasty smell of pain de mie nearly all of the time). The food court (which I must confess, I sometimes go to first, in order to eat before I shop, which helps stop larger purchases made when hungry), there are areas where you smell pizza, curry, or falafel. In several spots in the building, the smell of coffee and tea wafts out into the aisle, and you can understand why there’s such a line at J J Bean.

In the summer, there is the extra treat of Thursdays, particularly in the morning, when local farmers truck in their produce, and sell some of it outside, next to the Market. In recent years, some farmers have specialized in Heirloom Tomatoes, and I’ve actually tasted celery (yes, celery!) that is actually mind-blowingly sweet and tasty. Some of the farmers stay all day, but most of them are there mainly in the morning, so Thursdays are particularly good to get early and get the best produce.

I’ve discovered new fruits and vegetables at the market. We’ve tried Stinging Nettles as a side dish, and boiled down elderberries into syrup. I’ve cooked sour cherry soup, and after our trip to Southeast Asia, have made Ataulfo Mangoes (Manila Honey Mangoes), Dragonfruit, Rambutans, Longans, Lychees, Pomleos and Passionfruits a treat for breakfast or dessert. Nearly all are available (although not cheaply most of the time) at the market. I’ve frequented the Asian Food specialty shop in the market, The South China Seas Trading Company, where I’ve finally learned to appreciate the finer points of coconut milk, fresh tamarind, little red chiles, lemongrass, galangal, and even fish sauce. I’m thrilled to have found great fish that is cheap (Rockfish – big, red, and ugly, but they’ll filet it for you for free, so you have a lovely, firm white flesh for curry or soup), and am surprised at how good the turkey is. I’ve cheated a little, and gotten pre-marinated Maui Ribs, as well as Cornish Game Hens, and one of these days this summer we’ll make a Caribbean Goat stew with the fresh goat meat we sometimes see them cart in. The spot prawns are in this week, and every year I look for fiddlehead ferns (in the Spring) and Okanagan pears (in the Autumn).

All in all, Granville Market has expanded my diet, made me more in tune with the passage of the seasons, lowered my blood pressure (at least when I’m visiting, I think), and provided me with a sense of connection to my food with the people who grow it and sell it. It’s helped me learn to cook new and more complicated dishes, and also let me off the hook when I’m stumped and just get a homemade turkey pie or soup. I feel as if I’m richer and my life is healthier and fuller with the market in it, which is about the most one can say about any activity, especially one as mundane as food shopping.

Joe Wong Slays ‘em at the Annual RTCA Dinner

President Obama made the news for doing some standup the other night at the Annual Radio and Television Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, DC, but I think the real news was someone else on the program. I’d never seen this comedian before,  but I was absolutely blown away by how funny he was and how good his timing and delivery were. If this is any indication of his talent, I hope we’ll be seeing more of Joe Wong:

I also hope he tours Canada soon. How about a double bill with Russell Peters?

All the Emotions Fit To Broadcast

Pam and I still try and keep our eyes on the US, at least through the media that we get here in Canada, and there’s plenty of it, despite Cancon. So we have our TiVO set to record the evening newscasts of ABC, NBC and CBS. We also record the Vancouver CBC report. We don’t watch all of that recorded news each and every night; we usually pick one of those 3 or 4 and try and move around a lot (actually, we’ve recently stopped recording ABC as Pam felt that Diane Sawyer was such a disappointment as a News Anchor that she can’t bear to watch that newscast).
Maybe it has just crept in over time, perhaps it’s because I’m becoming more of an outsider and viewing media more as an observer, but I’ve noticed a change in the way news is reported in the US in the evening. There seems to a small and smaller portion of the newscast devoted to facts and more and more involving emotion. Nearly every story is about conflict or a struggle, a crisis or a tragedy. Even the stories that are complex and affect many different things end up concentrating on one person about to lose their job (as the coverage of that disastrous and complex oil spill off the Louisiana Gulf Coast did) or search out the violent edge of conflict, (as the coverage of the also disastrous Arizona Immigration Law).  In these cases, it’s clear that they are trying to personalize the problem or simply make it more dramatic. This isn’t just millions of gallons of oil heading for the coast, it’s a Portly Shrimp Farmer about to lose his livelihood, it isn’t just a new law about to take in effect in the Arizona State Legislature, but a violent clash between immigrants and police.

I can’t help check off the scenes we will no doubt see as if I’m playing a drinking game:

• Someone crying or breaking down during a speech or interview.
• Someone looking into the camera and saying how they don’t know what they’ll do now.
• Someone declaring that ‘It’s all in God’s hands, now.’
• A group of people fighting or running.
• Someone declaring that something was ‘A Miracle!’
• People hugging, or an adult lifting a child in their arms.
• A government official being grilled in a meeting room or besieged in front of a building by an angry mob (to be sure, that was more often seen last summer)
• A criminal of some sort walking trying to hide their face with either some papers or a hood.
• A short and choppily edited interview with a person who is quirky and ‘Making a Difference’ – as a couple of the networks call them out.*
• (Add your own stock situation or dramatic exclamation.)

My friends and I used to joke back when I was going to school in Cincinnati that the evening news they always showed the same still snapshot of a car in a ditch in Norwood (a still snapshot? Hey, it was the early 80s, OK?), even if it was a different accident somewhere else — they all looked the same. Now, everything is the same; it’s conflict, it’s emotional, it’s extreme and somehow a deity is involved.

What’s going on now, is that because news is part of the budget for the networks that involves entertainment, by golly, it better be entertaining. I’d like to know the exact amount of oil that is gushing out, what that number means in terms of environmental damage, how long it takes for oil to get from the ocean floor to the surface. I want to know the specifics of what the new law in Arizona will deal with someone wrongly accused of being an immigrant; Can they sue? Can an employer fire a worker for missing work because of being picked up for false charges? I don’t know these things, however, and I’m not likely to learn them from the Evening Newscast.

I can see why most people are getting their news through the Internet these days, as the TV news has shrunken into a dramatization of the events of the day, done in broad strokes with an emphasis on the simplest repetitious images and scenes. The networks have decided that their audiences want their news a dumbed down as possible. There is no point in providing much in the way of facts. And that’s for the networks. Cable News, like Fox… I won’t even go there. (CNN’s also slipping into propaganda-laced stories as well. I can only assume this is because their ratings have been so bad that they are emulating Fox. )

Rather than complain about the way the news is presented, most viewers either take it at face value and aren’t aware of what’s missing, or they are adapting, by moving to the Web.  I’n fact, I’m predicting that there will eventually be an iPad app for delving into facts (on an Internet site) during the broadcast. The main facts of the news will be in someone’s lap, while they see the drama on the bigger screen.

Perhaps we’ll someday see the kind of newscast that they simulated in the future depicted by the movie Starship Troopers, where each set of State Propaganda fascist slogans is followed by a screen that looks like a button and a voiceover that asks: ‘Would you like to know more?’

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*I must confess that I’m getting really to loathe these ‘human interest’ pieces, because they are always cut and presented the same way and try so hard to appeal. Harry Smith, who sometimes is a guest Anchor on CBS is one of the worst offenders in this regard. Nearly everything he does smacks of that ‘human interest’ treacle.

Back In the Saddle

I’ve learned what it’s like to get out of the habit of writing in this blog. For me, at least, just starting again has been excruciating.  Part of the problem is the first few paragraphs. I’ve been trying to invent a clever, or unique way of resuming, but there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do that’s novel, witty or delivers a satisfactory explanation as to why I’ve not added anything here since we were on the beach in Hoi An, Vietnam. I’ve been told that you should never, never apologize for not having written in a blog for quite some time. In fact, some particularly pathetic blogs are nothing but a series of these ‘O-I’m-so-sorry-I-haven’t-written-lately’ posts. So there, no apologies.

OK, since I’m breaking a long, awkward silence at this table, I’m going to clear my throat and move the conversation back to you. So, what have you been doing for the past 2 months, dear reader? Nothing much?

With no smiley equivalent of a shrug, I’m just going to pick up with the here and now, and probably will fill in some of the details about the past 10 weeks or so in due course.

So, from the here and now front… Today:

The Vandusen Garden Sale

Pam, a friend of ours and I all got up early this morning and drove down Oak street and parked about a block before the entrance. Before we got out of the car, there were 4-5 cars pulling in behind us along Oak! We got in line, and soon the rain started. About a half hour later, they opened the doors, and we all sloshed in, many folks with wagons, carts and baskets. For us, this year was herb year. We picked up some sweet basil, Thai basil, Rosemary, Vietnamese coriander and thyme. I’ll be cooking with most of that, and hopefully the herbs will grow all summer enough to keep up with my harvesting them. We found out at the checkout that anything edible (i.e. herbs) was tax-free! Note: Oddly enough, we learned that manure is also tax-free, although I have no idea why.
We were in and out within about 2 hours, and Pam is repotting some of the plants now. Good times.

Paradise Found

One of the hard things about blogging on the road when you travel far eastward, is that you tend to conk out earlier in the evening. Combine that with early morning starts, and, well, I’m not making excuses, but uploading my photos is just about all I’ve been able manage.

So, with about an hour before dinner, and a bit of the day’s adventures behind me, I can try and write a bit.

I won’t try and catch up completely the last 6 days or so, which included our visit to Bangkok, Siem Reap, and Ho Chi Minh City, but will try to get back to them in a future entry. If I have to go through all of my notes and write them back in Vancouver, I guess I’ll do that.

Let me try and describe the scene before me. We are in what they call a ‘Villa’ in the Nam Hai resort, near the town of Hoi An, in Central Vietnam. This place has been listed as one of the leading resorts of the world, and I can’t argue. As it grows dark outside, we can hear the surf of China Beach on the South China Sea, as well as my iPhone, which is connected to their iPod plug, playing some Chopin on the invisible sound system. The temperature is cool, around 24C, with a strong breeze, which is tossing the palm trees. Pam found a couple of fragrant Frangipani blooms on the front lawn and brought them in to perfume our laundry bag.

This ‘house’ (which is nearly as large as our condo back at home) has what I can only describe as a ‘room within a room’. A frame of dark wood encompasses a bed, lounge, desk, bathtub and white tapestries (almost like mosquito netting, but there’s no need for that). The bed faces the sand leading to the beach. There is an exquisite bonsai tree at one end, and indoor and outdoor showers of our own. The floor (aside from the inner ‘room’) is dark stone, with steps leading down to the back of the room and exit to the beach. The 60 Villas are laid out in 5 horseshoes, with the beach behind them. The complex includes 2 Restaurants and bar, Library, swimming pool, Spa, Gym and Tennis, Basketball and Badminton courts.

The only bad thing about this place is how short a time we’ll be here; just two nights, and during the day, I’ll be in Hoi An, attending a cooking class. Still, it’s an extraordinary resort, and even though some of the places we’ve stayed during this trip have been pretty good, they just can’t compare with this, which I’d say is about as luxurious a spot as I’ve ever seen. I could easily spend a week here, but that kind of a stay is something only a movie star or Steve Jobs could afford. I haven’t spotted him, but we haven’t ventured out to the main complex yet. Dare I say, we feel a little underdressed.