Indian food

My sister and auntie just got back from a summer of working in the Yukon and really wanted to take us out for dinner. We joined then at a new Indian place called Siddhartha’s on the Drive. I found the name and decor of this place to be somewhat appalling. The food was OK, at least it tasted fresh. I have no idea where these guys source their ingredients from but I’m going to assume its pretty bad.

Bad
butter chicken
assorted tandoori
eggplant curry
chana masala
lamb curry
naan

lunch buffet

Please excuse my horrible photos, I’ve been using my girlfriends really old point and shoot and the battery died right after taking this photo. I’m going to buy a better camera ASAP! The lunch buffet was very good, l know there was some ingredients from the UBC market garden and the pasta had some wild chantrelles in it. I’m gonna skip my usually good and bad columns due to my ignorance of the source of the ingredients…

green salad with vinaigrette
beets and carrots
potato salad
foccacia
acorn squash
pasta with mushroom cream sauce

I was out at the UBC farm today participating and volunteering at the Cultivating Sustainable Agroforestry workshop. It was a great learning experience and a chance to connect with some inspiring like-minded individuals. Food was provided by UBC Point Grill. I have a hard time saying no to free food, especially chocolatines!

Bad
chocolatine- not sure
1/2 fruit danish- not sure
2 jam filled mini-croissants, not sure
2 cups coffee w/ almond milk, not sure

Don’t judge me!

It was about time we got a little rain in Vancouver. It has been an unusually dry and sunny September, good for the garden, bad for salmon fishing (in the local rivers). Today’s drizzle got me hankering for some soup. I basically threw a little bit of everything in here and it turned into a miraculously delicious concoction.

Good
local, organic veggies from my community garden plot including:
kale, carrots, Anaheim peppers, red scallions, walla walla onions, Romano beans, Scarlett runner beans

and
potatoes- local
chicken- local, organic, scraps
rice- Californian, organic
garlic- Californian, organic (not local but still better than the China stuff)

Bad
cherry tomatoes- the rest of the ones from breakfast
bell pepper- local hothouse ( I’ll have to do a little research about the impacts of industrial hothouse farming, I’m guessing its pretty bad )

Oops! Confession time, today was my first day biking to school and back from our Strathcona home (I bragged that I would do it everyday). On my way home my butt and legs were starting to get sore and I had an appetite. I couldn’t resist a pit stop at GOFISH at fisherman’s wharf. This place does a great job of sourcing local ingredients and only use oceanwise seafood. I went ahead and ordered the worst thing on the menu then commenced to smother them in ketchup and malt vinegar. Yum!

Bad
everything
(I felt to embarrassed to ask the source of the potatoes in my lowly fries, maybe they’re some Fraser valley spuds…)

I also snacked on some of my homemade venison dry meat earlier in the day at school, I’ll give a little more details on that soon.

Lunchtime! Salad dressed with olive oil and lemon juice over brown rice pasta, an amazing Asian pear, and some local spring water.

Good
spring water- I get it myself from a local spring!
cucumber- local, organic, from my community garden plot
Asian pear- local, organic, from our community garden’s shared orchard
butter lettuce- local

Bad
bell pepper- local hothouse
brown rice pasta- made in Toronto, grown ??
olive oil- imported from Italy
lemon- somewhere tropical

breakfast

Breakfast was a definite highlight! Beautifully poached eggs served over chard with some cherry tomatoes and avocado accompanied by tall chicory almond milk lattes with a dash of cinnamon. I got to enjoy this meal with my love Bara Hladik.

Breakdown

Good
eggs- local, organic, recyclable cardboard packaging
chard- local, organic, grown in my community garden plot
chicory-  sustainably wild-harvested, available in bulk

Bad
cherry tomatoes- USA, plastic packaging
avocado- somewhere tropical
cinnamon- somewhere tropical
almond milk- USA, tetra pack

Chicory almond lattes

Greetings!

I have been asked to keep a journal of what food I eat for the next five days for my LFS 100 class. I though it would be fun take it one step further and share my culinary exploits with the larger online community.

A little about myself…

I would like to consider myself a bit of a renaissance man. I’m definitely passionate about food… and the environment for that matter. My mother is European and my father in First Nations, Dunne-za, Cree, and Iroquois to be exact. I’m a little obsessed with food sovereignty and I garden, hunt, fish, forage and cook whenever I can. I also enjoy some more adventurous outdoor pursuits. I care deeply for the well-being of the natural ecosystems of the planet and the cultural teachings of my ancestors and identify with many social and environmental justice issues facing us today.

I’m currently enrolled in Arts at UBC but I am working tirelessly to gain entry into the Faculty of Land and Food Systems to pursue a degree in Food and the Environment.

This is me, doing what I do best.