The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I’m a little surprised that it’s taken me this long to write up a list of my favorite Vancouver Izakayas. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I would say I overindulge myself with these amazing Japanese tapas or small plates about once a week. They are my favorite for after work drinks, as well as the number one choice for any celebration that involves dinning out with friends. The best part is you can completely overindulge, and by this I mean eat like a pig and it wont break the bank.

While a in Japan were originally drinking establishments that served small plates of food (not sushi), usually deep fried and intended as accompaniments to to a few glasses of beer, in Vancouver Izakayas have become a popular dinner and even lunch destination. Here are the 5 Izakayas that I think represent the best Vancouver has to offer, I eat regularly at all of these establishments and these are the places I recommend to out of town guests.

1. Kitanoya Guu with Otoko Mae – This is at the top of my list because it is by far my most frequented and for me it is also my favorite. I’ve been overeating here consistently for years and somehow, I never seem to get sick of it.There’s also something about the atmosphere in this place that pleases me, it’s loud, the service is always friendly and there’s deep fried brie cheese on the menu. It’s a bit tricky to get reservations here and they only accept them before 5pm and generally don’t answer their phones before 5pm either so if you have to make a reservation give yourself several days to get a hold of them. Also, they have a 2 hour time limit which can get annoying at times.

Kitanoya Guu Otoko Mae
105-375 Water Street
Vancouver, (604) 685-8682
www.guu-izakaya.com

I wasn’t planning on doing another squash recipe post for a while. I don’t want to seem like I’m squash obsessed, or lacking any original recipe ideas. In the 5 or so months that this blog has been up, I’ve made roasted butternut squash risotto, a butternut squash loaf, roasted acorn squash and now this whole roasted acorn squash. I guess that’s not too bad right? It doesn’t even average out as once per month, which if compared to the amount of squash that we have actually consumed during this period is quite controlled.

I make pizza quite frequently. I’m not sure if this is one of those things I do unconsciously to torture myself or if I do it out of a genuine desire to master some kind of technique. Currently, unconscious torture seems more likely as I’m acutely aware of how futile pizza making is when dealing with your average domestic oven. They just don’t get hot enough. Yes you can buy a pizza stone and preheat your oven at its highest setting for 10 hours, but guess what? Your Pizza will always be mediocre.

Simplicity is everything for me right now. Over the past couple weeks I’ve been in the process of cleaning out our over cluttered apartment in preparation for the month long separation from our beloved home during the winter Olympics. As of Sunday we’ve managed to clean out almost everything in the bathroom, closet, bedroom and living room and as of this weekend we will finally be forced to do the same to our kitchen. Sigh.

I knew when it came down to it it would be challenge, but I suspect the magnitude of the challenge will be greater than I initially thought. Over the  last 3 years I’ve managed to develop an extensive collection of spices, condiments, flours, grains, dried goods of all shapes and sizes not to mention every gadget under the sun and I’m absolutely in love with every single piece of it, even the extremely unnecessary and underused – garlic peeler I’m looking at you. I think this might have something to do with being a pack rat, or at least that’s what my husband would say, I’m more comfortable with the term collector to be quite honest.

I’ve been generally dissatisfied with the state of manufactured granola bars for some time now – I can’t say there is a single brand on the market that lives up to my expectations. While there are a few that are not too offensive, none of them give me everything I like in a granola bar.

What is it that I like you ask?

Well that changes from day to day, which is why it makes way more sense to make them myself. Generally though I like a low in sugar, high in dried fruit and nuts with either rolled oats or some variety of puffed wheat. I’m also one of those people who generally always has the makings of some kind granola bars on hand: nuts, dried fruit, rolled oats, honey, almond butter, chocolate chips, flax seed… you get the point.