The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

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.

The following is a list of what I consider to be the top 10 of Vancouver’s fine dining scene. With so many restaurants to consider in this great city, I based my selection on the restaurants that consistently deliver on all fronts: food, drink, service and atmosphere.

1. Lumiere

Lumiere is at the top of the list because it is quite simply the most fancy and decadent dining experience you can have in Vancouver. I’m talking about the new Lumiere post-Feenie since Daniel Boulud took over as executive chef. I would not suggest even considering booking a table here unless you have a ridiculous amount of money to spare or are so dedicated to your dining out experiences that you have no problem taking a second mortgage on your house. OK maybe I exaggerate a bit, but the point is it can get quite expensive, especially where wine parings are concerned. We were lucky enough to receive a gift certificate as a wedding present, should you be so lucky or if money is no object I would suggest the 7  course tasting menu, it will be be something you will not soon forget.

Sometimes you really need a little dessert and just haven’t planned for it. You open your fridge desperately wishing you would find a bowl full of chocolate mousse or that last slice of left over apple pie you shoved all the way to the back in the hope of keeping it safe until it you needed it. But after staring into the depths of your fridge for 20 minutes you are forced to face the obnoxious reality that there is no chocolate mousse and that last slice of pie you thought was safe is now just a few crumbs on a plate.

This sort of situation is extremely common for me. It happens at least once a week day, yet knowing this I’m still not the type of person who keeps a stash of chocolate chip cookies in the pantry ready for the taking. So for the last week or so I have been getting creative with yogurt and whatever I can lay my hands on. We are big yogurt eaters and generally have a large supply of this amazing locally made yogurt in the fridge. There have been some failures I must admit, but on the whole if it involves some kind fruit you really can’t go wrong.