Weekend get away

I went Vancouver island last weekend to visit friends.

It was foggy in the morning.

Luckily, I could see the sun.

We went Chou chou in Victoria.

..and trails.

My friends, they have a house with their garden in Sooke.

Branches for the wood stove.

  This place is a different area, in the end of the island, I often came to through stones.

I saw incredible sunset in a way home, was a bonus.

Cool prints @ Le centre

I went Le Centre, French cultural centre in Vancouver.

There is an exhibition "Babyloprint" by Chantal Poirier, she does interesting prints.

Love the idea of her flames too.

Chantal and Charles

It was an opening night, there're variety of French cheese and wine.

One of the cheese made me stinky breath but it was so tasty.

Beer, chocolates and movie

I had some lambic beer and movie for weekend treats -  and chocolates are bonus!

I watched Broken flowers by Jim Jarmusch.

I'm a fun of Bill Murray - he's always as "him" and enjoyable to watch every movie with him. 

The Broken.. is pretty quiet but unique story.

I liked the Ethiopian musics in the movie too.

The Lambic beer, I had the one described as "wild fermented".

It tastes good, a bit sweeter than I expected.

Still I enjoyed the beer.

Mini hat show

My mini hat show has been extended again.
It supposed to be until the end of Dec, it will be until early week of Feb-
I displayed new hats few days ago.

 Thanks @ a french style cafe, coco et olive on Main.

More detail is on my last post.

Medina @ near chinatown

In these days I was crazily busy then I wanted to have a time for "refresh"-

So last Sunday, I went a cafe "Medina" for brunch.

I heard their belgium waffles are good but I was too hungry then I ordered an omelette. 

Goat cheese and herbs, smelled excellent. 

My friend had a meat ball dish. It looked yummy.

We walked around Chinatown and Gastown a bit then I found my favourite coat.

I have been looking for a perfect coat for a long time then I decided to have it next month(I can't have it now, sadly..)!

Well, my mini hat show will open tomorrow, I have to prepare for it now.

Sunday lunch

We had a Sunday lunch at Peckinpah in Gastown.

The peckinpah is a cozy barbecue house.

Unique themed interiors.

Look at this shiny bun!

The bread tasted sweet and was perfect for the BBQ.

I had a chicken, they had separate sause in a bottle, I could put the sause as much as I want.

It was messy Sunday lunch, was taste good!

Things about beer

Beer Glasses Letterpress Pub Coasters

 By greenbirdpress

6 Groomsmen Beer Mugs

ByWhitewashSundries

Vintage French Advertisements Poster

By curiousprints

Stubby bottle

The other day, I was at a beer store's casher to buy a pack of redstripe beer, somebody behind me told me about "stubby bottle".
She said that the "stubby bottle"  was popular in 70s, now they are not common and the style is sort of nostalgic.

According to wikipedia,

" A short glass bottle used for beer is generally called a stubby. Shorter and flatter than standard bottles, stubbies pack into a smaller space for transporting. The bottles are sometimes made with thick glass so that the bottle can be cleaned and reused before being recycled. 

Stubbies are used extensively in Europe, and were used almost exclusively in Canada from 1962 to 1986 as part of a standardization effort intended to reduce breakage, and the cost of sorting bottles when they were returned by customers. Due to their nostalgic value, stubbies were reintroduced by a number of Canadian craft brewers in the early 2000s. In the U.S., stubbies have generally fallen out of favour, with only a few brands still using them such as the Session Lager by theFull Sail Brewing Company, and Red Stripe, a Jamaican brand import.

 (I short cut some sentences from actual article)

Here's some images of retro bottles -  they look interesting.

Do you think I talked about beer so often?

Yes, I love beer!

Lambic beer

Since I tried Kriek beer,

I became a big fun of those sour taste beer.

They called "Lambic"

"Lambic is a very distinctive type of beer brewed only in the Pajottenland region of Belgium (southwest of Brussels) and in Brussels itself at theCantillon Brewery and museum." (from wikipedia)

Yesterday I tried was Lambic Gueuze, Cuvee rene.

It tastes righter than the Kriek or Duches, 

according to wikipedia,  "a good gueuze will be given a year to referment in the bottle, but can be kept for 10–20 years."!

It is amazing to know people start making these kind of drinks 500 years ago..

Home made brioche

I made brioche last night.

While I was baking them, the room smelled excellent.
Home made bread is such a great thing..

I'm a bread fun.

I'm a fun of breads, today I found "a bread affair"'s bread shelf at a supermarket and a little excited.
I bought one of their breads last summer at a farmer's market, and loved it.
Their breads are made with organic ingredients,  if you are a sour dough lover, must try them.
Can't wait to eat the baguette tonight.

Vintage bread box or pie safe by 5gardenias

Gallery walk + Public market,etc

We walked around Granville street, visited galleries today.

Monte Clark's now  Greg Girard,  Photos of Hanoi city.

We also went Emily Carr University's gallery. Then we went there, they had a pottery auction.

It looked like interesting but we didn't see it.

We had some coffee and tea at the public market.

I was thinking about how can I use the leftover wine.

                                    

  ..and get mussels! 'll cook them tonight.

Hearty meal

Vancouver's winter is almost rain everyday, but recently the weather is getting better and better.

If the daytime was sunny and warm,

 I like to go out without my coat.

I made a bottle of souerkraut with 3 pounds of leftover cabbage.

Spring temperature is nice to make fermentation products, so I tried it and succeeded.

The other day, I made "Choucroute Royale(Braised souerkraut, from Julia child's recipe)" with roasted pork.
It tastes good as the exact recipe, but since my souerkraut tastes mild, I added apples and maple syrup, balsamic vinegar to increase the taste. It was a hearty meal.

Frosty days1

A cold winter day..

I baked Caramel onion pie.

My boyfriend made the filling with onion,mushrooms with balsamic vinegar.

Great with goat cheese.Yum.