As if it didn't need saying, the weather in Vancouver is and has been downright awful and depressing. Today, was another great slushy day in our fair city.
While the weather might make us wish for a multitude of things, like sunny beaches, I am craving for a slightly weird activity. I want to toss a baseball around. I miss the carefree sunny days where I'm standing on a beautiful lush green field with a slight breeze. I've got my well-worn Cooper lefty glove with me. I wind up and casually toss an MLB regulation size baseball to my compatriot across from me. I think it might be Reggie Jackson but it's more likely to be my friend Rhonda.
Throwing the ball around is a classic summer activity. I just wish I could do it now. Maybe I'll go put on my boots and find a slushly field this weekend.
So last week, I was having lunch with a former co-worker and a current co-worker. We'd all worked at Backbone but now had moved onto other companies. I'm not sure how the discussion turned towards finances but here we were talking about money.
I mentioned how expensive it was to live in Vancouver. I told my friends that because I live in the boonies, I've been able to save up $9K since the beginning of June. Later, I went back to my spreadsheet and discovered, I'd saved about $1400 a month. I thought that was alright but one of my friends said that wasn't a large amount at all.
I was kinda surprised because while it's not spectacular, having your bank account grow $1400 a month is pretty good in my mind. My friend didn't think so. The weird thing is, I'm pretty sure my expenses are lower than his and I'm almost certain I make at least $10K a year more than him. So, he's gotta be saving less than what I'm capable of.
Millionaire stock brokers and bankers aside, is $1400 a month in the bank really a pittance? When it comes to money, I'm about clueless with that as I am with women. Could someone enlighten me?
I played way too much Rainbow Six: Vegas online tonight to make a proper post. Instead, let hear what Olivia Munn wants to give her co-host Kevin for his birthday. What?
Having grown up in Canada but having Chinese parents, I feel like I've received the best of both worlds in many respects. Cuisine is one of those things. I am just as comfortable enjoying a nicely prepared roast as I am eating chicken feet (and there are a lucky few who've seen me do both).
Living in Vancouver, many of "Western" friends have tried many Chinese dishes as well. I applaud them for their experimentation but there's a lot more to Chinese cuisine than just egg rolls and sweet 'n sour pork. Like many other ethnic cuisines, there are some fascinating peculiarities associated with Chinese food. I will describe one of them here in this post.
As a child, my mother explained to my sister and I the concept of wok hei. Roughly translated into English, it means the "breath/air of the wok". Most of you have probably seen a wok before, it being the rounded cooking implement used for centuries in China. While not everything in Chinese cuisine is stir-fried in a wok, a significant portion of dishes are prepared in such a manner.
There is a considerable amount of skill in properly preparing food in a wok. First and foremost, is the ability to enfuse wok hei into any dish. What is it exactly? It's a bit abstract, but the wikipedia article does a fairly good job of describing it. In short, it's the ability of the cook or chef to sear and impart the flavours into the food using the wok at extremely high temperatures.
If you think this is some product of hokey mumbo jumbo, I can assure you wok hei does exist. You can taste the difference in dishes prepared by chefs of varying skills. You can take the exact same ingredients, put them in the exact same type of wok, and on the exact same burner. The only thing that differs is the ability of the chef. One might impart wok hei into the food while the other fails.
How does this manifest itself in taste? It's really hard to describe in words. The best I can do is that there's a certain zing or pop to the food. I don't mean spicy or anything like that but the food is almost alive with flavour. It's isn't bland, the flavour jumps out at you.
I suggest you try it yourself. Chinese restaurants are known for their quality of food and if the word around town that the chef knows his wok hei, that could easily mean extra business. In my experience, the stir-fried noodle dishes are the easiest ways to discover if the chef has brought his or her "A" game. In particular, try the beef chow fun or the Shanghai thick noodle.
If you like to know more about the wok hei, I encourage you to read a book that especially been written on the subject.
This is the post where I'd love to tell you how exciting and refreshing my weekend was. I can't do that however, since I worked both days of the weekend. The highlight of my weekend, sadly, had to do with food.
When I arrived at my new job at EAX/EA Vancouver/EA Blackbox, I asked around about the quality of OT meals. When someone told me, I realized things were a step up here compared to my old job. That's not to disparage my old company, they did fine with food, and I even had an awesome steak one time for dinner. It's just that EAX did things a bit different.
I got to work a bit late on Saturday but I went upstairs to see what lunch consisted of. It was a scrumptious feast that was a combination of lunch and brunch. There was sausages and bacon. Pastries and tarts. There was fruit on a silver platter and none of that cheap fruit. We're talking pineapples, kiwi fruit, strawberries and kumquats. In one tray was an omlette chock full of meaty things.
I cursed myself for having lunch at home. I was there for dinner, so I got the full meal deal then. There was a dessert platter featuring tiny cakes and other little tarts. The fruit plate made a return with more exotic fruits. There was a delightful little salad. The main courses were some vegetarian dish and a tray full of roast chicken. I think they might have been game hens, not too sure.
Today, I arrived a little late for lunch, but I made sure I didn't eat anything before leaving home. My strategy worked well. What greeted me in the lounge was another feast. First off was a terrific green bean salad with Alaskan king crab legs and prawns the size of small lobsters. Another plate had a selection of not one but two kinds of smoked salmon. In the warming trays were a kickass lasagna and a meatloaf that defied description. The fruit made it's return as did the pastries, tarts, and little cakes.
For dinner, the main courses were eggplant (yuck) and a tray full of tender roast beef with mushrooms. The roast beef might seem like the highlight but you'd be wrong. For me, it was the salad. Yes, you read that correctly. The salad wasn't complicated, with simple greens but the addition of goat cheese and a world-class raspberry vinaigrette made it my favourite. The fruit and pastries also made a return... blah... blah...
I went back for the salad three times during the evening. The last time, I picked out the goat cheese balls from the salad and spread them on some french bread we had lying around. Man, thems is tasty!
I might work OT tomorrow and that'd be a shame but if I do, at least the food will be good.
