Up in Ontario

Yukon Cigar is the CBC Radio 3 track of the day

Sweet humpbacked Jesus! My good friend Craig Konyu's band, Yukon Cigar is the CBC Radio 3 track of the day.

In his own words:

My name is Craig, and I have countless songs in my head (among other ailments). I've long thought about recording these songs and throwing them to the wind. So, in early 2007, I gathered some talented musician friends (see below) and headed to Chemical Sound Studio in Toronto. The resulting five-song collection, Spooning Noise From A Moose In A Jar, is appropriately ragged -- recorded and mixed in just 40 hours, and evoking (among other things) life and death in colourful Ontario. It has been described as "dock music." Presumably, these tunes are best enjoyed with beer.

Years ago (oh so many years ago!), the last time I visited Hogtown, in fact, Craig and some of the constituent parts of Yukon Cigar played the 30th birthday party of Craig's main squeeze, Adrienne. And they rocked. I think they even played George Michael's anthem Faith, though the song had nothing to redeem it except for being a favourite of Adrienne.

At parties we used to anticipate the later hours, when Craig would bring out his guitar and play. He could play anything, anything we could come up with. Even if he didn't know the song if we hummed it to him, sang him a few bars, he could make some shape of it. It felt a little miraculous to see his talent in action.

Congratulations, Craig!

Now listen to this: Yukon Cigar -- Hello Soul (.mp3, 4.1 MB).

Patrick Brealey and the Knives CD release party

Yes, the event you've been waiting for has arrived: the CD release party for Patrick Brealey & the Knives' debut CD. Tomorrow night, May 25, here in Vancouver.

Sample the music of Patrick Brealey & the Knives.

Here's the invite, straight from PB hisself:

Hello hello,

I know many of you have let me know you may or may not be coming, but in case you forgot I wanted to send out a quick reminder about my CD release party this Friday, May 25, at the Chapel. The doors open at 8pm and the show will start around 9pm so don't be late!

Friday, May 25, 2007
Patrick Brealey & the Knives
with Jonathan Inc (solo)
The Chapel (304 Dunlevy @ Cordova) - click for map
Doors: 8pm
Tickets: $15

Hope to see you there!
Patrick

11 fish filleting tips

My friends Darren and Julie have moved to Malta for 6 months while they get their life in order. Okay, they're life was already in a pretty unbearable order, so they moved for the adventure.

Darren recently posted on his blog about having to fillet a fish. As the guy who fished with him last year, I felt I bore some responsibility in helping out with the matter. So here's a quick summary of what I have learned, and what I posted as a comment.

11 Fish Filleting Tips

1. Get a good, sharp knife with a thin blade. Love the knife. Don't use a kitchen knife, use a filleting knife. Sharpen it with a good steel or ceramic sharpener each time you use it. Clean it well. Along with your hands, it's the only tool you need.

2. Get to know your fish. Each fish is at once different anatomically, which, I suppose, goes without saying, but is also very similar anatomically. The fish merchant you're buying from, get him to show you how to clean the fish. He's your expert. I'd even consider bringing a cutting board (a big cutting board, get a big working space!) and your knife to his stand to clean the fish while he watches. What? He's not going to show you? He will if he wants to sell you more fish.
3. Always cut away from yourself -- body and hands. That sharp knife blade will have to cut bones, flesh and skin, in the fish, that is. It can jerk and move in unpredictable ways, so make sure that whatever cut you're making, if the blade comes loose you don't lose something.
4. Fins are anchored by bones. Wherever fins occur you'll have to cut around them. Fins are also very sharp if touched from the wrong angle. They'll leave little cuts in your hands.
5. Scales need to be cut at the right angle to penetrate and not dull your knife. Cut against their grain to slice between them.
6. Bones provide your guidance. Different bones have different weights. You cut against them or through them to fillet the meat. You cut through them to steak the meat. They also provide great purchase points for the hand you use to hold the fish steady.
7. The fat in fish is throughout the meat in oil and concentrated just under the skin. So when skinning fish, try to get very close to the skin. Fat = flavour.
8. Cleaning fish is hard on your hands overall. You'll have little knicks from scales and fins and the slime from their skin might dry out your hands. Not much to be done about that.
9. Bones are pretty self-evident in fish. Feel around and you'll find them. Think about how they would sit in the fish and you'll find the pattern they make and the purpose they serve. Now you know. Next time you do that same fish you'll ace it.
10. Many fish can be cooked whole or in large pieces and then you can extract the bones once they're cooking (and cooled!). You can also break fish apart as you cook them -- the cooked parts will break apart real easily, which is expecially good for piece of uneven thickness that will take different cooking times. Then just serve the meat and discard the bones. I did this with a 'utility' cut of halibut earlier this week from up around the gill plate. Beautiful meat but it took a little more effort.
11. Are you going to make fish stock or soup from the heads, bones and tails?

Local seafood feasting photos

On Saturday night we put together one hell of a seafood feast. There's really no other way to describe it. Dungeoness crabs, spot prawns, oysters and Sockeye salmon. A protein hangover the next day.

Here's the full set of photos.

And the best part? Everything we cooked came from about a 20-mile radius.

The Dungeoness crabs we caught by hand at Kates Park in North Vancouver (mask, snorkel, websuit and fins were also involved, along with a thermos of hot coffee to alleviate the shivers).

We bought the oysters and spot prawns on the docks of Granville Island. I forget where the oysters originated but the spot prawns were caught that morning between Bowen Island and Sechelt, just north of English Bay. The Sockeye came from the lower Fraser River last fall, caught on the boat of Kevin Simonette on a secret stretch of water he inherited from a river oldtimer.

This coming weekend the local farmer's markets open. The summer has started! It's not just sun and shorts, its eating from the land. And I love it.

100-Mile Diet is 'Plenty' in the US

I just visited the website for the 100-Mile Diet and discovered that the book's US title isn't 'The 100-Mile Diet'. Instead, they're calling it Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.

Bejaysus! What a terrible title. 'Plenty' tells me nothing. The subtitle tells me less. Maybe they had a weekly food fight. Clubs of food geeks have started to spring up around the idea of implementing a 100-mile diet. Will food geek clubs spring up around eating 'plenty?'

What are they reinventing by changing the title? There's a whole online buzz around the idea of the 100-mile diet. Do a search: The title is friggin' self explanatory! The only results for 'Plenty' are for the specific book title itself, and then only from booksellers offering the book. There's no grassroots, no word of mouth, no energy. Look at the page for the US edition on their website and it even says 'The 100-Mile Diet Book (US Edition).' I mean: W.T.F?

There's no confusion over distance; they didn't call it the 100-Kilometer Diet. They didn't call the book 'Vancouver's local eating habits' or something that makes it only applicable to our region of the world. It's meant as a specific example, rooted in the local, of how people can choose to eat sustainably.

Maybe I'm reacting so strongly because I read the first two chapters of the book on the weekend and I'm charmed by it and I can just taste how terrible the US title is. Plenty is the California strawberry of titles -- all taste has been bred out of it for the sake of being placeless, of being transportable to anywhere.

And if you're in Vancouver and want to meet the authors of the 100-Mile Diet, they'll be doing a reading and presentation at UBC Robson Centre on Monday, May 14. Sign up is free but you have to get your name on the list through the UBC website.