Jeff's Whistler Ski Trip

August

To celebrate the "March Birthday Madness" for three of our friends, Katie, Melissa and Jessica, we had a private group dinner at a local deli and grocery store, August. Owned by George and Angie (brother and sister) who were both chefs in their previous lives, August actually much more than just a grocery store. You can find not only the most fresh vegetables, meats and seafood, but also ingredients and seasoning from many parts of the world. But what makes August unique is the owner's generosity to share their culinary experience and special recipes with their customers while making food on the premises for customers to taste. At times, if George sees that you bought a piece of their fresh trout, for example, he would want to know how you want to prepare it and sometimes offer suggestions or alternative recipes for you to try next time.

Another offering at August is meals prepared by the two chefs. For busy professionals in the neighborhood who do not have time to cook dinner, their food is definitely an easy yet delicious alternative. The price for these meals, however, is a little high (around $10 - 15 per entree).

For our Birthday party, we had the whole place to ourselves for a cooking demo and three-course dinner and BYOB. Our appetizer was seared tuna; second course was grilled skate with brown butter; main course was tender loin with mashed potatoes and spinach. We finished up with a cup of coffee and home-made cupcakes by Marie.

Since August is about 1.5 blocks from our house, it was conveniently located for me as well :)

思鄉病

I've been missing Taiwan - everything about Taiwan - very much for at least a number of months now. And I've found this desire to be especially severe lately. I crave the authentic local Taiwanese food; I miss my father, brother, aging grandma and my favorite uncle; I miss the TV shows; I miss the language, the accent; I miss taking the Taipei Rapid Transit; I miss the atmosphere and the air; I simply miss the familiarity, my home town, my native country.

Jeff was in Whistler this weekend for a ski trip, so I thought I use this low-key weekend to create a little "Taiwan" in our condo. So I went to the Chinese supermarket to get some 大腸 and instant 麵線 to make 大腸麵線! On this rainy Saturday afternoon, I enjoyed my 大腸麵線 while watching 光陰的故事 to heal my 思鄉病. I have to say, it did a little magic!