This Week in My Kitchen: Phở, step-by-step

 Kirk and I both love phở. Kirk goes to Vietnamese restaurants and gets phở with all sorts of gross animal bits in it, but I rely on home made vegetarian phở. Here's how I make it, step-by-step.

1. Gather your ingredients.
Here are the ingredients for the broth, minus the soy sauce, which didn't make it into the photo. I use this recipe as a base for my broth. I have no idea how traditional it is, but it sure is delicious! Never leave out the star anise - it will not smell or taste like phở without it. And I don't add salt, as the soy sauce is salty enough.

2. Char the veggies & spices.
Roughly chop the aromatics and throw them in a dry pot on medium high. Stir around a bit until they start to char and smell fantastic, then add the veggie broth (I do half broth and half water) and soy sauce.

3. Boil the broth.
Bring the broth to a boil to get all the flavour out of everything.

4. Prepare the protein.
My protein of choice for phở is tofu. This time I sliced extra firm tofu nice and thin and marinaded it in soy sauce, sri racha and rice wine vinegar. This is the first time I've cooked with tofu in a long time (other than the almond ricotta).

5. Prepare the noodles.
Boil some water and pour it over thin, flat rice noodles. Let them soak for a few minutes, but not for too long or they'll get mushy.

6. Prepare the accompaniments.
Green onions, enoki mushrooms (I couldn't find any nice bean sprouts, and the mushrooms made a nice substitution), lime wedges, tofu and sliced jalapeno. I forgot to pick up some basil, which is unfortunate, but not tragic. I did miss it, though.

7. Assembly, part 1.
Put some noodles in a bowl and ladle some strained broth over top.

8. Assembly, part 2.
Add the accompaniments to your taste. Here's my bowl, with jalapeno, tofu, lime, enoki mushrooms and sri racha.

9. Dig in!

Vegan Eats Vancouver: Bandidas Brunch

Remember that time my friend Shaunna and I had dinner at Bandidas Taqueria and I was so excited to discover that they had vegan brunch? Well, do you? Anyway, I finally made it to brunch there last Sunday, and it was everything I dreamed it would be...

Kirk and I got there just as they opened at 10, and it's a good thing, as it filled up really quickly. We got a great seat by the window, the waitress brought us menus and water in little mason jars, and we proceeded with our indecision. Kirk is terrible at deciding at what he wants in restaurants, but I generally don't have much choice, so this was new territory for me. At first I kinda balked at the prices, but then I read that the menu prices include HST, so it's not so expensive after all.

Even though everything is veganizable (isn't veganizable a great fake word?), I decided on the already Vegan French Toast with sausage. It's been many years since I had french toast, and I was super excited.

The french toast did not disappoint! Four huge slices (I ate three and Kirk finished the last one) with a generous quantity of real maple syrup, fresh pineapple and little breakfast sausages. Yum! I can't wait to go back to Bandidas for brunch!

Nooooooo!!

My favourite lunch place, Loving Hut, had a fire a few doors down in mid-December. For weeks they were closed and had signs in the window saying they'd reopen in January. This week those signs came down, and a big For Lease sign went up! This is so upsetting.

Their website still states they'll reopen in January. I still have a bit of hope that they're moving to a new location, but I'm probably deluding myself...

Ode to My Pet Hair Eraser

Pardon my gushing - I know it's undignified - but can I just tell you how much I love my Bissell Pet Hair Eraser? And no, I am not being compensated for this.

I've been looking for a decent hand held vacuum for a while. We have three cats, a three-bedroom house, two couches and carpeted stairs. As good as my upright vacuum is, it needs a little support! Pet Hair Eraser to the rescue!

I got it on clearance at Zellers a few months ago. It's super small but really powerful, has a really long cord, and two nozzle attachments. The one in the photo has the actual pet hair eraser part (and it really works), and it also has a regular dust buster-type nozzle (also useful). My stairs and couch have never been so clean!

I love you, Pet Hair Eraser!

Here are some photos of my babies being adorable while leaving fur all over the furniture:

Jerry & Chaos on the "cat couch" by the window

Monkey & Chaos snuggling on the cat couch

Jerry & Chaos snuggling on the "sleep couch"

(so named because it's super comfy and I have a hard time staying awake on it)

 Silly Monkey on the cat couch

Vegan Eats Vancouver: Las Margaritas

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know how much I love Mexican food. Las Margaritas is an old standby for me in Kitsilano - I even had dinner there on my thirtieth birthday! They don't have many vegan options, but luckily I love their Vegetarian Burrito (with no cheese or sour cream) and I always order it. Here's some shots of my last meal there...

Every table is served house made salsa and chips.

The chips are just okay as far as I'm concerned, but I absolutely love the salsa.

 The Vegetarian Burrito is stuffed full of beans, chiles, peppers and other veggies and
smothered with red sauce (I am a sucker for red sauce!). It's served with spanish rice,
beans (I always choose black beans) and guacamole. It's way too much food, but delicious.

I had a mojito. It was pretty good, though I've had better.

A decent selection of hot sauce is on every table.

I'll always go back to Las Margaritas when I'm in Kits. There's oftentimes a wait for a table, especially in the summer, so reservations are recommended but not required.