Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

July 27, 2013: Books! Dogs! And foodtrucks!

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My latest book haul.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s entry, my days of shopping at the local Indigo/Chapters mega-chain are a thing of the past.  Instead, I’m supporting the smaller, independent bookstores – in this instant, White Dwarf Books (WHITE DWARF BOOKS – Dead Write Books) over on 10th Avenue.  It’s your one stop shop for SF, fantasy, horror, and mystery.  Oh, and, apparently, laid-back basset hounds…

1I bet he’s angling for one of her special bento boxes like the one she sends our dogs off with every time they go to doggy daycare…

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On the subjects of dogs, blog regular Deni gave me the heads up that a friend of her has published a dog-related book.  It’s a true story of the challenges one family faces when they take in an orphaned dog: http://www.amazon.com/Sandy-A-Tail-Love/dp/147726096X

So, the other day, Akemi and I got together with our friend Simon (who was in town visiting family before heading back to London) to check out some of the latest additions to the Vancouver food truck line-up…

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Simon is a science fiction fan.  Oh, you can tell?
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Intriguing…
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Philly style duck confit.  The best thing we ate on the tour.
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Pork belly with avocado and cucumber sandwich.  The second best thing we ate on the tour – no matter how much Akemi loved her salad. 

We also checked out Aussie Pie Guy which offers up an assortment of pies, both sweet and savory.

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Braised short rib with mashed potato pie.  Okay but the pies suffer from sitting a little too long.

Simon brought dessert from Chez Christophe, a new patisserie that opened in Burnaby…

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Great croissants. chocolate and almond, and –
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A killer bread pudding studded with boozy cherries.

Finally – Akemi will often post video recipes over on her blog.  Today, it’s my turn to offer up my recipe for the very complex Chocolate and Tennessee Honey Whisky Milkshake: http://youtu.be/_e6CU9DrRgM

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29 responses

  1. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    Gilbert Godfrey was in Lucky Bones Restaurant tonight…just a few tables away from us (he’s very wee!). Not quite as cool as dining with Joey ‘The Spider’ Mallozzi, I’m sure. 😉

    Watching Sharknado as I type this. It’s sooo bad it’s GREAT!!! 😀

    das

    Reply
  2. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    Ah, the food truck tours. What a great memory. Gotta do that again, although I feel full just thinking about it.

    Akemi’s doggie bento box looks better than most of the lunches that I make for myself (i.e. a sandwich and an apple randomly thrown together at the last minute in the morning rush.) Although that box has a suspiciously Hello Kitty look to it, of which I wonder if the dogs approve.

    Not sure about that choco-whiskey milkshake… Akemi sounds a bit tentative, too.

    Hi Simon!

    Reply
  3. jorie74 Avatar
    jorie74

    Hi Joe,
    Just your little Winnipeg follower here, taking some time off of my crowdfunding efforts to say “Hello”. Looks like Akemi really knows how to pack a good lunch for the pups, there’s a lot of kids I taught who’d truly be envious of the lunchboxes they get!
    Thought I might as well send you the link for my Indiegogo campaign, in case you want to take a gander at it. It’s http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/preflight-launch-webseries and as you may have guessed, it is science fiction. I’m hoping to get a few of my actors and actresses to do some guest stints on the campaign to appeal to people to please donate, lol…. Ok so I guess I’m back on the clock with the crowdfunding, can’t blame a gal for trying!
    Hope all’s well with you in Vancouver, and take care! Have fun with the reading too!!!
    All the best,
    Marjorie

    Reply
  4. jcckeith Avatar
    jcckeith

    Wow that bread pudding looks delicious. All of the food looks great. I wish we had food trucks like that here. I think the only ones we have in this area serve tacos and maybe polish sausage and the trucks looks a little shady like the type you would only eat from if you were seriously drunk… which is why I think I only see them parked outside of the local bars at odd hours of the night.

    Reply
  5. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    Joey, I mean, Spidey… I don’t know how or when you can do it, but you…I mean, Mr. Cookie…MUST do a review of Sharknado!!! LOL! THIS movie is just begging for his fuzzy touch!

    das

    Reply
  6. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    “We’re gonna need a bigger chopper!” OMG! This is sooooo bad I think I need to watch it again!!

    I especially love how everyone is so calm while friends and/or loved ones get eaten alive by flying sharks. This is so great!

    das

    Reply
  7. Sparrow_hawk Avatar
    Sparrow_hawk

    Mmmmm. Bread pudding. Boozy cherries. A match made in heaven. And the chocolate whiskey shake sounds lovely.

    I really enjoyed Justin Cronin’s “The Passage“. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. I recently picked up the sequel, “The Twelve” but haven’t read it yet as I want to reread The Passage before i dive into it.

    @das: my daughter watched Sharknado last week. She agrees with you: “It’s sooo bad, but I just can’t stop watching!”

    Reply
  8. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    Monty Python& the Holy Grail Black Knight moment!! 😆 Oh, Joe…this is WONDERFUL!! 😆

    das

    Reply
  9. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    Only five books? You usually pick up 3 times that. They look interesting though.

    That benito box is the cutest. I bet the dogs love the real fish Akemi adds. They have the coolest mom! (and dad)

    @ Simon – Hi! Live long and prosper… 🙂

    Reply
  10. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    @ Sparrowhawk – My life is now complete. I have seen the best worst movie, EVER!! And I LOVED it!! And I can’t stop laughing!!! I want to watch this in a theater full of people, throwing rubber sharks at the screen and quoting lines a la Rocky Horror. 😀

    das

    Reply
  11. archersangel Avatar
    archersangel

    A WARNING; i got a malware alert when i clicked the link for white dwarf books.

    Reply
  12. jcckeith Avatar
    jcckeith

    @dasndanger Sharknado was pretty epic! I saw it the first night it was on and had to call my husband in to witness just how bad it was. I couldn’t turn it off either

    Reply
  13. arcticgoddess Avatar
    arcticgoddess

    @Das and @Sparrow_hawk – We don’t have Sharknado in Canada yet, but Space channel is promising it along with the ever horrible “Two-headed Shark” and “Sharktopus”. SyFy may be on to something.

    @jorie74 – good luck with your crowdfunding. I know there is a great deal of awesome talent in Winnipeg. The lovely and talented “Yetti”, Aleks Paunovic is from there. And he has been rocking sci-fi and Stargate for years.

    I’m off to Vancouver to help a friend move as of Sunday evening. I really wanted to stop and visit with a bunch of folks, but I am virtually in and out of the city since my friend is moving to Alberta and we will be driving a U-haul truck across the mountains. So, I apologize to anyone I don’t get to visit with.

    Patricia

    Reply
  14. Alexis Avatar
    Alexis

    Jelly, Bubba and Lulu sure are lucky dogs.

    I have two used bookstores I use; one has a dog greeter who likes to have a ball thrown for him forever! The second one has a cat greeter.

    Hi and thanks for dessert Simon. 🙂

    Reply
  15. sparced Avatar
    sparced

    not sure if they have them in canada, but a nice Vitamix 750 blender might make a bit nicer smoothie. Expensive, but i love making fruit smoothies out of it.

    Reply
  16. baterista9 Avatar
    baterista9

    Request for Cookie: Please review THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (2011). I finally saw it on small screen tonight and would like to hear your opinion.

    Reply
  17. Kymm Avatar
    Kymm

    Looking at your book selection reminded me of this pic that I saw the other day that made me laugh, not sure of the context… dressed as twinsies and holding hands… the look on his face kills me…
    http://celebritytoob.com/pictures/20-awesome-unexpected-celebrities-hanging-out-pictures/attachment/celebs_hanging_out_11/

    One thing I don’t like about pies… too much crust… so not a fan of the crust…

    Yeahhh I don’t think Akemi was buying the lump story either… they get stuck in the straw…

    Those duck fat fries sure look good…

    Hago!
    K

    Reply
  18. Maggiemayday Avatar
    Maggiemayday

    Sharknado made Mega-Snake look positively intellectual.

    Reply
  19. Mike from Canada Avatar
    Mike from Canada

    I can’t recall if I got this suggestion from you Joe, have you read Neil Gaiman’s Ocean at the end of the Lane? I listened to it via audio book on my iPod. Good book, IHMO.

    I’m now listening to Unseen by Karin Slaughter. Karin Slaughter does thrillers-slash-mystery. Her novels are usually pretty good and generally revolve around the same group of people, although she does occasionally kill one off.

    If you ever get to Victoria (BC) you should check out Bolen Books in the Hillside mall. It’s our largest independent bookstore. It’s the second largest bookstore after the downtown three level Chapters store.

    I like it because they often have books from new authors and carry books from other countries, the UK, Australia, etc. They have enough chairs that you don’t have to toss a geriatric out of one to get a seat. Plus I got a lifetime 10% discount for $25 about 15 years ago. It’s not far from downtown Victoria, maybe four kilometers. They have a fair graphic novel section.
    Unlike many mall bookstores they will order any book you have a hankering for, regardless of the publisher. Which is the point of being independent, I suppose.
    I don’t think they allow dogs in the store. It’s really the only downside. Of course, if you like non urinated books you could consider it to be a plus.
    http://www.bolen.bc.ca/
    I have no interest in the store other then wanting it to survive so I can continue to get good books and use my discount card.

    Take a ferry ride over, Joe. Akemi will love it. The only down side is you have to keep the dogs in your vehicle or on the car deck if you choose to take them.

    I hear the ferry ride up to the Queen Charlotte’s is an outstanding trip, as long as they don’t crash the ferry. That hardly ever happens.

    Reply
  20. Line Noise Avatar
    Line Noise

    Braised short rib with mashed potato pie. Okay but the pies suffer from sitting a little too long.

    Dude, it’s not an Aussie pie unless it’s been sitting around in a pie warmer all day! 🙂 Does the Aussie Pie Guy do a pie floater? Savoury beef pie floating in pea soup. I’ve never had one myself but hope to try it one day. I must admit, pies are one of my favourite foods. I never realised how much I liked them until I left Australia and realised that individual savoury meat pies aren’t very common. Sure, you can get vague semblances of them here in England but they’re not the same. Thankfully I make a mean steak and bacon pie with slow cooked braised steak and thick gravy you can almost stand a fork in.

    I’m also interested to see chips (crisps) served with your sandwiches. That’s a very English thing. Something I’ve never been able to figure out.

    Reply
  21. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    @ Joe & Akemi – Just got back from The Wolverine and I highly recommend it! I know you’ll probably wait for the DVD, but I think it’s worth a watch in the theater (2D, not 3D). Nice love story in there, too…one you may relate to in some ways. 😉 I would rate this as the best X-Men movie, and possibly the best Marvel movie, to date.

    There’s also a mid-credit scene that’s a spoiler for the next X-Men movie – and it’s great!!! Sure to please all X-Men fans!

    das

    Reply
  22. Randomness Avatar
    Randomness

    Sword Art Onlines dub premiered on Adult Swim yesterday, well worth checking out weekly if anyone else is an anime fan here. I watched it in Japanese a while back and I know Joes seen it. It’s a great series, should help raise the shows popularity(among the mainstream fans) and hopefully get it that long awaited sequel lol

    I thought it was quite a unique series, and can’t wait till they do the Gun Gale Online and Underworld arcs from the books, one of the arcs is longer than the 2 done already(Arc 3 is 4 books long, Arc 4 is 5 books long, for reference the first 2 arcs done in anime form were 2 books long each).

    Reply
  23. dasndanger Avatar
    dasndanger

    @Joe – After the movie, hubby and I packed up a thermos of tea and ran down to the beach to watch the invisible sunset (it was cloudy), and met this little fella, Ralphie, a rescue pug (his ‘sister’ Molly refused to pose for the picture):

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/dasNdanger/616f8f0d-b441-4fb4-982f-17dbdcfcaf30_zpsd0af8ebe.jpg

    Adorable, no? (The pug, not me. 😉 )

    das

    Reply
  24. for the love of Beckett Avatar
    for the love of Beckett

    Love today’s subjects. Seeing a version of my name in one of the book titles made me look twice. Eek! Cute photo of Akemi with the Basset. And hey, saw The Book of Joby in that photo, one of our past BOTM blog reviews.

    Anyone in or planning to visit the Midwest soon? Get shored up on Vitamins C and D! Skip the dairy and sugar for a good while. There’s a bad stomach bug *and* throat/cold virus going around. I’ve been sick for about 11 days with both. Am tired from all the coughing. The docs and pharmacies are saying they’re as busy as flu season in February. A couple people I talked to recently have been sick for a month. Yikes!

    On the holding a grudge thing… Some times things are bad enough that you need to “evaporate” from a bad, recurring situation, without making a scene. But I learned something important from my younger brother. Hah! :grn:

    He said that you have to give everybody at least one free pass, even if they are truly in the wrong. People are going through things they may never share with you. It may skew their judgment, their spontaneous reaction, or their choice of words. Forgive them, if that’s the situation. Just be consistent with them, and don’t nail them over it. Give them space, give them time. Months may have to go by. But you know, you’d be surprised how often people come back to their senses. They may even apologize and appreciate how kind you were at the time. They may not, but it’s okay. That was their free pass. That’s Grace. One day we all may need it. I know I’ve needed it a time or two! 🙂

    Reply
  25. Kathode Avatar
    Kathode

    The Passage is an odd book. I liked it, but I definitely thought it had some annoying traits. This is what I wrote on Goodreads about it:

    http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/413026481

    I read The Twelve, and that one was a bit better in terms of addressing some of the problems I had with the first book.

    Reply
  26. Duptiang Avatar
    Duptiang

    Hi Joe;
    While I was in town the other day to see my favorite band (Rush) at Roger’s Arena this Friday, I was able to spend time visiting some of the places you mentioned on your blog. I was able to visit a number of food trucks starting with JapDog in front of Waterfront stn (attended by a lovely, attentive and industrious matron-of course, she was Japanese), Feastro, (I am not sure how my name Matt is turned into Ben in Vancouver. I guess Matt can sound like rat, which is the name of said rodent) and Korean Mama Express. I had to pass a few others as they had lines. I will have to add your above mentioned trucks to the list. I do enjoy a good bread pudding. I visited Soirette and told the girl, I heard she had Macarons to die for and she agreed. I passed by Fable but being too early for dinner so I did not stop by (Next time?). I had not planned it, but I was in the area having visited the Maritime Museum. The best meal was at Wildebeast. The combinations of flavors were great and unique. I enjoyed the buffalo tartar and the celery sorbet-unexpected.The waiter/bartender was awesome. Breakfast was at Giovane, and the calzone was better than anything I have had in Chicago. I tried dinner at Boneta. Gastown is a newly revived area. Fun to visit but as I found out trying to make my way to Rogers, neighborhoods can change quickly. As I walked down Main St. Chinatown is not quite like in SFO. If you have passed the sliver of a building like in TimeSq.-Spiderman’s place of work you have gone too far. The food at Boneta was very enjoyable but could not indulge in some of the more unique offerings due to time. My wine selection was off, but I hadn’t had a Riesling in a long time. Actually, I am more a beer “snob” anyway. I enjoy sampling local and micro brews. I found some nice local selections at Yaletown Brewing and at Wildebeast.

    I passed by a store off of Davie in Yaletown called Barking Babies. I wondered if Ameki has every been there? I recalled Ameki’s attempts at K-9 fashion.

    My current reading list is of thrillers. Since the passing of Vince Flynn who was from my home town, I have purchased a number of his works. I knew about Vince since listening to his first interview on a local radio show in MSP, but read only his first novel many years ago. Well Joe most of my book purchases have been on line via Amazon. However, most book ordered have been from independent associates. Two of the above hard covered book have that books store smell to them.

    Reply
  27. Mike A. Avatar
    Mike A.

    Awww, the basset hound! How cute! Have I mentioned I’m a hound guy? 😉

    I prefer beagles, as I’ve mentioned before, but most any kind of hound are awesome. Well, ok, most any kind of any other breed are awesome. I just love dogs, I guess!

    -Mike A.

    Reply
  28. shinyhula Avatar
    shinyhula

    Looks tasty, wishing I could try the duck confit. November should be quite nice in Japan, there should be fewer lines and less crowds, like Paris in September? It’s nice to discover a city at a different time of the year.

    Reply
  29. PBMom Avatar
    PBMom

    Loved the video. I didn’t know Akemi had a YouTube channel. Now subscribed.

    @ForTheLoveOfBeckett — Your brother is very wise. That is fantastic advice.

    Sharknado — I caught the last 10 minutes of it. I had had a really bad day and it made me laugh so hard I thought I would pee my pants. So when they replayed it at midnight, I had to put it on my DVR.

    Off to take care of the dogs. I’ll catch up…..

    Reply

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