The Spaghetti in Squash

Last week I did some pretty intense travelling. First my family and I camped out in a hotel in Vancouver in order for me to get a medical examination (I am in the process of applying for a green card so my husband can work in the States for a few years: Did I mention he got a job at Harvard?). Then I had to fly to Montreal for an immigration interview. For those of you in know, yes there is a consulate in Vancouver and yes that is where I first applied. Go figure, it has to be done that way so that is the way I did it. All the while eating a pretty heavy diet punctuated by some awesome meals.

Tofu hollowed out with shredded carrot, wrapped in 

nori, encrusted with panko crumbs on a bed of red and soy beans in an orange sugar glaze at

Accords In Montreal

First in Vancouver my husband and I went to Vij's with a dear friend, then in Montreal after my interview I found a nice quiet restaurant to dine alone Accords and then again in Vancouver before the tots and I headed back to Pender Island I hit up another quiet spot Gaia.

Roasted Garlic Polenta filled with goat cheese, honey, pear and arugula, served with a side salad of mixed organic greens at Gaia in Vancouver

It is no surprise today that I walked by a Spaghetti Squash and said to myself I must have that. I was in an all veggie mood and inspired by the spaghetti in Spaghetti Squash I decided to make myself a nice vegetarian dish. This can be made vegan by altering the simple tomato sauce recipe (use olive oil instead of butter) and leaving the parmesan cheese garnish off and replace with some crispy mushrooms (do the same, use all neutral oil instead of butter). For the squash I sliced it in half removed the seeds, guts and rubbed a bit of olive on the firm flesh then roasted it in a low oven for an hour. Then scooped out the insides trying to keep the integrity of the spaghetti like strands. I then put the flesh in a bowl covered with tinfoil to steam back in the warm oven*.

When the sauce was done I ladled it over the Spaghetti Squash and garnished with grated parmesan cheese and fresh basil.

The ease and slow cooking of this recipe/method allowed me to undo one weeks of dirty laundry!

photos by me.

*Turn it off or keep on low depending on how long until you use it.

Restaurant Rant... The Naam

The Naam

I was craving healthy food with fresh vegetables, tofu and the likes after a weekend of sinful eating, so I decided to go to the Naam  as it is  consistently  voted the best vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver by various local magazines and weeklies. It must be said that there are only a handful of these types of restaurants and voters get the same three choices year after year. 

When I walked through the door the sign said "Please Wait to be seated" So I did and after a few minutes a server came to me handed me a menu and said "sit where ever you want". Hmm... Why did I wait? Another server followed me to a table of my choice (there were only two that were available for a single person) and asked me if I was ready to order. Hmm... I hadn't even opened the menu yet. He promptly turned away from me before I responded. That was the last I saw of him for over 30 minutes. After reading the menu, deciding what I wanted and reading a paper including the classifieds I finally got his attention again. I had to strain out of my seat and say excuse me as he passed through the section. He actually looked at me in disdain- like I was interrupting him from doing his job. Finally after getting to order, my meal took an additional 10 minutes. Not too long of wait and about what I expected. 


Maybe it is decadent of me, but I want to have some mummy time once a week, I do yoga, get a quick lunch and run some errands. I don't laze over lunch or dawdle running my errands but it is nice to take a few minutes for myself each week and eat a meal that I haven't prepared myself. 


I ordered the Naam's version of Thai noodles. Basically pad thai noodles in a sweet and sour sauce, with tofu, cabbage,carrots, peppers, sprouts and peanuts.  The portion was huge. There is no possible way one person could eat that much food and if they can, they shouldn't. For some reason restaurants such as this one think you are getting good value for your money if you make the portion size super sized?! No, I want quality ingredients, good flavour and thoughtful portions. What I know of the Naam is that they use organic ingredients where they can, compost, and try to be sustainable. I may be wrong, but is not counter productive to be so wasteful? Faced with the immense plate of noodles that was my lunch I checked the time and reasoned that I would not be getting to all of my errands today, I would have to consolidate and prioritize.


My lunch  had some residual heat possibly from sweet thai chili sauce but all in all it was flavourless- unless you count the vinegar that wafted up from the plate. There was ample cabbage - and why not? It is cheap, hard to over cook and has a good crunch; a nice contrast to the soft (mushy) noodles. The other vegetables with the exception of the carrot were hit and miss and the tofu was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. But I was hungry and had no time for anything else so I ate a reasonable sized portion, requested to take the remainder home and asked for my bill. Figuring how long it took to order in the first place I immediately got out my card, put my jacket on and collected my things. I was pleasantly surprised when he came back in a few minutes with a to-go box in hand, maybe my exit would be quicker than I thought. No such luck. He informed me I had to go to the counter to pay with debit with a nod of the head towards the kitchen... sure no problem. 


Bill in hand I made my way to the counter, where there was another couple standing waiting to pay. We waited five minutes for some one to acknowledge us, even though there was staff standing in the kitchen door 5 feet away.... There goes another errand that I can't do. 


All in all I spent over an hour there for a meal that I had to consume in 10 minutes. The phrase time is money, comes to mind. I am paying a babysitter to steal some time for myself and want to get some things done. It is insulating to me that this institution does not value my patronage enough to consider that while they are being ironic and cool they are wasting my time.  Maybe I am missing something but I can safely say that this is the last time I will go to the Naam. I have had this experience one too many times and will no longer give them the benefit of the doubt. I truly do not understand why it is consistently voted Vancouver's best. I have never had a meal there that blew me away, was in any way revolutionary or profound and the service has always been slow. And yes, the left overs were terrible, ending up in the garbage.