Make It Your Own: Customize!

I was so inspired at the last Portobello West . Gorgeous creations abounded, many made with recycled and reworked materials. So inspiring! I was thrilled to find Nap. I bought a beautiful one of a kind dress from Nap a couple of years back but have not been lucky enough to encounter this local Vancouver designer since. I love her incredible use of fabric paint, especially the beautiful blue and green bird featured on many of her recycled creations. One adorns my own Nap dress. It's perched on my right shoulder above a daring neckline and wide black and white sequined belt.

All these gorgeous products have me thinking about the idea of customization. So often an item in our home and closet is just not quite right for our current style and taste. In richer times we donate and replace these faded treasures, but with more awareness of our economic and environmental situation it seems more realistic to me to instead make the old new again.

Bracelets and necklaces can be twisted together and secured with a sparkly brooch to create a unique and eclectic new piece of jewelery. Necklines can be cut and altered with ribbon and rickrack. Patches and applique made from felt, painted canvas and buttons are fabulous to adorn purses and jackets we are bored with. A little fabric paint and a sense of humor goes a long way.

If you must buy new and are on a budget, consider purchasing a basic item and making it unique. A wonderful example is this oh so cute gift from my lovely and skilled friend Jennifer. She is a talented writer, crafter and future guest blogger here at Ding dong, who sent me a set of awesome customized potholders recently. They are a reminder of all the fun and tipsy cooking and dinner party times we have had.

How wonderful to create something so cute and special out of a basic household item! And you can do it too. Get out there and recycle and customize!

Oh Spring!

Two straight days of sunshine in Vancouver and the cherry blossoms and magnolias are blooming in full force. So lovely!




Now, get out there and check out what's blooming in your neck of the woods!

Chasing the Nuoc Mam Dragon: Fresh and Crunchy Noodle Salad

To me, this is the perfect sunny spring day dinner. It's healthy, crunchy, and loaded with fish sauce and herbs. The following is barely a recipe but bear with me and you will find yourself parked in front of a huge and satisfying bowl of hot sour salty sweet (and crunchy herby!) goodness.

Generally you will need:

A nice big handful of dried rice noodles (rice stick), depending how noodley you want your salad
Nuoc Mam (fish sauce)
2 Limes
Garlic and Ginger, finely grated or chopped
Rice Vinegar
Sesame Oil
Half teaspoon of sugar (white sugar is fine, and so is a little crumble of palm sugar)
Fresh chilies (I use fiery hot Thai Bird’s Eye Chilies, but Jalapeño could work here too)
A mixture of fresh, crunchy vegetables such as julienne carrots, peppers or daikon, half moons of seeded cucumbers, sprouts, shredded or torn lettuce, cabbage, etc.
Green onion
A bunch of chopped herbs, any or all of fresh cilantro, mint or Thai basil works beautifully

Cook noodles according to package directions until they are el dente. It is nice if they are a little chewy, a lovely texture with the slippery dressing and crunchy vegetables. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water. I hope you don’t rinse wheat pasta, but please do with rice noodles. Set aside.

While the rice noodles are cooking and cooling combine the dressing: juice the limes and stir in a little garlic and ginger and two or three tablespoons each of fish sauce and rice vinegar, the sugar, a tablespoon or two of sesame oil, one or two chopped fresh chillies and two tablespoons of water. Taste and check for a balance of hot, sour, salty and sweet flavors. Add lime if not sour enough, and fish sauce if you are looking for a little more salt or umami flavor. I believe the sugar and chillies are self-explanatory, but Sambal Oelek is a great addition for more lovely heat.

Wash, de-seed, chop, shed, julienne and tear up your vegetable and herbs in whatever combination appeals. Toss the veggies with noodles and enough dressing to coat and generously fill your bowl. Incredible!

If you are certain to have leftovers don’t mix all the veggies, noodles and dressing together. Store separately then combine right before digging in with embarrassing gusto.

Serves two hungry people, possible with leftovers if you can restrain yourself.

Lookie Lookie

Loving these little toddler and small kid tees in the locomotive shop. How cute will this be stretched over a chubby toddler tummy, or on a wild and crazy obsessed-with-question-asking, front teeth missing Grade 1?

So cute.
Jay is hard at work in an amazing custom ordered toddler red "Baby Elephant" hoodie with a train patch on the front. It is a little ones version of this hoodie. I can't wait to see it and will be sure to post a preview before we ship it to the buyer!

Amazing Art Dolls from Etsy Seller Julieta of julietaromano

This is a huge departure for me. For the longest time I thought stuffed dolls were creepy and stupid, not to mention a terrible idea for a romantic gift. I have yet to understand the ugly doll craze happening at craft fairs and online either. But I *love* Julieta's hand painted art dolls. They are bright and gorgeous and modern with just the right touch of strange. Check out Freddy Mercury from the Let's Dance collection, how awesome is he with his rock star O face?


This is 0029 from the coexistencia derivada collection. Yes, dark. Yup, kinda scary. But I think totally original and interesting. And, well, pretty.



And here is more of the coexistencia derivada collection. Please do check out the link for detailed images. Some are wonderfully graphic, and others more medical with fallopian tubes and all the related bits. Brilliant!

Wicked Awesome Viet Inspired Fried Rice, aka Your New Best Friend

I love this rice. I am not sure it is remotely Vietnamese, except that it is chock-full of Vietnamese ingredients. This is a perfect preparation for leftover rice, and indeed the texture is nicer after the grains have been cold in the fridge for a few hours. A day or two old is optimal. I am greedy for it though, and inevitably end up making the rice only an hour or two before throwing it in the wok, at the very least letting it cool thoroughly before meeting its final, delicious end.

This is barely a recipe, more like a guideline of flavors. Any meat or vegetable leftovers you have in your fridge would probably be great. This is how I like mine though.

When the steamed or boiled long grain rice is sufficiently cool, start preparing the ingredients. I like to have everything chopped and the sauce bottles opened before cooking, since the actual wok time is pretty quick and dirty. Chop up two or three cloves of garlic, an entire bunch of scallions, three or four (if you dare) Thai Bird's Eye Chilies and a bunch of cilantro. Set all these ingredients aside but keep them pretty separate as they have different cooking times. Then slice up some Chinese sausages (I use local ones from Hons Wun-Tun House, but you can find them in most Chinese grocers), shell a few shrimp, and crack one or two eggs into a small bowl. Beat the eggs slightly then add a little salt and pepper. Also have Sambal Oelek (or another lovely chili sauce), fish sauce and soy sauce at the ready.

Get your wok nice and hot and add a few tablespoons of peanut or vegetable oil. Scramble the eggs, break them into large bite sized pieces, and set aside. Re-oil the wok, if necessary. Add the sausages, garlic and chilies and quickly stir fry until the garlic is fragrant and the sausages have a little color. Both burn quickly, so move fast. Add a tablespoon or so of Sambal Oelek, most of the scallions and the shrimp.

Toss the shrimp around for a minute or so before adding the rice, one handful at a time. The rice can be sticky so dampen your hands a bit. As you add the rice, carefully stir in a flip and fold sort of motion. It's pretty important not to mash the rice while stirring. The eggs go back into the wok at this point as well. When it is all incorporated and the shrimp is nice and pink and curled up, season the fried rice with a tablespoon or two of soy sauce and double that amount of fish sauce. A couple or more stirs and you are good to go. A nice handful of green onions on top is lovely, and I like to throw a salad worth of cilantro over the whole things as well. Nice to get a bit of green in.

Korean Street Food Delights at Pojang Macha

I confess I am a sucker for a restaurant with a hint of dive about it. And street food? Oh yes please. This is why I have been eager to check out Pojang Macha, a beacon of bright orange located in an otherwise unassuming strip mall on East Broadway. This place is so thrown together that even the old sign (House of Tofu) still peeks out from behind the orange Pojang Macha glory.



I think Pojang Macha is the coolest and most original restaurant concept Vancouver has seen in a long time. Taking the street food model to the extreme, Pojang Macha (translated “covered wagon”) features stainless steel pan lid dinner menus printed with a Sharpie marker, blue plastic stools for patrons, and walls and ceiling lined with the brightest of bright orange tarps. The orange tarps are meant to replicate typical Korean street vendor tents. Customers are invited to help themselves from a vat of crab and vegetable broth that simmers continuously on an island in the middle of the eight table eatery.

Choosing from the delights on the menu wasn’t easy, especially considering my passion for Korean Seafood Pancakes. So, chicken gizzards or noodles? We were feeling adventurous and went with the Random Dish, $15 per, and a shared bottle of Soju. The banchan came first, a gorgeous mix of nibbles served mess hall style on a metal plate. My favorite was an entire block of soft tofu in a gorgeous lightly spiced soy based chili sauce.



After the banchan, a succession of sweetly spicy meat based dishes. First, tender and perfectly seasoned pork dumplings, then the Pan Fried Kimchi Pork. The second preparation took all the spicy bite out of the kimchi, and it was soft and subtle with the sweet meat. The Chicken Gizzard and Garlic skewers were next, a delight and a surprise. The gizzards were chew and flavorful, and the garlic sweetly roasted. Both were drizzled with a syrupy glaze.



And then, what I thought was the most fabulous dish of the night, Beef Bul gogi. The Bul gogi was a huge plate of thinly sliced beef that had probably been marinating for hours in the most perfect sweet and spicy sauce, sautéed with green onions and garlic. There was definitely some ginger action in there and probably other vegetables too, but I only had eyes for the beef. The last course was an incredible Grilled Eel with carrots, cabbage and bean sprouts. Again, the texture was amazing. I loved the contrast between the tender eel and crunchy cabbage, as well as the sweet and hot components.

An excellent evening, indeed. After we ate, Pojang Macha’s owner Chris came over to say hi and check in about our meal. He admitted that because the place is so small, he caters to the individual taste of the customer. Or rather, what he thinks the customer wants. He said he didn’t cook our food as spicy as he would have for Korean patrons. When I protested he brought me a taste of some incredible hot sauce he imports from Korea. After I downed another shot of Soju to ease the burn, I decided that next time I will ask for my food spicy, Korean style. And I will order that seafood pancake.