Monday, Sept. 5th: This morning I ferried/drove back to our house in Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island. "Every trip is an ocean cruise," as Rick Cluff likes to say. When I arrived I pulled out the digital scale I had weighed myself on in Vancouver last Monday when I began this feature on the Pacific Palate Blog.
Drum Roll, Please: I have dropped almost 5 pounds! 4.5 to be precise. Some folks will tell you that loss could be accounted for by water, or a normal swing in your body weight, but I’m going to take it as a sign that the 30+ kilometres I walked last week on the line actually helped.
What Doesn’t Help: I’m a food journalist. That means I make my living by experiencing the world of food in as many ways as possible. Thursday night meant attending a new restaurant opening.
NU is the latest creation of Harry Kambolis of C Restaurant and Rain City Grill fame. It’s right at the foot of Granville Street on the north side of False Creek and promises to be another winner. So, when you go to a restaurant opening you eat and drink. What else? I won’t bore you with all the details but I know you might be just a bit curious so here we go:
How about this salmon candy? Chewy and smoky and sweet all at the same time.
Then there were these little servings of steak tartare on a crisp, house-made potato chip.
Oh yeah, and then these battered and fried oysters that were served with a little plastic tube full of beer. As you shoved the oyster in your mouth, you’re supposed to squeeze the beer tube so you enjoy both beer and oyster at the same time. I think they need a little work on that one. There were other nibbles as well, but wouldn’t you know it, my gang was still peckish, so…we went out for dinner! This is why it is hard to lose weight when you’re a foodie. Fortunately, our choice of going to hapa izakaya on Robson Street was wise as the food there is fairly light, including these melt in your mouth Kobe beef slices that are carefully seared with a blowtorch at your table. 
I guess I’m getting a little off topic here…on Tuesday morning I will head down to the CBC office in Victoria and start picketing as we begin week four of the lockout…
South Beach: Almost forgot. To up the ante on the weight loss, today I began Phase One of the South Beach diet. No bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, fruit, sugar or alcohol for two whole weeks. Do you know how hard that is for a food guy like me to attempt? I’ll keep you posted….
