During a visit with my friend Sheena, many years ago, she whipped up this most delicious thing that she referred to as "spicy noodle sauce".  I'm not sure where the recipe came from, but I made sure to get a copy of it.  Then, for whatever reason, I only made it once or twice before it was inexplicably left to languish in my recipe binder.  However, during a recent cupboard clean-out, I made the sauce again as part of a campaign to use up some aged rice noodles.  I wondered if it would live up to my memory of it, if it would be as amazing now as I thought it was back then.  And yes.  It was.  I had sauteed bok choy and tofu over noodles, but you could use this sauce as a dressing for a cold noodle salad, or maybe as a marinade.  Try it and see - it's repertoire-worthy!

Spicy Noodle Sauce 

Note: I've halved the quantities and tweaked the ingredients slightly.  

Whisk together the following ingredients.  The sauce should keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.

2 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp chili sauce (I used sambal oelek)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2" chunk of ginger, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp chili flakes
2 tbsp vegetable oil
pepper

In other food updates, The Last Crumb is a new-ish bakery on Main Street. After only two visits there, I'm prepared to say it may just be on par with Thierry (which is Vancouver's best bakery IMHO).  It also turns out that The Last Crumb has afternoon tea on weekends; full report coming in April.

(By the way, this is a banana bread pudding with creme anglaise.)

And finally, the March cookie of the month.  Solid!

Today marks the two week anniversary of my return from a one week trip to California.  It's cold and rainy here and I miss the warm and sun.  And the eating.  Thanks to a friend's suggestions, we had ample guidance to steer us in delicious directions:  in San Francisco it was a perfect lunch of assorted appetizers at Green's (why is Vancouver only now getting vegetarian restaurants on par with this?); samosa salad at Burma Superstar; a fantastic morning bun from Tartine Bakery that was sadly sold out on the following day; pizza and salad done right at Pizzeria Delfina.  

Napa, I miss you too.  Bubbles in the morning at Domaine Chandon and Mumm Napa;  pommes frites and salad at Bouchon and Bistro Jeanty (I'm hitting my new year's resolution of eating at French restaurants more often); tacos at the Oxbow Market.  The burrata at Bottega was enough to convince us to go back again for dinner the following night.  And the surprising winner?  A kale and farro salad at Tra Vigne that just might have been the best thing I ate in Napa.  (Perhaps it is also that kale and farro are the perfect antidote after a week of copious food and wine consumption...)