Tag Archives: Food

The Global Toolkit of Skills You Will Need to Survive the Apocalypse

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Since I can’t seem to function at all when I’m hungry, I believe that keeping a happy belly is the #1 skill you will need to survive the apocalypse.

You will need to know how to throw a great dinner party wherever your apocalyptic survival plan takes you. Morale is vital to survival. Pot-lucks are great for morale.

You must know how to hunt, kill and use all parts of an animal for food and supplies. Vegan’s will not survive the apocalypse – another reason to enjoy bacon while you can.

You need to know which foods provide which vitamins. It would be pretty embarrassing to die from gangrene when there are zombies everywhere.

Survival Strategies from Around the World

By: Martin Renauld and Peter Joerdell

Martin says…

Looking back at history, I would guess Argentina would face the apocalypse using class warfare… Until now, argentinean upper class/oligarchy has reacted with force to most attempts to improve lower class living conditions, especially in tough times. Therefore, if food becomes scarce, migrations from neighboring countries start to flow in, zombies appear everywhere or even Jesus coming back to punish us (except Jehovah witnesses of course)… The rich and powerful Argentinean would do as they have done over the past 200 years, just bring a docile dictator and make sure not the share vital resources. Argentina produces a lot a food (for about 7 times its population), which I guess would help getting the rich richer if famine starts spreading around the world.

Peter says…

And welcome to the German perspective on „the Apocalypse“. And to be honest, it’s going to be a bit of a let-down. Because, frankly, us Germans, we’re quite used to the doom & gloom-perspective. I mean, just look at the end of WW2 – we’ve had the shit bombed out of us like no other nation. And ever since then, German Angst has been on the agenda (it’s no miracle that term is recognized and understood, globally). We’ve always had this imminent perdition-thing going: First it was the Cold War, then it was BSE, now the Economic Crisis and the Post-911 terror-craze… And as I said, if you go back to WW2 – everyone has their own family-stories here, to which to relate to when dealing with the apocalypse. In many ways, the final days of WW2 are the blueprint. How Uncle Willy ran away from his post, ditching his uniform and making for home through the woods. How Grandma, right after giving birth to my mum ran through the firestorm of what used to be Remscheid while the city ceased to exist, losing all her family in just one night. How my own dad stared down the gun-barrels of the Red Army as an eleven year old kid. If we’re honest, we’ve seen it all in the 20th century. Hyper-inflation, two world wars, a dictatorship made in hell, being threatened to be the first to go in nuclear holocaust…

The only new component in today’s apocalypse is that the environmental-issue is now also on the menu.

So, what would Germany do? I don’t know. Specific survival strategies have always proven to be difficult to maintain in the face of actual obliteration. Experience dictates that a lot of sheer luck is usually needed to come out alive and unscathed.

Maybe we oughta stick to the positive side: There won’t ever be a speed limit on the Autobahn after the world has ended. We won’t have to bail out Greece with our money. We’ll not be sewing T-Shirts for the Chinese market (as we might well do, according to some pessimists, in 20 years).

The best solution might actually be that of my friend Frank. His daughter was born on December 21st, 2010. He named her Maya. And he’s quite confident that her second birthday won’t be her last.

Lessons in Culinary Community Building

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Picture a long festive table decked with candles and lined with  a dozen smiling faces. Surely, all the ingredients for sharing of food, laughter and good conversation? Well, not so much.

As I sat down excited to spend the evening catching up with everyone, I realized a good third of the long table was out of earshot and I was confined to chatting only with my immediate neighbour. Others dishes were also out of tasting/sharing range. By the end of the evening, I left for home feeling unfulfilled -  increasingly convinced  that other cultures, particularly in Asia, but, oddly, as close as Switzerland, know where it’s at when it comes to shared dining. Here’s why:

Circle Sitting:

Rectangular tables are recipes for isolation and are basically retrograde – some sort of throwback to medieval banqueting. They’re also hierarchical when you think about it. Why do we need a “Head of the table”, for example? Sitting in a circle does away with all that and facilitates a shared social and culinary experience. Chinese Dim-sum restaurants have got it right.

Cooking (!) the food at the table:

Last year’s Christmas highlight was having endless Swiss Raclette with my family. A stack of cheese and a two little propane fired pans set up around our coffee table was all it took to have an interactive, collaborative and leisurely meal.

Japanese 'Hot Potting'

 

This year, the highlight was my first Japanese Hot Pot experience with six friends. Again, we relaxed around two bubbling cookers, working together to keep the pots full of pre-prepared seafood, mushrooms, kim-chi and other delicacies.

Admittedly my international experience is limited and hence my examples are too. But I feel it’s safe to say the West has a lot to learn. Sure – we’re good around a campfire with wieners and marshmallows, but it’d be great to bring that communal experience more regularly into our homes. Chopping the corners off all tables square is good start!

 

 

 

Food Charters: building a food community

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As part of my work I get to be involved in some really interesting projects.  One of the latest is the development of a food charter.  A food charter is a statement of values and principles to guide a community’s food policy. People from a broad spectrum of community interests and organizations meet and discuss their concerns and desires around food and agriculture policy in order to come up with a common vision and set of principles. These form the basis of a unique, local, community food charter.

Food Charters are still fairly new.  Toronto has had one since 2000, Sudbury since 2004, and Vancouver since 2007.  In the past three years at least half a dozen other communities have adopted them and even more are starting to work on them.  When a food charter is adopted by a municipal council it becomes a public document to guide decision-making.  It also can be endorsed by other organizations and form the basis of partnerships to work toward common goals.  In many ways, the food charters adopted so far look fairly similar.  I imagine the small steering committee that I’m on could sit down and write it over an afternoon and it wouldn’t look that different from what we are likely to end up with.  But while having a statement of shared values might be the obvious outcome that we want to achieve, an even more important outcome is the relationships that the process of co-developing a Food Charter will forge.

One of the things that I like most about the Food Charter process so far is it has been a tool to bring together stakeholders from a range of different backgrounds, including health, agriculture, environment, tourism, processing, retail, transportation, local, regional and provincial government, social equity, poverty, waste management, and education.  Individuals and organizations that have never been in the same room before have come together to discuss the Food Charter.  To me, this means that even in the main goal of getting a Food Charter adopted doesn’t happen right away that’s OK.  The relationship building that is occurring during the process of meetings and community engagement is already incubating new projects.  Even after one public meeting an action plan to go along with the charter started to emerge and at the top of that list was the need to collaborate, cooperate, network and share.  A new food community is budding and I’m looking forward to being a part of it.

An Appropriated Diet for a Full Life

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My Dad’s favourite book of the year is Tim Ferriss’, The 4-Hour Body. At his insistence I had to check out the website where I found a bonus chapter, written by Dr. Seth Roberts, that really sent my mind on a tangent. I’ll explain it from the beginning…

“Louise and Brody build the Eiffel tower” by Gedidiah McCaughey

Dr. Roberts is a professor of psychology and a member of the editorial board of the journal, Nutrition. His work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and The Scientist. He’s legit. The theory that captured my imagination is the basis for what he calls The Shangri-La Diet and springs from Pavlov’s psychological framework of associative learning. The idea is that our brains are hard wired from the days of hunting and gathering to stock up on calories when they detect that there is an abundance of good food.  The brain detects that abundance when it registers familiar flavours or smells. The first time we taste something, our brain has not yet made the connection between the associated flavours and the calories that are derived from their consumption. Because no association exists yet, the impulse to stock up on calories is not triggered and we feel satisfied with less. The next time we have that same thing, we subconsciously remember we like it and want more! Essentially, flavours are addictive and make us crave progressively more and more in order to feel that same initial feeling of satisfaction that a new taste experience elicits. The stronger the smell or flavour, the stronger this effect is. This is the same theory that industrial food brands capitalize on by striving to make their products taste identical each time and therefore making us crave their products at the first familiar whiff of grease or sugar.

This theory about appetite seems to me to be a very apt analogy for many human conditions. Particularly, it seems to me that our experience of time is affected very similarly. It is well recognized that as we grow older time seems to speed up. In the beginning of our lives when everything is unfamiliar and new, a few days can seem like an eternity. As we grow older and more familiar with what it is to experience the passage of time and as our daily experiences become well-worn routine, the months seem to fly by before we have the chance to even flip the calendar page and satisfaction doesn’t come as easily. The weekends seem to get shorter and shorter, and vacations are never long enough. We crave more and more time for the things that really nourish our lives but we are restricted to our standard time tables and schedules.

In this context it is logical that humans strive to perpetuate the feeling of satisfaction that a first experience produces.  Drugs have been used throughout history as a tool to do this. The desired effect being to alter human perceptions, arguably in order to experience the familiar in a new way and ultimately recreate the initial satisfaction of what was once new and novel.

Another tool we can use to break us out of the monotony of our daily experiences and alter our perceptions of the world is art. Consider how a new song can make a routine commute seem fresh again, or an unexpected piece of public art can transform a familiar city or landscape. Art has the power to make us reassess our surroundings and experience them like new again. It can also be the stimulus that makes us reassess our assumptions and see the familiar in a new light. This is why art is such an essential part of a full life experience. It alters and enriches daily experiences and offers an alternative to monotony. In a Big Mac world Art provides the nourishment that makes your life feel fuller longer.

So, there you have it. That is one insightful diet book. Thanks Dad!

 

VanValley is delicious!

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I signed up for the VanValley Buyers Club in July and it’s been such a fabulous experience, I had to share.  We paid about $600 up front for 17 weeks of amazing produce.  Each week, we’re pretty much set for fruit and veggies except for a few extras here and there, like California grapes and avocados from Chile.  I’ve always supported the philosophy of community supported agriculture (CSA), but this is the first time I’ve been directly involved.  And it’s been awesome to be a part of.

From their website, the focus of VanValley is to provide buyers club clients with the best LOCAL produce at competitive pricing. We believe that through food and supporting sustainable LOCAL food systems we are also building relationships and community (http://vanvalley.wordpress.com).  VanValley started this year and from my perspective, it’s been a smash hit.

We’ve signed up for weekly delivery of organic produce before and I didn’t love it.  No matter how many cool-packs were included in the bin, the produce would always be a bit sad by the time I got home from work to fetch the delivery from our sunny front step.  Unfamiliar produce would often end up in the compost as I didn’t know what to do with it. And it was expensive.

In contrast, VanValley offers value, convenience and fun.  Volunteers staff a pick-up table at our local coffee house from 4 to 7pm once a week.  That means we can peacefully make our way there after work.  Most evenings, we go as a family and end up chatting with neighbours and the amazing volunteers while we’re there.  And usually, we munch on farm-fresh cucumbers from Surrey or peaches from Keremeos on the walk home.

Administration has been seamless from the start, which I must admit was a pleasant surprise.  I’m not sure why, but I expected a period of working out the kinks.  There wasn’t one and I’m still impressed by how efficient the process is.  Members of the Buyers Club receive a weekly newsletter that includes a list of the produce we’re getting, recipes featuring that produce and news from the farmers.  Plus, there’s a trades box at the pick-up location and I love that.  We have lettuce in our edible garden, so we can swap out greens from our weekly box and replace it with something that another member passed on (like blueberries – yum!).  It’s such a simple idea and it makes for an even better experience.

It’s been wonderful to eat seasonal produce.  We loved the radishes and stone fruit through summer, the tomatoes and potatoes as we approached Labour Day, and now the deep purple beets and beautiful green squashes as we settle into fall.  It’s such a natural way to eat and so incredibly satisfying because the food matches the season.

The beauty of supporting local producers and sustainable food systems has become somehow less important than the experience of participating in community in this way.  We signed up because of our politics, but interestingly, our ideological motivations have sort of faded into the background because the practice makes perfect sense and the experience is just so darn great.

Like most Vancouverites, I’m already looking forward to next summer.  And our next summer will definitely include VanValley.  In the meantime, I’ll go back to shopping on the Drive for my organic produce.  And I expect that I’ll buy California grapes and avocados from Chile less often than I did before.

Masthead photo courtesy of Augapfel.

Fresh Turkey: Breaking Thanksgiving Tradition

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Thanksgiving traditions are treasured. Thinking back though, I realize that it has been a very long time since I had a traditional Thanksgiving. Hearing people discuss their plans for the upcoming weekend of feasts had me feeling a bit dejected for the past few weeks. If you share this circumstance or have occasionally caught your lower lip jutting out towards self-pity in recent days, take heart. I am here to tell you that missing out on all the usual trimmings really isn’t the same thing as missing out on all the fun.

The Gumboot proclaimed winner of the ‘war of the holidays’ earns its crown for many reasons. Many of those things that make Thanksgiving so favored are conspicuously absent from what has become my atypical Thanksgiving.  If upholding tradition is an option, it is still probably the best option but, if not, there is still hope for your Thanksgiving weekend to be full of all the warmth and happiness it’s meant to bring.

Coming from a large matriarchal family, my Italian grandmother and her many daughters (my mom and aunts) have always been counted on to orchestrate incredible feats of holiday gatherings where food and family take center stage. Thanksgiving, however, has become the exception to this rule since the year my family elders decided they would rather roast themselves in the Palm Springs sun than roast turkeys to feed 40 people.

Since the first abandonment occurred, I have been launched from my cozy continuum of consumption and into an experiment of creating my own holiday rules. Each year a new occasion has been invented or discovered. One year was an Oregon art gallery where many new friends were eagerly introduced to the Canadian version of a holiday they also love. Another year was a potluck pool party with all the fixins. Another was simply a long table in a tiny apartment packed with close friends. Whether they were spent with old friends or new, these deviations from the thanksgiving norm that I grew up with have been filled with good company, delicious food, and the thrill of breaking free from the norm and creating something new.

The emptiness left by a tradition lost can seem much more difficult to fill than that of a hungry belly. But losing one isn’t always an occasion to grieve. It can also be an opportunity to create new experiences that will stand out from the repetition of other holidays and to create something truly memorable and soul filling. The hunt is on for this year’s adventure. I’m still not sure what it will be, but I am certain that I will find a sense of community, if not a sense of tradition, wherever I wind up.

School lunch – tastier than I remember

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For the past few weeks I’ve been deployed to Churchill Secondary School with other VSB exempt staff. We’ve been tasked with supervising school lunch. Each day I arrive at 11:40 and plant myself in front of the lunch line. When the bell rings, the lunch room is swamped by hundreds hungry of students. Kids come from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures. The lunch line quickly grows as kids pile in to pick up their lunch.

The options are numerous. In addition to the burgers and pizzas one might expect, there’s also great soups and chopped salads, Chinese dumpling soup, chowmein, spicy chicken Caesar salad, daily-made sandwiches and pasta. In fact the local lunch cooks are empowered to occasionally bring their culture cooking-styles to the table. Things like French fries and corndogs are still sold, but they are baked (not fried). In fact the kitchen apparently tossed out their deep-fryer years ago. In the vending machines students can purchase healthy snacks. No coca-cola allowed.

It is a long way from some of the horror stories I’ve seen on Jamie Oliver’s infamous Jamie’s School Lunches. Certainly not a lot of the reheated crap that made England’s school lunches so famous and sparked such a reform campaign.

Still, after talking with lunch staff, the battles stay the same. Keeping cost down and preparing food that will be eaten (rather than ignored) seem to be as important here as they are in England. According to the Churchill lunch cooks, it can be a fine balance to find something that checks both the healthy box and the “kid friendly” box.

This afternoon I sampled the spicy chicken Caesar and I gotta say I was impressed. The salad was fresh and the chicken flavourful. In fact it seemed to be particularly popular among the students.

Certainly feels like a long way from the deep fried chicken strips I remember in my youth.

CLJ Reviews Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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What We Read

This month, Vancouver’s Circle of Literary Judgement read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (with Steven L. HoppKingsolver) and Camille Kingsolver. The story – a non-fiction narrative that follows the path of the Vegetannual through the seasons – chronicles The Kingolver Clan’s locavore experiment, which saw the family live from the local culinary bounty produced by their multi-acre farm (and revenue generated by two decades of best-selling novels) in Virginia. Barbara Kingsolver (BK herein) provides the – ahem – meat of the story, revealing her passion for food, her instructive advice on how to grow/raise food, and her commitment to changing the way people (specifically educated women who are over 45, have healthy disposable income, and who probably live in a rural community) think about food and where it somes from. BK’s stories of asparagus, tomatoes and turkeys are nicely supplemented by info-boxes about sustainable local food procuring from Steven Hopp and recipes from Camille Kingsolver (CK herein).

What We Did

With food at the centre of the book we made food the centre of book club! An hommage to Iron Chef was our activity of choice. Team Kitchen took on Team BBQ in a battle to build creative, delicious, local, fair, and organic dishes that reflected key themes from the book. The cooking took about 90 minutes and the final products were absolutely exceptional.

In terms of ingredients, I provided some basics (potatoes, tomatoes, herbs and spices, flour, yeast, water, milk, etc.) and then each team had to select twenty dollars worth of items from another list of options (eggs, fruit, alcohol, cheese, fish, etc.). The secret ingredients were chicken and rabbit (from my parents’ home in Merville on Vancouver Island). But enough writing, here are some photos that tell the tale:

This is the menu for Team Kitchen - written on Stew's back, for some reason...

In the end, Team Kitchen edged Team BBQ, as their pizza, rabbit stew (made by a guy named Stew) and sangria were as delicious as they were creatively presented. When dinner wrapped up, though, we sat at a table of winners; very full and satisfied culinary winners.

What We Thought

This was interesting. The table agreed that food is important and that it will become more important – and more politicized and businessified – in the future. That was about all we agreed on. One person had no time for the message or the book’s style, citing the recipes as the only piece of value in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – this person scoffed at any local food projects, too, stating that the economics of oil would eventually make our world smaller simply because of the cost and that BK got nowhere near the hardship of farming. If it was so easy, everyone would do it. Another person has actively changed her shopping habits based on BK’s insistence on eating seasonally. And many of us thought that the message was old news. Not many of us cared for BK, CK or Steve’s style, either; however, we agreed that our table was jealous that they got to the project before we did and that people don’t like our writing as much as they like the narratory trinity from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Another interesting part of the discussion came out of our material conditions and our upbringings. I am the only member of our nine-person book club who grew up in a rural community. And my parents refer to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle as “the bible” for locavores everywhere. I was surprised and impressed by how passionate and opinionated a book about food – and an activity with very strict financial and menu parameters – made everyone. People chided my choice of book, complained about the Kingsolver Clan’s unabashed pretentiousness, asked to use out-of-season and non-local ingredients, and three people repeatedly warned me that we wouldn’t have enough food. Needless to say, last weekend’s book club experience was a wonderful case study of urban local food experimentation. Thanks for the inspiration, Barbara, Steven and Camille, and for the deliciously lively dinner, members of the CLJ community!

Community on a European Vacation

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As it turns out, the recipe for Community is very simple; Singing in public, beer, and a little dash of wild animal. Surprisingly, I am not talking about drunken nights of karaoke (exclusively). I recently spent 6 weeks studying in Copenhagen, Denmark and followed that up with a two week northern European Vacation. Below is a selection of the top five community building places and activities I encountered in my travels. These are the things that made me think, “Man oh man, I wish I could do this at home!”

 

1. Mauerpark Market and Bearpit Karaoke (Berlin)

Late on a Sunday morning we headed over to Mauerpark for the Berlin’s local favourite flea market. After several hours of exploring the winding stalls of the outdoor market, with several stops to rest in mini-manufactured-beach beer gardens, we had had our fill of bargain hunting and novel snacks. So, made our way over to Bearpit Karaoke just outside the market gates. We were lucky enough to arrive just in time to hear a rousing rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way performed by a bearded, German, older gentleman. I was not entirely surprised to find out that this was not his first time in the Bearpit. The only performer who gave him a run for his money was this little girl who made the crowd fall silent before we all joined in to clap along with her song. It was a gorgeous day and the hill over the stage was stacked with people of all ages and walks cheering on the performers. The organizers turned an umbrella, a wagon, a laptop, and some speakers into one of the best boundary breaking, community-building events I have been to.

 

2. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Denmark)

This was my favorite museum and is a great example of how to make art an accessible and fun experience for a wide range of people. Before I made the trip myself I had heard from many people who couldn’t speak highly enough of the museum and one who said he took his kids there as often as possible. After spending several hours exploring the facility, all that I felt was missing was that feeling of backache that usually accompanies long walks on hard museum grounds. These grounds were not the usual museum grounds though and moved the visitor almost seamlessly between in and outdoor exhibits. There was even one point when we got to use a slide for transportation! (A transportation method that should be adopted on a much wider scale.)  Exploring the outdoors was a refreshing way to discover Louisiana’s impressive collection of sculptural works against a backdrop of the beautiful Øresund beach front and manicured hills that are perfect for a picnic on one side of the property and a beautiful lake nestled into a wooded area on the opposite side.

 

3. Midsummer’s Eve Celebrations (June 23, Copenhagen)

People go out en masse, not just to one spot but basically to any park, beach, or barge in town. They eat hogs, drink beer, and laugh and chat until someone lights a huge bonfire with a scarecrow/witch on top. That’s when they start singing in unison. Amazing.

 

4. A la Mort Subite (Brussels)

Founded in 1928, this was a stunningly beautiful Belgian bar whose name translates to  “At the Sudden Death”. Well if sudden death were to strike, there are plenty worse places you could be. Picture soaring ceilings, golden yellow walls and pillars, and locals enjoying a selection of Belgian beers so flavorful that it is probably impossible for anyone to claim they don’t like the taste of beer after trying these variations. This place had an incredible community atmosphere. We sat down at one of the long communal tables next to an older couple from Brussels who were only too happy to share with us the secret of the Brussels classic brew called Gueuze (it has to do with a reaction between the yeast and a bacteria that is only found in the air in Brussels) and their life long dream to travel to Canada. A perfect Belgian experience.

 

5. Elephants in the Park (Frederiksberg, Denmark)

Anyone who remembers when the Vancouver Zoo had a place in Stanley Park is not likely to have forgotten how awesome it was to go and watch the polar bears from the zoo’s outer confines. The Copenhagen Zoo has elephants that you can get within about 40 meters of from the surrounding park without paying the zoo’s hefty entrance fee. They play and throw dirt and swim and splash and break sticks and lift logs and sit on each other. Watching gigantic, beautiful, social creatures makes for easy conversation with the other observers and was a perfect place to chat with the very friendly Danes who always seem to out for a leisurely afternoon. The elephants were a mere five-minute walk from my apartment so I made a practice of visiting regularly.

If we can’t travel to Europe or have elephants in our backyards at least we can get together to drink some great craft brews and sing about it. Anyone got a karaoke machine?

 

 

 

 

Fans, food and flummox: The Vancouver Canadians Experience

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Last Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending a Vancouver Canadians game with a group of family and friends. Having spent the last year focused on learning the basic rules of soccer so that I could muster my way through a Vancouver Whitecaps game without completely embarrassing myself, I’m flummoxed and somewhat hesitant to admit that I somehow lost all of my knowledge of baseball. After receiving a crash course (and braving the incredulous response I received from my husband, who asked more than a few times, ‘you’re joking, right?’), I was able to sit back, enjoy the game, and, more importantly, critically analyze some of the key differences and similarities between Vancouver’s sports teams. In no particular order:

1. The fans

The ever-enthusiastic Whitecaps fan base

One of the key things that struck me was the difference in tone, atmosphere, and make-up of the fans. The Canadians game was definitely more family-friendly – a claim I can confidently make after astutely observing the large number of families in attendance. That, plus the fact that I left the game without hearing one swear word or having any beer spilled on me – two things one can always count on at any given Whitecaps game. What’s more, I didn’t notice a lot of folks on their cell phones or wearing business suits, which tend to be frequent sites at Canucks games.  I chock this difference up to – not surprisingly – the low cost of tickets and marketing efforts geared towards families.

2. The food

Sadly, the food is one similarity that I wish was different. It tends to be overpriced, unhealthy fare no matter what the venue or sport. While fans justify overindulgence with the explanation that, “you gotta have [insert unhealthy food option here] when at a [insert sport here] game!”, for those of us who care about what we put into our bodies or where our food comes from, having some healthier options would definitely be appreciated.

3. Advertising and corporate sponsorship

Advertising at the Nat - No space left unspoken for

While advertising and corporate sponsorship are of course prevalent across all sports organizations, I found there was quite a difference in advertising methods, dependant on opportunities for promotion within the structure and coverage of the game. Given the continual flow of soccer, with few breaks other than half-time, advertising is done through marketing materials, clothing and gear. With a large Bell logo on the front of our jerseys that we wear to every game, we the fans advertise on our team’s behalf. On the contrary, with the frequent commercial breaks and high viewership of Canucks games, most advertising is done through commercials. In the most hilarious of advertising efforts, the Canadians squeeze it in where they can: between innings. A Smart car driven around the field between second and third inning? That will do!

So there it is – a few observations from a casual fan, slowly learning about the fascinating world of Vancouver sports.