Month: June 2008

I got an email in my inbox today which read:

Hi Toren,
I’m writing an article about the rising consumption of shark fin soup and the declining number of sharks in the world. I’m interested in seeing if there’s more of the stuff being eaten in Lower Mainland restaurants, would you happen to know if that’s the case? And why did you start a list of restaurants that serve shark fin soup?
Best,
Bryan Zandberg
Reporter
The Tyee
www.thetyee.ca

The list (here) was lifted wholesale from benthic.ca, as noted in the title of the post. But I talked more personally about the irresponsibility of shark fin soup in my post “No One Wants To Talk About Shark Fin Soup.”

I’m not sure if I ever blogged about my more recent encounter with it, which I will now relate:

A couple months ago Geisel and Deanna and I were looking to get some sushi here in Kitsilano. Now everyone knows that the Eatery is one of the best places for sushi, so I suggested we meet there. As usual there was a big lineup and I hate lineups, so I suggested that we go to the place across the street, which was empty. I can’t recall the name but it is quite literally right across Broadway. We looked at the menu and spent about 5-10 minutes putting together a list of what we wanted before I noticed they had shark fin soup on the menu. I felt bad for wasting Geisel’s time but I did not want to patronize that restaurant, so we went further down the street to yet another sushi joint, devoid of shark fin soup, but increasingly burdened with the Eatery’s overflow.

I am not one to lament over another animal’s pain if it’s being killed for the purpose of food, but shark harvesting is incredibly wasteful, devastating to the environment and completely unnecessary. That’s all.

I’ll see it, for obvious reasons.*

*Like most people I enjoy hearing my personal beliefs touted/endorsed/validated by others.

Budgies Burritos, for anyone who doesn’t know, is a place directly below my studio space where one can get huge, delicious, sloppy, cheap, vegetarian, hipster-made burritos. They also have nachos but when I order them I have to tell them this menacing laundry list of modifications:

-no jalapenos
-no sour cream
-yes cheese is fine
-add quacamole
-add black beans
-fresh salsa, not hot or green
-nothing on the side, everything on top (reduces plastic use)
-no lid

Maybe I should print that out and they can pin it to the wall as the Toren Special. Last night when I went to my studio Budgie’s was closed, so I puttered around the neighborhood looking for dinner. No Chinese Bakery egg tarts at 9:30pm. Our Town Cafe always has paninis but I’m bored of them and I am not thrilled with the service after a couple of annoying instances.

There is a pizza slice joint next to the Wet Wizard bookstore. The pizza didn’t look very appetizing but I noted they had lasagna for $7.50. They said it would take 30 minutes so I walked to Cuppa Joe for an oat fudge bar and to the convenience store for some pineapple-coconut juice so I’d have desert and a drink.

The thing I learned about the pizza joint when I returned is that’s it’s licensed and icky. When you go in the food grabbery is on the left. To the right is an open area where lots of grody douche bags drink their beer and yell. It was difficult to read my Dungeon magazine without feeling like a chair might be smashed over my head at any moment. At least the ants were small enough that if they got in your food you wouldn’t notice.

Anyhoo, the moral of the story is that lasagna made at buck-a-slice type business are made out of cheap pizza toppings and if your stomach can take the punishment you still have your colon to wrestle with (picture that in your head).