wildcat

Brunch was a little disappointing today. We went to the Heron Rock Cafe, which was touted as a mainstay of James Bay and top knotch -- only it was a bit underwhelming, all around. I had this veggie burger with carmelized onions and a side salad, but the veggie patty disintegrated too easily and the onions were oddly bland; the salad, by contrast, was quite good. A light vinegerette, apples, and various grains. It was missing something, a "kick" of some kind. Christian was saying they're better known for their three-course dinners and that gives me hope, because their brunch just didn't do it for me. Victoria has a healthy brunching community but I've found in my travels that it's very hard to find good, unique brunch offerings -- everybody carries the same West Coast Brunch Foods and only a few places have stand-out signature dishes like Avalon's hollandaise sauce.

Feeling unsatisfied with my meal, I wanted to go for ice cream but pretty much everybody poo-poo'd the very notion, so I've been at home fiddling about with my music. I'm going to go to the market and get things for dinner, including lime sherbert and some bread; I'm going to make myself escargots and garlic bread tonight, I think.

I've been reading Amy Sedaris's I Like You: Entertaing Under the Influence, which I think Joy would like quite a lot. Some of the meaty pictures are a little distressing but they evoke that weird, psychdelic cookery feel of a Seventies cook-book. It goes through etiquette, throwing parties (How not to introduce someone: "This is Helen, she can't have children."), different menu selections, how to be an unexpected guest. It's got a section on cooking for one and talks about Sedaris's imaginary boyfriend Ricky.

Christian made some remarks about alien languages not being based on consonants and vowels which made me think. The story's going to be quite retro in its approach to science fiction, given the circumstances of the characters and the fact that in my head I'm writing a dime store pulp fiction. I've got about a page from the other day to transcribe so I can play with the ideas for a bit and then get to some heavy writing later this evening.