This was a promotional item given out to campus/community radio stations, reviewers, and others, to publicize the 1991 album, Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham, by Toronto’s instro-kings, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, the wordless three-piece consisting of Don Pyle, Reid Diamond (rest in peace), and Brian Connelly — on the Cargo Records label, when the label was a rather very large and influential releaser of fine musical wares, both as a label and as a distributor. (Alas, Cargo is no more, having fallen apart and declaring bankrupty in 1997 or so, and almost taking us — and many others — down with them, but that is a story for another time.)

Shadow Men on a Shadowy Planet became most well known as the creators of that song from The Kids in the Hall comedy show that first aired on CBC TV. Post-SMOASP, Brian Connelly went on to form Atomic 7, and Mint was fortunate enough to have released two of his albums, Gowns by Edith Head and …En Hillbilly Caliente.

We have no idea what the meat inside the can tasted like, nor did we ever find out if anyone else opened it up and ate it, but this can has been sitting around, first at CiTR, then at Mint, and now in my apartment, for something like over twenty years.

And, yes, the can is now very rusty.

These are our — or at least my i.e. Randy’s — top ten favourite eating places right now, in no particular order:
Nuba
La Taqueria Taco Shop
La Casita
Save On Meats
Meat & Bread
Acme Cafe
Hiro Sushi
Greedy Pig
Bambo Cafe
and the legendary and venerable Vancouver Community College food purveyors who provide cheap cheap eats from their fridge. Cookies, pastries, dill salmon, and roasted veggies, anyone?

Do you know what would be neat? If a food truck or cart would set up shop for the day by Victory Square Park….

I remember going into Frannie’s at the end of February, for my semi-usual early-morning breakfast fix, along with two or three other regulars, plus a steady stream of construction workers (yes, they were still around, building the new buildings in the neighbourhood) coming and going. When I went up to order, Helen said in a quiet tone and with tears in her eyes, “We’re closing.” They were going to leaving within a month, maybe sooner but definitely not later.

And for the next four weeks, as often as I could, I went down there to the little space above where Scratch Records used to be, to order breakfast, or lunch, or cookies and banana bread. I wanted to make sure the gustatory memory was firmly embedded — and I was also kind of guilty because for a period of time, six to eighth months perhaps, I had not visited Frannie’s because I was concerned with so many hearty breakfasts and what it might mean to my innards. But that feeling disappeared soon enough, and I truly missed going there.

One morning, during the final weeks, I asked Helen what that amazing smell was. “It’s Japchae, want some?” She was cooking it at work to take home for dinner. “Come by at 1:00 and I will have it here ready for you.” And she did, and it was amazing. At one point, Frannie’s had served Japchae, a Korean dish of stirfried cellophane noodles, veggies, meat, and soy sauce, but no longer had; it was one of the only things I remember disappearing from the menu.

Anyways, throughout those final weeks, Helen and Kee were greeted over and over again by old customers, some folks who had made special long treks to return. And on the final day — yes, I went there for breakfast — they warned everyone that they will only last as long as there was bread. I even ordered Bill his regular sandwich to go, and had it taken straight to where he was that day, kilometres away from the corner of Cambie and Hastings.

Right around 2:00 or so, after the big rushes — and there was a steady stream of wellwishers ordering turkey or chicken clubhouses, toasted veggie and cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, roast beef sandwiches, and on and on — Kee announced, “We’re out of bread! We are done.” And with that, food creation stopped, and the remaining folks slowly made their good-byes and left.

I frequently saw Kee sweeping and vacuuming the floor of Frannie’s around 3:00 or so when the rush had long since passed, and I thought of Helen and Kee on that final afternoon in early spring, when they put the broom away and locked the door for the very last time.

If you ever drop by the Mint office, we’ll likely offer you some sugary pink gum, possibly because we have a soft spot for this classic cub video. The comics found inside the video’s gum are way better than the originals as they feature the cub girls (and Mint Randy!). This makes me so happy.

You can read elsewhere about the reincarnation of this Dominion Building basement spot, from the total redo of the interior to reflect its Middle Eastern vibe, to the saving of the (I believe) Davide Pan-created security bars on the windows put up for a previous tenant, to the little garden out on the sidewalk tended to by Nuba staff, but the thing for me is the food.

There was a time when two or three times a week we would order lunch from Nuba, and it was usually the same thing: Najib’s Special and the lentil soup. Najib’s special is something that I have not seen anywhere else: it is deep-fried cauliflower. Sometimes a bit crunchy, but by the time we got it, it was a bit steamed, the deep-fried cauliflower is a little bit greasy (olive oil!) mouthful of that white vegetable that I remember eating raw as a child with French onion dip. It  comes with a unique (for me) green hot sauce, and starch and veggie and salad, and lots of olive oil. It is crazy good.

Other things that are memorable include the roasted potatoes (yup, and with the hot sauce added — I see them making the huge trays of roasted potatoes when I come into work every now and again), the wonderfully crispy falafel balls, the Mjadra (mmm, the crispy onions on top), and the chicken and hummus. Basically, really, the whole menu is amazing.

They tried to serve breakfast for a month, but that didn’t last long. And they have since expanded to three locations now — the most recent opening being closeish to Casa Del Artista and the Narrow — but the spot in the basement of the Dominion Building is the one for me. Oh, and there is also a bit of a “cushion room” too.