Return of the Siciliana Pie
Gastown’s popular—and prophetically named—Incendio (103 Columbia Street) has reopened after last January’s blaze. The much-missed pizzeria features pies and calzones; try the Siciliana (anchovies, capers, onions, and olives) or the existentialist Ukrainian Angst pie (roasted potatoes, rosemary, and garlic). Pastas and osso buco are worthy, and kids’ meals are priced at $6.

Mapping Dinner
Just in time for gift-giving, the Vancouver 100-Mile Diet Foodshed Map is a colourful, recycled-paper poster jammed with pictures and blurbs about masses of great food from nearby farms and waters. Pigs, pears, artichokes, cheeses, berries, honey, and crab? Check, plus nuts, fish, wine, and much more. Order on-line at foodshed.100milediet.org/. Cost is $10 plus shipping.

How to Cook the Local Bounty
With shopping year-round at farmers markets and clued-in grocery stores for B.C.–grown food now second nature to many of us, Choices Markets’ self-published cookbook A Local Table ($19.95) is smart, timely, and useful. Chock full of healthy, accessible, seasonal recipes for vegetarians, carnivores, and those with special diets, the authors—dietitian Desiree Nielsen and chef Antonio Cerullo—include nutritional info and handy seasonal-availability charts and discuss organic and sustainable issues.

Breakfast with Benefits
Book Breakfast With Santa at the Pan Pacific Vancouver Hotel (999 Canada Place), December 6 and 12, and brighten wee spirits. Kids will eat well, visit with the jolly old guy, and thrill to a slew of cool entertainers. Cost is $28 for adults, $18 for kids four to 16, and $5 for toddlers. Proceeds benefit Strathcona Community Centre’s Food Security for Children program.

Let the Holiday Lunches Begin
It’s gang on at Hart House Restaurant (6664 Deer Lake Avenue, Burnaby) from December 7 to 24 for weekday sumptuous Dickens Luncheon buffets. Priced at $35 per diner, the groaning board is loaded with roasted turkey, country ham, root veggies, bread pudding, and more. Christmas Day dinner reservations ($55) are pouring in; ditto New Year’s Eve’s two dinner seatings ($55 and $75). Reserve at 604-298-4278.