BBQ'ed Pork Filet on Thai noodles and broccoli slaw

After a lunch of homemade pesto linguine the grey day, and full stomach, drives Drew to a nap. When he awakens, the usual late Saturday afternoon dialogue begins. "What are you thinking for dinner?" says Raul casually.

Drew doesn't believe for a moment that Raul is being passive-aggressive, he is just trying to make Drew feel included in the culinary decisions. "I don't know, what do you have in mind?"

"I don't have anything in mind but there is pork marinating . . ."

The pork filet had been purchased on sale, Raul's Portuguese background is inexplicably more frugal than Drew's Scottish one, at No Frills because meat should never cost more than $1.99 a pound. Raul took the large cryovac packaged slab of meat and using a filet knife removed the silver skin - to avoid bitterness when cooking - and fat. He then cut the foot-long results in half to create portions for two which were then frozen.

After thawing the pork, Raul marinates it for four hours in a mixture of soya sauce, hoi sin, brown sugar, garlic and chili pepper. Sealing the filet in a airtight Ziploc bag means a small amount of marinade can infuse the meat completely.

In a mason jar Raul combines lime juice, olive oil, brown sugar, garlic paste, fish sauce and chili flakes. He adds the broccoli slaw (99 cents at Sobeys for a package he used a third of), shakes it vigorously and lets it sit while the pork is being bbq'ed for about 10 minutes. The pork is sliced against the grain in slivers and placed as the top layer over a bed of broad rice noodles (snapped into four inch segments before cooking to provide ease of eating) crowned with the now dressed broccoli slaw. The results are garnished with chopped coriander, mint, parsley and basil from the balcony garden, and cashews.