for day hikes i would use some sort of alcohol burner and for a survival kit the Esbit tabs and matches folded up inside.

I actually prefer little wood-stoves. Not for use in SOCAL, but assuming you have wood in Canada...
Vargo Hexagon Wood Stove

Why not carry both, along with some Vaseline cotton balls so that you can start a fire with wood even when it is ridiculously cold? Vargo makes a stove designed to use both fuels - http://www.vargooutdoors.com/triad-xe-multi-fuel-stove.html#.Vnd6FFl2E2A - kind of pricey, but it should do a bang up job.

There is also a three legged Esbit holder that weighs almost nothing. It should work well along with your Fancy Feast stove. Regardless, you will have only a finite amount of fuel and you need to be ready to transition to wood at some point.

I use alcohol a lot and I like it. It is readily available, relatively safe and non toxic (at least compared to petroleum fuels). Keep it in a good tight bottle and it will be just fine. In cold weather, consider sleeping with it so it will work in the cold early morning.

If I am doing serious cooking, I do like canister stoves a lot. They are hot and simple, like some of my old girl friends (my apologies for my sexist comment, but I couldn't resist).

Hi bacpacjac,
So what is the tallest/widest cooking container you have?

Pick your dedicated boiler (say a bottle)
and wrap aluminum foil/flashing around it,
this is your pot skirt (more than a wind screen)
attach to bottom a metal can/cup with skewers,
this is your grate / wood stove / pot stand
you can put soda can stove inside this cup


Links to construction/theory/fancier version in this caldera cone thread

I really like ESBIT. It does stink pretty bad and leaves a crappy residue but it burns great and keeps forever. It's a lot better emergency tinder than Wetfire, too; I promise you that if you count on Wetfire eventually you'll be let down. The packaging seems prone to leaking, and once air hits it it's inevitable that it will fail if you store it long enough. In my experience the stuff just isn't that reliable. But ESBIT is! You could leave a block of it unwrapped on the coffee table and it will still work a few decades later.

+1. The good old Esbit is very compact, can be carried easily in a pocket and works really well as a "survival" stove.

An alcohol stove (Trangia being my favorite) takes a little more room but is more convenient as a general purpose outdoor stove.