The Taco Always Rings Twice: Baja Fish
March 6, 2008
It’s difficult to imbue fried foods — even the best ones — with freshness and snap, to shear away that natural feeling of overindulgence that goes hand-in-hand with eating them.
Except, I’d argue, in the case of fish tacos.
There are also dishes that wring richly intricate tastes from a few ingredients: Shirred eggs and preserved lemons come to mind, although there are many in the worldwide running — and again, I’d say fish tacos are definitely among the pack.
Don’t Look the Dead Fish in the Eyes
February 11, 2008
We all have our culinary fears – areas of cuisine we tend to avoid. Perhaps it’s because we’ve had spectacular failures trying our hands at them, or were never introduced to the proper methods, or – in this case – because the mere idea scares the living daylights out of you.
I know N shares this particular fear: that of preparing and eating whole fish. I’ve heard her stories of bulging fish eyes covered with napkins at expensive restaurants. In my case, it’s been unplesantly close encounters with fins, skin and bones that put me off the delicious adjacent flesh in a pretty disappointing way.
A Weekend in Italy
December 23, 2007
So lately I wonder whether this blog even deserves to be associated with food writing: after all, it seems as though all I’m doing lately is running around Europe or North America; taking pictures of things I eat; and then, after finding myself too busy to actually take the time to write about said delicacies, hurriedly posting the photos and moving on to more delights.
Montreal 3: Sushi at Sho-dan
November 11, 2007
This is my second to last Montreal posting, but probably my favourite in terms of pure photo genius. Little digital camera with no manual settings and Windows Photo Editor, I kneel before thee! Let no one say you need a fancy camera and tripod and magic lighting to take good pictures of food.
Like so many of us, of course, I love Sushi. Being poor and sometimes a bit lazy to do it myself, I don’t eat it that often. Of course, articles like this don’t make me feel any better about that, or that my best efforts in home-made sushi could ever live up to the label ‘good’ or even ‘decent’. No, I will never wake up at 3 a.m. to bribe fishmongers for the perfect piece of tuna - but I will be consistently disappointed by eating mediocre sushi at affordable establishments! Oh yes, I will.
Montreal post 1: Bagels and Borscht
October 30, 2007
I’m back in Canada again. Don’t ask, it’ll just make you sad. And strangely - instead of being in Toronto with my family, I’m in Montreal (a city I lived in for five years … five years ago) having a mini-vacation. Again, don’t ask - suffice to say, in two days I’m heading to Toronto to take care of some sad family affairs.
But for now, I’m making lemonade with lemons, visiting old friends and old eating favourites, and it’s interesting to hunt down my previous tried and true eating experiences on a cold, 5-year-old trail. This seems to have affected bar selection most, but I had a few nasty surprises when I tried to track down that old hole-in-the-wall eating place only to find it closed. Fortunately, there appear to be some institutions that continue to stand the test of time.
Staffordshire Oatcakes
October 18, 2007
Sometimes I labour under the impression that because I’m living in the UK, I shouldn’t be living my exclusively urban lifestyle - jamming myself into tubes, attending free festivals in parks, exploring art-house theatres and perusing most major gallery exhibitions in the city. No no, I should instead be ruggedly walking through highland fields in wellingtons, with a troupe of dogs following me as I look stunningly rugged in a mackintosh. Actually, I imagine myself not so different from the Queen - in, well, The Queen - when she saw the buck and urged it to run away.
Canadian Thanksgiving
October 11, 2007
Canadian Thanksgiving was this past Sunday, October 7. For those of you confused, we have it earlier ’cause it’s colder, and thus harvest is earlier.
Anyways, I just happened to fly into Toronto from London at 17:00 hours on Sunday October 7th, was picked up at the airport by my brother, whisked back to my grandparents house in Oakville and presented with this:
My family’s basic, unpretentious Thanksgiving dinner, as it has been since I was born: Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Corn, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cheese Sauce and Turnip Mash.
Heaven.
Tongue, Taste and Locusts: An Evening with St. John
September 30, 2007
The Guardian describes St. John as “profoundly edible”. This is an interesting description of a restaurant known for having ox heart, squirrel or bone marrow on the menu. However, St. John is by now a London institution, with two locations, and from the moment I read about it in Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour, I knew it had to be my first London fine-dining experience.
Butter. ‘Nuff Said.
September 13, 2007
I live relatively close to a slightly more upscale area of London than my own neighbourhood – Queen’s Park. It has a lovely park (duh) in which I jog, the nearest Starbucks, lovely tiny bookstores, my doctor’s office, a Pilates studio, and all the other necessities for a neighbourhood of upper middle class Londoners.
Certain lazy Sunday mornings, I love to walk over to this area of London to browse the cookbooks in the bookshops, have a lazy coffee with the paper at Baker & Spice, and visit the tiny weekly farmers’ market they hold in the yard of the local primary school.
She Eats Seafood by the Seashore
September 2, 2007
Oh man, oh man, oh man, dear readers. I’m beat. This city is possibly killing me slowly. Or at least my life these days is feeling a little bit like a death by 1000 cuts.
As most of us know, city living can be hard. We pride ourselves on being able to roll with the punches, dodge the urban land mines and come out on top: surviving and having fun in the dog-eat-dog worlds that are London, or New York, or wherever for that matter.
But these days, the city is wearing me down, my friends. Each Friday, I roll myself home feeling like I’ve just finished round 20 of a heavy-weight title match with Mike Tyson (Boxing metaphors in a food blog?? Times must be desperate). I hibernate and seclude myself most of Saturday and Sunday, and prepare myself for more black eyes and bruised kidneys on Monday. Its been tough. The weather has been bad, I’ve been working too much, my family is far away, my friends are moving away — and well, isn’t that enough?
Ah, but last Saturday the sun came out and I decided to go to Brighton, a seaside resort about an hour outside London. It was a long weekend, the temperature was above 17 degrees and just going beyond the city limits lifted my spirits both literally and figuratively.
