My Goodness! No Guinness!
March 17, 2008
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.
The last of Canada: Toronto
November 21, 2007
Question:
What do you do with 26 green heirloom tomatoes harvested early to protect them from frost?
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 2: Pierogies and Dim Sum
November 6, 2007
So after sampling some borscht at St. Viateur on Northern St. Laurent, my appetite had awoken but not bedded down. So I knew there was only one place to go - The Main. This restaurant was my standby during my previous life in Montreal: an old Jewish deli with Quebecois flare, it has an extensive menu of sandwiches - including tongue and smoked meat - as well as poutine, matzo ball soup, vareniki (pierogies), blintzes, cheesecake and full-sour dill pickles. They also have unbelievable hamburgers; throughout university, going to the Main for a mozzaburger, dill pickle and Diet Coke was the perfect hangover remedy.
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.
Totally Awesome: The Dosa Man Triumphs
October 2, 2007
After two years of runner-up prizes at the Vendies, Thiru “Dosa Man” Kumar wins NYC’s top street food award.
I couldn’t be happier about it: the man’s kept me in shatteringly murugal, totally delicious rava dosa clover since B. and I first discovered his stand in Washington Square Park. NY Dosas’ offerings are not only authentic and perfectly executed: Mr. Kumar’s veganism and commitment to seasonal cooking (pay close attention to the sambar when you slurp it) inform and enhance the dishes. The Sri Lankan ginger beer doesn’t hurt, either.
I think I speak for all of us—the food enthusiasts, the homesick South Indians, the intrepid tourists, the NYU students and faculty who love him—when I say Romba sandhosham, saar!
[Image via The New York Daily News]
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.
