chopstick beaten eggs

new home!

2011-03-29T09:39:00.004-04:00

Not to fret, things are as delicious as before.

Come find me at my new home:

chopstickbeateneggs.wordpress.com

bon appetit,

Lindsay.

the northern quebec diner.

2009-07-19T12:28:00.009-04:00

For convenience, I shall reference this food-serving entity as a diner, though it differs in a variety of ways from the beloved Place Milton and McGill Pizza I frequented during my undergrad. Meet The Northern Quebec Diner (NQD). Themes and commonalities:

There is always pizza at an NQD; the extensiveness of the offerings are restaurant-dependent. Details from my three pizza experiences thus far:

Pizzeria Amos – good; met my expectations for a diner's pizza. All dressed, lots of meat, lots of cheese. Quintessential Quebec-style pizza, with the meat under the cheese. The fries are good too (actually, I haven't met a disappointing fry during this season yet).
Cadillac's Routier 117 – subpar, although the boy (who's eaten their on a few occasions before me) says it's variable. The kitchen staff must have been rotating through their B-list when we went together: although the crust was done, it was just done and on the soggy side; the all dressed featured pepper-pieces too large (which only just cooked through); and the cheese was just melted, and not at all coloured/broiled/etc.
OPC Deli in Lebel sur Quévillon – in theory, the OPC special was extremely tasty: ground beef, olives, onions, bacon. The crust was well done, though my taste buds craved more salt (the boy believes I have an odd salt threshold: my usual tendency is to enjoy things less sodium-ridden than the average Canadian, but he's been slowly adjusting the salt content in his bread baking to above and beyond the recommended amounts for me), and the toppings would have been perfect if the beef was (more?) seasoned and drained. It's not as fun to have a well-done pizza that ends up soggy due to the meat juices on one's plate.

Extending beyond pizza, the Italian section on the menu also offers spaghetti & sauce / lasagna / etc.
Misc. “Canadian” fare on the menu. Sandwiches, fish and chips, sometimes (often times) a chicken section on the menu (see below re: Restaurant O'Poulet).
Poutine is present. From your plain old poutine with beef gravy and cheese curds, to Italian poutine served with spaghetti sauce. Of course, you can always order just fries too.
Les mets chinoise sont aussi sur le menu. It's been an unspoken tradition for the boy and I to check out the Chinese restaurants during days off. If we're lucky, we make friends with the owner/chef in Cantonese, and order off the back menu. In northern Ontario, we've managed to discover a few gems in Timmins and Kapuskasing, and even went to the restaurant serving Robert Munch's favourite chicken balls in Hearst. We've been unable to find proper Chinese restaurants outside of The (Chinese) Buffet (to be discussed in an upcoming post). Looks like Northern Quebec opted for all-you-can-eat. The only Asian face I've seen at anywhere was the lady serving us at Restaurant Viet-Nam in Amos (yes! "Vietnamese" food in Amos! The food was even good, despite its questionable authenticity. And very lacking of pho. More on this in a future post), so there was no ordering off the back menu for us. The Chinese restaurant in Rouyn-Noranda is actually the diner that bills themselves as a chicken joint (Restaurant O'Poulet), . I was trying to find an exception to the Chinese-food-at-the-NQD-rule, but one lone menu item at the OPC cafe has convinced me that there is no exception. Their menu was extensive in every other respect, but on the bottom of the second last page, a “assorted Chinese plate” advertised itself.

I shall remain vigilant and on the lookout to fine-tune the definition of an NDQ. This job certainly shows a city girl handfuls of small towns. I'd never be able to survive up here, food-wise.

no vegans in abitibi-témiscamingue

2009-06-06T09:17:00.005-04:00

Yet another season of treeplanting!

Due to a few curveballs, we've landed ourselves in Quebec this year.
It's currently day-off in Rouyan-Noranda after an arduous 1st shift; during work, we're camping out of Rapide-Sept. "Camping" being a very loose term, since we have cabins with running water and electricity (!).

My initial food-fears have lifted in the land of poutine, where vegetarianism is deemed a disease. They weren't groundless: 2 seasons ago when we planted in Quebec, our vegetarian friends ate sides for dinner: soggy tinned peas and potatoes. The game of what's-for-dinner turned into wondering what's-not-for-dinner, since there were usually 3 different meat mains on any given night.

It's definitely also because we'd been spoiled on the Kap contract for the last 2 spring plants - our head cook had graduated from chef school prior to my first season. Everything was made from scratch (not only is it tastier and healthier, it's easier on the wallet when you're on the company budget), down to salad dressings and soup.

Although eggs to order are frequently breakfast foods, it hasn't be the only option (which was certainly the case 2 summers ago). And though not every dinner was accompanied by a side of veggies, it's been nowhere near mushy peas 5 consecutive nights. Our cook makes a mean meatloaf (which I found out in French is actually "bread of meat"), and a fairly good caesar dressing. Quebec soul food!

I am, however, looking forward to a grocery run today (to cure my lack-of-greens-crankiness) - we're spending our 2nd day off in camp. With stoves and fridges in the cabins, it's going to be a feast tonight!

e18hteen

2009-05-18T00:22:00.007-04:00

Some time ago, the boy promised to take me out on a real date. Unfortunately our last pre-summer/treeplanting weeks in London were filled with errands - moving the contents of our apartment into storage, on his part: final papers & exams, on my part: wrapping things up in the lab so as to leave things at a natural breaking point for the next research assistant.

Putting London on hold, we decided to postpone the date until Ottawa.
Enter e18hteen.

Classically trained Matthew Carmichael's menu features local ingredients. Despite the unsurprisingly little amount of 'adventurous' foods, the dinner turned out extremely tasty. We created our own tasting: they "usually" only allow blind tastings if the entire table partakes, so we couldn't manage to convince the waiter to serve a few extra blind dishes in addition to one order of the tasting menu.

greek styled tomato salad - very generous amounts of delicious goat's cheese and olive tapenade. In fact, it was an overwhelming amount, hiding the oregano vinaigrette. I should've saved enough bread from the first round - it would've made a fantastic spread! The tomatoes were unfortunately a tad disappointing. Expressing these sentiments to the waiter resulted in him not asking about any more of our remaining courses.

lobster cobb salad - with a buttermilk dressing. Served with a rather generous amount of lobster (we suspect from cold storage -- it's definitely not lobster season yet), a few slices of perfectly ripe avocado, crispy bits of bacon, blue cheese (Bleu Benedictine) and egg. Just lovely!

steak tartare - a very generous amount served in a bowl in another bowl of ice. Definitely a smidge on the cold side - too cold for the flavours to properly come through in balance. Red chillies gave the dish a slight kick, and the roasted red peppers were a delicious and unexpected addition. Though the herbed and blue-cheesed crostini were delicious against the beef, we happily spooned the remainder onto their bread as well - a much sweeter variation that showcased the parmesan in the tartare.

foie gras, 2 ways - the soy-stained torchon served with maple crystals was creamy and tasty, although not my favourite of the two as the soy almost overpowers the subtle richness. Despite a few corners being overly browned, the pan-seared version served on brioche was simple and delicious, accompanied by a tiny amount of ume.

espresso roasted ostrich - when examining the menu, the boy was initially skeptical about strong flavours of the dish: cardamom, cocoa nibs, brandied cherries, and a red wine demi glace. In the end, I'm happy he was persuaded: everything was fantastically in balance. again, very generous portions (a good 4, 5 pieces of meat).

chocolate torte - served with a blood orange sauce. Chocolate-y rich and delicious, it was an awesome way to end the meal.

I think I'll never be able to take top-notch restaurants 100% seriously though: there was great entertainment value derived from the table next to us (6 men working in finance). After a bottle of rosé, a bottle of red, and a bottle of vodka, they sounded like frat boys Being in high school, I thought everyone would have grown up by the end of university. During my undergrad, I figured people would mature once they hit the real world. I wonder about the proportion of the clientele who are their for the food (genuinely), versus going there "to be seen".

But I digress.
It was overall a fantastic night out and I'm already salivating for our next dinner date!

Restaurant 18
18 York Street
(613) 244-1188

dinner party [!]

2009-04-18T21:24:00.011-04:00

I was in cooking mode since my first cup of coffee last Friday; it was grand. In fact, I went to bed the night before with purple hands. Beets!

The beauty of Montreal was having semi-regular dinner parties. Pretty much two of my favourite things in the world combined: good company and good food. In any case, between the boy's multiple church gigs and us being stuck on duty [i.e., functionally handcuffed to our apartment], I figured the best way to enjoy the long weekend was snag friends who did not have family turkey/chocolate egg hunt/etc obligations elsewhere. I was unreasonably gleeful at the number of friends who were also in town and wanting to partake in yummy eats. All of the food that was brought and shared was wonderful: cheese & crackers! pierogis! homemade oreo cookies! a salad of greens! zucchini bread! banana muffins! We even had a traditional Polish Easter cake (I believe it's called "mazurek") all the way from Milton.

I made my second ever roasted duck using the prick & flip method: low heat (325 deg F) and long cooking (almost 5hrs), pricking and flipping the bird every 60 minutes. The goal is to let as much fat escape, essentially self-basting the duck in its own goodness. I'm quite sure Jennifer Mclagan, author of Fat: an Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, would approve that I saved the extra skin and fat to render. Duck fat is delicious to use in cooking. [on a sidenote: I have yet finished reading the (cook)book, but I'm enjoying her inclusion of fat related trivia despite her preachy tone. I'm assuming most people who own it aren't afraid of lard.]

Using leftover turkey from our freezer (strategic fridge-emptying menu planning), I made a cheddar biscuit turkey pie loosely based on this recipe. The parsnips and pork stock worked wonderfully with the standard mix of peas, carrots and celery. Also on the menu, the boy's wonderful (garlic & onion) focaccia and (mushroom and cheddar laden) scalloped potatoes.

As for my beet salad, here's a general breakdown:

1 lb beets
2 medium sized carrots
1/2 of a medium sized head of fennel (keeping the green tops)
3 apples (we had Spartans on hand), peeled

Julienne the beets finely and place them in a bowl with some apple cider vinegar, a few dashes of cinammon, a dallop or two of honey and some salt and pepper. Mix well and let this sit overnight. For my rendition, the carrots were an afterthought thrown in the morning after (a delicious decision) - they could have just as easily been tossed in with the beets overnight. Immediately prior to serving, jullienne the fennel and apple and throw them into the bowl with some (1 or 2 cloves) minced garlic. If necessary, add more cider vinegar to taste, and a splash of good oil. Mix the salad well with your fingers and enjoy!

never again [bangkok pad thai]

2009-04-04T21:44:00.003-04:00

I was warned against this place before moving to London, but I figured I had nothing to lose - the restaurant's close to my yoga studio, and I only had an hour to nourish my belly and get back to campus for a friend's recital.

Wrong.
Oh so wrong.

I called the restaurant from the yoga studio, ordering shrimp rolls and pad thai. Two very standard (and difficult to mess up) items, that should be at least average at any Thai restaurant (or restaurant claiming to be Thai). I was ravenous after my yoga class, and pulled out my stuffed-to-the-brim clam shell of pad thai. With my splintery disposable chopsticks, I shoveled a few steaming bites into my mouth. My mouth was burning 12 seconds later - not because of the steam, but the excessive sambal (which is an Indonesian chili paste, no?). Yes, that's right - burning. And I can take spice, usually even from authentic Asian restaurants. Even worse, the sweet-salty-bitter-spicy balance was off: too bitter (see note about spice), too salty (excessive fish sauce).

No saving grace with the ridiculously priced (6.95$ for two!) shrimp rolls. I had originally thought that splurging the extra 1.45$ extra for shrimp would be worth it and that I had nothing to lose. Oooooh dear. I was wrong to expect a Montreal-pho-house quality of spring roll, but I had a little bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, it would be at least mediocre-to-average quality. Nope. No herbs (?!). Piddly amount of cucumber. One piece of shrimp. Something that vaguely resembled white noodles. Tiny serving. And the peanut sauce was not peanut sauce: it was a dollop of peanut butter in a lot of way-too-sweet coconut milk. Of course, the extremely large and topped to the brim container of condiment that comes with a takeout order never makes sense either, but that's a tangentially related rant.

Bangkok Pad Thai
0 of 5
735 Richmond Street

wordle.

2009-01-23T10:52:00.005-05:00

The use of our new pasta machine = success!
We are now in dire need of more semolina and eggs.

We inaugurated our newest kitchen toy in the company of friends (thanks J & S for driving coming all the way from Toronto), and ended the pasta meal with my second attempt at tapioca pudding. This time, I 1/2-ed the eggs, substituted 1/2 of the milk with water, and slightly decreased the amount of tapioca. Much more to my liking, although the boy preferred the first, more custard-y version. He is of course, more than welcome to make it his way if he decides to tackle the (easy-to-make) dessert.

I haven't forgotten: I'm still working on the massive post on our Mexico trip.

For now, enjoy the fun wordcloud generated by wordle.

proof is in the pudding.

2009-01-10T12:42:00.000-05:00

I had tapioca pudding for the first time 2 weeks ago in Mexico (look forward to an extensive post soon!)

I'd argue that my childhood wasn't deprived at all; it's just that I grew up on a Chinese version of this. Sai mai lo (one of my favourite desserts since childhood) is a thinner, non-custard soup-like dessert served warm or cold. Taro is a common ingredient, there's often coconut milk involved, and it's sweetened with rock sugar. I'm adamant about the taro part, so I never make sai mai lo unless there's taro in the kitchen.

Being in London, I haven't gone out of my way looking for taro. Which means we have tapioca pearls kicking around in the cupboard. Which means I can make tapioca pudding! I gave this recipe a try after borrowing sugar from a neighbour (I'd finished soaking the tapioca and realised we had none), adding a pinch of nutmeg and cinnamon. I didn't care for it warm: too custardy (my bias for sai mai lo), too salty (I'll half the salt next time), to milky (sai mai lo incorporates water). Chilled overnight, all of that unpleasantness disappeared. I'm looking forward to tweaking this till perfection...

krinos feta: doric macedonian style.

2008-12-21T16:37:00.004-05:00

We have (now a little less than) 700g of feta in our fridge.

It's by far the best tasting feta cheese I've had in a long time (if ever) - it's creamy and smooth. It has a much better balance of brine/salt than most. Did I mention how creamy it is?

Its raison d'être in our fridge was the boy's rationalization that it was "the most authentic looking thing at A+P". Not to mention best bang for buck - I believe the 700g tub was around 15$. Try it if you see it. You can't miss the hideous cylindrical yellow tub with a red top.

Doric Macedonian Style Feta
(Krinos)

too much food and nobody to feed.

2008-12-18T23:26:00.005-05:00

Holiday huzzah!

The boy and I had planned on hosting a dinner party last Sunday before the mass exodus from London (ours included). With our love of wining and dining guests/friends, we naturally started the cooking craze mid afternoon and guestimated (sorry, I had to throw that in :D) for 5. Honey-wasabi roast chicken! Roasted potatoes with onions and green peppers! Green salad! Apple pie!

Sadly, our friends failed to show (they had valid explainations, and we're no longer too upset at them). Pick-me-ups that evening included homebrewed porter and wheat beers, a few episodes of House and Family Guy, and a bath.

Not all was lost - leftovers made fantastic lunches.
And I managed a mostly decent looking pie for my first ever lattice top!

the toast & the flip and toast.

2008-11-24T21:58:00.004-05:00

With gadgets like the SureShot (which still cracks me up every time) you've already done most of the idiot-proofing, Tim Hortons. Yet, there is still room for error and general frustration-provoking encounters. Now of course, this may not be the case in all of your locations, but certainly my last 2 incidences with you have been less than satisfactory.

Location: basement of the SSC.

Incident 1: I was too hungry and cold to wait until going home for food and figured a bowl of mediocre soup would somewhat solve the problem. The accompanying piece of bread is of course, nowhere near the boy's home baked goods, but it'll do. Especially if toasted. Putting on my biggest grin, I asked the lady pleasantly if she would please slice it open to toast for me. "I don't toast! This is small piece of baguette!" Yes, I was aware that it was a mini baguette. Again, I patiently expressed that I wanted it toasted. "No toast! It burn!". Um, actually - it's about same thickness as your mediocre bagels, which never thoroughly toast on one pass (and thus never burn). I ask her again - third time's the charm? "Not my fault if burnt bagel." Yeah, okay. She grudgingly toasts it, cranking the speed on the toaster up to further prevent it from "burning". The result? A pretty unscathed and surprise! not toasted piece of bread. Oh well, it was at least warm. Ish.

Incident 2: I was too hungry to wait until going home for food (again. I should start stocking provisions at the lab - I cringe every time I have to spend money on campus food). The lineup in the basement of the UCC was a tad less crazy than the one upstairs, so off I go again. Mission: cream cheese bagel, twice toasted. I double checked with the cashier - it'll be flipped, then toasted again? Of course, it wasn't she who served me (that would've been too efficient). It was someone who was trying to juggle my bagel and the turkey sandwich order behind me. I eyed her stacking the sandwich hesitantly and messily (did you not see the cheat sheet, noob?). When she took my bagel out and proceeded with cream cheese-ing it, I gently reminded her that I wanted it toasted again. "Oh! It written here already on order!" Then why did I have to remind you? Then, the fatal mistake: she toasted it on the same bloody side. I walked away dissatisfied with blackened innards and untoasted externals.

soggy shawarma

2008-11-18T19:58:00.003-05:00

I miss Montreal.

Including greasy Lebanese fast food - Boustan is absolutely unbeatable. My brief Montreal visit last weekend (new blog post come!) to traipse across the stage in a ceremony of funny hats didn't include garlic potatoes; I figured I'd make up for it today at the food court. As much as I dislike shopping for the sake of shopping, I desperately needed a pair of everyday winter boots to combat slush and cold - it's finally that time of year where my "nice" leather boots stay hidden in the closet until roads have been cleared of snow and salt.

I grabbed a best-of-both-words beef-and-chicken sandwich, all dressed of course. Pickled turnips! Garlic sauce! Mint! But the excitement ended after a few bites. The almost 6$ shawarma from Madina was texturally way off - the garlic sauce was goopy and not smooth, the pickled turnips were soggy, and the beef was... also soggy? I think "mushy" would be the best way to describe it. I'm not sure I want to know how a spit roast would turn mushy...

I'm packing a lunch next time I go shopping.

pasta puttanesca

2008-11-08T21:25:00.008-05:00

Watching Iron Chef has become more than just an after dinner sport - in fact, it's been an inspiration for dinner. Take the episode featuring sturgeon: the boy has a "oh-I'm-so-going-to-make-that" moment as Iron Chef Symon whips out a sturgeon puttanesca (or, if you would prefer - the wikipedia article mentions it being the only thing that could be whipped up by a whore between turning tricks). The lovely photo below is from the boy's version 2 rendition, served when his mum was up visiting. Relatives with a cars mean having a chance to explore places that we would've unfortunately missed otherwise (not exactly bike-able or bus-able to beyond the corners of London) : one stop at the Arva flour mill in Arva, and one to White's Cider Mill in Lambeth. Too bad we didn't have a chance to meet Mike at the flour mill - the owner is a friend of the chefs at The Only. Oh well, perhaps we'll meet him at one of his frequent trips to the restaurant and chat bread. Purchases his store included a 10kg bag of flour, some semolina, local eggs and the most wonderful caramels. At the apple cider mill: pressed apples for drinking and cider making, cherry juice, and goodies to ferment cider.

With a lack of capers in our kitchen (something I've yet to learn to appreciate), the puttanesca tomato sauce featured olives, anchovies and chilli flakes, with catfish (yum!) thrown in at the end. The semolina was smooth and elastic, much easier to work with than all purpose flour and resulting in thinner hand-rolled sheets (our next kitchen purchase, after a sharpening stone, may be a hand operated pasta machine). Needless to say, it was absolutely delicious.

2008-10-31T21:47:00.001-04:00

I realise that I've been neglecting this blog, so I'll do my utmost to update more often. One of the failed mentions of about a month ago was this: the boy decided to make me dinner. Not that it's a rare thing that he does this, but this - this was fantastic. Braised chicken thighs atop a bed of watercress risotto (what a lovely colour!!), and garnished with freshly shaved parm. Can we say... YUM!

London (Ontario, that is).

2008-10-31T20:54:00.005-04:00

We've landed ourselves in the little town of London, in a 825 sq ft 2 bedroom apartment that's costing us less than the 1bdrm Montreal pad.

Perhaps I should rephrase myself: we're now located in Canada's 10th largest city. Ahem. It takes a little getting used to when you've lived in Montreal for the past 5 years...

My biggest concern moving here was that there'd be a lack of food scene - but I've been proven wrong so far! After 8 weeks of London-ing, we've had beautiful food (outside of our own kitchen, of course) at Garlic's and The Only on King.

A couple of Sundays ago, the boy and I had garlic ice cream. Yes, true to the name of the restaurant, they tried to prominently feature garlic in all of their dishes, including dessert! Pleasantly surprised, it was pretty damn tasty: the spicy kick from the raw garlic balanced well with the vanilla in the ice cream. The waitress seemed to think we were "brave" to try the chocolate covered garlic garnish (that would've benefited from being slightly less sweet) - perhaps most of the patrons are less daring than us. Food was okay - satisfying, but not as creative or original flavours as I would've liked.

The pan fried northern Lake Erie yellow skinned wild pickerel was done perfectly - every time I order fish at a restaurant (which seems to be rare), I wonder why I don't order fish more often! It was served with a little too much remoulade, though (which went well with the potatoes, but overwhelmed the fish if you glopped it on). The boy had the the braised dorset lamb shank, accompanied by a jalapeno & mint jelly. It was nice. Satisfying.

Tonight, we dined at The Only on King - and even had a chance to meet the chefs Jason and Paul and sneak a peak at the kitchen! (drool... I want one of those). The boy's surprise tasting menu was of beautifully autumn, and started with a chestnut soup with apple crème fraîche. An heirloom beet salad with chèvre and smoked bacon on arugula, a gnocchi and perch dish, and cornish hen done just right. Dessert? A deliciously rich and smooth chocolate tart. His mum (who suggested the lovely restaurant after reading in En Route that it was on the top 10 list of new restaurants in Canada) had a fantastically balanced endive salad featuring a blue cheese dressing, apples, and pecans. And a main of perch and dessert of sticky toffee pudding (which came with a fantastic vanilla ice cream). My rillettes to start were accompanied by lovely olives and marinaded artichoke, and the rib eye with creamed spinach and chanterelles was fantastic. The meat was cooked perfectly - and thank goodness they didn't ask how one would like it done, because it precludes the possibility of morons ordering it medium well or well done! And I must confess (rather sheepishly) - this is the first time I've had chanterelles, and I've definitely fallen in love with them. Plating was a little less exciting, but the tastes more than made up for that component.

I'm looking forward to visiting The Only again, and seeing what Jason and Paul will whip up (their menu changes daily). Lovely atmosphere, and a cozy dining area that seats about 30. And part of their decor? They have a meat block and a duck press. How cool is that?

The Only on King
172 King Street; 519.936.2064
**** (of 5)

Garlic's of London
481 Richmond St; 519.432.4092
*** (of 5)

m for mediocre - m:brgr

2008-02-14T22:28:00.003-05:00

Our lunch visit yesterday to the new burger bar m:brgr left much to be desired. The burgers were good, yes, but definitely overpriced for what they're worth. And it wasn't anything that couldn't have been made at home for tastier. The reasonable burger price of 8.75$ doesn't reflect your total bill (as expected - I'd already peeked at the menu on their website) since toppings add up. A few toppings later, and your burger ends up being closer to 18$. The portobello on the boy's burger were slightly lacking in flavour, and unable to hold up against the beef. My burger, topped with house-smoked bacon (which I will admit was quite tasty) and cheddar that was too mild for my liking (especially against the pickle). Moreover, our foodie companion's fried egg was overcooked (isn't the whole point to have the runny yolk meld with the sandwich?).

The one saving grace? Excellent coleslaw (also as expected - it's the same stuff served at Moishe's, and it's the stuff that turned me onto coleslaw in the first place). Okay, and their lightly battered sweet potato fries were pretty tasty as well. But aren't burger joints supposed to highlight burgers?

I'm glad I tried the restaurant, but the hype is overrated and my first visit was likely my last. Don't be fooled by their tagline "required eating".

2025 Drummond; 514-906-2747
Dinner for 2, before tax, tip and drinks: $45-$75

tasty olive oil and.... good customer service (?!!!)

2008-02-08T10:33:00.001-05:00

We (the boy and I plus a friend) discovered a tasty olive oil from New Zealand whilst dining at Casa Tapas one day, and I've been on the prowl for the stuff since. Of course, leave it to trusty Vieille Europe to carry such things!

Anyway, the boy had baked fresh ciabatta for opening night of The Mikado yesterday, for which he had baked 6 loaves of ciabatta for patrons to munch upon. Sadly (well, not so sadly for us), one of the loaves was on the not-so-aesthetically-pleasing side of things, meaning attaching Nankipoo's name to it would've been a little bit of a silly idea. So, we ate the 1/2 that was a little flat.

To celebrate the grand occasion of tasty bread, we opened the bottle of stuff I had picked up from Vielle Europe not too long ago: The Village Press's Barnea Olive Oil. First taste = bitter, flat. Bitter and flat?! Definitely not the way I remembered it at the restaurant. A quick google search convinced us that yes, the oil had indeed turned rancid. Must have been the poor seal of its cap, which of course would've bled air into the bottle.

All of this left me, of course, a little bit sad. I'd been waiting to have my very own coveted bottle of this stuff to consume! Next course of action = email the folks over at the Village Press with a firm but pleasant tone, letting them know that I wouldn't accept anything other than a replacement bottle for this mishap - you know, the standard product complaint email, here's the UPC code, etc etc except that I tried to make it as friendly as possible.

I received a reply from them, one hour later!! I've never heard of such speedy customer service in my life, and was taken aback (pleasantly). Plus they were apologetic - in a rather sincere way (as sincere as one can be in that sector), unlike other customer service representatives I've dealt with in the same domain. And now, a bottle of this stuff is getting shipped here - shipped! I actually only expected to get a voucher for them instead, and I didn't think ask for me to "please send us your address ASAP!!" (!!'s placed by them, not me).

Anyway, I'm pleased. Quite so.

I haven't forsaken you, blog!

2008-02-02T14:37:00.001-05:00

Yes, I'm guilty of having disappeared for the last few months.

It has been a indeed a lengthy while since I've updated here. In fact, there's a massive backlog of tasty photos on my laptop, with many side dishes of accompanying stories. I've been rather busy with the school thing - between working on my thesis and practicing French (yes, I'm taking a French class this semester!), I barely have time to host dinner parties!

And I'm hoping to make-over the blog sometime in the near future, but of course that's yet another form of procrastination. Quite unnecessary as my plate for these 2 weeks has been loaded with 2 presentations, a midterm, and the first half of my thesis due.

I'll be back soon, I promise.

s is for stemless.

2007-10-09T02:05:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed the glassware in my last post about the boy's tasty concoctions (it was sadly hiding behind the soup bowls). Check them out in greater detail (and without wine):

I fell in love with Spiegelau's Authentis Casual stemless glassware about a year ago. Sadly, my inner klutz constantly reminded me that it was a Bad Idea to be purchasing Really Nice Glassware on a student budget if it meant constant replacements were to be bought. Having been on the lookout for more affordable stem(less) ware since then, I recently stumbled upon these lovlies. A set of 4, with carafe, only dented my wallet by 12$!

an at home dinner date

2007-10-08T15:43:00.000-04:00

Ever since dining at Casa Tapas and Zumaia (which has sadly closed its doors recently), the boy has been itching to recreate some of the lovely food. Namely some sort of red-pepper-goat-cheese concoction, and a garlic-saffron-tomato soup. Last Thursday, I definitely wasn’t going to complain if he wanted to whip up a feast of sorts. Served with lovely grilled potatoes from the George Foreman and a small plateful of kalamata olives, we washed down the meal with some of the boy’s wine (he’ll need to do another order soon, that’s for sure).

Note the proud display on the recently acquired dining table. (mostly) Functional, though a little rickety, and not the most aesthetically pleasing thing. But (mostly) functional. Which is fantastic!

brunch at trattoria amore

2007-09-30T00:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend landed me in Toronto, and happily reunited with a dear friend who's been missing in action for 5 months. Okay, not really MIA per sey, unless you count disappearing to Berlin for the summer as such. Sadly, our academic paths have led us to be in different cities, but alas! It gives me yet another excuse (beyond my mother's rendition of oh-so-good Chiu Chow styled duck) to come visit.

We caught up in the yuppy neighborhood of Yonge + Eglinton, where yummy mummies were plenty, dog-walking (and child-walking) on sidewalks. With Sunset Grill being packed (and neither one of us extremely craving the greasy spoon: to be honest, I'm still recoiling from the Quebec protein of August), we sauntered north along Yonge. A few restaurants seemed to serve brunch, but Amore caught our eye with its menu displayed prominently beside the door. C-Food, for example, had this silly little tv screen on the patio, that stayed too long on the '15$ prix fixe' screen, without divulging the details of this special. It wasn't that Amore had a spectacular menu, per sey, it just, well, had a menu.

Reasonably priced enough (brunch items seemed to mostly hover at 9$ or so), we took a seat on the 'patio' - a crammed 3 table space in front of the restaurant. Unfortunately, it proved not to be the best seat of the house, as the autumn winds and shade quickly cooled our ordered items. I suppose I'm still in denial that summer is quickly fleeting.

I was sorely disappointed with the overly lemony hollandaise sauce on my bennys. Which leaves me still on a quest to find the perfect rendition of this sauce. The last time I had eggs benedict, I was in North Bay where the joint served a way-too-thick version of the sauce (did they put cornstarch in it?!). And unfortunately, my dear friend was unimpressed with the undercooked potatoes that came with her spicy italian sausage frittata (the bread was a redeeming factor, however.) Coffee was standard, as far as coffee goes when it's served at 2.3$/mug.

Spending QT was more of a priority today, so I think I wasn't actually as frustrated (vocally, anyway) with the food as I would usually be. Sometimes, even good service can't make up for the food. When I'm in the area next, however, I'll probably be venturing elsewhere. Like Grazie Ristorante, for example (a fave of my dear friend's).

Amore Trattoria
2425 Yonge St.
* * (of 5)

fridge woes and tuna tales

2007-09-13T11:42:00.000-04:00

We have a new apartment!

The boy and I moved into our new place at the beginning of September: same (sketchy) building, larger unit. What sold us? The really really large kitchen. Well, relatively so anyway, as far as apartment living goes. But, but, but... we had no fridge until a good week later. No joke: it was Sept 7th before we convinced them that doing groceries was integral to my well being. Eating instant noodles and pizza for a week had me wondering how people survive on these types of food for the entire academic year. Ewww.

The building management had promised us a new fridge (a few new ones were on order), and kept saying that they'd be here 'either today or tomorrow'. Definitely more than a few 'tomorrows' passed by, so we knocked on their office door. The solution to the not-yet-arrived fridges? Them pulling out a fridge from an empty unit. Meh, it'll do for now - not to mention that it's a better fridge than the one on the boy's old studio. Besides, it seems like they haven't forgotten about the new fridge, which means perhaps one of those by the end of the month? I've learned not to assume anything around here. I'm just crossing my fingers on one of those soon, so we'll have a functional freezer. Not that the one now isn't functional, but it's one of those ice-boxes-within-the-fridge type deals. Not very cold.

But!

We lucked out at the grocery store last week: tuna was mislabeled as shark! We couldn't believe our luck at finding this stuff for 11$/kg. It turned out to be okay, but not fabulous (unfortunately), in our rendition involving soy sauce, wasabi, and sesame seeds. I'm not sure I'll be using the george foreman again for tuna without modifications (it didn't grill... it steamed the fish - too much liquid!).

In other kitchen news, our oven has no temperature markings.
Any suggestions?

northern ontario (chinese) food: treeplanting (pt. II)

2007-07-12T14:43:00.000-04:00

You may recall how I raved about the food at our camp this past contract. Well, treeplanting didn't have us always eating in the bush - in fact, we function in shifts of 4-6 days, with a night/day off. Typically, the last day of a planting shift will be an early one, so we're planting until 2 or 3 (instead of 6 or 7). We almost always head straight to town from the block (the land that we plant), meaning we show up with dirt on our faces (and everywhere else) in our smelly sweat ridden and blood stained work clothes (which were probably the same ones worn yesterday, the day before, and the day before that). Once in town, planters are responsible for feeding themselves. That night's dinner, and the next day's food (though we head back to camp on that next day, we're not fed).

With our 7 or 8 days off this contract, the first two were spent in Timmins, and the others (with an exception of one night in Hearst) were in Kapuskasing. Having grown up in Toronto, and lived in Montreal for the past 4 years, I wasn't really expecting much in the way of food, way up there. A little bit of a stuck up city mentality, I suppose.

Over the last several years, the boy had become familiar with Timmins, as he frequented this town on days off of previous contracts. Both nights we were in town included Chinese food at the Cozy Corner (24 Mountjoy St S). Just next to the Days Inn at which we stayed, the restaurant is owned and operated by a speaker of Cantonese (I suspect he's an immigrant from Hong Kong). The boy has been returning for years, but hasn't had a chance to order off the back menu until now. I was amused - during our first day off, I had to convince the two young women working in the front that I wanted to speak with their chef/owner for dinner. They may not have known what to do with a Cantonese speaking girl still in dirty dirty clothes. Not bad, actually! Just priced twice as much as Toronto: rice noodles with beef, along with Shanghainese bok choi with garlic and spring rolls. The second time we were there, we decided to eat in, ordering a seafood concoction off the menu. Scallops were way over cooked, although the shrimp were still okay. Dinner was even costlier this time (as expected, with the seafood), at over 40$ for two. (Costly, you say? Why yes! compared to dining in Toronto for Chinese food - if you find the right places, you can be paying as little as 15, 20$ for two).

During our one night in Hearst, we had dinner at King's Cafe (824 George St.), where Robert Munch declared they made the best chicken balls, ever. Though we didn't end up trying to aforementioned deep fried spheres, we found out that the bean sprout chop suey dishes comes with... toast! Yes, a stack of buttered and toasted white bread. The things you learn about Canadian-Chinese cuisine, I suppose. I must confess that I didn't even know what an 'authentic' chop suey dish was supposed to contain until that night: 'chop suey doesn't exist as a dish in China'. I think the waitress at King's was amused that the boy decided to chopstick the toast. And one of the cooks was surprised by the appearance of a Cantonese speaking girl, still in unlaundered work clothes.

We found ourselves in Kapuskasing for the remaining days off, where we had a chance to try two of their Chinese-Canadian restaurants. To be honest, the two restaurants tasted the same to me, with their standard over-cornstartched sauces. Not to say that the food was bad, of course! It's just that I'm not sure I'll ever be used to "Chinese" food that's been catered to the Caucasian crowd. I was actually quite surprised at the frequency of Chinese Canadian restaurants in Northern Ontario - all of the ones we ended up going to were all Asian-operated, too. Of course, there's a serious lacking of many Chinese staples (such as the various "speciality" vegetables found easily in the city), and I understand from the owner of Hong's Take-Out (48 Queen Street) that shipments from Toronto are only monthly. As just mentioned, their fare was pretty similar to the food at Thong La's (16 Riverside Drive, Kap). In other words, all the noodle dishes featured the same ingredients, switching up the meat and sauce to exponentially expand the menu. Not quite a taste of home, but my expectations were surprisingly exceeded (according to the boy, the sweet and sour soup at Thong La's was pretty good, too). I definitely would go back for their Singapore fried noodles though - authentic to the tee, and not at all frugal with their ingredients. Chicken! Shrimp! BBQ Pork! Bean sprouts!

The boy is currently planting in northern Manitoba, and I understand from him that there are various Canadian Chinese restaurants up there, too. Perhaps I'll have to snag myself a contract on province over next year, and find out for myself. Until then, I'm more than satisfied with the Asian eats of the city.

bush camp life and food: treeplanting (pt. I)

2007-07-09T11:05:00.000-04:00

That's right! I'm back in the city after two months of living and breathing in Northern Ontario, treeplanting for one of the largest reforestation companies in Canada. Blood, sweat and tears, anyone? It was pretty much the most demanding thing I've ever done, period. Both mental and physical stress add up to a little (or a lot!) of 'bush craziness'.

You may be wondering: why the heck is she mentioning these adventures on a food blog, for crying out loud?

The answer is simple: I wanted to ramble about the food I've consumed during the months of May and June. It's not every day that you're eating at a bush camp. And it's not everyone who has the opportunity to do so for two months. I'll even throw in some details regarding food consumed on days-off, when we partied it up in Northern Ontario small towns (namely Timmins, Kapuskasing, and Hearst). So here we go:

First, regarding the bush. Many vets on my contract corroborated the fact that our camp was pretty much set up to be the Cadillac of bush camps. Complete with a mess tent (where breakfast + dinner are consumed, where things get schloppy during in-camp parties, where general hanging-out while drinking hot chocolate/beer and reading/playing cards/playing scrabble/etc occurs), dry tent (for the somewhat drying of clothing/boots after rain days - though in reality, things never really dry completely), shower trailer (that nobody actually used - yes, treeplanters are dirty dirty people), cook shack (propane fueled for all cooking needs), and shitters (our portable outhouses that divulge quite the odor after 3 days).

The day begins at 6am, when we're rudely roused by the honkings of our supervisor's truck (or sometimes, a chainsaw). This usually translates to me trying to ignore the blasts until my own alarm sounds at 6:15, rolling around in my sleeping bag until 6:23, getting up and getting dressed, and rolling out of my tent by 6:30-6:40. Time for 1) breakfast and 2) packing a lunch in the mess tent, all to be had/done in the 15 minutes before our buses leave at 7am sharp, whisking us away to the block for a long day of planting. Prior to actually living the bush life, I was skeptical about the copious amounts of food that would be consumed. Specifically breakfast-related, I didn't believe I'd be doing the daily breakfast meats (there was always either bacon or sausage), but your body definitely can do with the extra fat and protein. And ensuring that breakfast included carbs, fats, and protein helped diminish the effects of hunger's first wave at about 10am. Along with the bacon/sausage, there was always a hot breakfast, too - from french toast, to pancakes, eggs, and BLTs, breakfast burritos, to english muffin sandwiches. Perogies and grilled cheese sandwiches, endearingly named 'grillies', were both favourites of mine, and were ultra portable for consumption during the bus ride. The trick for the former is stealing almost empty cartons of sour cream, filling them with perogies, and bringing a fork for the bus. Also present daily were one or two types of fruit - canned peaches and pears, fresh melons (cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon), sometimes even kiwi, bananas and pears. There was always a homemade breakfast bread (chocolate chip, cranberry, poppyseed, blueberry, to name a few), and of course the various selections of cereals. And caffeine presented itself for all in the form of teas and coffee; I quickly learned that my thermos was worth its weight in gold.

I also learned various tricks for packing lunch, including the lovely halfers of PB+J, or hummus + cucumber. Because we had no set lunch break, and eating all of your lunch at once would cause much discomfort when planting, I was partial to eating a little bit of food (a half sandwich or fruit or vegetables or something sugary) every time I was at the cache bagging up. ("Cache" being where the bins of seedlings are stored, and "bagging up" being when we fill our planting bags with more trees once we've "bagged out" and have planted the last "bag in". Food and large water jugs (mine being 12L) are also stored at the cache, along with your day-bag containing things like extra clothes, rain gear, sunscreen, and bug dope.) This translated to about a 1/2 dozen 'cache breaks', and splitting my lunch into that many pieces. Half sandwiches are key: take one slice of bread, throw on the toppings, fold in half, et voila! Save on cold days, I usually stayed away from lunch meats (selections of ham, tuna, roast beef, salami, and sometimes tuna), since rancid and greying sandwiches weren't really my cup of tea. My lunchbox was an extremely large tupperware container, fantastic for minimzing the amount of squished sandwiches, and being spacious. On an average day, it held 3 apples or oranges (or peaches, the one time those existed! needlesss to say, the large box did not last more than a day for a camp of 75 people), a sandwich bag full of veggie sticks (carrots, celery), my 4-6 halfers, and 1-2 lunch treats, if I'm in the mess tent early enough to snag some. Lunch treats ranged from various cookies and cookie-like biscuit-y things (chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, butter cookies...) to rice krispy/cereal squares, to granola bars. Some planters choose to pack leftovers for lunch, if any exists from yesterday's dinner; meatloaf made for great sandwich material.

As a camp, we definitely went through a lot of bread, (especially whole wheat) and a tonne of food in general. Personally, I was eating twice as much as usual (literally) and that still didn't add up to the calories expended while treeplanting! When we were in town for our days-off, the cooks were busy doing food runs so that we would be well fed during the next shift. Orders from Sysco, and runs to the grocery store filled pretty much the entire back of a bus, and then some (a good chunk of seats are taken out of the former school purpose buses to allow for storage of gear and such).

But it was the dinners that made bush camp food on this contract so impressive. From various vets, I understand that food varies from camp to camp, and is highly dependant on the cooks. Though planters must be fed, and cooks are a must, reforestation companies do not place the highest priority on hiring cooks - for them, it's all about about production and numbers, and amount of trees in the ground. Our camp certainly lucked out, though! Our head cook recently graduated from Stratford Chef School, which meant everything was pretty tasty and almost all homemade. It certainly helped with staying on budget, too, compared with camps where cooks would purchase many more prepared/processed goods. It's amazing what the head cook and her assistant (who is starting his first year at Stratford this fall), managed to do with their budget. Which was a mere 10$/day/person.

The two months did, however, make me crave cooking - I'm oh-so looking forward to our fantastically large kitchen at the new apartment. During our 40+ days, there were almost no dinner repeats, save crowd pleasers like meatloaf (which I personally didn't understand - exactly how is plain ground beef exciting, again?). I can now say that I've had scalloped potatoes (yes, another secret confession), and good potato salad. Homemade salad dressings, plenty of soup (fantastic when coming home from rain/snow and/or generally cold days), and plenty of dessert (pies, chocolate and vanilla cakes, butter tarts, make-your-own-sundaes...). Dinners ranged from ribs to burgers (and other goodies off the grill) to mac+cheese (which made me miss the boy's rendition), pork chops, ham, lasagna, burritos, curried chicken, and on our last night, a 'christmas dinner' of turkey (!) complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce. And we were also once surprised with a cheese platter, crackers, prosciutto (!) and veggies + dip. For my birthday, they made vanilla cupcakes with strawberry icing - I was immensely pleased.

Would I do it again, this treeplanting thing? Most probably. Stay tuned for a 'part II' posting, with regards to days off in Northern Ontario, and food in Timmins, Hearst, and Kapuskasing.

< || > paused: returning july.

2007-05-03T22:27:00.000-04:00

An update from my end of the world:

The past week has found me in an interim between school and work, gearing up for a treeplanting contract in Northern Ontario. Three seasons of summer work in an office left me craving for something different. And in the spirit of antitheses, I certainly won't be wearing cardigans come June.

1 part apprehension.
1 part scared shitless.
8.42 parts excitement.

(Projected consumption of 3000-3500 cal per day. To keep weight. Boo yeah!)

The contract is projected to last until the end of June, so I should be back at the beginning of July. With lots of tasty things and such (including another review of Garçon, plus a revisit to Casa Tapas - courtesey of end-of-semester-per-parental-units).

Until then: bon appétit!

brewing cider, part II

2007-05-01T02:04:00.000-04:00

Earlier this month, I mentioned that the boy has taken on a homebrewing project of making cider. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured out the science of the art (or the art of the science?), but I've been promised that more brewing is to come in the fall. A larger apartment awaits us when we return to Montreal in September (yes, I've finished my finals for the semester!), so I'm hoping we'll manage to vent the system for beer (which will give off fumes more potent than those innocuous ones from the cider).

The cider bubbled incessantly for the first two days or so, and was quick to clarify - you can see the progression of quick change between days two and five:

This is what the cider basically looked the next day when the boy syphoned it using a rather ad hoc set up. I quickly learned the beauty of bleach and tubing (kept straight by attaching to a large chopstick). And realised yet another use for mason jars.

The stuff still tasted acrid and sharp, but is exponentially mellowing. Now, we wait. It'll be worth it (hopefully) if we just forget about the bottles for a few months before 'rediscovering' the brew.

a is for artichoke

2007-04-29T11:15:00.000-04:00

Chinatown yields exotic, at reasonable prices. A friend, needing to finish a photography assignment, suggested for me to tag along. So there I was, armed with a camera, cavorting through the streets on a beautiful day.

shepherd's pie is made with: ____?

2007-04-22T11:04:00.000-04:00

Lamb!

I must sheepishly confess that this little fact was unbeknownst to me until four days ago. When I did find out, however, I did one of those hand-slap-to-forehead gestures: of course it's made with lamb! It's not not called cattle rancher's pie for a reason.

My first encounter with shepherd's pie was in elementary school, and I remember feeling indifferent about it. Looking back, I suspect it was because 1) the mashed potatoes were rehydrated from powder, 2) the ground meat was rather boring, and 3) the corn was never inside of the pie, but served instead on the side. Naturally, I've always had a pallet for Asian food, and they weren't serving any of mum's cooking in school. Instead, I was exposed to mediocre cafeteria versions of white-people food: they certainly didn't make mac and cheese, or chicken à la king in a memorable manner. My introduction to the actual world of caucasian cuisine was only a recent phenomenon. As I've been asian-ifying the boy with noodley concoctions, turnip cake, and shitake mushrooms, he's directed my affection towards his renditions of mac and cheese (which I will have to blog about soon) and shepherd's pie.

Woah. WOAH!
Can a true Asian claim that meat-and-potatoes = beauty?
I think so.

Since those early years, the consumption-count of 'real' shepherd's pie is at a pitifully low '3' (sure to change, of course). They were all courtesy of the boy, and uber tasty - though made with ground beef, times 1 and 2 should be aptly named cottage pies. The latest version was a 'proper' one, made with ground spring lamb. You may already have guessed that our dinner last Wednesday was mighty, mighty fine.

a simple tomato sauce

2007-04-20T18:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since store bought pasta sauce has entered my stomach. Why bother with the overly sweet stuff on the supermarket shelves, when you can make it at home, to taste?

Our cupboard is always home to at least one or two large cans of whole tomatoes, which are easily sauce-able. And though I'm an advocate of fresh produce, a tomato sauce from the canned goodies surpasses the 'real' deal when examining their respective price/quality ratios.

The secret is that there is no secret. No 'recipe', either, but I always start out with:

one large can of whole tomatoes (of the 28oz variety)
about 4-5 cloves of garlic
one goodly sized onion
canola or olive oil, depending on what my hand reaches first

Our trusty wok has been my cooking instrument of choice, as its large capacity easily handles the sauce. To start, I brown the garlic and onions with the hot oil: these two tasties have been chopped, depending on my mood, anywhere from a fine mince, to a chunky dice. Once the onions are verging on translucency, I dump the contents of the can into the hot wok, and usually spice it with a combination of basil, oregano, thyme, and black pepper. At this point, I'll usually start attacking the tomatoes with a wooden spatula to poke them into the right size - leaving chunks can be rather tasty, too, especially if I've opted for the coarsely chopped onions. This step can actually be done whenever, really. After a stir or two, I turn the stove to a medium-ish setting, so that the tomatoes are left to simmer (watch out for a very red splattered kitchen when boiling tomatoes on high).

And then, it's just a matter of patience!

I usually stir the concoction every once in a while, and about 30-40 minutes later, most of the watery substance will be gone. A little bit of sugar will be added to balance the acidity of the tomatoes. On various occasions of sauce or stock making, I've made the mistake of adding too much salt, too early on, forgetting about the reduction of volume that is to occur - so I usually stick to adding salt near the end.

Simple? Yes! Multipurpose? Also, yes!
This stuff works wonders on pizza, too.

homebrewing cider

2007-04-18T17:08:00.000-04:00

For four days now, I have been bombarded with fermentation-related jargon.

With it being the season of final exams and all, my scholastic apathy was forced, 180, into sudden studiousness, so unfortunately, I've been unable to digest too much of the boy's babble. I did, however, happily capture photos of his new one gallon carboy, currently housing his first batch of cider. Stay tuned for updates, and the how-to's of it all.

Anyone else find the airlock mechanism phallic?

Look at the yeasties go!

Staring at his new pet:

all in the name of a good meal

2007-04-16T20:27:00.000-04:00

A part of my finger is now missing.

Only a small, small, small part of my left pointer (like, 1/8 of my nail, and the flesh beneath it), though, so it's not all that exciting. I would post photos, but I wanted to spare those who are squeamish at heart. It may not come a surprise that it was thanks to a kitchen accident, and occurred while prepping pizza toppings - chopping green onions, to be exact. I've been told a million times to not have dangling appendages from my guide hand, as my right hand grips the knife to slice and dice. But since my first handling of a Chinese cleaver at age 8, I haven't been able to shake the bad habit of not curling fingers out of harm's way. And this isn't the first time it's happened, either. Only last time it was the tip of my thumb.

I laughed the injury off (really, it didn't hurt too much), and proceeded to finish the business of pizza. The boy, as always, made some tasty herbed rendition of pizza dough in the bread maker. This time, our lovely pizza sported mozzarella, green onions, brown button mushrooms, roasted garlic and red peppers, Italian sausage, and feta on the adventurous half. The other side - prepared as we didn't know the specific taste buds of our our dinner company - sported the first 3 ingredients. It definitely turned out to be a tasty, colourful meal.

knead-less to say, it'll be in a wok

2007-04-13T21:16:00.000-04:00

The boy, dorkus magnus, was quite excited to try his professor's bread recipe.

At McGill, there are a handful of courses offered by the chemistry department that cover tidbits of everyday trivia-type stuff. This semester, these 'world of chem' lectures included one on food (incidentally, it's available for the public online). Having been stuck on a baking phase for the past while, I wasn't the least bit surprised when the boy excitedly directed my attention to a bread recipe passed down from Prof. Harpp's mother.

One caveat: we don't own enamelled cast iron cookware. And this recipe calls for the baking to occur in such a device. And, as much as these things are beautiful and durable through decades and are certainly heavy enough to implement in knocking-out-home-invaders, it was going to be a little bit of an investment. A purchase that had to be planned in advance, anyway, since we're living on budgets fit for student living. (A Cruset, along with a good quality espresso maker, are among many kitchen toys we're considering for September.)

Time to get creative: He reached for the wok. Bread in a wok? Well, the wok is rather large, and cast iron, so it implies that the final temperature of the cooking vessel will be a little higher, no? And it has a lid (which was necessary, since the first part of the baking is done with a lid on). I confess I was a little skeptical since I'm sure the expansion/contraction rates of the glass lid differed from the metal trimming. But we've had several loaves of this stuff since the first baking, and the lid is still (quite) intact. And the bread's been getting tastier. Nothing beats fresh bread for breakfast, especially when the boy decides to wake up an hour before me to bake a loaf that was left to rise overnight. I do believe my ancestors would be proud of this clever wok usage, resulting in yummy, crusty bread without fail.

Here's the recipe (all measurements are approximations - the best way is to fiddle with it for a loaf or two, and tweak until complete satisfaction!):

4 cup flour
1/2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
2 cup water

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl: since this recipe doesn't require the dough to be kneaded, it's a good idea to mix everything thoroughly enough so you don't end up with extremely salty bits here and there. Cover the mixed dough with a damp towel, and let it sit for anywhere between 9 to 15 hours - the boy plops it in the oven (off, of course) overnight, as the oven stays at a relatively stable temperature despite open windows and such. Once you've exerted all of that patience, the dough is put into the cooking vessel - (insert enamelled cast iron pot here) in our case, the wok. Preheat the oven to 450F, or 500 if your oven lets you do so. The cooking times are about 30 minutes with the lid, then the lid is removed for the remaining 20 minutes (though for our oven, the last 20 have been shaved down to about 15).

ottawa feasts, midnight snacks, and lunch

2007-04-12T19:45:00.001-04:00

Part of the long weekend was spent in Ottawa, during which, unsurprisingly, there existed a repeated theme of food. Easter dinner with the boy’s family included: a creamy broco-cran salad, a lettuce salad with uber sharp red onions, spiced butternut squash soup, turkey (served with a nutty pecan stuffing), clove-studded ham, vegetarian quiche, sweet potatoes, apple pie, cherry-apple pie, lemon meringue pie. (!!)

Onwards, post dinner adventures: brief catch-ups with friends, meeting of the fiancée, cigars on the rooftop of a 20-something story building. And then? Someone wanted shawarma. Do you know how difficult it is to find a joint that is open on the Sunday night/Monday morning of the Easter long weekend? Scouring downtown Ottawa shortly after 1am, we finally landed on the corner of Elgin & Gladstone. Marroush International is a very moderate joint, with a very nutsy balding and mustache wearing owner. Entertaining. Random. And “full service” entails a dramatic unwrapping of your sandwich, complete with the rip-plus-toss-with-a-flair of the foil covering. All in a farcically sexual (but so very unsexy) manner. I was trying to parse the expression on the face of a North Bay-er: was she creeped/shocked/entertained/laughing/etc? I didn’t order anything myself, but snuck a bite (or two or three) of the boy’s sandwich. Thumbs up from him.

After sleeping off the randomness, we met with an old friend of the boy’s for lunch. It seems that cross-city franchises have different expectations at their various locations. The boy, when in Winnipeg last summer, had positive remarks regarding drinks and cocktails at Moxie’s. I, on the other hand, encountered a version in Toronto (the one at Fairview mall) that left me wanting much, much more. If memory serves me, I had ordered the soup/sandwich combo - my soup was tepid, and my club sandwich was lacking bacon and tomatoes. Due to my preconceived notions of Moxie’s nation-wide, I had to do a slight double take this past Monday: we walked into a modern looking venue that was large and two-storied, with an open kitchen (though the fake wood-fire oven was disappointing), and attractive waitstaff. I soon discovered tjat the washrooms were just as trendy (I’m a fan of the tiled trough sink). Then, the food. For what it was, it certainly surpassed my expectations (the fries did, however, leave me parched for the remainder of the afternoon). I ordered the portobelo baguette-sandwich, and the boy and friend seemed to find their respective steak sandwiches just dandy (open-faced steak sandwich, which was the special of the day, and greek salad steak wrap).

Back in Montreal, the snagged turkey leftovers (now sitting prettily in the freezer), hopefully imply that we’ll finally get around to making a savoury, curry pie.

sweet potato fries

2007-04-08T12:41:00.000-04:00

Perfectly complimentary to sweet dinner company, and baked 5-spice ribs plus asparagus. I think next time, I'd like to try spicing them with cumin.

mondo fritz, revisted

2007-04-04T11:56:00.000-04:00

Not long ago, I was raving about the yummy poutine at Mondo Fritz (we had had a hankering for grease after beer @ Brutopia). Within two weeks of that outing, I revisited Mondo Fritz for more of a lunch time meal, to catch up with a friend. Visite numero 2 has left me with complex sentiments about the restaurant, which I shall share:

Still a thumbs way up for their service: speedy, and pleasant, like last time. I ordered one of their burgers (I believe it was the "Danoise") with a side of fries - fantastic toppings of blue cheese and sundried tomato, but the crux of the burger left me craving my own rendition (secret ingredient = soy sauce in the ground beef). The meat patty was a little off, size-wise, in comparison to the rather large bun (to be fair, the kaiser was quite tasty and fresh), but it was pretty standard fare, and rather overdone. As were the fries, they were much darker than the last rendition - though I wonder what the poute would've tasted like sans gravy. Crispier fries are certainly better at holding themselves up to ladles of gravy, but when when they're on their own, even the Mondo Fritz's tasty variations of mayo (the basil/pepper one rocks) can't save overdone/burnt ones. Portions were, again, quite generous.

pizza dinners

2007-04-04T11:48:00.001-04:00

Bread machines are awesome! The boy's pizza crust has only improved/diversified over the past year, and this last (herbed) rendition was topped with roasted garlic, onions, mushrooms, and cheddar.

cinnamon swirl bread, v2

2007-04-04T11:44:00.000-04:00

Version two was sans walnut in the swirl, which definitely helped the roll/swirl stay put in its shape and such. I couldn't resist capturing its full glory:

pork and napa dumplings

2007-04-03T13:27:00.000-04:00

The boy wanted dumplings for dinner on his birthday. Done! I've been making them with my grandmother as long as I've been using chopsticks, and though it's a time consuming effort, the results are well worth it. It really doesn't matter what you throw into the filling, though I'm partial to ground pork as the meat base. These ones also sported copious amounts of ground ginger, shredded napa, and rehydrated shitake mushrooms. As per usual, swigs and dashes of soy sauce, sesame oil, ground pepper, and garlic powder were added to the concoction that amassed into the filling - my secret tactic for spice balance was to pan fry a glob of the filling to taste-test (plus I was feeling a little peckish). Then, onwards and upwards with placing the filling in store-bought wrappers (I should really make my own one day - it's merely flour and water). Needless to say, these pan fried beauties were consumed in a matter of minutes:

instant jellyfish

2007-04-01T10:17:00.002-04:00

Yes, jellyfish! Quite edible, and non poisonous.

Jellyfish has been something that I've grown up with, and definitely not considered odd in my book of edibles (then again, it would be quite difficult to try and deter me when it comes to food). It was most fun to introduce it to the boy and a brave friend, who agreed upon viewing the package, that jellyfish was 'goopey looking'. [Package consisted of: pre-soaked, pre-shredded, insta-serve jellyfish in a sealed packet, alongside envelopes of MSG related seasonings plus sesame + chili oils]. Despite the floppy looking texture, one mustn't be fooled: jellyfish has a distinct and pleasant crunch! Random as the textures may be, it may help in explaining the fact that we often refer to jellyfish as 'rubber bands' in Cantonese.

Jellyfish itself is neither fishy nor seafood-like, and actually isn't very flavourful in general: it all becomes a function of the marinade in which it's thrown. Interestingly enough, jellyfish is associated with banquets for me, and has only been consumed out of that context rarely. Though the aforementioned packages are quite convenient, I look forward to buying the stuff that hasn't been pre-shredded to make my own rendition of jellyfish 'salad' - combining soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil, and perhaps some rice vinegar and sugar. Sesame seeds are also fantastic additives for an extra nuttiness.

oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

2007-03-28T12:54:00.000-04:00

Procrastination left me in the kitchen, again. This time, it was in avoiding a short 4 page essay for my class on personality. Seeing that 1) our cupboard recently acquired a new bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 2) the no name PB has been sitting untouched because of its below average tendencies on bread, and 3) we still had about 1 cup of oats, I made a small batch of yummy yummy PB-oat-chocolate chip cookies. I used approximately:

1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup br sugar
1 egg
1/2 - 3/4 cup PB
a (large) splash of milk
splash of vanilla
3/4 cup all purp flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup large oats
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar until homogeny, then add egg. Combine the remaining wet ingredients, and add the dollops of PB. Stir in dry ingredients, then the oats and chocolate. Bake the (10 goodly sized) cookies for about 15 minutes at 350F (until golden). Enjoy with tall glass of milk.

food blog?

2007-03-27T19:30:00.000-04:00

Why yes! We shall see if this is the beginning of my academic demise. I realised that I've blogging a lot about food related shindigs as of late, and thus decided to devote an entire blog to the subject matter. Plan of action #1 is to repost old restaurant reviews/schpeals, recipes, etc. onto this lovely blog so content will start rolling.

Though I may have been an Italian grandmother in a previous life (yes, my lasagna is fantastic), Asian upbringing of turnip cake and dumplings has left me beating eggs with chopsticks. Try it: it'll be a sure way to improve coordination.

cinnamon walnut swirl raisin bread

2007-03-25T14:37:00.000-04:00

More baking! said the boy, so we now have a lovely raisin-cinnamon-walnut swirl bread.

cornmeal crusted bread & potato and leek soup

2007-03-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

Ten whole dollars worth of smoked salmon was consumed within a six hour span on Friday - make that fourteen dollars, actually, as the prompt grocery purchase was spawned by a super sale. Decadent? Definitely. The first encounter was during lunch: smoked salmon draped on cream cheese on the boy's homemade bread pan bread. Yes, the boy baked again, much to my delight, and did something to the effect of this:

1 cup milk
1/3 - 1/2 cup water
1 heaping tsp yeast
1 1/2 tbs brown sugar
2 3/4 cup all purp. flour
1/4 whole wheat flour
1 heaping tbs cornmeal
1 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
3/4 tsp salt

Throw ingredients into the bread maker (on the dough cycle) - once the cycle is complete, take the dough, and thoroughly crust it with more cornmeal. In the meantime, warm the oven briefly so it is slightly above room temperature: this allows for the bread to rise in an ideal environment. Place the dough into a bread pan, into the oven, and allow it to rise until it is about 1 in above bread pan. Then, she is ready to be baked at 350F for 30 min or so, until crust becomes golden.

The rest of the smoked salmon was consumed during dinner - some more on toast, but more interestingly, some in the potato leek soup I tried to improvise. As a straight up potato leek soup, it faired okay, though I am of a belief that mediocre potato leek soups are easy to come by. I'm unsure of how to zing the soup, but certainly, duck stock will not be used next time: a little bit of a waste, since the stock itself was indiscernible (another grocery run will arm us with chicken necks and backbones again).

casa tapas

2007-03-24T00:50:00.000-04:00

[reposted from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

The boy and I went on a proper date Wednesday evening: having been finally released from opera rehearsals (and having just completed 8 of this semester's 20 credits) gave us an opportunity to venture to Casa Tapas (266 Rachel Est, between St. Laurent and St Denis). Spotting a funky mural on the side of the building, we arrived at 7:30 or so, and were placed at the bar because of our sans reservations. Certainly a good sign, if business thrived late on a Wednesday evening.

Standard bread bowl, and olives served in a demitasse: warm? (sorely lacking in knowledge base regarding olives, I did a quick search on "warm olives" when I came home: they were certainly endorsed by the NY Times in 1987.) Warm is good! They were pretty damn tasty, and I'm not usually an olive-out-of-hand eater (the boy even less so).

Their rendition of a "Spanish Caesar" was interestingly done with greens in lieu of romaine: served with a toasted slice of herbed baguette, and a surprise cherry tomato in the bottom. Do they do Caesars in Spain? We were unsure of the dressing's constituents (as the salad was severely underdressed) but were quickly distracted by the garlic saffron soup. Served piping hot (and still bubbling), it sported big chunks of fresh croutons. Stoneware definitely has its heat retaining benefits! In our excitement, lips and tongues were slightly burned, but no matter: the soup was fantastic, adorned with little bits of tomato and parsley. Note to self: splurge on saffron (time to do another run to Vieille Europe).

The tapas ordered were: 1) Grilled sardines with cumin - I've always loved sardines, and cumin's my new favourite spice as of 2007. It was subtle on the actual sardines, but the paired julienned zucchini/red pepper salad was very satisfyingly cumin-ed. 2) Filet mignon of lamb done in an almond-tomato sauce and colourful peppers - wow. Simply, wow. 3) Artichoke served with aioli - surprisingly citrus and hinting of orange, the aioli was an intriguing pairing with a vegetable that has yet to grace its presence in our own kitchen. Sidestepping the orange-garlic-mayo topping, the boy raved of its grilled texture, while I tried to parse flavour combinations uncommon to my pallette.

The waiter then suggested desert to us, and deciding on a more Spanish theme, we tried their churros instead of the crème brûlée. Sweet, deep fried goodness! I suppose each culture has its own rendition of fried dough: Spain decided on pleasantly dense batons (piped directly into the hot oil?). A demitasse of chocolate sauce was served on the side; I stared sadly at the remainder when no churros remained, longing to spoon the rest in my mouth. I suppose that would have been imprudent.

I certainly look forward to tasting the other menu items; until then, we shall have to try our own rendition of garlic saffron soup.

mondo fritz on st. patrick's day

2007-03-18T15:56:00.000-04:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

The glory of St. Patty’s day includes city-block-long line ups in front of Hurley’s at 8:30pm, so we ventured next door to Brutopia instead. Of course, the female bartender served the men before even taking our order, but I would have acted similarly if it meant more tips in my pocket. Drinks in hand, (chocolate stout! - the boy was proud) we agreed that venturing out was indeed a Good Idea. Besides - I now own a button with a shamrock!

Onwards, upwards: to St. Laurent, where poutine lay to be consumed. Frites Alors was suggested, and I politely turned it down, offering an adventure to Mondo Fritz instead – I found the former’s poute to be ‘okay’ the last (and only) time I was there, as the ‘meh’ quality of their fries became the limiting factor. My only other encounter with Mondo Fritz was a couple of years ago, when the line-up for Schwartz’s was too long for my grumbling stomach – I remember the burger being okay, but fries plus flavoured mayos definitely hit the spot. Yesterday, we ordered the Alpine poutine to share (serving size = massive for just the two of us): chevre, mushrooms, grated cheddar, topped with peppercorn gravy. The fries were fantastic in their ‘european-style’ goodness – not too thickly sliced (definitely not shoestring, either), skin-on potatoes, deep fried to produce fries with the perfect ratio of golden-crisp-outer-layer to layer-of-inner-softness. Water is served in label-less wine bottles, and the woman who took our order friendly and efficient. Moral of the story: if you’re going to have a heart attack in a bowl, you may as well go all out. I’m definitely going to have to try their other variations – topped with sausage, or steak… To my veg friends: rumour has it that their gravy is meat-less!

chu chai

2007-03-11T14:35:00.000-04:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

Vegetarian Thai dinner, for a vegetarian friend's birthday. Where else in Montreal, but Chu Chai?

Located at 4088 Saint Denis (between Duluth and Rachel), the restaurant was packed, naturally, on a Friday night. The restaurant is victim to the Chinese floor plan syndrome (I overheard the waitstaff in Cantonese): business mentality of cramming more people than allowed by fire regulation policies. Not only did I worry about knocking people (and their dinners) over while squeezing my way to the restroom, we were made to wait 90 minutes before our orders were taken. But I should backtrack slightly: the birthday girl made reservations for 7:30, for 11 of us - and half of our party was standing at the door for 40 minutes because they only had a 6-person table available. Do 'reservations' not mean anything? Half an hour of waiting later, the waitstaff mumbled something about compensating our inconvenience with free drinks. That offer, they quickly retracted. And we ended up having to barter for a discount: at first, they agreed to 10% off all drinks (what does that work to, 50 cents per person?), and finally 10% of the final tab. Role reversal indeed: aren't restaurant owners supposed to alleviate the situation and win-over their frustrated patrons? I've never heard of customers having to bargain for a discount when clearly they have been wronged.

Poor service aside, their pad thai was quite delicious, as was another noodle-ly concoction ordered by the boy: it sported generous amounts of thai basil, and imitation duck. I started with their tom yum nam khon- hot & sour soup with coconut milk, which was good, but I had slight doubts: I suspect that their broth sits in a giant vat, and the remaining ingredients of desired soup-type (soup with mock seafood/meat/tofu/etc) are tossed into the bowl of pre-ladled soup. Not impressed with the undercooked mushrooms, and wished the soup came piping hot. Washing the meal down with Tsing Tao, however, was definitely a good call.

Highlight of the evening, of course, was good company. And the backgammon and key lime pie: mmm.

zumaia

2007-01-07T21:09:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

Spanish cuisine? Yes please! Check out Zumaia, on the corner of Guilbault and St Laurent, just south of des Pins. Sardines, octopus, scallops, beef tartare, chevre stuffed roasted red pepper, duck and mushrooms with a sauce of cassis, paella, and truly professional and excellent service. I would've swiped a Spiegelau tumbler or two (or three or four?), plus a handful of Riedel wineglasses, if it weren't for the great service and good food: I'll have to look for a terrible restaurant that knows their glassware.

Speaking of Spanish, dinner tonight = homemade paella. I confess, I'm rather excited.

ten ren's tea time

2006-12-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

Dinner tonight in Richmond Hill (yes, twice in the span of a week). At Ten Ren's Tea Time, on hwy 7 between Leslie and Bayview. Service was mediocre at best, with servers who didn't speak Cantonese (Mandarin & broken English only). At least the managers were full of smiles, and slightly apologetic. Food was interesting: but seemingly more conceptual cuisine than actual culinary art - the flavours of the different teas that were supposedly in all of the dishes was subtle, very very subtle. But the prix fixe menus (with actually quite a bit of choice) were well priced (mostly 15 or 20$) and multi-coursed (a tiny salad - made up for with a tasty dressing, soup, main dish with rice, dessert, and tea - but by tea, since it is a tea house, there were plenty of interesting choices). I think the wonton soup was with a hint of jasmine (I've forgotten now) - which came through the broth-from-a-can taste; pleasant and interesting. The pu-erh beef brisket was tasty, but didn't taste, to me, of pu-erh at all - a little bit of a disappointment, because it's the stuff I grew up on, my family's tea of choice. A new tea in my books to close the meal: tian-mu (mountain fog? I think that sounds somewhat like a loose translation) . The leaves are apparently picked in the early morning dew on this mountain... and the vagaries of that hearsay make me want to become more of a tea drinker.

And now I'm going to sleep through all of that caffeine.

sweet basil

2006-12-22T15:12:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

Pan asian restaurant, this time in RH way up at 10610 Bayview Ave. Sweet Basil is worth raving about: fabulous service, and great price:quality ratio (8.99 pad thai, 14.99 appetizer plate for 2-3 with spring rolls, satay chicken, mango salad, crab cakes). Lemongrass ice tea? Tasty.

Of course, I was in great company.

o.noir & garçon

2006-11-15T17:53:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

After much procrastination, reshuffling, and irritation, I've finally ventured into the dark for food. That's right, at the newly opened O.Noir. Must say it lived up to my expectation, but nothing more. Food was alright, but not extraordinary, but the conversations and company and experience bolstered my overall impression of the evening. The beef carpaccio starter (paired with extremely sparsely dressed, but thankfully tasty, greens) reminded me of my love for the meat (which inspired the ground-Angus purchase for pasta tonight). As a main, the number of shrimp on my plate tallied a goodly portion (though it was basically cooked/doused in nothing but butter), and the sun-dried tomato risotto lacked sun-dried tomatoes. But the concept stripping visual input: super cool. It was only a little disconcerting at first, with missing depth of field and visual cues in general. Didn't really 'change' or heighten the way I usually taste food anyway, but, I'm partial to recommending the experience.

Speaking of food, I will shamelessly promote Garçon, which I (somehow) failed to mention earlier (!). Prosciutto wrapped scallops, served on cantaloupe, anyone? And the rabbit tasting dish was oh-so-satisfying...

zongzi

2006-06-05T19:54:00.000-04:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

I love my family dearly, yes, but I can't say I'm a fan of a lot of the idiosyncrasies (to put mildly). Went out for dinner as usual on Sunday night (courtesy of the me-taking-them-out-upon-the-first-summer-paycheque tradition). Pretty descent food - chiu chow cuisine is definitely lacking in Montreal - but everyone's bound to have something critical to say(repetitiveness seems to be the greatest sin here). Though to give them credit (for a slice of their comments) - I must admit that duck with tarosounds fabulous in theory - but... only if the flavours actually blend. Both duck & taro were swimming (rather separately) in way too much sodium chocked sauce. Oh well, they're family, right?

On the food theme, I was rather amused by my grandmother's (very critical) comments about my cousin's wife's zongzi (goodness that looks terrible spelled out in letters, and doesn't sound at all like how it's pronounced in Cantonese.. but anyway!). Sure, they're a little bland every year (okay, very bland), but of course everything pales in comparison to the ones my grandmother makes (with a dried scallop per, along with lots of other good stuff, of course).

oh, epicurious

2005-12-25T02:39:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

I was commissioned to whip up a dessert for a dinner party of sorts on the 26th - so after much deliberation and clicking through recipes at epicurious.com, I've settled on making a double chocolate torte to impress family friends I haven't seen since last December. It's supposed to turn out something like this (operative words here = "supposed to"):

Of course, it being Christmas and all, everything's closed tomorrow (well, today, technically), and of course, me being a talented procrastinator, I make a mad dash for Loblaws earlier this afternoon before their early 6pm close, only to find that they had no bitter- or semi- sweet baker's chocolate. So off to Price Chopper, where I left in glee - not only did they have the stuff I needed, everything was ridiculously cheap. (250g philly cream cheese = 1.50$!! There's definitely going to be some sort of cheesecake concoction next week, and I think I'm going to expand beyond the tried and true lime almond cheesecake and look for something more festive...) Anyway, I don't end up on the kitchen floor until 10:30(ish), and I realised I needed butter. And that everything was closed. (Where's a dep when you need one?) I finally find a 24hr Rabba that was still open. Which, of course, was fabulous. After all of that effort, this better be the best damn chocolate cake! Tomorrow, it'll be cheesy Christmas songs (I'm still not feeling festive, and we're almost 3 hours into xmas day already, so maybe that'll do the trick?), and me versus the cake, part II: chocolate mouse.

casa del popolo

2005-12-01T23:35:00.000-05:00

[repost from chanlindsay.blogspot.com]

Says the girl behind the bar: “Are you guys from Montreal?”
Me: “Yeah, we study here.”
Girl: “Just to let you know, the prices don’t include tip.”

First of all, Casa del Popolo had no more bocconcini, tofu, or pita. Meaning 4 of the 9 sandwiches that they offered could not be made. And after that snide and presumptuous remark, did she really think that we’d be inclined to tip more? (whatever happened to tipping-on-the-table?) I was almost tempted to ask for change from the 6$ I left, for the 5$ sandwich. Too bad the service was terrible – because the sandwich was stellar (“miel madness”: chèvre, honey, red peppers, lettuce & tomatoes on pumpernickel).