436 replies to this topic

[Kerry Beal]

Anna and I headed to Dundas today to get some cheese from Mickey McGuire's - our favourite cheesemonger.

We made a couple of other stops - notably the LCBO - (the provincial liquor store) and Homesense, a TJ Maxx sort of place for housewares.

Lunch was at Bangkok Spoon in Dundas.



We've decided it's our duty to check out the calamari at every restaurant that has it. This version was particularly nice.

We shared Kai Himmapam (Cashew Nut Chicken)



and Tamarind Pork Ribs



We also got some sticky rice that came in this interesting basket

[heidih]

You guys are responsible for my current calamari/squid addiction - thank you!

[Kerry Beal]

You guys are responsible for my current calamari/squid addiction - thank you!

We keep thinking that we shouldn't get it because it's too boring to show the same thing week after week - but damn - we like it!

[robirdstx]

Speaking of Calamari!



My GF and I finally got together to celebrate her 65th birthday this month at Birra Poretti's in Friendswood. We started with the above Seafood Sampler, which was accompanied by a Bellini for her and a glass of Chardonnay for me.

Then things got a little squirrely. She ordered the Veal Piccata with Pasta and I ordered their Canicotti (one cheese manicotti and one veal canneloni). When our food was brought out, I pointed out that my GF's plate had the mashed potatoes instead of the pasta, but our waiter said he was aware that he had placed the order incorrectly and asked her what kind of pasta she would like. She asked for the Tortellini. So we took photos of our plates.



Shoulda been Veal but we didn't realize until the bill arrived that it was really their Chicken Picatta. It was obvious when we later looked at the photo. GF said her head told her it was veal and it was good, so she was happy. LOL



This was my plate. Our waiter did not hear my order clearly and put the order for Manicotti, instead of the Canicotti. I didn't realize the error until after he had returned to the kitchen for my GF's pasta. We were able to snag another waiter and asked him to ask our waiter to come to our table, but in the meantime the manager came to our table and asked how everything was and he was able to get my veal canneloni fired.

Here is my GF's pasta. The cream sauce was very good.



And a few minutes later, the manager brought my canneloni, commenting "And here is your second pasta course."



A short time later, our waiter came to the table and apoligized for his error with my order.

And finally, I ordered one of their pizzas to go for dinner with my DH tonight. The pizza was perfect! But I forgot to take a photo.

All in all, we had a great time and very good food. And we will definitely go back again.

[Kerry Beal]

Yesterday in our travels we decided to stay fairly close to home in Oakville because I had to work at 3.

We had a lovely shop at Starsky Fine Foods, an excellent eastern European grocery store that has wonderful charcuterie, meats, cheeses, dairy and a huge variety of packaged items to choose from. Anna took home a romesco - from which she made a couple of interesting meals. You always find some new interesting item to try there.

All the good baked good in there made us very hungry and we ran off early to a restaurant Anna had identified as getting good reviews. Thai Smile had a few very positive reviews and was close to home.

We were greeted by this young lady just inside the door. Nothing says welcome like bare breasts I find!



They have larb! Rare at any of the local Thai places we find.



Mussels - should have been called muscles - a bit overdone and chewy but still a nice combination of flavours in the steaming and sauce.



And of course... calamari! No meal would be complete without it.

[Anna N]

Yesterday in our travels we decided to stay fairly close to home in Oakville because I had to work at 3.

We had a lovely shop at Starsky Fine Foods, an excellent eastern European grocery store that has wonderful charcuterie, meats, cheeses, dairy and a huge variety of packaged items to choose from. Anna took home a romesco - from which she made a couple of interesting meals. You always find some new interesting item to try there.
....

It was rather fun to be challenged by Kerry to cook this:




I googled and found a Martha Stewart recipe for a romesco and parmesan puree. It was quite good but on the mild side yet made a nice complement for a sous-vide steak:



I knew that I could never eat a whole recipe so the following day I simmered some chicken stock with a couple of parmesan rinds and then added the puree and it made a lovely creamy soup which can be frozen and/or shared.

[Anna N]

Kerry worked a brutal six shifts last week which made getting together for lunch impossible. We decided to get together yesterday, Saturday, to do some food/kitchenwares shopping and have lunch. Kira, Kerry’s rugrat, who is usually in school, accompanied us.

I had proposed that we hit Ikea, the Asian grocer, the Bulk Food Barn, and a couple of other specialty stores. So, armed with all my shopping lists we headed forth. At the Asian store we came face to face with the reality of Saturday shopping! The place was packed, the checkout lines snaked down into the aisles and only a sumo wrestler was likely to get close enough to the meat counter to order anything. We soon revised our plans. The only other store we managed was the Bulk Barn where Kerry sat in the car with Kira while I grabbed some coriander seeds that I desperately needed.

Lunch was an easy choice – comfort food again – Pho!

Kerry and I had no trouble with the menu for ourselves.

Beef pho for me:



Beef and chicken pho for Kerry:



And the ubiquitous calamari for both of us:



Finding something for Kira was a lot more challenging but meat balls seemed to fit the bill. Except that what arrived had little resemblance to meatballs, It was strips of meat that looked like Spam but was somewhat darker and oddly spiced. Poor Kira did not think much of them at all.



We gave up and headed home to my house where we had a nice long, chatty visit.

[Porthos]

Except that what arrived had little resemblance to meatballs, It was strips of meat that looked like Spam but was somewhat darker and oddly spiced.

Except for American footballs I thought all balls were round. If the seasoning was strange also I can see where a child could be off-put by it.

[Anna N]

....
Except for American footballs I thought all balls were round. If the seasoning was strange also I can see where a child could be off-put by it.

I suspect it had as much to do with menu translation problems as anything else.

[Kerry Beal]

Today was the rug rat's annual appointment with a classmate of mine, who is a pediatric neurologist, at Sick Kids in Toronto. Cookies must be baked to take to the appointment - there would be hell to pay if we showed up without them! The kitchen sink variety - oatmeal, raisins, dates, pecans and chocolate.

After the appointment Anna and I decided Korean would be our best bet for lunch. We headed off to the Galleria Supermarket in Vaughan which is quite far north in Toronto - it has a great little food court and wonderful grocery and cookware shopping. Imagine our surprise when the market was missing - replaced by a condo complex under construction. This created a bit of a crisis - we were getting pretty peckish and fortunately while heading back south on Yonge in an attempt to find a place to eat managed to run across the new location of the supermarket!!! Crisis averted.

We both had Bimbimbap of course (and strangely no calamari). The soup was heavily laced with black pepper - I enjoyed it greatly. One of the banchan was a caramelized starchy veg - potato or yam I think. The rug rat quite enjoyed the bits she got too.

[rooftop1000]

these last two posts reminded me of a funny conversation I had at dinner a few years ago in Naples...My new internet friend took us out for drinks and dinner, after ordering calamari she asked me what calamari is called in english....I told her squid but we usually just call it calamari.


tracey

[Kerry Beal]

Headed down to Buffalo today. Met up with Patris for lunch - we went to a Pakistani Halal restaurant called Zaiga.

There was a nice buffet - food smelled wonderful as we walked through the door. Tasted just as good.







Good, except for dessert. There seemed to be a couple of options in the dessert area - some form of rice pudding with almonds, then there were these little fried dough balls in some sort of white sauce - turned out to be a savoury - lots of vinegar in there. Kind of contaminated the rest of the dessert.



I don't think I've ever been in a restaurant that had it's own little prayer closet.



This was a bit of a shock when we came out of the church basement - there is a thrift store there where I had seen some perfect cocktail glasses that I decided cost too much last time - sadly now that I was prepared to pay the cost, someone else had scooped them!

[Tri2Cook]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

[Kerry Beal]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

A little research leads me to believe they are gulab jamun - which supposedly is a dessert!

[Darienne]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

A little research leads me to believe they are gulab jamun - which supposedly is a dessert!

There are a number of little fried ball desserts in the Indian/Pakistani cuisine. I was so curious about this that I looked up "Pakistani vinegar balls" (just to start) and actually found a recipe for Ragullah which called for vinegar, but that was only to separate the whey from the milk...not soaked in vinegar. So curious...

[Anna N]

Since Kerry needed to do a chocolate run yesterday and I was in danger of becoming a complete hermit if I stayed home much longer, we opted to keep each other company and grab a bite to eat along the way.

One of the plazas near where Kerry gets her chocolate is a United Nations of ethnic restaurants and we have sampled most of them. Today we tried the Japanese offering (link) . As we often do to sample as much as possible we chose a selection of appetizers to share.

Chicken yakitori



A complimentary sushi sample



Calamari (naturally)



Gyoza.



And Tempura

[Jenni]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

A little research leads me to believe they are gulab jamun - which supposedly is a dessert!

Most definitely not gulab jamun! Looks like dahi vada to me. No vinegar but most definitely not a dessert! They are made from a batter of dal which is fried into dumplings which are soaked in water to get some oil out and soften them and then soaked in seasoned yoghurt. Delicious when made properly, sorry these weren't to your taste!

[rotuts]

I always hesitate opening this thread: about 1 mico second.

the Lunch Ladies always seem to do very well.

I could live on calamari and sushi.

[Kerry Beal]

I always hesitate opening this thread: about 1 mico second.

the Lunch Ladies always seem to do very well.

I could live on calamari and sushi.

Apparently so can we!

[Kerry Beal]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

A little research leads me to believe they are gulab jamun - which supposedly is a dessert!

Most definitely not gulab jamun! Looks like dahi vada to me. No vinegar but most definitely not a dessert! They are made from a batter of dal which is fried into dumplings which are soaked in water to get some oil out and soften them and then soaked in seasoned yoghurt. Delicious when made properly, sorry these weren't to your taste!

I'll bet that's exactly what they were - and had I eaten them with my savouries - I suspect I might have enjoyed them. Just a shock when I was expecting sweet!

[rotuts]

Shame! Shame!

I did not offer full disclosure on my state-ment re calamari and sushi:

a young but amusing Meursault would be good.

and no thats not what I drink

I did have and old Meursault at lunch with a family that had a 'substantial' wine cellar. very european. in california.

it was like liquid gold slowing streaming down my mouth.

so: Calamari, sushi ( I pick including Uni ) and Meursault. thats it

No Red Meat!

one would not need it with the above.

maybe a paco-jet for fun.

[Tri2Cook]

The snow is officially here too. I don't think we'll be seeing the ground again for several months but the lakes haven't frozen over yet. I wonder what those vinegar balls are?

A little research leads me to believe they are gulab jamun - which supposedly is a dessert!

Most definitely not gulab jamun! Looks like dahi vada to me. No vinegar but most definitely not a dessert! They are made from a batter of dal which is fried into dumplings which are soaked in water to get some oil out and soften them and then soaked in seasoned yoghurt. Delicious when made properly, sorry these weren't to your taste!

Hmmm... interesting. With apologies to the cuisine of origin, I bet this could be twisted to dessert form.

[Kerry Beal]

A very pleasant day of thrift store retail therapy - my best purchase was 8 gold banded vintage cocktail coupes for $10. I don't have room for them - so they will likely remain in the car until I either clear out other glasses or find homes for them.

Lunch was at Bombay Grill.

Cruising through the menu we discovered "cold war raita".



Anna opted for a beer - enjoyed it very much - noted it tasted like a german bock.



Onion bhaji to start.



Chicken korma.



Rice.



Lamb bhuna.



And of course naan to clean up all the sauces.

[Tri2Cook]

From a culinary perspective, sometimes I think I wound up at the wrong end of the province.

[Darienne]

Lovely meal. How I envy you both. Haven't had an onion bhaji for decades, but I have never forgotten them either.

[Kerry Beal]

From a culinary perspective, sometimes I think I wound up at the wrong end of the province.

Indeed - Sioux Lookout is at a bit of a disadvantage culinarily speaking!

[Marlene]

Lovely, Anna and Kerry! The one thing we've really started to enjoy out here is Indian food. Don's always been a fan, but me not so much till we moved here. It's now in our regular take out rotation and I've done a couple of Indian dishes myself. Love, love, love onion bhaji!

[Anna N]

After a couple of necessary errands Kerry and I found Lemongrass (BEWARE loud music!).


We ordered the appetizer platter:



and a small bowl of soup.

Crab meat for Kerry:




Wonton for me:



Kerry found her soup to be not at all to her liking either in texture (likely the egg whites) nor in taste (too fishy for her) so she asked for a bowl of the lemongrass soup which was much more to her liking:



The most amazing thing about this restaurant was not the food, the service, nor the décor but the diners. Even before noon it was SRO and 95% were SENIOR CITIZENS! I am a senior myself but I’ve been in countless ethnic dining venues with Kerry and have never seen so many other seniors. At first we thought perhaps it was an outing from a retirement home but we watched them leave in their own cars.

[robirdstx]

My GF and I got together early on Tuesday morning to run some errands that took us, all the way across Houston, to the Spring area. On the return trip we stopped at the Omni Westside on the Katy Freeway to have a late lunch in their "Cafe on the Lake".

I ordered from the appetizer menu and had the Red Pepper Shrimp. It was really, really good. Nicely spiced with just the right amount of heat!



And my gf had the Jumbo Lump Crab Salad with an Herbed Aioli, which came with a salad of field greens.



While I enjoyed a glass of chardonnay, my friend had a Creme Brulee.



After our meal, we got some "fish food" from the Registration Desk and fed some of the koy that reside in the "lakes" in the hotel's lobby. The hotel is involved with koy rescue and has about two hundred koy living in their indoor ponds. Three of the koy used to belong to my gf. When her pond was having major, ongoing problems, several years ago, the hotel sent out a van with the right equipment to transport the fish to their site.

[Kerry Beal]

Anna and I headed out this am with a mission - Whole Foods and the liquor store - those were the only obligations. Christmas at the LCBO can be dangerous to your pocketbook - all sorts of stuff they don't carry the rest of the year. I came home with Cherry Heering, Lillet Rouge and Mount Gay Extra old rum. Managed to resist all the rest - but there were some serious temptations!

We noticed the flags at the cenotaph were half mast - Anna figured out it was in recognition of the anniversary of Pearl Harbour - must have been what planted the desire for Japanese food for lunch.

Lunch today at Tokyo Bay. Individual booths -



Gotta have the miso soup -



We opted for the Fusion appetizer - veggie spring roll, fish cakes and pork dumplings.




Beer for Anna -



Teriyaki bento for me



Tempura bento for Anna.