Anna N

Hmmmm. I would expect that cannabis edibles would require the same kind of packaging.

There is no end to my infamy when combining cuisines. Japanese onigirazu stuffed with an Egyptian liver preparation. So good!

The tables are quite beautiful although I couldn’t tell you for sure if they are carved. Another interesting feature of this restaurant is that instead of providing napkins there is a box of tissues on each table. Not as sturdy as napkins but in the way they felt a bit luxurious.

Just the facts ma’am, just the facts. What happened to the cashew that you found in your moccasin?

This topic is titled ”Snacking while eGulleting”, so I need to ask, ”What did you do with the found cashew?”

I actually had these on my shopping list although I’m not fond of hotdogs. I try to keep a list of potential protein sources that don’t require much defrosting or effort otherwise (for that those days when even getting out of bed seems an effort). I think I could easily slice a frozen one and then just stick it in a frying pan for a few minutes and have a filling for one of my rice sandwiches. But when I arrived at store and looked for something as simple as a hotdog I found the choices overwhelming. Who knew? I haven’t bought hotdogs I don’t think since my kids were teenagers and they’re in their 50s now. Life was simple once. 😂

The four pads are small cutting mats. I do love the new plate and shall try to bring it in to some meal preparations soon. Even the vacuum covers seem to be working very well. I have one thoroughly attached to a tile on my coffee table and it doesn’t seem at all anxious to release its grip. I don’t need them. I have no idea when I’ll use them. But that’s the true meaning of retail therapy isn’t it? Buying something you really don’t need with no purpose in mind except sheer enjoyment of the novelty of it all.

Overachiever!

It is a tiny crumb vacuum. I bought it as a bit of a joke. My cleaning lady is flying off to the Bahamas next week leaving behind me and all the snow ice and cold of a Canadian winter. She will be gone for a month. In protest I thought I would show her the replacement I had found for her. Unfortunately this one seems to be defective and despite two sets of new batteries will not turn on. Damn.

@Kerry Beal and I just had the most amazing morning out. Bear with me as it is not all directly lunch related. To give it some perspective I have been housebound for what seems like a year due to weather and other issues. When I learned last night that the weather was going to be bad again today and it looked as if I would not get out at all I burst into tears. That doesn’t happen often. So when I woke this morning and learned that the weather would hold out at least for the morning I was ecstatic. We began by doing some grocery shopping which we both enjoy no matter what. From the grocery store, we found our way to Dollarama. It may not be quite as different and exciting as would be a trip to the Japanese dollar store, but it was nevertheless a long time since I had been for a wander through. I ended up spending my money on gadgets, gizmos and candy bars and refused to have a guilty conscience about any of it. Lunch had still not been discussed at this point although it was beginning to rapidly approach the lunch hour. Kerry had reminded me yesterday that Taste of Burlington had begun but our errands were really going to keep us in Oakville. So Kerry suggested I Google and see if Taste of Oakville might be on. (Both of these are events to promote the restaurants in the area). Apparently, it ended on 6 February so we missed it completely this year. Nevertheless, the first restaurant that popped up on the site was an Egyptian restaurant that we had never heard of called Anora’s. I stepped through the menu as Kerry drove towards the Goodwill store where we needed to return an item. After a quick trip into the Goodwill store where I found a smaller match for my plate that I bought the last time I was in there and another small dish that I quite admired, we headed off towards the Lakeshore and Anora’s. You know that sinking feeling you get when you pull up in front of a restaurant in the middle of lunch hour and discover that it is empty. For a moment we debated whether to just leave or whether to take a chance. Perhaps because we were the only customers we might be warmly welcomed and treated well. So glad we saw this as an opportunity as opposed to an obstacle. We were greeted very warmly by the proprietor. We were offered help in understanding the various dishes and given plenty of time to make our decisions. Our order was taken by a male server and my assumption would be that he was a family member. Of course, I could be wrong. His English was a little hard to understand but I have only admiration for those who struggle to get by in a new language. He was very enthusiastic about trying to upsell us in a very pleasant way. Eventually, we settled on our lunch choices and as we dove into our teeny tiny samosas, Kerry glanced up and noticed that the Canada geese were doing what Canada geese so often do – – they were making a mockery of traffic. It is illegal to kill a Canada goose and just not worth your day to run over one. So the traffic was slowed to a crawl as the geese behaved like dogs and honked at the cars as though they had no business being on the road. It was very comical indeed. Eventually, someone appeared and began to herd the geese off the road. I thought Kerry said, "Look there’s a Norwegian herding the geese!" I asked how the heck she knew he was Norwegian. "Not Norwegian," she said, "A man from the Region.” (Halton Region is our municipality). The scene was as iconically Canadian as a game of street hockey. Our lunch: Turkish coffee for me. Egyptian mint tea for Kerry. Kerry first ordered the Kishk but the server returned to say it was not available and so she changed her order to the Hawawashy. I had a taste and it was delicious. I had Anora’s Liver (sure hope she didn’t really need it!) it was perhaps the most delicious treatment of liver I have ever known. It was incredibly tender and a little bit spicy. I think we were up sold on the fries but they were worth having. The pita bread was just amazing. Soft and moist and so unlike most pita bread that I find in restaurants. Needless to say much of a lunch came home with me as there was no way we could eat that much food. After lunch we drove all over town in search of driveway salt and, oh so typically Canadian, there was none! All the stores had signs saying sold out.

Aside from being a rather monochromatic meal apart from the lemon garnish, this was a failed experiment. Baked tonkatsu does not live up to its promise. While it eliminates the mess and the smell of deep frying, the end result is disappointing. Tonkatsu and souped up fried rice (I added a healthy dose of Sichuan chili bean paste.)

The BSO is one of the most useful purpose-built things I own. Many of us no longer require the services of a full-size oven (or are able to take advantage of its features). Mine has become a wonderful storage space.

Being someone who is almost equally enamoured of food and language I did find your comment about the 18th century dictionary amusing. It does seem a shame to powder saffron if it’s the real McCoy.

“Robin”, Looks as if you are managing well without “Batman”. That last photo though makes me think you’re having far too much fun! I think this is the first time I have been exposed to Surinam food. Is it spicy? And don’t forget we are all waiting to hear about the “reducetarian”. Doesn’t sound like a life choice that will catch on quickly on eGullet.

I am not about to try this. The video is not very good quality but it does illustrate what happens. Enjoy. Edited to add a quote from the article: “It's a crowd-pleasing party trick: Cut a grape in half, pop it in the microwave, hit "start" — then sit back and be dazzled by the grape balls of fire.” Edited again to include the link Oops. Here’s the link.

@liuzhou Can you talk about saffron versus saffran? Is the latter powdered?

I did not actually taste it. That was before my “rice” days! No worries. I am sure we will turn up at that same restaurant again sometime and be more observant and perhaps ask some questions. My suspicion, however, is that it’s up in Sudbury so it might be a while.

Thanks. I suspect this is one case where one person’s yellow rice and another person’s yellow rice are not the same yellow rice! We would have been in an Asian restaurant so almost certainly not quite the same. Thank you.

If you like it, go with it! Certainly won’t do any harm.

Yes that is the mould.

Step by step Onigirazu with pepperoni and egg.

Can you say something more about the yellow rice? @Kerry Beal enjoyed some yellow rice in a restaurant who’s name I have forgotten. She thoroughly enjoyed it but neither one of us can remember or ever knew how it was made. Thank you.

Glad to know you landed safely and with some sleep and food inside you, you should be good to go!

Katie, There are lots of youtube videos on how to make onigirazu. It becomes much easier as you go along. I use a mould which really makes it simple now. You do not use sushi rice, just cooked rice. I cook it and freeze it so that breakfast is really quite simple. I find personally that 150 g or thereabouts of cooked rice makes a perfectly adequate size sandwich. If you cook your Japanese short grain rice by whatever method you normally use and then, while it is still hot, scoop 150 g on to some plastic wrap and wrap it securely but not compacted and gather up your bundles of wrapped rice and put them into a resealable plastic bag and into the freezer you’ll find that they microwave nicely in about two minutes per package. Do not refrigerate as the rice will dry out. I hope this helps. I must admit I have become quite addicted to them. I have a tendency to over stuff which is something you should try to avoid if you can.

And Thomas Haas? You are spoiled!