The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 1)

[Anna N]

So Wednesday rolled around again and Kerry and I planned a tour of the charity shops in the Burlington area in search of unique kitchen items, cookbooks and gadgets before checking out a new restaurant that Kerry had spotted in her travels. In one of the charity shops we tried on hats but while she looked suave and sophisticated in a hat I resembled the Mad Hatter on a bad day so we nixed the idea of showing up for lunch properly attired. However Kerry did snag a copy of The Good Cook: Eggs and Cheese which we managed to get off the bookshelf by reaching around a strange chap who was sitting on the floor examining old copies of Consumer Reports with a magnifying glass and pretty much blocking all access to the books.

I then got a tour of Kerry’s new chocolate room which is quite impressive.

The place Kerry had spotted was Pomelo, a recently opened Thai and Vietnamese restaurant on Fairview Street in Burlington, Ontario. We were immediately and pleasantly greeted and shown to our seats. As you can see from the photo the décor was sparse and ultramodern. We sat in a booth so I can’t comment on how comfortable or uncomfortable those chairs were!

At the moment Burlington is promoting its restaurants with A Taste of Burlington but the $20 per person menu for this promotion really didn’t appeal all that much so we ordered from the menu. We opted for Thai Lemongrass Soup (Tom Yum) for me and Thai Coconut Soup (Tom Kah) for Kerry. To this we added two appetizers – the deep fried calamari and beef satay skewers. Kerry requested two small bowls so that we could share our soups and the server obliged quite willingly even bringing additional spoons. The coconut soup was lacking any hint of the curry paste expected but the lemon grass soup had a nice spicy kick to it. The calamari was about as good as it gets – crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and the satays were tasty and satisfying. Kerry enjoyed a pot of ginger tea and I stuck with ice water. Overall a very satisfying lunch in a nice atmosphere. I was a bit put off by the server pacing back and forth on the far side of the restaurant keeping a watchful eye on the booths but other than that the service was fine.

After lunch and a brief stop off at the home of Kerry’s 90 something-year-old father (he was tending a pot of baked beans when we arrived!) we hit the Re-Use centre where Kerry spotted an almost-new Magic Bullet for $10. I snagged it as I can’t live without mine and it’s showing signs of imminent morbidity. I also snagged a pasta bowl and some books on low carb eating (I need to drop a few tons!). All in all a very satisfying day for these Ladies who Lunch.

[Marlene]

Ahem. Now that my son can drive himself to music lessons, this lady could lunch with you now and then! Those chairs don't really look all that comfortable do they? But the food looks really good!

[Kouign Aman]

Our department at work is making a favorite of Opera Cafe, down the road.

This is the second site of this patisserie, and they do a nice job.

The standard menu includes sandwiches, crepes, a very nice house side-salad, and specialty salads.

They also have weekly specials, and a pastry case of terribly beautiful sweets including boxes of macarons to go.

Usually, we sit outdoors at the lacy wrought-iron tables, under the umbrellas.

Yesterday it was very windy so we stayed inside - most of us in chairs, and two on a small couch upholstered in black and white chintz. It gets very loud inside. Other than the chairs, its all hard surfaces.

The special was lobster crepe with the side salad, and 4 of us had that. I had the pecan/pear/bluecheese/tomato & greens salad, my neighbor had a steak and brie hot sandwich.

For dessert we split a bi-layer chocolate mousse, a cherry chocolate bombe, two layered creations - one pistachio/passion fruit, one of berries, a tiramisu-ish thing, and a creme-brulee-ish thing. It was very tough to choose a winner.

[Kerry Beal]

Ahem. Now that my son can drive himself to music lessons, this lady could lunch with you now and then! Those chairs don't really look all that comfortable do they? But the food looks really good!

It's so nice to be a free agent sometimes, eh? Next week my rug rat is off school and so will likely join us for lunch - may limit the sort of places we hit.

Anyway you are certainly welcome along now and then! Got a camera?

Edited March 11, 2010 by Kerry Beal (log)

[plum tart]

I am a slightly different species of the Ladies Who Lunch. I am a Lady who Lunches". Sometimes I lunch with my friends and colleagues but not everyday. Everyday I lunch in a restaurant on my own.

I could pretend to blame the God-awful food in our cafeteria but even if it improved I doubt if I could change my habit for I love restaurants and I love eating in them, often, every day in fact. I enjoy eating alone as much as I enjoy eating with friends. I have been carrying on this way for at least 10 years and fully intend to carry on this way to the end, whatever that might be. I won't be able to afford this habit when I retire.

Near where I work in Toronto, there are several small inexpensive restaurants of many different ethnic descriptions - thai, vietnamese, malaysiam, italian, Indian,Japanese etc. I go to a different one each day of the week. The staff all know me; they greet me warmly. I sit at the same table if I can get it. They all know my favourites although they do understand that they have to wait for me to decide. Sometimes the newer staff have to be reminded such as the time the waitress in the Japanese restaurant raced to my table and loudly whispered "Sapporo" and I have to remind her that I will order my Sapporo when I order my food and that I want it WITH my meal.

The owner of the thai restaurant calls me "The Regular" which I have been for six years. Before that she insulted me one day by saying that I was too fat for the Asian style chairs and that I should be sitting in a banquette which would be more accommodating to my girth. I gave that restaurant a wide berth for many years but after a while I returned and all was forgotten. She greeted me warmly and calls me The Regular. They also give me a special little mango salad for free with my lunch - a reward for my regularity I like to think.

I have my rituals. I peruse the menu despite having already decided on the bus ride there what I will order, and then I order. I read my novel until the meal arrives and then I dine and observe the other customers. There are countless"ladies who lunch", in twos and fours and more.They aren't all that regular, they haven't seen each other in ages and they always order pad thai.]

There are the six young mothers who bring their babies, and carriages and high chairs into the Japanese restaurant every now and thenand take over the entire restaurant except for the odd table. They feed the babies first with whatever they have brought. The babies eat and gurgle and spit and cry and the mothers have the sort of conversations that young mothers everywhere have - sleeping patterns, toilet habits, precociousness in the areas of language, or teething or crawling.

Once the babies have eaten they are placed in their carriages and the young mothers have sushi. By this time of course the restaurant is in shambles - food and baby toys on the floor, the table in ruins and the staff faces cracked from smiling while the other customers depart. I do hope the ladies tip well. I have never stayed long enough to find out.

Sometimes my bosses arrive with VP's from other organizations. I pretend not to see them and they pretend not to see me as well. Once I was sitting in a rather private seat in a restaurant. I was behind a small wall and no one could see me. I recognized the voices of several bosses who were doing the ladies who lunch thing. They were seated far away, near the window but there was a lot of shop talk which I heard. I felt trapped. I finished my lunch much before they finished theirs but I didn't want to reveal myself and cause embarrassment. So I explained to the waitress why I was staying and I waited until they had finished their lunches and left.The waitress enjoyed our conspiracy and told me when I was free to leave.

My lunch hours are always a good distraction from the trials of the office and I return to work restored and amused.

[Darienne]

I am a slightly different species of the Ladies Who Lunch. I am a Lady who Lunches". Sometimes I lunch with my friends and colleagues but not everyday. Everyday I lunch in a restaurant on my own.

Wonderful story. Perhaps you should write a lunching blog.

[Lilija]

I am a slightly different species of the Ladies Who Lunch. I am a Lady who Lunches". Sometimes I lunch with my friends and colleagues but not everyday. Everyday I lunch in a restaurant on my own.

Wonderful story. Perhaps you should write a lunching blog.

Yeah, excellent read! Sometimes, lunching by yourself is just the perfect island of peace in the middle of the day.

[Anna N]

I enjoy eating alone as much as I enjoy eating with friends.

It's been many years since I could afford to eat out alone but it was also a secret pleasure of mine. Even more pleasurable was to breakfast alone in a hotel restaurant. Nothing is more soothing to my ears than the gentle clink of china and the tinkle of cutlery in a high-class hotel restaurant at breakfast time. There is almost a holy hush over the place and I could linger for hours with the newspaper and endless cups of coffee. I miss those days!

[Anna N]

I left my camera at home today so no photos – sorry!

Kerry and I had lunch at another Thai restaurant today (link). It was a case of the closest port in a storm as we don’t usually do the same ethnic food two weeks in a row. However it was a satisfactory lunch.

We ordered the Assorted Appetizer Plate (spring rolls, golden squid, chicken satay, wrapped shrimp and Toon Tong (golden bags filled with a blend of chicken, shrimp, water chestnuts and green onions served with a sweet and sour sauce)) and the Grilled Beef (tender slices of beef barbequed to perfection served with a sweet chilli sauce).The golden squid was tasty but paled in comparison to the squid we had last week and the “golden bags” had such a miniscule amount of filling that it was rather like eating crispy wontons. The grilled beef, however, was tender and very tasty and went down well with the accompanying sauce. We stuck with ice water as drinks. Service was unremarkable meaning that it was perfectly adequate. The only jarring note was that a business man came in when we were almost finished lunch and opened up his lap top computer while simultaneously talking on his cell phone. Sheesh. Made me wonder if we were in a restaurant or an office.

While Kerry and I wolfed down Thai food, Kira , Kerry’s daughter, munched on a peanut butter and jam sandwich from home supplemented with bits of crispy wonton skins from the appetizer platter.

Before lunch we popped into the Habitat for Humanity Re-Use Centre where Kerry snagged a couple of corner dish racks and draining trays for her new chocolate room. After lunch we dropped into X S Cargo, a discount store, where I found a commuter mug that I had been searching for. Then we hit the other re-use centre in Burlington but came up empty-handed this time although I am still sort of regretting the small gratin dish ($1.00) I left behind.

Assuming that our schedules allow for it, next Wednesday we will have to find something other than Thai.

[rooftop1000]

I had an unexpected Ladies lunch on Tuesday with my mother. After a few hours perusing a large antique shop to get price ideas on grandma's stuff we headed right across the street to visit one of my former employers.

http://www.kevinsthyme.com/

After poor Kevin told us how dismal business was in Feb. and about the power being out and ruining his Saturday night he insisted on comping us a lunch.

My mother always being up for some coffee said that was all we should have...I told her to hush and we split a Turkey, Bacon, and Smoked Cheddar sandwich while we drooled over the 20something year old waiters. After that we found a supermarket that had neither been flooded or had no power for 2 days.

tracey

[Kerry Beal]

Well - yesterday was Wednesday - and Anna I were at it again!

Anna had identified a greek restaurant in Toronto - just off the Danforth - that was fairly new and getting good reviews. So first thing in the morning off we went - identified the location of the restaurant and set out to see what we could find around it to amuse ourselves until we were hungry.

It was a great location to park ourselves and look around - there was a Danish bakery - with lots of interesting items that Anna snatched for her upcoming Danish lunch, there was a philippine grocery that had some interesting snack foods (I'll let Anna report on the Teriyaki Squid Crispies), a thrift store (with an amazing lack of interesting kitchen stuff), a West Indian grocery - that had a few items on the shelves that looked like they had been there since the 60's and a couple of nice produce places - all within a 2 block stretch.

The restaurant - Folia Grill - had quite a modern look. It smelled wonderful as we came through the door. Once we managed to get the volume turned down on the TV it became quite tolerable. And the entertainment was free! There was a plainclothes detective who showed up right at noon (to the annoyance of the owners) to get a download from their security camera which had captured the image of someone stealing a car, that was subsequently involved in a high speed chase, from out back the night before.

They were also in the middle of a crisis of refrigeration - apparently the Garland grill with fridge under had turned into a freezer overnight. We amused ourselves listening in on the call to the company they'd bought the unit from - the instructions were to unplug it, wait 5 minutes, then plug it in again. I'm thinking that really just bought time for the folks who were going to have to repair it tomorrow!

The food was excellent - we chose a couple of sticks of pork souvlaki - it was a perfect combination of fat and lean to crisp up beautifully on the grill. The chicken gyro plate was tender and spiced just right. Nice thick tzatziki accompanied it. The bifteki - though a tad dry (thank you detective!) - was seasoned perfectly. We enjoyed zucchini fries with our shared plates (going low carb don't cha know!) and they were perfect with the Folia sauce - a nice orangey red cream sauce that we couldn't identify.

We watched the production of a greek salad - tomatoes were quartered fresh, cucumbers sliced, red onions, a large slab of feta was placed at a jaunty angle,a few plump olives, a couple of lemon wedges and good sprinkling of oregano (actually a really good sprinkling as the lid fell off the container - part of the entertainment!). A really nice looking olive oil was served with the salad.

Fully stuffed - we headed off along the Danforth in search of the Big Carrot Natural Food store. I hadn't been there in years - the place has certainly poshed up from it's hippie days. A little wander though the cookbooks at the bookstore, and a quick trip into the cheese monger to grab a few new cheeses. I took the really smelly goat cheese with me to work last night.

[Beth Wilson]

Mmmmmmmm! I think I cam smell that lunch through the computer! I really miss the Greek food of the Danforth...Thank you for sharing that delicious looking lunch for us all to drool over.

[Anna N]

The Ladies Who Lunch Have a Bad Hair Day:

That’s a teaser and I will get to it later.

When Kerry told me that she had an errand out in Markham today I heard “Pacific Mall”! For those of you not in the GTA Pacific Mall is a huge Asian shopping centre north of Toronto and it is surrounded by Asian grocery stores. Many years ago it was in one of these grocery stores where I found those elusive Asian ingredients that were impossible to find in the Oakville area. I remember spending a small fortune stocking up on soya sauces, vinegars, noodles, etc., so I looked forward to a return visit. But first I did a little research on where we might eat lunch. Markham, it seems, is pretty much a desert for foodies unless one wants Dim Sum. So lunch would be dependent on what appealed to us when we reached Markham.

The Mall was still not open when we first arrived just before 11 am. But the stores soon starting opening and, of course, we sought out the cookware stores. Kerry was after a Chinese pork docker, an instrument that resembles something from a Medieval torture chamber but is designed to put lots and lots of holes into pork skin to help turn it into crackling. We had seen this implement when we had a very short visit to the Mall a year or so ago but the store was closed and we did not have time to wait then. We quickly found that same store and Kerry grabbed the said instrument and a couple of interesting molds of small fish. Not sure what exactly they are meant for but Kerry will turn out chocolate fish I am sure. I drooled over some interesting knives but resisted temptation.

Two other cookware stores engaged us until lunch time when we headed up to the second floor of the Mall and the food courts. Didn’t take us long to find a vendor selling roast pork cut from what was left of a hanging side of pig. Kerry fancied the whole pig face but I chickened out and so we had pork cut from the side and an order of red-cooked pork. That was the perfect answer for two low-carbers and I managed to out-eat Kerry this time. We left only a few crumbs.

Now for the bad hair. Sitting in a food court one has the pleasure of people-watching and Kerry and I are both confirmed enthusiasts of this pastime. So while we ate our piggy lunch we watched the people and were struck by the number and variety of ultra-modern (weird) hair-dos. From a security guard whose hair was so spiky it should have been registered as a weapon, to a young man whose hair resembled neatly trimmed cat grass (though thank heaven he had not dyed it green). The hair-dos were all sported by the male of the species

Another nice thing about eating in a food court is that one can’t complain about the service since there is none. No one hovers over the table. No insincere, “How is everything?” to finesse. And all the time in the world to enjoy the meal.

After lunch we found another store in the Mall selling Japanese tableware and were struck by this rice bowl sporting a “dead cat”? Perhaps Hello Kitty has used up 9 lives.

[Kerry Beal]

We also hit the Asian grocery store in the Pacific Mall - spent about an hour wandering around deciding what we needed. I ran out of fish sauce the other day - so grabbed a bottle of 3 crabs and a couple of the little cans of coconut milk, handy to have a few of those little suckers in the pantry.

Anna found some Japanese chili blends and some fetal bok choy.

On the way home we hit a couple of chocolate suppliers and by the time I hit home I had 70 kg of chocolate in the trunk, along with a bunch of Boiron frozen fruit purees.

[Darienne]

Ya gotta love the 'dead cat' dish.

Thanks so much for the information about the Pacific Mall. Barbara (confectionery partner) and I have been planning that outing for ages and we would have turned up long before anything was open.

[Pam Brunning]

Hi Anna

Can you explain what a Chinese pork docker is like and post a photo of it please - I am very interested. Does anyone know where you can get one in the UK. I have looked on Google but can't find one.

[Kerry Beal]

Hi Anna

Can you explain what a Chinese pork docker is like and post a photo of it please - I am very interested. Does anyone know where you can get one in the UK. I have looked on Google but can't find one.

Here you go - nothing fancy. Waiting for hubby to bring up a nice piece of foam from his workshop to put this in so I don't stab myself when I put it in the drawer. The pointy ends are really sharp!

[Porthos]

Kerry, it looks like you could use to to cube steak with also. Just watched a Good Eats episode about that.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry, it looks like you could use to to cube steak with also. Just watched a Good Eats episode about that.

Actually I have a delicator (an electric tool for making cube steaks) in the garage - when my dear old friend Huey died (a butcher in his late 80's) I inherited a big scimtar knife, his 800 lb meat slicer and the delicator.

[Kerry Beal]

Anna and I were at it again today - so soon too!

I have to work for the next 7 days straight, so today - even though it's Good Friday - was a good chance for Anna and I (along with the rug rat) to head out and do a little chocolate delivery to one of my students. Of course that gave us the chance to see what we could find for lunch on the way home.

We went to one of our favorite pho joints (a 'chain' no less) Pho dau Bo in Mississauga. Their pho is some of the best around.

Anna went for the pho with rare beef, I went for chicken and rare beef. Of course spring rolls of some sort are required with pho - we shared some fried and some fresh. The rug rat had some bits of the fried spring roll as well as the lunch we'd brought along for her.

It was slim pickin's for shopping on the way home - the Philippine grocery was closed - but we did find a Portuguese grocery and bakery open - biggest collection of salt cod I've ever seen. They had two band saws dedicated to it. There was also an interesting looking sausage behind the meat counter - wrinkly in a way I haven't seen before - not sure what that might have been.

[judiu]

Kerry, it looks like you could use to to cube steak with also. Just watched a Good Eats episode about that.

(Snark, snort) I remember as a kid of about 15, being invided to a friend of my Mom's for dinner. He had bought a pice of round (read rubber)steak, and planned to cook it on the grill My Mom and I traded "the look" (like oh dear, how are we gonna fix THIS?)both knowing that if he did it on the gril it would take us all night to chew thru two bites of it. He didn't have a meat mallet, and i didn't know the wine bottle trick yet, but he had a claw hammer! Worked a treat; the 'rubber' steak was actually quite tasty and chewable in the end!

[Anna N]

So this Wednesday was a true foodie day for Kerry and me. We managed to squeeze some non-food related errands in between the main purpose of the day. Our first foodie stop was at Picard's Peanuts where Kerry stocked up on peanuts and I bought some blazing hot habanero peanuts for my chile-head son-in-law. Then we headed off for Dundas, a small village, with lots of boutique stores including a branch of Cumbrae’s meats. We did drop in there but spent nothing more than a lot of drool! The dry-aged ribeye steaks, cut 1 ½-2 inches thick, would have used up most of my food budget for the month.

But on May 1 my husband and I are hosting our annual Danish lunch and I have been putting away the pennies for this so I had asked Kerry if we could perhaps visit Mickey McGuire’s Cheese Shop click. This store is a cheese-lover’s paradise. Not only do they offer a huge selection of cheeses from around the world but the staff is friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about their products. They are more than happy to let you taste any cheese in the store. These are the cheeses I went home with yesterday:

Nuit D’Or (France)

Abbot’s Gold (England)

St. Agur (France)

Premier Cru Gruyere (Switzerland)

Esrom (Denmark)

Appenzellar (Switzerland)

The Nuit D’Or is currently aromatizing my refrigerator and if I don’t re-wrap it to contain the odour we will be tasting it in everything we eat. The Gruyere had just arrived in the store and the staff had to open the monstrous package and cut up the virgin wheel. It was a sight to behold as they manoeuvred it on to a slicer and cut it into two halves and then into large wedges for storage.

The last cheese we tasted and one which Kerry bought was Alpindon link(scroll down). This is an amazing cheese from British Columbia that is still haunting me. I will be buying it next time we visit. I had a shopping list in my head when we arrived that included bleu de Termignon as discussed by David Lebovitz here and a Taleggio but both somehow disappeared from my memory until I got home! But five cheeses are more than enough for Danish lunch so these will have to wait for another time. (For purists – please don’t confuse Danish lunch with a cheese tray – they just are not the same!)

After the cheese shop we headed back into Burlington in search of lunch at Hillbilly Heaven link. I had found talk of this on another food board and we wanted to check it out. BBQ to most Canadians really means grilling outside and has little to do with the American concept of BBQ as it relates to long, slow cooking with lots of smoke. Consequently true BBQ is hard to find. This tiny establishment has only four tables but as soon as we opened the door we knew we had found the real thing. The smell of the smoke was unmistakable.

It is run by a pleasant husband and wife team who bought it in February of this year. The husband was happy to chat with Kerry about the food and the business but I simply focussed on eating:

This is the Smoker Plate . There is brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken and a rack of ribs. We foolishly bragged that finishing this plate would hardly be a challenge for the two of us but, though we made headway, I ended up with enough to take home to cover dinner last night and lunch today.

This was my first taste of cornbread and I didn’t like it at all. It was a sweet corn bread and simply seemed out of place to me as a BBQ newbie. But Kerry found it to be very satisfactory though even she had only a taste to avoid the carbs. Our meal came with one side and I (foolishly now I think) chose the rubbed potato chips which were very fresh potato chips dusted with a BBQ rub – pleasant but not amazing. I should have chosen the smoky baked potato as it sounds very, very interesting – oh well – next time!

The meat was very tender and smoky and the three table sauces suited my taste. Kerry wussed out and didn’t try the blazing hot sauce but was happy with the other two and I found that combining the blazing hot with the honey sauce was lovely if unconventional. All in all a most satisfactory day. Now to tackle that stinky cheese before it contaminates my whole fridge.

Edited to add link to Alpindon Cheese.

Edited April 15, 2010 by heidih
fix link (log)

[Kerry Beal]

And what a stinky cheese it was! I bought the other half of the small cheese - got it home and realized that I couldn't leave it in the fridge while I headed to Maryland for the chocolate conference. Hubby would have gone nuts trying to figure out where the smell was coming from. So I took it to work - I had to put it under a bowl - and every time someone lifted the bowl people started sniffing and checking out the patients to see who needed attention. Anna suggested by e-mail that I spread a little around the waiting room to keep the ER quiet for the evening.

[Kerry Beal]

Well, here we are Wednesday again. Anna and I got a rather late start today as the rug rat has started doing physio on Wednesday mornings.

We needed to get a few things done - I wanted to hit a thrift store or two to find a couple of those little warmers for cocoa butter - and I desperately needed some groceries - so we decided to combine some grocery shopping with our lunch and hit the local Denninger's. It's a european grocery store, that also has an eating area where they serve a variety of nice deli foods. Their soups and stews are particularly good.

In the interest of low carb - Anna and I both had the sausage plates.

After lunch we hit Value Village - no cocoa butter warmers - but I did score a coconut reamer and a copy of The Cuisinart Cookbook by Bonnie Stern. At Bibles for Missions, Anna scored the cutest little stainless ricer - about half the size of a regular ricer. I also picked up an empty basket for putting together a chocolate basket for fund raising for a friend.

[Anna N]

So Kerry and I did a repeat this week returning to Paramount Foods. See previous topic here.

This time the place was packed to the gunwhales and we were afraid we wouldn’t even be able to find a table but Kerry succeeded in snagging one near a window. People-watching was at its best today as a virtual United Nations of nationalities were in attendance. Many were in traditional garb. Here you place your order, give your table number and when your meal is ready it is quickly delivered to your table. Service is really not an issue since there is limited interaction between staff and diners. Given the crush of diners the wait time was quite reasonable and we occupied ourselves watching plates of wonderfully appetizing food pass us by.

We ordered the mixed grill and the beef and chicken schwarma platter (hold the carbs!).

I have rarely enjoyed a plate of protein as much as I enjoyed this!!!! The chicken and beef skewers were tender and tasty. I don’t eat chicken breast often as I find it dry and bland but this was moist and flavourful beyond credibility. The schwarma platter was equally moist and tender. Neither of us liked the pickles! The pinkish one I think was a pickled turnip and the green a pickled cucumber but neither were to our taste. The sauces were good – a tahini, a garlic sauce and the third was like a rather mild, mousse–like mayonnaise.

About half way through our meal the server returned with two enormous pita breads that remained puffy throughout the meal. Damn it was hard to resist those. I was fascinated that they never deflated.

On the table, along with the usual salt and pepper shakers was another shaker with a reddish “pepper”. I do not believe it was cayenne but if anyone can guess what it might have been I would love to know as I quite enjoyed it sprinkled on the mayonnaise.

On the way home we stopped in at a HomeSense store where Kerry snagged a few items she wanted to experiment with for chocolate bowls and for splattering and I snagged this little pot.

It is only 1.7 quarts and I bought it to replace a similar pot that I had found last summer at a garage sale. The handles on the garage sale pot are cracked and becoming dangerous. I paid $1 for the garage sale pot and $17 + tax for the replacement! Somebody will surely see the humour in that!