The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 1)

[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.

[Anna N]

...

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.

...

And the Japanese theme did not end with lunch Click.

[MelissaH]

I feel like I need to lunch with you sometime. You seem to find all the best stuff!

MelissaH

[Kerry Beal]

I feel like I need to lunch with you sometime. You seem to find all the best stuff!

MelissaH

You are always welcome along!

[Kerry Beal]

Out to lunch a couple of times this week - first on Tuesday with Beth Wilson - she was down from the Ottawa area where she now lives. She joined me first at my child's classroom where we spent a couple of hours teaching the kids and the educational assistants from the class how to play with chocolate (well compound chocolate - it's too difficult to get in to tempering with the time constraints and the other limitations of her class).

Then we hit a couple of thrift stores in search of the perfect garlic press and ended up at Pomelo for lunch.

Beth follows this thread and has enjoyed calamari with Anna and I before - so of course we had to order it! They do it very nicely here.

Followed by Spring Roll Bun for Beth

And Tom yum pho for me - fusion doesn't get any better!

[Kerry Beal]

My second lunch out this week took us to Bahn Thai.

You'll never guess what this is?

Tamarind Beef

Chicken larb - it's unusual to find larb in the restaurants around here.