The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 1)

[heidih]

I am on the calamari fan wagon. I like the prep idea.

[Kim Shook]

You are some lucky ladies! How much I would love to have lunch with any one of you! And that Anna, Kerry and Marlene got to meet for lunch sounds incredible to me! Not to mention that incredible lunch!! I would have loved the squid and the lamb sandwich. And when I first read the name of the soup, I read it as 'spilt pea soup' and thought, It certainly was!.

[Dianabanana]

And when I first read the name of the soup, I read it as 'spilt pea soup' and thought, It certainly was!.

We've both got bad vision tonight--I read the title as "The Ladies Who Lurch." I rather like my version!

[Kerry Beal]

And when I first read the name of the soup, I read it as 'spilt pea soup' and thought, It certainly was!.

We've both got bad vision tonight--I read the title as "The Ladies Who Lurch." I rather like my version!

I was having visual difficulties yesterday too - can't remember what my first misread was - but I was kinda wondering why they were offering pus fries (actually pub fries).

[robirdstx]

Tomorrow, my regular 'Ladies Who Lunch' gf and I are meeting up with another eGulleteer or two for a Cinco de Mayo lunch meet-up at Houston's new El Real Tex-Mex Cafe.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!! We had a total of four (3 gals and a guy) for lunch at El Real today. My gf and I lunched with eG members Jaymes and brucesw. It was so much fun to meet and put faces to names! We met at the restaurant at one o'clock, skipping the lunch crush, so were able to eat and relax and talk. We started with Guacamole, Chile Con Queso and Chips. All very good! For our meals, we each ordered one of the enchilada plates, which come with rice, refried beans and a beverage. My gf had the Enchiladas #7 (3 cheese enchiladas with chili con carne), brucesw ordered the El Gallo Verde (chicken enchiladas with salsa verde), and Jaymes and I each had the Enchiladas Borunda (West Texas stacked enchiladas with tender pork and guajillo chile), with a fried egg on top! I tried to get a photo of each of the plates but the lighting made it very difficult and all of the shots, except one, were too blurry to use. The one that did come out is the Enchiladas Borunda. All of us thoroughly enjoyed the food. Our waiter, Shannon, and the other staff were friendly and efficient, and the manager, Stephano, stopped by our table to make sure we were happy with everything. We really had a great time and are planning to meet again next month - restaurant yet to be determined!

[Marlene]

You got to lunch with Jaymes? Oh man. I wish! And the food looks lovely. Jaymes certainly knows her way around mexican food!

[Jaymes]

You got to lunch with Jaymes? Oh man. I wish! And the food looks lovely. Jaymes certainly knows her way around mexican food!

My, my, Miss Marlene! You do know that anytime at all you'd like to go to lunch with Jaymes, you can (as they say on the Price is Right) come on down! Don't you?

You've got a place to stay, and a few thousand Mexican restaurants to try. Heck, we might even make a run for the border. There are a couple of towns that are still safe, and I just got back from one not too many weeks ago, so I'd love to show you around.

As for our luncheon yesterday, it was really outstanding. Robirdstx is just about as delightful a dining companion as one could imagine - smart, friendly, knowledgeable and conversational. Her friend as well.

And our BruceSW was also so very charming. I'm very hopeful that this was just the first meet-up of many.

As for the restaurant and food...

Not sure how many of y'all have heard of Robb Walsh, but he's pretty legendary in Texas. At one time, he was a restaurant critic up in Austin, but then moved to Houston where he continued his entertaining and insightful restaurant reviews. He's written several cookbooks, at least a couple of which are considered to be the "bible" of that genre; most notably, "Legends of Texas Barbecue" and "The Tex Mex Cookbook."

He's recently gone into the restaurant biz, and that's where our little group met.

Many of the dishes that he mentions in the Tex Mex Cookbook are on offer at his new restaurant, El Real Tex Mex Cafe, and they didn't disappoint. As Robirdstx says, she and I both ordered one of these, the Stacked Enchiladas Borunda, and they were wonderful, with tender pork chunks in a dark red guajillo chile sauce. I also thought the salsa and guac were exceptionally flavorful and good.

All in all, this was a terrific outing, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

And the next one.

And the one after that.

[Anna N]

Some Assembly Required

Once again on Wednesday circumstances made it impossible for me to leave the house so Kerry showed up with lunch. Our favourite comfort food - pho.

Vietnames Summer Rolls - how come the ones I make never look this tidy and pretty.

The Broth one for each of us but I am only posting one photo.

Beef and noodles for me

Chicken and noodles for Kerry

The garnishes

[Kerry Beal]

Going to do a couple of catch up meals from the last 2 weeks.

Excuse the focus issues - we were dining in the dark apparently!

Chinese 2 weeks ago - takeaway from "China Taste" in Burlington.

Moo shu pork I think - thought might have been duck.

Egg rolls of course.

Lemon chicken - sadly they forgot the lemon sauce for it.

Cantonese chow mein.

Steamed chicken and veg - served with a black vinegar sauce that is wonderful.

Chicken yat gat mein - a tasty noodle soup with chicken and veg.

Enough food to feed an army. I took the rest of the soup for dinner at work that evening.

Week 2 - takeaway Caribbean - from a great little place I happened across called Irie Cuisine.

We had a vegetable roti and a chicken roti - both looked pretty much the same so one picture.

Beef patties - bit of a hot bite - yum!

A bit of feline therapy.

Today Anna and I headed out to teach a chocolate class in Brampton which gave us a chance to stop for lunch at one of our favourite spots - Paramount Fine Foods. We shared the mixed grill plate - a skewer of striploin, a skewer of Shish Tawouk (chicken) and two skewers of kafta, grilled onion and tomato and various pickles. The parsley/sweet onion accompaniment was excellent. There was garlic sauce and a hummus as condiments.

The pita comes hot and puffy before the food is served.

[maggiethecat]

Paramount looks so awesome it made my teeth ache. Those puffy pitas!

The charming kitty pic on a lunch topic scared me for a sec!

[Anna N]

For our first lunch away from my house in what seems like eons, Kerry and I returned to one of our favourites places: Pane Fresco.

Kerry ordered the soup of the day which I believe was a minestrone. It came with a doorstop of their wonderful semolina bread.

I had the Pizza Margerita.

[Kerry Beal]

Anna and I headed off to Toronto today to pick up a new sous vide unit from Fresh Meals Solutions. It's a Sous Vide Magic controller with a heater, bubbler and 18 litre container.

Frank Hsu - the developer of SVM owns Back Alley BBQ and Grill, so we had our lunch there along with a nice visit with Frank and his lovely wife.

A nice unsweetened ice tea to start - needed it with the heat today!

Mongolian Short Ribs for me.

Lamb shoulder chops for Anna.

[heidih]

Lovely char on the meats and a cool presentation on the ice tea (if it iced or ice?...)

[Kerry Beal]

Lovely char on the meats and a cool presentation on the ice tea (if it iced or ice?...)

Oops - iced.

[rotuts]

Ive just lached on to this thread and look forward to its future. Ill take some time to look over the older ones.

Please Please include pix of your lunch! i love seeing the dishes.

that being said, its a shame I cant taste some of them!

[Anna N]

Not often do my daughter and I get a chance to have lunch together so when the opportunity arose yesterday we both jumped at it. We opted to try Sharkey’s as it was in the vicinity of our errands.

This is the complimentary bread and dipping oil:

Then we had the Black Pepper Calamari with Garlic Aioli

We asked to share an open-face steak sandwich:

I was quite impressed that they plated each half rather than just bringing an extra plate. They do not offer half-pints of beer on the menu but again they happily split a pint for us.

Edited to fix formatting.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Anna N (log)

[heidih]

That black pepper calamari is calling to me - they look like nice thick strips of what I call "calamari steak".

[rotuts]

I myself am now starving!

thanks !

[Anna N]

Today Kerry and I re-visited a restaurant that we discovered last year when Burlington did a restaurant promotion called Taste Burlington. Pomelo offers a Thai/Vietnamese menu.

We both ordered ginger tea. Unfortunately you cannot see the scale of the cup and teapot but they were tiny enough to look like they came from a doll house.

Since we both love to sample a selection of different bites we ordered the Thai appetizer platter:

and a bowl of Tom Kha soup each.

The soup tasted as if it were made with fresh coconut milk rather than canned but we quizzed a staff member and were a bit disappointed to learn that it was some sort of bulk pre-prepared broth. Still it tasted very fresh to both of us.

After lunch we hit the charity stores in search of a steamer rack for Kerry’s pressure cooker. We had no luck on the rack but I scored two cookbooks – John Ash - Cooking One on One and Alain Ducasse - Spoon. I also found a spatula which will enable me to get my small loaf pans out of the oven easily and a set of measuring scoops to leave in my flour, sugar, etc. storage bins.

I don't think Kerry scored anything food related but stocked up on fiction to take north next month when we will be doing some collaborative Modernist cuisine!

[Kerry Beal]

I don't think Kerry scored anything food related but stocked up on fiction to take north next month when we will be doing some collaborative Modernist cuisine!

Ah, but I did - one small pizza stone - suitable for use in my mini Big Green Egg.

[Anna N]

I don't think Kerry scored anything food related but stocked up on fiction to take north next month when we will be doing some collaborative Modernist cuisine!

Ah, but I did - one small pizza stone - suitable for use in my mini Big Green Egg.

Of course! How could I have forgotten that. It was definitely a steal.

[Kerry Beal]

Been a busy LWL week - Thursday Anna and I headed down to Buffalo to have lunch with Patris and to introduce Anna to Wegmans, Tuesday Morning and Penzeys.

Lunch was at Blue Monk Belgian Beer Bar.

We shared the duck frites with Chipotle Bacon mayo and Roasted Garlic and Sea Salt mayo.

Blue Balls - German meatballs topped with Moody Blue cheese and veal demi glace.

Roasted Beet Salad - sliced beets, green apple, candied walnuts, smoked bleu cheese crumbles on mixed greens with cider vinaigrette.

Frito Misto - arborio crusted calamari, shrimp, onions, olives and lemon with mustard seed vinaigrette. The thin slivers of lemon and olives were a delicious addition to the squid.

It was a lovely day - so we were able to sit outside and people watch.

[Anna N]

Today Kerry and I headed into Toronto with two goals in mind: to spend a $150 in gift certificates for Bruno’s Fine Foods and to find a 16 inch wok for use on Kerry’s Big Green Egg.

It wasn’t as easy as one may think to blow $150 at Bruno’s. We were really after things that we wouldn’t normally buy or that we would have difficulty sourcing locally. In many ways Bruno’s didn’t measure up to its Fine Foods label. However, we are not easily deterred and did buy some interesting stuff including a tube of Taste # 5 Umami paste, some sherry vinegar, a jar each of La Bomba Serrese, dried tomato pesto, quite a selection of cheeses and some lovely steaks.

We dropped into Pusateris where the words Fine Foods really does mean something including very high prices! Not having gift certificates we left with very little. I grabbed a couple of tomatoes as it would save me a trip to a local supermarket and Kerry, I believe, bought a bottle of saba. We also dropped into Ararat, a fascinating tiny shop carrying all manner of international foods. Here Kerry also grabbed a bottle of saba so she could compare the two brands and I bought a jar of Peppadew peppers and some Espelette Pepper Mustard.

On our most recent trip to this same area of Toronto Kerry had spotted a noodle shop she wanted to try for lunch and so we ended up here:

This little guy sits on the sidewalk advertising Adjisen Ramen.

We ordered the seaweed salad:

Gyoza:

Edamame:

Then Kerry had the Tenderous Ribs Ramen which had hunks of the most amazing pork:

And I ordered the Steak Ramen:

Both of the ramen dishes were incredibly tasty but as usual we ordered too much food and struggled to finish it all! We never learn.

After lunch we wandered through a giant cookware emporium in search of a 16 inch wok but were disappointed in finding almost any size EXCEPT the one Kerry wanted.

I, however, fell in love with a butane-fuelled infrared cassette grill and blew my birthday money on same:

A very enjoyable day all around.

[Marlene]

NIce find, Anna! And Bruno's has gone into decline as far as the "fine foods" goes, but there were always things I could get there that I couldn't anywhere else in Oakville at least. Until Whole Foods opened up, it was the ONLY place I could get Diamond Kosher salt for example.

I wish your trip had been next week, as I'll be in Yorkville on Tuesday and Wednesday, which reminds me a trip to Pusitari's is going to be in order I think!

[Kerry Beal]

NIce find, Anna! And Bruno's has gone into decline as far as the "fine foods" goes, but there were always things I could get there that I couldn't anywhere else in Oakville at least. Until Whole Foods opened up, it was the ONLY place I could get Diamond Kosher salt for example.

I wish your trip had been next week, as I'll be in Yorkville on Tuesday and Wednesday, which reminds me a trip to Pusitari's is going to be in order I think!

Next Wednesday's lunch will be in the Burlington area because Anna and I are packing for the pilgramage north - you are welcome to join us.

Gotta love Pusateri's!

While we were in Bruno's they had a single Wagyu strip loin steak for $50. They put out some fresher looking ones and I asked the butcher if he was willing to reduce the sad looking one - he'd only come down to $40 so we decided to pass.