food

A Québécois delicacy

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Pretty high up on my “must do” list for Quebec City was a return to a fast food chain I spent some time frequenting in my younger years: Chez Ashton.  Poutine, one of the significant contributions of Quebec to the world of food, can be found in all kinds of elevated forms – with lobster, with fois gras, with heirloom potatoes and grass fed dairy cattle organic cheese curds, or a host of other riffs on the basic dish.  I have nothing against those.  In fact, I’m a big fan of many.  But the truest interpretation of the dish is the variety made in casse-croûtes across la belle province.

So, harkening back to my younger days where a poutine and a Pepsi at Chez Ashton held a dear place in my heart, my first meal on my return visit to Quebec was exactly that:

Chez Ashton poutine

Continue reading →

The first rule of wine club

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Ok, so it’s not that drastic.  I can speak of Wine Club.

No summary of my recent trip to Toronto would be complete without at least a mention of the time I spent with my sister at her wine club and cellar.   Shortly after arriving in town on Thursday, we made our way to the club nestled away on a side street in downtown for a light lunch and a beautiful bottle of Ontario red.  My sister isn’t a big red drinker, but had stashed a few bottles away for when someone like me comes along with her.  The Thirty Bench Cab Sauvignon was lovely – nice cherry and vanilla flavours – it went really well the chorizo and a few other items making up a light lunch:

Perfect lunch for a Thursday

Continue reading →

Ruby Watchco

/ Greg / Leave a comment

Trying to pick a restaurant in Toronto for each visit is overwhelming.  Which cuisine?  What neighbourhood?  Something new or something loved from a previous trip?  About three weeks before my last visit and I hadn’t picked anything despite reminders from my sister that time was running out to get a reservation for a Saturday night at anywhere popular.  A reminder text popped in from her as I was watching “Pitchin’ In” on Food Network and somewhere in the back of my head I remembered Chef Lynn Crawford had a newish place.  A quick look online and Ruby Watchco was my choice for this trip.

It was superb.  The grapefruit and blood orange tequila cocktail was so good I didn’t get to snap a picture of it.  I could have eaten a bucket of the clili roasted eggplant salad .  The ribeye melted in my mouth.  The sherry vinegar roasted mushrooms (a side with the steak) would make an incredible football day snack (I’m picturing them in a funnel cone with a spear to poke them with, but I digress).  The blueberry and lemon curd parfait was the perfect blend of tart and sweet.

Course 1: Chili roasted eggplant salad with honey mustard goat cheese dressing
Course 2: Slow roasted ribeye with onion jam and horseradish cream
Course 3: Artisinal cheese w/ cherries and almonds
Course 4: Maple blueberry parfait with lemon curd
Me with a glass of Chianti

The restaurant itself was beautiful inside.  Homey with a modern feel.  The staff was super friendly.  For an evening, I wished I lived in Riverside so this could be my neighbourhood place.  I think the picture of me above speaks for itself in that regard.

Toronto’s Signature Sandwich

/ Greg / 3 Comments

I’ve written about delicious sandwiches before (Philadephia’s cheesesteak, the Primanti Bros sandwich from Pittsburgh, the glorious hotdogs in Reykjavik) so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to a meal served on bread. Toronto’s peameal sandwich is right up there with the tastiest sandwiches I’ve tried.

Whenever I’m in Toronto on a Saturday morning, I’m making a beeline to the St. Lawrence Market.  Before the main course, there’s plenty of sights and tastes to take in.  For the carnivore, there are cases upon cases of cuts of meat like this:

Mmmmm.... meat Continue reading →

Revisiting familiar places

/ Greg / Leave a comment

My next two trips are return visits in many ways.  Next week I’m heading to Toronto to visit my sister.  It’s a place I’ve visited almost an uncountable number of times; a place I’ve lived and worked in.  Next month, I’m heading to Quebec City.  Although not recently, it’s another place I’ve spent some time in owing to family friends, a relatively manageable 11 hour drive and my earlier-life passion for my beloved, but now extinct, Nordiques.

What to do when heading back to places this familiar?  For both it’ll be a mix of revisiting old favourites and finding a couple of new experiences.  In Toronto, I’m excited by the new: dinner reservations at Ruby Watchco, in what seems like a city with no end to dining choices.  I’ll also be tempted back to some old favourites – peameal sandwiches at the St Lawrence Market, a beer or two at the Rebel House, and perhaps some El Salvadorian food at Tacos El Asador.   In Quebec City, wandering around the old town and sitting down to a heart stopping poutine at Chez Ashton will bring back memories from many years ago.  For the new?  A host of restaurants and bars that my palette didn’t appreciate all those years ago.

My lists are made (but, as always, somewhat fluid) and my walking shoes are ready.  Here’s to the familiar and to a taste of the new.

Pittsburgh’s best sandwich

/ Greg / 3 Comments

Most cities have developed some form of sandwich for which they are known.  I think I’ve had a great signature sandwich everywhere I’ve been.  Smoked meat in Montreal, a muffaletta in New Orleans, the cheesesteak in Philly.  Getting back to Pittsburgh last week gave me a chance to reunite with a steel city favourite of mine – the Primanti Brothers sandwich. I couldn’t imagine a trip to Pittsburgh without stopping for at least one of these.

What makes it so special?  I think the sign says it best:

Primanti Brothers Continue reading →

Denver, delicious

/ Greg / Leave a comment

The last word on my recent trip to Denver will be all about the food.  I spent remarkably little money for some truly delicious eats.  Here are a few of the highlights…

Euclid Hall – On a recommendation from a colleague, I headed here for dinner the first night and had what was probably the most unique of the dishes I sampled on my trip – a green chile and pork cheek poutine.  It was a perfect blend of sweet, hot and salty:

Euclid Hall Continue reading →

The Blue Lagoon and Reykjavik hotdogs

/ Greg / Leave a comment

A month and a half after returning home, I still get goosebumps thinking back on arriving in Reykjavik for the start of two days in Iceland.   In planning our itinerary, we figured a good first taste of this country after a four hour flight was a stop at the Blue Lagoon.  It was a perfect day for a visit here: sunny, 13°C.  My slightly weary travel body melted as I entered the lagoon:

Blue LagoonIn no time, the hot water took out the kinks of four hours spent in economy class. Noticing a bar just off to one side of the lagoon, I had my first Gull beer which really put me at ease.  It may have been the best tasting beer ever – the location definitely had something to do with that. Continue reading →

The price of eating in Norway

/ Greg / Leave a comment

I’ve been to a few expensive places in which to travel over the past couple of years (Zurich, I’m looking at you), but nothing really prepared me for the cost of eating in Norway.  In other costly cities – Paris, New York, Milan, I’ve had no trouble finding great economical places to eat where I felt I got a taste of the location.  Not so in Norway.  Seth Kugel, the New York Times “Frugal Traveler” put it best when he recently wrote:

Norway is the extreme Scandinavian case, though — the only country I’ve ever been in where I suffered from constant, low-grade budget anxiety. On the opposite end is Sweden, which, if you come directly from Norway, feels like you’ve entered a 173,300-square-mile Costco.

Traveling is about the memories – being a couple of accountants, we budget for trips so we’re not thinking about money while away.  With that planning we saved our travel dollars for the cuisine of Iceland laying ahead in our travels and quickly labeled Norway as a place where we’d live off of grocery store food for a few days.  This was our first supper in Bergen, and still clocked in at around $20:

Supper Continue reading →