11pm and every table’s full as the Opaque Dancer and I sit down to eat. Thick chow mein noodles tossed and browned in soy. Three seafood (scallops, shrimp, squid spirals) and veggies, broccoli predominantly. Scrubbed-clean metal pots of steaming jasmine tea. Just what you need on a cold night.
Experimentation sometimes produces amazing results, but the vast majority of times it’s a reminder that the status quo is quo for a reason, despite our hopes of discovery. That is to say that my adventure into cooking tongue wasn’t as fruitful as I aspired, but such is the mundane truth of science. “Not worth it” …
Over reliant on tomato, both our carnita and chicken tacos were dry and placid, consumed rather than savoured. The fish taco effectively balanced cabbage, crunchy batter, white fish, and sweet mango. The warm decor featured bright colours and Luchador masks, but music so loud the Strange Baker and I couldn’t hear each other. Tacos 101 …
An elderly man sat shaking slightly in front of three cakes; I felt like I should walk away having had SOME chocolate besides three merckins. He gave me a crushed slice extracted from a cake hidden behind the presentable ones; Betty Crocker would have tasted better. There was a saggy Santa Claus, a children’s chocolate …
I was handed a small bundle of treats. Sugary sweets, by the look of the strange objects resting in the palm of my hand. There sat a porcelain white frog near my thumb, stretched out and stiff, a hard candy whose flavour reminded me of the yellow banana marshmallows I used to swallow as a …
A cramped booth and a chocolate milkshake for me at a fair price, though all the rest of the diner’s food seems a dollar or two higher than the decor would suggest. I could smell the vinegar of the man’s breakfast a booth over: Tabasco is not a bbq sauce, despite what any server may …
I once worked service in a jazz bistro downtown. It was fraught, as all restaurants are, with its fair share of problems, but it introduced many lessons, objects, practices, and tastes that would follow me through the years, not the least of which was my discovery of brown butter. Brown or browned butter, or Beurre …
A fresh and varied chirashi bowl for myself and an expansive vegetarian bento box for the Cheery Milliner made for a filling dinner between cozy wooden walls illuminated by soft lamps. Sushi Time’s fare was casual Japanese. The fried cheese was a curious experiment that didn’t quite reach its mark. Sushi Time 325 Queen St …
I arrived early to lunch with the Human Engineer and the Wisen Scientist and spent five minutes reading under the coloured glass decorating the ceiling of La Société. A lovely aesthetic of polished wood and suited waitstaff hinted at elegance, competence, and high class. These illusions were quickly shattered over the meal. For a restaurant …
The Alabaster Witch wrapped early, so we enjoyed a brief, cheap lunch. Tuesday’s at Melt offers their classic grilled cheese, a pile of shredded cheddar pressed and grilled between two broad slices of bread (white for her, sourdough for me). Solid street food, $3 each, but only on Tuesdays. Melt Grilled Cheese 300 Richmond St …