Cheap Eats in Toronto

One of the things I love about living in Toronto is the fact that if, like me, you are not fond of sweet breakfasts and not particularly fond of eggs you can still find a very satisfying breakfast out. Today, for example, we were way past due to go grocery shopping and didn’t really have any of our usual staples – bread, bagels, cereal, soy milk, and cheese. As a result, I resolved to go out to breakfast and then go shopping (Sage later took care of this by going grocery shopping with Paul while I went out to breakfast).

So today I went out intending to try breakfast at a place called Jaja. It had been written up in a couple of the free papers and served Algerian food including all day Algerian breakfast. Unfortunately, though, when I got to Ossington station, it turned out that the place must have gone out of business or changed hands because where it should have been was a falafel place with nothing particularly interesting for breakfast. Determined to find something else interesting I walked up as far as Christie Pitts park and then back almost to Ossington station before coming across a small, unassuming storefront advertising cigarettes, donuts, and coffee as well as Canadian and Eritrean breakfasts. Not having tried Eritrean food I was intrigued and walked in. The restaurant (sadly I didn’t catch the name – if you’re really interested in trying it I can give you detailed directions) – consisted of a few small tables on a plain linoleum floor. A few woven baskets were placed (for sale, I think), under the counter but other than that there was not much decor. A television played Eri-TV – Eritrean news, music, and for the first ten minutes I was there, droopy dog and baby scooby doo cartoons. A few older men (50-60 something) sat in the back drinking tea and chatting in another language I couldn’t identify.

The proprietor came up to me as soon as I got in and asked me if I needed help. When I mentioned that I was there for breakfast he let me know that they served an Eritrean breakfast and did I want that – scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or foul. I chose to go with the foul and in a few minutes a steaming bowl of fava beans arrived with chopped tomatoes, onions, and green chilis on top. A small bit of yogurt was on the side as were two medium-sized sub rolls. A few minutes later, I was brought a cup of cardamom scented water and a teabag.

The breakfast was delicious and so satisfying that I’ve resolved to learn how to make it myself since it really is my kind of breakfast – high in protein with a bunch of bread but also quite spicy and not the least bit sweet. After I ate, I went up to pay the bill. The total for a very satisfying breakfast? Five dollars including tax.

Sage has asked why it seems that despite the fact that I have dinner out probably as often as she does if not more often I tend to make my bi-weekly allowance go farther than she does. The fact is that she has much more expensive tastes in dining than I do. I rarely spend more than $10 on a meal. She, however, likes sushi – preferably all you can eat which starts at $15 not including drinks or tip and is usually coupled with a trip to Bulldog Coffee whereas I’m quite satisfied with a trip to Timmy’s. As we purchased a new computer this month and money’s a bit tight as a result, we’re both going to have to cut back somewhat on the dining out and I’m going to have to be sure to be extra frugal when I do go out.

For those of you who do live here in Toronto, here are a few of my frugal favourites:

- Narula’s Pure Vegetarian (1438A Gerrard East, at Ashdale). Most of the week this place is really inexpensive – $4.99 gets you a thali with three vegetables or a masala dosa. However, stop by on Tuesday and you’ll get a thali for $2.25 and other prices are similarly reduced.

- Hopper Hut (880 Ellesmere, at Kennedy in Scarborough): I just tried this place on Friday. For $6.95 I got the most expensive vegetarian meal on the menu (the most expensive non-veg is $8.95) and I ended up with enough food for dinner and breakfast the next day. The food is quite good though as I said it wasn’t as spicy as I had hoped it would be.

- Chennai Chef (3517 Kennedy Rd Scarborough (just south of Steeles across from Pacific Mall): Paul and I went here last weekend and I had the spiciest Indian food I’ve ever had. The food was delicious, they made an effort to find something that Paul liked and the atmosphere was very homey and friendly. After I went there I found a couple of bad reviews online but I couldn’t agree with them less. The place was clean, the food was fresh and the people friendly. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that their competitors wrote those reviews. For about $6.00 you can get a thali with four vegetable curries, sambhar, rasam, roti, rice, and yoghurt. Other meals are similarly priced.

- Salad King (335 Yonge Street – just north of Dundas): This may be my favourite Thai restaurant in Toronto. The line-up can be a bit daunting on a Saturday night and this isn’t a place to go for a quiet meal with a loved one since it is quite noisy. I have a theory that they actually pipe in crowd sounds to make it seem busier than it really is both to make it seem more popular and also to get people to eat faster and vacate their spots quicker. It certainly works for me even if it isn’t done intentionally.

- Any restaurant that serves Roti or Falafel – chances are you’ll spend less than $5 and get a huge meal in the process.

- Any restaurant that serves Pho. Depending on where you go you might also get a heavy dose of MSG as part of the bargain. I’m very partial to Hanoi Three Seasons in Chinatown East. For $5-6 you can get a huge and very delicious meal. The North-Vietnamese style soups are a particular treat. I had no idea that dill was used in Vietnamese cooking but apparently it is in North Vietnam. Sage and I have a thing for dill – it is like the crack of herbs for us. Adding dill to a dish automatically ensures that we’ll eat twice as much of it and enjoy it that much more.

- If you’re travelling in Chinatown, you can’t go wrong with Banh Mi. For $1.00 to $1.50 you can get the equivalent of a 6″ sub at Subway with spicy meats, veggies, tofu or any number of other ingredients. Fresh herbs such as cilantro are used liberally and the result is a delicious meal for less than the change that you probably pull out of the dryer after doing your laundry.

I have a theory that I may have to test one of these days when we’ve got a bit more money that if you choose your locations wisely it is possible to eat out for cheaper than buying groceries – particularly if you are well aware of all of the various meal deals like Narula’s Toonie Tuesdays.

The rest of the day was spent in something of a fog. When I got back from lunch I went back to bed for about three hours and could barely drag myself groggily out of bed at 4:00. I had a bit of coffee and by about 6:00 Paul and I headed downstairs to the pool where we spent an hour playing in the water. Paul is getting to be a really excellent swimmer and is starting to dive as well. Now he likes to play chasing games in the pool which is helping him learn to swim faster and stronger. His biggest love, though, is still spending as much time as possible underwater. It will not surprise me in the least if he decides to learn to scuba dive when he gets old enough.

When we got back from swimming we watched the rest of the Hitchhiker’s Guide and then tidied up the house before it was Paul’s computer time. We decided to play The Hitchhiker’s Guide Text Adventure. BB
C 4 has ported the old infocom game to flash and now you can play the old text adventure which it appears they’ve added more to (I think it is to help promote their new radio series’ in which they continue the story through the rest of the trilogy). Paul was quite taken by the text adventure format – more so than I expected he would since he has never lived in an era in which that is the most cutting edge entertainment available as I did. But he really enjoyed it. So much so that he threw a huge fit when his time was up. The fit was of such magnitude that he ended up losing all of his computer time tomorrow. We finally worked it out, though, and Paul admitted that he was hungry. Two grilled cheeses later and he was his own civil self again.

Sage and I chatted a bit about this and we feel like we’ve come a long way when it comes to dealing with his fits (which don’t happen that often but have been known to reach spectacular heights when they do happen). There was a particular fit that happened last summer when we were out on Queen West where he was just over the top – all but kicking and screaming. And he might have even been doing that. Instead of getting sucked into it, though, somehow Sage and I were able to remain detached. Instead of getting discouraged we kept our sprits up and by the end it we were patting ourselves on our backs for maintaining perfect composure. Not only did that help end that tantrum earlier, it did something else very helpful. It gave us a success that we could draw upon later. And indeed that is what we’ve done several times over the past year. I don’t know about Sage, but I now know that no matter how hard it gets I can get through it because we dealt with that one huge tantrum. Success definitely breeds success.

So now I’m winding myself down though I’m almost as awake as I ever was today. I don’t think it will be long before I go to sleep, though. I definitely don’t want to turn nocturnal and be miserable all next week at work.

Werewolf Attack

Yesterday Sage went out on an all-day photo hunt gathering photos for her site while Paul and I stayed home. Now many times when I stay home on a weekend I find myself wishing I was outside and feeling like I was missing out. For some reason, though, yesterday I was able to totally immerse myself in being with Paul and we had a total blast.

We spent the day preparing for a Halloween party that I am pretty sure that both of us knew wasn’t going to have any more people than Sage and I. We started with a few paper crafts including printing out a pile of Halloween “bingo” cards, cutting them up and playing a “concentration” game taking breaks to toss rubber worms at each other all the time listening to scary classical music.

After that we started on our most ambitious audio project ever – an adlibbed segment of Paul and I going camping but having our trip cut short by the arrival of a werewolf at our campsite. It took probably 4-5 hours to do between adding dialogue and mixing in sound effects but I think we’re both pleased with the outcome and Paul wants to do another soon. I’m looking forward to it.

When we weren’t doing all that which pretty much means at lunch time and just before bed, we started watching the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy BBC Miniseries. It was, indeed, as good as I remembered it and in my opinion is far superior to the new movie. Paul said he liked it better than the movie as well noting that the BBC version is darker. I also find the BBC version has a bit more dry humour as well that was missing from the movie. I guess I feel like the major flaw with the movie was that they retooled it to appeal to the average American audience and as a result destroyed much of what appealed to me in the story. I should have seen it coming.

Anyway – our intent was to watch one of the half-hour episodes while we had our lunch but it couldn’t be helped. After the first episode we went back to our audio project but before bed we went back and watched three more. By the end we found ourselves wandering around the apartment with the theme song stuck in our heads. It reminded me of a time about ten years ago when Sage and I had a Blake’s 7 marathon and then spent the next several days humming the theme song as we went about our lives.

So what is it that makes those sorts of days different than the days when you can’t quite get in step with your kids? I can’t even tell you how yesterday was different than a day when Paul and I had trouble working together but it would certainly be useful to identify that element that differed between the good and bad days. Is it as simple as just mindfulness – being in the moment and finding fun in what you are doing right now rather than wishing you were outside or doing something different? Was it easier because of the long weekend’s giving me the impression that I have sufficient time not only for family stuff but for my own pursuits as well?

Though it was not intentional, I think the answer lay in something I recall having read in The Miracle of Mindfulness back when I read it while living in the yurt. I no longer have a copy of it handy, having passed it on to Bookcrossing some time ago. The gist of what I’m remembering is this. A married friend of Thich Nhat Hanh was chatting with him and mentioned that he had figured out something about being a parent and spouse. That for a long time he felt as if he had no time since his time was split between so many people – his day was divided into time for his wife, time for his son and so forth. However, when he started viewing it all as his own time (after all, who else’s is it?) he felt that his time was unlimited.

Over the years I’ve had varying luck with that concept. There were times at the yurt when I was totally behind that and other times over the years where I’ve thought like “screw that – everyone needs their time – my friends have their free time, Sage has her time when is mine?” Thinking about it now (to use Buddhist terms) all of this suffering comes from attachment (as everything else does). On my bad days I get an idea into my head as to what I want to do and get so attached to it that I can’t imagine any other way to spend the day that would be tolerable let alone fun. In those cases, going through the day is much like trying to paddle upstream against a strong current. It’s difficult, frustrating, no fun, and even if you do get to your destination it isn’t what you’d hoped because you’re so exhausted from the effort required to get there that you don’t appreciate it. Days like yesterday, on the other hand are like an innertubing trip in many ways. You let the “current” of the day carry you where it will. No effort is required. You might gently paddle to one side of the river or the other to avoid rapids (or steer into them). You might even pull off to the riverbank to catch a bit of sun. The result is that the entire day feels refreshing and energizing instead of like a chore. It’s all a good theory and I totally believe it. That said, it is not always easy to put into practice. I suppose that’s where a decent meditation practice (which I haven’t had for a few years now) comes in handy.

I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do today. I’m still a bit groggy having had only one cup of coffee. I imagine I’ll be going out somewhere but it all sounds pretty overwhelming at the moment. Perhaps I’ll start with another cup of coffee…

Dinner at a new restaurant

Today at work was the final day of the most recent big push to get a number of small projects done before several people go on vacation. As a result, I worked a bit late today and so Paul and Sage ordered pizza for dinner and I decided to grab dinner on the way home. I decided to take a little detour to Scarborough and try Sri Lankan food for the first time at a little place called Hopper Hut. I got intrigued by reading a Beyond Burgers review and was totally hooked when I read another review that talked about how tremendously spicy the food was. I left work and headed back to Toronto, catching a nap on the bus and having strange dreams while listening to James Brown singing King Heroin. All I remember were various images of 1970s New York City in the summer. Probably it was the combination of the music and the fact that I fell asleep reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X that brought back memories of my one trip to NYC in the 70’s when my dad took me to visit my dying grandmother in (I think) 1973.

The detour took a bit longer than I planned but still, three buses and about 90 minutes later I found myself at the corner of Ellesmere and Kennedy. The restaurant is in a small but very diverse strip mall where a person can go to a Carribean night club, an Indian Grocery, an Eastern European Deli, take Tabla lessons, visit the offices of Ceylon TV or in my case, try Sri Lankan food.

At first glance the restaurant appears to be a small takeout counter but going around the takeout counter leads to a dining room. I took a seat and perused the menu. It was the first time in quite some time that I’ve been to a restaurant whose menu I don’t know most of the items already. Torn as I was, I chose Vegetable Lampries and waited for my food. While I waited, I watched the TV that was in the room. Like many south-asian restaurants, there were Hindi music videos playing. Unlike every other place I’ve been, these videos were much more sexually suggestive and looked more like MTV than the usual Hindi film faire. In fact, some of the videos made me feel uncomfortable in a way that was reminiscent of one of Sage’s cartoons.

Finally the food arrived. The presentation was very different than I was expecting. A small parcel wrapped in pink paper was delivered to me. Unwrapping the paper revealed another parcel wrapped this time in a large banana leaf. Unwrapping this one revealed a large mound of rice covered in several different curries. The food was delicious but not as spicy as I was led to believe. In fact, the food at Chennai Chef was much spicier in my opinion. I may have to give both places a second go-round with a few different dishes.

After eating about half of my dinner, I was absolutely stuffed and asked if they would pack it up as it will be a great breakfast for me tomorrow. I also ordered a madras coffee though this was a mistake. For $2.00 I got what really tasted like instant coffee – rather disgusting. Chennai Chef made fresh-brewed coffee at the table (at least it appeared that that’s what other people got – it was too late for me to have a cup myself). Another reason to go back for another meal there.

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I’m definitely looking forward to the long weekend though I have to admit I’m somewhat at a loss when it comes to plans for the weekend. Maybe we’ll go to the Caribana parade, and perhaps not. I’m also considering doing a bit of geocaching as well if Paul’s into it. The weather looks like it will be absolutely stunning for doing things outdoors whatever we end up doing.

Surprise Holidays

I highly recommend moving to another country if only for the experience of having holidays take you by surprise. Take this coming Monday, for example, which most Ontarians get off and which is referred to only as the “civic holiday”. I think that’s code for “Wouldn’t it be nice to have a long weekend in August, too?” Last year I was caught completely off guard by it. I didn’t know it was coming until the week before when everyone asked me what I was doing for the long weekend. It happened again this year as well. To a lesser extent I am also surprised by Thanksgiving in October and even by Victoria Day even though it happens at about the same time as Memorial Day does back in the states. Seriously, though, there is nothing like starting a week realizing that though you had no idea it was coming, you have a three day weekend to look forward to. I hardly know what to do with myself.

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Today they shut the TTC down for about an hour due to a bomb threat. On the one hand it is a little scary to be in a place where that kind of thing is even possible. On the other hand, I might be naive but I am not terribly worried about the possibility. I believe that terrorism requires a motive to make it happen – and Canadians aren’t doing much to make themselves targets in this respect – particularly when you compare us to other countries. That said, no matter what, according to a paper by the Victoria Transit Policy Institute, there’s hardly any safer mode of transport than urban public transit. The most dangerous, at about ten times the risk of fatality? Rural automobile. Sorry, Andrea. Another reason to move to the big city ;^).

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Would you believe it? I’m starting to be at a loss for music to listen to. Now that I have a legal online service that lets me download an unlimited quantity of music I’m sort of at a loss to choose new stuff. Anyone have any good suggestions? Stuff that I’ve been playing lots of include The Roots, The Ditty Bops, and Jack Johnson but anyone who knows me knows my tastes are all over the map so depending on my mood I could be interested in nearly anything.

Dinner and bookus interruptus

I just finished making and eating dinner a few minutes ago and would you believe it? It wasn’t tofu curry or refried beans (though I did make burritos and homemade red chile last night). Tonight, after our produce box arrived and I’d given up on making tofu basil (I didn’t get home until after 7:00 and was overwhelmed at the thought of making a big dinner) I decided to make something totally different. Inspired by a meal I had at Juice for Life I made a rice bowl. It turned out to be even easier than I thought – here’s a quick set of instructions:

First start a pot of short grain brown rice – I probably used about 2 cups of dried rice.

Pour enough toasted sesame oil into the bottom of a one-cup measuring cup so that the bottom is covered with oil. Add 1/3 cup of rice vinegar, about 2/3 cup of light oil (canola, safflower, peanut, etc) and tamari/soy sauce to taste. Add to a bottle and shake well.

While the rice cooks, slice 1 lb of tofu into thin rectangles (1/16-1/8″ thick), dip into tamari and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.

Steam a bunch of veggies – we used broccoli, spinach (just until it turns colour), and sweet potatoes when the rice is nearly finished.

Assemble the bowl with rice, veggies, and tofu. Add other stuff as the inspiration hits you. In our case I added sunflower sprouts, chopped scallions, and pickled sushi ginger. Pour the dressing over the top of everything. I could see myself also using shredded carrots or zucchini.

I’ll probably make this again soon – this is a good way to use a bunch of fresh veggies in a very tasty way. I don’t see it being something that keeps for more than 1/2 hour, though. I also don’t see it as something Sage wille at (she had dinner out this past evening) – it is too obviously healthy. She will only eat healthy food if she is tricked into it by it tasting like junk.

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I do something that Sage finds tremendously maddening. Okay – probably there are tons of things, half of which have to do with my musical preferences but this is different. She finds it really maddening that I have no problem putting down a book without ever finishing it. I do this probably 30-50% of the time. I think she sees it as failing to follow through with an implied commitment to the author. Or perhaps it, to her, is like the stories I’ve heard about Mozart’s parents who found the quickest way to get him out of bed when he was stubbornly not getting up was to play only the beginning of a piece of music on the piano. He’d have to come down and finish it when they didn’t.

Anyway – I think part of the reason why I don’t finish every book I read is that my standards are really high for what I expect a book to do for me. I have it in my head that every book should make me feel totally immersed so that I am likely to miss my bus stop or have to keep reading it until I can no longer keep my eyes open. I’ve found another book that is doing that for me. That book is The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I know – it is one of those books that everyone is expected to read in high school or university but unfortunately I only had one class in my high school years in which we read novels – and that was in 9th grade. We read several great classics but that was the last time I read novels in class. After that the classes I took either assigned plays or short stories. Of course reading these books on one’s own is infinitely more satisfying in my opinion. Take The Catcher in the Rye. I read it in my 9th grade year for english class and didn’t find it that interesting and was annoyed to be forced into it. However, a year later, and several times thereafter I reread the book with great relish.

Anyway – I haven’t a great deal to say about the book at the moment – I’ve only read the first 100 pages or so but I have a couple of observations. First off – the story is totally fascinating – he is a fantastic writer (well, him and Alex Haley to be fair). The book is next to impossible to put down and the narrative is transparent – it isn’t so much read as lived. Second, it is really good to read this book now when I am so disillusioned with the way things are in the US. Reading this book gives me an appreciation of how much has changed. Still, it isn’t enough, but things in the US have changed significantly since the 1930’s.

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I’m still having my US news blackout, by the way. There have been a few times when I wanted to check out Americablog to see what’s happening but I don’t really think I’ll see anything there that will make me happy. So for the time being I’ll just read the Toronto Star online and skip the US stories. It has definitely changed my attitude for the better to avoid that news.

On a related note – I will need to renew my work permit yet again in a month or so. I really have to get it together to put in the permanent residency application. One way or another we’ll need to do that before 2007 so that we can apply for citizenship. With rumours of a draft circulating and talk of raising the maximum age for enlistment to anywhere between 34 and 40, it would be very useful to have my citizenship. I liked being nomadic for a while but I’m glad to be here in Toronto and I’d prefer to stay here thank you very much!

Shopping takes all day…

Yet another advantage of taking transit is that I can work on my laptop while I travel to and from work. While it isn’t something I do often, it is nice to know that I can do it. In fact, it promises to get better as one transit system is promising to have wireless access on some of their buses in the next year or so.

Today it was difficult getting off to work – I had a very good weekend that didn’t seem nearly long enough. Now I didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary but for the most part I had a very good time having a fairly ordinary weekend.

Friday night I got home from work and found myself totally overwhelmed. It had been far too long since I had gone grocery shopping and as a result I was left with dreadfully few options for cooking dinner. I know, I could have gone out grocery shopping and then headed home to make a quick dinner but those who know me know I am quick to find an excuse to go out to dinner. So I put down my bag and went to see if Paul wanted to come for a dinner at a new restaurant. After a few misunderstandings as to what was going to happen “no, not take-out, actually sitting and eating there” we hopped a bus to what Sage would consider the outer edges of beyond – Scarborough. In fact, we were very close to being out of Toronto, entirely (Scarborough is technically part of Toronto) as wee were within literally a stone’s throw from the norther border of the city.

The restaurant we chose was “Chennai Chef” – a cozy south-Indian restaurant hidden away behind some trees in a strip mall at the corner of Kennedy and Steeles. Paul is fairly picky about his Indian food – it can’t be too spicy, and shouldn’t have yoghurt – a lassi will make him throw up without fail. We sat down to dinner and I ordered a thali for myself. Those that have not had south Indian food might find the thali a little different than you’d get at most Northen restaurants. In addition to the usual curries (I was given three – spinach, mixed veg, and chickpeas), you are also provided with two spicy soups – a rasam (thin with a bit reminiscent of Tom Yum – thai hot & sour soup) and Sambhar, a thicker stew. They also provided me with a gigantic mound of rice, two chapatis and sweetened ghee (clarified butter) to spread on them, a small container of yoghurt, pappadom and a small container of yoghurt to cool the mouth (very necessary here – the food is the spiciest Indian I’ve had in Toronto). All of my food was fantasstic, though it was an asstonishing amount of food for $6.99. I could barely finish it.

Paul decided on something called a “mini thali” for himself which sounds as if it should be a smaller version of what I chose. Instead, according to the chef who came out to inform me of my error, this was a huge meal of three rice dishes (lemon, yoghurt and coconut rice). No, I’m not sure what “mini” is referring to, either. He told me not to worry and that he’d take care of Paul. A few minutes later he brought out a plate with two idli (similar to steamed buns), and two vadai (savoury lentil donuts). Strangely enough there was also a small bowl of white sugar provided. I think that might have been for the idli which are somewhat bland in nature. Paul knows himself well, though, and passed on the sugar – I gave him some of the sweetened ghee from my meal and that was all it took – he ate all of his food happily.

When we had all finished a woman came out to ask Paul if he wanted more to eat (no, thanks), and the chef came out to see how we liked everything and to offer Paul a special dessert. Minutes later he came back with what appeared to be another idli floating in very sweet rosewater syrup (those of you who have had gulab jamun would recognize it as the syrup those are typically found in).

We finished our meal and left at almost 9:30 PM. When we switched buses we found ourselves sitting with a couple people waiting for about 10 minutes for the next bus towards home to arrive. Paul and I lounged on the bench and I felt extremely content – I’d had a good meal with good company and the weather was that particularly wonderful summer night that people like Seals and Crofts write songs about.

Saturday we weren’t quite as successful. The morning was spent in the apartment doing lots of nothing – I can’t even remember what we did. The afternoon, however, we planned to head over to what was advertised as a sand festival with sand sculptures, plaster castings, kites and other fun stuff going on. Paul and I made our trek to meet Sage there – it took nearly 90 minutes to get there only to find that the “festival” was two card tables with about 8 people sitting next to a pile of sand about 10 feet in diameter next to black smelly water. This was something of a disappointment – particularly since our other alternatives were caribana and a theatre production of Arabian stories. Staying home in the pool would have probably been a much better use of our time.

Sunday, however, made up for it. It didn’t start out that well, though. I woke up with a serious case of the “nothing’s funs” and bit of crabbiness that Sage was going to go spend another weekend day by herself and I wasn’t going to get any alone time this weekend (pay no attention to the fact that on Saturday I told Sage she could go out and take photos on Sunday since the sand festival was sucn a bust – it’s irrelavent in the context of my changed mind, right?)

I was further overwhelmed by the fact that we had a ton of chores to do with grocery shopping being high on the list. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy grocery shopping and actually look forward to it. But keep in mind, a full trip takes far more time than you’d expect:

Step one involves figuring out if Paul is going to go with me or not. This ended up taking about 1/2 an hour during which time he and I shared our lack of enthusiasm for the task at hand. Following that we had to run around getting ourselves ready for another 15 minutes before pushing the cart over to the store. Once we walked into the mall where our grocery store was, things immediately began to improve. As we walked by the Second Cup, Paul suggested we have a coffee and tea together so before we even started we sat down and regrouped. It sounds like the most inefficient of ideas but it turned out to be just the realignment we needed to make the day go well. We sat for a good twenty minutes drinking and chatting (well, Paul drank, I was terribly disappointed in my vanilla bean latte which was too sweet and whose coffee tasted rather disgusting).

After that we did our shopping – Paul and I did a bit of math in the produce section, wandered around checking out the sugar content in the foods we bought (and didn’t buy) and otherwise had a good time getting our week’s stores. We hauled it all back home, unloaded everything and then rewarded ourselves with chocolate covered almonds for persevering and getting the first part of our task done. I know – most people focus a bit more on the task but we had fun. And no, we don’t get any better at focusing on what we’re doing.

After we rested for a bit at home, we headed back out – this time heading for Chinatown where we intended to eat before doing anything else. Now some of you know we try to avoid meat for the most part, and a few of you know that we occasionally slip up and have a bit of meat as well. As I was craving the experience of Dim Sum, I suggested to Paul we have a bit of meat and go to Bright Pearl for a bit of lunch. He suggested that we go to chicken feet. Now I’m as adventurous as the next guy and I’d even heard everyone say they’re really good. I tried them but I have to disagree with everyone. They were not good and I felt a bit ill. The final nail in the coffin was the deep fried squid. Paul wanted to try sone and so I got a plate. This was the chewiest squid I have ever had. The flavour wasn’t so good either IMO.

So now we have the role reversal. At the end of Dim Sum I, who lobbied long and hard to go felt a bit ill and disatisfied with the food (the experience was fun though) and wished we’d followed Paul’s initial instincts. Paul, on the other hand was really enthusiastic about the whole thing and loved the food. He liked how everything tasted and really liked how the system worked. He could, as he said, wait for a cart, get a few interesting things to eat, eat them and then sit back and enjoy his book and the music for a little while. When he got hungry again or another cart came by with something interesting he could eat some more.

We left there intending to get our groceries and started down the street. Now before I go further, can I ask something? Was it black market day in Chinatown and I just didn’t know it? As I walked down Spadina I passed several “illegal” vegetable stands on the street side of the sidewalk each selling really gorgeous produce at impossibly low prices. I mean impossibly low. For example at the grocery store, the cucumbers are currently going for $0.79 each. On Spadina they were 7 for $1.00 and were some of the best, freshest cucumbers I’ve had on par with the ones my grandfather would grow. In addition to the veggie stands, now a few card tables are out, each one covered in the latest “in-theatre” movie releases. Need a copy of the latest “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” to take home to your shut-in friends? No problem – they have that and tons of others available for a very cheap price. At one point I thought I’d transported to a bad 80’s movie – you know the one where the high school class trip goes to New York City and the kids from the country learn what a scary place a city is? That one. Anyway – I thought I must have been in it when I heard a man next to a building offer me a watch (genuine imitation Rolex it appeard) for $10. I think if I stuck around long enough someone would offer me an “O”.

Before we could get to the grocery store, I realized I wanted a cup of coffee. So I made a deal with Paul – we could visit some dollar stores (he’d been wanting to earlier in the day but I said we didn’t have time – I guess we didn’t have time until I needed a coffee more like! – if we could stop at Tim Horton’s for a coffee. So we picked up a coffee and sat outside in front of the store where we watched the city go by as we listened to the person in front of the Chinatown Dollar Mart play his drum (the same guy at the beginning of my podcasts) and the guy sitting next to us talking and laughing to himself. When we had finished we visited three different dollar stores but most didn’t have enough stuff Paul was interested in. It wasn’t until we got to the last one – less a dollar store and more a gift store – that had stuff that we both liked looking at. Most of their merchandise was what I think is popular in Japan at the moment – lots of kitsch from anime shows as well as a well stocked section devoted to the Nightmare before Christmas as well as tons of gel pens (which I’d been wanting for a while).

We spent quite some time in there admiring their merchandise, neither of us particularly motivated to buy anything. Finally, though, it was getting late and so we got back to what we came here for. Grocery shopping. We walked back up Spadina to the fruit market where at Paul’s request we picked up a bunch of rambutan (he’s very fond of them – partly, I think, because they remind him of tribbles) and decided to try having a coconut water. At several markets in Chinatown you can purchase a coconut, take it to the back where a man with a very large machete hacks a small bit of the top off and then you stick a straw in. There was an astonishing amount of water in there – it was almost entirely full. Unfortunately, though, neither of us was particularly fond of it and so we never finished it. I suppose if I were stranded on a desert island it would be a good thing to have around, though.

We went to our usual market and picked up the ingredients for basil tofu and tofu tom yum as well as some chili-garlic paste before moving on to Kensington Market. The longer I live here the more I like Kensington Market. Sure it is hugely trendy and all of the folks who are way too cool to be seen near me go there but I like the energy. It is one of the more diverse places in Toronto and has a delightful chaotic feel to it. Stores of all kinds are there, many of them playing different music competing with the neighbours. A walk down one street will take you through hip-hop, bhangra, ethiopian music, bhangra, punk and latin american music – all in the space of a block. We made our way slowly through the area soaking up the feel of the area (which only seems to be there in the summer. There are people there in the winter but it doesn’t have the festive feel it gets in the summer. Well, except maybe during the solstice celebration.

After all that we walked back to the streetcar and headed home – both of us marvelling at how little our shopping trip resembled our mental image of what our shopping trip was going to be. It was completely different in all senses but one. It did take all day…

I’m absorbant

Okay – so I already wrote this entry once on Sunday night bug Blogger decided to eat it. This time I’m being smart and writing it in a text editor so I don’t have the same problem.

Today in Sage’s forums she asked about the hottest and coldest weather everyone’s experienced and many people expressed their preferences for either hot or cold weather depending on, I suppose, their degree of sanity.

Anyone who knows me did not need to read my post today in the forums. I prefer the heat. If weather were the only determining factor I would never have left Albuquerque where it was quite often warm but got a little nippy a few times every year to remind you how lucky you were that you didn’t have to deal with cold weather 5-6 months every year.

These past two summers here in Toronto and particularly this last summer I have appreciated summer more than I ever have before. All this summer, even on the hottest of days I haven’t complained or been crabby about the heat. I haven’t felt bad because I realized right then and there what was happening. I was absorbing the heat with the intention of storing it up to keep me warm in December. Sage does the same thing but with cold. Just as she can wistfully talk of the time she went for a walk and forgot her gloves and couldn’t feel her fingers I will be kept warm this winter by memories of the summer I am living now. And it isn’t just about temperature. Toronto totally wakes up in the summer and I am not the only one who spends his summer absorbing both the heat and the social energy.

Last Sunday night I went down to Gerrard India Bazaar to get a bit of dinner. Unfortunately I waited until I was incredibly hungry and ended up doing what Sage and I termed “Driving up and down Route 9″ which we pioneered in 1992 when we lived on Route 9 in Framingham, MA. We would get ravenously hungry then decide to go out but not decide where to go. The result is that we’d end up crabbily driving up and down Rt. 9 unable to decide where we wanted to eat. Special bonus points could be awarded for actually sitting down in a restaurant, looking at the menu and then deciding to try somewhere else.

I made three circumnavigations of the whole area before deciding upon a (rather dirty – more on this later, sadly) restaurant that I chose solely on the fact that it sold Karela – bitter melon – which I was really craving and is one of my favourite dishes. I’ve been too nervous to try making it myself and Sage promises never to try it based solely upon its name. After a rather disappointing vegetable thali (of all the dishes in the thali only the karela was good), I left the restaurant and wandered the streets. Despite the fact that it was almost 9:30, the area was filled with people of all ages out. Some were strolling, others snacking at the paan shops, others eating roasted corn with chili and lime or kulfi (ice cream). Walking from one end of the street to the other was like walking through an audio-mosaic. You’d hear snippets of conversation in 3-4 different languages, followed by Hindi film music, followed by reggae music, followed by more conversation, followed by bhangra.

I finally stopped at a paan shop and got a plate of pani puri – small deep-fried puffed breads filled with yoghurt, chick peas, onions, several different chutneys and served with cumin water. They are extremely tasty and one of my favourites. Once I had my snack, I squatted on the sidewalk and ate my food and watched everyone go as I ate. Between the eating of the snacks and waiting for the streetcar to take me home from there, I didn’t leave until 10:30 PM. During that time I saw no signs of anyone going home.

I visited this same part of town back in the middle of winter. Instead of the sea of people on the sidewalk like there was Sunday, there were literally maybe 3-4 people. See? I’m not the only one absorbing the summer? And you can’t go outside too often in the winter because it will leak out that much faster.

Now the sad epilogue is that I think either the pani puri or more likely the (squalid would not be much of a stretch) restaurant ended up giving me a mild case of food poisoning. It hasn’t been as bad as when I had to go on cipro for campylobacter but it is enough that it has been annoying. I figure if it keeps up until this weekend I’ll go visit the clinic.

Finally, I’ve decided I’m reading far too much US news. I can’t read an article without getting outraged about the current state of affairs. So I’ve decided to take a break. I’ve unsubscribed from all of my feeds, as well as the air america podcasts. Maybe I’ll find a totally “popcorn” sort of book and not think about the chaos south of the border for a few weeks. It’s not so much sticking my head in the sand as having a therapeutic hot sand bath which will leave me relaxed and refreshed.

Fireworks?

I was going to write a post or two but just as I sat down a bunch of fireworks started over the lake near Ashbridges Bay. I’m not sure what the occasion is but I’ll try to come back in a few minutes after they’re over. Anyone know why they’re having fireworks tonight in Toronto?

Too creepy

When you put all these stories together it paints a hugely creepy picture.

Cooking

I’ve been in something of a cooking rut for a long time. I have a few dishes that I have made for years and they’re the bulk of what I make now. In any given week you can be sure I’ll be making Tofu Bangalore Phal (recipe to be posted soon, I promise), bean and cheese burritos (now with homemade red chile), chickpeas with butter and onions, and masoor dal (lightly spiced red lentils served with rice and roti). I have been gradually working my way out of this rut, though, and getting my inspiration from a few different places.

Back in early spring, I took a Thai cooking class out in the Toronto suburbs. The class itself was good but it got me really inspired not only about the recipes that we learned (tofu red curry, tom yum soup) but also gave me the confidence to try to hunt down a few other recipes online. Thai Tofu Basil (Tofu Kra Pow) is our absolute favourite thai dish. The recipe is incredibly easy to make, requires only a few very inexpensive ingredients and is very close to what you get in the restaurant. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere you can buy already-deep-fried tofu I recommend doing that – it is much easier and tastier than using just plain firm tofu. I like cooking this recipe because it also gives me an excuse to go shopping down on Spadina or at T & T Supermarket.

Inspired by the success of that experiment I moved on to Vegetarian Pho – one of my favourite Vietnamese dishes. This dish is also very easy to make and tastes like you worked much harder than you did. Instead of using the seitan that was suggested, I thinly sliced extra-firm tofu, dipped it in tamari and fried it until it was golden then added it to the soup. Absolutely delicious and again it can be made from commonly available ingredients. (Is your family adventurous enough to try this for Sunday Dinner, Andrea?).

I haven’t only been making new asian dishes, I’ve also gone back to my less-sophisticated culinary roots – military cuisine. As some of you know my dad was in the US army for 20 years and as a result he developed a taste for some of the more common dishes served in the mess hall and my mom obliged him. Having had these dishes as a kid, they are now something of a comfort food for me as well.

My first experiment in this realm was to make vegetarian shepherd’s pie following my mom’s old recipe. I made up a bunch of mashed potatoes and then took a can of cream-style corn, a can of regular corn, and some pre-cooked vegetarian “ground round”. I combined these ingredients in a casserole dish, topped it all with mashed potatoes and baked it until everything was warm and the potatoes turned golden on top. In my opinion it tasted exactly like the non-veg version. But then it has been about 15 years since I had my mom’s cooking so my memory could be failing me.

The second experiment was another success – this time with breakfast – a meal that I have a hard time making since the things I like for breakfast take too much effort before I’m sufficiently caffeinated. These dishes are an exception. Last weekend I made S.O.S. which that link describes as including dried beef but in my family was only made with hamburger. Preparation is simple – make a cream sauce (Thanks to Fanny Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook for the recipe), stir in pre-cooked veggie ground round, add lots of fresh-ground pepper and serve over toast. Today I’m going to try the same adaptation with veggie ground sausage (though I don’t think I’ll go so far as to make the requisite biscuits that should go with this one.

Anyone else know any good, quick, veggie recipes?