Month: June 2007

Europe Day 2: London

One of my best mornings occurred that second day, if not only because I wasn’t operating on anyone else’s schedule. I took my time with a morning shower, relaxed with a cup of Twinnings tea, and even watched a bit of a cooking program on BBC. I had to check out by 11, and to be honest, I wasn’t too keen on departing from Ramada Encore – it was drizzling outside, and I think it’s always a bit disconcerting when the journey to Point B is unfamiliar.

I sucked it up eventually, and dragging my 42.8lb suitcase behind me and with the help of a very nice Tube attendant and newspaper vendor (they must hate tourists), made it to Tottenham Court Road and then the Jesmond Hotel, where the girls would be meeting me later that afternoon. As we would discover over the course of our trip, the Jesmond really was a diamond in the rough – clean, reasonably priced, offering a generous breakfast and within walking distance of a few different Underground lines, I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for accommodation in London.

Our quad room on the main floor of the Jesmond


A picturesque British block

After dropping off my luggage, I wandered over to the British Museum, only a ten minute walk from the hotel. Free to the public (much like most other museums in London), it’s a wonderful place to spend a day, though one could easily take two weeks to read all of the informative plaques. And though this may be sacrilege to some – I would, without hesitation, choose the British Museum over the Louvre any day.

British Museum foyer


“Throne of Weapons,” a chair made from decommissioned weapons after the end of the civil war in Mozambique

Before returning to the Jesmond, I waited out the rain in the Starbucks across the street (yes, that made it two visits in two days). Not understanding my request for a “tall mild,” it turns out their slang for a regular brewed coffee is “tall drink.” Other differences include their liquid additives – only whole and skim milk are available (probably influenced by the tea drinking population). I still wonder how many Londoners frequent Starbucks on a regular basis – though with 471 locations throughout Britain, their appetite for gourmet coffee must be pretty high.

It was still pouring as I made my way back to the hotel. The weather over the last two days had such sporadic qualities, not quite being able to decide what it wanted to be – shifting between sunny and cloudy the day previous, and today, just pouring. I was glad that I had arrived on Friday to much nicer conditions.

Typical English weather forecast (but as we would find out, this would be the wettest year on record since rainfall began to be recorded in the 1700s)
Annie, Janice and May all arrived in one piece, and we set out to Regent Street for a bit of shopping and dinner. After some running to London’s Visitor Centre to pick up our London Passes, I directed the girls to Topshop. I ended up buying a fall coat, my most expensive purchase over the three weeks, as well as a purse for my Mum – both items having travelled Europe and then some upon return to Edmonton.

For dinner, we ended up at Ozer, a Turkish restaurant, after a man who was presumably the owner enticed us inside with the promise of a free pizza. He delivered what in Canada would be considered a large pizza, so on top of that, each of us ordered an additional dish. My spinach and cheese pizza was certainly filling, but I think I would have preferred a less overpowering topping – perhaps arugula or basil.

Spinach and Cheese pizza
Well-fed, we called it a night and readied ourselves for a full day of sightseeing.

Europe Day 1: London

In retrospect, I’m very glad I decided to take the day off from work. I wasn’t terribly rushed, but having the option of taking my time to pack last-minute things (including a styrofoam cooler of food intended for my UK cousins, courtesy of my Mum), and in general relax before driving to the airport was a good way to start my three-plus week vacation.

My whole family was there to see me off, and before I knew it, I was on the plane. It was an older model (especially when compared to the jet Annie, Janice, and May took the next day), and thus I didn’t have the luxury of a television screen to myself. I was, however, lucky enough to have an empty seat next to me, fantastic for an eight hour flight. Though we reached London Heathrow on time, the airport apparently didn’t have a clear runway for us to land on, and we were forced to circle above for an hour.

I was told I may be met at the airport by family of mine currently residing in London, and sure enough, my cousins Dick and May, her son Justin, and my Aunt pulled me aside, and the whirlwind rush that I would come to associate with them began. I felt bad, having made them wait an extra hour, but I can tell you that we certainly made up for lost time. We seemingly sprinted for the Underground connection, and Travelcard in hand, we took the Piccadilly line straight to Park Royal, listed on my hotel website as a nearby station. As my cousins were not familiar with this part of non-central London, it took us nearly an hour to find our way to the Ramada Encore West.

It was a sparkling new hotel, but all of the reasons why I booked with Encore West in the first place (safety, affordability) seemed not to matter in the face of its inaccessibility. Still, I must say, it was a really nice room, probably even better than the four-star hotel in Amsterdam we stayed in at the end of our Contiki tour.


My first night’s accommodation – swanky, eh?

After dropping off my luggage, my relatives took me for a late dim sum in Chinatown. Unlike the pushcart norm in Edmonton, all of the dishes at the restaurant were made to order. For that reason, the food tasted better than the fare I was used to.

After lunch, we walked to the nearby Trafalgar Square where, lo and behold, Canadian tourism officials had set up a “Canada Day in London” celebration, complete with flags, beer, bison burgers, and entertainment.

Canada Day in Trafalgar Square


My cousin May poses by the Edmonton hockey exhibit


“Hey, it’s that girl” (Tanya Kim) from CTV

It started to drizzle a bit, so we waited out the rain at a Starbucks in Leicester Square. Starbucks is expensive in London (around £1.70, depending on the location), and they charge around 30p more for food meant to be eaten in the shop itself. Of course, for a little bit of home (I admit to feeling a bit of a Hallelujah! moment when I saw the familiar green and white logo), money isn’t really an obstacle. Leicester Square is also a great place for people watching – so many of the after-work crowd were chatting away on their cell phones.

They then led me to Piccadilly Circus so I could explore on a surface level some of the shopping London has to offer. Topshop was the biggest draw for me, after lusting after their seemingly affordable merchandise for years in magazines. On my first visit, it didn’t really blow me away. With the pound conversion, most of their things were pricier than I expected, and much too trendy for my wardrobe – something I would continue to discover with most of Europe’s fashions.

I Tubed back on my own, via a Central Line station much closer than Park Royal (thank goodness), and wound down early in an attempt to get myself on London time. That night, it felt as if I had been up for two straight days, and somewhere during that time I had been transported to an alternate universe where it didn’t quite look like North America, but for some reason everyone spoke English (at this point as well, I should mention that the novelty of British accents was starting to wear off).

My friends were to join me the next day, so there was much to look forward to.

European Experience 2007

“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination with reality and, instead of thinking how things might be, to see them as they are.”
– Dr. Samuel Johnson

That quote comes from the Travel Journal I brought with me and used throughout my European vacation. I found as I filled up its pages, I tried to keep it with me whenever possible, as the document became more and more valuable to me – the photos taken along the way are only half of the story.

Though much of these upcoming blog posts will be a direct transcription of my thoughts recorded at the end of each day on the trip, I’m sure I will not be able to avoid including some observations coloured by my time there as a whole. But to this, I say, all the better, as even looking back now, it is becoming more difficult to separate the individual days and nights, and in some cases, even the cities and countries.

As uploading the photos from my hard drive to Blogger is an exceptionally time-consuming process, I gave in and started a Flickr account out of necessity. Not all of my pictures are on that page, but most of the interesting ones, and certainly all that I will reference, can be found there.

I look forward to your comments, and as always, thanks for reading!

The Cooking Chronicles: An Evening of Food and Wine

Since beginning this (food) blog last year, my interest in the culinary arts has not been contained to cooking and eating out alone. Due to repetitive exposure to Giada de Laurentiis and Ina Garten’s entertaining strategies, I had embraced the notion of hosting my own dinner party for some time. I had purchased paper invitations on sale at the end of last year, but didn’t yet have a large enough repetoire of recipes under my belt to really build a menu from. Over the last six months, however, I’ve experimented with enough dishes to put together a coherent meal, from appetizer to dessert. And though I knew June would be a busy month, I also acknowledged that if I didn’t throw the party before I left for Europe, it would likely not happen at all, at least not in the immediate future.

So the planning began about three weeks earlier, with “save the date” e-mails to four of my friends (plus Mack, who had agreed to host the party at his house). A week after that, I mailed out the invitations, following rather formal conventions gleaned from the web, including, for example, in place of the standard “RSVP,” the phrase “Favour of reply is requested.” As well, to mark this as a special occasion, I specified a semiformal dress code (in my post-party research, I stumbled upon a great website that offers free, printable invitation templates, most with a whimsical theme – worth checking out if you’re in a creative pinch).

As for the menu, as I am of the belief that I was Italian in a previous life, planned to cook several of Giada’s recipes. I was really interested in making individual servings of dishes wherever possible, not only to make the food easier to serve, but for presentation purposes. And with the dessert, for example, its ‘make-in-advance’ nature is perfect for such an occasion.

Panna Cotta with Fresh Bertries

So on Sunday, at Mack’s house, with the vinaigrette and panna cotta made the day before, we got to work cleaning, decorating, and preparing the majority of the food. With careful planning and a well-stocked fridge, it wasn’t as taxing as I had anticipated.

Table set-up

Toasting the almonds for the salad was a straightforward procedure, and really brought out the flavour of the nuts. Also, I cheated this time around in using canned orange pieces, but I promise to learn how to segment an orange next time. We did have a bit of trouble with moulding the parmesan frico cups at first, but with Mack’s “ingenious” idea of using a plastic water bottle in place of a glass, we were able to move on to the tomatoes.

Mixed Greens with a Citrus Vinaigrette served in a Parmesan Frico Cup

The inclusion of a splash of tomato juice and decrease in the amount of breadcrumbs (as observed on my first try) made a noticeable difference to the spinach-stuffed tomatoes – the side as a whole was more moist and tasted better.

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes (before baking)

Individual gratin dishes (from Dollarama!) made the penne with four cheeses easy to serve, and though we didn’t miss the gorgonzola we left out, it probably would have thickened the sauce just that little bit. I did, however, like the hint of tomato mixed in with the cream (and yes, Mack even offered each of the guests “fresh ground pepper” to go with their pasta).

Penne with Four Cheeses

As for the “fire-raising” moment of the night – in hindsight, I should have warmed the focaccia round with the tomatoes in the 375 degree oven and not alongside the pasta in the 500 degree oven. My apologies to my friends who were too polite to not consume burnt bread…

Overall, the timing of the dishes worked out quite well. A wonder what planning ahead can do when setting up a multiple-course meal. Also, Mack’s wine picks did much to set a more mature tone to the evening – a Naked Grape Chardonnay and a bottle of White Zinfandel. I didn’t get to try the Zinfandel myself, but from what I heard, it accompanied our pasta nicely. Lastly, though the table was a bit small for six people, meaning that we had to serve each person individually instead of utilizing a shared platter, it may have been better as each of the guests then felt taken care of.

Ready for dessert!

I had planned for an early 5:30pm start to accommodate one of the guests, so the sun was still quite bright when we began to eat. As the night progressed, however, there was a moment while we were having dessert, close to dusk, candles flickering, with jazz playing softly in the background that I really appreciated the moment and the small accomplishment that (Mack and) I had completed.

Mini Linzer Cookies with Organic Strawberry Jam

But to give credit where credit’s due – I could not have pulled this off without Mack’s help – not only gracious enough to lend me his home, but a hand in everything from music selection to table setting to food to clean up.

Whew!

I found that cooking for six was manageable, with perhaps eight being the upper limit to maintain sanity. I would do it again, but in a different form – backyard BBQ bash, dessert night, wine and cheese evening – but likely not for a while. I’m happy to check off “throw a dinner party” off my list of 43 Things.

Group shot

Tidbits: Notes from Edmonton’s Epicurean Scene

  • St. Albert’s outdoor farmer’s market kicks off for the season on Saturday, July 7. Though the City Centre market takes first place in my books, St. Albert runs a close second.
  • On the heels of Moon Garden, another Vietnamese restaurant has opened up in town. Phobulous (yes, that really is the name) has set up shop at 8701 109 Street. The text underneath their sign claims “authentic” cuisine, but really, with a name like that, who will take them seriously?
  • Watch out for Essence Organic Tea Bar (10011 102 Avenue). Though still under construction, I’d be curious to see what their conception of a “tea bar” is (the idea in my head is an amalgamation of Steeps and an Asian bubble tea shop).
  • Arts on the Ave Edmonton Society is a grassroots initiative with a goal of revitalizing the Alberta Avenue area. One of their major projects – a coffeehouse – will have its grand opening this Friday. Named The Carrot, after a quote by Paul Cezanne (“The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will set off a revolution.”), the cafe will showcase art, music and other performances. Definitely a cause to get behind – bravo for this achievement!

Waiting out the Rain: Flavours Modern Bistro

My sister and I ducked into Flavours Modern Bistro (10354-82 Avenue) for a late lunch this afternoon in part to refuel but to also wait out the rain. And wait we did.

I haven’t been back to Flavours since a bad experience a few years ago with a very rude waiter. It was a shame too, as their applewood smoked chicken was divine, but couldn’t override the bad taste left in my mouth from horrible service.

On this rainy grey Sunday, however, I was willing to put aside past grievances and give the bistro another shot. Their lunch menu looked inviting, and with plates ranging from $8-12, the prices were reasonable. The interior hadn’t changed since my last visit – creaky hardwood floors, dark furniture and banquets, sleek mirror-lined walls and classy chandeliers. With sultry jazz music playing in the background, it really was a shame that the restaurant was nearly empty – perfect dining atmosphere cannot be devoid of tinkering wine glasses and hushed conversations.

My sister ordered the feature BLT sandwich and a caesar salad. I opted for the succulent-sounding breast of chicken sandwich (with pancetta bacon, lettuce, tomato and smoked provolone) and a bowl of Brazilian spiced black bean soup. Despite a table of four being our only other company, the food took over twenty minutes to arrive. Perhaps moderately acceptable if we had ordered well done steaks, it was inexcusable in this instance. My sister was also rather miffed that they didn’t offer freshly ground pepper or refill our water glasses once throughout our meal. The sandwiches themselves were on the small side, but I found the chicken tender as it should have been. The soup turned out to be the unexpected better deal – slightly spicy and chock full of beef, vegetables, and lentils, I would have gladly given up my sandwich for another bowl of soup.

Though not as negatively memorable as my last experience, our lunch at Flavours didn’t stand out as particularly good either.

Restaurant interior
Breast of Chicken Sandwich with Brazilian Spiced Black Bean Soup
BLT with Caesar Salad

Shoe Shopping: Flat-out Difficult

Bettina can attest to how many shoe stores we traipsed through while in Montreal last year after being bitten by the “flat bug.” Still, due to my more than picky nature when it comes to shoes, I only managed to find a pair I bought as a last resort, and one that I really haven’t worn all that often.

With my upcoming Europe trip, I decided a pair of black flats would be indispensible, as I’m planning on a wardrobe to bridge the line between touristy-comfort and casual chic (I never like looking out of place, but as we will be traveling with a tour group, I’m sure I won’t be able to escape the “foreigner” label, but I’ll do my best). Of course, I’m sure by the time I get there, facing 40 degree temperatures, all careful planning will go out the window, but at least I had some good intentions, right?

Anyway, after a few weeks of shopping, I settled on Steve Madden’s Twillo flats, purchased on sale at Da Vinci’s in Edmonton City Centre. I figure they’re dressy enough to pair with the skirts and dresses I’m bringing along, but casual enough to go with my jeans and capris as well. I’ve worn them a few times so far, and though the leather soles tend to crunch rocks underneath rather loudly, they’ve proven to be quite comfortable. The real test will be the state of my feet when I return, so stay tuned!

Steve Madden Twillo flats

On the topic of shoes – during one of my last trips to Gravity Pope on Whyte Avenue, the manager talked about an exciting event taking place in late June. Having moved all of their clothing merchandise to a separate location two blocks away, the newly shoe-only store found itself with a lot more space. So much space that they decided they could act as a venue for a play about shoes. Vancouver playwright Elaine Avila’s Shoe! asks the question, “Can self-worth be purchased through the perfect pair of shoes?” I’ll be finding out the answer next week. More information at TixontheSquare.

Picnic in the Park with The Copper Pot

Doug had a great idea for his farewell lunch at work – instead of the standard sit-down meal at a nearby restaurant, he wanted us to take advantage of having the beautiful Ezio Farone Park just across the street from our building by having a picnic together. So ordering sandwiches from The Copper Pot (101, 9707-110 Street), we gathered on the grass under absolutely perfect weather.

Besides their regular lunch menu (which can be viewed on their revamped website), The Copper Pot also offers three sandwiches, one wrap, and a soup & salad combo available for take-out only. Priced at $8 each (sides extra), the selections are on the steep side, but considering its downtown office building location, the expense is understandable. I ordered the Ham & Cheese Panini (blackforest ham and brie on grilled French bread) and fries. As I enjoyed my sandwich with good company and for a special occasion, I didn’t mind incurring the cost for something easily duplicated at home for much less, but on a regular day, I doubt I’d order it again.
So – thanks Doug for a great Friday afternoon, and all the best with your future endeavours!
Ham & Cheese Panini and fries
Doug shows off his Pulled BBQ Beef Sandwich
Violet does the same
Evania and Michael pose with their respective Ham & Cheese Panini and Greek Salad Wrap (this is starting to feel like a Copper Pot advertisement)
Doug’s turn to give a speech as Anna looks on
Group shot

The Globe & Food

I am not sure how this degenerated into a food blog, but I can’t stem the tide, so it continues…

Globe & Mail’s “Globe Life” section is dedicated to the culinary arts every Wednesday, featuring recipes from Canadian celebrity chefs such as Rob Feenie and Michael Smith, food trends, and national restaurant profiles (albeit with a bias towards the big three – Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver).

Today’s edition had two juicy stories:

  • Canadian cheese – Canada’s first ever production of di buffala mozzarella (cheese made from the milk of a buffalo) began recently. I’ve personally never tried it, but given the tastiness of its bocconcini relative, I’m sure its freshness can’t be beat.
  • Iron Chef, live – inspired by the popular television show, a new restaurant in Montreal will aspire to replicate the creativity and tension of Iron Chef right in front of customers. In Duel, diners will be asked to select a dish prepared by one of the two competing chefs, and vote on their favorites at the end of the evening. It’s an inspired concept.

There was also mention of a new “u-pick” farm. Traditionally reserved for fruits and vegetables, this concept has now lent itself to beef! That’s right, for about $3 a pound, a farm in Saskatchewan will let customers browse their cattle, select one of their liking, and have the meat butchered and sent over within a few weeks. Having never spent any time on a farm, I don’t know if I could deal with the process of actually choosing a cow to have it slaughtered. I’m not a vegetarian, but it’s definitely easier when you don’t have to look into the eyes of what you’ll be eating.