Author: Sharon Yeo

Sharon is an Edmonton-based blogger who has been writing about food since 2006.

Pessimistically Honest

It’s ironic that I titled my blog “Optimistically Cautious,” because that’s probably just a hopeful state of mind for me – more people know me as a keen pessimist. It’s not something readily embraced, so it was refreshing for me to read Luke Foster’s column this week in Vue Weekly, which I thought accurately reflected my own thoughts on the start of a new year on paper:

“I don’t understand how the end of something—the end of the year—can be met with such optimism, every time it comes around. And how people believe over and over that this year, this year is going to be different. I’m going to become something that I’m not, do something new that I’ll hate, meet people that I won’t be able stand. What’s so wrong with you now? You’re probably kind of boring, but you’re still you.”

Spot on. There’s really nothing more I can, or want to add.

Charmingly Urban: Blue Plate Diner

I mention Blue Plate Diner (10145-104 Street) so often that you’d think I’d eat there more frequently, so I was more than happy to return on Friday night for dinner with Mack.

Just stepping into the restaurant makes me happy. Located in the warehouse district, the dining room retains some of the original brick, adorned with contemporary art, and accented with aged windows utilized as table dividers. I love the ambiance in the evenings, with swoony ’50s music, the natural buzz of conversation, and dim, candlelit tables.

The menu isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s like my favorite sweater – comfortable and good for all occasions. Something unique that they do offer is their Friday night dinner specials, with two featured dishes every week (and yes, it does remind me of dinner at the Gilmore residence). I ordered one of the two specials, a winter vegetable pie served with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. Mack chose the beef burger and regular fries.

I forgot my camera (the photos below are from their website), so you’ll have to bear with text, but the pie was huge! Baked in a large dish and topped off with a puff pastry crust, it was teeming with carrots, mushrooms, and fennel root (to me, tasted like a cross between celery and onions). It was a satisfying dish that wasn’t too heavy, and a great choice on a cold night. Mack’s said his from-scratch fries were good, and polished off his burger in no time!

Needless to say, I’ll be back!

Ambiance
Table for two

“The O.C.”: Cancelled

And another one of my shows bites the dust.

News surfaced yesterday that after four seasons, the pop-culture phenomenon, The O.C., will be airing its final episode on February 22. Although I was more affected by the cancellations of Ed and Everwood in years past, I will be sad to see this show off.

After the creative black hole that was Oliver and, well, most other Marissa-centered crises, the producers worked hard to get the show back up to Season 1-par this year, despite the death of the princess herself. The storylines have been great – being able to watch Ryan and Julie overcome their grief, Ryan and Taylor’s relationship blossom, and Ryan’s continued maturation (okay, you’ve got me there…I’d be satisfied with Ben Mackenzie in any shape or form). Even the very soap opera-esque appearance of Ryan’s dad this season was handled exceptionally well.

I will miss the Cohens and their merry band of friends.

“High School Musical”

I had heard about High School Musical here and there – a cast member on Jay Leno, a clip on the Family Channel – and I was morbidly curious as to what the hype was all about. So I took the time finally to sit down and watch it yesterday, in full, courtesy of my sister’s DVD.

The storyline is fairly straightforward – a basketball star meets a science champion on summer vacation, connect magically over a forced duet, and à la Grease, discover themselves schoolmates come September. They both want to audition, as a pair, for the school mu-zi-kal, but can’t due to peer pressure, and allegiance to their original callings. And I’m sure you can see where this is leading…

The movie is predictable, overacted, driven by stereotypes and characterized by clichéd moments…but in the end, it won me over. High School Musical never pretends to be anything other than a made for television family movie, and it’s hard to dislike a movie with a good heart at its core and noble intentions.

One song in particular, “Status Quo,” was rather clever. It involved members of several cliques confessing their deepest secrets – a jock’s penchant for baking, a skater’s talent for the cello, a bookworm’s love of hip hop. It kind of made me wish my high school cafeteria broke out into sweeping song and dance numbers more often.

The penultimate performance, “Breaking Free,” the showstopper involving the two leads, is pure pop, and irresistible in its own right. I wish they had eliminated the last number, “We’re All in This Together”, and ended on the more memorable “Breaking Free” instead. It not only screamed of Grease‘s “We Go Together,” with everyone pairing off, but also unnecessarily hammered home the movie’s byline that individual differences should be celebrated. But I guess if I’m looking for subtlety, I shouldn’t be watching the Disney Channel.

Turns out, High School Musical 2: Sing It All or Nothing! is already in the works, to be released some time this year. I may have to watch it just to see if it lives up to the original.

Gift Cards: Highway Robbery

A recent article from The Boston Globe, reprinted in The Globe & Mail on Tuesday, answered exactly what I had wanted to know about the advent and growing popularity of gift cards.

Though paper credit notes and merchandise certificates may seem easier to misplace (or to be confused with store receipts), they are noticeably lighter and easier to carry in one’s wallet than a dense piece of plastic. Moreover, with their ease of use – swipe and go, without the need for a signature – it’s very easy to forget that the cards stand for cash. I would think it natural for many people to discard gift cards that lay unused and dormant in their wallets over time to lighten the load, or to simply let unused balances expire, instead of attempting the hassle of having to physically visit the store to inquire about surplus funds. I figured companies had to be making a fortune from a general public too lazy to use up their two cents, so to speak. But how much?

From Jenn Abelson’s article:

“About 23.3 million Americans have unused gift cards from last year’s holidays, according to an October study by Consumer Reports. Of the people who received gift cards in 2005, 19 percent of them have not used one or more of the cards nearly a year later. Tower Group estimates that the value of unredeemed gift cards has now grown to about $8 billion over several years…Retailers typically don’t count the cards as revenue until they are redeemed, but the growing number of unused cards has prompted some merchants to refine their bookkeeping. In June, Home Depot said it had sold more than $40 million in gift cards in recent years that it concluded were unlikely to be claimed. The home improvement chain recorded the money as income, making millions of dollars for selling nothing but cards of plastic.”

Unbelievable. Who knew that financial apathy (with a side of shrewd corporate design) came with a price tag of $8 billion?

The Bastardization of English

I find it fascinating when words from popular culture transcend everyday speech and are officially canonized onto the pages of a reference manual – the most memorable example being “Google” in recent years (I’ll follow the Oxford English Dictionary-acceptable capitalized version).

To my surprise, I read about the reverse today – an academic institution in the U.S. that releases an annual list of words and phrases they wish to ban from the English language. Since 1976, a committee based out of Lake Superior State University sorts through thousands of nominations every year and whittles it down to a handful of words that they believe should disappear from the lexicon all together.

My “favorites”: combined celebrity names (TomKat be gone!), “pwn” (which, until today, I did not know had its genesis in World of Warcraft, though I should have guessed), and “went missing” (from the article: “‘It makes ‘missing’ sound like a place you can visit, such as the Poconos. Is the person missing, or not?’ asked Robin Dennis of Texas.” Too true). I was, however, surprised to see Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness” on the list – perhaps the academics veer to the right?

Full article here.

“The Hills”: Season 2 Trailer

Via a friend’s blog, I came across the trailer for the upcoming season of The Hills. The production values on this show continue to amaze me – some films don’t have trailers this enticing (NBC promo gerbils, pay attention!). Old friends, new boys, and (gasp!) a possible conflict between the two stalwart female leads – what more can I ask for? I will say that Heidi’s pregnancy scare looks staged, though.

In other Hills-related news, Lauren’s choice of Jason over Paris made Entertainment Weekly‘s “Best of TV Watch 2006.”

EDIT: Via Canoe, found out that The Hills will begin airing on MTV Canada on February 5.

Pre-New Year’s Potluck

May hosted a party in celebration of the New Year last night, and though it was meant to be a potluck, she ambitiously wanted to prepare several large entrees just in case the food guests brought went the way of desserts (as is typically the case with such events). Shiney and I offered to come early to help her out with the cooking.

Besides meatloaf and roasted potatoes, a “Better Butter Chicken” recipe, courtesy of Reader’s Digest, was on the menu. I haven’t yet reached the stage where I am comfortable dealing with raw meat, so I was relieved to find out that May’s Mum had already cooked and de-boned the appropriate amount of chicken for us in advance. Other than that, the instructions were really straightforward. This was my first time cooking with turmeric, and I must say, the aroma generated was fantastic (though from experience, it stains like crazy!).

Because this was a lower-fat version of butter chicken, the sauce wasn’t as creamy as those found in traditional Indian restaurants, but it was still pretty good. Simmering the sauce over low heat for 15 minutes really allowed the flavors of the spices to develop and come through.

While I still have much to learn on the vegetarian side of things, I hope to one day be able to make such a dish again, from start to finish, on my own!

Better Butter Chicken

The Cooking Chronicles: Mini Quiches

For the last (hurrah!) potluck of 2006, I decided to go with a variation of my tried and true baked egg theme: mini quiches. My Mum recently bought a large box of small tart shells, and had only managed to go through a quarter of the box, so I was more than happy to help her use up the rest.

Following a recipe printed on the side of the box (not sacrilege if done right), I decided on mushroom and parmesan as the filling ingredients. From my past experiments with cheese in such dishes, I’ve found that cheddar and mozzarella don’t quite provide the creamy texture that freshly grated parmesan does. And while I thought it unusual that the recipe called for a 1:1 quantity of eggs to cream (I substituted skim milk, as always), it resulted in a light-but-satisfying custard-like consistency for the egg.

Easy, and great as an appetizer, I will be making these mini quiches again soon.

Mushroom and Parmesan Mini Quiches

Delicious and Economical: Lorenzo’s

In search of a late afternoon lunch today, I wandered over to Zuppa Cafe, but was disappointed to find out that they would be closed until January 2. They have one of the most inexpensive meals I have ever encountered in the city centre area – a bowl of hearty, homemade soup of the day and a side of baked pita chips for $3 – perfect for a light lunch.

Thus, I made my way to my reliable backup – Lorenzo’s in Edmonton City Centre West (10025-102A Avenue). Though they recently moved from the City Centre East food court, they haven’t changed the specials they offer. My staple in high school, they were not only affordable (a pizza, pasta, and drink combo for about $5), but also, the service has always been excellent. The woman who is a mainstay at Lorenzo’s is always friendly, efficient, and sprinkles terms of endearment like “honey” in her speech, making me feel welcome and taken care of.

On this day, I ordered the small lasagna, which came to a measly $3. Though there was only one layer of cheese, there was enough pasta layers for a filling midday snack, rounded out with a generous topping of meat and tomato sauce.

Lorenzo’s is a great place to go for a quick bite!

Small Lasagna