Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Toronto

Author: My Husband

…are here again. Although it was frustrating having to upgrade Wordpress on Saturday night, this new version is much more user-friendly and responsive than the one we’d been using.

Blue skies are literally here – in Toronto at least. Couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day; too bad I spent most of it in a boardroom.

Today was the first day in a long time I wore a tie to work. Suits and blazers are pretty common in my line of work, but ties are not. It has been such a long time since I’ve had to put on a tie that I don’t have many shirts where I could do up the collar button anymore; good thing then that I did a dry run at home when I was packing, or I would have shown up wearing something with a collar that would have slowly strangled me. As soon as the meetings were over, I schlepped back to the hotel for my standard sweater/jeans before wandering out to discover a place for dinner.

For a city the size of Toronto, you would think the downtown south of Queen St would be home to some restaurants. But strangely enough, I didn’t run across all that many on my walk. And those that I did run across were closed! Very puzzling, this. My walk took me from Queen St W to Front St E, and just as I was about give up and turn back, I saw this place called The Sultan’s Tent. It’s better than nothing, and I really didn’t feel like walking up to Bloor, so I went in.

Here’s what I had.

Maftoul. It’s deep fried pastry rolls (sorta like Chinese spring rolls, but not as crisp) filled with a mixture of mildly spiced beef, nuts, and raisins. The filling was nicely spicy and quite satisfying, but the pastry was more chewy than crisp.

Beef short rib with Moroccan spices (quite a but of cumin). The meat was not as tender as I’d hoped, but the demi-glace that it was finished with was quite good.

Dried and candied fruits for dessert. There were some figs stuffed with bits of crunchy nuts, which made for a good textural contrast. Then there were some chocolate dipped apricots, which were very hard to the bite. I probably would have done better in going for the creme brulee instead…

All in all, it was a quite-tasty but not-very-memorable meal. I’m sure there are much better places in downtown Toronto; the trick is to find some that are still open after 8pm.

No, this post isn’t about the fish market in Sapporo, but I just wanted to do a quick one just to break this new Wordpress blog in. Next post – the fish market in Sapporo!

When I was in Montreal last week, I noticed that the links on the site weren’t working. After getting back to Vancouver, I realized that our Wordpress installation had been hacked.

Since I don’t have a lot of time at the moment to make comprehensive fixes, I just upgraded Wordpress to the latest – and supposedly most secure – version. I’ll be in Toronto next week, but hopefully, I’ll find some time in the next few days to improve the look-and-feel of the site.

[ET]

Location: Inflight and Montreal, Canada

Author: My Husband

Hi there dear readers! No, we haven’t gone off the air, it’s just that we’ve been busy with a whole bunch of offline stuff. I’ve been doing quite a bit of travelling, and my wife has been busy launching a new product. And when we have the chance to surface for air, there’s a whole bunch of other stuff to catch up on…

…like watching TV. We’ve been following LOST since season 1, and we’re eagerly anticipating the big reveal. However, the last few episodes have been quite uneven, and I’m starting to wonder if viewers will get all the answers to the questions that have been raised. We’ve started watching Fringe, which sorta picks up where the X-Files left off with the pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. And our latest guilty pleasure is a HK TVB dramedy serial called “Off Pedder” (畢打自己人) – it’s long-lived, with over 300 episodes, and one of the better TVB productions we’ve watched recently. We’re hooked!

We know there are some people in HK that read this blog – can you comment on how closely 畢打自己人 reflects real-life in the office, especially in locally owned conglomerates?

For this post, I’m going to take a break from our trip report and write about food in Montreal, which I’ve been travelling to quite a bit these few weeks. Now, Vancouver residents like to boast about the food scene in their city, and there is quite a bit to boast about. Because Vancouver is so multicultural, there is a huge variety of cuisine types to choose when eating out. However, in Vancouver, it is a crapshoot – sometimes the food is good, other times not so much. Montreal, with less ethnic diversity than Vancouver, offers less variety in terms of ethnic cuisine. However, what is available is often very good. According to one of the locals, eateries that serve ho-hum food will go out of business very quickly. And I can certainly see that happening, because from my observation, a large swath of Montrealers certainly know their food.

These last several trips have been pretty punishing schedule-wise. I’ve been managing full-day workshops that start at 9:30 and don’t finish up till well after 5, and then I’ve had to catch up on other matters requiring my attention after hours. It is all part and parcel of work, and it is for the most part fun, but the net of it is that I did not have the desire or opportunity to have leisurely dinners. Here are examples of some of the meals I’ve had:

The “Alsatian” flamm I had at Les Trois Brasseurs, a gastro-microbrewery-pub on Rue St. Catherines. The flamm was topped with sauerkraut, onions, gruyere, and bratwurst. Sorta like a pizza, but on a thin bread-base as opposed to a pizza dough base. Wikipedia has a pretty interesting writeup on flamms.

The Moules Frites, again at Les Trois Brasseurs. The mussels were small compared to the fleshy ones we usually get on the west coast, but the flavours were good. The frites were very very good.

The famous Reubens sandwich at Dunns Smoked Meat. I choose the medium fat option, which turned out a little dry. The fat option would most likely have resulted in a very moist stack of meat. The flavors were very good though.

While the food, even in chain restaurants like the one I had my dinners at, was very good, it did not come cheap. So, in Montreal, you gotta pay to play.

Since this is a domestic travel writeup, I thought it might be interesting to provide an update on Air Canada food since my mention of it on a previous post. Then, in 2008, AC food was sadly uninspiring. Has it gotten any better?

Biz class on a trip to Toronto in between the Montreal gigs. The herringbone layout works well, especially when the seat works. Obviously, legroom is very generous.

Menu for the flight.

Bread and salad.

Beef tenderloin.

Wine in a real glass; this is a really nice touch.

Dessert. Coffee, ice-cream, and cookies. The cookies were warm and chewy. Probably the best part of the whole meal.

Well, the food has improved. But from the photos, I’m sure you’ll agree that there is definitely room for more improvement.

I’m headed back to Montreal next week, but I’m hoping to post the last few installaments of our trip soon. Next post, the fish market in Sapporo!