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| the best coffee I had all week was at the exclusive and elusive Soho House |
Last weekend Shack was working and Hank and I just hung out, not doing very much. It's hard to get excited about doing fun stuff when it's -56999C outside with a windchill that makes it feel like -79954C. When it's just the kid and I, we eat fish because crazy Shack doesn't really like to eat fish. It was nothing fancy, just some nice, simple pan fried steelhead trout on Saturday and then Sunday we watched the Oscars and they had leftovers from the pizza Shack ordered on his way home from work the night before. Just like the beautiful stars on the red carpet who have consumed nothing but lemon water and air for the previous two weeks so they can be suitable dehydrated, slim and light headed for the Oscars, I chose to dine on popcorn and broken dreams and the wish that whatever "Dr" did that to Kim Novack's face should be executed.
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| dried chilis are my newest love |
On Tuesday, I had to make a big batch of
red chili pork (carne adovada) because it's all I could think about and I know that if I don't actually cook the things I obsess over, I won't rest. I You know, I don't know why I have avoided cooking with dried chilis for so long because I can't get enough of them now. Being a bit obsessive, I go through phases where it's all
gochujang all the time and then that stops, the gochujang gets pushed to the back of the fridge and I move on to
preserved lemons. Right now, I live for dried chilis. Because I always feel funny when I am just cooking up a giant cauldron of meat, I presoaked some black beans and threw those in there for good measure and it was a very good idea, indeed.
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| it just gets better after a day or two |
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| Because I had the time, I cooked the roast early and made paninis with lots of med rare meat, tomato, arugula and provolone. |
Friday was a lazy day and nobody really felt like cooking anything so we decided to take a trek out to Etobicoke to try some all you can eat Japanese/Thai place called
Spoon and Fork on The Queensway. The Kid is always up for all you can eat Japanese and I am always up for Thai and we were all super hungry so we set off to the wilds of the western world. We don't venture west to eat very often since our tastes tend to run to the more asian flavours north and east of the city and we now know that to do so at 7pm on an Friday night is probably the worst decision one could ever make. Traffic on the Gardiner was almost stopped and it took almost an hour to get out there. By this time, there were three hangry people in the vehicle and the one hour wait for a table that met us at the door did not elevate the mood. We got back in the car and I did a frantic search of all my data bases - TO Life, Now and Urban Spoon and it wasn't looking good. The only place that appealed as $ushi Kaji as I like to call it. Since, as Shack put it, he only had $500 cash in his pocket, we had to bail and get back on the Gardiner to return to a landscape we know. Back in the city where the noodles run free, Shacked recalled that he had noticed a
Kinton Ramen had opened in Koreatown on Bloor, west of Bathurst so we made a beeline for the Korean strip. This Kinton feels bigger than the Baldwin outlet but it might just be that it is wider and feels less cramped but it was definitely less crowded, especially for a Friday night, and we snagged three prime spots at the bar so we could watch the kitchen dudes do their thing. The soups were all excellent but I have to tell you, the spicy kaarage was terrible. I remember loving it at the Baldwin St restaurant and was looking forward to eating it again but it was really terrible. Shack could smell the ketchup from where he was sitting and although I know that ketchup is often an ingredient in the spicy sauce that coats Korean Fried Chicken since I make it myself, this was primarily just ketchup. It was not spicy either and it made me a very sad bear.
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| I always feel so happy here |
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| I always get the spicy garlic with pork belly so it was time to order something different and I was very happy with my spicy jalapeno with chicken. |
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| The Kid had the miso with pork belly |
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| Shack thoroughly enjoyed my customary spicy garlic which isn't all that spicy |
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| Spicy karasge sadly, was a huge disappointment and tasted like ketchup with a hint of gochujang and we couldn't eat them |
The Kid had a tall glass of their cold tea again and we still couldn't figure out what kind of tea it was. It was nutty and woodsy and really refreshing so, this time, we had the waitress write down what kind of tea it was. It was called mugicha which is a tea made primarily of roasted barley. Luckily for us, the Korean grocery store on Bloor that is directly across the street from Kinton was opened until 10pm so we went in and bought a box of it to bring home. It comes in giant tea bags so I threw just two of them into a pitcher, filled it with a couple quarts of cold water and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning I discarded the tea bags and we had a nice, big pitcher of ice cold mugicha. Barley tea is enjoyed all over asia under different names but it's also long been popular in England where they just call it barley water and consider it a remedy for the weak. It is thought to aid in digestion, prevent the adhesion of oral bacteria and had anticoagulant properties. Basically, it's really good for you and it's way better than drinking juice, pop or sweet tea so until we get sick of it, in is a new fridge staple.
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| the bags are huge and you use one bag per quart of water |
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this is a korean brand but the right kind of tea
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I am excited about the upcoming week for two reasons. First of all, Sunday night is the finale of True Detective and I am so in love with this show that I am 2 parts excited to see how it all ends and 3 parts sad because I already miss crazy Rust and sad little Marty. Who or what will the Yellow King turn out to be? Should I make a yellow King cake to serve during the show? Is the Yellow King actually a cake? Will anyone live to tell?
Because of stupid
Lyle R Guidroz, we know that there will be a final ritual scene with a guy in a giraffe suit next to the goat headed guy. Asshole
The second reason I am excited is because on Monday I have been invited to a tasting of the launch of their new menu at
Lamesa , a modern Filipino restaurant on Queen West. This is a place I have not been to yet but I did eat their arroz caldo when they served it at Recipe For Change. Seeing that their little bowl of Filipino congee with crispy chicken skin remained my absolute favourite dish of the entire event, you could safely say that I am STOKED and will have my feed bib on.
Pin of the week:
I might have to make this for Shack
Facebook share of the week:
What kind of cookie decorating sorcery is this???
Instagram of the week:
Because I love looking at dogs as much as I love looking at food
Tweet of the week:
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