Restaurant Review: Neptune

When we were back in Boston over the holidays we had a couple of dinners out with old friends of mine. I typically have a running list of places new and old in Boston to hit on our annual trip, so when dinner plans come up I have a list of places to pick from for suggestions.  Neptune was high on the list this year.  Mainly because we love seafood and there are few places I'd rather eat seafood that in New England.

When we arrived at the tiny storefront in Boston's North End, I was pleasantly surprised that there didn't seem to be the telltale line in front that so many of the Italian restaurants in the neighborhood so often have.  We went inside and saw a couple of openings at the bar, and I thought we'd luck out and get seat before my friend showed up.  It was then that the hostess came over and took our name and said it would be a 90 minute wait!  On a Wednesday night no less!

 Luckily it was early and we weren't too hungry so we gave our name and number and wandered to a bar across the street for a couple of beers.  While I'm not often one who likes a long wait, I appreciate the places that take your number so you can go explore the neighborhood or find a local watering hole for a beverage and maybe a nibble while you wait.

Restaurant Review: Five Guys

It's closing day!!

That's right, today we close on our new home.  As I sit here writing it's really hard to focus on anything other than getting into the house and all of the things we need to do before the movers come on Saturday!

That being said I committed to posting everyday and I'm going to do it.

In the craziness of packing and getting ready to move, we've been eating out alot.  Either because we are out  running errands and decide we're hungry or I haven't planned a meal and it's easier to go out or order in.  We went to Five Guys this past Saturday since our local store is right cross the parking from Lowes, where we had been picking up a brand new, energy efficient Frigidaire chest freezer, which will be amazingly helpful when it comes to preserving.

But you're here for the burgers, right?

Travel Thursday: Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon

I keep meaning to get back on writing about Costa Rica and LA, but due to the seasonality of the meal we had at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal a couple weeks ago I just had to jump the line with it.

When the Boy and I planned out a long weekend in Montreal we knew we had to hit Au Pied de Cochon, Chef Martin Picard's place.  From what I've seen and read of Chef Picard, he's kind of a King of Quebecoise fare, loves foie gras, uses it as much as possible and made famous cooking duck in can.

Because we only called for a reservation 2 weeks in advance, we had a 10pm reservation on a Saturday night.  For such a popular restaurant, that's not too bad.  The Shack's visited Montreal last summer on their way back to Toronto from our wedding in Rhode Island and had to stay and extra day to get into APDC at 10:45pm!  So we happily took the later reservation.   If you have to dine a bit earlier make sure to plan ahead and give yourself more than a few weeks to make a reservation.

Travel Thursday: Montreal's DNA Restaurant

housemade charcuterie & pickles

I'm in a food coma.

Still.

Even though I've been back in Toronto for 3 days, I'm still feeling the after effect of the this past weekend. The boy took me to Montreal for four days packed full of food and a little bit of touristy stuff.  As I planned the trip I turned to where I often do when looking for suggestions on things to eat or do, Twitter.  I mean who doesn't right?

When I tweeted looking for Montreal suggestions, I instantly got a slew of great ones and started to compile a list of places to research. Then a few hours later, one came through from @dnaderek (Chef Derek Dammann) suggesting I go, where else?  DNA.  Now let me just be clear, DNA had crossed my mind, we had an amazing meal when we stopped through Montreal last summer on our honeymoon.  Why else would I be following the restaurant's chef? We had just wanted to try new spots on this trip. But as we sat there discussing the merits of our last meal at DNA, coupled with the fact that the chef himself essentially asked us to come, we decided we had to do it, new restaurants be damned.

Travel Thursday: Afternoon Tea at the London West Hollywood

my cup of Earl Grey tea

While I was in Los Angeles a few weeks ago I scored an invite to try the new menu for Afternoon Tea at the London Hotel's Boxwood Cafe.  Having an undying love for Afternoon Tea, from the scones to the finger sandwiches to the sweets, I was beyond excited to check it out.  Plus it gave me the opportunity to scope out the swanky London Hotel which opened just after I moved from LA.

My love for tea wasn't something I had as a child.  I wasn't the little girl who would have tea parties with my dolls, in fact I didn't really play with dolls, I was a Barbie and My Little Pony kind of girl.  No, my obsession with the proper tea party came a bit later, after college specifically.  The summer after I graduated I spent a week travelling Europe with a good friend, we flopped in hostels, slept on trains, did it all on a budget and had a great time. At the end of our week she flew home and I flew to London to meet up with my mom.  Still on a student's dime, I took what felt like an endless tube ride to meet up with mom at the Grosvenor Hotel, what a change from the hostels I had been staying in! I happily went up to our room, took a nice hot shower, pulled on a fluffy robe and immediately asked mom if we could get tea, scones and clotted cream.  I had traveled quite a bit at this point in my life, from my student budget travel to more upscale versions with my family but for some reason when mom and I planned our trip to London I became obsessed with the idea of scones and clotted cream.  Luckily mom was willing to indulge. So we ordered tea up to the room, I don't remember any of the specific treat of flavors, I just remember loving every minute of it.  How dainty everything was, how proper, such a change from what I had dined on during my trip up until then. We proceeded to get afternoon each day we were in London.  It was all I had wanted it to be and my love of the afternoon tea was born.

Restaurant Review: Queen Margherita Pizza

panna cotta

This past Saturday night I finally convinced the Boy to check out Queen Margherita Pizza with me.  I had gone a few months ago with my book club and loved it and I just knew the boy would too.  With the holidays and all of the craziness that that entails we didn't get there, but were finally able to this past weekend.

We didn't make a reservation and got there around 7:30ish on Saturday night.  It was busy, but they luckily had two spots at the bar that couldn't have been more perfect for us.  We got to feel like we're in the thick of it and there was a TV with the football game on.

The deal at QMP (as they cheekily have printed on the staff t-shirts) is they do a $25 prix fixe which includes a choice of appetizer, any pizza or dessert all for the low price of $25 per person.  A pretty great deal if you ask me, especially since it's what they always do, not like a special Sunday or Monday thing like so many other restaurants.

Resto Review: Schoolhouse Pizza

Trips back to visit my parents for the holidays generally include little cooking on my part.  My parents are both amazing cooks and take the opportunity of all of us kids being home to feed us well.  That is why this is a restaurant review and it wasn’t even a planned restaurant review.  I flew to Boston on Christmas Day to get to my folks house in time for Christmas dinner and the boy drove down a few days later.  His drive down was less than safe as the car desperately needed new tires.  We made an appointment at a shop in Quincy, MA.  When we dropped off the car we asked the salesperson if they could recommend a good place to grab a bite to eat while we waited.  He pointed across the street and said that Schoolhouse Pizza was really good and that we should try “The Bully”

The name of what he suggested was intriguing enough for me to give it a try, that coupled with the fact that it was a pizza joint and I am basically always in the mood for pizza.  We made our way through the snow banks and across the slush covered street and into Schoolhouse.  Upon first glance it’s pretty standard pizza place, very similar to what most towns in Massachusetts know as their town pizza, like Medfield Town Pizza, Norfolk Town Pizza, etc.  But there was something different about this spot.  From the exposed brick, to the bar that overlooks the kitchen and finally to the chalkboard menus that lined the walls. 

Celebrating Mexican Cuisine at Frida

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to a dinner at Frida Restaurant, here in Toronto, by the Mexico Tourism Board.  The dinner was held to celebrate the first ever gastronomy recognition by UNESCO for Traditional Mexican Cuisine. Acknowledged as an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of increasing globalization, Traditional Mexican cuisine - ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm is now part of UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, an elite list of traditions, practices and rituals that

encourage intercultural dialogue and shared identity. Mexican cuisine is one of the first cuisines or national food offering to be declared a part of UNESCO’s World Heritage and was officially recognized on November 16, 2010 at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi, Kenya.*

Traditional Mexican cuisine reflects a comprehensive cultural model of farming, community and ancestral practices, and culinary techniques. Native ingredients such as tomatoes, squashes, avocados, cocoa and vanilla make up some of the basic staples of Mexican cuisine and help create many of the States regional and national identities.*

I felt honored to be asked to be a part of such a special celebration and was even happier that it was in honor of Mexican food, one of my favorite types of food.  This recognition of a traditional cuisine on a global level shows even how important food is to culture and how important it is to share these traditions with each generation.  It shows the impact that passing down recipes and stories can have and furthers my believe that food is as much about the story and experience as it is about filling your tummy.

A Culinary Adventure in Buffalo?!

The other night around 11pm, our good friends the Shacks (Mama, Papa, and Little) texted The Boy and I asking if we wanted to go to Buffalo the very next morning.  Papa Shack lured The Boy with promises of Anchor Bar wings.  I was free, as I usually am, but The Boy had to do some juggling with his schedule but  he made it work.  We arranged for care for the pups and set off for that crazy border town of Buffalo.

Growing up in Syracuse with extended family in Westmoreland all I knew of Buffalo was that my mother student taught there when she was in college, and she always said that it was so very far away and even more snowy than Syracuse.  I never thought much of it beyond that.   But moving to Toronto gives Buffalo a whole other meaning and purpose.  Outlets, cheap flights, Niagara Falls and of course the home of Buffalo Wings, most famously from the aforementioned Anchor Bar.  Beyond that I really had no reason or desire to stop in Buffalo.  That being said, the promise of a any kind of spontaneous trip sounds good to me.

We ended up forgoing the Anchor Bar for a recommendation from friends of the Shack's, Kentucky Greg's Hickory Pit, a BBQ joint in Depew not too far from the Buffalo airport.  Location alone may make a person skeptical about the quality of food, but the Shack's and the Hoffelby's (the Boy and I) are willing to try just about anything, anywhere, once especially if it comes on a recommendation.

Restaurant Review: Evelyn's Nanaquaket Drive-In

 On this last day of summer I'm trying to hang onto the amazing summer I just had.  From the weather that made up for last year, to my amazing wedding and subsequent honeymoon, I'm just not ready to let go.  I can't think of something that exemplifies summer, and specifically this summer,  more than eating scrumptious whole belly fried clams along the water.  So I decided on this last day of summer I would celebrate the food of summer by sharing a review of one of my favorite meals of the season.

Growing up in New England I have a serious appreciation for seafood.  Super fresh and local seafood is so delicious and accessible that summer is filled with clam bakes, lobstah rolls and fried clams.  Since I moved from New England 5 years ago I've desperately missed this classic summer fare.  Getting married and spending 5 days in Newport, RI gave me the chance to gorge myself on all of it.  From a lobstah roll at the Barking Crab to our rehearsal dinner clambake at the Hyatt Regency I was on a roll.  I just need to fill my fried clam craving.  Lucky for me the week before we headed south for the wedding, the boy's favorite show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives aired an episode that featured a clam shack in Tiverton, RI a mere hop skip and a jump from Newport.  It was a no brainer, hitting up a one of Guy Fieri's faves is always on the boy's agenda and me getting my fried clam fill, everyone was happy.

Winterlicious: Beer Bistro

This past Saturday the boy and I went downtown to do some tux shopping/research. We very rarely find ourselves downtown together so I took the opportunity to take the boy to a spot that was my fave when I was up here working a few years ago, Beer Bistro. We got there around 2pm and were not expecting too much of a crowd since we were in the business district on a Saturday. Little did either of us know that Winterlicious had started. Those of you not from TO, Winterlicious is alot like what was called Restaurant Week in Boston and LA. It's a two week festival where various restaurants in the city offer very reasonably priced three course prix fixe menus for lunch and dinner. This was clearly the reason for a crowded dinning room at Beer Bistro, so we took a spot at a bar along the window.

As the boy had never been here before I wanted him to have the benefit of perusing the entire menu in addition to the prix fixe options. The one thing that stood out to us that I don't remember having had the last time I was here a few years ago were the corn dogs. The menu description is : duck confit, cream ale, pineapple mustard and cherry beer ketchup. If you didn't already have me at the name Corn Dogs, the duck confit did it. The boy was sold on Corn Dogs, despite the fact he's not a huge duck guy.

Resto Review: Hoof Cafe

I've never considered myself a restaurant reviewer, but after the brunch I had today and with the amount of amazing restaurants there are in this fair city of Toronto I have decided to mix restaurant reviews in with my own recipes and culinary experiments, because I often get inspiration from the food I eat when I'm out.

For my inaugural restaurant review I feel compelled to tell you about the Hoof Cafe (923 Dundas West Toronto). The Hoof Cafe just opened this week and comes to us from Jen Agg and Grant van Gameran, the owners of Black Hoof (928 Dundas West Toronto) the well-known charcuterie. Now I'll be up front about the fact that I haven't yet been to Black Hoof, it's been on my ever growing list of spots to try but we haven't made it there yet. The plan was to hit up the One of a Kind this morning and then head back west to check out Black Hoof tonight. As the boy was making some final purchases I was tweeting away on my blackberry and saw that @Foodie411 was at the Hoof Cafe and raving about it. I quickly replied asking how busy he was and with his tweet of "come now there's lots of room" I insisted we head over there for some grub since we were already in the West End and were hungry.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's. Ours was pretty mellow but very nice. It was extremely snowy and windy in Vermont, so rather than fight through the weather for a New Year's Eve dinner out, Mom, Dad, the Boy and I decided to do a nice lunch in the nearby town of Brandon, VT at this adorable restaurant Cafe Provence. My parents had been there before and Dad had been raving about it, so I was excited to try it out. The decor was a Vermont meets Provence with a case full of delicious looking pastries and a beautiful open kitchen that I would give my eye teeth to cook just one meal in. Our meal was fabulous from the lovely soft bread, to the perfectly simple salad of mesculen greens with a homemade Gorgonzola dressing, to their signature scallop entree and on to dessert. If you are ever in central Vermont it is worth it to stop by Cafe Provence. Next time I am in the area I hope to try it out for dinner. We were pleasantly stuffed by the end of our meal and spent the rest of the day curled up in front of the fire with all kinds of yummy munchies put together by my parents for dinner. Not the most exciting night but a lovely end to our time in New England.

On the drive back to TO we decided to a stop in Montreal was necessary as I still had yet to try poutine. For those of you who are unfamiliar, poutine )according to wikipedia and every Canadian I have ever asked) is "a dish consisting of French Fries topped with fresh cheese curds, covered with brown gravy and sometimes additional ingredients. It is a quintessential Canadian comfort food, especially among Quebecois and Acadians of the Maritimes."

As someone who has always loved good diner cheese fries and is living in Canada, it just seemed wrong to not have tried this Canadian staple. On one of the rare occasions when I had cell service in Vermont I used my Blackberry to Google "best poutine in Montreal" The first result that came up was La Banquise, I read some reviews and decided this would be the place where I had my first taste of poutine. Boy was it worth it! It's a cute little spot right near both McGill University & The University of Montreal and open 24/7. If I had gone to college in Montreal I'd be a whale living right around the corner from a place like this! Their menu has a obscene number of poutine combinations, from the classic (Cheese curds and gravy) to a heart attack on a plate with cheese curds, sausage, bacon and meat sauce. We decided to just go with the classic poutine and each got a hot dog to go along with it. My hot dog was perfectly steamed and topped with ketchup, mustard and a seriously good relish. Though the star was definitely the poutine, the brown gravy was perfectly savory and went so well atop the crispy brown fries and soft cheese curds. It truly is the perfect comfort food and clearly the perfect hangover food as we were leaving the restaurant began filling up with all types clearly looking for a fix to recover from their New Years Eve reveling. If you have never had poutine and find yourself in Montreal I highly recommend La Banquise, they also have burgers, sandwiches and a nice selection of microbrews.

Enjoy!