I ordered the chicken pad thai, no peanuts. There's is a little sweet, but something about their tofu just really works for me. Anyway, the plate comes, and it's just swimming in oil. Weird.
It's crazy! So I pushed all the pad thai to one side and just ate away. It was really good, though the oil concerned me. G ordered some type of shrimp soup, which had many large juicy shrimp in it. Which if you like shrimp, that would be good thing. Which G does and I don't. Like the shrimp, I mean. Anyway... the soup looked funny with these big floating balls of mushroom...
On another note...
We are getting the new Jamie Oliver show, Jamie at Home, on our Food Network. It's really strange, it's filmed in 'his' garden (I believe) and he has a theme garden ingredient each week. This one that is ending is centered around the mighty onion. Anyway, I love Jamie, I have all his cookbooks, I have eaten at Fifteen and, I have watched all his shows, but the thing that irritates about him is how he goes on about how brave he is compared to other British chefs. In this episode, he mixes a bunch o' veg with balsamic vinegar and bakes it in the oven. And he says a good few times how 'brave' a recipe this is, and how no English chef would have the balls to make it... It's food... you know?
BUT! I did buy myself a present this week of the book Cook with Jamie, and I have to say, it's really worth the staggering price tag! I bought this at the lovely lovely lovely Cookbook Store near Bloor at Yonge, and it's the British version, so a bit dear, but lovely!
First, the store. It's really very neat, with tons of books and magazines, a few kitcheny gadgets, but the selection of the cookbooks is absolutely stupendous. I also try to buy my food magazines there, to continue my support of their store. If you are ever in Toronto, you absolutely must go there. It's really great.
Second, the cookbook itself. Jamie has done alot for changing the way I think about food, and he has a whole section about buying high quality eats and veg. He writes about how as a society, we care more about what kind of gas goes into our car then the type of food that goes into our bodies. And that's true. While it's difficult to always be virtuous, I think that there is alot of room for improvement. Especially now. It's not as difficult (or expensive) as it once was to buy locally grown organic meat and veg. You can always buy directly from a farm, or from a health food store. Now I am sure I have ranted about the gestalt of Whole Foods elsewhere, but there are good smaller options that just require patronage in order to remain in business against such competition as the money machine of Whole Foods. (It's great to buy organic food, but do I really need organic potatoes from Peru? Potatoes grow in abundance right here in Canada.)
I love the Big Carrot, and we buy alot from here. They sell health products, non-chlorine bleached girly things, cleaning products, tissues, etc. And it's much cheaper than alot of other stores. So it's a good thing. And you can shop there without feeling like you are being ripped off by the corporate green machine.
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