Best meals (out) of 2013

As we head into 2014 with great enthusiasm, let's look back at some of the best meals we had in 2013. It was a year filled with trials and tribulations, no doubt, but also some really great food.

 Locanda Verde, New York City

We went during Legal Tech in February with some work friends. Jennifer came down from T.O. to spend a couple of days.We tried practically everything on the menu.  Meatballs so good you couldn't even believe it. Pasta fantastic. Atmosphere was super hip (a bit overwhelming for me, but I managed). Not very poetic, this is why I'm not a restaurant reviewer.

Topolopambo, Chicago

Rick Bayliss has been the inspiration for my Mexican cooking fetish. From him I have learned so much about flavours and textures as well as styles of cooking. Have wanted to eat at one of his restaurants for years and this year on my birthday, we did it.  The service was absolutely spectacular and as I'd been sick all day, the gentle touch went a long way with me. We had the tasting menu (which changes every few months) but the flavours, combinations, and textures of the beautifully presented food absolutely lived up to expectation. We will be going back (and here's the post about that adventure).

East Indies, Eighth Bastion Hotel, Cochin, India

The food during our trip to India got better every day. Eating in the state of Kerala in the south provided new tastes and adventures. The seafood, especially the giant blue prawns, was prepared simply and deliciously. It proved to me, that yes, I could eat Indian food every day. On our last day in India we went to East Indies in Cochin. The food was Dutch-Indian fusion providing a modern and artistic twist on the local cuisine. Just absolutely fantastic and a great way to end our adventure.

 

Taqueria El Farolito, San Francisco

I am all about the high-end restaurants but give me a dive with cheap food and off-the-charts delicious food, and nothing makes me happier. I was in San Francisco for a conference and wanted to have a Mission Burrito. There is much debate over the best burrito in SF but I landed on El Farolito. Outstanding. I had a tongue/steak burrito (no beans, sadly) with a horchata. Sat with a really interesting young chef who was off to see a concert with some friends. Enjoyed the whole experience of being human that night.

Now don't think that we didn't also have some great food at home in Toronto. We sure did!

Hopgoods Foodliner 

This was Jennifer's choice for her birthday. A bit of Atlantic Canada in west end Toronto. Go there, it's fun. Try the crab dip with triscuits. Also the Halifax Donairs (with sweet sauce), Digby scallops, and the Cape Breton snow crab (served cold on a tower with ice). All dishes made for sharing, so go with lots of people as you'll want to try many things and having pals with you means you won't leave so full you don't know what to do with yourself!  Again, another place with great service, which made the evening despite the cranky pants fella at the table next to us. 

Union

I have a great fondness for the charcuterie and it's quite the rage all over the place these days. So I have had quite a few, some good some not so great. Union's was probably the best I had this year. All made in-house (including the smoked meats). Definitely enough for a meal - hearty and delicious. Lots of comfort food and great drinks in this very small restaurant.

The Chase

I have a lot of business lunches and the food is often expensive and generally pretty decent. I'm not one to hop on the bus of trendy and "it" places (which this apparently is) but I am going to say that I had one of the best lunches I've ever had here. As a starter I had the avocado stuffed with a shrimp salad - who knew you could slice avocado so beautifully thin?! My main was scallops with quinoa, a pea puree and a soft poached egg. I can't describe the sweet, velvety deliciousness of this emerald green dish. I can taste it now just writing about it. I am actually afraid to go back because I don't believe it'll ever be that good again and who needs the disappointment.

 

Richmond Station

This downtown spot hidden away beside the ramp to the Bay Adelaide parking garage. Perhaps J's favourite of the year. Top choices: the suprisingly delicious quinoa salad and the best halibut in town. We were repeat offenders here (although not as frequent as our pal Sarah!).  

Of course, lot of great food made at home but that's another story altogether. We didn't actually eat out as much, or at least eat out at "fancy" places, as in past years. But usually we ended up at totally worthwhile places. There are always lots of great places to discover in Toronto, and we will continue our urban adventuring in 2014. Happy New Year.

Welcome back oh beautiful chick pea

This may be in the realm of too much information but stomach troubles have recenetly kept me from eating the beautiful chick pea. Well things are better and I was feeling brave so decided I wanted to have a go with the garbanzos. I had been looking through the cookbook from Vij's Indian restaurant in Vancouver realizing that we'd only ever made one thing out of it -- the lamb popsicles (which are lamb but not frozen, just creamy and a real treat for the tastebuds!) A recipe for a green onion and chick pea curry was found near the back of the book and it looked relatively simple and piqued my interest. So I did it. And it was excellent, easy, and fast. It's made with coconut milk but I used a low fat version so felt virtuous about the whole thing.


And as I may have mentioned, never will there be only one veg curry at a time. There was a load of green beans in the fridge crying out to be used, so I made one of my favourite Indian side dishes which I have been making for years and I think may have originally come from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking.

Basically you take a whole lotta green beans and clean the ends off. Then put them in a frying pan that has just enough boiling water to cover the beans and a teaspoon or so of tumeric in the water. Boil them for a few minutes until tender crisp then drain and put aside. In the frying pan, heat up a bit of oil and when hot toss in a teaspoon or so of black mustard seeds. Add 1/2 a chopped up chile (either dried or fresh), a few pinches of unsweetened shredded coconut, the beans, a bit of salt and fry for a few minutes until the beans are a bit crispy. Lovely.

Put it all on a plate with some rice and a colourful, quick, and not too spicy Indian vegetarian meal is ready to be enjoyed.

Friday afternoon treats

On Fridays my office closes at 1:30, which is lovely. Most of the time I leave some time after that but it's always a lot earlier than any other day of the week and so is always something to look forward to. And on many Friday afternoons, I treat myself to a little Sri Lankan nibbly on the way home. There's a little bakery on Parliament St. just south of Wellesley called the Absolute Bakery. They make lots of the usual breads, cakes, and pies -- most of which I admit I have never tried. I go there only for their rolls and rotis. My favourites are the beef pancake rolls, a bit of spicy beef stuffed into a roll made I think of potato and covered in something crispy then fried. They have said rolls also with fish and sometimes vegetable. The other delicacy is the little rotis. Most often I have the veggie roti, which again is a bunch of spicy vegetable stuffed in a little roti and then fried up into a little package. Today I went for the chicken. Mmm. Good. And cheap. A nice treat on a sunny Friday afternoon.

Restaurants By the Office.

We had going away drinks after work recently because one of the team was moving on to different pastures. We went to a sports bar nearby and ordered an assortment of pub food...


This was the assortment platter. Aren't you glad that I explained that to you? It might not have been clear... ha ha. There were onion rings, nachos, wings, cheese sticks... sheesh! If it was fried it was on this platter!

I ordered my old college days favorite, potato skins...


They were really heavy, but delicious! :)

It was sad to see my co-worker go. The office is not the same, but I am happy that she has found something that she really wants to be doing... go her!

Anyway, after a semi-late night at work, G met me at the office since she was out and about at a work function, as well. We ate at this Indian restaurant nearby called Jaaadu. I had never been there, but it looked warm and inviting...

We ordered a few different things...

Lamb Malaidar, a rich lamb stew with spinach...


And Mattar Paneer...


And Chicken Biriyani...


Okay, so the sauce on the lamb dish was OUT OF THIS WORLD. It was so delightfully flavourful in a way that I can't begin to explain but could eat buckets of. It was so fantastic.

The mattar paneer was strangely sweet. The paneer was good, but the sauce was incredibly thick... really unpleasantly so.

And the star of the show was the chicken biriyani. It was unbelievably delicious. The chicken was really perfectly cooked, the rice was flavourful, the egg was lovely (and eaten by the time this photo was snapped!)... just really enjoyable in every way. I had biriyani at a restaurant in West Ealing (just outside of London, UK) that was the best I had ever had. This biriyani really hit that mark. I certainly enjoyed the dinner and would go back, and I would love to get the biriyani for takeaway one day for lunch.