Sorry I haven't posted all week; we went on a very last minute holiday! I am currently writing it up to share with you, but until then here's something for you to read...
There have been little bits and pieces I wanted to share, those which are not enough for a full post and so therefore have lane at the side waiting, so here is a smorgasbord of the food-related titbits:
Having posted about how the chocolate out here was, well, different to European, it was time to put it to the test and prove it once and for all, so we did the Cadburys' Chocolate test: English v Canadian.
The date: A non specific Friday mid-April
The time: 9pm. After a glass - or two - of red wine.
The testers: T, M and myself.
The blind tastings began.
I went first, and didn't take long at all to reach my decision.
Then it was T's turn, and even though I think he wanted to say otherwise, he had to admit that side by side, they Canadian one was not a pleasure to eat at all. Finally, M's go... he preferred the Canadian one!
M then told us the differences in appearance between the two but, baring in mind it was pretty dark and given the wine factor, there was a lot of light-headed squinting going on. Following M's reasoning, T and I picked up a square of the English chocolate, but as soon as we put it in our mouths however we knew it was not! This was not a case of bluffing and trying to catch us out, so M concluded that his initial preference of the Canadian one, was in fact the English chocolate.
I went first, and didn't take long at all to reach my decision.
Then it was T's turn, and even though I think he wanted to say otherwise, he had to admit that side by side, they Canadian one was not a pleasure to eat at all. Finally, M's go... he preferred the Canadian one!
M then told us the differences in appearance between the two but, baring in mind it was pretty dark and given the wine factor, there was a lot of light-headed squinting going on. Following M's reasoning, T and I picked up a square of the English chocolate, but as soon as we put it in our mouths however we knew it was not! This was not a case of bluffing and trying to catch us out, so M concluded that his initial preference of the Canadian one, was in fact the English chocolate.
Satisfied with the outcome, T then handed me a square of ‘English’ chocolate, however I knew it was Canadian straight away, even before I placed it near my mouth. It felt different in my fingers; I could feel the graininess. He tried again, with the real 'English chocolate' but it was a double bluff - to try prove I was making a big deal about nothing - but there was no doubt as far as I was concerned.
Point proved very satisfactorily, we devoured more of the English, and the Canadian was firmly put away to be used in baking.
•••
We always find ourselves living to a good ice cream place. (I promise it is not on our wishlist when finding a place: nice kitchen, preferably a balcony, close to a good ice cream shop...)
In Munich we lived just around the corner from Sarcletti's, renowned all over the city for it's amazing ice cream. Our very first apartment was actually on the same street, and so we became acquainted with the ice cream well before we heard of it's reputation. The Tirami Su and Mandel (almond) flavours was out of this world! But you wouldn't go far wrong ordering any flavour there to be honest! I remember on hot summer evenings seeing the polizei keeping an eye on parking proceedings, and giving out parking tickets left right and centre as desperate parents abandoned the cars in order to give the kids a promised Sarcletti ice cream.
In Sevilla we were a 20-25 minute - depending on how hot it was - walk away from ice cream in the form of Mamá Goye's 'helado' (but then we were 20-25 minutes away from most amenities). I remember visiting the shop after we had been sat outside a bar watching Spain win the World Cup. Mamá Goye was still open at a quarter to midnight, and we bought our ice cream cones and then walked home as the streets around us erupted in celebration-craziness.
In Montreal we have discovered we are around the corner from Le Bilboquet, an artisan ice cream shop which prides itself on using entirely natural products (so real raspberries in your raspberry sorbet, not a load of flavouring). The queues out of the door show it is a very popular place. We had to test it, and then test it again... Top of my list so far is the flavour Caramélée: caramel ice cream with chocolate and almond chunks. They make a Maple Taffy ice cream in March-April (Maple syrup season), which T managed to try but I managed to miss it - must remember for next year!
In Sevilla we were a 20-25 minute - depending on how hot it was - walk away from ice cream in the form of Mamá Goye's 'helado' (but then we were 20-25 minutes away from most amenities). I remember visiting the shop after we had been sat outside a bar watching Spain win the World Cup. Mamá Goye was still open at a quarter to midnight, and we bought our ice cream cones and then walked home as the streets around us erupted in celebration-craziness.
In Montreal we have discovered we are around the corner from Le Bilboquet, an artisan ice cream shop which prides itself on using entirely natural products (so real raspberries in your raspberry sorbet, not a load of flavouring). The queues out of the door show it is a very popular place. We had to test it, and then test it again... Top of my list so far is the flavour Caramélée: caramel ice cream with chocolate and almond chunks. They make a Maple Taffy ice cream in March-April (Maple syrup season), which T managed to try but I managed to miss it - must remember for next year!
•••
Having tasted Schwartz's smoked meat a couple of months ago, it was time for Lester's, which conveniently is just up the street from us (little did we know when we moved into the apartment we were a short walking distance from city-renowned bagels, ice cream and smoked meat). A few weekends ago we were on the way back from a walk, brown paper bag full of warm sesame bagels in hand, when we passed Lester's; it was time to try the meat.
We walked in the shop/café , and the girl behind the counter asked, "Can I help you?"
"Yeh, we'd like to try some of your smoked meat." T replied, meaning we wanted to buy some; but she took it literally, and produced a couple of slices of meat for us to try there and then. We looked sheepishly at each other, not believing how they took this bluntness and directness so easily.
We then bought some of the hot meat (even if we hadn't of like the taste of the meat, I think the British politeness would have made us bought some purely to ease our embarrassment and not using the word 'please'), walked the five minutes to home and had meat stuffed bagels for lunch. The meat was nice, but as I mentioned before on my post about Schwartz's, I am not a meat fan, so although we both preferred it to Schwartz's, after my little taster, I left T to it, and much preferred the giant dill pickle that came on the side over the meat...
We walked in the shop/café , and the girl behind the counter asked, "Can I help you?"
"Yeh, we'd like to try some of your smoked meat." T replied, meaning we wanted to buy some; but she took it literally, and produced a couple of slices of meat for us to try there and then. We looked sheepishly at each other, not believing how they took this bluntness and directness so easily.
We then bought some of the hot meat (even if we hadn't of like the taste of the meat, I think the British politeness would have made us bought some purely to ease our embarrassment and not using the word 'please'), walked the five minutes to home and had meat stuffed bagels for lunch. The meat was nice, but as I mentioned before on my post about Schwartz's, I am not a meat fan, so although we both preferred it to Schwartz's, after my little taster, I left T to it, and much preferred the giant dill pickle that came on the side over the meat...
•••
We do eat healthily, although the above may lead you to believe differently! I have no tales to tell on fruit and vegetables at this point in time, but that's not to say there won't be...
In my last post I mentioned supermarket meat. As you know, I am not a fan of meat, especially when it doesn't come from a proper butcher and I know where it comes from.
In our failure to find a butcher on Friday, we came home via a supermarket. Tired and hungry, T was thinking barbecue. We put a steak in the trolley and walked on.
That night, T regretted the steak. I was OK, I had stuck to goat's cheese.
The steak we bought was tenderized, meaning the piece of meat is pierced with needles or blades, making it tender when cooked. Tenderized meat is very common out here, in fact it is quite hard to buy a steak or roasting joint of beef that hasn't been mechanically tenderized. The trouble is, the needles can push bacteria inside of the meat and if it isn't cooked to a high enough temperature all the way through, you can get very ill from it. T, like many others, prefers his steak or roast beef rare but because the majority of meat has been processed in this way, a well done piece of meat it has to be unless you want to risk it. Apparently until very recently, meat that had been mechanically tenderized didn't need to be labelled as such, but the rules on this are changing at the moment, and rightly so.
But from now on, we will definitely be checking both the label on the meat, and also peering to see the telltale holes in the meat, and I have a feeling T will be eating more fish...
In our failure to find a butcher on Friday, we came home via a supermarket. Tired and hungry, T was thinking barbecue. We put a steak in the trolley and walked on.
That night, T regretted the steak. I was OK, I had stuck to goat's cheese.
The steak we bought was tenderized, meaning the piece of meat is pierced with needles or blades, making it tender when cooked. Tenderized meat is very common out here, in fact it is quite hard to buy a steak or roasting joint of beef that hasn't been mechanically tenderized. The trouble is, the needles can push bacteria inside of the meat and if it isn't cooked to a high enough temperature all the way through, you can get very ill from it. T, like many others, prefers his steak or roast beef rare but because the majority of meat has been processed in this way, a well done piece of meat it has to be unless you want to risk it. Apparently until very recently, meat that had been mechanically tenderized didn't need to be labelled as such, but the rules on this are changing at the moment, and rightly so.
But from now on, we will definitely be checking both the label on the meat, and also peering to see the telltale holes in the meat, and I have a feeling T will be eating more fish...