publican review

i've been lusting after eating at a paul kahan joint for who knows how long (actually, i can trace it back 3 or 4 years, when a feature on paul kahan appeared in bon appétit.) he finally opened up his gastropub, publican, mere weeks before our trip. so i made our resos on open table after salivating over the photos and the sample, pre-opening menu posted on the website.

the space is in a nondescript, industrial part of town. the room is one giant rectangle, with a phalanx of globe fixtures occupying 2/3 of the ceiling space. there are some deuces set up along the window and the long side of the room is occupied by 4 top booths, finished with old english style, high, stable-like doors enclosing them. most of the floor space is taken up with a long, continuous, rectangular communal table, with some high, bar tables set up in the negative space in the middle. everything is worn wood and tallow yellows, reminiscent of a stable or a road side drinking house and inn. the only wall decorations are 4 large paintings of fat pigs in all their porcine glory.

the music is distracting - a hodgepodge of random indie hits; and the design of the room is such that there's a near constant cacophony of conversation - there are no soft surfaces to absorb the sound. we were sat a table for two, with high, stiff chairs under which was a shelf where we could rest our menues in between courses.

our server looked like caravaggio (as seen in simon schama's 'the power of art') and instantly drew the dotytron's ire by suggesting the TWO most expensive beers on the extensive beer list as his personal "recommendations." an $18 bottle of some lambic or trappist beer. now, the dotytron is no beer slouch. he may know next to nothing about wine but he's got a fairly adventurous and sensitive beer palate. we've also been to belgium, so he has a fair idea of what those trappist ales cost and he doesn't like the aggressive hard sell. he kind of snapped at the waiter - and by snapped i mean, he interrupted him in the middle of his spiel to say that he had just gotten back from the washroom and needed a minute to decide - which made caravaggio back down to the point where he ignored us for the rest of the evening and we had to resort to jazz hands and arms to flag him down for the bill.

we decided to skip the oyster selections (i can pay $3 CDN [not american!] for a kumomoto at oyster boy, thanks!) and ordered dishes as we felt like eating them.

we started with the hamachi crudo with raw almonds and chilies. this was fantastic. i love me a good crudo...you don't see many of them in toronto. thickish slices of buttery, light hamachi, strewn with green almonds (the hard, herbaceous, green fuzz part was taken off), thai chili julienne, and some light acidity from a judicious touch of lemon. it was very spring-like - buttery and green with a hot, fleeting stab of chili.

next up we had la quercia rossa ham from iowa, served with bread and butter. the ham was very mild, sweet, and velvety, lacking the saline kick of proscuitto. it was delicious, but i was put off by the fact that the restaurant "cheated" and heated the plate that the ham was on, until it was noticeably warm to the touch. i'd rather the ham be at room temperature, than have the unctuousness of the fat artificially boosted by heating the plate.

the next two dishes were my favorites.

duck heart salad. chewy, sautéed duck hearts with mushrooms, and wilted spinach, judiciously dressed with a vinaigrette that was just sharp enough to cut through the dense, woody, warm flavours of the dish. served with a perfectly cooked duck egg on brawny white bread that had been expertly charred to a crisp-chew. this was delicious through and through and definitely something i'm going to attempt to replicate (probably with chicken hearts though.)

lake eerie smelt with artichokes, parm, and tartar sauce. i was fully prepared to be biting through some wee little smelt heads, but the kitchen took care of that for me. the smelts had been gutted and beheaded and dipped in an airy poof of batter to make the lightest, crunchiest, salt-kissed bar snack you've ever tasted. the artichokes were similarly done, but my favorite element of all was the deep fried lemon slices. so good! wafer thin, battered and fried lemon slices that i could have knocked back like oh so many concave pringles. completely addictive and something else that i'm going to be trying at home. the whole crunchy mess of frito misto was piled on a smear of tartar sauce, with shaved parm and a tangle of garnish greens on top. top notch. the kind of dish you want to go back for.

next up was the house-made pork rinds. these were okay. they were coated in a cheese-pepper mixture (similar to the cheese coating on the cheese-flavoured garrett popcorn), but they weren't coated enough. they were okay. like vaguely pork flavoured shrimp chips. they lacked the sweet/savoury characteristics of lard and were a little ho hum...kind of unmemorable.

we followed up the rinds with a giant chunk of seared-in-brown-butter sweetbreads, with a glorious, rich brown crust on the outside giving way to custardy offal goodness inside. it sat atop a spring tangle of ramps and green chickpeas. i've never had a hunk of sweetbread so huge before and lemme tells ya - i could get used to it. this dish was delicious. rib-sticking grub that doesn't make you feel like hell after.

dessert was a bit of a misstep. a teensy tiny portion of 'milk chocolate cremeux' with prunes and lavender shortbread. this was $7. the other desserts (a pear crisp with molasses ice cream that came in a solid 1 c. ramekin, a waffle with rhubarb compote that easily filled a 10" plate) were more substantial. this was tiny! the prunes and the lavender shortbread had no relationship with each other or the cremeux. it was a bit of a miss...i would have rather ordered another option from the main courses, had i but known.

all this, with 2 expensive beers for the dotytron, came to the pauperly sum of $107 USD, including taxes, not including tip. what a deal!

i would definitely go back again - if i lived in chicago this would be my go-to for a neighbourhood/small plates vibe - what jamie kennedy wine bar aspires to be. gently priced for the generous serving sizes, great, comforting, well executed food - it's everything you want a gastropub to be. now i can't wait to try blackbird and avec, next!

fin.

quickie non-chicago related interlude

ANTHROPOLOGIE IS COMING TO TORONTO!

yesssssssssssssssssss! (mimicking the dotytron's reaction to the REACTABLE) i LOVE LOVE LOVE anthropologie! i've completely given up on everything but undies at urban outfitters. for the most part it's too lindsay lohan/nylon magazine-y and young tart for me. plus the quality of most of the stuff is crap. occasionally you find something cool on the sale rack, but otherwise it's too "wearing glasses frames without the lenses" for me. i can't do that. it's not me. free people (the other line in the same family) is a little too boho for me. too portland not enough so-cal.

anthropologie is JUST right for where i'm at now (aka gearing up for summer, when i want to look my most nicole richie-est) - i love most of the stuff there. some of it gets a little too retro-y, 50s throwback and some of it gets a little too crafty/piece-y/applicquéd in the free people vein, but most of it is perfect. that oh-so-lagerfeld mix of tailored, boho, and sunny california hippie, that i love love love.

problem is, stuff gets mad 'spensive. it's kind of a grown up lady version of urban and is priced accordingly. that's why i'm only going to ever hit the sales rack. sometimes you get mad deals! in chicago i literally had 23 items to try on from the sales rack. it was so plentiful! i got an anna sui smock-eyelet top, regularly priced at $158, for $29.99!!! (USD, but still!) what a scoop! they carry a lot of lines that i like, like anna sui and ella moss.

they also have cute housewares too! some shabby chic type drawer pulls and gorgeous latte bowls that would make fantastic sunny little accent pieces in any kitchen.

plus, the store is going to be on the east side of town! in a new mall called the "shops at don mills" which is at don mills and york mills which is pon the east side flex.

in other non-chicago related news...it's the end of an era. the roomie has started looking for apartments for her and l'army. she's probably moving out in june or july. yikes. we don't know whether to replace her or not. a new roomie would have to be extremely compliant, have enough stuff for their room and only their room, be okay with submitting to the meal plan and not filling my fridge with random non-meal plan oriented foods, and not have people over all the time (ie. either be content hanging out with me and the dotytron or go outside to hang with their friends.) also must be okay with cleaning the bathroom and never be weird about money. see? it's a tough call. the roomie was perfect. le sigh. i guess i can go back to the heteronormative couple-centric living that the dotytron and i experienced before...it's just nice having a friend around all the time, especially because i get scared being home alone. hopefully she'll find a place nearby. there was a PERFECT place (ie. we could see each other from the front porch) but i think the rental market is crazy right now and it was only on craigslist for 2 seconds.

anyway, if any of you know someone who fits the description above, let me know!

fin.

day 2

where did i leave off? ah yes, we had fallen asleep at the embarrassingly uncool and unyouthful time of 9pm to the sweet slumber that can only be procured from the sound knowledge that you do not have to launder anything in your immediate vicinity. we woke up and trekked out butts down to sweet maple cafe for breakfast. sweet maple cafe already had a lineup at 9am on a saturday morning. it's not the biggest place and it's far off the beaten track (close the university of illinois, chicago campus) but hoo boy do they know how to do a rib-stickin' breakfast.

we ordered something savoury and something sweet and went splitsies.

two eggs over easy; biscuit; sausage patty; grits; side of ham. i ordered the blueberry pancakes which were GINORMOUS. look at them! (the blueberries were underneath)

thus fortified, we set off on our day, the centrepiece of which was hitting the museum of science and industry. we were kind of freaking out because yesterday's s**tshow at the planetarium (with every child and every frazzled parent in the northern hemisphere converging at the same time) made us wary of hitting such a kid-friendly place. we got there fairly early though and it was AWESOME. the best museum i've ever been to. it's HUGE! it's housed in one of the only surviving buildings from the world's fair in 1893. they have so much stuff!
it's so much fun! it's so conducive to taking funny pictures (our forte!)

i can't imagine being a kid and going to this museum because my head would probably explode. they have mini EVERYTHING! crazy animatronics and plastic people and miniature scenes and train sets that allow you to take pictures that seem like real life. to wit:

the first exhibit we hit was a circus-themed one. it was kind of weak, but saved itself by having little miniature scenes and a circus caravan going on a little wee track.

one of the major highlights of the museum is that they have a u-boat, captured during the second world war and they built a WHOLE WING to house the thing (it's monstrous.) the build up to actually seeing the u-boat is awesome. there's like a fake command room with projected people in costume radioing back and forth and then they have the u-boat just sitting there in the room with torpedos strewn about and other memorabilia and fun games/interactive things to do like decoding encrypted messages. super fun!

this is the dotytron in a u-boat berth:

see? the props are super-high-quality.

they also had one of those little setups rigged up where you can get your picture taken in front of the u-boat and then they sell it to you when you come out of the exhibit, all u-boat drunk, with a commemorative frame, key chain, and 2 key chain-sized shots for the very unreasonable sum of $20. this is ours:

the dude taking the picture was majorly appreciative of our pose. the dude in charge of selling the pictures said it was the best one he'd seen since he started working there. we ended up having them hold it for us until we were ready to leave. when we went to pick it up, another guy was working and when we asked for our picture, he said, "oh yeah! guys, that's the best one i've seen all day!" lol! basically, our rampant immaturity and obnoxiousness won over all the museum staff. another cute thing about the museum staff is that they're all SUPER into their jobs. they seem to hire only retired veterans and nerdily sincere high school kids and it's a winning strategy because the staff are amazingly friendly, informative, and engaged.

one of the reasons that this museum is rolling in top-notch, high-grade exhibits is because of the strong public-private partnerships. this can lead to interestingly staged exhibits that are thinly veiled indoctrination pieces from various stakeholders. take the "farm tech" room, whose sole purpose was to impress upon young minds the importance of industrial agriculture.

there were videos set to booming, loud, pop music of cows with horrifically distended udders placidly receiving their sweet succor at the hands of hispanic itinerant farm workers. we played a timed milking game where you had to start a timer, "spray" down a fake cows udders with a pressurized air spray and then attach 4 milking suction things. i won by 1 second. it was awesome. we were obnoxious but i think again, our unbridled, childlike enthusiasm really won over our fellow museum goers.

okay. this shot above came about as a result of me being me (read: a jerk). it resulted in one of the more infamous moments of my insanity during the trip and, on a greater scale, my life. they had these shiny john deere tractors set up and as soon as i saw them, i said, "i have to get a picture in one of those!" so i stood in line behind a couple of kids to wait my turn (reminder: the museum of science and industry is mainly targeted at children.) out of the corner of my eye, i see a 7 year old kid and his maybe 2 years older sibling come running into the room. the kid's eyes grow huge at the sight of the tractor and he beckons to his dad, "dad! check this out!" - he's so excited he's practically jumping out of his own skin and he proceeds to stand in front of me, probably assuming that i'm waiting for my own kid to come off the tractor.

so what do i do? without missing a beat, i tap the kid on the shoulder, three times. not unforcefully. tap. tap. tap. "excuse me," i say, in the same tone of voice i would use for say, an adult who cut in front of me in line, "i was actually next." no sooner had the words left my lips then i realized that i had just TOLD OFF A SEVEN YEAR OLD CHILD FOR CUTTING IN FRONT OF ME IN LINE TO SIT IN A TRACTOR. i looked over at the dotytron and he was staring at me, slack-jawed, aghast. ahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! maternal instinct success rate is running at about negative 50% right now. lol!!! who DOES that?!? what's wrong with me?!???? ahahahahaha.

then we headed into future zone. future zone was kind of weird. it featured a hallway with pictures of various "visionaries" and "inventors" and models of some of their creations. it wasn't terribly impressive. to give you an idea, this LED dress was one of the "futuristic" things on display, in addition to this stupid robot who was SUPPOSED to answer a limited array of questions (sample question: "do you have any friends?") but then just ended up staring vacantly at you and doing a herky jerky piss poor version of the robot (maybe that's why he doesn't have any friends.)

then midway during a conversation, the dotytron looks over, and says, "THEY HAVE ONE OF THOSE?!?! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS." and goes tearing off in the direction of this little bad boy:

it's a REACTABLE, which is basically a touch synthesizer, aka the dotytron's robot bride. we played with it for about 30 minutes. it was kind of annoying because these n00bs would keep coming into the room and messing with our song, so we'd have to wait until people left to clear the table and start all over again, but then more people would come (how dare they?) you basically move the various cubes around on the table and they interact with the table itself and each other and you can modulate the sounds (pitch, etc) by twisting and turning the blocks. it's pretty flippin' cool and basically made the dotytron's life.

this is a thing where you stuck your face into a little depression and it projected your face on this statue of a person juggling balls (tenuously related to both science AND industry, but cool nonetheless)

we basically blew through the museum in like, 3 hours and hit every floor. then we went to see frank lloyd wright's robie house. in our hubris (in collusion with the dotytron's hatred of tours), we didn't pre-buy tickets to the tour which allowed you access to the interior. in what would come to be a maddening trend for the remainder of the trip, we could never get within a 5 foot radius of frank lloyd wright. he wanted absolutely nothing to do with us. so we could only get shots of the exterior. i contemplated pulling a chinese "i'll give you cash under the table if you just let us in" but the dotytron nixed that idea.


then we literally walked for like, 2 miles (remember: the dotytron's bum leg) to get a tres leches cake that i had ordered that morning when the previous day's tres leches cake mission had been a bust. i called this place, kristoffer's cafe during breakfast at sweet maple cafe to see if they might have any tres leches cake left in the afternoon. at the time that i called (10 in the morning) they were already out of the vanilla. in a panic, i ordered a 9" caramel, not really realizing that i was somehow buying an ENTIRE TRES LECHES CAKE. rick bayless says that the tres leches at kristoffers cafe and bakery is the best and i trust rick bayless.

so we schlepped our butts all the way out there to get the cake. then i had to figure out what the frig i was going to do with a 9" cake that weighed about 10 lbs from being soaked in the three milks. en route, we also passed by some sketchiness, involving a pretty downtrodden neighbourhood and a demolished parking lot area that smelled like human feces because we suspect someone was living in the tarp-covered car parked there and had probably jerry-rigged themselves an impromptu latrine. it was kind of gross and unsettling.

this is how you know you're traveling lagerfeld styleee. i will make you walk 3 miles out of your way for tres leches cake, past some very sketchy neighbourhoods/living areas. i will make a harebrained, panicky decision to buy an ENTIRE tres leches cake. i will then embark on a mission of every cvs and walgreen's in the downtown core in a vain attempt to find tupperwares, only to find that you can buy a SLOW COOKER at walgreen's but will receive blank stares when you ask for tupperware (incidentally, sales people in the states are about a BILLION times nicer than sales people in canada, don't ask me why.) i will then somehow sweet talk the proprietor of some random restaurant to give me 8 takeout containers (for free! i offered to pay but he refused) and then i will then somehow sweet talk room service into looking for a pie lifter for me. room service will not be able to procure a pie lifter but will give me two knives. you will watch incredulously as i divide the tres leches cake into fifths, pack each fifth into an ill-begotten takeout container, and somehow macguyver the bar fridge into accepting all my tres leches cake portions.

it's crazy.

more to come tomorrow! reviews of the publican and al's no. 1 beef and day 3!

fin.

2 ding dongs in the white city

a tale probably to be told in many, many parts (i don't want to have to nail myself down to a number.)

the dotytron and i woke up obscenely early on good friday and were picked up by east end taxi (aka the dotytron's da') and taken to the airport. my new thing is to NEVER CHECK BAGGAGE. for a few reasons: a) it's annoying waiting for bags that might be lost; b) most airlines are now CHARGING YOU to check bags (lame!) c) it's a desperate bid to help us (read: me) pack light and curb my tendency to pack 10 different outfits and 4 pairs of shoes for a weekend away.

poor dotytron suffered the brunt of this new thing of mine. i packed for him and did a pretty good job. i checked the weather forecasted (that's an oxymoron and an egregious insult to tense and the english language, i know) for the weekend and things seemed pretty decent. the night before, we had the following exchange:

dotytron: i'm going to take my heavy fall jacket, it's been FREEZING here lately!
me: no! just take your fleece and the hot guy jacket (that's what we call this spring jacket of his - it really is a hot guy jacket)
dotytron: but don't you think it's going to be cold?
me: no! i checked the weather, high of 10°C and low of 2°C
dotytron: but that's cold!
me (getting increasingly shrill): look! it's going to be fine! 10°C isn't THAT COLD! it's just going to be bulky and heavy and you're going to have to carry it around all the time!!!
dotytron: but they call it the 'windy city'!!!
me: IT'S A MISNOMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dear reader: it is very much not a misnomer. as you hear recounted for you the chronicles of our time abroad and as you gaze upon the pictorial evidence, please keep in mind that at almost EVERY SINGLE MOMENT the dotytron is freezing his poor little butt off. it's SUPER WINDY! lake michigan is insane! it was really, really cold. there's like non-stop white caps on lake michigan and when we were at the planetarium, we almost got blown off our feet. the dotytron's nose was constantly running.

so i obviously felt really bad for being such a monster and in remorse, i struck a deal that will test the limits of my patience and ocd tendencies on a future trip. the next time we go away, the dotytron is allowed to pack whatever he wants.

another thing to remember is that the dotytron's left leg got pwned this weekend. remember last sunday, when we went for a run to get groceries and go for brunch on that epic day filled with hilariousness? well, what i didn't tell you, was that on that run, the dotytron was making fun of me for being a little huffy and puffy and wheezy, while he was apparently "fine." "awww lagerfeld," he said, looking at my gasping short-legged frame trying valiantly to keep stride with his lankiness, "look at how out of shape you are!" he ALSO gave me grief for being really reluctant to run on concrete and for insisting that asphalt is softer and better on the legs. fast forward to this past week.

lagerfeld: feeling completely fine, able to play dodgeball on both sunday and monday with minimal stiffness and after effects

dotytron: nagging pain in achilles tendon

this nagging pain in his achilles tendon ended up manifesting itself in giving him a limp and waves of being able to walk fine and other times of being in extreme pain. he also got pain at the back of his knee from all the walking we did this weekend (point of interest: chicago is NOT a pedestrian friendly city, outside of the immediate core area known as 'the loop'). he also got a blister on his foot. so keep in mind, that throughout most of the following adventures, the dotytron's left leg is running at a success rate of 0% (with an additional minus 25% for making him cranky)

ANYWAY, we hopped on the subway at o'hare (known as the "el" because a lot of the trains are actually elevated in chi-town) and got to our hotel. ummmm...our hotel was AMAZING! it was all super-designery faux boutiquey. here are some shots:


pretty swank, eh? that's a king sized bed mofos! those are leather pillows on the bed! and a fake snakeskin arm chair! and a tromp l'oeil chandelier on the wall! lol! all this (location was fab too, smack dab in tourista ville, attached to the house of blues and steps from the magnificent mile [which we didn't check out because we don't usually prioritize shopping on our travels]) for the princely sum of $109 USD a night (it usually goes for $350+) thanks to some insane promo code. samantha ronson was djing in the hotel's bar in a few weeks and the hotel had a BOWLING ALLEY/club INSIDE IT that had hosted the likes of p-diddy and nsync! amazing!

it was the kind of place where even though check in time was technically 3pm, they let us check into our room at 10 in the morning. amazing! then we went and got ourselves some breakfast. we went to a place called wishbone and indulged in all our american breakfast fantasies.



i had eggs over easy (another point: american short order breakfast cooks KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING. eggs over easy are over easy, like where the whites are still kind of runny. over easy in canada is mostly over medium, which is what i really want, generally), with sausage patties (WHY CAN'T WE GET SAUSAGE PATTIES IN CANADA?!??), homefries, a corn muffin, and a SMALL (yes, that's a small) side of biscuits with sausage gravy. the homefries were amazing. every bite tasted like oniony, griddly, crusty goodness. they really understand the importance of a good crust on the homefries, too. the biscuits and gravy were delicious. basically a sausage-studded, milky, bechamel sludge slumped over a split biscuit. the dotytron had some kind of scramble, with cheesy grits, and bacon and a corn muffin. the cheesy grits were so so soooooooooooo good! salty, savoury, creamy (the grits are white, the kind i make at home are yellow), bowl-lickingly good.

then we stumbled around trying to get our bearings with the transit system before hitting the adler planetarium. the planetarium shares space on what's known as "museum campus" along with the field museum (kind of like your standard, rom-type museum with dinosaurs and artifacts and stuff), and the shedd aquarium. the planetarium was obviously the less cool of them all (judging by the fact that the bus that loops around museum campus was practically empty by the time we got to the planetarium), but that didn't ameliorate the fact that we had to stand in line for almost an hour just to buy tickets to get into the place.

i was also grossly misinformed about what a planetarium is all about. i thought it was mostly exhibits about star stuff with the dome shows. it's mostly about the dome shows with some odd things to pad out the shows. this didn't stop us from doing our usual thing of making an absolute farce of well...everything.

this is us in infrared


this is me going to renaissance astronomy school


this is me asking my renaissance astronomy school prof a question


this is the dotytron as a peruvian astronomer (or something)


this is the dotytron kissing this weird hologram/projection of a creepy kid fixated on space


we saw two shows. one was this 3D symphony of animated and manipulated space stuff set to an orchestra. it was very boring and uneducational and i used that time to take a much-needed 30. according to the dotytron, there were people sawing logs all over. then we saw an AWESOME light/show thing called "secrets of the night sky" in the planetarium proper which was mind-blowingly good. at certain points, i wanted to stand up and randomly scream it was so good. this only reinforces my plan to build my ultimate fun-zone if i ever win the lottery. the ultimate fun-zone consists of a lazy river crossed with a planetarium. eh, eh? pretty solid, huh?

the dotytron and i travel in this really weird way where i spend hours and hours and hours making a spreadsheet of places to eat and do a meals itinerary (replete with coding the spread sheet entries and plotting it on a map) but then when we actually arrive at a destination, we're extremely laid back and don't do any research about the actual "must-see" sites and stuff. like, i do *some* background reading but it's pretty scattershot. we end up mostly just goofing off by being us in a different place without having to think about life stuff and laughing like idiots. most of the time we stumble upon the tourist sites while traipsing around in pursuit of one local delicacy or another. like, in chicago, we saw this famous picasso sculpture by getting lost and happening upon it:

we also bail on stuff right left and centre because in the end, we don't care. like in italy, we didn't care if we saw real david, fake david was okay. we don't HAVE to go to galleries and museums and whatnot and totally don't stress about absolutely having to see this, that or the other thing, the most important thing is hanging. this might surprise some people who would think that i would have trips scheduled down to the minute. i'm actually a very laid-back, roll with the punches, unflappable traveler - as long as we get to eat the goods.

anyway, for dinner the first night we went to lou malnati's which serves chicago-style deep dish pizza. bwong had brought me back a stuffed crust specimen (from giordano's - another heavy hitter in the chicago pizza scene) so we decided to try the classic deep dish with the full sausage patty. it was incredible. first, let's look at what our buddy lou here calls a salad:

yes, that's piles of meat on the antipasto salad. it was really good though - and i needed the vinegary cushion for the coming assault on my colon. look at this slice:

lou's has a very chunky, sprightly, oregano-infused tomato sauce, the acidity of which cuts through the solid 1/2" of cheese. overall, i think i preferred this to the stuffed crust, which seriously had like a 2" block of cheese sandwiched with a cracker like dough. this dough had a nice chew but was still super crisp-crusted and buttery. the sauce made the whole thing come together though and helped you feel slightly less gross about eating 2 slices (and seriously contemplating a third).

then we came back to the hotel to "get changed" before going out to see bill frissell but then ended up bailing on the show and passing out at 9pm for a well deserved one of the best sleeps of my adult life. it was sooooooooo good. the pillows on our bed were like, 3 feet long. my only complaint is that a king sized bed makes you feel like there's an ocean between you and we're so used to sleeping on a double that all the space left me feeling a little bereft. it's too crazy.

more on the trip, tomorrow.

fin.

and we're off!

it's been an exhausting time filled with work-filled days and pingy filled nights. we lurves our pingy.


last night i made rabbit for dinner. braised rabbit with olives, tomatoes, and rosemary, served with gremolata on egg pappardelle.

now we're doing a final bag check before tucking in for the night. the dotytron's da' is picking us up at 6am tomorrow to head to the airport. i'll come back with a full report if i can summon the words from my deep dish pizza haze.

have a happy easter/passover/spring equinox everyone!

fin.

zoinks!

i know, it's been a while. that's cuz sunday was such an epic whirlwind of a day that the thought of typing it out seemed a little daunting. on top of that, yesterday was dodgeball finals and work has been insane. i pulled TWO HOURS of overtime last night (waiting to go to dodgeball, but still, i actually WORKED instead of my usual futzing around on the intarwebs routine.) the good news is, i found out today that my earned day off (EDO) is being reinstated. i scarcely dare believe it. i've been on such an emotional roller coaster with this thing, but i met with hr, and they signed off on it, so my third fridays are back in my beloved arms. maybe we had to be separated to realize just how much we appreciated each other (this is a patent lie. i appreciated it plenty. do a search of past rhapsodic blurg posts to that effect.)

so. sunday. we slept in a little bit, having fobbed off our meeting with our agent (we just didn't feel like schlepping around looking at houses and being business on a sunday. worst house hunters EVER.) so i came up with a hair brained scheme to accomplish 10 billion things at once. the plan was thus: we would go for a run along the danny, stopping at the westernmost outpost of our grocery shopping ports of call, walk the groceries back, then job down to this place called 'okay okay' diner for breakfast, then walk back. nice and leisurely. the first part went swimmingly. we jogged briskly and amiably, got groceries, walked them back. the second part of our mission involved us leaving the house, carrying only our bank cards, and $30 (we were going to get more money at the bank machine to top up the $30 for breakkie.)

we jogged down to queen, the air was brisk, we worked up an appetite that could only be sated by eggs and carbs and fat. the dotytron went to our branch in leslieville while i nosed around a value village. i met up with him at the branch only to find him lacking cash and locked out of his card. apparently he had entered his pin, the machine told him it was wrong, he tried two more times and he got locked out. weird. so then i tried. i entered my pin in once and the machine gave me a "your card is disabled" line and wouldn't give me the time of day on subsequent tries. very strange. we warned the people waiting in line after us to use the machine that it might very well be possessed and stood aside to see how they fared. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. okay. me and the dotytron's accounts with the bank aren't linked in ANY fashion. it's pretty freakin' odd that two separate cards would arbitrarily be subject to erroneous and false accusations of pin-entering-malfeasance, right?

so then we were kind of spooked because we (naturally) assumed that someone had stolen either my identity, his identity, or (worst yet) some monstrous amalgam of BOTH our identities. we were also FAMISHED. so we walked over to okay okay on queen east and peered at the menu and counted our monies and realized that we had *just* enough to cover what we wanted to order, tax, and a barebones tip. the place was small and there was a couple waiting ahead of us. there was also a lady who looked up at us and brusquely demanded, "you waiting for a table. how many." i said two, and she said, she'd take my name down for a table. so i gave her my given name, and she snarkily said, "how about your REAL name?" and i said, "uhhh, that IS my real name," and she said, "oh, i thought it would be something shorter, so i wouldn't have to write so much." at which point i was so blinded by rage at her crappy service and the fact that my bank card was all shambles that i didn't think to respond with the reply that came to me later, "how's about C**T? how's THAT for a short first name, lady?"

so we both walked out and were HOPPIN' mad and we mad-walked all the way home and called the bank and tried to get our cards sorted out. mystery of mysteries, the bank had the dotytron down as having entered his pin correctly, once (even though he tried 3 times) and had me down as entering my pin incorrectly SEVEN times (even though i only tried once.) so his was unlocked and mine was locked. then i called 'okay okay' and complained to that same terrible server who seemed kind of taken aback that her transferral of her own ambivalence and dissatisfaction with having made the exceedingly poor decision to work in the service industry, doing a brunch shift at an extremely busy restaurant with a clientele of mostly annoying young urbanites (i don't blame her, but you chose this path, lady) was commented upon by a dissatisfied customer. she assured me that i would be receiving a phone call from the actual proprietors (i haven't, to date.) anyway, we were both hungry and achey and tired and most of all, still deprived of that thing we wanted most of all: eggs and carbs and fat.

so i figured we should pilfer from the grocery jar (and repay later) and bike back down to queen and go to one of our tried and true brunch spots, joy bistro. we got our bikes out, still mad and testy enough to be peevish and snappish with each other, which necessitated me initiating a "let's start all over." a "let's start all over" means that i put the breaks on a rapidly deteriorating situation and "start over" in the persona of the dotytron, by sticking out my hand and saying, "hi, i'm ***" it's a good way of regrouping before things escalate too far and someone gets locked out of the house and has to smash the door in to get back in. errrrr...that may or may not have happened. lol!

anyway, we were still mad when we started biking and still a little flush from our previous physical exertions. however, as we started coasting downhill on our bikes in the brisk, sunday, sunny-but-only-really-10-degrees weather, we rapidly realized that we hadn't dressed appropriately and we were both FREEZING. freezing cold, miserable, hungry, and steadfastly fixated on a goal of eggs and carbs and fat.

at this point, we were so far gone the only thing we could do is laugh the maniacal, empty laugh of the damned. no sooner had we reached THAT state of being then we came upon the most MAGICAL HOUSE IN ALL OF TORONTO. on a wee side street winding up from queen east, was a little semi-detached house, pretty standard east side fare, except for the fact that the ENTIRE FACADE WAS COVERED WITH STUFFED ANIMALS AND DOLLS. seriously. the entire front of the house featured row upon row of stuffed animals and dolls, and the low fence encircling the property was similarly festooned.

naturally, we stopped and gawked. "this is the best thing ever" we announced. i noticed that an oldish lady was watching us appreciate the gong show that was this house. i kind of assumed it was a neighbour marveling along with us at the decrease in her property values. then she asked us if she liked it. she wasn't dressed super-odd. she was missing a few front teeth. she kind of looked like the kind of person you'd see shopping at knob hill farms a little too late on a saturday night (an elite group of oddities with whom i was aligned, thanks to big d.) anyway, we politely replied that it was "something else" and she said that it wasn't often seen by very many people because not many people walk down this particular street. then, she asked, in a faltering, wizened, old lady voice, "would you like to have tea in my garden?" at which point we decided to abort! i thanked her but told her that we had brunch plans and we biked off. THAT'S WEIRD, RIGHT?!? needless to say, the line of the week so far has been "would you like to have tea in my garden?" in old lady voice. lol!

then i biked to dodgeball and played like a maniac. so on sunday, i: ran, biked to dodgeball and back (about 20 km) and played dodgeball. i was so done by the time i came home.

i managed however, to throw together this tasty repast. it was kind of passover themed. i made roasted salmon with a tasty herbed mayonnaise sauce, pan fried rosemary "smashed" potatoes (little red potatoes boiled until tender, smashed roughly with a potato masher, and fried until crusty in a pan with oil and chopped rosemary) and roasted white asparagus with bagna cauda. the salmon was superb. i seared it skin side down first in a cast iron pan (season the salmon skin generously with salt and pepper, place skin side down in a medium-hot pan, cook slowly until the skin is crispy and then finish in a 400F oven, approx. 10 minutes for each 1" of thickness of salmon.) i'll post the recipe for the mayonnaise sauce after.

for dessert, we had orange creamsicle floats, inspired by something i saw that suzanne goin had done in one of her restaurants (except she subs tangerine juice for the blood oranges). it's so easy! you juice one or two blood oranges or tangerines into a glass, add a few scoops of vanilla ice cream, and top off with club soda. i think if i wanted to gussy it up a bit more, to add an herbaceous element i would stir it with a sprig of rosemary...i think those flavours would be lovely. it was DIVINE. so good we had one last night when i came home from monday night dodgeball.

tonight we had a simple, quick pasta of whole wheat penne tossed with T's chilies, chili oil, garlic, rapini, sliced salami, and some grated pecorino.

i still have book reviews to do...hopefully i can catch up tomorrow. but P is coming up to visit for easter weekend from new york and you know how much we love our pingy around here so we'll probably be occupied hanging with her before we head to chicago on friday.

fin.


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herbed mayonnaise sauce for salmon
makes enough for 6-8 portions up to 2.5lbs of salmon fillets

2/3 c. of mayonnaise (i used that super raw-garlickly anchovy-less caesar dressing i had made a while ago)
1/4 c. of spicy brown mustard (or grainy, or dijon)
2 T. of brown sugar
1/4 c. chopped fresh tarragon
1/4 c. chopped fresh dill
1/4 c. chopped fresh chives
1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley
2 T. lemon juice

- mix all together in a bowl. season generously with pepper and carefully with salt. spread on top of salmon and roast as per directions above. extra sauce can be serve alongside.

classic times

at m-r-i high. last night was the funnest! first, we chowed down on chilaquiles, which is one of my favorite home-cooked meals of all time. and by "chowed down" i mean "inhaled to the point where i now have regrets that i didn't properly savour the deliciousness of what was before me." seriously, i ate it SO FAST because it was SO GOOD but i had instant regrets that i didn't stop to properly TASTE it, because let's face it, it's going to be a good half year at least before i make it again. we also watched 'jeopardy' together but it was a poor showing because i was too busy eating and wasn't paying attention to the categories.

we did some mad reminiscing about the jungle days that brought us goompas together and how awesome our old stomping grounds (the torontojungle message board) was, as far as message boards go. it's probably the best message board i've ever seen, which is a reflection of the unique melting pot that was the toronto jungle community. in its' heyday, it was the perfect, heady mix of grad students who liked to get all dutty and brock out; ridiculous goons from scarborough; a million aliases a second; constantly reiterated and self-referential jokes that would go on for years; psycho chicks, drama, and hilarity. AMAZING. then we all shed a tear for our days of jungle glory past. and how, despite what the n00bs would have you believe, we were effin' cool because there was such a perfect combination of sincerity, nerdiness (fat pants and pacifiers?!??), subcultural connectivity through the circulation of specific signifiers, and the use of mood-enhancing drugs. sigh, the glory days. (for the record, dr. rei and the dotytron were way more susceptible to jump-up. i have always had impeccable taste in jungle.)

the thing about jungle is, even though toronto was the biggest outpost of it outside of the uk, it doesn't carry the same scene-recognition as other subcultures that have lived and died. like, if someone were to say, "oh yeah, i saw the new york dolls at cbgb's" that CONTINUES to hold a lot of currency and traction to people today. being part of the jungle scene doesn't mean anything to anyone anymore. not the short-memoried citizens of toronto and certainly NOT north america at large. no, if i want to rehash the good ole days and talk about the time i got a kiss on the cheek from dj hype and have it mean something to people other than the few, grizzled toronto old-timers left standing, i have to go to the uk. they GET IT there. it's part of their cultural history, whereas the mass movement that resulted in ravers campaigning for their right to party outside nathan phillips square at idance (2001?) was all-too-soon swallowed up in the yawning chasm of toronto's flighty flirtations with cultural movements.

sorry, where was i? oh yes, last night. after a good gab session we rolled up at B & G's place for G's birthday party. there was a good mix of generally friendly peeps there - high school mates, new funny people, generally engaging and good humoured cats with stories to tell - good times, even if it WAS one of those dreaded 'house parties' i loathe so much. it actually went about as well as one of those could go. good mix of personalities and no a-holes (no obvious ones anyway, there were probably latent a-holes, me being one of them.) also, i don't know who brought those cupcakes, but they were AMAZING. just kidding, it was me, and they were obvs amazing because real buttercream is the ill na na, seen?

i've been a busy bee this morning (as per usual.) i weeded my fiction and non-fiction collection to add some books to the pile of vhs videotapes i'm making the dotytron get rid of. i weeded through my clothes and swapped out my summer gear for the winter gear. i cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor. i ate a bowl of grits with butter, maple syrup, and milk. i did some more organizing of the chicago trip. i'm about to head out for a quick grocery shopping mission and then go meet dr. rei and R for some ancaster fair reunionining and then dinner at tacos el asador with the dotytron and then home to rest because we're meeting our realtor tomorrow morning AND we were out wicked late last night.

i'll post pictures of dinner. i'm already famished!

fin.

i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack

...B****ES! just kidding. i would never say that. in fact, i find it supremely annoying when young people (and it seems to be more of a girl thing) do that. the point is, rory tate (that's my computer's name) is back up and purring like a circle researcher half his age. i LOVE a good reformat! especially when your lovely partner quietly sits downstairs while you're making dinner and loads 'er up so that when you come downstairs faintly exasperated that he hasn't been helping put meal together, you immediately feel like a cad of the highest order when you're greeted with this:

seriously, how amazing is the dotytron? i'll tell you: VERY. QUITE. THE BEST (i know that doesn't properly answer the question just posed.)


first things first, i've updated past posts with the yummy tasty dinnie pics you've been missing out on. tonight we had a little passover goodness in the form of matzoh ball soup (dr. rei: never fret, m'dear, i swapped out the matzoh ball soup for something you're going to enjoy MUCH MUCH MORE for dinner tomorrow.) we all know how much i loves me some matzoh balls. ESPECIALLY green onion and dill matzoh balls, drunkenly drifting in a chicken soup lazy river dotted with carrots, fennel, onions, and celery, butting up against parsley and dill flotsam.


i also cranked out a GIANT batch of chocolate buttercream, with which to frost the 2 dozen cupcakes i made between tonight and last night. i have discovered the secret to flat topped cupcakes. however, the devil's food cake batch i made tonight has flour nuggets in it. oops! ah well, silky, smooth, moussey chocolate buttercream hides a multitude of sins.

in other news...we have a realtor (!!!!!!!!!) we have a couple of high school chums who ended up being real estate agents but we weren't really sure about working with friends. their incentive to hustle isn't as great, plus, if it doesn't work out, you're really not as comfortable saying, "sorry bubs, you're doing a bad job, we want someone else." also, one of them is based out of markham and the other one is on the west side...we wanted someone who knew the east side of town. so we're using this girl who rented the apartment upstairs for a year. it's the perfect balance. we kind of know her, so it's not like she's a stranger (we also have some leverage because the roomie is her midwife), and she knows the east side (based out of here and bought her own house on this side of town.) i'm feeling pretty optimistic. she's already found us 28 places in our price range, which is good! it's still pretty discouraging when you check house prices in waterloo and see what you can get for the same if not less than what you pay for an okay "starter home" in toronto. it's a pretty convincing argument for us to pack up and make a new life in the 'loo with our dear dear kdubsguelph crew.

tomorrow evening me, the dotytron, and the dr. rei are hitting our friend G's 30th birthday social at B & G's house. i've adopted dr. rei for the weekend while hanbo is golfing in myrtle beach. i LOVE my bff! i LOVE my new(ish) computer! i LOVE it when it smells like spring outside and you open the windows and that sweet smell comes and washes away the winter furnace funk! so despite the fact that i've had some setbacks this week the indomitable spirit of k. lagerfeld, esquire perseveres and TRIUMPHS!

i'm aided in my pursuit by the fact that the dotytron comes home and regales me with funny stories of kids being the funny little goons they are. to wit: today in the midst of his after school guitar program, a girl in his class (which is mostly made up of grade 7s and 8s) suddenly interjected with, "what do you think happens when you die?" which spurred a lively debate, where one kid's contribution was, "i see myself climbing a giant set of stairs, and 'eye of the tiger' is playing and you get to the top and then it's heaven" which is BEYOND AWESOME. i really, really, really hope this kid is right and that's what it's like because that's the best possible ushering into the great beyond that anyone could ask for.

fin.

*deep breathing*

WORST. so, my computer at home has just been wiped in the great reformat of 09. i offhandedly mentioned that weird april fool's day virus to the dotytron which naturally made him go berserker and unplug us from the internet last night. he's like, super duper uber paranoid about viruses now. so my computer at home isn't operational AND i can't connect to the net to get all the programs i need. me being me, the part of me that's addicted to my various spreadsheets and lists (the biggest part of me) is shriveling up inside from lack of access to my beloved excel and word documents. AND i can't post any of the yummy food we've been eating. AND i had to bid adieu to all my bookmarks.

a reformat IS an exciting time, but it's also stressful because like most ocd-type A personalities, i don't do well when my life is in flux. i like everything just so, exactly where i left it, suspended in a tidy, crystalline system of my own devise.


this week has been a comedy of errors so far. i feel like i'm still going backwards. hopefully things will right themselves shortly. i'm looking forward to tonight's dinner, which is a steak sandwich on ace ciabatta bun with blue cheese, sliced tomato, and arugala and a fennel, radicchio, and romano bean salad.


last night we had spaghettini with T's chilies, chili oil, garlic, finely grated bottarga and bread crumbs and a salad with a too-raw-garlicky ceasar-ish dressing.

hopefully i can update with photos tonight when my computer is all set up and purring and i have access to picasa again.

fin.