Philadelphia Chinatown: Tai Lake - Restaurant Review

For dinner on Wednesday we tried a new Chinatown - the one in Philadelphia. One of the servers at a favorite restaurant, who has known Dave's family for years - invited us to eat real Asian seafood with his family. We went to the Tai Lake Seafood Restaurant, a place out friend (also conveniently named Dave) has gone since the 1980's. We met Dave and his wife and son at the restaurant and let him order for the table. The results were diverse and certainly interesting.












The dish on the left was the first to arrive at our table. Baby octopus, shredded jellyfish (that's the white stuff) and pig intestine. I was not a huge fan of that plate. The intestine almost did me in before dinner had really started, but damn it, I tried everything. On the right is rockfish, not to be confused stonefish (or, The Worst Pain Known to Man). The fish wasn't bad - a bit on the bland side, and many little bones to watch out for.












On the left are clams with pork bits and scallions. That one was pretty good, considering I'm not a big mollusk person. On the right we have tofu (that brick in the back), some sort of vegetable that even our friends couldn't identify (tasty though), black mushrooms (undoubtedly the best part of the meal - as meaty as steak and very garlicky) and in the front left: sea cucumber. For those of you who have never seen a sea cucumber in action, here you go:



That's right. We ate something that looks like a poop, that does nothing but... poop.












Dave and his mother have tried chicken feet before (I declined, thank you very much) and weren't fond of it. So here we have goose feet. Not much more than skin and bones. Dave seemed to like it, I only got a few nibbles before it became so cumbersome every time I tried to eat it it would swing around in my chopsticks and kick me in the chin.

On the right is lobster with scallions (just OK - living in Maine has spoiled me for lobster anywhere else) and pork chops in a sweet sauce. That was my favorite dish, I am sad to say. It was nice having a mammal on the table.












Last we has salty soft shell crab - very salty, but very good - and for desert, mung bean soup. It was thick and sweet and rounded off the weirdness nicely.












The two Daves ate everything that was left over, and vowed to enter a hot dog eating contest some day. On the right is my tribute to Jin, our Korean friend, who taught us how to make awesome chopstick holders with the chopstick wrapper.

I must admit, after so much new (and let's face it, strange) food, my stomach was a bit displeased. We were able to find a bakery/bubble tea cafe still open, the Mong Kok Station Bakery and while we bought an insane amount of baked goods I drank a ginger bubble tea that settled my stomach right down. It even had ginger shavings in it. So good.

If you ever plan on trying lots of new things, make sure to go with people who know what to order. Just be prepared for some unexpected flavors and textures.

Oh yea, and all that food? Split 6 ways it was $26 per person. Including tip. Hell yes.

Flushing for Dinner: Red Chopstick - Restaurant Review

Dave and I are back in Allentown again, this time for two weeks. He takes his first round of boards (the Osteopathic version) on the 23rd and after that we will go back to Maine to finish moving out of our apartment. I'll be glad to stop driving so much.

This time we decided to stop in New York to meet Jin for dinner. He took us to a Taiwanese restaurant in Flushing called Red Chopstick. They have a really good meal system - you can order a variety of things to split between 2 or 4 people for a relatively cheap price. Of course, there was also complementary tea, which Jin kept waving around.

We got five dishes - the Duck Soup, which was essentially a large bowl of broth with pieces of duck floating in it. Bones and all. Dave liked it so much he ate almost all of it on his own. Second was the drunken chicken, not a huge fan of that one. It's cold and has the skin left on it, and it's a pain to eat. The dungeness crab (which you can see below) was also a pain to eat, but it tasted better than the chicken.

We also got sauteed spinach, which was very good, and, my favorite, beef, celery and either tofu or mushrooms, we couldn't tell. That's the one in the square plate. I couldn't stop eating it.

After dinner we hunted down the bakery we got amazing egg custard from in April. For future reference, it is called the New Flushing Bakery. We got there late so there weren't many custards left, so we bought them out. We really need to start going to the gym again.

On the way back to the car we stopped by a market and bought crazy cheap fruit (apricots fo 69 cents a pound!), lychee candy and an aloe drink. I really love Flushing.

Toro Sushi - Restaurant Review

Toro Sushi
1105 South Main St.
Cheshire, CT 06410

Dave and I are still in the long moving process, and drove from Allentown back to Springvale today. We will do this drive three more times by the end of June. Then we are done.

Today was a very sunny day, and as always when I am faced with hours of uninterrupted sunlight on a drive, I got a blinding headache. By Connecticut I was unpleasant enough that Dave suggested we stop for food. I had a craving for sushi (this is an almost constant thing, not brought on by the headache or anything), so I did a quick search on his awesome new tablet and found a highly rated one a few miles away.

At Toro we got edamame and shumai for appetizers as usual - both good, though not extraordinary. Dave and I almost never get separate entrees anymore; we each like so many things we just narrow all the choices down to a few and share. We got five rolls: spicy salmon (because it is always good), peanut avocado roll (honey roasted peanuts and avocado *swoon*), a New York roll (Smoked salmon and apple with sesame seeds, tasty but a bit bland), a sweet potato roll (tempura sweet potato with bonito sweet sauce, my favorite of the bunch) and an Indian roll (yellow tail and banana, Dave's favorite). The service was great (hot towels to wipe your hands with after your food) and the decor tasteful. By the time we were finished my headache was gone (whether it was from the delicious food or the codeine I took beforehand, I can't say) and I was a much more pleasant person. The Dairy Queen we had after that completed my recovery and we were able to continue our trip.

Back to Allentown next Friday.

Koi - Restaurant Review

Koi Sushi Bar and Asian Cuisine
11 Elm Street
Biddeford, ME 04005

Our favorite Chinese restaurant in the area closed a few months ago, at first citing "interior decorating" as the reason. This was only slightly less hilarious as the Thai restaurant around the corner being closed due to "travel destinations in Thailand".

Last week it reopened, and is now a Chinese/Japanese fusion restaurant. This means sushi, and this means happy Allison.

We went for lunch on Saturday, and had triple awesomeness - happy hour specials, lunch specials, and Grand Opening specials. Appetizers were half off for happy hour, and the Grand Opening lunch special prices were $2 per roll. Dave and I got 9 rolls between us, and three appetizers, and our lunch totaled at about $25.

I got (clockwise from top left) a California roll - cucumber, avocado and crab - a cucumber and avocado roll, a Philadelphia roll - salmon, cream cheese and green onion - and a spicy tuna roll.





I usually go with my favorites when trying a sushi place for the first time, just so I have a good frame of reference, and it was great. The fish was fresh and flavorful, and nothing was dry. The avocado was soft and ripe - hard avocado is awful.



Tyler was really hungry, as you can see from his plate. He ended up getting full and taking a lot of leftovers home, so I couldn't get a picture of him with his empty plate.



The staff are really nice and friendly, and the manager came to talk to us a few times, since we were there at the awkward 2:30 time slot between lunch and dinner, and therefor the only people there.

I would definitely recommend Koi if you want good sushi outside of Portland - nothing else compares. I would also in particular recommend going for lunch, since they have some great specials - Maki Combos with miso soup and salad: 2 rolls for $7, 3 rolls for $9.50. I'm betting the crazy cheap grand opening prices won't be around for long, but it is still less expensive than many other places I've seen. Definitely a place I will visit again.

Spring Break! Sort of...

This was Spring break for both Dave and Hannah (who came up to visit us for the week), but I still had work. I do occasionally miss the school year system.

Saturday the 12th
On the first Saturday evening of Spring break, Dave, my mom, my sister and I all (finally!) saw Elton John in concert - in Worcester, MA of all places. The "finally!" comes from the fact that we were supposed to see Elton John and Billy Joel in Buffalo in the Spring of 2009. That concert was postponed to the Fall of 2009. That concert was also postponed, and we gave up. This past year John released an album with Leon Russell, a very famous singer/songwriter who I had never heard of before The Union came out. Listen to that album, by the way. There is a song about Captain Goddamn Ahab.



Anyway, we finally got a chance to see Elton John. He played for about an hour, and then started talking about the new album, and what a pleasure it had been working with Russell and going on tour with him for a while. He said that playing the music without him just wasn't the same. Then he said that we didn't have to worry about that, and out tottered Leon Russell. I could have sworn the man was in his late 80s, but he's apparently only 68. They played at least half of the album before Russell left. He was, by the way, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two days later.

Elton John, as always, was an amazing performer. he played for close to three hours straight, brought tears to peoples' eyes when he dedicated Your Song to his husband and newborn son, and wore a jacket with his own name embroidered on each lapel. I look forward to seeing him again, hopefully with Billy Joel, for real this time.

Sunday the 13th
On Sunday morning we all went to eat at Minado. It is a small chain (5 locations, one of which I just discovered, is close to Allentown!) all you can eat Japanese buffet.

The food was all really good. Not the best sushi I have ever had, but close, and with everything else that is offered, it is totally worth the price.








Sushi bar: yummmm.
My favorite roll had apple in it - really nice sweetness and crunch in combination with spicy fish.










Before we drove back to Maine with Hannah we stopped by a number of the Indian grocery stores in the area. We got lots of food - I got a huge pack of Parle-Gs, a cookie I haven't had since I was in Mumbai, and a couple frozen naan pizzas that turned out to be amazing. Dave and I got samosas from one store that I assume had been sitting out for a few days, considering they gave us food poisoning. Those I do not recommend so highly.

Tuesday the 15th
On Tuesday we took a day trip to Ipswich and Salem, Massachusetts. Hannah, being the geography expert that she is, had originally wanted to take a trip to Virginia, confusing it with "the other state that starts with a V", Vermont. She was delighted to find out that Salem is so close to us - only about an hour and a half drive - so she changed her request.

Ipswich, it turns out, does not have a lot more in it than fields and cops Hannah can scare the crap out of, so we weren't there for long. Salem was a lot more interesting. Hannah had a bad experience with the witch museums when she was younger, so we didn't go to any of them, instead making our way though as many of the shops as we could before closing time.

Pamplemousse (my favorite French word, meaning 'grapefruit') a bath and kitchen supplies boutique. I added to my collection of weird cookie cutters by getting a pig and a castle. The pig, incidentally, is identical to one my mother has had for decades, which, by some stretch of the imagination, could conceivably be a polar bear. It has been used as such for more Christmases than I can remember. I now have a polar pig of my own, and this makes me insanely happy.

Harrison's Comics and Collectibles is your basic comic shop with a used book section. In addition to some books I got a Firefly decal for my car. Oh yes.Derby Square Bookstore was terrifying and delightful at the same time. The books you can see through the windows there only hint at the chaos contained within those brick walls. A man hides behind a mountain of books and is something akin to the classic "teacher" character of fantasy novels - he knows where everything in the place is, despite the apparent lack of order. One must think very skinny thoughts when traveling through the stacks, as any wrong move risks sending a flood of printed pages in every direction. Some other patrons, regulars, I assume, whispered this fear to each other, "I've only heard of it happening once. It was awwwwful...". Hannah took one look at the inside of the store and chose to stay outside. I recommend it at least for the novelty of being in the place, if not for the fact that most of the books are brand new, and every single one is 50% off the original price.

The Salem Magic Shop, or "The Salem Harry Potter Store" was not as big as the one in LA, but still quite awesome. Dave and I purchased a Ravenclaw banner for our bedroom, because we are just that nerdy. We were also told by the proprietor that Rowling is working on three more books, news which seems to be both true and not widely talked about. I'm not sure why, I'm certainly excited, especially if they are prequels, as is rumored. I'd love to read more about Snape's history.

We had dinner at A Passage to India, a restaurant I had seen mentioned in about half of the websites I looked at about where to go in Salem. It lived up to all expectations. Even Hannah really liked her food, and she is not normally a fan of spicy things with lots of ingredients. The atmosphere was really nice - dimly lit and warm, it seemed more like and English pub or hookah bar than a restaurant. The food was fabulous and reasonably priced, and I absolutely recommend it after a long day of sightseeing, especially if it is cold outside.

Thursday the 17th
Being that Thursday was St. Patrick's day, and because I don't work on Fridays, we decided to celebrate the day appropriately in Boston. All of the annual Dropkick Murphys concerts had been sold out for ages, but to my delight I discovered that the High Kings would be performing as well. I listened to the High King's debut album incessantly during the months I was writing my thesis, and a few of their songs even worked their way into the script, so they hold a soft spot in my heart. We even met half of the band before the concert.


The concert itself was awesome. A great combination of traditional and rock sounds and songs, the music appealed to the entire audience, which was an even mixture of young and old. One of the band members, Brian Dunphy, is the son of Sean Dunphy, who represented Ireland in Eurovision 1967. His father was on hand, and they sang a song together in one of the most moving moments of the concert. Another was the rendition of The Fields of Athenry, after which there was not a dry eye in the audience.

They ended the performance with The Parting Glass, arguably the most beautiful song ever written. Unfortunately (or fortunately, for our eardrums), we didn't get the bagpipes.



Friday the 18th
We spent the night at Sisi and Chen's place, because they are wonderful people. They both work in the morning, as real grown ups are wont to do, so the three of us fended for ourselves for breakfast. In Chinatown. I have yet to meet a Chinatown I don't like.

After introducing Hannah to the wonders of dim sum last year, she is addicted, so we went to the Winsor Dim Sum Cafe for breakfast. It has all the regular dishes at the same low price ($2-4 for a bowl of dumplings or buns), but rather than the normal set up of a large restaurant with women pushing carts around, every dish was made to order. Since Hannah had a train to catch early, we were worried about time, but our first dish came about 8 minutes after we ordered, and they rest followed soon after. We were in and out within 40 minutes, and it was $10 each. Also, the food was great. Definitely give it a try if you want a small restaurant feel rather than the hectic cafeteria feel.

Hannah's other demand before leaving was stopping at a Chinese bakery, so we went to the Hing Shing Pastry, right around the corner from the cafe. The prices were a bit different from the Tai Pan bakery in NYC that we usually go to (sesame balls a lot cheaper, mooncakes a lot more expensive), but it evened out in the end and we all got enough pastries to keep us happy for a few days.

It was sad to see Hannah go, since it signaled the end of a week of sort-of vacation, but it did give Dave and I a few days alone to... do laundry and stuff. It was a fun week, and made me really glad that I will be living closer to my family next year.

Photo Credit: Hannah Nast, 2011
Check out her work, she is amazing.

Duckfat - Restaurant Review

Dave, Tyler and I went into Portland last night to see a concert, and since medical students don't eat unless they are forced to, we went to dinner. Tyler suggested Duckfat, and given our new-found love of duck anything, we went there.

What Duckfat is known primarily for, apparently, is, you guessed it, duck fat. Their signature dish is a cone of "classic Belgian fries made with local Maine potatoes fried in duck fat". We each got some of those, and they are fantastic. Best fries I have ever eaten. They also come with many different kinds of dipping sauce, including truffle ketchup (amazing), Thai Chili Mayo (good and spicy) and sweet and spicy mustard (would be better on a sandwich, but still good). Dave and I also split a cup of the soup of the day, which was sweet potato with candied ginger - sweet and smooth with just a hint of a bite.

For entree, we each got a panini, and as usual, split them. Dave got the duck confit panini (naturally), with shreaded duck, kimchi and sweet chili sauce. He complained about the kimchi not being authentic, but this was, in my opinion, a very good thing. Real kimchi is a rather deadening taste, and if you want to actually enjoy what you are eating, putting red pepper on it isn't the best idea. All in all, a tasty sandwich. I liked mine better though - roast turkey with brie and cranberry fennel relish. As I'm sure you can tell from all of the recipes here, if it has brie or cranberries in it, I love it. As this sandwich had both, it was pretty much perfect.

For dessert I got beignets with chocolate sauce - the beignets had a slight lemon flavor that added a nice zest to the fried dough - and Dave had churros - the chocolate sauce for those had some red pepper in it and I was tempted to drink what was left over. Dave even offered me his straw. I declined. I am kind of regretting it.

All in all, a great dinner, and pretty cheap - under $50 for 2 each of drinks, appetizers, entrees and desserts. We will definitely got here again.

And finally, since the concert was our reason for going to Portland in the first place, we saw Flogging Molly! We missed the first opening act, The Drowning Men but did have the privilege of seeing the second, the Moneybrothers. We spent most of their set trying to determine where the lead singer is from. His accent ranged from Albanian to Tommy Wiseau - turns out he is actually from Sweden. The music was... interesting. Either the sound system was not checked properly for them, or they normally sound like a car accident in Hell.

Flogging Molly, however, was awesome. I'd never seen them before, although I'd heard many concert stories from a good friend of mine (including one where he was dropped on his head while crowd surfing). They played for a surprisingly long time (just over 2 hours), and included a number of songs from their upcoming album, Speed of Darkness. They also played a lot of old favorites, and those I can remember are linked below (so you can pretend you were there too).

Black Friday Rule, Wanderlust, Devil's Dance Floor, Drunken Lullabies, What's Left of the Flag, The Worst Day Since Yesterday, Float, If I Ever Leave This World Alive, Tobacco Island, Requiem for a Dying Song,

To my great delight, they finished with my favorite song, Seven Deadly Sins!

Green Tea - Restaurant Review

Green Tea - Fine Asian cuisine & bar
1005 Main Street
Sanford, ME 04073

Haha, you say, fine Asian cuisine in Maine. As if. Well, your laughter is not incorrect. Green Tea was not a bad restaurant, it just wasn't very good, either. I don't think the word 'fine' is quite warranted. 'Asian', however, is spot on. Most of the items on the menu are Chinese (or rather, the American idea of Chinese), but it also includes miso soup (Japanese), pad thai (Thai) and pho (Vietnamese). The only thing lacking was a representative from Korea, but I guess 4 out of 5 ain't bad.

Dave and I were both feeling hungry, cold and sick, so we got very basic food - hot tea and a combo platter which consisted of pork fried rice, crab rangoons, boneless spare ribs and ironically, vegetarian lo mein. It was not the worst Chinese food I have eaten, but it was also by no means the best. The price was pretty unbeatable though - dinner for two (plus a few meals worth of leftovers) added up to $19. The tea, as with any Asian restaurant worth it's salt, was free.

There really isn't much else to write about, really. I feel I would have enjoyed the meal quite a bit more if the patrons at the neighboring table had not been quite so loud, drunk and obnoxious, but that is merely speculation. I did, however, enjoy all the stares we got for using chopsticks. We were the only people in the restaurant to do so. Incidentally, despite the place being packed, there was precicely one person of Asian decent - the maitre d'. I won't say definitely, but I am 65% sure he was actually raised in America, and was faking the accent. It was of indeterminate origin, came and went throughout the evening, and sounded like Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Seriously.

What the restaurant did give us, though, was this amazing fortune. Made everything else worth it.

Sapporo - Restaurant Review

Saporro Restaurant
230 Commercial Street
Union Wharf
Portland, ME 04101

Friday was the first day Dave and I had had alone together in three weeks, so we decided to have a real date night. Both of us wanted Japanese food, and the movie we wanted to see, The King's Speech, was only playing in Portland, so to Portland we would go. Being a port city, any cuisine based in seafood is very popular, and there are quite a few Japanese restaurants. We had already been to one, Benkay, and while it was good, I wanted to try a new one.

Sapporo got good ratings on Yelp! and seemed reasonably priced, so we made a reservation for 7:30. The restaurant was full, but the layout makes it both private and quieter than it really is. There are half walls in between most of the tables, and cloth hangings on the walls and ceiling to absorb noise. The ambiance is lovely and lets you concentrate on (and hear) your own conversation.

The food was simply fantastic. The menu is extensive and has both sushi, noodle dishes, teriyakis and various other things. We got miso soup, shrimp tempura (fried shrimp and vegetables - 6 pieces), shumai (shrimp and vegetable dumplings - 8 pieces) and edamame for appetizers. That sounds like a lot, but bear in mind that seafood is light and portions aren't huge. I had never eaten edamame before (yes, I know, *gasp*, the horror!) and I loved it. I'm craving more right now, actually.

For the sushi course we got a spicy tuna roll (excellent), a Boston roll (good) and a California roll (good). I would like to try different ones the next time we go back. And maybe be more adventurous. Anything not eel. I don't do eel.

For dessert Dave got the ginger tempura ice cream (good, just not enough ice cream) and I had the mochi sundae. The latter consisted of chocolate ice cream (which I generally don't like, but I ate it anyway), fresh strawberries and, my favorite, mango mochi ice cream (small scoops of mango ice cream encased in mochi). I'll ask in the future if they can substitute some other flavor for the chocolate.

After all that (very good) food, our bill came to about $50, which is insanely reasonable for a Japanese restaurant. There is an extensive drink menu, but hot tea is free, which is a large bonus. All in all, a fantastic restaurant that I look forward going to again.

Kobe - Restaurant Review

Kobe Japanese Grill and Sushi Bar
140 Shops Way
Biddeford, ME 04005

Tuesday was sushi day. After work I went grocery shopping and picked up a ready made container of spicy tuna and salmon sushi at our local Hannaford. Though not as good as Wegman's sushi, it is surprisingly good for coming from the Caucasian wasteland that is Maine. As it turned out, Dave, Tyler and I ended up trying the new Japanese restaurant in Biddeford that evening, so I got some real sushi a few hours later.

Having just received two parking tickets for the 10 minutes I had my car in the UNE lot - a plague on all UNE campus police - I was in a foul mood, and the pina colada - yes ma'am, with alcohol - I got because of it was extremely good. I am a fan of the compulsory pots of tea you find at Chinese establishments, and I wish other Asian restaurants did this as well, but no matter.

Because sushi is delicious and the hibachi fun, we ordered a mixture of both. Unlike many hibachi grills, the sushi at Kobe is actually the superior of the two foods, so I think in the future I will stick to just that. The lobster roll is very good, just watch out for the end piece, which, for some inexplicable reason, has part of the shell embedded in it as a decoration. This 'decoration' almost broke my teeth.

If you like enormous amounts of stir fry though, the hibachi is for you. The chef was very good and kept up a running commentary of terrible jokes (This is a Japanese egg roll! *spins an egg on the surface of the grill*) while making our food. At one point he made sure that we were all 21 and had insurance, and played a 'dangerous game' with us.

A note on the tossing food game: The object is for the chef to toss a piece of piping hot food from his spatula while the patron imitates a freshly hatched bird and attempts to catch the food in their gaping maw. A mushroom is ideal for this trick, or maybe a small piece of broccoli, though the latter tends to retain heat rather too well. A lump of scrambled eggs, however, while flying through the air, is reminiscent of the Columbia shuttle and results only in eggy bits and a stupid look all over one's face. Still, it was entertaining, and our reward for not catching any food was a mouthful of Saki. Dave got a double because he cheated and caught the egg with his hands.

The food was all good, and there was so much of it that I have leftovers for a week of lunches. It is a bit on the expensive side, so I suggest going on 'Crazy Tokyo Tuesday!' when the entire bill is 20% off. Just remember to tip both the chef and the waitress.

Cancun - Restaurant Review

Cancun Mexican Restaurant
11 Adams Street
Biddeford, ME 04005

I work on Sunday mornings, so afterward I met up with Dave, Tyler and Matt and we went to the new Mexican restaurant in Biddeford for lunch. Until now, the only Mexican place has been Bebe's, which barely qualifies as edible. The Cancun Mexican restaurant was a very pleasant surprise.

It is a small restaurant, slightly underground and looks rather like a food cellar. There are some flat screen TVs playing sports, although since this means European futbol rather than hockey or baseball, it added to the atmosphere (and since all present were soccer fans, we enjoyed it).

The wait staff was very friendly, and the fact that everyone there actually was Mexican, unlike Bebe's, gave us some more confidence in the food. Which was fantastic, by the way. There are a number of kinds of options - single dishes, combo plates, lunch and dinner specials - and everything is moderately priced. I got a combo plate of an enchilada and a fajita, which also came with a generous helping of rice and beans. Having that and bits of other people's food, I can informatively say that everything there is fantastic.

Also, they give you huge baskets of chips with salsa, which got refilled about 8 times, considering I was there with three starving male medical students. Tyler got some sort of chorizo dip which was fantastic - i must remember to try that one again. After all the meat and rice and beans, i wanted something sweet, and having seen flan* on the menu, I was itching to try it. I hadn't had good flan since Spain, and my most recent encounter with the dessert was one I bought at Wegman's - the equivalent of a pudding cup, and it was horrendous. The flan at Cancun is amazing, possibly better than some I had in Spain (sorry, Mom!). As we left, some guy outside asked Dave and I if the food was good, and I practically sang the praises of that flan. He didn't know what flan was. *headdesk*

* Flan, for all Mainers and other uncultured people, is a kind of custard made with condensed milk. It is very easy to make bad flan, and almost impossible to find good flan in the US. Another recent encounter I have had with flan was in Allentown, where pairs of men sit atop coolers on the side of the road and shout at passing drivers to by their flan or cheesecake.

No, sir, I do not want your ass-flan. Thank you.

The Stone Cellar - Restaurant Review

The Stone Cellar
71 Gore Street East
Perth ON K7H 1H8

Last summer, as per the usual, the majority of my family went to my grandparents' cottage in the 1,000 Islands for a few weeks. This was the first year Dave had gone up, and, despite his sever allergies, we had a lot of fun. We also discovered the masterpiece that is the Stone Cellar restaurant.

Really, my mother, aunt and grandmother had discovered it the year before, but this was the first time our whole family went together. Located in Perth, Ontario, it looks exactly as the name suggests - a converted wine cellar. It is fairly small and has been full but quiet both times I have been there. It would be an ideal place for a wedding rehearsal dinner or other small, businesslike functions.

This year it was a must that we go back before Dave and I left, so we went on Thursday evening. The food was just as stunning as ever, the only blemish being a change in the menu (discussed below).

For an appetizer, Dave and I shared the baked brie with apple butter. It was very simple - an entire 6" round of brie sliced lengthwise and cut in six wedges, baked until the edges were toasted and melted, topped with a sweet apple butter and accompanied with toasted slices of baguette. It was heavenly. Dave normally doesn't like cheese on its own but he made an exception for this - the entire plate was clean in about ten minutes, with minimal help from our neighbors at the table. My grandmother ordered the bruschetta which I tried - very good, but nothing truly spectacular.

Now, the entree that most of us ordered (and which was one of the main reasons we drove an hour to this restaurant) was the Torpedo Chicken. It is truly one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. It consists of a chicken breast pounded flat, stuffed with apple, dried cranberries and pine nuts, wrapped in prosciutto and doused in a white wine and mustard sauce. Sooo good. Unfortunately, this was also the aforementioned menu change.

Still called the Torpedo Chicken, what we received was chicken stuffed with mozarella cheese and basil pesto. Good, yes, but not terribly memorable. The reason for the change may have been a purely seasonal one, as our last visit had been much later in the summer, but it was still a disappointment. My cousin was one of the nonconformists and got the 6 oz AAA fillet, and was smart for doing so. The beef practically melts in the mouth and was utterly delicious, and this coming from someone who doesn't normally eat red meat.

Dessert was a communal affair - the lemon cake is dense, sweet and fiercely lemony with a very tart icing, and the Bailey's creme brulee was fantastic. Flamed to perfection, the top was crisp and the creme not too rich, and the Bailey's left a nice aftertaste but was not overpowering.

All in all, a very good meal, and we sat there for about three hours talking and were left in relative peace, so it is a definite recommendation. My only complaint is the menu change, which will hopefully change back again. I am very glad at my foresight however, as I had asked last year for the recipe for the Torpedo Chicken, found below. I have not yet gotten a chance to try this recipe, so I haven't figured out any measurements. This is just what the waitress told me.

Original Torpedo Chicken recipe

Take one chicken breast, pounded flat with a mallet. Top the chicken with chopped apple, dried cranberries and roasted pine nuts. Roll the chicken breast lengthwise, then wrap in a layer of prosciutto. Wrap in tinfoil, making sure there are no openings. Boil for 17 minutes (she was very precise about that one). Serve with a white wine and mustard sauce.

If anyone has any good recipes for a sauce, or tries this and has any comments or tips, please let me know. I am looking forward to trying this recipe at some point.

Bikers in Mumbai buy you Balloons

As it was Saturday, and as none of us had our internships to go to, and as we all wanted to get out of our apartments, we all headed out for South Bombay. Now, I say all, but I really mean everyone who actually got along. The seven of us wandered Colaba (the tourist district) for hours, buying souvenirs and trying to find a store where we could buy saris. By evening we were all starving and headed to a hookah bar that the students from last year had recommended.

A word on street vendor: the ones who have actual stands stay by them, shouting at us in broken English (for we are very obviously American) and trying to flatter their way into a sale. Those who carry their wares on their person are more persistent. In this part of the city we encountered the drum sellers – young men who drape themselves with small drums and pursue you around the streets, banging them in your ear until you give in just for the silence. This is a failed attempt however, as upon purchasing a drum, you continue to be followed, in the hopes that you will suddenly want to buy another drum. Lizz, Nya and Madeline bought drums, and so we were followed for close to a mile with repeated calls of “pretty lady, buy a drum! *bang*”.

We finally arrived at the hookah bar, after having walked past in three times, not knowing that we should be looking at the tops of buildings for the sign. We took the rickety elevator up to the roof of what may very well have been a hotel, and stepped into Koyla.

The ambiance was stunning. The establishment covers the entire roof of the building and is quite large, with at least a dozen brightly colored tents. The walls of the tents are open so you can vaguely see the people around you, but everything is lit by candle light, so it is all thrown into shadow. Wisps of smoke sail through the air, coupled with the most delicious cooking smells. Under the tents were low tables and couches, allowing the patrons to recline and smoke or sit and eat at their leisure.

Being allergic to tobacco, I had no interest in the hookah, so I busied myself with the menu. We each ended up ordering a dish or two and ate family style – passing plates around and eating a little of everything. It was, undoubtedly, one of the best meals I have ever eaten. The food was fresh and cooked to perfection, an interesting mix of Indian, English and American. The palak paneer (creamed spinach with Indian cheese), always one of my favorite dishes, was the best I have ever had, and I could have eaten a pound of the American sweet corn. We were there for hours, eating more and more food, the rest of the girls smoking, and all of us contemplating the impending end to our trip.

At about 11:30 we decided it was time to head home, as it would take about an hour to make the trip. Andrea, Kate and I got a taxi, and the others followed in various other taxis and rickshaws. We soon lost the others, and were rushing through late night Mumbai traffic. We were all dressed nicely, hanging our heads out the windows (to keep cool), and suddenly two me on a motorcycle were next to the taxi, smiling and waving and asking for our phone numbers.

We all laughed and drove on, and they followed. And followed. For miles. Another note on street vendors: the traffic in Mumbai is very odd – there do not seem to be lanes or speed limits, or at least not ones that get paid attention to, and the lights last for about 5 minutes at a time. In these long pauses in traffic, young men and women walk among the cars, selling strings of jasmine flowers, books, rubber balls, mangoes, feather dusters, umbrellas, toys and balloons.

As we stopped at a light, a teenage boy ran around with a bunch of balloons so large, we were surprised he was not levitating. These were not normal balloons either – they were the size of beach balls, with four or five smaller, multicolored balloons inside. I turned to the other girls to say how funny it would be if our followers bought us balloons, and turned back to the window in time to get hit in the face with one. Paralyzed with laughter, holding a balloon the size of a toddler in front of me, we began driving again.

The amusement of being followed lessoned as we drove and got farther and farther from what was bound to be the men’s’ original destination. At one point they asked our driver where he was taking us, and to our horror, he told them. We were at that point worried that they actually thought we wanted them to come home with us, which, for many reasons, we did not. We were close to panicking as we got to our apartment complex, where we realized why we should appreciate the gated community.

As one guard checked our taxi for stowaways, we asked the other to prevent the men from following us to our building. Seemingly delighted at an actual mission, our hero stood in the path of the motorcycle, arms akimbo, and channeled Gandalf in his refusal to let them pass.

We made it home unmolested, had a laugh with everyone else about the balloon incident, and now I’m going to bed.