Category: Food / drink

Pop!

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This has been sitting in my starred feed items for a while and I forgot to blog about it. It shows the generic name for soft drinks, broken down by (American) county. Growing up I always called it pop, and I have yet to visit a place in Canada that refers to it otherwise…strange, since all of the northeastern states seem to call it “soda.”

I’m not surprised to see the red…years ago when I was consulting in Texas and going out for lunch with clients, this would be the typical conversation:

Server: “What would y’all like to drink?”

Client: “Coke.”

Server: “What kind?”

Client: “Sprite.”

Server: “Coming up.”

The first few times this happened I was pretty confused. For a while I even thought it was just Chuck — funniest man alive — messing with me. It took me a while to dope out. Honestly, my brain was still busy dealing with the idea that tornadoes happened here. The hotel I was staying in even had “In case of a tornado…” instructions on the door right next to the usual “In case of a fire…” I’m used to seeing.

[via Strange Maps]

[tags]generic names for soft drinks, strange maps, chuck kirby[/tags]

Falling off the wagon. Into a pit of grease.

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I miss chicken. Ever since I stopped eating meat (except fish, which I don’t even really like) last year I’ve found the toughest thing to replace was chicken. Not because I enjoyed it more than any other meat — I believe that distinction would go to sausage — but because it was such a big part of my diet. I ate it in salad, I ate it in burger form, I liked it stir-fried, barbecued and on pizza. So I miss it.

Recently I’ve discovered that veggie faux-chicken burgers taste just like the cheap-ass chicken burgers I used to get from the canteen in my university dorm, which is great for sentimental value, but they’re nothing like the real chicken burgers I used to get.

So I’m both excited and horrified that the new KFC unchicken burger is, apparently, fantastic. Even PETA thinks so, for chrissakes. PETA, by the way, seems to be relatively ok with KFC now that (in Canada, anyway) the chickens are killed much more humanely, but still…I wouldn’t have expected love for any of the greasy crow’s foodstuffs.

I want to try one, but I think the general ambient smell inside a KFC would make me vom. What to do?

[tags]kfc, unchicken burger, peta[/tags]

Now what?

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Ummm, yeah. So I’m done blogging about the MBA. And TIFF is over for another year. So what the hell do I talk about now?

Well, last night we got the remnants of a hurricane. Which was fun. And this morning the American financial system fucking melted. Happy trails, Lehman Brothers. You too Merrill Lynch. Say hello to Bear Stearns for us. Here’s hoping AIG can get up off the mat. Me, I spent the day trying to catch up at the office and wondering how the ass balls I can tame my inbox.

And here’s what’s coming up: Canadiens training camp. A Mogwai concert. A Toronto FC game next weekend. Volo’s cask days. Drinks with two friends and a cousin (all at different times…they don’t know each other) that I’ve been putting off for a while. Dinner with T-Bone. Long overdue blog template redesign. The “some day” category on my RTM task list. PVR annihilation, especially the stuff recorded back in December. Listening (finally) to the following:

  • bonnie prince billy . lie down in the light
  • coldplay . viva la vida or death and all his friends
  • frightened rabbit . sing the greys
  • kings of leon . only by the night
  • lightspeed champion . falling of the lavender bridge
  • mates of state . re-arrange us
  • mgmt . oracular spectacular
  • mogwai . the hawk is howling
  • nick + norah’s infinite playlist . original soundtrack
  • okkervil river . the stand-ins
  • spiritualized . songs in a & e
  • tv on the radio . dear science
  • walkmen . you & me
  • witch . paralyzed
  • wolf parade . at mount zoomer

Reviews:

  • I watched a few minutes of J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe and that was enough. I liked Cloverfield and all but I want nothing to do with the dude’s shows.
  • The jury’s still out on the new HBO show True Blood. Alan Ball: good. Vampires: boring. Anna Paquin: less hot than I expected. Rutina Wesley, who plays her best friend: my new girlfriend du jour.
  • Bon Iver: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[tags]tiff, lehman brothers, merrill lynch, canadiens, mogwai, toronto fc, volo cask days, fringe, cloverfield, true blood, anna paquin, rutina wesley, bon iver[/tags]

Doot doot plot

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Random-y thought-y-ness. Yay-y.

  • This is the most excited I’ve been about the TIFF in a good long while. The prospect of shutting down my life (I’m taking six days off work) to watch this many films, and get this into the festival, feels pretty awesome right now.
  • I feel like our Canadian election cycle — the Prime Minister dropped serious hints about an election last week and we’ll likely go to the polls in mid-October — makes so much more sense than the American election cycle. First, two months of bleating, braying political ads is quite enough. Second, as Naomi Klein explains in a recent AV Club interview, having a constant two-year cycle of elections & midterm elections makes politicians afraid to actually do anything lest they hurt their upcoming election chances…and with a constant, two-year cycle an election is always upcoming. Not that Canadian politicians are fearless & efficient, but at least the irregular, unpredictable nature of dissolving parliament and calling an election limits the degree to which that plays on a politician’s mind.
  • Mill Street Belgian Wit Beer is good. My wife’s homemade pizza is excellent.
  • I’ll miss the Mars Phoenix.
  • Colin Farrell’s a pretty good guy, apparently. Just ask Stress.
  • In mid-September the LCBO will once again carry the Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale, among others. Between this and the Winter Ale, Great Lakes is fast becoming my favourite seasonal brewery.
  • Every time I listen to Mississauga Goddam by The Hidden Cameras, I’m surprised all over again just how good it is.

[tags]tiff, tiff08, canadian election, mill street belgian wit, colin farrell, great lakes brewery, lcbo, hidden cameras[/tags]

Wake

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Another beautiful morning in Halifax, my last on this trip. In an hour I’ll have breakfast with Stanzi (in town temporarily herself), then head to the airport.

Last night I met up with friends at Salty’s for a few drinks on the waterfront. Somehow I ended up with a bottle of Moosehead…tragic. Anyway, some of us left there and had a fantastic dinner at Il Mercato. Knowing I’d have pasta the following night I stuck to seafood (never a bad choice in Halifax) and had shrimp & salmon…both fantastic. We knocked off a couple of bottles of Chianti Rufina (and a glass of white for my fish) and ordered decadent desserts. One of our party may have over-extended himself, but he recovered quickly.

Feeling poetic, we decided to finish off the evening at The Bitter End. It wasn’t a long night for me by any means though. One friend hit the wall and left early. My glasses of Macallan lasted me ’til around 11, but I needed some solo recharge time. I walked back to the hotel alone, suddenly reminded of how quiet Halifax streets (those outside the downtown core, at least) are at night. It felt peaceful. It felt right.

I was done. It was time to go home. Home home. I know I talked about Halifax being my spiritual home, if there is such a thing, but home is ultimately wherever Nellie is, and that’s where I feel like I need to be right now. I feel like a little chunk of me hasn’t lived there for the past four years…it’s lived in a text book or the computer or a hotel room during a week away on course. It’ll be nice to have that chunk back, and for Nellie to have it all there too, since she’s done without it for the last ~1400 days. What’s more, she’s been amazing about it. If she were anyone other than herself I probably wouldn’t have made it to yesterday.

One final, funny note: last night, sitting at The Bitter End, they were playing (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis. Odd choice, since it’s an old album…then I remembered something: after writing the last exam of my undergrad — which happened to be the very same subject as the one I wrote yesterday — I met some friends at the campus pub to celebrate. That day in the pub they played the fairly recent Oasis CD (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and we discussed the ridiculousness of the lyrics to “Wonderwall” over celebration beer. Twice in my life I’ve had that particular celebration, and each time I had the same soundtrack. The world’s funny, if a little precious.

[tags]halifax, mba, salty’s, il mercato, bitter end, oasis[/tags]

"It makes me aerodynamic, for fighting."

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We saw Pineapple Express (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday. I guess I liked it…I wouldn’t say it’s a great movie by any means, but it was very funny at times. I probably would’ve been confused by the movie’s style had I not known David Gordon Green was the director. He injected some of his style into an otherwise typically Rogen/Goldberg script, which worked for some scenes and made others feel odd. It gave the movie a pretty uneven feel, but the funny moments were good enough to make up for it. Some surprisingly prolonged fight scenes too.

After that we met up with CBGBLB and some of CB’s family for dinner at beerbistro. Much tastiness ensued…for the second straight night. I watched a little Olympic action and then slept like the dead, fortunately nowhere near all the explosions. Check out the pictures and video of that at Photojunkie.

[tags]pineapple express, beerbistro, toronto propane explosions[/tags]

Like a Christmas turkey

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Last night Nellie and I went to Amaya, which we’d so enjoyed during Summerlicious. Nellie had some errands to do in that neighbourhood anyway, so it seemed a logical place for dinner.

I arrived before her and had a Kingfisher. When she arrived we ordered a pakora and somosa trio and some cassava fries. Next up: aloo gobi (which I don’t normally care for, but this one was fantastic) and kala chana masala, paired with a very strong Australian shiraz. Lots of naan and rice as well, of course. I don’t know how (or why) but we shared the spiced brownie (with coconut ice cream) for dessert. At this point I was so full that I prayed for sweet, sweet death, but somehow paid the bill and grabbed a cab before lapsing into a coma. I spent the rest of the evening in discomfort. I haven’t been this full since I stopped eating meat. Stupid expanding rice and bread…

I woke up this morning still full. Normally I’m ravenous by 7:00, but this morning I still felt like a python digesting a pig. I just ate a croissant about half an hour ago and I think that should tide me over until dinner. Plan for today: go see Pineapple Express, visit CBGBLB and then go out for dinner. Again. Sucker for punishment = me.

[tags]amaya restaurant, pineapple express[/tags]

Cry havoc…

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

…and let slip the dogs of my brain dump:

  • Tonight we dined at Lobby with T-Bone for Summerlicious. Meh. Not great, and the service was a little sketchy. Plus…$80 for a bottle of wine that tasted like water? Alrighty then.
  • I bought tickets for 50 TIFF films today. I look forward to being able to use them some day. We had to buy a weird combo…30 pack plus two packages of 10 rather than the 50 pack.
  • I hope the rumours about Apple punishing Rogers are true. It’s rare to see condemnation so universal as what Rogers has been enjoying the last couple of weeks. I’ll be curious to see the uptake of the iPhone this weekend; I’m pulling for New Coke-like sales figures.
  • Someone’s affixing stickers to Toronto Sun newspaper boxes describing the contents therein. Where can I donate labels & toner?
  • I’m with Michael Arrington: voicemail should die. Until every voicemail system in the world is converted to unified messaging (like my home phone, which emails me with the wav file when I get a voicemail), I will continue to ignore my voicemail messages until people stop leaving them for me.
  • I can’t wait for the new David Simon (writer of Homicide and The Wire) HBO series Generation Kill. Check out the trailer yonder. [language NSFW]

[tags]summerlicious, lobby, tiff, apple, rogers, toronto sun, voicemail, generation kill[/tags]

Summer meat

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No, this is not a porn review.

I really thought that when I became (pseudo) vegetarian, summer would be excruciating. I thought that not being able to have hot dogs and hamburgers would suck the most during barbecue season, but then I realized…it’s not like there’s a whole lot of discernible meat in hot dogs or most store-bought hamburgers. In fact, hot dogs taste nothing like meat…they just taste like a slightly unpleasant excuse to eat a bun with some condiments on it. Therefore, veggie dogs — which I’ve had a few times now — taste just fine because…well, you can’t taste them. Like I said, they’re just bun, mustard, relish and bbq sauce delivery vehicles.

The lack of hamburger hasn’t hurt me either. I actually have access to a lot of very good veggie burgers all year round — Hero Burger, the nearby Jason George pub, the Auld Spot — but GB also showed us how to make very tasty burgers (the vegetable/lentil type, like the Auld Spot’s, not the meat-replica type) which we tend to only do on the barbecue.

I don’t really miss steak that much…I liked it, but I never craved it. What I do miss is barbecued Italian sausage. I tried the tofu version last night; again, you can mask the fact that it probably doesn’t taste very good with condiments, but it was definitely missing the sausage-y flavour. But for every n sausages that I don’t eat some pig lives, so I can suck it up.

[tags]veggie burger, veggie dog[/tags]