Judging by the spike in blog traffic methinks we have discovered a sore point here. The August 13 issue is in the can and on its way tomorrow but I think it's a reasonable assumption that there will be something on this development in the issue after that.
And I'm sure there'll be more on Dog Blog of course.
One clarification on Rosie's fine post: LaRose says "The Plains doesn't have as much historical value as a building, and as a business, the major loss will be the loss of another stage for local bands."
I think a lot of people will debate those points. My own quibble: the Plains has a killer sushi restaurant--the Sushi Bank. I don't eat sushi as much asI'd like (soy issues--I love it but it doesn't love me), but if I did I'd go to this place at least once a week. DEFINITELY would be a major loss if it went.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
8.12.2009
6.13.2009
3.07.2009
With All Due Respect, Etc...
I find that I am deeply dissatisfied with Dave Margoshes review of Regina’s new vegetarian restaurant, Beet Root, which appeared in last week’s Prairie Dog. (As a far off subscriber, I get my R-town news a week late.) Though the review was up to Dave’s usual standards of good writing and accurate menu description, I cannot trust it to be a useful account of Beet Root’s food. The reasons for this are twofold:
First, I have long suspected Mr. Margoshes of doing a bit of, shall we say, grade inflating when it comes to the Prairie Dog count of his reviews. Thus, a place like that grotty diner at College and Arcola, which reeked foul grease odour all down the block, and who’s staff scratched at open sores while they served, (I bloody well wish I was exaggerating,) received, when reviewed, the apparent bare minimum of three Prairie Dogs. I understand that Regina is a small city, and as the only local food reviewer*, Margoshes has to play nice or be shunned by restauranteurs en mass, but there is such a thing as inedible food. And inedible food should get no, zero, Prairie Dogs out of five. If Beet Root received 3.5 Dogs, I can only read that as meaning no better than that the meals were indeed edible. And that the servers refrained from scratching at themselves. I am sure that the restaurant is better than that; the text of the review makes it sound like a fairly nice joint, with tasty, nourishing food. But, having skewed his system of measurement in the past, Margoshes isn’t convincing me with his numbers.
Secondly, I would have valued the input of at least one actual vegetarian. The closest person present in the review identifies as “lapsed”. And yes, my own pro-veg prejudice pokes through here, but that often means someone who found themselves unable or unwilling to find or learn to make truly tasty meat-free food for themselves, and retreated to old and familiar eating habits. These guys are, I must say, awfully easy to impress with something just a little fancier than a tofu dog and some pasta primavera.
So, a few meat eaters, and one meat eater who gave it up briefly, visit Beet Root and declare it “Not bad, for rabbit food.” (I paraphrase, with snark aforethought, natch.) Are there any P.D. contributors or commenters who are actual herbivores, who have another opinion?
“But why,” asks the Reginian, “Does this Toronto-dweller give a darn about this one veggie restaurant of ours, or our rating review system?”
Dear Reader, I have in-laws. And I visit them. And, much as I adore being taken out for side vegetable medley, vinegary greek salad and Irish coffee at the Lakeview Steak House, sometimes I (And my fella, his brother, his brother’s wife, and all our various kiddos, vegetarians all,) like to dine somewhere where we can order from the whole menu. A really, really good vegetarian restaurant, serving food that we and our omnivorous family could enjoy, would rock our socks. And I care about the ratings because I think that no one, nowhere, should be content with food that is merely edible. We must have some standards of deliciousness, and the reviews should reflect that.
* Possibly the Leader-Post has a guy. Or maybe they just print an AP stringer's review of a restaurant in Vancouver. I'd have to read the thing to know.
First, I have long suspected Mr. Margoshes of doing a bit of, shall we say, grade inflating when it comes to the Prairie Dog count of his reviews. Thus, a place like that grotty diner at College and Arcola, which reeked foul grease odour all down the block, and who’s staff scratched at open sores while they served, (I bloody well wish I was exaggerating,) received, when reviewed, the apparent bare minimum of three Prairie Dogs. I understand that Regina is a small city, and as the only local food reviewer*, Margoshes has to play nice or be shunned by restauranteurs en mass, but there is such a thing as inedible food. And inedible food should get no, zero, Prairie Dogs out of five. If Beet Root received 3.5 Dogs, I can only read that as meaning no better than that the meals were indeed edible. And that the servers refrained from scratching at themselves. I am sure that the restaurant is better than that; the text of the review makes it sound like a fairly nice joint, with tasty, nourishing food. But, having skewed his system of measurement in the past, Margoshes isn’t convincing me with his numbers.
Secondly, I would have valued the input of at least one actual vegetarian. The closest person present in the review identifies as “lapsed”. And yes, my own pro-veg prejudice pokes through here, but that often means someone who found themselves unable or unwilling to find or learn to make truly tasty meat-free food for themselves, and retreated to old and familiar eating habits. These guys are, I must say, awfully easy to impress with something just a little fancier than a tofu dog and some pasta primavera.
So, a few meat eaters, and one meat eater who gave it up briefly, visit Beet Root and declare it “Not bad, for rabbit food.” (I paraphrase, with snark aforethought, natch.) Are there any P.D. contributors or commenters who are actual herbivores, who have another opinion?
“But why,” asks the Reginian, “Does this Toronto-dweller give a darn about this one veggie restaurant of ours, or our rating review system?”
Dear Reader, I have in-laws. And I visit them. And, much as I adore being taken out for side vegetable medley, vinegary greek salad and Irish coffee at the Lakeview Steak House, sometimes I (And my fella, his brother, his brother’s wife, and all our various kiddos, vegetarians all,) like to dine somewhere where we can order from the whole menu. A really, really good vegetarian restaurant, serving food that we and our omnivorous family could enjoy, would rock our socks. And I care about the ratings because I think that no one, nowhere, should be content with food that is merely edible. We must have some standards of deliciousness, and the reviews should reflect that.
* Possibly the Leader-Post has a guy. Or maybe they just print an AP stringer's review of a restaurant in Vancouver. I'd have to read the thing to know.
2.17.2009
Alas I Have No Camera HandyTo Document The Sheer Awesomeness Of This Feast
Just got home after taking three hours to figure out how to write a complicated e-mail that people needed me to send out last week and not surprisingly, was starving. But whatzuh to eatz? Editor don't rememberz how to cook.
What was needed here was simplicity and improvisation.
So I fired up the rice machine and got some premium organic basmati going. Then, I chopped up two fat onions which I fried to slimey, carmamelized perfection in a quantity of olive oil far exceeding two tablespoons. I added some habanero sauce, a mountain of salt, two cloves of garlic (minced) and a can of garbonzo beans, then simmered the amazing mixture to glistening, gooey spectacularness before adding some awesome broccoli (to defray some of the inevitable cardiac damage). Needed a secret weapon though, and aha! A splash of lemon juice and about three pounds of fresh ground black pepper (recently discovered scientific "fact": not possible to over-pepper beans).
Served on the now-ready rice, eating...Mmmmmmf, ghub.Vry vry ghub.
Mmmmmfmmfff!
In other news, California is really, truly, totally fucked. Turns out you can't cut taxes relentlessly and make it next-to-impossible to raise them in an emergency, then expect to breeze through a cataclysmic economic meltdown. Layoffs, program cancellations and copious suffering to doubtless follow.
Yep, far-right conservative small-government delusions just don't work. They break economies and ruin lives. Kinda like communist delusions used to do back in the Cold War era, ironically. Funny how extremism, intransigence and bullheaded devotion to ideological fairy tales always seems to cause trouble.
But maybe after electing a break-the-mold president Americans are, finally, ready for change? For centrist ideologies and policies based on reason, realism, co-operation and sustainibility?
Nah.
(First link to the New York Times, second to Fox.)
What was needed here was simplicity and improvisation.
So I fired up the rice machine and got some premium organic basmati going. Then, I chopped up two fat onions which I fried to slimey, carmamelized perfection in a quantity of olive oil far exceeding two tablespoons. I added some habanero sauce, a mountain of salt, two cloves of garlic (minced) and a can of garbonzo beans, then simmered the amazing mixture to glistening, gooey spectacularness before adding some awesome broccoli (to defray some of the inevitable cardiac damage). Needed a secret weapon though, and aha! A splash of lemon juice and about three pounds of fresh ground black pepper (recently discovered scientific "fact": not possible to over-pepper beans).
Served on the now-ready rice, eating...Mmmmmmf, ghub.Vry vry ghub.
Mmmmmfmmfff!
In other news, California is really, truly, totally fucked. Turns out you can't cut taxes relentlessly and make it next-to-impossible to raise them in an emergency, then expect to breeze through a cataclysmic economic meltdown. Layoffs, program cancellations and copious suffering to doubtless follow.
Yep, far-right conservative small-government delusions just don't work. They break economies and ruin lives. Kinda like communist delusions used to do back in the Cold War era, ironically. Funny how extremism, intransigence and bullheaded devotion to ideological fairy tales always seems to cause trouble.
But maybe after electing a break-the-mold president Americans are, finally, ready for change? For centrist ideologies and policies based on reason, realism, co-operation and sustainibility?
Nah.
(First link to the New York Times, second to Fox.)
2.15.2009
Laotian Food Rocks
Went to my second Regina Laotian Community Buffet and Dance. It was put on by the Laotian Youth Society at the downtown Legion. The food was great!
Regina needs a Laotian restaurant. If it has one and I've missed it, let me know. I ate at this hole-in-the-wall Laotian restaurant in Edmonton once. If you've had Vietnamese or Thai food, then the territory will be pretty familiar to you. But then, there are a few dishes that're really strange and surprising. So, a message to Regina's Laotian community: Regina needs more Laotian food. If you cook it, I will come.
Anyway, the community will next be hosting a Laotian New Year party on April 9. I'm hoping to attend just to find out what calendar Laos uses. Did you know Regina has an inordinately large Laotian community? That's what I hear, anyway. I don't know if it's precisely true but I'm happiest believing it is and will therefore continue to disseminate that information as though it were fact.
Also, for this year's Mosaic, the Laotians and the Irish will be sharing a building. Laap on one side. Guinness on the other. Excellent. Plus, I hear that every year the Laotian community gets in a supply of Beerlao for Mosaic. My wife (who's been to Laos) swears Beerlao is great. I have my doubts but hope to have them dispelled. Repeatedly.
2.03.2009
On Pittsburgh, Home Of The Championship Steelers
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This, my friends, is a sandwich.
Pittsburgh is basking in Superbowlular glory, so it seems like a relevent time to sing the city's praises (have I mentioned I've been there and really liked it?).
Pittsburgh is great. It's got a dynamic, compact downtown. It's got the Warhol Museum. It has one of the best dinosaur fossil collections on the continent at the Carnegie (promounced "car-naggy") Museum.
It's got the Penguins, even if they're having a stupid year. It's got the sublime Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, where I had an amazing wasabi bloody mary last February.
It's got the Superbowl Champion Steelers.
Best of all though it's got regional haute cuisine in the form of sandwiches stuffed with French Fries and coleslaw. They're the pride of place dish at Primanti Brothers Restaurant, a downtown sandwich shack a few blocks from the hotel that says they invented 'em.
Truly, the food of champions! (And yes, I did eat it.)
1.27.2009
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