Part 2 of this somewhat narcissistic post about my culinary adventures this year, but you know what, this is my blog so whatevs.
June
I basically spent all of June in Europe, so the food here will be Euro-centric.
I already talked about all the things I ate in Ireland here. Loam still stands out to this day and changed my mind on how carrots should taste. And also flowers. They taste surprisingly good.
Spain.
What can you say about Spain? The food there is magnificent. It’s a beautiful country with very kind people and I just love love Spain. I’ve been there five times in seven years, and I can’t even see myself not at least trying to visit Spain every year.
What do I eat in Spain?
Well, most of the time I’ve been in Spain, I’ve been in Santander where we have a work office. Luckily, northern Spain is famous for their pintxos, which are essentially bread with something on top. It looks like these:
The pintxo on the top left is an egg on top of morcilla, which is blood sausage. Super flavorful. The one on the bottom right is sushito peppers (the best) on top of some sort of meat. Not sure I remember what it was, but anyways, when you go to a bar in Northern Spain, these are everywhere and they are super delicious.
You know what else is delicious? Pulpo aka octopus. It is sad that, you know, octopus are so intelligent, but so are pigs and both are delicious. Should we be eating more intelligent creatures? I don’t know. Anyways, octopus are very popular in Europe and they are super cheap there, unlike in North America. This dish cost me 3 euros!
Also, as always in Spain, I eat a lot of anchovies and sardines. Super tasty.
July
I was in Portugal for a few days in July, so naturally I ate a few memorable things that I didn’t take pictures of, including
– cod (bacalau)
– more octopus
– squid ink rice
Lisbon has an amazing food market called Time Out Lisbon, I could honestly just live there it’s got so much good food.
On top of that, I had a pretty good burger in Toronto courtesy of Bar Buca
August
We had a very decadent mac & cheese at my bbq, from this recipe
Her Father’s Cider had a surprisingly good Fried Chicken
September
A somewhat disappointing meal at Skippa was rectified by an amazing sardine dish at 86’d.
October
Not much happened in October. Here are some of my favorite places to eat in Scarborough/Marham
Papa Changs – A great little shop that sells amazing Taiwanese food for a helluva price.
Gourmet Malaysia – Such good Malaysian food – Laksa, roti, noodles, it’s all there. There’s also a great food stall in First Markham Place
Oriental Gourmet (Highway 7 and McGowan) – Their pork stomach soup is maybe my favorite soup in the city. Also the smoked duck and sweet and sour pork are great.
Congee Queen – So good. I would eat there every week if it was downtown.
Shanghai Dim Sum – Great for shanghai style eats.
November
November was ballin month, as there was great eats to be had at two critically acclaimed Toronto restaurants – Alo and Doma
Both were fantastic. The pan au lait with the cultured butter was so good at Alo I actually started laughing. Doma’s seafood plate was delightfully large and filling which earned it bonus points. Alo was great, but the portions were..not that high. French people I guess.
December
I went to Costa Rica, so a lot of beans and rice. It’s not the most highly regarded culinary place, but I did enjoy the food I had there.