Food markets abound in Hong Kong.
It’s a wonder to me that every Hong Kong citizen isn’t obese. Eyeing the streetscape before me, it rapidly becomes obvious that the people of Hong Kong really like to eat. They also really like to shop. Restaurants and clothing stores – two necessary and inextricably linked services (more food, larger clothes) – vie for number one spot on the ubiquity scale. Continue reading
Three glasses, three wines, how will it end?
I would have laid odds that this whole exercise was silly. How could the shape of a glass affect the taste of its contents?
At the Toronto Sheraton Hotel‘s Social Hour, I watch, with a certain degree of cynicism, as Stewart Risto of Riedel, The Wine Glass Company, begins to take us through a tasting of three red wines from California: a Pinot Noir, a Syrah and a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Riedel makes 236 different shaped glassware. Surely this is simply an exercise in marketing? Continue reading
The colourful, delicious Richmond Night Market is a must for visitors
Few cities in Canada can boast a true immersion experience into another culture. I don’t mean the gentle toe-dip into Little India or Greektown in Toronto, or the mild submersion of Vancouver’s Chinatown.
Richmond, BC takes one into the underwater depths of an extraordinary ethnic ocean. Several Asian traditions – China, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Viet Nam, etc – flourish in this multicultural lagoon. Continue reading
“Irish food guru, Darina Allen, takes students into the field on their first day of cookery school in Ballymaloe. She makes them pick up handfuls of earth and tells them, “This is where your food begins. If this is no good, you can’t be a good cook.” The idea that the food in a restaurant is dependent on the soil where the ingredients have been grown is not a new one, but it’s one that’s gaining favour as both chefs and diners try to make real, concrete connections with the food they consume.”
For many years, farm to fork dining has had chefs around the globe making efforts to source their ingredients locally from known producers. Their menus abound with elaborate descriptions of the farmers and producers who have provided the bounty for the dish. But some chefs have taken it to the next level. They are actually growing the food themselves, on the farm. Continue reading
With the approach of barbeque season, it’s time to talk about burgers on the grill. A good sirloin or tenderloin of beef can be tender, juicy and succulent. But we’ve all had the experience of facing a solid mass of muscle with no hope of making a dent with either tooth or knife. Enter the meat grinder, a useful tool. American ingenuity added a bun and speeded up the production line until hamburger became synonymous with fast food.
But the average fast food burger is about as juicy as day-old chewed gum. If it ever had any juices, they have long since been either fried or grilled right out of a layer of meat flat enough to qualify for letter rate with Canada Post. Continue reading
