BLT on bagel

...for $2.89 at Bagel & Co. in the PATH at 120 Adelaide St. W., east of York Street. Fresh to order; warm and yummy. Your choice of bagel. Mine? Whole grain.

Life's little indulgences. Love it.

La Bettola di Terroni

I met my friend Yasmin (@yasminATlesauce) a couple of week's ago at Terroni's latest empire addition, La Bettola di Terroni, the wine bar at Richmond and Victoria.

It's a really lovely, open, airy space, and has that Terroni Italian wooden rustic charm most Torontonians have come to know and love. We met on a Wednesday afternoon at 5:30 p.m., and I was surprised to see how empty it was, considering every time I've walked into a Terroni, it's packed to the pasta-, pizza- and wine-soaked gills. We sat at the bar and my only slight problem was the stationary swivel chairs. I get it, but I don't necessarily like it.

Service was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful for each person who came around: hostess, bartender, food runner, dish cleaner-upper (i.e. busboy, but seems like such an archaic term, no?). We had a half litre of wine, and right now I'm still treating wine like boys -- can't really remember their names but I know whether I liked the way they smelled and tasted -- and this wine, on the dry and crisp side, I definitely liked.

We also split the rice cones ($9) to nibble on, and they couldn't be more perfect little golden browned Christmas trees, filled with creamy tomato risotto and spring peas. A little arugula and shaved pecorino (maybe parmigiano-reggiano?) on the plate, and satisfaction complete.

But wait, there's more! From 4-6 on weekdays, if you sit at the bar, the kitchen dishes up little crostini bites for free. So we had a nice fresh tomato bruschetta, and something else... something else... shaved pecorino again, but in any case, I do love that Terroni always serves up quality ingredients.

I'm more into scotch than wine at the moment, but this La Bettola is easily a nice laid-back after-work drink and nibblies spot where you can actually have a conversation with the persons you're with.

I approve Terroni. You're back in my good books.

Summertime Eating

I'm losing interest in eating out. My friend said it's probably because it's summertime, and it's difficult to eat heavy, rich meals during summer, which is obvious and true.

All I have a taste for these days is crisp, crunchy cold vegetables, and sweet, tart, fleshy fruits.

I've eaten at a number of higher-end upscale restaurants since returning from Asia (Nota Bene, Ruby Watch Co., Splendido), and I've noticed my taste for food is very different now. I know this is going to sound so pretentious but I feel like my palette and knowledge of food is so high now that "fancy" food will inevitably always be flawed. Because what I want is freshness altered slightly to my taste (i.e. salt, pepper, maybe a little of olive oil or lemon).

My sister said to me a couple of summers ago that she's tired of food. All she wants is to grow the perfect tomato and eat it. I thought at the time she was crazy.

Now all I want to do is grow the perfect tomato and eat it.

I will probably continue to eat out, just because it's the most social activity I do but I know the food experience is different for me now. I don't think my interest in eating out is gone forever, but it's definitely on pause at the moment.

Spanish tapas and paella: La Sala Rosa in Montreal

Tapas is a "fancy" Spanish word for appetizers, but it's not, really. What I love about tapas is it's everything food should be -- sharing lots of little meals between friends and family, so you can experience a range of foods and flavours with the people you love and enjoy being around. It is what I love about food the most.

My 17-year-old cousin Rochelle from Tampa, Florida is visiting Montreal this summer. Her family comes up to Toronto every other year, and this is their "off" year, so when I found out she would be in Montreal on her own, staying with my sister, I decided a weekend road trip was in order.

She's a budding foodie. Reading about food, cooking new recipes, trying new places, as much as a 17-year-old can try. So when she mentioned that she read about this place called Casa del Popolo in Montreal, after looking at the website, and spotting paella, I decided we should go for dinner when I came.

But Casa del Popolo is the casual sandwiches and soups-type eatery. It's La Sala Rosa that is the dinner venue. I went with Ro, my 18-year-old cousin Michelle from Toronto who road-tripped with me, and of course, my sister and her husband. It was a really simple meal but reasonably priced and not your typical restaurant. Very unassuming from the front, but a warm, Spanish feel in the actual dining space. (Or maybe faux Spanish? I can't really make a true comparison because I've never been to Spain before.)

The server was extremely accommodating, even bringing us the paella plate when I asked how big the portion would be. For tapas, we had warm asparagus "salad" with roasted mushrooms; a marlin brochette on rice; fried potatoes with rosemary; mussels in a white wine sauce; and grilled calamari. We had a chicken, chorizo and shrimp paella. I had a glass of wine, my brother-in-law had a beer, and we also ordered two iced teas.

The music was a bit strange: high-pitched opera-ish (but not really) folksy music that made my younger cousins laugh somewhat uncontrollably at times.

It wasn't the most outstanding meal of my life, but the mix of atmosphere, company, value of food and super congenial service definitely made it one of the most memorable.

Fried potatoes with rosemary; seafood, chicken and chorizo paella. Photos courtesy of my cousin Rochelle.

Sometimes, it can be too late.

I found out over Twitter yesterday that one of my journalism instructors, Cynthia Brouse, died after battling breast cancer for years.

I wasn't sure how to feel. Sadness, of course, but mostly I was in shock. For nearly a year, there has been a letter addressed to Cynthia Brouse, sitting in the drafts folder of my email account. In it, I try to articulate how grateful I was for that one day in 3rd year university when she took me out into the hallway before her copy editing and fact checking class to tell me that she saw I had leadership potential  for the Ryerson Review of Journalism, the major magazine I could create with my peers the following year if I stayed within the magazine stream.

I struggled enormously with that decision, and in the end, largely because Cynthia had said out loud to me what I was feeling, I chose the RRJ and 4th year turned out to be not only one of the best learning experiences I had to date, but I formed important bonds and relationships with people I don't think I would have otherwise.

I learned a long time ago that if you have something good to say about a person, you should probably say it in that moment, no matter how silly it may seem or how embarrassed you may feel. Last summer, it dawned on me suddenly if it weren't for those five minutes Cynthia took with me, the remainder of my university career may have turned out very differently—and my love for magazines may not have been as fostered as it was if I had not immersed myself in the Ryerson Review. So I sat down to write Cynthia a thank-you email, knowing she was a religious email checker and responder.

But for whatever reason, I never felt the words were right. I couldn't finish writing what I started. Other things came up in my life, and I thought Cynthia would be there. I would finish it eventually and she'd know just how significant she was in my magazine journalism education. Instead, I'm staring at a Tweet, reading the words "RIP Cynthia Brouse," knowing there is a thank-you letter sitting in my email account that will never be sent and will be there forever, incomplete.

"We work in the dark—we do what we can—we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion, and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."

-Henry James

"We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance."

 -Japanese proverb

Banana leafs and dosas

It was my last day in Kuala Lumpur. Everyone at my hostel said they ate fantastic food at this Indian place around the corner. So I went there for lunch and dinner.

I wasn't even sure what I was ordering for lunch. I saw people eating lots of interesting curries off a banana leaf, and I wanted a banana leaf as a plate too. I was too shy to ask for a fork, so cleansed with Purell, I ate with my hands. There was way more food on the plate than shown above. Servers kept coming around with silver pots, scooping mounds of unidentifiable dishes on to my leaf; and seeing how my right hand had now become my utensil, it was impossible to take more photos, lest I wanted to be licking curry off my screen.

I've never eaten rice with my hands before. In the summer, I was convinced by an Atlantic article to eat salad with my hands; but after experiencing rice, I'm not quite convinced. The stickiness and dirtiness of my hands afterward is too much. But it was fun!

At dinner, I went overboard by ordering a roti and a dosa. Those are my two plates at the bottom. The top plate was my friend's vegetable curries.

Despite my truly magical enormous appetite, I could not finish my double dosage meal.

By the way, lunch and dinner only cost me CDN$6 each meal (total). No tax or tip necessary.

I never knew...

...that they drink out of plastic bags in Kuala Lumpur. (And other Asian countries.)

Eating in Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown

I'm Chinese, and grew up with a father who is an amazing cook, and I ate great homemade Chinese food all my life. Then I visited Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, ate one dinner and said, "I've never eaten Chinese food in my life before till now."

I met up with a friend of a friend from Toronto, and his girlfriend, who was actually from Kuala Lumpur and lived there most of her life. She took us to an ordinary-looking restaurant in Chinatown with plastic cups, bowls and chopsticks. Then she ordered us one of the most delicious meals of my life.

In the bottom right-hand corner is marmite chicken; to the left is spicy fried pork, and up top is garlic-sauteed bok choy. All incredibly simply dishes that were so ridiculously flavourful. You get sweet and savoury, and saucy, and crunch, with garlic and veggies, and I love when food has so many layers.

I never knew Chinese food could have so many layers.