Pho-Pas

While I am Vietnamese, I don't usually eat Pho when I go to Vietnamese restaurants because it's typically not very good. Here are some reasons why:

The broth. A good broth is an all day thing. That is, it has to be simmering for 8 hours. This fundamental property should be familiar to anyone who enjoys sauces, stews, and other slow-cooked dishes. This is the minimum requirement, yet is often not met. Unfortunately, the other requirement of possessing an excellent broth recipe is usually lacking too. Your home-made broth might be tasty, but may not be restaurant worthy. Protip: Try to find out if a Pho cook/place can trace its familial roots back to a well-known Pho shop back in Vietnam.

The noodle. There are 2 kinds of Pho noodles: "fresh" and "dried". They have different texture and mouth-feel. Sometimes you want this, sometimes you want that. Most places don't even given you this choice. Other noodle problems: a pile of cooked noodle is plopped into the bowl before the broth is poured on it. This leads to clumped noodles that have to be disentangled. Also, the cold noodles cause a significant drop in the broth temperature. Instead of a nice hot bowl of Pho, it's merely warm. The professional Chinese and native Vietnamese noodle shops use noodle strainers and a bubbling giant pot of broth to re-heat your noodles.

The veggies. Historical fact: the proliferation of basil, mint, bean sprouts, etc. was introduced when Pho migrated to South Vietnam. However, it is not the authenticity of Pho styles I'm against. Rather, yet another group of cold ingredients to further cool your Pho. Protip: ask for your bean sprouts to be blanched. Also useful if you are travelling to a 3rd world country and is leery of eating raw vegetables washed in the local water.

The meat. Once again, the dumping of meat nilly-willy causes un-sightly clumping. The merely warm broth is insufficient to cook the raw beef or warm the cooked beef. The thick slices of beef in North America are a drawback. Though the meat is sliced paper-thin in Vietnam primarily because of cost, sometimes less is more. Anyone who enjoys a smoked meat or corned beef deli sandwich can relate. There's a reason they shave the meat thinly instead of giving you a big hunk, and not just because it adds more volume.

The time. Pho is a breakfast food. Like a warm bowl of oatmeal or porridge, the heat wakes you up, and the content keeps you full until lunch. Here, people eat it for lunch (not too unreasonable) and dinner (why?) Unlike a stew, it's not substantial enough and your bladder won't be thanking you for downing so much liquid before going to bed. Consider this food equivalent: Who wants to eat a giant bowl of chicken noodle soup for dinner? Yeah, me neither.

Living Dances

I attended "An Evening of Contemporary Kudelka" dance recital by the Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie at the Fleck Theatre down in Harbourfront. You can get a more insightful review from Paula Citron. This is what I got out of it.

The first piece, a premiere, called Beautiful Movie is about a man singing to a doll. But it's no child's play (ha ha). Music can be found here.

The second piece, see #1, is about a woman with Tourette syndrome. Violin solo.

The third piece, Soudain L'hiver Dernier, is about 2 hobos. Music.

The last piece, In Paradisum, is about a socialist paradise where men and women dress the same.

In all seriousness, although the 3rd and 4th piece were easier to understand, all 4 pieces were rather mysterious to an unsophisticated attendee like myself. Instead of the pages and pages of biographies profiling the dancers, composers, and so on, it would be nice to have a detailed artist statement or literary critique that details the dance vocabulary and themes of the dance pieces. In video game parlance, I'd like a walkthrough please. This is not the first time I've been rather bemused by dance recitals.

Yes We Ken

I finally tried the ramen at Kenzo Ramen, a small ramen noodle shop at the corner of Elizabeth and Dundas. It can seat about 25 people divided into two levels. The open kitchen is at the back of the 2nd story area so you'll want to grab a seat there if you want a peek at the kitchen. The specialty of the house is ramen, although they apparently used to offer kushimono (food on skewers), too.

I ordered the biggest bowl they had, the King of Kings, a spicy ramen. The bowl came with very tender, lean but still juicy slices of pork, both soft and dried seaweed, half an boiled/marinated? egg (with the yolk still slightly runny), and various other toppings. The ramen was chewy and toothsome. The broth was rich but next time I'll have to order the plain ramen to really taste that broth. This was the most expensive at $9.95 but the other ramen bowls are only between $6-8. A very cheap and satisfying lunch.

Next time, I will have to try the side dishes including tacoyaki and Japanase pancake.

Between here and manpuku, which has Udon and other non-sushi Japanese dishes, only about another 5 minute walk west, Dundas and University should satisfy your craving for Japanese noodles. Now if someone were to open a soba and izakaya joint in the area ...

Odds And Ends

Some belated blog posts that I'm too lazy to write up. So to summarize:

Toronto Yoga Festival: Had some interesting chats with atheistic/agnostic Yoga practitioners/teachers about their approach to the more mystical and supernatural claims of Yoga. It'd be nice if I could find a committed Yogini with a secular world-view.

Pedestrian Sunday At Kensington: If you are young, dress "bohemian", and have a CD then you are an artist. If you are old and wear cast-offs then you're just a beggar and people will avoid looking at you.

Kathak is great with traditional tablas, it looks ridiculous when paired with new-agey synth music.

Boo-zu: Last omakase dinner at Yuzu was disappointing. The dishes are still all different from previous visits, but this time all the fishes and preparation were rather bland in taste or texture.

I Dream of Google: I had a dream where a 50s style professor and his audience, Jimmy, discussed the latest in search algorithms. Some of the professor's points can really only be solvable if we had AI. However, he's right that Google should provide a "similar to this url" search option.

Harvest Wednesday at the Gladstone: It was $35 before tax and tip. I would have paid $27.

Bright Star: John Keats and Fanny Brawne were hot to trot. But Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw didn't quite have the same spark. Makes me want to read those love letters. Also, they dressed a lot better back in the old days, probably makes it easier to put pen to paper when your beloved isn't wearing a hoodie and jogging pants.

A Serious Man: A very funny movie to this gentile. Apparently, loved by some Jews and hated by others.

I Dream of Lesbian Twins?: Took a nap on Sunday and had a dream that I was engaging in some superbly witty repartees with Sara of Tegan & Sara. My wit was such that as I woke up, I got a speculative look from dream Sara (as in, "Damn, that's a funny dude. Hmm."). This is odd for two reasons. Firstly, she is a lesbian so "turn them straight" is just a myth. Secondly, though they are identical twins with the same hairstyle, I actually prefer Tegan.

A Funny Thing Happen On the Way To Nirvana

I attended the second annual Yoga Festival Toronto, a non-profit grassroots 3-day yoga urban retreat, which took place Friday August 21 - Sunday August 23. It was held in the beautiful National Ballet School (of Canada) on Jarvis. 7 dance studios were used to hold various yoga-related sessions. For the festival, they were named after the 7 chakras. In addition, there was a common area for eating vegan, ayurvedic lunch and dinner meals. A number of vendors and organizations were on hand to peddle their wares. Generally though, it was less commercial than the Yoga Expo that takes place every year at Exhibition Place.

For 3 days, a 3-hour morning asana class was followed by lunch, two 2-hour sessions in the afternoon, dinner, and a round-table discussion. Morning meditation was available for those who can come by 7 a.m. I did not attend any morning meditation although I did spend some quiet time up on the 6th floor veranda Friday morning.

My first asana was an Ujjayi Pulse class with Diane Bruni. This is typically an Ashangta class where the breath is synced with a live drummer keeping a 4 beat pattern: inhale-3-2-1, exhale-3-2-1. This can be challenging, especially as the session grows long or the postures increase in difficulty. Diane dialed down the intensity when it became obvious that a lot of the practitioners were not used to the speed of this style. The interesting thing was the foot placement that she taught. Something she decided to change only 3 months ago after a yoga retreat, after 20 years of practicing a different way. I guess it's never too late to try something new. Certainly, I found that it helped me more with my balance and postures.

Lunch was a revelation. Although yoga was originally reserved for men, it is now primarily practiced by women. As it turns out, the breakdown at YFT was 78% women. And apparently more than half of them are young, slender yoga teachers. With a fair proportion of them sporting short pixie haircuts. As you can tell, I kind of have a thing for that. Perhaps it was the vegan lunch, or perhaps for some other reasons, but I was feeling really good!

The first afternoon session was a lecture with Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad. They felt that both Western thinking (e.g., God) and Eastern thinking (e.g., karma, non-attachment) separated spirituality: selflessness, timelessness (The Here and Now), egolessness and so on from the world: self, ego, thought, etc. This not only creates an unattainable and incorrect hierarchy of values: the spiritual path, but is subject to authoritarian abuse: societal and religious. Their 3rd way is to embed the spiritual in the mundane, "I am a spirit" not "I have a spirit". This is an interesting perspective though I couldn't help but giggle at the thought that this was covered in an episode of Friends where Phoebe tries to do a selfless act without personal satisfaction (selfishness) to refute the cynical Joey.

A born-again Christian had a real problem with Joel and Diana. She felt that they were one more set of people "telling her what to do". Oddly, she did not see the irony of apparently giving her own religion a free pass when it comes to people telling her what to do. I wonder how she feels about the fact that Hatha Yoga (the physical postures) is but a first step to other yoga traditions that are definitely religious in nature.

The second afternoon session was a workshop with Scott Davis. He specializes in Yin and Yang yoga, incorporating TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) concepts into yoga practices. The main idea is that various yoga postures stimulate different meridian lines, leading to manipulation of various organ systems, which can be useful for increasing or decreasing energy or emotions associated with those systems. Also, as these systems are tied to the seasons, you can also adjust your practice to reflect the currently dominant system.

Dinner was intellectually stimulating but there was some downside. Some friends I ran into insisted that I eat with them, sequestered away into a corner. Thus, I was unable to meditate upon neither truth nor beauty. Ha!

The round-table concerns itself with yoga and relationships: self vs mentor, sex vs. celibacy, monogamy vs. non-monogamy, attachment vs. detachment. The faculty members had interesting insights, as they come from not only personal experience, but also study, thought, and scholarship. The contributions from the audience were less insightful as they draw primarily from personal experience: This is how I feel, this is what happened to me. The problem with personal experience is that, by its very definition (personal and subjective), any revelatory application to anyone else is purely accidental.

"So Long To" Tastelessness

In contrast to the previous post, a dinner at Ceylonta in Ottawa was quite a treat. This restaurant specializes in Sri Lankan cuisine, which is similar to Indian dishes. However, there is a lighter touch on the spices and curry, which is much appreciated by my friends who are ambivalent about Indian food.

Delicious dishes include Chicken Byriani which comes with a spiced chicken leg and an egg buried inside the rice, the Vegetable or Meat Thali whose components are quite different from what one thinks of a typical thali (combination platter), Kothu Rotti is chopped up flat bread mixed with vegetables and meat, and various curry dishes. Masala dosas are also quite tasty. I like my naan fluffier whereas those at Ceylonta's are more flat paratha style, but that's just a personal preference.

There are 2 locations in Ottawa: one near Somerset and Bank, and one near Bayshore and Carling. Both are excellent choices. So check them out when you are in Ottawa.

On a final note, apologies to any diners at the Carling location on Friday August 14th. Our party comprised of 9 adults and 5 children 3 years and younger. Some of the women have never believed in the "inside voice", add a rambunctious 3 year old, an extremely finicky 3 month old, and the general din of such a large group and I can only imagine what it must have been liked for everyone else there. I think we left a good tip though.

Put the Ban in Julie's Cuban

3 weeks ago I finally tried Julie's Cuban - a cozy tapas place tucked into a quiet section of Dovercourt and Foxley. I first heard about it almost 10 years ago. Every now and then, I would think: "Let's try that Cuban place". But I could never find it, always thinking it was somewhere on Ossington.

Google Maps finally set me straight. I've biked past that place in the last little while and it's always busy. Looks good so far.

Perhaps I should have gone 10 years ago when it first opened. It was a mediocre, perhaps downright bad, meal. The ceviche came rubbery and fully cooked over a bed of indifferent salad and herbs. This is doubly criminal since Foxley (the restaurant) just down the street serves some excellent ceviches. I've never met a chorizo dish I didn't like, until Julie's: hard, overly chewy, in a bitter red wine. The chicken quesadillas was simply adequate and Ropa Vieja (shredded beef with rice) was just edible. I don't know if brown rice and beans go better with Latin food but the white rice was definitely a mistake. Both dishes were undersalted. Yet oddly, the plaintain dish was oversalted. Finally, the slice of pie was ok ... except for the $7 price tag.

The only tasty dish (heh) was the waitress. She was the classic girl next door: light brown hair loosely tied back, rosy cheeks, blue eyes that twinkled when she smiled, and a soft sweet voice. I couldn't help but sneak a peek every time she came by. Luckily my dinner companion was just a good friend because otherwise I'd feel like a horn-dog. She thought the waitress was all that, too. This would be the only reason that makes me regret that I'll never come back here.

So the $80 (pre-tip) we paid meant a good and deserving tip for our helpful and attractive waitress. But it was definitely overpriced for our dinner. I really don't know why this place is always so busy ... maybe the regulars stick to nachos and beer.

Y uzu? Y not.

Another great 8-course omakase dinner at Yuzu. This time, the meal was $65. With only 1 'repeat' dish, that's 23 different dishes I've had at 3 seatings. To be fair though, every dinner has 1 sashimi and 1 sushi plate though the fish have varied.

1. Smoked salmon rolled into small flowers on a bed of greens with mango chips. Delicious salmon and not too smoky. The greens were fragrant. I couldn't taste much mango flavour but the oily crunch had great mouth feel.
2. 4 amuse-bouches. 2 marinated daikon shell stuffed with flaky hamachi: a nice contrast. A finger-length full fish grilled with lightly spiced sauce and coarse sea salt: gone in 2 bites, even the head. A gelatinous cube of beef marrow stuffed with sesame seed: good but doesn't quite have the nice marrow taste of the pig marrow I had last time. Asparagus in a sesame sauce: fresh with a nice crunch.
3. A clear soup filled with tiny coloured starch balls like candy, lily bulbs, and a fish coated with small, brown, puffy toasted rice (almost like rice krispies). Interesting texture. The standout, though, was the tofu. Bruce called it ?goma tofu? but a quick search shows that to be tofu made from sesame. I certainly didn't taste any sesame. The tofu was slightly hard, had a spongy texture (the cross section contained many small holes like a tiny sponge cake), and a slight sweetness. Quite remarkable.
4. The sashimi dish contained 4 sea dishes. One was cousin to the hamachi. Sea bream with slightly seared skin, the skin was separated, seared, and placed as a topping. Shrimp on a bed of seaweed. Must be different from regular shrimp at cheaper sushi because it was sweet and buttery. Even the meat inside shrimp head was less slimy and had a nice pâté crumbly coarseness.
5. The only repeat: grilled black cod with enoki and shiitake mushrooms. A sauce made from miso and grounded up peppery japanese leaf provided a nice green base.
6. Sea bream on seaweed simmered in sake. Little enoki mushrooms and tiny asparagus stuffed in little bowls carved from daikon completed the dish. The dipping sauce was a ponzu sauce with spicy condiment. Very tender fish. And you can smell and taste a bit of the sake. Fun fact: Sea bream is incredibly white when it's cooked.
   
7. The sushi dish: some fish, hana?, 3 pieces of a squid ring stuffed with rice (kind of like a reverse maki). The standout was the BC tuna brushed with garlic oil and topped with saute green onion. This combination was so outstanding I actually closed my eyes to savour every bite.
8. A green tea egg flan? The caramelized sugar sheet coating the top breaks up nicely to reveal a slightly sweet green tea soft pudding-like interior with a definite eggy taste. The icing sugar-coated strawberries and blueberries side was a nice touch.

Note: Bruce mentioned that this Friday there is a 'different' omakase dinner. I'm not quite sure if he means that he is changing up the menu or that there will be special dishes because of shipment of rare ingredients. He mentions ayu, a fresh-water fish. He invites me to come back ... but I don't know, 2 omakase dinners in 1 week, these dinners aren't exactly cheap.

Note the second: There was recent expose in the Toronto Star about restaurants passing off frozen tilapia as red snapper. I thought Yuzu came off fine as their 'Japanese snapper' was tested and found to be, correctly, red seabream. However, Bruce felt that there was still some misunderstanding as the survey implied that he was passing off 'red seabream' as 'red snapper' since the article says some restaurants listed snapper but had seabream. In fact, Bruce states that red seabream is a better fish than red snapper (It was actually noted in the article's sidebar that: Red Snapper - saltwater fish. Red Seabream - pricey saltwater fish). This is particularly true in North America where red snapper typically comes from the warm waters of Florida.

Star Wreck

Overheard in a Hollywood studio. SPOILERS ALERT.








Good Abrams: This reboot will be awesome. We'll create a tight script, devoid of common Trek plot holes, interesting characters, and lots of surprises. Hey, maybe even the death of some well-loved main characters to shake things up!

Evil Abrams: I hear what you're saying. But what I'm thinking is ... all the characters stay the same, more or less, and they'll say their iconic lines like 'Dammit Jim ...'. That's a classic, can't leave that out. Lots of stuff blowing up and lens flare, oh so much lens flare.

GA: Umm ... ok. Well, the easiest way to ignore the Trek canon is to simply set our movie in a different Trek universe. We know from 'Mirror, Mirror' and lots of other trek episodes that there are plenty of those.

EA: Two words: time travel. The time-line has been changed by an enemy from the future.

GA: Seriously? Time travel is like 'It was all a dream'. It's usually a big middle finger to the audience.

EA: You're too glum. Eat less prunes. An unknown supernova threatens the Romulans with destruction of their homeworld from a massive blast ...

GA: But to be that close to a star to suffer physical damage ... and not even a monitoring station. I mean, even on Earth we have earth-quake and volcano monitors. Are the Romulans descended from Republicans?

EA: Ha! Nice one. Seriously, kaboom! Spock was too late to save them with the Red Matter. A lone Romulan mining vessel remains, blasted into the past, with a motley crew and a vengeful captain. He is bent on destroying the Federation for the future death of his beloved wife.

GA: Hmm. Once in the past, Nero captures future Spock. He realizes: "save the Vulcan, save the future". Using time dilation effect from navigating his ship at relativistic speed, he returns to the future in the "blink of an eye", ship-time. He saves Romulus with the Red Matter. His only dilemma: let his future self be with his wife, or kill him and take his place.

EA: Too cerebral. Anyway, that leaves no room for the Kirk and the Gang.

GA: You're the one who wanted time travel. I'm just trying to think up the most logical course of action.

EA: What are you, Sarek? No, Nero kills George Kirk and blows up Vulcan. The Federation scrambles and sends cadets and booters from the Academy to meet this threat.

GA: Uh ... cadets and booters? Who've never even served on a starship? Where's everyone else?

EA: They're away on an emergency.

GA: The Federation is so short-staffed that they assign rookies to starships when there's 2 emergencies?!

EA: Don't worry. They'll all get blown to smithereens.

GA: I ... see. A whole fleet of red shirts.

EA: Bingo. Hot-headed James T. Kirk meets future Spock, who tells him it's his destiny to captain the Enterprise.

GA: But ... it's a different time-line. How can Spock know what's going to happen> Maybe he'll become Evil Kirk or Self-Destructive Douchebag Kirk.

EA: You're such a downer. Earth is threatened with destruction ...

GA: Let me guess. In a universe filled with nasty Klingons, Federation Earth has no planetary defences: no in-system ships, no space stations, earth-based missiles, not even a couple of sub-orbital crafts.

EA: We're spending our budgets on lens flare. Anyway, Kirk saves the day and blows away Nero ... after, of course, a bon mot or two. Hasta la vista, baby!

GA: Wait a minute ... hold on a sec. A trained military officer ignores war conventions and makes no effort to apprehend a war criminal. I mean, blowing up Vulcan, Nero's killed more people than Hitler, Stalin, and Mao combined. Don't the remaining Vulcans want some closure by putting this Nero guy on trial? Ok ... at least give Kirk a court martial for his rash actions, right?

EA: No freaking way. It's James Tiberius Kirk, bitch! He becomes captain of the Enterprise for his courage.

GA: Gahhhhh! But he hasn't even spent any time on a ship. Even the bravest war heroes only get a Medal of Honor. They don't get promoted several ranks. What kind of reboot is this?

EA: Lens flare! ... And scene.

Inconclusive Finding

The second movie that I saw was The Experimental Eskimos. The 3 points of this documentary was that:

1. The Canadian goverment in the 60s ran a social experiment to see if Inuits can be fully assimilated into 'white' culture by sending 3 Inuit boys for schooling in Ottawa.
2. The experiment was a failure in that the boys were not assimilated. Moreover, the skills they acquired enabled them to become leaders fighting for Aboriginal rights.
3. But the personal cost to them eventually led to the un-ravelling of their professional and personal lives.

Though I have sympathies for the 3 men in this movie, Peter Ittinuar, Zebedee Nungak, and Eric Tagoona, I did not agree whole-hearted with this film's conclusions:

1. There was no corroborating evidence of this social 'experiment', as the narrator kept intoning in a ominous manner, outside of a few memos. Ignoring the racist and colonialist language of the time, it did not sound like official government policy. The 3 boys seemed to have been caught in some bureaucratic project, but the attempt to conflate their experience with the residential school scandal is misleading.
2. I agree that their education, though forced upon them, was better than anything they would have received up North. This enabled them to use it to fight for Native rights.
3. But the cost during their teenage years (e.g., estrangement from their family and culture, exposure to racist statements) was a necessary but not sufficient reason for their 'downfall'. The men admitted that there were other reasons for their professional failures as well as personal problems. That is, if everything had continued successfully for them, this experience would not have really affected their lives. Conversely, it may have been the final straw, but there were other reasons that culminated in their recent personal crises.
   

What's Up, Doc?

I attended 2 screenings at Hot Docs, the documentary film festival in Toronto. The first film is Korean Wedding Chest by Ulrike Ottinger.

In Korean Wedding Chest, new and old wedding rituals are explored by Ottinger. Without a narrator, we are left to ponder the meaning of the rituals on our own. Sometimes, a participant may clue us in; for example, a shop-keeper at a wedding store explained the various items that goes into a Korean wedding chest. I particularly enjoyed looking at the old rituals such as the wedding chest or the traditional tea ceremony (similar to that of Chinese weddings). Some of the cheesiness of a modern wedding (which North American weddings are also not exempt from) also got some chuckles.

However, the lack of explanation short-changed or deceived the viewer with respect to other rituals. At the beginning, there were scenes involving a shamaness and also a temple called The Temple of Wish-Fulfillment. But these were not tied in to the wedding that comprised the bulk of the film. It was unclear to me how a shamaness might be involved in a Korean wedding. Does she preside over some weddings? Regarding the temple, do people get married there? Do they come with their sweethearts and swear their love or get engaged?

Other rituals presented would involve so few Koreans or are not even Korean-specific that it seems disingenuous to include in the film. One showed a couple getting a picture from a booth. This picture has been rendered by the machine into an "oil painting". Other options include pencil sketch, watercolour, etc. Well, I saw a functionally identical booth at my local mall. Another scene had couples declaring their love by writing their names on a "padlock of love" and chaining it to a fence along with other love padlocks. A quick search on the internet reveals that this fad probably started in Europe in recent years, and given that the love fence is located on top of a single building in Seoul, this non-Korean expression would statistically be practiced by a tiny, tiny minority of Koreans. As such, it has about as much relevance as showing teens writing "K+L 4ever" on bus seats in a film about North American wedding rituals.

3 thumbs up (out of 5).

Elementary, My Dear Watson

I attended a pop concert at Trinity-St.Paul's United Church on Saturday with headliner Patrick Watson, a Montreal native, and opening act Laura Barrett. Short review of the night: I liked their music though I didn't love it.

I first heard Laura Barrett at last year's Word on the Street book festival. She writes interesting, quirky songs and her primary musical is the marimba (or thumb piano). Since then, she has gotten more mainstream exposure including a profile in the Globe and Mail. Judging from her MySpace page over the last year or so, her music has taken her to some interesting places and venues.

Her songs are probably better appreciated with the lusher arrangements on her latest album or in a more intimate setting. In the larger setting of the church and with a stripped down band, her songs had a plinkety-plink sameness. The enthusiasm that first greeted her died down to polite applause after the second song. Only the final song "Deception Island Optimists Club", a more "conventional" love song, was well received. Perhaps she should have done more songs where she played the piano.

I came for Laura, I stayed for Patrick. Unlike myself who knew nothing about Patrick Watson, most people were obviously there for this singer, especially the women who made up about 70% of the audience. In any case, Patrick was backed by a 3 member band as well as the occasional 4 piece strings section. Like Laura, he doesn't write too many love songs either. His music was great to listen to but I had a hard time understanding the lyrics. He frequently mushed the words into one long melody line of "ah-wah-shah-blah-rah-tah-you". Overall, as a 1st time listener, I felt there was a sameness to the songs which I'll call "Anthem Pop".

Anthem Pop begins with the singer and a simple backing of perhaps piano or guitar. The drummer might provide some soft accompaniment on vibraphone, wooden blocks, or some other "percussion"-y sounds. Next comes bass and perhaps some strings. By the 2nd chorus, an insistent bass drum drives the song forward. By the time of the extended coda, a frantic rhythm is laid down by the drummer, and guitar and piano have become cacophanous. The singer has gone into full "white man wailing" mode (as A.O. Scott once described the movie Once).

It certainly makes the heart beat faster. But when more than half the songs were like this, I started to think "Hey, didn't Arcade Fire do this song?" This impression was not helped when the band waded into the audience with megaphone in hand during the encore. (Yes, Arcade Fire does that too). To be fair, Patrick Watson has at least 3 albums out. So given that he probably only did 1/3 of his repertoire, hopefully it means that he only writes maybe 20% Anthem Pop? The 2 waltz-like (3/4 time) songs that I heard were quite lovely. Overall though, a fun evening of music in a great venue.

Yuzu? I do!

$75 (Spring) omakase dinner at Yuzu (not including tax, sake, and tip)

Courses:

1. Monkfish pâté in a yuzu ponzu (vinaigrette) sauce. A delicious start. I don't know if it was the monkfish or the preparation but the dish tasted very similar to pâté, soft, meaty with the earthy flavour of liver.
2. 3 amuse-bouches: bamboo shoot on a bed of seaweed, tempura king crab claw, and pig marrow jelly. The bamboo was fresh and refreshing; the crab claw was like a very high-end version of what you'd find in a chinese restaurant (in other words, tasty fried seafood!); and the pig marrow was turned into a gelatinous cube stuffed with shiitake mushroom. A very interesting texture with just a hint of animal fat.
3. Clear soup with snapper wrapped in sakura leaf, with sakura flowers, mushrooms, and asparagus. A gentle broth, not too salty, perfect for spring. Soft but chewy snapper. The sakura leaf didn't taste like much but the flower had a strong, salted/briny flavour (very interesting).
4. A small sashimi plate with Greek snapper and o toro (blue fin tuna belly) with shiso. The tuna was rich and buttery. The Greek snapper had a strong, smoky taste; something I've never tasted with raw fish.
   
5. Grilled black cod (in a miso marinade) with an assortment of mushrooms, asparagus, and herbs on a hoba leaf. Perfectly cooked fish, no more need be said.
6. Grilled snapper neck with briny burdock. The dish that gave me the most pause as the fins were still attached and sticking straight up from the plate. Luckily that was just for presentation, there is a lot of tasty flesh attached to that neck.
7. A selection of sushi: tempura unagi, white fish (forgot the type) ocean trout, scallop, japanese snapper. Fresh and delicious.
8. Green tea ice cream surrounded by flowers with leaves made from fried gyoza flour, freshly made mochi balls rolled in dried bean paste. A very satisfying end to the meal.

Previously, at $60, the omakase at Yuzu was a steal. Now, at $75, plus a cheap $18 bottle of clean, chilled sake, the bill is starting to add up. However, the dishes are imaginative with excellent ingredients and the service is always impeccable. So do as I do, put away that $20-25 everytime you feel the urge to go to that cheap all-you-can-eat sushi joint. In no time at all, you will have enough to get the good stuff.

I was also given a sampler of sparkling sake. What an interesting experience: like champagne, but not! (I'm so eloquent). I wouldn't drink sparkling sake for an entire meal, but a small glass before or after dinner, that would certainly hit the spot.

Chef has started the same tradition that exists at Japango, his other place. Regulars get their own chopsticks, stored in wooden boxes placed behind the sushi bar. I wonder how many omakase dinners I have to eat to get my own?

Northern Paradise

A few weeks ago, on my way to the Ottawa airport, I had a conversation with the taxi driver. He is a Lebanese mechanical engineer who had a successful career working for oil companies in the Gulf for the past 10 years. On the advice of his sister, he emigrated to Canada last winter. Since arriving, he has been driving a taxi for the past 5 months. Of course, he did not want to continue ferrying people about forever. He was hopeful that once he is recertified, he will be able to find work in his field somewhere out west in Alberta.

I hope that he will become one of the successful immigrant stories and not another 'PhD driving a taxi' dead-end. I have heard more than my share of immigrant professionals who have had to give up on their career: first hand, second hand (via my mom who works with many immigrants), or third hand (via the many stories reported in the media). The lucky ones were able to return to their home country, most settle here with bitterness in their heart.

Someone should gather these testimonials and start a website: dontcometocanada.com or perhaps the less hyperbolic truthaboutimmigration.ca.

As a final note, on his very first taxi fare, a local Canadian stiffed him to the tune of $30. Interpret that as you will.

Foxley At Ossington

The restaurant Foxley on Ossington just south of Dundas St. W does Asian fusion tapas-style dishes quite well. However, chef Tom Thai has a much defter hand with fish than meat. The meat dishes, though substantial and delicious, are all relatively heavy sauce wise. More than one meat dish will start to feel similar. However, the fish dishes, especially the ceviche offerings, are wonderful. For a dinner for two, with a total of 5 dishes on average, I would recommend no more than 1 meat.

Ossington between Dundas and Queen West is gentrifying. There are now numerous restaurants and trendy bars for hipsters of all stripes. I was here when this strip was mostly Vietnamese restaurants and karaoke. Certainly, this gentrification benefits the newer folks who now frequent this area as well as the landlords of these new establishments. However, are the remaining stores on this strip as well as the surrounding Little Portugal benefitting too? Are the new employees local to the area (i.e., there has been an employment boost)? Are the people going to these places also moving to the area (i.e., providing an economic boost to the area in terms of municipal taxes for schools, etc.)? Are the locals going to the new bars, restaurants, and galleries?

If I had to guess I would say that the gentrification of Ossington has provided little economic benefit or cultural/social relevance to the working-class people who still make up the bulk of this neighbourhood.

Yuzu? I zu!

$60 omakase dinner at Yuzu (236 Adelaide St W, Toronto) not including tax + tip.

Courses:

1. 4 piece amuse-bouche in wooden boxes: oyster + raw quail egg shooter, deconstructed crab claw, haddock fried in yuzu sauce, eel stuffed with burdock.
2. Soup with shrimp dumplings (contains chopped shiso), shiitaki mushroom, asparagus, and lotus root.
3. Presentation of aji (horse mackerel) on a bed of fried leeks, herb, with a tiny deep-fried crab perched on a bamboo leaf, surrounded by ice pellets and pebbles.
4. A selection of tempura: eggplant, unagi eel, and shiso leaf.
5. Sauteed black cod marinated in a mizo sauce.
6. A tiny hot pot of shrimp, enoki mushroom, chinese cabbage and green onions.
7. A selection of 4 slightly seared nigiri: shrimp with raw quail egg, + 3 others (most distintive was the octopus flesh which was carved as a tiny octopus with little tentacles).
8. Vanilla ice cream with home-made strawberry jam and gelatinous cubes of seaweed.