Suck A Gill

The Back 40 crab boil deserves all the hype. The crabs are delicious (round 3 was exceptionally amazing, piping hot and super succulent), the service is delightful and the experience is plain, old fashioned fun. Plus, Peter's friendly bar tenders serve real mint juleps in proper mint julep cups! Many thanks to Yasemin and Steph who diligently attempted to make reservations week after week.

Wise man say forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza...

Pizza, one of the greatest foods in the universe, is having a moment. Pizza is amazing and I think it is great that it is getting so much love. Home made pizza is extra amazing. The above photos are of last night's dinner at my sister and her (extremely talented in the kitchen) husband's house. The perfect crust was crafted on the bbq, a trademark pizza making move in my brother in law's family. The end result, white pizza with fresh ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheeses topped with fresh spinach, basil and olive oil was off the hook. As was the arugula and tomato salad. The salad was dressed with The Best Dressed Caesar Dressing- a staple in my mother's kitchen for as long as I can remember and, in my humble opinion, the best caesar dressing in the universe. Dinner was divine. Thank you N, J and H!

Afiyet Olsun

Last week was Alysha's 27th birthday and Yasemin (who is a baking genius and speaks Turkish, hence the post title, which means bon appetite in Turkish) decided to whip up a plum galette, some maple blueberry cheesecake bars and some home-made ice cream. No big deal. Her normal sous/assistant chef, Jamie, was away so I stepped in as the pinch mixer. I love that Yas preemptively did the necessary measurement conversions on the recipes to ensure smooth baking. All three treats were perfectly delicious.

tempeh surprise

John and I love this meal. I think I make it at least once a week. The days I get to bring tempeh surprise (John invented the name) leftovers to work are always good ones. I got the recipe from Fresh at Home- a cookbook from the restaurant Fresh in Toronto http://www.freshrestaurants.ca/. I follow the recipe pretty loosely, but it always turns out delicious. Sometimes I make it with brown rice, sometimes with soba noodles. And depending on what I have lying around I will either make a tahini dressing or a sunflower seed dressing. I think it is the combination of the saltyness from the marinade on the tempeh, the creamyness of the dressing and avocado, the acidity of the tomato and the sweetness of the pear that make this meal so damn good. Plus, eating steamed broccoli, kale, bok choy and or cabbage will make you feel insta-healthy no matter how much cheap beer and or whiskey you have consumed. My camera battery was dying when I took the pictures, I think it really affected their quality. I was hoping for something like the images on http://www.smittenkitchen.com/ but that totaly did not happen, she (my camera) fully died right when eveything was done- so sadly there is no final shot of my culinary masterpiece.

earthquakes, the dead, gay rights, painted ladies, bridges, fog, beach.

if i were taller i would have a pied-à-terre in san francisco. sf is gnarly. it has two distinct vibes, beach and bay, and an abundance of amazing neighbourhoods. the weather can be a bummer, but year round, you can just hop into your fuel efficient car and cruise 20 minutes down the coast to beaches and sunshine and surfer babes. you can also drive to vineyards and wine tasting rooms. i loved wine and labels at bonny doon (https://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/) the most (thank you jared). sf is home to some of my favorite places on earth- the haight, city lights books and the japanese tea garden in golden gate park. sf is also home to my friend jason. j and i met when we were about 15 and bonded over our love of phish, franny's, jack and jill. the sf beat really suits him. jason is a great person to know because he is the king of good food. he took john and me to one of the most delicious and cozy restaurants ever called the front porch (http://thefrontporchsf.com/main.html). john and jason both had fried chicken. i had the vegan plate- all local organic stuff- which was good but didn't blow my mind. the grits, however, did blow my mind and are now on the list of food i dream about. a list that includes the beauty's special from beauty's in montreal (http://www.beautys.ca/) and the black bean and avocado burrito that you can only get at the take out window of cafe habana in manhattan (http://www.ecoeatery.com/).

moral of the story:i heart sf. best song to listen to while driving up and down the coast: carey by joni mitchell (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGrRSVW8jk)