Holiday Monday

Contemplating a nap this afternoon. Gotta love a holiday Monday when the SO is away and I can do whatever I please. All I have to do to enter the nap zone is start reading the novel I started this past weekend. That's not a comment on the novel, more a comment on the overtired state of my brain.
My latest addiction on social media is Google Maps. A photo I posted on Google Maps has received more than 5,000 views: how did that happen? It's a nice cloud photo, highlighting the brutalism architecture of the McMaster Children's Hospital: https://goo.gl/maps/PfBZmf2R9hK2. On Google Maps, I'm most excited about being able to support local businesses by writing positive reviews and posting pictures, especially of the tasty food at the many amazing restos in Hamilton. I really hope that every person who looks at my food photos on Google Maps -- more than 4,000 views of one chili dog photo (!) -- will support these local restaurants and other businesses too. I really want them to succeed.
The dog is settling down: a good time to nap.
Laters!

Eating out in HamOnt

Sarcoa, 57 Discovery Drive in Hamilton, Ontario
This waterfront restaurant serves the kind of food that makes me want to be filthy rich (and I really almost never want to be rich!) so that I could eat there every week.

After I ate this appetizer plate of "Chicken and Waffles," I said, "Can we eat here every Friday for early supper and have the chicken and waffles?

Sarcoa Chicken & Waffles with herb gravy & pork belly.

The appetizer & salad parts of the Sarcoa menu were the most tempting to me, so we also ordered the poutine. A poutine like no other: thinly carved, tender beef brisket with authentic curds adorned hand-cut fries smothered in a jus as rich as any I've ever tasted, and my mother is the queen of gravy-making in my books! I don't think my description really does it justice, but brown food doesn't photograph well, so I'm not including that pic here. It was an enormous serving for an appetizer, so we shared it (I didn't share my chicken & waffles, not because there wasn't enough to share -- it is an ample serving too -- but because it was so delicious that I went into greed mode). I can still taste that brisket, when I cast my mind back to that evening.

I think it's probably best to let the photos tell the rest of the story about this amazing place, which sources as many ingredients as possible from local farms and producers.
Anyone who adores beets as I do must have this salad:

Roasted beet salad with pomegranate was simply divine.

The entree chicken dish arrived with the smoothest squash puree ever conceived by humans, and chicken so moist and tender that I couldn't believe it was real. I know I'm descending into hyperbole here, but this meal was seriously one of the best I've ever had in my life.

Most juicy, tender chicken breast ever, atop kale, squash, and spatzle.

Since we were there to celebrate my birthday, I had to try a dessert, and chocolate is the best way to dessert, right? The dish was delicious, of course, and spectacular to look at, but this is the one area where I was a teensy bit let down. For a chef who did a stint as "pastry chef at Vineland Estates Winery," the dessert menu is a little spare.

White chocolate & pistachio mousse (on left, my favourite!), macaron, & ice cream sandwich.

The servers treated us like special people, always a nice way to dine when you're splurging on a night out at a fancy place. The decor is modern and inviting, with surprising bursts of colour and wooden tabletops for a dash of eclecticism. Some of the best views of any restaurant in the city too, being right on the water down at the harbourfront.

View from our table at windowside at Sarcoa.

Overall, I would give Sarcoa an A+ and have been recommending the place to anyone who will listen and who wants to indulge.

Royal Pho

We've found a new favourite place to eat: Royal Pho at the Meadowlands in Ancaster. I hadn't really tried pho before I ate it at this place a few weeks ago, but once I had rare beef pho here, I was hooked. We went again this week (we're almost regulars lately!), and it was delicious again. This food takes such good pictures that I decided to share. Yes, I know, another food blog, which has been the main topic on my mind lately and I just got a new camera, so of course I'm going to post about our meal outings.

Appetizers: crab & cheese wontons and salad rolls

Beautiful basil and sprouts to stir into your pho

Forgot to take the pic until the soup was half-gone; this is a small of the rare beef pho

Veggies and tofu, such fresh and colourful veggies!

My love affair with noodles knows no bounds, and finding a new place like this just feeds my addiction. I actually almost made a package of ramen this morning for breakfast. I even found a movie about noodles: Ramen Girl, which I highly recommend (except for the ending, but it is a Hollywood flick).
Today we tried the new Mr. Dumpling Express at the Dundurn Plaza, but it was very disappointing. High marks for the decor and the friendly service, and the sesame chicken, but the dumplings were sub-par (they didn't have the steamed Thai dumplings advertised on their menu, so I opted for steamed chicken), the spring rolls had a weird taste, and the excessive packaging for an eat-in meal was depressing. I don't know if we'll go back, but the prices are okay, and it's nearby, and the Szechuan Vegetables and Tofu were also okay. For a place called Mr. Dumpling, that part of the menu was supremely disappointing, mostly just the basics, and one item not even available in their first week of business. And let me tell you something, Mr. Dumpling, even if you put a pound of filling in each dumpling, if it doesn't have good flavour, then it still won't be successful. Darn, I had such high hopes for a place like that opening in my neighbourhood. I would recommend Dragon Court in Westdale over Mr. Dumpling any day of the week. There, two restaurant reviews in one blog. Whew!

Too hot

I had ordered green curry at several places in the past year or so, and had enjoyed the hot bite mixed with Thai basil and coconut milk. I was not prepared for the Limeridge Mall Thai Express's version of green curry: the woman at the cash register warned me it was hot when I placed my order, but I was naive. The first bite made me choke, and I almost spit my food out on the table! Note to self, in future when the staff person says, "It's hot," take her word for it. Luckily for me, we had ordered a bowl of TomYum soup too, which came with enough noodles to re-roof my garage (I really couldn't think of a better metaphor there; I have over-eater's brain right now). My D. was eating a large portion of veggie pad thai, and looking at the gigantic bowl of soup, so he said I could eat that if my meal was too hot.
I really hate to waste food, so I choked down some of my Green Curry chicken and a few vegetables, but the rice was soaked in the sauce. I warned my D. about the heat, but I guess he didn't really believe me; after listening to me complain with every bite, he grabbed some saucy rice, the worst part for heat, and ate it; he couldn't speak and almost spit it out. "My nose is running, my eyes are watering, I feel hot all over, and I only had one bite; how are you eating that?" "I don't know," I choked, blowing some air past him. "Oh, please don't breathe at me like that, the air is even stinging my eyes!" he winced.
After a few more bites, I gave up and launched into the noodle soup. The broth made the hot spices in my mouth spread around even more, so I had another jolt of that heat before it finally started to get washed away into my stomach. I recommend the TomYum soup, for veggies and value for your money, but so many noodles that I think we could have shared the one serving and been satisfied. But, watch out for the green curry at that particular Thai Express.

After lunch, my D. usually likes a sweet treat, and we were dangerously close to a Cinnabon. Thanks to the escalators, it was a relatively short trip from the food court, so we made the detour to get him his sweet-fix. And, oh my gosh they now serve cupcakes: they're beautiful and the flavours are fun too, including cinnamon and carrot cake. I bought a cinnamon cupcake to take home for later. The reason I'm describing this is because I wanted to write about my D.'s enjoyment of his Cinnabon on the way home in the car. I have never seen or heard another human enjoy eating something that much before in my life. "Is the smacking sound during each chew absolutely necessary?" I asked, after listening to it for a few moments. He was almost non-verbal with sugary ecstasy: "oommm, yeah." "Okay, just so I know," I said. A few oohs and ahs and sighs later, an "Ouch" escaped his lips. "What was that?" I asked. "It's still hot in the middle," he gurgled through sticky-coated lips that were descending toward the box in search of more goodness. But he sure wasn't complaining about the hotness, fresh out of the oven, just sublime, I could tell by the noises he was making. He swiped out the icing from the bottom of the box with his fingers after the last crumbs of dough were gone, and said, "Ooogh, darn." "What?" I thought maybe he had spilled some on the car seat or something. "It's all gone." He sounded so sad. I told him that I enjoyed listening to him eat it with such gusto. I never thought dessert could make me laugh so much; that Cinnabon nosh was immensely entertaining.

Back from the Falls

Two nights and almost two days in Niagara Falls (aka "mini-me Las Vegas") flew by so quickly that I barely had time to blink. My D. golfed in a friendly tournament at the Legends course. Mulligan and I went along for the ride to NF, in order to spend the last couple days of vacay with our dude, and to avoid worrying about him driving on the highway after a full-day of golfing (two rounds). This was our first time with the dog in a hotel, so we booked a pet-friendly place: Best Western Fallsview. For an extra $25 per night, which included kennelling if you're out for the day visiting the Niagara attractions, they give you a treat bag on arrival and many smiles for your family pet. I put the dog in the kennel for a half-hour on Saturday morning so that I could go get something to eat, and she seemed even perkier when I picked her up! Mulligan is a champion traveller, and except for the occasional BOOF! when peeplz in the hall were making noizes, she was perfect.
We ate Antica Pizzeria pizza on Friday, recommended by a friend, and it was delicious! A+ for sure. I had their signature Antica Pizza, with onions and sauce and parmesan cheese (no mozzarella), and I think that might be my new favourite topping combo. Friday was so unbearably hot + high humidity that my brain started to melt, and I turned into cranky-monster with swirling eyes who frightens my D. He said, "Oh, I remember where I saw this version of you before: when we were in Mexico!" We booked a trip to Mexico in September, the tail-end BUT not the end of hurricane season (H-Ivan swamped our beach for a whole day), and we went to the tropical rainforest part of Mexico in SUMMER, not bright am I? I spent the first two days prostrate on the bed from the humidity, and the rest of the week I only ventured out after noon, and always had to stay in the shade, or MY BRAIN WOULD MELT. I inherited this condition from my mother: unable to stand high-humidity plus heat is a genetic defect apparently. Note to self, always book desert vacations if you want to travel in the summer months.
Back in the air-conditioned Niagara Falls hotel room, I was less of a grizzly bear, but I was content to rent a movie on the tv so we stayed in and watched "Hot Tub Time Machine." Except for the soundtrack, don't bother; oooh, and parts of it are really really gross! That guy from the story in the link to the grizzly bear attack certainly has the right to HATE that mo-fo bear, but he doesn't ... maybe I could print out this article and show it to my D. when I have one of my g-bear, brain-melting attacks, and he won't "bear" a grudge against me, like that scientist, who must have a brain disorder to HATE NOT that mo-fo bear!

We walked down the steep hill to the Falls, and luckily the dog pulled me all the way back up because she thought she heard an animal squeaking behind the wall lining the sidewalk. The Falls are beautiful at night, but so think thousands of other people: it was busy for fireworks night, which meant we left before the booming started (goggie is very scared of fireworks!). The mist columned up twice as high as the Falls that night too, which meant we couldn't really see much of the Canadian side.
Saturday I lazed around = heaven! Read a new book (more on that later), napped, walked goggie three times, ate bacon, watched trash tv; it was bliss. That night, we got Thai Express takeout, and if you haven't had it yet, you are seriously deprived! I recommend their food, especially the green curry. The nearest location for local-bros is Lime Ridge Mall: worth the trip!
This morning, Sunday, we came home early, and now I'm blogging. Almost two days without my computer didn't kill me, but now I've been on it for two hours ... catching up I guess. Thanks to Lady Buttons for including me on her list of fav blogs -- yours is my absolute fav, Lady B.!

Eating on the Mountain

Hamilton is split into two distinct parts by the Niagara Escarpment, a long, jagged wall of rock that the UN officially declared to be a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 1990. Filled with mini-waterfalls, trail systems, falling rocks, and vineyards, the escarpment is a wonderful place. The picture below shows a similar view of what I see of the escarpment from my house.

Everyone who lives in Hamilton knows these details, and they also know that the suburban/bedroom-community/upper-level of Hamilton city that exists on top of the escarpment, known as Hamilton Mountain (hence the capital in "Mountain" in this blog title) appears rather like an urban wasteland to some people visiting that area for the first time. If all they see is Upper James or Upper Wentworth, with the teeming cars, the strip malls, and the fast-food chains (including Hooters), then this area fails to provide an inviting vibe for most people to revisit. I had this impression when I first moved to the city about 15 years ago, and rarely visited the Mountain, except when I needed Walmart's or Zellers' low prices, or Fabricland's selection, or discounted shoes. Then, luckily, I discovered, with the help of the local Spectator restaurant critic (John Kernaghan) that many Mountain restaurants were unique and worth the trip to the often dusty and usually treeless main streets of the Mountain.
A friend told me that ratings things is a fun blog entry, so I will now rate 3 Hamilton Mountain restaurants that I find excel at their particular type of food.
This weekend, I introduced some friends to Licks, a burger joint that's a regional success story (and, I recently discovered, now has a location in Dubai, of all places). A Hamilton experience is simply incomplete without a visit to Licks, in the central Mountain area, where the burgers actually do look like the ad-pic on their website (inserted here).

And they even make a vegetarian burger, which has won awards. As a burger joint, I rate this three stars out of three, for giant patties, a slice of grilled pineapple as a topping option, and some of the best ice cream anywhere (flavours include bananarama with real banana puree and chocolate with real cocoa).
Address: 1441 Upper James St
Once you're addicted to their special sauce, you can buy it in bottles in local grocery stores.
For an overstuffed pizza experience, nothing bests Chicago Style Pizza Shack. Takeout is the best option here, and it's worth the drive to the East Mountain. They have a dining room, but it's tiny and reservations are a must. If you can't agree on which type of pizza to order, even ordering two SMALL pizzas will have you eating it for days, which is definitely not a problem and very economical, but I just wanted to emphasize how much food you get for the price you pay there. I give them three stars out of three too, for introducing me to the glory that is stuffed pizza, for maintaining a family business for all those years, and for providing good value for the money.
Address: 534 Upper Sherman
They also make traditional Italian pasta dishes, and they do have a local delivery area. Mmmmm, just thinking about the last time we ate there makes me want to go again TOMORROW!
Another three stars out of three place in my restaurant experience is a little hole in a strip mall on the west end of the Hamilton Mountain, called Lemon Grass. The interior is fine, and this is another place that is a must for reservations because of the small size, but here's the outside, nondescript (see pic below).

Address: 1300 Garth St., Unit #1
The parking lot is often full, many people eating here every night we've ever visited. We usually get takeout because it's just that busy. If you do eat in, the service is efficient and quick, even when packed.

They deserve three stars because of the many vegetarian selections on their menu, the freshness of their ingredients and their cooking methods, and their restraint with the oil (which often overwhelms so much food inspired by Eastern cultures when it is served in Western restaurants), and their care to present the food in an eye-appealing way too; the plates really do usually look like this pic from their website.
Their curry chicken is simply divine, with just the right amount of chicken and not too much heat. I tell everyone I know about this place, and I have tried quite a few other Thai restaurants, but Lemon Grass always comes out on top for me.
I'm making myself hungry, now, so I'll end this entry. If you are going to one of these places in the next little while, phone us, and we'll tag along!