An American Aisle in London

I wish I had taken a picture of Selfridges’ food hall when I was in London, as it is a sight to be believed. I especially liked the entire row of “American Food.” The most prominent items in this aisle were two kinds of Marshmallow fluff (plain and strawberry), Lucky Charms, and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (Kraft Dinner to fellow Canadians). And let's not forget the Aunt Jemima's. Amid tea, scones and marmite, I was in the mood for some American cuisine. And so I made my favourite macaroni and cheese and some peanut butter and jam biscuits. I guess it’s ironic that those biscuits come straight from from the kitchen of Nigella Lawson.

Good Eats in Amsterdam

Dining out in a new city is one of the best ways to feel out the culture. It also gives any jaunt a really relaxing, vacationy feel. I mean, you’ll never know how many calories are in that sugared waffle, so you might as well enjoy! When my mum and I visited Amsterdam a few weeks ago, needless to say we ate out a lot. We were also blessed with a fabulous breakfast spread every morning, courtesy of our hotel. Every morning Rachel and Pepijn served us fresh bread, jam, yogurt, cappuccinos, eggs, fruit, and plates of spiced gouda.

My mum and I would plod through the rain to see some of Amsterdam’s fabulous museums but we often rested in the afternoon with a cup of fresh mint tea. A cup of really special tea like that and a slice of appletoort from Cafe de Jaren makes for a lovely afternoon break. Other Dutch treats I recommend are the unassuming but delicious coffee-caramels hopjes and stroopwaffels (syrup waffles), cookie-like waffles that smush together a thin layer of caramely syrup.

I don’t think I’d ever eaten Indonesian food before that trip, but it was very good. As a former Dutch colony, Indonesian food has caught on in Holland in a big way. My mum and I had a very delish rijstoffel one evening, right across from the flower market. Our dishes were a little heavy on the tofu, but the meal was delicious. I also spotted an absolute ton of Argentinian steak houses in the city. Truly, there were more steak houses than I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I kept meaning to ask out hosts why that was but I never did. I suppose that just leaves more to discover next time!

Hampstead

According to my research (ahem, Wikipedia), Hampstead has more millionaires in its boundaries than any other city in the United Kingdom. Those millionaires obviously take very good care of their city, as it's beautiful. Although Hampstead is only twenty minutes from central London by tube, it retains the feel of a village. Well, a very chic village; I saw some of the nicest independent boutiques here, along with your standard high street shops. Hampstead must also be home to some great gardeners, as I saw the most amazing flowers. Britain, with all its rain and cool temperatures, makes for fantastic greenery.


Hampstead was also Keats’s home for the last two years of his life before he moved to Rome and succumbed to consumption. During his lifetime the house was actually two: that of his patron, Charles Brown, and the Brawnes’. The Keats museum worked closely with the film Bright Star (although house was too small to accommodate the filming) and I experienced a strange sense of déjà vu.

Hampstead was the final dwelling place of Sigmund Freud after he escaped from Vienna. While I didn’t get a chance to see his house, the couch where he performed his analyses is apparently on display there. But unlike many other London dwellers, he is not buried in nearby Highgate cemetery.

The Heath itself is really beautiful and much wilder (and larger) than most London parks. The paths are rustic and unmanicured, and you’d be hard-pressed to find the pristine flower arrangements and fountains that you see in Kensington Gardens or Regent’s Park. You may not be able to get cream tea as you can at The Orangery, but you can swim in the mixed bathing area, and you can feel blissfully alone.

Toronto Treasures

Here are some very special Toronto nibblies that I’m aching for in Britain:

Cafés: I might as well start with cafés, as those are the dining establishments I love best. Caffeine! Sugar! Pastry! Terrific. The market for cafes in Toronto is saturated, but that’s fine by me. These are my favourites:

• Balzac’s (55 Mill Street): There’s a location in Liberty village, but Balzac’s in the Distillery District is the prettiest. Like the rest of the District, Balzac’s features original brickwork and high ceilings.
• Caffiends (91 Charles Street West): This is a student-run café at the base of Victoria college’s Old Vic building, and their coffee provided stamina for many a Semiotics lecture. Their hours are fickle, so I’d e-mail caffiends@gmail.com to find out when to go. Plus, it’s volunteer-run and they donate their earnings to charity.
• Crema (3079 Dundas Street West): Crema gets a mention because although I only went there once (the Junction always feels so far away) it served up the most perfect Americano I’ve ever had.
• Ella’s Uncle (916 Dundas Street West): Get the ovalatte, it’s swell. And there is one seriously cute red-haired barista who works there. Ella’s is also in a really nice location—you can just grab your bevvie and walk across the street to Trinity Bellwoods for a nice sit.
• Manic Coffee (426 College Street): Manic makes my favourite soy latte ever. I don’t know how they get it so rich and smooth, but they do. They don’t have WiFi, and the baristas can be a little snobby, but I’d make do for a pick-me-up this good.
• ZaZa (75 Yorkville Avenue): So fun. The owner of ZaZa is Italian and will greet female customers with “bella!” Despite the fact that this shop has only been open for a year, the baristas appear to know everyone on a first-name basis. It’s like one of those neighborhood places that I thought could never exist. The espresso is good, of course, but ZaZa shines for Olympic-level people watching. That's obvious—it’s Yorkville!
  

Chabichou (196 Borden Street): My favourite cheese purveyor! What a nice shop, filled with friendly, helpful, sexily-accented staff. The shop has luscious cheeses and carries an interesting mix of other French goodies—everything from fleur de sel to salted caramels and imported jams and spreads. Their pastries are pretty tasty as well. The owners of Chabichou also own Tati Bistro just East on Harbord, which is another very good French eatery.

Eat My Martini (648 College Street): If I wanted to go for cocktails with girlfriends, this is where I went. The menu is enormous, with something like a hundred choices of cocktails, all served in martini glasses (because why not?). Sunday-Thursday are $5 martini nights.

Fresh (326 Bloor Street West): Fresh has three different locations in Toronto, but I’ve only been to the Bloor Street stop. Many times. Too many times. I think I’ve had everything on the menu, it’s just that good. Everyone who works there has mastered the art of hip dishevelment, the kind of people who look good in TOMS. I especially recommend the Magic Tofu wrap, the cashew cookie, and the almond-date ate smoothie. And please go for Fresh’s weekend brunch, where you can get amazing scrambled tofu and banana pancakes.

GUU Izakaya (398 Church Street): I went here with my friend Gillian not too long ago and we were not disappointed. It has definitely been my most memorable meal of the year, not least because it was cold and raining and we decided to wait in a very interesting apartment building across the street. GUU serves up what I like to think of as Japanese tapas—fried oysters, scallops, a bibimbap-style rice dish—with boisterous, friendly staff and inventive cocktails.

Negroni (492 College Street): This quiet little haunt is just at the base of Palmerston, about five minutes from where I lived. In addition to proximity, Negroni is also amazing because they serve delicious mozzarella-pesto panini and house-churned ice cream. My sister and I once shared the buffalo milk vanilla variety. Very, very yummy.

Noah’s (322 Bloor Street West, plus others): I bought groceries here for four years and I dearly miss it now. It’s pretty small, but they had everything I needed: spelt-raisin bread, raw almond butter, agave nectar, and some kale. There’s also a really good selection of natural body products, so it’s like a more manageable, slightly cheaper Whole Foods.

Soma (55 Mill Street): I’m not the first to mention this chocolate shop, but what a goodie. Soma’s hot chocolate (dark or Mayan) is to die for, and they offer all manner of unique treats—cacao nibs, blocks o’ choc, 99%, milk—they have it all. I loved getting a cup of hot chocolate from here and poking around the great design shops in the area.

Urban Herbivore (64 Oxford Street): Best muffin ever. Seriously, if you’re looking for an enormous vegan spelt muffin, seek no more. Flavors are ever-changing, but they always have the sweet potato-date version, my favourite. They also make salads and a mean sandwich, but the muffins are tops.

Victory Café (581 Markham Street): If I had a “local,” this would be it. This is where I came for a drink and a snack if I didn’t feel like venturing too far. The food is definitely more innovative than your standard pub fare of pot pie+mash+fries+nachos; Victory usually serves some sort of curry dish, and they even have crème brulée (though I would not recommend that…). This is a great place for all varieties of beer, and the crowd is always really fun.

All you ever needed to know about Rasputin:

The Secret of Russian Style

The shoes.

Three Great Books about Petersburg

Crime and Punishment by Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

• A total given. Not only did Dostoevsky live in this city (there is a small, somewhat-engaging museum located in his last apartment, where he wrote The Brothers Karamazov), but Crime and Punishment takes place in St. Petersburg, throughout the Haymarket District. Most of this area is now known as the Mayakovskaya district (pictured below, and named for another Russian literary giant, Vladimir Mayakovsky, who lived an even more interesting life than Dostoevsky--dozens of love affairs, writing insane poetry to his mistress Lilia, belonging to the Futurist group of poets/rebels, and finally shooting himself at age 37. He now has a metro station named after him, and during Stalinist times his name was revered, and his poetry was taught in all schools.). Mayakovskaya is home to the best market in the city, Kuznechny, as well as plenty of interesting buildings, restaurants, and theatres. Not a lot has changed in the area, and I often imagine the area as being identical to when Dostoevsky walked its streets.

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

• Although Nabokov left Petersburg during the revolution in 1917 and would spend the rest of his life in Paris, England, America and Switzerland, his memoirs are filled with loving thoughts of his hometown: his family's aristocratic past (Nabokov's father was on the Tsar Nicholas II's cabinet, and employed dozens of servants), and walks with his first love, Tatiana, along Nevsky Prospekt. Russians still count him as their own, although he is not revered to the same extent as someone like Pushkin or even Pasternak, who spent his entire life in this city. But still, there is a small and well-kept museum that houses some of his amazing butterfly collection and some of the index cards from which he crafted his novels.
  

The Master of Petersburg by J.M. Coetzee

• This novel, written by British Nobel Prize-winner J.M. Coetzee, reimagines the story of Dostoevsky's return to St. Petersburg from Germany after the death of his stepson. His stepson was said to have committed suicide, and it was completely devastating to the author. In the novel, Dostoevsky is remorseful and guilty, although he still manages to get up to some naughty activities, described in sordid detail by Coetzee. Although his wife and stenaugrapher, Anna, was known to have been a very good influence on him, Dostoevsky's gambling was legendary, and he got himself into quite a lot of trouble that way. This novel is an excellent portrait into the imagination of one of Russia's most celebrated.