TORONTO, APRIL 2009

Toronto isn't that far from us, but we don't get up there as often as we like or, probably, as we should. In April, however, we travelled up to meet with a dear old friend from college days who had come from Alberta to see her new grandchild. We started with lunch in Yorkville at the Cafe Nervosa, where our friend took this photo of the two of us:



Cafe (or as it sometimes calls itself Trattoria) Nervosa doesn't really have a vegetarian or vegan menu, but the waiters and chef are very obliging and are happy to provide something acceptable by making substitutions and omissions re dishes on the menu. And it's a buzzy place :)

After having a very very long lunch, our friend had to get back to her family and we moved on to the Royal Ontario Museum for our usual fix of things old and interesting.



The museum, as you'll see, has recently had a wing added with a rather startling entrance and frontage on one side. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it, but the space works just fine and it's good to have the extra space inside.



That evening we went to



The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for a performance of Verdi's 'Simon Boccanegra' - not one of my favourite operas nor, it seems the fave of the critics I read afterwards, but it was a lovely evening.

The next day we walked from our hotel in Yorkville to the Art Gallery of Ontario -



which has recently been reopened after some considerable additions - including an added storey plus a new frontage - by the very talented Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry. I love the spiral staircases, ramps, and (good for the quadriceps for those who want the exercise and refuse the elevators!) . . .



. . . the climb to the top for a view of the rooftops of this older part of the city!



That evening we headed out to see a play (Glengarry Glen Ross, 1982, by David Mamet) at the Soulpepper Theatre in the old reclaimed Distillery District. This is a wonderful area, all pedestrianized, where old buildings have been renovated within while still keeping their original architecture.







This area is now home to live theatre, artist's studios, upscale boutiques, and restaurants of all kinds. For some reason I seem to have concentrated mostly (but not entirely) on the restaurants while I was snapping photos.




But finally, having little time left before an early curtain, we dived into a brew pub for a quick glass and a sandwich.



This was a pretty busy place, but more popular, I suspect, for its omnivore menu than for anything vegan or vegetarian.



The drink was fine :) and so was the play - excellent company! Next morning, back home to reunite ourselves with our furkids and to get back to real life.

Note to self: get to Toronto more often!!!

London ON Jan-Feb 2009

OK - sometimes good things happen for vegeterians and vegans and sometimes not-so-good things happen, right? This is a bit of both.

Our favourite omnivore veg-friendly restaurant


http://www.jambalayarestaurant.com/

has closed temporarily because of moving to different quarters - and we're suffering serious withdrawal. I'm talking about JAMBALAYA which is a haven for all peeps, veg or otherwise. Being vegan, my husband and I have been thrilled at Master Chef Kevin Greaves's attitude towards cuisine. He has a vegetarian and vegan friendly section of his menu, and he takes veg/vegan needs and tastes very seriously indeed.

Is the food serious though? Hah! This is a cuisine that is in the process of changing, moving, evolving, while at the same time keeping in touch with its roots. It is an exciting cuisine which includes (and sometimes melds, for special guests) Thai, Cajun and Caribbean cuisine. The ingredients are fresh and delightful, and if you are lucky (like most of the time!) you will get a chance to talk about the offerings with Kevin's lovely wife Denise too - she is so involved with this space! Kevin religiously, so to speak, walks out from the kitchen to see how his dishes are being received and to chat with customers, and the at-home atmosphere guarantees we all return again and again.

The thing is, however, that Jambalaya is now in the process of moving from its old location on Richmond Street, London, to a new and better space at 119 Dundas Street, London, Ontario, to reopen this next month (March 2009). We can't wait!!!





Good luck to Kevin and Denyse and to their staff - we look forward to seeing you AS SOON AS you have your doors open on your new space!




NOTE: Photos above were taken the last night of Jambalaya at its original London location - we had, understandably, a bit of a party and not a few weepy moments. Great place. Gotta GO there!!!!

Now, you see in a couple of photos my husband's smiling face in with the proprietors - and no, he's not a part of this restaurant (and neither am I) but is a happy customer!!!!

And now for the other side of the news? Well, Kevin moves from Jambalaya on Richmond Row and moves to Jambalaya, probably this next month, at 119 Dundas, with better space and an interesting new menus (including, of course, the old favourites). And what happens to the Richmond Row premises????

Veg Out Restaurant, from Stratford ON, is moving into Jambalaya's old quarters on Richmond with an upmarket version of their Stratford restaurant and more! This is great news for vegans too!

So London Ontario is looking up, guys! We are suddenly so blessed!

New York - January 2009

Now this isn't NYC - indeedy no. As a matter of fact we were waiting for hours and hours to take off and my dh suggested a glass of wine to make things a little, er, well, less stressed. And so it did, as you see from this silly photo. Now that's the trouble about travelling in the winter - weather happens!

Nevertheless, we did finally get off and a little over 12 hours after we started out we arrived at our little hotel in Manhattan. Since this was by now well after nine in the evening, we headed for the nearest place likely to be able to supply us with a vegan meal and - and we struck it lucky. The PongSri in Chelsea (but they've got a couple of other locations, I understand) produced a delicious meal to two starving travellers in short order. Love Thai food!!!



Above is my hungry dh perusing the extensive menu (and finding the vegan options) and below are the dishes quickly photographed before we demolished them.



This was a lovely eggplant with basil dish - excellent choice.



And this one was tofu etc. in a coconut sauce - spiced just right. (Sorry, I'm terrible at remembering the names of Thai dishes!)

This late at night (by the time we actually were eating) we skipped dessert and coffee, so I can't say what that part of the menu was like for vegans.

The next morning was a bit of a slow start - we had a nice breakfast (having to scavenge a bit for what was actually vegan) in the Library at our hotel, then headed off slowly for Lincoln Center to collect our pre-booked tickets from the box office - for Orfeo Ed Euridice which we were to see that night.



Then we headed off for lunch - which happened to be right at the time of the Inauguration, so we had the place almost completely to ourselves. The place? Beyoglu where we had been on a previous visit. Sublime food - and very friendly towards vegans. Sadly, I forgot I had the camera at first so didn't take pics of the food, but we ordered various mezze as we usually do in such circumstances. This restaurant might produce the best mezze I have ever tasted outside of Instanbul.

Here we are looking rather contented after a looooong lunch.



Since it was rather a special day for us (quite apart from the Inauguration of President Obama), we prevailed upon our server to take the above photo. Then it was off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.



We were here mainly to see the Renaissance and Love exhibition, but of course we wandered a bit first, as you see below.





Excellent - but not enough time before we had to go back to change for the evening and meet our friend pre-opera. The opera? Superb - of course. We went on to Cafe des Artistes afterwards. Superb venue - and if you're interested in the wall murals, see HERE. Well, it was a special event, as I say!

Another day, another place to eat (honestly, it's not ALL we did in NYC, but it certainly looks like it here):



This is Franchia - a Korean Tea House which is vegan and an excellent spot for a meal. Not just tea either. We had the prix-fixe menu, as we usually do there, and remembered to photograph the appetizer course (though not the first course - I had miso soup and it was very well made).



Lovely food and great presentation! Unfortunately, again we forgot to take pics of the main course - or at least until we had demolished half of it. It was so good!



We shared a wonderful vegan curry hotpot and also vegan 'meatballs' in a brown sauce. After the first taste, the rest was a blur! We finished with a simple sorbet - which disappeared pretty quickly.

That evening we were to meet up with friends at their apartment - but not before stopping by Bemelman's for a few minutes, as is our wont). We like to listen to Chris Gillespie sing at his piano - great retro music.



It's the decor that makes this place especially interesting (a bit different from that the previous evening, though!). Note the lampshade at dh's elbow . . .



. . . and the scrap of mural behind and above me. Such fun - and the walls are covered in them. Great illustrator, that Bemelman!

Then, having paid homage to painting, music and the god of wine, we rushed on to meet our friends!



The restaurant that evening was Candle 79 - which is a sister establishment of Candle Cafe but not to be confused with it. (The website has a link to the newer Candle 79 further down the window.) And the food and ambiance were superb as always. Now why can't we get the chef to move down the street from us here!!!! And of course, the food and ambiance paled against the company, as should always be the case when dining. Oh and did I mention that the food is absolutely vegan? How's that for the perfect place!

Lunchtime our last day was at Dawat, which is the famed actress-turned-cookbook-author Madhur Jaffrey's restaurant. It is of course Indian, and although not vegetarian it has a good veggie menu including several vegan selections. We enjoyed it enough the first time we were there - a couple of years ago - to want to return and we weren't sorry. This was another case of failing to remember the camera until we had made inroads into the main dishes. (The appetizer had been some lightly fried okra/bindi which had been sliced finely lengthways. It was more delicious than I imagined it could be.)




The above photo shows Bunhi Gobhi (stirfried cauliflower with cummin seeds, ginger and coriander leaves) and Channa Masala (chickpeas).


Apart from returning to the Met Museum and going on to a couple of others, we also found our way into the the J.P. Morgan Library and then the New York Public Library, which I hadn't visited in ages, for an exhibition or two.



I had forgotten what a marvellous interior it has.

The final evening? To HanGawi, a Korean restaurant which is totally vegan and which specializes in ancient grains, mountain greens and mountain roots. This is an experience not to be missed. It had been five years since we had first been there, and I did rather fear that my memory of it might have been enhanced over time. Not so.

This was the appetizer course - one serving requested since we had eaten so well at lunchtime.



A wonderful light selection of mountain greens and roots, delicately flavoured. We made short work of it.

The following photo shows tofu and mushrooms in a lemon ginger sauce (little bowls thoughtfully provided). As you see, we had all but finished it before I remembered I'd taken no photo (got to do something about that!)



And the second dish we ordered was this lovely Mongolian Hot Pot - also nearly depleted by the time the photo was taken.



My dh declared this to be one of the best restaurants ever!



Next morning, home to Canada - an uneventful trip, thank goodness. And we're already planning our next Great Escape.

New York, Autumn 2008

Autumn of 2008 saw us visiting New York City again - we love New York - to see friends, attend the opera (Don Giovanni) and a play (Equus), visit museums and art galleries and just wander around New York neighbourhoods. A short trip quickly turns into a delight!

We visited, as you see above, the Guggenheim, after a wonderful evening before that at Bemelman's, then to see our friends for a glass of wine, then on with them to Candle 79, conveniently just around the corner from where they live. How great to have such a great restaurant in one's own neighbourhood. I swear that if I had Candle 79 so close to me I'd never cook again!!

At the Guggenehim, we saw what wasn't quite supposed to be there: the tail-end of the superb Louise Bourgeois exhibition that had supposedly already closed. This was of particular interest to us, since we had seen her exhibition in Paris (see previous entry here)in the spring. Another exciting exhibit at the Guggenheim was the photographic exhibition by American photographer Catherine Opie. This exhibition will be on until the 7th of January and is not to be missed.

After paying homage to our usual faves at the Guggenheim, we wandered out and down the street, seeking a way to get to a late lunch. Manhattan is of course serious dog territory, which delights us every time, and we do tend to get delayed, much to the discomfort (I am sure) of various dogwalkers and dog guardians, by admiring all the wonderful pooches on parade. Even the cars parked along the street seem to be celebrating matters canine, as you see below:



On the way to lunch we passed the Flatiron Building, which always catches my imagination



as we found our way to a lovely Vegan Korean restaurant, Franchia which we have visited before. You see me being very very serious contemplating the many offerings as well as the wine list.



They also have an excellent Prix Fixe menu at lunchtime, which I highly recommend. Delicious as always! We have plans to revisit Franchia's sister restaurant, Han Gawi, on our next trip. Han Gawi is more formal and is open only in the evenings. We have been there only once and have vowed to return!

We also spent an incredible amount of time at the Met, and I'm interested to note that most of the photos I have are taken in the various asian galleries.









Asian culture seemed to be a theme this trip, including, later, a visit to the Rubin Museum in Chelsea which specializes in Himalayan art - a place which we had not visited previously. (I highly recommend this lovely museum.) To add to this asian theme, we had even, unknown to us before we registered, been booked into the Bamboo Room at our favourite New York small hotel (it calls itself a Bed and Breakfast and is in Chelsea: The Inn On 23rd). We were almost, but not quite, ready to believe that Powers were at work!

Another luncheon experience before we left was at Beyoglu, a Turkish restaurant. This is very good food, and for vegans this omnivore restaurant has a good selection of mezze; they can advise which ones will suit ones ethical and aesthetic needs. Service of course was excellent and portions were more than generous, so our choices were excellent.



In the summer, Beyoglu also serves on its outdoor patio, but it was just a tad chilly when we were there - although I did see one stalwart soul braving the elements.

Time in New York is never enough. Next visit I swear I'll take the camera with me everywhere, but somehow there's so much going on that I forget that I even have it with me.

We'll be back before long. Indeed, the next visit is already lined up. So lovely to have this city's new places to discover every time!

Paris, Spring 2008

Here it is, the cliche of all cliches - photo taken the last afternoon we were in Paris, just to prove to ourselves that we really had been there again (to the city, that is, not to the nightclub - we saw the MoulinRouge only from its exterior) AND of course in honour of the great film of the same name!

And another cliche? The Pantheon, of course.




And what would Paris be without music? From the opera played by our taxi driver on the way from the airport to music in the streets (and at concerts), Paris plays. Here's what we encountered on a bridge near our (second) hotel one morning!



And more music:



I guess I'm like a lot of people - I want to see everything that others have seen and I want to go everywhere others go, but when it comes right down to it, it's the off-beat things that delight me most about places I visit. Somehow, however, they don't seem to get photographed as much. But here we were in Paris after years of being away, and it was almost overwhelming. Here's my dh on our first day - fountains are irresistible, aren't they?



It had been a lovely day - despite the horrors of transatlantic travel - and here we are prowling around after a quick coffee while they made our room ready in a little hotel in the Marais. After we had dumped our luggage (we travel with carry-ons only - inconvenient but less hassle) we headed out to a Middle Eastern restaurant that we had read was vegan-friendly. It was called Chez Marianne and was in the Pletzel - and picking and choosing carefully among the mezze kind of courses one could make up a delicious vegan meal. The servers spoke English better than we spoke French, which is always a plus ;)



The photo above is only a corner of it, and although they do have an attractive informal interior we decided every time we went there (three times in all) that we liked to sit outside.



This made for a lovely midday break from walking our feet off (yes, we know there's a metro, but we like to walk!).

What next to add? Well, those who know us well know that we are addicted to art, architecture and museums in general, so we visited the Delacroix house on the left bank. It was interesting, but strangely I was enchanted by the courtyard garden.



It's just the kind of place I would find enchanting as a spot away from the cares of the world yet near enough to what matters most to me - in Delacroix's case, art - to rest and then inspire rather than distract. Another lovely afternoon!



After that, of course, we needed a break - a nice sit down with a glass of wine. Where better, if one is paying homage to heroes than this place:



This is Deux Magots - right on the tiny square named for hits famous habitues, Simone de Beavoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. It's considered a tourist trap, and no doubt it is, but we couldn't resist given our thirst quotient and both our hangups about this pair! And of course I took a snap of my dh in a contemplative, if not quite philosophical, moment:



Speaking of favourite places on the left bank, here's one I can highly recommend: It's called Le Grenier.



This is a vegan-friendly vegetarian restaurant, tiny but cozy with wonderful service, excellent food and a wine list which includes organic vegan selections.



The photo above shows part of the interior - the bar area adjacent to the tiny kitchen.Here's the photo the proprietor took (at his insistence) on the last time there, the day before we flew back home.



We look as delighted as we felt!

And here is one of the dishes I really enjoyed; I had it twice. It was a vegan cassoulet - with beautiful white beans, tomatoes and other delights, some tofu, and the most delicious sauce and and herbs imaginable. Here is my dh's serving of it ('Hands off, man, I gotta take its photo!') the last day. We tried other things too, but that one was really special to both of us.



Yumm!

This restaurant is located not far from the famous Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop:





Oh I should mention this place - Grand Appetit - near the Place de la Bastille:



This is vegan and inexpensive and we fell into it our first evening. They had some plain but delicious offerings and although we had only soup (fantastically good) and a salad, not being hungry after our extended lunch at Chez Marianne, we made a note to visit it again next time. It isn't quite the place for a romantic interlude, but is very popular with the local crowd as well as visitors. We found it a bit dour, but that might have been because we were so very delighted with our arrival in Paris that day that only a welcoming brass band could possibly have matched our mood (and of course Paris supplied that too!).

Just to prove we took Paris as seriously as we did when we were young and not so long out of our studies, we did visit the Louvre:



Sadly, it is indeed overrun by visitors (yup, like ourselves) and when we were there it was truly, er, difficult. Never-the-LESS (as Kate Hepburn/Rosey Sayer was always saying to Humphrey Bogar/Charlie Allnut) we loved messing around in the French paintings well away from DaVinci Code tourists for an afternoon.

Another museum that delighted was in the Institut du Monde Arabe.And the building itself? Absolutely fabulous. Here are a couple of shots of the interior - one looking outside and one looking up a staircase. Gotta be seen!



Those little openings, so beautifully decorative, are controlled by the sun - opening and closing automatically. So clever!



And speaking of celebrated architecture, here is a shot of the exterior of the Pompidou Centre where we saw a wonderful exhibition by Louise Bourgeois (sorry, you'll have to google for her!) - absolutely brilliant. One of her sculptures is shown in the ground floor interior shot which follows.





Grotesque? Well maybe a little for arachnophobes (among which please count one person who goes by the name of River, 'Charlotte's Web' notwithstanding), but if anyone could get me over that fear it might be this lady.

We did manage to get some time away from museums and away from food (well, for a while anyway!). Here are we, busy taking each other's photos, in the Luxembourg Gardens:





Here's one my dh took just off the Ile de la Citee (we were staying, by then, one island over on the Ile St Louis) on probably our first day. (Most of these photos were taken over a couple of days, since I don't always carry a camera, so you are seeing the same clothes over and over again.)



Roses are irrestible to me - a childhood thing. These were close by a very old church, St Julien Le Pauvre.



(But the link given above provides a better photo!)

Another childhood thing with me is gargoyles - they fascinate me still. This one gook me by surprise.



This gargoyle was above the entrance to the Medieval Museum - a delightful place, also on the left bank, which should not be missed. I'm a sucker for medieval stuff :)

Okay, so we did have the chance to do something a little different. Did I say music earlier? Yes, and we attended a splendid performance of the Munich Philharmonic at the Theatre Champs Elysee (no photos there, sorry, only wonderful memories), but also see below for a complete musical change of pace.

An absolutely lovely thing that happened on this trip was my chance to meet a cyber pal - 'Pel' - with whom I am privileged to co-host on several groups. Somehow people one meets in cyberspace don't quite seem real. Pel is one of the realest and loveliest people I can hope to meet, and I admire her greatly.



She was having an exhibit of her photographs at this cafe, where there was also a musical friend of hers who paid us the compliment of playing for us.



He has a great talent and a vibrant personality to match - so much so that all the snaps we took were blurred from his constant movement! That only enhances the memory for us.

And that seems to be a great note to end on for now, but I may take the opportunity to add to it later :) A photo for closure? Okay, here's a photo taken near our hotel - through a window. Beautiful bronze sculptures of fruit dominated the displays. Two apples here: