John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Chocolate and churros

For many years, my wife Martha has told me that if you really, really want to know what hot chocolate is, you have to have it in Madrid, with a plate of churros. Martha happens to make a mean cup of hot chocolate herself (we call it Spanish chocolate, although I always suspected that in Spain they would just call it "chocolate"), so my appetite has been interested in this for a long time. 

I finally had the opportunity to go to Spain in 2018. In Madrid, we stayed with Martha's aunt Luci, and had fun wandering the streets, gazing at the art of Sorolla, Goya and Velasquez, and catching up with relatives. I saw that "taberna culture" in Madrid — the lifestyle that values the neighbourhood eatery, which is like a pub and a family restaurant — is very much alive. 

But there's nothing like the chocolate. 

And the churros. 

 

Martha took me to Chocolateria Valor, not far from Puerta del Sol, in a busy shopping district of historic Madrid.

Valor is a famous global chocolate brand (you can find it at Winner's sometimes), but their chocolaterias are something else. It's like an old-fashioned restaurant, with bright chrome and polished surfaces, and they sell mainly chocolate treats. 

 

Martha has Valor products in the house,  and once in a while we have an indulgent mug of hot chocolate. It's a world away from the boil-kettle-and-add-water-to-brown-powder I've known. 

And it makes me want to go back to Madrid some day ... 

McDonald's: Not the place for hipsters to get their coffee

As much as I love a well-crafted cup of coffee (and am willing to pay for it), this British commercial for McDonald's and its McCafe brand hits more than a couple of points bang on the nail about the silliness of hipster coffee culture, from the preciousness of the preparation to the outsize prices for the very small servings. (I found this to be especially so in London.) 

McDonalds Spoofs Hipster Coffee Culture in New McCafe Commercial from Sylvia G on Vimeo.

A trip to Rio (the Brazilian Steakhouse, that is)

On Friday night, Martha and Nick took me to dinner, and it was a new spot among St. John's restaurants: Rio Brazilian Restaurant, on Torbay Road. It's on the intersection with Newfoundland Drive, taking up the space of a former Pizza Exprerts restaurant. 

It's an interesting concept: you're seated at a table and invited to check out the salad bar (which also features, oddly enough, chicken nuggets, I guess for families with young kids) before the main event happens. Everyone pays about $27 for a meal (except for drinks desserts), and you can keep the food coming until you turn the green card on your table over, and leave the red side facing up: the visual cue to the staff that you've had enough. 

Every few minutes, a server comes by with a long, two-pronged barbecue stick with a type of meat. It may be sirloin, it may be pork ribs, it may be chicken wings. If you want some, they'll off a slice ... or two, or three. It's an all-you-can-eat affair, so no one's judging. We loved the lamb, and had different preferences for other things, like sausages and beef ribs. Martha was delighted to have cod and shrimp offered up. My seafood allergies, of course, had me choosing sirloin and lamb. 

There's more to choose from, too: barbecued pineapple, which we liked, and grapefruit and banana given the same treatment, which didn't catch my fancy. We also waited a bit for some of the All the same, it's a fun way to eat, especially with a group; we noticed a number of tables were quite enjoying themselves. 

Rio does not offer fine dining, so expectations need to be in check. As well, if you're not hungry or only need an appetizer, this is not the place to come. But for a night out with the family and/or friends, I'd recommend it. We didn't feel rushed, and we enjoyed a night of food and conversation. 

It's also nice to see a new alternative in the city for restaurant choices, especially one that's in walking distance of our neighbourhood. 

You can see some pictures of the interior here. 

Craig Ferguson discovers some darn fine jam

Dark Tickle has been making jams and sauces for many years, but obviously the Northern Peninsula company couldn't possibly be a household name everywhere. 

Yesterday, comedian and talk-show host Craig Ferguson tweeted this: 

 

In Northwestern Canada they know how to have a good time. pic.twitter.com/Qw88aYuybJ

— Craig Ferguson (@CraigyFerg) August 17, 2013

Um, northwestern? St. Lunaire-Griquet begs to differ!

Ferguson soon enough corrected himself.

 

Gar! I meant Northeastern Canada #distractedbythedarktickle

— Craig Ferguson (@CraigyFerg) August 17, 2013

There are minions on my plate

My wife and I got such a kick out of Despicable Me and its minions that we went to see the sequel on our own, our now-teenage son developing a serious case of eyeroll and "you've got to be kidding" disease. (His loss. We laughed.) 

I got a kick out of this collection of food photos that not only have creative uses for veggies, but are hilarious too. 

KD, dramatically

Break time! The ingredients of Kraft Dinner get the dramatic-reading treatment, as if the martini-quaffing hero just had his heart served to him on a platter.

(And do stick around till after the credits.)

How to eat the equivalent of a small car

An eye-opening infographic. 

 

Source:LiveScience

Better names for Pop-Tarts, among other products

It's been a long, long time since I've had a Pop-Tart, and yet this parody title rang a bit true. 

There's more here, including You Will Never Eat These Outside of a Theater (a.k.a., Junior Mints). 

Last evening's sandwiches

It was fairly hot in St. John's yesterday, and Martha and I had a late supper in the evening. To deal with the heat, dinner was cold, and pretty simple. Martha whipped together slices of bread topped with delicious things ... each of them incidentally, featuring an ingredient she had prepared herself. 

Thus, one had apple chutney, another had pesto and a third had pickled peppers.  

And it was all good. 

Dinner is served

"Every restaurant is a theater, and the truly great ones allow us to indulge in the fantasy that we are rich and powerful."
- Ruth Reichl 

 

Pasta to Di for

Well, it made me chuckle. It's one of a set of photos here. 

 

Spoon leaves a message for fork

I saw this on my friend Paulo's Facebook feed. 

 

 

Your fried chicken does not look like their fried chicken

An interesting infographic on fast food and advertising from Australia. 

 

It blowed up real good ... in a microwave

My parents bought a microwave oven around 1980 or so, and it was enormous. It took up half the space of a counter, and was about three or four times the volume of the typical oven you can buy today. The advertised wonders of microwaves (cooking meals in minutes, heating up leftovers) were eclipsed for me and my friend Chris by our teenage scientific curiosity: what would happen if you left something in it for a long time?

Our first, and last, experiment involved an orange. We nuked it, and then nuked it again and again. And maybe again. I'm not sure.

By that point, the orange had become quite gross, and it stunk up the joint. Fortunately, not permanently. (The oven wasn't permanent, either; my mom returned it, and didn't come around to microwave use for many years, as I recall.)

The following video is actually a commercial for a company that is also a microwave skeptic, yet also prone for a little experiment or two. Moe's Southwest Grill bills itself for not using microwaves to cook their food. Why? Well, the video explains their cooking principles. 

Breakfast station

The last thing we need is another kitchen appliance, so this one is more of a nod toward something I might be have been tempted to buy when I was hitting out from home in my early 20s. It's the self-contained breakfast station, incorporating a mini coffee machine, a mini-oven to toast bread, and a small hot plate to handle the eggs and bacon. Plus ... it does look pretty cool, in its faux-retro way.

As seen here. 

 

 

The gingerbread AT-AT

Not sure what makes the AT-AT walker from The Empire Strikes Back so likely to bring Christmas to mind, at least for some people, but it does. A couple of years ago, we liked one T-shirt design we bought a shirt for each member of the family. Today, I saw this: a gingerbread recreation. Published here. 

Nothing says 'authentic' like ...

Lord of the Rings pez dispensers. 

Be honest. Don't you think that what J.R.R. Tolkien really had in mind, as he dreamed up the Shire, the hobbits and all the rest, was the candy-related spinoffs? 

Indulgences

"If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles."
- Colette 

Our good fortune (cookies)

We went out for dinner a while ago at our favourite Chinese restaurant, and found that the messages in the fortune cookies could not have more appropriately served. 

Here, for instance, is Nick's: 

Here's Martha's (and it may help to know that she runs her own business, a consulting practice):

And here's mine ... one anyone, I think, would like to receive.

Best brownies ever

Well, I cannot empirically prove that, but I'll make the boast anyway Not a new batch - was cleaning some things up and noticed this photo from a while back. The brownies did not last long!

It's a bit of a family recipe; my mom called them Three Bowl Brownies, but you can make them in two quite easily - one for the creamy stuff and one for the flour and cocoa. 

Deadly. 

Finally, a Ron Swanson 'meat tornado' cookie

As seen here. 

Turkey leftovers

We haven't even gotten around to buying our Christmas turkey yet, but it's good to know some people already have leftover plans. I noticed this video fom BBC World, featuring Nigel Slater, and got hungry enough to share it. 

Dinosaur cookies

These are cookies we saw at Dean & DeLuca, the uber-upscale food store in Manhattan. A small tin of salt that goes for 10 bucks? They sell it. (Mind you, it's a specialty type of salt. But still.) We had been there before, so when we were in the Soho area last week, I made a point of taking Nick to the cookie counter. Pricey as they are, the cookies are worth it. 

I even got a good joke from the woman behind the counter. "Are these cookies made from real dinosaurs?" I asked with a wink. 

"Only when the dinosaurs are in season," she smiled back. Nice. 

Some things everyone should know about cheese

This was a design entry for Threadless, but it works as an infographic, too. And now you know why Wallace, Gromit and other British folk are mad for their cheese! 

The chocolate crepe in Bryant Park

One of the things Nick enjoyed most during our trip to New York was a stand that made crepes in Bryant Park, particularly a chocolate crepe. To call it delicious is an understatement. I shot this short video, which shows the delight Nick got in receiving, and topping it up with a few (OK, more than a few) sprinkles of extra chocolate powder.