Category: Eats

Food, glorious food

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Fez for dinner

Up the road from me Fez opened up a little while ago in the space formerly occupied by Lulu’s Bistro. The food is billed as French-Moroccan, so the wife and I tried it out tonight.

It’s nicely decorated inside, although a tad on the dim side. We suggested to the staff that they consider using taller candles on the tables because we were quite literally eating in the dark at our table off in the corner. Next time I’m going to make sure to grab a table underneath one of the lights so I can see my food.

At least the food was tasty. I started with the Moroccan style mussels while the wife had the kefta (2 skewers of a spiced veal meatball type thing). A little small for the price ($7), but I thought it was pretty good. The mussels were excellent in a rich tomato-citrusy broth.

For the main course we each tried one of the tagine dishes. She had the braised short rib tagine, which was well prepared but was seasoned with something she didn’t care for too much. I had the lamb tagine, which was a definite winner. The lamb was tender and flavourful and nicely enhanced with figs and apricots adding some sweetness to the dish.

Dinner was rounded out with a sugar coma-inducing chocolate and sesame cream and creme brulee. The chocolate sesame cream was excellent – pudding like (much thicker though) layers of rich dark chocolate and light sesame with some really strongly cherry flavoured something at the bottom of a martini glass. The chocolate pretty much overwhelms any sesame flavour, but since I’ve never met a chocolate I didn’t like, I didn’t mind. The chocolate combined with a little bit of the cherry was really good. The creme brulee came out with a nice solid top of brulee and was well made but turned out to be infused with lavender, not a flavour the wife is fond of.

Fez is definitely a place to check out if you’re looking for new flavours to try. I’m looking forward to going back to try some of the French style dishes. It’s a little on the pricey side ($15+ for the entrees) and I didn’t end up with any leftovers. You do get some really good food though and a cozy, albeit dim, atmosphere to enjoy dinner in.

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Cookies by George

Cookies by George
Still the best after 20 years.
Yum.

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What do you mean I can’t have it anymore?

INTERNAL MEMO
From: Stomach
To: Management
Re: Ultra spicy foods
Apparently the previous memo following the hot wings from Necter was not received. Although the Braveheart wings from Wild Wing Cafe (tasty as they are) are not as spicy as the Necter wings, they are still causing minor problems with the food processing equipment. Due to the age of the facilities and normal wear and tear on the equipment, we are finding it more and more difficult to fully process extremely spicy foods. Since management is unable (or unwilling) to procure new equipment for our division, the stomach and other members of the Food Processing Division would like to ask management to refrain from ordering ultra-spicy foods from now on.
If management persists with ordering extremely spicy foods, we cannot guarantee our ability to properly process these items in the future with the equipment currently available.
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Food Processing Division

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Maybe not so convenient

This interesting article over on ScienceDaily came to me over the GoogleReader feed.
‘Convenience’ Foods Save Little Time For Working Families At Dinner

In connection with a larger study, CELF researchers videotaped four days in the home lives of 32 working families in Los Angeles, including their dinner routines, between early 2002 and 2005.

The results about how people cook and what they use to make dinner are interesting. The difference in cook-to-plate time for meals prepared from scratch and those prepared using ‘convenience items’ wasn’t significant, not a lot of cookbooks involved or recipes from magazines/newspapers, and little participation by the kids. Many parents in the study also made separate meals for the kids too, rather than cajole them into eating the same food the parents ate (like our parents did to us).

Of the 64 weeknight dinners Beck observed, 70 percent were completely home-cooked, meaning they were prepared at home, although not necessarily from scratch.

“People don’t spend any less time overall on dinner when they use so-called convenience foods,” Beck said. “Families seem to spend a certain amount of time cooking regardless. When commercial items are involved, they just ramp up how elaborate it gets.”

“Some people don’t fight the fight of getting the kids to eat what’s being served for dinner,” she said. “The kids frequently got entirely separate entrees or separate items from the adults, so that adds to the overall complexity of the meal.”

So does this mean that the next generation’s concept of fine dining will be determined by how many boxes or cans it was prepared from?

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Caffeine: Not just for drinking anymore

In addition to hyper-caffeinated drinks, mints, and chocolate covered espresso beans, caffeine buzzed geeks can get their fix in yet another form: Caffeinated Sunflower Seeds.
At 120 mg of caffeine per bag, it’s a little less than what’s in a can of Jolt Cola and a little more than a cup of coffee.

I’m thinking you probably don’t want to be snacking on these while pounding back a 6 pack of Jolt following a shower with your caffeinated body wash.