Breakfast Delights

Trips to North America aren’t exactly a foodie wonderland apart from, in my opinion, breakfast! I like a good old English breakfast, but it pales into insignificance compare to the array or wonders you are offered in an American or, in this case, Canadian establishment.

It is a very good job I don’t live here because after two big breakfasts in two days, and with plans to cook waffles this morning, I’d be the size of a house if I stayed too long! The friends I’m visiting believe in seeking out a good independent rather than just hitting the chains (rejoice!), so breakfast-day one took us to the Olde Red Hen in Collingwood. Peameal bacon, a local speciality of thick-cut wet-cured pork loin, just had to be done, as did the home fries, deliciously fried with onion and peppers. For me the eggs always have to be over-easy as I can’t stand what a friend accurately (in my opinion) referred to as ‘egg snot’. There was a little cheese thrown into this dish too because… well, why not?!

Breakfast day two was at the puntastic Eggcitement Bistro in Meaford. We had an array of different breakfasts between us, each worthy of its own photograph! I fancied a bit of spice so went with the Mexican special, a delicious chorizo and tomato sauce wrapped inside a thin, crepe-like omelette. A very different style of home fry from the day before and a pile of delicious rye toast (which I liberally spread with peanut butter post-omelette) completed this delightful plate.

The husband had a Bacon Breakfast Sandwich – egg, bacon and cheese on an English muffin – with a side of house sausage because he could!

Friend one decided the idea of Burger Benedict was just too intriguing to resist and she wasn’t disappointed.

Friend two went all out and ordered the Eggcitement Sampler, which had some of almost everything, including pancake and French toast. He put a pretty impressive dent in the plate, leaving only a small amount of pancake and toast.

As I often, and very happily, find is the way in such establishments, free-flowing coffee served by super-friendly and obliging wait staff rounded off the meal. We all left very happy and VERY full!

A Little Canadian Road Trip

During visits to Canada I have discovered that every road trip, no matter how short, is best started with a trip to Tim Hortons. Now, I know I have Canadian friends who don’t like ‘Timmys’ but I also have friends all over the world who adore it. Personally I enjoy the fact it’s a successful home-grown Canadian brand, that it costs a fraction of the price of other coffee chains, and that it’s something of an institution here! Not only did today’s road trip start with a Tim Hortons coffee, but it also began with Timbits, essentially little donut holes that come in multiple flavours. We were a happy carful indeed!

As if starting the trip with these little sweet joys wasn’t enough, we also visited a brewery, one of my favourite things to do abroad. Creemore Springs Brewery, on the main street of the lovely Creemore village, allows each person to sample three taster pots without charge, rather a lovely treat I must say!

I chose to sample Lagered Ale, Lot 9 Pilsner, and the current ‘Batch’ beer – Cream Ale. The Lagered Ale, a crisp light bodied beer, was my favourite, although I thoroughly enjoyed the Batch too. Lot 9 had a slightly hoppy finish for my taste.

By the time we reached Collingwood, our final destination, night was drawing in and it was DEFINITELY cold! It’s supposed to be 10 degrees warmer tomorrow, which is difficult to believe, so I’ll enjoy looking at the snow for this evening.

Beautiful Buxton

The last thing I expected to find on a grey, drizzly Derbyshire day was seasonal cheer in the form of a poinsettia filled hot house. But that’s exactly what I found in the beautiful Buxton Pavilion Gardens. Not just the often seen red poinsettia here either, but stunning pink and cream varieties too.

The Pavilion Gardens are just one of the many splendid Victorian buildings to be found in the spa town of Buxton, the highest market town in England. The Devonshire Dome and the Opera House are amongst the other impressive buildings in the town, and if the restoration of The Crescent is ever completed then it will be truly stunning.

But of course, while in Derbyshire a region food speciality was required and after a walk around the town, the warm interior of No. 6 The Square (a notable building in its own right) was a welcome sight. I was almost tempted by the cakes and tarts in the display cabinet but the more unusual Homemade Derbyshire Tea Loaf with Sage Derby Cheese was screaming to be tried!

I grew up in a home with northern parents, so cheese with fruit cake and with other fruit based treats is the norm for me, something southern friends often find most odd! But I’ve never tried Sage Derby cheese before and it was a delicious discovery, particularly paired with the heavily spiced tea loaf.

If you’ve never tried the cheese and fruitcake combo before I’d highly recommend giving it a whirl, and that you try this particular local variation if you find yourself in Derbyshire.

Iconsiam

Having watched it being built when we’ve visited over the past four years we couldn’t not go to see Iconsiam, the multi-billion pound development that opened just two weeks ago. Part shopping centre, part hotel, part apartment block and part leisure space, the complex has even attempted to recreate some of the market trading that would have happened along the streets and klongs (small canals) before this massive development took over the site.

It’s certainly an impressive building and is massively spacious and airy. There’s still more to open, but already there are a combination of designer, high street and handicraft stores as well as multiple food outlets. Free shuttle boats are currently provided from Sathorn Pier since they didn’t have the foresight to construct the intended Skytrain extension while they were actually building the centre!

We compared the prices in stores we know well enough to know what costs would be in the UK and found that they were universally more expensive here. Even claiming back the VAT on departing Thailand it would be a close call as to whether products came in cheaper.

The market area on the ground floor is actually quite pleasant to walk around, although it’s odd to see the keenness to maintain the street food culture, whilst also obliterating the original trading areas by building huge leisure complexes. I’d rather see it inside than gone completely though!

Overall, I’m glad I visited, there’s plenty to wander around and enjoy, and there’s some good food and drink on offer. No expense has been spared on decor, inside and out, so it makes for an interesting potter. I won’t be hitting Iconsiam for a shopping spree anytime soon though.

Riverside Dining

In case I’ve not mentioned it (much!) before, my favourite place to be in Bangkok is by the river. In fact, this applies to my home city of London too, and pretty much to every city I’ve ever been to. If it’s not a river, any body of water will do. There’s just something I love about watching the inevitable activity that comes with water, and Bangkok has this in spades.

We’re back in Thailand for a couple of days before we head home and if we’ve not been by the pool (the water theme continues) then we’ve been by the Chao Phraya. Two locations in particular have enticed us, an old favourite and a new find.

The old favourite is Be My Guest, a riverside restaurant that we return to every trip, regardless of whether we’re staying at the Millennium Hilton (next to which it sits) or not. Neither this nor the new find is flashy. We’re talking friendly, characterful places here, selling the equivalent of street food at reasonably elevated prices to match their riverside locations. I’ve eaten much more expensively while I’ve been away but this was my favourite meal, watching the darkening sky reflected in the CAT building that my husband loves.

The menu at Be My Guest contains plenty of simple Thai favourites, plus a few dishes to test the more adventurous. We started with an appetiser of shrimp cakes while we enjoyed our first beer. I’ve never eaten anything quite like these donut shaped nibbles anywhere else, but they’re a good start for an evening on the Chang!

When we were ready to move on to food proper, it had to include the Wing Bean Salad. I’ve never seen one of these beans whole, and I have no idea if you can buy them back home, but I adore the variety of textures and the delicately balanced flavour of this gently spiced (by Thai standards) salad.

I was meant to order the red curry to avoid the strong Thai Basil that my husband dislikes but I got distracted and ordered the green curry instead. As predicted, it was indeed full of Thai Basil, and in my opinion was all the more delicious for that. Soft, plump prawns and chunks of small green aubergine in a heavily spiced, creamy coconut soup. Mmmmm. I have yet to find a green curry outside Thailand that comes close to this.

I went off-menu for the last dish because I had a craving! Chicken with garlic and pepper is one of my favourite Thai stir fries and the staff were very happy to make it for me. It totally lived up to my expectations and the husband loved it too, vegetables and all!

We crossed the Chao Phraya back towards our hotel before finding our newest riverside haunt, and also returned to it the next day for lunch. Jack’s Bar is a haphazard bar-come-restaurant that sits, in part, directly over the water. It’s busy with a mix of Thais and foreigners of all ages, and the staff are smiley and fun.

Lunch was an extended affair over a few beers, giving me time to just watch the river. The number and variety of boats that pass by is a constant source of amazement for me, and the occasional wetland bird floating by atop a piece of water hyacinth adds to the interest.

Thai fishcakes, flavoured with red curry paste and kaffir lime leaves, followed by fried rice and a puffy omelette is the simple lunch I remember from my working days living in the city. I love this food as much as anything more fancy and will miss it when we head home.

Cha Ca La Vong

This food stuff deserves a post all of its own, not least because it’s utterly unlike anything else I’ve ever eaten in Asia, mainly due to containing vast quantities of fresh dill.

Despite the fact it’s firmly on the tourist trail, we decided that we’d head to the 100 year old restaurant that’s famed for serving Cha Ca La Vong. In fact, restaurant and dish share the same name, which you can’t really miss from the neon signage! Electric table top stoves now replace the charcoal burners of the past and the restaurant definitely isn’t cheap by Vietnamese standards, but none of that could detract from how utterly delicious I found this meal.

A partially prepared pan of turmeric marinated cat fish, dill, morning glory and green onion is brought to your table top stove where it’s left to sizzle for a little longer before a member of staff comes and adds the remaining vegetables. The staff member expertly tosses the contents of the pan with a pair of chopsticks, before leaving you to build your own bowls of the dish using the ingredients you’ve been given: rice noodles, roasted peanuts, a sweet chilli sauce, a shrimp paste based sauce (not for those with a sensitive nose!), white vinegar and soy sauce.

You just take some noodles, add quantities of the condiments to your taste and then top it all off with the fish and vegetables from the pan. I can’t even tell you how good it tastes! It was all a little too “green” for the husband, but he was happy avoiding the vegetables and just eating sauced noodles and fish.

I’d happily eat this again and again. It’s just beautiful. And the dill really does make it utterly different. Having a little theatre in the creation of your food always makes it more fun in my opinion too!

Pho of the (mainly) Chicken Variety

Of course we were going to eat Pho whilst in Vietnam, and in fact we have done so several times, particularly as it’s served at any time of day. All of the Pho we’ve eaten so far has been of the chicken based variety, but even within this there has been huge variation of flavour.

You might say our first Pho experience was the most authentic, perched on the tiny little plastic stools you see all over Hanoi. Sitting on these stools reminds you somewhat of visiting a nursery school, and I’m not convinced that dining with your knees around your ears is great for digestion, but then this street furniture was designed for rather smaller people! On this occasion, I went for a mixed chicken and beef Pho and the husband had just chicken.

After several days of fairly rich food, the light, fresh broth was just what the doctor ordered. Piled with rice noodles, herbs and green onion besides your chosen meat, it’s hard to explain what makes Pho so delicious besides its simplicity! Flavoured to taste with lime, lightly pickled garlic and chilli, it’s like having a lovely warm hug.

The Pho served at breakfast in the hotel is much more pungent with sweet spice. I recognise the flavour of star anise but the exact formula is a mystery.

And then again today, another chicken Pho and yet with a totally different flavour again, this one more subtle and that built in depth as you ate.

I suspect that there will still be more Pho to come this trip as I think I am an addict. And this is definitely something that I’ll be trying to create my own version of at home, as I have done with my Thai-style noodle soup. If anyone has a favourite Pho recipe then please do let me know, and I’ll obviously be looking for guinea pigs to sample my attempts too!

Heading Upmarket

Having spent most of our time in Hanoi so far exploring the Old Town, we decided to head beyond the Hoan Kiem Lake today, and into the southerly end of the district that the lake lends its name. This decision was based, in part at least, on the knowledge that the road immediately around the lake is pedestrianised at the weekend, and we fancied seeing this scooterless sight! The atmosphere in the area was fantastic and we were very amused to find that, in place of the scooters, an entire street at the bottom end of the lake was devoted to electric vehicles for children.

Our primary reason for heading to this area, however, was to visit two museums of interest – The Vietnamese Women’s Museum and The Hao Lo Prison. Each provided a fascinating insight into Vietnam and its history, but there are others far better qualified to go into detail on that than me! Needless to say, I found reference to food in both places fascinating. The role women play and have played in the agricultural economy of the country shared in the first museum, and the absolutely vile rations fed by the French to the Vietnamese inmates in the second!

Of course, we’d also done our research on the food front when it came to finding lunch, at a restaurant that also gave us opportunity to see some of the stunning villas that are prevalent in the area. Many are in a terrible state of repair, but our lunchtime haunt, Nha Hung Dao, has linked two villas by means of a glorious covered courtyard, and serves a wide range of dishes at tables throughout.

It was the grilled beef with chilli and salt that I’d read about in advance which had tempted me to come. And it was beautiful! Tender chargrilled meat with a squeeze of lime, dunked into the chilli salt by means of chopsticks.

We tried to pick some other things that we hadn’t eaten before. The fried rice with salted egg, prawns and chicken wasn’t a huge success, having a strange powdery coating that we couldn’t quite place. But the pancake with shrimp, pork, mushroom and beansprouts was a revelation (once the waitress had stepped in to show us how to eat it!). The answer was to wrap the omelette-like stuffed segments inside the still crisp pancake papers, along with lettuce and herbs, before dunking the whole lot into the sweet dipping sauce, which softened the pancake. It was divine. So simple and yet so incredible.

We also had another variation on bánh cuốn, which we’d had on our food tour, this time with grilled ground pork. It is definitely a food stuff that warrants repeated eating!

After all that eating, a further stroll was in order – back north around the opposite side of the lake and into the crazy familiarity of the Old Town.

Craft Beer from a High Perch

Hanoi seems to have joined much of the rest of the world in getting a taste for craft beer. It’s not the cheapest thing to drink in the city, but its availability has already provided us with two excuses to sample some ale from a high perch while watching the world below. And some of the local brews are very good too.

I should highlight from the off that my taste in beer is not everyone’s cup of tea! I adore anything super-sour or salty. So walking into Pasteur St Brewing to find a draft dragon fruit gose beer, aptly named The Salty Dragon, made me very happy indeed! In truth, I should have stuck with it because it was my favourite beer of the several we tried there.

Watermelon wheat beer sounded right up my street but it lacked any kind of complexity and I’d rather have just had a watermelon juice! Passion fruit wheat ale was rather more successful but it still didn’t live up to the gose. Now, before you think I was probably too sloshed to judge given all the beer, I should point out that after the first drink we moved on to a sampling flight, the husband’s side of which was made up much more of traditional IPAs and the like. His main problem was the strength that these came in at, with anything under 7% proof seeming mild compared to the rest! We spent several enjoyable hours watching the activity below, which ranged from the passing of traditionally dressed traders to the police seeming suddenly interested in parking rules, from the beautiful roof terrace.

Our second craft beer outing was the result of a fortuitous glance up as we passed through the street that was to become the Night Market. We were rather early for trading to have begun and were pondering how to entertain ourselves when I spotted the very cheerful looking Peachy bar overhead. It seemed only right that we give it a go since it also provided the perfect vista to watch the market come to life.

Another day, another beer flight, this time served by a very cheerful Glaswegian. Sadly there were neither sour nor salty beers on offer, but the IPA was lovely and mellow, and the Hanoi Saison was delicious! The lemongrass beer was tasty but I can’t say that the taste particularly struck me as lemongrass at all!

There are several more crafty offerings in the city so I’ll just have to see if the opportunity arises to sample a few more! Of course, after a few Vietnamese beers it was strictly necessary to soak up some of the alcohol with a crispy Banh Mi on the way home!

Food Touring Hanoi

I’m a great believer in doing a food tour when I arrive in a new city. Average ones at least allow you to get your bearings and try a few specialities. Amazing ones provide you with an array of places you simply must return to before you can possibly leave. I’d say that my Hanoi street food tour was somewhere between to two, but it was also super cheap compared to those I’ve done elsewhere.

I was more than happy to start the tour by meeting at a market (I adore a foreign market) and for the first food to be a mini bánh mì – the famous Vietnamese sandwich. Vietnam is basically my dream country when it comes to food. Not only am I obsessed with Asian flavours, but I am also a total bread and cheese addict. The French influences here are therefore perfect for me, and the light baguette-style bread, in this case stuffed with pate, lightly pickled veg and herbs, of a bánh mì is the sandwich dream!

Stop two was for bánh cuốn, delightfully light steamed rice flour pancakes stuffed with pork and mushrooms. Just watching these being made is an education, and I suspect they make it look rather easier than it actually is!

Next stop was for bún chả: vermicelli noodles, a bowl of broth with grilled pork, and a basket of fresh lettuce and herbs. Garlic and chilli, along with vinegar and other seasonings, is on the table so you can adapt the flavour of the broth to your taste. Essentially, you just add noodles and herbs to the broth and dig in. I loved this food and will be back for more.

The fermented pork sausage at stop four was slightly more divisive but, whilst I probably wouldn’t choose it again, its interesting sticky texture was good to experience. And eating it in front of the mini Notre-Dame style cathedral provided a peaceful interlude away from the crowds and scooters.

Our next food was rather more refreshing, and even my often fruit-avoiding husband loved it. Essentially a tropical fruit salad, but with added elements of coconut jelly and sweetened glutinous rice, the dish was sauced with a combination of coconut and condensed milks, and it was delightful.

Our last stop was for the famous egg coffee, though being late evening (and given the reputation of the local coffee for being so heavily caffeinated) we opted for egg chocolate instead. This was possibly a mistake because it was so, so very rich, however, I suspect that the egg coffee may not have been for me either. Whipped egg yolks make much of the drink almost solid foam and more like a dessert. But I’m glad we climbed the multiple flights of stairs at this hidden cafe to experience the rooftop view and I’m happy to know what this much-talked-about beverage is like.

Our tour guide, Bing, was friendly and knowledgeable and I felt like we got a good understanding of some of the city’s food culture. A very enjoyable way to spend an evening.

Off the food tour, and just as an aside, we have discovered the coffee that really is for us, the version made with coconut ice cream. This will be our coffee of choice for the rest of the trip, and coffee culture is a big deal here, so obviously we’ll need to stop lots to experience it!