June 2009 Archives

Tomorrow is June 24th. This may be just another day to most of the world's population, but to Quebecers, it means P-A-R-T-Y!

June 24th is known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste day, or la fête nationale du Québec. It's essentially Quebec's national holiday. It's a day off work usually filled with bbq, beer, Québécois music and, if you're lucky, a friend's lakeside cottage.

But what if you're a Québécoise in hostile territory?  I have no one around to share a Labatt bleue with, and no bbq to throw a steak on. Who else will walk around with a fleur de lys on their cheek?

Last year I decided to make my own poutine. It wasn't bad, but wasn't great. The lack of cheese curds and instant gravy made the results a little disappointing, but I was so desperate for a good poutine that I wolfed it down happily.

Well I have now been in London close to 6 months and have not had poutine in ages! Therefore, T and I have decided to make a pilgrimage to the Maple Leaf in Covent Garden.

Yes, if I was in Québec I would have rocks thrown at me for daring to enter a Canadian-themed pub called The Maple Leaf on this day of Québécois pride - but these are desperate times people! I've already been warned that they use onion gravy and not beef gravy, so my expectations are slightly low, but I'm willing to give it a try.

If you are a fellow Québécois(e) in London tomorrow help me take over the Maple Leaf and turn it into a little piece of Québec for the day. I need reinforcements!

A full report on this so-called poutine later in the week.

The Maple Leaf Pub
41 Maiden Lane,
London, WC2E 7LJ
Tube: Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Charing Cross
 

The other day, while shopping on Picadilly Street, I came upon Japan Centre. I had read about this little shop on Chowhound and how it was a Japanese grocery store. I had recently been to both John Lewis and Selfridge's food halls in search of panko breadcrumbs and had come up short both times. I decided to try my luck and venture inside. I entered into an Aladdin's cave of Japanese packaged products. The seemingly unassuming shop was actually very large. I was overwhelmed by all the multicoloured packaging. I don't know if this is specific to the Japanese, but there seemed to be a love of opaque plastic bags. I didn't know whether I was looking at rice, panko breadcrumbs, some kind of processed snack food or other mystery items.

I asked for assistance and finally found the breadcrumbs. I couldn't help but keep wandering around and toss one or two more things in my basket. Red bean ice cream for me, green tea ice cream for T, wasabi nuts... Then T and I decided to find the "weirdest" snack food we could. There was a whole wall of nondescript packaged snacks with little to no English labeling. Did we want the white bag with the smiley looking bean? The blue bag with the dancing flower? Or one of the only bags with English on it which contained crispy squid peanuts.



We settled on a red bag with smiling stars.

Once home we tore the bag open to find star-shaped crackers, wrapped in packs of two. Each star packet has a different "outfit" aptly demonstrated by sumo-wrestling star (below).



Do you speak/read Japanese? Can you tell us what these little goodies are? All we know is that they are really salty but strangely addictive and that the bag says: This product contains anchovies. We munched our way through the bag over the weekend and the stars are now gone. But I just may pick some more up on my next visit to Japan Centre. Or should I try the squid peanuts instead?

Nonetheless, this little shop is an absolute gem. It's well stocked and very well priced. I will definitely be visiting it again and again to stock up on more Japanese cooking essentials, as it is a cuisine I definitely want to learn more about. They also have a restaurant/take-out counter that I'm keen to try. If you're not in the London area, they have a huge selection of products in their on-line store that they can ship across Europe.
 

Question: What do they call in English muffin in England?

Answer: An English muffin.




This particularly fine specimen was on sale Thursday, at Borough Market, by The Flour Station (my bread makers of choice) for £1. I must say it made a mighty fine breakfast.

If you stop by one of the Flour Station locations, make sure to pick up a London bloomer (T's favourite) or a wheatgerm levain for me. And one or two English muffins, of course!