The best deal in Kingston

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My mom served up a big Zorba Pikilia plate from MINOS when we were in Kingston recently. It brought back great memories of when I used to live near the takeout location and would often get this plate to go on my way home from work. I was a bachelorette then, and would get two or three dinners out of it.

The Zorba Pikilia plate is still one of the best deals in Kingston. For $12.99 (or even $9.99 if you get the small) you can feast on
• tzatziki,
• feta cheese,
• taramosalata (the pink fish roe caviar spread),
• scordalia (whipped potato with garlic lemon and olive oil),
• gigantes (butter beans),
• dolmadakia (rice and ground beef wrapped in grape vine leaves),
• spanakopita (spinach and feta baked in phyllo pastry) and
• black olives.

MINOS Takeout
340 Barrie St. (corner Queen)
Kingston, Ont.
Hours of operation:
Wednesday to Saturday: 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays and holidays: 3:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Spring barbecued lamb and bell peppers

In Kingston, we had a delicious barbecue with my Dad. It was my first of the season and involved lots of barbecued lamb, barbecued bell peppers and zucchini tossed in olive oil and dried herbs, new potatoes, pieces of chicken cooked with onions, mushrooms and fresh herbs, and a big vat of gravy! I especially love vegetables prepared this way. Halving them or keeping the pieces big really helps them to stay moist and cook evenly on the grill, mmmm.

The St. Lawrence Market in Toronto

I spent a morning at the St. Lawrence Market with S while we were in Toronto. I was really looking forward to hanging out in a farmers market again after a long winter eating root vegetables. It was a very nice place, with row upon row of colourful veggies.

We bought some ready-made appetizers from a stall called Viva Tastings to eat in a nearby park. We got quesadilla wedges made with chorizo sausage, potatoes, cheddar and cilantro. Also a caramelized onion tart, some empanadas, and a chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese and leeks in phyllo pastry. My favourite was the quesadilla because I'm a big fan of chorizo and cheese!

Return to Ematei in Toronto

S and I went to Toronto this weekend and revisited Ematei, a Japanese restaurant just a few steps north of Queen West near the Eaton Centre. We discovered it three years ago and really enjoyed it. I'm happy to say it's still delicious.

My favourite tastes on this occasion came from our uni (sea urchin) and saba sushi pictured above. Uni tastes exactly like the salty seaside. A few years ago I found it too marinelike and seaweedish in flavour, but now I love it. And the delicious vinegary saba, simply my favourite sushi of all time, was so good I ate it with my eyes closed to get the full savoury experience (I think S was smirking but I didn't care ;)

We also ordered an interesting appetizer called enoki foil. It's a handful of enoki mushrooms, a strip of fake crab and some caramelized onions, all wrapped in foil and baked in the oven. It was very tasty and obviously a good way to cook enoki, which I have previously only eaten in soups.

Ematei
30 St. Patrick St. (corner Queen)
Toronto, ON
416.340.0472

Kreativ Award!

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A fellow blogger has nominated me for an award — thank you Marysol! Marysol is author of She Eats Bears, a lovely food blog with delectable recipes, beautiful photos and an adorable banner. She posts almost every day, always staying in touch. I admire this in her because I am always aspiring to be better at it myself. She also has an uncanny eye for design, and puts together the most wonderful colour combinations.

This is a nice chance to reflect on what I love most about the world of food blogging and nominate some other bloggers for this award. Like other blogger awards, this award comes with some requirements that are meant to encourage everyone to get to know one another:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the award logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name seven things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate seven other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

So here we go. For more than seven things about myself, I would point you here to my recent interview with Erin of The Apartment Kitchen.

Regarding my seven other nominations for the Kreativ Award, this is very difficult as I love many blogs out there and apologies for not including you all. But here are some of the blogs that I have been enjoying lately that have not already been mentioned as far as I can see:

1. Erin of The Apartment Kitchen. Erin is my Adopt-a-Blogger match and I am so happy to have been paired with her. She's a talented trained chef with lots of energy and enthusiasm for delicious comfort food. She somehow finds the time to maintain two great blogs (the other being the touching Absence Makes the Heart Grow Hungry).

2. Kristen of Dine and Dish. I first came across Kristen's blog while searching for content from the BlogHer conference, and I was immediately drawn in by her personal writing style. She's also the creater and founder of the Adopt-a-Blogger mentorship program through which I have had the pleasure of meeting Erin and other food bloggers. I admire Kristen's dedication to building community online and helping us all get to know each other!

3. Mark of Ottawa Foodies. Mark is a programmer who has created this fantastic social networking site for Ottawa food lovers. You could while away a whole afternoon on this site! It brings out all kinds of talented writers and photographers who don't necessarily have blogs of their own but have great content to share.

4. Ximena at Lobster Squad. She is a great illustrator. A delicious food blogger and a great illustrator! Everything she draws is so charming and whimsical. She often illustrates banners for other food bloggers and I think she is the artist behind that cute "Food Blog Search" button that so many foodies have on their blogs.

5. Lyvvie at Obento Baby! I first noticed Lyvvie's fantastic Flickr site because I was totally charmed by one of her bento lunch box photos, and lunch is one of my favourite parts of the day. I want to be a mom like Lyvvie who makes lunches fun, adorable and creative!

6. Danny at Food Bloggers Unite. I just discovered this blog recently and it is a treasure. Tech tips, writing tips, tips on food photography. There's nothing you can't look up here. And the advice is simple, doable and inexpensive. This is not your average food blog!

7. Deirdre at The Film Cricket. Deirdre's blog is a "compendium of pop culture ramblings" and a very witty, brilliantly written one at that. I trust in her judgement — this is where I go to look up what my next TV-show marathon should be!