Digested

Video: Vijay Iyer Trio, Galang

With winter’s first real snowfall happening outside, it seemed like a good day to sleep in, eat shiitake frittata (say that five times fast), go back to bed, download “Mall Cop” based on hilariously outraged negative iTunes review (and low brain cell count), make oven fries and finally check out jazz pianist Vijay Iyer who is, as promised, awesome (and frighteningly multitalented). Happy new year, everyone.

Video: What Makes a Terrorist?

The always smart and eloquent Irshad Manji addresses the question on MSNBC, in the wake of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Skinned: Fragrance-free Product Roundup

I’m doing pretty well at avoiding the evil, evil Balsam of Peru, and so my split, stinging finger is much better. If you’re looking to go fragrance-free, here’s what I think about a bunch of stuff. If you’ve got any to recommend, please do, I’m always looking.

Avalon Organics Olive & Grape Seed Conditioner: Didn’t do much for my hair, left the ends pretty dry. Wouldn’t use it again.

Clinique Comfort on Call Face Cream: Clinique toiletries do have some questionable chemicals in them, unfortch, but they’re affordable-ish and always scent-free. Both this and the Redness Solutions line work really, really well for me, better than most things I’ve tried. I’m loathe to give them up, so instead I sent the company an email to ask if product colouring is really necessary, since that’s largely what gives them a moderate toxicity rating. Stay tuned.

Jonathan Green Rootine Dry Brush on Hair Powder: The people at Jonathan should really read their Sephora reviews, because the package this stuff comes in sucks. It does not work, so save yourself the trouble of bashing your skull repeatedly with the useless brush. Instead, unscrew the bottom and gently tap about 3/4 of a tablespoon into your hand. Replace the cap immediately, or you’ll dump the whole thing down the sink, guaranteed, and the bottle lasts eight uses, max. Price and crappy design aside, I love this stuff. The actual powder works really well, and I could not get through a week of 7 a.m. shifts without it, although you will have to do two “real” shampoo latherings to get it out.  Please let me know if you are going to the U.S. and can buy me a few of these at $13 USD, rather than $20 CAD. Thanks.

Nature Clean Unscented Dishwashing Liquid: Suds up nicely, does a great job. A winner.

Nature Clean Unscented Herbal Shampoo: It’s ok. Not quite tough enough when I’ve been dousing my head with dry shampoo, and sometimes I could use a little more volume. I’ll probably try another kind next time, but I bet this would be a great kids’ shampoo. Aside from fragrance, it’s also free of SLS, propylene glycol and other gross weird stuff we probably shouldn’t absorb through our skin every day.

Nature’s Gate Fragrance-Free Moisturizing Lotion for Sensitive Skin: This is a decent mid-weight body cream. My skin can get pretty dry in the winter, so I personally need something richer at this time of year, but I’d buy it again in the summer.

Ren Guerande Salt Exfoliating Body Balm: Although I love exfoliating salts, I never would have bought this pricey stuff myself. Happily, a style writer friend who gets lots of swag passed it along. Yay, friends. It’s awesome, and softens things up nicely. It has essential oils, but no Balsam of Peru et al, so smells lovely yet left me rash free. And, the container is giant. Love it.

Video: TLC, What About Your Friends?

Just askin’.

Green Garbage Bags That Work

So another thorn in my eco-conscience is that I can’t compost. I live on the 17th floor (sort of—my building has no official fourth, 13th or 14th floor, which is very accommodating to various superstitions, but kind of confusing) with no balcony, in 670 square feet that I share with Le Jenk, his seven fish and large collection of knick knacks. Our building doesn’t do green bins and we do not have the room for a worn composter. Really, we don’t.

It’s super annoying because we don’t make much garbage, and the vast majority of it is compostable. Using cloth bags (or backpacks) for shopping was already a habit before the 5 cent bag tax, and so we’re out of free plastic bags and forced to buy bags for our kitchen garbage. Obviously I’m not going to buy Glad Kitchen Catchers, but every single biodegradable bag I tried ended up leaking pukey-smelling liquid by the time it was full enough to toss.

So, we tried these Seventh Generation bags, which aren’t biodegradable, but are made of recycled plastic. And ta-dah, they don’t leak, even after two weeks of being filled with 35 lbs. of apple cores and parsley stems. I’m glad, because my friend Tay works for them in Vermont, and I was afraid I’d have to talk eco-shit about her boss. Phew.

Apparently Toronto is recycling plastic bags now, so I feel kind of a little better. But really I want a green bin, and a garden, to call my own.

How I Eat: Dinner

Every week, without fail, these three dinners will be eaten in my home:

- Tacos, with tortillas from La Tortilleria in Kensington Market, black or pinto beans and guacamole. Other rotating additions include rice, tomatillo salsa or sautéed veg.

- Whole wheat pasta. Toppings include garlic, oil and parsley, to which it’s great to add some pepper flakes, chopped olives, chopped anchovies, sausage, and/or a squeeze of lemon; canned tomatoes with some or all of the above; this great harissa and kale recipe from 101 Cookbooks.

- Stir-fry of some sort. Right now I’m really into Mark Bittman’s braised eggplant with tofu and shiitakes, but any Asian green or mushroom will work. I like to keep my stirfries very simple and cut my veg pretty small. I hate random horrible chunks of undercooked veg, a la Spring Rolls. Ech. Usually I make double rice and then eat a simpler stir-fry with egg a day or two later.

Luckily I’m not tired of these meals despite making them for 872 years. It’s much easier to make dinner on a workday when I can do it in 45 minutes or less on autopilot. I could probably make tacos with my eyes closed. Other meals that are on semi-regular rotation include pad thai, chili, mac and cheese, and veg with soba noodles and a tahini-miso dressing. Le Jenk makes a wicked paella…hmmm, haven’t had that lately.

As for new meals, I’m hitting How to Cook Everything Vegetarian pretty hard lately. The eggplant/tofu/shiitake stir fry is awesome, the bean burgers are pretty good, the seaweed stirfry was kinda meh, the braised radishes were so clever and yummy…overall, it’s a terrific book, very inspiring. More elaborate meals have been scarce lately, due to an extreme lack of time. I need to give this massive Spanish cookbook some love—I’ve only made squid in it’s own ink, which was very tasty, and really strange-looking.

As far as processed food, the main offenders for us are tofu, St. Lawrence Market perogies (aka the best perogies east of Roncesvalles), Pacific organic soups (the buttery corn and cheesy tomato are awesome) and, sadly, hummus and baba ganoush. I say sadly because hummus and baba ganoush are so easy to make, and I hate buying them in plastic containers, but that’s life for the time-crunched. I wish I could take the containers back to be refilled.

Cheap dinner out is the urban girl’s lifesaver. Regulars in my neighbourhood include Manpuku, Pho Hung (even after my Vietnamese hair dresser told me “you know, I hate to say this, but it’s for Caucasians”), Fresh (don’t love it, but good when I’ve eaten more junk/meat than I like), and C’est What (close to work; great beer). When making a parental visit to Scarborough, Tangerine (by my parents’ place) and Shahi Karahi (by his) are our favourites. Fish pakoras are a must at the first, chicken tikka rolls at the second.

Fancy dinners out don’t happen too often—we’d both rather save our money for holidays. I’d like to try Ame. The standout of the past year is probably Nota Bene (those ethereal onion rings are the coolest); longer term favourites are Foxley, Crush and Cava. If I were rich, I’d have been to Hashimoto by now. We went to Amaya recently, which was pretty awesome. The prawn appetizer and subcontinentally-spiced cocktails really stood out, and the prices were much better than Indian Rice Factory. But neither is as good as Vij’s.

And that, at long last, is how I eat.

If you missed any parts, here’s breakfast, lunch, snacks, ethics and shopping. Hungry yet?

How I Eat: Shopping

I adore Kensington Market, except on Saturday, when in a quest to prove their amazing explorative funkiness, hordes of tourists descend upon the shopkeepers and barrage them with 10,000 questions. But yes, I do 98 per cent of my grocery shopping in the market. Can’t beat the prices, can’t beat buying things from the independent stores (and sometimes straight from the farmers). I don’t even notice the slog of it—Le Jenk said when he first started buying groceries with me it was irritating to have to travel from store to store, but he now thinks it’s worth it (except on Saturday, or when excessively tired or hung, or during bad weather).

I start at 4 Life Organics on Augusta, which is such a lovely little store. Everyone that works there is so nice and smart, and in the summer I was buying heirloom tomatoes straight from the grower, which makes me feel amazingly funky myself. Then I walk south, stopping at Freshmart (yes, it sucks, but they have orange juice), Perola or Emporio Latino for queso blanco, dried chiles and tomatillos and House of Spice for things like harissa and tamarind paste. Fresh tortillas from La Tortilleria are a must. Peanut butter, rice, pasta and other bits and pieces comes from one of the bulk shops, multigrain bread from My Market Bakery, then cheese and olives from Cheese Magic (yes, they got a red card last summer. I’m over it).

The produce at Essence of Life is pretty sad, but it’s a good store for eggs, yogurt, granola and organic packaged food, and the toiletry selection is fantastic, especially since I need evvvverything to be fragrance free. Then I go to the Portuguese produce store across the street for any veg I didn’t get at 4 Life. They’re very friendly but insist on putting my herbs in plastic bags.

St. Lawrence Market is swoon-worthy, but pricey. Whenever I go there I drop a zillion dollars and come home with two days worth of food. Still, the fish is pristine, the bagels are awesome, the baby arugula from the organic store downstairs is the best ever, the cured meat and antipasto at Scheffler’s is wicked, the perogies are infinitely superior to anything at the grocery store and the sausages make me want to eat sausages every day.

Other stores that are out of my ‘hood that I love and always visit when in the area: Nasr Foods for Middle Eastern, T&T, natch (though they really need to lay off on the excessive use of Styrofoam and plastic), Pasta Pantry for the best ravioli anywhere. I’m forgetting a lot here, will add as I remember.

I really can’t shop at big grocery stores. I’m not trying to be snobby, but I just get confused when I go into Loblaws or Metro. Why is all the food in a box? Yes, one day I will probably not live within walking distance of Kensington. When that day comes, I’m telling you now I will probably cry.

How I Eat: Ethics and Environment

This is a difficult post to write—it’s big and sprawling and personally revealing. Much easier to natter on about my preferred breakfast, lunch and snacks.

I am not a locavore. When local things are in season, I eat them in abundance, because they’re delicious. The thought of giving up foreign ingredients makes me unhappy though, especially because much of it I associate with my own Trinidadian home food, or other ethnic cuisines that I eat every day. This winter I’m going to make every squash recipe I can get my hands on, and learn how to do it well. It’s not something I ate growing up, but it’s very Canadian, so I figure I should really learn how to cook it.

I am not a vegetarian. I was for a few years in high school/university and I was severely anemic, and I find a bit of red meat every week vastly improves my energy level and mood. I do feel like a jerk though, if I stop to think about it. To paraphrase herbivore-convert Jonathan Safran Foer, I don’t eat meat very much, except whenever I feel like it. At home, I rarely cook meat. Probably two or three times a month. Our weaknesses are seafood, good sausage and a bit of bacon. I have bought all my meat from the Healthy Butcher, Cumbrae or the St. Lawrence Market for a while, and since it’s shockingly expensive I can’t see cooking more meat anytime soon. Summer barbecues increase my flesh consumption, for sure and I do tend to eat meat when I eat out, because most restaurants have pathetic vegetarian options (especially since I don’t eat much cheese). I rarely eat chicken. I don’t really like it that much, and it irritates me that so many so-called healthy diets are obsessed with chicken, when factory farming is totally unhealthy for people, animals or the earth, at all. My attitude to meat is like so many things in life: I don’t understand why people do it so much (the concept of Meatless Monday seems overly simple to me) but the thought of saying no forever seems drastic (read: cigs). I like to call it moderation, but more likely it’s a lack of commitment.

With organic, I buy as much as I feel I can afford. That varies daily. I way prefer to buy from small indie stores and farmers than big grocers: as Michael Pollan pointed out in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the monocultural farming practices of big organic producers like Earthbound Farms are also pretty crummy for the earth.

I don’t eat a lot of processed food, mostly because I am just too fussy about how things taste. But recent articles in the New York Times (here and here, for starters) don’t hurt, either. About two months ago I started cooking my beans from scratch, because I eat a lot of beans and the bisphenol A thing was freaking me out. It’s actually not that hard—thanks, Mark Bittman. I eat a few other things from cans: tomatoes and tomatillos would be the main ones, and I can’t think of any off-season substitutes.

Generally, I walk around with a massive load of guilt about everything, so I feel tortured over my ethical lapses, but probably in a self-congratulatory way. But hey, beans and squash. Don’t they count for anything?

How I Eat: Snacks

More on me stuffing my face. Here’s breakfast and lunch, if you’re interested.

During the workday I generally have two snacks: an apple and a granola bar. They do the job. Sometimes I get tired of granola bars, but I can’t think of anything equally portable and filling. On occasion I will bring cheese and crackers, but I don’t like to eat too much cheese because sometimes it makes me break out, especially stinky cheese, which as you might guess is one of the great tragedies of my life. Sometimes Le Jenk will buy baby carrots and I will take those. It makes me feel virtuous but unfulfilled to eat them. I’m happier if I can dip them in hummus. If I have to buy a snack during the workday, I will either get soup, if I’m attempting health-consciousness, or chips, if I’m being honest.

I don’t really have a sweet tooth, so when it comes to junk food, for me it’s all about chips, chips, chips. By far my favourite potato chip is plain Ruffles. My mouth is literally watering at this moment. The crunch! The salt! The grease! Eaten with a yogurt+parsley+lemon dip, it’s a snack from the gods. Plain tortilla chips with a good salsa (do NOT bring me Tostitos) or guacamole is also a favourite (or Attit’s strawberry salsa, if I’m that lucky). Que Pasa tortilla chips are the best kind. When I was younger I swear I ate chips like every other frigging day. Now, probably once a week. Once I get crunching, it’s hard to stop. Aside from plain Ruffles, I like salt and vinegar, dill pickle, jalapeno, sour cream and onion, Lay’s or Miss Vickie’s. I don’t like all dressed. Plaintain chips or fried channa are also good. Crunchy, salty grease is the way to my heart.

I do like dark chocolate, and have been known to eat it while watching The Wire in on weekday evenings, but now that Le Jenk and I have finished watching the whole series, so when will I eat dark chocolate? So many things about finishing The Wire are sad.

In terms of non-water, non-alcoholic drinks, I like the occasional ginger beer, or an Arizona green iced tea. I’m not into soda, really.

If I am visiting my parents, the best snack is doubles. If you live downtown and think the doubles in Kensington market are good, you are wrong. Go to the suburbs immediately: either Mona’s Roti in Scarborough, or Drupati’s Doubles and Roti in Etobicoke. You’re welcome.