Wednesday night (Jan 18) found me on the phone to a friend. "Want to go eat Tibetan food?"
Ok, here's how this came about. Way back in the far reaches of time (November 2010), I went to a Tibetan restaurant with a meetup group. Making my way there, I found that in the Queen/Landsdowne neighborhood, there's a string of 3-4 Tibetan restaurants (and possibly grocery stores) - which made this a mini-Tibetan-neighborhood. I love mini-neighborhoods! I resolved to come back and...
...never did.
Clearly, a problem worth fixing under the 200-Toronto-things umbrella. So, it was back to Om.
I wish I'd taken a photo of the food. We got vegetarian momos (delicious!) and a noodle soup. I liked the momos better than the soup, but both were pretty good. And bonus - we split a 1/2 litre of red wine (drinkable, nothing spectacular) for $9.99. I love cheap wine. (I'm sure that if I were a wine drinker, I'd feel differently about cheap wine. But, my palette does not know the difference, and so, I'm happy with cheap.)
The cheap wine is a good lead-in to the next step. Walking back from the Tibetan place, we passed Bar Salumi.
We were drawn in due to the eclectic decor (I asked, the meat hanging from the ceiling is real). The wine list was small and expensive (cheapest glass was $9). I had a very nice red from Languedoc, pricey at $10, but delicious.
Parkdale is interesting. It's gentrifying, and so places like Bar Salumi sit cheek-to-cheek with CAMH, soup kitchens and convenience stores. In a few years, there'll be no more room for soup kitchens, and $10-$12 for a glass of wine will become the norm. And more's the pity - cheap is often good, and not every glass of wine and every meal needs to be transformational - there is room in life for table wine and comfort food.
PS: I actually woke up bright and early on the 14th, and headed to Chagall, the St. Lawrence Market, and a diner serving some delicious apple cake. But, unfortunately, sans camera. It isn't that these don't count - the exploring mind-set is important - but I'm keeping official count for the ones where I have a photo. Don't know why, really. That's just how I roll.
Ok, here's how this came about. Way back in the far reaches of time (November 2010), I went to a Tibetan restaurant with a meetup group. Making my way there, I found that in the Queen/Landsdowne neighborhood, there's a string of 3-4 Tibetan restaurants (and possibly grocery stores) - which made this a mini-Tibetan-neighborhood. I love mini-neighborhoods! I resolved to come back and...
...never did.
Clearly, a problem worth fixing under the 200-Toronto-things umbrella. So, it was back to Om.
I wish I'd taken a photo of the food. We got vegetarian momos (delicious!) and a noodle soup. I liked the momos better than the soup, but both were pretty good. And bonus - we split a 1/2 litre of red wine (drinkable, nothing spectacular) for $9.99. I love cheap wine. (I'm sure that if I were a wine drinker, I'd feel differently about cheap wine. But, my palette does not know the difference, and so, I'm happy with cheap.)
The cheap wine is a good lead-in to the next step. Walking back from the Tibetan place, we passed Bar Salumi.
Parkdale is interesting. It's gentrifying, and so places like Bar Salumi sit cheek-to-cheek with CAMH, soup kitchens and convenience stores. In a few years, there'll be no more room for soup kitchens, and $10-$12 for a glass of wine will become the norm. And more's the pity - cheap is often good, and not every glass of wine and every meal needs to be transformational - there is room in life for table wine and comfort food.
PS: I actually woke up bright and early on the 14th, and headed to Chagall, the St. Lawrence Market, and a diner serving some delicious apple cake. But, unfortunately, sans camera. It isn't that these don't count - the exploring mind-set is important - but I'm keeping official count for the ones where I have a photo. Don't know why, really. That's just how I roll.
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