Blog 3.0

Turkish on a Tuesday

After talking about it for quite some time, Arumza and I finally made the trek up to Dalston for a Turkish food top-up.

Evin Cafe on Kingsland Rd is a wonderful place. At first glance, you might not think much of the place; it's pretty  unassuming from the outside. But what matters most is the food and the food is delicious. Everything is incredibly fresh:  from the first mouthful of hot bread that arrives immediately after your first order  (not ideal for my curent plans to Occupy Carbs) to the piping hot variations of lamb kabobs and traditional Anatolian stews (the Patlicanli Kabob and the Karni Yarik will tick a lot of boxes in your stomach).

During the day (between about 12 and 6) there is a wonderful old Turkish lady making fresh bread and gozleme right in front of you and as she is clearly a pro, she does it while chatting away in Turkish to the staff and the regulars.

Visiting London’s amazing markets is one of my greatest passions.  While my friend Katie was visiting from Vancouver just before Christmas, we thought we would step up our conventional market going and visit London’s industrial markets.  Smithfield Market which supplies most of London and the south of England with it’s meat was a sight for sore eyes.  Actually, it was a sight for bleary eyes as we has to arrive at about 4am to catch all of the action.  The market was organised chaos as hundreds of butchers, restauranteurs, suppliers and hangers on buzzed around trying to fill orders and do deals.

The good news is that the people who work there are all incredibly friendly and will happily answer any questions you may have about the world of meat…in between hanging carcasses and tallying up a bill for 65 bellies of pork.

Today is Canadian Thanksgiving and there is not a turkey in sight.

Instead, I have opted to make pasta puttanesca to mirror the fact that I am a woman who does not go to the market everyday for fresh ingredients...or so the tale goes. 

Other consumables today have included 1 latte consumed over many hours of newspaper reading.

I did have a lovely conversation with my parents who are busily preparing for thanksgiving--we mainly talked about what they should stuff the turkey with and about this new syringe type baster they have recently acquired. The big question was what kind of marinade they should inject the presumably organic, free range turkey with.

First world problems.

The Things I ate today:

Today has been particularly manic and it's only 3:30.  I think my diet reflects this:

1 flat white from Costa from a meeting

1 small piece of cupcake from a sample tray.  I think it was coconut flavoured

Leftovers from yesterday,eaten cold while pacing

1 extra shot latter (which was very kindly delivered to my desk!)

1 nectarine