CRITIQUE RESTAURANT

“You never know. ”
Article mis en ligne le jeudi 8 mars 2012

I’ve eaten and drunk in some very unlikely places. There was the tough sailors’ bar in George Town, Grand Cayman, where a guy off a freighter and I ended up buying each other drinks. I’ll never forget the tiny restaurant at the end of a long dark bar in Ocho Rios with its fabulous salt fish and ackee and ice-cold Red Stripe. Then, a concierge at a hotel in Arlington, Texas sent me to a neighbourhood that can only be described as sketchy and a restaurant with outstanding grits and biscuits and gravy. Thank goodness we didn’t pass up the ‘Old Market’ in Curaçao’s capital of Willemstad with its fresh-out-of-the-water micro fish restaurants and us as the only tourists. And don’t ask me how we found our way to (and away from) a dumpy joint somewhere in South Carolina for a wonderful, tender pulled pork sandwich.

But, in all those unlikely places we were made to feel welcome by the regulars and staff, the food was always delicious and the drinks were well mixed and cold when they had to be. See, you never know.

A taste of NDG
The Year of the Dragon
Article mis en ligne le jeudi 12 janvier 2012

One of my favourite songs as a kid was The Green-Eyed Dragon, made famous by John Charles Thomas. That dragon had 13 tails and sat on the front door mat (of the castle) wherein lived a fair princess most beautiful and charming. Many years later we learned how Saint George slew a dragon and saved a princess. Heady stuff for a teenage boy!

Later on, while studying early English literature, we met Tristan who won the hand of Iseult for his uncle by killing a dragon. As literature became less romantic Robert Munsch told children about the Paper Bag Princess who rescued her fiancé from a dragon, but they didn’t live happily ever after. She dumped him! Then, in Dr. No, James Bond and Honeychile Rider were attacked by a mechanical dragon. Honeychile probably wasn’t a princess but in the movie version Ursula Andress sure looked like one! More recently, the innocence of green-eyed dragons, heroes on white stallions and princesses in distress has given way to young women with dragon tattoos seemingly getting into and out of one scrape after another. Is Lisbeth Salander a princess? I don’t know, but none of my princesses ever had tattoos. Maybe the princess and dragon business has changed.

ARCHIVES 2011
 Chez Cook’s... to relax…
 Breakfast and brunch
 Pushap Restaurant
 Café Grand
 A taste of CDN du 6 juillet 2011
 East Africa
 Pho Lien
 Bistro Burger Plus
 Anancy Restaurant
 Masala Palace