It took four hours to get from Dartmouth to Rusticoville, the official the kick-off to the holiday season. As soon as the last school bell rang freeing us for the holiday break, my brother, sister and I would crowd into the back of the car and head to Prince Edward Island for Christmas at my […]
Melissa Buote
Posted inFood + Drink
Grand parade
Wang’s Grand scores with the duck, complimented by more subtle offerings. Melissa Buote discovers Hali’s golden age of Chinese food. I’m waiting for my friends Ron and Kristina in the dining room at Wang’s Grand Chinese. Quiet easy-listening music floats through the warm air. An electric fireplace glows with golden light nearby. Metal chopsticks gleam […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Novelty meal
This place is very expensive,” says Don Draper as the sizzle of cooking meat and clang of spatulas soundtracks the scene in Mad Men. He’s with Bethany, who, while sitting alongside the grill at Benihana complains that her “hair smells like [she’s] been frying chicken.” That scene was set 35 years ago, when the now-famous […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Rocking the Island
“What’s the name of that sauce?” my friend shouts out of his office. “The spicy sauce they used in everything at Rock Island Cafe?” “Outerbridge’s,” is quietly shouted from the next room. That kicky sherry pepper sauce was the trusty ingredient that brought an authentic taste of Bermuda to the menu of Rock Island Cafe, […]
Posted inLifestyle
Local & in Love
When Unni Simensen’s daughter got married, she walked down the aisle with a bouquet adorned with blueberry branches. “I often go out and pick blueberry branches and decorate the cake,” Simensen, chef and owner of Scanway Catering, says. “Our blueberry pound cake with blueberry buttercream is very popular, if you’re having a very local theme.” […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Kids demand candy
“Glarghhh!” A chorus of gags and retches fills the kitchen. The culprit: raisins. Nicolas (five years old), Matthew (seven), Jade (five), Sarah (nine), Megan (10) and Avery (five) are wide-eyed and pink-cheeked with excitement, counting down the days until Halloween when they will flit up and down sidewalks, haunting doorsteps in search of candy. Not […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Five is fine
It is pouring rain when I walk into the Five Fishermen Grill, which opened in June in the space once occupied by the Little Fish Restaurant & Oyster Bar. The host leads us to our choice of table; we sit by the bright window overlooking the rain-whipped Grand Parade. The dull chill outside is a […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Not all Ducky
The sky is grey, heavy with the threat of rain, reflected in the cloudy silver splashes of the harbour waves. Gulls float and bob nearby, gentle sprays of water flicking from their wings as they take flight. Azure dimples break up the clouds, a hint that the sun may smile down after all, so I […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Meet Melissa Buote
“I just love to talk about food!” Those were the parting words of a young journalist, a King’s student who I met with last week to talk about food writing. While her peers are focusing on hard news, she is interested in the candy-floss journalism of food writing. Our conversation made me think a lot […]
Posted inFood + Drink
JiXiang Chinese marks the spot
I have a case of the sniffles. So does everybody else at the table. But it’s not a case of the cold—it’s a case of the hot. We’re eating the spicy shrimp at JiXiang Chinese Restaurant. Given the option, we asked for intensely, extremely, face-meltingly hot. We wanted to see the air above it shake […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Fit to be Thaied
Bedford’s Thai Ivory Cuisine doesn’t overly challenge its suburban clientele, and that’s probably a good thing, says Melissa Buote. “It tastes like when you were a kid and you would put ketchup on your Kraft Dinner,” Rachelle says as we poke sadly at our little piles of pad thai. Matt, a stir-fry apologist, shrugs and […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Starry heights
“The discovery of a wine is of greater moment than the discovery of a constellation,” said Benjamin Franklin, stating, “the universe is too full of stars.” Franklin—who also once wrote a how-to guide to making wine in the 1743 edition of his Poor Richard’s Almanac—would be impressed, then, by the discoveries that await starry-eyed wine […]
