Spanish-Canadian Solitude: Navarra

While I've gotten over being the only vegetarian at most dinner tables, I've still never enjoyed traveling alone. No doubt there are times when one needs to be by themselves, but I definitely do not feel that way when being away from home. Whether it is for work or pleasure, I try and avoid solo travel as much as I can. Besides walking around and having to visit places by yourself, the additional major side effect is that you end up needing to make dinner reservations for one. Not only does it make for a very quiet dinner, it usually puts a big crimp in the ability to try "everything on the menu". Notwithstanding, there will always be times when circumstances necessitate such travel and I found myself heading up to Ottawa on one such occasion a few weeks ago. Making the best of the situation, I scoped out Ottawa Magazine's 2012 list of top restaurants and landed upon Navarra.

Pass The Ketchup: The Table

Bombay has changed in so many ways from the city that I grew up in. It has a new name, new buildings, new cars, and yes, new restaurants. Yet so much of what I love about Bombay is what has stayed the same - family, friends and yes, the restaurants. Nothing will ever match the pav bhaji from your neighbourhood "Sagar", the pankhi at Swati or the excellent Indian at Copper Chimney. It is this food I look forward to eating each time I am heading home and always wonder why anyone would bother with anything else while in the city. Bombay, however, is on the ascendancy as one of the great metropolises of the world and, as such, aspires to the kind of haute cuisine that has made New York and Paris such popular dining destinations. It has seen a number of international chefs open up restaurants within its confines over the past few years, from Kittichai to Morimoto and most recently, Alex Sanchez at The Table.

Getting In Early: Ciano

In all my years of eating, I don't think I've ever actually been out to a restaurant's opening weekend. There almost always seem to be teething problems associated with any new restaurant so I think my lack of experience owes as much to not knowing early enough when a restaurant is about to open as it does to my not wanting to deal with cold food and sloppy service. Recently, however, my friend AO took care of the first part of the equation and got us a reservation at Ciano. The early reviews of chef Shea Gallante and the restaurant sounded promising enough for me to overcome the second half of the equation and we headed down to Gramercy for another of our regular group dinners.

The Great Fish Sauce Debate: E&O Trading Company

It happens without fail - each time I visit California, I wonder why I don't live there. The sun is almost always shining, people are much friendlier and happier, life moves at a much more pleasant pace and yes, one could own a car! The Bay Area takes all of that and raises it to even greater heights, with San Francisco being one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. I was once visiting an office that had floor to ceiling windows, looking straight out over the bay, and wondered how anyone could get any work done with a view like that. William Henry Davies was probably looking out that window when he mused on having time to stand and stare.

My latest trip out to "Cali" was definitely not a shining example of my driving skills (let's just say a concrete pylon on the I-80 looked like it could use a few splashes of metallic grey paint), but was still memorable all the same. WH and I had spent a majority of the day driving to San Francisco and, despite having an early flight out the next morning, decided to venture out to grab some dinner. My iPhone scoped out some of the restaurants in the area for me and showed that E&O Trading Company was just a short walk from our hotel. A late flight had forced me to miss my last reservation at E&O and so I grabbed at the chance to finally eat there.