I eat, I read, I watch — dining solo #6
Zeal burger, fries, on vintage china, with a beer
In this series, you may have concluded I always cook dinner and I try to make healthy choices. That would be insane. And boring. Sometimes I head to the strip on Weston Road and pick up takeout and then indulge in trashy mags or fluffy series as accompaniment. But I still make dining an occasion. I’m worth it. And it’s not hard to do. Missed the earlier instalments? Click #1 (pork chop & green beans), #2 (trout & veg), #3 (shrimp pepper bisque), #4 (rice & peas with coleslaw), and #5 (ramen).
I eat: Zeal Burger and fries
One food item I love more than anything else is fried potato, in all its forms. Potato chips are, of course, the easiest to achieve the fix. Buy a bag, snap it open, and start munching. Maximum portability, you can eat chips in your car, in your bed, in a park, or watching daytime soaps with an aerobics class going on in the background, as I did in uni residence.
But French fries. Now, they take more effort. I’m not talking about the ones from the frozen food aisle. I have never bought them. They are edible sure, but lack the fat level required for certain situations. No, I want the ones that come in a paper wrapper which by the time you’re home is dark, drippy, and with the Homer Simpson seal of see-through approval.
There is no better accompaniment to fries than a beef burger, fully loaded. Not some cheapie fast food thing. I’m talking Weston’s Zeal Burger with its signature ‘Z Burger’: beef, cheddar, pickles, tomatoes, relish, crispy onion strings, and Z sauce. If you’re not careful, you’ll get the one with two patties which is excessive - just the ‘mini’ does the job. The fry order is one size and, frankly, massive. But with careful work, and dragged through sriracha mayo, you can down it all yourself. Although I generally felt better when I shared with Jack and the dogs. I can’t throw out fries though. That’s wasteful.
A can of beer is the only thing to drink with this. So I do.
Prep Time: they make it in the 15 mins I can walk there
Cost: about $20 (you get quality when you pay for quality)
Tell me about your takeout weakness. In the Comments below please!
I read: Toronto Life Magazine
For most of the 35 years I’ve lived in Toronto, I’ve subscribed to Toronto Life Magazine. It is a love-hate relationship. I rip open the plastic wrapper immediately upon its arrival, scouring for faces and names of people I know, as friends appearing in this questionable journal somehow legitimizes me as a Torontonian. I can’t imagine what would happen if my own mug appeared in it, although I have submitted a couple of pieces to its memoir back page (without response, let me add).
Toronto Life is mostly full of rich people doing things rich people do - buying lavish real estate, eating meals in places with dress codes, and - my personal favourite - half an issue yearly devoted to promotions for private schools. God forbid that the kids rub shoulders with the likes of you and me.
But then something good comes. Like the article quoting my former articling student, Karly Wilson, now a legal aid lawyer representing tenants, blowing the lid off a bad landlord. The pride I felt then justified the 35 years of subscription fees.
So I keep subscribing and flipping through glossy pages of well dressed mostly white people enjoying the spoils of capitalism. Mostly disgusted. A little bit envious. A good pairing with Zeal Burger. (And I’d still love to be published in it.)
Do you read something regularly that you mostly hate? Tell us about it in the Comments below.
I watch: Emily in Paris
After a couple of rounds of darkness on Netflix - After Life and the Menendez brothers docudrama - I was due for a visual palate cleanser. With delight, I flipped on season 3 of Emily in Paris.
This is pretty devoid of merit other than its costuming and its setting, both of which are brilliant. Emily is an American working at an ad agency in Paris who falls in love with Camille’s chef BF, Gabriel, and the shenanigans begin. So yeah, you don’t watch it for intriguing storyline.
But Emily’s wardrobe - and her friend, Mindy’s too - is fantastical! She enters scene after scene with yet another couture rig that would test the boundaries of reality and of the closet in a Parisian flat.
Then there’s Paris. Anyone who’s been to Paris is thinking of their own experiences there. Anyway who hasn’t is surely wishing they could. I’m in the former camp and so I’m recalling standing on one pont or another with a gorgeous skyline in the background, 30 years ago on my first visit. And then 10 years later when I lived briefly in Brussels and made a side trip. Such a GD stunning city.
Season 4 - I can’t wait!! - will be set in Rome, triggering another set of memories for some and dreams of others. And as to Gabriel, I’m SO over him. To hell with the benefits of a chef. Go with the Italian, I say.
What’re you secretly watching? In the Comments below please!
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