tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81775628570991050472025-11-15T11:10:56.656-05:00Eating. Drinking. Traveling. Living.Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-46005484539193649432010-08-02T16:03:00.003-04:002010-08-02T16:16:41.985-04:00

Food & Water Watch, a DC-based non-profit advocacy group will be in Braddock and Pittsburgh tomorrow, August 3, raising awareness about the Farm Bill working its way through congress with the goal of getting it revised to make it fairer to small farmers.If you're interested in this cause, check out this flyer which was sent along by one of their organizers and get educated!(Also, don't pass

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-38936995269821454612010-07-21T17:13:00.005-04:002010-07-21T17:44:15.293-04:00

Attention Pittsburgh!This Saturday, pack up a car with hungry people and go exploring! On Saturday, July 24 2010 between 10 AM and 6 PM, Western Pennsylvania farmers will be opening their doors to visitors who are interested in learning more about some of the best food produced in this area. Whether you're looking for some local cheeses, want to see pastures of grass-fed beef, see how some of the

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-80250490296128377782010-07-18T18:47:00.011-04:002010-07-19T20:24:48.809-04:00

I would like to introduce a new series to the blog which I am calling "International Adventures in Junk Food." In these posts, I'll chronicle unique junk foods discovered and enjoyed on various travels. The featured item might be sweet, it might be salty, but it has to be full of processed crap and chemicals, and it has to be delicious.Volume 1: ArgentinaMegatube 3D's Mega QuesoWe spent three

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-17834912997041451132010-07-11T09:38:00.003-04:002010-07-15T22:29:47.729-04:00

Last year, I reviewed one of Montreal's best (and certainly its most acclaimed), poutine joint. However, one secret to traveling in Québec is that almost any rural road side diner, snack bar, or fry shack is going to serve up poutine better than what you can get in Montreal. No, Anthony Bourdain won't have eaten there, and it won't be featured in your Frommer's travel guide, but every small town

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-59431312838345160662010-05-31T12:51:00.002-04:002010-05-31T13:00:58.340-04:00

In my walk to work over the last few weeks, I've been monitoring the status of my favorite Mulberry trees along my route. I'm happy to report that with the hot summer weather in the last few days, Pittsburgh's mulberry trees are now bursting with ripe fruit. I've added another public tree to the database on the excellent Neighborhood Fruit site, which I talked about last year as a resource for

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-42094101410907221412010-04-18T11:13:00.001-04:002010-04-18T11:13:57.928-04:00

After a few days of fine dining in Uruguay, including our sublime lunch at El Garzon as well as excellent whole grilled fish on the beach at La Huella in José Ignacio where we were staying, we decided that our final dinner in the country would be a meal of chivitos, a regional steak-based sandwich. A quintessentially Uruguayan dish, the chivito is the national riff on the universal idea of

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-62159305227587183152010-03-31T16:19:00.004-04:002010-03-31T16:28:21.827-04:00

I have a few food-related side projects in the works right now, and thought that the time was right for me to join Twitter so that I can broadcast news about all of them in one place, when blog postings might not always be appropriate.So, for those using the service, you can now follow me @hungrycanuck. I'll be tweeting when a new blog entry is posted, as well as random food-related musings, or

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-45603979331437687432010-03-30T08:53:00.003-04:002010-03-30T14:14:02.273-04:00

December 2009 and January 2010 were a blur. Our budding family experienced two PhD defenses, a wedding, and a number of out-of-town family and friends visiting to celebrate such auspicious occasions. By the time February rolled around, Tam and I were ready to flee the cold snowy weather in Pittsburgh and our recently hectic lives, and so we did, choosing to honeymoon in South

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-33293773039678996692010-01-17T00:40:00.001-05:002010-01-17T00:47:12.823-05:00

Seventh grade was a big year. Growing up in Montreal, seventh grade meant high school, and for a pre-pubescent thirteen year old, high school meant being suddenly thrown into the same hallway with much larger, older, bearded seventeen and eighteen year olds, which was more than a little terrifying. In case thirteen isn’t an awkward enough age, my high school’s dress code mandated that we wear

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-75014025925121145402010-01-09T13:16:00.001-05:002010-01-09T13:17:17.925-05:00

At the end of the 1970s, George Romero put the Pittsburgh suburb of Monroeville, PA on the map by filming his Dawn of the Dead zombie classic at the local shopping mall. Around the same time, the opening of the Sri Venkateswara temple one mile from the mall was also establishing the area as one of the country's first hubs of Hindu and Indian culture. Since the 1970s, a handful of businesses have

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-18844063640503962882009-12-26T20:06:00.010-05:002009-12-27T11:22:18.479-05:00

Is there something about eating food in the city after which it was named which makes it taste better? I've never had a hamburger in Hamburg, or a cheesesteak in Philly, but since moving to the US, I've had several opportunities to enjoy Buffalo wings on their home turf in Buffalo, NY. I don't know if they are actually the best wings I've tasted, but something about digging into a plate of them

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-69023255598910925762009-11-22T14:02:00.003-05:002009-11-22T16:45:32.885-05:00

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of Hungry Canuck! I wanted to write a quick post to thank my few regular readers for their support, suggestions, and comments which have helped me build this site up to its current nearly respectable status.In one year I managed to review establishments in five states, four countries, and on three continents (counting a day trip to the Asian side of

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-35447788217722136772009-11-05T23:00:00.016-05:002010-08-10T15:55:05.016-04:00

July 2010 update: While I haven't seen official word from the Steelers or Heinz Field, from what I can tell the 2010 festival will be held over Labor Day weekend, from September 2 - 6. The festival will kick off that Thursday evening (September 2) as the Steelers host the Carolina Panthers in the final preseason game.August 2010 update: The Steelers have finally confirmed what I reported here

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-90147090000880987402009-11-01T12:26:00.001-05:002009-11-01T13:09:26.642-05:00

Tam and I were meeting a friend at a local bar for a drink in September when he made a passing comment about a new, excellent Mexican restaurant that had only been serving food for two weeks. Regular readers of this space may remember that I've often bemoaned the lack of quality Mexican food in Pittsburgh, so this news excited us tremendously. It took us about ten minutes to settle our tab before

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-14919121673313945772009-10-10T23:28:00.005-04:002009-10-10T23:38:00.884-04:00

One of our more memorable days in Turkey was spent taking a ferry from the Eminönü docks in Istanbul along the Bosphorus to Anadolu Kavağı, on the mouth of the Black Sea. With the warm sun on our faces, any real life stresses rapidly sublimated in the strong sea breeze.While the ferry made stops at several suburbs and towns along its route, a lone food vendor made his rounds, first selling simit,

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-22634258978592901002009-09-04T14:50:00.008-04:002009-09-09T21:57:13.862-04:00

After attending a wedding in Scotland, Tamar and I took off for six days in Turkey for some much needed rest and relaxation. Our base was in İstanbul, where we took the time to see the city while tasting our way across its many neighbourhoods.One evening, we took a walk from our hotel up towards the Galata Tower for an evening in Beyoğlu, as vibrant an urban area as I've ever seen. Before my trip

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-75532694055207157982009-08-27T21:15:00.001-04:002009-08-27T21:16:29.052-04:00

A Tale of Two SandwichesOne of our first destinations in London was Borough Market, a paradise for food and food lovers. We did some shopping and gawking, admiring the sight of the portly pork pies obediently stacked in their glass display case, the smells of London's finest meats, cheeses, and food surrounding us.We worked up an appetite with our wandering and were drawn to two different

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-34150234818643983612009-08-06T12:09:00.007-04:002009-08-18T12:18:52.135-04:00

Tamar and I are in London, England enjoying ourselves before a family wedding. We visited Borough Market last week and before our trip, were asked by her brother to try and find some fresh samphire to cook up for dinner that night. This English plant is in season now, but is only available for a few weeks every summer. It grows in salty marshes and coastal regions of England, and absorbs that

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-63154768932456349922009-07-11T14:06:00.012-04:002010-04-18T12:02:57.347-04:00

One of the good things about graduate school is having the opportunity to travel to new places to present our research. On the downside, since we tend to be on the bottom of the academic totem pole, budget is a primary concern. As such, I found myself bleary eyed on the L from O'Hare to the Chicago Loop, having woken up at 5 AM to catch the most affordable early morning flight out of Pittsburgh

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-14168287454305048162009-06-29T20:00:00.004-04:002009-06-29T20:53:36.081-04:00

We had a cold, late spring in Southwestern PA but the growing season in Pittsburgh has been underway for well over a month now, so I thought I’d provide a quick update on how the garden is doing. On a recent misty morning in my hilltop neighbourhood, I took the camera down to the yard to snap a few pictures.The peaches on my tree are starting to plump up, and are now as big as walnuts. This is

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-44695714547956359642009-06-12T20:41:00.004-04:002009-06-12T23:05:19.292-04:00

This week's New York Times Food section had an interesting article on new networks dedicated to sharing or locating fresh produce in your area. One such resource is the site neighborhoodfruit.com, which allows users to post descriptions of the fruit ripening on their property.The idea is that if you have, say, more peaches than you know what to do with for a few short weeks in July, you can

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-75199136081188470872009-05-14T17:43:00.000-04:002009-05-14T17:44:11.253-04:00

Last month, I found myself traveling solo to Minneapolis for a conference where I was presenting some of my newer research. I was too cheap to pay for a rental car that I may or may not end up getting reimbursed for, so I commuted between the conference and my hotel by foot, which ended up being a considerable hike.After a long day of seminars and networking, I was searching for interesting eats

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-70214070520090236972009-05-04T00:09:00.005-04:002010-04-18T12:03:47.154-04:00

Since we started dating, I had been telling Tam about my hometown, which she had yet to visit. One thing she couldn't wrap her head around was the appeal of poutine, the province of Québec's most well known culinary contribution. Why anyone would want to smother their fries with cheese and gravy instead of malt vinegar, or, in a pinch, ketchup, didn't make sense to her."Not just any cheese, but

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-40728362980475119612009-04-30T21:20:00.006-04:002010-04-18T12:04:24.502-04:00

“Every sandwich has to be right. I treat each one like it's my sandwich. As soon as my eyes are happy, I know it's ready."Boustan owner Imad Smaidi, McGill Tribune, 11/18/03Let's cut to the chase. My favorite food destination on the planet is a nondescript Lebanese basement sandwich shop in my hometown of Montreal. Even though the menu primarily deals with Lebanese street food, which is found in

Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8177562857099105047.post-20541309124575522112009-04-18T22:50:00.001-04:002009-04-18T22:53:19.138-04:00

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Paul G.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11612475783467431525noreply@blogger.com3