Lake Effect Diner, Buffalo, New York

Lake Effect Diner is located in northeast Buffalo, New York.

The interior is a retro delight.

Even if we're just across the border on a weekend shopping raid, Pat and I are always on the lookout for a non-chain place to eat with great local food and plenty of atmosphere.  Discovering the Lake Effect Diner in Buffalo, NY, last week was a real score.
It's easy to love these old diners with their gleaming resemblance to old Airstream trailers.  Their exuberant lines just seem to shout holiday and road trip!
The Lake Effect Diner is a post-war original, restored by the Curtin family who also renovated the classic diner menu with with fresh, healthful ingredients sourced when possible  from local farms.  It's this that earned the diner a spot on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins & Dives on Food Network.

Fresh haddock four ways.

Mmm-griddled mac and cheese!

Want breakfast any time with hormone-free eggs, house-cured bacon or ham with red eye gravy? They've got it.  Savory stuffed potato pancakes, sandwiches, steaks, juicy meatloaf hoagies, Buffalo wings or beef-on-weck?  Check.  Please!
The house specialty is fresh haddock served four ways including Budweiser-battered.  With an eye already on the dessert menu - and a side of crispy griddled mac & cheese - I opted for "virtuous" lemon broiled while Pat ordered pan-seared with tomatoes, basil, romano cheese and white wine.  Salads and veg were abundant and super fresh.
For dessert, it was a tough call between a Fried Banana Split for 2 or the Peanut Butter Pie.  Finally, we let the waitress make the call.  What can be said about cool, made-in-house custard cream with the flavor of fresh nuts?  The P.B. Pie alone is worth a trip across the border.
The Lake Effect Diner is located at 3165 Main Street in northeast Buffalo, very easy to get to from any of the area malls or Niagara Falls.  You never have to settle for a chain--and shouldn't!

Buffalo Gal

Magritte at the Albright-Knox.

Cole's on Elmwood.

Still carrying on my not-so-secret love affair with Buffalo, an affair that shows no sign of cooling any time soon. This time, a stroll down Elmwood Avenue, the sidewalk scattered with with gold gingko leaves, to our favorite Buffalo hangout, Cole's.  Robbie at the old (1934) bar--dark wood, college memorabilia, antique carousel horses--pulled us a couple of pints while we waited for a table.
Anyone who thinks Buffalo's dead hasn't been in Elmwood Village at lunchtime lately. Even midweek, parking spots and restaurant seating were at a premium. The prices help. Burger specials at Cole's were going for $6 and $7 but I had to have the Buffalo combo: a beef on weck (weck is a roll sprinkled with caraway and coarse salt) au jus and Buffalo wings. B-wings are available around the planet now but I find they're most delectable in the city they were invented in.
Later we browsed the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, its neoclassical exterior containing some excellent 20th century (think Pollock, Giacometti, Johns) art including one of the scariest pieces I've seen, Rene Magritte's The Voice of Space (1928). The second floor is full of new contemporary acquisitions, a great place to take kids on spring break. The back of the gallery is actually the front, with two impressive caryatid porches gazing out over Olmsted's sweeping Delaware Park and the skateboarders and lovers exploring its lakeside paths. Buffalo, you're always such a pleasure.

Perfect fall weekend in Montreal

October, by Tissot.

The romantic Pierre du Calvet hotel, Montreal.

Montreal was wonderful. Pat and I caught the pre-dawn train from Guildwood; he did some work while I snuggled into my seat, watching the sun rise over the trees we flew past, waiting for drinks and brunch to arrive. Via Rail Business Class truly rocks.
A few hours later, we were settling into the Pierre du Calvet hostellerie in Vieux Montreal. Built in 1725, its old stone walls are stuffed with antiques and atmosphere.
Outside the weather was cool and drizzly which made it a pleasure to duck into Crepes Cafe for crepes suzette and cappuccino, browse crafts at Marche Bonsecours and eat buckets of steaming mussels and frites at the charming (and Tintin accented) bistro Le Petit Moulinsart.
Other highlights included a remarkable meal at Toque!, the brilliant evening lantern display at the Jardin Botanique's Chinese Garden and the J.W. Waterhouse show at the Musee des Beaux Arts. Circe, sirens and The Lady of Shalott--eighty paintings by the "modern" Preraphaelite, some of which haven't been seen by the public since they were sold by Waterhouse to private collectors in the 1880s.  Circe Poisoning the Pool was a standout; Waterhouse enjoyed painting water as well as women.  October, by Tissot, was another important piece I caught there.
As for Cinderella?  I did find her, not the cheese but a wistful waif in a display of contemporaries' paintings in the anteroom to the Waterhouse show. I looked up and there she was, Cendrillon/Cinderella.  How strange, and wonderful, was that?

Searching for Cinderella

One of my most anticipated guests was missing at Thanksgiving, though I'd hunted all over Toronto for her. I'm talking about Cinderella, the cheese from St-Raymond de Portneuf, Quebec, voted best in the world recently at the World Cheese Awards 2009. The nice guys at Alex Farm (Danforth and Chester) were confident their supplier would come through by Friday but when I ran in there, breathless, like Cinderella at the appointed hour, she was a no-show.
This was the first time ever that a Canadian cheese has won the award, causing a nationwide run on the belle of the ball.  A reasonable price (about $5 for 125 grams) guarantees Cinderella's dance card will be full for a while. The producer--La Maison Alexis de Portneuf--says production is based on demand so will go up, but since it is artisanally made, the vegetable ash-covered, soft surface-ripened goat cheese could be in short supply for a while. As I scribbled my name and every single one of my phone numbers on a scrap of paper for Alex Farm's order book, the counter guy gently informed me that Cinderella's real name is Le Cendrillon.
How embarrassing! South of the border they've anglicized the name, but up here we're supposed to know French.  I'll be working on my language skills--and keeping an eye open for Cinderella--in Montreal later this week.  I'll let you know if I find her.

Has anyone seen my pyrohy?

What's yum in Ukrainian?

6'2", eyes of blue, has anyone seen my pyrohy? It's impossible to find those tasty pillows of stuffed dough in the east end so Mario and I made sure we got to the Toronto Ukrainian Festival last weekend to get our fill. It's the largest Ukrainian festival in North America, big enough to close Bloor Street for three days between Runnymede and Jane. With standing room only for eating, we lost quite a few of our slippery treats and had to keep going back to Natalie's Kitchen for more. It's taken nearly a week to recover from the carb overload but it was so worth it.
Music was a big part of the festival this year, with headliner and Euro favorite Haydamaky whirling traditional Ukrainian tunes, myths and instruments with reggae, ska and punk in a musical blender to produce what they call Cossack rock. Bare-chested accordian playing could be dangerous if done by anyone other than Ivan Leno; he manages to make it soulful.
Dynamic lead singer and sopilka-player Oleksandr Yarmola was born in Chernobyl in 1966 and likes to use music as a medium for political change (the band's name comes from Haydamachyna, an 18th century peasant rebellion against foreign oppression). Check out Haydamaky's performance--and other festival highlights like opening act Zrada Cultural Academy from Winnipeg--on Uke Tube.
Great food, incredible music, amber jewellery and FC Dynamo Kyiv soccer fan scarves...the festival just gets better and better. The next one is only 358 days away. That should give us time to recover!