Not so Wild, about Garlic

Every Thursday, my good friend and I go out eating. It's a night out and away from the child for me and a set date, so my dear friend and I can see one another on a regular basis. Last week, we went to Wild Garlic for dinner. We had attempted to go years ago, but were discouraged by the prices. Now, we have a higher price threshold and of course, our trusty Entertainment coupons.

It was yet another gloomy, wet, and I mean torrential, night in Vancouver. I had a bit of chill by the time we made it in the restaurant. The place was not especially warm. The lighting was particularly dim, too dim in fact. You could hide a lot of imperfections with such lighting and I believe they did.

The menu was limited, but there were adequate choices for us. We opted to share an appy -- roasted garlic (natch), eggplant and artichoke dip. Sounded better than it tasted. The overwhelming taste to my palate was cumin. Now, I grew up eating and enjoying cumin, but this was over the top. I really couldn't distinguish any other ingredients. We both ordered the seven-spiced steak which came with green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. The food was flavourful, if perhaps a little too piled up. The steak was a bit too fatty for my liking, but cooked as requested, medium for my friend, and medium well for me. Now I only wished that I had asked what those seven spices were...

We opted to go elsewhere for dessert and coffee as the night was still young. Just as well as management imposed a mandatory 15 per cent pre-coupon gratuity on us just because we used a promotional coupon. Didn't you read the fine print on the menu lady? Well, he didn't say that, but might as well have. This was quite an affront to my sense of fairness. Most E coupon users know that it is customary to leave such a gratuity based on the pre-coupon amount. Moreover, my girlfriend and I are generally inclined to leave a larger tip, because we are good souls who have taken to just tripling the GST!!! I guess that I am still pissed about it especially because of what happened later...

Back to the seven spices...don't know which one it was, or if it was something in the reduction, or the funky-tasting dip, but less than two hours later, my stomach started cramping and growling and worse (use your imagination if you must). I generally refer to this as cilantro (for which I seem to have an intolerance) belly. But, this was way worse than that or anything else I have ever experienced food wise. Someone suggested that there must have been something bad in the food to have elicited such a strong response. Even my pal with her cast-iron insides had the growlies the next day. I suffered (and I am not exaggerating here) for more than 24 hours. My stomach was cramping so badly, that my back began to spasm. Oy veh! I will never eat there again and discourage others from going there as well. I suppose I should complain to somebody about this. Not sure who. It was a terrible experience.

By the way, save for one tiny bulb of roasted garlic, there was nary a hint of garlic to be tasted.

Thinking about Regis

So the other post was a bit heavy to include this and this one won't be much lighter. I believe that Regis Philbin is having open heart by-pass surgery today. I don't know him, but I worry about him. He has been among my pretend friends for some time now, among a legion of celebrities I have befriended in my mind. I have watched his show since the Kathie Lee days and he has made me laugh on more than one occasion. I know about his wife, Joy and his girls, JJ and Joanna (who might be the same person, I'm not sure) and his other family, to whom he rarely refers. My thoughts are with all of them and I am sending all the positive vibes I can muster your way Reege. And grapefruits, because that's what you said you wanted. Lots and lots of grapefruit coming your way, big guy.

I have lost two very important men in my life to heart disease (mitigated by other illnesses): my father and my father-in-law. My father lived for 12 years after his quintuple by-pass surgery. I know he would have lived longer had the diabetes not compounded everything. I am not as clear on my f-i-l's history.

It seems to me that Regis is healthy and fit. Only his age, 75, seems to be working against him. Hang in there, we're coming to see you next year and you'd better be there. Peace.

Confluence of little girls

I have been away from the blog, contemplating the blog and what my intentions are re: the blog. It's a new form of writing for me and alas, since I have not been writing for a long time, I really don't know what the parameters are. Actually, I realized some time ago that there are no parameters. This is blogging. I recall having a similar inner debate about what and why one writes. Milan Kundera suggested that it may have to do with immortality, but I am not certain if that holds true for the relatively new domain (no pun intended) of blogging. This is a medium where anyone and everyone, with a computer or access to one, can state their point of view, make their voice heard and so on. Where my struggle lies is with the distinction between what is here and what manifests in my journaling.

I had no intention of writing in here tonight and here it is. I had just bookmarked my current read Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb, after finishing a couple of heart-wrenching chapters on female circumcision and infibulation of two five-year-old girls. Unrelatedly, I remembered that I had to renew my three-year-old daughter's library books, so I turned on the computer. I received a message from my cousin who had just delivered a baby girl. In the span of a few minutes, four girls entered my consciousness: my own; my new niece; and, two fictional girls whose stories, I suspected, represented those of untold girls and women.

I am so blessed by my daughter and happy for my new niece. I am grateful for all the girls and women I know, but I cannot help but worry about the difficult lives for these young girls and those experienced by so many I know. I grieve for the past, present and future pain for I know that the life of a girl/woman is not an easy one.

My mind wanders to Manjit Panghali, a local woman who was four-months pregnant at the time her husband killed her and disposed of her remains by burning her body. She left behind a three-year-old daughter. What will this child's life be knowing the tragedy of her mother and the viciousness of her father? Statistically, women have a higher risk of being murdered when they are pregnant than when they are not. Now, there's an interesting argument for abstinance. "No sex tonight, honey. I might get preggers and you might off me!" Yikes! O, The Oprah Magazine, did a piece on it called "The Laci Effect," an allusion to the highly publicized Laci Peterson murder. What happened to good old-fashioned divorce? My husband cannot get over the fact that these men believe that they can get away with it. It's comforting to know that his common sense will bar him from pursuing such an action against me. It's too bad that others are not and were not so fortunate.