A curious case of Canadian fast food

Canada is not the first place that comes to mind as a home of fast food, like burgers and pizza - poutine and Tim Hortons notwithstanding.

However, recently I've noticed some fast food outlets naming themselves after Canada or Canadian places. And as they say, 'three is a trend', so here we go.

In Larnaca, in Cyprus, I saw Toronto Pizza. I've heard of Chicago pizza and Detroit pizza, but not Toronto Pizza. (Though Wikipedia claims there is a Toronto-style pizza, as well as styles named after several other Canadian places.)

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In Spa, Belgium, I noticed this restaurant called Canadian Burgers and Pizza. The menu posted outside didn't feel especially Canadian.

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Finally, in Oldham, I spied Toronto Fried Chicken - and I've seen it called 'the best fried chicken shop in Oldham' online.

So, the big question here is: why? and why Canada?

Overheard: Richmond & Ted Lasso pub

During a recent trip to London, I paid a visit to Richmond. While I was there, I thought to look around some Ted Lasso filming locations. The building which 'played' Ted's apartment now has a shop dedicated to Ted Lasso / AFC Richmond. I decided to have a drink at The Prince's Head, the exterior of which is The Crown & Anchor in the series.

The bar is a fairly typical English pub, serving food and drinks. The staff were friendly, in that English charming way. What I noticed most was a more-than-typical number of tourists visiting because of the Ted Lasso connection. And I love people watching and listening, so here's what I saw and heard.

• 3 boys wandering in but getting turfed out 'without mum and dad'
  
  
• Two German men carefully asking how many millilitres are in a pint of beer
  
  
• Two Americans deciding to split their meal - 'Sharing a fish and chips, are we boys?'
  
  
• Two guys debating what 'other shows are actually on Apple TV...?' They agreed on The Morning Show with Rachel from Friends.
  
  
• A family of five ordering their drinks, and then all instantly started looking at their phones
  
  
• The bar was not full but busy, a steady stream of people coming in and leaving. A lot of debate from new people: Should we stand at the bar?

Map pictograms: tomato sauce Britain

Lovely little map on a pasta sauce ad. Funny they include some islands (like the Scilly Isles) but don't bother with Northern Ireland...

Food & Meat-related tube stations

It's a quiet day in our office, and a conversation about Swimbeldon turns turns meatily to Gambledon and a whole afternoon of foody pun fun.

Puns are good.

• Turnpike Loin
• Aldgate Yeast
• Banger Lane
• Parsnip Green
• Elephant & Custard
• Euston Squash
• Bacon Street
• Brent Cress
• Charring Cress
• Mill Hill Feast
• Arnos Grape
• Ladbrook Gravy
• Marrow-on-the-hill
• Bean Park
• Green Pork
• New Crisp Gate
• Turnip Green
• Kings Cross St Parsnip
• Snout Kensington
  
• Hamden Town
• Whitechipolata
  
• Mansion Grouse
• Offal
• Turnip Green
• Maida Veal
  
• Shepherds Pie Market
• Piccalilli Circus
• Marrowlebone.
• Brussel square
• Mint-Imperial Wharf
• Old meat
• Lan-pasta Gate
• Sprout Kensington
• High-berry & Ice-cream-ton
• Oxford Circus-cous
• West-Mince-ter
• Pimmslico
• Chutney bridge
• Seven shish-ters
  

Any more?

99 cone

It's summer! Yesterday, I had a 99 cone - lovely ice-cream and flaky chocolate. Lovely.

I started to wonder, though, why is it called a 99? But, sadly, it seems, nobody really knows. The term was used as early as 1936 in a Cadbury's ad which said "Try a 99 ice cream with Cadbury's Dairy Milk Flake chocolate".

There are some wild theories, such as:

• There's an idea that the flake chocolate bar is exactly 99mm long, but everything back then was measured in imperial measures.
• Askeys, a cone-making company, made a cone stamped with "99"
• An Edinburgh ice cream maker called Arcari claim to have invented the treat in the 1920s and named it after the address of their shop at 99 Portobello High St.
• The initials of ice cream - IC - is one way to write 99 in Roman numerals... but the usual way is to write it as XCIX

Lots more interesting suggestions on Wikipedia and BBC.

Observations on Portugal

• Itinerant Londoner was right - the food in Portugal is disappointing. Try as I might, I did not find mijas on the menu, and instead was left with oily, greasy and largely flavourless food. Once or twice, I did think "yes, it's stodge, but glorious stodge" a la Nigella, but that was rare.
• It struck me that while the high-end restaurants may have brilliant food, more commonplace, everyday cafés and such churned out basic, unadorned food. A bit like the food at an Irish wedding - plain and simple, nothing that'd scare that aunties and uncles.
• Cakes, buns and tarts, however were divine, especially the pasteis de nata and pasteis de Belem (above).
• There are a lot of pharmacies in Portugal. Lisbon seemed to have one at every turn.
• My favourite of Lisbon's gay bars were Setimo Ceu in Barrio Alto - ace music, friendly staff and a cool magazine-collage wall - and Max in Principe Real, unadorned, unpretentious and friendly.
• My favourite Metro stop (in Porto) was Estadio do Dragao - simply for the phlegmatic tongue-twisting way it is pronounced. In Lisbon, I quite liked Marques do Pombal as it sounded like Marques do bumhole. (Mature, I know)
• My very favourite things were: azulejos and seeing Cabo da Roca - more of this later.