Poutine in Glasgow? This is getting serious!

OK, let me begin by saying that I think this post deserves being written as a seprate entry instead of being incorporated into a general Glasgow/food/other post. We’re talking about POUTINE here – what other justification does anyone need?

So here’s the deal. I was looking up restaurants in Glasgow that serve various types of cuisine – Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Belgian, and Korean, just to name a few. I know I know, so much for trying local food, right? Don’t worry, I’ll get to the haggis and the deep-fried Mars bar. Of course, I thought, I should look up some beloved food from the True North Strong and Free, and what better to represent the land of Canadia than…POUTINE! (What is poutine, you ask? To put it simply, poutine, pronounced pu-teen, is a Canadian dish of French fries with cheese curds and gravy, invented in Quebec. Let’s not try to think of the implications on health here…)

With anticipation I Googled “poutine in Glasgow”, completely ready to be disappointed. But what I found made me gasp for joy (and worry a little, for my health), for what do you know…there is indeed a place in the city centre that serves our cheese curd-topped, gravy-dripping, artery-clogging goodness. Bread Meats Bread – a clever name for a burger restaurant, isn’t it? My Canadian soul screamed, “GO TRY IT.” So I did.

The restaurant was quite busy when I arrived and I had to wait for a seat. One of the advantages of dining out alone is that you can take the odd seat instead of waiting for a proper table, which were all occupied. After about 2 minutes, the server led me over to a seat in the corner of the restaurant. It was the rightmost one in a horizontal row of three, and the two others have already been occupied, so naturally, the remaining seat would be perfect for me, a lone diner. The best part about this seat? It faced the street and I could see it right through the glass. It was a perfect time to people-watch as I waited for my food, and maybe I was being watched from the outside as well? Who knows 😛

New camera plus food

The day after I arrived in Toronto, I purchased my first DSLR, the Nikon D5100. Now, I know about 6 months ago I said I wasn’t going to get one any time soon. I guess I lied.

It wouldn’t be completely correct to say I’ve been saving up for one, because I had the funds that I needed this entire time, so money wasn’t the biggest issue. As I had mentioned before, portability and convenient was perhaps the thing that stopped me from making the purchase much sooner. What, then, changed my mind? Perhaps the more relevant question for me was, why Nikon?

I realized that I had never actually put my hands on a DSLR for a long period of time, even though I said I wanted to try it. When I saw my friends who owned one, I would occasionally ask to take one or two photos without really taking the time to figure out what was going on outside auto mode. On a recent trip to St.Emilion, I asked to hold onto a friend’s Nikon D7000 as I experimented with the settings a bit and took pictures here and there. Bingo – versatility plus image quality equals instant love.

That was probably the event that made me decide to let go of my excuses and settled for a DSLR. If I ended up with no neck pain after carrying a D7000 the entire day, a lighter D5100 would be no problem at all.

As for why I chose Nikon in the first place, well, let’s just say I’ve always been a fan of Canon. My first two cameras were from Canon, and I’ve never used a printer that wasn’t a Canon, so it would make sense that my first DSLR would be a Canon. I suppose I wasn’t as loyal as I thought I was. Then again, I never gave Nikon a chance until that fateful day when I laid my hands on the D7000, and it all changed from then on. (Sorry Canon, I’ll still keep my A2000 with me all the time, I ensure that; you won’t be abandoned.)

Deciding on the Nikon model to purchase was also no simple task. As a complete DSLR newbie, I could definitely do with some advice and suggestions. And certainly help was there from various friends who had been doing DSLR photography for a long time (oddly I think the three people I often go to for photography advice started around the same time). I played around with the Nikons at the camera shop and with the budget in mind, the D5100 seemed to be the most appropriate choice – and recommended by almost everyone – although the D3100 was the less superior and less expensive alternative, if I did want to save the $200. Then again, I figured that the camera would be staying with me for (hopefully) a long, long time, so why not invest in something that I would feel most comfortable with?

So, I have been the proud owner of my Mr.Nikon for a little more than a week, and I am loving every second of interacting with it so far. The art of photography is something that had been tempting me to immerse within its glamour for a long time, and all of a sudden a whole array of new possibilities seem to have opened up just now. I still need to take time to seriously learn how to use this baby, but I am sure the process is one that I will enjoy dearly and the investment is something I won’t regret.