so long, 2012!

Song



Roy Harper, Stormcock

Sixto Rodriguez, Coming From Reality

Cat Power, Sun

More (original soundtrack), "music played and composed by Pink Floyd"

Zabriskie Point (original soundtrack), v/a



Fotheringay, s/t

Grimes, Visions

Beach House, Bloom

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Street Survivors

Destroyer, "Leave Me Alone"

Futurisk, "Lonely Streets"

Divine Fits, A Thing Called Divine Fits

Neil Young, Psychedelic Pill + Yuma



Bill Fay, Life is People + The Time of the Last Persecution

The Faces, BBC TV special, 1972

The Dirty Three, Toward the Low Sun

Tim Hecker, Live at the Red Roof, Pop Montreal

Sharon Van Etten, Tramp

Fairport Convention, Bouton Rouge session, 1968

Print







Manny's Delicatessen Restaurant brochure, ca. 1970


David Grann, "The Yankee Comandante:  A Story of Love, Revolution, and Betrayal," The New Yorker, May 28, 2012






Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia

Errol Morris, Believing is Seeing (Observations on the Mysteries of Photography)

Ariel Levy, "The Space in Between:  Naomi Wolf's Vagina:  A New Biography," The New Yorker, September 10, 2012

Henry James, Portrait of a Lady

Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild



Magnus Nilsson, Fäviken

Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Eleanor Clark, The Oysters of Locmariaquer

John McPhee, The Crofter and the Laird

Jill Lepore, "The Lie Factory:  How Politics Became a Business," The New Yorker, September 24, 2012



Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire

Jon Halliday, Sirk on Sirk

Mark Kurlansky, The Basque History of the World:  The Story of a Nation



David Jury, Graphic Design Before Graphic Designers:  The Printer as Designer and Craftsman, 1700-1914

Jessica Mitford, Hons and Rebels

Hugh Garvey (w/ Chef Andy Ricker), "Simply Thai:  A BA Cooking Primer," Bon Appétit, January 2012

Moving Images



Muhammad Ali:  The Greatest, dir. Klein

Treme, season 2

I Know Where I'm Going, dir. Powell

Searching for Sugar Man, dir. Bendjelloul

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, dir. Alfredson

Oslo, August 31, dir. Trier

Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Anderson



Stop Making Sense, dir. Demme

Blank City:  New Cinema, No Wave, New York, dir. Danhier

Museum Hours, dir. Cohen

A Separation, dir. Farhadi

Meek's Cutoff, dir. Reichardt

Monsieur Lazahr, dir. Falardeau

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, dir. Fincher



The Limits of Control, dir. Jarmusch

Ratcatcher, dir. Ramsay

Detropia, dir. Ewing & Grady

The Wire, seasons 1-5 (all over again)

Food & Drink



Green Chile Summer

Grilled Corn Summer

Hôtel Herman, Montreal, QC



Foodlab, Montreal, QC

Bao Bei, Vancouver

Toro, Boston



Zingerman's Roadhouse, Ann Arbor, MI

Revolver, Vancouver



Montreal bazaars

Santouka, Vancouver

crunchy granola



Neptune, Boston

Toshi, Vancouver



Cream-Nut peanut butter

Hudson's Hamburgers, Coeur d'Alene, ID

Boulangerie Niemand, Kamouraska, QC



summer peaches

The Farm House "Lady Jane" cheese + Les Amis du Fromage, Vancouver

Le Grand Aïoli, Alexandraplatz, Montreal, QC



Montreal food enterprise of the year:  Coq Asian

Furco, Montreal, QC



bo ssäm & ssäm bburritos

Miscellaneous



escapes to Vancouver

The Cornwallville Summer Social 2012, Cornwallville, NY

This American Life, "What Happened at Dos Erres"



Mystery Train, Gloucester, MA



summer swimming + cottage outings



Kamouraska, QC



bags by Erin Templeton

Le Creuset cookware (in black)



Cornwallville Soaps

Birdkage waxed canvas aprons

ping pong!


All the best to you in 2013 (?!!), from your friends at "...an endless banquet."  Thanks for reading!

aj

p.s. And if you're wondering what our most popular post was this year, it was our "Boston Notebook (go figure!)."

Coq-la-la!, rev. ed.

What is up, Montreal?  Baby's on fire.

The momentum's been building for a few years now, but, rather suddenly, after years and years of outright persecution, street food is cropping up all over the place.  You could find it along Ste-Catherine, in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, during the Festival Juste Pour Rire, where it was getting star billing.  You can find it in Place de la Paix, where it's been accompanying a series of films and DJs (and will be until the end of August).  You've been able to find it at Parc Olympique where the Association de Restaurateurs de Rue du Québec have been holding street food shindigs on the first Friday of every month all summer long (check out the August edition, the last one of the summer, tomorrow).  You can find it in our food courts and at our outdoor markets.  And now you can get one of the classics of the global street food phenomenon, Vietnamese bánh mì, delivered right to your doorstep.

In all of these cases, we're not talking about third-rate carny dreck (as much as I like a good batch of funnel cake)--we're talking about street food staples, both North American and international, that have been carefully sourced and prepared.  And the same holds true for this latest venture, the cheekily named Coq Asian, which pools the talents of a couple of local line cooks and one of our favourite local coffee gurus, to bring you the bánh mì you've been dreaming of all these years (you know, the one with the quality bread, the top-notch ingredients, and the ultra-fresh preparation) plus some pretty amazing iced Vietnamese coffee (made with locally roasted beans!).

 fig. a:  nice package!

We were pretty psyched by just the look of our duo of grilled beef, green peppercorn, and chilli bánh mìs with "white" cold-brewed Vietnamese coffees (which came in mason jars!).

 fig. b:  bánh me!

We were way more psyched when we actually bit into that bánh mì--the beef was plentiful, rosy, perfectly grilled, and spicy-tangy, the condiments were fresh.  And we were even more psyched when the jolt of that Vietnamese coffee kicked in.

Coq Asian is only in operation Fridays through Sundays.  You can get in touch by following them on Facebook and/or Twitter.  Place your orders early.  They sold out on weekend #1.  And keep in mind that their range is limited--we were able to get our order delivered downtown, but, for the moment, their focus is on the Plateau/Mile End.

Like the proverbial crooning rooster, we're proud to sing the praises of Coq Asian.

And keep the street food coming!  Who knows, maybe we'll soon have Tamale Ladies strolling through our late-night establishments and wood-burning pizza trucks popping up on our rues, avenues, and boulevards.  Maybe we'll start hosting full-on street food festivals!

aj

p.s.  Update:  you'll be happy to know that Coq Asian's quality control is excellent--we've only missed one week since they started up, and we haven't been disappointed yet.  Not even close.  And the next time they do their Vietnamese meatball sandwich, like they did this past weekend (Aug. 17-9), do not miss it!  That was by far and away the best meatball bánh mì I've had in a very long time.