Anyone who likes to cook can appreciate the challenge of making food without a nice selection of herbs and spices. When I’m back at home, I have a pretty full spice cabinet with probably about 30 different containers ranging from saffron to gran masala to coriander. But unfortunately when I travel finding some of the herbs and spices that I’m used to can be a challenge in many parts of the world, and basically impossible in other parts. A good example of that is chilli powder – it’s basically available in every supermarket in Canada, but I couldn’t find it anywhere when I was in Brazil. Since ...

My birthday is fast approaching, and the only real event I’m looking forward to is having a plate of nachos somewhere in the city with a friend or two. So, my question to all of you is: where are the best nachos in this city? My favourites so far are probably the ones down at Smiley O’Neils on Pender, but I’m open to suggestions. Drop a comment if you’ve had nachos somewhere in the city and let everyone know how they were (if they sucked, say so). I had nachos last night down at the Atlantic Trap and Gill, and the beef on them was actually a cut-up hamburger patty — not cool people. ...