New Egyptian menu at Frank, more A la Cart troubles, seal meat now for sale on Parliament Hill

• Anne Yarymowich, executive chef at the AGO’s Frank, has put together a series of Egyptian-inspired dishes to honour King Tut’s arrival at the gallery this month. “Abundance and an exotic feel will be part of the experience,” with Yarymowich featuring “medjool dates, figs, pomegranates, pomegranate molasses, oranges and lamb.”  Although Yarymowich will change the lunch and dinner prix fixe menus each day, Egyptian dukkah—a dry nut and spice mixture served with bread for dipping—will be served throughout Tut’s Toronto tenure. [Toronto Star]

• For four Wednesdays, the Globe’s Jacquie McNish joined a group of power women as they communed with their inner “Child” at a George Brown class called Cooking Like Julia. Clutching designer knives and coffee mugs slyly filled with wine, the women learned how to slice an onion, clean a stovetop (one student protested “But I have a lady who does that”), and most importantly, relax and trust that butter is their friend. [Globe and Mail]

• MPs and senators hoping for their own Braveheart moment (a la Michaëlle Jean) may soon get their chance: Ottawa’s parliamentary restaurant is set to put seal on its menu. In the face of an EU ban on seal products, the dining hall, which is only open to Hill workers with a parliamentary pass, intends to show that sealing is both legal and acceptable in Canada. The meat will be served alongside other Can fare, like bison meat and baked salmon. [CBC]

• A la Cart vendors—like Bridgette Pinder, who sells jerk chicken at Yonge and St. Clair as a part of the city’s program to get ethnic food vendors on Toronto’s streets—are furious with the way Toronto Public Health has mangled the project. “They sent eight people, eight regular ordinary folk, into bankruptcy, and nobody seems to care,” Pinder told the Sun. “There is no heart in this program.” In an effort to save the initiative, TPH is trying to make it easier for the struggling vendors by reducing its restrictive, bureaucratic regulations. [Toronto Sun]

• A deluge of rain in the Midwest means that American Thanksgiving this year might be short on canned pumpkins. Nestlé, which produces America’s most popular pumpkin purée brand, Libby’s, announced on Tuesday that its inventory might not be able to meet the massive holiday demand. Although organic pumpkin growers on the west coast are trying to make up some of the shortfall, some suggest the best way to fill empty pie shells is by tracking down a pumpkin and making purée the old-fashioned way. [New York Times]