4th of July the parking lot behind Vision Theater was home to Leimert park’s annual jazz festival. Music, dancing, and shopping were main attractions.
But the real question was – what was there to eat? Marilyn’s had a stand there, and it was nice to not have to wait in a line around the block for once. The turkey leg was probably the best thing I’ve eaten in awhile. The sides were satisfactory, but paled in comparison to the tender turkey.
Shabazz had the wings and fish cooking, but we were more interested in the bean pie man. Although this cobbler looked out-of-sight, the blueberry pie is a rarity and you’ve got to get it while you can.
The sun was merciless, so we took a break in 5th Street Dicks for some smoothies and ended up hanging out in the AC to watch Dave Chapelle with everybody.
There is a promising new creole restaurant opening up in the site of the “fake” M&Ms.
Dray’s BBQ is there at the Farmer’s market every Saturday morning. We picked up some ribs and a tri tip sandwich for the road.
People showed varying degrees of patriotism via T-shirt
Wednesday walked into town for lunch with Jeanette before heading to the airport.
We had lunch at a homespun diner called The Maid’s Cottage. My Shepherd’s pie was homey, and would have been perfect if not for the mixed frozen vegetables. My mom, in a moment of indecision, fell under my bad influence and ordered herself both a stuffed cabbage AND a meat pie.
My aunt had a more dainty soup-sandwich combo. The service was super-friendly. It’s the kind of place you want to find when you are travel-weary or ill. A little hot soup, fresh-baked bread and mothering. They also had meat pies and small pre-packaged homemade dinners, a nice convenience for singles and senior citizens.
Their bakery section also boasted the “world’s best” butter tarts. They were definitely the biggest. They boast about a secret ingredient, but if I had to bet the farm I would guess Lyle’s Golden Syrup.
My aunt worked at this restaurant for about 30 years.
This little English shop sold meat pies, and my favorite – Thai Lime Chili chips!
It was a beautiful day so I took a lot of pictures of wildflowers along the way. This first picture reminds me of the easter Ideals magazines my mother used to buy.
It was hard for me to say goodbye, but I know it was much harder for them
Tuesday was our last night in Ontario. Another cousin and his very witty girlfriend took us out for dinner. When someone else is treating, you go where you are taken. So in spite of buffets having a bad reputation of quantity over quality, we went to a Chinese buffet.
Wow. I could definitely see why they were so excited to go there. This was not like any buffet I have been to. The room was tasteful and chic. They had those cool old Mai Tai/Singapore Sling placemats so I knew it was going to be good.
They had a huge assortment. Of everything. I chose to avoid the seafood and sushi, since no one can do everything well. These popular sections are never a good idea. The ribs and chicken were fantastic. They had an excellent assortment of noodle dishes as well.
The dim sum was impressive. These were beautiful, even if the red bean paste filling was a little dry. The desserts also tend to be an area of disappointment in buffets. Their table was hit and miss. Some of the selections were fantastic, some were ho-hum and some were so bizarre they had me enthralled.
Isn’t Jell-o one of the most psychedelic things ever?
So that night I fell asleep for the last time listening to my mom and aunt reminiscing about their childhoods. Every single story seemed to start with, “Remember the time the cow got out? And Mother was so mad?””
On Monday we hooked up with my dad’s side of the family and went to the Museum of Textiles.
There was a demo/participation display and since it was unattended, my mom walked over and started weaving to show my uncle and cousin how the machine worked. It completely blew their minds. Of course it also completely blew their minds that I photograph my food. Welcome to our world! Sorry, there is no guidebook.
One of the current exhibits, Rugs of War was extremely heavy. It was comprised of rugs woven in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation. It was really strange to see little tanks and guns in place of birds and blossoms.
I realized I hadn’t eaten anything all day and it was after 4 o’clock. So I ran around the corner to a Roti shop I had noticed. A roti is an East Indian flatbread similar to a tortilla. In the West Indes, they are stuffed and made into a sort of burrito, also referred to as a “roti”. East meets West.
As I often do in unfamiliar territory, I asked the lady to just make it as if she were making it for herself. I ended up with curried chicken and something like daal. It was genius. I wish we had roti shops here; I would eat them for lunch every day.
Wanting to show us a nice time, our relatives drove us to the picturesque nearby town of Mississauga, pronounced Mrs. Saga. We walked along the water, then had dinner at their favorite place – Snug harbour. It was just like a movie location, “Find me a seaside restaurant! I need more life preservers on the walls!”
The local fish was catfish from Lake Erie. Although it was cooked with Cajun seasonings, it was very different than the catfish from the salt water in the Gulf of Mexico. It was much cleaner-tasting (ironic, coming from Lake Erie). It was missing that appealing muddy flavor that probably explains why children like to eat dirt.
Strange things happen when you Google yourself. I write for a group blog – mostly restaurant and music reviews, photo essays and a few hard news items. I didn’t realize there are journalism watch sites tracking every word you write.
Anyways, I love my word cloud. MAKE MEAT, POTATO PUNK. TASTE THAI THINGS, TURKEY!
angeles art band beans butter cheese chicken chocolate cook cream cupcakes dia didnt dish dont drinking eat festival food friends good halloween haunt hot kind laist make meat megan menu music myspace night northridge park people photo pic pie place potatoes punk recipe red restaurant rock room sauce served show song sugar taco tamale taste thai things turkey water watts
I am a little puzzled by the topics list. I only mentioned Florence Henderson and Eric Idle twice. I had lunch with Pat Boone ONCE and now it’s going to follow me around for the rest of my life? Thank God for Christmas!
Most Frequently Mentioned Topics: Megan Meier Los Angeles Lori Drew Long Beach Hollywood Eric Idle Florence Henderson Pat Boone Mike Watt Christmas
Sunday the weather was on our side and my mom, Auntie Jeanette and I were able to take a helicopter tour over Niagara Falls. So technically speaking, I went over Niagara Falls – sans barrel.
The view from outside
The view from within
This is my favorite place by the falls. I don’t want to see the gorgeous view from across the water. I like to stand right at the edge, a breath away from going over.
I love the “world’s biggest” anything!
This building looked like a bucket of KFC (Whatever it is I think I see, becomes a KFC to me!)
We looked around a bit, and everyone was patient while I snapped some pics of the local Buddhist monastery.
We hitched a ride back to Newmarket with my cousin and his wife. When the subject of lunch came up, there were vague murmurs of Tim Horton’s emanating from the back seat. What is up with Tim Horton’s? Are they putting crack in it? But no one wanted to be the one to make a fuss. I sensed a sudden power vacuum, and nature abhors a vacuum. I pulled out my list of restaurants and seized the reins. California sandwiches, a new place I had heard good things about, was conveniently on the way.
As we sat at a stoplight I noticed a Tim Horton’s. Curses! I tried to decide whether or not to fake a seizure. But the resulting uprising was easily quelled without the need for diversionary tactics.
It turned out California sandwiches was closed Sundays, but it is so popular we weren’t the only ones standing in the parking lot. Another thwarted customer recommended Francesco’s Foods just down the street on Clayhill, which turned out to be a real find.
Francesco’s veal and chicken cutlets were crispy and delicious, topped with melted cheese and marinara sauce.
The steak sandwich was mind-blowing. The meat was so tender. I was so focused on the veal cutlet when I ordered I didn’t even notice they had panzarotti. My loss.
I asked Rae, at the counter, what cut of beef they used for the steak sandwich. He came back with, “What? You want me to give you the recipe for the red sauce too?” I love a challenge. We bantered back and forth for a little while and finally he showed me where the cut was on his own body (Sorry, I’m sworn to secrecy). I looked up and realized everyone else was sitting in the car, purses in laps, staring straight ahead. Wait! We can’t leave yet! I’m over here falling in love! And what is the secret to the red sauce?
Back in Newmarket, I found a coffeshop with wireless so I could start uploading photos. On the way home, I asked the taxi cab to take me somewhere good to pick up something to eat. He took me here. It was in a strip mall with an adult bookstore.
Saturday my mom and I went to Niagara Helicopters Limited, but the copters were grounded due to inclement weather.
On the way back, we passed by the Evel Knievel Daredevil Museum. My cousin said, “I suppose you want to stop there.” Are you kidding me? It was also a thrift store – score! 15 dollars poorer, one funny sign and crazy hat later, we were back on the road.
I don’t know what any of this has to do with Evel Knievel. But it was behind a velvet rope.
The camel toe wouldn’t fit in my luggage
We passed a cool motel that looked EXACTLY like the motel from Psycho. If I hadn’t seen the real Psycho set, I’d swear that’s where they filmed it. So when we counted heads and came up one bed short, I volunteered to stay at the Bates Motel. I wanted to take pictures inside the room. No one would let me stay there, something about drugs and hookers. So they found me a room at the Old Stone Inn.
That night we had tickets to “Oh Canada, Eh!” It was an unfortunate pick – probably my worst case of bad judgement this trip. I had heard the food was actually good, and it looked like it was going to be kitschy in a cool, drag-queen kind of way.
Instead it was a theme restaurant, like Medieval Times. Imagine Bear Country Jamboree meets Waiting for Guffman. Along with cheesy acting and the anticipated stereotypes (they even had a “newfie”), the hypercheerful music was unrelenting. The French Canadian accents were just painful. How in the hell did they manage that? You can’t throw a rock in Ontario without hitting someone with a real French Canadian accent.
For dinner there was a watery pea soup and mediocre salad that they comically cleared while I was still eating it. I just poked at everything else – a platter of mixed Canadian food – fried fish that wasn’t so bad, chicken, some of the worst beef ever, and I forget what else. Maybe I will recover the memory in therapy. You may wonder where the food photos are – well, I had a broken lens that wouldn’t focus on anything within three feet of me – be grateful.
At the end of the meal, they offered “Squirrel cake” Squirrel cake? Really? Although I’m sure my ancestors probably did eat squirrel, I must have heard them wrong. It turns out it was swirl cake. Chocolate and maple. Yeah, maple. The most intense, awful, maple badness ever. We all tried to be subtle as we spit it out. I wish it was squirrel cake.
It was kind of a relief when they cleared the dessert dishes, since it meant that the show was almost over. Not so fast, Missy. It went on and on and on. I went outside and started making phone calls during the Gordon Lightfoot tribute.
Keeping with the Psycho theme, there was some appetizing taxidermy on the walls.
The room at the Old Stone Inn was beautiful. Definitely a nice place to stay in Niagara Falls. It was right near a party row. Hunger and lots of people yelling wooohoooh drew me out of my room. Especially since my plan to get drugs and hookers at the Bates Motel had been thwarted.
Hello? Halal Indian Food and Evil Psycho Clown. May I help you?
I happened upon this place on Clark Avenue simply called Indian Buffet Restaurant. It was too good to be true. An Indian buffet open til midnight? Score. As I stood there considering my choices, one of the waiters approached me, “You are so beautiful. I will make you anything you want – special.” Amongst my many superpowers, I seem to have the strange ability to mesmerize East Indian men. Friends who have witnessed this power in action attribute it to my red hair. Others think it has something to do with my breasts.
“How about a garlic naan?”
“Anything for you!”
“OK, then, TWO garlic naan!”
When you are a lone traveler, the desk clerk is your best friend. The clerk at the Inn was so sweet, when he saw my take-out bag he took my food in the back and put it on covered plates with real silver as if I had ordered it from room service. So I curled up for the night with a 10.99 movie and my riches of naan. Swank.
At the “Springilicious Festival” in Niagara Falls, Ontario, we met up with my cousin’s work friends and started drinking. One friend introduced himself to me by saying, “Hi. I’m John. I play bass.” (Did I mention that I play guitar?”)
I had to come back with, “Did you hear about the drummer who locked himself in the van?”
“No”
“It took the bass player an hour to get him out.”
“Why?”
One drawback to my dawdling in Buffalo was that by the time it occurred to me to check out the food most of the booths were closing up. The Haitian booth was still open. The lady at the booth was shy about my camera, but I flattered her and then showed her the picture and offered to erase it of she didn’t like it. She blushed charmingly and waved me away.
I thought I ordered a curried chicken, but ended up with some kind of fritter and fried plantains.
After a short break to eat the mystery fritter, I stood up and picked up my bag, and the camera just flew out, end over end, smashing into the concrete. It didn’t happen in slow motion, as dramatic as that would have been. Luckily, I was hanging out with techie-minded engineers who physically pushed the lens back in. I now was forced to shoot in Manual mode for the first time ever.
As a result, the rest of the pictures in this series are going to be compromised as I am forced to learn Manual mode. The photos are all wacky, as I am often unaware that the setting is off and cannot make the broken lens focus on anything less than 3 feet away. Later, back in LA, when I had to cough up for a new lens, they sold me a lens filter to try and counteract my cavalier attitude towards my gear. The woman added, “The cover has UV protection too, so that’s good.”
I asked, “So I don’t get cancer in that one eye?”
She just stared at me, like, “How do you even walk around without hurting yourself?”
Sad as I was about the camera, ice cream makes everything better. The gelato booth even had nougat, an uncommon flavor and definitely better than chocolate.
When I had heard that April Wine was playing, the name sounded so familiar, but I didn’t know any of their songs offhand. I had thought it would be like Jethro Tull or Lord Sutch. It turned out to be more of a hair band, like bands that pronounce “higher” as “Hiyaaahhh.” I asked one of the guys when I should expect the power ballad.
“Probably any time now.”
“How many times do they say the word ‘lady’?”
“This isn’t Styx.’
“I know. But it’s the third law of the power ballad that it must include the word ‘lady'”
So I was really gratified to hear this song. So gratified I had to go find that guy and point at the stage and raise my eyebrows at him. Because I am such a lady. Or could have been.
Could have been alright, could have been here tonight
Could have been sweet as wine, you could have been a lady
I could have been alright, I could have been here tonight
Could have been sweet as wine, you could have been a lady
It’s disturbingly catchy.
“I could have been allllriiiight…could have been here toniiiiight…could have been sweet as wiiiine….you could have been a ladyyyyy.”
In fact it kind of reminded me of my favorite song from The Office.
“…so wrong so right all night, alright, oh yeah. Oh yeah”
We stopped off for drunk food at Somebuddy’s Casual Family Dining. It was a little Hooters-esque, but I have no problem with cute girls in short shorts sexily wiping down tables. And hey, they had poutine – official drunk food of the great white north.
In a segment on the television series “This Hour Has 22 Minutes” during the 2000 American election, Rick Mercer convinced then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush that Canada’s Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, was named Jean Poutine. – Wikipedia
This was definitely one of my stranger moments in food porn. Imagine me insistently slurring, “Wait! Wait! Don’t touch the poutine! I have to get my signature shot!”
Friday I headed over to Charlie the Butcher’s. You place your order at the counter where the day’s side dishes are displayed. The set-up allows you to ogle the carving station from anywhere in the restaurant. An old man sitting near me heckled the carver, “Slice it thicker!” It wasn’t even his sandwich. You tell ’em, old boy!
My roast beef arrived in big slices so tender it was nearly falling apart. The beef is served on a weck (kummelweck), a kaiser roll dotted with kosher salt and caraway seeds. It is without a doubt one of the top five sandwiches I have ever eaten. If I had never been to New Orleans, it would probably be number one. Various mustards and horseradish are available to gild the lily.
Charlie’s a butcher – not a baker
Did anyone else see The Shining?
Right across from Charlie’s was another graveyard. Seriously, they just find me. I remember as a kid begging my dad to stop at a cemetery on a boring car trip. He said, “Someday you’re going to spend an awfully long time in one of those places. I don’t see any reason to start now.”
I stopped off at my hotel and decided after missing my last ride, I should call the next cousin early to organize Saturday’s transportation. It turned out there was a huge festival in Niagara Falls that weekend and he could pick me up in a few hours at the rental car place while shopping. Rock concert? Tasting booths from local restaurants? You don’t have to ask me twice. Of course I didn’t realize that by leaving I would be missing the world’s biggest fish fry. Dang.
I packed faster than I have ever packed in my life so I wouldn’t get charged an extra night. In my haste I left the Purple Haze in the minifridge, as well as forgetting my favorite wooly sweater. Sometimes it seems like I spent last month steaming across the continent leaving articles of clothing and artisanal cheeses in my wake.
On the way to Niagara Falls, I would be passing a Ted’s. The first Ted’s was opened in a tool shed in 1927. I’m like a kid hearing the siren song of the ice cream truck. I am just not responsible for my own actions. “Ermm, sorry I’m late. There was this foot-long calling my name…” I could only finish half of my charcoal-grilled dog. I was still full from lunch at Charlie’s. An embarassment of riches.
I bought a jar of their amazing spicy-hot pepper relish, but was disappointed to discover that they don’t can them, so the relish has to be kept refrigerated.
Amongst all the confusion of visiting this cousin and that cousin, I somehow ended up missing the ride to the next destination. I looked at the railroad map and realized that we were all supposed to meet up eventually in Niagara Falls, so why didn’t I just take a little side trip to Buffalo for some hot wings?
The train trip wasn’t that long, but they kept us at the border forever, so I managed to read an entire book on the way. Luckily I had packed up some of the fruit and cheese I’d bought from the markets, so I had a nice picnic instead of microwaved train burgers.
A Scottish couple sitting behind me bitched the entire way about every little thing. You can even hear them quietly bitching in the background of a video I took of the bridge.
I rented an SUV with GPS in Buffalo and almost immediately started talking back to the disembodied voice. The Courtyard by Marriott I’d booked was right by the freeway (damn you, google maps!). The room was spartan compared to the Westin, but it was comfortable and had these groovy lamps.
The view from my room:
I went for a drive and passed a cemetery. They aren’t set apart and surrounded by hedges and walls like they are here. There is a block of houses, then a block of gravestones, then another block of houses. It’s like every vacant lot has been turned into a little cemetery.
I stopped in at Wegman’s for supplies. I love Wegman’s; they even had Purple Haze cheese.
For dinner I hit Duff’s. Even though hot wings were invented at The Anchor Bar, Duff’s has a reputation for serving the best wings in Buffalo. The room was crowded and raucus. Teenage boys videotaped each other in hot wing eating contests for YouTube.
The floor looked clean, but was really slippery. I shuffled over to a waitress and asked why it was so slippery. Without missing a beat, she shrugged and replied, “Chicken grease.”
The menu warns:
Medium is HOT
Medium Hot is VERY HOT
Hot is VERY VERY HOT
I ordered ten Medium wings to fill me up and 10 Hot wings for the adventure. I ordered a side of milk, which is my secret weapon for eating spicy food.
The medium wings were incindiary. I moved on to the hot, and wasn’t that impressed. I guess it’s like getting punched in the face. The difference between getting punched really hard and getting punched really, really hard isn’t that noticable.
I found myself longing for Bob’s hot wings. He cuts the heat with lemon and gives them a final pass in the broiler to fuse the sauce onto the wings. It’s funny how you have to travel so far only to discover that what you were looking for was right there at home all along.
Canoe is a well-reviewed restaurant serving nouvelle Canadian cuisine. It is part of a restaurant group similar to Patina. I was surprised to be dropped off at a high-rise office building with instructions to take an elevator up to the top floor.
Sometimes I order things that sound strange because I am daring the restaurant to make it taste good, which is how I ended up drinking a “Locust.” It is a combination of Grasshopper wheat beer, ginger ale, and Limoncello. And you know what? It worked. Far better than a shandy. After that one experiment, I went for my usual champagne – they had my favorite, Perrier Jouet with the flowers on it.
I started with a chowder of Ontario fiddlehead ferns and BC spot prawns. Fiddleheads are kind of like asparagus, only grassier, maybe a little like pea shoots. It was topped with a wild leek and yukon rouille, a Provencial French sauce for soups. Yes, only the French would think a soup needs a sauce.
Next I was a little daring and had a plate from the tasting menu – Potato gnocchi with crispy sweetbreads and foie gras. The sauce/foam was rich with cream and morel mushrooms. The person who was delivering plates and explaining the ingredients had a very strong French-Candian accent, and I couldn’t understand hardly anything he said. In the dim restaurant, it was difficult to make out what was what. The waiter, who I was loving, was staring at the plate trying to help me make out the individual ingredients. You know you are in an expensive restaurant when the waiter is willing to stand and ponder your dinner with you. Suddenly I remembered in a pack-for-emergencies moment I had thrown a Mag light in my bag. So I shone a spotlight on the dish, sweetbreads were identified, and voila!
I was brought an intermezzo of a celery foam. I expected a light refreshing palate cleanser, but there was a layer of salt on top that was so intense, instead my palate received an intensive salt scrub by a vicious Swedish masseuse. Uncle! Uncle! I’m cleansed! My palate is immaculate! I give in!
For my main dish I ordered the bison striploin with North woods mushrooms, confit potatoes and a peppercorn sauce that was similar to a bernaise. There was such a treasure trove of exciting new mushrooms to try – Black trumpet, cinnamon cap, yellow foot, blue foot, and more, that I ate them all before I remembered to take a picture. The confit potatoes were so delicious I am just going to start cooking everything in duck fat from now on. Meatloaf? Confit! Apple pie? Confit!
The buffalo was lovely – kind of like beef with a taste of the wild. It’s strange that I am not usually a fan of game, but I love buffalo. Maybe it is my native roots. Or maybe it is the fact that when I was growing up my mom had a freezer stuffed full of buffalo meat. I never knew where it came from. Or if it was really buffalo. Recently when I asked about it she told me she had traded for it.
Check out this crazy Dr Seuss garnish
I only have one memory of my great-grandmother Hopkins. We were at a rare family picnic somewhere in BC. I was asking her what saskatoons looked like. She said, “Well, they look…like that!” We had stumbled upon some wild bushes and picked enough to bring back to the picnic. Canoe had a dessert that came with saskatoons, which the waiter was kind enough to bring me on the side, and they made me a little maudlin.
I have been going easy on desserts, but I had to try Sticky Toffee Pudding made with Glen Breton Rare Whiskey, Toffee Sauce and Parsnip ice cream. Seriously. Standing alone, the parsnip ice cream was successful, but didn’t do anything for me. When my waiter convinced me to try it together with everything in one bite, it did actually make it good. Trippy. This is the third time in a month I have seen kumquats in a fancy restaurant, so I guess they are an up-and-coming fruit.
I loved the service, I loved the atmosphere and I loved the food. I loved the chef, Anthony Walsh, so much I sent him a glass of champagne. The dishes were all creative, but based upon local ingredients. They definitely disproved the theory that restaurants with views all suck.
Downstairs there were two city blocks of taxis waiting. Normally you go to the first taxi in the line, but it was cold, and that first taxi was really far away. So I opened the door of the nearest taxi and asked what the pecking order was. He said there wasn’t one, so I hopped in. Within seconds, there was another cabbie at the driver’s window, screaming in his face that he was stealing fares and he knew I should go in the first taxi. I thought about getting out and going to the first taxi, but then the guy screamed in the window, “I am going to fucking stomp your fucking face in!” I didn’t really want to get in his taxi after that. So my cabbie and I drove off with the guy still grabbing at the window.
Wednesday I woke up and headed straight to Lai Wah Heen. It is quite possibly the best dim sum in Toronto. At the very least it is definitely the most elegant. The elevators have different paintings but I love this one because it looks as if they are deciding what button to press.
The menu is filled with exotic and glamourous-sounding temptations that sometimes border on the mysterious, as with the “rainbow chopped in crystal fold” and the “Billionaire egg white fried rice flavoured with shredded conpoy.” The pan-seared foie gras arrived with a sweet sauce, mildly touched with ginger alongside tempura asparagus.
I ordered the shark fin soup – just because. The dumpling was really the star of the dish. The shark’s fin were long strands of clear straw like Barbie hair. Mmmm, cartilagenous.
The dumplings pictured starting on the left are the Phoenix eye purse (fish maw and sprouts), steamed crabmeat, corn and cured ham dumpling, chicken and scallion, and steamed duckling dumpling with foie gras. The Phoenix eye purse was interesting looking, but did not stand out. It was adorable that the corn dumpling was folded to look like an ear of corn, but the simple chicken and scallion was actually the best of the dim sum.
It is so wrong that the duckling dumpling is made to look like a little duck – but in a good way. The foie gras flavor was so mild as to almost be absent.
The chilled duo of lychee and jasmine tea puddings was clever and definitely tasted like tea. They were probably made with agar agar.
Afterwards, I checked out the Bata Shoe Museum. It not only had the pop culture and fashion shoes I expected, but a number of interesting anthropological exhibits.
Bowie’s shoes from the “Serious Moonlight Tour”. I wanted to smash the glass and steal them so I could burn them and salt the ground so nothing could ever suck that badly again.
I took a cab over to Kensington market. My cabbie was from Trinidad, so we sang calypso songs along the way. He got so caught up in singing, he forgot to put on the meter. He offered me a free ride, but I know they are hard up so I gave him a fair sum and asked for a recommendation for a Trini restaurant.
Kensington Market has a lot of cool hipster and hippie shops, like Blue Banana.
I especially enjoyed a store called Blue Banana where I bought some gifts for friends back home and some bath bombs to spoil myself.
A fellow Roadfooder had recommended the debrezini sausage at European Meats and Sausages. By the time I got there near closing they were out of debrezini, so I enjoyed a knockwurst, which was scored and resembled a stegasaurus tail in a bun.
The neighborhood around Spadina was the epitome of eclecticism. On one corner alone was a Korean place, pho, and dim sum. I took a quick break in Rol San, the dim sum joint. I ordered a Tsing Tao, and I wasn’t that hungry so I asked for the deep fried crab claw and an order of dumplings.
Soon a guy who looked like David Crosby and a heavily wasted girl in a Ramones jacket sat behind me. She whined at him in a cheap English accent, “BUDDY, I feel awful, Buddy, I feel dirty.” He tried to get her to lower her voice, “Relax we’re across the border now. It’s over.” His voice had an ominous midwestern undertone like Steven Jesse Bernstein. She would not let up, “But Buddeeeeee, BADeeeee, I feel sooo awful, you know, so bad.” Soon they were bickering over 20 dollars and the entire room stared. I didn’t dare turn around, and waved for my check before I finished my beer. The waiter who had been so accomodating now treated me coldly, as if I had brought them in with me.
I took the dumplings to go, and later abandoned them in the room when I left, so the only thing I really remember about the food was how spongy the shrimp around the crab claw was – somewhere between a shrimp chip and styrofoam packing peanuts. For some reason they made me think about the Australian Kiwi birds and what they would look like deep-fried.
They did have an extremely cool poster on the wall
Next door was a little dim sum bakery called Dong Dong Pastries – how could I resist? I picked up a few treats for later.
On Tuesday I took off for a little solo exploration. I lucked into a killer room at the Westin Harbour Castle – if you are going to Toronto, this is definitely the place to stay.
The view from my room:
I headed over to the St Lawrence Market to Paddington’s for a peameal sandwich. Remember the backbacon Bob and Doug McKenzie were always talking about? This is real Canadian back bacon.
Butter tarts are a Canadian specialty similar to pecan tarts. They can be served simply, but are usually baked with raisins and walnuts in the filling.
Cheese-stuffed peppers
At the St Lawrence Wine Market the process of pressing ice wine was explained to me in a strong accent, “We have to wait until the grapes, they freeze for THREE days. Then we hand-pick the grapes. Then we press the grapes. You get ONE DROP of liquid from each grape. With the red wines, you have to get the skin. You know how hard it is to get a drop of liquid from a frozen grape skin?” Because I am a sucker for a colorful story, and because it did sound pretty hard I bought the wine.
Alex Farms, whose theme was “An adventure in cheese” had an interesting Guinness cheese.
That night I had dinner at the Asian fusion restaurant Monsoon
I was surprised to see such a well-reviewed restaurant so empty. But that turned out to be the case for most of Toronto. Tourist traffic is down and cabbies were fighting over my fare.
I ordered a flight of sake. They had 2 flights, as well as wine flights. The Tozai “well of wisdon” was very gentle. Onokoroshi junmai daiginjo “demon slayer” sake had one hell of a kick. It had a “raw silk” texture. I am still not a big fan, although I enjoyed the Moonstone Asian pear-infused sake. The Nigori Pearl antique-style, which was roughly filtered, was kind of like what I imagine the liquor you make in prison by spitting on fruit must be like.
I started with a dim sum platter that was kind of a disappointment. The chicken satay was fine, but the beef satay was pure gristle. If you’re only going to offer one single bite of beef, it should be the perfect bite. The fried shrimp dumpling, Thai fish cake and salt-cured salmon with the texture of tapioca weren’t worth more than a test bite. But the papaya salad was refreshing and delicious.
The tempura vegetables cooled quickly, and probably should have arrived as an appetizer instead of a side dish.
Pork belly is normally served in French restaurants; it worked well with Vietnamese flavors.
I wasn’t sure what to do with myself after dinner. But I looked up and the answer was right in front of me.
I am not a stereotype
So I have to stand in this Star Trek thing and the guy says “I’m going to check you for explosives”
Suddenly, hard jets of air hit me right in the face and I make a sound like, “Aughhhh!”
The guy says, I told you I was going to check you for explosives.”
I asked, “Why would I hide explosives on my face???”
The company was founded in 1931 by Walter P. Zeller as “stores for thrifty Canadians”. The chain began with the purchase of the fourteen Canadian locations of American retailer Schulte-United, all of which are in southeastern Ontario. Almost immediately, Zellers began an aggressive expansion strategy, and within 25 years operated sixty stores, and employed 3000 people.
Today, Zellers operates stores from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to Victoria, British Columbia, and employs over 35,000 people. Almost every Zellers location features a pharmacy and an in-store restaurant, the 1950s themed Zellers Family Diner.
Multi-level stores are gradually being equipped with a new, state-of-the-art shopping cart system known as the “Cartveyor”, which is designed to transport carts between floors next to a standard escalator.-Wikipedia
I ate this. Actually I poked it with a stick. I won’t go into detail.
You can buy anything you want at Zeller’s
Apparently, even something nice for your grave.
I wandered around the mall, and after perusing the bookstore I found a Laura Secord chocolate shop.
The women working the counter were playing a strange game of good chocolatier/bad chocolatier. The first lady smiled and tried to be helpful, rushing to get a bag as I ordered a cardamom truffle. The second lady looked up from stocking shelves to interject in a warning tone, “It tastes like cinnamon.” Ummm, OK. I ordered one each of the more adventurous flavors. The second woman looked up again and admonished, “They cost A DOLLAR each.” Umm, OK, lady.
I asked Nice Chocolatier if they had a guide booklet so I would know what the flavors were later. Nope. No guide. So I asked if I could photograph the cases so I would remember the flavors. After getting permission from Good Chocolatier, Bad Chocolatier yelled at me for taking these pictures, “They don’t like it.” Maybe they don’t publish a guide or like photographs taken because Recchiutti might notice that they totally ripped off their style.
Down a few shops. I had a better experience with Purdy’s, a popular chocolate company out of Vancouver. The lady at the counter was friendly, and all the customers chatted with each other. The whimsical little hedgehogs are rich with chocolate and hazelnut. In true Canadian fashion, they had maple leaf chocolates and ice wine truffles.
Opa, a pretty good franchise, had a stall at the food court. I needed sustinence, having just pushed my sliders and gravy around the plate. I ordered up a fava bean gyro, which was similar to falafel.
At dusk I went for a walk around the lake. I saw some adorable Canadian goslings by the side of the road. They are everywhere. Naturally.
I also fell in love with the old Crosley Shelvador refrigerator in my aunt’s garage. Its door handle opens with a plunger mechanism, like a hypodermic needle.