Nutella

Argghhh, am sick, but not sick enough to prevent blog updates!

Usually I eat PB and jam or honey on pita or bagels for breakfast. I ocassionally go the gym at work in the mornings and buy breakfast at the caf. Last time I thought I would order nutella and it was actually pretty tasty. My main motivation was Ian, as I thought the nutella would cost the caf more than PB and this way I was getting better value. Yeah, I know, that's really cheap!

New Gen closed

Vicky went on the weekend and apparently New Gen is closed due to a fire. They seem to be renovating and will hopefully open in the new year. In the mean time, if you are on the bloor strip between bathurst and spadina you can try the Real Thailand weekday lunch special, Himalya lunch buffet, roti palace on Bathurst anytime or for an inferior sushi place, go across the street to big sushi. Also Sarah's shawarma next door, although watch out for the cleanliness. Also good, Sarah's italian on north side of bloor, goldfish in the same area too. Ok but a bit pricey. Oh yeah, future bakery is good, I have never eaten a meal there but people seem to like it. Deserts are good.

Asian Farm

This place is not a restaurant, it's a grocery store located on Spadina just south of Dundas. It's a rather small place, but they make good use of the sidwalk and seem to pack in the merchandise and people. I come here occassionally if I don't need to buy alot of stuff (namely when Ian is outta town...he's a big eater of things not found in an asian grocery store). Today I picked up some fresh chinese noodles, fried tofu, mushrooms, bok choi, 3 red/orange/yellow peppers, 2 asian eggplant, napa cabbage, 2 fuji apples, 2 asian pears and a whole fresh pineapple for the low low prices of $10.71!

They also have a meet and seafood counter at the back. It's all a bit sketchy/smelly with stuff sitting around in bins, but people seem to buy it so it must be alright. There are lots of sauces, teas, mystery dried items, obscure veggies, odd chinese fruits and lots of mystery frozen items.

The bottom line, it's cheap and the stuff is decent if you don't mind being a little pushy.

KFC

To counteract the vegetarian-ness of the recent posts I thought I should mention my Thursday outing to KFC/Taco Bell. I went with a few guys so we decided that we sould share a bucket. So 3 of us split a 12 piece bucket. To avoid being hungry when the chicken ran out I also got a spicy chicken burrito and a hard taco. For some reason, with the bucket they threw in a 2L thing of Pepsi. Yes I know Pepsi is the wrong cola but free is the right price. Overall this was enough food. I did of course feel dirty after eating that much grease but once in a while probably won't hurt the lifespan that much. As to the tastiness, I highly recommend the spicy chicken burrito. Of course it's not actuall spicy but it is tasty. As to the chicken, it was average. Better than what you get on Toonie Tuesday (if that still exists) but of course not even in the same league as good chicken like the Swiss.

Bo De Duyen

Ian has left a week ahead of me and gone back to Edmonton, so this will be a vegetarian food review bonanza for the next week!

Bo De Duyen is a chinese vegetarian restaurant on Spadina near Dundas. I arrived about 12:30 and was the only one there so I was a bit concerned that everyone else knew something about the place that I didn't! By the time I left at 1:15, the place was getting full, so I felt a bit better.

I have been to Be De one other time about 4 years ago and had a veggie, tofu, mushroom hot pot which was pretty tasty. This time I went with Lunch "Combo B" which included hot or cold soy drink, hot and sour soup and braised tofu, mushroom and veggie with rice. Also a pot of good green tea. I am normally not a fan of soy milk, but this stuff was alright. Same goes for the hot and sour soup, it was actually pretty tasty...much better than, for example, the spring roll chain's soup. Stir fry was good, rice was good. Lots of different mushroom and bok choi varieties as well as my favorite, deep fried tofu. As far as the deep fried tofu is concerned, it was only average. All that food for $6.84 tax included. A "Tasty" on the Ian scale with a "1.5 thumbs up" for value.

Also of note, this place a huge menu with all sorts of faux chicken, beef, seafood, duck etc. Have never tried it, but perhaps next time.

Martin's House

Tonight our manager had the whole crew (50-80 people?) over to his mansion in Milton. Growing up in Sherwood Park, I have seen some rather large houses, but this one certainly gives the park ones a run for their money.

I forget the name, but it was some chef college catering the event. There was a rather sparse selection of liquor, but that was ok since I was driving anyway. More or less wine with non alchoholic stuff. Wine was good though. Appetizers were tasty, sushi, stuffed mushrooms, mystery pastry items.....mmmmmm. Then came the hot buffet with salad, bread, rice with nuts/seeds in it, roasted mushrooms, very tasty artichokes. Turkey, chicken and rack of something for the meat eaters. Then finally the best assortment of deserts since Josh's wedding at the Metropolitian hotel this past summer. About 5 very good cakes and assorted cookies and pastries. All in all, a "Very Tasty" rating.

Alice Fazooli's

Last night was curling fun, tonight was my company young engineer Christmas party. About 40 people met at Alice Fazooli's lounge and had drinks and appetizers on the company. Everything was pretty decent, but I will bump it up to fantastic due to the freeness!

Leaside Curling Club

I am a member at Leaside and yesterday we had a little fun curling and Christmas party event. On the menu was PC meat and veggie lasagna, garlic bread and salad with deserts that people brought in. The veggie lasagna was a bit cheesy, but overall pretty tasty and I will perhaps buy it if I have a crowd coming over. Final verdict, the leaside ladies put on a good Christmas party!

Korean place on Baldwin

Friday lunch last week as at the Korean place on Baldwin, I'm sure it has a name but alas I do not know it. This week I had a squid dish instead of my usual bul-go-gi. For 6.99 + tax and tip you get a plateful of goodness and rice along with soup and random items, korean style. Not a spectacular bargain. Really we should go another day than Friday when the daily specia is something I like (On friday's it's beef (maybe that's implied) bi-bim-bop which isn't exactly my favorite)

Sushi on Bloor

Well today was fun final exam marking. The only fun part is that lunch is provided. Usually it's boring pizza but today we convinced them to get us sushi. We ordered platters from Sushi on Bloor (surprisingly it's on Bloor just east of Bathurst). For 45 bucks you get 90 pieces of sushi and maki. A pretty good deal. There was salmon, tuna, shrimp, a mystery sea item, and good old simulated crab. In terms of maki there was salmon, spicy salmon, california and various others. Overall a good deal I think. The tuna was surprisingly good I thought initially when I ate the first piece of it but the next one was a dud. Tuna fell to its usual position of second to Salmon, the king of the sea.

While we were out picking up all the sushi, pizza arrived. Unfortunately, people who know my meat eating ways tried to eat all the meat heavy pizza before I returned. I was stil able to get one piece but not nearly enough. Regardless I was still able to eat a disgusting amount of food.

The big question of the day is how much should we have tipped on take out. It's a lot of work for them - 4 big platters, but it is take out.

Piatta

The office crowd went out for some Christmas lunch action to Piatta on Dundas East of Mississauga Road. A bit pricey, but pretty tasty. I had very tasty penne with mushrooms. Others had good looking pieces of fish and veal. Deserts and appetizers were also good.

Aroma Indian Buffet

Ian and I seem to be quite busy and have cut down on our eating out. We did go for some Indian buffet to Aroma on King/John.

We've reviewed previously so just a short version this time. Quite tasty, veggie stuff a bit weak, but good salads, sauces, breads, deep fried stuff. Meat stuff was ok too. Not a great value for $9.95 but it's close and we know it's alright. Deserts are what really makes the place. Rice pudding, fruit, gulab jami, 4 kinds of tasty ice-cream.

Today there was a crazy lady trying to buffet into takeout. She wanted all sorts of extra containers for the stuff, and freakin out because they gave her a single piece of naan instead of the 1.5 she got last time. Then she wanted the chef to specially make her some salad because she was allergic to onions....there were still like 5 other choices so not sure what the deal was. She didn't seem to have enough room in her takeout container, so she started thowing samosa and pakora straight into her bag. It almost came to blows when the waiter brought her a little white container for sauce, not the slightly larger clear container that she claimed to have got last time. The employees had to call the manager like twice and then she barged into the kitchen. Pretty entertaining/disturbing.

Quick Pita Finally

I promised a review of Quick Pita a while ago and am finally delivering. I've been there twice and had the Chicken Shawarma once and the 8" steak and cheese once. Both were 5.46 with tax. Both were equally average. The steak and cheese seemed like the better deal of the the two and was reasonably tasty. The chicken shawarma was not as good as Sarah's but the cleaniless of the place was probably better.

The biggest issue with this place is their inefficiency. The system has you place an order, get a receipt, give the receipt to the sandwich maker and then wait quite a while for your sandwich. All in all way too complex. At lunch the line was quite backed up. The guy who takes the order also has a few things to learn about customer service. His first lesson should on the importance of friendliness. Now I don't like overbearingly friendly people but at least don't be mean as this guy is.

Sarah's Shawarma

Ian and I have not gone recently (it's on Bloor between Bathurst and Spadina), but walking by it on the way to New Gen reminded me of it.

Ian likes the beef shawarma and I either have the straight falafel or the roast veggie falafel. All are under $4 I think. A very tasty verdict, but sadly Ian and I have stopped going. The primary reason is distance, but secondary is the yellow "conditional pass" rating we saw in the window one day. Turns out they have all sorts of sanitary related problems. I kinda suspected because the workers would go right from making sandwiches to handling cash, all without gloves or hand washing. Rather gross, but hey, you can't argue with a very tasty sandwich and no illness afterward.

The final verdict is very tasty and cheap if you don't mind sub-standard cleanliness conditions!

New Generation

The work crowd drove in from Mississauga and we all went to New Gen. As usual, it was very tasty. The food was yummy (take, ume, yasai bento boxes + a sushi set), and we all got some green tea ice cream, grean tea and grean bean/pea appetizers on the house...forget what they are called. For some reason, the service dude was super friendly, he is usually not that nice to Ian and I! Maybe they know we are regulars?

Anyway, just go to New Gen. You will like it. Great value for your $.

Ian is outta town

Stay tuned. Ian is in Vancouver visiting a couple friends and will likely go this fav all you can eat sushi place. Kisha Papa or something like that...mmmmm sushi, well veggie sushi for Janice!

New gen with the work crew tomorrow night....mmmm new gen.

Calabash

Vicky and I went to Calabash on the way home from Hamilton. I ditched the roti and instead had the veggie rich dish for $6.50. Included was a somewhat tasty although plain salad, white rice, curry chickpeas, curried cabbage with a bowl of dahl (lentil soup type item) that I spooned over the rice. This time I ordered mild and had no problems.

Vicky had the same thing but with goat and added a corn chowder. The chowder was very tasty as were the rice dishes.

Ian always complains about pricing structure and with this place I have to agree. Roti = overpriced, rice dishes = great deal. Either the owners aren't paying attention or they don't like making roti?

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hope it went well and you are staying youthful!

Ian and I are cool for groceries. Canadian food is tasty too, although often more expensive than ethnic type food, at least in Toronto.