The Village Idiot Pub

After some Nathan Phillips Square skating action, we were both thirsty and hungry so we soon got over the lack of Steamwhistle at the Village Idiot Pub on Dundas.

Alternatively, I went with a grasshopper ($5.50) which I used to drink while living in Edmonton when I was feeling like a big spender.

In order to provide a head to head comparison with our favorite pub, the wheat sheaf, we ordered our typical pub grub meal of chicken fingers for Ian and a nachos to share.

Ian says "everything was very hot" like it's bad, but in my books that's good! I felt fries were especially tasty here. Pretty good deal for $8.95.

Basically every table has some nachos and I can see why. Lots of cheese, some jalapenos, onions, green peppers, tomatoes with salsa and sour cream for $10 or so. Not the same gigantic serving you get at the Sheaf, but that is probably better for health related purposes anyway??


My only complaint was the crowded-ness, but I suppose we had it coming going out Friday night at 9:30!

Memories of...

When it was warm and watermelons were in season!

DineSafe

Janice and I are always fans of checking DineSafe before we dine. We generally don't check it before we shop but apparently we should. I hate to pick on Loblaws since I generally love them but that news seemed particularly galling. It's made slightly worse that this the Loblaw's I used to go to (now of course with their prices I wouldn't go there often). It looks like the Loblaws we go to currently on Jarvis and Queens Quay has been green for almost 2 years. They had some yellow in 2007.

The No Frills where we do most of our shopping (Peter's nee Rennie and Liz's) seems alright but due to the name change they only have limited history. Everyone's favoriate Joe's No Frills appears to have flirted with yellow in the past but is, in general, green. So overall it seems like no place is 100% safe and yellow is everywhere.

Vague Weekend Plans

Check this out from the crockpot lady....bbq pulled pork!

Mmmm...I wonder where I can get a pork shoulder? Do they sell such things at the local No Frills or is this a St. Lawrence market kind of outing?

Arggghh

Check out this TO Star Article on how long food lasts in the fridge. They are talking about a couple months for ketchup & pickles etc.

Some of our less popular sauces are in the fridge for a year perhaps?

Off to clean the fridge out....

Sushi Inn

It was a little tough to get here as Ian, who works in the area, led us down the wrong street initially. He eventually figured it out and we sat down in a rather crowded but chilly restaurant. A third door on the double door might be a good plan for winter!


Ian went with premium bento & I went with silver bento. Not pictured are the delightful salmon and cucumber rolls and miso soup that came with the boxes.

My box had veggie tempura, tofu, salad with great dressing and teriyaki mushrooms. All pretty yummy except for the mushrooms. Light and flavorful squash and eggplant tempura more than made up for the boring mushroom stir-fry.

Ian got a whole lot of good stuff - salmon teriyaki, salmon sashimi, 2 spring rolls, tempura including a couple big shrimp.

Good value for $28.30 including tax and tip for 2 in Yorkville.

L'Amere a Boire (Montreal)

This joint brews their own beer and it's much more delightful than their competition, Les 3 Brasseurs. After work, pints were a very reasonable $5.

The beer was starting to make me hungry, so a veggie burger was in order. I was moderately frightened when it came out with an odd looking butter/cheese item on top, but I went for it and was pleasantly surprised. Some sprouts, tomatoes and a grilled ciabatta bun were also there!

What was not included was fries. A bit troubling for an $8 burger!

BBQ Express

This place has the nickname "hole in the wall" at the office. When I first heard that I thought the place would be a just a typical random restaurant. I was wrong, the BBQ Express on Belair (just north of Bloor) really is a whole in the wall. They don't even have an actual door. You enter in the tiny ordering area through a sliding door that people have to quickly close manually

Anyway on to the food. The menu is simple. Chicken or Pork Souvlaki, Fish Sticks or Bul-go-gee. Maybe there are other items, but that's all I've ever seen ordered. The restaurant is run by 3 Korean ladies (or ajuma) so it's sort of surprising that korean fare isn't featured a little more prominently.

I have always ordered the Chicken Souvlaki. It comes with: Salad (with dressing if desired - I don't get of course), Pasta Salad, French Fries (with ketchup), rice and the actual chicken souvlaki (with tzatziki sauce). All that in the normal large size take out container for the decent price of $7.40. Not bad - I suspect the visitors to Harry Rosen's flagship store next door, aren't BBQ Express' target customers.

As to the eclectic combination of food, it's all reasonably tasty. Unfortunately, the chicken is generally overdone so it's fairly dry. The french fries are decent and while I'm usually against pasta salad, their salad isn't bad.

This place is definitely a good place for a pick up lunch in this neighbourhood. Apparently it's a chain so maybe there's one near you.

Burrito Fresh

As with most neighbourhoods in Toronto, Yorkville does not have an abundance of burrito joints. The only one I know of is in fact Burrito Fresh (208 Bloor Street West) so I had to check it out.

Besides my lunch group, the restaurant wasn't that busy. It took a fair amount of time to process the orders though. I had a chicken burrito (no real surprise) which was

Verdict - if you're in the area, get the cheap chinese next door or better yet get some Pho Hung

Dinner at Home - Mix-up

We went healthy for dinner tonight:

• Couscous salad with lentils, fresh mint, raisins, olive oil, lemon juice, cinnamon.
• Steamed kale with a bit of soy sauce & red wine vinegar for flavor
  
• Whole wheat bread made in our machine
• Roasted veg - sweet potato, squash, onion, beets, zucchini, green pepper, brussel sprouts
  

Ian cannot resist making his meal into a sandwich. He's got some chicken on there too.

Spring Rolls on Front

Thanks to the relatives for the Spring Rolls Christmas gift card!

We took Gordie out for a 34'th b-day celebration and enjoyed a delightful spring roll platter with a cold shrimp roll, and deep fried rolls x 3. It came with a rather large mound of mango salad with a generous amount of cashews! All for $10.99. OK, now that I'm actually typing this, perhaps not a great deal, but it was yummy.

Gordies main course was veggie szhechuan noodles I think.

Ian of course gets the house satay pad thai with shrimp and other misc tastiness. It's pretty much his regular item and never disappoints!I stayed away from red & green thai curries and went with veggie and tofu with satay sauce and rice. Sadly, not a heck of a lot of tasty veg in there. An overwhelming amount of salty sauce too. Next time, I will go back to my thai curries!

Winterlicious - The Plan

This year we are going for a moderate level of awesomness because in past experience it was almost impossible to book at the top places (who actually gets through to North 44 or Canoe?).

Weeknight dinner (probably difficult to get through to, so 3 back-up choices):

Bymark
Sassafraz

Back-up weeknight dinner:

93 Harbord
Czehoski
Tutti Matti


Weekend Lunch:

Auberge de Pommier
Far Niente

Backup: Azure

Z-Teca Gourmet Burritos

The Z-Teca Gourmet Burritos on King (near Peter) recently opened up so I couldn't resist checking it out. I went in with high hopes due to their talk of "Gourmet" burritos and, while reasonably tasty, I wouldn't personally call them gourmet.

I had a chicken burrito on a whole wheat tortilla. It came stuffed with all the usual items including rice, beans, salsa, sour cream and cheese for $7.86 all in. Guacamole was of course extra so of course I didn't get any.

In what seems to be a common theme with burrito places, there was again a credit card issue. This time they resolved it without having to reset the machine

Once I sat down to eat the actual burrito was fairly good. It certainly wasn't large though and I would certainly have enjoyed something large. The chicken was enjoyable as it had a nice flavour but other than that there wasn't much exciting about it.

There were a few minor issues:
- the burrito wrapper was foil only and not the usual combination of foil paper combination. The issue with foil only is that it seems to tear to easily.
- the place was empty so I got my own table but a significant portion of the restaurant only has ski chalet style seating (possibly also known as picnic table or bench). It's not that big a deal but I could see getting mildly annoyed by it if the place were crowded.

McDonalds Does Well in Bad Times

Check this out...

Burritos in the Park

A new burrito option opened up in Sherwood Park so Janice and I hopped on the first flight out to check out the Burrito Libre (by the TD in the Park). In keeping with our cheap theme, the trip served multiple purposes as we combined the burrito trip with Christmas family visits.

As seems to be usual at chain-ish burrito places, they explain the process on the menu. I selected a chicken burrito on a whole wheat tortilla. The best part was that they didn't stick to the process described on the menu. Instead of chosing two of rice, beans, potatos and fajita fix'ins I got all four! The burrito was then rounded out with salsa, corn, sour cream and possibly other things I can't remember. Of course the big let down is that like far too many places, they charge extra for guacamole so that meant none for me!

Janice for some reason wasn't in a burrito mood so she had tacos - three of them to be specific. Two steak and one pork with all the same side choices as my burrito. All in with my burrito the bill was $15.44 and, since its in Alberta, no PST!

My big complaint with Burrito Libre was their burrito wrapping technique. While they warmed the tortilla on the panini press (you know - the advanced version of the Foreman grill common at burrito places) they didn't finish off the stuffed burrito with that step. I view that step as critical so it's unfortunate they didn't. Other than that no real complaints. Well, except for the cashiers inability to use a credit card machine. It took two of them and even after messing up so badly that for some reason the machine needed to be reset they still didn't really have an idea without some help from me.

I got over the bitterness though and started to chow down. The burrito was quite good and best of all it was quite large. With all four of the items including the potatoes it was definitely filling and reasonably tasty. However, I wouldn't say it's the most flavourfull burrito I've had.

The parts of Janice's beef taco I managed to grab were tasty. I didn't get to try the pork though which is sad especially since Janice says the pork was way better.

Pomegranate-ini

PC pomegranate real juice with peach schnapps, vodka and a couple blueberries = tasty!

Dinner At Home

From Moosewood Restaurant New Classics, chipotle-cornmeal tilapia and orange-saffron rice.

And acorn squash inspired from Vegetable Dishes I can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen. Some orange-maple syrup glaze with pumpkin seeds & raisins.


Dessert also from the Moosewood - middle eastern type pudding (milk based with vanilla, cardamon and cinnamon flavors).

NY Times - 11 Best Food You Aren't Eating

Check this out...

NY Times Article - Squirrels

It seems as though the British are now eating squirrels for dinner.

Article here...

Steamwhistle Tour

This is a delightful activity conveniently right down the street from my place.

Tour packages are pretty reasonable, ranging from $8 for tour & souvenir (glass or bottle opener) to $15 for tour + 6 pack or $26 for tour + 12 pack.

Most importantly, this includes about 3-4 samples consisting of about a half beer each!


Towards the end, you even get to pull the "steamwhistle" seen here as part of their fancy bottle washing machine.


Tours run on the half or full hour every day of the week. Here's our happy tour group at the end.


Some fun facts that I learned:

• For those interested in "Shot-gunning" the can - aim for the Canadian flag. Apparently, the boring government types would not let them put a target on there
• Look at the bottom of the bottle for 3FG- this stands for "three fired guys" when Sleemans bought out the Steamwhistle founders previous place of employment, Uppper Canada Brewery.
• Steamwhistle picked up the roundhouse for the low low price of $1
• The Convention Center has been trying for years to buy the round-house to tear down and turn into a parkade, but the city has resisted. The convention center still got their 10 floor underground parkade, but to do it they had to tear down the round-house & rebuild it exactly the same with the same materials.
• There are only 4 ingredients in the Steam - barley, hops, yeast & water. No preservatives, so drink up!
• First brew rolled off the line in 2000.
• The Steam is the only micro-brewery in Ontario to have a certified brewmaster. The only places to get the certification is Europe & Chicago apparently.

For even more fun, check out the beer recipe section on their website!

Globe and Mail - Nutrition Year in Review

Interesting article.

Basically:

• Chain restaurants have a lot of calories & fat in their menus and fail to inform diners
• Vitamins a bit iffy for cancer/heart attack people...except Vitamin D...that one is good stuff!
• Eat a hearty breakfast
  
• Sodium is the new trans fat (I kinda made that up)

NY Times Salted Caramel Article

So PC is just following the pack, but they are still pretty awesome! Basically the gist of this article is that if you eat salted caramels you can be like Barrack Obama.

Check out our blog post from Dec 08.

Steak Tacos at Home

We had some tacos with all the fixins at home tonight:

• Mesquite flavored steak from M&M. Cut in half butterfly style, pan seared and then cut into strips. Sadly, only one steak in the freezer, so we had to go light. Ian not impressed, but he did not let that stop him from having 4 tacos!
  
• PC white corn taco shells
• PC peach & mango salsa
• Lettuce with a pinch of lime juice
• Avocado with chipotle in adobo sauce & lime juice
• Grated cheese
• Black beans, onion, green pepper sauteed with cumin, coriander and pineapple juice
  

Served with some apple, broccoli & red onion salad, roasted squash and some leftover orange-saffron rice.

Maple Syrup Showdown

The last of the PC maple syrup purchased at Loblaws affiliated stores (fancy light) vs medium grade syrup purchased at Marche Jean Talon in Montreal.


We are comparing apples and oranges here with medium vs light, but we both enjoyed the can a bit more. It could be we've been eating the light for years and the change was good?

NY Times - Healthy Foods Under $1

Check this article out.

India Palace

We eat Toronto is back in Toronto and celebrating New Years day by going out for buffet. India Palace is located on the mini-strip on Queen and was generally quite packed from 12:45 to 1:30 when we were there.



Lunch started off well with about 10 chutney varieties to go along with tasty veggie samosas, pakora and papandum. Generally, as a rule of thumb at Indian buffet, I skip salad but this place actually had some fresh looking items.


My veggie main course consisted of rice, delightful yellow daal, chana masala, mushroom curry, mixed veg curry and cauliflower/potato curry.

Ian enjoyed chicken tandoori, shrimp curry and other misc meaty items.


Dessert was decent with gulab jaman, rice pudding, fruit and custard.


Price was 11.95 each or $30 all in for 2. I give Indian Palace 1.5 thumbs up out of 2. My only complaint was table cloths were too long making getting up and sitting down rather precarious and involving lots of spilled water and the like. Ian felt the food was a bit cold, so good thing this joint seemed to have pretty high turnover or food poisoning seems iminent!