Domino's

When Ian lived in Vancouver, we had a movie watching, dominos pizza party. I remembered it being pretty fun, so we had another one last night..5 years after the original....

Overall, not quite the same amount of fun-ness we remembered, but the pizza was still pretty tasty. Ian had pepperoni, I had pinaepple...total cost for 2 mediums was $15.78 so not a bad deal at all considering it will be enough for 6 meals or so.

Maybe the problem was the lack of pizza bread???

Watched Lara Croft Tomb Raider. I thought pretty good, Ian thought terrible and no plot at all.

Really bad meal at home

It was leftover night and we pretty much ate the world's worst meal...

Ian had leftover pasta/pesto, tortilla chips & salsa and crackers and cheese and some of my meal.

I had leftover chickpeas and 1/2 can of canned tomatoes that I froze earlier. So I threw in some veggies, some cumin/coriander and cooked for about 20 min. Turned out surprisingly very very bad.

Yep...leftover night = not good.

Freaky non-food Related Posting

After the picnic Ian and I went to his friends girlfriend's place for some poker party action. The girlfriend's roomate had this fake tatoo she got at some picnic that afternoon. I said, me too, I got this airbrush tatoo at a picnic. Turns out we were at the same one! Her sister works at my office! Pretty crazy for a city of 5 MM.

Picnicing Fun

Ian and I went to my company's annual family picnic way out in Milton. A few things were a bit fishy:

1. I don't think the picnic is an annual event

2. The "beach volleyball" courts were so overgrown with weeds and grass and the like that it really was not beach volleyball

3. The kids were hogging fun stuff like wall climbing, inflatable bouncy slide and air brush tatoos.

Anyhow, the food was alright. The typical assortment of burgers (veggie too) with salads, ice cream, popcorn etc. A so-so event overall.

Carribbean Roti Palace

I picked up Ian and we went for some curry action. Ian got boneless chicken roti which is always a tasty choice for about $6.00.

I strayed away from the roti and had the veggie rice plate. $6.75 for a huge plate of yellow/black bean rice, bowl of the roti filling - chickpea/potatoe action and another bowl, half eggplant, half squash. Eggplant not so hot, but the rest of it, high marks for tastiness.

To wash it all down we had our favorite "caribbean" pineapple beverage actually manufactured in brampton on.

For those charitable people

Go to this link and donate to Ian and I for Run for the Cure!

You can click on the link and donate to a participant. Search for Janice or Ian in Toronto on team Hurricane!

The more $ raised, the faster I will run...I promise.

https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/html/login.asp?session=y&teamcandidateid=

Very yummy curry type stuff

Last night I made an Indian extravaganza with squash/chickpea curry, cauliflower and some yellow coconut shrimp curry with some rice on the side.

The real star of the show was the squash. Here's what you do to recreate the tastiness at your own home...

Heat oil, add mustard seeds, add asafetida seeds, small amt white sugar and onions once the mustard seems pop. Brown onion a bit. Add bunch of chickpeas and a few T of canned tomato. Cover, cook 10 minutes. Make paste of cilantro, ginger, garlic. Add with some turmeric and cubed squash (butternut holds together the best). Add some water, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

This is a recipe from "Meena Pathak's Flavours of India". Very good cookbook for Indian..mmm...

Had part of a bottle of Sunrise Conchya y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile that we picked up at the LCBO for about $8 with my last year curling winning gift card. Not so great, but I blame Ian for making us pick something that cheap.

Toronto Vegetarian Food Fair

I went last night, no time to go to speakers and stuff, but I walked around some of the displays. Fun food related and natural beauty product kind of stuff. Had dinner at the King's Cafe booth, a bunch of tofu/textured veggie protein items with spring roll, rice and dumplings for only $6! Others had similar type indian meals, all looked good. May go back tomorrow for lunch. Mmmmm.

Super Home Meal

Ian and I went to St. Lawrence Market and bought some tasty stuff to make a nice dinner...

I made some sauteed shrimp in garlic butter with fresh parsley and salt/pepper. Ian thought pretty tasty. Then a tomato/fresh basil/boccoccini salad with olive oil...mmmm.

Then some of Ian's home-made whole wheat french bread (well, a bit of help from the breadmaker!). For the grand finale, some fresh pasta from the market, with tomato, fresh basil, parsley, garlic, arugula sauce with some fresh parmesan...mmmm...

Drank a bottle of BC Mission Hill Cabernet Sauvignon that my curling team from last year gave Ian and I for our wedding.

Yeah, that's about it. Pretty tasty and lots of dishes created! Ha ha!

Spring Rolls

We hadn't been to spring rolls in ages so we hit the one on Front street yesterday. It was fairly good as usual. The curry pad thai with chicken was one of the daily specials so I of course couldn't resist. It was fairly good even though lately the satay pad thai has been my favorite from the pad thai family. Janice had one of the other daily specials - something with vegatables - I don't quite recall the details. She seemed sufficiently pleased.

New Gen

The return to Toronto wouldn't be complete without a trip to New Gen so we hit it up on Sunday. It was my first visit since they reopened after the infamous fire of 2005. The new decor is definitely a step up from the original with nice light wood paneling. That's all well and good but I go for the cheap lunch specials and those thankfully have been fully preserved. #1 with beef was good as always as were the parts of #G that I managed to take from Janice. She's a little too possessive of her yam maki for my liking though.

Crystal Banquet Hall

Last night we went to Pete's wedding at a banquet hall place in Brampton. It was some pretty good times and much better than I was expecting. A tomato past course, salad and about 1/2 cow per person for the main course (I had veggie stuff which was ok). Ice cream crepe for desert and another cake buffet later on during the night. Yeah, that's about it. Nothing too notable from the night.

Pistachios

If you haven't tried them, go out and immediately buy some! Very tasty!

Montana's

Went for some retirement lunch action and I had the fajita. Not very tasty overall and came on a rather large, very embarassing platter! Is ok for Ian/Janice nachos + mud pie, but that's about it.

Back in town

Actually found some nice places to eat in a cute town called Yarm, so somewhat take back my previous negative remarks about the UK food. It would be like talking about the food in Sudbury! Ha ha!

More observations about UK

1. People are obsessed with "chips" aka french fries. We went for some japanese today (was actually chinese, but who's keeping track) and the combo came with miso soup and a plate of fries. Odd. Same with italian meals, you get your pasta+ sauce and a side bowl of fries. Very gross.

2. We went to this sketchy pub last night and I could not understand anything the server was telling me, so ended up just pointing to a tap and trying a beer at random. I think it was actually apple cider mixed with beer. Rather gross. I wonder who the heck actually drinks that stuff??

Angry UK servers @ Jack Rigotonis

We went out for some trendy Italian tonight and this server dude was awful.

He make us order in order and chatized me for ordering drinks and the main course when he only wanted appetizers. So then I had to repeat everythign although I had already ordered it. It was pretty stupid. So basically he ended up talking to all of us 3 times to get all the info. Anywho, not the most efficient system, but the pasta was really tasty and Jeff and Jack thought they it was the best food since we've been here. Maybe indian tomorrow night?? Hard to say?

Excuse bad typing, out at pub for a few drinks :)

Fun facts about the UK

I'm in northeast england for a couple of weeks and here's some fun food related facts.

1. English people don't seem to like the fish and chips
2. Their french toast appears to be deep fried bread
3. Fries are chips
4. Chips are crispers
5. Tea comes as "spots"
6. Granery bread = whole wheat bread

New Gen

Went for the G yam maki set and it was super yummy! I made a bunch of avocado - yam maki sushi at my place a couple of weeks ago, but it just does not compare with new gen's tastiness.

In other news, the Annex really is a better place to live. Too bad the traffic down spadina was making me crazy :(

McDonalds

I played some softball after work today and it was about 45 C with the humidex, something like 35 without humidex. Anywho, I was playing first base which happened to be aligned right into the sun, plus I had to pitch so basically got no break.

I think I was starting to get heat stoke, I was super sweaty, lightheaded and starting to feel sick to my stomach despite drinking about 3 L of water. I didn't want to wait till I got home to eat, so I picked up a grilled cheese happy meal. Very tasty and good value for only $4. Here's a secret tip for all of you, ask for the cookies instead of the toy!