Green Mango Take Out Version

In the infamous summer of 2004, I couldn't get enough of Green Mango - the take-out version, not the restaurant version. Well I haven't been back in years - not due to a lack of tastiness but rather because it wasn't really convenient. Anyway last Thursday I was in the area so I couldn't resist going back. First the bad news, they've raised prices! Significantly! Previously they were the best deal around with the 6.88 (with tax) combo but alas now it was 7.40. So we'll downgrade it to an alright deal.

Anyway, the choices seem the same as always. I had pad thai with 1/2 lemongrass chicken and 1/2 curry chicken. I was quick enough on my feet to remember to say no peanuts on the salad. In the end it seems like they put them in a container on the side now and if I had known that I would have accepted the peanuts to add to my collection of McD peanut bags!

Now on to the actual meal. It was basically as tasty as I remembered. However, I remember that I used to find it a disgusting amount of food - hence me thinking it's a good deal. Sadly, while I left full, it didn't seem like that much food. So I'm not sure if I eat more now or the servings are smaller?

Muppet Wedding Extravaganza!

This was a few weeks ago, but since Ian has turned into the world's laziest blogger, I have to pull stuff out of the brain archive to keep the content "fresh" as they say in internet land and at the grocery store.

Anywho, gist of the whole thing was, my mom was in charge of the drink tickets and they served perogies. How can you go wrong with that? And I guess my cousin actually getting married - that was alright too.

Venue was Shalom park waterski club outside of E-town (Edmonton for those in live in ontario).

Random Pizza Joint in Mississauga

Last week I went out for lunch with my friend/ex-co-worker Gordie. This time it was his pick and we went to a pizza place by the Giant Tiger on Erin Mills north of Dundas. It has a name similar to Pizza Nova - but I'm pretty sure that is was something else.

I had a the special -1 topping pizza sub with pop for $5. Moderate amounts of saucy-cheesy-pinaepply tastiness. It was rather large, so I brought home 1/3 for Ian to take care of as a pre-dinner snack.

I would go back again for a quick lunch - although wouldn't give it a hearty recommendation!

Jack Astors

Ian and I went on a little camping adventure to Awenda this past weekend and swung by Jack Astors in Barrie for a late lunch. We went there a year or so ago and it was reasonably tasty - but perhaps that was just the deelightful individual apple pie lard/sugar talking.

Today was only alright - I had some veggie kung pao stir-fry with rice, Ian had a cajun chicken sandwich with guacamole + veggies and fries. I have taken up a new healthy eating regime and Ian did not feel up to a whole pie, so no desert for us :(

The real problem this time was the service. The waitress gave us a fair bit of attitude and seemed visibly upset when we refused the drink special - $10 sapporo bottles or an equally overpriced slushy type drink. Like you honestly can't be that upset when we turn down the liquor 1:30 on a Sunday afternoon? Then more snitiness when we didn't want to order the feature crab/cheese dip special appetizer.

She seemed to neglect us for quite a while and it took forever to bring the bill after she took the dishes away. Apparently, some sort of computer malfunction. I had my doubts though...just before the bill came, she came round the corner, looked at our table, did a 180 and came back with the bill in 1 minute. Almost like she just forgot about us???

Update from Ian
Another source of annoyance for me was the fact that she argued with me when I asked for the Cajun Chicken without Mayo. She tried to tell me that it doesn't come with Mayo. I was thinking I must have misread but I argued back anyway saying the menu claimed there was mayo (fortunately I see now that I was right). She fights back a little so I just respond that as long as the thing doesn't have mayo I'll be happy. Whatever happened to the customer always being right?

Alice Fazooli's

We went out for a b-day lunch on Thursday. The bread, as usual, was pretty tasty with some olive oil and garlicy type weird stuff to mix together.

I went healthy and just had some pasta e fagoli soup with three beans, pasta and veggies. It came in a fun little pitcher type thing that the waiter poured into my bowl. The soup was odd tasting, and did not have the afore-mentioned beans or pasta. A bit of a disapointment, but at $4.95 for lunch at an expensive restaurant, I guess you can't complain too much.

Subway Pizza

We'll blame the lack of recent posts on the fact that we were out of town so our meals didn't qualify for weeattoronto posting.

Anyway on my way home from the airport, I was pleased to pick up a few slices of pizza pizza pepperoni for a buck a slice. I don't know the full scoop behind why the TTC is selling pizza but I think it has something to do with raising money for the United Way. Last Tuesday, I left the city horribly disappointed because I had grabbed a quick lunch of a slice of pizza only to find out once I hopped on the subway that I could have eaten for much cheaper.

Maybe if the TTC sold pizza more often I would actually use public transit regularly. Well, that's unlikely and with the proposed upcoming additional 15 cent hike on TTC fares they're going to need a lot more than pizza to get me on board.

Interesting note that may or may not be true. When I first came to Toronto fares were 1.80 (using tokens) and in November they will be going up to 2.25. It seems like I would have been better off buying tokens then saving money in ING?

Anyway to bring the discussion back to food, the moral of the story is when you're eating out, walk

Random Stuff

A few fun topics for the limited number of readers we actually have:

1. On Friday night, we went to the veggie food fair. Some of the magic from other years seemed to be missing for some reason. It could be that I'm no longer a veggie. Perhaps it was Ian in tow? Could have been the King's Cafe ladies trying to upsell me on my dumpling/sticky rice purchase. Maybe the lack of power bar type items to sample?

2. We went to Aroma yesterday for buffet lunch. Tasty as usual, and a deeeelightful new curry cabbage dish. As you walk in and leave the joint, they have a glassed in tandoori area with a guy making naan bread. In the last year or so, it's been my thing to wave at the guy and he usually waves back. Yesterday, he got to the wave before I did! Ha ha! We've got quite the little thing happening.

3. The original plan was to go camping, but we ditched it due to rain and a leaky tent. Instead, we planned to go for a picnic to Bronte park. The Gardiner was closed so we made alternate plans to go to Cherry beach. All was deelightful, but they had half of the park blocked off with a chain link fence. Ian speculated that it was due to some sort of contamination. I tell him to not be silly. But alas, we get home and he checks the web and he appears to be correct!




Anywho, had some veggie burgers with hummus, avocado, cheese, ketchup on Pita Break cooked on old school coleman stove. Pretty tasty. Ian wants to upgrade to a hibachi so we can do meat in style.










The back was slightly burnt in the parents day, but the real damage happened earlier this summer with a scrambled egg/overpressured fuel cylinder incident.











Ian puts away lawn chairs.



















4. T&T asian food markets come to town off Cherry Street across from the Cirque near the Docks.

Stocked up on dumplings, buns, fried tofu, seaweed and veggies.

Run For the Cure

Ian and I are running again this year. If you love or even remotely like us, you'd donate something to the cause. Go to this website! If you are torn about who to donate to, just go with me (Janice). It seems like the easy way out of dilemma!

Thanks to all the parents + Ian's favorite E-town aunt and uncle.

Looking Where you Walk

At yesterday's Blue Jays game Janice snagged a foul ball (Snag may not be the correct term - she apparently ran away from the ball as it neared her and then managed to recover and grab it after it hit a seat. Surprising behaviour because when I go with her to games she wants me to be always ready to jump and run towards the ball).

That's great but even better was that Burnett picked up the seven strike-outs that earn us a free slice from Pizza Pizza (The deal is that if the Jays get 7 or more strikeouts on a Friday or Sunday home game you get a free slice of pepperoni on the subsequent Monday). Anyway we headed out at lunch today to get our free slice and we were going to blow the bank to buy another slice of cheese pizza for Janice. Quite the meal. As we were walking out of the building though, I happened to see a Jay's ticket on the ground. Luckily I stopped and examined it and saw that it was for Sunday's game! Another free slice. So we ended up having a completely free lunch! It seems like the moral of the story is that it pays to look where you walk.

For the record, I agree it is mildly disgusting to pick up dirty paper from the ground but, hey, for 3 bucks, who wouldn't.

Island Foods

On Sat night, Ian and I went to the Ex and ate at Island Foods. Ian claims that they have a store in Village on the Grange area (apparently Dundas & McCaul area), but it is generally lined up outside so he keeps on walking.

At the Ex, this seemed to be one of the more popular joints in the "food building", but we didn't have much else to do so we waited. I had the veggie meal for $5.25 which came with rice/beans, and various curried veggies - cabbage, potatoe, cauliflower etc. It was ok, but I was expecting some more variety. Perhaps some squash or spinach and maybe some chickpeas. Alright value for my money. Decent levels of tastiness. The rice was a bit weird tasting.

Ian has a boneless chicken roti for $6 something and his direct quote was "It is alright, smaller than I would have liked."

So that's the story!

Avocado's I have eaten in the last week or two

Here they are pre-consumption

The Ex

Ian waiting in line at the Island Foods Roti joint like a champ!

I was saving some seats....also champ like!











Ian goes to the casino














Mmmm. Dinner.


















The Ontario Pork Association's slogan was "From Farm to Fork"
















Baby cow














Wonder if this little guy is going to make it past Thanksgiving?





































View from Ontario place across lake towards Hamilton.














Ian carrying my stuff home! Nice work!

Fast and Slow Lanes

Well this isn't directly food related, as I was eating my Pita Break apple Cinnamon breakfast pita with PC Dark Chocolate Spread and PC Decadent Chocolate chips (yes both) cooked on my George Foreman Grill, I noticed an interesting article in the Globe and Mail. London (the real one) is considering adding slow and fast lanes for pedestrians on Oxford Street which is apparently Europe's busiest. Now if only the Taste of the Danforth would be consider doing the same as I suggested.

Royal Ontario Golf Club

My company had their annual golf tournament last Friday. Not only did we get the day off, the whole thing was one incredible deal for the cheap person!

$40 got us....

Round of golf and cart ($109 value)
Driving range beforehand
4 pack of balls & tees
Royal Ontario Hat
Nike dri-fit golf shirt
Dinner with wine
Winners and big losers got a $25 gift card to LCBO!

We'll be back next year for sure!

Dinner was pretty decent - roast beef with all sorts of other good stuff. Dessert table was especially tasty!

Taste of the Danforth

I've tasted the Danforth a few times but it was Janice's first time when we went last Saturday. There isn't a lot to say about it. It was packed and every restaurant selling anything greek seemed to have massive lines. So we ended up hitting up some sushi places and thai places initially. They offered tasty food without the endless wait. I'm not sure why the lines were so long because as I've discussed before Greek isn't all that exciting. We couldn't leave without getting anything Greek in the end so we picked up a Gyro from some place whose name I have forgotten. It was more like a neighbourhood pub style place than a place focused on Greek food.

The big disappointment was crowd management (well the second biggest after the 8.40 in transit fare we had to shell out to avoid the traffic nightmare). In many (most?) places particularly around the Greek lines, the walking slowed to snail's pace so not surprisingly this drove me crazy. A collector and express system with some fences seems like it would be useful but I could see that not being a widely supported concept. Just like people think that baseball players shouldn't be replaced by robots. When will the masses learn?

The World's Easiest Chocolate Cake Recipe!

This is seriously easy and foolproof....try it tonight!

You should even have the ingredients on hand. From Moosewood Restaurant New Classics Book.





Oven - 375 F

In square cake pan mix:

1.5 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 cup sugar

Mix wet stuff:

1/2 cup veggie oil
1 cup cold water or chilled coffee
2 t vanilla

Add to dry and mix well.

Then stir in 2 T vinegar - cider or white. Stir just till mixed.

Bake 25-30 minutes till done!

The Keg

On Friday night Ian and I went all out and went to the Keg on York between Queen and King. Ian started with some deep fried calmari which was alright. I had a piece and was not a big fan.

Then we both had the 1/2 lobster and steak special done medium well. I had baked potato and Ian had some rice.

I have never really had lobster (due to the long term veggie thing) and I thought it was ok. It seemed like a lot of work for how much you really get out of it. The steak was alright, but seemed a bit tougher than I would have expected from the keg. The price was the biggest pitfall - $35!

We were not planning on having dessert, but the $5 brownie sundae convinced us to! Very tasty and about double the size of the equivalent DQ $5 treat.

In the end, the bill was about $100 including tax, tip and after my $20 keg shareholder gift card that came with the annual report.

For a similar price, I would just go to North 44 or equivalent next time. The entrees and appetizers are in the same price range, but North 44 is must tastier and nicer!

Ho Su

Ian and I went for a quick dinner tonight at Ho Su on Queen. All was delightful and cheap except for the tempura. Ian had some california roll/chiken teriyaki type item. I had veggie sushi combo. Total bill was $26 including t,t,t,s,s,e,m,b,k (tax, tip, tap water, soup, salad, edamame, mystery saucy veggie, beans, kimchee).

The poor customer service "Diet"

So this week I was in Hawkesbury working at a very exciting steel plant and thus had to frequent the local restaurants for meals.

Poor customer service prevented me from procuring some tasty fast food.

I stopped in at pizza pizza in town and there is one lady cleaning the bathrooms and the other guy cleaning out the drink cooler. The dude says something to me in french, I don't really speak but the gist of it was, just a minute. I say ok, but then wait about 5 minutes and finally walk out. It's been a while since I worked at DQ, but I think that serving customers in a timely fashion if more important than cleaning the joint!

One night I went to the Valleyfield River for some kayak action and stop in at McD's across the street for a drink. I wait about 5 minutes to get my order in, but then the pace is 1 car every 8 minutes or so. There was conveniently no porkchop between the order thingy and the food giver so I took off! It would have been like 5 cars x 8 minutes = 40 min? After 2 cars and 16 min wait I was fed up!

Caribana Disappointment

The city of Toronto seems to like to ruin weekends by shutting down major thoroughfares early and often. This week's reason was Caribana. After eventually making it back home from groceries despite the traffic chaos, I decided to check it out to see if it was worth the inconvenience.

The official website for Caribana is sparse on information like times and locations so I set out on Lakeshore until I hit the action. One of the primary motivations for going was to get lunch in the form of Roti. (This is a blog about food). Anyway I walked and I walked and eventually found a range of vendors set up and there was roti. But that's not the only thing that was there, they had also brought high prices. Now I guess the location is nice and convenient for watching the parade but I am fundamentally opposed to paying prices that are greater than or equal to restaurant prices. At the restaurant, the level of sketchiness is likely to be lower and they provide seating. Here there's none of that - no nice yellow or green dinesafe signs or any dedicated seating. And the final straw, many places weren't that busy. If it's not good enough for the locals, it's not good enough for me.

Non-food related notes of interest

• The parade itself was not stellar. "Floats" with prominent signs explicitly saying that "unauthorized personnel can not go on the float for insurance reasons" take a little bit away from the atmosphere. The thing that kills it more is that a bunch of floats would have this convoy of U-Haul's trailing behind. I'm not sure how these were connected to the main event. I guess we'll never know
• There seemed to be a complete lack of corporate give-aways aimed at buying my brand loyalty. My loyalty was left untouched so it looks like I'll have to stick to double bubble and milk-2-go.
• Advertising should consist of more than just whistling. A lot of the water sellers seemed to think using whistles was key and they were using them constantly. If I want overpriced water I'll stick with the quiet vendors

And where did I eat in the end you ask? I picked up a large pepperoni at Domino's. Total price 9.12 which is less than I would have paid at some of the stations and I'm having it for lunch and dinner.