Sneaky Dee's

Ian and I used to go occasionally when we lived in the Annex. It's a cheap beer and Mexican type place on College and Bathurst. I have been craving it for months since we moved to the new place, but Ian generally nixes it for inferior food such as sushi or quiznos.

Today he couldn't argue with the pick-up from school and the 1/2 price fajitas on Tue night. I had veggie, Ian had chicken+shrimp. Came with beans, rice, tortillas, sour cream, guac, mole and tomaotes.

Overall a lot of tasty food, for the low low price of $20 for both of us. They also have cheap beer, 60 oz for $12 I think, which is not bad for Toronto. There are nacho specials with beer other nights of the week too.

A "very tasty" rating in the tastiness department (keeping in mind the cheap Mexican genre) with 2 thumbs up in the cheapness department.

Ian cooks dinner

Grapefruit Moon

I went for brunch with friends to Grapefruit Moon (Bathurst north of Bloor). The place was a bit small and we had to sit at the counter, but overall the place was quite cute and it was fun to watch the people assemble breakfasts.

There was a good selection of eggs, pancakes, breakfast burritos, quesidillas, egg sandwhiches. I had a quesidalla with avocado, black beans and roasted red peppers. Jacquie's avocado, tomatoe and cheese sandwhich looked really good and I would get that next time. All meals served with homefries.

My main beef with this place is price. $10 for a quesadilla and a smallish mound of home fries? Yes, it was tasty, but a one thumb up and one down in the value department (or neutral for the mathematically challenged).

Life Lessons Part 1: How to Grocery Shop

I swung by the grocery store on the way home from work and came up with a few hints to make life easier for everyone...

1. DO push your cart on the right hand side of the aisle. DO NOT go down the middle where you will block traffic both ways.

2. If you are too drunk to stand up, grocery shopping is not a very good idea. If you are too drunk to avoid bashing me with your cart, STAY HOME!

3. While waiting in line at the checkout, organize yourself and find your credit card or cash. DO NOT act surprised, that yes, you will have to pay for your items and then proceed to dig around in a monster handbag for a few loose bills while the rest of us wait for our stuff.

Anyway, now I feel better...and it's sort of food related...right?

Mr Sub

I don't post much because most days I revisit the same old restaurants. Today it was back to Mr Sub which I usual hit twice a week. It was of normally tastiness and most importantly I remembered to get my student discount. The discount is 10% so it's definitely solid and that 40 cents of savings warms me up on the long cold walk back to school.

For those of you that care (I'm sure all of you) I had a small roast beef. I got it with green peppers (See earlier discussion), pickles and meatball sauce. All of this goodness was toasted and then tucked into the coat for long walk back to school. It's not the best sub on their menu but it's one of the best for 3.99. Some day I may go back to the meatball so I can do their sub and soup combo for 3.99. I'll post it here first when I do

Janice vs Ian: Breadmaking Showdown

My parents have a breadmaker so I have many loaves of bread when I lived at home, but Ian thinks that I don't measure accurately and he would be a better breadmaker with our new machine. He made one loaf of pesto that turned out well so he was a bit cocky. I made a so-so loaf of honey wheat.

Ian then made a loaf of "chocolate chip" cookie bread and it turned out AWFUL. Didn't rise at all, was burnt and mishapen. I was going to take a picture, but Ian ate the evidence before I could photograph it for the blog.

Today I made the same recipe and it rose well, far above the breadpan and was not burnt at all.

Ian is now making excuses....but I think he knows that I am the better breadmaker!

Queen Sushi

Ian and I were craving sushi and thought we'd try Queen Sushi again. It felt like we were cheating on New Gen, but they are still are closed due to fire, so it's ok.

I had the veggie box with ALOT of stuff including avocado cucumber roll, tempura, salad, soup, tofu, rice, edamame for $7.25. Ian had the St Patrick with assorted fishiness for $9.25.

The total including tax and tip was $22.50 which was pretty cheap for the amount of food we got.
Our chief complaint last time was the slow service, but this time we had no problems.

A "Tasty" rating with 2 thumbs up for cheapness is the official verdict.

Dim Sum Restaurant with Unknown Name

Friday lunch was dim sum. The place does have a name but as per usual I don't know it. We used to go to Golden Mile but that place has been closed for quite some time so now we go to the restaurant above it. Maybe one day I'll look it up!

As with many dim sum places in Chinatown this place has two things going for it: tastiness and cheapness. In reverse order, it's $1.60 for most dishes. Fancy dishes that contain things like "vegetables" are significantly more expensive. Sadly we got two and they added 10 bucks to the bill with tip and tax. Their actual cost is and will likely continue to be a mystery. We had the usual fare and it is all of reasonable tastiness. We inadvertantly received deep-fried sardines but they didn't prove to be that bad. Not to everyone's liking and they would have undoutedly been better were they warm.

Quizno's

Yesterday's Quizno's was fairly good. Because of the coupons I was forced to order The Traditional. Not being a fan of lunch meats I"d never had it before. It turned out to be alright especially with the price. The deal was we had a coupon for a 2.99 Small Traditional. Savings of two dollars in my books = worth getting a sub I may not like. The overwhelmed Quiznite (a Quizno employee) thought my coupon was 2.99 off. When he told me the total was 2.14 I reluctantly told him, it's supposed to be 2.99 + tax. I argued a little but the guy was adamant and offered to show me the receipt. Trying to save him a dollar didn't seem worth arguing any further so I dropped it and enjoyed a very tasty 2 buck sub.

Janice and Ian: Queen and King of Cheap Eating

4 meals of eating out, $8.55 spent.

Ikea breakfast x 2 = $2.14

Quizno regular veggie -$2 with coupon $4.27 for Janice
Quizno small real traditional + coupon error by dim witted employee = $2.14. Ian tried to correct, but employee insisted he was right about the coupon and gave Ian a super-duper discout.

Jack Astors

After work yesterday I went with the work crowd to Jack Astors in Mississauga for my co-workers departure drinks. The boss bought spring rolls, calmari, chicken wings and brushetta and the first round. All was pretty good, but especially the brushetta. There was a deeeelightful garlic cream sauce in addition to the usual tomato.

There seeemed to be ALOT of families there so they must have some sort of good kids menu or something. Apparently in Montreal, you have to reserve 2 weeks ahead to get a table for 4 on the weekend...bizarre!

Wheat Sheaf

Ian and I went to Czehosk but it was super crowded and we couldn't even get a drink at the bar, so we went to the Wheat Sheaf on Bathurst and King. We were thinking of sneaky dees on college/bathurst but that was heading the wrong way for us in the rain.

The Wheat Sheaf looks good from the outside, but is a bit trashy on the inside (next time we may try the banknote like Ian wanted). I always like places that have moosewood on tap, so the wheat sheaf scored a few points with me right away. Ian had a rum and coke which was a bit odd for a hardcore beer drinking place. Crazy Ian obsessed with cola.

We ordered nachos which were pretty tasty and actually pretty cheap. I like that they threw in some guacamole for free.

The rest of the menu seemed to be good value, with a grilled cheese and fries for 4.25...although I do make a good grilled cheese...more on that some other day when we don't eat out.

Janice Makes Dinner!

Tonight I made an indian stew/curry from my most recent cookbook "Vegetarian Planet". It had the usual curry stuff plus red lentils, white beans, potatoe, carrots etc.

This cookbook is alright, but not really up to par with the most recent moosewood cookbooks.

SURVEY: Who's a better blogger?

Janice: posts ALOT, includes some pictures, moderate amount of detail, not that funny

Ian: very funny, rarely posts

Holiday Inn (AIST/CIM Dinner)

I went to an association for iron and steel technology/canadian institute of mining joint dinner at the holiday inn on the qew and geulph line. Speaker was some vp guy from Honda who read through a hard sales pitch.

Dinner was tasty, meativores had a turkey dinner and I got turkey dinner fixin's but pasta with yummy tomato sauce instead of turkey and dressing. Desert was tira misu, first course salad. Overall pretty yummy and I was somewhat impressed that they had a special veggie meal for me. Two free drinks were thrown into the mix this time around also. At the last AIST dinner at the Atrium conference centre, veggie meal was gross and no free drinks for the same $40.

Basically, the CIM seems to be much better than the AIST at the dinner meeting thing...

College Grill

The weather wasn't that great today so I didn't feel like walking to Mr Sub. After checking the line at the caf in a nearby building I opted for College Grill (near College and Beverley). I've been there before but this is the first time I got the chicken leg plate (6.89 with tax) which includes a leg, rice, 2 tiny potato things and a nasty salad. Overall the place isn't that great but it's convenient. Not really recommended unless you're stuck in the area.

Croutons

I made the leftover bread into croutons. Here's how you do it...

Cut up dry bread into crouton shape cubes, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, dried herbs (basil, oregano, parsley). Cook at 350 F for about 10 minutes depending on how crispy you like. Much tastier and cheaper than purchasing at the grocery store.

Pesto Bread

No eating out today, but Ian did make some pesto bread in our new breadmaker. It turned out quite well, but made a grotesque amount of bread, even with the "medium" loaf. Will have to make the small next time. Don't worry work crew, will make later this week to bring in for sampling!

Here is Ian for the first time ever appearing on the internet!

Quiznos on Wellington

To counteact our lack of eating our during the week, Ian and I went to Quizno's for lunch today. We used a coupon for buy one get one sub free with drink and chip purchase. The bottom line was $9.06 for the two of us. I had a veggie which included guac, mushrooms and assorted other tasty stuff. Ian had mesquite chicken which he seemed to like.

The real problem with this place is price, the tastiness is way, way, way, way, way better than subway, mr sub etc. The real deal thing seems ok, but it's generally more than you'd like to pay for a sandwich.

We also noticed, three small subs for $9 after 3 on Monday I think...Ian and I will be back for some of that action!

Final verdict, Very Tasty with a 1 thumb up for value (only if you have a coupon or some sort of deal).

Fun Hand Held Blender!

For Christmas Ian's parents bought me a PC Handheld blender item. I used to blend soups and stuff in my food processor, but that meant horrendous amounts of cleanup. Now I pop off the blade and am finished!

Back in day, Ian used to make milkshakes with one of these things so he is thinking of getting back into it!

Here is a picture of me making some tasty beet-carrot soup.

Thanks Ian's parents (I have been instructed by secretive Ian to not reveal names!).