Gourmet Med (Montreal)

While at our Montreal Office, I partake in tasty food court middle eastern at Gourmet Med in Place Ville Marie.

The price seems to have gone up in the past three years - now my 5 item veggie combo plate + a pop costs over $10.

For that I got:

- Rice (sometimes I get the potatoes instead)
- Hummus
- Falafel
- Cucumber salad
- Tabouli
- Pita

It's basically WAY too much food to possibly finish and it the best middle eastern food I have ever eaten (including normal restaurants)!

M & M

A few months ago an M&M Uptown opened up at Front and Peter/Blue Jays Way. (It's apparently the first "Uptown" store.) If they consider this location "uptown" I'm not sure where downtown is - in the lake? Anyway getting over the name issue the place is pretty good. I've never really been a big M&M fan but this has a few things going for it
1) It's conveniently located on my walk home from school
2) It seems to have lots of sales while they promote this uptown concept

We've tried a few things so far: their lemon and herb frozen chicken breasts - tasty and a decent deal when on sale for 15 bucks a box, their regular chicken - also good when on sale, their teriyaki steaks - 4 mini steaks for 10 bucks and so far 2 of 4 have been tasty and finally some 1.99 salmon fillets that were the not as great as I've picked up in other freezer aisles. Still not bad and as long as the sales continue M&M is definitely going to have a home in our freezer.

General Sketchiness

I'm not one to hold grudges so for lunch the other day when my idea of Indian buffet was shot down I hit up Island foods at the Village on/by the Grange despite my earlier experience. There was no line so I figured the wait wouldn't be that bad. Of course the wait was still surprisingly long but it was actually partially useful. While waiting for my food (unfortunately not before), I happened to notice that they had carefully covered up the bottom half of their DineSafe sign. I wasn't sure if it was intentional until I saw that just days earlier they had been given a Yellow. On reinspection they turned green again but still not a good situation. I'm going to heed my advice and stay away in the future.

When I got back to school I looked up the infractions and it didn't seem like major issues but I, of course, still prefer restaurants that can meet their regulatory requirements. While looking Island Foods up, I realized that I hadn't been checking some of my usual haunts. I happened to look up Ho Su and was shocked to see they've run into serious problems in January and February. They're green again now but it seems like some of the fines for pest control problems remain unresolved. It's going to be a while before we go there again.

Now to figure out how to strike back against the people who rejected my Indian Buffet idea.

Home Cooking Tastiness (and Cheapness)

Home made veggie sushi action by Janice!

Sushi Inn

Ian and I ventured out to Yorkville for a car emissions test. While waiting, we headed over to the Sushi Inn.

The joint was already pretty busy when we arrived at 11:55 or so!

I went with the "Silver Box" which included 6 makis (3 salmon, 3 cucumber), miso soup, salad, rice, veggie tempura, fried tofu and teriyaki mushrooms. A fantastic deal for $9.95.

Ian had "combo H" with 6 maki and 5 sushi for $7.95.

The miso soup was surprisingly tasty although rather hot (I guess that is good though?). Always classy Ian dumped some water into the soup to cool things down.

The maki was rather small but cute and better than normal. My bento box items were all very good and extremely hot. Even with Ian's help, I did not come close to finishing everything. Ian seemed sufficiently pleased with his sushi.

Home on the Iron Range

For the last few months I've been traveling to super exciting Hibbing Mn for some work related fun.

For those that care, this place is the child-hood home of Bob Dylan.

A couple nights ago we ventured away from the hotel restaurant to a joint devoted to Dylan. It was called Zimmy's. Check out their exciting web site.

As I've found in all these no-name US cities, we ended up getting a horrendous amount of food for a ridiculously low price! Perhaps they recover some costs with overpriced souvenirs (mugs for $15)!

Here's what our group of 4 had:

- 2 small tap beers
- bottle of not-very-tasty pinot grigio
- black bean veggie burger with sweet potato fries & chipotle avocodo dressing on side
- three fish entrees
- 2 coffee

All for about $80 including tax & tip!

Quizno's

I went to Quizno's earlier this week and I had their delightful Angus Steak sub. It did not disappoint. While eating there I had some fond memories of previous quizno's trips that I didn't blog about.

First off back in coupon season I partook in Quizno's new offering - the Sammie! It was certainly tasty, I had the buffalo chicken one but it was also certainly small. At 2 bucks a pop I think you're better off with getting a sub to fill you up instead of the 3 or 4 sammies.

Also back in coupon season I tried out a half pepperoni pizza. I didn't read the fine print carefully enough so I ended up having it with a regular sub which made for quite a big meal (and I could have ordered a smaller sub and still got the free pizza). Anyway the pizza was pretty good. It's different than the pizza pizza style of pizza obviously. I liked it at 3.99 I might be tempted to get it again. Only time will tell

MGM Buffet Action

This joint was rather expensive at$19 for lunch I think and $16 or so for breakfast I think.

The breakfast was surprisingly packed and we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes prior to being seated. We partook in the standard breakfast fare - eggs, potatoes, bacon, waffle with whip cream/strawberries etc. Ian pretty much ate a half pineapple. It was a bit gross!

They seemed to have quite a few salads that we of course steared clear of. They were mainly seafood-y type items in mayo...so they basically had "FOOD POISONING" written of them!

Overall, not great value for what you actually got.

Lunch was pretty decent - similar to the South Point dinner items. I really liked the salsa bar here, that was pretty fun! They also had M&M's at the make your own sundae bar. I liked that a lot.

Service was good - the dirty plates with half eaten food were always promptly removed and out beverage glasses were always full.

Candy & Cola = Vacation Super Fun-ness

Vegas Non Buffet Action - La Salsa Cantina

If you veer somewhat North of the MGM Grand to La Salsa Cantina you can purchase a slushy margarita for $16. It seems like $ well spent on the way to developing diabetes.


We had a bit of buffet hang-over from lunch, so we just stuck with steak-y nachos for about $11? It's all a little hazy after that much sugar!

Tastiness level was high.

Vegas Buffet Tastiness Part 1 (South Point)

The M&M bunny was quite cute, but the real star of the buffet eating action was surprisingly off the main strip at South Point.

Being off the strip, dinner came cheap at $13.95 per person. This is approximately half the price of most on strip places and the tastiness did not suffer at all!

There was an asian stir fry station, mexican tastiness, a tasty assortment of seafood that seemed to appease Ian and the requisite pork ribs, turkey, ham, beefy roast + a special item = beef short ribs.

Of course, they had an ok looking salad bar, but with so much tastiness, we found it better to completely skip the salad bar and focus on tasty!

There was also the standard italian fare, but again, why eat bad pizza and ho hum pasta?? Same deal for items like bread, veggies, potatoes etc etc.

The dessert was quite tasty over-all (cakes, pies, squares, cookies, ice cream dessert thingy etc). Ian always goes for cheesecake, I had a caramel chocolate cake type item. Also make ye own strawberry shortcake.

Service was pretty good and organized with headsets and the like!

As a side note - we also partook in a cheap $7.50 movie at the same location!

Odds and Ends

We've been neglecting the blog lately so I'll just quickly summarize some of our recent eating.

Saturday - Pizza Pizza Customer Appreciation day - 99 cent pepperoni slices. I like that they appreciate me coming in to claim my pizza slices with blue jays tickets. I am a good customer!

Monday - Aroma - tasty as usual

Thursday - Sushi Star - Still 9.99. Still tasty for the price

Bibimbop - Ian Style!

Perhaps not authentic, but healthy and tasty!

Salmon in a Packet

Quick and delightfully easy! Bake salmon, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, peppers, carrots and green onions @ 450 for 20 min! Brussel sprouts & rice/lentils on the side too!















Ian has mixed feelings about dinner.

Montana's Tastiness

As part of some airport pick-up action/gift certificate spending mission, we hit up Montana's by the airport.

For a mere $9 including tax & tip, we had a big plate of tasty cheese nachos (double salsa, no sour cream), and a half rack of side ribs with fries and baked beans on the side. Ian also had a cola.

I should know better

Like a complete fool, I strayed away from what I know is good at the Detriot airport (Fudruckers) and instead went to a sit-down Middle Eastern restaurant. I ordered a $7 falafel sandwich (the going rate in To is about $3.50). I asked if that included sides and they said no, so I ordered some "grilled" veggies to go along with it.

The veggies seemed to be stir-fried, greasy and with a nasty fake tomato-y sauce smeared all over them. Pretty much in-edible. I make more authentic and tasty grilled veggies at home! It's not that tough! Eggplant, peppers, onions, zuchini, potatoe with some olive oil, S&P and bake for 45 min!!!

The falafel was cold and the flavour dominated by "pickles in a jar"

Out of TO

I've been eating out a lot but not in Toronto so the updates have been limited. Here's a breakdown of last week:

22 meals at the SF Marriott
1 dinner at Azie
1 dinner at Metreon foodcourt
1 lunch at some Thai place
1 Harvey's breakfast burger
1 lunch at a burrito place in SFO

If you knew how long I was gone you'd see that there are more than 3 meals a day. That's not an error.

Anyway the highlight was undoubtedly Azie. We were a big group of 36 or so people so we had a set menu but it was great. The high point was discovering we didn't have to chose from the menu. Instead they were bringing everything and serving it family style. That was good news since all the items looked great. There was Kobe beef skewers as an appetizer and then Kobe steak as an entree. I could get used to that. Other features included some tasty crab rolls, arctic char, shrimp skewers, and a tasty aromatic chicken (that all of us EE's managed to misread as automatic). Dessert was a selection of a few items including a superb chocolate ball.

The second highlight of the week was eating dessert with both lunch and dinner. I'm not sure why I don't eat dessert more (My heart may know why though). Some of the cheesecakes were not surprisingly my favorite but I also enjoyed this fruit and cream concoction that was served in a martini glass. There was delicious carrot cake of which unfortunately I only ate one piece because I was in a rush. I learned my lesson - always save time for dessert.

The Thai place was interesting, not because of the menu but because they made us order before sitting down. The place was quite busy so maybe that makes sense but still it felt a little too rushed. The food was alright. Any more comments would be pointless since I don't remember the name of the place.

My only regret is that I only ate one burrito while I was down there.

Pizza Pizza Cheapness

Two mediums pizzas with 2 toppings total + a 2 for 1 movie going out coupon = serious cheapness for 6 meals!

Outback Un-Tastiness

While stuck in Duluth Minnesota, we often partake in the Outback across the parking lot from the hotel we stay in.

The first time around I ordered the "Outback Special" involving a 9 oz centre cut sirloin. I would have liked "medium-well", but instead it came out "hockey-puck overcooked". No complaints about the extremely tasty baked sweet potato and bread before the main event.

The second time, I would have liked the fish special, but instead ended up with the Tilapia since they ran out. It was seasoned and grilled, but unfortunately seemed to have been coated in butter of some sort. The fish was a bit undercooked, which I know some restaurants like to do, but who wants to eat slimy inside fish??

The "fresh steamed veggies" tasted as though they had butter on them :(

Quizno's Airport Tastiness

Perhaps it was the extreme hunger, or maybe the 35 minutes between flights, but the conveniently located Quizno's at the Minneapolis airport was like a haven of tastiness.

They had a limited menu with no veggie - so I ordered the next best alternative - Black Angus Steak. To save the arteries, I ordered with no sauce.

The final result was toasty...I mean tasty. Large amounts of roast beef with mushrooms, onions and cheddar cheese on whole wheat. I did not regret skipping out on the sauce.