Location: 94 Ossington, north of Queen West. Toronto. Canada ( Read more... )

In between work and social visits, I've spent this trip revisiting favorite fooderies around the city.

Mitzi's (Sorauren & Queen): My favorite brunch in Toronto. Large, fresh, tasy glasses of juice and a lovely menu of six staples presented in news ways every week. My favorite is the oatmeal pancake, crisp on the outside and tender within, which ( Read more... )

Before my information becomes too outdated, here are the major ways I kept track of the Toronto food scene while living there.

• Toronto Life Eating and Drinking Guide. The best overall guide to Toronto's restaurants. Especially good for the higher end of the market. Comes out sometime in autumn.
  
• eGullet's Toronto, Ontario, and Central Canada ( Read more... )

( A bit of background... )

Some things I learned yesterday...

• Milk chocolate and chesnuts occupy the same register of taste.
  
• Even mild congestion substantially limits the perception subtle tastes.
  
• I should never accept a dinner reservation for 9 pm unless I'm in Spain or planning on a light dinner.
  
• Salmon pearls are very odd, burstable little bubbles of liquid salmonness.
  
• ( Read more... )

Wagamama location: 10a Lexington St, London, W1F 0LD, UK, SE of Piccadilly Circus, and 49 other locations
Ichiban location: 50 Queen St., Glasgow, UK, and one other location
Izakaya location: 69 Front St. E., Toronto, Canada.

Since Wagamama opened its doors back in 1992, It's grown into a small empire of Japanese noodle restaurants whose aegis ( Read more... )

Location: 696 Queen West, between Niagara and Bathurst. Toronto. Note: Closed Tuesdays.

jennybeast requested good food during her whirlwind two-day visit, and so good food there was. We went to Arabesque and Clafouti and The Spice Trader, and we went to The Red Tea Box for afternoon tea, where I had previously had two of my best lunches ever in Toronto. The ( Read more... )

Location: 2305 Queen East, near Glen Manor Rd. Toronto.

A modest exterior reveals a comforting interior, blue and white tableclothes, white and blue china, a small but well-equipped tea shop located just east of the heart of the Beaches. As its name implies, La Tea Da specializes in tea. The shop sells tea in bulk... but what it really specialized ( Read more... )

I went to the Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market on Thursday. Freshly back from Chicago, the city named after wild leeks, how could I resist the wild leeks that the Forbes Wild Foods stand was selling? Inspired by this exploratory purchase, I also bought sunchokes, a vegetable previously unknown to me. ("Like a nutty potato", the vendor said. aka ( Read more... )

For two nights running, dinner has involved interactive food preparation as part of the meal process. That's a very formal way to say that we made s'mores and grilled meat, only under more unusual circumtances than I usually do either.

Thanks to carmen_sandiego and snowdrifted, aerinah, J. and I had the fun of making mini-s'mores last night. Take a mini-marshmallow or two, and ( Read more... )