Is It My Honey You Need
That may not be such an appropriate title for this post...but it's really sexy when Daniel Ash sings it. Unfortunately, I don't think I had any honey whilst in Toronto, so I can't make a clever tie in. Deal with it.
First stop on the eating tour of Toronto actually happened in Mercer County. (which, you may or may not know, is where Trent Reznor grew up. Funfact!) Aunt Bee's was a welcome respite on our long and slightly snowy trip up the map. A fine diner with the circular counter design of days gone by. Nice bathrooms, good diner coffee, lots of locals smoking their hearts out, and really good food. I had a delish burger, Jilly and Deb had delish omlettes, and Sarah had a delish BLT. The whole experience felt like something out of an indie film. While we were there, one of the waitresses started to bring out more and more bee themed decorations. It was adorable.
We soldiered on, stopping briefly at the weird rest stop in New York where you have to walk down a freezing wind tunnel to get to the actual food court. I think in principle this is a brilliant idea...why build two rest areas when you can build one right over the top of the freakin highway?...but the freezing wind tunnel kind of turned me off. Sure, it's exhilirating. Maybe that's the point.
Deb got ice cream. I couldn't believe it.
We finally arrived in Toronto and after settling into our luxury accomodations, we set out to eat in Toronto for realz. Our first stop was Fran's, a delux style diner with a very eye catching marquee. Once inside we were charmed by the wall of press stating that it had been around since the 40s and had some award winning rice pudding. Sounds good. Also, there's a bar. Sweet.
Not so sweet is the fact that our server immediately confirmed our worst fears...no smoking inside any restaurant, anywhere. The "new healthy Canada", he said with a smirk. We instantly hated him...not just for being the bearer of bad news, but also for recommeding the horrifying Upper Canadian house brews. Ye Gods. Only Sarah escaped unscathed with a Heineken. The dark was not quite as awful as the pale ale, but still pretty nasty. We learned our lesson quickly.
After waiting a while for the server to flirt with the young asian girls at the next table, we placed our orders. Everything was pretty ok, nothing really awesome(except that they served a nice bright crunchy frozen vegetable mix) My steak and mushroom pie was tasty, but not at all what I expected. It was very greek in inflection. Actually, the greek salad was pretty darned good. The potatoes were ok. The poster on the wall for some kind of tropical drinks company that said in large rainbow letters "PACKED WITH FRUIT! Happy Pride Toronto!" made me laugh incredulously. Weird waiter guy came back and chatted with us for a while...we admitted to being from Pittsburgh instead of pretending to be from Europe, and he started telling us a long story about how he knew of Pittsburgh because he was an inventor and had sent his information to the inventor's patent organization there. No, we did not ask him what his invention was. We kinda wanted him out of our hair. All told, the experience was mostly blah, blah, except that the rice pudding was indeed fantastic. So it ended on a good note.
Tuesday we drank decent in room coffee, and then went to Bloorblah(the blah will eventually be made clear...wait for it!) for some pretty good local chain coffee. I also had a croissant, which was a good thing because our walk to lunch was arduous.
Finally, we arrived at Annapurna, a vegetarian restaurant run by devotees of Sri Chimnoy. It would be hard for me to say enough good things about this place....I felt completely nourished by every aspect. The food, the ambiance, the delicious Tiger's Milk beverage which I swear I have not encountered at all anywhere in 15 years. It's an acquired taste, I guess, but damn. Good stuff. (note....I can't find any recipes online for it that really approximate the drink I had...it was similiar in taste to the Tiger's Milk energy bars I used to enjoy when I worked at the co-op. I think I must have had a cookbook at one point that had the recipe though. Anyway)
The rest of the party enjoyed some delicious chai tea. For appetizers we had bonda(chick pea flour breaded deep fried potato balls...what's not to love?) and some vegetable fritters which were called something other than pakora. Can't remember what though. Fantastic coconut chutney.
I chose the macrobiotic plate of brown rice with vegetables, seaweed, tofu, and tahini dressing. Yowza! I could have run a marathon after that. A+ Jilly had a tofu burger which she loved, Deb had an eggplant sandwich which she loved(tho it was a little oily) and Sarah had the special vegetable chili with homemade cornbread. Which we all loved. Deb disappeared for a long time to the bathroom and it turned out she was discussing Sri Chimnoy with one of the servers. Apparently, there was a photo on the wall of him lifting 7,000 pounds over his head with one hand. That's what tiger's milk will do for ya, I suppose.
Our dinner spot Tuesday night was a place Jilly had picked out ahead of time..Epicure on Queen Street. It was cozy and warm and the fellow working there was very nice. We settled at a small table and ordered up some drinks. I had a Boddington's. Why mess with perfection? Our appetizer choice was a smoked salmon pizza with red onions and capers...really delicious, although we were all a little surprised that it had red sauce. It worked. I chose the Canadian Burger, which featured canadian cheddar and "peameal bacon." I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly wasn't expecting THAT. It was okay...I didn't love it. I did however love the burger, and the fries were also pretty good. Deb got the duck which was apparently fantastic. Sarah had a really fucking good steak and a great vegetable medley. Jilly had some kind of veal of which she heartily approved. She also heartily approved of the turnips, much to her great surprise. We definitely had dessert, but I can't remember it...chocolate mousse, I think? yeah, that was it. Good.
Wednesday morning we breakfasted at Accents(see bar review for the link) It was plenty delicious...I especially liked the basket of breads. My potatoes were kinda hard but since it was actually after breakfast service time I am sure they had been sitting in a warming tray for a few hours. The real American style bacon was great. Since we breakfasted late we didn't really do lunch, although we did stop for some slices of heavenly and fucking huge pizza at the big pizza joint on Queen Street. We enjoyed the pizza so well that we almost got the car towed...more on that in the shopping breakdahn. ( I'm sure the pizza place had a name, but all I can remember is that they serve pizza until something like 4am. It's an awesome place and you can't miss it if you are walking Queen St West. It's a giant window full of pizza!)
After a long nap and primping session, we set out (mercifully by cab!) to The Red Tomato which we had spotted on our Monday night walk. Jilly had determined that this would be the perfect place for the actual birthday dinner, and she was not wrong. My goodness.
First of all, the place is underground, warmly lit, and very, very cozy. The bar has lamps all across it making it look very homey. The server/bartendress was freakin HAHT in a smart black pantsuit and sounded like Kathleen Turner. I was immediately in love. I had a glass of shiraz and basked in the warm glow. She made some special drinks for the other ladies and seemed truly interested in how they liked them. Swoon.
The place has an open kitchen and we had a great view of the chef who was just cranking it out, all by himself. Of course, we arrived right at the end of service so at some point earlier there might have been more than just him, but man...it was mesmerizing to watch him.
Kathleen Turner told us that she didn't care how we ordered, so we got two combination dinners and a few other plates. The New Wave Ceasar Salad with Blackened Chicken...insane. Perfectly dressed, fresh crisp greens, and the most tender succulent flavorful chicken you can imagine. It was like butta. Escargot Stuffed Mushroom Caps with Garlic Butter and Melted Cheddar. Snails! Ma, I'm eatin snails! ha. I couldn't really tell you if I liked the snails or not...but the cheddar was good. The girls ate Fried Baby Calimari with Chipotle Aioli. I didn't try it, but I reveled in the Sautéed Curried Garlic Shrimp W/Olive Oil, Red Pepper Flakes & Jalapeno-Chili Biscuits. Probably the best thing I put in my mouth in Toronto. Kathleen Turner brought a basket of bread with butter to sop up the juices. Did I mention she was haht?
There were "entrees", too...Grilled Alberta "High River" Ribeye Steak, Blue Cheese Butter w/ Yukon Gold Frites. God damn. The steak was good. The potatoes were good. The blue cheese butter was orgasmic.
"Sea angel" Angle Hair Pasta w/ Mixed Seafood, Sauce creole was for me the closest thing to disappointment of the night. The sauce was not very creole-y at all, but the pasta was pretty good and there were chunks of fish in amongst the seafood which had a nice sturdy bite. Disappointment is hardly the word.
Kathleen Turner brought us the Cranberry Bread Pudding with White Chocolate Saboyan and ice cream with a sparkler in it. Ummmm...swoony swooon swoon! We sat and lolled around for a while and then headed out into the cold night for post orgasm cigarettes. If I ever go to Toronto again(like, in the summer time) I will so go and see Kathleen Turner again. Sigh.
Departure day we got all the way to Niagra Falls without eating. We decided on the lush disney atmosphere of the Rainforest Cafe. I had previously told Jilly about this place where it rained INSIDE and she wanted to check it out. We were not disappointed by the atmosphere, nor the ginormous mugs of coffee. We got a booth near the giant fishtank. (apparently it used to have 6,000 gallons and live sharks, but when we saw it there were only various nicely colored tropical fish) I had a great barbecue beef wrap, Jilly and Deb were happy with their burgers, and Sarah loved her buffalo chicken salad. The waiter (jason?) insisted we have birthday ice cream. That was nice.
Then, we headed home. The end part two.
That may not be such an appropriate title for this post...but it's really sexy when Daniel Ash sings it. Unfortunately, I don't think I had any honey whilst in Toronto, so I can't make a clever tie in. Deal with it.
First stop on the eating tour of Toronto actually happened in Mercer County. (which, you may or may not know, is where Trent Reznor grew up. Funfact!) Aunt Bee's was a welcome respite on our long and slightly snowy trip up the map. A fine diner with the circular counter design of days gone by. Nice bathrooms, good diner coffee, lots of locals smoking their hearts out, and really good food. I had a delish burger, Jilly and Deb had delish omlettes, and Sarah had a delish BLT. The whole experience felt like something out of an indie film. While we were there, one of the waitresses started to bring out more and more bee themed decorations. It was adorable.
We soldiered on, stopping briefly at the weird rest stop in New York where you have to walk down a freezing wind tunnel to get to the actual food court. I think in principle this is a brilliant idea...why build two rest areas when you can build one right over the top of the freakin highway?...but the freezing wind tunnel kind of turned me off. Sure, it's exhilirating. Maybe that's the point.
Deb got ice cream. I couldn't believe it.
We finally arrived in Toronto and after settling into our luxury accomodations, we set out to eat in Toronto for realz. Our first stop was Fran's, a delux style diner with a very eye catching marquee. Once inside we were charmed by the wall of press stating that it had been around since the 40s and had some award winning rice pudding. Sounds good. Also, there's a bar. Sweet.
Not so sweet is the fact that our server immediately confirmed our worst fears...no smoking inside any restaurant, anywhere. The "new healthy Canada", he said with a smirk. We instantly hated him...not just for being the bearer of bad news, but also for recommeding the horrifying Upper Canadian house brews. Ye Gods. Only Sarah escaped unscathed with a Heineken. The dark was not quite as awful as the pale ale, but still pretty nasty. We learned our lesson quickly.
After waiting a while for the server to flirt with the young asian girls at the next table, we placed our orders. Everything was pretty ok, nothing really awesome(except that they served a nice bright crunchy frozen vegetable mix) My steak and mushroom pie was tasty, but not at all what I expected. It was very greek in inflection. Actually, the greek salad was pretty darned good. The potatoes were ok. The poster on the wall for some kind of tropical drinks company that said in large rainbow letters "PACKED WITH FRUIT! Happy Pride Toronto!" made me laugh incredulously. Weird waiter guy came back and chatted with us for a while...we admitted to being from Pittsburgh instead of pretending to be from Europe, and he started telling us a long story about how he knew of Pittsburgh because he was an inventor and had sent his information to the inventor's patent organization there. No, we did not ask him what his invention was. We kinda wanted him out of our hair. All told, the experience was mostly blah, blah, except that the rice pudding was indeed fantastic. So it ended on a good note.
Tuesday we drank decent in room coffee, and then went to Bloorblah(the blah will eventually be made clear...wait for it!) for some pretty good local chain coffee. I also had a croissant, which was a good thing because our walk to lunch was arduous.
Finally, we arrived at Annapurna, a vegetarian restaurant run by devotees of Sri Chimnoy. It would be hard for me to say enough good things about this place....I felt completely nourished by every aspect. The food, the ambiance, the delicious Tiger's Milk beverage which I swear I have not encountered at all anywhere in 15 years. It's an acquired taste, I guess, but damn. Good stuff. (note....I can't find any recipes online for it that really approximate the drink I had...it was similiar in taste to the Tiger's Milk energy bars I used to enjoy when I worked at the co-op. I think I must have had a cookbook at one point that had the recipe though. Anyway)
The rest of the party enjoyed some delicious chai tea. For appetizers we had bonda(chick pea flour breaded deep fried potato balls...what's not to love?) and some vegetable fritters which were called something other than pakora. Can't remember what though. Fantastic coconut chutney.
I chose the macrobiotic plate of brown rice with vegetables, seaweed, tofu, and tahini dressing. Yowza! I could have run a marathon after that. A+ Jilly had a tofu burger which she loved, Deb had an eggplant sandwich which she loved(tho it was a little oily) and Sarah had the special vegetable chili with homemade cornbread. Which we all loved. Deb disappeared for a long time to the bathroom and it turned out she was discussing Sri Chimnoy with one of the servers. Apparently, there was a photo on the wall of him lifting 7,000 pounds over his head with one hand. That's what tiger's milk will do for ya, I suppose.
Our dinner spot Tuesday night was a place Jilly had picked out ahead of time..Epicure on Queen Street. It was cozy and warm and the fellow working there was very nice. We settled at a small table and ordered up some drinks. I had a Boddington's. Why mess with perfection? Our appetizer choice was a smoked salmon pizza with red onions and capers...really delicious, although we were all a little surprised that it had red sauce. It worked. I chose the Canadian Burger, which featured canadian cheddar and "peameal bacon." I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly wasn't expecting THAT. It was okay...I didn't love it. I did however love the burger, and the fries were also pretty good. Deb got the duck which was apparently fantastic. Sarah had a really fucking good steak and a great vegetable medley. Jilly had some kind of veal of which she heartily approved. She also heartily approved of the turnips, much to her great surprise. We definitely had dessert, but I can't remember it...chocolate mousse, I think? yeah, that was it. Good.
Wednesday morning we breakfasted at Accents(see bar review for the link) It was plenty delicious...I especially liked the basket of breads. My potatoes were kinda hard but since it was actually after breakfast service time I am sure they had been sitting in a warming tray for a few hours. The real American style bacon was great. Since we breakfasted late we didn't really do lunch, although we did stop for some slices of heavenly and fucking huge pizza at the big pizza joint on Queen Street. We enjoyed the pizza so well that we almost got the car towed...more on that in the shopping breakdahn. ( I'm sure the pizza place had a name, but all I can remember is that they serve pizza until something like 4am. It's an awesome place and you can't miss it if you are walking Queen St West. It's a giant window full of pizza!)
After a long nap and primping session, we set out (mercifully by cab!) to The Red Tomato which we had spotted on our Monday night walk. Jilly had determined that this would be the perfect place for the actual birthday dinner, and she was not wrong. My goodness.
First of all, the place is underground, warmly lit, and very, very cozy. The bar has lamps all across it making it look very homey. The server/bartendress was freakin HAHT in a smart black pantsuit and sounded like Kathleen Turner. I was immediately in love. I had a glass of shiraz and basked in the warm glow. She made some special drinks for the other ladies and seemed truly interested in how they liked them. Swoon.
The place has an open kitchen and we had a great view of the chef who was just cranking it out, all by himself. Of course, we arrived right at the end of service so at some point earlier there might have been more than just him, but man...it was mesmerizing to watch him.
Kathleen Turner told us that she didn't care how we ordered, so we got two combination dinners and a few other plates. The New Wave Ceasar Salad with Blackened Chicken...insane. Perfectly dressed, fresh crisp greens, and the most tender succulent flavorful chicken you can imagine. It was like butta. Escargot Stuffed Mushroom Caps with Garlic Butter and Melted Cheddar. Snails! Ma, I'm eatin snails! ha. I couldn't really tell you if I liked the snails or not...but the cheddar was good. The girls ate Fried Baby Calimari with Chipotle Aioli. I didn't try it, but I reveled in the Sautéed Curried Garlic Shrimp W/Olive Oil, Red Pepper Flakes & Jalapeno-Chili Biscuits. Probably the best thing I put in my mouth in Toronto. Kathleen Turner brought a basket of bread with butter to sop up the juices. Did I mention she was haht?
There were "entrees", too...Grilled Alberta "High River" Ribeye Steak, Blue Cheese Butter w/ Yukon Gold Frites. God damn. The steak was good. The potatoes were good. The blue cheese butter was orgasmic.
"Sea angel" Angle Hair Pasta w/ Mixed Seafood, Sauce creole was for me the closest thing to disappointment of the night. The sauce was not very creole-y at all, but the pasta was pretty good and there were chunks of fish in amongst the seafood which had a nice sturdy bite. Disappointment is hardly the word.
Kathleen Turner brought us the Cranberry Bread Pudding with White Chocolate Saboyan and ice cream with a sparkler in it. Ummmm...swoony swooon swoon! We sat and lolled around for a while and then headed out into the cold night for post orgasm cigarettes. If I ever go to Toronto again(like, in the summer time) I will so go and see Kathleen Turner again. Sigh.
Departure day we got all the way to Niagra Falls without eating. We decided on the lush disney atmosphere of the Rainforest Cafe. I had previously told Jilly about this place where it rained INSIDE and she wanted to check it out. We were not disappointed by the atmosphere, nor the ginormous mugs of coffee. We got a booth near the giant fishtank. (apparently it used to have 6,000 gallons and live sharks, but when we saw it there were only various nicely colored tropical fish) I had a great barbecue beef wrap, Jilly and Deb were happy with their burgers, and Sarah loved her buffalo chicken salad. The waiter (jason?) insisted we have birthday ice cream. That was nice.
Then, we headed home. The end part two.
posted by sheryl at 10:25 AM
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