200 Toronto Things: A coffee shop

Ahem. Yes. 200 Toronto Things. Sigh.

So the thing is - I figured that I wasn't really exploring the city in the way I'd wanted - rather - the project just ended up being about eating out all the time. I need to better rethink what I want to do with this.

In the meanwhile. Last year, Michael had mentioned the Indie Coffee Passport - which was a card you bought for $25, which got you a free drink from 30 coffee shops located through the city. The card is valid for 6 months - but by the time I'd heard about it, there was only a month to go or something, and I didn't elect to participate.

This year, I ended up walking into a participating coffee shop near the start of the 6-month period, and so I bought my card.

Fast forward to yesterday - I was running early for a dinner engagement at Ossington and Dundas West, and I walked by a participating coffee shop - the Ideal Coffee Company. Yay. I went in and got a coronado (or a cortado or something like that - stronger than a latte, milder than an espresso.)

The coffee was good, but the best thing about this place was a lovely little patio on the side. It was filled with plants, including - hops! Planted by Bellwoods, this city-hop project is pretty fascinating! (I'm so torn about Bellwoods. I hate how expensive it is, but they are doing some really interesting things. Sigh.)

200 Toronto Things: Chinese bakery

Oh, hello, 200 Toronto things!


I will say, I'm terrible at documenting them, but I actually have been doing more things in the city. Just not documenting them.

3 buns for $1 at Mashion? (Spadina and College)

Anyway - on Wednesday last week (July 4), I was on my way to a gallery opening (free wine!). I'd elected to walk from Yonge&Bloor to University&Dundas, but I overshot a bit, and ended up at Chinatown. This was on Spadina, nearish College - I wandered in - buns were 3 for a $1. And very tasty! Cheap food in Toronto, I love you!

Trip Recap: New York, Easter Weekend 2012

I rather painstakingly captioned all my New York photos and uploaded onto Picassa, so rather than rewrite the entire thing here, I'll just link to it.

Trip recap: Tampa (May 4-7, 2012)

My friend Dave got married in Tampa this weekend, I flew down for his wedding Friday. Here's some random thoughts and a recap of sorts...

I took the all-night bus from Yonge and Eglinton to the airport. Left at 3.44am. Yikes! I got there about 4.20am, and it took 2 hours to do all the assorted check-in/security stuff at Pearson - it was a zoo!

That being said, Sunwing was pretty pleasant. I was astonished at how goodnatured the flight crew was being at 6.30am. I would be snarling. Plus, they served a meal on board. Who knew! (I didn't eat it, I got on the plane, fell asleep, and woke up when we landed.)

Once I got to St. Pete's, I grabbed the car and headed to the Dali museum, which was both gorgeous, and filled with very nice paintings.

Outside of the Dali Museum at St. Petersburg

Spiral staircase inside the museum

Lovely views of the water

The paintings were organized chronologically, and showed Dali's evolution as an artist. Very similar in nature to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

Post paintings, which I was not allowed to photograph, I ate lunch at the Dali Museum (gazpacho and a potato omlet - very Spanish in nature), and then headed to my hotel room for some well-deserved sleep.


I forced myself to wake up around 5pm - I needed to shower, dress and head to Dave's pre-wedding dinner. Met Addison and Ben Flaster there - got a chance to catch up with them, and Dave (a bit, he was busy running around doing stuff, of course!) and Erin, who seemed really nice. Ate tons of food - plantains, salad, some Cuban black bean rice, some pasta, a whole slice of key lime pie... The guys were going to a Mighty Mighty Bosstones concert, but I needed - lame though it was - to sleep. Back to the hotel room it was, for some well-deserved shuteye.


Saturday morning, I woke up - texts and emails were flying around between the Michigan contingent - plans were being made for lunch. I headed into Ybor City - and grabbed breakfast and coffee at the Brick.
- Saturday morning, I woke up - texts and emails were flying around between the Michigan contingent - plans were being made for lunch. I headed into Ybor City - and grabbed breakfast and coffee at the Brick. They had come up in conversation the previous night - due to their Star Wars art exhibit. (May 4 is a big Star Wars holiday, evidently. Who knew? You learn something new every day.)

Gateway to Ybor City

Interior of the Brick

Star Wars artwork...

And Cinco de Mayo celebrations...

Once a half of a grilled cheese sandwich was eaten, I found a little farmers market that I wandered through, and also a reuse store which was super interesting - it was all about crafting supplies, and was pay-what-you-can. I paid $10 for 6 vintage sewing patterns - there was lots of fabric too, but I resisted (silly fabric bet with Madhav!)

Patterns in hand, I headed to the Columbia for lunch. Strange place, the Columbia, super crowded, super inefficient, and evidently, an Ybor City landmark. Been there for a hundred years, or some such thing. It was pretty though - lovely interior. Met Igor, Ben and Julie, Deepika and Kevin there - got a chance to catch-up, etc.

Post lunch, the original plan was to grab some beer before we headed to hotel rooms to get ready, but there was no time for that once we were done eating. We scattered - I went back, and did some cab research - the wedding had an open bar, I wanted to make it count - and driving seemed like a pretty silly thing to do.

Ok, now my rant. So Tampa cabs are a strange thing. I called the cab company, and asked for a cab at 5.30, since the wedding was at 6pm. They say ok, but at 5.35, no cab shows up. So I call them, and they tell me that a cab hasn't been assigned to me, and suggest I call a different cab company. Grr. Why wouldn't you tell me up front that a cab might or might not show?

So, I'm now running late, and tear out, driving to Dave's wedding, much to my basic disgust. Thankfully though, I made it in time.

The wedding was lovely. It was very Dave - there was laughing, and the rabbi said nice, personal stories about Dave and Erin, and it just had a lovely vibe. Post wedding, there was drinking, and dancing (no dancing for me, there's not enough alcohol in the world!) An after party at a bar called Drunken Shame? and then, it was time for me to head back - oddly enough, I was fine to drive, so I did.

Since Erin's a journalist, there was a bit of a Scrabble theme going on at the tables. This is Lauren's contribution. 

Although I was supposed to be at brunch at 11.00am on Sunday, I woke up late instead, and managed to make my way there by noon. Got to say goodbye to everyone - most people's flights were in the 3pm range.

Sunday afternoon, I put my agenda into action - I headed first to the beach, where I waded in the water for a bit, followed by a tempeh sadwich at the Brick.

I made Ben take photos for Me-Made-May.

Ah, beach. 

Then, we (Ben Flaster, Dave, Erin and me) headed to see the Avengers.

Post Avengers, I dashed off to Cigar City Brewing for beers. (Of course.)

Tasting room at Cigar City. Open till 10pm on a Sunday night, bless them. 

So many choices. 

Must take a photo of the tap list. 

I love tasting samples - I tried 6 4-oz samples, they were all pretty good. 

Then, I dropped Ben off at the airport, and headed back to my hotel room.

Monday morning, I woke up and got to the airport in the nick of time. On the plane, I read Night Circus, which I've been avoiding reading for a couple of weeks now. Not sure why, the book was delightful. I was awake for the meal this time around, they served a four-cheese-pizza like thing. Tasty.

Back to Mississagua, where my mom fed me (I am rather spoiled) and took pictures for my SWAP. My dad gave me a ride back, and I'm now sitting on my couch.

An excellent weekend!

200 Toronto Things: the Birthday, complete with bakeries (2!) window-shopping and delicious lunch

The couple of days preceding my birthday were hell - I worked super-late Monday and Tuesday nights, and it was all I could do to get out at 5.15pm on the Wednesday. (The day before the birthday, and I was meeting a bunch of people for drinks at Victory Cafe.)

But it was all worth it - the day of the birthday dawned clear and warm, and I headed out to explore the stretch on Mount Pleasant between Eglinton and Davisville.

City guides tell me that this is the French bakery/food section of town, and yeah, I think they were right, there were a ton of bakeries.

First, I headed into the Flaky Tart for a little snack.

Then, I went into Thobor's for a flaky croissant, bypassing the temptation that was the pastry case.

I hit a couple of nameless antique stores - which was an interesting shopping experience. None of them were particularly welcoming - they weren't rude, but they certainly weren't cordial. I guess I don't look rich enough. (Fine by me, I'm not paying a $150 for an antique egg-cup, and if you can sense that off the bat, neither of us are wasting any time, are we?)

Then I went into what I'm convinced is the most surreal store in Toronto, the Little Dollhouse company.

Umm, this business cannot survive without eBay, I'm going to guess. Or mail order. There's no way this business draws enough street traffic to pay the rent.

But so interesting! Little furniture - fascinating! (Leave it to adults, right? Kids will play with a box - adults are the ones that want a perfect replica of a Chippendale cupboard, or some such crap.)

Once I'd made my way to Davisville on Mount Pleasant, I lazed out and caught a bus back to Yonge. There, I went into a bead store and bought some beads, then headed to Mela for lunch. (Same place I went to last year!)

It might be due to their extremely narrow hours of opening, but I really like Mela. I had a dish with cauliflower and quinoa, it was pretty tasty. And filling!

Post lunch, I headed to the ROM, where I discovered, much to my disgust, that I'd missed the Mayan exhibition (I guess I'm not on the mailing list anymore. Annoying!) Then, there was some rather aimless wandering from the ROM towards Bathurst, and then, back home. Super nice! And what brilliant weather I had!

Dinner was with the parents and Madhav at Mother's Dumplings, which was tasty, but again, I'm somewhat of a regular there, so doesn't count as a Toronto thing. Still, a day with 4 Toronto things - that's a pretty packed day!

200 Toronto Things: A Friday night walk, with a snack beforehand

Friday - April 20, a day-long meeting had left me pretty wrung out. I was in the mood for nothing. A friend suggested a walk, and I agreed - the weather was nice, and I'd been sitting in a meeting room all day.

Before the walk though, I needed sustenance, Caribbean style.

Given this place is minutes away from my home, I'm not sure why I'm not there all the time. We got 4 appetizers between the two of us and shared. Everything was really tasty, in a nice, mellow, not-fancy, home-style kind of way.

Once that was done, the walk. We headed north on Yonge and turned eastward at the very pretty Alexander Muir memorial gardens. (Side story - one day in the very distant past, I headed on a walk to Lawrence, stopping at every store on the way. When I got to the gardens, I went in on impulse. It was gorgeous, and I was quite alone. I've been telling my parents to visit ever since then, but they've yet to go.)

It's still pretty early for flowers, but there was this tree.

We then proceeded to keep going, and walked till we reached Mount Pleasant. (Not a huge walk, but a good stroll. It was dusk by then, and we decided to head out of the woods.)

There was noone on the trails, yet again. Adjoining this park are many very rich homes (old money, in the multiple-millions.) They were all gorgeous, some were set on a hill, with stairs cut on the hillside. I wanted to live in each one of them. Toronto! Most of the time, I'm ok, I make enough money to cover my needs without thinking about it, but then you walk in some neighborhoods, and you realize that there's vastly different levels of income in this city.

200 Toronto Things: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and coffee

So, I had a groupon for sandwiches at Leslieville Cheese Market, the groupons were going to expire, so off I headed (on Feb 26) to eat my sandwich.

I didn't take a photo, but it was very good.

After, we headed down the street to grab coffee at Dark Horse. All I can remember, paying close to $4 for a cup of coffee (they don't make regular coffee, so we had to upgrade to Americano, or some such crap.)

Still, the location is beautiful. If I won the lottery, my house would look like Dark Horse, high ceilings, brick walls, wood everywhere - gorgeous.

200 Toronto Things: A concert at the Royal Conservatory

Sometime the middle of the week in the middle of February, I sent a friend an email:

>>
In other news, would you like to go to a classical music concert on
Friday? It's at Kroener Hall, which is really gorgeous inside, and
well worth a look, if you haven't already.

http://performance.rcmusic.ca/event/royal-conservatory-orchestra-leon-fleisher-and-uri-mayer

I'm not a fan of paying $22 or something, but I've queued up before
for rush seats at this venue - if we get there 2 hours in advance, we
can wait for a few minutes, get rush seats for $10 each, head
somewhere to eat, and then head back to watch the concert. What say
you? (Worst case, we don't get rush tickets, and then we just do
something else.)

One of the things they don't really talk about are the $10 rush tickets at the RCO. In a city that's ridiculously overpriced for everything, this is one of those few actual deals that I adore. I saw Ravi Shankar there last year for $10, Zakir Hussain (also $10) - I love this deal. 

So, we get there (Friday, Feb 17). There's two girls that walk in at the same time, we courteously let them ahead of us, grab a seat, and wait for rush tickets. But alas! good deeds that go unpunished! those two girls got the last two rush tickets. A bit of a dilemma resulted, but in the end, $22 was still a really good deal to see a concert (and I'd invested a ton of time youtubing the program and actually listening to it in advance, so I'd be somewhat familiar with the music), and so we went. 

Kroener Hall is gorgeous. This is a picture of the ceiling. It's all wood. 

The RC Orchestra is a student orchestra. They were wonderful. When seeing these kids, playing music, with dedication - you actually have hope for the future. (No random planting of radishes for these kids.)

I also got my friend to take a photo of my blouse for my sewing blog. We were in the nosebleeds, but I was still pretty self-conscious about having my picture taken in a roomful of people. 

(We grabbed dinner before the concert, back at  Pho Hung. I had a different thing - can't remember what, which was also delicious.)

200 Toronto Things: Snacks at Kensington, and a late dinner at Zeitoun

ETA: It's all coming back to me. I'd taken the Friday afternoon off, because I was eating lunch at Banu. I'd then wandered through several shoe stores on Queen West, and bought a ton of fabric (gulp!) before heading to Kensington.

Back in the time tunnel, one Friday evening (Feb 3), I decided I needed to wander through Kensington market. (I often decide I need to wander through Kensington market, it's because it's rather awesome. )

Anyway, I did some wandering, and obviously, I can't remember very much of it,  since it was Feb 3. I do remember going to Moonbeam though, for a coffee and a snack, and eating a boreka.

I also remember my boreka having very little olives in it, though it was otherwise quite delicious.

Post Kensington wandering, it was relatively early, and I headed to the Only Cafe, a favorite of mine, for a beer festival. It was a relatively warm night, and the patio was packed! Since Michael was hosting the event, I decided to leave him to struggle there, and headed for the warmth and uncrowdedness of the inside.

Since you can bring in food at the Only (I love this place!) - I brought in food from Zeitoun, next door. A veggie pide - it was delicious.

I'm afraid to say that upon leaving the Only, I stopped back into Zeitoun for more food. Such greed! I got a salad, a sandwich and some lentil soup. They were all delicious. Although Zeitoun is one of those places I only go to when I'm at the Only, it really deserves a bit better treatment. (No photos of food, because, well, I ate it.)

200 Toronto Things: City of Craft (with no fabric purchases)

So, as I was heading to City of Craft Saturday morning (April 21), I was on the phone with my brother, bargaining for a fabric exemption. (Quick story - I decided I wasn't going to buy any more fabric for the year, my brother laughed at me, we now have a bet about it - I've $50 riding on it.)

"What if," I said, "the fabric isn't for me? What if it is a gift for the princess? After all, her birthday's coming up."

"Her birthday is in June," my brother pointed out. "I'm not buying this argument."

"Ok come on - it's quilting fabric, it'd make a really cool birthday present! For the princess!" I pleaded. The fabric shakes were upon me. There were supposed to be fabric scraps at City of Craft. I'd received an email from the Workroom telling me so. Fabric was waiting to be purchased!

"Fine, but it'll need to be stored at my apartment," said my brother. Clearly, he doubted that this was a gift. Silly him, the addiction is to the purchase, not the usage - I've cupboards of fabric that prove that point. 

And so I won! 

I headed in. There were booths, and people, but I didn't let myself be distracted from the core mission - to find these scraps. 

But this story ends with a whimper. Evidently, at least for the moment, I really am fabric-shopped-out. Plus, the scraps were $15 a bag, and while I'm sure they were worth it, they weren't worth it to me. Fabric remained where it was, unpurchased. I'll have to find the princess a different present. 

The rest of the show was nice enough. Fun to look, if not to buy. Lots of vendors and crafts, but lovingly-hand-made or not, I draw the line at $5 greeting cards, $50 totes, etc. No thanks, I can make it myself. 

200 Toronto Things: A movie at OISE, followed by Vietnamese food

I've never heard of OISE, but I'm probably in the minority. Certainly, my friend, who came to see a movie with me there tonight (April 25) knew all about it.

Ok, backing up. I saw a listing in NOW for a movie about food.

1. Taste The Waste Zeitgeist-Toronto film screening and panel
discussion on why we throw away so much food.
Admission: Pwyc
Where: , OISE Auditorium, 252 Bloor W, Toronto, tastethewaste.com
When: 7 pm

Having just cleaned out my refrigerator (sort of) and being completely disgusted at myself about how much food I threw out, I decided I needed to go see this movie. 

OISE is strange - it was incredibly bustling. 

The Zeitgeist movement made me roll my eyes a bit. Politically, I'm pretty liberal. However, I am a business major, so when they brandish signs like "Abolish Money", I want to mock them a bit (and ask for my PWYC money back.) There was a guy that introduced the movie that really talked a lot (and made me eye-roll), but the movie itself was relatively inoffensive. However, as my friend pointed out, we left having learnt nothing - we already knew there was a lot of food waste in the system. 

There was a panel after. 5 people - two stand out, for very different reasons. One of them was a kid that founded something called Occupy Gardens. They went around planting food in public/private spaces. Their next big thing was to go plant radishes in Queens Park. I wanted to punch him. Pointless, stupid stunt. And someone has to spend hours (and my taxpayer money) cleaning up his crap. I'd much rather my taxpayer money go towards actually helping someone. Stupid, punk kid. 

Direct contrast - the CEO of Second Harvest. Honestly, what were they thinking, having stupid punk kid even share the stage with her? Second Harvest saw a problem, and they built a solution. I admire them greatly. Her little introduction was intelligent, realistic, and makes me want to give them money. 

Ok, rant over. Still - rants = something to discuss, debate and think about, and that's always good, whether I agree with topic-at-hand, or not. 

After, I headed to Ginger for a snack. I went in, and sat down, and realized I'd been there before - complete surprise! The last time I was there, I'd had a tofu sandwich and a mango salad. This time, tofu coconut mushroom soup, and a fresh wrap with fried yams and avocado. Both super delicious. And relatively inexpensive. 

I just did a major photo upload - all New York pictures from the BB. So, I guess, that post is upcoming.