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. 

200 Toronto Things: A free macaroon

Walking home from dinner at HoSu one evening (I go there too often for it to count), I saw a sign on the street.

Free macaroons! I love free! I love macaroons! Sold.

And so, on Macaroon Day - March 20 - I went on the website, scouted out which locations were close by, and found one a nearby bakery (La Bamboche, which is 3 minutes away from work!) that I could sneak to for an afternoon snack.

The sun was shining. I sat outside drinking coffee and eating my (free) macaroon. It was a good day.

200 Toronto Things: A travel talk about Morocco

For the longest time, I've seen the listings for travel talks on the Now's event listings. And I've been curious, but have never made it down.

One Wednesday night - March 28, finding myself at a loose end, I headed to listen to them talk about Morocco. (Ah, the bitterness. I so almost went!)

Anyhoo - the talk itself was reasonably interesting - good if you are planning a trip, because it goes over potential itineraries, etc. Reasonably crowded as well - the room was filled with people -  ~20 people, I'd say? Who knew!

200 Toronto Things: The TJO presents O Canada at the Rex

My friend Joe has a cousin who plays in a big jazz band. I've headed to see them before, they are quite a lot of fun. This time (March 31), they played Canadian songs, and evidently I don't know any Canadian songs. Nothing sounded familiar.

Extra interesting thing about the Rex - Phil was late, so Joe texted him. I was late too - but Joe told me he didn't bother cause he knew that even though I'd be late, I'd be there. Who knew? I'm evidently reliable. (This is very, very funny.)

So, counting the Rex as a Toronto thing? Well, I don't go often - in fact, in the time I've lived here, I've been less than 5 times. I think that's fair to count it, therefore. 

200 Toronto Things: Hakka No. 1

My life would be a lot easier if I blog when I do things, not try to catch up weeks after. Yeah.

Anyway, the day before I set off to New York - Wednesday, April 4, I was driving towards the parents, and I stumbled across Hakka no. 1. I immediately talked my friend into going there. (It's located somewhere in Etobicoke.)

I thought my food was delicious. I'm not sure what my friend thought, but he sure did end up with a lot of leftovers.