200 Toronto Things: (16) Eating meze at Mezzetta

On Jan 23rd (Monday), for my mom's birthday, I suggested going to Mezzetta. I'd seen it in the summer, the menu looked interesting, and I love the whole meze-style eating.

Off we went (Mom, Dad, Madhav and I) and wow, did we ever eat. They suggested getting 5 dishes per person. There were 4 of us, we got 22 dishes. And 4 baskets of pita. 5 per person was a pretty generous estimate - we were groaning under the weight of the food. (Of course, we still ate most of it. We like food.)

I would have taken photos of the food, but Madhav was having none of it. Instead, this is a photo of the interior.

Once that was done, we came back home and Mummy cut cake. (Is any birthday complete without cake?)

Good times.

200 Toronto Things: (14) A baking class and (15) a Filipino grocery store

One Saturday morning in January (Jan 21), I woke up bright and early, and headed off to a bread-making class at Nella Cucina.

During the course of this 4-hour class, we baked a honey-brown bread, cheddar-cheese biscuits, pita bread and cinnamon buns. Seriously drool worthy. (I refrained from taking photos in class, mostly because I was baking, and my hands were covered in flour.)

I don't often take classes, but this one was a real treat. Now, I should really get going on the bread making, no?

On the way back from Nella, which was at Bloor and Bathurst, I decided to stop off at Hakim Optical, and pick up my contact lenses. That was a quick errand, of course, they were ready, and all I needed to do was pay - I noticed a Filipino grocery store across the street. I've seen this store plenty of times before - it is on Eglinton, and it's on the route the parents take to get to the freeway, but I've never stopped to explore.

This time, I did. It was interesting. There were groceries, and then there was a cafeteria-type place for takeout. Ah, but every single thing in the takeout had some kind of meat/fish in it. I guess the Philippines would be a difficult place to travel as a vegetarian. (There were vegetarian groceries, of course, but I didn't buy anything - I'm trying to finish eating the contents of my pantry/frig/freezer first.)

200 Toronto Things: (13) Good beer and jazz at Queen at Dominion

So much catching up to do! Argh.

Ok, almost a month ago (Jan 20), my trivia buddies suggested dinner and jazz at the Queen at Dominion. I was super-interested, mostly because the Queen at Dominion is a place the beer meetup goes to a lot, but one I've personally never been to. I assumed the beer list would be pretty stellar.

And it was. I can't remember what I had, I do remember liking it a lot. The food was ok (standard bar food), and the jazz played in the background. Still, a fun evening to pass a Friday evening.

200 Toronto Things - Vietnamese food

I have a ton of Toronto Things to catch up on, so I've no idea what number this is. Hopefully, once I get caught up, I will know...

Friday evening (Feb 10), I headed to the ROM with a friend. We were there to see the Embellished Reality: Indian Painted Photographs exhibit. (Very interesting, and I do wonder why more people don't paint over photos.)

Once that was done, my friend suggested Pho Huang, right across the street.

I must confess - I was skeptical. First - about the availability of anything vegetarian. Also, because it was in this abandoned-looking building, with a super-sketchy entrance sign.

However, all my doubts were quickly dispelled when we made our way up - the place was bustling, and there were 2 pages of vegetarian offerings. I got the fried lemongrass and tofu in a curry sauce - it was pretty delicious. (This photo was taken once I was done eating, which tells you how big the portion was. Enough to feed a family of 4.)

Our dinner (two large mains, one mango milkshake, and one plate of spring rolls) was about $30? Perfect. It wasn't quite cheap eats, but wasn't pretentious-pricey either. Love it.

200 Toronto Things - (11) art, (12) food and drink walk in Parkdale

One of the things I like to complain about - beer meetups have become less interesting. Don't get me wrong - I like hanging out at bars. But when it starts becoming the only thing I do - then I become boring, and consequently, bored with myself.

To counter, I did a bit of prep work, and set up an Art, Food and Drink walk in Parkdale, fueled by the news that the Rhino had received a keg of 10 Bitter Years. The plan was that we start at Mocca, wander down to Bacchus Roti, and end up at the Rhino.


It was a lovely plan - on paper. In real life, I got to Mocca, found it closed, and had to devise alternate plans. We ended up wandering into Propeller instead.

Propeller is fun and eclectic. There was a great variety of art on display - traditional paintings, mixed media, threadless embroidery, photographs, you name it. (There was this cool photo which had an old image of Toronto overlaid with a new image of Toronto - so you'd see a black-and-white image of someone in the 50s or 60s, overlaid with a color image of someone today. I'm describing it poorly, but it was pretty cool.)

Once we were done with Propeller, we walked over to Bacchus. What a good call! My spinach, chickpea and squash roti was delicious. I would happily eat this every single day. 

Stuffed up with carbs, we then wandered over to the Rhino, where Beau's was having a beer release party. I drank a Beau's Double-wide IPA, some 10 Bitter Years, and ended up with the Nutcracker Porter. (Half-pints of each, else I'd have never gotten home.)

Yes. Definitely worth the effort, I feel like I had a fun evening out, and it wasn't only about ending up in a bar. Always good. Must do more of this kind of beer event.

200 Toronto Things: (9) Tibetan food and (10) fancy wine in Parkdale

Wednesday night (Jan 18) found me on the phone to a friend. "Want to go eat Tibetan food?"

Ok, here's how this came about. Way back in the far reaches of time (November 2010), I went to a Tibetan restaurant with a meetup group. Making my way there, I found that in the Queen/Landsdowne neighborhood, there's a string of 3-4 Tibetan restaurants (and possibly grocery stores) - which made this a mini-Tibetan-neighborhood. I love mini-neighborhoods! I resolved to come back and...

...never did.

Clearly, a problem worth fixing under the 200-Toronto-things umbrella. So, it was back to Om. 

I wish I'd taken a photo of the food. We got vegetarian momos (delicious!) and a noodle soup. I liked the momos better than the soup, but both were pretty good. And bonus - we split a 1/2 litre of red wine (drinkable, nothing spectacular) for $9.99. I love cheap wine. (I'm sure that if I were a wine drinker, I'd feel differently about cheap wine. But, my palette does not know the difference, and so, I'm happy with cheap.)

The cheap wine is a good lead-in to the next step. Walking back from the Tibetan place, we passed Bar Salumi.

 We were drawn in due to the eclectic decor (I asked, the meat hanging from the ceiling is real). The wine list was small and expensive (cheapest glass was $9). I had a very nice red from Languedoc, pricey at $10, but delicious.

Parkdale is interesting. It's gentrifying, and so places like Bar Salumi sit cheek-to-cheek with CAMH, soup kitchens and convenience stores. In a few years, there'll be no more room for soup kitchens, and $10-$12 for a glass of wine will become the norm. And more's the pity - cheap is often good, and not every glass of wine and every meal needs to be transformational - there is room in life for table wine and comfort food.

PS: I actually woke up bright and early on the 14th, and headed to Chagall, the St. Lawrence Market, and a diner serving some delicious apple cake. But, unfortunately, sans camera. It isn't that these don't count - the exploring mind-set is important - but I'm keeping official count for the ones where I have a photo. Don't know why, really. That's just how I roll.

200 Toronto Things: (7) Chagall at the AGO and (8) coffee at the French Cafe

I finally did see Chagall on Jan 8, and also on Jan 14.

On Jan 8, the parents, Madhav and me met up at Ka Chi (the Korean restaurant), since the parents hadn't eaten there. Once we were done eating, we split up - Madhav and me went to the AGO, the parents went to the ROM.

Chagall was really quite busy, but being a member did actually help this time - we were whisked ahead in a separate line (Predictably, Madhav loved this. Actually, who am I kidding, so did I.) The exhibit itself was pretty nice - a lot of Chagall, displayed alongside a lot of his contemporaries.

Photos to follow.

Most museums structure their exhibits this way - to tell a story of what's going on at the same time that influenced the artist. I'm not opposed to this method of storytelling, but I much prefer the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam - where the focus was just Van Gogh, and it showed clearly the evolution of Van Gogh as an artist. (I'm assuming that this was possible with Van Gogh since he didn't really sell any of his work, and the museum was actually set up by members of his family. Presumably, this is less possible for a more successful artist.)

Once we were done with Chagall, I retreated to the French Cafe across the street for warmth and a cup of coffee. Interesting place, the French Cafe. It's got sandwich-type food, adequate but unfancy coffee, and seemed very much owned by a person, not a company. (There's a bit of generic in company-owned coffee shops - this one had eclectic art, plants, a fireplace and an odd assortment of chairs and tables. It felt real.)

All in all, a fun and productive Sunday afternoon.