Archive for the 'Food' Category

Well you know me, I love food…

And the CRFA’s (Canadian Restaurants and Foodservices Association’s) annual show at Exhibition Place is for those who love food. I spent a very happy Monday morning meandering (I confess this word annoys me sometimes but it really seems fitting here) from booth to booth and–at the risk of sounding melodramatic–from wonder to wonder.

I haven’t decided yet whether or not it was a blessing that I ate a wholesome breakfast of oats and strawberries this morning. I didn’t want to overeat, and it worked–I only grazed on healthy foods I really wanted to try. But now that I’m home I’m starting to regret my restraint…those desserts…and those cheeses, and even though I’m vegetarian the meats looked tasty, and…would 10 AM really have been too early to sample a nice beer? I’d like to think it was all a moveable feast I could carry around with me in spirit and in mind, but something tells me I’m going to have to physically stop at the cheese shop tomorrow after I go to the bakery.

Apart from the food, which was glorious and beautiful, there was another focus to the event, and that was technology–whether it was new equipment for the kitchen, new software for restaurants or a presentation on how social media can spread the word about your restaurant (or anything really!) online.

I caught Rob Campbell AKA Smojoe give a talk at high noon about navigating the internet to your best possible advantage using storytelling funneled through all varieties of free online mediums. As a blogger, I found the talk extremely useful, and Campbell was an engaging speaker (and a little eccentric!) which made it entertaining. I learned a lot about what Google considers to be relevant in terms of web searches. Someone told me recently, I think at a Reiki healing event I attended with a friend, that you usually walk away from a presentation having learned one key thing to take home with you (let’s hope so!) Rob Campbell’s presentation today left me with a lot to think about. In fact, I’m even blogging differently.

I guess in the end the oatmeal was a good idea–there’s no way you would have found me in a CRFA lecture room for business management consulting at lunchtime otherwise.

The Burger Derby

Burgers are big in Toronto. From old standards like Dangerous Dan’s and Johnny’s to nouveau joints like Big Smoke Burgers and BQM Burger Shoppe, Toronto is smack in the middle of a burger revival.

Even the most seasoned burger eating veteran might have trouble sorting out where to get the best burger in Toronto with all the new joints that are popping up. That’s where Burger Derby comes in.

Burger Derby is a social burger review website that aims to use a combination of expert reviews and crowd-sourced ratings to determine Toronto’s top ten burgers. Burger Derby allows users to rate and review individual burgers, rather than rating whole restaurants. “We recognize that not every burger on a restaurant’s menu is created equal,” says Basil Godevenos, a co-creator of the Burger Derby review website. “That’s why we rate the burgers, not the joints. We want people to know not just where to go, but what to order when they get there.”

BurgerDerby.com, which launched early this year, comes at a perfect time for Toronto. Torontonians are giving the burger status as a valid gourmet option. Toronto foodies even named newcomer joint The Burger’s Priest as the third best place to get fed, according to the 2012 Toronto ZAGAT survey.

Toronto loves burgers, and now it has a burger review website to help people find the perfect combination of beef and bun.

The Toronto Christmas Market opened up in the Distillery District last weekend, and I took my entire family with me for some holiday inspiration.

This is the 2nd annual run of this German-style Christmas Market, and I couldn’t be happier about this new tradition or the decision to situate it in the Distillery District, a stunning and beautifully preserved pedestrian village that features the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture (all restored with a modern flair) in North America. I love heading down to the Distillery at any time, but this historic section of Toronto really outdoes itself at Christmastime. Just look at that tree! A 45-foot beauty wrapped with translucent green organza, studded with hundreds of shiny red ornaments and illuminated with over 12,000 Christmas lights like a solar tracker. Of course, the kids didn’t notice a tree at all because yes, that’s a ferris wheel in the background.

The opening ceremonies featured Frankie Ferragine (Frankie Flowers from Citytv!) as host, with speeches from Bob Rae and a musical performance from Steven Page, formerly of the Barenaked Ladies. Brian was pretty thrilled about that, and chose to stand by the stage during the performance while yours truly took a turn on the freezing but fun ferris wheel which offers riders a spectacular view of the district and the city. We saw screaming elves (they reminded me a little of groupies, actually), tasted giant pretzels and fudge, and got some hot chocolate for the kids while Brian and I enjoyed delicious mulled wine beverages (the Distillery has obtained a liquor license for the duration of the Market). Needless to say, the Toronto Christmas Market has grown since last year and I think we can expect continuous improvement in years to come. Despite the extensive crowds, we all had a great time. So great, in fact, that I’m planning on returning with Sam and April on Sunday, and even trying to devise a plan to sneak over there again–flying solo this time.

The cobblestone streets of the Distillery are lined with miniature cabins selling seasonal, exotic, traditional and novelty gifts, like the ‘leg lamp’ from the movie A Christmas Story. I unabashedly admit that I have been hit hard with shoppers’ fever. Perhaps it’s the atmosphere–milling around Mill St. in the crisp December air while carollers sing ‘Silver Bells’ beats worming your way through an overcrowded Eaton Centre–but the items for sale are truly memorable, and that’s why I need to go back on my own. I just love crossing off my Christmas list!

Saturday and Sunday are especially great times to bring kids down to the Christmas Market, because Father Christmas and a reindeer petting zoo are on the scene from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Also for children is Santa’s Workshop, a hands-on activity room (indoors) where kids can make crafts, write letters to Santa and play traditional Christmas games with other children. There’s a hedge maze made of Christmas trees that leads directly into Santa’s house, and of course there’s sitting on Santa’s knee. Sam is six now and I don’t know if he’ll, you know, believe next year, so I don’t want to miss a moment of the Christmas magic as experienced by my kids. It’s contagious, you know. The finishing touch that would make it perfect would be just a little fall of snow!

Footnote: a very exciting realization I’ve made this week is that Lenzr.com, the photo contest website you’ve seen me blog about numerous times is running a photo contest for the Christmas Market! The best photo of the market wins $250.00, with 2nd place taking a $250.00 restaurant gift certificate and 3rd place grabbing a $100.00 restaurant gift certificate. FYI- Lenzr’s also running  a new contest called Bad Weather Hair, for which the winner will receive $500 of Aveda hair product courtesy of Aveda’s Vancouver hair school.

There are two food trends that I’ve never been able to get behind, and those are excessive plastic packaging and microwaves. I just don’t think that such unnatural means of storage and food preparation should be in place now that the world is grown up enough to start taking responsibility for its food mistakes. While it’s truly impossible (I’ve tried) to avoid purchasing products that come with a bit of plastic (even some of my favourite health food staples come packaged in the stuff) I try my best to keep those purchases to a minimum.

Does the modern world ever make you feel like abandoning your principles? Friends laughed at me for using glass bottles to feed my kids and for heating up their milk formulas on the stove top, but I held firm to my convictions that neither microwaves nor plastics (and especially the two together) have any right to be around infants. However, I remember clearly the time I had one year-old Sam and his glass bottle at the grocery store with me, and he saw fit to throw a tantrum near the checkout counter. Wanting out of his seat in the shopping cart, Sam struggled and squirmed, screaming at the top of his little lungs until I procured his bottle to pacify him.

What a mistake! Within seconds it was in a hundred tiny pieces on the floor; a puddle of milk was at my feet and dozens of eyes were on me as Sam continued to howl. I helplessly watched as a store employee brought a mop to the scene–she rolled her eyes when I asked if I could help. Sam didn’t stop screaming the entire time, a fact he now refuses to believe.

While I didn’t cave and start buying plastic bottles, I certainly became less thrilled with the glass option. I worried (perhaps I had more time than I thought) about the kids growing up and taking plastic-encased lunches to school. I watched a friend who had shared my own convictions on plastics and kids give in and start buying ziplocs and sandwich bags, saying “I just don’t have the time anymore to care“!

At a BBQ this summer at my friend Cindy’s something new, shiny and elegant caught my eye. These fun, yet super-classy popsicle molds were so perfect to me that the experience of seeing them for the first time had a dreamlike quality about it. I asked Cindy where she’d found the popsicle molds because I’d never seen anything like them and had been cringing using my own plastic ones for April and Sam for years.

“Oh yeah, aren’t they great?” she replied. “They’re made by my friend’s company in B.C. They don’t do anything plastic. They even make stainless steel ice cube trays!”

I immediately Googled the company, Onyx, when I got home. Onyx’s founders had children themselves, and had struggled–just like me–between the choice of glass or plastic as a food container for kids. Then–unlike me–they did something about it, they created a line of stainless steel kitchenware, including straws, lunch containers, and much more.

I just received my first order in the mail late last week, and Sam’s already brought his lunch to school in this two-layer sandwich box (only $11!). Please spread the word about this socially-conscious Canadian company that is doing its part to improve the health of people and the environment. Thank you Onyx!

ShaSha Organic, which is located fairly close by me in Etobicoke, Ontario, is a bakery which makes me swell with pride for Canada. My friends often describe me as a health nut–and they’re pretty accurate in doing so–but ShaSha Organic is a company that I would describe as a health nut, and that’s saying something.

The first ShaSha product I tried were the ginger snap cookies: tiny, heart-shaped ginger cookies made (like all ShaSha products) with 100% organic ingredients. While they’re certainly not sugar or calorie-free, they are made with love, unprocessed and small enough that I feel no guilt giving them to the kids–and enjoying a couple myself, of course.

ShaSha has just introduced a new snack that health food and junk food freaks everywhere will be happy about– the amazing Buckwheat Snack is nutritious, delicious and promotes better digestion through its fiber content and prebiotic and probiotic ingredients. Yes, you read correctly–a portable snack with probiotics within! This is the first food product in Canada to contain prebiotics and probiotics; it’s no accident that ShaSha is the only bakery in Canada to have received the National Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program grant. ShaSha is just that kind of company.

These Buckwheat Snacks are positively scrumptious, and your kids will think so too, trust me. They come in two flavours, Ginger & Cinnamon and Cocoa & Vanilla. Both flavours are lovely but my preference leans towards Cocoa & Vanilla. Being wheat, gluten, dairy and peanut free, these snacks are suitable for individuals with food allergies or sensitivities.

“It’s the ideal between-meal option,” says President and CEO Shaun ‘ShaSha’ Navazesh. “Instead of reaching for something sugary and processed when you get hungry, you can have a handful of the Buckwheat Snacks, and the slow-releasing fibre and nutrients will tide you over until you have time to cook a healthy meal.”

This is great news, especially for busy moms! The Buckwheat Snacks, at $4.99 in selected grocery stores, come a bit pricier than Peek Frean’s but offer so many more benefits–worth it, in my opinion.

Buckwheat Snacks are a fantastic source of energy. Whether you’re starting out your day with Buckwheat Snacks, or simply powering up for a workout, these little powerhouses will ensure you’re bending steel pipes in no time…or getting close.