Lucky Dip – Friday, March 2nd, 2012

In Toronto:

After opening Le Canard Mort (896 Queen Street East) last fall, the owners of Le Rossignol are combining the two locations to make way for Toucan Taco Bar at the old Rossignol location at 696 Queen Street East. Le Canard will have a special “Le Rossignol” menu, while I’m guessing the Toucan Taco Bar will be serving… tacos.

Bahn Mi Boys (392 Queen Street West) are still closed for renovations, but things are coming along.

You should go:

Tickets for the second of Chef Nick Liu’s preview dinners for his upcoming restaurant GwaiLo are now on sale. The second dinner will also take place at the Niagara Street Cafe (169 Niagara Street) on March 13th.

The Toronto Wine and Cheese Show takes place on March 16th – 18th at the International Centre in Mississauga.

Circle March 20th on your calendars in bright red pen. It’s Macaron Day across the globe, and macaron-making pastry shops will be offering free samples. The idea is, of course, to get you to buy more of the tasty French cookies, and 25% of macaron sales for the day at participating bakeries will be donated to Red Door Shelter. There are currently 17 participants, which would make the thing worth investing in a TTC day pass and a map. (And in case you’re wondering, they’re waaaaaay better than cupcakes.)

Other food news:

14 never-ending food debates, from vegetarianism to foie gras, backyard chickens and foodie elitism. [Food Republic]

Ah, Seattle, where they’re making an urban forest and encouraging people to forage for dinner. [NPR]

Screw the juice and the green powder. More people would get behind dietary cleanses if they featured ice cream and bacon. [My Food Looks Funny]

It worked at Next, so Grant Achatz will be expanding the reservation ticket system to his other Chicago restaurant, Alinea. Given the number of chefs I see on Twitter complaining about no-shows and last-minute cancellations, I wonder how long it will be before the “advance ticket” system is how we make reservations for dinner everywhere. [Huffington Post]

If you’ve never heard of The People’s Supermarket – check it out, it’s a co-operative grocery store in London, and is a similar model to what we’ll get when the West End Co-op opens up in Parkdale.. They’re not getting a lot of support from government in the UK, but when they needed cash, donations came in from all over the world. [Guardian]

And I mentioned hating Nestle a little bit less earlier this week for their work with cocoa farmers. In the UK, they’ve just announced that their entire confectionery line will now have no artificial ingredients. No word on when this will happen in Canada (Smarties already have no artificial colours), but wow… this is huge! [Guardian]

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