The World at Large : Sheryl Kirby

Category : The World at Large

First and Foremost – For the Greater Good

July 29th 2011 - Posted in in the news, politics, The World at Large, toronto, wtf?
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Like so many people who watched and took part in the proceedings at Toronto City Hall yesterday, I was enthralled by the sense of coming together to support the city. People from disparate groups and organizations all took the time, despite Mayor Ford and the committee making it more and more difficult for them to do so, to stand up and tell the committee, and the people of the city, what they believe in. As a city, as a community, I think this will make us stronger. I think that it will provoke more and more people to become engaged in municipal politics, which is a very good thing – that lack of involvement is what got us into this mess in the first place.

But I’m not sure I believe it’s going to do much good.

The hand-picked executive committee went into these sessions having clearly stated that they were not going to be swayed by the deputations. Councillor Mammoliti made it clear that he was there because it was his job but that he wasn’t interested in opposing points of view, something that he continually made clear through the 22 hours of deputations with his attitude and condescending questions. In the end, the committee voted unanimously to take the advice of the KPMG report and look at making cuts, essentially telling every deputant that their time and effort didn’t matter.

The hope now is that the deputations DID sway all of those other, middle of the road councillors so that when it comes time for the full council to vote on the recommendations, decisions will be made with consideration for issues other than budget line items.

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Hot Enough For Ya?

July 24th 2011 - Posted in Life, The World at Large, toronto, weather
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Do you know what’s even more annoying that people complaining about the weather? People who complain about people who complain about the weather. Over the past few days, since Toronto started its record-breaking heatwave, the number of people online and in mainstream media puffing out their chests, pointing to their own sweat-free foreheads and telling people to “enjoy the glorious weather” has increased exponentially. And to those people I say – Go Fuck Yourself.

Listen, I get that some people dig the hot weather. Good for you. You get on out there and enjoy it.

But some of us don’t like the hot weather. It makes us physically and emotionally sick. I don’t complain about it all that much, I just avoid it as much as I can.

Sadly though, some of the critics don’t get their own hypocrisy. The old “just you wait until winter” threat gets dragged out, along with their own gripes about the cold weather. These same folks who enjoy the sun seem to think it’s perfectly alright to gripe about the cold, but anyone who complains about the heat is a whiny baby.

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The Restaurant Website – What the Hell Are You Doing?

July 11th 2011 - Posted in Food, media, public relations, restaurants, The World at Large
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I just rebooted my computer.

Who cares, you might ask. But I had to reboot my system because I was visiting the website of a local restaurant and the PDF file of their menu caused my operating system to freeze. This would be mildly annoying if it was the only time I ever encountered it, but it actually happens on a regular basis. Between the PDFs, the crap flash websites and sites that are just never updated, restaurants make my job of writing about them like pulling teeth, only with a lot more tears and crying.

Look, I get the fact that not everybody is good at (or interested in) everything. Cooks wanna cook, they don’t want to waste their time mucking around with computer stuff or marketing campaigns or anything that isn’t, well, cooking. I get it. Just about everybody who works in a creative field, making things to sell to other people, feels the same way. Farmers hate dragging their produce to market, craftspeople hate dragging their wares to shows, authors hate doing book tours, and chefs hate taking time out of the kitchen to deal with paperwork.

But it’s a reality of life.

One that more restaurants should embrace, because your website is the most important tool you have in marketing your business. It’s a 24-hour-a-day business card that can make people want to try your food or never set foot in your place ever. More than Twitter, Facebook or any other online social networking site, their own website is where restaurants need to be concentrating their efforts.

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On Professional Food Blogging

June 6th 2011 - Posted in blogging, books, Food, food writing, media, The World at Large
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There’s an interesting piece on the Guardian’s food blog today about “professional food bloggers”, that is, people who started blogging and then went on to get book deals or paid writing gigs. The piece mostly looks at the realm of recipe bloggers and cook books, comparing the fresh voices of bloggers with the work of celebrity chefs.

I suspect that anybody who writes, dreams – even secretly – of doing it professionally. I kind of don’t buy the whole “I started a blog to share recipes with my friends and family” thing. Maybe, to start with, but if that was the case, why not just use email or Facebook?

Mind you, I also don’t get the whole idea of “community” and the assumption that everyone who has a food blog therefore automatically has something in common with every other food blogger on the planet. On the basest level we do, but that doesn’t create a community per se. Most of us also wear shoes but that doesn’t mean we all want to go shoe shopping together.

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Reach Out, Reach Out and Touch Someone

May 25th 2011 - Posted in people are silly, public relations, The World at Large
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Dear PR people,

Please, I am on my knees begging to you – stop using the phrase “reaching out to you” in emails where you really just mean “contacting you”.

I don’t know who started this trend, but it’s pretentious and, well, really fucking creepy.

Seriously. Reaching out has two connotations. We “reach out” to offer assistance to those in need. I’m not in need, you’re just sending me a press release.

The other connotation of “reaching out” is of a dirty old man trying to cop a feel. I get emails now that include the term “reaching out” and I picture the perfectly manicured claw of the PR person in question, coming at me as if to grab my tits.

Trust me when I tell you that this is NOT the image of yourselves that you want me to have.

Stop reaching at me! Just contact me. I promise that you’ll get a much nicer response. Because the next person that “reaches” at me is getting a smack.

Digging My New Digs

May 15th 2011 - Posted in administrative, Food, Life, The World at Large
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Welcome to the new home of SherylKirby.com, Saveyourfork.com and LeavesandPetals.com

Actually, while the place is new and snazzy and hopefully pretty like a pastry shop, I’m not quite done moving older content from my other two blogs. Once I do, they’ll be shut down, and the domain for Save Your Fork will point here while Leaves and Petals will disappear (there’s actually a garden shop in Georgia called Leaves and Petals who I’m betting would love to have the domain name).

I decided to pull everything together because, while I like things nice and compartmentalized, keeping track of, and updating 3 blogs (besides TasteTO and my gig at Toronto.com) was a bit overwhelming. Instead, I found a nifty template where I can divide my posts into 3 main categories that loosely align with the theme of each of my 3 blogs. So people just here for the food stuff can just read the food stuff. Friends and family can just look at the Life stuff. And probably nobody will read the ranty World At Large section, but I’ll sneak some nice pictures in there occasionally just for fun.

I think we’ve got all the bugs and issues cleaned up (and big thanks to my hubby Greg Clow for all his work) but I’m still sorting through all of the old content to see what’s worth saving – I’m considering starting up the newsy Food For Thought posts again, but the old ones are mostly dead links now so I’m not dragging a year’s worth of them over here – it really is like moving and packing up an actual house.

In any case, there’s still a few small things to do, but please have a look around, read, enjoy, and stay for a visit, I’ll put the kettle on…

The Gung Ho Food Race

May 13th 2011 - Posted in editorial, Food, in the news, The World at Large
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At this moment, I am sitting on six… no, eight different bits of Toronto restaurant news/gossip that I cannot share. I can’t share them for a number of reasons, either because I’ve specifically been asked not to until the restaurant is ready to formally announce their news, or because what I know is unconfirmed gossip and I’m still working on fleshing out the story.

It is my job to find out (factual) restaurant news. And I love my job; I love the excitement that chefs and customers have when a new place opens, I love watching the buzz spread, I love seeing the reviews roll in. What I don’t love – and this is why I’m sitting on all of these secrets – is when we all jump the gun, or get way too excited about a potential new restaurant or project before it’s even opened.

Case in point: the David Chang thing. I’m as enthusiastic as anyone for a David Chang restaurant; he’s considered one of the best chefs in the world. But didn’t we all look pathetically desperate a couple of months back when gossip spread and then the news was confirmed that Chang would be opening restaurants here… in late 2012? Standing back and watching the frenzy from a safe distance, anybody would think that Torontonians had never eaten anything fancier than Kraft Dinner and bagged salad, so desperate were we for Chang’s noodles and pork buns. Could we even be trusted in a fine dining restaurant? Were we familiar with those crazy things they call “utensils”?

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Parkdale is Set to Get a Food Co-op

May 11th 2011 - Posted in Food, The World at Large, toronto
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There was a piece in the Post a few weeks back about the condo development going in on the south-west corner of Queen and Dufferin. It was lots of the usual fluff about shops and restaurants, plus some whacked out idea about how the park across the street where the skateboarders hang out is being turned into a cinema. The most amusing part of the story though was what it didn’t include; like the fact that the train route to the airport (with all those additions diesel trains) runs about 50 meters from what would be the building’s front door. Or that the next door neighbour to the west is a huge community health centre with a meth clinic.

The Parkdale Community Health Centre is a large building with a small park adjacent to it. It serves the community well with a number of programs for lower income people (no health card is needed to obtain the free services offered) and they have everything from primary care doctors to chiropodists and nutritionists to mental health workers. Being such a community hub, it would make a perfect place for some food-related services. Especially because the 7,000 square foot basement space has been sitting empty since the building was erected a few years back.

Which is why it was so awesome to hear that the Westend Food Co-op has partnered with the PCHC to install their food store in the lower level by the end of the year.

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Lahore Tikka House Trades a Trailer for a Tent

May 11th 2011 - Posted in Food, restaurants, The World at Large, toronto
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They’re gone. After years of construction delays and flapping tarps, the two trailers that served as a makeshift restaurant have been torn down as the main floor of Lahore Tikka House (1365 Gerrard Street East) opens for business. I was there on the weekend to take a photo to go with my piece on Toronto.com and happened to run into owner Alnoor Sayani, who happily showed me around.

The space directly east of the building where the trailers once stood is now home to a giant tent and patio area. Decorated with saris and colourful fabric as well as thousands of tiny lights, it’s already easy to imagine dining here on a hot summer night. Sayani points out where landscaping is still to be added, as well as a spot out front that will house a fountain. Large glass garage doors on the east side of the building also open up to make the whole indoor space feel like a giant patio.

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They’ve Got Sausages at Marben and They’re Happy to See You

May 10th 2011 - Posted in Food, restaurants, The World at Large, toronto
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It seems as if every chef worth their weight in pork belly has been playing around with sausage-making lately. And with sausage and hot dog restaurants showing up as the next big trend, we’re all going to be eating many more of the things in the near future. So why not pit local chefs against each other to see who truly makes the best wurst.

Ryan Donovan and the gang at Marben (488 Wellington Street West) have decided to do just that. Throughout the spring and summer, select Wednesdays (2 each month) will see Sausage League take over the restaurant. While Marben’s regular menu will still be on offer, guests will have the option of ordering the sausage special for $25. What they’ll get is two dishes – one prepared by each chef – and they’ll get to choose their favourite. The chef who gets the most votes each night will move on to the next round of competition.

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