Lucky Dip – Monday, March 12th, 2012

March 12, 2012 Sheryl Kirby

In Toronto:

Food truck advocates all thought that parking the trucks (with permission) in a privately-owned parking lot was completely legal. Turns out there’s a weirdly obscure by-law on the books at city hall and the food truck Food Cabbie has been warned to move from their spot in a lot on Mutual Street. Oddly, someone at city hall issues the truck a permit in the first place. There’s already lots of fuss about this one, with petitions circulating. Full details, plus threats to leave Toronto by petulant and histrionic food-truck lovers, at BlogTO.

Chef Howard Dubrovsky, owner of L.A.B. Restaurant (651 College Street) announced this weekend via Twitter that yesterday (Sunday, March 11th) would be their last day of business. A closing party will take place at the restaurant on Thursday evening.

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

November 3, 2011 Sheryl Kirby

For all the hype about food trucks and street food, we’ve got to accept that it’s still a marginal (albeit hot) trend. Which doesn’t necessarily translate into a good, workable business plan. [BlogTO] [Toronto Star] [Porkosity]

Gift with purchase – aw, man, I NEVER find live tree frogs in my pre-packaged salads. No fair. (And yes, I would totally keep him as a pet.) [Consumerist]

There’s talk of banning competitive eating. But maybe the real question is why we’re so enthralled with the concept in the first place. [Globe and Mail]

Dear dick-waving macho chefs – you’re really starting to bore us. [Zester Daily]

I wanna know who these people are who are giving Maya Angelou flack for writing a cookbook and give them a hearty smack. Maya Angelou can write anything she damn well pleases, and y’all will read it and like it. That it includes soul food dishes and the cassoulet she cooked for M.K. F. Fisher is just gravy. [Guardian]

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Lucky Dip – Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

November 1, 2011November 1, 2011 Sheryl Kirby

Only in Toronto would we stop food getting to the poor because of wads and wads of red tape. Seriously, some 13 years after amalgamation, why do we still have 4 or 5 sets of bylaws on the books? Shouldn’t this have been one of the first things that was actually amalgamated? Meanwhile, poor people living in food deserts don’t get to enjoy the services of a mobile grocery truck because we can’t figure out which set of goddamned rules applies. WTF, people. [Toronto Star]

In the future, breadfruit will be the new potatoes. [Wall Street Journal]

If food bank usage can be considered a bellwether for the shape of the economy, we’re still not doing as well as we’d like. [Globe and Mail]

It’s fairly common knowledge that the UK has higher rates of alcoholism than North America, but who knew that kids were drinking more than the weekly consumption recommendations for adults – on a regular basis? [Telegraph]

Cozy, comforting and good for your diet. Soup has it all. [National Post]

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Lucky Dip – Friday, October 21st, 2011

October 21, 2011 Sheryl Kirby

Yikes! A Pusateri’s location was shut down yesterday due to an infestation of rats and roaches. [Toronto Star]

Conservatives – they’ve got a way of ruining everything. Like in the US where some supermarkets are refusing to stock Ben & Jerry’s Schweddy Balls ice cream because of some right-wing organization of concerned parents. Really? You folks think a little chuckle and a punny innuendo is going to ruin society? [Huffington Post]

The guys behind Trevor Kitchen have started a pizza business. That they didn’t want you to know they were behind. [Toronto Star]

Wouldn’t it be a lovely world if places stopped kowtowing to celebrities, like the KFC in the UK that refused to reserve a table for John Travolta? Awesome. [Videogum]

Fear of being fat might be more dangerous than the fat itself. [Toronto Sun]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, September 19th, 2011

September 19, 2011 Sheryl Kirby

The best brewery in the country – is a little place in New Brunswick called Picaroons. [National Post: The Appetizer]

Can’t get a recipe to work? It might not be you, in these days of lean times at publishing companies, skimping on testing and editing is pretty standard. [Guardian: Word of Mouth]

Although it’s probably been brought on by the popularity of the restaurant Noma, the trend towards Northern European foods explains the sudden plethora of hip German, Alsatian, and Croatian restaurants around town. [Food Navigator USA]

And so starts the tide of Toronto food trucks. Let us now brace ourselves for the tsunami of bitching by self-entitled foodies when said food trucks are not in the locations previously publicized. [Toronto Life: The Dish]

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, June 16th, 2011

June 16, 2011 Sheryl Kirby

When Greg saw this article on the front of the Star yesterday morning, he joked that people were getting really desperate to dig up some news stories about the Canada Post strike. But it turns out that the crown corporation actually handles a few live animals (baby chickens, for instance) that couriers won’t touch and the strike means that beekeepers can’t maintain their colonies without the queen bees that are waiting to be shipped… via Canada Post. [Toronto Star]

Further to my food truck diss of yesterday, this piece explains part of my reasoning against the trend – because if/when it finally gets to Toronto, it won’t be about small entrepreneurial families serving up authentic food, it will be about shit like French toast and cupcakes trucks. [Chow]

And speaking of food trends that really should have finished 2 years ago… enough with the goddamned bacon already. [The Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

Steven Davey is not a fan of the currywurst at our local sausage emporium, Wvrst, but he digs the dogs. [NOW]

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

June 15, 2011 Sheryl Kirby 4 Comments

Can I share something? The food truck thing… I kind of really don’t care. I mean, sure, I grew up in Halifax where eating fries from Bud the Spud on the lawn of the Halifax library is an important part of a summer’s day. But this desperate “frenzy” Toronto has to be like US cities with a food truck scene? It’s a little embarrassing. [Globe and Mail]

The foodie backlash. Let’s hope this one sticks. [Food & Wine]

Pity the farmers – it’s agri-entertainment season in which self-entitled city folks, under the guise of strawberry picking, come to the farm, stuff themselves full of fruit they don’t pay for, trash the fields, and treat someone’s home and workplace like a farm-themed amusement park. [Toronto Sun]

Where your fish comes from – a world map indicating global ratio of aquaculture production. The scary bit… look at China and then think about how safe that food supply is. [The Atlantic]

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