Tag: fast food

Lucky Dip – Thursday, March 22nd, 2012

In Toronto:

The Grove (1214 Dundas Street West) is now open. Chef Ben Heaton is offering a menu of contemporary (and very pretty) English cuisine.

BBQ joint Stack will open on March 27th at 3265 Yonge Street.

Did anyone actually think that The Saint (227 Ossington Avenue) would ever really open? Three years after local magazines and websites were writing previews about the decor and the menu (jumped the gun a little there, huh, folks?) it appears that the place will indeed open on April 9th.

Church Street icon Reither’s Fine Food International (530 Church Street) has closed its doors – owner Peter Reither has retired.

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Lucky Dip – Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

In Toronto:

Campagnolo (832 Dundas Street West)  has finally gotten approval for a sidewalk patio.

The empty restaurant space next to The Horseshoe (372 Queen Street West; formerly Gorilla Monsoon) is sporting signage of the A&W variety. Post-concert root beers for all!

It’s Wednesday, which means kids eat free tonight at The Sister (1554 Queen Street West).

Leslieville gets a new cafe called The Commissary (889 Queen Street East).

Is the raw food movement taking over Toronto? It could be – Rawlicious just opened another new location, this time in Markham (116 Main St. North, Markham).

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Lucky Dip – Thursday, December 1st, 2011

You’ll laugh your butt off at this, then feel guilty for doing so. And when it comes to selling fast food chicken, it’s a bit of a stretch. But who doesn’t enjoy the occasional playful dictator? [Daily Mail]

Old salty – people get freaking out about consuming too much salt, but too little can be just as bad. [Globe and Mail]

This is interesting – it looks as if the US is getting set to allow the slaughter of horses for meat. Which means fewer horses being shipped across the border to Canada for slaughter here. [Chicago Tribune]

Lazy Daisy’s is kid-friendly and offers tasty grub. Let’s hope it’s the beginning of new life on Gerrard. [NOW]

You know, part of me really believes that the “drunken office Christmas party” really only exists on TV. I’ve never been to one, and I’ve never known anyone who has been to one. Most workplaces do some kind of demure no-booze luncheon and then send everybody back to work. [Grub Street]

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Lucky Dip – Monday, November 7th, 2011

Regularly, I go to bars and yell at servers about what constitutes a martini (hint – it ain’t blue!), but referring to the “martini list” as “the children’s menu” is a stroke of snark so brilliant, I bow down to its greatness. [National Post: The Appetizer]

What’s that? Your factory-farmed pork was not raised humanely? Go figure. [Chicago Tribune]

That’s not a spicy meatball… Rod’s balls are a little flat and bland for Amy Pataki. [Toronto Star: Toronto.com]

If truffles seem extraordinarily expensive this year, it’s because they are. [Guardian]

Better living through chemistry, chocolate version. Scientists in Guelph might have found a way to make chocolate not so fattening. [Globe and Mail]

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Food Fight

Food Fight – The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America’s Obesity Crisis and What We Can Do About It by Dr. Kelly Brownell and Katherine Battle Horgen

The number one rule to remember when reading studies, works of non-fiction, even the news, is that everyone approaches a piece with a bias. When it comes to nutrition studies, the bias often reflects who is paying for the study; in the news, whether the network or paper has a right or left-wing slant. In non-fiction, it comes down to why you’re writing the book and the point you want to get across.

Thus, no matter how much I want to like a book, and to take it seriously, I have to account for the fact that Food Fight was written in part by the Director of the Yale Centre for Eating and Weight Disorders.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – certainly Dr. Kelly Brownell is going to know more about the surging obesity epidemic than the average person. But his bias against the evils of obesity shows up early on, and I can’t help but begin to be skeptical.

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Living Out of Boxes (of Food)

It’s been quiet in these parts, and the food has been unexciting. Too much stuff out of packages and too much stuff out of take-out containers. There’s two more weeks of this to go, and I swear, once we get moved and settled, I never want to see another frozen pizza again.

I mean, it’s not as if we’re moving far – a whole five blocks east. But it’s still easier to weed down your kitchen cupboards and buy new, rather than moving all your groceries, particularly perishables. So we’re trying to use up and clear out, which means no trips to Whole Foods, or the markets (Kensington and St. Lawrence), or swank and lovely Pusateri’s.

Instead, we eat the crap. Salads out of tubs, the ubiquitous frozen pizzas, store-bought frozen vegetarian lasagna, and many things from soy made to resemble parts of dead critters. The plan is to eat the crap for now, and once we’re in the new place, unpacked, and have had time to hit all the grocery places for fresh grub, to do a two-week detox to clear all the gunk out of our systems.

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