I Like Phil

First I liked Anthony Bourdain, now I like Phil Rosenthal. They're both foodies on TV. Bourdain is smart and sexy, Rosenthal, funny and charming.

I only recently discovered Phil Rosenthal of I'll Have What Phil's Having while watching PBS on WNED. I was immediately drawn to his affable demeanour, not to mention all the amazing food he was eating on the show (this one in Barcelona, Spain).

Like Bourdain on CNN's Parts Unknown, Rosenthal, travels the world trying incredible culinary delights. I think Parts Unknown is a bit more of a travel show in that not only do you get to see the food, but immerse yourself the places Bourdain visits. One of my favourite episodes was his visit to Tokyo.

I'll Have What Phil's Having is more light-hearted with more emphasis paid to the food. Rosenthal really enjoys the food he eats and openly shows it. I like that.

After watching the first episode I wondered who this Phil person was. I got my answer the next show which was filmed in Hollywood. He hobnobbed with his friends while enjoying the local cuisine - friends that included Martin Short, Norman Lear and Paul Reiser among others.

Phil Rosenthal is the creator of hit TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond. Now everything makes sense. His keen sense of humour and good-natured disposition. I love this guy.

If you get the chance, take in an episode. You won't regret it.

Birthday Weekend

I had a wonderful birthday weekend. It started on Friday night with dinner at Kushi Izakaya. On Saturday the foodie group had hot pot at Peter's condo. Gabe and Peter bought a variety meat and veggies and other goodies. I brought some ice cream - Heavenly Hash and Black Cherry. Since we got there first we washed and chopped the stuff they bought.

Fiona made some cookies for me for my birthday. That was nice of her. Justin ended up eating most of them though.

After dinner they gave me a carrot cake cupcake with a candle on it. I made them sing, Happy Birthday, to me.

After that we played Monopoly Deal card game. I think Peter picked it up in Hong Kong while he was there. It ended up taking a lot longer to play than we expected. After than Martin and Edna went home. That left Peter, Gabe, Emily, Fiona, Justin and me.

We played Saboteur next. It's Emily's game. I played it once before when she brought it to game night at Shopsy's on Woodbine. I liked it.

This time we had seven players, which according to an online game players poll, is the best number of players to have.

The game isn't too complicated. The objective of it is either to build a path from the starting point to one of three cards opposite of it, one of which is "gold", or to block players from doing it.

At the beginning you are given a card which deems you either a miner or a "Saboteur" (the name of the game). If you are a miner you have to build a seven card path to the gold. If you are a Saboteur you have to block the miners from accomplishing that task.

You are dealt five cards next. The cards will allow you to build or block the path to the gold depending on your objective. Other cards are maps cards which allow you check one of the three cards to see which one might be the gold (so you know which one to build the path to); action cards which allow you to penalize or free people from taking their turn depending on who you believe is your enemy or ally. There is also a card that can blow up part of the path to delay the miners from their goal.

People take turns either playing a card or discarding one (if they choose not to play one). They then pick up a new card from the deck and the next player goes. If the miners don't build their path to the gold by the time the cards run out the Saboteurs win that round.

It's a really fun game. You never know who to trust. Games are short and miners and Saboteurs constantly change. Though, this evening, Justin ended up being the Saboteur at least 8 of the 10 or so games we played. I was a Saboteur twice.

We ended up staying at Peter's until nearly 2:00 a.m.

On Sunday I met Lawrence for dinner at Tucker's Marketplace near his place off Highway 401 and Highway 27.

Dinner with the Foodies

We went to dinner at Owl of Minerva on Yonge south of Finch last Thursday. The Foodies were celebrating Fiona's birthday (which was actually on the weekend).

There was quite a good turn out - Emily and Gabe arrived first to secure a table. I came next after work. Janice and Heidi were next followed by Edna, Roger and Pasty. Then came Fiona (I believe) with Casey showing up shortly after. Keith was last. He had to come from work out in Etobicoke. Most of the gang lives along Yonge in between Sheppard and Finch.

I'm not too adventurous when it comes to Korean food. I know some of it can be rather spicy. Normally I just order the bibimbap and only add just a bit of the hot sauce. I did try a bit more kimchi than usual this time. Probably too much for my own good. I learned my lesson.

After dinner we decided on dessert. There was a place up the street, but it was packed. We then thought about going to Maxims on Finch in between Bayview and Leslie. But, being a Thursday night we found it closed at 10:30 which would have only given us half an hour there. So we decided on Demitres up on 7 and East Beaver Creek. They have one near me too, but everyone agreed it would be difficult to find parking around there.

When we got up to Demitres we found it was packed too. Seems like everyone was out because unofficially it was the weekend (because the next day was a stat holiday it being Good Friday). With no other options we decided to wait. And wait. And wait.

We had to wait longer than normal because our group was large and we all wanted to sit together. We finally got a table near 11:00 p.m. only to find that they officially closed at 11:30 (which would have given us the same amount of time to eat as if we had gone to Maxims).

Thankfully they didn't kick everyone out at 11:30. They recognized there were a lot of patrons still enjoying their desserts and did the right thing.

Most of our gang had waffles or crepes with ice cream and assorted toppings. I decided on a fruit filled crepe with white chocolate sauce sans ice cream. It was pretty tasty. I got to sample some of the others desserts too. The portions they couldn't finish anyway. Yum.

Cycling at Niagara-on-the-Lake part 2

As I mentioned from the previous entry Peter and Fiona set off a bit earlier than the rest of us because Fiona had other plans she had to keep.

Gilbert and Rachel wanted to go back next door to the Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery to take a few shots. After that we headed back on the road to our next stop Sunnybrook Farm Estate Winery. Justin took the lead while I brought up the rear.

The route we chose on the way back was different from the one we took in. It was supposed to be a bit shorter. I guess everyone was getting tire from all the riding. Especially since some people hadn't done it in a long time.

We only got a few hundred metres from the restaurant when Rachel took a bit of a spill. The road was on a slight decline at that point and had a shallow curve. Combine that with some gravel on the shoulder and the passing road traffic which may have spooked her. It all added up to her taking a tumble.

She wasn't seriously hurt. There were just some superficial scrapes on her knee, elbow and hands. Coincidentally enough she had fallen in front of a veterinary clinic and ambulance transfer station.

We walked over to the front of the building where a young man and lady were standing and told them our friend had fallen and asked if they had any supplies that she could use. The young fellow went into the building to look for some. While we were waiting the lady went into her car and brought out some bandaids which we put on Rachel's arm and hand. The fellow found some gauze which they taped to her knee. With that we were on our way again.

With the long delay everyone had rejoined our group except for Justin. For some reason he continued on by himself to the next stop. I guess he never thought to turn around and look for everyone else. Anyway, we found him a half hour or so later at the Sunnybrook winery tasting wines by himself.

A few minutes after we arrived Peter came in his car. He had ridden part way on his bike before changing his mind and going back for his vehicle. Good move. We got him to put Rachel's rental bike in the back and give her a lift back to the rental place. It wasn't much further away, but she needed a break.

After returning to Toronto the remaining six of us went out to dinner. Summerlicious was still on so we picked one of the participating restaurants, Wine Bar. It's located down on Church Street south of Front. It was within 20 minute's walk of Martin and Edna's place where we all met up.

Dinner was fine. Though the $25 Summerlicious deal was only a few buck less than their normal prices. I think I saved a grand total of $2. A few people thought the portions were skimpy. I kind of had to agree. Even though my entrée, the braised Moroccan beef was pretty good, it was fairly small. My appetizer the watermelon and feta salad was tasty. As was the dessert I chose the vanilla crème brulée. It was a good way to end off the meal and the day.

Cycling at Niagara-on-the-Lake

Gabe's foodie group invited me on their ride at Niagara-on-the-Lake last Saturday. Our plan was to ride along the Niagara Parkway (following the Niagara River) and stop at various wineries along the way and taste some wine and grab lunch somewhere.

In all there were ten of us - Peter, Martin and Edna, Gabe, his brother Gilbert, his brother's girlfriend, Rachel, Justin, Fiona, Cora and me. You would have thought we could have taken two or three cars but, in the end, we took five.

Originally we had planned on me taking four bikes in my car while the rest would rent. That would have left nine people in two cars. Peter could have taken Cora, Fiona and Martin and Edna. Gabe would have taken his brother, his brother's girlfriend and Justin. But, Justin and Fiona and Gabe and his posse had other plans in the evening so everyone drove instead.

We arrived at the bike rental place in Niagara-on-the-Lake at around 11:30 a.m. Most of the others had met earlier for breakfast in the Distillery District near where Martin and Edna live. Me... I slept in, had a quick bite of cereal and drove straight there.

I brought Martin and Edna's bikes for them (which I picked up a day earlier). And I brought my ex-brother-in-law, Bernie's, bike for Cora. As it turned out she was really nervous about cycling. I saw photos of her that she recently posted where she was riding a rented bike in Chicago, so I thought she was fine with it. But, she mentioned she had taken a spill and wasn't confident about it at all. She almost backed out, but with enough prodding by the rest of us she caved.

We set off.

The bike rental shop was along the road into town from the QEW. We continued along that road for a few minutes until we got to the main drag, Queen Street, then someone decided we should park our bikes and walk around because some people hadn't been to the touristy part of Niagara-on-the-Lake before. I think it's called the "Old Town".

After walking for 20-30 minutes we remounted our steeds and continued our journey.

The first winery we stopped at was The Ice House Winery at 14778 Niagara Parkway. Of course, they're known for their icewine. We were a bit parched so instead of tasting icewine we all opted for small icewine slushies at $5 a pop. They were nice, but small.

Our next stop was Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery at 1366 York Road in St. Davids. It was a fairly long trek from The Ice House, so some people were tired and hungry. We were planning on having lunch and sampling some wines there. But, they had a wedding going on so were couldn't eat there. They pointed us literally down their drive to an adjacent restaurant, The Old Firehall Restaurant, that we happily went to.

After lunch Fiona had to go. So Peter rode quickly with her back to the bike rental place (where her car was parked) while the rest of us started off at a more leisurely pace.

Shortly after we had our first and, thankfully, only mishap...

... To be continued ...

The Grid - Burger Week

My friend Gabe and his foodie friends went out on Friday night for a burger run downtown along Ossington. It was The Grid's (entertainment paper) Burger Week. 67 restaurant locations around the city offered $5 burger deals for people to try. Peter and Emily were the main organizers. Four others; Gabe, me, Fiona and Justin tagged along.

We met in the Queen and Ossington Avenue area. Peter was there first. Gabe drove Emily, Fiona and myself. Justin came on his own from work out in Mississauga.

Our plan was to go to certain restaurants on the list and order take out. We would halve the burgers and share one between two people. Then we would head to the next restaurant and repeat until we were full.

The first snag we hit was that many of the restaurants didn't offer take out; you had to dine in. So we had to skip a few until we found one, The Lakeview (on Dundas, just east of Ossington), that did. Their burger was a beef patty with maple caramelized onions, lemon-chive mayo, onion fritters, fries, and salad with honey-balsamic vinaigrette.

It was quite busy (as were most restaurants involved with the promotion), so we had to wait awhile for our order to come. When it did we headed outside and ate it on the sidewalk before heading to our next destination. I have to say the burger was a bit dry.

The next restaurant was literally around the corner on Ossington. It was the Dakota Tavern. They offered a brisket/hanger steak/chuck blend with grilled Vidalia onion, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, house-made pickle, and chipotle mayo. It was fine.

We headed up to College Street next where we tried to get into a few restaurants. A lot of them were too busy so we couldn't get in. We finally managed to get into Hadley's which served a ground chuck and bacon with pineapple relish, smoked provolone, and wasabi mayo burger. I'm guessing it was fine. I can't quite remember. I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me.

Next we pretty much went on a wild goose chase. We headed back east along College and walked into The Caledonian. The seated us on the back patio (where it was still sprinkling rain on and off outside). We inquired about the $5 special and they said they were sold out, so we decided to take a pass and walked out.

We headed back south on Ossington to try to get the lobster burger (ground chuck, Old Bay seasoning, Nova Scotia lobster, lettuce, and garlic-and-lemon mayo on an egg-washed bun) at Rock Lobster. The line to get in was 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I think some of the guys actually considered waiting. Thankfully cooler heads prevailed and we decided to move on.

I'm not sure which place was next on the list. But, it was supposed to be way out east along Queen near Bathurst. Justin mentioned it would be at least a 15-minute walk each way from where we were. We hesitantly decided to go anyway. Thankfully Emily called them because we found out the place closed early. We would have walked there for nothing more than the exercise and fresh air.

So we turned back and headed west on Queen, up Ossington (past the Rock Lobster again) to BQM (just south of Dundas). This time we decided to go into eat. It would be our last stop. We had gone in earlier in the evening, but decided to pass because they didn't do take out.

Their burger was ground chuck with grilled pineapple, jalapeño, curry aioli, lettuce, and tomato. It was really good. I even ate the jalapeño peppers (which I normally avoid). With these particular condiments it suited the burger really well. Having a beer with the burger possibly helped too.

All in all it was a decent evening. The rain held off for the most part. It didn't go exactly as planned. I don't think we anticipated how busy the restaurants would be. But, we had a chance to sample a few good burgers (and, in my opinion, one great burger). So I'd call that a successful outing.