Weekend 12 - Replay

Since I last blogged, I have purchased my ticket out of here. I will be departing on the 13th June, spending just over a week in London then fly out on the 24th to Taipei to surprise my mum and dad. In light of this I have gained an additional week to my countdown and henceforth shall blog accurately by naming this blog entry Weekend 12 also.

Let us begin. On Friday I, along with my patient acquiescence friends, the ever obliging Deeple and Zanaida, toured the third Toronto chain restaurant in my quest of tasting the delights of "local" food.

At Milestone's on Dundas and Peter, the recommended drink was the Bellini. Milestone's version is made with white rum, peach liquer, sparkling wine and sangria served in a martini glass. This fruity frozen treat is a great way to start the meal.

L: Sucking on the Bellinis; M: Hellenic and Deeple, my Clare and Ravi replacements!; R: Demolished roast chicken.

Deeple's boyfriend Hellenic also joined us girls for the first time and bless him he does take a verbal beating from us well. The story of Hellenic and Deeple reminds me to a T of my very very good friends Clare and Ravi back in Sydney, who became happily engaged last week! Congrats to them both and thanks Clare for asking me to be a bridesmaid! So the moral of the story? I'm available for weddings any time, any where. Did you hear me Deeple? Hellenic?

The meal was generally satisfactory, my roast chicken was flavoursome without any dryness. However as the price range was a little bit higher than Red Lobster and Jack Astor's, I was disappointed with the overall experience. Out of the three, this was in fact the more popular restaurant as we had to wait at the bar for 30 mins before a table was available. We've concluded that as I only had 11 more weekends left to experience Toronto, our time should not be mired in mediocrity and therefore, ladies and gentlemen, this will be my last tour of duty in the world of franchised restaurants. Next time you shall hopefuly see a much improved menu and rounder tummies.

Saturday night was again the usual gang, cooking dinner and drinking at Mihoko and Dave's. Somehow I got carried with the drinking part of the night which decided the dinner part of the night wasn't going to be a part of me so it all came out and down the toilet. Really what was I thinking? I'm turning 29 for crying out loud.

Weekend 12 - Loves to Play

I haven't even bought my plane ticket yet but I guess I'd better get on with the weekend countdowns...

So Weekend 12 began with dinner and drinks with Steve on Friday night. Been having a lot of Mexican food here, but that night we (I, really) were lured in by the music as we walked along King St. Afterwards we went looking for a drinking establishment and found ourselves at The Hideout on Queen St. After a glass it was time to move on from the live band that was mingling with the sound system. We then made it to The Supermarket, a bar in Kensington Market that resembled the coolness of London. It was snowing again after a week of very Spring-like weather. It was nice to see snow again and the light dusting that night covered the streets as we walked. For some reason it always seem really quiet when it's snowing. I guess the snow acts like a sound insulator, like in a sound-proof room. Which is a good thing cause we were making a bit of noise running down the streets and general hoorahing you do after a couple of drinks.


L: Shhh, virgin snow...; R: Steve skidding along a la Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

On Sunday I finally saw a play in the third largest theatre-going city in the world after London and New York. The Tarragon Theatre is an intimiate venue just a few blocks from my place. The play was "John & Beatrice" by Montreal born and based Carole Frechette. It's not so much a love story of two people, but more the tragedy of wanting love and being misguided by that want. Despite this outlook/outcome however it was actually a very funny play. There were plenty of moments when you recognise yourself or your partners' behaviour and laugh at your own ridiculousness.

Medium Rare Treat

So it's that time again where I take you to the depths (or shallows depending on your views) of Toronto's world of franchise restaurants.

First I would like to apologise for the lack of photography on this blog entry. My camera had not charged itself like it was suppose to even though it knew the important of this assignment, so I told it to go to its room without any supper and to think about what it had done. Humph.

There. Once discipline was despatched my girls and I keenly absorbed our surrounds. Surprising the decor was far from kitsch considering this chain of restaurants has a donkey on its neon door signage, a signage that flashes the T, O, R and the apostophe on and off revelling a "surprising" new word. Check out the "ingenious" design on their website.

We started our evening with a cocktail each.

Butcher's paper cover each table along with a supply of crayons. Following my cocktail I had drawn many a masterpieces that night which I would have shown you here had my camera behaved like an adult and acted responsibly. Tut tut.

We had another cocktail and shared a:
LOBSTER AND
CRAB DIP
A mixture of cream cheese, lobster,
crabmeat, mushrooms, peppers
and onions. Oven-baked until
bubbling, served with crisp nacho
chips and warm pita bread triangles.

For dinner I chose a medium rare:
TOPLESS STEAK
SANDWICH
Top sirloin grilled to order and
topped with sautéed button
mushrooms, three-peppercorn
mushroom sauce and crisp onion
straws. Served open-faced on
a piece of toasted Italian bread.

This was consumed with vigour as the steak was done as per ordered - medium rare, the only way to eat steak. It has been many moons since I've had a good steak and let me tell you, this, was, a good steak. In fact it reminded me of another fabulous steak I once had on Valentine's Day. Oh my, I just realised that was the one and only time I've ever celebrated Valentine's Day. We actually made a big deal out of it, made reservations for a fancy restaurant and afterwards, well, we had a wonderful night... But that was a long time ago.

Give me another cocktail, make it a Long Island.

I washed down the steak, salad and garlic bread with another cocktail. The garlic bread here had be lauded by many so I shouldn't have been surprised by its delicious taste and texture - it was like eating a cloud! Not the candy floss kind of cloud, which shrinks into an intensely artificial mess when your saliva lingers too long it. It was more like a doona (duvet for our non-Australian readers) kind of cloud, warm and comforting that you just want to roll yourself up in.

This restaurant proved franchised food can be good and performed better overall over Red Lobster. It is definitely better than its gimmicky name.

Countdown Update

So I'm thinking to leave here at the beginning of June, a few weeks earlier than originally anticipated to avoid peak season rates. That will give me roughly 13 weeks left in this country.

I guess we're ready to to start the countdown again...

Music to My Ears

This is Canada's first purpose built Opera House, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Completed in 2006, it also houses the Richard Bradshaw Ampitheatre, a space designed for informal concerts, talks and other events.

A free concert series is held in this ampitheatre to encourage the public to visit this space and cultivate their interest in the performing arts. I attended one such free concert on Wednesday after work. The program was performed by the Chamber Ensembles of the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra.