Category Archives: Restaurants and Products

Places to eat, drink and be merry

May 8, 2011 · 1:14 pm

Iced Iced Tea Baby

My Tea-na Colada

I went on an iced tea mission for Mother’s Day.  I was buying black tea at The Tea Emporium last week and I had my son with me.  I mentioned that he liked tea– well a decaf, watered down, Red Rose version of black tea– with a bit of honey.  Feeling obvious pity for his bungled tea initiation the saleswoman gently suggested I could make him iced fruit teas.

I’m not really a fruit tea person.  Or at least not as a hot tea.  But iced!  I am a convert.  We smelled a few fruit-forward  combinations (aromas almost as glorious as Fruit Stripe Gum) and took home a blend called African Queen: Hibiscus, rosehip, dried apple and strawberry.

I remembered I had some of my Ginger Simple Syrup left from my Ginger-Melon salad.  So I used that a sweetener.  And I was off and running.

I went a little iced tea crazy.  Yesterday I made a batch of Sunburst Raspberry (apple raspberry blend) and for Mother’s Day I have made myself a pitcher of Pina Colada iced tea with the Ginger syrup.  (Pineapple, coconut, apple, hibiscus and rosehip).

Tomorrow I try the Green Kombucha Lime (a Japanese green citrus blend).  It apparently acts as a purifier for your blood and organs.   A perfect pairing with vodka soup.

1 Comment

Filed under All Recipes, Restaurants and Products

Tagged as , , , ,

May 3, 2011 · 10:26 pm

The Grapple: one awkward lovemaking session

For when you're not sure what size fruit you want to eat.

When you see apples encased in solid plastic, you read the label. Maybe they’re special.  Limited editions that you can store away between your Sidney Crosby rookie card and the weird eggplant that looks like Joan Rivers.

It was at the small Italian grocer near my house that I came upon the Grapple. “Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape.”  Even at $1.50 per apple I couldn’t resist the bizarre apple freak show.  Or is a grape freak show?

Perhaps blue sky thinking shouldn’t be allowed when it comes to cross-breeding.

Maybe this was the prototype for vodka infused watermelon.  Luckily the Grapple website explains everything:

A relaxing bathing process prepares our apples for you or your kids. The apple takes on no additional sugars or calories. They are not genetically altered in any way. The apple is as healthy as ever but now has the new exciting grape flavor.

Amazingly, you may have more questions and luckily there is an FAQ page.  The first question answered  is “Is this an offshoot of the Japanese program that tried to cross a cow with a whale?”

But FYI–the Grapple just tastes, well, like an apple.   Who’s your daddy?



Leave a comment

Filed under Restaurants and Products, Ruminations on the Edible, Strange but Tasty

Tagged as , , , ,

April 20, 2011 · 12:44 pm

Eyebrow on the Lowbrow: Mug Cake for the Royal Wedding

Don't knock it til you nuke it.

Me thinks molten chocolate cake has finally jumped the shark by becoming Mug Cake.

I do wonder when I still see Molten Chocolate cake on dessert menus.

Has the molten cake not had its day pastry people?  At least mix it up a little.  How about molten on the outside, cake on the inside!

Wait, that’s chocolate cake with sauce.  OK.  It’s over.

Or is it?  A little Dr. Oetker Mug Cake made its way into my house recently.  Did I raise my inner foodie eyebrow?  Oh yes, I did.

But, forging ahead with an open mind and open cupboard, I pulled out a mug and did some baking.  Using my 10-year-old, not so high-powered microwave, after a couple minutes I  pulled out a moist, chocolate cake in a mug—kind of goopy in the centre where it hadn’t finished cooking.  You bet I ate the whole thing.

And then I really opened my mind to the universe and thought, Who’s to say you couldn’t pour a little Drambuie on this baby and flambé it up?   Just call it Flug Cake.

And since I’m on a drunken roll, here’s another great idea:  Mug cake for high tea!  Watch the Royal nuptials while sipping a mug of warm cake.

Just call it Smug Cake.

4 Comments

Filed under Restaurants and Products, Strange but Tasty

Tagged as , , , , , ,

April 11, 2011 · 9:56 am

Let them eat cake…at your funeral.

I find it harder to have your cake and not eat it.

Sometimes things just click. When your babysitter brings a Stubbe’s Lemon Torte to your house you know you chose the right caregiver. We picked Donna to babysit Felix after a rigorous vetting process investigating which dessert shops she frequented in Toronto.

Cake fits any occasion–a quick lunch, after a bikini wax or as a sympathy gift.  No one will know who sent what bunch of smelly lilies to a funeral but your chocolate cake gift basket will stand out like the beacon of plastic-wrapped comfort food that is is.

And let’s face it,  attendance would soar.  Next time I fantasize about who’s coming to my funeral I’m going to imagine myself in an open coffin with my hands  arranged to hold a large chocolate Krispy Bunny.  I think it will get more kids motivated to participate.  Nibbles encouraged.

2 Comments

Filed under Restaurants and Products, Ruminations on the Edible, Strange but Tasty

Tagged as , , , ,

April 8, 2011 · 1:10 pm

It’s Sandwich Day!

Immediate Impulse Buy

I unknowingly woke up into sandwich day.  It started when I was walking by a store window where the new Saveur magazine was on display.   Saveur is probably my favourite food magazine–I love the feeling that if I read a full years subscription I would be the savviest foodie on the block. I haven’t yet subscribed because I fear a pile up of unread issues will trigger massive foodie-anxiety.  (Only a subscription to The New Yorker is more terrifying in potentially magnifying my ignorance….of everything.)

BTW Canadians–the last issue had a great piece on Quebec and the maple syrup tradition (The Sweet Life) by Sasha Chapman.  And the sap is now running so get out there and lick it up.

Memories of my old sandwich stomping ground

Back to sandwich serendipity:  on my way home I stumbled across the Yorkville Sandwich Box location.  I have not eaten at Sandwich Box since it was a little store inside a strange little food strip at McCaul and Queen.  But man–the memories!   Grilled, hot, crispy, gooey, savoury, sweet, grilled, spicy…..oh the land of sandwiches.  I went with white panini  (sometimes whole grain is not the right choice) smoky grilled eggplant, crisp pancetta, bocconcini and curried apple spread.  I think I ripped the box in my excitement to get to the food.  And as after any great sandwich, I simply felt…happy.

So sandwich it up today people!  It’s meant to be.

Leave a comment

Filed under Cookbooks, Magazines (+recipes from), Restaurants and Products

Tagged as , , ,