Over the weekend, the Everyman and I visited the annual Gourmet Food & Wine Expo here in Toronto.
This year I was fortunate enough to have free admission courtesy of my editor Sheryl, so all that stood between us and deliciousness were those pesky strips of sample tickets.
And even though every year we leave the Expo lamenting how there is way more booze than food, every year without fail we also go in with many more sample tickets than we’ll possibly need. This year, we went in with 100 tickets between the 2 of us, which I could tell was probably too much, but we were both looking forward to hitting up the fancy wine room and trying a few expensive wines like we did last year.
I’d also wanted to see Grant’s presentation on the Food Network Stage which happened to be the first of the day, so we ended up getting there just as the show opened. The unfortunate thing about arriving so early is that most booths aren’t quite ready for service yet, and since we’d decided not to have breakfast beforehand, we were absolutely famished and starving for options.
In order to push back the lightheadedness, we stopped at the first booth that was open, which in this case happened to be Sassafraz. The Everyman helped himself to a pulled meat mini sandwich, while I grabbed what they were hyping as the world’s best brownie. The sandwich was decently textured, but super bland without a generous helping of the various condiments that were available. The brownie was tasty too, but much too sweet to be considered the best of the best.
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Tags: absinthe, Acqua, Canyon Creek Chophouse, Casa Noble, cassis, Eight Wine Bar, Embrujo Flamenco, Essence Of Niagara, Fully Loaded Tea, Gourmet Food And Wine Expo, Grant Van Gameren, jelly, LCBO, Lejay Cassis, Leslieville Cheese Market, Purveyors, Restaurants, Reviews, Sassafraz, Splendido, Taboo, tea, tequila, The Black Hoof, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, vinegar, wine
Posted in Purveyors, Restaurants, Reviews | No Comments »
Yesterday, after surprisingly little prodding, I managed to successfully coerce the Everyman into joining me for an afternoon at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
As far as I can recall I don’t think I’ve ever visited “The Royal” before, but if I did, it was probably during some grade school field trip or something nearly 20 years ago. I can vividly recount visits to the Winnipeg version of The Royal, if for no other reason than the presence of Bonhomme (du neige). Bonhomme is the mascot of the Quebec winter carnival, but there’s a surprisingly large French population in Winnipeg, so for some reason he makes an appearance there, too. The toboggan slaloms were pretty awesome as well, which unfortunately isn’t something we’d ever see in Ontario, I imagine.
Up until a few weeks ago I really had no yearning to go to the Ontario Royal. But, when I met my editor Sheryl at Pantry for lunch a few weeks ago (aside from having an utterly scrumptious mushroom and oxtail tart) she made an off-the-cuff remark that made me wonder how much of a foodie destination The Royal might be.
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Tags: Beau's Natural Beer, beer, Bonhomme, butter, Carmichaels, cheese, cows, cured meats, European Quality Meats, From These Roots, jam, Kernal, LCBO, Monforte Dairy, pantry, peanut butter, Pristine Gourmet, Purveyors, Rootham's Gourmet, Southbrook Winery, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Traditions Of Thornloe, Upper Canada Cheese, vinegar, wine, Woolwich Dairy
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Work has been brutally kicking my ass lately, which is one of several reasons why I haven’t been updating as often as I’d like to.
It’s literally been so busy that it hurts; to the point that I’ve found it’s exacerbating an ulcer I’ve had on and off for nearly 10 years. For the past few months I’ve been working on a huge project that takes up all of my time (and then some) and I live the project, eat the project and sleep the project. It’s kind of exhausting. Every couple of days I’ll be at my office and some coworker or other will tell me how I look like shit lately. Well, duh! Of course I do!! I’m running myself ragged and not sleeping because of how worried I am over whether it will all get done. And the funniest thing about it is I’m not even working as a project manager anymore, so I’m really not accountable for the success of what we’re doing, but I just can’t turn it off, per se.
Of course, after a tough day at the office the last thing I want to do is stand around and cook for an extended period of time, but since the Everyman doesn’t really cook, that doesn’t leave too many options, otherwise. Especially when I’m trying not to do takeout or delivery more than once or twice a month.
So, what’s a mentally drained peon to do? Come home and whip up a sriracha-laced, crumb-topped, roux-thickened cup ‘o mac and cheese, of course.
And, it wouldn’t be complete without a sweet, refreshing glass of Gerwurtztraminer on the side, either.
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Tags: cheese, comfort food, Cooking, Gerwurtztraminer, macaroni and cheese, pasta, ramblings, rantings, sriracha, wine
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