Next on my list: Say Cheese!!

Holy sweet fuck does this ever look good!



From a newish Grilled Cheese joint on Bloor near Spadina called Say Cheese, and a review on BlogTO.

Deep Fried Eggs Benedict

Cooked up this beaut a couple of weeks ago. Me Pa saw it on an episode of You Gotta Eat Here where they featured a Toronto greasy spoon called Hadley's. Basically, it's a deep fried poached egg tossed in corn meal, atop pulled pork, atop hash browns, slathered in Hollandaise Sauce. To create the deep fried egg, you poach an egg, carefully strain the water then drop it into some flour, carefully roll it in flour then transfer to corn meal, carefully corn meal (finer grind the better), and then drop it into some very hot oil. Brown this little deep fried chicken baby and transfer to paper towel to soak up some grease, then chuck it onto your carnivore lasagna! If you've done it right, the egg will remain runny in the middle but with a crunchy shell that will have the easter bunny re-considering her future.

Eat Local! Cowbell Restaurant

Despite the amount of bacon and hamburger related posts on this blog, one of the food trends that has had my knickers wet lately is the Locavore movement. Probably not long after that disgusting "Where does Walmart get their Chicken" thing went around the internet a few years ago, I decided to put more effort into buying my food locally. I'm not talking about "certified organic" or "free range", I'm talking about looking at the name of the farm where you get your meat from and researching it. Visiting farmers markets is another great way to buy local, and I promise you will notice a difference.

Here's a video that I just stumbled on from the people at Toronto Standard. It documents the precise and thoughtful motions that Chef Mark Cutrara takes to create the weekly menu at his Locavore restaurant, Cowbell (in Parkdale, Toronto). There's just something about this video that gives me a hard on.


The colour of the meat and the care that this Chef/Butcher puts into his food is incredible. I can't wait to get down to Queen St West and try it out. Luckily, I'm moving across the street in a week ;)

Check out Cowbell here, and a round up of some more Locavore Restaurants on BlogTO.

Pizza Gigi is a Drug Den

I have always liked this pizza joint, and now I know why. <Insert random joke comparing pizza toppings to drugs!> From blogTO.com:

"Pizza Gigi, the popular Annex pizzeria, was shut down earlier today after police found over $1 million worth of marijuana, MDMA, OxyContin and crack cocaine on the premises."

That's a some-a-spicy meat-a-ball!

Porchetta & Co.

If you're a lover of all things pork and you live in Toronto, you should definitely swing by Porchetta & Co., a new sandwich shop on Dundas West. This place does one thing and does one thing right: pork sandwiches. This is no ordinary, leftover pork-chop-on-a-bun sandwich. Porchetta is a traditional Italian way of roasting pig. They start with a pork shoulder covered in spice, wrap that in prosciutto, then wrap that in pork bellies. Hot damn, you've got yourself one hell of a sandwich. The pork belly crisps as it roasts (sometimes called crackle), the prosciutto cooks perfectly and the pork shoulder centre remains full of juicy flavour. There are several add-ons that you can top this baby with like mushrooms, rappini, mozarrella and truffle sauce, but to be honest it is just fine on it's own. There are also side options like soup and potatoes. Get in there and try it out! Sandwiches are only $5.95 to start and a welcome change from the usual lunch garbage that TO has to offer.

I give it 4/5 pig tails, because I feel that the presentation could have been better. 

Porchetta & Co. are located at 825 Dundas St. W, and are open Tues.-Sat. 11:00am-9:00pm; Sun. 11:00am-4:00pm; closed Mondays.

Ode to Poutine

Bowser and Blue are classic Canadian comedians. Famous for songs like "Bum Darts", here's a little gem that I found whilst perusing a Toronto Poutine blog.



Holy smokes, gotta love those YouTube sidebars. This little beaut came up next:

Duck Poutine

A few months ago I had the pleasure of experiencing one of the greatest poutines that I have ever tasted. Without any knowledge of the reputation that follows The Rosedale Diner, a colleague and I took our lunch break in this unsuspecting establishment in hopes of finding a nice greasy burger, typical diner style. What we found inside was not your usual diner - bohemian styled with an Israeli twist, a quick glance at the menu proves that this ain't no regular greasy spoon.  It includes lamb and bison burgers, green peppercorn duck liver pate, and wine-infused Berkshire sausages. Not too shabby, but what immediately caught my attention was the poutine.

Poutini's

So i was in Toronto this past weekend and on my first night out this is where I ended up @ 3am with Scabes and Ben. Ran into J-Bone and Kale which was pretty funny considering they flew home for the weekend and ended up in the same spot. If you are in toronto and looking for a dirty poutine hit up Poutinis on queen st West. only complaint is they dont use enough gravy or curds. the top layer is pretty heavy but once thats gone its more less just a bucket of fries..



3.5 / 5 dirty forks

Here are two other pics from the trip -

1. the double down is here and its dirty. apparently the sodium level in one sandwich contains 300 more milligrams than the recommended daily intake. thats one salty sandy.


2. this is after I broke my belt by sitting down on the ground for a breather. this was another realization i should lay off the snacks and start exercising. In my hand is a bag of homemade bits n bites that my friend Lindsay made me for the flight home. I ate them all in the taxi home.... oops.

The Great Toronto Poutine Challenge: Winners

The Great Toronto Poutine Challenge is a feature on blogTO that I've been following for the past 20 days.  Basically, the author ate a different poutine every day for the past 20 days and rated each based on Fries, Gravy and Cheese.  It got a ton of negative feedback and really could have been one 'best of' list, but I give this guy some serious Gluttony points.  Perhaps a Belly Buster poutine challenge is in order...

via blogto.com

7/11 Strikes Again...

Much better than the Zombie Dick Dog promotion, still seems kinda steep for a dirty slider:

Oh thank heaven, it's 7/11.

Grilled cheese w extra cheese, plus cheese.

Woke up this morning with a hankerin for something heavy.  Usually, this would involve a trip down to Papa Ceo's Pizza for a Rambo slice, but the past few times I've been there I've noticed a lack of freshness so I've since banished them from my eat-out menu.  Not knowing where I'd end up, I staggered out my front door in search of a cup o' joe to loosen up my daily constipational.  I've been eyeing up a cheese shop named Chabichou for some time now, and noticed that they also sell espresso, so I thought 'what the fuck' and gave her a whirl.
What to my wondering eyes do appear: The Greasy, Cheesy Great Goddess of Grilled Cheese herself:

This bitch is cheesy. I'm no slouch when it comes to grilled cheese - I've tried most varieties; bacon, prosciutto, double-decker, rosemary seasoned and fried to name a few - but this may just take the cake.  What we have here is a grilled cheese sammy, packed with ham, cheddar and swiss cheese, then smothered in a thick layer of cheddar and swiss and baked to melted-perfection.  I strongly maintain that all food should be covered in cheese or wrapped in bacon, and this is definitely a good start.  Coupled with a mean triple espresso for breakfast, I don't really know what my guts have made of this mess but I'm sure it's going to be anything but healthy.  Screw it, this was a damn good dish and exercise in gluttony.

Five out of five greasy thumbs up.