gastro everywhere

Since the Throwdown, I've been busy with teaching classes at the studio. It's been running pretty smoothly but attendance has been low. I find that I like teaching choreographies rather than drilling Level 1 moves or teaching random combinations... cuz that stuff requires making lesson plans, and choreos (that I've been performing for months now) do not!

Anyway, some eats I've gotten up to in the last little while:

Jack Astor's This would usually just get an "honourable mention" in here, but I promised I'd post about it for my picky-eating friend Diana-Marie :D Diana-Marie and I studied math together at McMaster (well, she kinda did the studying for the both of us), she is my "everything buddy", and the pickiest eater I know. Her favourite foods are pizza, chicken fingers, fries, and ketchup. She does not eat vegetables. The first time we went out together after an exam, we went to the bar with some fellow mathemagicians, and we dared her to eat one of the baby carrots that came with someone's wings. When daring didn't work, we forced her (can't remember how exactly, but beer just seems to make things happen). She took the tiniest bite possible and you should have seen the disgusted look on her face... hahaha. Also, when she gets onion rings, she pulls the onion out and eats just the fried batter. I sometimes wonder how her body stays alive, LOL.

These are a few of her favourite things!

As we dined at Jack Astor's, we discussed a theory I'd heard about picky eaters: that their tongues and taste buds are hyper sensitive to food. It made sense considering everything she eats needs to be fairly crispy in texture and sort of bland in flavour. Something that seems tender to us, seems downright mushy to her. A piece of juicy, luscious fruit is, for her, a slimy horror. A hint of spice? Sets her mouth on fire.

This theory also explains why kids can be picky eaters, then grow out of it. Just as our other senses, like sight and hearing, get dull as we grow older, so too do our tongues and taste buds. For grown-up picky eaters like Diana-Marie, it's like their taste buds never grow out of that, but stay super sensitive.

My turkey burger on a potato & chive bun, with sweet potato fries.

Despite our completely opposite views on food, there is at least one food that we both love with the same passion:

Little Caesar's Crazy Bread!

Julia's Ristorante This restaurant in Downtown Oakville serves Italian and Latin American food. Will took me there this past Valentine's Day and we had a really lovely dinner: he had the Duck Escabeche, and I had the tender and flavourful Pollo di Mole Poblano followed by the Tres Leches di Chocolata cake for dessert. If you can believe it, the meal I had there the other day was even BETTER than that!

Mole chicken on black bean coconut rice, with double smoked bacon and crisply plantain.

This time, he had the Mole but none of the entrees were really jumping out at me. So I decided to get 2 appetizers as my meal: the Tres Cangrejos (Three Crabs) and the Pulled Pork Empanadas.

The Tres Cangrejos consisted of a crab cake dabbed with chimichurri rojo mayo on a bed of mixed greens, a dip of crab meat with white asparagus and roasted red pepper puree (with grilled flour tortillas), and a Dungeness crab claw. All three "cangrejos" were perfectly prepared, especially the crab cake which was not too heavy (this of course was helped by the mixed greens). The dip was satisfyingly luscious with good chunks of crab. And the crab claw was buttery and tender.

The Pulled Pork Empanadas were even more to die for! Pulled pork, sofrito vegetables and marinated provolone cheese in the most delicately fried puff pastry. Served with the same chimichurri rojo mayonnaise from the crab cakes, which was very good, but also with a simply foodgasmic tomato ginger chili jam! This jam was SERIOUSLY sexy! Sweet and a little spicy, and also lightly chilled, it was a perfect complement to the light puff pastry that melted in your mouth to give way for the hot, gooey, rich filling inside. I'm drooling just thinking about it!!


It was the perfect meal to dust off a bottle of wine to (we got a half litre to split between us, but I'm pretty sure I could have had that all to myself LOL). Go to Julia's, and if nothing else, please get the Pulled Pork Empanadas!!

My house It was my brother's birthday a few weeks ago, but because he's Hollywood, my mom wasn't able to throw a fam jam for him until this past Saturday. For food, my mom ordered the usual suspects from various venues: sushi, chicken wings, breaded fish, spicy shrimp, etc. And my Ninang Marion (who has her own baking business called Sweet Relief) of course made the birthday cake. What I wasn't expecting, was that she also made a second cake! A few days ago I'd sent her the recipe for Baked's Sweet & Salty Cake. I wasn't asking her to make it, I just wanted to share the food fantasy I'd been drooling over for more than a long time. In fact, the main purpose of the email was to find out what kind of cake she wanted me to make for her birthday! (Answer: Martha Stewart's lemon meringue cupcakes.) But even though she had replied to that email saying it seemed like a challenging recipe, she rose to that challenge and made me a Sweet & Salty Cake!

Layers of dense chocolate cake soaked in salted caramel. Frosted with caramel chocolate ganache and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Mmmmm! Best. Godmother. Ever! (Please do not tell my other godmothers I said that.)

Harbord House After celebrating my brother's birthday for most of the afternoon, myself and Sari, Will, Mike & Melissa headed downtown to get drinks for my cousin Jaleel's bday. Having just stuffed my face at the fam jam, I was less concerned with the food menu and more concerned with the menu of locally-brewed beers. Sari, however, was all about finding out just how this place put "gastro" in "gastro pub". She'd read great things about their Mac & Cheese and put in her order.

Now, you may scoff at paying $13 for Mac & Cheese, but this stuff was ridic. She kept offering me bites while she was eating, and while she was met initially with "no, it's ok I'm not hungry," that soon turned into "oh god yes it's so good!" Cheddar, jack, parmesan, and ermite cheeses that clung well to the short, ridged rigatoni noodles. Topped with garlic bread crumbs and served with a mixed green salad to balance out the richness. It was so unbelievably creamy and comfortingly good. I wouldn't normally pick a seemingly boring old Mac & Cheese from a menu of other more interesting-sounding dishes, but I have seen the light. I'd gladly make the trek up to Bloor/Spadina just for this stuff.

Anyway, I've now made myself thoroughly hungry and craving rich food. Good thing I'm meeting new friend Ken for lunch tomorrow at Buca. I've read some good buzz and am looking forward to some delicious "artisanal Italian soul food"!