Monthly Archives: April 2011

Apr 28, 2011

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Animal Ark II Fundraiser – All You Can Eat Chili, Great Org, Great people, Great food.

This past Tuesday night Animal Ark II had an All You Can Eat Chili fundraiser and memorial for Mark Karbusicky at Sadie’s Diner (504 Adelaide Street W, Toronto, ON).



Animal Ark II is a Toronto based, direct action animal advocacy organization. I remember their display at the the Vegetarian Food Fair back in September, they were the first animal rights organization I encountered since arriving in Toronto.

I didn’t have the pleasure of knowing Mark Karbusicky, but he was a film maker, activist and from what I read about him,  an all around amazing person and friend. There is also documentary on his life that won Best Feature Documentary at The Accolade Competition in La Jolla, CA in 2010. Mark had actively supported feral cat rescue programs, so I thought it was great that the organizers were also collecting donations of cat food for a local feral resuce in honor of him.

You wish this was in your mouth right now.


And now for the food! There was a ten dollar suggested donation for all you can eat chili and tortilla chips, baked goods by donation, and little yummy things here and there. I love chili, and tortilla chips, and fundraisers for worthy causes, so it was perfect. One of the ARKII Volunteers made these freaking yummy cornbread muffin type things, and I’m pretty sure I want more (i.e., I should really get on making some cornbread.) Plus there were different cupcakes, including a couple of gluten free options, which surprise surprise were freaking tasty. Gluten free, you’ve come a long way baby.

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Any local veg event I’ve been to has offered up some great food and snacks, so if you get the opportunity, it’s definitely worth checking ANY of them out while supporting great local causes.


So, hint hint, there is of course, part two of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale going on at the Toronto Vegetarian Association Resource Center (2nd fl, 17 Baldwin St) this weekend (on Saturday, April 30th 2011) between 1-4pm.

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Apr 27, 2011

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Udupi Palace – another day, another veggielicious visit.

So the last few days of Veggielicious remained and we played catch up to take advantage of what was out there. This past weekend we went over to Gerrard street to try Udupi Palace’s Veggielicious special. It ended up being their usual special plate, but it included a free soda, which wasn’t all that exciting, since I’m not a heavy soda drinker. That said, their normal prices aren’t all that expensive so, either way, it wasn’t a bad deal.


We started with the chili pakoras. The delightfully hollow chilies acted as the perfect chutney conveyance.


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We ordered the mysore masala dosa and the masala dosa, but I’m not sure which one I ended up with. Either way, the dosa filling was delicious; fragrant potato and onion with spices. The Udupi special plate came with idli  (lentil and rice flour patties) and medu vada (a lentil flour donut). If I came back, I’d probably skip either of those and opt for a side of onion pakoras instead. Both the idli and the medu vada were entirely flavourless (to me at least, and yes, I’ve had them before), once again, chutney (one of which was made with coconut!) and sambhar save the day.


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I know I’m not alone in saying that the whole Veggielicious event made me aware of more restaurants in the GTA (and beyond), and put more places on my radar than before. I look forward to next year (Or heck, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a winter veggielicious AND a summer veggielicious? A girl can dream right?)

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Apr 22, 2011

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Fressen – The last night to take advantage of the Veggielicious special.

I was looking forward to visiting Fressen(78 Queen Street West, Toronto) while they were participating in the Veggielicious promo with the TVA. It’s hard to believe how quickly April passed by, all of a sudden we arrived at the last day to try it out at Fressen, since they only participated in Veggielicious on slower days: Sunday thru Thursday.

Fressen was one of the first restaurants I tried when I arrived in Toronto last year, still fresh on my high from San Francisco’s Millennium vegan fine dining possibilities, I had to try Toronto’s version. It was different, but I was still very impressed with the dishes they had come up with.

Pan seared mushroom


This time was no exception. The Veggielicious special was a small soup of the day, and side of dips with fresh house made bread and choice of pasta for $17.  My dining companion and I started with a bottle of Buenas Ondas organic malbec and  the seared king, button and shiitake mushroom appetizer (not part of veggielicious, but too yummy to pass up.) The mushrooms were laying on a bed of cold wilted sesame spinach with a tart tamari flavoured garlic sauce. A great start to a lovely evening.

Veggielicious Special


Next it was time for the soup course. I was pleasantly surprised that the spiral detail caused the sweet potato soup to be just a touch spicy (I imagine it was sriracha). I ordered the spicy lentil balls and the baba ghannouj (since it wasn’t on the menu I had to try it). The spicy lentil balls were not quite what I was expecting, but still tasty. That said, I would take nearly any excuse to eat slices of Fressen’s delicious slightly salty bread.

Tomato Rigatoni


For the main pasta dishes we ordered the tomato rigatoni and a pesto linguine. Normally I shy away from ordering pasta dishes because it always seems like something I could make myself. This time, the heavenly tomato eggplant sauce on my rigatoni blew me away. The rigatoni was al dente to perfection, the sauce had a delightful hint of wine to it,  roasted Italian eggplant, and warm bursts of cherry tomato.

Pesto linguini


I sampled a little of the pesto linguine, but the rigatoni was a definite favourite. In my mind it’s hard to go wrong with a combination of basil and garlic.

Chocolate Avocado Terrine


Then it was time for dessert, which at Fressen is easy decision if you’re going for it, because they usually only have one option. A chocolate terrine, avocado whipped chocolate, thick pieces of formed dark chocolate surrounded with fruit (pineapple, a tart apple, strawberry and mango), a sprig of mint and drops of (what I think were) peach and raspberry coulis.

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