Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan 30, 2012

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Lazy Weekends and Crazy Plans.

Cholan

We rented a zipcar and went out to Mississauga yesterday. It’s a sprawling suburb outside of Toronto, full of giant box stores, residential areas, and as I found out, a surprisingly great restaurant. We went to Heartland for shopping, it’s a massive commons area, and pretty overwhelming after getting accustomed to the density of Toronto. But near this shopping centre extravaganza, there is Cholan, a vegan friendly East Indian restaurant. Complete with various dosas, soups, curries, and papadams. We left absolutely full, happy, and for a great price. I would definitely go back again (and I’m pretty sure JC agrees with me!)

I’m playing around with the idea of sewing my own wedding dress. I realize this is probably misguided, and absurd, and considering I have next to no skill in sewing with a machine, unlikely. But, and of course there is a but, I like a challenge, I like learning new things, and taking sewing lessons isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever had. It’s not like I’m the only one (like Melissa Fehr from Fehr Trade, Lisa Welge now Bardot from Lisa Welge Photography, and various other crafty people).

JC and I live near the Parkdale neighbourhood in Toronto – conveniently, there is a studio called The Workroom, which offers sewing, quilting, and crafting classes (here is a pdf for this month) right in the neighbourhood. I will start small with Sewing Machine Essentials. It’s a minimal investment both in cost ($55) and time (3hrs). I’ll be honest, I’m still holding out hope that I’ll be some kind of sewing savant – at the very least, this could give me the reality check I clearly need. I’ve taken the first step: Asked for more information from The Workroom folks, and now I wait (but not very long, because in the span of writing this blog post, they replied to my email!)

Monday has gone from day of scheduled cleaning to day of too many social events packed into one. Once upon a time I was a Yelp Elite member, but I received an invite for an event happening tonight at Spin Galactic… it’s a ping pong social club. I don’t even care if the email was sent to me in error, I’m so in. Then later it’s drinks and dancing with my former burlesque instructor. Random and awesome.

Jan 16, 2012

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Exploring the Lower East Side and finding a Knishery

In case you’ve ever wondered, this is what part of the Lower East Side looks like at 5am.


I was up, bright and painfully early on a Saturday morning ready to take on the city, but we had to wait until the city that never sleeps… woke up. First stop that day was Yonah Schimmel’s Knishery (137 E Houston St, New York, NY). It was just around the corner from our hotel, and after reading a few reviews of the place on IEatVegan and LunchBoxBunch about the place, and I thought – well this place sounds great. I’ve never had a knish why not get an accidentally vegan and authentic one? There is an assortment of flavours some vegan, some not. I asked the man working in the store if they were vegetarian, if they had eggs or milk in them, and he said they didn’t (other than the obviously non-vegan ones like cheese filled) So we ordered a vegetable one and a sweet potato one. I found the sweet potato one a lot sweeter than I would have expected, with a hint of cinnamon, it was the perfect breakfast.

Knish
Jordan’s vegetable one was soft and savory, and probably my favourite (which is why I might have picked off several pieces of it when he wasn’t looking.) They have a bunch stacked in a glass case, ask you what you want, and throw them in the microwave for a couple of minutes. They were good, but I’m curious what a freshly baked one would taste like (which is how new baking projects start up.)

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The knishes were great, and I can totally see why people would order a dozen from their website, but it definitely inspired me to try making my own at home.

Jan 14, 2012

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December in New York – Candle 79

After the whole engagement thing (no big deal right? I’m still eeeee-ing about it) we went back to the hotel, cracked open a bottle of champagne and started calling or emailing family members and close friends. Sometimes it just doesn’t feel appropriate to use Facebook to notify everyone of such important news.

Then it was time to celebrate. And what better place than Candle 79 (154 East 79th Street at Lexington Avenue, New York, NY)? I had never been before, but after the endless series of great reviews I’ve read online, I couldn’t wait to finally go.

We were the last seating of the evening, and got a lovely seat right by the front window. It’s such a nice space, cozy atmosphere with subtle lighting and plush seats.

For drinks, I ordered the Reforestation; a mojito with a twist – a tree is planted with every Reforestation ordered. I love mojitos, I love trees: i.e., perfect combination. Moreover the ingredients interested me, I’d never tried Veev Acai spirit, but I had a little bit about it previously and liked the premise and ecologically responsible business model.

Jordan ordered the Ginger Rush, I think mostly because it had sake in it, but it ended up being more my style than his.

We picked out an organic wine from Heller Estates that I had to take a picture of to make sure we would remember it – unfortunately, the LCBO/Ontario wine stores don’t have it. We noticed the wine list was perfect, one of those seemingly well thought out group of pairings – short and sweet (as in, no giant dusty books of indecisive wine here).

The chef offered a little bite to start our meal.

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I’ve gotten into the habit of trying to order as much as possible off of any available specials menu. That instinct did not disappoint. There was a menu of specials that we looked at, drooled over, and, with the exception of the pasta dish, decided to take advantage of.

We started with a chipotle black bean soup, it was topped wit a tomato-avocado salsa.

Next was a mache & endive salad, with avocado, grapefruit, pickled red onion, spaghetti squash, almonds & a lemon vinaigrette.

Chipotle black bean soup with tomato-avocado salsa
Then herbed trumpet royale mushrooms, hearts of palm puree, sautéed green beans, hazelnuts, fennel salad with a red wine sauce.

Herbed trumpet royale mushrooms, hearts of palm puree, sauteed haricorts verts, hazelnuts, fennel salad and a red wine sauce
We ordered a side of rosemary truffled potatoes which is always a good idea (vegan restaurant rule #1231234124 if it says “truffled” order it.) They’re hiding away on the bottom of the menu, but they’re so worth ordering.

Truffled potatoes
After all of that it was time for my second favourite part of dinner, the entrees. My walnut-crusted seitan was arguably the best thing on that table that night (which is saying a lot.) With sautéed porchini mushrooms, shallots, brussels sprouts, a squash puree, mustard lentil caviarish sauce & a grilled apple salad… I was in heaven.

Walnut-crusted seitan with sauteed porchini mushrooms, shallots, brussels sprouts, squash puree, mustard -beluga lentil sauce & an apple salad
Which is not to say that Jordan’s Mustard-Ginger Tempeh, wasn’t great – because it genuinely was. I just won the dinner flavour contest. His dish had a sweet potato puree, sautéed trumpet royale mushrooms, with slips of brussels sprouts on top of a blend of lentil brown rice and surrounded by a cranberry-chipotle coulis.

Mustard-Ginger Tempeh - sweet potato purée, sautéed trumpet royale mushrooms, brussels sprouts, lentils, brown rice, sunflower seeds, apple salad, cranberry-chipotle coulis
Now for my absolute favourite – VEGAN CANNOLI!!! This dessert was amazing. I’ve never had a real cannoli, so I had no point of reference as to whether it was accurately recreated, but Jordan has (cannoli being one of his favourites) and even he was impressed. My understanding of cannoli is that they are normally tubes of fried pastry dough, with a sweet and creamy filling usually containing ricotta cheese. This version was filled with a vanilla cream filling, with a perfectly flaky cannolo pastry, sitting in a chocolate sauce and a scoop of ginger-pumpkin ice cream. I wished I ordered it too, but I had chocolate and ice cream (still good, but no cannoli). Good thing J likes to share.


Vegan Canolli
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Our visit to Candle 79, made an already spectacular and special day, even more amazing.