Wine Tasting in Prince Edward County

Wine Tasting in Prince Edward County





Last Sunday, this cute couple that I know picked me up and drove me two hours to Prince Edward County to do some serious wine tasting. I had never been to this part of Ontario (near the Sandbanks). It is apparently up and coming in terms of viticulture, so we decided to go there instead of the Niagara region.
It was so much fun. Driving on the Loyalist Parkway along Lake Ontario was so pretty. We had lunch in Picton, Ontario at a very wholesome restaurant and tasted wine from four different vineyards including The Grange, Norman Hardie, The Sandbanks Estate, and the Rosenthal winery. The guy who was working at the Norman Hardie winery was super nice- he let us pick tomatoes, fresh basil and hot peppers from the farm! Normany Hardie's vines are from France and their soil boasts limestone. The Sandbanks' Estate impressed us with its customer-service friendly nature. Their wine tasting bar was outdoors and they were really knowledgeable about their wines. They also invite people out to events on the weekends where community members can pick grapes, eat a big lunch and listen to live music. Perfect day trips for autumn.

I learned how to aerate the wine, which enhances the flavours (wine gets really strong when you do this) and was able to discern woody flavours from citrus on my newly enhanced palate. I also finally learned the difference between oaked and unoaked wines, and I have decided that oaked wines taste much better.
We didn't get drunk which we expected, but it's because we spaced out our trips, and used the spit bowl too. So, next time you need to get out of the city to do something fun, drive eastwards my friends and pay the $1-2 for sipping delicious pinot noirs and cabernets sauvignons.


S.

TIFF, Chloe & the A-list

I've lived here for three years and haven't been to a TIFF film until this year. The reason why I've strayed from Toronto's most famous festival is because I find it difficult to navigate (tickets, screenings, pricing etc.). This year I got lucky when a friend of mine, who was offered two special tickets the world premiere of Atom Egoyan's Chloe and the after-party, asked me to be her date!

(Picture right courtesy of http://amanda-seyfried.us/photos/thumbnails.php?album=144)

I spent 24 hours in distress as to what to wear, paraded 4 different dresses for some very patient friends, and ended up literally last minute -on the day of- buying an entire new outfit. Not on purpose; I went looking for a nice dress shirt and came out with nice black linen pants too. My outfit worked; understated, chic and unique (I really do hate looking like everyone else- I could have bought those 80's inspired umpire waist sleeveless dresses...but I decided against it). Cocktail dresses- so not my thing.

(Atom Egoyan, Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Erin Cressida Wilson, Ivan Rietman, David Miller introducing the film)

The movie screened at Roy Thompson Hall, which was all aglow in its grandeur. The entrance to the movie quite a distance from the screaming fans and flashing lights of the "red carpet" so I'm afraid I missed it. But I flashed my ticket, by-passed the line, and headed up to the Mezzanine level which ended up being right next to where the director, producer and actors were sitting! How bizarre to come out of gazing intently at a haunting and often nude Amanda Seyfried to seeing her sitting a few seats away from you in the flesh, smiling in a pretty black sequined dress (see below!). The movie itself is moving, sexy, haunting and kept me at the edge of my seat. Julianne Moore and Seyfried's onscreen chemistry was very believable, and the heart ache experienced by Moore's character was palpable. I had a new-found respect for the young Seyfried as I'd only seen her lighter, comedic roles like Mean Girls and Mamma Mia. Atom Egoyan showcases Toronto landmarks from Cafe Diplomatico in Little Italy to one of Toronto's oldest parks, Allan Gardens. The scenes were unique in texture, colour and lighting. Toronto looked amazing; it's so exciting to see Toronto high-lighted in a movie and this appreciation was shared by both Mayor David Miller and producer Ivan Reitman , who happens to be a Toronto native.

The after-party took place on the roof of a four-story parking lot in Yorkville (see above). The entrance was pretty hard to find. An Entertainment Tonight staff member took us up to the roof in a golf cart, where we were greeted by a red carpet, Entertainment Tonight interviews with the cast and director, white tents and delicious drinks. The view of Toronto and Yorkville was fabulous and it all felt pretty glamorous. I kind of love it when this casual city gets dressed. I took some basic pictures, but couldn't bring myself to take pictures when we passed the rope to the VIP section and stood feet away from the cast after meeting the director. Might I say Julianne Moore is even more beautiful in real life. Amanda Seyfried embodied much the demeanor of a young star at her age- looking distracted, text messaging, and tended to by an entourage that ran 10 people deep. And she even left early! It was Sunday evening after all, and the party didn't last all night long, plus I'm sure she had more important places to be.

People were awesome- it was great to be able to discuss the film firsthand with strangers. Everyone was incredibly friendly and sociable, and very little pomp and circumstance presented itself. Yay TIFF! And might I add, the number of volunteers at TIFF is outstanding. It felt like the entire festival logistics when we were at Roy Thompson Hall were coordinated by volunteers....a great way to see the films and see the stars up close and personal...

Overall supah good movie, supah fun party.

S.

Carnies and rides and games, oh my

The CNE

We made it to the CNE on its closing weekend. I hadn't been since I was like 15. Between delicious German sausages and fries, and awesome, stomach-churning, tear-inducing rides, my party even won some prizes! A monkey in a stuffed banana? How can you resist spending the 3-5 bucks on darts, ball tosses or water-pistol games?

The CNE has serious charm. It's a great first date place, and it's one of those places which brings Torontonians from all walks of life together. Toronto bonds, and I love it when Toronto bonds. Here are some more pics, mostly courtesy of guest blogger and photo afficianado L (Thanks L!)




-S

He's-a cookin-a somethin up

Sorriso Restaurant
588 College St.

We went searching high and low for the perfect restaurant to celebrate S's birthday last week. When you live in a city with thousands of delicious restaurants serving every manner of eclectic food from around the globe, deciding on just one is not an easy feat. First you have to think of cuisine, then neighbourhood, ambiance, price, menu, availability. It's enough to make you want to run to Milestones. But Don't. They might have good artichoke dip, but there's no reason to set foot in a chain when you have so so many other options to choose from (unless of course it's Hooters).

So for this very special occasion, the location of choice was Little Italy. Then we went for the mid-range prices ($15-25 a plate), a little fancier ambiance (scratch out the pubs and pizzerias), then we eliminated all of the ones closed on Mondays (lots of places irritatingly take Monday off), and then we started scouring the internet for websites with menus. We looked at over 20 when we saw this one. The old photos, the adorable music, the history! We couldn't resist - Sorriso's website won us over. Well played, Sorriso.

So, decision made, we got gussied up and headed on over with our party hats on. First things I noticed were the giant racy Italian movie posters on the walls, and stern-faced Sophia Lorens looking disapprovingly at us. "How will you look-a like-a me if you eat so much-a pasta?" she said.

Our waitor pointed out the Prix-fixe menu and told us the specials, and then brought us some crusty bread. He was a bit of an odd duck. He started out strong, but then this strange attitude poked its head out every so often. For example: "Would you like some pepper?" "Sure. Could you also please take a picture for us?" "Ok, I'm a WAITOR first". Uncomfortable silence.

And then we saw him ignore a little boy who was trying to tell him a story. But then later, he brought out S's birthday tiramisu and helped us distract her while the candles were lit. Bizarre!

So anyway, we all decided to order the Prix Fixe. Between the 5 of us, we ate:

Crostini with Grilled Shrimp
Potato Leek Soup
Mixed Green Salad
Capellini with Shrimp and Arugula
Pan Seared Turbot with Roasted Potatoes and Sauteed Vegetables
Tiramisu
Fig Port Ice Cream

When we ordered the Shrimp Crostini to share between the five of us, he neglected to inform us that it came with 1 crostini. The half a bite I had was very tasty though, with delicious garlicky sauce. The soup, though not much to look at, was very flavourful. The salad was standard.

The Capellini pasta was tossed in olive oil and parmesan cheese, and had lots of tomatoes and shrimp. It started out nice and light, but the bottom of the bowl was difficult to eat because of the pool of oil that had gathered.

The turbot fish was a little bland, and the beans and kale weren't sauteed with much flavour either. The whole dish sat in a pool of olive oil, and every bite was drenched in the stuff. Despite the oil, however, the fish was flaky and tender and the potatoes were nice and crunchy.

The Tiramisu was also not very pretty, but it was really tasty and, I was told, quite boozy. The fig port ice cream, on the other hand, was not very boozy. It tasted a little like fig newtons, with a grown-up sweetness that I wasn't sure I was old enough for. It was different, though, which I guess is good.

In general, I'd say the food at Sorriso was pretty good. Solid effort. If they just lay off the oil a bit, it would have been much better. I'd be willing to come back to try some of their saucier pastas (the kids behind us had some tomato sauce that looked really good).

Sorriso gets 3-ish Sophia Lorens swimming in a pool of olive oil out of 5.

e

Caribbean Veg food in the heart of the Annex

One-Love Vegetarian restaurant, 854 Bathurst Street

This summer on Bathurst Street, we've seen a number of new spots open up, walls have been repainted and store-fronts redone. Here is a handy review of One Love Vegetarian (I don't care if BLOG TO already got there first, it's my street)

I'm sure you've seen it, because of the gorgeous mural that envelopes the wall around this restaurant on the corner of Bathurst and London, across from Bathurst Subway Station.

Seriously delicious Jamaican food. Their rotis are super fresh, everything is cooked in front of you. Their caillou is hearty and out of this world. Their portions are generous, fresh and appropriately priced. It's a family-run restaurant, and it's a beautiful family. We were served by the two daughters.

They used to have a stall at Harbourfront. The produce they use is organic, and they buy stuff from local farmers. With the vegetarian-friendly, organic produce, you see a lot of 'hip', 20-something, typical Annexers, but because it's right beside a strip of West-Indian hair salons and barber shops, you see a lot of West Indian families and their children. Makes for a unique mix of clientele.
Only drawback to this delicious joint was that they ran out of food, and because they cook everything right their in front of you and have a small family (when I arrived, the two daughters were running the kitchen and handling cash, with about 20 customers in front of them), be prepared to wait a long time for it.

Totally worth trying out though!
Yum Yum and Triple Yum.

S.

"Poutine is for hipsters!"

Poutini's House of Poutine
1112 Queen Street West
Yes, that is what a disgruntled customer shouted out at the staff of Poutini's House of Poutine Friday night at 3 am, when he was told there was no more poutine left.


It seems that the aftermath of the Ossington Blackout party brought this joint way more after- the-bar clientele than they had accounted for. Did you catch the blackout? I arrived post 11pm, only to see that people were spilling out of every bar on Ossington onto the sidewalks and streets. Nice to see so many people milling the streets, but we couldn't get into a bar edge-wise.



Just like the poutine place. I heard one person say that they had been waiting there for an hour. A friend of ours got so fed up, he retracted his order after 20 minutes, demanding his money back. Drunk kids in the line -up started a chorus of "we want poutine!" Another guy was adamant that the line-up is totally contrived- since when does it take a lot of time to dish out fries, gravy and cheese curds? Only would Toronto take a Quebec staple like poutine and turn it into a hip, trendy, in-demand commodity for the 'supa-cool'.

The dish on the dish itself:

• $7 for a bowl of fries- rip off
• the vegetarian boasts real veggie gravy, which is rare
• the fries are hand-cut and pretty tasty, the cheese is decent
• the gravy itself is so salty that when you arrive at the bottom of your bowl it's difficult to finish it
  

All that to say, while it's no Banquise, it's tasty enough. Just don't go there after the bar or make a habit out of this Francophone dish in the T. dot cause' you'll go broke.

S.

Takin it easy

Can you believe the summer's going by so fast?? It's August already, and what do we have to show for it? I guess some tan lines, photos, a few hundred kilometres on a couple cars, and some fond memories...but still, I feel like I've hardly done any of the things I set out to accomplish. You know, the "there's so much I want to do, I'm gonna do it ALL this summer!" type of expectations you put on yourself. It's been mountains of good times, but I had high hopes for a productive summer, though that doesn't mean I can't accomplish just as much in the fall. But pretty soon we'll be in sweaters again, and even though September doesn't mean back to school anymore, the summer's end still feels like a bittersweet conclusion to something fun and fleeting and full of potential.

So you know what that means. August. This is it, kids. EVERYTHING must happen in August.

How about you? Y'all been having a good summer so far? There are so many fun things to do in Toronto and vicinity in the summer, from sitting on your patio at home to going away for the weekend up north. People have been complaining about the lack of scorching temperatures this year, but they are mistaken. It's totally been hot, and anyway, it's way nicer to spend the days outside when it's 20-something degrees and not a smoggy 40. Like in early July, we went busking and it was blistering!

Toting some shakers, a ukulele, guitar, and a kalimba, we headed down to Bloor and Avenue and played some tunes. You should try it. You don't even have to be able to play, people stopped to chat and threw us some change just because we looked like we were having fun. We had some significant competition on the opposite street corner in the form of Mr. Joe Jangles' one man band, so we relocated down the street towards Queen's Park and set up shop in front of the Avenue entrance of the ROM, where S snapped a photo. But that entrance is not very popular, so we relied on hot dog buyers and subway riders. But as it turns out, those people are not big supporters of the arts. We made $6 in 2 1/2 hours, so that payed for half of the ice cream and coffee that we bought on the way home. But we had fun.

We also headed up to our friend K's cottage on Lake Huron. Seriously guys, if you haven't already, you must befriend someone with a cottage, it's totally awesome.

The awesomeness is enhanced if the friend is also awesome, which she is. And it helps if everyone who goes loves to eat and makes amazing breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and bbq'd burgers and vegetables, and it helps if you play baseball by the water, and then everyone plays truth or dare all night, and it also helps if you bring pastels and draw pictures while sitting in the sand and getting wickedly sun burnt on the beach.

Then, in mid July, S and I drove up to Ottawa to visit our friend L and catch a couple shows during the Ottawa Bluesfest. Were any of you there? There were a lot of great bands, many of whom are not overly bluesy at all (seriously, what was KISS doing there?).

Ben Harper was there, and so were Busta Rhymes, Femi Kuti, Girl Talk, Joe Cocker, Okkervil River, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, The Black Keys, and SO MANY MORE! We were there on the weekend of July the 11th and we saw King Khan and BBQ, Estelle, Mother Mother, Neko Case, and Ani Difranco. We got rained on a bit, but it's always fun to go to music festivals because you get to see like, 8 shows in one day, and you get to eat (overpriced) burgers and beers, and you get to chat with fun people who like bands that you like!

So you see, the summer's been fun. I'm not complaining in the least. I'm just going to try to make the most out of August. You'll see. It'll be legendary.

e