Posticino

Tonight is my hubby M's birthday so I wanted to take him out for a yummy Italian meal at Posticino. Tucked away in a tiny space located at Royal York and The Queensway, Posticino is a quaint restaurant with all the comforts and atmosphere of a cozy Italian eatery you'd find in Italy. The lighting is low and inviting and the tables are dressed in crisp white linens.

That said, my experience there wasn't the best. Now, I don't want to sound like a snob, really I don't. But after dining there tonight, I don't get what the big deal is about Posticino. Maybe it's because it was an off night for them. Or maybe it's because we got married in Italy and ate the most amazing and delicious Italian food for three weeks. Not sure. But I can say that I wasn't too impressed with the place and I probably won't be going back anytime soon.

We had a reservation for 7 p.m. and other than being seated right away, no one really acknowledged us until at least 7:20. No water. No wine. No bread. When the waiter finally came over, he was pleasant, albeit harried, and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The place was packed on for Tuesday and he wasn't getting much help from his assistant.

After ordering wine, we waited another 10 mins or so before the waiter came back for our order.

We started off with an order of Insalata Tartufata ($14) a medley of mixed organic greens with sliced pear, walnuts and shaved parmiggiano in a truffle, dijon, honey vinaigrette. Unfortunately, the salad had little flavour. It was bland and disappointing.

Next we had the grilled calamari ($12), which was topped with a sauté of tomato and balsamic vinegar. The flavours were complementary and one of the nicest dishes we had tonight.

For dinner I ordered the "famous" Paglia e Fieno ai Fungi Porcini ($18). This is the dish that everyone talks about and apparently one of the best on the menu. There's even an article posted at the entrance that talks about how great the dish is. It melds together spinach and egg noodle pasta with a rich wild porcini mushroom rosé sauce. Again, I don't mean to be Debbie Downer, but the dish didn't taste like anything. As in it lacked flavour. M ordered the risotto special which was delicious thankfully (since it was his birthday!). It combined flavourful veal sausage with mushrooms and was set in a velvety red sauce. I was considering switching it for my meal when he wasn't looking.

Earlier, I mentioned that I probably wouldn't go back, but quite honestly, I'd like to try it again on a weekend to see if the quality of the service and food are different. There has to be something I'm missing from this place. Maybe I have to be a regular to get it.

sunday dinner

We had a great weekend of visits from friends and family. But I have to say I did way too many dishes, so we were going to head over to Everest Indian Cuisine for dinner. But then M mentioned Lick's. I can't say no to Lick's for some reason. In all honesty, we should have gone for the Indian...

Vital Planet

One of the things I was missing in my new 'hood were the organic and natural things I buy like hand soap, dish detergent, cereal, oatmeal -- that kind of stuff. I didn't really know where to go for that stuff without trekking back up to The Danforth to Grassroots and The Big Carrot.

I was happy to find The Village Butcher as I mentioned in a previous post but how excited was I to find Vital Planet only a 10 minute walk from my house. I had to drive to the other place in my old 'hood.

Vital Planet on the Lakeshore is one of three shops in the city I just found out from its Website and they are all family-owned.

According to the site: Vital Planet believes in this holistic approach and carries a large selection of quality products. You will never find the staff pushing a particular product line or a company. Some of the products carried include: natural and organic foods and dairy products, vitamins and supplements, as well as homeopathic and herbal remedies. Aromatherapy and natural body products, books, cleaning products, natural candles, bulk herbs, food, teas, organic fair trade coffee, sports nutrition and even pet food can be found.

One of the cool things about this shop is that they sell milk, yogurt ice cream and cheese among other things. And the milk comes in glass bottles. How cool is that? It reminds me of my days growing up on a dairy farm when we used to take apple juice bottles to the barn and get milk straight from the cows (ok it was in the big silver tub thingy but still). The only difference now is that I buy skim milk - the milk from the farm was whole milk that we had to shake to get rid of the milk separation.

Vital Planet doesn't have everything I like, but it has most. It even has my face cream which is pretty cool. I love one stop shops for all the goodies on my list.

you lose some, you win some

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It has been just over a week in this new neighbourhood and although I'm really liking the area, I have to say I'm missing many of my favourite spots from my old neighbourhood. The gym over here isn't as nice and I'm a bit too far to go to my Friday noon-time yoga class. But there are many plusses to the new hood. One of them is The Village Butcher.

I've never really ordered meat from a butcher before, but when I heard that this place was just a few streets over from me, I knew I had to check it out. TVB sells only organic and naturally-raised meats, along with some other specialty food items like prepared meat pies, natural soda pop, and delicious mustards and spreads.

The first thing I noticed was how laid-back this place is. Butcher and owner Mark Ali is boisterous and super friendly to all of his clients and it's obvious he gets a lot of regulars because he calls each one of them by name as they get to their turn in line.

After eating out most nights this past week, I had a craving for some good 'ol meat and potatoes for dinner. I told Mark I was new to the whole butcher shop thing and that I wanted a piece of beef enough for two for dinner. Right away, he slid the glass back and pawed a 2-lb cut of prime rib and told me it would be perfect. As he wrapped it up, he told me how to cook it for a medium-rare roast "you can't go wrong with."

When I got up to the cash, there was a nice spread of baked goods to my left and at the back of the display I spotted some date squares; organic of course. While they weren't as good as my grandmother's, they were just what I needed for my three o'clock snack.

There's something about cooking a roast that is quite intimidating. You don't want it to be too dry, but you don't want it too red either. I left the roast in for a bit longer than Mark suggested and served it along-side some roasted parsnips and carrots and smashed potatoes. The verdict? M kept saying over and over how good it was and that it was as good as prime rib he would order in a restaurant. Each bite melted in our mouths -- a true testimate for buying organic/naturally-raised meat. It's a bit pricier than a regular cut that you'd get at the supermarket ($14/lb), but it is well worth it.

A day in the life of someone who has no plans with roti (and paint fumes) on the brain

This week off from work hasn't worked out completely as I planned: I was hoping to have the whole house ready to move in and all I would have to do is empty the boxes and put away the dishes. But since the painting is being done, I couldn't really hang out or put stuff away until it was done. That said, it has given me some time to relax and do anything I feel like.

Yesterday morning I needed to get out of the house because the painters were here and the paint fumes were getting to my brain. I decided that I needed to make a bigger dent in my book club book, so I headed over to Artisano, which is a lovely Italian-style, coffee, sweets and panino place just north of the Queensway on Islington. I was there for two hours or so with all the retired men, mommies and the few people that went there to work with their laptops.

Later in the day I had to go to the dentist which I was happy for only because it meant I could waste more time before going home to the fumes. On the way home I stopped off at Queen West at Roncesvalles to check out some antiques -- I'd love to incorporate some old in with the new in the house. Along the way, I found the perfect desk lamp for my new desk at Black Pug Dmk. It's from the '60s and in mint condition but the kicker -- it's $195. A little over my budget of $40 for a desk lamp (I was seriously trying to justify the purchase in my head...).

When I got home empty handed (for which I'm sure M was grateful) the paint fumes were still pretty bad, which took away all desires to cook and eat a meal here, so M and I went out again for dinner. This time we had a craving for some Caribbean food so we checked out what I think is Caribbean Queen Roti Hut located at 2957 Lake Shore Blvd W.

Now I have to start off by saying that roti is one my MOST favourite things to eat. We became regulars of Cool Runnings on Main Street in the east end which was melt in your mouth yumminess - I would honestly dream about the stuff.

The roti at Roti Hut was just ok. It might have something to do with the fact that I didn't want it too spicy 'cause I'm a bit of a wimp, or it could have been the fact that it was Trinidadian roti, as opposed to the Jamaican roti from Cool Runnings I'm used to. Either way, it hit the spot and the owner was super sweet. She seemed to have a couple regulars come through when we were there (the restaurant has been around for 19 years after all!) and the price was right at $6.95 for boneless chicken.

The atmosphere isn't much to write about, but the owner had some really fun Caribbean music playing and I felt instantly as though I were closer to the sun and beach (I wish!).

Well that's all I've got for today. The kitchen is finally finished so I'm going to concentrate on putting stuff away and then I have to get out to change my SIN card info later on. I tried to do that earlier in the week but I forgot my birth certificate - arg!

later lakers!
~lealou

Greek Paradise: A Taste of Kalamata

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These past few weeks have been full of construction and nasty paint fumes in our 'new' house and as a result, we haven't been in any sort of an eating schedule. I can't say we haven't been eating well, because it has all been delicious, but we've been seriously lacking in the home-cooked-meal department.

On day nth of eating out, M and I wanted to have something a little healthier: I had a craving for a big salad and grilled chicken. Eating at home wasn't really an option because of the paint fumes (no low-VOC here unfortunately... arg.) so we decided to check out a local greek place M's cousin told us about on the weekend.

There's no need to venture up to The Danforth for good Greek. Kalamata is located along the Lakeshore just past Kipling in Long Branch (one of the last neighbourhoods east of Mississauga for all you downtown folks) and what a find. Home to a former Fox and Firkin (Fiddle??), Kalamata offers delicious home cooked Greek cuisine with all the fixings. The room itself is on the large side, but was quite cozy nonetheless because of the warm and welcoming fireplace, low lighting and comfortable furnishings (not to mention the various bouts of Saganaki being flambéed at tables around the room). Large banquet-style seating is offered in some areas in place of chairs, while patrons can also opt to sit in a cozy corner booth.

For dinner, M and I opted for appeys: we each started off with a Greek Salad ($7) which was fresh and tasty and had the perfect amount of mouth-watering feta, olives and splash of lemon. Olive tapenade ($4) came next, which was pure olive heaven (that's if you like olives -- not for you Mom); followed by an order of grilled chicken Souvlaki Skewers ($4 for two), and Zucchini & Eggplant ($8), seasoned and lightly pan fried served with a side of skorthalia (a fresh garlic, whipped potato and extra virgin olive oil combo - delish!)

We only had water to drink, but there is a pretty extensive wine and cocktail list available.

According to the cuz, Kalamata offers a yummy brunch on the weekends. I'll be trying that out for sure in the next few weeks.

The best part of the night though was the owner. Unfortunately, I didn't catch her name but she was super friendly, down-to-earth and chatted with us about the restaurant and the area for quite some time. I can't wait to go back!

on another adventure

So I've started another adventure. Some of you may know me through my other blog about sewing and such, but in the past week I've moved to Mimico by the Lake in Toronto and I thought it would be kind of fun to write about my new adventures here.

You see... I don't really know anything about the West side of Toronto. I did live in Roncesvalles for about a year, four years ago; and had a brief stint with my travelling friend in the Junction but that's it.

So far this area is great. I already have the PERFECT coffee spot picked out (more on that later) and have eaten out at some yummy restaurants (more on one of those next).

Stay tuned for the adventure -- I think it will be a fun one!

~lealou