ThisBoyIsToast V4 >> Category Archives

The yoshoku category is broad, and includes dishes that have become so integral to the diet that many Japanese wouldn’t consider them Japanized Western food at all, but simply Japanese food."

This is definitely a cuisine I would like to try more often. I love Japanese curry though I barely eat. When coworker-J arrived back, she said most Japanese preferred Indian curries over traditional japanese curries.

I am not sure how I feel about Coke test markets aluminum bottles. One, I don't drink as much Coke as I used to. And, two, while I was always partial to the amount of beverage & the temperature a bottle provided, I think they will only do this to decrease the amount of Coke available for the price of your normal can of Coke.

Would I pay $15 a cup for coffee? Well considering I pay almost $4 for a shitty starbucks latte concoction, it's not inconceivable. But it would have to be damn good (thanks ed).

Michael Pollan says,

Don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.”

Wow, that would lead to a lot of really boring nights eating out at restos. And to be honest, my grandparents and probably their parents, did not eat so well -- tons of fried food and buckets of salted this and salted that. Tons of veggies boiled into mush. Yuck. My father would balk at gyoza and there is no way I am giving that up. (via beatnikpad)

The Burgers of Winnipeg is something I would looooove to do for Toronto but I guess I cannot call myself a burger fan until I finally get to Dangerous Dan's.

This one is for my bro from the Sto', gMoney. It's his favourite woman of the kitchen. But he doesn't read blogs so it's really for me. I should do a blog for offline people and then occasionally print it out for them to read.

Hmmm, another decent Polenta Pie Recipe. Dried mushrooms seem to be a similar thread. Something to absorb the liquid I guess...

So, based on the last post and the popularity of LOL Cats, I decided I am going to wash the cat, rinse him off into a pint glass, mix it with an american beer and sell it as a Best Selling Meme Beer. Gross? Yeah well, people are drinking this shite.

Yeah, I want to be able to bake and take photos like this. Once Marmy starts in full force, I intend to actually attempt to try it with my meager photoography "equipment" and skills.

Marmy introduced me to the tart tart taste of ~~rubard~~ rhubarb (sometimes I wonder where in my brain these mispellings come from) few weeks ago. Did I FoodFlickr that? Anywayz, I hadn't tried it before because it grew wild in my backyard and I thought of it as a weed, sort of like I am afraid to try fiddleheads. Anywayz, she made a delicious crumble but here's another from delicious:days.

I understand that she invented the lobster roll for New Yorkers, and then had it copied by an ex-coworker. But I am amused by the fact that those have been available at home for as long as there were hot dog buns & left over lobster in the fridge.

The cupcake shop across from The Store made a killing and was nice enough to drop a couple of dozen end-of-days (not apocalyptic but leftovers) once a week or so. They were nice enough but not really my thing. I like cookies. But people do seem to like cupcakes. We shall do cookies and we shall do them DAMN FINE. (via megnut)

Hee !! It's a calamari creature that even I could eat. Yes, our first attempt at doing fondant was a success, but I still must admit to being quickly sated on sweet sweet icing.

This things is called a Grapple and it's the most horrifying frankenfood I have ever come across and it's not even full of genetically modified goodness.

In Katamari, it sounded yummy but despite my allergies for things from the sea, the idea of Takoyaki still grosses me out. But I love how much finger food Japan has to offer.

Marmy is going to become the official cookie monster but I am going to be a dabbler. No more attempts at claiming, This Boy Is Cookie. But I do want to explore the ~~mistique~~ mystique of baking cookies, not the just the act of beating together a ton of ingredients and pigging out on it afterwards. For example, the tip at the end of this recipe for making circular cookies out of those fast spreading kind.

I am really into asparagus these days. I must admit that it was the bacon wrapped BBQed ones from last summer that perked my interest but we usually just roast it for a few minutes until it is crunchy-tender. I love adding new green food to my diet. Updatish: ohmigawd, that was ME yesterday. and here I wanted to gag my stall mate with a urinal cake. yeah yeah, TMI.

Heh. Megnut does the Mean Chocolate Chip Cookie, as in averaged, based on her bid for recipes. As you remember, I kind of did that but I focused more on the grander elements. To me, the non-baker, precision is not important. A bit more butter or less, a bit more salt or a bit less, etc. does not matter. It's using brown sugar vs white sugar or a combination of the two. I like hers having all three but to be honest, I am not happy with her visual results. While many of my tries did do the homemade flat-cookie, I prefer a cookie with more height. That reminds me, I owe a vendour some cookies.

at first glance this Diet Blog was interesting, for someone interested in eating in a more healthy manner. I know, I know, I am not that bad. I know how to eat better, I just do not choose to do so very often. Anywayz, I thought the site was interesting... then I saw the between the lines stuff. One post balks at the idea of eating a burger, another one talks about a lady eating a salad being the more attractive person vs the one Eating a Whole Pie. Nice slanted message there.

OK, if the new wonder drug (aka newest way to really fuck your life up) is called shabu, then does that mean shabu shabu is twice as addictive? is there now going to be a CIA war on japanese soup?

I have been told that the Durian, and to quote Boing Boing, which "looks like a T Rex's scrotum and smells like the ass of a huge, long-dead prehistoric cave-bear" is the stink that defines Chinatown in the summer. But will a stinkless durian taste as good as it smells ?

Bah! This would only work with those NY style bagels (i.e. roll with a hole) and not the wonky yumminess of a real Montreal-style bagel. From what I hear, there are now at least 2 places in TO that sell Mtl-style. One is around the corner from my place :)

Speaking of poo, and I guess it's poo day here at TBIT as this is the third in a row, but take a look at these probably yummy lil cakes that unintentionally look like doggie poo.

This post by Megnut about Best chocolate chip cookie inspires me to go back to my late night cookie baking. Last winter when late nights at work (xmas retail hours) and other stuff had my nutty with stress, I found myself experimenting with various chocolate chip cookie recipes including the Martha Stewart and the Neiman Marcus myth. I have since altered it slightly but should continue the experiment.

I have been often known to say I like bad coffee. What I mean is that I like just about any coffee but I am really not fond of harsh coffee. Oh I can drink it to drive away the addiction-blues but it leaves my throat sore and a my tongue numb. Free work at coffee is fine and dandy but man, I do love to treat myself to the organic choices at The Roastery. Lip smacking good !!

Man, that kills my arteries just reading about it !! But it does give me a slightly healthier idea of doing wNood's bacon wrapped asparagus and deep frying them in a batter. (thanks rob :)

When I used to come down to TO, from Ottawa, for business trips, my persian coworker would take us to a hamburger joint and order us meals Off-the-Menu. Kebabs done all traditional style with a mound of buttered rice, grilled tomato and onion and spicy yummy meat. I never heard or saw the items but I believe it was koobideh.

Mmmmmm, a poutine tour. While there is not all that much poutine in the tour (2) it is easily forgiven when reminded that is southern california. I wanted to do a similar tour here in TO when I first arrived from Montreal. But alas, there are toooo many canned-gravy, shoestring fries and cheddar cheese poutines to make it palatable.

"It was designed and built in the UK in response to tightening animal-welfare laws intended to protect crustaceans from torture." So they say when talking about the CrustaStun over at The Lobster Blog. I thought people only cared about the welfare of cute food. I wonder how my uncle, a lobster fisherman out east, would react to this sort of thing.

Tee hee, tea he. You would need a lot of room for Mugs for the perfect tea -- 128 tea mugs pantone coloured from beige to brown.

Out east I believe we called it General Chow's Chicken and here in Ontario I most often called it General Tao's Chicken. I am starting to see General Tso's Chicken on most menus these days. It's one of my favourite dishes.

I do like my veggies covered in cheese but now I realize I need an au gratin pan. Well I don't need one but I do like the excuse to add something to the kitchen. But what I really need for the kitchen is will power.

Really, sometimes you are reading a post somewhere and it's worth blogging but really, why blog it? I am not going to be eating in NYC anytime soon. But nood is so maybe this will be of interest to him. And really, what other reason do you need to blog?

When I see the waiter at this Dark Resto in Asia, I cannot help but imagine him creeping about in a Splinter Cell / Sam Fisher fashion.

Yes, linking to the same comic twice in a row. It takes a comic that previously mentioned WoW to explain to me something about cooking.

It's times like these that I love that I have a Japan category/tag. Yes, they are Candy That Makes You Horny, not that I need any.

The number one result for a donair Google Search is a Halifax chain. That's only appropriate cuz the east coast donairs are the best ones. Western ones are pretty decent as well but these central canada ones suck. The Halifax ones even have their own section in The Entry.

I really have no idea who Ruhlman is but I know who Bourdain is and I love this post on Ruhlman's blog where he baits Bourdain to come to Cleveland. I like when blogging can still be personal enough for "big names" to tease each other.

This banner for the International Brotherhood of Sammichmen (hi floor, make me a sammich!) made me laugh out loud. I can hear PETA growling at me now.

Oooo another foodie blog i can eat called A Hamburger Today (also via serious eats as he is one of their contributers)

Skip the nuts in this pork flavoured version of peanut brittle and I might like it even more. But to be honest, I am one of those who does not put syrup on his bacon & cheese & mushroom crepes. (via serious eats)

The other day I built a cheapass DIY lightbox (i cannot find the link to the original but there are quite a few; editor's note: found it!), which allows me to do do decent "backgroundless" shots of my toys and such, but what I really want to know is about taking better pictures of food.

I really love when Maria posts her recipes from home ! All too often when you eat ethnic food, as my mother would say, you are eating the whitewashed or high cuisine of a particular country. Either that or the americanized choices. When I think of Mexico I either think of tacos or mole, which I am sure Maria makes as well, but I love the fact that I have never heard of these dishes and that they seem like the kind of meals moms would make for you.

The site has changed since I actually saw the contest (2005) on TV but it's still a great place to learn how to Build A Better Burger.

Yes, my favourite boulangerie in Montreal was and is Olive & Gourmando. The best sandwich from my work-time-lunch-time was my fav during the visit. They also have a kick-ass business card design and website. Oh did I mention the pretty counter girls? *big silly grin*

Wow. Coca-Cola has taken my usual extra-zoom drink (double shot of espresso over ice, with a can of Coke) and called it Coca-Cola BlaK. (via joe)

I could get behind this idea of Serial Diners. The letter H is on the menu. (via unknown toronto, which should get it's own linky love but what the hey...)

Heh. We are all now required to blog about J's incredible baked bread, made entirely from scratch. She is my baking goddess. Remember folks, i am not called toast for nothing.

I thought I had already linked to minature men on top of food but I cannot find it in my archives. Either I didn't or my archiving paradigm has failed.