Archive | August 2012

Scotiabank Toronto Buskerfest – August 25, 2012

Aug30

So, last Saturday my hubby and I went to the Toronto Buskerfest, for the second year in a row. It’s in support of Epilepsy Toronto, which is a cause that’s near and dear to my heart. So, if you have the chance to go next year, do so – it’s for a great cause 🙂

We were HUNGRY!! So, we decided to nosh on a little something, before checking out the buskers 🙂 We came across a stand, which I can’t remember the name of, and forgot to take a photo of!! We saw that they had BBQ Pork sliders…SOLD 🙂 The BBQ pork was really good, but then again, when is it not?! LOL The bun was a bit sweet and was surprisingly REALLY dense. Was a good way to begin our Buskerfest afternoon though!!

The first busker we came across was this hilarious juggler. I couldn’t believe he was so dressed up, as it was sweltering that day in the sun.

After his act finished, we came across a poutine truck, called The Poutine Machine. Mmm…poutine!! The fresh cut fries were perfectly crisp and hot, and the beef gravy did not disappoint, but the cheese curds did. They were COLD 😦 I get that they have to refrigerate them, due to the fact that it was super hot out, but it made for cold curds that didn’t melt and get all gooey – like they should. It was disappointing, and while we were eating it, we kept saying we should’ve just bought the fries with gravy instead.

No buskerfest is complete, without an Elvis mime!! 🙂

As we kept on walking through the fest, we came across this food stand, called Yes to Fresh. We weren’t feeling up to having a burger, or anything heavy, so we chose a fresh vegetable spring roll. Basically, it’s exactly the same as the shrimp ones we get, when we go for Pho – minus the shrimp. It was good, very simple, with carrots, daikon radish, rice vermicelli and cucumber thinly sliced and packed tightly together in rice wrappers. We had it with some sweet chili sauce…omnomnom!!

This juggler/fire eater was hilarious as well, and really good at what he did. It was a bit of a sad year, as he told everyone, this was the last fest he’d be breathing fire.

This golden mime, was just standing there, as if she was a statue…until you put a coin into her coin box in front. Once you did, she came to life!! Her routine was way longer then the 3 photos depict though 🙂

For dessert, we chose to have these tiny cupcakes, from Bite Bar. They were the perfect end to our noming pleasure 🙂 We had gotten 2 chocolate mint, 2 chocolate coconut, 1 lemon drop and 1 double chocolate cupcake. We shared the last 2 and had 1 each of the other 2 flavours. They were all good…but you can’t go wrong with those flavours!!

The last performance we watched of these 3 girls who do acrobatics and fire baton and fire sword twirling. They were pretty funny and VERY hyper…which got the audience really into it with cheers of encouragement 🙂

Before we left, we came across this artist, and her 3D road art. This art form is awesome, and I couldn’t leave without photographing it!!

All in all it was a great day, filled with super talented buskers, entertaining the masses for a very good cause. Which is why we go every year!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Dinner Tonight…Courtesy of the Saucy Kytchen

Aug28

My hubby and I decided to finally use, the deal voucher I had bought, for the Saucy Kytchen. We hadn’t had an italian sandwich in a long time, and the expiry date on the voucher was coming up at the end of this week LOL

We got the Eggplant Hot Sandwich with a side of Fava Beans. The sandwiches were HUGE!! You could easily just eat half and save the other for lunch the next day. The eggplant was thinly sliced, lightly battered and fried to perfection. We opted to add on sauteed onions, mushrooms and hot peppers. There’s also a sweet and medium option for the peppers. OMG…was it ever spicy!! It was good, but next time I think I’ll opt for the medium LOL The fava beans reminded me of the Turkish way my Mom makes hers, cooked in olive oil with garlic and onion and tomato…omnomnom. Their prices aren’t bad, so we’ll definitely keep them in mind for trying out again, when we’re craving a good italian hot sandwich. If you ever in the area, give them a try – I’m sure you’ll end up liking them too!!

Saucy Kytchen

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Day at The Ex – August 24, 2012

Aug28

Let’s go to The EX…oh baby!! Where we filled our tummy’s with food along with lots of walking around 😀

We made our way there for lunch, and we started out with an ice cold lemonade and a jumbo corn dog. The EX is one of the only places I have a corn dog, and the fried goodness never disappoints…omnomnom. Just look at the beauty above, and tell me you don’t want to have one yourself?!

After coming down from our corn dog and lemonade high, we chose to go through the Direct Energy Centre to walk them off and make room for more yumminess. Every year they have a sand sculpture contest, and this year’s was no exception. This Grim Reaper was pretty awesome…check out how it was strategically placed so that the eyes were lit by the balloon lamp behind 🙂 The castle was our favourite though, and got our vote. The waterfalls at the bottom were so detailed…and well…I love castles!!

The Friday we went, food trucks were there for the whole weekend, for our nomnoming pleasure – called the Food Truck Frenzy!! Once we were done walking through the Direct Energy Centre, we went outside to get our food truck food on 🙂 We started at the Pretty Sweet truck, where we got a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. The cupcake was really moist, with a cream cheese frosting that wasn’t in your face sweet.

The trucks were lined along the front of the Automotive building. If you’ve ever been to the CNE, you’ll know what I’m talking about. So, we walked along checking all the trucks out and deciding where we wanted to eat 🙂 After the cupcake we came across the Gourmet Gringos truck. We’re ALL about Mexican food, so we definitely wanted to try them out!! We decided on having the mole braised short rib tacos. They were pretty good as well. The short ribs were perfectly braised and melted like butter in my mouth. The best part of the tacos was the green salsa. It definitely brought out the flavour of the ribs.

We ended up chasing the tacos down with another cupcake LOL As we came across the Sweetness Bakery truck, and I can never pass up a good cupcake!! We had the key lime cupcake, which was another winner!! There was a key lime centre, that was a nice surprise…omnomnom…key lime 🙂 Again, the cupcake itself was moist and the key lime butter cream was the perfect topper.

When we finally made it to the end of the caravan of trucks, and came across Hank Daddy’s Barbeque. We knew we didn’t want the chicken or pulled pork sandwich, but the cowboy fries peaked our interest.  It consisted of sweet potato fries, with pulled pork and coleslaw on top. The sweet potato fries were crispy, the pulled pork was tender and perfectly sauced, and the slaw was lightly dressed which was a great contrast to the fries and pulled pork…omnomnom!!

After our food truck caravan experience, we went to ride the Sky Ride, that was put up this year. Years ago there was a ride called the Alpine Way, which lasted from 1966-1994 at the CNE. Back then it was a gondola style ride that stretched across the grounds over 100ft up. This year they brought back something similar, but now they’re using ski lifts instead, at 40ft above the exhibition and I was SO happy to see this ride back!! Anyway, my hubby and I went on it, at sunset, and even though it was a 10mins ride, it was great 🙂 It took us back to the other end of the CNE, where we walked through the Arts and Crafts building before finally hitting the Food building!!

Ah…the Food building…how we love thee!! In the food building is a smorgasbord of Bob’s Shack style food stalls, dotted with a few well known stalls, such as Swiss Chalet and Pizza Pizza. In my opinion, it’s sacrilege to eat at the well known stalls, as this is an opportunity to try a new place and new food out. But, I do understand that people have or know picky eaters. Anyway!! We started our Snack Time off with our old faithful…99c spaghetti and tomato sauce from the PRIMO stall!! It’s literally just plain spaghetti and plain sauce, but I don’t care – I love it 🙂 We then ended with the 99c chicken tacos, we found, at a stall I cannot remember the name of!! Which is okay, because the tacos were just SAD. You can see from the photo above, that I speak the truth. Barely any chicken, which was greasey and hardly any lettuce or anything else to compliment it. We won’t ever have those again. Kind of sad that we ended our night with those, but what can you do, when you try out a new place right?!

Other then the tacos we had in the Food building, we had a great day of sampling all the great fare the CNE has to offer, as well as walking around checking out all the buildings. We go to the CNE every year, and we never get tired of it. It’s a wonderful tradition, that our parents shared with us growing up, and hopefully we can do the same with our own kids one day…

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

It was a Salad, for Lunch, Kinda Day

Aug23

Didn’t feel like a sandwich, so thought of having a salad instead. I started with Mann’s Rainbow Salad, then added grape tomatoes, sliced mushrooms and some lemon and pepper flaked tuna – finishing it off with citrus dressing…omnomnom!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Bacon Nation Takes Over this Year’s CNE

Aug20

Let’s go to the EX, oh baby!! The CNE is back, and my hubby and I will be going on Friday, for our annual walk about and day of foodie overload. Looks like Bacon Nation is back again this year…considering trying the fried bacon wrapped hot dog on the stick, along with checking out the food trucks that’ll be there on Friday 😀

Bacon Nation takes over this year’s CNE.

Order Up!! Tomato and Avocado Grilled Cheese…

Aug20

We have a few avocados we need to use up, and as much as I love making guacamole and adding them to smoothies, I was hungry and wanted lunch LOL So, I took half an avocado and added it to my usual tomato grilled cheese. The creaminess of the avocado, is a great addition to a grilled cheese – this one’s a keeper…omnomnom!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂