Why bother with the farce of Winterlicious?

 3 - Food - Toys - Tech  1 Response »
Jan 312010
 

When “Summerlicious” and “Winterlicious” started many years ago, I thought this was a great idea. There are many good aspects of the festival including:

  • It made ridiculously high priced restaurants affordable and accessible to the masses.
  • January is typically a slow month for the industry and the restaurants offer their fixe-prix menus during a slow time to lure new and old diners through their doors.
  • It provided a great list of restaurants that one had never heard of with decent “prix-fixe” menus. It was for those who were afraid to risk their precious dollars on a new restaurant.
  • It offers a low risk (meaning cheap) chance to visit a restaurant you might not otherwise afford.
  •  150 restaurants are participating this year, offering up prix-fixe three-course meals.

That’s the good part.

The bad part of this farce, is that it has now become two times of the year where I strategically plan to not eat out anymore, well at least, not at any participating restaurant. I’m not averse to a great deal but I find it hard to stomach the giant list of crap and mediocrity offered up as prix-fixe.Unless the restaurant owners can truly commit to giving all their best during the festival instead of the banquet-style tripe that is usually offered to the masses, everyone loses out. Bad trends that infected the festival include:

  • Small portions – I mean, it’s not that I’m expecting some Texan sized gluttony, but seriously a Butter Chicken entree that contained 4 pieces of nugget sized chicken?
  • Banquet food – the food is usually insipid and uninspired because of the high turnover mentality that accompanies the festival
  • Stressed service – service is poor (sometimes due to the high volume… sometimes not)
  • No repeat business - this McDonald mentality is not a situation that will bring people back after the prices bounce back up and it certainly doesn’t show the restaurant at its best.

On Saturday, as part of a get together, some friends and I braved the masses and had dinner at Kamasutra on Bayview. The scene was predictable and the fixe-prix was of course mediocre and banal. Ordering off the regular menu was a treat, but with the stressed out service, it was tough to get our dinner to us in a timely fashion. Our waiter, Alex, was very good given the circumstances and was very patient with our party of 8. I highly recommend going back with Winterlicious is over. The food was decent Indian fare, in typical dressed up surroundings. The fixe-prix menu looked exactly like what one would expect for $25 at nice restaurant … not much.

I don’t want to be a complete pessimist on the affair. I do enjoy the fact that these events will create an awareness of restaurants that one normally would never know about or visit. It does get those who wouldn’t normally venture out, up and out of the house, but my time, effort and patience are worth more to me than suffering through any Toronto-licious affair. I would much rather visit these places at another time when I can have a better chance to enjoy my meal.

Notes:

Kamasutra Indian Restaurant & Wine Bar
1522 Bayview Avenue
Toronto, ON M4G 3B4, Canada
(416) 489-4899

 Posted by rishiray at 11:19 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

Damn … Is the FIFA World Cup this year???

 1 - All Trinidad Posts, 2010  No Responses »
Jan 292010
 

After following Trinidad for the 2010 World Cup campaign and seeing us fall to last place in the hexagonal final round was just depressing. The seeds for our demise were sown right after the qualification for the 2006 World Cup. There was such euphoria after we qualified. I can remember almost crying when we beat Bahrain, the hope that I had after drawing with Sweden, the honor in our play against England and then finally the defeat to Paraguay.

I remember reading the newspaper updates on the Jack Warner scandal and how he didn’t want to pay the players, even though they had done such service for the country and after he had made a GAZILLION dollars with “his” ticket and hotel scam. I knew then and there, Trinidad qualifying for the World Cup was a once in my lifetime event. Trinidadian football is like Trinidadian politics, they both have potential for great things, but the greed and selfishness of the people involved, will never allow it transcend the small mindedness of those involved.

I saw an ad on TV for the World Cup in June, and I sighed. Trinidad could have qualified for South Africa … we really could have. Maybe we’ll qualify for Rio in 2014, since we have a talented team that should mature by that time. For now, I will just have to look at videos and pictures in my archives and wonder what could have been.

That match against England was so close, I can still remember the “Trinis” singing “London Bridge is falling down” and the utter silence of the English crowd.

Our glorious draw with Sweden. Who says that there is no honor in a tie? When a rank underdog team, plays a world powerhouse in football, blessed with quality strikers and manages to come away with a draw, there is much honor in that. The Swedes were so gracious in their “defeat”, since everyone concerned considered a defeat for a powerful Swedish side. They were so confident that their team would run rampant over the little island side.

In the end, there was only euphoria from one team and utter shock and awe from the other

Then after the draw with Sweden, there was the impromptu parade and fete in the middle of Dortmund. Where else can you find that, except for the World Cup??

Ah how I will miss Germany 2006 and what could have been for South Africa 2010 … maybe Trinidad will make 2014!

 Posted by rishiray at 11:02 am  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Theatre freezing in Chicago

 2010, U.S.  2 Responses »
Jan 282010
 

For the third night in a row, it was despicably cold and windy here. Of course, ensuring that I renew my Starwood status for 2010 meant that I have to switch hotels every night for the next month and half to rack up the night and points to keep my platinum status. Tonight’s hotel was the Four Points by Sheration and walking into the hotel at night, I didn’t feel too great about this move, as the outside air smelled of urine and the lobby of the hotel was a stark contrast to the Chicago Towers but then again, I knew why I was moving hotels, so I put the surroundings out of mind. The advantage of this location is that one can head down State St and be in the theatre district after a 20 minute walk.

After my last visit to Chicago, I made a goal of giving “Chicago Deep Dish” pizza another pass, since my last two times didn’t impress me greatly. So the next place on the list will be Pizzeria Due, same recipe, different branch but I think if I don’t take a liking to the biscuity crust and long wait then I have to accept that Chicago pizza just isn’t for me.

 

Along the walk across the bridge on State St, you get a great panorama shot (there are many in Chicago).

Then you head into the Chicago theatre district. For some reason, I associate black and white pictures with the theatre rather than colour, it seemed more romantic and mysterious, today the glamour seems to have leached out of the theatre experience.

Another thing about walking through the freezing cold in Chicago, no one else is stupid enough to take pictures, walk or drive around when it’s -8C and windy outside, and if this were Toronto, I would be relaxing home – however it’s not home and that’s enough to try and escape a lonely hotel room.

View Rishi’s Chicago Map in a larger map

 Posted by rishiray at 6:46 am  Tagged with: , , , ,

The best Hakka restaurants in Toronto

 3 - Food - Toys - Tech  9 Responses »
Jan 272010
 

I love Hakka food! I can’t say it enough. It’s the only food that can be consistently spicy and tasty at the same time to satisfy my spice palate. The only thing is that while each restaurant of the 16 Hakka restaurants, I’ve sampled each has an awesome signature dish, for example :

  • Chung Moi’s has the best Hot and Sour soup ever, although it seems to give me a MSG headache these days, it is still far and wide the best Cilantro Hot and Soup ever. Also their Fried Green Beans are outstanding.
  • Federick’s has the best Chicken Pakoras in Toronto, bar none… nuff said
  • Lin Garden has the best Beef Manchurian noodles, not too greasy and a decent grade of beef in there.
  • Kim Kim has a great Masala Fried Rice, extra on the Masala
  • Danforth Dragon, which is the only one of these that is remotely downtown-ish, has a very good Manchurian Chicken
  • China Cottage has an awesome Pepper Chicken, which actually makes me sweat a bit … only a bit.
  • Chili Chicken seems to be the one Hakka dish that is consistently spicy at most restaurants, but the quality of the chicken meat (chicken thighs, can sometimes have too much fat)

Generally, I have yet to find the one overall “GOD” of all Hakka restaurants in Toronto, where every single dish is consistently great. Of course, my litmus test for this statement is to try the same set of dishes at all the restaurants. My sample menu for comparison would be

  • Chili Chicken with sauce
  • Spicy Manchurian Noodles (Beef or Chicken)
  • Yang Chow / Masala Fried Rice (Pork, Shrimp, Beef or Chicken)
  • Dry Green Beans
  • Chicken Pakoras
  • Chicken Corn/Hot & Sour Soup

My thinking here would be, if all 6 of these dishes are great, then that restaurant should “GOD” of them all, but I have yet to find the restaurant where all six of these dishes was a grade A or better. It is tough to apply that criteria, since there are very few restaurants that can be consistently excellent at each effort. 

BlogTO has a good article and map of their top 10 list of Hakka places, it would be an excellent starting resource to explore Hakka food in Toronto.

 Posted by rishiray at 12:08 pm  Tagged with: , , , , ,

Freezing in Chicago …

 2010, U.S.  2 Responses »
Jan 252010
 

One mantra you learn in the US is “Take your ID when you go out”. I generally try to remember this rule, but when one changes pants and rushes outside for some drinking, things have a tendency to be left behind, the wallet didn’t make the cut. In Chicago, one can assume that they card everyone, since my three coworkers knew the drill and pulled out ID as soon as they walked in, and obviously without ID, one is generally refused admission to the bars. After braving the wind and the cold mist from the river, being refused entry because of a lack of ID left a bitter taste and irritated me to say the least. Thankfully, as a tourist, I did know well enough to bring my camera knapsack. So to make lemonade from a particularly sour moment, I left the bar and started walking randomly down the street and ended up on the “Magnificent Mile”. It was practically deserted because of the bitter cold.

So after freezing and getting a lovely facial windburn, I happened to “stumble” on the John Hancock Center. Now “stumbling” here refers to the fact that I had no plans or idea that I would be here for the evening. As I walked down the steps off of Chestnut St and past the Cheesecake factory, an intense burning sensation went through the fingers on my right hand from wind exposure. Definitely not a good sign, but there was ample heat in the Hancock Center, so I warmed up quickly.

After paying my 16$ and ambling past the bored staff, there was no noticeable line-up and no question; just me, the headphones I got at the main elevator and then the handy audio guide I got when I got upstairs. The audio tour was narrated by David Schwimmer or better known as “Ross” from ”Friends”, and it definitely is a very good tour device.

The one benefit of a windy and cold night was getting the entire run of the place.

As it was such a cold windy night, I was told that there was 20 mile visibility in all directions. Of course, I wanted to see the view without the glass barrier, which you can do from the Skywalk. However getting through the revolving door on to the Skywalk did bring me back to my senses, as the wind tends to be quite strong at that altitude.

After having the run of the place, it was time to get back to street level and face the cold winds again. 25 mins later, it was time for  cab back to the hotel.

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