Well it's been a while since I've been able to sit at my laptop and collect my Canadian candy/junk food/treat thoughts, so this post is going to be a long one. Some of these experiences have been mentioned on our
Twitter feed,
Facebook page, and
Tumblr page already, but I'll get into a little more detail. A few of these fun adventures are new as well. This first photo is of a peanut plant, and I can't say that I've ever seen one before. It's on my friend's organic farm, and hopefully he'll send me a photo of the crop once it's ready.
For the next few photos I'm going to talk a little bit about the fast food that I've sampled on this journey. This first photos is of the new Wendy's pretzel burger. I'm not really sure why they call it a pretzel burger because the bun isn't really pretzel like at all. I guess it kind of looks like a pretzel, but that doesn't cut it for me. I think the dough should have been much more dense, and maybe a sprinkling of salt on the top would have worked.
This next treat is what I consider to be the best and worst idea of the trip so far. Some might argue, but I'm pretty sure that Toronto has the best quality street hot dogs in the world. Those that argue that New York has better street hot dogs are delusional. The meat and topping selection in Toronto street meat is second to none. While I do believe that Toronto hot dogs are the best, they will still often lead to indigestion.
Another important stop for us whenever we're in Toronto is Burrito Boyz. Toronto has had a big influx of burrito places over the last few years, and I'm sure some might say that there's better burritos out there. The thing is Burrito Boyz is pretty tasty, and it's been our favorite burrito place since we first started going out.
This pizza is the thing of legend. No we didn't take a side trip to Chicago, this is all Hamilton Ontario. There's a little place hidden in the backstreets of this steel town called "Chicago Style Pizza" that offers what I can only describe as the best pizza in the world. It's full of cheese and ingredients, and will make you regret eating it the minute you stand up. The meat lovers version of this pizza is called "No Self Respect", and it's true.
You can't visit Canada and not eat copious amounts of meat, it's un-patriotic. I'd just like to ad that only 4 people pretty much polished this platter of dead animals off in one sitting. We weren't proud, but we were full.
This place has the best sign ever, and being a photographer I love the name too. Unfortunately it's out of business. I've noticed a few grilled cheese places out of business on this trip. It appears that I've completely missed the grill cheese craze. Was it good, was it something worth doing, or was it just a silly fad?
The person that thought of mixing Jamaican and Italian cuisine together is either a genius or a monster. The place was closed when I walked by it the other day, but I sense I might have to check it out later.
We decided that a road trip to Niagara was in the cards this past week, and no trip to Niagara is complete without visiting Maple Leaf Fudge. This is probably my favorite fudge shop in the world. They had a few new interesting flavours on hand to sample including peach, butter tart, and maple bacon. I decided that I would just go for a simple slice of chocolate nut, but I'll be back.
Allison told me that I couldn't have a full bowl of Froot Loops. She did agree that I could throw a few on top of my Cherios though. As it turns out a few Froot Loops sprinkled in a bowl of Cherios is pretty good. The sweet fake fruit flavour is well balanced with the nutritious grain flavour. If you're the type of person that normally sweetens their cereal with a little sugar, you may want to consider sweetening your healthy cereal with sugary cereal instead.
I'm not sure what I think of this "World's Largest Hershey's Kiss". It's not really a giant Kiss, and more of a thin shell of chocolate, holding a bunch of regular Kiss's. I was thinking of picking it up, but in the end I decided that it just seemed like a rip off. If you're going to sell me a giant Kiss, it better be solid and covered in foil.
On our trip to Hamilton Allison informed me that there was a Tim Horton's that sold a particular style of Timbit. This style of Timbit is only available in 6 Tim Hortons around the world. The question is, was it worth searching it out...
The answer is yes. In fact I encourage ever Tim Hortons to carry this awesome Timbit, that way I don't have to travel so far to get it. What you have here is a vanilla sour cream Timbit, covered in chocolate glaze. Here's a tip from Allison, while this Timbit is tasty fresh, as a day old it's even better. The glaze gets a little crunchy a day later, and the sour cream dough is still soft. It adds an interesting texture to this already tasty donut.
Speaking of Tim Hortons, did you know that they have rules as to how many donuts they can fit in each bag. Personally I don't think you should ever put any donut in this bag if it has icing. I'm tempted to order 10 Timbits one day, and see if they'll put it in a bag anyways. Then I'll complain to the management.
One night Allison and I visited Allison's family at their country home. Every few years this farm produces some maple syrup from the local trees. I was asked if I wanted to make some maple candy with their home made syrup, and being who I am, I couldn't refuse. I learned a few interesting facts about maple syrup that night.
First of all I learned that you can freeze maple syrup. Now any syrup experts out there correct me if I'm wrong, but all you have to do is put your syrup in the freezer, then when you're ready to us it, just let it thaw. The crystals will simply break apart and in no time you have perfectly tasty syrup ready to go. The second thing I learned is that I'm not really great at making candy, but I'm still good at eating it.
A couple of days ago we spent some time with our friends Adriana and Alessandra. Adriana is a former pastry chef (and often advisor for this blog), and her daughter Alessandra has tasted Nutella on more things than anyone I know (I'm told that it's surprisingly tasty on flank steak). We spent a few days hanging out with them, playing board games, and most importantly talking food. Alessandra introduced me to microwave cookies, made in a mug or ramekin.
It's a similar idea to cooking cake in mug (which I highly recommend you try), so you have to be sure not to over cook it. If you're siting at home right now, and you want a cookie, than all it takes is a few basic ingredients, a microwave, and a mug. It's really tasty, and with a scoop of ice cream, it will satisfy all of your sweet cravings.
Finally Adriana gave me a pie. When a pastry chef gives you a pie that they made at home you might as well kill yourself when you finish eating it, because it's all down hill from there. This pie made from fresh berries was amazing. Best of all she let me help her make it. Adriana is so good at making pies that she will often substitute money for her desserts, and it works. Imagine paying for your gym membership with pie, that's how good her desserts are.
Well that's it for now from my adventure in Canada. I'll try to post another entry later in my journeys.
CC
0
comments
Just a reminder about the Bazooka contest tomorrow in Toronto:
The folks at Bazooka Joe sent me some info on a great contest happening in two weeks in Toronto:
The good news is that because of their relaxed choices per cup rule I was able to sample a whole bunch of flavours. Not to mention the fact that they are ridiculously liberal with their sampling. The two flavours I'd recommend most for someone who thinks they've tried it all: The dark chocolate and jalapeño gelato, and the burnt marshmallow ice cream. For those that aren't so daring I strongly recommend the cinnamon, it's different but not too shocking.
Allison on the other hand create something that defies words in how spectacular it was. While I was off trying the weird and wonderful, Allison simply mixed half chocolate and half hazelnut to make what I can only describe as near Nuttella. It was simple and brilliant.
The problem is Ottawa doesn't really have any soft serve trucks. I'm often forced to travel to Toronto just to enjoy this taste of heaven. But I assure you it's worth every drop of gas.
It was great to see this mural off College Avenue in Toronto; it was horrible that the ice cream store it was advertising was closed.
On my stop over in Toronto I decided to hit Tim Horton's and I noticed that in Toronto they use just blue and white sprinkles on their vanilla dip donuts. I'm thinking it has something to do with Maple Leafs.
