Rethinking the humble doughnut (Photo by mamaloco)

• Chefs across the U.S. are attempting to trick out Canada’s most modest treats: doughnuts. People can indulge in such flavours as pomegranate-thyme and bing cherry–balsamic, priced at $5 or $6 each. Kirsten Anderson, the chef at Glazed Donuts Chicago, has mint leaves springing from the holes of her iced mint mojito doughnuts and adds grape jelly to the dough of her peanut butter doughnuts to make PB&Js. [Coloradoan]

• Until the mid-1980s, fried schnitzel and pogácsa joints were clustered along the crowded strip of Bloor Street West between Walmer Road and Markham Street. The Annex’s so-called Goulash Archipelago has since disbanded—only the 45-year-old Country Style Hungarian Restaurant remains—but Susan Sampson, food columnist at the Toronto Star, remembers it well. She writes about her formative years in the area, before it was taken over by wing shacks and frat dudes. [Toronto Star]

• Couch potatoes, take heed: a counterintuitive new way toward green eating habits is to employ a grocery delivery service. As a rule, 30 cars driving to the supermarket and back are less efficient than a single van with a massive weight advantage, delivering 30 orders along a carefully planned route. The Guardian includes this on its 10-item list titled “How to green your eating habits.” [The Guardian]

• For Manoj Murjani, the co-founder of TWG Tea Co. and an avid tea collector, brewing and drinking tea is an art. “You don’t want the water to be boiling hot,” he tells the Wall Street Journal. Other tips on achieving the best tea experience: don’t add milk, sugar or lemon; avoid small tea balls; enjoy earl grey with chocolate; and use fruity varieties when combining the brew with champagne. [Wall Street Journal]

(Photo by Jon Sufrin)

When it comes to flouting moderation at the dinner table, Toronto may not be Texas, but it definitely has its share of big food. Vegetarians have a few outsize items to choose from—Urban Herbivore’s mega-muffins, the three-inch falafel balls at Tov-Li—but it is meat eaters who have most of the opportunities to attack large portions with primal zeal. We hit the street to find the establishments able to satisfy that deep-seated lust. From upmarket foie gras to a diner’s mile-high burgers, here are eight of Toronto’s biggest restaurant dishes, each begging to be conquered.