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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
The demolished trailers as seen last week (Image: Gary Campbell)
Last week, diehard butter chicken fans in the east end were startled to discover that Lahore Tikka House’s beloved, albeit “hole in the wall,” trailers were being torn down. We caught up with the management to find out what had happened to one of our fave places in Little India.
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TOP CHEF CANADA
Season 1 | Episode 1
Like most fans of the original, American Top Chef, we came to last night’s premiere of Top Chef Canada with some pretty serious expectations. Would the level of competition be as fierce? Would Thea Andrews be credible as the host? Could we blindly trust head judge Mark McEwan the way we do Tom Colicchio? Would the producers be able to cram in as many egregious product placements?
We needn’t have worried. Top Chef Canada is eerily similar to the original—same structure, same music, same sound effects, same stock phrases—but with an extra dash of Canadian hokeyness added in. Here, our recap of the best dishes, quips and insidious sponsorship.
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Garam Masala, 1972 (Image: courtesy of the Hartwick Collection)
The Royal Ontario Museum announced yesterday that it will host a new exhibit on the history of Bollywood advertising starting June 11. “Bollywood Cinema Showcards: Indian Film Art from the 1950s to the 1980s” consists of 120 pieces of advertising for Bollywood films, and will run until early October.
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Vikram Vij at All the Best Fine Foods
Vikram Vij, chef and owner of Vancoucer haute Indian restaurants Vij’s and Rangoli, was in town this week for the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association show and a series of meet and greets around the city. His namesake restaurant is well known for its no-reservation policy, long lineups and devoted fans, including New York Times columnist Mark Bittman, who once hailed it as “among the finest Indian restaurants in the world.” Recently, we sat down with the chef, restaurateur and cookbook author to talk about the reasons behind his success and why he won’t expand to Toronto.
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Inside the new Fifth Elementt (Image: Jon Sufrin)
When Bay Street’s Fifth Elementt closed down last May, chef Johnee Savarimuthu knew he wanted to continue the Indian fusion restaurant’s legacy. His culinary career had taken him down many roads—from sommelier to Disney cruise cook to head chef at New York City’s Revival—but he’d never owned his own restaurant before. So he and his sous-chef partnered up and bought the Fifth Elementt brand, taking it to Queen West earlier this month in the space where Bangkok Paradise used to churn out its signature pad see ew.
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The shop lights on Gerrard Street East stay on till nine—a late-night tradition that started out with the old Bollywood movie house that originally brought Indian merchants to the strip. Now sari shops, glowing neon signs for Kashmiri tea and sidewalk stands selling spiced corn on the cob keep the area filled with Pakistani Canadians from nearby Victoria Park, South Asian families in from the burbs, and residents from the slowly-but-surely gentrifying side streets. The retail bustle is creeping west of Jones, where several new businesses are revitalizing a dreary stretch of empty storefronts, noodle houses, laundromats and hair salons.
(Image: Renée Suen, from the torontolife.com Flickr pool)
January is upon us, and for many hungry Torontonians, that means one thing: Winterlicious. The menus are less predictable than previous years—crème brûlée’s out, lentils du Puy are in—so even the ’Licious haters might have a reason to take advantage of the festival this year. We’ve already named the 12 menus that we think are the best bets, but that doesn’t begin to cover it. Here, find Toronto Life’s 62 favourite Winterlicious restaurants, complete with menus, reviews and reservation numbers.
Winterlicious runs from January 28 to February 10. Reservations are accepted from January 13 onward (January 11 for American Express users).
A steak dinner at Noce (Image: Renée Suen)
Big-spending downtown Torontonians have taken in the past few years to whining about Winterlicious, but the two-week dining festival, running from January 28 through February 10, remains popular for a reason: it offers great value, particularly if you choose your reservations well. Here are a dozen of Toronto Life’s best bets. They’re older, more established places, generally, with kitchens that clearly care. And though we haven’t yet tasted the restaurants’ 2011 Winterlicious menus, they’re full of interesting, delicious-sounding picks.
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Ontario meets the subcontinent: a local fish wrapped in a banana leaf (Image: Jon Sufrin)
Set in the midst of gyro-heavy Greektown, new Indian restaurant Aravind is something of an anomaly. It stands out by serving Keralan and southern cuisine (the curry-and-cream dishes of northern India are way more common downtown) and for utilizing Ontario-sourced ingredients when possible. Aravind, which opened last month, is not a bargain joint by any means—mains here range from $14 to $21—but owners hope the local ingredients, dedication to service and the concise, VQA-heavy wine list make up for it.
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1. SANTA CLAUS PARADE (FREE!)
Before hunkering down on a camping chair, blanket or curb to eagerly await the man in red this Sunday, get into the spirit early with face painting, music and a free breakfast. Seriously, sitting in the cold for hours on end? You’ll need to keep your strength up. Nov. 21. Yonge-Dundas Square, thesantaclausparade.com.
How our city is proof that if a post-racial society is possible, it will begin in the bedroom
(Image: Asaf Hanuka)
This fall, my husband and I will mark the 34th anniversary of our Chinese-Jewish marriage. Back in 1976, some folks (OK, my parents) fretted it would never last. “Think of the kids! Neither side will accept them,” my mother warned. It took 14 years—and the birth of our first child—before she quit running in hysterics from her house whenever my husband dropped by. (I’m not kidding.)
Yet in 2010, not only am I still married, with two fairly acceptable sons, I find myself living in the mixed-marriage capital of Canada. Toronto famously blazed the way for same-sex marriage. Today, it turns out to be a Petri dish for innovative people combos. According to the latest Statistics Canada data, nearly twice as many Toronto couples are in mixed marriages, legal and common law, as the rest of Canadians, 7.1 per cent versus 3.9 per cent. That number covers all existing unions, including dusty old ones like mine. Read the rest of this entry »
Have your cake—and bento box, too—at the city’s most charming tea house
The place: The vibrant cakes on display in the Red Tea Box’s Queen West storefront window only hint at the wonderful setting beyond: mismatched furniture set up in a hidden coach house and on the whimsical back patio. The latter, with its Asian decor and shady pear tree, makes a resplendent setting for a summer lunch.
The crowd: Most tables are full and occupied by women enjoying a break from work or Queen West shopping.
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The view from Toula: be a tourist in your own city (Image: Ian Muttoo)
First things first: there’s not much change under the Summerlicious sun. All of the old favourites are here (including Canoe and Bymark, which always sell out first). Seven Numbers, which by Winter/Summerlicious rules is allowed only one location, has swapped out its Danforth location for its Eglinton one. Winterlicious participant Conviction is out for the summer edition as the second season of Conviction Kitchen films in Vancouver. The new owners of Crush Wine Bar are apparently not feeling the ’licious love—nor is Moroco. And while The Citizen’s digs are alive and kicking under new ownership, its vaunted replacement, Ruby Watchco, is opting out.
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Referred to as Little Poland by long-time residents and Roncey by the younger crowd, the Roncesvalles strip is one of the few neighbourhoods in the city that has earned its “hip” label without been invaded by raucous nightlifers. Progress keeps marching forward here, despite an ongoing road rehabilitation project that has claimed a few business causalities. We recommend spending a spring Saturday visiting these 25 spots.
(Thumbnail credit: 416 style)
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