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Toronto Life - The Wire

The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com

All stories relating to McDonald’s

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Coolio gets a cooking show (yes, that Coolio), Rachael Ray bests Martha Stewart, recession ruins champagne sales

• Mid-’90s rapper Coolio has traded in rhymes for recipes. The Ghetto Gourmet now has an on-line cooking show and a new book called Cookin’ With Coolio. Mixing African-American and urban foods with such world cuisines as Asian and Italian, Coolio has crafted what he calls “ghetto fusion,” offering dishes like chicken lettuce blunts, Coolio caprese salad and cold shrimpin’. Although the rapper said he grew up in the kitchen, there might be an ulterior motive behind his food: “If I can get [a woman] to eat my food, I can [seduce her]”—meaning, we think, that he can follow a rump roast with some serious back. [Boston]

• We are sad to report that the tussle between food mavens Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray ended before it had a chance to get interesting. In the end, Ray won the Miss Congeniality belt, and Stewart was simply outclassed. After appearing on the Rachael Ray Show, Stewart condescendingly remarked on Nightline that while she herself is a teacher, Ray is a mere entertainer. Instead of slinging back insults, Ray gracefully acknowledged Stewart’s strong talents and admitted that when it comes to food she’d rather eat Stewart’s than her own. Now, Martha, could you teach us how to strike it rich on the markets? [New York]

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Five ethically dubious foods, taste-testing Toronto’s burger joints, presidentially pardoned turkeys end up at Disney World

• After the explosion in popularity of this video showing a still-live deep-fried carp being eaten, the Guardian compiled a list of morally dubious eating trends. Chinese chefs figured out that placing a wet cloth over the fish’s head before deep-frying its body will ensure that it’s still gasping when it reaches the plate. Equally squirm-inducing are the traditions of eating live octopus or the still-beating heart of a snake. [Guardian]

• With the gourmet burger craze taking hold across the city, the Star’s Amy Pataki samples various incarnations to see which ones deliver in the flavour department. She concludes that in most cases, the trend is a good thing, and ranks the newest spot, Oh Boy Burger Market, as the best.  [Toronto Star]

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Ruth Reichl praises Toronto, government-subsidized chocolate milk, the great seafood shim-sham

Ruth Reichl goes Hogtown wild  (Photo by Brigitte-Lacomb)

Ruth Reichl goes Hogtown wild (Photo by Brigitte-Lacomb)

• The defunct Gourmet magazine was thinking of putting out a Toronto-themed issue, former editor Ruth Reichl says, following the success of their Montreal issue—their most popular issue ever. In this interview with the Globe, Reichl discusses her admiration for Toronto’s “amazing” food scene, along with the state of the magazine industry and her disappointment with Gourmet’s end. [Globe and Mail]

• There’s something fishy going on with Canadian seafood. A nationwide investigation has found that fish sold to customers are frequently misidentified and mislabelled. Of 500 samples, about a quarter of the fish were not what they were purported to be. In one case, sashimi-grade tuna (which is subject to stringent preparation methods) was replaced with cheaper skipjack tuna. [Toronto Star]

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Iceland loses its McDonald’s, This Is Why You’re Fat gets book deal, Top Chef spinoff coming to Bravo

The El Maco, advertised on this Icelandic McDonald's poster, is no more (Photo by Daniel Lobo)

The El Maco, advertised on this Icelandic McDonald's poster, is no more (Photo by Daniel Lobo)

• Icelanders looking for a fast-food fix will have to look somewhere other than McDonald’s. Bloomberg News reports that McDonald’s is closing all its restaurants in Iceland. The closure is being blamed on the collapse of Iceland’s economy and the fact that almost all ingredients must be imported to the island nation at great cost. [Bloomberg]

• The Globe takes an in-depth look at pumpkin beer as the seasonal brew of choice. Great Lakes Brewery’s Pumpkin Ale has sold so well in Ontario that it is now being exported to Manitoba. The beer has subtle notes of pumpkin, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon and allspice, all subordinate to an overall ale flavour. What a relief—“alcoholic pumpkin juice” doesn’t sound very appetizing. [Globe and Mail]

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The Goods

Toronto Fashion Week

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Sunny Fong’s Vawk collection opens fashion week at the AGO

Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani

A silk Polynesian gown from Sunny Fong's Tattoo Hibiscus collection (Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani)

A smattering of the city’s socialites, fashion editors and Project Runway contestants (is it just us, or has the PR crew taken over fashion week?) filed into the AGO yesterday afternoon for Sunny Fong’s Vawk show.

Titled Tattoo Hibiscus, the collection is Fong’s first post–reality TV offering and one of the most anticipated of fashion week. That’s because his PR collection last season was a standout against more experienced professionals, and the country’s fashion community has been eagerly awaiting his next move.

Though this was a small presentation of just 12 looks, the Walker Court setting was hardly humble. “Gorgeous AGO setting for the Vawk show,” tweeted Flare editor-in-chief Lisa Tant. “Wish all of fashion week was here. Bright, slick, impressive.” We were less impressed with the clothes.

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The Dish

Culinary Curiosities

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One person’s junk food is another’s treasure

Before and after: a McNuggets meal is transformed into a "McNifique" McConfit (Photo by Erik R. Trinidad of FancyFastFood.com. ©2009 Trinimation)

Before and after: a McNuggets meal from McDonald's is transformed into a "McNifique" McConfit (Photo by Erik R. Trinidad of Fancyfastfood.com. ©2009 Trinimation)

More and more, we’re feeling that the Internet holds the solution to every problem known to man—well, every inconsequential problem. The latest we’ve stumbled across is Fancyfastfood.com, a photo-recipe blog that reveals how to convert fast food into haute cuisine. Each entry provides step-by-step instructions for systematically taking apart some nasty fast-food staple—a Big Mac, Whopper, Tim Hortons’ Canadian maple doughnuts—and rearranging it to resemble a gourmet-quality dish.

The recipes take a little legwork. One concoction involves grinding down the breading of a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich into a fine powder, then mixing it with the accompanying chocolate milkshake and simmering it all down with some ketchup packets to form a mole sauce—a perfect drizzle for that now-naked chicken patty. Top it off with some organic cilantro (preferably locally grown) for that extra touch of irony.

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The world’s top eight food cities, McDonald’s moves into the Louvre, how to carve the perfect turkey

(Photo by Kevin Steele)

Will shamrock shakes change the Louvre? Unsurprisingly, the French say yes (Photo by Kevin Steele)

• In a clash of cultures, McDonald’s plans to open a restaurant and a McCafé at the Louvre next month. One curmudgeonly art historian working at the famous museum deemed it “the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours.” In a statement sure to make any Yankee’s heart swell with pride, the Louvre said the McDonald’s would represent the American segment of a new food court featuring other world cuisines. No word yet if Harvey’s will represent Canada. [Telegraph]

• Barcelona tops the list of San Francisco Weekly’s top eight foodie destinations in the world. Other highlights include Marrakech, where one can dine on a vast array of couscous varieties and kebabs, and New Orleans, famous for its revelatory gumbo and jumbalaya. The closest the list gets to Canada? New York City. [San Francisco Weekly]

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Moms encourage kids to eat McDonald’s, the caveman diet, a Canadian-themed bar grows in Brooklyn

Small fry: McDonald's-sanctioned mothers promote fast food eating for children (Photo by Noli Fernan Perez)

Small fry: McDonald's-sanctioned mothers promote fast food eating for children (Photo by Noli Fernan Perez)

• Manhattan was besieged by a group of McMoms last week—a team of pro-McDonald’s matriarchs who were handpicked by corporate bigwigs to crusade in favour of the fast-food giant. In their attempts to convince other parents that the chain provides good food for kids, they offered some words of McWisdom: trade the Coke for a bottle of Dasani, take the salt off fries and swap the cheeseburger for some chicken McNuggets. Unfortunately, they provided no counsel about the ill-effects of selling out to the man. [New York Daily News]

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Toronto International Film Festival 2009

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Jay Baruchel: Commie hero in film, capitalist burger devourer in life

Jay-Baruchel

Baruchel at the opening for Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist during TIFF 2008 (Photo by Sam Javanrouh)

Should you find yourself in love with the nerd-hero Jay Baruchel, in town for The Trotsky, there are two things to know:

1. You’re not alone…for much longer. His adorkable film, about a Montreal boy who honest-to-Marx believes he’s the reincarnated Leon Trotsky, is the hypest of TIFF’s homegrown fare. Come its release, we predict tween girls from coast-to-coast will develop a new attention span for early 20th century revolutionary history.

2. You can find him at McDonald’s. “Any McDonald’s. It’s all he eats,” swears his Trotsky costar, Emily Hampshire. “He’ll probably be with his mom, too. He’s a big momma’s boy! Seriously, he’ll be at Mickey D’s with her.”

Aww. We’re lovin’ it.

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Toronto’s new poutine truck, 10 dazzling super-foods, the ethics of pain-free animals

Poutine trucks have come a long way (Photo by abdallahh)

Poutine trucks have come a long way (Photo by abdallahh)

• Gourmet poutine is set to become Toronto’s newest street grub. Smoke’s Poutinerie, which spices up traditional poutine with an array of ingredient choices ranging from beef to vegetarian options, is launching its food truck on Sunday. It will officially debut at the Scotiabank AIDS Walk for Life on Church Street, offering 15 unique versions of the dish along with the Quebecois classic. [Toronto Star]

• With more vitamin A than cantaloupe and more calcium than spinach, dandelion leaves are one of the oft-overlooked foods on the Chicago Tribune’s new list of 10 super-foods that we should be eating but probably aren’t. Other surprises in the list: seaweed and Chia seeds (as in those sprinkled on a Chia pet). [Chicago Tribune]

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Julie and Julia blogger slammed, 69 fish species banned, McDonald’s reward planned

The knives are out: Culinary bloggers, mostly lacking movie and book deals, turn on fellow foodie Julie Powell (Image by Columbia PIctures)

The knives are out: culinary bloggers, mostly lacking movie and book deals, turn on fellow foodie Julie Powell (Image by Columbia Pictures)

• Food bloggers are ganging up on the real-life writer who inspired half of the film Julie and Julia. The rom-com chronicles Julie Powell’s journey though every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which Powell blogged about along the way. Now her foodie peers are mocking her credentials (“had she even heard of poulet au Bresse?”). [Gawker]

Compass, the world’s largest caterer, has banned 69 species of threatened fish from its 6,500 locations in Britain and Ireland. That means no more bluefin tuna in Compass-run cafeterias and that most Atlantic cod will be off its menus. The ban could increase demand for the Pacific salmon, which means a smaller supply for Canadian chefs. [Guardian]

McDonald’s will “reward” 300 of its top-performing Canadian employees with a trip to Vancouver to work at its restaurants during the 2010 winter games. The Olympic Champion Crew will staff restaurants in the Athlete’s Village, where they’ll get to serve both media and Olympians (although we doubt many figure skaters will order Big Macs). [Marketwire]

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101 summer salad recipes, Japanese screaming contest, drugs in restaurant kitchens

Extraordinary tossers: The New York Times offers 101 different salads (Photo by Jeff Kubina)

Extraordinary tossers: The New York Times offers 101 different salads (Photo by Jeff Kubina)

• Allegedly, it’s summer in Toronto, and that means the time is ripe for light, fun recipes. First up, 101 simple salads courtesy of the New York Times: vegan salads, green salads, seafood salads, melon salads and even a gourmet hot dog salad—the perfect combination of two quintessentially summer foods. [New York Times]

• Speaking of summer food, the Globe is profiling a fresh, deconstructed B.L.T. for the warm months. Montreal chef Normand Laprise offers his step-by-step guide through the preparation of this bizarre rendition of a diner classic. [Globe and Mail]

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Camels as burgers, Jack Astor’s glory, McDonald’s goes green

Hump prey: Young camels are being turned into burgers (Photo by Robert Rybnikar)

Hump and grind: Young camels are being turned into burgers (Photo by Robert Rybnikar)

• Baby camel burgers will join the ranks of Japanese whale sandwiches on a list of exotic food that drives PETA members nuts. Customers of Hashi Meals (“hashi” means baby camel) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, say the burgers have a delicate taste, and experts say they’re low in fat. [Reuters]

• Sales at such mid-range casual chains as Jack Astor’s and Alice Fazooli’s are up seven per cent year over year, while high-end restaurants continue to struggle through the recession. We feel it’s our duty to remind Torontonians that a steak at Jack’s is $25.98, but the Summerlicious prix fixe at Batifole is just $25—and Lady Gaga won’t be blasting in the background. [Globe and Mail]

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Americans becoming “flexitarians,” Laura Secord vs. Tim Hortons, designer ice cubes

• There is a recession-era term that’s possibly more annoying than “recessionista.” Americans are turning into “flexitarians”—casual vegetarians—in an effort to save money. The American Meat Institute responded with this YouTube video introducing cheap cuts of beef. [Gourmet]

• Starbucks failed. McDonald’s is failing. Now, the latest company to take on Tim Hortons in the coffee wars is chocolate retailer Laura Secord, which is testing a café concept aimed at a younger crowd. Our suggestion is to make the Superkid into a latte. [FP]

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Anthony Bourdain hates cupcakes, Thuet gets convicted, Fall Out Boy’s underage flub

Anthony Bourdain takes a stand against cupcakes (Photo by Neeta Lind)

Anthony Bourdain takes a stand against cupcakes (Photo by Neeta Lind)

• Chef and author Anthony Bourdain tells the Seattle Times he’s had enough of the cupcake trend, that Kobe beef should not be used in a hamburger, and that geoduck is delicious. [Seattle Times]

• Two Burger King restaurants in Tennessee displayed “Global Warming Is Baloney” signs last week, with one outlet’s manager saying that the statement represents the views of BK headquarters. Of course, when the big cheese got wind of the story, the signs were taken down and the company released a statement denying the claim. [Guardian]

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