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a January 16th, 2009

  1. Churros @ Casa Barcelona

    January 16, 2009 by Gail

    2009 Friday Night Dinner Venue #3: Casa Barcelona

    The tapas are PRICEY here, but I have to admit I was having a craving for tapas and sangria and I willfully chose to ignore the advice on Chowhound to give Casa Barcelona a miss. I don’t have any reason to complain about prices since I had a look at the menu online, but what the menu does not show is what the tapas themselves look like, that is, if there is value for money. Most tapas plates are roughly the same size (small), but the pricing average of $9 at Casa Barcelona is — in my opinion — several dollars too high. I can see charging that amount for the meat plates if they require more elaborate preparation, but everything seemed straightforward yet undersized. My friend Maria’s tortilla is superior, and I can say absolutely that the asparagus dish did not deserve the same pricing as the lamb — it was maybe 10 thin spears pulled directly out of a jar or can and put on the plate.

    After eating at Spanish tapas restaurants around the world (including Spain), my expectations for $9/plate tapas are high. Probably too high. My search for a favourite tapas and sangria haunt in Toronto continues. And all the sangria I’ve had here (Danforth, Kensington Market, now Kingsway) has been expensive, so I may just have to stick to my homemade sangria from now on.

    2009 Friday Night Dinner Venue #2: Korean Grill House, Queen Street
    2009 Friday Night Dinner Venue #1: Spoon and Fork, Etobicoke

    Category cameraphone, Consumer, Food + Drink | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Deep Freeze

    January 16, 2009 by Gail

    It even LOOKS cold, doesn't it!

    (A photo I took while shooting the Toronto Irish Famine Memorial on January 4. View it larger on black.)

    Last night when I was driving home around 10pm, I noticed the traffic lights were out at Dundas and Keele, then Bloor. As I kept driving I saw that not only were the traffic lights dark, but EVERYWHERE… houses, shops, everything! The first thing I thought of was the cats huddling together to keep warm, but as I drove through the darkness of my neighbourhood, I saw the glow of a streetlight here and there and wondered if I was one of the lucky houses to escape the power outage.

    I was! Strangely, even surrounded by houses without power, there were lights on at my house. If I turned on the radio I would’ve found out what was going on, but since it was nighttime and there was nothing I could do about it, I didn’t bother. What I should’ve done is sent my neighbours a message to see if they had power but it wasn’t until I got a text this morning asking if I had power that I assumed everyone else’s power was restored quickly…

    According to this Toronto Star article, there are still people without power! And last night was -20C! It’s one thing for it to happen in the summer, but during a cold snap? BRRRRR! Even the subway stations in this part of the west end were shut down, creating a huge backlog of people trying to get to work using shuttle buses. According to the article, there was a flooding in the basement of the local Toronto Hydro station, causing the power to short-circuit.

    The only casualty at my house was losing internet overnight, but it’s back now so I don’t have to go to a coffee shop to work after all. Which is probably a good thing since they’re probably all packed with people who are still have no power! closed with no power! –I went to the shops this afternoon to get a few groceries and everything in my neighbourhood is still shut down. My neighbour, who also works from home, came over with his computer and food… because he has no power and I’m short on food!

    Category House of Fielding, Toronto | Tags: | 3 Comments