Geeky Cat Miusings

Notable epicurean delights I have had of late:
Popcorn Tea - not really recommended but it does remind one of popcorn, in a slightly off way.
Panetone Tea - lovely, and it really does remind me of the fruity type of panetone with its citrusy and vanilla tones.
Polenta Budino - a delicious and delectable dessert. I’ll happily have your portion if you don’t like polenta (you know who you are!).
Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage and Amaretti - yes, that is a dessert sprinkled on the pasta entree - a fascinating combination and totally divine.

I am making good progress on visiting all the cafes on my best of list. I’ll update you later.

Happy Feasting!

Being off work for 8 days is great, especially when you get paid for it. As per my New Year’s Resolution, I signed up for line dance classes. Line dancing does not involve dancing with a partner which I particularly like because I enjoy the sensation of freeness that it entails: You can do whatever you please and you can add your own particular flair whenever you want to. I really signed up for dance classes just for the fun of it plus I already know a couple of the people there so I knew we could have fun together. So far I learned how to dance the Slosh, Electric Slide, and the ever romantic Rhumba.

I have tried a raw food restaurant called Rawlicious on Dundas Street. In case you were wondering, raw food is anything that has not been heated over 40 °C. Proponents of raw food diets believe that heating foods over that temperature causes them to lose much of their nutritional value and become harmful to the body. I believe that we should try to get a healthy dose of raw foods in our diets, but I am not a raw foodist. It is great to give it a try to see what kind of food the raw chef can come up with. I tried the nori rolls stuffed with quinoa; pizza made with sprouted buckwheat crust; lasagna made with layers of zucchini instead of pasta and nut butter instead of cheese; and coconut and pomagranate tea to wash it all down. It was all very tasty.

I went to the animated short films screening at the National Film Board to see the following:

• Bestselling and celebrated Canadian novelist Roch Carrier narrates this animated adaptation of his beloved story, “The Hockey Sweater.”
• NOËL NOËL the story of a misguided billionaire, is in love with Beatrice, a bespectacled fairy. But thanks to little Zoey, her dog Snooze and a blue-eyed reindeer, his eyes are finally opened. Enlivened by a humorous and rhymed narration spoken by Leslie Nielsen.
• LÉON IN WINTERTIME where an eight-year-old adopted bear suffering from an identity crisis.

Aside from their screenings, you can go to their digital viewing stations and choose from 4600 NFB films on demand.

Going to Kensington Market is always wonderful. I shopped for food since their prices are good and you can find unusual products there. I shopped for inexpensive clothes I tried two cafes which were on the best cafes of west Toronto list. My friend bought some great fridge magnets and we adored a beautiful dog. We will be back!

This is a sweet claymation video for the Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal:

I love going to cafes but am a little tired of the sameness of the big chains such as Second Cup and Starbucks, even though I do love their coffee when it is fresh. It can be difficult to know where to start the journey of cafe discovery but I was fortunate enough to have a friend point me to a useful site called Blogto. Someone there already started the cafe investigation and posted their results online for the rest of us, who are a bit short of time to really get out and crawl through the city for a cozy up with a caffe latte.

I went to Beaver this past weekend but I found their coffee tasted burnt and the joint itself was only okay. The quilts on the walls did not make up for the hard seats and very loud music that is difficult to yell over. Manic coffee doesn’t bombard you with loud music so that you can sit on the cozy sofa at the back and listen in on a discussion about literature and the local music scene, hoping the discussion would get personal and juicy. The barista made a latte with a beautiful decorated foam topping and it tasted good, but I really judge a cafes quality by ordering a regular brewed coffee. They had a small selection of vegan cookies which are very nice. I have been to Tequila Bookworm a couple of times this past summer and enjoyed their food, but I have never had their coffee. Once I went there to play a board game with some friends and liked the relaxed service since it meant we could play for as long as we wanted without being kicked out.

I revisted Tan Coffee, a cafe that I found this past summer. My visit to Tan in July was one of the highlights of my summer. I ordered an avocadocino and sipped it while laying in the hammock in their back patio. This time around there was no hammock option since the windchill of -20 discourages patrons, but they do have nice sofas to relax in and delicious vegan cheesecakes to help generate internal heat.

My hope is to check out all those cafes listed there and find a truly cozy spot to have a great mug of coffee.

This is a great song and I would love to see it expanded to opera length because there is enough material in my TTC travels for a full-length story.

Winter is upon us and I am feeling very chilled. This weather is hard to take for someone who thrives at temperatures above 25 degrees. Darkness falls around 4:30 so I don’t see any daylight. When my work day is done I long to get home and cover myself with a warm blanket and a cat or two.

I have seen some great shows lately: The Sound of Music with its catchy tunes and its must see mountain; Legoland and its twisted characters, A Christmas Carol with its ominous ghosts promising us bad dreams if don’t propogate the spirit of giving. I saw a live concert by Sondre Lerche who sang songs for the movie “Dan in Real Life” and I tried very hard to remember the story line.

I had some wonderful meals this past month, the most memorable was at Live at Dupont and Spadina, a place that specializes in raw food. Their combo plate is delicious — a must try. Pizza, macaroni and cheese, stir fry, I can’t remember what else. I have a hard time finding their website.

I love the atmosphere at Madeleines Cherry Pie and Ice Cream. It feels very old world — I just wanted to stay there and nobody seems to want to show you the door out either. Try playing their gourmet trivia pursuit game while you nibble on some lavendar biscotti.

Taste Cafe is a hip joint in Parkdale. A great place to sample different cheeses. It is run by three brothers who are friendly and a bit theatrical. If you like surprises, they will offer to bring you a sample of mystery cheeses and wines that complement the cheeses. After you have tasted it all they will tell you what you have just eaten. It is a surprise and it is fun.

My wallet was stolen on the TTC last week and I placed a call to the police to notify them so that they have a record of the incident. A police officer returned my call two hours later, when I was out at a house party. Since I was a party and a little noisy, I found a quiet room to discuss the incident. The constable asked me to list all the items in my wallet. So I did and when I mentioned that my work id was also in the wallet, the constable asked me what is my employee id. I said I did not know it off the top of my head but that I had it written down at home. She gave me heck for not knowing it! She said what person does not know their employee id. She went on about this for some time. I thought that was very rude of her to insist that a normal person memorizes their id number. Why do they always make victims feel even worse by the way police treat them?

The party was fun and someone read my palm and said I like to dabble in the arts. The hostess had a name book that claims people develop specific characteristics based on their names. The book claims that people (usually girls) named Diana tend be very shy in childhood but become more fun and outgoing as they get older and develop the ability to make fun of theirselves. Interesting.

The week was pretty busy ordering new cards and trying to get everything back in order. The combination of coughing a lot, carrying heavy bags, and stress has made my back very tense and sore. I went for massage therapy and only experienced minor relief. For various reasons I haven’t been feeling so good. But fortunately this weekend was fabulous! Here are a few thing I enjoyed:

I went for the first time to a Live from the MET screening at the movie theatre. It was great to see the opera singers close up and see the passion in their faces! I would highly recommend the experience to opera lovers.

The Black Rider is a great gothic musical playing at the Tarragon Theatre. It is a very interesting and dark collboration between Tom Waits, Robert Wilson and William S Burroughs. A young man makes a deal with the devil to woo a beautiful young woman, but as always the bargain proves too costly. The recurrent themes of impending death are very well complimented by gleeful black humor. A perfect show for the Halloween season.

Another perfect outing for the season is the ghost walk. I have taken several ghost walks this year: Hamilton, Niagara-on-the-lake, Halifax and Toronto. I joined the Genova Tours ghost walk yesterday and found it to be excellent. We went through the dark streets and walkways of Toronto learning about our interesting history, spiced up with stories of bloodshed and hauntings. You may have been downtown during the day but the buildings of downtown Toronto must be seen at night. They take on a diffent ambiance in the dark, especially the gorgeous gothic buildings at the University of Toronto. Seeing the mark of the ax on a door when a man tried to murder another was chilling enough, but to see the aforementioned man’s face in the form of a gargoyle…..

Some how I was able to still enjoy myself at Nuit Blanche after someone stole my wallet. I was still upset about it and thinking about it quite often but it was good to be out and doing something fun to keep me from ruminating about it every minute. The yummy pizza gave me the energy to walk around the city on that fairly chilly night. I came very close to trying the pizza with blueberries on top. I think I’ll go back to Magic Oven one day and give the blueberry pizza a try.

What was notable about Nuit Blanche was that everything looked better in the brochure. Much better. I’m not talking about little touch-ups to gloss over imperfections. The brochure photo promised that we would be able to walk through a wooded forest that was growing beneath a typical acoustic office ceiling, under the unwholesome glow of florescent lighting. In reality the ceiling was placed in an alley way and there was office refuse under the ceiling. Mounds of old computers and manila folders were littering the alley - deliberately set there to make the participant think about the work environment and the amount of trash generated there. What if we were forced to keep all our trash? Our work places and homes would be very crowded and we would be forced to reconsider our buying habits. Most of us couldn’t live with piles of things everywhere — though I have met a few people who could and do.

Some people are saying there is no art in Nuit Blanche. If you are looking for paintings you should probably visit a gallery. This is art and it does generate some thought and it is fun. You need to think about what you see and share those thoughts. You can make fun of the art because that it part of the whole process - by making fun of it you learn more about the art, the concept, and yourself. Make sure you go with someone fun because Nuit Blanche is best shared.

The lines at coffee shops were very long making it difficult to get a good cup of coffee. It would be great if there could be coffee vendors on the street. I would also have bought a scarf if there were a street vendor selling them.

The funniest experience at Nuit Blanche for me was the trash can. Hoards of people were gathered on the sidewalk peering into an ordinary three receptacle bin. Inside the bin was dance music and coloured lights, reminiscent of a dance club.

The most thought provoking experience was the Waterfall at the Ontario Power Generation Building. A giant quilt made from recyclable plastic water bottles was suspended on the side of the building. It looked like a waterfall from afar but as you got close you realized that it was made of water bottles — they once had water inside of them. An interesting perspective on the state of today’s water and our usage the resource.

Just a quick reminder to everyone that October is National Sarcastics Month. I wrote about it last year, so I won’t repeat myself.

Here are a few for you to power you up:

What does one do if it is one week before the last long weekend of the summer and one desperately wants to make summer last longer? Take a day off and turn an ordinary weekend into a long weekend as well! That’s what I did this past weekend and it was wonderful.

On the first day of my long weekend I went to the McMichael Art Gallery to see sculpture by Joe Fafard. He is the artist who created The Pasture in the Toronto Dominion Tower…if you’ve ever seen it you will remember the life sized cows lazing about in the grass in the city. I loved the sculpture and spent a few hours enjoying it. There is a photo of me with one of his bulls. It was cool in the gallery and the bull was toasty warm from the sun’s rays so I couldn’t keep my paws off the bull.

The next day was an early wake up call for me because we were going to Prince Edward County and we were leaving early.

Our first stop was at the Lake on the Mountain which is a natural curiosity: it has a constant flow of clean, fresh water, with no apparent source…..and it is 60 metres above Lake Ontario!!! Mohawks offered gifts to its spirits and settlers thought it was bottomless. I was not courageous enough to dive in and see if it is actually bottomless. It is a perfect place for a picnic.

Next stop was the Macaulay Mountain Conservation Area where we enjoyed the Bird House City created by Doug Harnes. The houses were created by volunteers to look like historical buildings in the area. Apparently there is a McDonald’s drive through, but I didn’t see it. I also didn’t see a single bird in the bird house area, but it maybe it was just too hot at the time.

Check out more photographs of Prince Edward County.

Next we took a nature hike through the area. The terrain was very different from the Niagara region (the last hike I took). The hike was not as well organized as the Bruce Trail Club so the actual hiking part was too short. But fun none-the-less. And very muddy! Oh….and I heard many birds…and one cell phone.

Next we went on the Taste Trail - a delectable way to spend a day tasting all the local foods the region has to offer. The County Cider Company offers cider tastings to the thirsty traveller — and who doesn’t get thirsty when on the road — I had four samples of different types of apple cider including Iced Cider Wine — oh so good! The Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company is a difficult place to leave because they keep serving tasty and unusual artisan cheeses such as nettle cheese. I would have loved to try cave-aged goat milk cheese. But that gives me a reason to go back. And then there is Slickers County Ice Cream, an ice cream lover’s dream come true. Pat and Marie create all natural artisan ice cream that is made fresh daily by hand in small batches. I had Campfire Creme - memory of marshmallows roasted over an open fire!

Picton is such a pretty town and filled with restaurants that sweetly call you to sample their offerings. We could not help ourselves from trying everything. But all good things must come to an end - we returned to Toronto sated and content.

What can you do if it is Sunday and it is hot and muggy and there could potentially be rain? Go to Glow-in-the-Dark mini putt of course! It is fun even when you’re as unskillful as I am. I am still totally amazed that I made a hole in one in one of the most difficult holes. My ball just hit the rocks in all the right places, bouncing back and forth until the ball found itself in its cozy hole! I am thinking that there must have been some Feng Shui influences that helped me score that hole. Maybe it was the 9th hole — since 9 is supposed to be my lucky Feng Shui number.

Sunday was also a day for feasting. The size of cake slices at Dufflet Pastries should be illegal! But the Lemon Parfait cake was so delicious! Next time I am going to share my slice instead of having a whole slice for myself. We compensated for the hefty dessert by going to the Healthy Vegetarian - hoping that some of their healthy veggie options will balance the effects of the lavish dessert we had earlier.