Il Fornello (Richmond Hill)
On a particularly lazy day when we did not deserve to dine out, Lil Sis and I went to Shoppers Drug Mart near her place and the old-looking Il Fornello looked appetizing. There are several locations around town and with seven locations around GTA, we were going to try it sometime so why not that evening? We went in almost resolved to order just one dish to sate our appetite for Italian food but the prices were not too bad and who wants to cook the other half …

In December, I was in Vancouver twice. The first time, I was in town for 48 hours over a weekend. The second time was a joyous Christmas weekend, 96 hours. This isn’t all I ate as there were family dinners and repeat visits to some restaurants. But these are some of the highlights!
Faubourg Paris
As we admired the beautiful bistro area behind the cafe of of Faubourg Paris in Kerrisdale, I was asked how I learned of the place. Well, I don’t recall. When NPY and I couldn’t go to L’Abattoir …

At one point, I thought I should just rename this blog entry “Places Vina told me about and so I tried them”. She has been working in the financial district of Toronto for years, right in the heart of it all, and some days (read: most days) you just don’t want to prepare ahead of time and bring food with you. Fortunately, in a two-fold way, the skyscraping office towers of Toronto sit atop The PATH, an underground maze of shops and restaurants, for your lunch-hour dining convenience and shopping …

Since our New York dineout experiences were largely at Asian food establishments (at least one meal each of the six days we were there), I posted about those meals under Dineout Reviews: Asian food in New York City (2011 Edition) on the other blog. Here are the rest of the meals we had.
Shake Shack (Midtown, Times Square)
We could see the new midtown Shake Shack from BiNK’s apartment and determine that at the time we got into New York and the Times Square area at 2-ish, there was no line out …

Vancouver is usually all fine and right and we pride ourselves on being city slickers folk, especially I who aspires for bigger and better. But it took just about half a day of getting away from the same-old, even to a slower pace, to kick ourselves for not striving for out-of-city excursions more often. Last weekend, we spent a few days on Vancouver Island with Victoria as the target. But we took a ferry to Nanaimo instead of planning a Vancouver-Victoria return trip and spent the first afternoon driving down …

During the first year of my past workplace, I kind of followed my boss’ example and was a bit reclusive, aloof. The three researchers (two males, one female) stepped out of the office together every lunch. They walked by my office on their way out but a pattern had been established. Frankly, I was afraid that with the three of them, “shop talk” would dominate and that’s not my idea of a lunch break.
Halfway through my first year, a lot of students completing internships came through my department, some of …

Last weekend we went to Bellevue for a two-night stay. Since getting the hang of Priceline for great hotel prices (4* Hyatt for $90/night at the last minute), getting older and appreciating more the “Stateside getaway”, and perhaps not wanting to dash so much, and–dare I say it–wanting go somewhere else longer, I like the entire-weekend trip. There is a de-emphasis on shopping and a focus on relaxing, which might lead to a new emphasis on eating… and that’s not too bad, is it?
Bob’s Burger and Brew
We’ve seen this burger …

I thought I would take a gander through my Flickr photostream (double-checking my tagging system works, you know) to see if I had photographs from meals each time on the same day in June for the past five years. While we are ultra-practical when it comes to most dining out (read: Chinese diners), for special occasions we tend to end up at a French restaurant. It’s not too odd in the grand scheme of things but I find it cute how NPY so loves his Chinese food… and then we …

Looking through my Flickr photos (so much fun, eh?) I realized I’ve had brunch enough times for another round-up but this time, instead of a month of brunches, these were consumed over a period of three months. Sadly, Cari Ann and my brunch “tradition” fell by the wayside of late while scheduling has gone haywire (for her) and I’ve been in a three- to six-month bad-funk-streak (blah!).
If you thought perhaps I was flagging in pursuing dine-out activities, there’s been little slowing down as interspersed between these brunches and not included …

Another Easter weekend in Toronto. Last year I went over the same weekend and helped Lil’ Sis move into her apartment. This year, her apartment is all set up in her very natural spa-oasis theme and we went slightly nuts again! More diverse this year, too.
Panera Bread

As per my usual custom, I took a red eye flight leaving Vancouver at midnight and arriving in Toronto at 7a.m.; with the three-hour time difference, it meant if I slept continuously I had only four hours of sleep. Then, in Toronto it’s a …