Can a Da bound?

[muckefuck]

If the weather weren't bad enough, I'm also suffering from the Facebook Effect: there was a Fabulous Bear Party last night that Everyone I Know But Me was invited to, even though it was right here in the neighbourhood. I was kind of unsure where I stood with one of the hosts. Well, that's cleared that up nicely. I wouldn't've been free to go anyway since I was already pledged to a housewarming party in Oak Park. But my getting there was pretty much contingent on making it to the Met simulcast of Walküre yesterday afternoon, so when I bagged on that my day was pretty much decided.

At least know I feel much more prepared for our trip to Toronto next week. I still haven't managed to get in touch with my old college buddies there, but paulintoronto came through with some fantastic tips on where to go. monshu and I spent a chunk of time plotting them using the MyMaps function of Google Maps (not as intuitive as you would think!) in order to get an idea of how they clustered. AGO, Chinatown, and Mocca all in the same day? Or maybe Queen St West merits a dedicated afternoon. So many lovely choices!

At least the most important single event has been scheduled: Our photo session with bitterlawngnome. If nothing else goes right--if they lose our luggage, cancel our hotel reservation, confiscate our booze at customs, mug us leaving Cawthra Square--and yet this still comes off, the entire trip will be a success in my mind. Conversely, if it doesn't work out for some reason, I don't want that to ruin the whole trip, so I'm trying not to get too hung up on it. But still--OHBOYOHBOYOHBOYOHBOYOHBOY!

I'm not sure how we're going to communicate with anyone once we get there. My cell phone offers roaming in Mexico but not Canada and as much as I want to drop my provider, I'm not sure I can bring myself to pick a new one before we leave on Saturday. According to the website, the b&b monshu found in Moss Park offers "free local calls", but I'm not sure if there will be anyone there to take messages while we're out. So I guess we're putting our faith in wifi for a bit.

Comments

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

We can try skyping tonight, if you're around -- I should be in the hotel room after 8 or so, mountain time, but will have to get Simon to bed etc -- maybe after 9?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

My Skype connexion doesn't seem to be working. I can e-mail the arrangements as they stand so far.

[gasterea.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome! Don't forget Caplansky's - the Jewish fatty smoked meat on rye and our new jewel - Porchetta! The best dam' pork in town look for porchettaco website with delicious fat and crackling and very near the real Italian standard (and their soups are amazing too). And just across the street (incidentally the same street AGO is on only a bit further west) some of the very best pastel de nata custard tarts Toronto has to offer at the Portuguese bakery - Caldense (Dundas/Palmerston) - the other stuff's not so great though. Very good unusual falafel at the Kensington market Akram's shoppe - and lamb shawarma too. And the pho at Saigon Palace on Spadina and the cheapest and very family Chinese hole in the wall hangout in Kom Jug Yen almost across the street with great bbq duck. Authentic Polish dining experience cafe Polonez on Roncesvalles but that's too far west. And an authentic but sooo kitchy Georgian hangout Aragvi but way way far north you don't want to spend 3 hours getting there and back even for the delights of the really amazing Georgian cuisine. High end French dining - but really continental French two guys from the Loire Valley run it - Loire restaurant. And anyway if you can spare a moment only for one of these places I would say Porchetta - that's something that you probably cannot have at home but definitely should as a pork lover (cash only mind and better take stuff out and have a picnic as there is practically no space inside). Oy, and I've forgotten Krepesz on Augusta Kensington market - gorgeous Hungarian hangout with pancakes hungarian style savoury (try paprika chicken stew, it's Hortobady actually) and sweet (ricotta and lemon juice!) and simply gorgeous cappuccinos and espressos!

I live in 10 minutes walk from Caplansky's and Krepesz and would have loved to meet you there if you had a moment but I imagine that your meeting timetable is full to bursting point and anyway I am not sure that you enjoy baby company since I will probably have to bring my baby daughter along. Still I do hope you like it in Toronto so maybe next time when you come for a longer holiday? Have a great time!
ps Don't spend your energy on Casa Loma (our wannabe Neuschwannstein, totally stripped of anything valuable and empty inside) and the ROM though (too provincial for words) - AGO beats'em all.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I just put Porchetta & Co on the map. It sounds like a definite winner!

I'm more interested in stuff we can't get here (like Portuguese cuisine) than stuff we can (like Polish). But, yeah, Aragvi sounds too far. Still, bitterlawngnome's studio is in Dovercourt Park, so if you know anything interesting near there, we'd love to hear about it.

And our schedule isn't actually that full yet. Tuesday the 24th is the only day we've really done any planning for, in fact.

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

Julie's Snack Bar is on Dovercourt between College & Dundas -- excellent Cuban food.

Do you like Turkish food? There's the Anatolia on Dundas West near Kipling -- in a strip mall near the end of the subway line, but in my experience worth the trek. Or you can come to my place for Armenian shish kebab :)

There's good Persian at College and Bathurst -- Pomegranate and Sheherzade, sister restaurants (Sheherzade was my choice for my birthday this year). We can recommend good Korean (pork bone soup at Ka Chi, yes!) There's a lot of good Indian & Tamil food (stringhoppers!) about, & the Malabar fried chicken at Maroli is fabulous.

Portuguese and/or Brazilian is easy -- Simon's favorite restaurant is the churrasqueira down the street from us, and there are lots of places, both in our neighbourhood (Corso Italia) and along Dundas around, say, Ossington.

We also know a place (La Palette) where the "surf and turf" is duck confit and horse steak, if you're up for it! And Peter recommends a couple of places with hand-pulled beer :)

Appearances aside, we should be pretty available after we get back from Alberta -- the confluence of end of term, a death in the family & my mother needing to stay with us because of her husband's illness shouldn't (I hope!) come up again any time soon!

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

And I just looked up Dovercourt Park -- I assumed it was south, rather than north of Bloor. There's a decent pub (the Gem) at Davenport & Somerset, and a churrasqueira I haven't been to. There's some interesting stuff along Geary in that neighbourhood -- a churrasqueira we went to while getting a car window replaced, as I recall, and a good Portuguese bakery.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

It's Dovercourt and Ossington, I have no idea what "Dovercourt Park" is supposed to mean.

[nitouche.livejournal.com]

Oh good, it wasn't just me who hadn't heard of it!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Wow, I suspected there was some serious stuff going down, but I didn't realise how much! Sorry to hear about all that; I hope things are much better now.

We have good Turkish and Persian places near us, but I imagine your choices might have an intriguingly different selection of dishes. A churrasqueria would be fun; the ones around here are very pricy and pretty damn cheesy. But what I'm really after is some good feijoada; the one place I knew where I could get that was in St Louis(!) and it closed.

Oh, and I wouldn't mind going for offal again. One of my favourite parts of that dinner on Danforth was what Peter identified as lung; I didn't find out until years later that it's illegal to serve it in the USA. (Imagine! Something we're protected from that Canadians aren't!)

[gasterea.livejournal.com]

Dovercourt's way out of our usual haunts unfortunately so no tips unless a Portuguese bakery 114 Ossington Ave
for some unfathomable reason called Venezia qualifies. Loads of great stuff including pata de veado and even sonhos :-) But no first hand Portuguese restaurants tips, sorry.
Now I can;t much predict my schedule either - it depends on Sophie - but if you decide to go to Kensington Market-Krepesz-Caplansky's and have the time and inclination to meet-up drop me an e-mail with the time and I'll come by if I can.

Do you still have my gmail one? the one that is alexandra.grigorieva? that's smth i check every hour unlike lj etc

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think I lost that in the last migration. It's just that @ gmail, is it? I'll send you a test message.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

"Dvercourt Park" ?! who the hell makes these things up? there's no such place.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Chicago maintains an official map of "community areas", which pretty much everyone seems vaguely aware of, even if real estate developers have a habit of dividing them up into ever more ludicrously-named enclaves. I'm not sure what the situation is in Toronto. Still, even if you don't buy into that neighbourhood identification, there is an actual park called "Dovercourt Park" in the centre of it.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

This neighbourhood has been branded and rebranded a dozen times during the 14ish years I've been here ... it never sticks, because there is no here here. Although this one MIGHT stick since it's gentrifying so rapidly and extremely and Those People always need to have a name for their neighbourhood.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Though around here, that name is usually some twist on the name of a more successfully gentrified area nearby. I've recently heard "Rogers Edge" for our neck of the woods (a part of Rogers Park adjoining the tonier realtor-designated neighbourhood of "Edgewater Glen"). And I still get a kick out of "Andersonville Terrace" for the part of Uptown adjoining chichi Andersonville.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Same here, but "Annex West" and "Rosedale South" were just too ridiculously ridiculous to ever stick.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Why not just "Annex II"? Or, for that hippity-hoppity vibe, "anX2anX"?

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Xannex

[fogbear.livejournal.com]

Hooray for a photoshoot with bitterlawngnome!

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

It's a dream of a decade coming true!

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

oh hai performance anxiety!!

anyway call me when you get in, if you're doing that kind of clustered walking tour thing I can help.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Will do! I was also thinking we might want to chat about the shoot before the day of anyway--it's the best thing for dissipating anxiety (on both sides!), isn't it?