Drink This: the Patron Hacienda #2

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10:45 am

A few weeks back, Playa Cabana added yet another location to its quickly expanding roster of restaurants. Hacienda, the third taco-slinging joint, is more low-key (food-wise at least) than its brethren, though the same pumping beats pulse out alongside the characteristically boisterous signage.

Revellers slinging back summery libations add to the atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, the cocktail list is tequila-heavy, with bottles tucked away in a cage of sorts next to the downstairs bar. Casey Fiorio, who also pours at Cantina, is responsible the libations.

The Patron Hacienda #2 ($14) is a patio-geared medley of Patron Reposado, Lillet Blanc, Grand Marnier and fresh lime. We’re told that they’re still working on a third, more potent version, surely destined to make the drinker fall over.

Enjoy on the upstairs patio, where a cool breeze and a view of the street make for excellent partners in drinking crime.

Playa Cabana Hacienda, 14 Dupont St., 647-352-6030

Karolyne Ellacott is a features editor at Post City Magazines. She pedals around town in heels, eating sandwiches and drinking cocktails. She writes about that, and about about other stuff too. She is also on Twitter.

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Kitchen Confidential: a healthy take on Origin’s calorific Spanish fries

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3:23 pm

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Origin’s spicy Spanish fries with chorizo and Manchego (pictured above)

       Nutrition Facts
    • Serving size: 1 portion (293 g)
    • Calories 1,222
    • Total Fat 90.8 g (140% Daily Value*)
    • Sodium 1340 mg (56% Daily Value*)
    • Carbohydrates 77.1 g (26% Daily Value*)
    • Protein 24 g

Origin, created by Toronto’s brilliant chef Claudio Aprile, now has a third location in Bayview Village. This is a restaurant experience you don’t want to miss: the food is eclectic, super-trendy and absolutely delicious. The mozzarella bar features imported buffalo mozzarella and burrata; the raw bar has succulent oysters and mouth-watering tuna sashimi.

Origin also puts out comforting eats like their addictive spicy Spanish fries with chorizo sausage and a buttery shredded Manchego cheese. It doesn’t stop there: they’re topped off with spicy mayo and olives. The men at our table devoured them, while the women were cautious and keenly aware of their waistlines. These specialty fries have over half your daily calories and sodium, and close to one-and-a-half days’ worth of fat.

Even if you share this dish, it’s still an excess, since this is just an appetizer! I developed a great baked fries recipe with some grated Asiago cheese (a good substitute for Manchego) along with a small amount of diced chorizo sausage. Here’s my healthy version of Origin’s fries.

ROSE’S HEALTHY TAKE:

Baked fries with Asiago and chorizo

Post City Magazines’ culinary columnist, Rose Reisman, is the author of 17 cookbooks. She is a TV and radio personality and a health and wellness expert. Visit Rose at www.artoflivingwell.ca.

Shop Talk: Love the Design opens in Summerhill

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3:09 pm

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Summerhill is prime real estate for interior design shops, so when owner Christine Flynn set up her second location of Love the Design in the neighbourhood, she knew she was playing in the big leagues. “I wanted to offer Summerhill something a little different,” says Flynn. “Our style is more nontraditional and industrial vintage.”

Flynn’s picks are extensive, from the vintage finds (many of which are from small town Ontario) to the pages ripped from Harper’s Weekly making up the wallpaper to the reworked stools for sale.

The store is ultimately a culmination Flynn’s likes and tastes. “It started with my artwork, as I have a graphic design and photography background. I never wanted to show my photography in a gallery with white walls,” says Flynn. “I wanted to show it so people could envision how it is in their home. It’s always been one of my dreams to have a store with furniture.”

The art stools ($375) would add instant character to any modern home, while the reclaimed side table ($545) can add a bit of industrial ruggedness to a soft space. Character and quality seem to be the key words driving everything that appears here, but the true underlying factor is Flynn’s love of each piece.

“One of my rules is I only pick what I love,” Flynn says. “If I can’t envision it in my own home I won’t put it in the store.”

Love the Design, 1226 Yonge St., 416-855-9991

Eating Gross Things: smelly tofu at the T&T Waterfront Night Market

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11:14 am

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For this week’s post I ate smelly tofu, which I know is a bit of a cop out, because last week I ate balut, which is also an Asian food. Like, am I just going to write about Asian food every time? The answer is no, but let’s face it: Asians eat a lot of gross things. It’s partly what makes their cuisine so awesome.

Smelly tofu is tofu that smells. It is a popular street food in Asia. It’s fermented and it reeks. You can smell it from afar. To eat this rancid-ass stuff, I went to the T&T Waterfront Night Market, which is an annual gathering of food vendors at the T&T Supermarket on Cherry Street. It’s a great event to visit, especially if you like to see creatures of all kinds impaled on sticks and then eaten, because there’s lots of that. And there’s lots of bad music, too.

I had never tried smelly tofu before, mostly due to laziness. But I knew right away, as soon as I saw the lineups, that it wouldn’t actually be gross. People wanted smelly tofu, and they wanted it bad.

There were at least three stalls at the Night Market that were selling it. The first one was set up right at the market’s entrance (an interesting location, considering the pervasive odour), and it was so busy that there was a man directing the lineup with a megaphone.

My companion and I lined up. When the megaphone man saw us, he kind of twinkled. I knew what he was thinking: “first-timers.” The megaphone man approached us.

“Have you tried smelly tofu before?” he asked into the megaphone.

Clearly, as white people, we hadn’t.

He proceeded to tell us what the deal was, through the megaphone of course. Point one: it smells worse than it tastes. Point two: smelly tofu is like blue cheese or yogurt — the smell comes from fermentation. Point three: there are several styles of smelly tofu, including Hong Kong-style and Taiwan-style. This stall, called Smelly ToFu Hong Kong Style, apparently served smelly tofu Hong Kong-style.

The smell was pretty gross right off the bat. The uncooked tofu had a distinct bouquet of maggoty garbage. As we waited in line, people kept checking in to make sure we were OK. “Don’t worry, it tastes better than it smells,” was a common point of advice.

One lady gave us skewer sticks with which to eat the tofu — not one or two, but a pile of like 20. Those nice people didn’t have to worry, though. As George Clinton would say, I wanted the funk, the whole funk and nothing but the funk.

The Hong Kong-style tofu, I have to say, was a bit of a letdown. After it was deep-fried, it lost much of its aroma, and it tasted like regular tofu, which means to say that it tasted like nothing. Puffy nothing, but nothing nonetheless. The sweet and spicy condiments were crucial.

Better was the Taiwanese-style tofu that we ate later at Mother Bear’s Smelly Tofu (pictured below). This stuff had a different kind of reek — it smelled less like garbage and more like manure, or really skunky weed, depending on the waft. This tofu came with some pickled cabbage and hot sauce, and it tasted deliciously pungent, like cheese or something. It was possibly the best item we tasted at the market that day.

Conclusion: smelly tofu is actually delicious, especially if it retains its funky notes after the frying process. It’s not really adventurous eating, but it feels like it.

Jon Sufrin is the editor of PostCity.com. For his column, Eating Gross Things, he eats things that are widely considered to be gross and writes about it. He has no scientific method to determine what “gross” means. The article is just meant to be fun, so relax. For more of his thoughts on stuff, gross and not, follow him on Twitter. If you would like to suggest a gross food item for him to try, email him at [email protected].

Concern grows over crematorium fumes

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3:31 pm

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With its rolling hills, gently winding pathways and immaculate flower beds, Mount Pleasant Cemetery is one of the most serene parts of Toronto. The Doric pillars and statues on the imposing mausoleums dotted about the gardens testify that, for much of its 137-year history, this has been the place where many of the city’s great and good have chosen to rest in peace.

However, that tranquility is now being threatened by an acrimonious series of disputes between the Mount Pleasant Group (MPG), which owns the cemetery, and some of its neighbours, who are highly critical of the way it is being run. Having tried and failed to fight the construction of a new visitation centre at the cemetery’s Moore Avenue entrance in the mid-2000s, a group of campaigning residents is now going on the attack once again.

The latest lightening rod for their ire is the cemetery’s plans to install new incinerators at its crematorium building close to Inglewood Drive.

With a rapid increase in demand for cremations in recent years, MPG wants to ditch its dated 1970s incinerators and replace them with a modern one shipped over from England. The cemetery management claim their efficient new burner will allow them to increase cremation capacity while reducing emissions.

But some nearby residents aren’t convinced. They say the cemetery has no business burning bodies in a built-up area, and they don’t want the crematorium refurbished — they want it closed down.

“We have had 40 years of this crematorium at the end of the street,” said Margot Boyd, who lives near Mount Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue East and is an outspoken critic of the cemetery. “Our neighbourhood and neighbourhoods all around, depending on which way the wind is blowing, have been breathing in who knows what for 40 years.”

When a body goes up in smoke, a host of unpleasant compounds are released, including poisonous substances like arsenic, carbon monoxide, lead and mercury.

Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries insists its current incinerators meet standards for safe levels of exposure laid down by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and that its new equipment will be the first in North America to be fitted with air scrubbers that will cut emissions further, by about 99 per cent in most cases.

But where the cemetery sees cutting-edge technology, Boyd sees an untested design.

“It’s new and there aren’t many statistics on it. It’s a brand new technology,” she said.

For the campaigners, the crematorium is just too close to their homes, and fancy filtering technology won’t change that.

The building is 16.5 metres from the nearest residential property, which is far below the 300-metre separation that the city now demands for new crematoriums under a planning bylaw adopted in April.

Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose Toronto Centre-Rosedale ward borders the cemetery to the south, has taken up the residents’ fight.

Wong-Tam said she is concerned for the health of the area’s children and people with respiratory problems, adding, “This is simply far too close to a residential neighbourhood.”

Because the new equipment will be installed in the current building, the city has no power to block the proposal under planning laws, so Wong-Tam is seeking leave to appeal against a decision by the Ministry of the Environment.

She contends that the ministry acted outside its jurisdiction when it issued a licence for the new equipment, and she wants it revoked.

Wong-Tam, who said she is a Buddhist and wishes to be cremated, fears that with the growing demand for the service, total emissions could go up even if the technology is cleaner.

“The more we burn, the more emissions there will be,” she said, pointing out that in Toronto even hospitals are not allowed incinerators.

But execs at the Mount Pleasant Group of Cemeteries said they are baffled by the fuss, since they have been doing cremations at the site for decades.

“This is basically the continuation of providing cremation services with new, state-of-the-art, environmentally conscious equipment,” said Rick Cowan, VP of marketing, pointing out that air-quality improvements were a major consideration in MPG’s decision to buy new equipment rather than overhauling its existing gear.

Cowan also noted that, although certainly vociferous, the critics do not appear to be too numerous — an assertion given weight by the residents’ associations of nearby South Eglinton and Deer Park, both of which said they had no concerns with the plans.

“All we are doing is trying to accommodate the increase in those that are choosing cremation,” Cowan said, adding that, for the cemetery, this is “business as usual.”

Although preparatory work has been started at the site, for now at least, MPG’s plans are on hold. It is waiting to hear the outcome of Wong-Tam’s appeal before it places the order for any new equipment.

Flying high: a look at Toronto’s professional ultimate frisbee team

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3:14 pm

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Don’t bother joking with Mark Lloyd about his status as a professional athlete, because he’s heard them all. “It just kind of comes with the territory,” he says.

But as someone who gets paid to play the sport he loves, has competed in stadiums from Italy to Japan, gets cheered on by thousands of home-team fans at Varsity Stadium and has even signed a few autographs, the 23-year-old general manager and captain of Toronto Rush ultimate disc team is anything but a joke.

Like many young Canadians, Lloyd grew up dreaming of being a hockey star but eventually realized that his tall, lean physique was better suited for a sport that required a lot of running, jumping and a long reach. After accepting that he wasn’t “built for hockey,” Lloyd left the sport in Grade 9 to hone his ultimate disc skills.

“I started playing ultimate a lot more and taking it a lot more seriously,” he says. “I started seeing my play develop, and becoming better than the people who had been better than me.”

The Winnipeg native got his first taste of intramural ultimate in middle school, while attending St. John’s-Ravenscourt School, and secured a place on Manitoba’s men’s provincial team, the General Strike, at age 16.

While majoring in English at the University of Western Ontario, Lloyd led the UWO Sharks to back-to-back silver medals in the 2009 and 2010 Canadian University Ultimate Championships, as both the team’s captain and coach.

After graduating and moving to Toronto, Lloyd went to Santa Cruz to visit his father, Rob, who shared his son’s interest in the sport.

“I told him about the professional league that was starting up,” says Lloyd. “He pulled it up on his phone and started reading about it, and he saw something about expansion plans … and that no one had bought [the franchise in] Toronto.”

He and his father spent much of that weekend discussing the prospect of a professional ultimate league in his new hometown.

“By the time I had landed back in Toronto, he had purchased the rights to the Toronto franchise,” Lloyd says.

Today, Toronto Rush is a Lloyd family business, with Mark serving as the team’s general manager, captain and part-owner along with his father, Rob, and his uncle Jim.

“It’s been fun to work with my uncle and my dad on this project,” he says, adding that the three Lloyd men usually speak to each other on the phone for a few hours each night. “I’m happy that ultimate has been a platform for us as a family to find something to work on together."

But buying the franchise was only the start of a long process. The Lloyd clan has spent the last year recruiting players, finding a venue, selecting coaches and coming up with the team name, which they chose as homage to the Toronto-based rock trio of the same name.

The Rush took to the field at Varsity Stadium for their home opener on May 4 against the New Jersey Hammerheads. Among the estimated 2,300 in attendance cheering on Lloyd and his teammates were his dad and the rest of the Lloyd family.

“He flew all of them out to come in and see that, and I think that was a pretty special moment to have my whole family there,” says Lloyd. “Most of them had never seen me play.”

The Rush were victorious in their home opener, and at the time of this interview, the team remained the only undefeated team in the 12-team league.

According to Lloyd, Toronto Rush is comprised of athletes from all over the GTA, many of whom are working professionals and students that dedicate their evenings and weekends to the sport.

Lloyd himself is currently completing a 10-week co-op at a Toronto marketing firm as required by his sports and event marketing program at George Brown College.

“People at work have been really cool about it, asking how the team is doing, checking updates and things like that,” he says. “They’ve been very supportive.”

Lloyd says on the average day, he is up at 6:40 a.m. to squeeze in a quick workout before making it to work at 9:00. After work ends at 5 p.m., he makes his way over to practice, which is held between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. Once he finally returns home, he has an opportunity to enjoy a quick dinner before taking care of all of his team management duties.

“It’s a 13- to 14-hour day,” he says. “Some nights I get a little bit of rest.”

Though the hours are demanding, and Lloyd admits to having little time for a social life, he hopes to work on developing the franchise further after graduating from George Brown in December.

“It will be pretty cool to work on this and apply some of the things I’ve learned from my marketing internship program,” he says. “It would be pretty cool if that could be my full-time job.”

In the meantime, Lloyd is hoping to continue the successful season he’s had both as a manager and captain.

“We want to finish first in our division, which we’re en route to doing now,” he says, adding that he’s also nearing his goal of averaging 1,000 fans per game. “I’ve been blown away by how much it’s [enthusiasm for the sport] spreading.”

Perhaps after a successful, well-attended first season, the jokes will stop, and Lloyd can finally be comfortable with his status as a professional athlete.

Tickets to see Toronto Rush start at $9.95, with discounts available for season ticket holders, groups, seniors and students.

Sotto in the Village closes, but owners have a new restaurant in the works

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3:03 pm

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Sotto in the Village, sister restaurant to the longstanding Sotto Sotto in Yorkville, closed its doors around two weeks ago. Owners couldn’t reach a lease agreement with the landlord, so they decided to close the restaurant after seven years in business.

Although the Forest Hill restaurant is finished, owners plan to announce the opening of a new location soon.

Wanted: this camouflage print backpack by Herschel

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12:12 pm

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In case you missed the memo, backpacks are enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now. This is likely a by-product of the ’90s making a huge, plaid-printed comeback on runways and street style blogs. Whatever the reason, it’s becoming virtually impossible to traverse the downtown area without seeing a backpack or two on sartorially inclined men and women.

Part of the reason why backpacks are so easy to love is their practical nature. They leave the hands free and they can carry a lot of stuff. But traditional models seem to favour functionality while completely sacrificing aesthetic appeal and “cool” factor.

Vancouver’s Herschel Supply Company aims to avoid that pitfall. The Pop Quiz backpack in woodland camo is fully lined with Herschel’s signature pinstripe, and it’s reinforced on the bottom with eco-friendly material. It also has padded compartments for a laptop and various accessories. Stylistically, it’s covered entirely in a timeless camouflage print, so this bag will appeal to both hip dudes and edgy downtown girls.

$70. Available at Te Koop, 421 Queen St. W.

Concert Review: Jonas Brothers play the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre

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11:00 am

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To see the Jonas Brothers and their shrinking (but still vocal) fan base on Thursday night at the Molson Amphitheatre was to witness what might just be music’s youngest nostalgia act.

Nick, Joe and Kevin performed to a shrieking horde of just under 6,000 fans (many holding Groupon tickets), a far cry from the 15,000 that would have flocked to see them live in the past, and a musical stratosphere away from the respective back-to-back ACC sellouts of One Direction (who played earlier this month) and Justin Bieber (who plays next week).

Even the fans in attendance, now predominantly into their late teens and moving quickly out of their boy band phase, seemed rather sheepish and self conscious about being there. Upon entering the venue, multiple fans were quick to note that they had either been dragged to the show by a friend, or were there for a “blast from the past.”

The Jonas Brothers were more than willing to offer up some half-decade nostalgia. They warbled through a catalogue of past hits with a pitchy, range-lacking sound that probably suffered from a combination of the boys’ declining vocal chords and an idealized recollection of what their voices previously sounded like. That being said, I suppose that some credit is due to the band for sustaining an energized hour-and-a-half set that kept fans firmly in the not-too-distant past.

Those who got to the venue early were treated to the night’s best music in the form of the opening act, talented pop duo Karmin. An engaging and musically skilled pair with the same squeaky-clean rep as their touring cohorts, Karmin won the crowd over with an uptempo 45-minute set that was capped off by their hit, “Brokenhearted.”

Looking at the current direction of both acts, its not hard to envision a near future in which the brothers may be returning the favour by opening for Karmin one day.

Tony Aspler’s Weekly Wine Pick: a fine Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand

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9:55 am

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Always a reliable Sauvignon. Pale straw colour with a nose of guava and cut grass, a palate alive with lime and gooseberry flavours and mouth-freshening acidity.

Food match: pan-seared scallops; Caesar salad

Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, 2012, New Zealand, $18.95. Vintages #316570

Post City Magazines’ wine columnist, Tony Aspler, has written 14 books on wine and food. Tony also created the Ontario Wine Awards and has been inducted into the New York Media Wine Writers’ Hall of Fame. He can be heard on 680News.

It’s hot enough to fry a grilled cheese sandwich on the sidewalk — literally

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5:10 pm

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This week has been hot enough to literally fry stuff on the sidewalk. In Death Valley, lovers of rogue literalism have been getting so carried away with their curbside cooking that officials had to put out an official kibosh.

Here in Toronto, the team at Cheesewerks decided to make this scorcher work for them by cooking a grilled cheese sandwich on the pavement. They posted a short video of it on Instagram yesterday. It’s stripped-bare street food, sans bureaucracy. That is, until the trend gets out of control and RoFo is forced to quash street-side cooking Death Valley-style.

(For the record, we called Cheesewerks and found that while it was hot enough to cook on the sidewalk yesterday, this particular sandwich was taken to the stove for a little extra browning — for aesthetic purposes).

Kind of a big deal: TIFF presents a cinematic retrospective of American comedy

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11:55 am

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For the next six weeks, TIFF Bell Lightbox is offering a chance to revisit and relive some of the greatest comedy films ever made as it presents TOGA! The Reinvention of American Comedy from July 17 to Aug. 29.

It’s a chance to see some films that have defined generations. This retrospective series, which also welcomes important filmmakers as guest speakers, features such films as Animal House, Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop and Up In Smoke.

While it’s hard to go wrong in picking out which films to see, here are some of our top picks from this celebration of classic comedy.

Animal House

It’s the patient-zero of comedies. Not only to you get to partake in the viewing of this influential and incomparable film with a theatre full of enthusiastic patrons, but prior to the screening, you get to join the cast in reflection. Thirty-five years have passed since the film first hit theatres, and Ivan Reitman, John Landis, Tim Matheson, Stephen Furst and others will take part in a discussion on stage. It’s a reunion you don’t want to miss.
July 18, 7 p.m.

Caddyshack

Another film that has been quoted for decades, featuring memorable characters played by comedians at their peak. Harold Ramis’ raunchy 1980 comedy has Bill Murray as a goof, Chevy Chase as a smug jerk and Rodney Dangerfield as a drinking, smoking, sarcastic, disrespected club member — roles for which they would become known for years to come.
July 21, 6 p.m.

Old School

This very quotable and very entertaining Will Ferrell/Vince Vaughn/Luke Wilson vehicle is one of the most memorable comedies of the 2000s, offering up an Animal House-esque college movie for a new generation. Snoop Dogg raps, Ferrell goes streaking and Jeremy Piven plays an unlikeable Dean in this hysterical collaboration between Todd Phillips (The Hangover, also playing in the series) and Ivan Reitman (a guest during the series).
August 15, 9:15 p.m.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Even if it didn’t have a sequel on the way later this year, this star-studded and ridiculously fun 2004 film is yearly required viewing. Will Ferrell is the famous Ron Burgundy, a scotch-drinking, old-school news anchor who’s world is shaken when a woman enters the work force. Christina Applegate holds her own with the men in playing Veronica Corningstone, a smart, funny, well-written and important female character.
August 17, 7:35 p.m.

There’s Something About Mary

This dirty, absurdist movie by the Farrelly brothers seemed to usher in a new generation of adult comedy when it was released in 1998. The raunchy journey follows a group of men obsessed with the blonde-haired Mary (Cameron Diaz), which includes Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliott and even Brett Favre. An unforgettable opening scene, which sends a young Stiller to the hospital, gives way to other uncomfortable and outrageous laughs, including a line from Diaz that is still funny to this day.
August 20, 9 p.m.

TOGA! The Reinvention of American Comedy, TIFF Bell Lightbox, July 17 to Aug. 29