Church St. resto to offer blind dates… literally

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1:41 pm

An upcoming T.O. dating event is about to give new meaning to the concept of "blind date."

The folks at O.NOIR, Toronto’s dine-in-the-dark restaurant, have teamed up with a local matchmaking company to host Dating in the Dark, an event that brings together eligible Torontonians over food in total darkness.

The expectation, says O.NOIR owner and founder Moe Alameddine, is that the connections between singles will be more genuine and intimate without the pre-judgments of sight.

"The person is not only the hair and the body, you know? It can be the inside — how nice, how good, how bad, how smart — all these things you don’t see with the eyes. It’s discovering the person, I would call it. Deeply. More than just by one look," Alameddine told PostCity.com.

The night of, gents will be seated first, three at each table. They will be joined by three women, all under the veil of darkness. Once the meal is over, diners will be escorted to a lit room where they’ll be treated to a complimentary beverage, and all will be revealed.

The night isn’t cheap — the personality profile costs $49, and the meal is either $32 for the two-course option or $40 for three.

Dating in the Dark takes place on April 20 at O.Noir (620 Church St.). For more info, click here.

Female sushi chefs get raw deal in T.O.

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1:15 pm

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Perhaps you never stopped to notice, but it’s true — most of the sushi chefs in Toronto are men.

While male chefs seem to outnumber their female counterparts in most Toronto restaurants, the ratio in Japanese kitchens is likely the highest.

According to the Toronto Star, only three women make sushi in the city — two at EDO and the third at the Japanese consul-general’s official residence.

A few reasons given why the male-to-female ratio in Japanese restaurant kitchens is so lopsided:

Women’s hands are too warm
Their perfume, makeup, lotions interfere with the food
During their monthly cycles, a woman’s biological state interferes with the delicate art that is Japanese cuisine

The last one’s not a joke, we swear.

Chef Mina Makimine, who works for the consul-general, told the Star that her colleagues discuss “the biological differences which cause women, during their monthly cycles, to fall into different states that affect the delicate and sophisticated form of Japanese cooking.”

Why are Toronto’s sushi chefs almost all male? (Toronto Star)

WHAT’S T.O. REALLY EATING?

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11:03 am

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Packaged food comes labelled with all the nutritional info you need to make a healthy eating decision. But restaurant food? Not so much.

Until now, that is. We had an accredited lab analyze our area’s most popular restaurant food for fat, calories, sodium and more, and the results may surprise you.

Toronto's best Easter Sunday brunches

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11:02 pm

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Those who say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day clearly fail to embrace the point of weekends, and the serenity provided by a few extra hours of sleep. Post City examines the most delicious excuses for hitting the snooze button this Easter Sunday.

Casa Loma – 1 Austin Ter. (416) 923-1171.

Set in the library of Toronto’s famous castle, guests will be greeted with a complimentary glass of Mimosa on arrival. The brunch buffet includes a selection of pastries, a breakfast station, soup and salad station, a selection of fruits and cheeses, as well as a selection of pasta, pastries and seafood. A dedicated children’s station will keep little stomachs satisfied.

Menu Highlights:

Baby shrimp and ‘fanning’ smoked salmon scrambled eggs.
Pernod poached mussels and tomato broth
Lavender, honey and mustard glazed baked ham with red and yellow pepper coulis and grainy mustards
Assorted pates and rillettes.

Price (including gratuity) + taxes:

Adults – $51.25
Children (4-12) – $26.45
Children (1-3) – $13.45
Children (under 1) – Free

Globe Bistro – 124 Danforth Ave. (416) 466-2000.

Enjoy scones and house-made preserves along with coffee or juice to start the meal. Diners can then select options from the three course menu, including an appetizer, main and dessert.

Menu Highlights:

Smoked Cedar Cress Farms trout
Wellington County prime rib
Baked French toast
Cookstown spiced carrot cake

Price (excluding gratuity) + taxes:

$29 per person

Windsor Arms Hotel – 18 St. Thomas St. (416) 971-9666.

Served in the Courtyard Cafe, patrons can choose between either the Easter brunch or the Easter afternoon tea. The brunch is a buffet-style selection covering all the conventional categories, including pastries, breakfast meats, eggs, pancakes, waffles and more. Guest can also look forward to the on-site photographer snapping pictures and a surprise guest sure to delight children and chocolate lovers alike.

Price:

Adults – $50
Children – $35

Forest Hill foodies rejoice

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4:53 pm

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Scaramouche gets new lease and new life

Forest Hill fine dining fave Scaramouche has signed a new lease on their current location, putting to rest talk of the restaurant closing or moving to a new neighbourhood.

“Friends and clients have been asking us where Scaramouche will move, so I’m pleased to finally report that we’re staying where we are,” says Keith Froggett via a press release. “This is a great way for Scaramouche to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary, and we look forward to our next decade of operating a successful and vibrant restaurant.”

Scaramouche is located at 1 Benvenuto Pl., 416-961-8011.

Former Centro chef takes over the kitchen at Brassaii

From a venerable dining institution with a quarter-century of fine dining history to a King West hot spot trying to balance upscale cuisine with a lounge vibe, when Bruce Woods decides to make a change, he doesn’t fool around. “It’s been a big part of my life and my career,” says Woods, of his decade in the Centro kitchen. “But I’m having a good time. It [Brassaii] is not as fussy.”

The restaurant underwent a makeover, courtesy of The Design Agency, that plays to the historic property’s brick and wood strengths, and relaunched last month. Woods has been tweaking the menu since taking over the kitchen in December and is looking to align the cuisine with the needs of the majority of the clientele in the entertainment district. “It is not too high end.We didn’t want to scare away the casual client,” says Woods.

“It is great as it is right now,” he explains, “but it is going to evolve into something a bit more complex.” Woods has no problem working in any cuisine, coming from what he describes as “dried-out roast beef and canned peas” while growing up in the small town of Beaverton, Ont. Following his graduation from George Brown College, Woods worked at Centro as well as stints at restaurants in Scotland, Italy, Vancouver and Whistler.

Brassaii is located at 461 King St.W., 416-598-4730.

Grandma’s secret pasta recipe found on Avenue Rd.

Deep in the dark recesses of La Cascina Ristorante, the Del Russo clan prepare a special pasta with a recipe that has been in the family for generations. A recipe only two people know: chef Luca del Rosso’s mother and grandmother.

“We are very unique,” says Sharifa Jordan, who runs the restaurant with her husband Luca. “The concept is based on agritourismo in Italy.”

According to Jordan, the restaurant’s menu will change daily for lunch and dinner, and everything is made from scratch with local, fresh ingredients and specialty items imported from Italy.

The couple’s first restaurant opened in Woodbridge after Del Rosso moved to Canada from a small town in the Abruzzo region of Italy. But they sold the operation after deciding they wanted to work closer to their home in the Yonge and Highway 401 area. Entrees range from $12 to $37.

La Cascina is located at 1552 Avenue Rd., 416-590-7819.

Restaurant regular decides to buy the business

Bill Kaluski, a long-time regular at Richlee’s, recently took the reins as owner and relaunched the popular North Toronto eatery as Baka Restaurant and Richlee’s Private Dining Room.

Little has changed in the original dining room, says Kaluski, pointing to its Mediterranean menu, its kitchen and wait staff and its warm interior. Even the former owner of 18 years has stayed on as maître d’. One new touch has been the addition of a features menu that looks beyond the Mediterranean and explores cuisine from around the world.

Kaluski also leased the two-bedroom apartment above the restaurant, which he has transformed into a private dining room and a lounge. The two intimate new spaces feel more like they’re rooms in someone’s home than rooms in a restaurant, he says.

Baka Restaurant is located at 1959 Avenue Rd., call 416-483- 9818 for more information.

New look, same great veal chop

After 10 years in business, the owners of Sapori Trattoria decided it was time for a change.With the restaurant’s recent makeover, it has taken on a new name, Osteria, says co-owner Luigi Beccati.

The complete reinvention has taken it from fine dining establishment to casual Italian eatery, he says. It was a natural transition given the economic climate.

Both the aesthetic of the restaurant and menu offerings have changed. However, some of its old favourites are still available upon request, such as the veal chop. Although the new menu has introduced lower prices, the quality of the food remains the same, says Beccati.

Osteria is located at 3249 Yonge St. Call 416-545-0000 for more information.

Ritz-Carlton goes local with new culinary team

Thompson Toronto hotel amongst others might be importing culinary bright lights from south of the border, but the Ritz- Carlton will feature a local chef helming the kitchen of their signature restaurant this summer.

The five-star hotel has named Tom Brodi as chef de cuisine. Brodi was formerly chef de cuisine at Canoe Restaurant and Bar, and has also worked at North 44° and New York City’s Gramercy Tavern.

Scuttlebutt

An Aroma Espresso Bar is rumoured to be coming to the Forest Hill Village in the coming weeks, but nothing is finalized. The rumours have been confirmed, and Mark McEwan is indeed opening a new, casual Italian restaurant across from his gourmet food shop in the Shops at Don Mills complex.

Downtown eatery can't skirt around bad service

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7:57 am

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The quirky wraparound shape of the Black Skirt’s floor plan, plus the fresh, creative flower arrangements and comfy throw pillows placed here and there, combine to give this southern Italian eatery a homey, cozy feel. Too bad, then, about the stiff and serious attitudes of most of the staff, who seem only to stare and glare menacingly from the kitchen and from behind the open bar. We almost feel guilty, as if intruding.

We choose to turn our attentions to the room’s more pleasant features. The colour palette doesn’t venture far from a spectrum of cream and black hues—found in the chairs and stools, the tables and floor, the artwork and walls, the leathery banquette and even the menu. Strategically placed mirrors bounce around sunshiny reflections. The smells of pressed garlic and fresh basil make the mouth water.

Radio top 40 music pumps out from the speakers, but it’s nearly drowned out by the droning roar of a kitchen fan—the only benefit to this being that the noise also muffles the squeals and squawks of tots for neighbouring tables.

More than half the menu’s pages are dedicated to cocktails, mocktails, bubbly, wine and shooters—a telling balance of the restaurant’s focus. Elsewhere, other pages list rustic insalate, antipasti, sandwiches, and pastas—and nothing tops out over twenty dollars. Impressive.

“Daily specials” and the soup of the day are neither offered nor explained.

A wild mushroom saute of oysters, portobellos and criminis, plus diced onion, top four thin slices of crusty toasted baguette in one antipasti plate ($13). Pads of brie, almost melting but not quite, rest atop. This earthy, just-assembled starter sets high standards for plates to come.

Sadly, disappointment follows with ciccio ($14), a recommended dish from one of a list of nine pastas. Meat-filled ravioli may be pan-fried for crispness before being plated, but they’re drowning in brown butter. Parmigiano reggiano intensifies the saltiness. Whole sage leaves offer flavour contrast but can’t lighten the load.

We should have listened to our inner child and opted instead for one of three spaghettis (with basic tomato sauce, with tomato sauce, veal, meatballs and sausage, with fresh ricotta and parmigiano reggiano). Little ones love slurping and twirling—although we’re not sure how splatters of red sauce on furniture would have gone over in this room of darks and lights.

Black Skirt doesn’t strive to be a family-focused lunch spot, but in a pinch while pounding the pavement near Yonge and Bloor, it could serve to sate.

https://www.blackskirtrestaurant.com/

3 Charles Street East   (416) 935-0240

Style File: Evan Biddell's T.O. Fashion Week afterparty

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3:03 pm

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The tents of Toronto’s LG Fashion Week never fail to seduce some of the city’s fiercest fashionistas. PostCity.com caught up with a handful of these trendsetters at the afterparty for Evan Biddell’s fall 2010 collection and asked them to piece together their personal style.

Lynne Leclair

Name: Lynne Leclair
Occupation: Top Secret
Describe your style in two words: Modern Active
Favourite article of clothing: Chanel boots
What are you wearing? Jeans from Zara, Yves St. Laurent bag from Dubai, boots and shirt from Montreal
What would you not be caught dead wearing? My boyfriend’s boxers

Baby Steinberg

Occupation: Jewelery and clothing designer
Describe your style: Versatile and over-the-top
Favourite article of clothing: A brocade forest-green dress from the 1960s that my aunt gave me in Brazil

What are you wearing? Turban from H&M (I saw it on the mannequin and it wasn’t for sale but I convinced them to sell it to me), shoes and stockings from Brazil, the fur scarf was a gift from a model friend of mine
What would you not be caught dead wearing? Sweatpants and hoodies

Cher Thornton

Occupation: Vintage clothing buyer (theRefinery.com)

Describe your style in two words: Classy trashy

Favourite article of clothing: Anything leather

What are you wearing? A sable capelet from the 1920s, my leather mini from the 80s, a chiffon scarf and Kien earrings from the 80s, all from the Refinery.

What would you not be caught dead wearing? Crocs

Nadja Sayej

Occupation: Queen of Sass (and Journalist)

Describe your style in two words: Dolly Parton

Favourite article of clothing: The black bra that I’m wearing tonight

What are you wearing? Jacket from Vintage 69, Shoes from Aldo, socks from Queen Street West

What would you not be caught dead wearing?I wouldn’t be caught dead without my glasses

Marilisa Racco

Occupation: Journalist

Describe your style in two words: Boy chic

Favourite article of clothing: Chanel ballet flats

What are you wearing? A vintage dress from Versus (wore it to a boy’s prom in 1994), jacket from Milan, necklaces by Marc Jacobs and Beckerman

What would you not be caught dead wearing? Clogs

Sneak peak at J.P. Challet's new resto Ici

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11:01 am

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Acclaimed chef J.P. Challet is preparing to officially open Ici, his new French restaurant.

Ahead of the launch, Challet and his partners/fellow chefs — Peter Tsang and Jennifer Decorte — agreed to do a special game dinner for my friends and me.

We enjoyed a Chateau Larrivet-Haut Brion 2000 alongside hors d’oevres of goat cheese tarte with caramelized onion and a very mellow tasting onion tarte.

Next was lobster bisque with quenelles of whitefish, julienned cucumber and a dusting of powdered mandarin. The soup had a mild haunting flavour of fennel and the mandarin powder produced a delightfully appetizing aroma.

Along with a wonderful 1985 Clos De Vougeot by Bernard Raphet, we moved on to galantine of pheasant foie gras and coco beans accompanied by a fine green bean salad. The combination worked well as the pheasant was relatively dry with little fat and the rich foie gras brought its luxurious fat to the equation.

The fruit on the palate and feminine character of the wine also worked well with the foie gras and pheasant flavours.

Our next course, partridge tagine with crispy potato gnocchi, lemon harissa, truffles and coriander was a wonderful mixing of a relatively bland but gamey bird with mildly spicey citrus and earthy elements. The robust 1989 Armand Rousseau Chambertin was a complement for this complex tasting dish.

Savory duck tortiere followed. The pastry was flavourful, light and flaky. A mashed corn and saffron sauce and white truffle mashed potatoes were fabulous contrasts for the rich tasting duck — the corn particularly contributing a wonderful sweetness.

We enjoyed a 1988 Chateau Talbot, a big complex wine with a lead pencil element on the palate that matched so well with the duck.

Next, a rare duck breast with lemon ravioli stuffed with truffled mashed potatoes, orange and beet gastrique and lime caviar. The gamey meat and rich fat contrasted well with the gastrique and lime flavours. Despite the presence of the gastrique, the huge 1970 Chateau Lafite was not only a wonderful wine on its own but a heady complement for the duck with its cedar nose and black current flavours.

Venison followed, served with sweet potato and zucchini pancake, roasted parsnip cubes and truffle cream. We popped open a remarkable 1966 Chateau Pichon Lalande with the venison. The gamey flavoured venison and the earthiness of the truffle went so well with the grand fruit flavours of this wine.

Tarte tatin was the perfect dessert to go with our 1998 Chateau d’Yquem and 1989 Chateau Guiraud, complex wines with layers of fruit flavours.

Dr. Josh Josephson is the owner of The Cookbook Store and Josephson Opticians. He is a chevalier of Les Chevalier du Tastevin and the Le Chaine des Rotisseurs, a member of L’ordre Mondiale and a member and former president of the International Wine and Food Society, Toronto chapter.

Beware, those in the front row, you will get blasted

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2:08 pm

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IN A FEW days the Great Canadian Laugh Off will begin. A 10-night countdown where 64 comics will compete for $25,000. It happens every year.

Usually around this time I start biting my nails, and it’s not because I’m so excited to see who the winner will be. It’s because I host that show. It’s the only bit of stand-up I ever do any more.

Back in the ’70s and ’80s, I performed every night — nine shows a week, 52 weeks a year. It was the centre of my existence. I would sleep all day to be fresh for the shows that would consume me, and that convinced me that performing stand-up was my sole purpose on earth.

From the beginning, I saw my job not as an entertainer, but as a gladiator. Comedy was a blood sport, and to this day former patrons approach me gingerly to remind me what I said to them while they sat in the front row.

Ah, the front row. It’s where you sat with your friend or date knowing I would mercilessly peel off layers of their ego for the shocked delight of 200 strangers.

After a while, customers wised up to the trick and sat further back to avoid being part of the public flogging. No problem. I bought a police searchlight and wired it up onstage to illuminate my victims in rows six, seven, eight and beyond. No one was safe.

Everybody howled. I have the tapes to prove it.

I had no theatre training, which is normal for most stand-ups. I did a lot of public speaking and debating in school but very little acting. But when I worked at Harbourfront, before I started Yuk Yuk’s, I was asked to host a new talent night. I did and I was comfortable in the spotlight.

Slowly, some kind of persona grew, and I used the lines that worked again and again. My timing got better, and I started to recognize the kind of material that worked for me.

I had a grand time performing for over two decades. But then the rot set in. I began to repeat myself. My onstage persona started to leak out into my offstage life, making me a difficult person to be around. The business grew, and I couldn’t pay proper attention to it with a performance monkey on my back.

And I became a Cokehead — not the drug, the soda — knocking back 15 to 20 glasses a night for a quick sugar fix.

In the early ’90s, I slowed down my performance schedule and then quit altogether in 1994.

Do I miss it? I certainly don’t miss the lifestyle, but I still think funny and wish I could share my insights with a larger audience than a cocktail party.

Writing is a halfway house along the path of this addiction but doesn’t satisfy the primal joy of hearing a group of strangers squeal with delight. But my upcoming public performance looms over me, making me queasy and giving me fitful nights. On the night of the show, I’m tied to a pretty tight script.

But sometimes there’s a glitch, and I have to kill some time, improvising like the old days. I’m worried I’ll have nothing to say. Yet every year a combination of adrenalin and memory kicks in, and I’m back terrifying and exhilarating the front row. For a few moments, it’s the ’80s again, and you can’t get me off the stage.

Cruder than the Alberta tar sands!

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2:05 pm

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ONE OF MY favourite cartoons appeared in The New Yorker: a scruffy man stands in a phone booth speaking to an unseen victim: “Hello — is this Miss Johnston, the kindergarten teacher? This is an obscene call: NUMBER ONE! NUMBER TWO! KAKA-PEE PEE!”

Those witty lines came back to me countless times while watching the preview of The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein, to use its entire, unwieldy title.

Is it funny? Several times. Is it crude? Cruder than the Alberta tar sands. And though it is enjoyable in spots,the pleasure lasts about as long as cotton candy, and it is just as nourishing. But its level of humour is truly at the level of a five-year-old, or maybe an immature 10-year-old, captured well in an early song in which a man sings of his life, pauses, and cries out “BUT…” which immediately and inevitably is followed by him patting his rear end. (But/Butt — get it?)

Mel Brooks has never been the thinking-man’s comedian, although at his best, he penned inspired sketches for the great Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar. And The Producers, both the film and the musical (directed by Susan Stroman, as is this show), was some of Mel Brooks’s finest work.

But watching Young Frankenstein brought to this critic’s mind an interview he gave decades ago: “As a kid,my idea of sex was ‘if it moves,fondle it!’”Funny, but infantile, like three-quarters of the laughs in this show. If you take children, they’ll miss all the very funny parodies of 1930s horror movies in the handsome sets and (one hopes) the vulgar references to the monster’s large organ but may be charmed by the sexist, dated “dumb blonde” jokes, and attractive, buxom women dancing about in irrelevant garter belts.

Is Young Frankenstein worth seeing? If you enjoy Mel Brooks, as I do, you’ll find some things to laugh over. And if you have the sexual maturity and attitudes of a preadolescent, it’s a perfect evening. Young Frankenstein runs until April 18 at the Princess of Wales theatre.

For more information go to www.mirvish.com.

Acclaimed local musician cuts it close to the bone on raw new album

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2:02 pm

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HAWKSLEY WORKMAN should break up more often. It does wonders for the Canadian music scene. Inspired in part by the ending of two relationships — one of the romantic variety, the other a record label — Workman is releasing two albums this year and returns to Massey Hall this month for a concert appearance.

The first album, Meat, hit record stores in January and will be followed up by Milk this month.

Meat is the manlier, rockin’ release while Milk shows off his dainty, sensitive Euro pop side. “It seems that I can’t make one record without making two,” says Workman.

“After a trip to New York City to work and then chance meetings with writers/producers in Stockholm, I realized that I had two very different records evolving.”

Meat is diverse in its musical stylings, with moody, introspective tracks side by side with relentless, chaotic sonic assaults. It is vintage Workman and some of his finest work in years.

One thing that pulls the albums together is Workman’s characteristically honest and powerful lyrics.

“I reckon self-censorship doesn’t yield really great, honest music,” says Workman.

“I always think that there is no such thing as too personal in terms of what is fair game for songwriting. Honesty is the most important thing. I would guess that if you know my music you know much of who I am, save the laundry/dishes/teeth-brushing part. Gushing and bleeding is part of the job.”

Workman admits that breaking up with his record company was no harder than his girlfriend, and that, for him,writing for the album had nothing to do with exorcising those demons.

“I’m not really one of those writing-as-catharsis-type fellows,” he explains.

“I just try and write as simple and honest and close to the bone as I can.”

Workman didn’t just tap gently on the window of the music scene a decade ago, asking to come in like a polite young Canadian from Huntsville would. He kicked the door in with an avant garde musical style and raw intensity on his debut album For Him and the Girls that propelled the young musician to dizzying musical heights almost overnight.

“A lot has happened in the last 11 years — much travel, much experience, career and relationship ups and downs,” says Workman. “Those naive days of yore are certainly long gone.”

Milk will mark an even dozen albums released byWorkman since 1999, in addition to his work as a producer of some of the finest talent in the country, such as Serena Ryder, Tegan and Sara and Great Big Sea, and his latest venture — the silver screen.

After putting together a collection of songs to provide the soundtrack to Michael McGowan’s upcoming movie, Score: A Hockey Musical (Yes, the one starring Olivia Newton-John) Workman had a chance to stretch his acting muscles.

“It was a brilliant thing to be a part of,”Workman explains.

“It started by me writing a song for it then being asked to write another.… After writing five or six, I was asked if I wanted to be a ‘rink rat.’ So there I was singing and playing hockey for 10 hours straight — sounds like the Canadian dream.”

Things change. He has no plans to open for Bowie or New Order, like in the good, old days. But he has plenty of music left in the tank. “Music is my duty,” says Workman. “It is all I’ve ever done.

I’ve worked with dedicated heart and mind since I was a kid.” Catch Hawksley Workman at Massey Hall on April 24. For ticket information go to www.masseyhall.com.

An ode to everything ‘awesome’

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1:59 pm

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ONE WEEK NEIL Pasricha is working at his human resources job tucked away in a cubicle in a suburban Mississauga office complex, the next he’s walking the red carpet at the 2009 Webby Awards alongside Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Fallon.

The modest Toronto resident had his 15 minutes and then some, including a chit-chat with Martha Stewart, but with the publication of a book based on his popular blog, 1000awesomethings.com, it is looking like a bit of extended fame time for Mr. Pasricha. “I am massively surprised by its success,” says Pasricha, over coffee in a North Toronto café. “I mean, I felt lucky when I got one hit [on his website].”

The blog is Pasricha’s valiant response to the run-of-the-mill doom and gloom that dominates the daily news as well as some of his own problems with his marriage (he’s now single) and with a friend coping with depression (he committed suicide).

“I just wanted to do something positive and talk about what’s awesome about life, the small simple pleasures,” Pasricha explains.

June 20, 2008, Entry #1000: Broccoflower. And so began the countdown.

“I actually underestimated how long it would take, until someone reminded me that I wouldn’t be done until 2012.” Pasricha laughs. “I didn’t mentally process it.”

It didn’t take long for the site to catch on, and soon he was getting tens of thousands of hits every day, and he was nominated for Best Blog at the Webbys.

After his surprise win, literary agents and book publishers beat a path to his virtual door. But, five minutes into our conversation, it became evident that, even if he was still just doing it for his friends, it wouldn’t make a lick of difference.

“I’m certainly addicted to writing it,” says Pasricha. “It is massively addictive.”

“You know, I’m just an average guy,” says Pasricha, with genuine modesty. “I don’t even know how to use a semicolon. I work in a cubicle in suburbia, I should go to the gym more, and I eat frozen burritos.”

The book, published on April 24, contains some classic entries from his blog and all-new awesomeness, including “Fixing electronics by smacking them” and “Waking up and realizing it is Saturday.”

“It is so easy to see them now, I notice awesome things everywhere,” he says.