Friday, August 16, 2019

One Pot Wonder

Chinatown Dundas West Toronto - 2019

Saturday was a stay at home day. We each relaxed and did what we wanted.

Dinner was maple syrup salmon, roasted potatoes and carrots.

Sunday we debated going out but opted to read and catch up on our favourite shows, along with golf for John.
I finished Masterchef Australia 2019 and then discovered Masterchef Singapore!!

Roasted chicken with lemon butter, roast potato (John insisted) mashed sweet and white potatoes with mushy peas. And I made crispy fish skin for the first time.

Monday John golfed and I did some groceries.
Dinner was fully loaded baked potato with broccoli and bacon at John's request.


Tuesday, after lunch, we went to the AGO, John wanted to see the Brian Jurgen exhibit that I had seen last week.










The AGO has one of the nicest museum gift shops.







I had a new ice cream place picked out, close by. 
Baldwin Village is a small enclave just east of Chinatown and north of the AGO lined with about three dozen restaurants, cafes and stores.

McCaul St.


John was "yum, Peking duck" on Baldwin.



Destination - Thai stir-fried ice cream rolls!!


Making the ice cream.











A new-to-us mural by Smoky.


Down Beverley.



Beverley Street features several yellow-brick mansions of some of Toronto’s most pre-eminent families, the “Family Compact” – the true power brokers of the early 19th century. Families such as the Cawthras and others owned huge tracts of land in what is today’s downtown Toronto.



George Lissant Beardmore, a prosperous tanner, built this house, named for his birthplace, in 1871-72, with additions and alterations by Eden Smith, Architect, in 1890. His son, George Wathen Beardmore, occupied the house until his death. In 1937 it was purchased for use as the Italian Consulate. The property was taken over by the Government of Canada in 1939, and for almost twenty years, the building served as a barracks for the R.C.M.P. In 1962 the Canadian Government gave the house to the Italian community as a training centre for immigrants and in 1977 "Chudleigh" again became Toronto's Italian Consulate.



I had spotted this new installation in Chinatown last week so John and I went to check it out.


The Chinatown Toronto BIA, in collaboration with the City of Toronto, has just begun the construction of a beautiful-sounding new public square on Huron Street.

Appropriately named "Huron Street Square," the outdoor space just north of Dundas Street West will including unique seating, lighting, a bronze Qilin and decorative pavers, among other features.



Well, it's not quite a square as yet, the road is still there.


Chinese zodiac calendar.





Now in the heart of Chinatown.







Wednesday was John's golfing day.

Dinner was Pho with pork meatballs.


Thursday the plan was to go to the Distillery District for lunch and find some of the Brains.

The day was doomed from the time we waited, forever, for the 121 bus. John is on his mussels quest after his non-lunch a couple of weeks ago, when the Museum Tavern didn't have any. He was skeptical at Pure Spirits when he read "organic" mussels and not PEI. And well he should have been. These were little itsy-bitsy mussels in a dishwater "traditional Provencal" sauce.

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I also had a dismal meal, ordering Jonah crab claws. These are so hard to crack open and yield so little meat for the effort.


The manager happened by to ask how our meal (the server hadn't bothered) was and we mentioned the mussels were mediocre. She immediately comped the $25 for the dish.

And then it rained when we stepped out and got really cold, so we took the suggestion that perhaps we should go home and call it a day!

But look how pretty the love locks look.



Dinner was burgers and chips.


Friday John headed to play golf.

I first went to TTC headquarters and got a subway pass to be used by visitors.

Then to Bloor and Bathurst to pick up a gluten-free bread order.
Along the way, I was in Koreatown.



Insomnia Club...









Mural in progress and another up on the far wall. PAT is a large Korean grocery store on my list to visit.






Yup, that says POOP Cafe. Also on my list to visit.


Christie Pits
The Korea Town Business Improvement Area lights him up every winter to symbolize, according to Korean mythology, well-being and prosperity.





On August 16 (TODAY), 1933, a group of men calling themselves the Pit Gang unfurled a banner of a swastika at a baseball game at Christie Pits Park in Toronto. They were targeting the Harbord Playground team, a group of mostly Jewish men, who were playing a game that evening.
According to the Toronto Daily Star, 10,000 people were involved in the riot, "excited by cries of 'Heil Hitler.'"
The Italian team who were playing opposite the Harbord Playground helped to defend their Jewish counterparts.
Although people were using baseball bats and knives to attack each other, no one died during the riot.


My destination, and it turns out it is a place we had been before. Three loaves of gluten-free sourdough bread are not light to carry!


We tasted the bread when we got home and it was delicious.







BOOKS

AGO Gift Shop Toronto ON


Finished Widows, meh, I think the movie would be better (SHOCK!).

Started Peter Robinson's 25th Inspector Banks Careless Love.


SUMMER OF ICE CREAM

Taiyaki NYC Japanese Dundas W
Dainties Macaron ice cream macaron sandwich Spadina
Arctic Bites Thai stir fried ice cream rolls Baldwin St.


LINKING UP WITH
Beth hosts Weekend Cooking where you can post anything food related.
Saturday Snapshots is hosted by A Web of Stories.
Sunday Salon

16 comments:

  1. Visitors with Presto cards sounds better than visitors without. Some great buildings in this week's round up post.

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    Replies
    1. I love my Presto card and esp. that it allows multiple free trips in a two hour period.

      Delete
  2. Jackie,
    I'm so impressed with all the things you do and see in a week. If I had to review my week, it would be very dull. I played mah jong, made pakoras, watered my plants, ate at a restaurant along the canal- I guess I could have taken photos of the sites along the canal.. Well, I enjoyed sharing your exciting week! Thanks for an interesting post

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    Replies
    1. Take photos as you go along, I'm sure you'd be surprised.
      How did the pakoras work out?

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  3. Let me know what you think about the latest DCI Banks book. I am awaiting the one out in January, at least here it’s a January release.. I wrote to Robinson’s site and asked about Banks as he is aging in real time. They wrote back and said they will slow his aging process down.

    Love your tour of Chinatown but I wouldn’t order a fried pig kidney - yikes! The history about the Pit Gang was interesting and I’m afraid rings true with things going on in the US now. It’s very sad.
    Love the foods you presented....mmmm.

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  4. I don't think you can go wrong with Banks! Do we know how old the character would be?
    Fried pig kidney, I would try since I like kidney anyway. Chinatown is always an experience, so much to see.

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  5. I love loaded baked potatoes . . . hummm may have to do that this coming week. And the GF bread looks really good.

    That sports art was interesting and different. And I always love the street art and murals.

    I loved the houses you photographed and the trip to Chinatown. The Pits riot . . . yikes!!!

    I have kale in the house too. I was going to make risotto with it, but a quiche sounds great too.

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  6. The first time I'd heard of the Christie Pits riot was in school. I've never actually been there.

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  7. Sometimes I think you live in a paradise of art and delicious food all around you. You seem to find art wherever you go in your city. I especially love the ice cream video. I don't think I would have been able to imagine it otherwise!

    I had to add that lovely book about books in art to my wish list. I hope someone gets that for me for my birthday in November.

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  8. Enjoyed your tour as always, I love the proliferation of murals, I’d like to see some in my town.

    Have a great week

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  9. What a lovely week for you guys. The murals are fab.

    I also love your choice of baked potatoes for tea. You just can't beat them!

    Have a great week ahead you pair. x #MMBC

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  10. Lots of interesting things and food happened in your week! Thank you so much for sharing it with All Seasons! Oh, before I forget, that was fun to know you bought a T-shirt in Santa Inez - it's such a cute little town! Would not want to live in Solvang - to deal with so many tourists year after year!
    Haha, I don't think van Gogh ever thought he would be eternalized like this, centuries later!
    Like the skull of the first artist, because it's using leather used for baseball in a new way - that's creative. But I wonder about the untitled piece - I don't see anything creative there,since they didn't use the combination of the items in a new way at all! What got that riot going was so hateful!! No wonder - am glad people stood up for justice - here in the USA it's hard to come by news from abroad! During our Skype chat, (living in the Netherlands) our son had already seen things about the protesters i Hong Kong (pointing lasers at the police to ward off the facial recognition instruments) three weeks before I saw it on youtube (as the side bar of another sidebar!!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not a t-shirt, a gorgeous $100 shirt I still love.
      I should have put a description, the other pieces are meant to resemble the Indian head dresses or ceremonial masks worn.
      Hong Kong news is featured here daily. You really don't get that kind of news? Yesterday I saw a HK protester standing outside our Union station.

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  12. I always leave your blog hungering for something I won't find or make anytime soon. This time, it's kimchi and kimchi radish.

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