CHEESEWERKS CONTEST - CLOSED

I'm giving away a BIG CHEESE EXPERIENCE for TWO at CHEESEWERKS!

CHEESEWERKS' BIG CHEESE EXPERIENCE is a dinner for TWO which includes: Fondue, Mac + Cheese, Grilled Cheese sandwich plus a drink (house wine or beer). Don't miss out! :)

HOW TO ENTER

1) You MUST follow me (@foodieyu) and CHEESEWERKS  (@CHEESEWERKS) on Twitter;

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown, nothing before or after it: 

I want to win the BIG CHEESE EXPERIENCE dinner for TWO from @CHEESEWERKS! http://bit.ly/QDsk8E #bigcheeseexperience

*Limit one entry per person*

*Contest is tracked by the #bigcheeseexperience hashtag stream*
*Winner must contact CHEESEWERKS for reservation*
 *Prize must be redeemed before October 3, 2012*

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Thursday, August 30 and ends on Thursday, September 6 at 12PM.

The lucky winner will be chosen randomly from www.random.org. I will announce the winner on Monday, September 10.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^

CHEESEWERKS

CHEESEWERKS (Twitter: CHEESEWERKS, Facebook: CHEESEWERKS), located at 56 Bathurst Street across from the Thompson Hotel, is a restaurant that is all about CHEESE. Family owned and operated, owners Kevin Durkee and Tom Douangmixay have crafted a menu that offers artisan grilled cheese sandwiches (where each grilled cheese can also be made into a mac + cheese), house-made soups, fine cheeses, charcuterie, cheese fondue and other ooegy gooey grub. In addition, you can pair your grilled cheese sandwich with refreshing house-made lemonade, sodas, or even a a bottle of Ontario wine or local craft beer!

My friend and I went to CHEESEWERKS several weeks ago for dinner, a private tasting to be specific. We honestly did not know what to expect...a tasting? Of grilled cheese sandwiches? Regardless of how odd that may sound, I was still super excited about the tasting because ever since I had CHEESEWERKS' "Beijing mac + cheese" at the Ride And Go Feast bus tour, I couldn't stop thinking about it (I licked that bowl CLEAN). 

CHEESEWERKS is not just about grilled cheese sandwiches; they also sell fine cheeses, breads, gourmet pantry items, books and magazines.

You must watch View The Vibe's (@ViewTheVibe) video for CHEESEWERKS! And make sure you watch till the very end for a special promo :D

The Winner of the Chococrêpe Contest is...

@foodigatorJ

Congratulations Justine =D chococrepe will be contacting you soon! I hope you and your 3 friends will enjoy the free drink, savoury crepe and sweet crepe at chococrepe.

I also want to say a big THANKS to the 40 contestants who participated in this giveaway! 

Here's a snapshot of the Excel spreadsheet where I tracked the #chococrepefor4 stream from day one of the contest. The tracking was done using chronological order, as in, #1 was the first person who entered right the contest. To enter, the person has to tweet "I want to win a meal for four people @chococrepeTO! http://bit.ly/S1qWvb #chococrepefor4". Once the contest was over and everybody's entries were accounted for in my spreadsheet, I went to check if they actually followed me on Twitter (I also sent the below list of contestants to chococrepe for them to verify.)

After weeding out the people that did not follow me or chococrepe, I was left with 25 contestants. I went to "True Random Number Generator" from random.org to randomly pick a winner for me from 1 to 25.

Maizal Quesadilla Café

In June, Maizal Quesadilla Café (Facebook: Maizal Toronto, Twitter: MaizalToronto) quietly took over the space previously occupied by Liberty Belle Bistro. Although serving Mexican street food, you will not find any tacos at Maizal (I know, shocking!) Rather, the café focuses on handcrafted, artisanal corn quesadillas which owners Gabriela Ituarte and Ivan Wadgymar make fresh from scratch every day. Let me tell you straight off the bat that Maizal's quesadillas are so good that you will completely forget about tacos when you are there :)

Maizal's menu is short and sweet, ideal for a quick sit-down lunch or takeout. 

The owners use this Nixtamex corn grinder (left) to grind corn every morning. Fun and educational information about corn, tortillas and the quesadilla café can be found on chalkboards.

Urraca Resto Lounge

Despite the fact that I live in Mississauga, everybody knows I practically live and breathe downtown the 18 hours I'm awake...especially when it comes to eating out. Having said that, I could not say no when Alex Gadoury, sous chef of Urraca Resto Lounge (@UrracaResto) in North York, emailed me and invited me to go try Urraca a month prior to its grand opening. In his email, Gadoury described Urraca as utilizing a fusion style of cuisine:

"We are a continental tapas style concept restaurant with heavy Korean influences. We want people to come relax after work, stop by and have a drink and order a small plate before they go home. The prices are very affordable so you have the option to try a variety of dishes. This gives more freshness and flexibility to the customer as well as the kitchen staff...

...We want to introduce Korean cuisine to the non-korean demographic even if the restaurant is situated in the middle of Korea Town. There aren't any competitive restaurants in the area other than Moxie's or Kelsey's that cater to the young demographic. There are restaurants that strictly cater to Koreans but we are trying to get away from strictly serving the Korean crowd. It is a gamble but one that we are willing to take to become pioneers in that aspect."

I was curious. I was intrigued. Bringing a friend with me, I made my way to Urraca a couple of weeks ago for dinner. We had the following dishes:

Complementary Wonton Chips & Onion Rings 

Rosewood Winery's All-Stars In The Vineyard

I had the pleasure of attending All-Stars In The Vineyard at Rosewood Estates Winery (@Rosewoodwine) this past Sunday, August 19. This unique winemaker's dinner featured Rosewood's top award winning wines (as well as their unreleased wines) with dishes specifically prepared by chefs from Ortolan (@0rt0lan), Torito Tapas Bar (@ToritoTapas), Nick & Nat's Uptown 21 (@NNUptown21), and Richmond Station (@richmondstn). Unlike your typical sit-down dinners, All-Stars In The Vineyard lets guests stroll, sip and savour food and wine pairings at the various stations within Rosewood's beautiful vineyard. After attending Rosewood's Bees, Mead & Cheese class last month at Le Dolci and subsequently falling in love with their honey and mead, I was really looking forward to tasting Rosewood's other wines (as well as all the chefs' creations) at this one-of-a-kind event.

Rosewood's picturesque vineyard

Guests were each given a map detailing the location of the four stations.

Chococrêpe Contest

Do you like crêpes? Are you ready to taste some of the most delicious savoury and sweet crêpes in Toronto? Here is your chance at chococrêpe!

The winner of this chococrêpe contest can bring along 3 friends, where the 4 of you can each enjoy a drink, a savoury crêpe, and a dessert crêpe...all for FREE! Thanks to chococrêpe! :D

HOW TO ENTER

1) You MUST follow me (@foodieyu) and chococrêpe (@chococrepeTO) on Twitter;

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown, nothing before or after it: 

I want to win a meal for four people @chococrepeTO! http://bit.ly/S1qWvb #chococrepefor4

*Limit one entry per person*

*Contest is tracked by the #chococrepefor4 hashtag stream*

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Friday, August 17 and ends on Friday, August 24 at 12PM.

The lucky winner will be chosen randomly from www.random.org. I will announce the winner on Monday, August 27.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^

Ride and Go Feast

On Sunday, July 29th, I joined a group of 20 or so foodies for Ride and Go Feast's (Twitter: @RideAndGoFeast, Facebook: Ride and Go Feast) very first bus tour. Hosted by The Culinary Adventure Company (@culinaryadvco) and View the Vibe (@viewthevibe), the roaming mystery bus tour for food lovers ("mystery" in that the day's theme and itinerary are both kept secret) takes place on the last Sunday of every month with a different theme each time. The tour makes various stops at restaurants around town, introducing you to some of Toronto's hottest chefs and the best places to dine as you enjoy dishes, cocktails and wines that have been specifically prepared for the tour. With so many great places to go and something new always popping up in Toronto, Ride and Go Feast helps guests discover all the amazing spots that our city has to offer. The most amazing part of Ride and Go Feast is that all proceeds from the tour go to the Daily Bread Food Bank (@DailyBreadTO)! If this is not the ultimate way to give back to the community while having fun, meeting new friends, eating delicious food, the whole time being chauffeured around town in a private bus, I honestly don't know what is.

The theme for Ride and Go Feast's first ever tour was "Hogtown". We started off at the first location for cocktails and hors d'oeurvers, then moved to the second spot for appetizers, third location for main course with the final stop for dessert. Check out View the Vibe's vlog to get an inside look of our adventure!


Ride and Go Feast: Hogtown Adventure from View the Vibe on Vimeo.

FIRST STOP: Rooftop patio of the Energy Xchange 

chococrêpe

Generally speaking, most people associate "crêpe" with "dessert". Fair, since there are numerous dessert spots that offer sweet crêpes on their menus alongside cakes, ice creams, waffles, etc.. However, the chances of one finding a savoury crêpe as an entrée at a restaurant is rather slim. Well, in comes chococrêpe (Twitter: @ChococrepeTO, Facebook: Choco Crepe), a creperie located on Queen West (620 Queen St. W). Owners Dewey Troung and wife Kim of chococrêpe are determined to change the popular perception of "crêpe = dessert" by concentrating on not just dessert crêpes but also on a variety of delicious savoury crêpes for lunch and dinner. The couple's inspiration for savoury crêpes came from vacationing in Montreal and Europe where they often indulged in crêpes as their main course.

As I mentioned previously, there are two types of crêpes at chococrêpe: 1) Savoury: currently with 12 savoury crêpes on their menu, chococrêpe uses buckwheat flour for these (which has a lighter texture and is slightly sweeter than their normal crepe batter) and 2) Sweet: 12 sweet crêpes made with regular crêpe batter (you can add a scoop of gelato or sorbet to any sweet crêpe).

My friend Audrey of Tasty Tours (@tasty_tours) and I had quite a crêpe tasting on our visit; we shared 3 savoury crêpes, a salad, and 2 sweet crêpes.

The Winner of Samba Days eGift Card Giveaway is...

@DarrinChung

Congratulations Darrin! =D Please email me at foodjunkiechronicles@gmail.com with your first name, last name, phone number, email and mailing address! I hope you will enjoy your Samba Days $50 eGift card!

I also want to say a big THANKS to the 18 contestants who participated in this giveaway! 

Here's a snapshot of the Excel spreadsheet where I tracked the #SambaDaysContest stream from day one of the contest. The tracking was done using chronological order, as in, #1 was the first person who entered right the contest. To enter, the person has to tweet "I want to win a $50 @SambaDays eGift Card! http://bit.ly/QAh5M6 #SambaDaysContest". Once the contest was over and everybody's entries were accounted for in my spreadsheet, I went to check if they actually followed me on Twitter.

After weeding out the people that did not follow me, I was left with 17 contestants. I went to "True Random Number Generator" from random.org to randomly pick a winner for me from 1 to 17.