Cool Hand Luc's New Fall Menu

Earlier this year in January, I posted my first Cool Hand Luc (Twitter: @CoolHandLucTO, Facebook: Cool Hand Luc) post - More Than Just Ice Cream at Cool Hand Luc - where I had the opportunity to try their fresh soups, chili, and delicious grilled cheese sandwiches (all part of their winter menu at the time). Fast forward nine months later to, well, this past Tuesday, and I found myself back at Cool Hand Luc again for their new fall menu *Thanks Luc* but geez, how time flies!

With a new chef on board, Cool Hand Luc's fall menu consists of several new additions such as salads, fresh rolls and signature grilled sandwiches. 

My friend Audrey, from Tasty Tours (@tasty_tours) and I tried the following:

Fresh Rolls: Cucumber, yellow zucchini, carrot, red pepper, basil and green onion with a choice of vegetarian, roasted orange chicken or soya beef 

Soups: Potato & Leek, Butternut Squash

Culture.licious: Kyunga's Seoul Meal from Korea

Culture.licious (Facebook: Culture.licious, Twitter: @Culturelicious) hosts intimate cooking events at various GTA locations where guests learn how to make cultural dishes. Inspired by her backpacking days in the Far East, Wendy Chung, founder of Culture.licious, wants guests to experience a "journey to a different world and acquire knowledge of different cultures and traditions, learn about foreign ingredients and cooking techniques, as well as personal stories of our Cooks". In addition to learning how to make delicious ethnic dishes (with recipe booklets to take home) guests will also enjoy an elaborate three-course meal at the end of class that they've made together with their Culture.licious Cooks. And who are these Culture.licious Cooks exactly? They are a group of hand-selected immigrant home cooks from around the world who loves food and their heritage, and are passionate about sharing their recipes and kitchen secrets to anyone who wants to learn.

I was invited to Culture.licious' "Kyunga's Seoul Meal from Korea" cooking class last Saturday at Whole Foods Market Square One's (@WFMSquareOne) cooking studio. Kyunga, a Culture.licious Cook, is from Seoul, Korea, and was brought up with her mom's home cooking there.

The class started off with Kyunga showing us how to make haemulpahjun, or Korean chive seafood pancake. 

All of us paying close attention...

Enoteca Sociale

Celebrated a friend's birthday last Thursday at Enoteca Sociale (@EnoSociale). The birthday girl and I started things off with a glass of prosecco each...

...and proceeded with a bottle of wine for the four of us (really felt like a Friday!)

We shared the appetizers...

Salumi board

Bresaola, figs, pine nuts & ricotta di bufala ($14)

Chococrepe's Skillet Cookie...

is something I would want to have EVERY SINGLE DAY.

That is all ^_*

Have a great weekend everybody!

Oyster Boy's New Menu Tasting

Chef Deron Engbers (@TheDeron) invited me to Oyster Boy's (Twitter: @OysterBoyTO, Facebook: Oyster Boy Restaurant) new menu tasting two weeks ago. Engbers, who helped out part time at Oyster Boy for five months prior to his full time gig as executive chef at the end of July, was given the task of updating Oyster Boy's menu by putting his own spin on it while continuing the Oyster Boy tradition.

When asked about what his philosophy for food was, Engbers said it is "all about cooking food that people can identify with...that they can understand....and that once in awhile, produce a "WOW" moment for them." After being in the kitchen since 17, chef Engbers have done every style of food from casual to the highest level of fine dining but says his current favourite style is fun bistro food.

Started things off perfectly with some fresh, plump oysters.

Weslodge

Whether you love it or hate it (I personally love it) it is hard to miss these tall, glossy yellow doors at Weslodge (Twitter: @Weslodge, Facebook: Weslodge). Located on King West, this "modern saloon" opened its eye-catching doors in July offering lunch, dinner, Sunday brunch as well as an extensive list of cocktails (strong cocktails...no fruity drinks for me here!)

The decor at Weslodge is quite neat; the "traditional old west" meets "updated parlor saloon" theme can be found throughout the restaurant (not surprising really, it is Ink Entertainment after all and they always know how to make a statement when it comes to interior design) Oh and bartenders also have gun holsters on their shoulders :) In contrast to what you may think (I was also guilty of this at first) Weslodge is not all about looks, at least in my opinion - I've been to Weslodge several times for food and each time I left pretty satisfied.

Gentlemen's Quarterly - Bombay Sapphire Gin, Chartreuse, Benedictine, Absinthe, Grapefruit Bitters ($16)

Blowfish Restaurant

Blowfish (Facebook: Blowfish Restaurant + Sake Bar, Twitter: @BlowfishResto) has two locations in downtown: one at King & Bathurst (original location, established in 2003) and the other at Bay & Adelaide (opened in 2011). When my friend Amy (@lu_amy7) suggested to go to  Blowfish for dinner, I picked the Bay location only because I have a $20 gift card for that specific location. If not for the gift card, we probably would have ended up at the King location which was closer to the both of us.

Very chic lounge decor: structured dark wood panels, glossy bronze / high black leather booths, pink neon lights...

I found the general vibe at Blowfish pretty similar to Ki.

The Winner of the CHEESEWERKS Contest is...

@loucheryl

Congratulations Cheryl! Please contact CHEESEWERKS to reserve your BIG CHEESE EXPERIENCE dinner for two (note that October 3 is the last day to redeem your prize)! I hope you and your guest will enjoy CHEESEWERKS =D

I also want to say a big THANKS to the 88 contestants who participated in this giveaway! 

Here's a snapshot of the Excel spreadsheet where I tracked the #bigcheeseexperience hashtag 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 the BIG CHEESE EXPERIENCE dinner for TWO from @CHEESEWERKS! http://bit.ly/QDsk8E #bigcheeseexperience". 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 CHEESEWERKS for them to verify.)

After checking the list above, we found that 31 out of the 88 contestants did not follow BOTH of us on twitter (read the rules people!). After eliminating those 31 people from the list, I was left with 57 contestants.  I then went to "True Random Number Generator" from random.org to randomly pick a winner from the updated list.

The Winner of Mongrel Media's TIFF Party Tickets is..

Thank you to the 84 contestants who participated in this giveaway. I can't believe that in merely two days so many of you entered my contest! I guess people really like TIFF parties :D Anyway, the winner of a pair of tickets to Mongrel Media's TIFF party at Hart House tomorrow night is...

@star_chronicles

Congratulations Melissa! FeasTO (@FeasTOronto) will be in touch with you shortly on Twitter. I hope you and your guest will have a blast! Thanks again to FeasTO for offering the tickets for this contest :)

Here's a snapshot of the Excel spreadsheet where I tracked the #mongreltiff hashtag stream from last Friday. 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 pair of tickets to Mongrel Media's TIFF party! http://bit.ly/RkLekS #mongreltiff". 

I then went to "True Random Number Generator" from random.org to randomly pick a winner from the updated list.

TIFF Party Tickets Giveaway - CLOSED

Thanks to FeasTO (@FeasTOronto), I have a PAIR of tickets to give away to an exclusive, hot-ticket, invite-only TIFF party!

Join Mongrel Media in celebrating their films at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival

When: Monday, September 10 @ 9PM

Where: Hart House (7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto)

Special Musical Performances by:

Decades

Eight and a Half (Members of Broken Social Scene and The Stills)

DJ set by Kele (Bloc Party)

Did I mention that the party is an ALL YOU CAN EAT, ALL YOU CAN DRINK event? :D

Food vendors:

FeasTO

Babi & Co

Maizal Quesadilla Cafe

Grace

Holy Chuck Burgers

The Mad Italian

Torito Tapas Bar

The Bellevue

Drink vendors:

Aperol

Heineken

SKYY Vodka

HOW TO ENTER

1) Follow me (@foodieyu) on Twitter;

AND

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

I want to win a pair of tickets to Mongrel Media's TIFF party! http://bit.ly/RkLekS #mongreltiff

*Limit one entry per person*
*Contest is tracked by the #mongreltiff hashtag stream*

CONTEST DURATION

I will announce the lucky winner on Sunday, September 9.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^