Table 17 Giveaway Contest - CLOSED

Have you been to Table 17? 

If not, you are missing out BIG time. But no worries, here's your chance to fix that.

If yes, then good for you! But I'm sure you can always go back for more "Hot Balls" =P

OK here's the deets, quick and dirty.

I'm giving away a $50 gift certificate to Table 17. 

See below for contest rules!!!

HOW TO ENTER

1) You must be following both me (@foodieyu) and Table 17 (@table17) on Twitter

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown: 

"I want to win a $50 gift certificate to @table17! http://bit.ly/pbjaYe #T17GC" 

(You can only tweet this once)

THIS EARNS YOU AN ENTRY BALLOT

3) To increase your chances of winning, you can include the hashtag "#T17GC" in any tweet or retweet any tweet that you see with the hashtag "#T17GC". Each tweet / retweet earns you ONE extra ballot and you can tweet / retweet as many times as you wish! Again, you MUST have completed steps 1) & 2) for any of your tweets or retweets to count.

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Saturday, August 20th at 12PM & ends on Saturday, September 3rd at 12PM.

I will announce the lucky winner on Friday, September 9th.

GOOD LUCK! ^_^

Oh and in case you haven't been to Table 17 before, feel free to read my posts about it here: Brunch, Dinner, Table D'Hote

Candied Walnut Gorgonzola Salad

On the same day that I made my Cranberry Granola Nut Bars, I also made this Candied Walnut Gorgonzola Salad. No I'm not turning into a health nut, faaaar from it (although I am obsessed with nuts lately...can you tell?). All in all, I'm just trying to eat healthier on the days when I'm not out stuffing my face at restaurants. Simple as that.


I bought a huge bag of cranberries for my Cranberry Granola Nut Bars so I knew I wanted to incorporate that in my salad. I also love having cheese (of any kind) in it so I was pretty happy when I found this recipe; it had everything that I was looking for...and more! It was my first time making candied walnuts and I can seriously just munch on them non stop (had to stop myself or else there wouldn't be any left for the salad). The crunchiness and sweetness from the walnuts, combined with the strong Gorgonzola and the sourness from the dried cranberries, makes this Candied Walnut Gorgonzola Salad my fav salad right now.  


Really. Consider doubling the walnuts for snacking =D


Candied Walnut Gorgonzola Salad - adapted from allrecipes
(4 servings)


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup walnut halves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 cups mixed greens
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 1 tablespoon raspberry vinaigrette
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Note: I used spinach instead of mixed greens (I ♥ spinach)

Instructions

1. Place walnuts and sugar in a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves into a light brown liquid and coats the walnuts.

2. Remove the walnuts from skillet, and spread them out on a sheet of aluminum foil to cool. 

3. Place in a large salad bowl the mixed greens, cranberries, cheese, vinaigrette, vinegar, and olive oil. Too gently.

4. Add candied walnuts, and toss again. DONE!

Dining Date Night - 30% Off Some of Toronto's Top Restaurants

If you've been following my blog, you should know by now that I'm all about restaurant deals; with the number of times I eat out each week, any sort of discount helps my poor wallet O_o So when I came across Dining Date Night (Twitter: @DiningDateNight, Facebook: Dining Date Night) a month or so ago on Twitter, I thought it was just another site similar to Groupon, Fabfind, dealfind, and gazillion others out there. Nothing against those sites as I have bought and used many many vouchers myself; but honestly, I do believe that there are just way too many daily deal sites out there and I simply can't keep up sometimes (my inbox is constantly overflowing with emails every morning). Thinking that Dining Date Night is another daily deal site, I registered as a member and was ready to check out what their daily deal was until I found out it wasn't a daily deal site at all.


What differentiates Dining Date Night with other daily deal sites is that there are no coupons, no fine print, and no condition; once you become a member (membership is free) and reserve a table through Dining Date Night for $10, a 30% discount is taken off your bill automatically (including alcohol). No ugly vouchers to print out =P


What really impressed me though is Dining Date Night's list of participating restaurants, it includes some of Toronto's top restaurants such as Splendido, L'Unita, Malena (which I've blogged about here), Chiado, Simple Bistro, Crush Wine Bar, etc., most of which I'm sure won't be participating in any daily deal sites any time soon.

Curious about how all this works, I took a look at Union Restaurant's (@UnionResto) offer at Dining Date Night (as they have been on my "On My Radar" list for awhile). For August, the dates highlighted are the dates available for reservations through Dining Date Night:

I quickly looked at the other participating restaurants and it seems like each restaurant's calendar is a bit different. I'm thinking Dining Date Night works with these restaurants to allow the 30% discount for non-peak hours.

I think Dining Date Night is a great idea, especially for me because I go out for dinner on week nights a lot. It is also perfect for couples who want to try higher end restaurants without breaking their bank. I know the only downside may be the $10 reservation fee, but really, in the grand scheme of things, $10 is really peanuts! Especially when you consider the fact that without Dining Date Night, you will probably never get ANY discount at some of these restaurants. Check out this "before" and "after" bills I found on Dining Date Night's blog:

Sweet, right? =)


Anyway, it seems like they will be adding more and more restaurants soon, with Zucca Trattoria (which I've blogged about here) and Mildred's Temple Kitchen (which I've also blogged about here) indicated on their site as "coming soon". I'm definitely going to keep my eyes peeled on Dining Date Night as I'm excited to see what other restaurants they will add in the future~


Dining Date Night is also running a contest right now where if you become a member, you'll be automatically entered into a weekly draw to win a $100 gift card to one of these participating restaurants:


August 11-17: Splendido
August 18-24: Union Restaurant
August 25-31: L'Unita
September 1-7: Chiado

Sign up now and get entered into all four draws! They will be giving away a $100 gift certificate each week starting tomorrow ^_^

La Société [VLOG]

La Société opened about two months ago and is a new upscale French restaurant in the Yorkville District, smack dab in the middle of Bloor Street's Mink Mile. This Parisian bistro took over the former Dynasty Chinese Restaurant location upstairs and also occupies the courtyard at street level (which serves a reduced bar menu). La Société (@La_Societe) is really the only restaurant / patio on Bloor currently, making it the perfect place for shoppers and tourists alike. It is massive space that occupies around 400 seats and is owned by INK Entertainment's Charles Khabouth, a nightclub king who owns Ultra, Guvernment, This is London, koolhaus, etc., just to name a few, and also restaurants such as Briscola, AME, and Spice Route. 

The picture below was taken on my way up to the second floor. It was raining the whole day and only stopped around late afternoon. Although not raining any more it still felt really muggy so we opted to dine inside.

The decor at La Société is all about the dark wood, banquettes, shiny tile floors, and soft lighting.

There is no way anyone can miss the stunning hand-crafted stained glass ceiling.

I had so much fun having dinner with my partner in crime, Nicki from View The Vibe (@ViewTheVibe), food blogger Andrew from Dobbernationloves (@dobbernation), and Beatrice from Trillium Corporation Communications (@BeatriceBastedo). We stayed at La Société for four hours! =) Here is View The Vibe's  Eye On The Vibe Vlog recap of our fab dinner:

Cranberry Nut Granola Bars

I had no plans whatsoever last Sunday and I was pretty happy about that because it means two things: 1) I will be staying in and doing everything in my PJs, and 2) I will have a chance to bake! And cook! Two things I extremely enjoy doing but haven't had time to do so in a long time.


I wanted to bake something healthy, something that I can snack on without feeling too guilty (I was really tempted to make my favourite chocolate chip cookies but I stopped myself). Skipping pass the muffins, cookies, and cake recipes on allrecipes.com, I found this Cranberry Nut Granola Bars recipe which was perfect! 


A great thing about these granola bars is that besides the oats, you can basically substitute any of the nuts in the recipe with nuts you like or just whatever you can find in your house. Unfortunately, as there was none of these ingredients in my boyfriend's house, I did eventually have to change out of my PJs and go grocery shopping O_o


Anyway I'm seriously loving these Cranberry Nut Granola Bars right now and am totally addicted! They are such good snacks because they are so filling; all I need is to eat one and it fills me up right away, making it a great snack for that long stretch between lunch and dinner~

Cranberry Nut Granola Bars - Adapted from allrecipes

(Yields 24 bars)

Ingredients

• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 cup hulled pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup mixed nuts
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Note: I couldn't find hulled pumpkin seeds at the grocery store so I substituted it with 1/2 cup of walnut pieces.

Instructions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a 13x9-inch pan with lightly-greased parchment paper; an inch or so of parchment paper should stick up on 2 sides to form lifting handles.

2. Mix the quick-cooking oats, old-fashioned oats, pumpkin seeds, almonds, mixed nuts, or cranberries, and sweetened condensed milk together in a bowl

3. Make sure everything is evenly coated.

The McDonald's McRib Sandwich

I've never had a McDonald's McRib Sandwich before and wasn't planning on trying it either. According to McDonald's, it's a "legendary sandwich" that was first introduced in the 1980's and was last available in Canada as a limited-time offer in 2008. Well obviously I ended up trying the McRib anyway. Why? I guess the kind folks at McDonald's were impressed by my McDonald's DIY Quadruple Filet-O-Fish Sandwich + Bonus Burger blog post as they emailed me and asked me if I would be interested in trying the McDonald's McRib Sandwich with these "Be My Guest" cards. Ok sure then!


However, even before receiving these "Be My Guest" cards, I've heard from many that the McDonald's McRib Sandwich wasn't too great. Having said that, the general consensus was the same - "if it's free then why not?" Needless to say I did not have high hopes for this "legendary sandwich".


Too lazy to go out, I asked my boyfriend on Saturday if he could bring home a McDonald's McRib Sandwich for me. He brought back three; two for himself, one for me

As per McDonald's, the McDonald's McRib Sandwich consists of "marinated BBQ sauce topped with pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun". I got one small pickle O_o

My reaction to the McDonald's McRib Sandwich:

Let me put it plain and simple: the McDonalds McRib Sandwich is most probably the worse sandwich I've ever had at McDonald's. 

The boneless pork patty was horrendous! I know full well that it wasn't gonna be like Ribfest ribs or something and that it was processed meat, but honestly, it was the worst piece of processed meat I've ever had in my life. It was like chewing a piece of thick cardboard, not wood, but cardboard, or even laminate like the ones from Ikea. It had zero resemblance to a "rib" and had zero taste. The only taste from the whole sandwich came from the "tangy BBQ sauce" which the "rib" was practically swimming in. It was way too tangy.  It shouldn't be a surprise either when I say I couldn't taste the pickles (nor the onions really). The McDonald's McRib Sandwich was a basically a tangy sauce sandwich with tasteless meat. 

I had two bites and gave the rest of my McDonald's McRib Sandwich to my boyfriend. Even he, who is not picky with food at all, thought the McDonald's McRib Sandwich was disgusting (it was his first time having it too). I'm just thankful that we did not have pay for this terrible tasting thing.

Conclusion: There will be no "Tangy Temptation" from me, ever. 

Oh yeah, and I want to address the following. Many people say "What do you expect? It's McDonald's!" or even better is "What? You go to McDonald's?!" All I gotta say is this 1) I have a different set of expectations for different kinds of foods, 2) I can also like McDonald's and fine dining at the same time, and 3) I am flexible and I am not a food snob =D

A Chef's Tour of Little Italy [VLOG]

Several weeks ago, The Culinary Adventure Company (@culinaryadvco) invited both Nicki from View the Vibe (@ViewTheVibe) and I to their Little Italy Tour. This tour did not consist of menus nor wine lists; everything was planned and set up for us beforehand by Chef Scott Savoie, owner of The Culinary Adventure Company  We basically left our taste buds in the hands of some of Toronto's finest mixologist and chefs, and all we had to do was just show up! It was also exciting because we had no idea where we were going - each stop and venue was a mystery =)

Nicki's vlog below captures our whole adventure in Little Italy~ Hope you enjoy it (you better still read my post afterwards though =P)

By the way, thanks Nicki for putting my sticker from Stickeryou (@StickerYou) on your flipcam! 

Our first stop was at Toronto Temperance Society ("TTS"), a private, members-only drinking establishment. This venue was pretty cool because if you watch Nicki's vlog above, there is no sign whatever outside TTS; just a black door, that's it. Very hidden and secretive~

Food Network Canada's Casting Call!

Lorna, Casting Coordinator from Architect Films, emailed me last week and told me about a brand new game show that the Food Network Canada is coming out with~ They are looking for Toronto foodies, people who really love food, who are comfortable in front of the camera to be on a trivia-based game show! There's no cooking / judging involved - just questions, answers and $$$ awarded to the correct answers~ Loads of fun, right? ^_^

My fellow food lovers...if you have always dreamt of being on TV, this is your chance! =D

Casting Calls - Food Network Canada
Food Network Canada's Facebook Page
Email Lorna

Pangaea (Summerlicious)

Pangaea was my second and also my last Summerlicious dinner this year. I've been to Pangaea several years ago, both for their regular menu and Summerlicious, and I remember that both times my meals were fantastic. Although I don't recall exactly what I had back then, I remember I walked out happy and satisfied. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same this time around. 


I went with my boyfriend and two other couples and all of us came out really disappointed, except for one person. My friend Nancy, a fellow foodie, and I both had high hopes for Pangaea (Nancy also had great experiences at Pangaea before). We mutually decided on Pangaea for our group dinner that night. Let's just say that we felt bad we picked it  =( Nancy and I were both shocked at the food and the service throughout the night. My dinner at Pangaea was certainly polar opposite to the great meal I had at Luma the night before.


Our reservation was at 7:30pm last Wednesday. Almost all the tables were filled.

Some of the guys wanted beer. There was a beer Pangaea had on tap that the guys never had before, and our server was nice in that she gave them each a sample of that particular beer to try =)

The bread was probably the second best thing that night. It had a nice crust with a pillowy-y soft middle.

It came with regular butter and also beet butter, which I quite liked as it gave a hint of sweetness to the bread. A few others in the group liked it as well so we asked for more beet butter~

APPETIZERS

Lamb Sausages - Grilled, on pearl barley with Stilton, grape tomato and wilted mustard greens.

My boyfriend ordered this. I had one bite of it and wow, it had a really strong lamb flavour; it was very, very gamey. I would only recommend this to people who absolutely adore lamb and gamey because even for me it was still a bit too gamey....and I love lamb. And believe me, I can do gamey too.

Luma (Summerlicious)

I wasn't too keen on going to any Summerlicious dinners this year because I think I had more disappointing / mediocre dinners than good / memorable ones during the last several Winterlicious + Summerlicious. Also, when I go through the list of restaurants and their prix-fixe menus nowadays, nothing really jumps out at me like they used to (I know this is only natural as time goes by). However, every year, I still end up going, like some kinda ritual. The only difference is that the number of restaurants that I visit decrease as time goes by.


Luma was one of the two restaurants I went to this year for Summerlicious. I've never been to Luma before and initially thought it could be a potential Summerlicious pick. My choice was confirmed when I checked out their menu; a pretty decent 3-course dinner for $35. Not bad at all, considering a lot of high end restaurants these days are charging $45 for their 'licious menu.  


It was blazing hot during the day! Thankfully it cooled down a bit during the late afternoon so we asked for a table on their rooftop patio. 

Personally, one of my criteria for choosing a restaurant for 'licious is that their menu must offer a fish and a red meat as mains (because those are the two things I like the most). I do not care for chicken or vegetarian dishes! This is precisely why I like Luma's Summerlicious menu this year =D

Bread to start. 

APPETIZERS

Saigon Salad - Iceberg lettuce, braised pork, crispy noodles and chili dressing. 

My friends thought the dressing was nice as it wasn't too salty. The lettuce was crunchy and fresh. They said it was a nice refreshing salad.