FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE AT THE ROM

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In my previous years on Friday the 13th, I’ve had the worst possible luck. One year I got into my first car accident and in another while driving to work on the 401 my car did a complete 360 on the highway from the snow and black ice (luckily I hit nothing and nothing hit me). Lets just say you do not want to be in my car on Friday the 13th. Three brave souls however last night took a risk and accompanied me to my media event at Friday Night Live at the ROM or in hashtag lingo #FNLROM!

A few weeks ago, John T. Stevenson (the Founder of Electric City Events) found me on my Instagram page and invited me to come down on one of the Friday nights this summer at the ROM. For anyone who has ever been to Friday Night Live already, you have then already taken part in of the premier events that Electric City has planned and organized. For two months in May and June, the Royal Ontario Museum opens up its doors after hours to this weekly event where drinks, food, dancing, live performances, and interactive exhibits are to be had. You also get late night access to the museum and exhibits itself and are free to roam around literally anywhere you would like on each and every floor. It is definitely a more sophisticated crowd and ambiance than your typical “club-like” atmosphere and as there is alcohol served here you do need to be 19 years or older to get in.

You’re able to get the early bird online tickets off of the ROM website or you can line up when the doors open at 7PM to get the tickets. I would recommend to arrive early as space is limited and you will need to bring photo ID at the door to prove your age.

When I arrived after work at around 8:45PM, I was told by JT to enter through the main doors on Bloor and ask for the Media Check - In. Fortunately enough I was able to bypass the line and the security guard escorted me and my three friends on my guest list to the Media/VIP check - in to grab our tickets that were free of charge!

The atmosphere is literally electric when you walk in and the museum really comes alive with the live music, dancing, and food in just around every corner. The big focal point of the giant dinosaur skeleton near the entrance puts it all in perspective that this is not just your ordinary event and that yes, you really are partying it up inside a full scale museum. Every Friday night is focused on a theme and on Friday the 13th, the theme was Indigenous Now celebrating contemporary Indigenous Arts in partnership with the Association For Native Development In The Performing And Visual Arts (ANDPVA). But of course as The Everyday Foodie, a lot of my focus were turned to the many, many food stations that were served up by a variety of food vendors there.

The event is so unique that it has its own currency, ROM Bucks! The Canadian dollar is not accepted here when you want to buy a beer or some food. You will have to exchange your Canadian dollar at one of the ROM Buck stands where 1 ROM Buck is equivalent to 6 dollars. Most vendors will charge you 1 ROM Buck for their food or drink, however some may charge 2 ROM Bucks depending on what you get with them. These ROM Bucks are non-refundable so make sure you use them all or you will have to just come back again!

After me and my friends got our ROM Bucks we went straight for the food considering it was around 9PM and we still did not have dinner yet. My first stop was The Saucy Pierogi. The vendor suggested I try their FNL Special - Roasted Chicken with Chicken Gravy and Pickle. I loved the chicken gravy over the pierogies as the sauce was definitely a stand out in the dish. People don’t normally have gravy with their pierogies but after eating it you will soon realize how well they actually go together. Though the filling was chicken so gravy did make complete sense in this case.

The next vendor I went off to was Kanto by Tita Fl!ps that specializes in Filipino cuisine. This became my favourite food vendor of the night as it offered me the best dish that I tried there (and also one of the most filling). The Sisig Fries definitely won me over and was great comfort food. Offal meat (pig’s ears and snout… ok to be honest I didn’t even realize I ate pig’s ears and snout last night until I researched it just now to write this, but it tasted damn good!), has been boiled, grilled and chopped into fine pieces, and then topped with Lechon Kawali (pork belly) on a bed of crispy fries. Delicious!

Below is the Lumpia Shanghai. Ground meat and vegetables are rolled into tiny spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce. Great finger food to be eating at this kind of event when you don’t want to be eating something too messy.

We went up to the second floor and saw a huge line up for Roti so we thought it should be something we should try if everyone seems to like it. The vendor was Randy’s Roti Food Truck and the dish that I got was their Chicken Roti. The line up to get our food in all the other vendors I went to was about 3 minutes or less. We waited in line for over 30 minutes here and it was by far the worst tasting dish here we had. The roti was too soggy and they wrapped too many layers of roti with the amount of filling they had inside. There was a little spice to it but overall it was also quite tasteless and just the overall presentation of it was not appealing. It is also extremely hard to eat this in this kind of atmosphere where you most likely will be standing so for anyone thinking of getting this one, I strongly suggest to save your ROM buck and use it somewhere else.

Even at an event like this you can’t end the night off with no dessert. My final station I went to was Sweet Sammies Ice Cream Sandwich Company. By the time we got here it was almost 11PM so most of the food vendors and exhibits were closing down. There were three options available here but two of them were all sold out so we got what was remaining which was The Classic (two rich fudge brownie cookies aka. “crownies” with vanilla bean ice cream). It was the perfect, savoury dessert to end off a fun-filled, exhausting night.

I had such a great experience at Friday Night Live at the ROM and Electric City Events pulled off a great night. With the sheer volume of people there from party goers to the vendors, everything ran like clock work and there was ample space to move around without feeling anyone invading your personal bubble. Not every event of this magnitude can be run so smoothly (Joylister I’m looking at you) so for anyone interested in attending this event later on, I would strongly recommend it.

For this year there are only 2 more Friday nights remaining so grab your tickets quickly! Click here to order them online!

Ticket Prices:

Adult (19+) - $12

Student (19 to 25) - $10

Senior (65+) - $10

June 20th, 2014 - Sun Burn themed

June 27th, 2014 - ROM Proud (An evening of celebration in honour of World Pride, 2014 taking place in Toronto)

Special Thanks:

John T. Stevenson

Electric City Events

Royal Ontario Museum

My three amigos who accompanied me to the event (Vithiya; Andrew & Clayton of Honey We’re Homme)

GASTROPOST’S 100th MISSION CELEBRATION

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This past Wednesday night I was able to attend Gastropost’s 100th Mission Celebration hosted inside a 123 year old historic house where the Italian restaurant Osteria Dei Ganzi currently resides. 100 tickets were given out and I was lucky to be one of the ticket holders. It was a free event to celebrate the 100th mission idea in the history of Gastropost.

For those who are unfamiliar with Gastropost, they put out weekly food missions on their website surrounding a food theme for fellow Gastroposters to take pictures of and post online through various social media outlets. Gastropost works in conjunction with the newspaper National Post and every Saturday they also run a page in the paper showcasing some of that week’s top food pictures. Gastropost is a large food community across the country with outlets now expanding from Toronto into other major Canadian cities such as Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary as well.

The party started at 7PM and parking was a nightmare for me to say the least. To sum it up quickly, a parking enforcer was about to write me a parking ticket before I luckily ran over to stop him. My credit card did not work in the public parking lot in front of the restaurant which meant I couldn’t leave my car there so I ended up driving around the area in circles until I finally found a spot with a parking metre in the surrounding area. Glad that part was over!

I checked in and immediately got their Gin Caesar at the bar to start off. Throughout the night there would be servers walking around the venue with appetizers and horderves fresh out of the kitchen for the guests to try. I did my best to grab as many as I could and the things I managed to get were delicious.

Miniature Pizzas - Asparagus & Mushroom; Margarita

Crab Salad on Enddive

They also had a special guest come to the event which was Chef Corbin from Food Network Canada. Some of the shows people may be familiar with him in include Dinner Party Wars, Restaurant Takeover, and Crash My Kitchen. I had the chance to speak with him for about 20 minutes where I found out about his charity event that he is a part of later on this year called Cook for the Cure. A very stand up guy! 

The night ended off with the giveaway of door prizes. The most notable prizes were a brand new Nokia smart phone and a $3 000 kitchen appliance. Unfortunately I was not one of the lucky winners in that area but I still had a great time at my second food event of the year. I saw an old friend, made some new ones, networked with a celebrity chef, and had some good food and drinks. It was an awesome night and looking forward to whatever the next food event may bring.

MACARON DAY T.O.

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Earlier on in the week I talked about Toronto gearing up for its 3rd annual Macaron Day on Thursday, March 20th, 2014. It was my first time participating in this event across the city and here is my experience.

Me and stealdealsplurge decided to hit up a handful of patisseries in the morning to get our share of the free macarons. Our game plan was to hit up 7 different places before I had to go to work in downtown at noon. Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time (we started at about 10:15am) and we only managed to get to 5 different places before the time came up for me to head to work. Below was our route we took to these 5 patisseries starting from the north of the city and working down to the south.

I managed to find some street parking for free on the smaller side streets near each of the patisseries so that was a relief that it didn’t cause me too much of a hassle. I even met some new food bloggers along the way and my picture was taken at one of the patisseries I visited and posted on Twitter.

Here is my ranking for the 5 macaraons that I received purely based on texture and taste.

5th) Mocha Macaron from Patachou Patisserie

  • Not enough filling to go with the very large meringue outer shells
  • Too chewy for my liking and the texture was very dry
  • Flavour was extremely bland
  • Presentation wise it looks great, one of the better looking ones

4th) Nori Wasabi Macaron from La Bomboche

  • Great texture and overall it was the best looking macaron of the bunch
  • Size was also the biggest of the bunch
  • What killed this is the flavour; the wasabi cream was way too strong so the filling seemed like I was literally eating wasabi paste (the ones you get at the sushi restaurants)
  • Left a burning sensation in my mouth after from the wasabi filling
  • I applaud them though for being the most innovative and taking a risk with the flavour

3rd) Pistachio Macaron from Petite Thuet

  • I accidentally squished this macaron in my bag which is why it looks like a hot mess (it looked much better before I ruined it)
  • Wish there was just a little bit more filling inside since it was a rather large macaron
  • Good flavour and good texture

2nd) Raspberry Macaron from Patisserie La Cigogne

  • Very airy and light texture
  • The raspberry flavour was very strong and you could immediately taste it when you took a bite
  • One of the smallest macarons of the five
  • Great balance with the ratio of the meringue shells to the filling

1st) Chocolate Hazelnut Macaron from Rahier Patisserie

  • Classic flavour combination for me so immediately I loved the taste
  • Has a unique shell since small pieces of hazelnut are mixed into the meringue
  • Presentation wise it looks a little flat and was maybe the smallest one of the bunch
  • Best tasting one for me personally

Having ranked the Nori Wasabi macaron 4th, the one patisserie I will definitely go back to out of the 5 places is La Bomboche. I could just see how much love they put into making each of their macarons and that added nori wrapped around each of them was a brilliant touch. Though the wasabi flavour was a huge miss for me, I’m confident that their other flavours are extremely decadent and delicious. La Bomboche wins for making the best looking macarons for sure. It looks like a work of art.

After reading some other macaron reviews on the web, I came to the realization that macarons are highly subjective and there seems to be a lot of differing opinions on which one is the best. With so many flavour combination possibilities it isn’t that surprising however that this is the case since we are given so many choices. If my rankings above were based off of looks and presentation, then the list would be placed upside down. But at the end of the day for me when it comes to food, taste will always win. Looking forward to go trick or treating for macarons again next year.

PRINCESS MARGARET CANCER CENTRE HOME LOTTERY KITCHEN TOUR

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Through the power of social networks and after 2 months of starting this food blog, I was invited through Twitter by Laura who would be organizing an event for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Home Lottery. It would be a kitchen tour at the grand prize $3.8 million dollar show home in Vaughan, Ontario where Chef Steve Gonzalez of Valdez restaurant in Toronto would personally walk us through 3 Peruvian street food inspired dishes he would prepare.

When I first started this food blog back in January I really didn’t think much of it and was just encouraged by a few people to start one as they saw that I obviously liked to take pictures of food when I went out. Fast forward to March, I get an invitation to be part of a food & wine event (for free!) and of course I just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity. One of the main people who encouraged me to start on this food blogging adventure was my cousin lowcandrew so naturally I invited him to my first event as “The Everyday Foodie.”

We first arrived at the multimillion dollar mansion in Vaughan at around 6:30PM and was immediately struck by the immense size of the home. It’s certainly not something I’m used to seeing in my neighbourhood, let alone living in so walking up towards this home was exciting to say the least. When we eventually went inside and got to the kitchen, I met Laura for the first time, got my name tag, and started to take a casual tour of the show home ourselves. Me and Andrew walked around for about 30 minutes, taking pictures in just about every room until the designer Jack Celli who was also on site gave us a tour of the nearly 8,000 sq. ft. house he designed himself. Below are the various pictures I took of this beautiful house.

Including myself and Andrew there were about 12 other guests at the event from different food blogs across the city with probably the most notable blog there being blogTO. After the house tour was done, we all gathered in the kitchen where Chef Steve Gonzalez was getting ready to walk us through his Peruvian dishes. For any Food Network watchers out there, his name may also sound familiar to you because he was also a contestant on the very first season of Top Chef Canada. He now has opened his very own restaurant in Toronto called Valdez that serves Latin American street food located on 606 King Street West.

Not only was Chef Steve Gonzalez there preparing food for us, but Krystina from Rosewood Winery located in the prestigious Niagara Escarpment was also in the kitchen pairing their 3 wines for each of the 3 dishes we would eat. There was going to be good food and wine to be had by all!

The first Peruvian street food inspired dish was the Scallop Ceviche serving as the appetizer. This was my personal favourite dish of the night. I loved how the citrus flavours were incorporated into the dish and the aroma of the cilantro that the dish was emanating smelled wonderful. Cilantro being a personal favourite scent of mine made it easy for me to take a liking to it. The bite size Scallop Ceviche was very refreshing to eat and the added Chilies brought out a little spice to it as well. The wine that this dish was paired with was the Rosewood Sussreserve Riesling. This wine was also my favourite of the night.

It was now on to the second Peruvian street food dish which acted as the main. We were going to be treated to some Chuzos Al Plancha Beef Skewers with Chimichurri Sauce, Sausage, and Arepa with Corn Meal. The great thing about street food is everything is very easy to eat, nothing is pretentious. I found the beef skewers to be very tender and the sausage that was baked in the oven earlier on was filled with tons of juices when you took a bite. The Arepa which looked like a scallop to me at first was my first experience with it. It has a doughy, bread like texture to it which I found very interesting. The wine that this dish was paired with was the Rosewood Sémillon.

After the second dish was consumed, we took a little intermission before our dessert and Krystina from Rosewood Estates Winery gave us an introduction to their honey wine or “mead.” Mead is made from the fermentation of honey and water and is also the earliest known form of consumable alcohol. As the mead is already sweet from the honey it is easily paired with a form of dessert. Fun fact from Krystina – The term “The Mile High Club” comes from bees as they are always “getting beesy” high up in the air if you catch my drift. After our little lesson on meads and bees was done, it was a great segway leading to our final course, dessert.

Our dessert came in a form of a frozen treat called the Helado De Salpicon. “Helado” means ice cream in Spanish and “Salpicon” refers to a sweet snack. Traditionally it’s sold by street vendors in the form of shaved ice down in Latin America and Chef Gonzalez created a coconut version of it inside this miniature cup encasing. As some of my friends and family will know already, coconut is another favourite ingredient of mine so this Latin American popsicle I’d like to call it was a very enjoyable and whimsical dessert to have. It would be even better enjoyed on a hot and sunny summer day here in Toronto. The wine that this dessert was paired with was the Rosewood Mead Royale (Honey Wine).

Also left with a free jar of Wildflower Honey courtesy of Rosewood Estates Winery! Yum!

When everything was said and done it was a great experience to be part of an event like this especially at such an early stage in my blogging adventure. I met some great people, had fantastic food, drank some amazing wine, and to top it all off I was inside this gorgeous $3.8 million mansion. What more could an Everyday Foodie ask?

On a serious note, this event was also created to support cancer drug research by the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. The net proceeds from the sale of the lottery tickets will go towards finding new drug therapies to hopefully make cancer the thing of the past. If you want to order a Home Lottery ticket you can click here and if you are lucky enough you could be one of the lucky winners and own the very home pictured here. Tickets start at $100 each.

Special Thanks:

Laura Zahody – Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Krystina Roman – Rosewood Estates Winery

Chef Steve Gonzalez – Valdez Restaurant

Jack Celli – Greenpark Group