rgruby

I was told to rub mine with mineral oil, let it sit overnight, then wipe off. Do this every other day for the first bit then stretch it out longer between applications etc. Ours are coming up on five years old, and I just reapplied about a month ago. I find the areas around the sinks tend to fade fairly quickly, still. I suppose I could do them more often, but I can't be bothered. You don't need to apply mineral oil - it's purely for looks. Try it on a little section and see if you like it. If not, you've saved yourself some effort and it will fade in a matter of days/ weeks. I also am skeptical that leaving it overnight does anything. The stuff is not supposed to be permeable, so leaving it shouldn't make any difference. Stuff will stain it it a bit. Red wine, coffee. Perhaps I need to be a bit more fastidious with my cleaning regimen. Buy your mineral oil at the phamacist (in the stomach remedies section around here). Much cheaper than the kitchen shop and it's the same stuff. Other than that, wipe them down with soap and water once in a while. How soft are yours. Mine are quite soft - a fingernail will dent them. Opening a wine bottle leaves a little ring (remains visible for a day or three then seems to fade on its own). The area around the sinks gets scuffed up. So, I do tend to baby mine a bit. I'm careful about putting groceries and pots down hard, for example. Cheers, Geoff

Within about a 20 minute walk of Dundas & Bathurst you can find just about anything Toronto has to offer (if not always the best examples). As mentioned above, College, Ossington, Kensington/Chinatown are all an easy stroll away, and all offer numerous dining options. Queen has a few places too. I'll just add Baldwin on the other side of Spadina (a block north of the Art Gallery) has a short restaurant row. And if the kids are feeling homesick, Sanko sells Japanese stuff and is at Queen and Claremont (one big block south and a couple little blocks west of where you'll be). That stretch of Dundas used to be a complete culinary wasteland. But now in the few blocks between Bathurst and Trinity Bellwoods park you have the Black Hoof, Campagnolo, Saving Grace (brunch only), a swank looking Vietnamese place (there's also the Kim Bo around the corner on Bathurst), Porchetta for porky goodness in sandwich form (and California sandwiches is just off Dundas as well), a bunch of coffee shops, a Turkish pizza place. My kid goes nuts for the dumplings at the little Chinese place at Markham (Eastern Legend?) And, if you're really desperate, there's a McDonalds and a 7-11 too. Trinity Bellwoods Park- a few blocks west- also has a farmer's market from 3-7 on Tuesdays (if memory serves). Cheers, Geoff

I'm in the market for a stand mixer. (Thanks Andie for helping!) I was kind of leaning towards the DLX/Assistent. It seems pretty well liked for bread making. But, there seems to be some concern about small batches of a loaf or two. And small batches generally. I'm not much a of a baker and up until now I've kneaded by hand. Getting some tendonitis problems in my elbow though. So, can anybody speak to doing small batches in the DLX/ Assistent? Thanks! Geoff

If this is true, I'm much, much, less excited. The Star article mentioned that he was opening two restos in one of the new swanky hotels in 2012. Cheers, Geoff

We are if we're me. Was reported in the Star today. I guess I want to see what all the fuss is about. Cheers, Geoff

The chocolate place around Manning (it's in the space that used to be occupied by the spice and olive oil folks that moved just west of Walnut) now has Canuck cheeses downstairs and will have Thuet breads on Fri and Saturdays, so I'm told. As well as some charcuterie after they get their fridge fixed. Cheers, Geoff

One of the Fuschia Dunlop books has a General Tso recipe or two. Can't remember offhand which one though. Cheers, Geoff

Parkette (rustic Ital says the sign board out front) is now open beside Oyster Boy. Pita Nutso is not. Open, nor beside Oyster Boy. The arrears notice stated that their rent was in excess of 9 grand. That's a lot of pitas they'd need to sell to stay afloat. Oh Boy Burger closed - supposedly Boehmer is putting a (gastro?)pub in there. The 416 snack bar is open in the Jonny Banana/Azul space on Bathurst just north of Queen. I'm hoping to check it out soonish. Cheers, Geoff

Busted. For drug stuff. I will give them top marks for vertical integration in their business model. Innocent until proven guilty. Does mean I'll have to find a new place to order from. Is Amici's in Parkdale still around and ok? Cheers, Geoff

I dunno. With a sharp knife (with the caveat that you're used to it) you're going to use less pressure. You'll be letting the knife do more of the work. I actually think that fact alone (ok, maybe that's not a fact - discuss) would tend to lead to less serious injuries with a sharp knife. I'll put it this way. Given the choice of a sharp knife or a dull one, I'll reach for the sharp one every time. Cheers, Geoff Ps CaliP, you back in Cali?Exeter's having a very good year for snow, I hear.

Well, I guess they're open now as Lee lounge. June? January? What's a few months in the grand scheme of things. Susur's also on the cover of eye mag this week. I'm still not entirely sure what the menu is - whether it's the same as Lee's, how they're using the two kitchens etc. Cheers, Geoff

Sorry man, I just don't dine at that level anywhere often enough (well, ever really) to offer anything useful. Not sure you can do any of them for that budget with drinks. Maybe if you order carefully. But, perhaps prices have tended down lately? I did mention that I don't eat out at that level much anymore, I hope. Let us know where you ended up and how it was. Cheers, Geoff

Cool. I never head that way to eat. Although I know a guy in the Brassai kitchen. Inigo open today in the bike theif space. Cheers, Geoff

I'm not going to remember it all. There was a duck prosciutto, a bison salami with blueberries, mortadella, a spicy (smoked paprika?) thingey, capicolla (maybe?), a smear of duck mousse and maybe one or two others. Cheers, Geoff Oh, wow. Were the blueberries a part of the sausage? That sounds incredible. I've had water buffalo sausage, but never bison. And you can't go wrong with duck prosciutto. Yeah, the blueberries - I'd assume dried, were part of the salami. You could taste them, and it was very tasty indeed. Cheers, Geoff

I'm not going to remember it all. There was a duck prosciutto, a bison salami with blueberries, mortadella, a spicy (smoked paprika?) thingey, capicolla (maybe?), a smear of duck mousse and maybe one or two others. Cheers, Geoff

Just did a baked mac n' cheese with breadcrumbs on the top (basically Bittmans's recipe). Does that count? My kid liked it. Cheers, Geoff

Or maybe not - still closed as of today.

Well, not much new around the hood. The Vietnamese place has been open for a while now (an offshoot of the one on Dundas in the Brockton hood). Looking forward to trying it out. Most of the rest is fast food. A pita place beside the 7-11, a cupcake shop, a sandwich place and another poutine joint over by Bathurst. All the excitement seems to have moved up to Dundas (?!) and Ossington, as well as the continuing colonization of Parkdale. Inigo, in Igor the bike thief's old place at Strachan looks like it's getting close- but it's looked that way to me for a while. Dark Horse has opened an outpost of their coffee shop in the old Square Fruit store at Euclid. (RIP Square Fruit). That's all I got. Cheers, Geoff

For those who haven't heard - the entire building has burned down in what is apparently a case of arson. They did mention on the news that Salad King is moving to new digs on Yonge St. Black Hoofed last night with my buddy Dave who runs the Piggy Market in Ottawa. He came down pretty much just to try out the Black Hoof. I'm delighted to say he wasn't disappointed. We tried almost everything on the menu that didn't have nuts or come from the sea except the tongue and foie on brioche (2 separate dishes). We both thought the duck heart tartare was the highlight. In fact, we thought about ordering it again, but in the end we opted for bone marrow. Also had charcuterie, olives, pigs head tacos, glazed pig cheeks and I think that's it. They were all delicious. Cheers, Geoff

Just going to ask - has anybody seen any good year end cookbook roundups/reviews? Poked around a local bookshop today. David Thompson's (sp?) Thai Street food looks interesting. I'd forgotten about Four Fish as well. Will try and remember to check out some of the others mentioned here as well. Cheers, Geoff

Well, Trying to decide if there's anything out there in the last year or so that I might want to put on my xmas list. Keeping in mind that I'm almost completely out of the loop on what's been published. And, I haven't done more than skim the couple of cookbooks I received last Christmas. I did get Bourdain's book for my birthday. I think I'll put the new McGee book on the list. There's a new book on Canadian cheese that I might add as well. Other than that - what would you like to see under your tree in almost a month's time? And what have you picked up this year that's been a worthwhile addition to your library? Cheers, Geoff

Well, that depends. Was it from Chris Brothers? That I could not tell you. Cheers, Geoff

Just got back from a week in NS. Does deep fried pepperoni (yeah, I ordered - and ate - some) count as a traditional food? Cheers, Geoff

I pretty much completely agree. Cheers, Geoff

Well, four years later, we're headed back to Halifax. This time with a very fussy five year old. Anything changed from what was mentioned above? Cheers, Geoff