fresco

It may well be the case that Toronto has more US fast food outlets downtown than most US cities, but this is likely a reflection of the very pricey rents--few stand-alone operations can afford them. And while downtown is mostly what visitors to Toronto see, it's not an accurate reflection at all of the city's restaurants. There are now at least four Chinatowns, two of them deep in the burbs, as well as thousands of other restaurants serving the cuisine of dozens of countries. But again, they're mostly in outlying areas.

While shooting the documentary "Supersize Me: A Film of Epic Proportions" which had its premiere at the Sundance Festival, director Morgan Spurlock spent a month and $850 at McDonalds, consuming everything on the menu, supersizing his meals when offered, taking in 5,000 calories a day, and ballooning by 24 pounds: http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,590037522,00.html

I'd agree with you on most of this stuff, but dried pasta is, I've found, one of those things where you get what you pay for, more or less. The real commodity stuff is not worth eating. Pay just a little more for good pasta, almost always imported from Italy, and the difference is amazing. Friends whose judgment I trust on food have recently tried Kobe burgers and say that there is a world of difference between Kobe and not. But they are, as I recall, quite sparing in their use of condiments.

Think I've seen horehound candy for sale in a candy shop in Banff, Alberta, but it is offered other places as well if you are really curious: http://www.chocolatevault.com/_sweetsuite/...s/horehound.htm

If I ever come into an ice wine windfall, which isn't likely, given that I'm not crazy about it, you will be the first person I'll call.

You are welcome to drink my share of ice wine.

Depends on how you define junk. FN goes for the stuff they know, or are pretty sure, will generate big audience numbers. But really, does it matter where on the channel this stuff appears?

True. His other book, also unpublished when he killed himself in despair over not getting published, is pretty much a dud. Can't remember the name.

If competing grocery chains collaborated to set slotting fees, I would think this might be subject to regulatory action.

Have you read his short satirical piece called "The Appetite Cure?" Can't recall it, but my intense Mark Twain phase was many years ago.

As Jinmyo noted, though, two of the programs mentioned are produced in Canada and I can guarantee they are anything but big budget productions. Everything in Canadian media is produced for pennies, relative to the budgets in the US.

His mother's constant suspicion that Portnoy was spending so much time in the bathroom because he was out eating hamburgers was quite hilarious, too.

At a guess, the viewer numbers are much lower than is the case on Food TV, and they can afford to take chances with stuff that may not have really broad appeal.

Mark Twain wrote lovingly, and well, about food in many of his books, including, most notably, Innocents Abroad, where he enumerated all of the foods he missed and would devour when he got back to the US.

Slotting fees are one thing, but there have always been whispers about payola and kickbacks to buyers in retail, including the grocery business. Wal-Mart, I believe, fights this by prohibiting their buyers from so much as having lunch with vendors. Think the setup is they meet across a table or desk in a grim little room at headquarters in Benton and the conversation consists of the buyer asking how much less the vendor can supply an item for than he did last year.

Sure we do. They're just called stock car tracks.

Bamboo is supposed to be even more stable than oak or other hardwoods. I see it around a lot, but can't say I'm wild about its appearance, no matter how they color it.

"In what many in the crowd of 280 marketers, distributors and media described as one of the best and rambunctious wine events of this or any year, Grahm's wit had the crowd in an uproar as he flung hysterical haymakers at the Napa Valley, wholesalers, and the wine press, in particular Marvin Shanken and his Wine Spectator, Jim Laube and Robert Parker." Sounds like a helluva party.

If you like merlot, chances are pretty good you'll like this. And I think merlot is the most popular red wine in the US, for whatever that's worth.

It was thought to be merlot for quite a while, in Chile, at any rate.

I have one, but mostly use a cleaver for chopping herbs. If you have a decent chef's knife you don't need a mezzaluna.

It was originally a grape from France, I believe, but now mainly grown in Chile. Don't know about this particular producer, but I've tried others and found them very pleasant. Try it and see.

You're paying, and therefore, you should be allowed to determine just how much ritual and delay you're prepared to put up with. If you visit this place again, I'd suggest you tell them in advance that they should skip the priming and just pour.

Time really is the last great luxury, isn't it?

She's a trial, but in her favour, she does know food. The more common complaint about restaurant critics, though, is that they're not sufficiently critical.