The Unvegan

‘ontario’

A Nightcap at Smoke’s Poutinerie

June 25th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

I like my poutine with gravy and curds.

A few more beers into the night and not yet having satisfied my craving for poutine in Toronto, my drunken munchies search became a quest for poutine. The quest ended when we discovered Smoke’s Poutinerie in the Queens West area. This place was a chain, but still had the look of a greasy hole-in-the-wall style poutine joint. Their menu had a few different variations of that delicious treat, even one including bacon, but we decided that the traditional was the way to go. We got a large for 8 loonies and waited about 30 seconds for them to toss the fries, curds and gravy into a box for eating. Continue Reading»

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Canada, Chains, fries, ontario, poutine, restaurants, smoke's poutinerie, toronto, Travel

Brews Over Burgers at Mill Street

June 24th, 2010 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

I like this street corner.

For a night in Toronto, I really didn’t have much of a clue about where to eat. Finally, a buddy of mine told me to check out the Mill Street Brewery. I am always up for a microbrewery since that seems to be a lost art in LA, so I looked it up. It turned out that the place was actually pretty easy walk from our hotel, so we headed to Mill Street to see what we could find. After a twenty minute walk through a mildly sketchy part of town featuring a homeless pirate watering plants with a two-liter of Canada Dry, we arrived at the Distillery area. This part of town was once some sort of huge brewery, but now had shops, restaurants, bars and people testing Smart Cars and Segway Scooters. Even before we started drinking, our goal was to take a drunken ride on/in one of these (no, we did not achieve our goal). Continue Reading»

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Beer, Brewhouse, Burgers, Canada, hamburgers, microbrewery, mill street brewery, ontario, restaurants, toronto, Travel

Some Much-Needed Mexican at El Torito

October 26th, 2009 Tweet Facebook Digg Stumble Reddit

There be onions hidden in there.

After a long drive back from Phoenix, I was willing to eat about anything. Luckily in Ontario, we came across El Torito, a Mexican sit-down restaurant that is all over California. I actually saw El Torito in Istanbul, which has kept me from going for a long time because I question their authenticity. Nonetheless, I had put off El Torito for long enough and I was so damn hungry. Continue Reading»

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California, Chains, el torito, enchiladas, inland empire, Mexican, ontario, restaurants, Travel

Rants and Raves

Is Vegetarianism an Eating Disorder?

July 28th, 2009

It’s not technically an eating disorder, but maybe it’s time to think of vegetarianism as one. According to research from some reputable universities earlier this year, “[vegetarians] may be at increased risk for binge eating with loss of control.” That’s an eating disorder in my mind.

I can’t say that I’m too surprised. Malnourished vegetarians certainly do not get enough of the foods their body needs. If I ate salad and kale for every meal, the first opportunity I had to eat food with nutrients would definitely send me into a food binge.

Going Global at Plan Check

Fries of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, The Backyard Bite invited me to The Burger Culture Clash, sponsored by Stussy (which apparently still exists) and Plan Check. Plan Check, by the way, is a sort of new (since February) restaurant in West LA with Chef Ernesto Uchimura of Umami Burger fame. As my love of burgers, especially those of the umami variety, I jumped at the opportunity.

Although I arrived alone, I was not the only lone eater. Just next to where I was seated, I met e*star LA and we decided to share a meal called loneliness, because it’s better than eating alone. We made quick friends over our respective blogs and Midwestern roots, then got to work at dissecting the special menu, which Plan Check will be featuring for the next month if anything tickles your fancy.