Sunday, June 26, 2005

UPdate

Well, its been a while since I've posted so I've got a few things to get through.

About a month ago Aurora, Jaime and I found ourselves on the east side looking for a place to eat after checking out some of Old Toronto's architecture during Open Doors Toronto. First we attempted to go to The Canary Diner but it was closed for a film shoot. Then we biked all the way down Cherry Street to the Cherry St. Diner to find it closed also! It looks like it might be closed for good which would be a real shame and a loss to Toronto's diner scene. Anyone know anything more about this? Eventually we ended up on King East at a place called Betty's.
It was a strange place, hard to describe exactly why but it had a real bizzaro feel to it. Like everything was seemingly normal, but just off a bit. The burger that I had was ok, but it seemed a little undercooked which was odd. It had asiago on it which was nice and the patty itself was handmade. The fries were pretty awful - soggy, greasy McCain's.

Two weeks ago a bunch of us went up to Heather's cottage on Lake Muskoka. Aurora, Luca, Heather, Dan Brown and myself drove up in one car and we stopped at Webers
Webers is probably one of Ontario's most famous hamburger stands. Its history dates back to 1963 and when it opened it was the first of its kind on Highway 11. It catered to all of the families who drive north from Toronto to the Muskoka region during the summers. I was sad to find out that some of the other independant burger stands on highway 11 have been closed in favour of chain places. Now Webers is the only original one remaining. The burgers themselves are pretty good - flame grilled and fresh toppings. Also their fries are pretty good. They have this yummy cajun seasoning salt that they put on them. We also got ice cream from the stand next door.

More recently Chris and Scott Ysebert met up with me and I took them to The Stem. Now the Ysebert brothers are respectable burger connoisseurs in their own right and they expected nothing short of a great burger. I considered taking them up to People's Foods but in the essence of time I decided on the Stem. Needless to say the burgers were fantastic and so were the fries. The Stem's fries have this great cripsy batter on them. We discused the importance ratio of patty size to bun size. This combined with proper eating technique prevents topping or patty slippage when approaching the end of the burger. You know what i mean, when the whole thing falls apart and gets on your hands...this didn't happen with the Stem burger. It stays together right to the last bite.

Also, a few weeks ago at a garage sale I picked up a copy of Queen's LP Hot Space. It has Under Pressure on it. There is a big chunk of the record that broke off and is missing so the first two tracks on both sides are unplayable but that doesn't effect Under Pressure as its tucked nicely in on the inside of the record as the last track.