Summerlicious

Another week done. This one saw a lot of ass-dragging due to the extreme heat which I complained about in my last post. All of us were feeling it at work and it sucked. I think on Tuesday the weather forecast for the North American continent said it was at least 90 degrees coast to coast (that's all provinces and states folks) and I believe it too. Europe seems to be in the throes of the deep heat wave as well. How's that for a global village suffering together?
We've finished up our Irish sites in Brampton now and we're heading out further west to Orangeville starting on Monday. The commuting just keeps getting longer. At this next job we get to wear safety vests! I love the layering look in the dead of summer.

I'm anticipating the arrival of the mac sometime before the end of summer -- well ideally, in the next two weeks. I had a few setbacks with the payment and my idiotic credit card company which pissed me off to no end. So currently, I have an adapter kit and a care protection plan but no computer to use them with... awesome. And the extra battery is on back order? Is that a bad sign?

In the past week I've gone out for Summerlicious twice which actually makes me happy. It's been a while since I've gone out for a good dinner with some friends. The last time I remember frequently doing this was in Vancouver and I've wanted to try many places in TO since I got home last year. I know it's pretty sad that I haven't exactly gone out that much.

Anyways, to explain, Summerlicious (and Winterlicious for that matter) is a 3-week long event where restaurants all over the city offer a prix fixe menu for lunch and dinner; it usually aims to offer a good sample of a restaurant's fare at a much more reasonable price than you will usually find. There are two price tiers for each meal. Lunches are either $15 or $20 and dinners are either $25 or $35.
This of course allows more people to get out and try places they normally wouldn't go to.
My friend Susan and I tried Flow in Yorkville last Friday night and had an AMAZING dinner. It was a dinner on the pricier side of things and I couldn't afford to ever go there normally unless I had a very generous date, but it was a great place. I had a hunan beef and vermicelli starter, a striploin steak entree, and plantain rolls for dessert. It was very tasty. And had me asleep within an hour of getting home.

Last night, Susan struck up a larger party for another outing to a French restaurant called L'Escargot Bistro in North Toronto. Their menu was cheaper than Flow's, so I was even more excited to try this place. It was casual but had a really nice atmosphere. In retrospect I should have brought my camera for some photos of the food. I tried some snails, which are actually pretty tasty. Of course they had been soaked in a lemon garlic sauce so they reminded me of the consistency of mussels or calamari. If that is what good l'escargots taste like, then I might be willing to try them more often.
This week I went for a lighter starter of a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, my entree was rosemary chicken and mashed potatoes au jus, and can you guess what my french dessert was? It was creme brulee! Oh god, the simple joy of cracking it open and then the sweetness of the cream was like euphoria. I probably should have gone home to lay down after dinner but somehow we trekked down to Little Italy for martinis at Eat My Martini.
I was a bit reluctant to go at first because Little Italy is office territory for me, although, I find it to be a very vibrant and fun area.
There weren't many remnants of the world cup victory so that was good. Although everyone in our party looked at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted France to win the world cup. So what? I can say that out loud in Little Italy if I want too! It won't make me any friends, but I like to root for underdogs.

Anyways, Little Italy is a good neighbourhood with lots of great little restaurants, bars, and bakeries and then there are the nice boutiques, and my personal favourite, the Motoretta store that sells Vespas. Did you know that Vespa also sells clothing? I guess it's along the lines of a lifestyle concept clothing line, the way BMW and Porsche or Ferrari have done. It seems a bit odd, but I guess they want you to want the gear if you're gonna splurge on the Vespa.
And I suppose I also miss the Home Hardware guy who was like a grandpa and always stopped his Italian chatter with his friends and called me 'bella' when I was running office errands. Yeah, I thought that was pretty random too, but he always has a smile for you on a rough day.
As much as I am sure that long term office life isn't for me, I have to appreciate that at least my company's HQ is in a neighbourhood sandwiched between the Annex, Little Italy, and Kensington Market. It made my lunch an hour of exploration.