Phoenix: Day 6 & 7
- By Robyn Lee
- Aug 20, 2007
- Comments
One of my favorite things to do when I visit a new place is check out the local supermarkets. Your guidebook to Paris probably won't say, "And on the way to the Eiffel Tower, be sure to check out a Monoprix, for everyday low prices!" but hey, it's as Parisian as strolling through those outdoor markets bursting with fresh produce and disembodied frog legs and walking along the Seine and whatnot. Kind of. Maybe.
Or I might just be overly fascinated by the everyday destinations of regular people in other places. Until I'm sick of it, it's still new to me.
Since Arizona is in the same country as New Jersey (I know it sounds like a foreign country, but I checked a map and everything), the supermarkets were pretty much the same as what I can get back home. Or so I thought.
- It's SUPER!
This supermarket was no ordinary market of superiority. It was a MERCADO of superiority. Which is a whole 'nother thing. If I were intoxicated enough and for some reason woke up in an aisle of the Super Mercado after a rough night of having my memory reconstructed, I would totally believe that I were in Mexico. And if my memory really had been reconstructed, I might even known Spanish. And kung-fu.
What treasures did the Super Mercado hold? Oh, many things. Edible things, fatty things, yellow things, pink things, fizzy things, liquidy things, butter replacement.
- Ooh.
Those are baked things. You can tell because they're baked.
- Corn tortillas
Those are corny things. If you stick your nose into one of those warm stacks of corn tortillas and take a giant whiff, your inner cavities will fill with the sweet scent of...corn tortillas.
- Still corn
Those are different corny things. They crunch with the sound of a bucket of glass being thrown out a window. The force of the crunching sends waves of corny essence around your mouth. It's a beautiful thing.
- Cookies
Those are cookie things. If you eat two different ones, they'll taste the same. Or that's what Lee Anne told me.
- Meatavorian friendly
Those are porky skin things. They glow yellow.
- Cakes
Those are cakey things. With questionable decorations.
- Colors! THE COLORS!
Those are food coloring things. To questionably decorate the cakes with.
- Bueno!
Those are bueno things. You can tell because it says "Bueno."
- Soda!
Those are fizzy things. Under the right circumstances, they will explode.
- Almost butter
These are butter replacement things. This is all we will have in the future when all the cows die.
And that kind of concludes our tour of the Super Mercado.
- We have tortilla lift off
At one point while standing in the corner of the store full of baked goods and tortillas we (Lee Anne, Kimberly and I, that is) longingly stared at the conveyor belt on which fresh, flat rounds of flour tortillas rolled by, all fresh, flat and tortilla-like. The woman in charge of collecting the tortillas and making sure the machine didn't try to wring free of its human enslavement by gaining consciousness and terrorizing the store felt must've sensed our burning desire for some tortilla lovin' for, like a messenger of the heavens, she unexpectedly handed us two tortillas to sample.
- nom nom nom
Tortillas will never taste the same. They will never be as warm, fluffy, soft, delicately layered or fragrant with wheaty goodness as the one that ended up in my stomach acids that day. Nom nom nom. Oh, how I nomed. And looked rather squirrel-ish while doing so. A squirrel in the form of a chubby, little boy. No wonder no one loves me.
- Funny cake
Back to the subject of questionably decorated cakes—what's up with that one? HMR TYM. This is all kinds of weird, folks. HMR TYM is not complete without amorphous green projections that I initially confused with dinosaurs, which upon closer inspection proved to be amorphous green projections of no reptilian quality. Despite that the eras of the dinosaur and the Hummer/HMR never coincided (according to popular history, that is), I think dinosaurs would've made more sense than amorphous green projections (because, like dinosaurs, Hummers evolved to have the ability to slash you limb from limb, and they lay eggs). If we are to make any sense of this cake.
This totally bitchin' cake. I'd want one of those on my birthday.
But wait...it gets better.
- Best cake evah.
Now this...this is something that needs to be displayed in a gallery and be the subject of a dissertation. It's the cake that will please everyone and no one, for it is decorated with Spongebob (for the young ones), Winnie the Pooh (for the young ones who still have their minds intact), Spider Man (for the spidey fan), zoo animals (for animal lovers), The Thing (for whoever likes him), Wolverine (for the X-Men fans), vines (for the botanists), Shrek (for people who like green creatures) and probably more. There might be things hidden inside the cake itself. If only I could plunge a knife into its sugary core and possibly impale some other pop culture figurine lurking underneath the frosting.
If only.
- Drinks and stuff!
Lee Anne and Kimberly said I couldn't leave without trying horchata, a beverage borne from the combination of rice, almonds, sugar, and cinnamon. Of course, they were right. I took one sip of the surprisingly light drink (surprising because I find most Mexican food to be too heavy, a trait that Mexican beverages may not have) and had a strong desire to smuggle the giant horchata-filled bee hive-shaped bucket out of the store so that I could feed on the delicious nectar within for as long as I could until finding another horchata bucket in another Super Mercado or after making my way across the US/Mexico border. But they'd probably notice that something was awry upon seeing me struggle to lift it and then probably spilling it everywhere because I'm a weakling.
And that concludes our tour of the Super Mercado.
- La Pinata
Before we went to the supermarket of awesomeness, the Shaffers and I ate at La Pinata, their favorite Mexican restaurant since Kimberly was a wee lil' baby.
- Mm, chips
I think I prefer tortilla chips over bread as far as "free stuff before the meal" goes. I hope that's not sacrilegious.
- They gunna be FAHEETAS
The Shaffers had one thing on their minds: chicken fajitas. Apparently this is something that La Pinata does very well. Not having ever eaten a chicken fajita before (I think), I had nothing to compare it to, but it's definitely something I'd want to order again.
- But what is a fajita, mommy?
If you're as clueless as I am about Mexican food, you didn't even know what a a fajita was until you saw those photos...and even then, they don't say a whole lot. A fajita is grilled meat smothered in chopped onions and peppers + tortilla + other condiments, in this case rice, cheesed beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and cream.
- Yom yom
You smoosh it together, roll it up and VOILA, delicious. The chicken was moist and tender, the way chicken should be but isn't always because someone cooks it too long or doesn't season it in any tasty way or just effs it up. This was some awesome chicken. It was loved.
The only downside to the combination of beans and rice and chicken and mashed 'cado and cream and cheese is that your stomach feels a bit brick-like afterwards. It's worth the minimal pain, of course. This stuff was so filling that for the five of us we only got two orders of the fajitas and after we were done we had a quantity of leftovers that was worth taking home. One order feeds three people. And it's not like the amount of food is actually great, but that Mexican cuisine packs a heavy caloric punch into a small volume. Mm, delicious volume.
- Frances
After all that Mexican food joy, Briana drove Lee Anne, Kimberly and I to Frances Vintage for some...omg...non-food shopping. It happens sometimes on the rare occasion that I'm not eating.
- Dresses
Although it has the word "vintage" in the name, it's really only 25% of the store that's vintage. Or 33%. It's something less than 50%, yes. I do math. But it's a nice little vintage section from which I pulled an odd plaid yellow 3/4-sleeve shirt, possibly made of polyester, but it had no tag so I couldn't really tell. Even though it had some holes in it (at the armpit seam), I liked it enough to buy it and sew up later. It's veryveryrare that I like something that much...and rare I ever mend clothing. If I ever get a photo of myself wearing the shirt, I'll point it out to you.
- Rest of the store
The rest of the store mostly sells clothing that hadn't been previously worn. Lots of Free People stuff, if you know that kind of style. (Although I tend to like very few things in their store, the things I like I really like...which is more than I can say about most other stores and means I like the store overall. By the way, I suck at shopping for clothing or shoes or bags or anything in that category of commerce.)
- Cupcake!
I was drawn to the giant cupcake on the chalkboard behind the cash register. Unsurprisingly. Giant floating cupcake...ooh...
The store also sells some little toys, cute magnets, journals, home furnishing things, kid's stuff and...beverages. So if you want to buy some new clothes or if you're thirsty for Jones Soda, you know where to go.
After spending too much time in the store we piled back into the car and headed to Urban Cookies, which was recommended to us by a woman at Frances Vintage.
- NOOO
But it wasn't meat to be. CLOSED. Damn it. The cookies look pretty awesome on the website. Yup. [stares at cookie innards]
- Mary Coyle
We did the "pile into the car" thing again and headed to Mary Coyle, "A Phoenix Tradition for Over 50 Years!"
- Inside
It did feel rather old inside, but they probably don't need to update their image to sell their ice cream.
- ICE CREAM
Because they have lots of ice cream and it's quite tasty.
- Two sundaes
Since we really weren't in the mood to eat anything that remotely resembled The Suicide, the four of us shared two small sundaes, called "coward" sized on the menu, one with butter pecan and the other with honey banana. The brown stuff on the side that looks like gravy is caramel sauce. Which is like gravy for ice cream, if that makes it sound appetizing in any way. Sweet, sweet gravy...
- Innards
The honey banana was the winner of the two for being so...freshly banana-y. Not that there was anything wrong with the butter pecan; it just wasn't as a unique/interesting flavor as the banana. The butter pecan was also sweeter than the banana, although not sickeningly so. Butter pecan is ALWAYS sweet. That's just how it is. Deal. By this point (more than a week later after eating the ice cream), I don't recall much about the texture. I figure it was smooth and not too dense and.....um...
WHATEVER, I LOVE ICE CREAM, YOU LOVE ICE CREAM, JUST EAT ITTTTT.
I want to go back to Mary Coyle just to battle the Suicide, a feat that would probably require a day of fasting beforehand. I'm considering it. Nothing says "healthy" like breaking your fast with an ice cream attack.
And on the next day, there were sandwiches
- Door to heaven
Pass through this shimmering door and you shall enter...
- MAGIC
A BEAUTIFUL WORLD OF SANDWICH MAGIC BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS! EVEN THE REALLY DISTURBING ONES!!! LIKE THE ONES WHERE YOU'RE RIDING A GIANT SLUG WITH AN AFRO AND FANGS WHO EATS BABIES AND SHIT!
(It's past 2 AM. Please help me.)
I already wrote about Pane Bianco on Serious Eats, although whether anyone read the post is a mystery to me. I don't think I'll be able to come up with better descriptions than what I wrote there, but I can ...write more stuff...yeah...here I go, writing more stuff...
- Sandwich love
Like Pizzeria Bianco, Pane Bianco is another cruel reminder for anyone who's not from Phoenix that they'll never get stuff this good back at home. The sandwiches—mozzarella, basil and tomato; tuna mixed with red onion, Gaeta olives, and lemon juice and topped arugula; Brown's Orchard roasted lamb and escarole—looked innocent, all round with slightly charred crusts and innards shyly poking out, but they are not innocent. Not that they're evil either. But...but nothing so tasty could be innocent, NOTHING.
- Innards
90% of the sounds uttered while Lee Anne, Briana and I gnawed on our sandwiches were variations of, "Mm, this is so good," and, "Mraararh, yummy," and, "Mrahrahsgghf *drool* mmm nom nom." Thankfully Lee Anne has summed up those moans in prose form:
This sandwich deserves its own USPS commemorative stamp, deserves its lovely visage etched onto the Arizona quarter, its fragrance distilled by the finest old-world parfumiers, its contents hallowed in the halls of the grandest cathedral, its seductive promise battled over by the mightest of legendary warriors, its utter magnificence projected onto the face of the moon.
...Yes, yes it does. I want me some Eau de Sandwich. L'Artisan Parfumeur, get your shit together and make me a sandwich.
- OH MY GOD, LAMBY
The lamb sandwich was the most omg-inducing of the bunch. The lamb tasted as though it were injected with juices blessed by newborn angels. Or squeezed from them. I know that tells you nothing about the flavor, but man...it was good. It was amazing. Deceptively simple, just a thick layer of ground lamb topped with escarole. Do not skip the lamb. DO NOT. Oh, it's seasonal so it may not even be there when you visit Pane Bianco. But if it's there, you have to get it. Imagine that I'm pointing a gun at your head, telling you to get the lamb sandwich. Yeah. Get it.
My heart belongs to mozzarella, tomato and basil though. It's my favorite combination. So...get that too.
- Tuna!
While tuna placed last in tastiness (not that it was far behind), it may have been the best tuna sandwich I had ever eaten. Creamy without mayonnaise, a hint of tartness from the lemon, other good stuff, blah blah. So get that too.
Besides that all the fillings were amazing (Chris Bianco has some seriously potent basil), the bread...oh, the bread. I should've asked if I could've bought a roll. Or five. The bread tasted perfect. I'm saying that instead of describing it because I don't remember much about its physical properties, but trust me...it was all kinds of awesome. I think I've said something like that already. Well. Whatever.
Best sandwiches ever. Awesome filling, awesome bread, awesome filling-to-bread ratio. I recommend gathering a few friends so you can order every sandwich and split them.
- Free caramel!
And the more sandwiches you buy, the more free caramels you get! Aw.
- Lux
Since it was right next door, we took a peek at Lux. I didn't get anything to drink (I no like the coffees), but it seems like a nice place to hang out and if you like coffee, that is what they specialize in.
- Crap, it's Newark!
And then I went home. Some stuff happened in between visiting Lux and arriving in Newark, but...ah, ye know. [waves hand]
Sorry to rush this entry, or rather subject you to this weird entry about stuff I did more than a week ago. Arizona was the bomb. A bomb filled with happiness and fun and awesome people and at least one plush manatee. Phoenix would still be pretty cool without all my friends, but ...no, that's a lie, it would've sucked so hard.
Actually, that's a lie; there's still the Bianco empire among other things. But friends make everything a million times better. Roughly a million. I must thank them (and their families) about a million times or more, along with many manatee hugs for making my vacation so comfortable and packed with fun. THANK YOU FOR DRIVING ME AROUND AND CATERING TO MY EVERY WHIM! I will return the favor someday. Like when you all visit NJ...heh...right. [snickers] Or NYC, I guess. [unsnickers]
I'm also rushing this entry because I have to leave my house in less than three hours to go to Toronto. Oh, I'm spending the next week in Toronto. Actually, I'm spending it in Oakville with an old friend from high school, but that's close enough. Sorry for not giving much warning—I have no idea how many readers I have in...um, T Dot (T Dot?), but as I have no sense of Toronto geography or what I'm really doing, I don't want to feel like there are 20 food places I have to visit before my week is over. I kind of want to take it...easy. [slinks away into a corner]
I do have some bakery and gelato hunting in mind, so don't worry. Haven't at all figured out what normal food I'll be eating, but my friend and I may just cook stuff. IT'S CHEAPER! YAY WE LIKE THAT!!! That's also why I'm taking a train to Toronto. Cheaper than a plane! By a smidge! YAY! 12 HOURS OF TRAIN RIDING, HERE I COME!!!
Addresses
Super Mercado
Across the street from La Pinata (below)
La Pinata
3330 N 19th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85015
Frances Vintage
10 W Camelback Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85013
Urban Cookies
4711 N 7th St
Phoenix, AZ 85014
Mary Coyle
5521 N 7th Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85013
Comments
Wow, just back from Arizona and now off again, this is so exciting! I almost feel like I'm there with you (or at least eating everything you are), hehe. Have super awesome fuuun in Toronto!!!!! :)
what a nice-looking lamb sandwich! i wish i could have a taste!
oh, and that funny cake at the super mercado resembles birthday cakes my family used to get for us kids while i was growing up in indonesia. they would have these characters (some disney princess or robot or soldier depending on the kid's interest) and the "ground" would be chocolate ganache. sometimes there would be a fence made of broken Pockies and occasionally a blue-food-coloring-stained whipped cream river runs through the cake! bwahahaha!
sigh~ miss those times :)
I'm from Michigan and had the same experiences when I worked at a summer camp in middle California this summer with those supermarkets - yep, esp. re the tortillas.
First, let me say that I LOVE your blog...Your recommendation sent me to Sugar Sweet Sunshine when I was last visiting New York. I fell in love with it...
I'm from Toronto - though I've just moved away. (Boo.) Anyway, while there you might want to check out The Red Tea Box, which is such a gorgeous place and makes such beautiful little cakes that it always makes me want to weep. (Sadly, I'm not even joking.) I think it is Your Kind of Place. Oh, the cake pictures you could take there! They also have a lovely little menu of soups and sandwiches and salads and sort of fusion-y bento boxes. And you can have a set tea - like with 10 gazillion little cakes and pastries, which I can just imagine you would love. All extremely delish.
Have fun!!
The Mexican sodas, Jarritos, are pretty good. The last one I had (mango) didn't have high fructose corn syrup so I enjoyed even more. Because I rarely drink soda, the few times I do I really enjoy it.
If you can believe this, I haven't had decent ice cream aaaaall summer. I know, I don't even know how... I do actually, it's entirely my fault. A fault which I hope to fix before the end if August.
A tuna sandwich without mayonnaise? WOW! Not to mention the bread looks so incredible. I'm drooling. No, I'm mentally drooling (I care about my keyboard too much!).
Have fun in Toronto! I'm sure you'll be fooding there, too!!
You were right by my old house. We used to eat La Pinata all the time, I love that place...they have really good chicken tacos.
But just how super is it? ;)
But just how super is it? ;)
Normally I would say there is no such thing as too many pictures, but this has me in confused picture overload! Where to go?!?!? What to look at?!?!?
B
http://handtomouthkitchen.wordpress.com
We have a similar one in my hometown too:
http://www.vallartasupermarket.com/
And it kicks Ralphs' butt one store at a time
http://www.ralphs.com/homepage/index.htm
I LOVE to visit foreign grocery stores. In fact I'm visiting my sis right now in Amnecy, France and made her take me to the Carrefour last night. I've already done the Monoprix in town. I couldn't believe all the stuff you could buy, I could have spent an entire day there. Truly amazing!
I laughed so hard at your picture of "HMR TYM". I know it probably stands for Hummer Time, but my first thought was Hammer Time, which then made me think of MC Hammer. And then I got "2 Legit 2 Quit" stuck in my head. Good times, Robyn.
Kathy: I have so far eaten TOAST in canada.
TOOAST!! Okay I will eat more later.
Maria: My childhood was deprived of funny looking cakes. Now I am sad.
:(
BUT I CAN MAKE NEW MEMORIES!
:D
Josh: Did you smuggle a crapload of tortillas home? I wish I had.
Ilya: Thanks for the rec!
10 GAZILLION LITTLE CAKES sounds quite awesome. Mm...gazillion...
Christina: OMG GET ICE CREAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING SUMMER ISN'T SUMMER WITHOUT ICE CREEAMMM
Eva: Maybe you lived near Lee Anne's family too! They used to live close to La Pinata before moving to Tempe.
Mm taco.
Garrett: Some levels of super-ness cannot be expressed in words. It was BEYOND MONDO SUPER.
B: Yeah, this one is kinda loaded. So much time an effort for the photos...aargh...
Rebecca: I have way too much fun in supermarkets. I never got to go to Carrefour though!
Marvin: HAHA, Hammer Time would've been awesome; I hadn't even thought of that.
In Toronto you should check out Dufflet Pastries (for cake and pastries), Greg's Ice Cream, and Phil's Original BBQ. They're all google-able.
If you're in Chinatown go to Goldstone's that's my parents favorite noodle shop.
Toronto.com has lots of restaurant reviews aswell as listings with phone numbers and addresses.
ROBYN!!! Awww, I live in TO and it would've been fabulous to meet up and show you the best places in Chinatown... But school starts in Sept and I'm not going to be in town until then! Boo.
Anyways, if you are in the "core Chinatown area" (i.e., go to corner of Spadina and Dundas - you will be right in the centre) it will be so awesome. There are several supermarkets (where you can buy Chinese junk food!) and lots of bakeries nearby. Everything within walking distance of each other too!
Chestnut buns and Coconut buns are my favourite. If you want to try them out, I suggest Ding Dong Pastries (321 Spadina) because they make the BEST chestnut buns!!! And it's only $0.60 each (Cdn)!!! There's also another place called Kim Moon Bakery and they sell really good Coconut buns (and other types too, of course) 2 for $0.80. Finally, if you're up for dim sum, there's Golden Mile Chinese Restaurant on 421 Dundas St (3rd floor). It's my favourite - really good quality and authentic food. Weekdays is only $1.60/plate, weekend is $2.20/plate.
If you want to know other cheap AND yommy places to eat in Chinatown, send me an email! My friends and I have scrounged around there and picked them all out =). I'm only sorry that I can't be there to show you around in person!
Here are URLs for some places I mentioned and recommend:
Kim Moon Bakery
http://www.yummybaguette.com/magasin.php-id=86.htm
Golden Mile Chinese Restaurant
http://www.toronto.com/restaurants/listing/122522#mapAnchor
Simon Sushi
http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-12-15/goods_foodfeature.php
(their lunch special is actually even cheaper, this is an outdated link)
I couldn't find Ding Dong Pastries online, but do go if you get a chance! That's the thing with Chinatown - lots of the really good places (good tasting AND good price) are "underground" and ppl just know about them through word-of-mouth!!!
hey, I'm a fan of your blog and I happen to be from Toronto! After reading that you might go searching for gelato, I highly recommend you checking out this link : http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2007-08-16/cover_story.php
it's by a free weekly newspaper and it rates the best places in Toronto for Ice Cream! They do talk alittle about gelato too, but in my opinon, having been to almost all the gelato places mentioned in that article, the places you MUST check out are 'Solferino' and 'Il Gelatiere' (you can find their addresses in the article in the link)
this entry is a bueno thing! that catalogue of the supermercado... superrrrr.
Hey, you're in Trawna! I'm just along the lake from you at the moment. I can't add to the Chinatown recs, but if you're in downtown Toronto, Kensington Market is a funky place to wander around. Try Alchemy Bakery at the corner of Augusta & Oxford for nice wheat-based comestibles.
And St Lawrence Market (right downtown) is kind of touristy but is also a fun place to wander around.
Oh, and I think Greg's ice cream is nice but a bit overrated - if you can, make a trip to Kensington Organic Ice Cream on Palmerston.
Before you leave, it'd be great if you could Fedex me one of those Pane Biancos sandwiches...with some dry ice for good measure (to play with).
I hope you didn't eat the hummer ;)
I miss you! I want to eat with you so much. I ended up working longer than I wanted to this summer and couldn't get to NY. I need to come soon!
Hey, just found this out and decided to pass it along.
Kashi is giving away a free snack for whoever wants one, a granola bar, crackers, or a chocolate chip cookie. I've heard good things about the cookie (I've already had their granola bars) so that's what I chose. (This does make me feel like a cheapo since I've waited until they're giving them away to try their cookie... Oh well, I can live with myself.)
The disconcerting part is the picture of Dae Lee saying, "I want to rid the world of a million bad snacks." Sometimes, however, they just taste good!
http://www.kashi.com/outreach/snack_drive
To all the New Yorkers, they are setting up a booth (more free food!) in NYC on Sunday, September 30, @ Southstreet Seaport on Pier 17 at Fulton and South St, 11 am - 5 pm.
Other locations are in Boston, MA, Chicago, IL, and San Diego, CA. The info is on their site. And no, I don't work for them =^P
I'm jealous of the bread on those sandwiches . . I won't be noming on any for a few days, I just had my wisdom teeth taken out this morning =(
YAY FOR UDON IN BROTH!
Katie: Thanks for the recs! I may go to Chinatown tomorrow in which case I will eat the baked goods and whatnot.
Janet: Hehe, I saw that newspaper today...with the photo of the woman and the ice cream cone on the cover, methinks. :D I went to Solferino today, shall check out more...later...
Bowb: I didn't capture ALL of the magic. Ye really gotta go there and see it for yourself. Yeah. Out to the Zona.
Alexa: Whoaa more recs, thanks! Kensington Market sounds good. If I get the chance I will goooo. I did craploads of walking today. Yeeah. And I ate too much.
Doug: I think you need to visit Phoenix to taste it fresh from the oven. :D
Sarah: WAAAH COME OVER HERE DAMMIT ARGAHRA! After you graduate maybe? Pwease?
Susannah: Damn, hope you feel better soon! I remember when I got all of mine taken out. ..Yeah, that sucked. I ate apple sauce or something.
Your trip to Phoenix sounds like a little bit of heaven. One of the first things I do when I visit a new place is to spend hours in the supermarket (I even do that when visiting my parents on Long Island). I guess I'm easily dazzled.
Of all your pictures, though, I'm disappointed not to have seen a picture of the torilla-conveyor (tortillyor? convilla?) in action.
Ahhh! Robyn, I'm addicted to your blog and I am SO excited you're coming to Toronto! I live about 4 hours south... BUT I have to suggest some spots that are in downtown Toronto, not Oakville. The drive from Oakville to Toronto is about 25-40mins depending on traffic... so please please please check out these spots!
1. Burrito Boyz (www.burritoboyz.ca) for a GREAT and CHEAP burrito along with many other things!
2. Salad King for GREAT Thai food
and..
3. Spring Rolls for again, GREAT Thai food! (www.springrolls.ca)
I hope you have a safe trip and have a blast in T.O.!
OMG Your adventures at the SuperMercado made me laugh big time!!! hahahaaa cracked me up!!! :-) :-) :-)
I hate to be the negative person but please don't waste a meal on Spring Rolls. It's very generic and boring (though it is clean which is nice). Salad King however is great, you can get your meal as hot as you like it, mmmmmmph. Lots of other good recommendations above. There is a little place actually in downtown Oakville run by a Filipino family, and mostly they have snacky food that high school kids would like - soft serve, coffee and such - but they hosted a party for a branch of my family and wow was their real Filipino food good, maybe they have some regularly?
Email me if you are interested in anything specific. Tonight my hubby and I will be in the Annex (which is around Bloor and Spadina/Bathurst etc.), he'll be the big Hawaiian looking guy with the accordion. I'm not kidding.
Why don't the grocery stores near me give you tortillas? Darn Connecticut. And I'm going to be thinking about that fajita and that lamb sandwich all day, just so's you know. Even though, like you, I am loyal to the tomato, basil, and mozzarella.
Please to be excusing the incoherence.
OMG!!! u were in TORONTO for a week?????
and i didnt read this till today!!!!! :(
damn...:(
oh well...guess i'll read what u did and ate there then...(erm...do i sound stalker-ish??? :P)
grrrr...and i was hoping that one fine day maybe i could meet u so that i could eat with someone who really really loves food...cos none of my friends/family enjoy food half as much as i do.(ok. NOW do i sound like some stalker-ish robyn-obssessed person? gacccckkk sorry...)
anyways, hope your trip to toronto was good! :) look forward to reading about it! :D
WOW!!!!
Such a visual journey for me thankyou!!!
i love to visit places and see what people cook and eat and the blog is such a place where you can see everything and with bloggers like you its a treat!!!!
you take such great photos and write well too so without visiting the place i get the pleasure of doing so...
AHH comment backup...sorry...
Annemarie: Oh yeah, why didn't I take a photo of that? .__. Uh...it looked like a conveyor belt with tortillas on it. YEAH.
Sammie: I heard of Salad King but I'm afraid we didn't get to try any of those places! Meep. I had a lot of fun though. We took the GO train into Toronto each day.
Marianna: Glad you liked it!
Hannah: TOMATO BASIL MOZZ POWAAAH! So good.
Incoherence is understandable.
Gertrude: Eek, I guess I gotta warn people earlier. Maybe I'll put a banner on the front page: ROBYN IS NOW IN [insert location]. I hope to go to Toronto again next year!
mahek: Thanks for reading! I take all those photos so I don't have to describe places as much as I would have to without em. WOOEEE. It gets the job done.