Toronto Eats: Live Food Bar and Hawker Bar

Posted on January 7, 2013 by Hannah

Toronto is chockablock with inventive cafés and restaurants, the majority of which offer up much delicious magic. I’ve previously shown you Fresh Restaurant, Kale Eatery, and Belmonte Raw, and today I’m taking you to Live Organic Food Bar and Hawker Bar.

For the record, neither of the aforementioned “bars” are of bars of the let’s-get-tipsy-mctipsypants-then-find-some-prettypeoplefolk-to-dance-with variety. They’re restaurants.

You might think I’m showing you the above photo because I want you to know how to spot Live Organic Food Bar from afar if you ever find yourself on Dupont St. That is only half true. I am also showing you because the man in the window above the restaurant makes me think (delightedly) of Anne Shirley and Diana Barry sending each other messages via flickering lights from their bedroom windows at night.

But I digress.

I visited Live with Lisa, because I always try to pick dining partners according to alliteration. Live is an organic raw food bar that also offers cooked options, and I swear I would like to eat ‘most everything on its (extensive) menu. Alas, Lisa and I were both feeling a bit under-the-weather on the night we went, so we kept our order simple.

Above is a plate of Live’s famous Chickpea Fries, described on the menu as “cornmeal and chickpea flour fries with bbq and spicy mayo dipping sauces”. These were fantastic, crispy on the outside yet both firm and creamy on the inside, perfectly spiced, and jazzed up by the two sauces.

The Big Bowl Salad, comprised of “field greens, kale, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, mixed seeds, avocado, micro greens, sunflower sesame hummus, and [I chose tahini] dressing”, was incredible. I’d never had raw hummus before, which seems silly in retrospect. Raw sunflower hummus is pretty much simply creamy tangy nut butter, and we all know I tend to go through at least two jars of nut butter a week straight with a spoon.

Last weekend Lisa, her brother, her brother’s fiancée, and I went to see Avenue Q at the Lower Ossington Theatre (the musical was just as marvellous here in Toronto as when I saw it in New York in 2008). For lunch beforehand we checked out Hawker Bar, a gorgeous little spot where the menus are printed on the back of cardboard squares from beer boxes, the waiters are super-friendly, and the flavours, oh the flavours! Each dish we tried sang with intensity, nuance, sweet-salty-spicy-hot complexity, and happiness.

Lisa enjoyed her vegan Laksa Lemak (a rare find, I believe, considering that most laksa bases involve shrimp paste), the Singapore Chicken Wings with sweet chili sauce and Chili Salt Tofu with house BBQ dipping sauce were gobbled up, the Singapore Noodles across from me looked appropriately dark and glossy, and my Silken Tofu arrived as a behemoth of baked creamy tofu topped with flavourful chili jam, a mountain of fried crispy taro root, fried mushrooms, slices of chili and ginger, and a black vinegar dressing that pulled everything together. It was wonderful.

Aaaaaaand I’ve just discovered that Hawker Bay’s chef, Alec Martin, is Australian.

REPRESENT.

Dinner Theatre and Cozy Nights in Kansas City, Missouri

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Hannah

Once upon a time in September, I stayed with Amber and her husband Matt in Kansas City for three weeks. Once upon a time right now, I wrote up a few final Kansas City memories.

(I apologise in advance for the scattered nature of my writing in this post. Lisa and I were out until 3am last night/this morning at a shadow cast screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show [hilarious!], and today I attended an International Festival of Authors event. Me = tired in my mindhead.)

1. New Theatre Restaurant

I was thrilled to be invited by Amber’s utterly lovely parents to attend their regular dinner theatre adventure (with Amber too, of course) at the New Theatre Restaurant. After being served a vibrant salad appetizer and partaking in an extravagant buffet spread with options as diverse as cauliflower cheddar gratin, baked polenta with marscapone cheese, steak, chicken cacciatore, buttered baby carrots, buttered green beans, black bean salsa, and breaded fish, we laughed and laughed our way through Social Security, a play headlined by I Dream of Jeannie herself, Barbara Eden.

To add extra smiles to the night, intermission saw the arrival of an apple cobbler and a chocolate cobbler, the latter of which was like a chocolate fondant with a molten middle, topped with crunchy toffee and almonds. (You all know how I feel about toffee and nuts.) Thank you, Cheryl and Ken, for allowing me to be your guest for the night. It meant so much to me.

2. The Mystery Train Dinner Theatre

What’s better than one dinner theatre adventure? Two dinner theatre adventures! To thank Amber and Matt for hosting me in their gorgeous abode, I bought us tickets to The Mystery Train for my final night in Kansas City.

The Mystery Train is an interactive murder mystery wherein, at the close of each scene, meals are served while the cast/suspects wander amongst the guests spreading gossip, answering questions (bribery helped) and, sometimes, trying to cover their tracks. It was rather fun and, as a bonus, our vegetarian meal was surprisingly delicious. Corn and wonton chips with black bean dip, spring green salad with hazelnut vinaigrette, penne pasta with a roasted vegetable tomato sauce, and a brownie tart to finish.

3. Assorted Snapshots of Deliciousness Unrelated to Any Dinner Theatre

Sweet rich creamy mango lassi at Korma Sutra. See also: red onion attempting to flee for its life from my plate.

More Ghenghis Khan self-created stir-fry shenanigans! Loved that place.

This photo was taken right before I spilled some of my deeply-roasted-lovely Parisi coffee directly onto my white shirt. It took me half an hour to notice I’d been walking around with coffee on my shirt. What can I say? I’m clearly the cool kid everyone wants to emulate.

4. Cozy Night the First, aka Raw Vegan Sushi and Kimchi Night

Do you know what is super fun? Making raw vegan sushi filled with jicama-parsnip-sunflower-seed rice in the company of Amber and Hillary (we also made normal vegetarian sushi and inari pockets).

Homemade kimchi is also awesome, particularly when eaten atop vibrant green things. Yay healthful snacks!

5. Cozy Night the Best, aka Hello There Brad Pitt

Freshly-popped popcorn with melted Earth Balance, chilli flakes, and nutritional yeast.

Soulsister.

Interview with the Vampire, for the first time.

Newly-bought sweet-smoky incense, curlicues of smoke spiraling up into the air.

Laughter, whispers, smiling, together.

Miss you, Amber.

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival, starring Giant Pickles, Things On Sticks, and The Royal Smoker

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Hannah

One of the ways that Amber convinced me to extend my stay with her last month was by promising me a trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival, an annual six-week-long extravagance of corsets, themed sideshow games, mead, people on stilts, and something called The Royal Smoker.

I stayed, we went, and it was a riot of a day. To blog every entertaining moment would be to create a post Tolstoyian in length and potentially not safe for work (there were some awe-inspiring reaching-for-the-skies corseted bosoms present, I’ll tell you that for free), so I’ll try to keep this of both manageable length and PG-rating.

Speaking of PG, I would like the outfit on the right, please, so that I can twirl around in public singing “Little town, it’s a quiet village / Ev’ry day, like the one before…”

The first sight I encountered upon entering the Renaissance Festival was a man draped in multiple snakes. Being Australian, I am of course used to fending off poisonous slitherers with my bare hands, but the little girl being yanked away from the snakes by her mother was clearly lacking such valuable life skills.

There were a wealth of ye olde food options available at the Renaissance Festival, but giant turkey legs do not fill my soul with glee. Giant pickles, however, are another story.

Keeping the aforementioned PG~~-censorship~~-rating in mind, I shall simply state that pickles are hilarious, and vehemently deny the existence of any other pickle photos. End scene.

Well, except for pickle photos that also incorporate THE TARDIS.

After all, if a time-period anomaly is going to show up at a Renaissance Festival, it’s going to be the TARDIS. Because then it’s not really an anomaly at all, is it? Exactly.

Say hi to Amber! Hi Amber! The blueberry beer in her cup was surprisingly delicious, despite the fact that I initially found it too sweet for my tastes. (My favourite drink that day was a combination of alcoholic cider and Oktoberfest beer, though. I’m one classy broad.)

Say hi to Matt! Hi Matt! Looks like you’ve got some tasty nuts there, Matt. End scene.

So, fried pickles? Didn’t float my boat. When warm, pickles become unpleasantly squelchy-like, which makes me think of Roald Dahl’s snozzcumbers. I say to you: shudder.

I also say to you: olives stuffed with pickled garlic on a stick are serious business.

Less serious are slices of chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick (thanks for being the hand model, Hillary). This was far better than I expected from pre-packaged festival fare. We were particularly amused by the hidden graham cracker crust.

With sweet and salty cravings happily sated, it was time for Amber, Matt, Hillary, and I to make our way to The Royal Smoker for an hour of bawdy songs and jokes, belly dancing, wine, snacks, and cigars.

I merely contemplated the cigar in a PG manner, of course. If I’d done anything but contemplate, I might’ve hallucinated wacky sights like, say, a Mermaid Matt.

Wait. Never mind.

End scene.

Captivating Cabaret in Cedar City: REACH Presents!

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Hannah

During my time in Cedar City, I came to look forward to Thursday nights with a gleeful anticipation usually reserved for opening my stocking on Christmas morning.

Thursday nights in Cedar City during the Utah Shakespeare Festival are home to REACH Presents: The Cabaret, described as “an up-close variety show, new every week, performed by USF Company Members”. Personally, I’d describe these nights as “an up-close variety show of glorious, hilarious, moving, brilliant, and soul-uplifting wonderment”, but sadly no one asked me to be the copywriter.

With Sam as the accompanist and many of the performers being people I feel honoured to call new friends, these cabaret nights were a whirlwind of laughter, applause, and magic for my heart. And music! Let’s not forget the music.

(The fact that I got a reserved seat in the front row each week didn’t hurt, either.)

I desperately wish I could show you every video I took from the REACH cabaret nights. You could cheer for Logan’s tongue-in-cheek rendition of Part Of Your World, melt over the incomprehensible adorableness of the company’s young actors singing Don’t Stop Believing, snort with laughter at the lyrics to Random Black Girl, shiver as Tricia belted out Natural Woman, and try not to cry over Matt’s spoken word pieces.

Sam and Logan, pre-mermaid magic.

But, alas, copyright is a stupid demon and I’m not allowed to post anything longer than 30 seconds. I do, however, have two clips that I can show you, both of which came from performances that made me dissolve with laughter.

Believe you me, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen the Bishop from Les Misérables, Laertes from Hamlet, and three other swanky men re-enact the Cell Block Tango from Chicago, complete with red lipstick.

Or until one of your temporary housemates has burst onto stage in drag as Patti LuPone to blast out Everything’s Coming up Roses, freak-out and all.

Thank you, USF performers, for giving me so many golden memories from your cabaret nights. You are nothing but amazingful glorious joy, and it makes me cry inside to know I’ll be missing the Disney night at the end of September.

To everyone else: if you find yourself in Cedar City during the Utah Shakespeare Festival, you must prioritise these cabaret nights. And if you decide to buy a coffee at The Grind and make it your dessert for the night? I highly recommend the salted caramel syrup.

It will make your night even sweeter.

Cedar City Dining: Chili’s and Denny’s and Greens, Oh My!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Hannah

As an Australian, America’s obsession with chain restaurants strikes me as an amusing yet heebie-jeebies-creating novelty.

However, after finding myself seated at Dick’s Last Resort (where the stools had female mannequin legs, the ranch dressing was used to mimic certain bodily fluids, and the waiter yelled at me for taking too long to eat my salad), eating at Chili’s and Denny’s in Cedar City seemed almost like fine dining.

Well, no, not really. But when it’s 11pm and you’re surrounded by friends, beer, and laughter, even chips and pancakes have the potential to feel like Michelin living.

After all, at a Michelin-starred restaurant you’d expect the tostada chips to arrive warm, crisp, and just-fried, right? Well, Chili’s ticked that box. (I ate one of those pots of salsa straight with a spoon, pretending it was a spicy gazpacho. I’m one classy broad, y’all.)

As you can see, Matt was deeply excited about his honey-chipotle chicken crispers. According to reports, the crispers were deceptively spicy. All I know for sure is that the fries I pinched were tasty albeit insanely salty.

I, too, was excited about my dinner of grilled chicken salad with cheese, tomatoes, black beans, corn relish and honey-lime vinaigrette. You’ll note, though, that unlike Matt, I managed to keep my tongue in my mouth.

It’s easier to eat that way.

Another night, Matt, Sam, and I ducked into the nearest Denny’s for some post-show noshing, and in so doing managed to convince Jacob to come along for the ride.

HEY JACOB I MISS YOUR FACE.

And your flouffy Titus Goth outfit.

That is all.

Here you see Matt acting like the king of the castle over his Lumberjack Slam of buttermilk pancakes, grilled ham, bacon strips, sausage links, eggs, hash browns and toast.

If you think I didn’t eat half of his salty crispy hash brown whilst singing “I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay / I sleep all night and I work all day / I cut down trees, I eat my lunch / I go to the lavatory / On Wednesdays I go shopping / and have buttered scones for tea” then you don’t know me at all.

Mmm, pancakes with butter and all the maple syrup. (Served with a side of SamBlur.)

Sometimes, though, after eating at chain restaurants and trying new cocktails and snacking on endless faux-healthy candy bars, a girl needs an enormous plate of green.

And then two shopping bags-full of coconut milk ice cream, chocolate, nut butters, raw treats, frozen kefir, and bizarre spaghetti made out of tofu.

‘Muricah!

Wayfaring Chocolate

adventures in chocolate, travel, cooking, and living

Category Archives: Shows

Toronto Eats: Live Food Bar and Hawker Bar

Dinner Theatre and Cozy Nights in Kansas City, Missouri

The Kansas City Renaissance Festival, starring Giant Pickles, Things On Sticks, and The Royal Smoker

Captivating Cabaret in Cedar City: REACH Presents!

Cedar City Dining: Chili’s and Denny’s and Greens, Oh My!