Sunday Dinner: Jamie Oliver's Pan-Fried Chicken with a Delicate Pearl Barley, Pea and Lettuce Stew

I didn't go see Jamie Oliver today at Roy Thomson Hall, but we (Darcy actually) coincidentally made an Oliver recipe for dinner. We saw Jamie make it on the Food Network this morning and I couldn't think about anything else. It was called "Pan-Fried Game with a Delicate Pearl Barley, Pea and Lettuce Stew," but we didn't have access to partridges, so we used chicken (legs and breast) and it was amazing. The pan-fried poultry is served on top of a kind of barley and pea risotto with fresh lettuce mixed in at the last minute. So good. You can fin the recipe here.

If You Tweet It, He Will Come

My post about how Toronto comedian Bob Kerr used Twitter and Facebook to convince LA comedian Paul F. Tompkins to perform in Hogtown for the first time ever is up on Torontoist.

This is, without a doubt, my favourite post. I didn't initially plan on writing about this at all. I heard about Bob's campaign to get PFT here, but I thought it wasn't a necessarily "Toronto" story. I attended the show and completely fell in love with Paul within mere seconds. It was one of the best comedy shows I've ever seen, and I would put him right alongside Louis C.K. As the weeks went by after the show, all these new copycat Facebook groups started popping up, trying to do the same thing. At last count there were over thirty cities, mostly in North America, but also some as far as Sweden and Scotland! This was fast turning into something really big and it all started in our little city.

But, more than that, I was so happy for Bob. I feel like it must have taken so much courage to engage Paul, convince him to perform in Toronto, and take on the responsibility of making sure the audience showed up. It turned out better than he could have hoped and he even got to hang out with Paul after the show. I wish both Bob and Paul every success.

Save the Last Deli

Photo by Marcelo Ithurralde.

My post about David Sax's excellent book, Save the Deli finally went up today on Torontoist. I wrote the first draft last week, but my editor rightly asked me to give it another looking over, at which point I realized it was awful. So, I started again from scratch and also asked one of Torontoist's illustrators, Sasha Plotnikova, to do an original illustration, which I think came out beautifully. David Sax himself even found the post just a few hours after it went up and re-posted it on his blog (yay!).

I read this book in one weekend and I was amazed by how much research and legwork went into it. I can't imagine doing that many interviews, let alone ones with people who are running busy delis and don't have much time to talk. His stamina continues to amaze me as I follow his blog, describing his exhausting book tour.

Everyone seems to be fixated on the book as a deli travel guide, but I think the best part of it is the historical details of Jews in North America that lend context to the current situation—the disappearance of traditional Jewish delis. The point that stuck with me was that the source of this cuisine was all but extinguished during the Holocaust. As Sax says in his book, "Delis are cooking from the fading memories of a time and place that no longer exist."

Live-blogging Nuit Blanche for Torontoist

Last night, I had my first live-blogging experience as my star photographer friend Ayngelina and I tried to faithfully record the weird and wonderful things we saw throughout the night at Nuit Blanche: http://torontoist.com/2009/10/blanche_slate_nuit_blanche_live.php. A note to anyone trying to do this in the future, you cannot count on free wifi, or even paid services like Boingo. I ended up texting my editor instead.

Not only did my editor, David Topping, put together the post on the site as the night unfolded, but pieces of it were also projected on a big, blank outer wall of the AGO. We got there at about 1AM. My friends patiently waited as I stood poised with my camera, waiting for one of mine to come up.

Nuit Blanche always sounds really good on paper, but more times than not, the execution lacks something. "Dance of the Cranes," a piece where construction cranes were supposed to move in tandem to music was just two cranes with monotone blue Christmas lights spinning slowly on their axes. And the "Wild Ride," which was two midway rides located in the middle of the Financial District and staffed by carnies in suits to represent the "wild ride" workers in banking have had this year, didn't put any emphasis on the dressed up operators and just looked like a regular carnival ride with hordes of people waiting to get on.

I think the coolest thing was the "plane" that flew across the ceiling inside the 24 hour grocery store in Liberty Village. People are shopping, everything is as usual, then the sound of a jumbo jet fills the store and the immense shadow of a plane crawls across the ceiling...then it's gone. Loved it.

I think Nuit Blanche needs an injection of theatre, performance, and people. How cool would it have been to see Cirque du Soleil-type acrobats crawling over those slow-moving cranes? And really making those Bay Street carnies standout with crisp suits and Venetian masks.

Oh, l'amour

On Friday, Ayngelina and I had so much fun at the public opening for Thirty in Twenty, which I wrote about for Torontoist. I had such a hard time composing this post because I was overwhelmed by the richness of Toni and Ria Harting's story and how refreshingly real and sweet they were. Seeing them in the room, alongside the precious photos that chronicle their French culinary adventure from almost 40 years ago, made me well up. The photos capture the essence of youth, adventure, fun, and love.

The show is curated by another beautiful couple, Johanna Reynolds and Zach Kellum, who have such wonderful taste and styled the room perfectly for the show.

If you're in Toronto, don't miss it. It's free and runs until September 26.

Photo by Toni Harting.

Miracle on Queen Street

So, thanks to my Torontoist editor David Topping, who is a friend of Tyler Clark Burke, Ayngelina and I were able to attend a "miracle fruit" tasting last Thursday and we posted about it on Monday. Many high profile media people were there (Toronto Life, Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, CBC) as well as little old us. We were crammed together on a tiny back patio and it was really fun.

Due to my own mix-up, we were double-booked that night and had to go to the Performance Gallery at The Gladstone as well, which we were slightly late for. After having some berries (which make everything eaten afterwards taste sweet) and scarfing down too much of the test foods (lemons, salt-and-vingear chips, sour candy, hot peppers, vinegar, tequila), we made a hasty exit and had just 45 minutes to see all of the gallery's performances.

At one point, we were watching a fabulous performance called German Lollipop that took place in the bathroom on the second floor. The night's performances were supposed to be over already, but since we were media, they did an extra one for us. In the show, Hannah Cheesman played a German wife who was being gradually driven to madness by her husband. It was a creepy, powerful performance and it was fantastic. I loved it, but the door was shut and it was a million degrees in there and my stomach was super mad that I filled it with dietary acid at the party. Word of caution: do not make plans to do anything after a "flavour-tripping" party.

Photo by Ayngelina Brogan.

Theatre Buff

With all this writing for Torontoist, my own blog is getting terribly neglected. Between the Pride Parade and now, I've had the amazing opportunity to review plays for the Toronto Fringe and SummerWorks. I've always loved theatre and see quite a bit of it usually, but this is the first time I've written any formal reviews.

During the Fringe, I went to see about 16 plays, mostly with Marcelo, and loved every minute of it (well, the vast majority). I couldn't get enough. Even at lunchtime, I snuck away to the Factory Theatre (just down the street from my office) and squeezed in an extra play.

As for SummerWorks, so far, I've seen only three traditional SummerWorks plays, one SummerWalk, and one visit to the awesome Performance Gallery. I simply fell in love with Quietness by Anthony Bergamin. I am a sucker for opera or any singing really.

So, belatedly, here are the posts I wrote for the Fringe and SummerWorks (to date) for Torontoist:

• First Class Baggage (review of Baggage)


• Bert and Eye (review of Bert and I)


• #FringeTO (collection of tweets by Fringe performers)


• It's in the Bag (review of BAGS: Obsessions of a Hoardaholic)


• Night at the Performance Gallery


• Remember Lola Lita (SummerWalk walking tour)