I’ve just returned from Picton as I attended the first ever – Great Canadian Cheese Festival.

The festival was held at Cyrstal Palace Fairgrounds, in Picton from June 3rd to 5th, with a full schedule that included: A Cheese Tour, Tutuored Tastings and Seminars, a Gala dinner and more.

I decided that a day trip to attend the Sunday Artisan Cheese and Fine Food Fair would be perfect.  I am SO glad I attended. First of all – I love cheese. Second of all – it allowed me to visit Picton. How could I not go?

The venue was stunning. There were some vendors inside a gorgeous building and some vendors outside under tents. I really did enjoy the setting. Who was there? Lots of cheese makers, lots of wine, a nice variety of beer ,and a few food vendors. I can’t complain.

I enjoyed many of  the cheese samples (with about 4 lactaid pills) and was thrilled to be introduced to new cheeses.

I discovered :

• Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co. introduced a new cheese called Morning Moon TODAY.
• Prime Ridge Pure will be rolling out their first cheese EVER – next week
• Fromagerie Medard will be introducing a new cheese called Belle-Mere next week
• Upper Canada Cheese has a new cheese called Cottage Gold.

More discoveries: I loved the presentation of these chocolates that were infused with wines from Mercury Chocolates (located in Cobourg).What a beautiful dinner gift for someone who loves wine and chocolate!!

Seeing as the Crystal Palace was so close to the main street in Picton, I had to make a stop at Buddhas Dog (172 Main). I was eager to try Chef Flynns’ (who I met by the way) dragon breath mousse with rhubarb compote and locally grown asparagus on a home made hot dog bun. I  was happy!! Thanks to @OntarioCulinary for the great recommendation.

It was the first year that the Cheese Festival took place and I understand that it will be an annual event. I am thrilled for them. Congratulations to George Kolesnikovos who is the founder and director. I’m sure each year will get bigger and better.  Here’s a picture of George – he was easy to find!!

Looking forward to attending next year!!

A few months ago, I received an email from a friend ,with a link to the Russian and Turkish Baths and I knew that I HAD to visit this place on my visit to NYC.

I spent some time looking at the website and knew that it would be an adventure. I wasn’t wrong – it was indeed a great experience. I have never been to anything quite like it.

They have separate hours for women and men. Plus there’s co-ed. My schedule only allowed me to go to the co-ed option. So I packed my bathing suit and off I went.

I was given a key for my locker and told to put my valuables in their safe. (which I did). Then I went to a locker room to get into my bathing suit. I also told the staff at the front desk that I wanted a platza treatment. (no appt necessary – how awesome)

When I walked out of the womens locker room, a RIPPED GUY (did I just say that?) approached me and said “I am Dennis and I’m here to give you your “platza oak leaf treatment”. I honestly was expecting a big fat russian woman but hey – the ripped guy will be just fine. LOL

Dennis told me to experience the different steam rooms and that he would find me later on..so I did.

Lets review what I experienced:

• The Russian Sauna: According to the website, the oven is filled with 20,000 lbs of rock which are cooked overnight. During the day, these rocks give off intense heat. Apparently only a handful of places have this type of room in the United States. When you walk in – its really dark – kinda like a cave and there’s these white plastic buckets (like the type you use for mopping your kitchen floor) and a large basin filed with water. When YOU CANT TAKE THE HEAT, you take the bucket and throw COLD COLD water onto yourself.  I loved this room the best.

• Turkish Room – I liked this room too. Kinda like a wet steam room but with a shower inside so you could cool yourself off without having to leave the room (how brilliant).
• Steam Room – this room had so much eucalyptus scent that I started to cough and had to leave. However I returned later on – and got use to it.

• The Redwood Sauna – typical dry shvitz. Not complaining but not my favorite.
• The Ice Cold Pool – I’m not kidding – this is a pool with ICE COLD WATER. I felt the cold IN MY BONES. This is serious Sh*t. I shook my head when I saw people swimming or dunking their whole bodies into this water

Now let’s talk about the people: Not once did I feel uncomfortable even though at 2 p.m on a Sunday there were 15 men and 4 woman there. People were shmoozing away in each room unlike the QUIET ZONE I am use to at other spas. I liked it. One guy was even sharing his home made salt scrub with a whole bunch of us. Nice!!

As for my platza oak leaf treatment. Dennis found me, and then led me into the Russian Sauna (didnt realize it would take place in a public room – but hey – I just rolled with it). He told me to lie on my stomach on one of the benches. He put a towel over my head and then proceeded with the treatment. It felt like I was going thru a car wash. (not when the hard spinning bristles hit the car, but when those long soft ribbons hit the car). I loved it. I really did. Between the heat, the oak leaves hitting my body, and the buckets of cold water splashed on me – it was indeed SUPER RELAXING. I felt like a wet noodle afterwards. I even said “I could do with a nap now”.

I was drained even though the treatment wasnt that long. Then I had a shower (to rinse off the oak leaves) and had a quick head massage and shoulder rub to relax me even more.

Would I go back again? In a heart beat. Would I get a platza oak leaf treatment again? in a heart beat.

PS if you go to YouTube – do a search for “platza treatment” and you will find a video.

If you are looking for food adventures in NYC, then I highly recommend the following:

a) Go on a food cart tour with Urban Oyster. I went on a food cart tour last year and I was so impressed that I did it again this year. It’s well organized, informative and DELICIOUS. The tour guide (last year and this year) is a food blogger (@EatThisNY) and knows his stuff, so you can’t go wrong. Plus I love how accomodating they are; i.e if you dont like spice, if you dont eat meat etc.

Food Carts on the tour that we visited:

• El Reydel Sabor (King of Flavor)…quesadlias made with pumpkin flour
• Trini Paki Boys Halal Food….veggies with a tarmarind sauce over rice
• Bapcha Korean Cuisine…noodles with stir fried veggies
• Biryani Cart…kati rolls
• Treats truck…for dessert

b) Attend a cheese class at Murrays Cheese. I participated in a mixologist and cheese class in 2009 and it was on my list for this years trip. The beer and cheese class worked out well with my schedule so thats what I signed up for. Once again – the presenters for the evening were entertaining and well versed on their respective subjects. Enjoyed listening to both of them.

c) Visit Smorgasburg in Williamsburg. This outdoor food flea market was launched last weekend and I was thrilled to have found out about it (thank you Google Search)!! The variety of vendors, the setting and the layout was perfect. It was hard to figure out what to eat cause I wanted to try so many things…thankfully @norecipes joined me so we could share everything (problem solved!!). We enjoyed Kelvins Natural Slush & Co, anchovies from  Bon Chovie, a noodle dish with peanut sauce, Grass Jelly, Coconut Milk Infused Corn with Scallions and more!

d) I also found out about Taste of Tribeca (thank you again – google search) and went to check it out – after Smorgasburg. By this time I was FULL – but still managed to try out a few vendors. It was quite the festival – lots and lots of vendors and lots and lots of people. This was a charity event and you could tell that the restaurants and the neighborhood came out to support this cause.

e) It was suggested from @winedanddined that I visit a block in the East Village (7th avenue between 1st and Avenue A) for “great food”..and I did. She was so right!! Lots to eat on that street plus I discovered even more food a block away on St. Marks Pl. Between the two streets this is foodie “heaven”:  ButterLane, Lukes Lobster, Porcetta, HolyLand, Crif Dugs, Chocolate Library, and Abreca Coffee.

Oh yeah – one more thing. I went to check out Eataly (in my spare time). I was blown away with this concept. Only had a coffee but I certainly enjoyed walking around and snapping up photos.

Needless to say, I picked a great weekend to visit the city. Sadly there was so much going on that I didn’t actually go to a restaurant in the city. No room in my stomach!! Im not complaining…I know I will be back.

I’ve just returned from New York City and I’m very eager to blog about WHAT I ATE..as that’s what I did for three full days.

Sadly I can’t tell you about shopping cause this trip was about EATING. So let’s begin.

Here’s the highlights:

This beet gelato not only looked beautiful but actually tasted like beets!! Il laboratorio gelato – knows how to make gelato. I actually knew about this place as I follow a food blogger (@EatThisNY) who tweeted about it. (oh the things I learn from twitter).

I’m not sure I have ever had smoked salmon like this before, even though I grew up in a household that ate smoked salmon every week. Russ & Daughters has been around for decades, and now I know why. Thanks to @norecipes (another great food blogger) who took me to this fabulous store.

This is called a Chocolate Soup Dumpling from Rickshaw Dumplings and it’s an outstanding creation. You bite into this dumpling and hot chocolate liquid oozed into your mouth. EPIC!!

This is a brilliant concept – a slush without chemicals, preservatives or artificial colors. JUST GOODNESS. I discovered Kelvin Natural Slush Co. at a food flea marked called Smorgasburg (more on that later) and all I kept thinking was “why doesnt this concept exist in Toronto?”. They have a mobile truck too and you can call the “Slush Phone” for the latest location.

Again, I discovered Bon Chovie at the Smorgasburg Food Festival. I love the concept – the name – the graphics and these deep fried anchovies. I’m sure this booth will be  a hit throughout the summer and wish them well. Please click on the link to look at their website!! Brilliant.

ButterLane has a smart concept too. You pick your base (chocolate, banana or vanilla)  and then pick your frosting (over a dozen to chose from). GENIUS.

What else did I discover that was fun?

-Kumquat Gelato with Black Label Scotch from Cones Ice Cream Artisinal – 272 Bleecker St.  (happily paid $1.00 for a huge sample).

-Dr. Browns Cel-Ray water from Katz’s Deli (bought 2 for my dad – who loves this stuff).

-Over Sized Needles filled with Chocolate from Max Brenner

–Eataly ..walked around drooling

Had coffee at Eataly, Oslo (in Williamsburg), and Abraco. Huge line ups at the last two places…clearly poplular in their respective neighborhoods.

I promise there will be more blogs about my food adventures this week!! Come back to read more…K?

I am so lucky to be regularly visiting a city that has such great food. The trip was carefully planned so I could celebrate Mothers Day with my mom, as well as enjoy great food (once again) and see the Canadian Tulip Festival (which is taking place May 6 to 23).

Let’s begin with the food: A trip to Ottawa would not be complete with a visit to the Byward Market. I associate the Byward Market with Beavertails and with Maple Syrup Cones. (childhood memories).

I also went to visit the Byward Fruit Market store and to my delight found this unusal looking product that I have never seen before. I gave it to my mom as a Mothers Day gift . (its so great to have foodie parents). We loved the texture and the flavor and were eager to try it on more foods (ie a piece of dark chocolate). YUM.

I also visited the Red Apron to see their new location. The new space is stunning. PLUS…they now carry my favorite butter  (Beurre de Patrimonie) that I had been bringing back from Montreal.  I was squealing with delight that it is now in Ontario, so I happily bought three tubs to bring back to Toronto.

I also made sure that I snuck in a visit to Art-is-in Bakery, so I could enjoy a coffee and an incredible croissant with a twitter friend (@kleggett). The place was busy the entire hour we were there and for good reason!! This bakery rocks.

A trip to Ottawa wouldnt be complete without a tweet up so I could shmooze with some local foodies. The tweet up  for this particular visit, was held at Jacobsons Gourmet Store and everyone enjoyed their charming hospitatlity as well as some great food…fig balls, jam, crackers, charcuterie, cheese, refreshments and desserts. I especially loved the gift bags that they gave to each attendee. How thoughtful!!

Next to Jacobsons is ZaZas pizza. I had read a review on Nooschi.com ,so I met some friends there before the tweet up to try the mushroom pizza with truffle oil. It was perfect. Demolished the whole pizza along with 4 lactose pills.

The trip ended with a visit to Landsdowne Park Farmers Market on Sunday and it was PACKED at 10:30 a.m. It was a gorgeous sunny day and it was mother’s day. I tried some organic cucumbers, some paneer from Curry Home Soon and welcomed Pascales Ice cream to twitter.

As for the tulip fesitval. The tulips weren’t quite open. (sadness). We stopped at Dows Lake and managed to find one patch close to our car. I have no doubt that in a week the tulips will all be open and it will be spectacular.

Tulips or no tulips…it was a great visit!! As always.

In April, I attended the Green Living Show for my first time. I had never been and had really no idea what to expect. What I didn’t expect was to stumble upon a booth called Island Spirits that featured three unique Eco Cabins on Rice Lake. I stopped to chat with the owner and her son and listened to them tell me more about this unique holiday experience.

A few weeks later, I received an email from TJ (the owner) asking me if I would like to come up for a night. I gladly accepted as I knew it was on my way to Ottawa and I was visiting soon.

Here’s a brief description of our adventure.

4:00 p.m  Left Toronto

5:00 p.m. Exited at Cobourg and then drove another 30 minutes exactly.

5:30 Greeted by TJ and loaded our belongings on the ferry.

5:50 p.m Arrive at Grasshopper Island and we are beaming. We unload and have a quick dinner of party sandwiches. Then we  immediately start to explore the island. We have 25 acres of an island to explore and we can’t wait. This is what we see.

Our ECO CABIN looks like this and we are SO impressed:

8:45 p.m. Sunset time..(more or less)

9:00 pm We are tucked inside our sleeping bags. The kids are making shadows on the walls while I tried to read on my kobo but fell asleep within minutes.

10:00 p.m The kids fall asleep (so they told me).

NEXT DAY

9:00 a.m. Kids enjoyed chocolate cheerios for breakfast. We then pack up and take one last tour of the island.

11:45 a.m. TJ helps us unload our stuff back on the ferry and by noon we are back on land and we head to Ottawa.

We are sad but we know we will be back.

Please visit the Island Spirits website and please book early so you aren’t disappointed!!

Last year I went to the Fancy Food Show in New York City. I loved eating my way thru New York City and eating my way thru the show.

I plan on going back to the show but this year it will take place in Washington D.C. (July 10-12). However I really want to go back to NYC and decided that I’m going to go the long weekend in May. Before the heat – before the major crowds.

On previous trips this is what I accomplished (ok – ate):

-attended a cheese and mixologist course at Murrays Cheese

-walked for hours thru the Union Square GreenMarket and Chelsea Market

-went on a food tour of Greenwich Village with Foods of New York

-went on a food cart tour with Urban Oyster.

-had drinks at the Spotted Pig and Blind Tiger

-ate at Momufuko, Nougat by Jean Georges (well kinda), Todd Englishs Food Hall, Shake Shack, Risotteria(a gluten free restaurant),The Donought Plant

-was lucky enough to stumble upon a jello competition with students from Parsons School of Design.

THIS YEAR: This is what’s on my hit list.

-attend Taste of Tribeca which is a culinary festival featuring great restaurants and wines.

-participate on a tour of Brooklyn brewerys with Urban Oysters

-attend a beer and cheese class at Murrays

-attend the opening weekend of  Smorgasburg in Brooklyn – described as a food flea market!!

I’ve been doing some research on the Manhattan chowhound board but havent made any final decision yet in regards to restaurants.  Ive also been using this website too. Nothing like finding out things to do in NYC for FREE. wwww.nycgo.com

What else should I do? Where else should I eat? What else should I visit? should I see a play? should I go shopping (ya think?..LOL)

Look forward to reading your comments.

I’ve organized a few tweet ups in Ottawa over the year so that I could enjoy new restaurants with other foodies. We have enjoyed tweet ups at Ceylonta, at Coconut Lagoon, and at Blue Nile too.  I was kinda having a hard time finding the right restaurant for  the next tweet up but FoodiePrints came to the rescue. While reading their blog entry on Serious Cheese, I said to myself  “aha – a cheese tweet up”.

I immediately picked up the phone to speak to the owner of Serious Cheese and asked him if he would be interested in doing this. He agreed over the phone. I then set up the twtvite and tweeted out the invitation a few times on twitter.

Here’s how it worked: On Sat Night, over 20 people came to the store to enjoy CHEESE – talk about cheese, mingle, eat cheese and eat some more cheese.

It was a perfect tweet up. Lots of mingling and lots of eating.

Many of us enjoyed grilled cheese sandwiches:

Many of us also enjoyed their asweome goo-ey macaroni and cheese.

Jamie put out some lovely samples of cheese along with Dolces’ Gourmet Jam – and everyone was clearly happy.

Tweet Ups are a great way to meet other people with similar interests. Infact the group on Saturday nite, included a foodie from Boston (@GeekBoston).

I can’t wait to organize the next tweet up for my next visit. I’m thinking about a Jam tweet up. What do you think?

Another trip to Ottawa means another opportunity to eat!!  I ate my way thru the following restaurants and my stomach couldn’t be happier.

I started off at Town. It was listed as one of top ten restaurants for 2010 in Ottawa magazine and I can see why. The restaurant was packed but I was lucky and found a spot at the bar. When presented with the menu, it was tough to make a decision what to order.  But I was super happy with my decision.  I inhaled the ricotta gnudi that was served with a walnut pesto and browned sage butter.

The next restaurant to make my stomach happy was Chez Edgar. I asked the waiter what was popular and he replied “a lot of people order the heuvos rancheros”. I replied “ok – that’s what I will have”. I was not disappointed. It was perfect. The restaurant is situated in a house – so there’s a few tables and an open kitchen.  This means that I got to watch the chef make my meal. Total entertainment.

On the way out I grabbed some photos of some baked goods. OMG.!!

Next: The Scone Witch. This restaurant has been around for over 20 years and clearly has a following. It’s a clever concept as you don’t find too many places serving sweet or savory scones along with devon cream and jam. Again, my stomach was happy.

Here’s the details about the restaurants:

Chez Edgar: 60 Rue Begin, Gatineau, QC

Town: 296 Elgin St. Ottawa

The Scone Witch: 388 Albert St. or 35 Beechwood Avenue, Ottawa

The highlight of the weekend, was the Cheese Tweet Up but that will be a separate posting on Tuesday. Stay Tuned.

A friend wrote me an email that said “why arent you blogging about food” I wrote back “you know me well!!”.

To be honest, I was saving the best for last.

Sadly my mom and I were sick for 3 days with bad colds so we didn’t venture out for 3 evenings but we made up for lost meals!! Here’s a few highlights.

Cimboco…A Caribbean Cafe.

We loved the airy caribbean decor and once we saw the menu we knew that we hit a winner of a restaurant.

I had the plantain wrapped callaloo – local callaloo seasoned with caribbean flavors, wrapped in ripe golden fried plantains and accompanied with a spicy cayman style sauce.

My taste buds (and tummy) also enjoyed the caribbean roti. – an island style sandwich on their fire roasted flat bread filled with traditional caribbean curried vegetables.

The Sunshine Grill

Another casual caribbean style restaurant known for the best fish tacos on the island. Guess what we ordered? (did you guess?) There was a 30 minute wait for a seat but it was SO worth it.

I had the coconut snapper tacos- snapper in a mild curry/coconut sauce with green onions and cilantro.

Michaels Genuine Food and Drink

This restaurant has a location in Miami (for those who like to go to Florida in the winter) and he opened up a restaurant in Cayman not long ago. We loved this restaurant. The atmosphere was hip, and the service was perfect but it was the food that had us oo-w-ing and aawing. (is that the correct spelling)?

We had lots of little dishes to fully experience the menu.  Our fav. dish was probably the crispy hominy. OH YUM.

Roasted Breadfruit salad with heirloom tomatoes, avocado, shaved red onion in a lemon meyer vinagrette.

B

Homemade organic ricotta with jam on crostini

Sauteed local thai eggplants with raisins and almonds

Each meal was fantastic. I was thrilled that we were able to enjoy some local flavors and can’t wait to return next year to enjoy these three restaurants again.