Agincourt C.I. Snack Shack.

high school... If you didn't already know, I'm studying to be high school teacher and a couple weeks ago I did my student teacher placement at Agincourt C.I.. First of all, this school is great! Great students, staff and......awesome healthy food program! At Agincourt C.I., I came across this really cool initiative called "Snack Shack" that is run by student and staff volunteers (and funded by the government). It offers really healthy foods and snacks for students and staff for very cheap prices. It ensures that students are eating healthy foods, which does not often happen in high school. Back when I was in high school, I remember my friends having a coke for breakfast, which is messed up! At Agincourt, instead of seeing students snacking on chocolate bars and chips, you see people eating cheese/ crackers and carrot sticks.
How cheap exactly? For $0.50, you could grab a bagel (with 2 spreads), small chocolate milk, small white milk or "So Good" brand soy milk. For $0.25 cents you can get cheese and crackers, nutrigrain bars, bags of trail mix, small boxes of muselix cereal, yogurt, sesame snaps or applesnax apple sauce. Best of all, with every purchase, you also get a choice of a FREE bag or carrots, an apple or a banana (and yes, you can buy everything separately and get lots of free veggies/fruits, but people at Agincourt are nice and don't take advantage of this.lol). This is an awesome and very successful program run by Agincourt C.I. and not only benefits the students health wise, but gets students volunteer hours, as they volunteer to run the snack shack.

Bonus:
If you are a student or teacher from Agincourt C.I. reading this, yes I am Mr. Leung.lol... secondly, from my experience with the snack shack, you have to follow these instructions for the best healthy snack:

1. Buy Muselix Cereal + Yogurt
   
2. Open Muselix box and pour about 1/2 -3/4 of the bag into the Yogurt.
3. Stir and Enjoy! ...total price of tasty treat: $0.50
   

April 29 Deals Recap.

deals... This is just a reminder that tomorrow (April 29 2009, 5-10 pm), Baskin-Robbins locations Canada-Wide are selling ice cream scoops for $0.31 +tax each (max 3 scoops). More Info

... also there is the Date Night Deal at Milestones tomorrow as well- order any appetizer, entree or both and your date gets theirs for free (between 4 pm to close).

Metro Square Cafe Restaurant.

hk style western food... My favourite spot to eat at the moment has been at Metro Square Cafe Restaurant. This is a restaurant that serves Hong Kong or chinese style western food like steak, pork cutlet and breakfast items. Most of these meals come with a side of rice or spaghetti, vegetables, soup and a drink (as you can see in the pics). I ordered the mixed grill meal (pic up top), which comes with grilled pork, a small grilled steak and fried fish. The pic on the bottom right is the steak tenderloin with mushrooms in red wine sauce. Both these meals came with garlic bread and soup (choice of cream of mushroom or vegetable soup or chinese soup, depending on what they have that day). The best part about this is that both the garlic bread and soup are unlimited! The portions are already pretty big, but for the non average eater, you are guaranteed to leave this place feeling satisfied and full. My other friend, who can't eat that much got a smaller steak meal (pic on bottom left).
Quick Notes: The mixed grill and beef tenderloin meals came with the unlimited garlic bread + soup and were both either $8.99 or $9.99 (before tax/tip). The smaller steak meal is an awesome deal as well @ only $5.99 (before tax/tip) from what I remember (this included a drink, but if someone else at the table orders the bigger meals (ie. mixed grill meal), you can still take advantage of the unlimited garlic bread and soup. lol). The drinks that you can choose from are your typical HK drinks such as milk tea, lemon tea, etc.. If you want a cold drink (ie cold milk tea, which is also much bigger), I think its like $0.70 extra. Metro Square Cafe Restaurant is located at Metro Square (Steeles and Warden, West of the T & T plaza). It is the restaurant right at the corner facing Steeles).

Popeyes Chicken.

fried chicken... My friend had a specific craving for some Popeyes chicken the other day, so we headed over to Popeyes. We got the 3 piece chicken "bonafide combo", which comes with 3 pieces of chicken, a biscuit and a side. There is actually a huge variety of sides you can choose from at Popeyes including rice, coleslaw, mash potatoes with cajun gravy, fries, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese and some other stuff. The mash potatoes sits in a pool of gravy and along with the oily fried chicken, it is an instant heart attack! The chicken is tastier than KFC, and is available in mild or spicy. At the same time though, Popeyes chicken is super oily and super heavy. The paper bag that was carrying the chicken was soaked in oil within minutes of leaving Popeyes. You also get the biscuit, which is even heavier and even more unhealthy. This might throw some people off, but it is the sole reason that my friend comes here. He says that Popeyes chicken, gravy, biscuits feels like liquid gold sitting in your stomach after you eat it!Quick Notes: The 3 piece bonafide combo was $7.59. KFC is known for their toonie tuesdays (much more than $2 these days though), but Popeyes also has their own tuesday deal: 2 pieces chicken (leg and thigh) for $2.49 on Tuesdays. The location that we went to was at Peanut Plaza (Don Mills and Van Horne), where they have a local student deal: Monday to Friday, 12 pm - 4 pm, 2 pieces chicken (leg and thigh) for $2.49, Regular fries for $0.99 and regular drink for $0.50. These are sweet deals if you are in the area and are a student. Popeyes also offers coupons if you ask for them, which will get you things like a free piece of chicken on your next order. According to my friends, after eating this stuff, you don't feel too good, but you just keep wanting to go back!

What You Pay Per Calorie.

Check out this article. I found this on yahoo finance. They went out to search for the best deal on food in terms of lowest cost per calories. They ranked the different fast food items in terms of how much it costs per 100 calories... haha, pretty interesting stuff if you eat a lot of fast food like me.

The number 1 value per 100 calories is...
32 oz coke from subway costs $0.38 /100 calories (32 oz coke= 330 calories). That is a giant coke for a bit over $1 u.s.!

Nice Day.

It's 26 degrees C today in Toronto... if you're reading this, get off your computer, go outside and enjoy the weather...

Alcyon presents Spring Gala.

I was contacted by a group of generous students from People's Christian Academy (school at Sheppard/Bayview), who run a non-profit organization called Alcyon. They are holding a fundraiser called Spring Gala for CLYS (Community Living York South), an organization dedicated to supporting people in the community with intellectual disabilities. It is being held at the Spring Rolls Restaurant in North York. The event itself sounds awesome with all you can eat at Spring Rolls (including unlimited Smoothies!). I'm not affiliated in any way with this organization, just supporting a good cause....go out for a nice spring night, support a good cause and eat lots of food (normally you'd drop ~$20 after tax/tip for just an Entree at Spring Rolls)!

Alcyon Spring Gala (info in Chinese):
Sunday, May 3, 2009, 6-10 pm @ Spring Rolls, North York (4841 Yonge Street)

• Tickets : $30 each (all you can eat meal + 1 free raffle ticket + 1 gift bag)
• Silent Auction, Raffle Draw, Live Fusion Jazz Band, Performances by children from CLYS!
• Free Parking Underground
• All proceeds go directly to Community Living York South
• For Tickets: (647)938- 9709 or alcyon.inc@gmail.com or Facebook Event Page
  

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Since this is Good Food Toronto, here is the all you can eat menu:

Appetizers:
Spring rolls
Mini-me shrimp rolls
Sexy summer salad rolls

Salad:
Vegetable mango salad

Entrees:
Famous pad thai with vegetables & tofu
Vegetarian fried rice
Sweet & sour chicken
Satay chicken
Assorted skewers (shrimp & beef)
Cantonese beef
Thai red curry with chicken, shrimp & white rice

Dessert

Unlimited Smoothies

About Me.

Who?
My name is Hubert, born, raised and currently living in Toronto! Good Food Toronto was created in 2009 after my friends suggested that I write a blog because I eat out so much. Apparently (according to my friends.lol), not only do I eat out often, but I also eat a lot. I did my undergrad in Life Science at McMaster University, followed by completing teacher's college at OISE, University of Toronto and I completed a Master of Science in Physiotherapy at the University of Toronto. Before I moved downtown, I lived in North York, so I've had a chance to go out to many different places from downtown all the way to Markham/Richmond hill area (where all the awesome asian food is at!).

Thank you for reading my website! I hope that I can help you discover some good places to eat at in Toronto and it surrounding areas. The picture on the left: yep, that's me eating deep fried scorpions in Beijing! haha

Links
In addition to my restaurant reviews, be sure to check out the 72 oz Steak Challenge that I completed in 2009 (finished it in 55 minutes!) and the Good Food Toronto Facebook Fan Page! You can also find me @goodfoodtoronto on Instagram and Twitter!

Photos
All the photos and videos taken and uploaded onto Good Food Toronto are done with my cellphone (currently Nexus 5, and in the past Nexus 4, iPhone 4, iPhone 3G, so some older images may not be high quality).

Alice Fazooli's @ Highway 7.

pasta... I went to Alice Fazooli's Italian Grill for the first time for a friend's birthday. If you haven't been before, its a pretty nice place, with a lounge area where people have drinks and also with a restaurant area. The decor and ambiance of the place is pretty nice, but as usual I'm focused on the food, haha. We had a bunch of appetizers, which came in the form of mini platters and dips. I didn't have much of these, but from other people there, they mentioned that these were average at best. For the main course, I took the recommendation from my friend that the shrimp angel hair pasta ($16.95) is what she orders every time she comes here. This was pretty good, and the portions were decent for the pasta dishes. Another dish that was ordered was the Chicken Penne Alla Vodka ($15.95). When this dish got to the table it wasn't even warm, so not much good things to say about this. Another person also ordered the Chicken Risotto ($16.25). I tried some of this dish, the risotto was alright, had some random seafood and mushrooms in it too, but the chicken was pretty dry. I'm glad I went with the recommendation of the Shrimp Angel Hair Pasta (I think half the table ordered this.lol).
There were also some other dishes that were ordered, but there were so many people that I didn't wanna look stupid taking all these pictures, haha. We came here on a Thursday night and they had some good drink specials: $3.50 bottles of Stella Artois beer and 3 oz on Thursdays. Martinis for $6. Cocktails and drinks here ranged from about $6-8 usually. The service was pretty good and Alice Fazooli's is a pretty nice place to have some drinks and for a nice dining experience, but there is nothing special about their food at all. If you do come here, make sure you order the Shrimp Angel Hair Pasta.

The location we went to was at Highway 7 and Highway 404 (155 York Blvd., Richmond Hill). It is in that same big plaza where the Jack Astors and the huge Destiny Tea house is at.
From the Alice Fazooli's Menu...

• Shrimp Angel Hair: shrimp tossed with fresh tomatoes, roasted garlic, white wine, fresh basil, and olive oil 16.95
• Chicken Penne Alla Vodka: fresh herbed chicken breast and tomato vodka
  cream sauce, topped with Grana Padano cheese 15.95
• Chicken Risotto: grilled chicken breast, oyster, portobello, shiitake & button mushrooms, tomatoes, white wine and cream risotto, topped with Grana Padano cheese 16.25
  

Phones for Pizza.

phones for pizza... At Pizza Pizza locations, until the end of April, you can trade a used cell phone for a free slice of pizza. If you have a super old cell phone lying around and were planning to just toss it out, then you might as well get a slice of pizza for it, even if Pizza Pizza sucks. Not only will you be getting a free slice of pizza, but you will be helping support both the environment and Food Banks Canada.

"The program sorts and sends old mobiles to a company that refurbishes them and in turn sells the 'recycled' product back to consumers. On average, a refurbished phone generates $2 to $5 for nourishing those in need and has the added benefit of keeping mobiles out of landfills where hazardous chemicals from the phones can seep into the environment." more details

Kimono Lounge and Bar.

kimono... The Korea Town in North York (around Yonge/Finch), is filled with these Korean bars and Kimono Lounge and Bar is another one of them (also in the area: Turbo). Kimono is a place where most people go to chill and drink. They offer a wide selection of Korean food as well, but the real deal is the alcohol combos (similar to Kokuryo). The decor inside is quite nice, modern and there are plenty of tables and seats. We went on a Friday night and it was not super busy like many of these places are. Inside, it is quite dark, as you can see from my crap pictures (I use my Iphone cam for all the pics on the site, lol). If you haven't been to one of these Korean bars, it might seem a little weird, or maybe cool, that they are blasting Korean pop music and have a projector that constantly shows Korean music videos. In terms of food, we ordered an Alcohol combo, which came with either 5 bottles of beer (Coors, Budweiser or Canadian) or a bottle of Soju. In addition to this the combo comes with a plate of food, we got Spicy pork, which was pork and vegetables with some crazy spicy sauce on a sizzling hot plate. They also give you a platter of appetizers, which includes things like macaroni salad, some spicy salad, fish cakes, few calamari rings, some small steamed egg thing and some other stuff. We also ordered a couple beers and a bottle of soju. When you're drinking with friends, its nice to have a bunch of food to go with all the alcohol.
Quick Notes: Kimono at Yonge & Finch. It is West of Yonge on the South Side of Finch (right by the Condos, beside the Subway). If you go with a bunch of people and you order more alcohol, ask them nicely for an additional appetizer platter and usually they will give you another one. The Alcohol combo we got was around ~$20-$25 dollars. The prices for these combos depend on the type of food you order. Bottles of Soju are $14.99 here, like most places.

• Parking: there is a parking lot to the East of the Kimono on Finch (southside), but it is paid parking (at all times, I think max $3 late night). That parking lot also connects to the parking lot behind Shoppers, which is free, but the signs say customer parking only for shoppers, so park here at your own risk, although its no big deal from my experience.

Orange Crush Jelly Belly.

jelly beans... If you haven't had Jelly Belly jelly beans before, they are a brand of gourmet jelly beans that come in many different flavors including pear and buttered popcorn (those are my favorite usually). My friend works for Pepsi and had this promotional bottle of "Orange Crush" soda flavoured Jelly Belly jelly beans. They made it so that the bottle looked like one of those old school glass soda bottles. If you like orange crush, you'll love these as they taste just like orange crush. I prefer the other flavours though as theres so many to choose from when you buy those giant bags from Costco.

Bean Boozled Jelly Belly: I remember awhile ago, I also had the Harry Potter edition Jelly Belly jelly beans with weird flavors like they had in the book/movie. Those were hella nasty (See pic on right), they came in some weird flavours including dirt, booger, black pepper, rotten egg, moldy cheese, etc. (full list of flavours here).

Good Food Toronto Map.

View Good Food Toronto in a larger map
This is a map of the places featured on Good Food Toronto. If you click on the blue pepper icons on the map, the exact addresses are given, and there are also links to the related articles. I will update this with future posts and hopefully this will be a useful tool for those of you who want to try these places out!

Note: You can zoom in and out of the map- just click the buttons on the top left hand corner (this should make the peppers that are overlapping clearer)

DIY Sushi.

sushi @ home... That is what my friend, Chris- the sushi expert, likes to to do when he has free time (not the same friend as the one who does Korean BBQ at home). He holds these crazy sushi parties and spares no expense on taste, quality and variety of dishes that is served (according to him, it ends up costing about $15/person, and everyone is satisfied!). Not only does it tastes good, but the process of making the sushi is fun as well. The selection includes appetizers such as seaweed salad, and tempura (including shrimp and vegetables!). As you can see in the pictures, Chris also makes different types of sushi including salmon, tuna, unagi, uni and scallop. The best looking and most impressive stuff are the rolls, as they look just like the ones from the restaurants where they are usually like ~$10 each. I'm not really sure of the names of the rolls, but the ones with the tempura shrimp inside are just like those dragon rolls you can get at restaurants...sooo good! You can see he even gets the Tobiko to use for the rolls and sushi pieces. Since the types of raw fish being bought are sushi grade, sashimi is on the menu as well (from the pics, there is salmon, tuna and sweet shrimp sashimi... I actually feel hungry right now, no jk).Quick Notes: So..now you've seen the wonderful sushi that one can make at home and you're probably wondering: Where can I buy the stuff to make this?!... Well.. according to our sushi expert, Chris, This is no easy task. He has to run around Toronto going to different places for different things. For the quality stuff like Uni and Tuna, he goes to Diana's Seafood Delight. Sushi grade Salmon and Scallops are bought from H Mart Korean Supermarket in Richmond Hill (9737 Yonge St.) , where the Salmon is usually $9.99/lb (but it is often on sale for $7.99/lb). He also gets his Unagi at H Mart ($10.98/ 2 big pieces, good quality stuff according to Chris). Finally, he gets the octopus at J Town (at Steeles/ Woodbine, 3160 Steeles Ave. E). You could get everything at one place, but for the best quality/value, it is worth your time to run around Toronto making sure you get the best of everything. (located around Lawrence/Kennedy, check the link for exact location).
...I will be seeing him next weekend to personally review and eat all his food, so I will keep you posted on exactly how good of a sushi master Chris is and if he deserves the Good Food Toronto stamp of approval. lol.

Earth Day/ Week Free Stuff.

earth day... So tomorrow is Earth Day and this week is Earth week, which means there is plenty of free stuff being given out around this time. Here's a list of some of the free stuff you can grab that I already posted and a few new ones.

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Previously Posted
Mcdonalds: April 20-May 3 (5-10:30 am)- Free Small Coffee
Ben and Jerry: April 21 (12-8pm)- Free Cone Day (only at Vaughan Mills)
Starbucks: April 22 (all day)- Free Coffee (if you bring your own mug)
Baskin Robbins: April 29 (5-10 pm)- $0.31 Scoops

New
Planet Organic Market: April 22 (all day)- Free Cake and Organic Coffee (locations across Canada)
Yonge- Dundas Square: April 22 (1-6pm) - Free Brita Pitchers (3600 to be given out, until quantities last)
Longo's Supermarket: April 22 (all day)- Free reusable Shopping bag (see link for details, you need to get some card + coupon)

Pho Delight Vietnamese Cuisine.

pho... Since Pho Delight Vietnamese Cuisine is close to wear I live, I go here quite often if I want to grab some quick pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup) and not travel all the way to the Pho 88 at Bamburgh Circle (there is pho 88 at Empress, just not the same). Pho Delight Vietnamese Cuisine has a smaller menu than most places and only serves 2 sizes, large or small, but their pho is quite good. I usually like to order the beef brisket pho, which is not the same as the chinese style beef brisket, instead they give you thinly sliced pieces of brisket..mmm. I ordered the beef brisket one, while my friend got the rare beef and tripe pho. If you don't like the combinations of different types of meat they have on the menu for the pho, you can just ask them for whichever ones you want and from my experience, they will be happy to switch it up for you. In addition to the pho, we also got some spring rolls, which are gooood here and come with a side of vermicelli which tastes mad good with the fish sauce that comes on the side.
Quick Notes: The portions aren't as big as other pho places, especially with only 2 sizes to choose from, but its close by (North York) and pretty good. Pho Delight Vietnamese Cuisine is located on the west side of Yonge, North of Sheppard (5252 Yonge Street). The large pho is ~$7, the small one is ~$6 and the spring rolls were ~$4, from what I remember. I also came another time and my friend ordered a Malay/Thai curry dish that they also had and said it was alright.

• There is a small parking lot behind the restaurant, shared with the bar next to it, so park there for free if you plan on going

Milestones Date Night.

date night... This is a promotion that Milestones Grill and Bar is offering across Canada on Wednesday April 29, 2009. Go to any Milestones Restaurant with your date and order any appetizer, entree or both and your date gets theirs for free (between 4 pm to close). Milestones is a pretty nice place to grab some food or drinks and this is your opportunity to impress that someone special while sticking with your roots and staying cheap.lol. The picture on the right is the pop up that comes up when you visit the milestones website. If it is busy that night, some locations have a lounge area where you seat yourself. Off the top of my head, there are locations at Empress Walk (North of Sheppard, on Yonge), downtown at John/ Richmond (by the Chapters), Yorkdale and one at Yonge/ Dundas in the new Toronto Life Square (where the Adidas store is). Click on picture for more details.

Also: On the same day, April. 29, remember to visit Baskin Robbins for the $0.31 scoop day!

The Lone Star 72 Oz. Steak Challenge.

the steak... Last Wednesday, we finally went to the Lone Star Cafe to take on the 72 Oz steak challenge. 2/3 people who attempted it succeeded and tasted the sweet victory of a huge free steak. (RECAP: Lone Star Steak Challenge , Training Day 1 , Training Day 2 , Training Day 3, Training Day 4). We called in 2 days before to reserve the steaks and they took our credit card number just in case we didn't show up to eat the steaks. I felt good that day and I prepared myself for the meal (at 9pm) by constantly eating very small bits of food all day (mostly yogourt and fruit). Daniel prepared himself on the day of the steak by playing some rugby to build up an appetite. The third contestant, Yale, went another route as he prepared his body to eat the steak by eating an XL bowl of Pho for lunch (beast!). When we walked into the restaurant, our other friends who came to witness the challenge ordered first and our steaks came soon after. The steaks were 72 Ounces (4.5 lbs) and each one sat on a sizzling hot plate. Each of us had to choose 1 side as well (Daniel and I got the garden salad, Yale got the mashed potatoes with gravy). Right when we sat down, our server brought over some nacho chips as well (Yale also killed these, he just keeps eating!). We all ordered the steaks medium rare, and they came out to be more like medium (if you want to try it, I would suggest ordering rare). As you can see in the pictures, the steaks are huge! Not only are they wide, but they are really thick. At the thickest point, they were probably over 3 inches thick.
If we finished the 72 Oz. Steak + Side in under 1 hour it would be free. When we first started eating it tasted pretty good, but as we approached the halfway mark, that was when things started slowing down. One person started to give up, as Daniel stopped at half the steak (he still ate an impressive 2.25 pounds of meat). Yale and I kept going, and by 3/4 of the way, I seriously started to not feel so well (haha!). I did not want to eat the steak anymore, but I continued to cut and chew. The hardest part was that my jaw was getting tired and the meat was quite dry on some parts (especially the charred parts). We did tell the waiter that the steak was way too well done for medium rare and they said we could get 25% off if we couldn't finish it (Daniel definitely benefited from this as the steak cost $54.99+tax if you can't finish it). At about the 50 minute mark, both Yale and I finished the entire 72 Oz steaks and quickly inhaled our sides!!! I wish I could say that I felt really happy about finishing it (LOL) but I really felt jealous of Daniel, who stopped eating his and felt great. The craziest thing that happened was that Yale then went on to finish off some Ribs from somebody elses plate. "When are we going to do the steak challenge again?!" was the first thing Yale asked me the next day.
Quick Notes: I could not have completed this challenge without the training that we did. Eating entire cabbages actually stretched my stomach, increased my appetite and helped me mentally when I didn't want to eat any more of the giant steak. In terms of price, this was the "DEAL OF THE YEAR." As you can see in the picture of the receipt, the two steaks me and Yale finished came to a total of $0. Between the 2 of us, that was 144 Ounces of meat + sides for nothing. "Some people run marathons, we eat!"
Can you do it? The staff at Lonestar told us that around 1/10 people who attempt the steak are able to finish it. My advice to you is to make sure you train and are able to eat a lot of the same thing in one sitting (ex. entire 4.5 lb heads of cabbage lol). On the day of, eat as light as possible, but make sure you eat little things throughout the day so your stomach doesn't shrink. During the challenge, my strategy was to cut the steak from one side only, to keep as much moisture and warmth in the giant steak as possible. Yale's strategy was to use huge amounts of HP steak sauce (a total of 3 bottles were used between Daniel and Yale). In addition to this, it is important to watch the time and to continuously cut and not stop chewing. If you can complete it, it is a free meal. I'm pretty sure that I have eaten much more at some all you can eat sushi places, but the huge steak and the 1 hr time constraint was a definite challenge. Try it at your own risk. Click here for locations

Here are 2 videos documenting our challenge.lol: 1. before we ate the steak and 2. the process of us eating the steaks...