Leaves and Petals

There’s always someone who believes that common rules and regulations can’t possibly apply to them. Recently on TasteTO, we had a commenter who could not get over the fact that he was not allowed to bring a pair of infants into the Gourmet Food and Wine show. This situation had obviously occurred before because the website for the event doesn’t just say that it’s 19+…

Must be 19 years of age or older. No children or infants permitted. Please do not drink and drive.

That “no children or infants” bit had to be added specifically for the folks who still seemed to believe that bringing kids was okay.

Today, over on the Passive-Aggressive Notes blog, there’s a couple of examples of signage where someone at some point thought the “no food” message didn’t apply to them because they were eating ice cream.

I’m still debating with myself whether  it’s just cluelessness or a gross sense of entitlement.

I really, really, REALLY hate when people use the excuse of being busy to get out of stuff, or as a general excuse for not having their shit together. Yet, lately, to my great embarrassment, I’ve been doing exactly that. I’d like to think of myself as someone who can juggle all the chores, who can multitask five different jobs at once, but I’m feeling myself sliding under. I can’t even blame the upcoming holidays because my Christmas shopping is done. Funnily enough, I’m looking forward to December when all of the food-related events and restaurant openings all stop to make way for Christmas parties and gatherings.

Not that I don’t love the events – they’re what make my job fun, and this year of running TasteTO has been absolutely amazing. But as the site gets more popular, there are more invitations showing up, and as much as I try to spread the love around to some of our writers, I still find myself taking on the bulk of it.

I might just jinx myself here, but I’m planning on taking December off. Maybe socialize with friends in a setting where I don’t have to write about or review anything. Bake some cookies, roll some truffles… read a book. Imagine. Maybe even update the ol’ blogs a bit more often.

Look up, look waaaay up. Is that new tiles on the roof of the tower at Jilly’s Strip Club?

Nope… that’s a whole bunch of pigeons soaking up the sun.

Yesterday, Greg and I headed down to Harbourfront Centre to check out the annual Day of the Dead (Dia de Los Muertos) festival. I had heard from people who had gone in previous years that it wasn’t very good, but although the event was indeed small in scale compared to the summertime events that attract thousands and take over the entire Harbourfront complex, this was actually quite charming.

Along with a number of musical and dance performances, there were activities for kids such as a demo on how to make the traditional sugar skulls, cooking demos by local Mexican chefs, and a small marketplace, a restaurant area with a variety of Mexican foods, and a space where the traditional colourful shrines were set up in homage to famous Mexicans like Frida Kahlo and Cesar Chavez.

Since the Day of the Dead celebrations are meant to honour the lives of the dead (this ancient festival dates back to Aztec times and includes a visit to the graves of loved ones for a picnic), the whole event is colourful, bright and fun. The Mexican people believe that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new stage in life so celebration, not mourning, is appropriate.

The following images are of the marketplace and shrines. For the foodie images, please check out the post at Save Your Fork. (more…)

One of the few things I miss about living in an apartment building instead of a house is Halloween. Specifically, handing out the candy. We never got a lot of trick or treaters at the other house; we were on a street with two schools, a church and a football field, there were only about a dozen houses total and half of those were rooming houses, so most kids didn’t even bother with our street. But we always had candy and we always sat out on the porch with decorations and pumpkins, and the 4 or 5 kids who made it up onto our porch were well-rewarded.

Last year, no one at this building seemed to care about Halloween. Previous building managers had gone all out, but the young Romanian couple who were in change at the time seemed confused when they were asked about Halloween – they didn’t know what it was.

Halloween almost didn’t happen this year either. Building management is in chaos with both the building manager and the property manager quitting last week. But people had already dropped off candy to hand out and the new superintendent was still offering to do the hand-out, but figured he would need someone to help him. I happened along at just the right time and volunteered.

And so it was that I found myself last night behind a massive table loaded with candy, hanging out with Victor, the super.

We had 5 huge boxes of everything from chips to chocolate bars and caramels. No molasses kisses, no candy corn, but a fair selection of Nerds, sour candy and Tootsie Rolls. The stickers I brought went over exceedingly well.

As we were handing out only to kids in the building, everyone got piles of stuff, and we had a bit left over at the end. We probably got about 50 kids with only about half of the kids in the building represented. We’re a very multicultural building and many cultures just don’t celebrate Halloween, so while I saw a lot of kids I knew there were also some notable absences.

The best part of the evening was actually hanging out with Victor who, as it turns out, had a long career in the restaurant and hospitality industry, so we talked food all night.

The kids were all cute, costumed and polite – a big change from living at the other house where most of the few kids we got didn’t even make an effort at a costume.

This isn’t all the costumes, but there were times when it got busy and I forgot to take photos.