Culinary Arts @ George Brown College

Those are some great reviews! Thanks everyone...I'm inspired to give the courses another chance regardless of my iffy experience with the first one.
I wasn't expecting the recipes to be difficult or sophisticated, but I expected the dishes to taste really good. Perhaps I should have been more specific in my review. I remember making a roasted chicken, lasagna, quiche, sole, minestrone, some meat dishes. I thought that those were all fine choices for an introductory course, but they didn't taste that good. I was expecting a great roasted chicken, tender and flavourful meat dishes, etc...but I found that a lot of the dishes (as prepared by the chef) lacked in flavour and were sometimes overdone or underdone.

traycer, your photographs are stunning! I recognized the dishes you made, many were the same as mine (but looked a lot better). Like Julia K said, I guess a lot of it really depends on the chef. Having said that, I'm interested in Thai cuisine and sushi, can anyone recommend any good chefs?

dxs, what are the "skills" courses you speak of? I've never heard of them. Can you provide a link to some info?

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)

Culinary Arts @ George Brown College

I haven't seen any posts here about the Culinary Arts (and Baking Arts) classes at GBC. Has anyone taken any and have any positive/negative feedback?

I took Culinary Arts I a long time ago and I thought that it was pretty basic, and although I did learn a few things, I found that I could make a lot of the basic dishes better than the way they taught. Value was good, I paid $300-something at that time for 10 classes which included a take home meal, but none of the dishes wow'ed me. I expected a little bit more from learning from professional chefs.

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)

oishi sushi - finch ave

I tried this place about a month ago for takeout on the way home from work and I was not impressed....first of all, I waited about 40 minutes for take out. At that point I already wasn't coming back. I was watching the "chef" prepare the sushi....had to do something to entertain myself for that long. There was a main chef who was better, but the one I was watching was overstuffing the maki, realizing that they were not going to close properly, opening them up, removing some of the content, trying again. Then they all fell apart on him when cutting and he had to start again. He had a couple of rolls ahead of mine and I think the fact that I was watching was making him nervous. I took a walk to the buffet and they definitely did not have 300 items. It looked O-K. When I was paying for my order, they didn't deduct the 10% for take out like they advertised. When I mentioned it, it took them a while to figure out what buttons to press on the register to return $3-something to me. Finally when I got home to eat the sushi, the sashimi was average (for the area), but the part that I really didn't like was the strange soggy and chewy seaweed in the maki. I ended up picking the rolls apart because I couldn't chew through the seaweed. I'm in on the pool on when this place will fold =)

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)

Recs for veggie-friendly eats near York U.

I'll agree on Thai Bamboo, more authentic and delicious than any chain Thai places I've been to and I love the fresh spring rolls and mango salad.

There's also a Chinese Restaurant (not vegetarian but I'm sure they have some options) at Bathurst and Centre, about a 10 minute drive from where you'll be staying, called Cynthia's. I've had a great meal there before, but I've only been there once. It's on the pricey side considering that Chinese Food is usually cheap, but great quality.

http://www.cynthiaschinese.com/index.htm

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)

Yummy Market

This place is awesome! It's on Dufferin, a little South of Finch.
It's a pretty big European supermarket and is filled with tons of goodies you're unlikely to find anywhere else. Here's a list of things I love in this store, I highly recommend that if you haven't already been there, that you go. As a bonus, they're open 9 - 9 EVERY DAY except for Jan 1st.

- excellent cheese and deli counters, with an amazing variety of fresh cheeses such as cottage, feta, and cream cheese, sold by weight.
- about 30 varieties of chocolate covered mini cheesecakes sold in bulk. They come in flavours such as dulce de leche, blueberry, chocolate, black/red currant, you name it
- a whole aisle (both sides) of bulk European chocolates and candy. A lot of these are hit or miss, but you can buy 1 of each and try them all, its the variety that kills me!
- an amzing variety of pickled items, jams, and fruit/vegetable preserves
- about half of a freezer aisle filled with different types of perogies (meat, potato, cheese, mushroom, cherry, etc...)
- excellent prepared food

They have fresh fruit and veggies too, but this section is quite small, the candy took up a lot of store space, but always fresh.

Just thought i'd share!

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)

Sushi in North York

Thanks guys! I was looking for something specifically in that area just as a regular go to place for a random meal/ takeout because I live near by. I've had Sapporo and Ichiban and can't say that I was really impressed but I will give them another chance. I didn't realize that Aoyama, Taro, and Le Cafe Michi were near by so I will definitely try them for a sit down dinner soon! They were on my list but I figured that they far (without checking the location).
I had Kaji for the first time last weekend. Although I'm not expecting any thing Kaji-like in this area (neither is my wallet), they set the bar pretty high! Thanks again, I'll report back when I try the places you guys recommended.

ltn in Ontario (including Toronto)