Has anyone had vegetarian ramen in downtown toronto? I've never eaten ramen before, and don't eat pork, so I'm wary of having noodles with pork broth. Any recommendations would be great. Thanks!

Haven't lived downtown on Christmas - want to order in Chinese for me and my roommates. What's going to be open Monday night that delivers and is good?

TIA

JohnVince Foods

I went this morning. Had the s'mores sandwich... which wasn't worth the $8.50. The service was slow, even though I was the only person there.
I'd go back and try it one more time, on a weekend and get a savoury sandwich... But I don't think I'll be a regular.

Thanks everyone. I made the lasagna yesterday, and for a first-timer it didn't come out too badly.
I'm now looking for another new recipe that's good for beginners to try. Always open to suggestions.
Thanks!

Thanks Foodie and CanadaGirl. I hadn't thought of buying the pre-shredded bags of cheese, but I like that idea. I've never tried Newman's Own brand of sauces - I don't even know if I'd be able to find it here at a grocery store.

Would the combination of spinach and zucchini be good together? I have no idea about these things.

I've been tasked with making a lasagna one afternoon this week.
I'm using a simple recipe that I found online, but I have a few questions... I hope someone can help me.

1. The recipe calls for 1 (16 ounce) package of lasagna noodles. It says to boil them until al dente. Would it kill the recipe if I buy the precooked noodles - the ones that sop up the sauce in the pan?

2. The recipe calls for 1 pound of fresh mushrooms and 3/4 cup of chopped green pepper. Can these veggies be replaced for something else? People keep mentioning spinach to me. How much spinach would I need to saute it down to 3/4 cup? Or should I be using a different veg?

3. The recipe calls for 2 jars pasta sauce and 1 teaspoon of dried basil. I'm not using my own home kitchen, rather an institutional kitchen where I have to bring in all the stuff. So can I just buy sauce that is already flavoured with basil?

4. The recipe calls for 4 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese. How big of a block/ball of cheese will I need to buy to yield me 4 cups?

5. Finally, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup grated parm. Is it possible to get just that much, or am I going to have to buy a bigger container of the stuff.

For what it's worth, I'm in downtown Toronto with access to transit and am willing to go to multiple places to get the stuff I need.

Thanks!

A YEAR! You've gotta be joking!

I figured as much. I go to both the Bloor location and the Promenade location regularly.... Would love not to have to travel as far for a hafuch.

Any word on when this branch of Aroma is going to finally open? They seem to be taking a really long time getting it ready to open...

I was down in Kensington Market on Friday and had an AMAZING latte at the Moonbeam Cafe.

-----
Moonbean Coffee Company
30 St Andrews St, Toronto, ON M5T, CA

The trick to shopping at Sobeys is to go on Saturday! As crazy as it sounds, if you are not shomer shabbat, you can get everything done very quickly - and rather painlessly too... Or go right after Shabbat starts on Friday night - say 9:00.

Goooood Luck!

How's the coffee @ le gourmand?

Hehe - when I was in residence first year in College - I lived in an apartment style rez. There was a smoke detector RIGHT over the stove in each apartment. Inevitably between 5:30 - 8:00 there'd be a chorus of smoke detectors going off on our floor. Occasionally when my roomies and I were lazy, we'd follow the beeping of the smoke detectors and drop in on our neighbours for dinner!

I'm down in that area all the time - usually sit and study for hours on end...

A couple thoughts:
- The starbucks at yonge and davisville has a HUGE upstairs room with comfy chairs and lots of natural daylight during the day.
- I personally like the Starbucks @ Eglinton & Holly, especially if I get a comfy chair in a corner. The staff are good there. Once I set up shop, I'm not disturbed, provided I buy something once every oh, 4 or 5 hours or so.

As far as I know, Timothy's and Second Cup do NOT have free wifi - the time you spend on their internet is charged either to your credit card or to your cell phone bill.
Over the last couple of months, I've bought a few Starbucks cards and put $5 each on them - for the sole purpose of using them to get online - you get 2 hours/card.
You can also ask the people behind the counter very nicely if you can use their card (depending on the store, they may have some cards lying around). Your card can be used over and over again, so the $5 (provided you don't spend it on coffee!) is well worth the investment :)

Cheers - maybe I'll see you around.

I was actually going to post a thread on a similar topic...
I need a place I can hunker down and study for hours on end (and order latte after latte) - that's open really realllllly late (say 1:00 am?) Wifi would be a great bonus (and a terrible distraction!)
the 'bucks isn't doing it for me anymore.

I tried Kosher City Plus this afternoon - no luck. I will hit up Sobeys at some point when they won't be busy - Saturday morning!

My stash of Elite Vanilla Instant Coffee that I brought back from Israel is running low.
I've looked at Metro (aka Dominion) and haven't found the Vanilla flavored tins - only regular.
Has anyone seen this anywhere else?
(I've been back in the country for 6 months and have gone through 3 containers of this stuff... I'm regretting that I only brought back three tins!)

Just as follow up... I decided to order the GC from orderit.ca in the amount of $50 - the roomies loved it... Thanks to whomever suggested it... It was a perfect suggestion seeing that the gift'll be used in a timely fashion.

Thanks again!

In the midst of doing my christmas baking, and one of my recipes calls for 11.5 ounces of 60% bittersweet girardelli chocolate (amazing, right?!). However, it's not cheap - unless you can direct me somewhere where it is!

Is there somewhere it's sold in bulk form? I live in midtown Toronto - but need enough of the stuff that I'd be willing to travel (a bit).

Thanks!

A system like orderit.ca - is that buying a gift certificate to the restaurant, or all of toronto's restaurants that are hooked into that website's database?

Are there any one off restaurants, besides, maybe dantes, or something like that (i can't think of anything else) that sell gift certificates just like that?

Hi all - My roommates had a baby back in the summer, and the baby is up all night, every night. I was thinking I'd give them an early Xmas present of a $50 gift certificate to some restaurant or delivery service so they could order in from somewhere after an all-nighter of baby screams.

We live mid-town (north of the 401) along the bathurst corridor. They eat basically anything, and generally order in sushi and thai, but I think they're sick of it.

Any suggestions? who accepts gift certificates or gift cards in lieu of cash or credit cards that's worth ordering in?

Thanks in advance!

What's the difference (aside from price) between J-Town and T&T?
I've started going to T&T for my produce (which I like at T&T) and some of the more asian foods I use in my cooking... but is it worth drving all the way to J-Town to look - or is it the same thing?

Date and I went to Oreganos at Thornhill Square last night. we were seated promptly (the first booth was extremely small - we are both of average weight and height, and his knees were squished).

I ordered an Eggplant Bocconcini (boconcini layered between eggplant - Not fried), and he ordered a chicken Raviol type dish and a diet coke.
The diet coke was flat and he sent it back. After a 20 minute wait or so, a basket of garlic bread was delivered to the table. We polished it off - we were ravenous. 10 minutes later, when we inquired about the whereabouts of our food, the waitress (who was amazing, by the way), said it was in the making - would we like another thing of bread. We said yes. The bread was delivered.

It took nearly 50 minutes to get the entrees out to us, and when they were delivered, I received eggplant parm, not eggplant bocconcini (while it might be a small difference, I wanted a dish that wasn't breaded and deepfried). I asked to speak to a manager, and explained to him that we had been waiting 50 minutes, and I was delivered the wrong meal. He replied "what do you want me to do about it?" to which I replied, I want my meal comped. Which he did, to his credit although with no apology

The waitress was very apologetic (almost too apologetic), and the rest of the meal was fine.
The food was mediocre at best, and my date and I ended up going for dessert elsewhere.
Needless to say, it was a cheap date, and we won't be going back there.

Thank you all so much for all of the helpful hints. I made some tabuleh last night (no grain - had nothing on hand), and it wasn't so good.

Looking forward to going grocery shopping otnight to buy everything and start again!
:D

Why you'd want to eat sushi in Israel, I don't know...

But I agree with the poster who suggested Marzipan Ruggelah in Macheneh Yehuda (the Jerusalem Shuk)... Go hungry!

how do you cook the bulgar wheat? ... i had no idea that that was what was used.
Axa- what proportion of parsely to mint would you suggest?

I just got back from the middle east where I feasted on tabule throughout my trip...
I made it myself for the first time this evening - flat leaf parsley, sweet onion and tomato and flavored with olive oil, half a lemon and S+P along with a quarter cup of whole wheat couscous.

So... are there variations to this? or have I mastered this dish?

The other question is: is there a quicker, more effective way to chopping parsley than doing it by hand? I know you can do it in a food processor but I don't have one. Can it be done in a blender?

Thanks!

Has Me Va Me reopened? last time i stopped by (at the end of april) they were closed for renos

i stopped at chocolata one afternoon as well - had a fabulous lunch. the decor in the restaurant is very funky - couches with comfy pillows. I sat for nearly 3 hours, and they didn't have a problem. the salads and sandwiches were awesome, as was the chocolate latte that I had (and the TRUFFLES! OMG THE TRUFFLES!)