The Week In Yum Dec Dec 6-12 CC Lounge and a McEwan Shopping Spree

CC Lounge is bringing the Prohibition Glamour back



This week was just busy enough for me since I am still a bit out of whack. The week started off with a bang when The Kid and I were appreciated as volunteers at the Mary Margaret MacMahon movie night at The Fox Theatre in the Beach. Did you know you can now enjoy a glass of wine or a bottle of beer with your popcorn at The Fox? Well you can! How civilized and un Torontonian - I wonder how they managed to get that approved?

No matter, I had a glass of red wine, a freshly popped bag of movie popcorn, one of my favourite things on the planet, and we settled in alongside all of our fellow election volunteers to watch The Campaign. This was our third viewing and it does not get less funny.


McEwan


Have you been to McEwan at the Shops at Don Mills lately? I am coming up with a recipe using their Riesling Apples so I stopped in to pick them up and did some shopping while I was there. The store is all festive and cheery and there are all sorts of tasty, seasonal treats laying around. I ended up doing quite a bit of xmas shopping for my culinary loving friends and found all kinds of great seasoned finishing salts and other fun things that are a bit to expensive for me to buy for myself but make a great gift for someone else. I have bought those blue cheese chicken wing chips for a friend but this is the first time I taste them myself and let me tell you that I am very happy that they are a 25 minute drive away because that might be the best potato chip I have ever eaten. Stay tuned for my Riesling apple dessert recipe - I tried to come up with something that you prepare ahead and have on hand for impromptu holiday entertaining aka my relatives just dropped in unannounced at 6pm and show no signs of leaving.



CC Lounge


The only disappointment surrounding my attendance at the media preview for CC Lounge is that Shack couldn't stay awake to join me. He got back from Jordan at noon and although he gave it the old college try, he was nodding off by 6pm so I had to go without him and this place has Shack written all over it. It is everything  he loves: Whiskey, old school glamour, a Boardwalk Empire, prohibition/speakeasy vibe and great, old fashioned type cocktails.

Housed in the historic Beadmore Building on Front St, the lounge (which is also a full service restaurant) features a whisky tasting tunnel with over 100 whiskeys from around the world. I tasted an 18 year old Wisers, a Forty Creek honey Piked whiskey that we paired with a salted dark chocolate and Bulleit Bourban. I really wanted to try one of the Japanese scotches but they were out and promised to have some in soon (the official opening was still a week away). James, the in house whiskey historian, will whisk you back into the tasting tunnel or, if you prefer, he will bring the booze to your table but I suggest going back into the tunnel. It's cosy and feels like more of an event to venture back into the booze cave and it is clear that much thought and care went into the making of the tunnel.

I tried three different whiskey based cocktails (I ONLY SIPPED FROM EACH OF THEM TO TASTE AND DRANK MY FAVOURITE SO YOU CAN STOP WAGGING YOU HEAD AT ME). The Whiskey Sour and the Dizzy Dame were very good but that Manhattan could be trouble. Wisers with vermouth and bitters? I think so.

I tried a lobster roll, steak tartar and the poutine and everything was fresh and delicious and I look forward to trying it out for dinner soon. Speaking of dinner, they have these booths with plush looking leather banquette seating (the largest at the back look like they would seat at least 15 people) with a low, cocktail table and when you want to eat, they come and pop this cap on top, turning it into a dinner table. After you are done with your meal, they come back and remove the cap and, presto, you are back to your cosy cocktail table.

I almost forgot the coolest thing of all: Instead of sipping scotch and paying by the shot, you can purchase a bottle and they will store it for you so when you go there, you just ask for your bottle and they bring it out to you and you can drink as little or as much as you like. Nucky Thompson would be all over this joint.


Cc Lounge & Supper Club on Urbanspoon


Taste Taiwan


The Taiwanese Tourism board hosted the second of three Taste Taiwan event at Nao Steakhouse in Toronto this week (the first event was in Chicago and the third was to take place in LA) Chef Stuart Cameron was one of three chefs (the other two were Chicago's Jared Case of Park Grill and LA's Anthony Jacquet of The Whisper) that were treated to an eight day culinary tour of Taiwan that was turned into a 30 minute documentary. As one of the guests of the event, I got to taste Chef Cameron's Crispy House Tofu, a dish inspired by his Taiwan adventure that he will be serving at the restaurant for the next little while.

If you visit Nao and order the dish, you will receive a free dvd of the documentary but you should order it because it's delicious. I can't really give a "review" of the restaurant since I only sampled a few apps there were being brought around but if they are any indication of what they are serving up, it's going to be pretty delicious. One of the most interesting things I have seen in a while was a slice of buttery, raw fish sitting on top of a bruleed lime half and as you slurp up the fish, you take the crispy, sugary crust off of the lime along with it. I may, or may not, have eaten more than a few of those.

finally popped in to the new Muji Toronto at Atrium on the Bay - very small but still happy to see it and look forward to future, larger stores with more stock

I discovered a cool, newish social media app for travellers this week called Trover . It's kind of like an instagram for world travellers and I am loving it so far. Instagram is where I go for food porn but I hate having to sift through ten million photos looking for good travel porn and this is looking like it's going to fill that void for me.

Here is my feed if you want to get a feel for it. 


Happening this week:

if it's not too late to pay at the door, tonight is Foodie MIngle at The Boroughs Building (639 Queen W) at 7pm and there will be food from Porchetta and Co, Food Dudes and more. $30 ticket includes all food sampling.

Hate eggnog? Go celebrate at The Twelve Beers of Christmas bash at The Gladstone Hotel on Saturday, Dec 13, from 7-10pm where the $10 cover will get all beered up

Pin of the week:  Come on, you have to ask why?

Instagram of the week: this dude's feed makes me weep

Facebook share of the week: 

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