Two Weeks in Yum - Vote for Pedro, Mushrooms Canada, UFeast at Raca, Kyouka Ramen and Feed Tomorrow Week

The Week In Yum has been on hiatus so that I could go about my business adulting for the last month or so. For this week, I am going to show my week in photos with more posts about some of these things coming at a later date.

So, first up though:

Last week, I found out about a contest to become the next blogger ambassador for Canada Beef a couple days before the deadline. Of course, the only free day I had was THE DAY OF THE DEADLINE. That was when the wonderful folks at Heatherlea Farms came to the rescue and allowed me to run amok on their Caledon farm, communing with their Black Angus cattle. Frankly, the cows were not particularly impressed with me and my new selfie stick but Farmer Gord was a stellar host, driving my friend, Nancy, and I all over the place, letting us tag along to feed them and check up on these delicious looking beasts.

So, if you are so inclined, voting ends tomorrow, Oct 25 at 11:59 CT, whatever time that is because I can't keep it straight. Just click on the old link below:

VOTE FOR ME SO I CAN SPEND A YEAR GETTING MY BEEF ON!

Farmer Gord must be THE most patient man on earth

I also shot a For Your Life spot for Mushrooms Canada last week! I was joined by fellow blogger, Brittnay Stager of My Daily Randomness in a bit of a Blend and Extend Mushroom smackdown. As soon as it's available and ready to air, I will share it here with you. I just hope I don't look like Fred Flintstone's older sister in it.

It was a week of firsts! Last Friday I cooked and served my first drop in dinner at The Depanneur  and I am happy to report that I sold out of my BiBimBap Sopes with an assortment of Mexican/Korean banchan. There will be more culinary events happening for me at The Deppaneur so stay tuned for that in the new year.

Have you been to a U Feast dinner yet? I attended my first (certainly not my last) U Feast dinner at Parkdale's  Raca bar.  Chef/Owner Ivana Raca whipped up a multi course dinner showcasing the food of Bali, a place that holds a special place in Ivana's heart. The food was fabulous as was the welcome cocktail, courtesy of Havana Club and Colio Winery provided a pairing with each course, all for about $85/ticket - includes all tax and tip.

The next event will be hosted by Matt Basile on November 9th and the secret location will be divulged to those who purchase a ticket three days before the dinner. Get on that.

I also got to visit four more downtown Toronto Schools who benefit from the meal programs that are made possible by the Toronto Foundation for Student Success as part of Feed Tomorrow week. As always, I was blown away by the dedication of the educators, parent volunteers and the students who are actively involved as well. We got to meet a group of kids in grades 5 and 6 from both the First Nations School and Dundas Jr Public School (they share a building which means they also work together on their meal programs, allowing them to benefit from bulk buying and manpower) being taught food handling by high school students from SEED Alternative School, across the street. The SEED kids are all fully certified and are actually qualified to not only teach the course to the younger kids, they will certify the participants as well. This group of younsters were PUMPED to learn all about safe food handling and excited about the prospect of being actively involved in the preparation and distribution of the meals that will served to their classmates.

Amazing.

Did you know that, for example, to provide a breakfast with items from 3 food groups, it costs $1.32 cents but the schools only get 14 cents from the city and 11 cents from the province. That is a pretty huge gap that must be bridged and thanks to private and corporate donations of food and money (minute maid donates OJ for example) they are just managing but the need for more help never goes away.

You can donate to TFSS here

I always bitching that there just aren't many places in my neighbourhood of The Beach (or The Beaches, depending on how uptight and old you are) but NO MORE

Kyouka Ramen has arrived and I could not be more thrilled! Head chef, Kenji, is an apprentice of Mr Machida of Kyouka Ramen in Japan. The place is small, modern and spotless and the menu is also small, modern and spotless. We tried the shoyu and the kyouka ramen and The Kid also devoured a bowl of slow cooked beef tendon donburi (at $5 this rich, filling dish is a steal). Like the Beech Tree, this ramen is great, not just "great for The Beach". It's worth a trek out to the east end of Queen to enjoy one of their rich, filling, delicious bowls of soupy noodles.

And there is much rejoicing.

At this point, the hours are 5pm-10pm during the week but closed on Tuesdays and weekends:

Sat

11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, 5 PM to 10 PM

Sun

11:30 AM to 2:30 PM, 5 PM to 8 PM

My week ended with an invite to a lovely lunch to celebrate the last day of Toronto Fashion Week. Our hosts were S Pellegrino and Vogue Italia and they put on quite a lovely lunch. I am not sure who actually prepared the food but it was delicious as was the wine enjoyed by myself and my lovely plus 1, Libby Roach. Thanks to PolarisPR for inviting me.


So, that was the week that was. It was busy, my dogs are barking and after my cooking class at The Kingston Social tonight, I am going to put my feet up and stay in my pjs all day tomorrow.