The Yum Yum Factor

a rite of passage has occurred - a lightly hungover KID had his first Waffle House Experince Busy, busy work week but it all started out with a road trip to Columbus Ohio to attend the nuptials of a dear friend. Lovely wedding, lovely brides, lots of pink We arrived in Columbus around 8:45pm, changed and got ready to go to a restaurant that I had picked out weeks ago. Imagine my disappointment that said restaurant closes at 10pm. On a Friday night. Why does this always happen to us? On our way TO Columbus, every place I had mapped out along the way as a potential lunch spot closed at 3pm. EVERY SINGLE PLACE. The only place that was opened was called Wing City Grill in Fredonia  NY. When we paid at the toll booth we asked the woman taking our money if that is where we should go. She said "sure" I said "Is there anywhere better?" She shrugged and said "not really" Wing City Grill it is! Wing City Grill over delivers - look at those waffle...

After my day exploring the bench, I was a bit more excited than normal to drive Shack back to Hamilton to work and spend the weekend there with him because it meant I was going to be able to spend another day, driving around the Beamsville area on my own. Sure, I couldn't do any wine tasting BUT it also meant that I got to have lunch at Westcott Vineyard. Toronto duo, Ricky + Olivia, have taken up residence on the patio at Westcott for the summer and they were closed last week so I took my sister and my friend, Kate, back to Bench Brewing instead.  This time, I dropped Shack off on set, I dropped our bags off at the hotel and set off for the short drive to Beamsville. I returned to a couple of wineries to take more pictures, discovered some new spots like Calamus and their drool worthy rooftop patio and dropped in to visit some old favourites like Flat Rock.  Ricky + Olivia at Westcott Vineyard Right up until I pulled into the driveway at Westcott, I w...

Fresh, modern Mexican food from El Bosco Wow, this past week was the polar opposite of the previous one where I struggled to share ANYTHING food related. I feel like I ate, drank or experienced something awesome every day and since I spent last Friday driving to Hamilton to drop Shack off to work and then continuing on for my second day exploring The Bench before returning to The Hammer for a wonderful evening of dinner, drinks and enjoying Hamilton's Art Crawl , I barely had time to think, much less write all of this down. Because the week was so jammed packed already, I am going to cheat and add my Friday night dinner and adventures in Hamilton to next week's post, so stay tuned. My sister came to visit me on Sunday and so every day after that, we were on the move - I will share the highlights. Bodega Henriette Rainbow Trout, crispy, dehydrated carrot, sprouts I went to this lovely little corner bistro after they first opened and had a great meal and ever since...

Ridiculously excited about my newest cookbook, written by the chef from Contramar, my favourite Mexico City Restaurant I am sad to say that there was not much going on this week. NOTHING GOING ON APART FROM THE RAPTORS OF COURSE!! My garden is my happy place and it's starting to really come to life! It was a week full of getting up , going to work, dragging my ass home and going to bed after a big glass of wine. I do have a wedding on Saturday and then my sister is coming on Sunday for a visit so that is going to mean lots of great eating and exploring. I plan to take her to Niagara to check out some wineries, maybe a trip to Buffalo to hit up Trader Joe, I have an exciting restaurant opening on Thursday and in between, there will lots of eating so next week will be much fuller. In the meantime, I will share a couple of cool finds one food related, one not food related: YES I HAVE A TV STREAMING PROBLEM: So, I never watched much tv, once I left my teens....

It's June guys, so that means we have about 4 more weeks to enjoy Ontario asparagus. These delicious spears are always the first vegetable of the season so when I see these fat bundles of joy in the market, I know that spring has sprung. There is a thing called the Asparabus - the Aparagus Farmers of Ontario pair up with The Foodies Group to take a bunch of food bloggers, writers and influencers on a tour of an asparagus farm and then treat us to a delicious lunch, showcasing the vegetable in as many forms as possible so that we can, in turn, get the word out that everyone should be eating local asparagus. This year is the first year I have been able to join the fun and as expected, I had a great day, got see some old friends, meet some farmers, discover a new spot to visit again when I have more time and enjoy a delicious lunch. We started our day at Welsh Bros Farms  where were were brought out to the field to see how asparagus grows. I am not going to lie- I had ...