The Yum Yum Factor

Tuna Kinilaw-  a Filipino style ceviche made with albacore tuna, a coconut calamansi vinaigrette, fresh chilies, and coconut guacomole served with shrimp chips So, there are exciting changes afoot at Lamesa, Toronto's favourite modern Filipino restaurant. New Head  Chef Daniel Cancino is changing things up in the kitchen, putting his own, personal spin on the food he grew up on.  I have eaten here many times (you can read my first review  here ) when Rudy Boquila was there, and I have always really enjoyed it but this meal felt like marked departure for the place and I, for one, really like where the menu is going. Molecular gastronomy  + Filipino food? I would not have envisioned a happy coupling but in Chef Cancino's hands, it works. The food was lighter and more sophisticated, the presentation was beautiful and everything we tried on the new Fall/Winter menu was pretty amazing. My personal favourites were the Tuna Kinilaw, a Filipino style t...

I love Lamesa. I wrote about it after my first media dinner there, here , and have been back a few times since. I attend lots of media dinners and there are only a handful of places that I return to on my own, and this is one of them so when the call came to try out their Kamayan dinner, I was all over it. Kama, being the Filipino word for "hand" means that Kamayan roughly translates into "eat with your hands" and this is a traditional type of dinner that every Filipino will be familiar with. Served family style, the meal is placed on banana leaves at your table without cutlery or dishes. Keep in mind that it is a communal meal, so you want to make sure you are dining with people you like. If are you really squeamish about sharing food, I guess you could ask for utensils but that takes all of the fun out of it and you are probably better off skipping it. This meal is tailor made for people like me, who want to taste at least a bite of everything on the table ...

a Kamayan dinner at Lamesa Filipino Kitchen

a million tulips from my friend, PJ Saturday was my birthday. Not just any birthday either because on Saturday, I turned 50 for god's sake. FIFTY birthday gifts and my beloved Neighours decorated my door There I am, sitting at the half century mark and how do I choose to celebrate? Do I go for a huge party where we gather all of my friends, past and present and drink champagne till the sun comes up? Do I demand to be flown to NYC so that I can be standing on the top of the Empire State Building at the stroke of midnight and howl into the wind "YOU KNOW NOTHING JOHN SNOW!"

Chopping up a deep fried pig trotter for our crispy pata at Lamesa I am getting to the end of my winter rope over here and I know I am not alone. It is mid march and I am still wearing boots and a puffy, down parka and I object. To warm ourselves up last Sunday, we slathered ourselves in stinky suntan lotion, dug out the flip flops and made a big batch of ceviche  so we could fool ourselves that summer was just around the corner. It didn't last long but for for a brief moment I forgot that I still had to ice the frozen pond out back so that we wouldn't break a hip out there.