Sunday, October 6, 2013

Eat some Half-priced Festive Froyo at Menchie's with your Magical Colour-changing Spoon!

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It's a great time to visit Menchie's this autumn season!

Here's why:
  1. Color-changing spoons! (Colour in Canada)
    • A good mood indicator ;)
  2. A festive pumpkin flavour to try!
  3. Enjoy half-price froyo with this Groupon ($10 value for $5!).  Hurry!  As of October 5th, you have 5 days to purchase this Groupon before it expires.  Groupon once purchased is valid until November 30/13.

Breakfast at Subway? The return of (*jingle*) $5, $5 footlongs!

Subway, Park Hyatt
170 Bloor Street West
Toronto, ON M5S 1T9


Drudging another breakfast at Tim's, I decided to check out the Subway location at the Park Hyatt.  It was early, before 8 a.m. on a Sunday, so I was expecting the store to be closed.  But it turns out that this Subway is a 24 hour location - the first I've heard!

Breakfast here is also my first.  I ordered an Egg & Cheese footlong which is a new entrant in the reincarnated $5 footlong promotion.  As you may know, $5 footlongs are back while the $6 Sub of the Day promotion has been eliminated.  From a marketing perspective, $5 footlongs must have been much more of a success.. I mean, more inexpensive and a better jingle? It's a no brainer.

I am still not happy with Subway though.  The shuffling of promotions created a casualty a of war - the meatball sub!  While most of the original subs on the $5 lineup return (Cold Cut Combo, Egg Salad, Ham, Pizza with Cheese, Veggie Delite) the meatball sub does not!  In my opinion, it was the best sub in taste and value at the time...hats off to you meatball sub.  Instead, a footlong meatball sub is now at $5.75 in Canada.  Is it too late to boycott?

I had the Egg & Cheese footlong on an Italian Herb and Cheese with lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers and ranch sauce.  The sub tasted very much like a Western sandwich you would get at Harvey's except on different bread.  It was great to have egg on both sides of the bread.  They basically took a round egg omelette and cut in half for each 6 inch length of sub.  The egg was less artificial tasting than I expected - much less than you would get at McDonald's but more than at Harvey's (where eggs are cooked at the time of order).  The egg could have benefited from some salt and pepper though which I forgot to add.  I got my sub toasted so that the cheese would deliciously melt over the eggs.  I would get the sub again for breakfast but instead on flat bread for a better crunch.


The music in the store was too loud - perhaps it's to ensure that the sandwich artist stays awake for the night shift?  Fortunately, my sandwich artist was very friendly especially for such an early morning.  She also did a good job upselling me a coffee after seeing how tired I was.  My Seattle's Best coffee was more watered down than it should have been though. 

Friday, October 4, 2013

Pitiful Pork Chop "Meal" at T & T Supermarket


Prepared foods at a supermarket can be hit or miss. In the case of the Japanese Curry Pork Chop "Meal" at T & T Supermarket (7070 Warden Avenue @ Steeles), you want to avoid it at all costs. 

If you want to get full off white rice, this is the "meal" for you!  The bowl is 90% rice!  I'd be more forgiving if the rice was soaked with delicious curry sauce...but there was barely any at all. 

The initial instinct is to microwave the whole thing but you lose the benefit of the crunchy fried batter of the pork chop. The quality of the meat looks like it's been processed the "pink slime" way!

The amount of canned or previously frozen carrots and peas as a side is pitiful. 

No one should be eating this even for a $3.99 price tag. 

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Le Parc Dining & Banquet Hall



Le Parc Dining & Banquet Hall
8432 Leslie Street
Thornhill, ON
L3T 7M6

I went to Le Parc for a private function. The room was spacious and accommodated the near 400 of us for presentations and for lunch. 

The food was pretty decent for a buffet for 400 people.  There was a selection of rolls, deviled eggs, mixed greens, cold cuts, cheeses, penne pasta in tomato sauce, chicken breasts and steamed vegetables. 

All the cooked dishes were served hot.  No real complaints - the chicken breast was a bit dry but it's understandable considering the numbers. 

The pleasant servers cleared our plates promptly and also replenished buffet selections before they were fully depleted!

The venue got the job done!