OK - so I haven't been to the CNE for some time. I went this year with high expecations for food and hoping to discover some delicious treats.
I was sorely disappointed! The food building - having several different vendors selling everything from $.99 pasta (yummy - cardboard) to staples like H.Salt Fish and Chips (greasy, greasy, greasy) to dim sum (big mistake) failed completely to impress me.
The International Pavillion has a few food offers but nothing new and exciting. In the Arts & Crafts building there were a few artisan food vendors and they had some interesting offers but most of these I can find at Fair November in Guelph (without the price of admission).
The most interesting thing I found at the CNE this was lip balm labz. They offered lip balm (made on site) in any two of several flavours for a measly $2. It was a great deal and the lip balm is quite nice too. This company is not selling online yet, but hopefully, they'll be up and running soon - I can't wait to tell everyone I know about this site!
So all in all, while the CNE food experience was a bust, I was happy to find a Canadian company offering a good product at a great price!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
Carmen's Hamilton - A place to forget (for the food anyway!)
I was recently at a wedding at Carmen's in Hamilton. The wedding was lovely and the bride and groom looked very happy.
The food however, was something else - and not in a good way. The first course was a typical Italian-style antipasto. I did not eat this course (not one of my favourites) but the people I was sitting with seemed to find it acceptable. Aside from the fact that it looked that it had been plated several hours prior, there was nothing inherently wrong with the first course.
On to the pasta course. I don't eat meat products myself, so I informed the server that I would like a vegetarian option for the meal. He had no problems with this (a good sign I thought). While everyone else at my table had the pasta with meat sauce (from looking at my husband's plate, I think it was invisible meat), I was presented with a plate of cooked pasta. That's it - cooked pasta - no sauce, no veggies, just PLAIN pasta. I was quite put off by this and one of the servers offered to bring me some tomato sauce. It was very mediocre but not the worst of it!
The main course came and I felt glad that I didn't eat meat - one person described the meat (beef, maybe?) as "like eating a flip flop". My hubby thought they took the sauce that comes in the cans of beans and poured it on the meat. My meal consisted of rice, veggies and some type of layered veggie dish with what I think was at one point brie cheese. The rice smelled like dirt and much to my dismay, tasted worse than dirt. The veggies were clearly cooked for people who did not have teeth and were unable to chew food - they were one step away from liquefying before my eyes. And the layered veggie thing consisted of eggplant, zucchini and cheese. I think it had been made several weeks ago and re-heated just for me! The eggplant was hard and impossible to chew, the cheese looked like "the food formally known as cheese" - hard and tasteless, and the zucchini was the only thing that seemed to hold up.
The desert was forgettable - some type of ice-cream substitute with what appeared to be strawberry Quik syrup.
Having not really eaten the dinner, I was hoping that a late night sweet table might offer some relief to my hunger pains. I was NOT relieved. There was pizza - barely eatable - greasy, oily, flavourless. There were a couple sweets - soggy and flavourless - just like the rest of this disastrous meal.
Future brides and grooms - BEWARE! Please think twice about this venue if you want people to actually enjoy the food on your special day!
The food however, was something else - and not in a good way. The first course was a typical Italian-style antipasto. I did not eat this course (not one of my favourites) but the people I was sitting with seemed to find it acceptable. Aside from the fact that it looked that it had been plated several hours prior, there was nothing inherently wrong with the first course.
On to the pasta course. I don't eat meat products myself, so I informed the server that I would like a vegetarian option for the meal. He had no problems with this (a good sign I thought). While everyone else at my table had the pasta with meat sauce (from looking at my husband's plate, I think it was invisible meat), I was presented with a plate of cooked pasta. That's it - cooked pasta - no sauce, no veggies, just PLAIN pasta. I was quite put off by this and one of the servers offered to bring me some tomato sauce. It was very mediocre but not the worst of it!
The main course came and I felt glad that I didn't eat meat - one person described the meat (beef, maybe?) as "like eating a flip flop". My hubby thought they took the sauce that comes in the cans of beans and poured it on the meat. My meal consisted of rice, veggies and some type of layered veggie dish with what I think was at one point brie cheese. The rice smelled like dirt and much to my dismay, tasted worse than dirt. The veggies were clearly cooked for people who did not have teeth and were unable to chew food - they were one step away from liquefying before my eyes. And the layered veggie thing consisted of eggplant, zucchini and cheese. I think it had been made several weeks ago and re-heated just for me! The eggplant was hard and impossible to chew, the cheese looked like "the food formally known as cheese" - hard and tasteless, and the zucchini was the only thing that seemed to hold up.
The desert was forgettable - some type of ice-cream substitute with what appeared to be strawberry Quik syrup.
Having not really eaten the dinner, I was hoping that a late night sweet table might offer some relief to my hunger pains. I was NOT relieved. There was pizza - barely eatable - greasy, oily, flavourless. There were a couple sweets - soggy and flavourless - just like the rest of this disastrous meal.
Future brides and grooms - BEWARE! Please think twice about this venue if you want people to actually enjoy the food on your special day!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Swerve - the BEST natural sweekener I have found!
I've been doing a lot of research on natural sweeteners on the market and when I came across Swerve, my initial impression was - yet another natural sweetener that requires some tweaking to work into my recipes. WOW was I wrong!
Swerve looks, tastes, and behaves like sugar! And I'm not talking "splenda"-type look/behaviour. When you look at the stuff, you would think it was sugar. The sweetness measures the same as sugar (cup for cup) which is a big attraction since many natural sweeteners require tweaking to get the same amount of sweetness as regular sugar. It has no calories and no bitter aftertaste (unlike Stevia which takes some getting used to).
I was so impressed by first look at Swerve that I decided to test it in several ways to see how it stood up to sugar.
Coffee - I like to have some sweetness in my coffee. It doesn't have to be very sweet but I always need it. Using Swerve in my coffee was just the same as using sugar - same amount for the same sweetness (minus the calories of course!).
Carmelizing - Ok, I KNEW this was pushing it. How could this possibly melt and carmelize like sugar? It was VERY close - so close, that Swerve makes and sells candied pecans that taste like they were made with sugar!
Baking - I decided the biggest test of all would be in baking. I made some muffins and used Swerve in place of the sugar. I was skeptical because heating some of these sugar alternatives (artificial and natural) can cause the properties to change in an undesirable fashion (I recall several years ago pouring an artifical sweetener in my coffee and it just kept losing it's sweetness when it was heated). Success!
Confectioner's sugar - YES - they even make confectioner's Swerve which looked and tasted just like the real thing!
THE BAD: The only drawback I found to Swerve is the price. One pound sells for $13.99 which is quite steep.
Hopefully, as this company gains a foothold, the price will decrease.
Of all the natural sweeteners I have tried, this one was by far, the BEST! If you go to their website, you can even request a sample to try for yourself.
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