I love the CBC. It isn’t perfect, but compared to commercial radio and other news outlets, it is pretty awesome. I guess that explains why I read the Inside The CBC blog. It is a site dedicated to CBC employees, for CBC employees. I am not a CBC employee, yet I feel compelled to keep up with what is going on inside this publicly funded institution. Shit, I pay for it.

A few days ago they posted this 22 Minutes sketch of George Stroumboulopoulos and Jian Ghomeshi. It is pretty funny. Strombo, I like. I have met him on a couple of occasions and he passed the ‘in person’ test with flying colours. Jian on the other hand, I have never met. However, I do have three friends who have either met or worked with him and all three have reported back to me that he is arrogant and not cool. Three for three is good enough for me. Jian you fail. Moxy Fruvous…you fail too by association.

Yes, I read BUST. What? Is it OK to call it a feminist magazine? Whatever it is, it is full of hipster girl power, music reviews, a sex column, cool places to order funky T-shirts, women surfers and for the month of April/May ‘08; men that the feminists love.

And who does BUST love? Flight of The Conchords, Elijah Wood, David Sedaris, Ween, Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses) and Kool Keith.

I bought this month’s magazine for the Flight Of The Conchords article, which is pretty awesome. You learn quite a bit about Bret and Jemaine in this short and entertaining article.

Bret: There was this drama club that I ended up hanging out with, and Jemaine was in that. We did a big group show about body image, where we all wore skin-coloured bike pants and detachable penises that Velcro-ed on and off, and then put on some fake breasts and we’d change gender on stage.

Come on. How cool is that?

Here is a track from the new Kills album which has a review in BUST this month(s).

 

 The Kills - Getting Down (2008): Play Now

I came across this little site today…and even if you’re not American…it’s pretty interesting. It’s a quiz that asks you about your top issues in the U.S. Presidential election. Then it pairs you up with candidate who shares your values.

It’s not exactly scientific, but it’s kind of cool and it only takes a few minutes.

http://glassbooth.org/

Oh yeah…and I’m 86% like Mike Gravel. The Democratic candidate from Alaska, who’s a YouTube sensation for videos like this:

If you have driven between Toronto and Kingston along the 401 then you have likely passed and taken notice of a big, round, red building known as The Big Apple.

I went to this ‘Big Apple’ last weekend to get some pie. My girlfriend, Karen, came along to hit the petting zoo.

Here is what we learned:

Lesson #1 – Pies = High Security
The Big Apple is efficient and sterile…not two things I associate with apple pie. The first thing that turned me off was the turnstiles that directed you into the pie purchasing area…you know…the ones they have at Canadian Tire that prevent you from running in, grabbing a hammer and running out again. As I went through I swear I heard Mr. Apple Head whisper “Don’t even think of stealing any of our pies, cus’ we got these here metal clicky things that let you come in, but won’t let ya out, ya’hear”.

Lesson #2: No Eating Pies At The Big Apple
Price of a pie, $10. Price of a slice of pie, $3.50. They are making a killing on slices of pies. My idea to purchase a whole pie, then sit down and share it with all of my pie loving friends right was quickly smashed. Why? No pies allowed in the restaurant. How do they enforce this rule? They keep tight control on plastic forks. No eating utensils unless you buy a slice of pie. Behind the cashier is a big box of plastic forks and spoons. You buy a slice of pie, you get a fork. You buy a pie, no fork (even if you ask!!) Mother #@%*ers.

Lesson #3 – ‘Petting Zoo’ Is A Relative Term
Karen: So where is the petting zoo?
Cashier: Outside, beside the parking lot.
Karen: Is it near the two caged up Llamas?
Cashier: No, that is the petting zoo.
Karen: [confused] That’s it? But they are behind a fence.
Cashier: Well, if they come close to the fence, you can reach in and touch them.
Karen: I think the whole petting zoo thing is false advertising.
Cashier: No, it’s called tourism.

The Big Apple is nothing more than a glorified roadside toilet where you can buy pies for the fairly reasonable price of $10.

Rating 1/5 = Pull off the highway, get your pie, then run far, far away.

New York City - I’ve always been a fan of the mom and pop ethnic resturants. The simple decor , the four year old kid actomg as the dishwasher, the rebellious teen as your waiter and the parents as the cooks - something about that really appeals to me. Its also cheap and the food is always plentiful. Having said that, Nobu Next Door is certainly not that kind of place. When we visited New York meep met up with some peeps from Edmonton, and someone chose to go here as the meeting place, I mean..Lindsay Lohan eats here, so it must be good.

Nobu Next Door is a upscale Jap restaurant, basically. The waiters were pretty nice, and the interior of the restaurant was really nice, as you can tell by the picture. However, none of this really matters to me. I’m chinese, I am used to rude waiters and plastic table sheets. Actually, me and my friend v decided a long time ago that the more ghetto the chinese restaurant is, the better it’ll probably taste. Anyways, in terms of fanciness, this place gets a good grade. They even have the sushi people working at the bar on the side, and the sushi people aren’t 20 something chinese immigrants, like in most sushi places in Toronto. So that is good for authenticity.

The food. Okay, this place…its a bit pricey, I think it might be the priciest meal I’ve had in recent memory. me and 3 people shared these dishes:

1. New Style Sashimi 17.00

What is this? well, this was my order. I thought it would be like those sashmi boat/plates you get at a typical restaurant..you know, with salmon, tuna, all that junk. Wrong. It was like 5 thin slices of some kind of fish, i mean it was thinner then a cheese slice. Anyways, it came in some sort of soy sauce with green onion. It was pretty decent for what it was, but I could of had 1000 of these and not be full.

2. Rock Shrimp Tempura with Ponzu or Creamy Spicy Sauce 19.00

This is a pretty good dish, basically, shrimp tempura in a sauce. The sauce was good, and you can’t beat shrimp tempura.

3. Eggplant Special with Shrimp Scallop, Creamy Spicy Sauce and Miso 17.00

This was good as well, although it was only one eggplant.

4. Creamy Spicy Crab 20.00

Similar to crab cake, it came on a really hot plate and was probably the best dish of the night.

5. Asparagus Tuna Roll 6.00

Very good tuna roll.

6. Miso with Tofu 4.00

The soup was good, the tofu actually tasted like quality tofu. Most places served it for free..not this place though

So all in all, the food was quite good. The only problem was…the price. Holy crap this is expensive! I mean it was tasty and all, but so is a five dollar burrito. So I don’t know, maybe I am cheap, but these prices do not justify the quality of the food, I was still hungry after. So basically this was the most expensive appetizer ever.

Recommendation: If you got money to burn, and like seafood, I’d recommend it. Otherwise, I probably would not.

Restaurant Link: Nobu Next Door

Continuing on with the foods that populate a Chinese wedding banquet.

I guess some background, the bride was my mom’s cousins’ daughter. I guess I’ll see them twice a year, but the groom gave me a ride home from Richmond Hill once after a family dinner, so he’s cool by my standards. The wedding took place at some restaurant in Scarborough, there was either a “Dragon” or “Dynasty” in the name. Its funny how you always see Dragon and Pearl in Chinese restaurants, I guess its part of a culture, but you don’t see Japan restaurants with “Godzilla” in their title or “Blue guy with five arms” in any brown restaurants.

Anyways
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