End Day 1 at Bowmanville: 85km

Started at Union, went through Pickering, Ajax, Oshawa, Darlington and Bowmanville. On track for getting there in 3 more days.

Paintball in darlington

There's a paintball place hidden behind an ontario provincial park. That's startling.

Felt a couple of rain drops. But the weather is still amazing for biking. Though the last place I want to be is in the middle of nowhere + pouring rain.

The Waterfront lunch at Pickering

There's quite a nice *quaint* area called Frenchman's Bay a small ways into pickering. Good place to stop for lunch, I thought. Apparently not. The mediterranean pasta was so overpowered by the olives. How unfortunate. Good on tap bar though.

Pickering

30km

Marché

At $5 a 'pop' this is one of Toronto's best breakfasts.

So it begins. DAY 1.

Sporting life, yonge and eglinton. Bikes all tuned up and ready to go.

Chinese food

My last day in the GTA so I had to appease my north york financiers. This involved a trip down to the local "Sezhuan" restaurant." For full effect, there were plastic table cloths,  interrogation-style light bulbs and waitresses in track pants. The chinese restaurant model is a subject of great interest to me. In particular, how such mediocrity is awarded with such terrific turnover as the restaurant industry struggles to remain profitable (http://www.torontolife.com/daily/daily-dish/deathwatch/). Chinese food is unrefined at best. It will take many years before the middle class will even begin to demand properly cooked food (a litre of olive oil costs probably four times more in China than it does in Canada). And the middle class matter. The rich in China eat lobsters, truffles, caviar, bear paws and anything hard to find, doing little to spark culinary innovation. What is necessary is an appreciation for common ingredients like chicken and beef without the sweet-and-sour. Like most traditional food from the third world, it is laden with fat, sugar and sodium. The dishes pictured below show the standard disregard for ingredients as the same spicy sauce is sprayed wholesale on tofu, chicken, eggplant and beef (stomach). All together it was $60 after tip and tax, which really is quite expensive when nothing substantial or expensive is used in the making. But the margin pinching from lack of alcohol sales only boosts up food prices, another drawback of chinese diners. Also, the "tapas-on-steroids" model in pretty much all chinese restaurants needs to change. Sharing plates leads to over-ordering and bloating. In the most common scenario of a two-top, you are forced to choose between variety and 'finishability'. It is not a question of culture. No doubt most western families have communal plates that are shared at home. But this practice isn't exported into restaurants as it is in China.

So many issues yet such high turnover? This is what chinese people like. But that will change, as most things do in that part of the world. Sooner though, rather than later, please.

Bannock Opening Day

I had to participate in Bannock's rather anticlimactic ribbon cutting ceremony. The posters of burberry and O+B that line the Bay's windows intend to move the chain more upscale; it had recently divested it's discount retailer Zellers. As it stands, this caesar salad might be the most aspirational product offering of HBC, at least until the Brits move in.

Canoe

My last day in Toronto had quite the canadiana send-off. The quality at O+B's flagship restaurant is clearly better than my last experience at summerlicious. The salmon at $22 did not feel overpriced; it was so perfectly cooked. The white bean purée on sourdough was likewise refreshing.

The Brooks

Can I use one of these on top of their semiannual 50% off sales?

Summer Barbecue

I've cooked for a lot of people in my life. The only effective way of serving hoards is the barbecue. The salad to start was just a simple mixed greens (add arugula) with a balsamic vinaigrette. I quickly grilled some swordfish and steak because my guests were pestering me for protein. But the real star is the vegetable sandwich. It has all the non-leafy veges you really need in this world (zucchini, mushroom and peppers). What makes it pop is the mozzarella, pesto and yogurt. The chicken, apparently, was quite juicy too, albeit from Costco.

Lucien

What worries me about this restaurant is how prolific it is on Groupon. The $30 for $60 deal was sweet. I've been twice (with excellent company, mind you) and ordered the veal and bison (pictures). Both were so intricately fabricated. Wonderful.