I’m always very curious as to peoples favourite restaurants in the city. I'm always on the lookout for new and different places to enjoy favourite cuisines, and to pass on to others so they can enjoy, as well. I always want to create and foster dialogue when it comes to food, its why I started CommunityFoodist.com, in the first place. I am starting to use a new hashtag on Twitter from time to time "#FoodRevTO". This will help me track what people think with regards to the changes that our going on in the food movement in Toronto. I want to ask questions like: Who impresses you in our culinary scene? Where do you find good value and fresh ingredients? What is your comfort food? Where do you shop for your produce? Is it important for you to know who grows/raises your food? What is more important local or organic? And so on...

As incentive to participate in the questionnaire, I will be offering 2 people $20 gift certificates to DealTicker. Just tweet "I just entered to win a $20 gift certificate from @DealTickerTO through @foodie411's #FoodRevTO questionnaire ". In order to qualify to win a prize you must answer the questionnaire (at least in part), and tweet. The Contest will run from July 21st 2011 at 9AM EST, until July 26th at 5PM EST. A winner will be chosen at random by DealTicker staff. 

There are a lot of deal sites out there, and I am not here to convince you that one is better than the other, but the kind folks at DealTicker offered me these prizes, so it's an opportunity to try out their services for the 2 lucky winners. Some recent foodie deals on DealTicker included: Sukho Thai, Asahi Sushi, Insomnia, Bombay Bhel, and more! Check them out here: dealticker.com, and here are some words from the DealTicker folks:

We are proud to say that we differ by having a Charity of the Month feature. Every month we pick a charity for which we raise awareness and funds. We have previously teamed up with Canadian Cancer Society, The Heart & Stroke foundation and many other notable charities. MADD has signed up for September, and other big charities are coming onboard as well.

We have a separate page on our site dedicated to this:
http://www.dealticker.com/past_charities.php

We also had Yahoo write about our initiative:
http://news.yahoo.com/first-time-online-group-buying-history-dealticker-launches-20110128-070100-283.html

The questionnaire, after the jump...

Was at market this past Saturday, and saw the cutest little girl walking around with a huge pod af fava beans in her hand. She took me to our neighbouring stand, to show me where she got them. I was excited to get my hands on fresh favas, as my friend Sam is a huge fan, and I have heard great things from people who have tried her fava dip. Here is my own creation, I hope you try it out and let me know what you think! 

Canada Day weekend.

Sunshine.

Friends.

Booze.

Food.

Rinse, and repeat.

Drunken BBQ’d French Toast

You will be surprised what flavours go together you just have to try out different things, and sometimes you'll be very pleased with the results. It's helpful if you have a basic concept of flavour balancing, this will assist in playing with combos that aren't normally thought of. Think about classic things and make small changes, always making notes to learn from your experiences. Take chances, you can always order a pizza! 

My latest flavour combo came from a post nap craving for salty and sour, with a hint of sweetness. I had some great things in my fridge to work with, and always try to work with the very best ingredients wherever possible. I get a lot of my fish at the farmers market on Saturday mornings at Evergreen Brickworks, from Jen at Fisherfolk. Some of the best product you will find, and all of it is harvested using the most sustaiable practices. The pick of the week was halibut, and Jen gave me a very generous and beautiful piece to work with. Also, she gave me some rhubarb from her own garden the week prior, and I had been thinking what to do with that. The recipe was going to just be the halibut, wrapped in some Tamworth bacon I had picked up from Fred and Ingrid at Perth Pork Products about a month ago, but in my house things start off one way and often end up quite differently. 

I like cake, and I like putting things in Mason jars, so the thought occurred to me that I should pair these things together. Come the holiday season there is a lot of sharing of baked goods, mostly cookie swaps. I figured that this year I would do mini-cakes and bake them right in their packaging, seeing as I don't like to wrap things, and could avoid a trip to the dollar store by using some really nice antique Mason jars I had sitting around the house. So was born my Jarcake, a Mexican Chocolate Cake with Eggnog Frosting.

(Photo credit: Bev Wooding)

When the holidays roll around everyone goes in to baking mode, and I am no exception. Motivated by the giving nature of the holidays, and being provided with the opportunity to show love for friends through baked goodness. Being around people who love to eat is a blessing for those of us who love to cook and bake. This year I came up with a couple ideas, and I want to share one of them with you. These cookies are very easy to make, only taking an hour from start to finish, and have been very well received.