A terrific send-off dinner last night as we all gathered at Babur Restaurant for Carl Binder’s farewell feast. The attendees included Carl Binder (writer, Exec. Producer, SGA and SGU), Martin Gero (writer, Exec. Producer, SGA), Jewel Staite (aka Dr. Jennifer Keller, SGA), Andy Mikita (Director, SG-1, SGA, and SGU), Mike Banas P.I. (ace editor, SGA and SGU), Jennifer Johnson (Associate Producer, SG-1, SGA, and SGU), Chelan Simmons (Mara, SGA’s The Tower) in addition to some Transporter people: Sarah Benab (Public Relations, The Transporter), Alexander M. Ruemelin (writer, Exec. Producer, Show Runner, The Transporter), and Trevor Finn (Exec. Producer’s Assistant, Transporter).
They left the ordering up to me and, of course, I ended up getting WAAAAY to much food. And, as a result, I ended up eating WAAAAY to much. However, when I wasn’t concentrating on my meal, I did have some great conversations with friends, new and old.
We said our goodbyes outside the hotel. When Akemi told Carl “I”ll miss you.”, she was practically in tears. He’s become a favorite of hers over these past few months, now only second only to Bubba.
Another goodbye dinner of sorts tonight. Followed by a goodbye lunch tomorrow, then another goodbye dinner, and a goodbye dim sum on Sunday.
So, the other day I went through the trouble of getting fingerprinted as part of this sponsorship thing I’m doing for Akemi. As it turned out, it wasn’t my prints they needed. It was hers. When Akemi asked why, I informed her it was to cross-check the existing criminal database to ensure she wasn’t one of these crazed black widow femme fatales who hook up with trusting gaijin and then murder them in their sleep or while on one of those celebrity cruises. I watched her very carefully when I explained this and, so far as I could see, she neither flinched nor looked nervous. Innocent or cool professional? Guess we’ll find out.
On the way back, we happened by a tiny little shop called Prairie Girl Bakery (Prairie Girl Bakery – Toronto’s best cupcake – featuring Mini …). We picked up a half-dozen mini cupcakes (for their superior icing to cake ratio) and elected to sample one before heading out. And then another. And another. And another. By the time we were done, we WERE DONE. All of them. We should have simply saved the cost of the box and requested the staff hand feed us instead.
The website proclaims it “Toronto’s Best Cupcake”. Well, being a veteran of the Vancouver and Montreal cupcake-eating scene, I would go so far as to call them “Canada’s best cupcake”. We tried a variety: vanilla bean butter icing with toasted coconut, lemon butter icing, chocolate cream cheese icing, peanut butter icing, Rebecca’s red velvet cupcake with classic cream cheese icing, and, the weekly special, chocolate with pumpkin pie spices and cinnamon butter icing. They were all great, but the toasted coconut, peanut butter, and red velvet stood out in particular. My only quibble was that the lemon butter icing wasn’t lemony enough.
Anyway, once we were done, we prepared to head out. But not before picking up two more – a fantastic carrot cake with classic cream cheese icing for Akemi, and another chocolate-peanut butter for me. As we were leaving, we said goodbye to the gals behind the counter and told them we’d see them tomorrow. They left, perhaps assuming we were kidding.
Of course, I should be mindful of past experience and not overdue it. Today, while we were out running errands, Akemi asked me – as she’s wont to do when we’re out walking – to tell her an interesting story. I told her about the summer camp I attended way back in my youth. Every day, the campers could take advantage of something called “tuck” which essentially amounted to a 30 minute opportunity for confectionary excess. For exactly a half an hour after lunch, we could purchase any of a variety of sweets from a specific shop. After the half hour was up, it was back to the drudgery of sing-alongs, nature walks, and the lake’s leech-infested waters. On my first day, I’d enjoyed an ice cream sandwich. Enjoyed it so much, in fact, that it was all I could think of in the intervening hours between tuck sessions. The next day, I enjoyed another ice cream sandwich – and went back for a second, only to discover I’d exceeded my 30 minute window of opportunity. Well, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. The following day, I knew that one ice cream sandwich would not suffice. So I bought a few extras. I was feeling fairly sated after the second one but started on the third anyway. By the time I got to the fourth, I was pretty full – but the ice cream was melting and I couldn’t let it go to waste. I tried to give away my fifth sandwich. There were no takers. So I ate it as well. I haven’t had an ice cream sandwich since.
So, my question for you guys is: What makes you sick? What food item did you so overdo, at some point in your past, that you can barely stomach it today?
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