Sometime between I can't recall when and recently, the face of the Vancouver food street changed. Whereas, a year ago, Japadog stood head and shoulders amid a see of hot dog vendors, today, a plethora of food truck vendors offer everything from Vietnamese sandwiches to Japanese octopus balls. Suddenly, it's a veritable United Nations street…
September 7, 2011: My new favorite Toronto restaurant! Akemi’s awesome day! Maximus!
"Why your aunt has so many pictures of Justin Bieber?"asked Akemi. "That isn't Justin Bieber,"I told her. "That's my cousin Jake." Akemi scanned the photos on the shelf, then cast me a dubious look. "Sure?" "Yeah,"I said. "I'm sure." We'd just returned from a fantastic dinner at what is now my favorite restaurant in Toronto:…
July 31, 2011: Lunch with Jane! Dinner with Jewel and Marty G.! Sort of!
I took some time off from the rewrite today to take in not one but two terrific meals. The first was brunch with the lovely Jane McLean (Charisse in The Time Traveler's Wife, Tammy Okama on Dexter, Jane Richards on Terminal City, and - soon - Fiona Rivers on The Transporter) at Mildred's Temple Kitchen…
July 10, 2011: Truffles or script rewrites. It’s your call!
Since I spent a significant part of my Saturday doing a pass on episode #2 and writing up the one-page overview for episode #10, I decided to kick back on Sunday by switching gears and starting the rewrite of episode #5. I know, I know. What the hell am I doing working through the weekend?…
June 21, 2011: Chat and Chow with Alaina Huffman!
Last night, Akemi and I went out for dinner with the lovely Alaina Huffman (SGU's Lieutenant Tamara T.J. Johansen, Smallville's Black Canary, and MTV's Agent Mom). We went to what is fast becoming my go-to restaurant for entertaining out-of-towners: Scarpetta. Alaina was kind enough to defer to me on the menu selections and so, as…
June 16, 2011: That was one night I’m glad I wasn’t in Vancouver for! Dinner with Alexander and Sarah! Another class field trip! Lunch so bad I want to punch the chef in the face!
Yesterday, Akemi and I joined Alexander and Sarah for lunch at Terroni Restaurant on Adelaide Street. The pizza was fine, the pasta was cold, but the clear high point of the night was the surrounding decor. Specifically THIS ill-advised piece of art (?): After dinner, I went home, worked out, watched part of the hockey…
June 13, 2011: Akemi’s latest culinary creations! Food! Checking out one of the new cars! And, the new, improved, more cerebral me!
The other day, Akemi shifted her creative focus to eggs. I almost didn't have the heart to eat my breakfast... Dinner is my job on weekends and so, on Saturday, I took requests and made Akemi's favorite: Braised Short Ribs. Sear them on all sides, make a mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots and herbs), then…
June 8, 2011: Marty G. rejoins this blog as a series regular! Your herbal top 5! Stargate: SG-1’s ninth season!
Hey! Look who it is! No, not Joaquin Phoenix. It's Martin Gero (Stargate: Atlantis, Bored To Death) who is in Toronto to Executive Produce his new show (which I'm calling Untitled Martin Gero Project or UMGP). We met up Sunday night for chat, laughs, and this odd cocktail containing pimms, gin, lemonade, ginger beer, and cucumber.…
June 3, 2011: On crabs and masks! Chiado restaurant! Friendly comedians! And Transporter: The Series rolls toward production!
The other day, Akemi went to the St. Lawrence Market. There, she engaged one of the seafood purveyors in conversation. The conversation went something like this: "Do you have social crab?"asked Akemi. "What?"asked the woman at the counter. "Do you have social crab?" "Social crab?" "Yes." "No." "Oh." "Do you mean soft-shelled crab?" "Yes!" "No."…
June 2, 2011: Ultron and mutants merely misunderstood? Foodly update! Stargate: SG-1 season 8!
So I've finally started to personalize my office. Rather than hire an interior decorator, I decided to stick with the supervillain motif that made my Stargate workspace so inspirational and the high point of any high school tour. Today, Ultron went up on the shelf. Surprisingly, no one knew who the hell he was. As…
May 28, 2011: Food, food, food, t-shirts, oh, and Stargate: SG-1’s eight season!
Nooooooooooooo! Yesterday, I was crushed to learn M:brgr had closed its doors only months after opening them. Apparently, Torontonians don't have an appetite for high-end burgers. Great. Now where the hell am I going to get a kobe beef patty with brie, caramelized onions, porcini mushrooms, black truffle carpaccio and fig jam on a white…
May 3, 2011: Skinny little Maximus! Stargate: SG-1 season five memories! The Refuel update!
So it was SG-1's fifth season and our second year on the franchise. After spending six months in the extended-stay suites of Vancouver's venerable Sutton Place Hotel (with its antiquated rooms and celeb-watering hole Gerard Lounge), we moved into a furnished apartment in the heart of the downtown area. We would call that place home…
May 1, 2011: Catching up with Erika! Dinner at Scarpetta! Reflecting back on SG-1’s fifth season!
With the UFC in town, last night was fight night. But rather than join the tattoo an weird beard crowd at the Rogers Centre for the various beatdowns, I elected to spend the evening with the lovely Erika Kennair, SyFy Executive and former SGU point person. Erika was as disappointed as any of us by…
April 30, 2011: The L.A. Breakdown: Returning on the Red Eye! A Ben & Jerry’s Bonanza! Skirting the Picket Line! Dinner at Craft Restaurant!
Boy, if there was a fight on which I could have developed deep vein thrombosis, last night's red-eye from Los Angeles to Toronto was it. I napped in about fifty five minute installments over the course of those four and a half hours, drifting off and starting awake, fingers numb, legs aching, back and neck…
April 28, 2011: Maintaining my constant Defcon 1 status!
Taking a little break from my Stargate ponderings to shift focus to the new show, Transporter: The Series. This morning, we welcomed our new continuity director... Then, it was three successive interviews with some potential Directors of Photography, THIS massive lunch sandwich - And a futile attempt to get some work done on my latest…