The Founder

Director: John Lee Hancock

Screenplay: Robert D. Siegel

You will never look at another Big Mac the same way again after you watch the new movie The FOUNDER.  It's a true story of the beginning and the end of the fast food industry and the man that changed the fast food industry forever.

It's the story of Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton), a struggling salesman from Illinois, who unintentionally sells multiple Milkshake machines to a couple of genius fast food restaurant owners in San Bernadino, California.  He travels to San Bernadino to find out the story of the 2 brothers, Mac (John Carroll Lynch) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman), who ran a small takeout burger stand in the 1950's.  They had a system of serving up burgers and fries faster and more efficiently than anyone else in the business, they called it the speedy system.

The 2 brothers found ways to custom design tools to make service faster and they choreographed every move in the kitchen like it was a ballet.

Then the start of what I think was the beginning of the end of the food industry happened when a desperate but greedy and obsessive struggling salesman Ray Kroc decides he wants a piece of the pie.  He convinces the brothers to franchise the restaurants and he starts the first one and through kind of shady tactics he builds and empire while pulling the original restaurant founders out from under their business.  It's a very sad story but very well told and well portrayed by Keaton.

You will wonder what would have happened to the food service industry had this man never gotten the opportunity to change it.  It really presents clearly what greed and the bottom line has done to North America mostly but in huge part in America.  Where real food becomes less important than making a buck.

This is a film everyone should see because it's a piece of history, it's interesting and it's also an entertaining piece of film.  The production value of the locations and the details of the clothing and sets are also amazing.

Luckily I had a burger for lunch before seeing it but it's less food porn and more about trust, business practices, persistence and manipulation.

Go see it... but don't go hungry.

New Restaurant Opening - The Kathi Roll Express

I had the pleasure of attending a blogger tasting event at the newly opened teeny tiny little space called The Kathi Roll Express on Avenue Road just north of Lawrence Avenue.   This is the second location for the busy but enterprising Delhi, India native,  owner Sumit Kohli.   

After years of working in all sorts of desk jobs and travelling around the U.S. and the World always searching for food that he had when he lived in India and never finding the popular Kathi rolls that are common in Delhi, India so he decided to open his own restaurant in downtown Toronto and gave up his desk jobs for good.  His first location is located on Yonge Street in the middle of downtown Toronto.  It is a 32 seat restaurant that is licensed.  I visited his second and newest location a teeny tiny little take out spot located on Avenue Road in North York.  He said he chose the location because he would come from Milton and get off at Avenue road and drive downtown by taking Avenue Road and he always liked the area.  Although there is one Indian restaurant on Avenue Road it isn't a take out restaurant and isn't in the same style as this one.


When you walk into this location you are met with a lot of creativity on what seems to be a small budget.  The shop is painted a bright orange and there is a Bollywood poster on the wall and the tables are all painted in fun graphic illustrations.   The chandelier is made from colored milk crates.  It's so creative and fun.  

Now to the food we sampled the following:

Appetizers
Chat Papri & Pani Puri
Main Course
Kathi Rolls - Shami Kabab, Butter Chicken Tikka, Paneer Shaslik
Curry's - Paneer Lababdar, Dal Makhani and Lamb Rogan Josh
Sides - Naan
Dessert -  Milk Cake

My favourites among the tastes that we tried were the Butter Chicken Tikka Kathi Rolls, the Panneer Lababdar with the fresh Naan Bread that was so light and delicious.


The appetizers were very interesting and tasty too.   A crispy shell filled appetizer with tamarind and cilantro sauces over chick peas and a Indian Style nacho type of street food dish with potatoes, round crackers, the cilantro sauce and a bunch of other things added to it that I can't remember.

I also tried Goat for the first time and it was amazing.  It was very tender with a milder than expected flavour.


 We are all very full and shared a spoonful of the Milk Cake dessert just to try it.  It's a butterscotch flavoured dense cakey consistency.  Very nice flavour, sweet but not overpowering.

He also imports India soda that is a copy of North American sodas with different names.









And as a cute little added gift he sent us home with some very Indian inspired T-shirts. This is the one I got.

You can get Kathi Rolls, think of it as an Indian Burrito or wrap and an assortment of curries and appetizers but you can also get the raw skewered meat to take home and cook it up on your own BBQ or in your own kitchen and impress your friends with the scent of Delhi in your kitchen.
Now I need to go and check out the larger downtown location and see what that one is like, but I am happy that I am only one highway exit away from the Avenue Road location so when I feel like some Indian street food I can dash in at any time.

For more info you can follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @tkretoronto or check or
check out their website for their menu and addresses at www.thekathirollexpress.com

Review - Wahlburgers Open in TO

A New Kid, Blue Blood,  Marky Mark, entourage creator actor and Chef brother Paul, some of the Wahlberg clan from Dorcester, Mass. bring their Wahlburgers Restaurant growing empire to Toronto for the first Wahlburgers restaurant in Canada.  Both Mark and Donnie Wahlberg have a great history with Toronto with their films, shows, fans and friends so they thought it would be the perfect location for them to expand into Canada.

The Wahlbergs can also be seen in an A&E reality series about the Wahlberg family and the restaurants.

The restaurant in Toronto had their soft opening this week but their GRAND OPENING is November 15th, 2014.

Since I was already in the area for the Chocolate Show I decided it was a good time to go check it out and try their family recipe Burgers.

Let's start with the restaurant before I get into the food.  You can't miss the Neon Green signature colour chairs that jump out in the space.  There are a couple of banks of TV monitors with various sports channels and a loop of their A&E reality show promo.  I would love to see one dedicated to some of their individual work like their films and live shows.. maybe that will come.

It is a sit down restaurant even though the food is a fast food type of food.  I think you can get take out but when I walked in I was immediately welcomed and directed to a seat.   The waitresses are typical young girls with short black skirts and white shirts.  It caters to the sports bar crowd or a young group of friends that want to hang out and grab some quick bites.

The space used to be a hair salon so there is another level above but I think that will be a spill over seating area.

They play classic rock music fairly loud but not as loud as a bar would be.  The space is pretty airy and bright from the large windows but I bet would be a bit darker on grey days but it still has a nice fresh feel about it.  Gone are the dark pub days that hide the beer spills in the carpet.

And now to the food.   I ordered an Ice tea to start... I'm not a beer or wine drinker and prefer water or ice tea with my meals.... yes I am boring but I enjoy my food.   They do have all kinds of drink concoctions but this was the afternoon and the people in the restaurant were mostly drinking beer.

I then ordered their OUR Burger which is their main signature burger.  It's a pretty classic burger with Paul's sauce which is probably similar to the Mayo, ketchup, relish, mustard combination.   It's a flat top grilled burger that doesn't have any gourmet things stuffed inside.  It's just a basic clean burger that gets it's flavour from the flat top crust they build into it by cooking it properly and leaving the juices in it and not over cooking it.  It was very tasty and it hit the spot.  I would like to see a bun that could stand up to the juices a bit more.  I like soft hamburger buns but don't like it when they fall apart when you are trying to eat them.

I also ordered the Tater Tots.  They were just basic tater tots and as you would expect.  I think it might be nice for them to include a Nacho cheese sauce as a side to them as a nod to their longtime friend Nacho who has been bugging them to do a burger in his name anyway.  I think that a cheese sauce would elevate them for sure instead of just ketchup on them.

Now let's talk about the location.  It's located on Blue Jays Way across from Wayne Gretzky's and attached to the Soho Metropolitan Hotel.

Here are my pros and cons on this location.
It's a sports bar restaurant located across from the same type of establishment.  Con.
It's located in the Soho hotel which can be a pro and a con.  A pro because tourists may go because of the familiarity with the Wahlberg brothers and US restaurant.  Con because it's mostly a tourist area.

Where I would have loved to see this would have been within a block of Roy Thompson Hall and the Bell Tiff Lightbox where there are always events that people of Toronto and tourists attend and also connected to the events at David Pecaut Square.  There are restaurant spaces available on King Street across from Roy Thompson Hall and I think somewhere around there would have been great.  I am probably purely thinking of myself here as I would go there more often when I am at Roy Thompson Hall for the film festival or at the many festival and non festival events at the lightbox that I go to.  It's a bit of a walk from Roy Thompson Hall when you only have an hour to go, eat and rush back for the second screening at Roy Thompson Hall.   But I am sure that wasn't their priority when they found the location but I have to say it is a nice space and I will probably go there when I have time to kill when I am around the Lightbox and just want to get a decent burger and fries.   I didn't try the fries but I will the next time I visit Wahlburgers.  

I hope they are successful and open a couple more in other parts of the city... like the north end maybe??   yeah me wishing again.

So drop by for their Grand Opening on Nov 15th if you are in the area.  

Here is their info:

Wahlburgers Toronto, 46 Blue Jays Way (at the SoHo Met), Toronto,  416-489-8922  Open 7 days: Sun-Wed 11:30AM - 12:00AM, Thu-Sat 11:30AM - 2:00AM

  @WahlburgersCA

St. Andrews Poultry..not just chicken

What do you get when you mix a Toronto Dentist,  a young fresh Executive Chef and a Poultry Shop?

...........An updated new gourmet food store and catering shop in Kensington Market.

 St. Andrew Poultry was founded in 1962 by Jewish European immigrant Isaac Jesin. It was originally a processing plant but they expanded to add a retail side for their poultry products.  Jesin handed down the operation to his son Dr. Jerry Jesin in 2012.  Dr. Jesin a Toronto Dentist and foodie decided to kick the place up to a more modern shop and expand on the food products available.  Since he was a dentist and not a chef he needed to find someone to help him with the vision that he wanted for the store.  He asked around and was told to try Chef Bernadette Calpito's food.

Chef Calpito worked for many great upscale dining establishments including Roger Mooking's Kultura.  She drew from all of her restaurant experience and kicked it into high gear to create some great upscale fast food dishes that people could drop into the shop to pick up and take home for dinner.
Together they created a "Foodie Bar" with hot meals like fried chicken, brisket sandwiches, ribs, fries and their own signature Shawarma's.

They also have updated their Meat Counter to include aged Beef and vacuum packed already seasoned chicken, brisket and beef items.

There is also a counter with prepared foods like fingerling potatoes in a lemon vinaigrette, heirloom tomato salad, malta ribs, salmon and various salads.

They also created a new Supper Club Membership where people could join for $20 for a lifetime membership that allows them to pick up food to take out between the hours of 5pm to 6:30pm and receive a 20% discount on their prepared food.

They also have a Delivery and Catering service that will deliver to downtown offices and cater your events.  Chef Calpito noted that she is willing to provide whatever you need for your event, not limited to the items sold in the store.

Additional specialty items available in the store include some baked goods made by their in house baker and also a line of cheeses, fresh eggs and salads in Mason jars and a lot more.

I sampled a few things from their Foodie Bar.
I tried the Joy fried chicken which is a special process of cooking the chicken which keeps it crispy on the outside while being juicy on the inside.  Try it with their hot sauce.

Their Shawarma's are a signature dish that have their own unique blend of spices that are a global fusion of flavours.  I detected a bit of turmeric in the seasonings which gave the chicken shawarma a nice golden color. They have a nice selection of toppings for the shawarma's and they topped mine off with some of their vanilla infused french fries.  You don't taste the vanilla but the fries are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle and are delicious.

Chef Calpito wanted to make tacos but didn't want to do the same tacos everyone else was doing so she used Beef Cheeks and changed the tortilla shell to a wonton wrapper shell and added toppings like a cabbage and pineapple slaw and feta crema to the top.  Very flavourful taco with a great crunch.

They worked on many different combinations to get their burgers the way they wanted them.  They were so juicy that the napkin that I was holding was soaked in juices.  They used a beef brisket mix for the burgers and had them stacked with all kinds of toppings.

I also tried their Chicken Pot Pie.  It tasted like homemade chicken soup with a nice puff pastry top on it.  They have them uncooked and frozen ready to heat at home.

I tried a sample of their fingerling potato salad with lemon and herb dressing and loved the nice subtle flavour that enhances the potatoes.

I didn't have enough room to try the pistachio crusted lamb pops and their banana breads but the people I was with loved them.   I tried as much as I could and picked up some chicken to take home for dinner as well.

The staff are all super friendly and helpful.  Dr. Jerry loves food and wanted to make sure everything was the best it could be.  Chef Calpito has an abundance of energy and charm and a passion for making the products in her own unique style with flavours from around the globe.

Facebook St.AndrewPoultry
Twitter @StAndrewPoultry
Instagram/ standrewpoultry

A&W goes back for the FUTURE

 

A&W has given their menu an overhaul after receiving a lot of customer response about what's in their food and requesting better environmentally friendly food products.

A&W is the first and only fast food restaurant to give Canadians what they really want: 

 Almost three-quarters (73%) of Canadians prefer to consume beef raised without the use of hormones or steroids 

 A full 75% of Canadians prefer to consume chicken raised without the use of antibiotics 

A&W are the first fast food chain to bring their food back to the way it was first made at the inception of fast food.  It's real food made without antibiotics and produced with ethical practices the way food was made over 30 years ago.  

At the beginning of the fast food generation there was a hamburger patty that was put into a hamburger bun and topped with real lettuce and tomatoes and condiments.   The french fries were cut fresh on site and fried from a raw state and all of the vegetables were free from pesticides and other things that didn't belong in them.   Fast forward to the industrial generation where food is produced in a lab warehouse and shipped thousands of miles to sit in freezers and on shelves for months on end.

In September 2013 they introduced beef raised without the use of hormones or steroids and this September they introduced eggs from chickens fed only a vegetarian diet without animal by-products and this October they are introducing chicken that is raised without the use of antibiotics.

They are rolling this old is new style of better food in all of their 819 Canadian locations.

It doesn't sound that groundbreaking does it?  But it really is in our bottom line the faster, cheaper the better generation where profits and efficiency came before taste and the health of the consumers and the planet.  

As one of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Ambassadors I know that Jamie fought hard to get "Pink Slime" taken out of the processed beef that was made in America.  In Canada our Beef processors do not use "pink slime" a by product washed in ammonia product used to kill bacteria and stretch the meat products.   But because of Jamie's efforts people started asking restaurants and food processors what's in their food.   A&W listened to their consumers and have gone out of their way to bring the most ethically treated food that they can get.  It's a win win for consumers and the planet.

Some of the big changes include:

BURGERS

100% pure beef, raised without the use of hormones or steroids, with no additives, preservatives or fillers. 

CHICKEN

Chubby Chicken®” burgers, wraps, strips and dinners.  All feature chicken raised without the use of antibiotics. Plus, A&W chicken strips and sandwiches feature 100% real seasoned white chicken breast. 

A&W chicken comes from Canadian farms where the chickens are raised using the best farming practices in large barns where they are free to roam with constant access to fresh water, feed and fresh air. 

EGGS

Canadian Grade A eggs, gathered from hens who are fed a fully vegetarian diet without animal by-products 

ONION RINGS

Classic onion rings are made in A&W restaurants daily with fresh onions from Gills Onions – one of A&W’s key produce suppliers. Gills is the first operation in the world to produce ultra-clean, renewable electricity from onion waste left behind from the fresh-cut process. 

SWEET POTATO FRIES  

The delicious A&W sweet potato fries are orange, but they are also green. A&W suppliers preserve and protect natural resources by controlling energy and water usage and by reducing waste and pollution. Their sweet potato processing facility is the first frozen food manufacturing plant worldwide to earn LEED Platinum certification, the highest distinction available to green buildings. 

TOMATOES

A&W works with farmers who use greenhouses to grow tomatoes. They can grow 25 times more tomatoes than on traditional farm fields – all while conserving land, heat and water and allowing the tomatoes to ripen on the vine longer. This process provides efficiency and sustainability 

NEW PACKAGING

A&W has also changed to more environmentally friendly packaging including compostable paper bags for burgers and steel trays and serving baskets for fries and onion rings in restaurants. And they have brought back the famous A&W frosty mugs which is a more responsible way of packaging it's products. 

What does all of this mean for you the consumer of the food?  Well I can tell you it tastes a whole lot better than the chemical laden fast food people have become used to.  I tried their Chicken Fingers, Teen Burger and the Onion Rings.

The Chicken Fingers were real white meat that was juicy and not greasy or over salted like many fast food chains serve.  I would go back for these anytime I am craving a quick chicken fix.  I also like the crunchy Onion Rings that had a light breadcrumb coating on them.  I tried the Teen Burger and liked that the vegetables were freshly cut and the burger was very tasty.  

Then there are those frosty A&W mugs that they serve their Root Beer in.  Wouldn't you prefer to drink your soft drinks from an Ice Cold Frosty mug than a paper cup?  Yup, I thought so.   While I am not a big soda pop drinker I appreciated that they brought these back to their stores.  It keeps the drinks colder longer and just think of all the cups they keep out of the landfills.   I have visited a landfill where I saw a whole lot of Tim Horton cups.  

While there aren't as many A&W locations as there are other fast food chains I hope that the changes they have made will sway the rest of the industry to change their practices as well.  

They are moving in the direction of local and more sustainability which is a good thing.

The key to changing the planet is for A&W's changes to become successful and for other restaurants to follow suit.

One burger at a time.

Disclaimer:  The tasting of the items I sampled and the key information was provided by A&W but the opinions of the taste and quality of the food are my sincere opinions.

Jamie Oliver's Revolution against McDonald's Pink Slime processing

Jamie Oliver has been on a Revolution to get rid of dangerous processed food and this is why. This is also why I became one of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day Ambassador's.

I like the taste of McDonald's food unfortunately but every time I cave and eat it I feel disgusted with myself because I know better. The answer is what Jamie is doing, trying to get McDonald's to change their formulas back to the real food it was started with. A hamburger once in a while isn't going to kill you but if you eat these pink slime burgers and the GMO fries all the time it will.

Trying to figure out what to eat unless you grow it yourself is becoming tricky these days with all the hidden secrets in the food world. Jamie is trying to educate us so that we can make informed decisions about what we eat.

Really the only safe way to eat a burger is to get fresh beef from a reputable butcher and grind it yourself. But how many people are doing that these days? Yup.. I know.. so you have to choose wisely when you choose your food or restaurant.

I am the first one to tell you that's not always an easy thing and it sometimes depends on where you live as to what is available to eat in your area. I find that sometimes I have to leave my area to get decent food and I live in an area with a whole bunch of restaurants, but most are pretty much the same thing, rice or some cheap starch with low quality meat and very little fresh vegetables.

I try my best to balance what I do... I am far from perfect but I do try to get it right most of the time.

http://www.foodrevolutionday.com

How hard is it to make a great Burger?

One of my food pet peeves is BAD RESTAURANT FOOD.  I really hate it when I spend a lot of money or even not that much money on food and it's so bad that I toss most of it out.  I know "people are starving in Africa".   That's precisely why restaurants should attempt to make better food that people will eat.

The inspiration for this blog post comes from my recent visit to Five Guys Burgers.   I was shopping out in the west end of Toronto and was so hungry that I needed to just get something that would be quick.   Where I was there was a choice of a Pita place and Five Guys Burgers.   I picked the Burgers because this chain seems to be popping up all over so I thought I would try it and see how they were.   Well... I should have gone to the Pita Place instead.

It wasn't exactly cheap fast food.  For a Cheeseburger, Fries and a Pop it cost me $16.  I could have gotten lunch for 2 people at McDonald's for that price and enjoyed the taste a whole lot more.  While I know I shouldn't eat junk food and Burgers aren't the best selection for a good lunch, I just wanted to get something fast that would fill me up so that I could keep going.   I think I only ate about a third of the french fries,  they weren't transported and they were still a little on the soggy side and they didn't have much flavour.  The Hamburger had a couple of slices of cheap processed "American" cheese and it was just a basic Burger, no frills,  on a un toasted squished Bun.  The Burger totally fell apart in my hands while I was eating it and it wasn't even a juicy tasty burger.

Why does this chain exist?  Do we really need more bad Hamburger joints?   I get the good Burger places expanding like the Burger Priest.   They make fresh ground Hamburgers that taste really good and have creative ways of jazzing them up.   I get that.   They deserve to expand to more stores.   But the Five Guys Burgers really aren't worthy of multiple locations and charging the kind of prices they do.   I guess an indication should have been that there were plenty of empty tables in the restaurant.  Whereas if you go to a place like the Burger Priest there is always a line up out the door just for take out.   Too bad there wasn't a Burger Priest where I was, because I probably would have gone there instead.

What really bugs me is that I don't have Culinary Training but I could probably make a whole lot better food than a whole lot of restaurants I have eaten at over the years.

There really is no excuse in making a Bad Burger and Fries... and to make a Chain of stores with these underwhelming Burgers is a Sin.   It's not that hard to make a great burger.   First you get the best quality beef you can get.   Grind it fresh.  You don't even have to do anything to it.   You can just season it with Salt and Pepper and it would be great if you cook it properly.  Add a toasted fresh bun with some substance, one that doesn't fall apart when you add the Burger and condiments.   Have a good selection of FRESH condiments.   Melt your cheese on the Burger.   Serve it Fresh and Hot.   Cook the fries until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Use the double fry method.  Check your temperatures and do it right.   That's all it takes.   You can make gourmet burgers and add things like Blue Cheese or Avocado or whatever but you have to get the basic burger and fries right first.

All of those people who open bad restaurants should go away and make it easier for people that love to cook great food able to provide great food to their customers.   Stop wasting people's time and money on these crappy joints.  

Yes this bugs me.   I probably could have bought a downtown condo if you added up all the money I have spent on bad restaurant food over the years.   This isn't limited to just take out food,   I had years of bad food at a hospital I worked in, and I have had bad restaurant food in places that are supposed to be good.   Everyone has a bad day,  I get that.   But if you consistently just make bad food then you have no business running a restaurant.   Yes I am going all Gordon Ramsey on this point but this is where I agree with him.   Restaurant owners abuse people's money and health when they don't get it right.   It's not like buying a shirt.   You can donate your shirt to charity or give it to a friend.   Your bad food just goes into the garbage and into the landfill.  (assuming most restaurants don't bother composting).   While there are a whole lot of people that can barely scrape together a meal everyday.   It's just criminal to commit this food offence.

I am sure this food looks pretty good but in the big picture of the value and the quality, those 2 things didn't match.

I would much rather promote a restaurant than slag one...but I have seen a bit of a trend to sloppy cooking and service.  With thousands of restaurants in the city most people know who the ones that are doing it right are.

This is the time when I miss having a BBQ and being able to grill up some great burgers at home.
I am not a vegetarian, although I believe in eating healthy food I do crave things like Burgers and Mac and Cheese and stuff I probably shouldn't be eating.   If I cave and eat these things they might as well taste good and be worth it.

This is my opinion and obviously somebody must like this food or they wouldn't be in business.  I just wish there were more choices for better food everywhere.   I would much rather have gotten some great food off of a great food truck.

No, I don't work for Burger Priest or any other Burger chain and I don't even get paid for writing restaurant reviews.  I am not a former employee of Five Guys but I am a good food lover and want to let people know where to spend their money and where to save it.

When is it worth getting take-out dinner?

When is it worth getting take out food?  

When it's faster than cooking a Chicken.  
Or when you have to do 3 things at once.

Sometimes it's just quicker, easier, cheaper and a whole lot more efficient to order take out.   Not in every instance but today it just seemed a lot more worth it to hit "click click wait for my dinner".   I decided to order the SWISS CHALET Festive Special for dinner today because I was trying to figure out how to get some stuff done while still figuring out what I wanted to eat for dinner.

I wanted to go get Swiss Chalet for dinner yesterday but got distracted by the previous post of the case of the Exploding Pop Bottle.   So I have been craving the Festive Special for the past couple of days.  I love to get their Festive Special at least once every season.  I don't have big holiday meals so I don't get the works of stuffing, etc. and to make it all for just me is totally not worth the effort.

Reasons when it's worth getting take out:

1.  When you can get it a whole lot faster than if you made it yourself.  Saving time grocery shopping, prepping, cooking and cleaning up... which includes taking out the garbage and there's always garbage.

2.  When you are in the middle of doing something else and you are starving and can't wait to make something for yourself.

3.  When you are only one person and it would cost you triple the amount to go and get the ingredients to make what you ordered.

Today's example:

I was doing some serious Multi-tasking today.  I had a couple of loads of laundry going in the laundry room in my building while I was trying to do an online test to figure out what courses I should look into for a better career fit and then replying to emails from a friend overseas and talking to another friend while he was on his way out of town.  After I did all that I did a quick vacuum around the apartment and checked the rest of my social media.   It took me a whole 5 minutes online to click and order my Swiss Chalet dinner and it arrived in less than 40 minutes.   It would have taken me a whole lot longer just to cook the equivalent size piece of chicken.   Forget about even adding the stuffing.   I also ordered perogies instead of fries or potatoes.   It would have taken me 10 minutes just to boil the water to cook frozen perogies, although I wouldn't recommend getting the perogies as they are better made at home the way you like it.   But I also added a side salad as my side and I will have that for lunch tomorrow saving me having to figure out what to have for lunch tomorrow.   Win Win.

Order once eat twice.  Little effort and I didn't have to spend an hour at the grocery store and an hour cooking and an hour cleaning up and wasting a whole lot of extra food.

I would say the best time to order take out is when you want a lot of chinese food with different ingredients that would cost you too much to go out and buy individually and when the cooking process would take you longer to make yourself.

Not to say that you shouldn't cook at home because sometimes it is worth it.  My homemade roasted chicken blows Swiss Chalet chicken away in taste and moistness.   But during the week when you have limited time you have to decide what's more worth your time.... cooking or getting things done in a limited timeline.

The limited timeline won out today.   Dinner is done and no dishes in the sink.

Taters and Cream fast food at home

One of my favourite Fast Foods is Lick's Taters n Cream which I have been known to drive all the way down to the Beaches to satisfy a craving of it.   One day recently I thought I don't have to drive to Lick's to get it I can make it at home myself.  In an attempt to try and make more things at home and to save money and travel time and expenses I whipped up a batch of my own Taters and Cream.

Instead of cutting the potatoes into french fry strips I cut them into equal sized cubes making it easy to cook in a skillet.   I fried the potatoes in a skillet using the bacon fat that was left after cooking the bacon.  You add tons of extra flavour into the potato cubes that way and it fries up really crispy.   Cook the potatoes until golden brown and crispy on the outside and still a bit soft on the inside.  Make sure you don't cook it on high heat but more towards medium so that they get a chance to cook inside.

Drain the potatoes on paper towel when cooked and then place the potatoes on a plate or I like to put it in a bowl so that it can mound on top.

Add the Shredded cheese while the potatoes are still hot so that the cheese can melt a bit.

Then add the Sour Cream, Bacon and Sliced Green Onions.   I skipped adding the salt since I cooked the potatoes in Bacon Fat and there is plenty of salt in the cheese and bacon.

Add Pepper to taste and if you like it spicy you could even add chili flakes or Siracha or hot pepper sauce if you like.

That's it...   No waiting in lines,  no driving, parking, gas expenses food packaging waste.     All you need are a few good ingredients and about a half an hour of your time.   It's just as good as the take out version if not better because you know it's fresh and you know exactly how it's been made.

It may not be low cal but it is the kind of thing that hits that comfort food zone and really satisfies you.   Making it at home you will know that you are using fresh oil, you can use organic products if you like as well and you can control exactly how much and what you add to it.

You can also experiment with the stuff you put on top.  You could add things like diced tomatoes or cilantro or parsley... go nuts if you like.. break all the rules...   

Just enjoy the Fast Food at Home and feel like you can make it yourself.

Healthy foods need a Sexy Marketing Campaign

This Pulled Pork

Versus

This Organic Strawberries

I have been pondering the Obesity epidemic and my own weight struggles for some time now and I have come to the conclusion that maybe we need to look at the whole Diet industry as a failure because you basically learn to give up foods you like and restrict calories and intake.   Diet is DIE with a T.  in other words you feel like you are gonna die if you keep on this perpetual felling of deprivation.

Do you ever wonder why all the commercials on tv are for Fast Foods and Junk Foods?  Don't they make you salivate when you see the commercials?  One of the reasons they work is because they look enticing and sexy to you and make you feel like you will feel great when you have them.  It becomes subliminal messaging and you can't get the thought of a triple bypass burger out of your head.   When I watched Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock I was both repulsed at what was being done with the food and at the same time I could almost

taste the Big Mac while watching the film.

What if we just flipped the switch and stopped all marketing of unhealthy foods which are marketed to get you addicted to the food and a lot of the companies that provide a lot of the food that goes into all that junk is also subsidized.    So here's a thought.   What if the Junk ads were taken off the air or aired with the same warnings as cigarette ads or pharmaceutical ads where they list all the side effects and diseases that you may be at risk for.   And what if ORGANIC FARMS were given subsidies and governments were giving money away to market Real Organic Foods.   What if the commercials for Spinach and Broccoli were sexy?   What if you saw a commercial for Organic freshly picked strawberries and they were prepared with fresh Organic Cream.   Would you want to run out and get that?   Why don't we have drive thru's for that?   I'd like to roll into a Fast Food drive through and order a bowl of fresh strawberries to go!   What if French Fries were made with other root vegetables and were baked and served to look like fries.  Would you order a bag of French baked Parsnips?  How about some Roasted Beet salad?  HMMM... with all the crap that is out in the world I wonder why nobody is doing this already?   What if you picked up a bunch of carrot sticks instead of fries with a veggie burger that tasted better than a real hamburger?   I went to New York years ago and a friend ordered a Veggie Burger from an upscale restaurant that we went to.  He said it tasted just like beef.  I didn't believe him so he made me try some and he was totally right.  I was really surprised.   What if we spent more time/money/energy on figuring out how to prepare Real fruits and vegetables so that they still had integrity and maximum taste and nutrition.   Why NOT?  With all the chefs that are being pumped out of cooking schools and all the cooking competition shows on TV right now how come nobody has done this yet?

Fifty years ago people would mostly eat real food prepared in their homes and to to out to a restaurant was usually for a special occasion or if you couldn't cook at home for whatever reason.

I don't see things going back to that in the future with both parents working full time jobs and having so many extra curricular activities to keep up with and Social media and other time wasting things to spend any free time on.

I think the answer is to rethink the whole food system.   Have a drive thru/ pick up healthy food restaurant on every corner that parents could pick up a cooked Organic Chicken,  and a couple of organic side vegetables and salads and even beans or legumes and some fruit desserts.     Not Swiss Chalet which still has high fat, high sodium, low nutrient foods with their dinners.... and what's in that Swiss Chalet sauce anyway?

Give people options to make it easy to do the right thing.   If you love Mac and Cheese and who doesn't?   What if it was made with cauliflower and low fat cheese and the fat content reduced and the sodium content reduced but somehow the flavour was increased using spices and vegetables like celery root or cauliflower.   if it tasted great and you had a choice between that and some greasy, soggy french fries what would you choose?

We need to start a SEXY REAL Food Campaign.    Make people salivate over a plate of brussel sprouts and fiddleheads and see what happens.

If I had a choice between Pulled Pork and a plain iceberg lettuce salad with some tastless tomatoes in it... No contest which one I would choose.    But if the salad had the sweetest organic tomatoes and it had organic chicken slices and a really flavourful salad dressing and lots of tasty nuts or other things in it then maybe I would have a hard time choosing.

Teach people how to crave healthy food.   Teach people how to prepare foods to make them taste better than any junk food you can get.  Make healthy foods as fast, cheap and available as Junk Foods.

Maybe then we will see a change.