Chocolatey Research

Part of the fun of being in a new country is getting to try all the different foods. I still really enjoy going to the supermarket and exploring all the North American brands and products!

So I felt like it was time that I conducted some investigative research... into Canadian chocolate. Two 'independent researchers' sampled a series of chocolate bars and provided their unbiased reviews. This process involved a lot of hard work and scientific rigour, so I do hope that you appreciate the (delicious) results.

  

Crispy Crunch (6.5/10)
Claire - Very crisp, it shatters in your mouth. 6/10
Shane -  Peanut buttery and crunchy. 7/10

Oh Henry! (7/10)
Claire - I'd liken this to a Boost, but more peanut-buttery. Nice texture with whole peanuts throughout. 8/10
Shane - It's peanut-buttery, but it should have more crunch. It's too soft for my liking. 6/10

Big Turk (5.5/10)
Claire - Not as soft as Fry's Turkish Delight, a bit like a jelly bean in terms of consistency. 5/10
Shane -  More black forest than turkish delight. 6/10

Eat More (4/10)
Claire - Salty and nutty, but not very sweet. Disappointing. 4/10
Shane - It tastes like it's from the health food section, except it's not good for you. Should be called 'Eat Less'. 4/10

Coffee Crisp (6.5/10)
Claire - Nice coffee flavour, it's like a stack of wafer biscuits covered in chocolate. 6/10
Shane - Like a coffee flavoured Chomp bar. 7/10

Wunderbar (7.5/10) 
Claire - This is like the 'Oh Henry' bar, but not as crunchy. It's more nougaty with a stronger peanut taste. 7/10
Shane - Half Mars bar, half Snickers. 8/10

Caramilk (7/10)
Claire - Like a Caramel Koala, not very exciting. 6/10
Shane - Like a Caramello, except smoother. 8/10

Canada's National Exhibition ('The Ex')

Last weekend we went to the Ex (Canada's National Exhibition), which is a huge fair with lots of food, rides and entertainment. It was a beautiful sunny day to walk around the show grounds and check it all out.

Highlights included:

• the mesmerising sand sculpting and rock-balancing exhibits
• seeing all the colourful rides and games in the 'midway'
• cute baby animals in the agricultural building
• ice-skating performance - looks fun, can't wait to try it in winter!

But by far the most memorable experience of the day was trying a deep fried, bacon wrapped Mars Bar! It tasted pretty much how you would imagine - warm, gooey, chocolately bacon, tinged with regret. We had a quick coronary bypass afterwards and agreed never to speak of it again.

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

On Saturday we went to our first baseball game! Sadly the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the New York Yankees, but we still had a great time watching and trying to work out what was going on. One player's baseball bat shattered into pieces after hitting the ball, so that was impressive. There was also a lot of enthusiastic crowd participation including Mexican waves, slow claps building up to applause and chants of "let's go blue jays let's go!". Actually, one guy was politely escorted off the premises by security for being too rowdy (I got the impression that it was his sole purpose in life to initiate as many Mexican waves as possible). I had an obligatory hot dog to complete the experience.

On Sunday we checked out the 'Taste of the Danforth', which is Canada's largest street festival. It takes place in Greek town (Danforth street) and involves lots of yummy Greek food stalls and free promotional sunscreen, hummus and yoghurt. Hooray! Here I am eating 'Loukomades' (honey doughnut balls).

   

Canadian Cuisine - Part 2: Dairy

Before we left Australia a friend told us about her traumatising experience buying milk in Whistler for the first time. Still struggling through the nasty effects of jet lag, she found the vast array of unfamiliar dairy options too much and became a bit emotional. While my Mother always told me "there's no use crying over spilt milk", I can certainly appreciate our friend's predicament.

At the very least, you have a choice between 0.1%, 1%, 2%, 3.25%, half & half or coffee cream. I knew that the percentage refers to the fat content of the milk, but I still found myself asking "which one is hilo?" on our inaugural shopping expedition. Fear not, after some careful research I have concluded the following:

0.1% = skim / non-fat milk
1% = semi-skim milk
2% = hilo milk
3.25% = whole milk
half & half = half milk and half cream
coffee cream = revolting

If you're starting to feel comfortable with all of that, hold on! Before you can purchase milk, you have one more decision to make. Would you like your milk in a carton, or a BAG? That's right, in Canada you can buy milk in plastic bags! You get three individual one-litre plastic bags inside another bigger bag with the milk label on the front. Then you buy a plastic milk jug which fits one of the smaller bags, so you can pour your milk easily. We tried this once for fun, but I can't say I'm a fan as it ends up being a bit messy. Oddly enough, sugar comes in a 1L paper milk carton. Who knew?

Now that I've blown your mind with milk, let's talk cheese.

Fortunately for us, we live very close to the St Lawrence Market, which has a great selection of real cheeses (amongst many other delicious things), so we're spoilt for choice. However, when you buy cheese from the supermarket, the first thing you notice is that most of it is ORANGE. 

I came across this phenomenon in the US last year, so luckily I was prepared for the initial shock. In the picture below, you can see some normal looking blocks of cheese in the top shelf, followed by the severely jaundiced 'American cheese' below. Wikipedia tells me that in the US it cannot legally be named "cheese", but instead must be labelled as "processed cheese" or "cheese product". Yum!

Apparently the orange colour comes from dyes that are added in the cheese making process. This practice ensures a uniform colour of cheese throughout the year, despite the seasonal colour variation caused by the cows' changing diet of grass in summer and hay in winter. This makes sense to me, but I still find the strong orange colour completely unappetising. What do you think?

  

This Week In Toronto...

The CN Tower

We've been living in Toronto for over a month now - does that mean we're no longer tourists? I don't think we qualify as locals just yet, so we must be somewhere in between the two extremes. In any case, we decided to experience one of the most popular tourist activities in Toronto this week: the CN (Canada's National) tower. Our tickets came courtesy of my thoughtful work colleagues as part of a farewell gift - thanks Wheatstone HR! There was a quite a crowd when we arrived, but fortunately the queue moved quickly and we were soon taking the 58 second escalator ride to the observation deck. At 350m, it provides a great view of the city and we were able to spot many landmarks we've already visited. We couldn't see our apartment from the tower as there are some other buildings in the way, but I was proud of my (usually poor) navigational ability to point in the right direction nonetheless. We took some tentative steps onto the glass-floored viewing deck, which was fun but slightly unsettling! Didn't feel brave enough to do the 'Edge Walk', where you dress up in an orange jumpsuit, get harnessed to a rope and lean over the edge of the CN tower. Maybe next time... (or not).

NYC in Toronto

Recently we saw a notice in our condo lobby advising tenants that a television crew would be filming on our street for a few days. Could this be my big break into a prime time TV series? Well, not exactly. But it was entertaining to watch them film a scene and to see our street filled with yellow NYC taxis!  If you're a fan of the show 'Alphas', please turn away now as I don't want to ruin anything for you. Personally, I've never heard of the show, but from what I could tell, this episode involves some girls walking out of a yoga class, one of them getting into an expensive looking car with a man, and the other two looking shocked as the car drives away. Once they had finished filming the first take, the director called for a re-set which meant that all the yellow taxis and other vehicles had to reverse back to the start of the street - pretty funny to watch! Apparently they film quite a lot of shows and movies in Toronto because it's much cheaper to do it here than in the States.

Personalised 'Pop'

Last week we saw a movie at the Scotiabank Theatre and tried out the 'Coca-cola Freestyle' pop fountains for the first time (I'm Canadian now so I have to say pop instead of soft drink). The machines use advanced medical technology to pour your choice of over 100+ Coca-cola beverages at the push of a button. You can even mix different drinks to create your own customised concoction - I opted for raspberry-vanilla coke zero, which was delicious!