Catching Up! Pacific Mall Puffs.

I've been off the radar for a while working on a Disney movie but I plan to play catch up in these next few days.

At the beginning of prep I did some serious shopping at the Pacific Mall (if you have never been you MUST go, sensory overload and there are loads of great deals and crazy junk).

A friend asked me to bring back some of the famous puffs for her and well you know I had to sample the wears myself.

I know my way around a puff, (and consider myself a custard connisseur) and let me tell you these babies deliver!

I tried the green tea flavour as a sample but opted to order the vanilla custard.

Beard Puffs forever!!!

Dreaming of a food vacation

I just adore this Tin Can Treats trailer.
On a day like today I want to run away in it.
Hurry up Spring, my Alexander Wang Oxfords are dying to get out.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Somewhere downtown

monkey bread

don't ask me why they (they being wanda's pie in the sky in kensington market) call it that but it may have something to do with the fact that it makes you kinda ape shit for it. apes, monkeys, different i know. essentially this is the biggest, gooiest, most amazing cinnamon bun i have ever eaten in my long legged life (and i grew up in brampton with a best friend who worked at cin-a-bon). and i did't eat the whole thing, i was cut a slice that could feed a family (or a manek) okay so there are walnuts in it but still walnuts? monkey bread? i don't get it? they only make it on the weekends and when i asked the cute counter guy why he sweetly responded "because if we served it everyday toronto would get too fat." true enough.

oh and the picture is not so great because my lense fogged up when i walked into the joint and my memory card was full, and i was distracted by the moneky bread and my dad whose glaases had also fogged up and was craning his neck like a muppet looking for me.

celebrating the year of the rabbit

my dad and i spend almost every sunday together with 3 usual objectives: to see each other, to walk around the city, and to eat (not always in that order).

when i asked him if he wanted to go see the dragon collect envelops on spadina for chinese new year he was like "sure i'm gonna get some of those vietnamese subs to take home for dinner." like a true manek he is thinking about the next meal before he's had the first.

i love the veggie soup at swatow number 35, dad ordered the swatow special soup without asking what was is in it.

i was like "are you gonna eat that not knowing what it is?" to which he replied "sure, it's like being on fear factor."

although he refused to identify the meats he insisted they were good/alright and that the soup was making him "sweat his god damn ass off!".

well there you have it, happy new year.

wedding fries!!!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I've never met a potato that I didn't like.

Wendell and I eloped on October 22nd at Toronto City Hall and before heading to our fab wedding dinner at Colbourn Lane we cut the hunger with some poutine from one of the famous chips trucks in front of new city hall.....ahhhh poutine on your wedding day is there really anything better?

Wendell may get off easy with our first anniversary meal, although I did joke he may have to buy me the truck as a gift.

karen sealy's burn-your-ass-off shrimp

After a long day of shopping/fitting for a photo shoot for Karen's upcoming design show we were starving!

Karen offered to make me her spicy shrimp, and who am I to say no to food. Karen is a self professed heat addict and I'm telling you I can handle heat and these babies are hot! I swear when she was frying them up there was so much pepper in the air my throat was burning (please put your fan on while cooking this).

Super easy, super yummy and goes down great with a glass or two of dry riesling.

She told me what was in the recipe but didn't give me amounts so I guessed. I also opted to serve mine on a bed of brown rice to cut the heat with a few wedges of fresh lime to put out the remaining fire.

What's in mine:

1 tbls cayenne pepper

1 tbls paprika

1 tbls garlic powder

1 tbls cumin

1 tbls dry mustard

2 tbls brown sugar

3 tlbs olive oil

lime wedges

chopped cilantro

chopped basil

brown rice

combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, toss the peeled and detailed shrimp in the olive oil and then add the dry ingredients.

fry till golden and serve with chopped herbs and lime wedges.

andy manek's ceasar salad revisited

I made a lamb ragu for Wendell and his sister last weekend and though the sauce was pretty damn good it was really the ceasar salad that stuck out for me. It brought back great memories as my dad used to make a huge bowl of it for my sister and I as a late lunch on Sunday afternoons. He would serve it with a fresh loaf of Italian bread and butter. One of my most cherished meals with my Pops.

I'm not reinventing the wheel her with this recipe but what makes it unlike most ceasar is heavy handedness with the main ingredients.

for the dressing you need:

1/2 cup first press virgin olive oil

1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 tbsp dijion mustard

6 anchovie filets

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup grated romano cheese

-throw into food processor and away you go

-tear up one large head of romaine lettuce into a bowl

-fry 1/2 package of organic berkshire bacon (cut into 1 inch pieces ) let drain on paper towel

-cube 1/2 loaf of rosemary focaccia (into 2 inch cubes, tossed in olive oil) and bake till crispy

-Toss the salad with dressing, garnish with bacon and bread cubes and add another 1/4 cup romano cheese to the mix.

enjoy!

note - do not go out in public after consuming this salad or talk to anyone who hasn't consumed it as you will surely kill them with your baba garlic breath.

for the record my dad calls this his ukrainian ceasar.

deep fired butter (aka you know you want it!)

If you are one of those people that think deep fried butter is disgusting and would never try it, I gotta say I don't think we'd get along very well. The line up was almost an hour at this year's CNE to get your hands on the little devil bombs but it was worth the wait. Might I suggest if you find yourself waiting as we did you get yourself a creamsicle float (orange pop and vanilla ice cream for those of you deprived enough to have never had one). As for the deep fried butter it was everything I imagined it would be, like a hot fluffy timbit with a pat of salty, oily, love in the centre. One is enough but if you're Wendell or Adrian I suggest two.

Lobster Season aka Harvey's Revenge

Poor Harvey, he almost had a heart attack when I took the meanest Lobster out of the bag and dropped him (or her) into the sink. He's still not sure it's safe though.

Ukrainian Cups

The older I get the more drawn I am to things I saw in my Baba's house (Grandmother in Ukrainian). I showed my sister these babies that I found at Value Village and plan to use for drinking wine on the front steps with the neighbours and she said "those look like the ones Mum gave me a few year ago that I gave to Goodwill." Thanks Coco.

Cake Walk 2.0

I miss The Next Star kids already. This summer was a good one for me in the ice cream cake department. The Hulk cake was for my nephew who insisted on a Hulk or Spiderman cake when I told him I would hit the DQ for him (which by the way is a sacrilege as my sister worked at DQ in high school, while I worked at the far superior Baskin Robbins). I asked the braceface at the DQ to write MARCUS HULK in the biggest greenist letters she could. She was like "Don't you want it to say Marcus is the Hulk?". I was like "no, he's four. MARCUS HULK is fine." Coco said he talked about it for a week straight...the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Greek Eggs

Jalapeno and Bacon Cornbread

My New China!

wendell goes to belize

while shooting a show for food network canada wendell visited the famous marie sharp in belize. she is know for her hot sauce, and now so is wendell. i'm not a fan of the banana, but the others are to die for!

Argentina

cake walk

my three favorite cakes of the year.

1. an birthday cake for my bf adrian in the likeness of an hermes box, that his friend stacey had made for him. she would not tell me where she had it made and he would not let me eat it.

2. the "i survived toronto" cake that jameel had made for the crew after our 3 day long casting session in for the next star. i was on a sugar high for a good hour.2. erin and chris' wedding cake. it was lemon heaven and honestly the best wedding cake i've ever had.

3. erin and chris' wedding cake. it was lemon heaven, i had thirds! hands down the best weddng cake i have ever had.

that's what i'm talkin' bout

is there really a better combination than gucci and french fries?

if i was a food this is exactly what i'd want to be (only maybe a little bigger).

fettucini and alaskan crab meat turned frittata

seafood on christmas eve is a tradition i adore (yes more christmas posts in april, how diligent of me). it was just wendell and i for the holidays so i whipped this up and it was super easy. i even bought the crab meat pre-cracked at whole foods and it was as almost as good as the fresh stuff. in the morning i turned the leftovers into one of the best frittatas ever!

chirstmas in april

i came across these great photos (while doing a much needed computer clean) that i made wendell take at my michelle's christmas party. i offered to make what michelle refers to as the "snicky snacks". cara and johnny did the cheese plate, which of course was wonderful, and of course i have no pictures of - sorry guys.

so there you have it. figs and brie (usually do it with blue cheese but my friend craig is allergic) wrapped in prosciutto with a balsamic glaze. italian deviled eggs and what wendell refers to as bagel and lox on a stick. eat these quickly or the stick gets soggy and breaks when you pick it up, if i hadn't been three sheets to the wind i would have been mortified.

part of how i gained 7 pounds in 10 days while in paris.

alex's birthday dinner and necklace night

i told my friend alex i would make her the meal of her choice for her birthday,  she was quick to request my traditional Ukrainian meal. i had made it for her once before, and much to my surprise instead of lobster or beef wellington she wanted good old baba's sunday meal to grace her birthday table (alex gets what she wants). i think i did baba proud.  also i  had just finished a necklace which was on display on my judy.  alex modeled it for me to adjust the chain length and as soon as she put it on (and although i had designed it with another friend in mind) i knew it was hers. she wouldn't let me photograph it properly on the judy, but i mean it does look much better on a real live neck. i have titled this one "am i gonna stand here being a bitch?". enjoy alex!

sea scallops on braised red cabbage with coriander pesto

I ordered a dish like this in New York over the holidays (can't remember the restaurant's name) but did manage to figure out how to how to recreate it back home. The coriander pesto was my addition and a welcome one at that.