I'm always challenged by these "favourite" lists. I never seem to be able to keep my favourite to just one thing, so I was delighted the rest of the CheapEats crew had the same issue.
For me, 2008 has been a year of great food adventures.
- Best Find - Gourmet Burger Co. on Parliament. They only opened this fall, but they serve the best burger I've had in Toronto for years - gourmet or otherwise. I’ve gotten some grief for this statement, and I’ll be blogging about that in the new year. As good as their burger was their onion rings were better.
- Best Local Meal – This summer, I got a last minute invite to join a friend at Coupe Space’s Tasting Club. It was delightful and oh so tasty! It was the last event of the season, and focused on local and sustainable food. I’m eagerly awaiting it’s return this year.
- Best Indulgence for a Good Cause - Toronto Taste (disclosure, I was on the 2008 committee) but what a feed and, frankly, what a deal for the price.
- All That Training Finally Put To Use - In 2008, my lifetime of cooking over fire and drinking beer were finally put to good use. I was invited to judge the Rickard's Griller of Glory BBQ Competition. It may sound a little silly, but this really was one of those lifetime goals you hope will some day come true. And it did. (psst... looking for a cooking competition judge? Ask me. CheapEats is made up of a whole team of opinionated foodies, and I'm sure there's someone on the team who is both qualified and eager to help you out.) (photos)
- Favourite Educational Moment - the Beerology guided tasting by Mirella Amato at Hart House's Craft Beer Festival & Summer BBQ. I learned some cool new info about the history of beer in Ontario, the development of different styles of beer and I was really impressed by Mirella's depth of knowledge and ability to make it accessable to a group of people slugging back glass after glass of beer. (photos)
- Best Foraged Meal of 2008 - it's a draw between 2 meals we made while on vacation from foraged goods. First a gnocci with wild forest mushroom & whisky cream sauce, (no, we didn't forage the whisky) and roasted duck with a Montmorency cherry gastrique. The cool part about the gastrique is that the cherries were from the cherry tree I planted about 10 years ago. This is the first time I’ve been home in season to harvest them, and the resulting meal was spectacular.
- Biggest Dining Thrill - Dinner in the Sky! With 22 other diners I was hauled 50 feet in the air to eat breakfast. This adventure falls into my top 5 dining experiences ever. I was scheduled to go up for breakfast, so the food, well.. meh. The "thrill" sauce? outstanding! (photos, including at least one of me with a big stupid grin on my face.)
- Best Reason to Stay Up All Night for food – Toronto’s Night Market. Parking was nuts, it was crowded and smelly (blame that on the Stinky Tofu) but what a blast! Well worth the effort and the Stinky Tofu just takes a little getting used to. (photos)
Restaurants included in Alexa’s List:
- Gourmet Burger Co, 482 Parliament St., 647.344.5103
Alexa Clark is Chief CheapEater, editor & publisher of the CheapEats Restaurant Guide Series. Sometimes mistaken for a food paparazzi, she constantly in search of good food-porn shots and looking for ways to stalk and capture CheapEats in the wild.
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