Category: Uncategorized

General May 6, 2009 The Waffle 1 Comment As promised, I supported Canada’s pork industry today in the East Block Courtyard. I showed up early in order to scout the location and chat with the reporters who were on site to cover the event – CBC had a live truck, RDI was also doing live hits; TVA, CTV, OMNI, CP, Maclean’s and the Hill Times were also on the spot. It seemed a bit disorganized at first – I showed up at 11:30 sharp, and they didn’t seem to be ready.   They were moving stuff around, setting up a sound system.  Worse, the BBQs weren’t blazing! Two long tables were set up with non-pork items – cookies, brownies, vegetables, cheese.  No sign of pork.  I started to get a little worried – did they forget to bring some hog along? A few minutes of waiting around and talking to…

Read more!

General May 5, 2009 The Waffle 2 Comments Collateral damage of the outbreak of swine influenza has been Canada’s pork industry –  they are worried about the short and long term impact especially since China has imposed a ban on Canadian pork. Canada exports over $2.7 billion of pork, from bacon to smoked ham. Pleasently, studies have estimated that Canada’s 13 million pigs produce enough waste to fill Toronto’s SkyDome every 25 days. That is probably why staffers and politicians on Parliament Hill just received this timely invite : ————————————————————————– Canadian Pork Producers Invite you to a “Pork BBQ” Wednesday, May 6, 2009 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. East Block Courtyard, For additional information Phone: (613) 236-9239 ext 232 E-mail: info@cpc-ccp.com Come show your support ————————————————————————– . —————————————– UPDATE 2009-05-06 9:47:57 I guess they are worried about people not showing up because of the weather. I just received a reminder: “We have…

Read more!

Restaurant Apr 28, 2009 The Waffle 3 Comments So tonight was the retirement party for outgoing New Democrat Federal Secretary Dick Proctor.   A former MP from Saskatchewan, Proctor was also federal secretary in the late 80s and chief of staff to NDP Leader Jack Layton between 2004 and 2006,  Proctor came out of retirement after the last federal election to help out on an interim basis, which was much appreciated by many New Democrats. But tonight was the night to say thank you and goodbye.  And what better way to say goodbye then by raising a fork filled with fries, cheese and gravy?  Well, apparently something better was some season tickets for the Victoria Salmon Kings.  But still. The invite for the thank you party did mention that appetizers would be served.  Of course, at the Centretown Tavern, the list of appetizers is very limited.  Some were having the nachos, but they did…

Read more!

General Apr 23, 2009 The Waffle No Comments On our way back from our baseball road trip, our last stop was in Colborne, township of Cramahe, located in Northumberland County.   The Big Apple. The Big Apple is the biggest apple in the world. Over 35 feet tall, you can climb on its observation deck to look at the township, the 401, or Lake Ontario in the distance.  The structure can hold 653,800 apples.  And that’s only one of the things you can do at the Big Apple :  you can pet llamas, you can play mini-golf, you can run away from the wild rabbits, you can learn about apples, you can find out how far you are from other cities, and you can watch them make pies in the factory!  Fantastic. But, most importantly, you can eat and buy a wide variety of apple-based treats, from pies to apple…

Read more!

Baseball, General Apr 18, 2009 The Waffle No Comments A new trend in sports stadiums around North America is to diversify – people are looking, apparently, for different fare than the usual hot dogs and pretzels.  I was impressed by the Amway Arena in Orlando. So the Rogers Stadium has come to an agreement with Aramark to do just that.  So you can now find on the main concourse a very different selection, like the Muddy York Market in section 109, which is based on a “fresh market” concept showcasing fare from different Toronto communities, such as gyros and souvlakis, satays, kung pao wraps, salads, Mediterranean meze and sushi.  Who the hell wants to eat sushi while watching baseball? There is also a Carvery station in section 122 – hot turkey or “Keith’s Red” roasted beef sandwiches, this is the place to go if you like to pile it high,…

Read more!