Kevin K.
Yelp
...so, what's with the stereotype about Canadians being nice? If we limit our observations to the Canadian motorists encountered, they seem like total asshats. People who inhabit the six drive just like their counterparts in the bada-bing part of New Jersey. They were never taught what to do with turn signals, slow hog the left lane and merge too late - that blind spot monitor on our rental went off like a Pachinko parlor during the drive down the 403/401. Couple that with our run-up to Markham where people DWA (hey dingleberry with the Acura MDX, why are you going 30 on a 60 road, straddling/weaving 2 lanes on Kennedy...oh, you are on Wechat *ugh*, are you sending duckface photos with stupid animals decals to your friends in mainland China...again?) we are not in any decent humor by the time we park the car.
Couple that with"the game", and I am not in a good mood. I am an Islanders fan, and I am in Toronto. JT came to play here after tweeting the news in his childhood jammies, then followed by the most halfhearted thank you note for Isles fans on Twitter - this after months of "I love this team, I want a future here" and requests not to be traded. Guess which team is visiting Nassau Coliseum tonight against a venomous crowd out for blood and a team desperate to stay in first place on the Metro division? Me and the missus were trying to avoiding any mention of the evening's game back home and eating at some random chippie. See, we had a chippie back in NYC which served some decent eats in the past, but the portion size were small, they were overpriced, and their quality has gone downhill. The last time I was in Toronto we were across the street at Amadeus's downing some rather mediocre Portuguese cuisine. This time I am hoping for....goddammit, the owner put on TSN4 and is showing the game live. Hm. Nice Beatles memorabilia all over.
Got the menu, ordered the cod shrimp and chips...and DAMN they have Quebec style poutine. The owner (a jolly spectacled man) spotted my Isles jersey and had a chat with me about the game. The missus and I spotted the bottles of pop shoppe and we ordered the lime Rickey and pineapple (not soda, I've been in Buffalo long enough to know the lingo). Me and the missus busted open the pops and had a swig. Decent cane sugar affair with good flavor. The Isles struck first. The missus ribbed me gently about how Canadian I act. Then the Leafs evened up. I told her about my mom's cousins who reside in Scarborough and how I used to visit Toronto fairly often during my stint at UB. The Isles struck again. Then my poutine arrived.
So an important note about Poutine - you can never ever get it the way they do it in Quebec - They throw their poutines together with the flamboyance of a French Canadian suicide, that is, really hot fries, copious amounts of thin flavorful gravy, and fresh cheese curds. As my Montreal friend would've said it - you don't eat poutine, you were facebanged by one. The version at Fresco's? It was good by Torontonian standards (lots of fries, decent gravy, and okay curds) and decent by Montreal standards, but any tabarnak manning the kitchen at any Quebec casse-croute will look at that and sneer. "Ze curds weren't squeaking, were zhey". Oh shit. Leafs scored an equalizer OH WAIT IT'S OFFSIDES, GOAL REVERSED.
The cod and shrimp arrived with the fries, and my missus sprinkled it with malt vinegar. It's not the usual English chippie breading, but it's still crispy and decently fresh, no weird off-flavors in the frying oil, and the fries are good (mealy inside, crispy outside) OH WOW Isles up 3-2 and everyone on the line touched that pass. The shrimp was plump and not too breaded as that's a pet peeve of mine, but this one looks like a 16-20 with a good batter, fresh and delicious with the tartar sauce. Me and the missus polished off the seafood and killed off the Poutine, and we are now happy and satisfied with supper. Oh, look, Isles are up 4-1 at the end of the 2nd period. I stood up, shook the owner's hand, wished his team good luck (I expect the Isles to have a late 1st round/early 2nd round playoffs exit this year while the Leafs can go all the way, hopefully against Nashville or San Jose. We had some very nice banter about how the Isles managed to stay alive even without JT.
Yeah, Canadians are nice. They didn't murder us on the 403 despite their space cadet driving skills, and they were nice enough to show us a game where the Isles absolutely trashed the home team (final score, 6-1). If I am in Kensington Market again jonesing for fish and chips, I'll be back.