RECIPE: Pesto & Goat Cheese Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
(1) 5.3 oz package Chavrie Goat's Milk Cheese - "Basil and Roasted Garlic" flavor
(1 ) 7 oz package Buitoni Reduced Fat Pesto with Basil (refrigerated, not frozen)
(1) 9 oz package Perdue Short Cuts Carved Chicken Breast - "Italian" flavor

While letting goat cheese sit out of fridge and further soften, chop chicken as finely as desired; combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

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I plan to put this mixture in multigrain tortillas to make a wrap for tomorrow's pot luck lunch at work. By using reduced fat pesto and goat cheese, the calories are less than using fattier cheese. Goat cheese is soft so it mixes well. This can also be added to toast or crackers as a dip or topping.

RIP Zeke Feldhaus

On October 5th the comic book community lost a great friend with the unexpected passing of Joseph Michael Linsner's Point Man, Zeke Feldhaus. Zeke was a Linsner.com and comic book convention staple whom handled all of Linsner's shipping, ebay auctions, in addition to being his best friend. If you ever had a chance encounter with Zeke whether at a con or online then you are well aware of his friendliness and humor. I had more than just encounters with Zeke... I would consider him a good friend.

I first met Zeke Feldhaus in the fall of 2003 at the September Baltimore Comic Con. Joseph Michael Linser was to be my first interview for a now defunct online web-zine and Zeke was the one I approached first after securing the interview via online communication with Linsner. I was wearing a red shirt with a subtle "FUCK" written on it in the style of the "LOVE" statue in Philadelphia. Zeke wasted no time to point out the obscenity on my shirt and as I visited the Linsner table several times that day I was given the peculiar "Fuck Girl" nickname by Zeke. This name ended up putting off some fellow Linsner fans but they didn't know the rapport Zeke and I had! The interview went well and a friendship between myself and Zeke was born. We communicated via IM and email (where he was quick to tell me all about the latest news in regards to his awesome wife and son) when not hanging out at comic conventions we both attended. He was always concerned with me, my love life, and I felt a sense of compassion and affection that garnered my nickname for him: Uncle Zekey.

I remember meeting Eva Hopkins (Linsner's "Office Goddess" and comic book creator in her own right) through Zeke, as soon as Zeke said "This is Mary Brickthrower," Eva replied sincerely "FUCK GIRL!" Knowing that Zeke talked about me to his other friends just proved that our friendship was real in some sense to me. I will never forget attending his birthday party in Pittsburgh or spending an evening with him sharing beers and stories in Philadelphia. He was a dear dear person to me. When I introduced him to Sean McManus, my now-boyfriend, Zeke told Sean to "take care of me." Sean has adhered to Zeke's words as if they're law.

Zeke was struggling with lung cancer but was not public with his ailment b/c he never wanted to burden anyone. In truth, it had been a few months since I last spoke to him but my feelings for my beloved "Uncle" were always there, always strong. He was 60 years old...too young to be taken.

Zeke Feldhaus is survived by his wife Helen and his son Jake. To make a donation or send a card to Zeke's family, please follow this link to the Zeke Feldhaus Memorial Fund (to help pay for Jake to go to college): LINSNER FORUM _ DONATION INFO

Cheers Zeke! <3 With much love and much tears, Zeke will be truly missed by me, his family, his friends.

++++++++end of transmission+++++++++

Comic-Centric: Attila Adorjany || Can you feel Len's Love Buzz?

I recently caught up with one of my favorite Canadian based artists, Attila Adorjany and asked him to catch me up on his latest projects:

Attila: I think the number 1 thing is the webcomic. Some of my other comic stuff was on Numb3rs is that note worthy? I'm also putting together my first solo gallery show which will include a bunch of paintings and custom toys. I just finished overhauling the 600poundgorilla site and I'm contributing stuff on a weekly schedule including icon sets wallpapers and I'll be putting up a few tutorials over the coming weeks.
Check out his links:
Webcomic :
http://comics.600poundgorilla.com/
Gallery/blog/shop:
http://www.600poundgorilla.com/

twitter:
http://twitter.com/attila_adorjany
Facebook stuff:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=136124725163
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Attila-Adorjany/68548213114
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I also took some time out to see how it goes for writer Len Wallace who is promoting his first published work, LOVE BUZZ. Below is a short interview with Len.

Mary E Brickthrower [MEB]: First Len, a little role play-- you're standing at the convention table, shiny new copies of LOVE BUZZ stacked neatly in front of you. The clock turns, the doors open. Your very first customer walks by the table-- you have 40 words or less, three sentences and even less seconds to hook them-- what is LOVE BUZZ all about?

Len N Wallace [LNW]: Normally, I hate having to summarize this particular book in such a short amount of space. The story summary in our pitch itself was something like three pages, which from what I'm told, is heresy for publishers to look at anything over one page. How we actually got this far sometimes strikes me as amazing, but I guess it also speaks volumes to how much Oni digs the book, so apparently I've done something right... And with that, I think I've blown my 40 word wad and maybe then some, so I'm just gonna call for a Mulligan and start over.

Love Buzz is a story about Norm and Maggie, a pair of kids who meet up towards the end of high school, date for a while, break up, then end up getting back together... Several times over through the rest of high school and beyond.

Oni has a great little write-up on their website (http://onipress.com/display.php?type=bk&id=378) that does my overblown wordiness a little bit better justice.

MEB: Great, I'll take two! Seriously Len, you've been working on this project for quite a long while... without recounting your entire tale, blog by blog, can you tell me a little about trials and tribulations you endured to get LOVE BUZZ into print?

LNW: Love Buzz has been an overall epic test of patience on the parts of everyone involved. We've been picked up, then dropped by three different publishers, either by circumstances beyond any specific parties control, or getting contracts we weren't too keen on. It's been a damn crazy ride, to say the least, but having it this close to done is absolutely worth every single time we've had to fight and scrape, and claw our way up. That and Oni's treating us pretty damn good.

MEB: Amazing. Tell me what it's like to work on such a long term collaboration with Michelle Silva and... I see that originally LOVE BUZZ had a different artist?

LNN: Michelle has been nothing short of the most kick-ass collaborator I could have hoped for on a first project. I really, sincerely believe that she's going to blow up so huge when all is said and done with this book. She's been drawing her own comics for a long time before she and I got involved with each other on Love Buzz. Her webcomic, Once Upon A Time (http://onceuponatime.comicgenesis.com/) was how I first found and fell in love with her work, and after my original artist had to quit for personal reasons, I immediately started barraging Michelle with emails until she finally broke down and said yes. Ever since, it's been a pretty great ride. Every day I recieve a new batch of pages from Michelle is always a huge treat. Her work is amazing and I'm so glad I decided against drawing the book myself. That would have been an absolute fucking disaster!

I'd also like to take a little time to show some appreciation for one of Love Buzz's great background players, Dave Tuney, who provides around 30 pages of art throughout the book, including a couple great jam pages with Michelle. When I got Dave onboard, I had a pretty specific idea of what his role would be. Since I made Norm an aspiring comic artist, I wanted to have him draw a few sequences of his own throughout the book, so instead of asking Michelle to invent a second style for Norm's comics to be drawn in, I went with Dave, whose style is very different from Michelle's, while still being complementary to her work at the same time. Here's one particular Dave page I'm currently in love with...

MEB: Oh man. That's intense. Now that LOVE BUZZ is finally coming to fruition, what can offer in terms of advice to people starting out in comics who are looking to break in?

LNW: As much as breaking down the barrier into this industry takes skill and talent, it also takes a lot of patience and tenacity and an ungodly level of stubbornness. With this game, you're going to have set backs. You're going to have instances that will slap the living shit out of you, and you can either give in and quit, or you can take the sucky situation, take a little time off to recover, and then get up and learn from it. The point is to just be too stubborn to say 'die'.

MEB: Cool, cool; so what's next for Len N. Wallace?

LNW: Without going into specific spoilers, here's a list of subject matters that my next five projects have one thing or another to do with. (Excluding the romance anthology which I'm starting back to work on editing, once Love Buzz is finally finished.) Transgenderism, detectives, the American Old West, the porn industry, talking brain tumors, and possibly one of the most spectacular death scenes in all of fiction.

MEB: Finally my friend, please give the who what where on how can my kittlings can get their claws on LOVE BUZZ?

LNW: Although I believe the pre-order deadline for comic shops was today, since it's a graphic novel, it should be relatively easy to order again, if you can't find it after it ends up coming out. The book's Diamond order code is MAR094378 and the cut-off date for pre-orders is April 7th, so reserve your copy today. ISBN number is 978-1-934964-21-7. Other than that, it's also available for pre-order on Amazon, but I think they'll be shipping their copies about a month after the book's already hit stores.

HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN FIND LEN ON THE WBZ!!1
http://twitter.com/lennwallace
Http://wallaceswastedspace.blogspot.com

AND HERE ARE LINKS TO ART...
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhWN6eRIyQbMU_N47qDeJSJ3nCwZs8qPaK3XRZid2OYZOWb2aeHF7aWdnfh7ren3FhsVXS2KsBLoJxcCEEVluw5pmIWijD8Hze3qvpeLF0ir-38pIUT6EU4FQDdfsZeEPErxfgwCnxJSu7/s1600-h/LBpg110tone.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v408/LNWallace/Love%20Buzz/mailgooglecom.gif
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v408/LNWallace/Journal/ohnoes.jpg
http://onipress.com/images/books/onibk_378.jpg
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~Till Next Time Kittlings.

Bye Bye BSG || Flight of the Conchords Finale

For many the love affair with Sci-Fi’s (arguably) best drama BATTLESTAR GALACTICA has spanned years. For me, it’s been all of 3 months. My man was persistent prior to last December that I would enjoy the series but the netflix rental of the 1st disc of the 1st series sat untouched for a couple weeks before we finally threw it in the Xbox and pressed play. I can’t give the exact moment that I fell head over heels in love with the show but I remember marathon watching the 1st disc which contained the full original mini-series. And voraciously wanting more.

We ended up buying the entire 1st season and borrowing the others from a friend. I was watching upwards of 4 episodes per day. I was certain that Lieutenant Gaeda was a cylon. We affectionately nicknamed the XO “Colonel Tigh One On” due to his drinking habits. I both loved and loathed Gaius Baltar and mocked Lee “Apollo” Adama when he packed on the pounds. Even though my relationship with BSG was shorter than most people I do feel that it was more intense at times. I went through a major crash course in anticipation of watching the final episodes in “real time.” I was only 1 week behind when I finally caught up.

The series was great because while the story was science fiction in nature, the drama was the real driving force in the show. Character relations were key; the underlying aspect of “is he a cylon” kept the viewer keen on clues and verbal or physical tells. I think this alone produced a more adept fan than your normal show would render. BSG spawned it’s own frakin’ language too which would immediately gain acceptance in fellow BSG company…so say we all! I don’t think I could personally side with the humanoids or the cylons because they were both fallible. When the final cylon was revealed I was let-down mostly because it was my least favorite character (and I wanted it to be Gaeda!!) but also because it was the beginning of the end of a well-written, well executed, exciting and interesting series. And it was consistently so.

But when the end arrived and all truths were revealed the feeling of being let-down did not subside. I was not blown away nor happy with the resolution of the remaining characters…I even felt anger about certain things. I have some MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD if you haven’t seen the end. But if you haven’t seen it yet, either you’re not a fan or a very lazy one!

++ Starbuck’s end was a major disappointment. The idea of nothing being explained does leave an awful lot to interpretation but it also screams “cop-out” to me. In some cases, especially when the character herself is questioning her existence, then a resolution is preferable. A disappearance almost literally in front of Apollo’s eyes just confused me – was she ever really real? I’ve heard talk of Starbuck’s father being a secret cylon – but where does this idea come from?

++ Colonel Tigh and Admiral Adama never say goodbye to each other. Their dynamic in the show was one of the most captivating and for that reason they deserved to have a final farewell.

++ I did enjoy the idea that cylon/humanoids are the fathers and mothers of the present earth inhabitants. “The Chief” Gaelin is hinted at heading towards Ireland (A true “Man of Gael” huh?) gives an extra treat to the audience.

++Great dramas do not always end joyfully, they often they end in tragedy with a multitude of death. I'm thinking of things like Romeo and Juliet or MacBeth here kittlings, I'm thinking of tales that resonate for ages on end. The BSG series ending crashes smack dab in the center of pandering to the audience; backpedaling from drama into a form of escapism that happily "tighs" up the plot lines at what felt like a breakneck pace. It lacks all the punch and promise of that very brilliant opening mini-series where the very existence of the humanity was counted down every episode and every death brought us one step closer to these characters and ourselves. Instead of making one final stand for human and cylon kind, we are told to believe that this small, closely woven space family just disbands-- walking to the far corners of our globe... and even evaporates into thin air? I may be be just a writing machine, but I choose to believe that our BSG heroes didn't abandon the fight, but clearly their creators did.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA began as a cheesy sci-fi series in the late 70’s that inexplicably used inferior technology and had an abundance of clunky metal robots. The new BSG transformed the idea of inferior technology into a positive (robots can’t control analog!) and disguised the enemy as ourselves. Add in a perfect cast and you have possibly the best series to hit TV in the last 10 years. And it was on the Sci-Fi channel of all places! Good on ya Sci-Fi and BSG…and fare thee well!
====================
It should be noted another series came to an end this past weekend with HBO’s folk comedy FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS. A slightly shorter season than the prior, this time around it was a slow burn into brilliance. A similar ending takes Bret, Jemaine and manager Murray back to their home country of New Zealand. While I felt the songs took a back seat this season I seemed to enjoy each episode more than the last. For FotC withdrawal, I highly recommend the BBC RADIO SERIES that aired before the HBO series but is basically the same plot line with a few differences in names, characters and situations. A great addition to any Ipod!

Ze Wretched Return || Mary Watches the Watchmen || BSG Anticipation!

Welcome back Kittlings – it’s glad to have you join me as I re-embark on my written journey through pop culture that I like to call NO REST FOR THE WRETCHED…

And oh…the places I’ve seen!

1st off, the anthology that I have been putting all my free time and effort into has finally come to fruition. SECRET PROJECT is now in the submission stage after making its debut at the NEW YORK COMIC CON this past February. A 72 page black and white anthology, SECRET PROJECT features work from fresh talent and established creators alike. With comics crafted by Jeffery C. Burandt, Ronald Salas, Thommy Melanson, Pat Loika, Will Swyer, Ziggy Blumenthal, Neil Vokes, Donal Delay, Sam Little, ZeeS, M. Sean McManus, Brian Quinn, Mary E. Brickthrower, Jeff Brown, Rob Reilly, Michael Woods, David Miller, and Tommie Kelly; SECRET PROJECT provides a vision of comics future stars. Art lovers will go gaga for the pin-ups by Dave Johnson, Taki Soma, John Broglia, Ernie Stiner and Tim Daniel while the cover by Michael Avon Oeming will blow them away. If you or someone you know might be interested in assisting us in the publishing process, please contact me!

Secondly, the east coast said goodbye to the wonderful couple of Taki Soma and Mike Oeming. As they were fellow residents of my quant New Jersey town it was especially hard to say farewell to such awesome neighbors. But the west coast seems to be taking good care of them as they’ve recently tied the knot AND saw their new project RAPTURE get some much-deserved attention. You can check it out for yourself here =====> MySpace Dark Horse Presents: Rapture!

Spring has sprung and so has the urge to bathe the interwebz with my keen observations on the stuff in pop culture that a geek like me digs! So let’s get started shall we?

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THE WATCHMEN – of course I have to mention this. After all it’s only THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC OF ALL TIME EVER!!!! That’s what mainstream media wants you to believe and in some aspects that’s surely true. It helped to define “Superhero” and “Graphic Novel” for a lot of people in addition to just being a great story. This film has been much anticipated. I inadvertently avoided the 1st weekend crowds thanks to my best friend Loretta who visited Filthadelphia from Tampa opening weekend. Mr. McManus and I got Imax tickets for the following weekend and I was a bit surprised at how thinned the crowd was, although we did catch a matinee. I have to believe that the majority of people that check out my column already know the story of THE WATCHMEN like the back of their hand; I actually attempted to re-read the book the day we saw the movie but only made it about half-way through with an hour to spare and ended up skipping over the rest. Here’s a really quick synopsis: It’s 1985, superheroes are outlawed except those sanctioned by the government to virtually police the world. The Cold War is still imminent however and amidst this international terror is a “costume killer” who is slowly picking off the most famous super-people. Will nuclear disaster become a reality? Will the killer be caught? Find out all this and more in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons groundbreaking graphic novel turned to Zack Snyder’s blockbuster film!!!

What I liked: Rohrshach – I’m pretty amazed with this one as he never really appealed to me in the book. I felt his character really come to life and flesh out in the movie. Former child star Haley is simply amazing in his role. The colors are also eerily accurate to the bright brights and dark darks of the GN. Sometimes the music choices were obnoxious but Tears for Fears “Everybody wants to Rule the World” (in muzak!) and Jimi Hendrix’ “All Along the Watchtower” (despite it’s heavy use in Battlestar Galactica) were classic tunes that worked amazingly well. Dr. Manhattan, my favorite GN character, remained so in the film. He looked as impressive as you can only imagine a blue glowing naked super-hero to look in real life. Billy Crudup voiced the character in such a way as to both soothe and frustrate depending on the scene. And while my fanboy brethren may have taken offense to the change of what I like to call the “Main Ending” in the movie, I happened to really enjoy it. It is reminiscent of another recent comic book related film that was actually so darn good it earned an Oscar for one actor’s particular performance. I speak to thee of THE DARK KNIGHT, where in the end the hero must take the fall for the greater good. I felt this ending applied well to THE WATCHMEN, elevated it to a more mature story.

What I didn’t like: I felt it was a little long but that was going to happen no matter what (Snyder was trying to please the fanboy brethren as much as he could; I did find that his ability to take out unneeded scenes was pretty spot-on). Speaking of Snyder, his sped-up, slowed-down MUCH USED technique for capturing action is so OVER! I’m seriously done with it. I was bored with it within the first 20 minutes of 300, having to endure yet another film with his “signature” action capture is torture at this point. Ozymandias’ very fake hair was distracting to the nth degree. For a movie that had countless money to spend on special effects I feel they could’ve done better in hairpieces for the dramatic actors. You can see I’m kinda grasping at straws. The truth is I liked most of this movie but the only other thing I can negatively comment on is the size of Dr. Manhattan’s junk! I’m totally serious! It was not accurate to the graphic novel and way more distracting than any wig! I know they had to show him naked, that’s not my issue. That junk was borderline porn star…just sayin’.

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While next week I plan to regale all of you with my BATTLESTAR GALACTICA tales of the series, the end, and what it all means in the grand scheme of things I must remind you all that the series finale is coming on this Friday at 9pm – a 2 hour special to end this epic sci-fi drama. What’s your opinion? Can this season still shock and satisfy with only a measly 2 hours left? I feel that I really want my socks knocked off and I am weary that this will happen. But I hold fast that my little faith will be wrong and next week I will be waxing poetic on the BEST SCI-FI (Dramatic?) SERIES EVER!+++++++++++++++++++
~Till Next Time Kittlings.

The WRETCHED Hiatus

Hello Kittlings ~

I am in the midst of putting together an awesome new comic book anthology entitled SECRET PROJECT, scheduled to drop sometime next year.

This editing job is taking up all my free time, so until I can commit fully to NO REST FOR THE WRETCHED, I will be on extended hiatus.

Keep reading HiddenRobot.com and stay tuned as I plan to make a triumphant return in March of 2009!
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~Till Next Time Kittlings!

Come for the Paradise Con - stay for the grub! Toronto is for restaurant-tourists!

This past weekend Toronto, Ontario hosted the PARADISE CON, Canada's gem of a comic book convention. I was invited by my friend and co-writer for Hidden Robot, Jeff "Boss Hogg" Brown, along with my bestest Jersey friend, M. Sean McManus of THE LAST SIN OF MARK GRIMM writing fame. As both of us are fans of the Ontario metropolis it seemed a comic-con was a great excuse to check out that city up north once again.

My last excursion to T.O. was several years ago for the CANADIAN NATIONAL EXPO, a con that was both huge and disappointing whereas Paradise con always aims to please and usually does. The convention was held in the Holiday Inn on King Street, a mere few blocks from the CN Tower and Lake Ontario as well as the hippest street in the land, Queen Street West.

While I wish I could say my column this week focuses on the convention goings-on, it really doesn't. I used this vacation to take an eating tour of Toronto, with stops to various restaurants around the city. While my FOO (Friends of Oeming) bretheren was out full force, I leave the real con details to my fellow columnist Boss Hogg to relay to the Hidden Robot readers while I whisk the rest of you hungry lot to the best food in Canada's most awesome city. Bon Appetit!

DAY ONE - We arrived in T.O. late afternoon and checked into our very hip hotel, THE REX which is an inn above a very popular jazz and blues bar. The room was small but rather modern with a glass shower and newly tiled bathroom and a flat screen TV mounted to the wall. The window looked directly onto Queen Street west, a strip known for it's many hip shops, restaurants and overall trendy vibe. The REX has musical acts from noon until midnight and is almost always packed. It's hard to pass by and not want to stop in for a drink and listen to the bands. The rooms upstairs can be rented daily, weekly, and monthly for as little as $500 Canadian a month!! If only I could come up with a good excuse to hi-tail it to Toronto for a month. Ah well...tis something to strive for.

After a nap and freshening up Sean and I hit the streets in search of dinner. We walked west down Queen street and happened upon THE BLACK BULL, a bar and outdoor patio that seemed pretty darn popular so we decided to stop and try it out. The Bull is right across from THE SILVER SNAIL, one of the most popular comic shops in the city. They had a huge HELLBOY display in their window; a street artist was putting "THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING" in chalk on the sidewalk; the weather was beautiful and we were about to partake in pub fare with a delightful twist.

I had The Black Bull's "classic" fish and chips which was done just right. A lightly fried cod with perfectly fried fries - Yum! Sean had the appetizer sampler that came with fries of its own along with mozzerella sticks, and pierogies. These were the gem of the Bull - made with feta cheese instead of the typical base. Amazing! The feta did not overpower but instead provided a great little twist to the rather simplicity of the potato.

After dinner we met up with some of our fellow FOO and headed to Gabby's on King Street. While Sean and I did not partake in food there, our cohorts enjoyed the menu with no complaints. Scott Wegener (Atomic Robo artist) particularly enjoyed Ricketts Red beer. I cursed myself for being on a wine kick and not really being in the mood for beer. After some catching up with our friends, we made a cameo at the Holiday Inn where the Paradise Con was being held, shared a celebratory shot (or 2) with BIONICLES artist STUART SAYGER.

We took a walk North of Queen St and found THE VILLAGE IDIOT PUB, a semi-swank little spot where we had a couple drinks. In truth I was sad I was so full because the specials looked absolutely boss. One drink later and we were ready to retire in anticipation of the next day's comic book events.

DAY 2 - We rose early for the convention and found a greasy spoon on the way to the convention thanks to a local that we passed by as we were loudly lamenting about our hunger. In truth, this was the 2nd time a local helped us after loudly lamenting about a problem we were having. I have never had this happen in the states let alone twice in a 24 hour period. Breakfast consisted of dippy eggs, toast and sausage for me while Sean tried piemeal (basically Canadian bacon) that Boss Hogg had recommended to us the day before. A great way to start the morning!

The convention was in full swing when we made it into the hotel and our first stop happened to be the EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL booth. McManus was fortunate enough to see the show on Broadway in NYC during its run and after conversing with the booth boy about "splatter zone" tickets that go on sale at 5pm the night of the show, we decided to check out the show that night. A 11pm showing sounded like fun especially when combined with splatter zone tickets!

We traipsed around the con, found some hip tank tops designed by artist ANDREW FOERSTER (rew.foe@gmail.com), and before I knew it lunchtime was upon me. A pretty little block of Baldwin Street was discovered filled to the brim with restaurants of the Italian and Japanese variety. KON-ICHI-WA SUSHI caught our eye, so we made our way into the little raw fish merchant.

Sean and I decided to share the "lunch special" consisting of the chef's discretion based on the fresh catch of the day along with miso soup and the house salad with ginger dressing. I noshed on the salad while Sean had the soup. Both were excellent. For the main course we had a small selection of the classic sashimi spread (salmon, tuna) and several sushi rolls (salmon, yellowtail tuna, shrimp). This was my first taste of yellowtail and MAN ALIVE! I was in love! Everything was tasty. It inspired me to order another 2 pieces of sweet shrimp but I was let down to find out that the sweet shrimp was not in stock. I was feeling sushi adventurous and decided the salmon caviar would be a decent substitute. I was wrong. =(

Beautiful huge eggs wrapped plainly in a seawood roll sans rice. I dived in, and within 2 bites could not stomach the texture of the large eggs as opposed to the smaller garnish roe I enjoyed on other sushi pieces. I did the unthinkable: I spit the food out into my napkin. I would be surprised if my face was not bright red in shame. I lurved the food - I really did! The experience was great. The space was charming as was the street. We had a nice little window seat/bench that looked right out onto Baldwin. I enjoyed the salad and the sushi prior. I HIGHLY recommend this place. My palate just couldn't take the texture. It's not you KON-ICHI-WA, its me!

In between lunch and dinner we had a light antipasto snack at the KIT KAT, an Italian restaurant that was only seating reservations. The wait was 40 mins at 4pm in the afternoon. Pretty impressive! We got in by taking up at the bar and some crudites, bread, cheese and meats was a nice light snack. The Kit Kat was situated on King Street amidst many a restaurant but none of them chains, which was a nice surprise. I wouldn't have felt touristy going into any one place.

Our excursion into Asian cuisine was not yet finished that day as we made our way to Chinatown for dinner that evening. Chinatown is located mostly on Spadina Avenue, Northwest of the CN Tower. LEE SZICHUAN was our dinner spot, a typical looking Chinese restaurant but with extraordinary food. Chicken with almonds was my choice while Sean opted for the General Tso's chicken. We also had pot stickers and steamed buns as well as fried rice and brown rice. So much food! Sean's Tso's Chicken was not too spicy like the dish I'm used to in the states, and the steamed buns were hot and tasty. While we waited quite a long time it was all worth it.

Before we knew it the time for EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL was upon us....
=====STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 of my TORONTO VISIT!!!====
~Till Next Time Kittlings!