We hosted our first IFC night last week with spectacular results. Our host, Maya, chose the Mexican film Frida and created an amazing Mexican feast. The menu for the night was spicy yam soup and fresh tortillas from La Tortilleria with tons of options to stuff into them: black beans, chorizo, chicken, salsa, guacamole and cheese. We washed our tortillas down with unnecessarily large shots of Tequila Rose, and snuggled up in front of her crystal clear LCD TV.

I had never seen Frida, and had no idea what a beautifully shot film it was. The artistic nature of the plot was expressed with equally artistic visuals, in which some scenes were made to embody live murals and cutouts of the characters and film strip.  Great film selection for our first IFC night. No telling what next months IFC night will hold – German, Japanese, Korean? Can’t wait!

This was such a simple idea – hopefully it will inspire Torontonians to break out of the winter blues and find indoor activities that keep you feeling good!

First of all, ‘YAY’ for living close to markets again! The Manning and Palmerston markets are incredible.   One of the first things I did when I moved back was hit up the Manning market (at the corner of Manning and Bloor). I remembered shopping here as a student because the produce is cheap cheap cheap and good good good. You’re not forced to pay an arm and a leg for tiny avocados or bruised apples. I usually leave with 1 or 2 bags full of fresh fruits and vegetables for under $20.00. Amazing! The Palmerston market (Palmerston and Bloor) is equally as good and, unlike the Manning market, also accepts debit

Photo: Derek Flack

Honest Eds: I have to admit, Honest Eds has always freaked me out a bit. Mostly because once you go in, it is SO hard to find your way out.  I have made it my mission to one day master full navigation  of Honest Eds without getting lost or turned around.  It’s no easy feat. You can find everything your heart desires inside its 4, not wait, 8, nope, 12 walls? Food? Check. Electronics? Check. Crock Pots (which I recently purchased)? Check. Hardware? Check. Cleaning supplies? Check. Dishes? Check. You get the point – they have everything. If you’re brave enough to wander through the turn-style entry ways, its usually worth your while.

P.A.T Central.: The P.A.T. is an Asian grocery store on the South West corner of Manning and Bloor. They have pretty much everything a Metro or Sobey’s would have for a fraction of the price. Don’t be deterred by its proximity to The Metro (Adult Only) Theatre. The P.A.T. is an awesome place to grab staple groceries. I always end up picking up a few items that Ive never tried -  ready-made dim sum, dumplings or beef buns regularly find their way into my cart.

Pho Rex: It’s practically winter. It’s getting cold. It’s absolutely time for some nice warm Pho. Pho Rex is amazing. It is right at the top of Euclid and Bloor (North Side). The weight staff is super friendly, so much so that I actually thought I might have known our server the first time I ate there and the food is delicious. I am hooked on their rare beef Pho but have also tried their spicy calamari appetizers and beef papaya salad. The beef is always high quality, more so than other Pho places. Best of all, you can walk away full, warm and fuzzy inside for under 10 bucks. You can actually walk away pretty satisfied for under 5 if you’re only going in for Pho. The small is only $3.95.

Victory Cafe: The VC is great for any time of day or occasion of heart. Brunch, lunch, drinks or late night snacks. The service could use some work, but it’s close, inexpensive and almost always busy.

Walnut Cakes: There is a Korean walnut cake store a few doors East of the Manning market. If you’ve never tried a walnut cake you’re missing out. They are a delicious Korean desert shaped like walnuts stuffed with bean paste. It sounds weird, but they’re really really good. Plus, they’re only a few bucks for a bag full. If you don’t like them, let me know. Ill gladly take them off your hands.

Snakes and Lattes: I cant wait to spend every cold, blistering Sunday afternoon sipping on lattes and playing board games with friends. Snakes and Lattes opened recently and is PACKED every time I walk by. It is such a great idea and has an insane amount of board games. Id love to know how long it took them to amass the hundreds of games on their shelves.

Do you live close to Bloor and Bathurst? Where is your favourite spot? Any tips for someone who recently moved back to the Annex?

Their eclectic menu features lighter pub fare and a variety of Thai entrees in the $5, that’s right $5 price range, not to mention daily specials, all day breakfast, and a good selection of coffee, teas and cheap pitchers.

Upon first impression, Java House looks like a dive bar and a coffee shop had a one night stand, but that’s precisely the restaurant’s charm. Though be warned, the bathrooms are of the, to quote my friend Angela “flush with your foot” variety.

On busy days, inside can be a little cramped with a line-up for the large patio. Luckily for my friend and I we arrived at Java House before yesterday’s dinner rush. We were promptly seated outside at a wobbly table but brushed it off as that small price we were willing to pay for sunshine.

Service at Java House is whimsical. If you go in expecting to be treated like royalty chances are your expectations will not be met. I’ve returned to Java House many times and I’ve had adequate service and terrible service but never the type of service to sing praises about, but then again I’m not picky. What keeps me coming back to Java House is the great prices, yummy food and, as I fancy myself a people watcher, the quirky clientele. Still, I don’t want to speak ill of the servers at Java House. It’s not that the servers are rude to their customers, rather in most cases they are in general a bit green and sometimes forgetful. Our server yesterday spilled our water (though the wobbly table was partly to blame) and of another server my friend requested an ashtray, which never came. Neither of those things particularly irked either of us,  as said before we weren’t all that concerned about the quality of the service. We were just hungry.

We both ordered the stir-fry and vegetables. Angela had the tofu option while I went with the chicken. Portion size was large enough that Angela didn’t finish her rice where as I stopped short of licking the plate when I was finished. We also shared a pitcher of Amsterdam Blonde between us. In the end, the sum total for everything was around $28 and we left Java House happy enough with our experience yesterday that I’m sure we’ll both continue to gravitate there this summer and many summers thereafter.

Keep an eye out for celebrity sightings such as Colonel Sanders and Aunt Jemima. Alright, so actually they were just a couple of quirky figurines that we noticed were for sale and as tacky as they were it was still delightfully amusing to discover them amongst the sea of memorabilia.

The flea market will appeal to those of you looking for a bargain or a treasure hunt and, with some vendors selling old stamps and coins, it’s also a collector’s paradise.

That post generated a good deal of interest and feedback from community members as well as the TCSSC co-founder and director Rol Miller. I spoke with Rol last week to a) get his side of the story, b)give my account of what we were facing and c) discuss possible resolutions. The discussion went really well, and I appreciate that Rol reached out to me directly. Below is an email with proposed solutions and next steps:

Dear Heather,

On behalf of myself and my coworkers here, I would like to offer my deepest thanks for your time on the phone today.  I just wanted to wrap up our chat and confirm a few things:

-       We recognize that self seeding has it strengths and weaknesses.  We will endeavor to keep doing the best we can in terms of creating balanced pools, and moving teams when time and logistics permit.

-       We will be making efforts in the coming months to clarify our skill level descriptions at the website.

-       We will be looking at the concept of adding a complete “beginner” division to some sports (if implemented, it would more than likely be for Fall 2010)

-       We will look into new methods of accepting pooling requests during the online registration process.

-       Please always make sure to drop an email to info@torontossc.com post registration to make us aware of any special requests. We will do our best to accommodate them when possible.

-       Your next two games will be against the lower teams in your division, and, unless there is a playoff upset, you will not see the top 2 teams for the rest of the season.  I hope I haven’t jinxed anyone by writing that!

I am sorry that it has been a tough go for your squad this season, but I hope you enjoy the rest of the games and we look forward to hosting you and your friends in future seasons.

Cheers

Rol Miller

While I’m not sure that Ill be signing up for Spring ultimate, it’s nice to know that the TCSSC recognizes that there is a problem and is making headway towards fixing it.  Last night we played a team that was actually rec level. We won and actually had fun doing it!

Photo via BlogTO

Last year I wrote a post reviewing different sports leagues in Toronto. The TCSSC (Toronto Central Sports and Social Club) is definitely the main league organizer and probably offers the widest variety of different sports, nights and times.  One would hope that the largest organizer would be organized themselves, setting good examples for other companies and delivering strong league services. Unfortunately, that is a hope that they continue to dash.  In the years I have played with them, I have never been overly amazed at their level of organization, communication or customer relations. They are often more expensive than other leagues, ranging in cost from $100 for an individual to upwards of $800-$900 for some teams. I continued to play with them because I was able to overlook their inadequacies and focus on the fun and good times of the games I was playing.  Until now..

This Winter season we signed up a team for our 4th season of Sunday night Ultimate Frisbee.  We are in the rec league, which is described by the TCSSC as

“almost no players will have experienced at an organized level of the sport, most having not played at all”.

This fit our description pretty well.  We were signing up to learn and have fun.  As the season got underway, we realized we were losing pretty badly each week against teams that had definitely played before, and were very well organized (ie. running drills during time outs).  Some skill differentiation between teams is to be expected,  but the real deal breaker for me was finding out that at least 2 of the teams are actually comprised  of TCSSC employees. They are literally doing somersault catches and boasting that they usually play at the intermediate or advanced level.  WTF?

Being a letter-writer by nature, I wrote the TCSSC a concerned and less than impressed email yesterday. The captain of the 1st place team responded saying,

“We happened to get a couple new players this season who have proved to be quite good, as well our team as a whole seems to be getting better at the game too.” and “We figured we would be good this season but we didn’t think we’d blow away all the teams (and we don’t have a perfect season, 1 tie and 1 loss)” out of a total of 9 games played.

The team in 2nd place is also comprised of TCSSC employees, winning 7 of their 9 games.

M point is this: People sign up to play because they are hoping to be competitive and to have some fun. From time to time its expected you will come up against a team that is probably out of your division. To face crushing defeats week after week is not so much fun and it is unacceptable that these dominant offenders are the organizers of the league itself. Surely they know the guidelines for each divisions, and surely they also know their skill set before they sign up. I honestly feel that our Sunday “games” are their practice. Why would we want to continue to pay hundreds of dollars to the TCSSC only to have them negate their own guidelines and rules and wipe the floor with us on a weekly basis? Where is the fun in that?

I am writing this because I am slightly outraged, and feel that anyone reading this post should be aware of the current situation. I am not sure if this has been happening in any other leagues but welcome feedback and discussion.