Radio

Like any other passionate traveler, I have a long list of cities to cross off my wish list. One of the cities I was most looking forward to visiting while living in Europe is Copenhagen.  My husband and I planned a birthday weekend get-away in October and I am thrilled.

Since I have never been to any Scandinavian country, I can’t tell you exactly what I am attracted to, but from everything I have read and seen, Copenhagen to me represents the best of design, nature and food all rolled into one.

I am most looking forward to visiting this restaurant: Radio

The restaurant owns two acres of land where they grow vegetables for the restaurant.  The interior is modern but still reflects the natural simplicity that is associated with Scandinavian design.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Bistro Franz

If you have been to the Czech Republic as a tourist, Brno, the second largest city in the country, is most likely a city you have never visited.  Perhaps you recognize the name as a city you passed on route to Vienna or Mikulov (the Moravian wine region in the south), but not as a city you spent time in and visited.

I don’t know why Brno is passed over time and time again, but if more spots like Bistro Franz open up, which serves seasonal dishes made with local and organic  ingredients from local suppliers, it may give tourists and design-conscious-Prager-foodies a reason to get in the car and drive the hour and a half to visit.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

I for one, now have this spot on my radar.  I will follow up when I go visit and taste test in person. Did I mention this place serves brunch on the weekends including porridge, scrambled organic eggs, and pancakes?

Butter Avenue

Between manicures and shopping for wedding decor, I managed to squeeze in a brief visit to Butter Avenue in Toronto to sample macarons.  Butter Avenue, located on Yonge Street just south of York Mills, opened the beginning of  2012 by Calvin and Tina.  Butter Avenue is both a shop for macarons as well as other delicate desserts such as pain au chocolat, tarts, cookies, and chocolates.  There is plenty of room to enjoy a treat in the shop’s all white, minimalist interior and modern furniture.

Calvin was behind the counter when I arrived and he helped me select four macaron flavours: Earl Grey, Sea Salt Caramel, Dark Chocolate and Lemon.

In my opinion, no one should eat macarons alone, so I brought along my trusty side kick (my mom) to help me taste test. Butter Avenue‘s macaron were good but not my favourite in the city.  The Earl Grey and Salted Caramel were taste-bud blowing (aka delicious) the two best in terms of flavour but I thought the meringues were a bit too hard on the exterior.

However, to be fair, the night before I indulged in a couple macarons brought fresh from Laduree  in Paris by a visiting cousin; the taste still imprinted on my palate.  That being said, a harder exterior is best avoided.  You want the crunchy chewy balance.

I would certainly go back for a  fix and Butter Avenue’s macaron towers are showstopping in the front window. My mother was tempted to order two mini towers last minute for the wedding.  🙂

Here are some other people who blogged about Butter Avenue:

1. BlogTo Butter Avenue

2. Amy’s Food Adventure: Butter Avenue Patisserie & Cafe

3. CJ Noms: Butter Avenue

4. Sammylicious: Butter Avenue

5. Allure of Simplicity: Butter Avenue

Hotel Gelato

I am back in Prague and now a married woman.  What a trip!! It was an awesome experience seeing all the details of the wedding come together and I look forward to sharing more about the event and some pictures next week on Lamb411.

To start, my fiance and I wanted to serve something cold for dessert at the wedding since it was taking place in August.  I originally thought about serving ice pops to my guests but the logistics of such proved too complicated, so I located a company in Toronto that does on-site event gelato.  We had previously tasted the gelato from Hotel Gelato at a friend’s wedding in the spring and decided to give them a call to see what they could do for us.

We could pick six flavours of gelato for the event which would be served to guests in cups or cones.

I took my fiance, sister-in-law to be and our day of wedding planner to Hotel Gelato with me to review our flavour selection before the big day.

Photo Source: Mouth Media

We chose: Salted Caramel, Pistachio, Coconut, Dark Chocolate, Lemon Sorbet and Vanilla Toffee

There was much deliberation between flavours and gelato tasting among the four of us.  I think everyone fell in love with the salted caramel, a uniquely salty and sweet flavour.  I like coconut and pistachio and my (now) husband loves anything chocolate.

Photo Source: BlogTo

I must admit, in Toronto I am a regular at Hollywood Gelato and the Mad Italian and had never thought of driving west of Bayview for the stuff.  However, having been three times plus working with them for the wedding, I would certainly add Hotel Gelato into the rotation.  What’s even better is that Hotel Gelato serves breakfast and brunch, espresso and a full bar, so it’s like gelato +.  If you missed some of the wedding week details, feel free to read about them here, here and here.

Chantal Guillon Macarons

As a macaron lover, I thought I would do my duty and spread the word about a new macaron shop on the street.

For all you macaron lovers out there who happen to reside within driving distance to Palo Alto – there is a new macaron patisserie in your neighbourhood- Chantal Guillon.  I received the notification email this morning (see below) and thought I would share the news.

Photo Sources: 1, 2, 3

This is the second Chanthal Guillon macaron shop (the other one is in San Francisco). Her macarons look divine and you can sip on the fragrant teas of Mariage Freres while enjoying a macaron or three!

Speaking of which, I am getting on a plane tomorrow to head home to Toronto and I look forward to sampling a few macarons myself at Butter Avenue.

Good Morning Breakfast Date

Good morning!

Have you ever gone on a breakfast date with someone?

And I don’t mean a breakfast meeting.  I mean a weekday date, for breakfast.

I tried this `breakfast date`concept last Friday morning and it was great.

My fiance and I have been working a lot lately and haven’t had much of a chance to go on a date.

So what did we do?  We woke up early on Friday morning and walked down the street to our local coffee shop, Muj Salek Kavy,  to go on a breakfast date.  Him and I. No business talk.

He had ham and eggs, (in Czech, that is written “Hemenex“) and I had the pancakes with spiced plums, sour cream and syrup. It was simple, quick, fun and romantic.

This was a recommended experience!  Has anyone been on one?