Boxcar Social Now Open

We tracked the building of this new espresso and wine bar through the winter (see here), and now we can go in and try a tasting flight of coffees!

Easy Solution for Chicken Haleem

If making Chicken Haleem sounded delicious but too complicated, buy the box and you will have a delicious dinner needing no other ingredients than the chicken and fresh garnishes.

I was so happy to find this tiny storefront where I can replenish my supply.

“May I help you?” The proprietor’s question was gracious but slightly skeptical, as if he thought that since I am obviously not Asian, I must be wandering his fragrant aisles by mistake.
“Found it, thanks.” He looked surprised when I plunked down five boxes of Special Shahi Haleem mix beside the cash register.
“You like this?”
Yes, I do.

Bengal Grocery & Variety
1220 Bloor St W
(north side just west of Dufferin)

Feeling the love from Australia

Jo Lampert’s family and friends love the way she loves Toronto. She stays connected to her native city even from faraway Australia where she lives and works. Her friends can count on her Aussie passion to introduce them to new Toronto experiences like Gailey Road Productions’ event Women Writing Letters.

Four times a year, the company invites a panel of women artists to write a letter on a theme and read it out loud to an audience. January’s theme was A Letter to My Hometown.

The event featured playwright Shirley Barrie, singer/voice teacher Jen Cook, playwright Diana Tso, and our own Jo Lampert who based her letter on her piece in Living Toronto’s Finding Home issue – A Place to Stand, a Place to Leave? How in the world did I end up in Australia? Cake, door prizes, and socializing followed.

Lampert met Tara Goldstein, a professor at OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) and artistic director and co-founder of Gailey Road Productions, in Australia. The company produces “research-informed theatre on social, political and human issues that affect us all and promotes women’s work both on and offstage.” Plays tour schools, universities and conferences, and have been staged at The Toronto Fringe Festival, The Queer West Festival, and the Toronto Pride Festival.

The next Women Writing Letters event, A Letter to My 16-year Old Self, is on April 13, 2014. The view of our city from OISE’s 12th floor Nexus Lounge, where the event takes place, is gorgeous and offers a bird’s eye view of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal designed by Daniel Libeskind.