Lifejackets fastened and paddles in hand, the canoe made a gentle splash and a graceful entrance into the Don River on Sunday morning. Bernie McIntyre steered and narrated every bend and ripple as we navigated the river as part of Paddle the Don, an annual fundraising event put on by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. This year, with 300 canoes and about 700 participants, the event had its largest turnout ever.

Paddle the Don is a once-a-year event during which the TRCA opens up the gate at the G. Lord Ross Dam, at Finch Avenue. This adds a crucial few centimetres of water to the river, so adventurers can enjoy a morning of paddling from Wilket Creek Park, at Eglinton Avenue and Leslie Street, to the mouth of the river. Paddle the Don is pretty much the only time the river is navigable by boat, so it always sells out quickly. This year, the fee for the general public was $100 per boat.

The TRCA kicked off the event with remarks from Premier Kathleen Wynne, who attended the event as both the premier and as the MPP for Don Valley West.

“We were expecting her to arrive in an SUV,” one of the event’s leaders said. “We were looking around, and and then all of a sudden, the premier ran up to us. She ran from home. She didn’t even break a sweat.”

Over the past 20 years, Wynne has seen a remarkable difference in the Don, a river that was once notoriously polluted. The TRCA uses Paddle the Don as a way of leading people to the water and showing them the importance of watershed management.

“The idea that the community is aware of this treasure is great, it’s important,” Wynne told Torontoist. “The Don was in bad shape and it has been restored.”

As we glided along the fairly tame waters, McIntyre, who is a manager at the TRCA, explained the history of the Don River and its trials and tribulations over the years, pointing out structural curiosities and foreign objects bobbing along. We lost count of how many half-buried shopping carts we passed. The glumness in McIntyre’s voice was apparent as he explained that the rocks and netting along the bank near the launch site are the remnants of an old erosion-control technique, now considered to be an unsightly and heavy-handed method of taming the river.

Urbanization has greatly damaged the Don. Excessive building along its flood plains, the use of impermeable pavement, and other man-made incursions have changed the river’s flow and its relationship with the city. During the suburbanization boom in the middle of the 20th century, quick and immediate ways of controlling the flow of water were often used. These days, the TRCA tries to employ more natural and holistic approaches.

Those efforts at control are helped by the fact that the river curves and meanders, which helps slow down its current and manage flooding. But this natural dynamic was disrupted when the Don was shortened to make way for the Don Valley Parkway in the 1950s and 1960s.

Several weirs, or small dams, were set up to keep the river under control, but McIntyre calls them “death traps.” If a canoeist were to try to go over a weir, he or she could drown in the forceful rapids below. Fish can’t pass the weirs either, and the TRCA has noticed an impact on marine life in nearby creeks. Around the Evergreen Brick Works, while we portaged to bypass a weir, McIntyre pointed out a pile of large, rounded boulders that have formed a low pyramid on the bank. This was a non-invasive method of slowing down the river’s energy while allowing fish to pass through.

As we made our way downstream, we saw some wildlife—a sunbathing turtle, Canada geese, plenty of mallards, and many red-winged blackbirds—but after we passed underneath Pottery Road, we noticed that the banks were teeming with people. While the water might not be open to the public just yet, it’s certainly a popular destination.

Despite the highway lamps peeking over the tree canopy and the traffic whizzing by on the Don Valley Parkway, it was relatively silent on the water. McIntyre took a moment to enjoy the birds chirping. At some points, the shrubbery along the banks was thick and lush. Slumping willow trees patted paddlers on the shoulders, and the architecturally stunning Bloor Viaduct is even more majestic from a fish’s eye view.

“Ribbons of these ravines thread through three million people,” McIntyre said. It’s a poetic notion, but it’s true.

For the sixth year in a row, gourmands and food activists banded together for the Brewer’s Plate, a fundraiser to promote local, seasonal, and sustainable foods. Twenty-three craft brewers and 29 local chefs flanked the Barbara Frum Atrium at the CBC building, offering unlimited platings and tastings to attendees who’d paid $125 each for admission. The proceeds went to Not Far From The Tree, an organization that harvests fruit from urban trees and distributes it to shelters and restaurants.

Early spring is often considered an unappetizing time of year for local produce. Many people have the misconception that not much is growing in Ontario. Chris Lowry founded Brewer’s Plate in part to challenge that notion, and also to celebrate local craft beer and encourage chefs to show off the bounty of Ontario’s edible gems.

According to Not Far From The Tree’s founder and director, Laura Reinsborough, there’s a disconnect between Torontonians and the environment. “So many people drive to the store to buy an apple from New Zealand and pass their neighbours’ edible trees along the way,” she said. Not Far From The Tree, founded in 2008, has grown from a small group of fruit pickers into a role model for urban harvesters in North America. Last year they gleaned over 12,000 pounds of fruit from Toronto trees and have even cooked up some interesting recipes, like sumac beer and black walnut ink.

With the money from Brewer’s Plate, Reinsborough said the organization plans on investing in cargo bikes, equipment, and staff. She also mentioned a possible partnership with Bellwoods Brewery, which is interested in using local fruit for a cherry beer this summer.

Not Far From The Tree and the Brewer’s Plate have a lot of friends around Ontario who support their work. Jamie Kennedy wasn’t on the bill this year, but was spotted walking around. Lynn Crawford of Ruby Watchco had a table in the front with her “breakfast of champions” (click the photo at the top of this post for all the details), and chef and activist Joshna Maharaj used some of NFFTT’s arsenal of preserves for her platings.

Chefs and brewers were paired together, which made for some beautiful culinary duets. A particularly potent duo were Black Oak’s Nut Ale and Chocosol’s Mexican drinking chocolate, served as a beer float. Frida’s bunuelos, a Mexican dessert from Oaxaca covered in guava marmalade and a dash of cinnamon, met Spearhead’s Moroccan Brown Ale, a dark and sweet beer that sings of figs, dates, and cinnamon.

The dishes were as diverse as the chefs, but the plates that captured that wintry taste of a Canadian April harvest stood out, especially Grapevine Catering’s creamy butternut squash risotto with roasted Brussels sprouts and goat cheese. Also notable was Chef Anne Sorrenti’s ciabatta crostini with Ontario onion and garlic confit and Monforte’s lemon sheep’s milk cheese.

Ninutik’s Richard Brault coupled sharp Ontario cheeses with maple syrup from Lanark County. He ladled the syrup onto snow and rolled the cheese in the resulting sweet, frozen streak to induce the most scrumptious one-bite bliss. The servings were unlimited, but even that couldn’t quell the desire to eat an infinite amount of maple-covered cheese.

As the saying goes, savour Ontario.

An image of Toronto as seen from the International Space Station, taken by Commander Chris Hadfield on January 19.

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s—it’s, well, it’s the sky. And tonight, people around the world are getting together to celebrate everything that’s in it, as part of Yuri’s Night.

Named after Yuri Gagarin, the Russian astronaut, Yuri’s Night is a evening devoted to celebrating accomplishments in space. It happens on April 12, which, this year, is the 52nd anniversary of the day Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth. The occasion is observed in places as diverse as Toronto (of course), Afghanistan, Antarctica, and even the International Space Station. In total, 60 countries will participate this year.

Party headquarters in Toronto will be Hotel Ocho, where there will be 1960s-themed cocktails, a Lego spaceship competition, lectures from space experts, space stand-up, and, naturally, space tunes. (Maybe they’ll play the recent duet between BNL’s Ed Robertson and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield?) Tickets are $20 each, and can be purchased on the event’s website.

With all this fanfare over space exploration, we decided to see what other intergalactic/planetary action is happening right here in Toronto, throughout the year.

For starters, all three of Toronto’s major newspapers are out of this world. We’ve got the Sun, the Star, and the Globe (which more or less confirms that Toronto is the centre of the universe).

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada is based in Toronto. Founded in 1868, it’s the largest astronomy society in Canada, and it has plenty of events going on, including trips to Algonquin Provincial Park for stargazing in September. It hosts monthly Dark Sky Star Parties and Clear Sky Star Parties, weather dependent.

Toronto has several planetariums and observatories, all of which are accessible to the public:

• The University of Toronto’s small planetarium does shows on the third Tuesday of every month for $5 (the next one is on April 18). There are also free tours the first Thursday of every month.
• York University has free viewing sessions at its observatory, as well as online viewing sessions and a radio show.
• Of course, the Ontario Science Centre not only has a planetarium, but a whole wing all about space.
• Up in Richmond Hill is the David Dunlap Observatory, the largest Canadian optical telescope in its class. It hosts viewings and lectures.

There are other planetariums and observatories that aren’t in use:

• The Royal Ontario Museum’s McLaughlin Planetarium closed in 1995 because of budget cuts.
• The University of Toronto’s Student Union building, just a few blocks from the ROM, is in what used to be the Toronto Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory. It was built back in 1840 and is considered the “birthplace of Canadian astronomy and the country’s oldest scientific institution.”

In May, Dr. John Percy will give a tour of Toronto’s astronomical heritage as part of Doors Open. If you can’t make it, he has another talk in June.

Think you’re cut out for NASA? Next weekend, the ROM hosts the NASA International Space Apps Challenge, which is a weekend hack-a-thon where teams complete NASA-designed challenges to do really, really complex space-science things. It’s free to participate, and teams from around the world are competing.

Looking for a crash course in astronomy? The Ontario Science Centre and RASC periodically offer an eight-week program for astronomy novices. It’s called NOVA.

At the end of May, the first-ever Canadian Astronomy Telescope Show hits Oakville. But if you can’t wait, you can head over to Khan Scope Centre, on Dufferin Street just south of the 401. (Its website points out that it is “located directly across from Aren’t We Naughty, and you cannot miss that!” No telescope necessary.)

Ever wonder what Canadians eat in space? Maple syrup cream cookies! We bet they taste great with astronaut ice cream.

If you’d like to visit space yourself, head over to the Intergalactic Travel Authority, on Bloor Street West. Grab yourself a planet-themed espresso drink to prepare for take off, before hopping through the space portal. Blast off!

CORRECTION: 3:53 PM This post originally identified Canada’s largest astronomy society as the Royal Canadian Aerospace Society; it is actually named the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. It also misspelled the name of the Dunlap Observatory.

Nick Gau’s pork hakka soup.

On Sunday at The Great Hall, Toronto chowhounds slurped down ramen and other noodle dishes at Slurp Noodlefest, an event organized by Suresh Doss, the man behind Food Truck Eats and other local foodie events. Several top chefs from around Toronto cooked up their takes on the theme.

For those who don’t know, ramen is a soup with a meat- or fish-based broth. In the bowl are chewy wheat noodles, which are usually topped with meat and a variety of vegetables. It’s an extremely regional dish, so there are many different varieties.

A-OK’s salted-cod inari.

The chefs at Noodlefest embraced this creative license. True to his famed haute-cuisine style, Victor Barry, owner of Splendido and the County General, presented a porcini and truffle ramen. Nick Liu, of GwaiLo, made a pork hock hakka soup, inspired by his South African mother-in-law’s recipe. Top Chef Canada winner Carl Heinrich, now of Richmond Station, also followed in his mother-in-law’s footsteps with a Vietnamese pho swimming in a guinea-hen broth. It was topped with flanks of beef and rings of red-hot chili.

The chefs were also allowed to make a non-noodle item. A-OK’s salted-cod inari, a tofu pouch stuffed with a rice-and-cod mixture, was one of the more popular bites. Skin+Bones served up fried chicken tails, which were a bit like popcorn chicken. Victor Barry stacked up pork sliders with Kraft Singles on milk buns. The dish didn’t match the Asian theme, but the tiny sandwiches were flying off the grill, even so. Both El Vagabundo Gastronomico and Sabai Sabai offered mango sticky rice, a common Thai dessert (and notably the only vegetarian item at the event).

Mango sticky rice by Sabai Sabai.

Doss came up with the idea for Noodlefest while he was sitting around the dinner table with a few friends, including Heinrich of Richmond Station and Susur Lee of Susur. At one point, the conversation turned to Toronto’s lack of ramen joints, at least as compared to Vancouver and other North American cities. Is Toronto ultimately not a ramen town, the recent ramen mini-boom notwithstanding?

Lee doesn’t think so. In his opinion, he said, Toronto can do ramen better than Japan. His reasoning was that two of Canada’s most abundant commodities, water and meat, are the main ingredients in the classic recipe. If you start with quality ingredients, and you happen to be Susur Lee, what’s stopping you?

Noodlefest fed 500 people. Doss said there was enough interest that he might consider organizing a second one.

Photos by Rachel Lissner/Torontoist.

CORRECTION: March 5, 2012, 5:20 PM This post originally said, incorrectly, that Suresh Doss is “the man behind” Toronto Underground Market. In fact, TUM is run by its founder, Hassel Aviles, and Kate Clegg, her partner. We regret the error. Also, due to an editing error, this post originally incorrectly characterized a conversation between Doss, Susur Lee, and others. That conversation took place before Slurp Noodlefest, not during. Finally, the post originally characterized all the noodle dishes on offer at Noodlefest as “ramen,” when in fact some of them are more properly described in other ways. This point has been clarified.

If you’re looking for a little bit of bounce after trudging though Toronto’s slushy streets, the new Sky Zone trampoline park, which opened in Leaside over the weekend, is just the place to put a spring in your step.

The new facility, in a former warehouse next to Amsterdam Brewery (an ideal match as long as you play it safe), has a dodgeball court, three open jump spaces, a foam zone, and a “slam-dunk centre,” for all your flipping, diving, and basketball-dunking needs. Located at 45 Esander Drive, it’s the second Sky Zone in the GTA. The first is in Mississauga.

After signing waivers, customers are given a pair of Marty McFly-like rental shoes to prevent them from slipping on Sky Zone’s 100 or so trampolines. Once laced up, jumpers are free to roam under the supervision of court monitors, who make sure everyone plays by the rules. As long as there’s only one person per trampoline (that means no games of Popcorn or Break the Egg, you rabble rousers), everyone is free to hop, skip, and jump on the taut screens. Even the walls have trampolines on them.

As though tepidly placing a skate on freshly Zambonied ice, first-time jumpers gingerly step onto a square of trampoline. Then, after an initial bounce or two, there’s the inevitable shriek of glee. Over in the foam zone, a large pit filled with electric-blue foam cubes, people plunge in while performing flips and cannonballs.

But the dodgeball court is where the magic happens. There’s an active trampoline dodgeball scene in Toronto, said Sky Zone owner Caroline Irving, and last year there was a Sky Zone tournament in Los Angeles, for teams from around the continent. Irving’s Team Canada came in second.

Irving got into the business after visiting her sister’s Sky Zone franchise, in Boston, a few years ago.

In 2011, Irving opened in Mississauga, giving Sky Zone, which already had locations across the U.S., its first Canadian beachhead. Irving says she entertained over 130,000 jumpers last year.

“If you had told me twenty years ago that I would own two trampoline parks, I would have told you that you were crazy,” Irving laughed as she flashed a warm smile. She said she loves giving Canadians the chance to have fun and let loose. “Whenever parents tell me that their kids are bouncing off the walls and driving them crazy, I always says, ‘Give them to me, they can bounce off my walls.’”

In addition to just plain-old jumping, thrill seekers can up the ante with exercise classes, called SkyRobics. After a few anti-gravity jumping jacks and aerial knee curls with Irving, we were ready to pass out, but the drop-in classes are open to anyone interested, no experience necessary. Trampolining is a serious workout, as fun as it is, so expect to sweat buckets and maybe be a bit sore.

CORRECTION: March 4, 2013, 11:30 AM This post originally said, incorrectly, that Sky Zone Toronto has three dodgeball courts and a single open jump space. In fact, it’s the opposite: there are three open jump spaces, but only one dodgeball court.

Ciclovía in Bogotá, Colombia. Photo by Cidades para Pessoas.

In the future, people will be able to travel around Toronto without the aid of cars and public transportation. They can have brunch in Leslieville, fly over to hike in High Park, and enjoy dinner in Etobicoke without turning on the ignition or even doling out subway fare.

Perhaps you’re envisioning a far-off space age, each of us with a jet pack. But if you are Gil Peñalosa, the executive director of 8-80 Cities, and Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), the future is almost here. And that self-propelled vehicle? It’s you. On a bike. Or maybe roller blades. On foot. Or who knows, maybe on a dog sled or snowshoes in the wintry months.

Peñalosa and Wong-Tam are trying to bring ciclovías (see-clo-VI-as) to Toronto. Spanish for “bike path,” the original Ciclovía was created in 1976, and ran through part of Bogotá, Colombia. In the mid-’90s, Peñalosa, then Bogotá’s commissioner of recreation, decided to revive and radically expand the Ciclovía, to dramatic effect.

The new ciclovía is a simple concept: the city opens up certain streets to non-motorized traffic, and people are free to do as they please in the public space. Essentially, it turns long stretches of the city into a paved park. Cars are permitted to move through the city, but they are restricted to certain routes. (When you talk to him about it, Peñalosa is quick to say that the city is opening up to the people instead of being shut down or off to cars.) In Bogotá and other Colombian cities, they do this from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays and holidays; hundreds of thousands of people come out and take part. Other cities around the world have started introducing them as well.

“Streets are like a forbidden place,” Peñalosa says. “Almost nothing scares you as much as when your parents say ‘Watch out! A car is coming!’” But with the ciclovía, the streets “become open so people can enjoy the forbidden place.”

In Bogotá, the ciclovía is used to promote public health: exercise classes are taught in city plazas, dance parties are held in the street, and thousands of people stroll down the boulevards. But Peñalosa says that whatever happens, happens—people are more than welcome to set up small shops, pop-up schools, art fairs, and picnics. Loosen up the streets, loosen up the city.

“People are so hungry for public space,” said Peñalosa, “that when they have it, they’ll take over, and things will develop!”

Photo by TheFutureIsUnwritten.

The benefits of the ciclovía are great. For starters, the streets are already paved and well kept, so most of the infrastructure is ready and in good condition. “In a time of economic crisis, you don’t have to go to the City to ask for millions,” Peñalosa points out. There are no socioeconomic barriers to ciclovías—anyone with even a few spare minutes can participate. And unlike some special events like marathons (which also block traffic from specific parts of the city), everyone can participate. Ciclovías are open to everyone and can be in every neighbourhood, kind of like a city-wide Pedestrian Sunday.

In Bogotá, 120 kilometres go car-free, but Peñalosa says he’d like to see just a few kilometres dedicated to a ciclovía in Toronto for the first few events. Eventually the goal is to ramp up to 50 kilometres, in every part of Toronto, and encourage residents to explore. “Next Sunday you say ‘I want to go here…’ and this will connect all of these magnificent parts of the city.”

Studies have shown that pedestrian and cycling traffic are beneficial for a local economy; those who arrive by foot or bike are more likely to spend more money in a neighbourhood’s shops than those who drive [PDF]. It’s something cycling advocates pushing for bike lanes often point out; it’s likely to also apply with large numbers of people exploring new neighbourhoods and visiting businesses out of their normal terrain.

In Canada, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, and Ottawa have all hosted ciclovías or similar events. Ottawa, notably, has been holding its Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays since 1970. All of which makes it surprising Toronto hasn’t already hosted a ciclovía yet. There is no reason why it wouldn’t be successful; New York, a city Toronto fancies as its American equivalent, shuts down Park Avenue for its version of the event, and Los Angeles, the car capital of North America, regularly hosts its CicLAvia, to the delight of citizens and proprietors alike.

Peñalosa notes that Winnipeg was the first Canadian city to adopt the idea (in 2009), and that Paris stages a weekly ciclovía year round—the concept isn’t limited to warm-weather cities. And Toronto, with its gridded streets and fairly flat landscape, makes an ideal home.

Hopefully, now it’s only a matter of time. Pending a review by the City’s top civil servant, due in April of this year, there’s a chance we’ll see our first ciclovía in 2014.

Pinup playing cards by Michelle Smith

With Valentine’s Day coming up, finding the perfect gift and saying the right thing is always a bit of a challenge. But if you were looking to say either “I <3 Spanking" or "I love you"—or maybe both—over the weekend the seventh annual Erotic Arts and Crafts Fair gave Toronto lovers some of their most creative shopping opportunities.

While Friday’s blizzard kept things at the Erotic Arts and Crafts Fair from really being hot and sweaty, the Gladstone Hotel was filled with 22 local vendors and their naughty, raunchy, and openly sexy crafts, and a steady flow of patrons.

Annanda DeSilva is one of the co-owners of Come As You Are, Toronto’s only co-operative sex shop, and chairs the crafts fair. She says that it’s possibly the only type of craft fair of its kind in the world (although a little Googling found an erotic arts show in San Francisco, no surprise) and was born out a realization that many crafty folk were already making textiles, wearable arts, and other items, with a lot of sexiness thrown in.

As one greeting card we found, with a silhouette of a trench-coat-clad woman flashing us, put it: “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

The overall theme was more tongue-in-cheek erotic than downright pornographic (unless you’re stimulated by 50 Shades of Gray), but the range of items included professional photography, lamps with shades made of out of vintage pin up cards, a lot of sketches of the human figure, and erotic sugar cubes. Yes, erotic sugar cubes.

Ms Nibbs made her world debut of the erotic sugar cubes, which are the traditional bricks of sugar topped with sugar penises, breasts, and hearts. “I’ve always loved sugar cubes and wanted to decorate them,” Ms Nibbs shared, and when she began she thought that her designs “looked like boobs and dicks.” Ms Nibbs, a rather straight-laced middle aged woman, told us she had been giggling all day (but was rather matter of fact when she told us that she has another side business called Sineptra, which she explained is “penis art” backwards).

The crafts, in all their whimsy and edginess, are fun to poke and prod and give as a gag gift (if you’re into gagging) or a token of love, but what we took home (in addition to some erotic sugar cubes) were the stories of the vendors themselves.

Phoenix Black, the brains behind the ceramic dildos and butt plugs that were on offer, said it all started when she made a some ceramic bowls as a wedding gift for a friend, who also happened to love sex as much as she did. A stroke of cheekiness inspired her to make her friend a matching ceramic sex toy to complement the bowls and soon her side-project business of making these was born.

She also was selling “cooch cakes,” vagina-shaped cupcakes, for $6 a pop. If there were a contest, this easily would have won “Thing I Most Want in my Mouth.” They were not only delicious but also truly artistically done—although the small batch took a whopping 15 hours to prepare.

Sex on a Stitch’s rainbow array of pasties.

Susan of Sex on a Stitch originally hopped on YouTube to learn how the art of amigurumi, Japanese crochet, which produces rounded items. Combined with a few drinks and a few comments from friends, Susan soon found herself in the business of crocheting pasties and tassels for burlesque dancers. (“This is not what my grandma taught me,” she laughed.) Walking past her table was like being a kid in a the proverbial candy store, enticed by all of the colours and homespun textures. And just like a toy store, there was something for everyone: “Sometimes sexual things can be intimidating, but you can’t be intimidated by yarn.”

Despite the rather niche market, many vendors said that they love coming out to the Erotic Arts and Crafts Festival, where they are free to express just what’s on their mind. “This is my favourite craft show,” said Emily Cocarell of Crass Stitches, a needlepoint business with raunchy messages stitched in pastel colours. “Normally I would get a stern talking to [at other craft shows], but here I can let it all out.”

And when she does, she will have first pick of all the of tassels on the table behind her.

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/fillinmyblanks/5403325406/"}Fion N.{/a}, from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/pool/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

Happy Chinese New Year, Toronto! This Sunday is the start of the year of the water snake. Chinese communities around the GTA are gearing up for the accompanying 15-day festival.

Saturday is New Year’s Eve, which is normally the big kick-off. Lantern Day, the last day of the celebration, is February 24.

If you’re Chinese, none of this is news to you. On behalf of everyone else though, we checked in with Shirley Lum, a culinary historian who gives food tours of Chinatown. She told us about some of the traditional foods eaten during the New Year, what they symbolize, and where, in Toronto, to get them. (If you’re feeling down on your luck, a plate of dumplings this weekend might turn things around, although we’d advise eating dumplings at almost any time of year.) Lum also tipped us off that grocers go all-out to get top-notch meat and produce, so this is a particularly good time of year to go food shopping in Chinatown and at Asian supermarkets like T&T.

Our guide to Chinese New Year treats is below.

Gōng Xǐ Fā Cái!

Whole Chicken

What it means: A Confucian law says, “There is a beginning, a middle, and an end to everything.” This is embodied by the chicken. It symbolizes family reunion, as millions of people travel great distances to reunite with their families for the holiday. It also stands for peace and harmony and is a symbol of health—like you, the chicken is to remain in one piece (until being served, that is).

What it tastes like: Traditionally, the chicken is boiled or steamed, but it can be roasted or prepared in other ways. It’s usually paired with ginger and onion, but this varies regionally.

Where to get it: Lum says any meat and barbeque spot will have plenty of chickens, but make sure to grab one before they’re all snatched up.

Dumplings

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/24151087@N00/3229528025/"}itjournalist{/a}, from Flickr.

What it means: The shape of the dumplings resembles a kind of antique Chinese currency. They also look similar to coin purses. The idea, basically, is to put your money where your mouth is.

What it tastes like: Lum notes that people eat both savoury dumplings and sweet dumplings. Shrimp and pork is a popular filling (pork signifies bounty). Sweet dumplings tend to be fried and stuffed with coconut (long life), sugar (happiness), and peanuts (prosperity).

Where to get it: Any Asian grocery store will have these in the frozen and refrigerated sections. Visit T&T, Chinatown, Foody Market in Scarborough, or another Chinese food destination.

Whole Fish

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/3225213462/"}avlxyz{/a}, from Flickr.

What it means: The whole fish is associated with money and the aforementioned Confucian law of wholeness. Lum says that seeing an animal in its whole form is a way to respect it.

What it tastes like: Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world, from Mauritius to Inner Mongolia, so the dish reflects local tastes. Places that are far from water, like Szechuan, might fry the fish, whereas coastal regions will opt for a fresher taste.

Where to get it: Fishmongers and grocery stores. Lum notes that no particular fish is sought after, but it must be a whole fish.

Fruit

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeywithaniphone/4542844819/"}monkeywithaniphone{/a}, from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/pool/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

What it means: Any fruit that is golden yellow is a sweet way to end a meal. The word for kumquat in Chinese sounds like “gold money,” but tangerines, mandarins, clementines, oranges, apples, and pomelos are also popular, both because of their colour and because of their ability to balance out several protein-heavy dishes. If you’re looking to score a hefty red envelope from your favourite Chinese relative, offer them three pieces of a type of fruit, as three is the number of respect.

What it tastes like: Come on! You know the answer to this.

Where to get it: Head over to Dragon City, Pacific Mall, T&T, or Chinatown and pick up a kumquat tree. The fruit ripens quickly in warm houses and provides “gold money” throughout the New Year.

Sesame Seed Balls

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrea_nguyen/7250338290/"}andrea_nguyen{/a}, from Flickr.

What it means: Held in a certain light, these gem-like desserts look like glistening gold nuggets.

What it tastes like: Chinese pastries are sweet, but not too sweet. The balls are dense and maybe a bit cake-like. They’re coasted with sesame seeds, which gives them a nice, nutty flavour.

Where to get it: Pop into Dragon City or any other large establishment and you’ll see many pop-up vendors selling traditional New Year sweets on the main floor. Pick up a $3 box mixed with pig ears (a flat, ribbon-like cookie), and firecrackers (sugar-coated crispy sticks that come in the colours of the New Year: red for happiness and luck, green for long life, and gold for prosperity).

Have you ever considered a career in candle huggery?

No need for a meltdown, eh? Okay, there are a million puns we could have made about this one, but we’re still wondering what exactly candle hugging is and how one gets references for it (and steady work, for that matter). Also, nice sass.

Do any of the age-old techniques of being a bro stand the test of time? Ask the Time Traveler’s Wife how she feels about it.

I think we’re all taking a lot of creative liberties by referring to this as a “Blackberry.” Yeah, it’s pretty shitty.

This is weird and creepy, but it still has nothing on that pottery scene from “Ghost.” Gross. Ugh.

A lot of people do a lot of weird stuff on the internet, and ground zero for commercial e-weirdness is Craigslist. In Declassified, Torontoist combs over our city’s listings to find the best (and worst) of the bunch. Find listings we should include in our next edition? Email them to declassified@torontoist.com.

Photo by {a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/thericyip/3954552415/”}thericyip{/a}, from the {a href=”http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/pool/”}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

Snowy streets be damned, Toronto! Go for a walk this week in Canada’s second most walkable city, according to Walk Score’s newly released, first-ever Canadian rankings. Vancouver was ranked first.

Walk Score, a Seattle-based company that computes the “walkability” of addresses across North America, has revolutionized the way people think about how their neighbourhoods and communities are designed. It’s the first standardized yardstick for quantitative rankings of walkability.

Real estate agents love this stuff, and so Walk Score, in the five years or so since its founding, has become a huge selling point in housing listings—not to mention fodder for public discussion about just what makes a neighbourhood great. (Hint: Walkability.)

Toronto’s second-place standing among Canadian cities (we scored 71, seven points behind Vancouver’s chart-topping 78 and one notch ahead of Montreal’s 70), is the result of several factors. Walk Score looks at local amenities like grocery stores, health services, libraries, restaurants, and schools, while factoring in population density. Depending upon how pedestrian-accessible all those amenities are, each locale gets a score from 0 to 100. For this particular roundup, Walk Score only looked at cities with populations of 150,000 or more, which might explain why Mississauga came in fourth place.

The data isn’t perfect; it paints a broad stroke. Coffee is coffee and school is school. For instance, search on Walk Score for educational institutions around Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue and it pulls up a list of nearby places, including schools for belly dancing, martial arts, and driving. The coffee options for Kensington Market include every single café on the University of Toronto campus—even places most students don’t go to. Walkable, sure, but is this where people are walking to? You might want to take a grain of salt with that coffee.

The scores also don’t consider geographic influences, like hills in Halifax and wind along the Toronto harbourfront.

Why should we care about walkability? Walking is directly correlated with better health, a lighter environmental impact, cost-efficient living, and an overall better quality of life. Who wouldn’t want to live a few minutes away from a subway stop, as opposed to having to drive to one? (In Toronto, that’s almost a rhetorical question.) Walk Score is also a great tool for budding geographers and City Hall politicos who want to understand Toronto’s urban-planning inequalities.

In the past few years, walkability and a decreased reliance on cars has become a huge focus point for urban planners. The economic crisis down south, plus generational differences, have led fewer people to invest in cars. This means neighbourhoods and cities that are easy to roam on foot are becoming more and more desirable.

Meanwhile, in Toronto, with the gravy train still hurtling through town, building a healthier and more equal city will probably take some time to make its way back to the top of the municipal agenda.

The world will never tire of this monkey.

We are thoroughly disappointed by how the author of this post missed every opportunity to include some blatantly obvious puns. That said, ladies, here is a super creepy chance to make $80 (and get lung cancer) lickety-split.

Can you imagine what would happen if every ad’s author was kind enough to add a disclaimer that their offer might involve illegal activity? We’d have nothing to write about.

Yeah, yeah, we’re all bananas over the Ikea monkey.

We have a strong suspicion that in this season of gift-giving, this guy has a package for you.

A lot of people do a lot of weird stuff on the internet, and ground zero for commercial e-weirdness is Craigslist. In Declassified, Torontoist combs over our city’s listings to find the best (and worst) of the bunch. Find listings we should include in our next edition? Email them to declassified@torontoist.com.

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffstewartphotos/5034189754/in/photostream/"}JeffStewartPhotos{/a}, from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/pool/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

The Ministry of Transportation has released a draft cycling strategy [PDF], the first update to its cycling policy goals in 20 years. The proposed new strategy aims to improve cycling education, infrastructure, legislation, and interest—but it has received mixed reviews from the cycling community, and for good reason.

Let’s start with some with some facts, as stated in the strategy. Ontario has 630,000 cyclists who hop on a bike daily. Nearly 48 per cent of Ontario residents ride a bike at least once during spring, summer, and autumn. About 50 per cent of those 630,000 daily cyclists use cycling as their main mode of transportation, meaning they use two wheels to get to school, work, shopping, errands, or friends’ homes. The draft doesn’t say where these cyclists are, but we’d guess a lot of them are here in Toronto.

The strategy—prepared partly in response to a scathing coroner’s report on cycling deaths in Ontario that was released earlier this year—is an optimistic read. It has two main goals: working with municipalities, and improving driver and cyclist education. But some of the points it raises are a little vague, and could use clarification.

For example, the ministry has some ambitious ideas for building a provincial network of bike routes. The draft repeatedly references Quebec’s successful Route Verte, which is estimated to generate an annual economic return valued at more than $100 million. Yes, $100 million—mostly in tourism dollars. This is a nice idea, and one that we support, but what about people who live in Toronto and just want to get around town?

What the strategy has to say about working with municipalities is unconvincing. In a nutshell, the ministry acknowledges that most cycling happens on municipal roads. It’s prepared to help municipalities to “develop and enhance their routes.” The draft says just that the ministry will work with cities to revamp any provincial infrastructure that a bike route happens to touch upon (a bridge, for example), but makes no funding promises beyond a vague pledge to “explore options” for including cycling in provincial funding programs.

Another section of the draft talks about how the ministry will pursue cycling education, which is nice to see. Educating drivers and cyclists about how to share the road safely is important. But the strategy doesn’t make any bold new recommendations (like, for example, adding a cycling component to drivers’ license examinations, as suggested recently by the Guardian). The strategy does mention the possibility of consulting the public on amendments to the Highway Traffic Act, though, which could lead to substantial changes at some point in the future.

Bottom line: the ministry’s strategy, in its current form, is a hopeful document, but not a particularly helpful one. It’s open to public input until January 29. You can submit your comments to the ministry here.