Results tagged “fastfood”

Here's a riddle: What walks throughout Canada, weighs more than a Brit, but less than an American, and can help stop global warming? No, it's not Sasquatch. It's not Kyoto.

We wanted to start off this challenge with a proclamation, in Japanese, of our deep love of sushi. Unfortunately, all the online translators we tried just came up with a bunch of squares. We're pretty sure the Japanese language has evolved past this, so we're going to have to blame it on our inferior translator-finding skills and move on.

What could be better on a cold winter day than a hotdog and fries, straight from one of the chip wagons lining Queen Street at Nathan Phillips Square? There are plenty of chilled condiments to choose from and some of the trucks offer free gravy. So take a break from those ice skates and load up on some carbs—this snack will keep you going for hours.

Photo by natmeister from Flickr.

After refusing to allow environmentalists into the official Canadian delegation at the Bali Climate Change Conference, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has raised some hackles by bringing businesspeople, including oil company executives, into the group. Wow, he's not even pretending to care anymore. In other Bali news, a proposal to eliminate tariffs on "green" technologies was shot down at the conference on the weekend, the victim of bickering between developed and developing nations. The human...

In Tuesday's news round-up, we told you that the plan to sell McDonald's the land at Bloor and Avenue had been halted until January 18. It's a good thing, too, as there are many questions that must be answered before the $3.38 million sale is finalized. Is it in the best interest for Toronto taxpayers? Is the sale a smart corrective action to the bungled 1971 lease agreement or another dumb move we'll regret for...

If you’re feeling hungry and are looking for something a little less bland than your average, it might be worth dropping by the Tenth Annual World Spicy Food Festival at Harbourfront. The Festival promises three solid days of spicy goodness, with heat levels ranging from slightly piquant to eye-popping, face-melting, sinus-clearing insanity.

It's not entirely clear how or when R. Kelly's hip-hop opera "Trapped in the Closet" became a Zeitgeist. Part music video, part soap opera, it—while verging on self-parody throughout—has spawned parodies by everyone from South Park (which used it to make fun of Tom Cruise and John Travolta, among others) to Weird Al (who used it to make fun of fast food. Oh Weird Al!). What is clear is why it's been embraced by seemingly everyone in the entire universe: it's simultaneously the greatest and most confusing thing that any mainstream rap artist, nay, any musician, has ever done.

Gilligan Island's Ginger was a movie star—a beautiful starlet with a husky voice, expensive tastes, and, allegedly, a thing for the professor. Toronto's Ginger is a Vietnamese restaurant with outrageously cheap great food, with several locations around the city. And, uh, aside from being proper nouns, now they actually have something in common.

In a promotion ingeniously titled...uh..."Harvey's Hamburger Day," head into your local Harvey's on Sunday between 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. for a free Original Hamburger. Or, if you're really eager, you can confirm your attendance on Facebook. There are, it appears, no vegetarian or vegan alternatives, but odds are that if you're a vegetarian you were probably never really that big on Harvey's in the first place.

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing—what's going on in the World of the -ist's?

Austinist gets arty with an interactive guide to SXSW, loved some local art galleries and a new art exhibit and lamented the possible loss of "Friday Night Lights" production to New Mexico.

Torontonians are, to say the least, an opinionated bunch. So instead of a simple "Best Of" list to cap 2006 off, the Torontoist staffers have racked their brains about everything (books, songs, restaurants, people, places, stores, newspapers, politicians, musicians, and a lot more) to bring you their choices for the very best and the very worst of our city this past year. It's Torontoist Love/Hate 2006, and you can find a new one every day at noon from December 26th until January 1st.

Let it never be said that Torontoist’s fearless Film Friday column doesn’t use its peerless powers of precision to pick out the perfect film for your viewing pleasure! Yes, the other rags might have ignored it (probably no press screening) but this week’s pick above all others has to be Let’s Go To Prison, starring Toronto born Will Arnett (of Arrested Development) and directed by Mr. Show genius Bob Odenkirk, how could it possibly be anything other than completely excellent?

Weird.

Even though we are way way past school age, we still get a little melancholy at the close of summer. Fortunately, our friends across the -ist network know that the shenanigans don't need to end just because the big yellow buses are back on the roads. So, grab your sunscreen and your favorite hangover cure, as we take a tour of end of summer fun from -ist cities all over the damn place.

Frank'z Finest Hot Dog Palace (335A Yonge St.) opened up back in May to lackluster reviews. Most reviewers found the hot dogs to be of no higher quality than the average cart vendor's, and similar quality complaints were made about the chili, french fries, and hot dog buns. Worst, the prices were higher than a vendor's, so on top of the mediocre quality.

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines.

We stopped by our local branch of the Toronto Public Library this morning to keep ourselves, nay, all of Toronto reading.

A double big mac, extra large fries and a gallon of iced tea might just be the worst call of year. Deeeesgusting.

Restaurants: Hero Comes to Save the Day

Burritos, pitas and seafood sausage will all come in and out of favour with the after bar/fast food crowd, but it’s pizzas that will always have a place in the hearts of the trans-fat scenesters. As if we were a Ninja Turtle, Torontoist grabs a slice from the five best pizza restaurants in the city this week for the Ist List: Best Slice.

Where do all the Star Wars fans work? They can't possibly show up to work looking like Chewie, or get weeks off at a time to wait in lines. Can they? Toronto fans waited in line, some since last week, for the first viewing of George Lucas's sixth and purportedly last official Star Wars film (we say official because there could be another Ewoks movie, which would be awesome). When the clock struck midnight this morning, thousands of millions of Star Wars faithful filtered and pilfered into downtown's Paramount, Y&E's SilverCity, and Sheppard's The Grand for the long awaited Hayden Christensen-Natalie Portman flick. Though critical reaction has been less than enthusiastic, Torontoist amongst others will most likely see the movie, get the fast food tie-ins, and check for the alleged Bush references.

Late last fall posters popped up around Kensington Market advertising an event called “Guerrilla Gourmet.” What was it? A vegan restaurant? A new store selling organic foods? A gang of vicious foodie/freedom fighters bent on wreaking havoc on the fast food industry?

The appeal of New Ho King Restaurant(416 Spadina) is fairly obvious; affordable, promptly served, after-hours Chinese. After a long night of throwing back beverages on College St., the mix of Hunan beef, sweet and sour chicken balls and BBQ pork admittedly make for the perfect night cap. And relative to the neighbouring Burger King or the 7-11 frozen burrito rack, the restaurant even seems like the more refined choice in the area. But one look at the soiled plastic table clothes and the noticeably goo-covered chairs, the New Ho King charm fades fast.

As you can see by the header, we're setting up a little cross-border compare and contrast, red meat style. The Hardee's campaign reminds us of similarly named, similarly burgered, similarly big, Harvey's. In 2003 they went bigtime with their quest to capture big boys and their big appetites.And they appear to have done a pretty good job of it. 'Long Live the Grill' is still going strong, and, despite the grilled sandwich trend, and the complete lack of even a pretense of effort to court the lady who lunches on Alberta beef, most people really can't complain about Harvey's ads. They're simple, well-designed, and kinda retro chic. Meanwhile, Hardee's, a company with a similar product to hype, and a similarly-identified target demographic, has decided to force beautiful models to shove their hands in their mouths. TOist won't pronounce judgement until the results are in, but we think we our homegrown burger banners are winning thus far.

The ever expanding split within the ranks of the unhealthy breaks down as such: On one side, there are the fat people that take the more traditional stance against smoking cigarettes, and then there are the smokers who adhere to anti-fast food activism. Which is worse? Well, a recent study at some place called UCLA (not to be confused with Toronto's Brit-pop scene, UKULA) proved that fast-food makes people fat and ugly, while smoking just makes people ugly. In fact, both are unhealthy. Would Canadians benefit from less fast food? Of course. Is banning fast food the answer? Probably not. What does Torontoist think? Encourage healthy eating through tax incentives. Does that make sense to you? We can't be sure. Does anyone have any other ideas? Most likely, but again we can't be sure. What's one way a person can express their opinions on fast food politics? Leave a comment.

And it only got more best when TOist performed a cursory search for related small town sponge thefts. Writers have been having a field day with 'a famous actor has been kindnapped' theft stories in Hornell, St. Cloud, and Brainerd. Where is Marge when you need her?

At left, and for your consideration, is the Octopus Card Torontoist uses during trips to visit mother in Hong Kong. It's a stored-value dealy, meaning that you stop by the train station or corner store on your way to wherever, put like $500 on the card, and whizz around on public transit all day without actually handling any change. And while it's increasingly easy to use Octopus at convenience stores and fast food outlets across the Special Administrative Region, it's not like one of those stupid Dexit things they're trying so desperately to flog in subway stations. First of all: it's free to use; no fees for filling the damned thing up. Secondly, and most importantly: its main use is for transit.

It could be the result of Morgan Spurlock's Super Size Me, or Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. Or it could be the realization that fast food costs the same as good food these days (An $8 meal at McDonalds could also buy you a real sandwich at a real cafe). Or it could just be the fact that McDonald's is gross. And Justin is too. Dis.