Foodie Times - Restaurant Review - AME

Saturday evening I had the pleasure to join some friends at AME. AME is a Japanese restaurant in downtown Toronto. In his previous incarnation it was called Rain. For those of you who care, AME is the Japanese word for rain.

AME is participating in the Winterlicious promotion that is currently happening. Winterlicious can be a great program. It allows wannabe-foodies the chance to eat at high-end restaurants that they probably wouldn't otherwise try. Customers get to pick from a special "winterlicious" menu that is a set price. The issue many customers have with this special is that they feel they are not getting the best from the restaurant. They feel they are often neglected for the regular patrons. Luckily, this was not the case last night at AME.

We were seated in a corner booth that was well appointed with traditional Japanese fabrics on the comfortable chairs and bankettes. The finishings on the table were high quality chopsticks (and a rock to rest them on) and a cloth napkin.

Sitting and enjoying the conversation, it was easy to also enjoy the atmosphere; funky music played in the background throughout the evening, but not lound enough to be a distraction, and the decor throughout the restaurant (and including the bathroom) was well done.

Now that the mood was set it was time to eat and drink. The waiter took the time to not only explain the winterlicious menu, but also the regular menu incase we were interested. He was also knowledgeable with regards to the short sake list. This is one area the restaurant could definitely expand on. The idea of the menu is to share food with your partner, I'm not that good at sharing what's on my plate, but didn't have much choice last night.

We started our dining experience with a plate of Salmon Maki. It was well prepared, very tasty actually. Our dinner mates had the Unagi maki, which they seemed to enjoy very much as well. The next course was the snapper sashimi. Usually, the wife isn't a huge fan of sashimi, but she couldn't resist trying these. Presentation of both these dishes was excellent and made you feel like you are eating at a high end restaurant.

We then received our two hot dishes and our side. Everyone at the table chose the same items - Miso marinated striped bass and the Teriyaki Cornish Hen. The item that was left in the kitchen - the vegetarian mushroom salad. Again, the whole table decided on the same side dish, the Waygu beef rice. The other choices were very plain, and when you have a chance to eat Waygu beef, you go for it.

The piece of bass and the cornish hen were each single serving pieces. For an XL individual like myself, sharing wasn't necessary, but I couldn't leave the wife starving. The bass was very soft and fell apart while trying to get it to my mouth with the chop sticks. The miso crust was a nice touch. The Teriyaki cornish hen was garnished with...wait for it...7 spice popcorn. If you don't think that was the first part of the plate that I went for you are seriously mistaken. The cornish hen was very tender and juicy. The Teriyaki flavour wasn't overpowering, so you were able to enjoy the meat.

Unfortunately, the sides was brought after we had finished the main course. I'm not certain if this how the chef plans to serve every meal or he just couldn't get the rice ready at the same time as the proteins. Either way, the Waygu beef rice was very tasty and a nice way to finish off the meal. Dessert was carrot cake that was served with an tiramisu. Very tasty and a great way to cleanse the pallette.

After we had finished the meal, and the group enjoyed some coffee and tea, there was no pressure for the cheque to be settled and we were permitted (as you should be) to enjoy the restaurant until we felt it was time to leave.

Overall, this was a great experience and would recommend AME if you needed a higher end restaurant to entertain a client, take the wife or girlfriend for a special evening out or as we saw last night a night out with friends before hitting the town.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

When you cross the land, you may stumble across some weird and stupid stuff. These weird things are often times turned into competitions by bored individuals. Heck ESPN writer Rick Reilly even wrote a whole book about them.

If you want to be the stupidest of them all, you should be in Spain right now…not to be part of the World Cup finals experience, which would be unbelievable, not stupid – but to take part in the running of the bulls.

What was once a simple act of transporting the bulls to the market, became a competition between the men to move the cattle faster. They would use tactics of fear and excitement to get the bulls move quicker. This developed into a race to beat the bulls to their pens and attracted more attention developing into the spectacle on the streets of Pamplona that we witness today.

Not only is there no sense in running away from the bulls, how many of us can really pull off the all white look?

If you to argue about which other sports can be in the mix about being the dumbest, you have to include the following couple, but I think they all come in after the running of the bulls because it is the only one where you can leave with a hole in your body.

Cheese-rolling event on Cooper's Hill in Gloucester
The event where they begin by rolling a wheel of cheese down a hill and then have everyone chase it, often tumbling head over heels to be the first one down and claim the cheese as your own. Unfortunately for youtube viewers everywhere the 183 year history of this event ended in March because, get this – it was unsafe.

Wife Carrying
Popularized in Scandanavia where the wives are sometimes just as big as the men that are carrying them, this “sport” has grown in popularity for some reason. Competitors throw their WAGs on their back and carry them through an cross-country course consisting of obstacles that they must climb or water they need to wade through. The winner of the race is often awarded beer equivalent to his wife’s weight.

Competitive Eating
How this became a sport is beyond me. I enjoy eating, but that is mainly because I like the taste of food, I savour it, enjoying every bite, mmmm food. I don’t enjoy the sight of people stuffing themselves with food to the point of being sick. YOU ARE WASTING A GOOD HOT DOG! Give me competitions about food that involve the best of “insert tasty food”. The organizers and participants should be ashamed for contributing to obesity. By the way my personal best for hot dog eating is 13 (in one hour) and the other personal food best is 10 McDonald’s cheeseburgers, 1 fries and 1 McFlurry in one sitting.


Have you participated in any stupid sports? What are your competitive eating personal bests?

On Sale Soon at the Sandwich Shoppe

A new product is going to be taking on the giants of bottled water -
Boxed Water.

It is an interesting thought and look and it reminds me of my youth. Drinking milk or juice out of the carton. I could buy into this idea.

Let me know what you think of boxed water...