Taste of the City (You Know Which One)

Hubbs & I headed out to the Taste of the City to check out this year's restaurant representatives. We were bitterly disappointed to see that most of the vendors were the same as last year's, except that the Ghengis Grill (who used to do the green onion cakes) was replaced by Hong Kong Bakery doing the green onion cakes. There might have been one or two new stalls, but we didn't notice.

Although it was sprinkling rain and overcast and muggy outside, it was super crowded at the food fair. We thought that it was stupid that the city didn't bother to space out the stalls a little more, especially the more popular stalls that gathered a huge line-up of people. With the food stands set up literally side-by-side along *one* street in opposite directions, people didn't know quite where to stand to line up for their grub, and passersby were easily mistaken for people standing in line, and vice-versa.

As well, I think the "prices" went up this year, as many of the dishes cost 5 tickets despite not really offering anything substantial enough to warrant a $3.75 charge. Hubbs & I sampled only a few items, as we cheaped out and purchased a mere 30 tix. We had the seafood paella from Nisku Inn, which was quite a generous portion of rice that came pretty loaded with meat and seafood. There were also two mussels given on our plate, which Hubbs thoroughly enjoyed. This dish was worth its 5 tix.

Next, we shared the green onion cake (4 tix), which was a tad on the greasy side but crunchy and delicious all the same. Of course, I prefer the puffy kind of green onion cake to this pancaked version, but this was still pretty good and hot off the grill.

Then Hubbs tried the lamb chop from the Outback Steakhouse. Though we were never impressed by this restaurant when we've dined there, the 5-ticket lambchop that he was served was actually pretty good, according to him. It had a fair bit of meat on it (for a lamp chop) and looked perfectly grilled and juicy. It was also served with a cabernet sauce, which apparently added to the meat's flavours.

Next, we ventured around the block of stalls again, and this time I stopped to get the bbq beef ribs from the Baccarrat Casino. For sure we had never eaten at the casino before, but the size of the ribs had my curiosity piqued and so I had to get one. 5 tix later, I was getting down and dirty with my very generously-sized ribs (they gave me two shorter ones as opposed to one longer one). The meat was tender, although the bbq sauce had a bit of that baked beans taste to it and wasn't my favourite. Still, it was meat and it was pretty good and I was hungry. However, I was definitely sick of the ribs before I had finished both of them, but since Hubbs refused to get dirty and eat the second rib, I was stuck gobbling it down too.

Hubbs then redeemed 5 more tix for a buffalo kabob from Normand's. It was a lone kabob, far too small to be worthy of $3.75 (in my humble opinion). However, Hubbs felt that sinced buffalo meat is a more rare meat than beef, this was a small price to pay for a semi-delicacy. It did look pretty well grilled, and again Hubbs described it as "good" and tasty.

Finally, with a mere 6 tix to go, we tried to figure out what to order. Hubbs had been eyeing the creole jambalaya from Four Rooms, so (foolishly) we lined up and ordered it without first glancing at other people's dishes of it. This was by far the biggest mistake of our night, because we watched in horror as a scoop of white rice was plopped into the styrofoam bowl, and then a ladle full of soupy red liquid was glopped on top. Nowhere did we see any big shrimp. Hubbs fished out about 4 pieces of tiny shrimp that was buried in the "sauce." Two very small, very sad pieces of what I can only guess to have been sausage were also hidden among the many grains of rice. Oh, and I think I saw a miniscule piece of ham as well. Hubbs described the taste as horrible and soupy, and regretted ordering it the moment he took his first bite. In fact, he claims he would have preferred to eat feces over this stuff (a hyperbolic exaggeration indicating his level of immense dissatisfaction). Anyway, after he fished out those poor little shrimp pieces, he tossed the rest of the bowl into the nearest garbage can, swearing never to eat at Four Rooms ever again.

Overall, we were not entirely impressed with the Taste of the City this year. The food was at best okay / mediocre, but certainly nothing gourmet or spectacularly impressive. Expect that if you go, you're consuming food prepared in a portable restaurant and done en masse, neither condition amenable to gourmet cooking to begin with. Add to that the pressure to turn out a product quickly, and we're talking average (or above-average) food at best. It's also an expensive venture to eat there, because drinks cost you several dollars and the portions you get for your tickets aren't often that large, unless you only eat beef ribs. Finally, the crowds can be unbearable, so try to go at off-hours if you still want to go. And always look before you line up; let someone else be the guinea pig first. And avoid the creole jambalaya.

Overall rating: 6 / 10
Hubb's Jambalaya Rating: -1000 / 10