Deb's Lunch … and dinner and breakfast too

So like I said, we had dinner out on our second Saturday at TIFF, at Acadia. It’s Southern cooking (like the Acadians who drifted down to Louisiana, Acadian Driftwood) with local ingredients in Little Italy/Portugal in Toronto – so a fusion restaurant for sure. Acadia is not reviewed too well on UrbanSpoon, but it Yelps well. We liked it. I had a cocktail they called “Battle of New Orleans” – a bit like a Sazerac, but no absinthe. They had the extra large ice cubes for it, that are supposed to not water down your drink too much – and it was strong, and tasty.

We got some cornbread that came with pork butter, and Mark had the crab and corn bisque, that came with froth. I had the clam bake, and Mark had trout. We got the roasted carrots, though I would’ve preferred Collard greens. We went home happy.

Sunday morning we got up and secured tickets to Enough Said (already in commercial release in NYC).

We went back to the Senator for breakfast – I got the farmhouse omelette and Marks had the banana pancakes and we split everything. Just as good as the first time.

Our first film was another good one in the cruddy Scotia Bank muliplex – Antboy, based on a series of books by Kenneth Bøgh Andersen, illustrated by Erik Petri.

Movie #2 was the first one of TIFF where  there was a moment when I said to myself, “please be over”. Under the Skin, Scarlett Johanssen as some kind of alien vampire creature that lures men into cars with her, and then absorbs them by walking over a shiny surface, water? oil? jello? –  they sink, she goes on. Very little dialogue and made no sense at all. At the end, her human skin starts peeling off to reveal a black alien underneath. A lumberjack sets her on fire, and then there’s a scene of snowflakes – you can see them hitting the camera lens – that’s when I prayed for it to be over, and it was.

We went back to the apartment and ate ice cream and packed and Mark watched football, and I did work and school work, and then we headed out for Enough Said, with a quick stop at Starbucks. I’m really glad we got the tickets. Enough Said was romantic comedy and light and funny, but absolutely spot on the way we live.  Took away all the bad taste of Under the Skin.

We surpassed last year by two – 19 films last year, 21 this year. And it was so much easier to get back into the US with my passport.

All TIFF ticket stubs, on Sunday night

Friday was a three movie day – starting with The Love Punch at 11:00 at the Elgin. Romantic comedy with Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson as a divorced couple who reunite to steal a diamond from the hedge fund manager who’s stolen Brosnan’s company’s retirement fund. They bring in their next door neighbors, played by Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie. Kind of a reassurance that us old folks can still kick ass. It was especially funny, given Brosnan’s former cinematic career as 007, to see them all donning scuba gear and scaling cliffs to break in the villa on the Côte d’Azur to get the diamond. Even funnier – during the Q&A, the director, Joel Hopkins (Last Chance Harvey) tried to get Emma Thompson to join us by cell phone – the TIFF staffer who got to get the call connected was quite charming about how this was her absolute best festival moment.

We had a gap until our next film – it wasn’t until 6:00. We ate French toast & bacon and fried apples, then Mark took off ofr a walk and coffee, and I did a bunch of work. Wrote a paper proposal for the class I’m taking; worked on the library school website; did various email catch up.

French toast, fried apples and bacon

Movie #2 was at Roy Thomson Hall, home base for the Toronto Symphony. We were kind of jealous after looking at the schedule, and I think Overture probably has better acoustics, but Thomson’s got better sight lines. Anyways, the film was Bright Days Ahead (Les Beaux Jours), about a 60-year-old woman who is having an affair with her computer teacher – from the senior center, which is called Beaux Jours – her grown daughters, who are just a little younger than the computer teachers, in their 30s, have given her a free trial coupon for some activities at the center. The main character is played by a great French beauty – Fanny Ardant. It ended badly, no surprise, but somehow without ending her marriage as well.

We hoofed it right over to the Elgin, and played the get-in-the-short-line-by-flashing-your-platinum (or signature)-Visa-card game. Movie #3 was Rock the Casbah, the story of three sisters reunited in Morocco for the 3-day Muslim mourning ritual of “gnaza” on the death of their father. They are the remaining three of four sisters – one of them has committed suicide since she was forbidden to make a bad match. Omar Sharif plays the dead dad’s ghost – one of the more humorous touches. It was well done – the review says, “This French-Moroccan tearjerker is classically formulated yet highly effective.” – and beautifully shot – but I couldn’t stay awake. I got dozy during day one, woke up for most of day two, and then missed the majority of day 3. We stopped at the Metro grocery and got ice cream and drano for the slow running bathroom sink drain in the condo, that’s been annoying Mark when he shaves, sort of proud of ourselves for being out purchasing odd items at 11:00PM at an urban grocery.

“The brilliant young French actress Camille Rutherford (Low Life) stars as the doomed monarch in this sumptuous historical drama by Swiss director Thomas Imbach.”

We got up and secured tickets for Mary Queen of Scots, a 9:00AM show at TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival’s classy theater. We took the streetcar downtown, and Mark went for tickets, while I went for coffee. The first Starbucks I thought I’d try was in the mall, so not quite open – though a TIFF line already wrapped around the building, movies goers waiting to get into the multiplex. I walked two blocks back to the one right by where we’d gotten off the streetcar, and tho the line was out the door, it went pretty quick. The nice thing for us, on a hot day, is that, once we were equipped with tix and coffee,  the waiting lines at Lightbox are inside, in the air conditioning. The movie is structured as a series of (fictional) letters that Mary wrote to her cousin Elizabeth I, and a 1935 biography by Stefan Zweig. There’s been controversy surrounding Mary’s letters for 400 years, already. We thought this was another mess (like Tom) – in need of editing. But, unlike Tom, a charming mess, as Mark said. I was not sure if they were making fun of melodrama – there were a lot of scenes where the music would swell, and we’d cut to an image of a sky or some clouds or water or Mary’s face – like the waves crashing on the rocks in Dark Shadows.

We came back to the apartment for breakfast/lunch – split the blueberry scone I’d gotten at Starbucks, along with the good fat bacon from the market, and bananas and bagels and cherrios and vanilla yogurt – tho I had my yogurt with the last prune plum cut into little chunks and scattered over the top. The yogurt was on the sweet side, but good – all the grocery stores we’ve been in so far, the big Loblaws on College, and the Freshco under our apartment, have a dizzying array of yogurts – the flavored Greek yogurts are all 0 fat, which I don’t like, and the most appealing flavors only come in giant cartons. We discovered another grocery chain, Metro, and are going to check it out tomorrow.

We walked to Bulldog, and had a coffee, sitting outside, despite the heat – heard a car crash on Church, but didn’t go to gape like most of our neighbors. The guy sitting next to me was working on a syllabus – I couldn’t quite tell if he was a teacher or a student – but made me feel guilty. Still, I have the “no reliable wifi” excuse – and have been keeping up just fine, if I do say so myself. Then we took the subway up to Bloor for our last movie of the day, How I live now. At the end, the people behind us review was, “overacted teen flick” – but we liked it. Mark is very knowledgeable and a fan of YA lit – he’s already got the book in his Overdrive queue. We watched a bit of the post film Q&A – mostly trying to figure out how the hell you say Saorsie Ronan – I think it’s like “serchie”.

Our plan was to get dinner in Little Italy – we thought this place (actually in Little Portugal) yelped well – Enoteca Sociale. We couldn’t make an Open Table reserve, but figured since we’d arrive on the early side, better to just walk in. But when we got there, all we could smell was paint – they were not serving any food, at least on Weds. Seems like they have re-opened in time for the weekend:

After a week’s worth of renovations – things are looking good! Photos to follow in the next day or two! #Renovations #AlmostDone

— Enoteca Sociale (@enotecasociale) September 8, 2013

I saw the Lakeview Restaurant through the window of the streetcar, and thought we should walk back there. We strolled back east n Dundas, and stopped for a baguette at a bakery. I haven’t been able to find the article, but I swear it just got written up in one of the cooking mags – for making good use of local produce & products and having a store next door that sells them. Anyways, it was a great example of serendipity – Lakeview turned out to be the perfect spot for our early dinner. Mark had a cornflake fried chicken sandwich, and I had their version of toad in the hole eggs, and we both went home happy.

At least until I tracked my UPS-shipped forgotten passport – but I think I will relegate the rest of that saga to Thursday morning, where it belongs.

Lakeview eggy in the middle (toad in the hole) there’s an egg under the square of cheese, and the housemade maple sausage was just that

Lakeview cornflake fried chicken sandwich

I’m going kind of a day behind on these – now writing this post on Tuesday AM, on my iPhone, still in bed at 8:03, tho I could argue that it’s only 7:03 at home in Central time. [at least started; gonna move over to the “real” computer to do the pics]

On Monday, we successfully added a film, Belle – period drama based on true events:

We had to go to the TIFF box office to get the tickets. Afterwards we headed up to the big Loblaws, near last year’s airbnb. Originally we thought we might make a big breakfast, with fixins from Loblaws, but we sort of ran out of time. We split a scone at Bulldog, brought the groceries home, and headed back out for the film. It was in the Wintergarden Theatre, part of the historic Elgin, but a part we’d not been in before. Crazy ceiling with fake leaves & lanterns.

early morning sky – getting up to try for TIFF tix

After Belle, we headed back to the apartment. We had sandwiches & chips & apples for lunch. Mark headed out to play, and I got ready for class at 6:00 (central, 7:00 here). Which went OK – used Mark’s laptop as my 2nd screen, so I could see what the students see. And Mark came back with a new watchband. Talked to John a bit – sounds like he might get a job in the library for grad school – he worked in the library at his undergrad art school, too.

Our last movie of the night was Starred Up – about father & son prisoners in a Scottish jail. “Starred up” is how juvenile but dangerous offenders, who get sent to adult prisons, are referred to. Grim but well done seemed to be the prevailing opinion. Walked home & bought an overpriced carton of Hagen Daaz cookie dough ice cream, that was a little icey on top, but delicious none the less. And I tried on vain to reset my voicemail so I could retrieve the messages I can’t listen to – no luck. Oh well, my message says to email me so presumably if anyone really needs me they’ll do that.

Posted from iPhone – mostly.

 

Our first Saturday at TIFF was rainy. We only had one movie, our second of the festival, at 9:30 in the morning – Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola – her directorial debut. I thought she must be Sofia Coppola’s little sister – but instead, Sofia is Gia’s aunt. Gia is the daughter of Sofia’s older brother, Gian Carlo, who would be 50 this year except he died at age 22, in 1986, about six months before Gia was born.

The film is based on a set of short stories by James Franco. He’s in the movie along with lots of movie stars’ kids and relations and cameos by older, more famous relatives. The two main characters, April and Teddy, are Julia Robert’s niece and Val Kilmer’s son, respectively. Talia Shire (Francis Ford’s sister) played a high school guidance counselor. Val Kilmer plays an extremely inappropriate step dad.

I read an interview of Franco, and he said Teddy is the kid most like him. To me he was the kid most like John – who pretty much goes along with the other kids’ outrageous ideas, lets them pour booze down his throat till he pukes, and takes forever to work up the courage to tell the girl he really likes that he really likes her. But at least has enough sense to get out of the car before the real daredevil kid enters the freeway going the wrong direction. Which is how the film ends – Teddy walking home texting with April, Fred driving on the freeway going the wrong way. With the cars all miraculously separating and getting out of his way – but my heart was still pounding for at least half an hour afterward.

It was raining hard enough that we subway-ed & streetcar-ed everywhere. We came back to our airbnb condo, and I worked. It didn’t seem like such a bad way to spend a rainy afternoon.

We had a 5:30 reservation for Scaramouche, the perhaps-best-restaurant in Toronto, that we blundered upon, by using Open Table, during our 2008 trip here (in the dark ages, when Open Table was brand new), and then didn’t find when we were here in 2012. It felt a little awkward being seated – we were the only people in the place – but it quickly filled. And the food was just as good as I remembered – they’re really good with vegetables. They brought us an amuse-bouche, a dab of cod brandade on a tiny potato chip, with fried leek circles and micro greens and lemon marmalade – that is, lots of flavors, but it all hung together – and I don’t even like cod. We split a summer vegetable salad that was a mosaic of corn, gold and red beets, green and yellow beans, artichoke, fennel, cherry tomatoes in several colors, baby patty pans, a few leaves of little lettuces, and a few squirts of a basil mayonnaise. Mark had the salmon – it came grilled with smashed potatoes and a pea puree. I had the scallops – three absolutely giant scallops, with ham croquettes – little potato-y, cheese-y balls, and a chile sauce, and a black garlic sauce, and ribbons of squash. Again, it all went together amazingly well. My only regret was watching another couple a few tables away from us – they skipped the starters, went direct to entrees, and had room for dessert. We didn’t.

We walked back to our apartment – south so feeling like down hill, and actually really down hill a lot of the way. We got coffee at a Starbucks, and stopped by the Ryerson Theater, thinking we might be able to rush for the F Word – but the rush line was huge. So we sat on a rock in the front yard of one of the dorms across the street, and drank our drinks, and watched the hordes craning for a glimpse of Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe, as Mark kept correcting me). And we were collapsed on our airbnb condo’s couch by 9:30.

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