All Things Must Pass

I headed to Bloorcourt on Saturday. I saw that Café Paradise, once Caldense Bakery and now part of the revamped Paradise Theatre, has finally opened. Likewise, a presentation centre was operating at Bloor and Dovercourt for the 11-story condo that will be built there. I myself was in the area to see my dentist. Like all previous dentists I've used, they seem to charge more (3 scaling units) than for actual services rendered (15 minutes). But at least they did the cleaning instead of delegating to an assistant and only dropping in for a 1-minute checkup. When he asked me if I had received my Covid booster shot, I braced internally for an antivax screed. But he only wanted to tout the (alleged) benefits of Novavax over the other vaccines.

I made my way through Dufferin Mall to get some groceries at No Frills. The "Dirty Duff" has been nicely cleaned up for years now. But the surrounding area has gotten temporarily scruffier. 3 large schools (Bloor Collegiate, Kent School, and Brockton HS aka Bloordale Beach) are being demolished to make way for new construction. Once Dufferin Mall starts its own renovation and upgrade, traffic will be hell including for the loved/hated Dufferin "29 Sufferin" bus.

I dropped by for a short chat with the owner of Arabesque then walked along College St. until Spadina. The closures due to the pandemic or Toronto's crazy rent continued apace. Some like Tazak Kabob (once Burgatory, Hey Meatballs) barely lasted 2 years. But I was surprised that a number of decades-old stalwarts folded: Portuguese Chicken Guy (i.e., Churras Queira Oliveira), Kalendar (immortalized in a 2000s car commercial), and Mars Food (est. 1951).

When I returned to my lodgings, my friend had spent their birthday cleaning the house. They wanted to go to Pho 90 in the Stockyards for dinner, despite the food being "not that great" the last time. I was skeptical of the place even though my mom saw it profiled on youtube. But these videos felt like commercial shills.

It was terrible food. My vegan pho ($13.95) was bland even though they substituted the regular beef broth for the veggie one. The toppings were literally just raw greens thrown into the soup. According to my friend, their Bun Bo Hue ($17.95) used old broth on the verge of going bad. They barely touched their food. We both agreed that the runny mess of the Seafood Crispy Noodles ($19.95) ordered by their teen was a travesty of this dish. Only the mango salad ($14.95) was edible but overpriced. In fact, everything was too expensive. Finally, this experience confirmed my recent misgivings with online reviews and ratings because Pho 90 has stellar marks with Google and other websites. But being part of a busy outdoor mall, they'll breeze along for years to come.