Hello Halo

Although there are 200,000 Filipinos here and numerous restaurants, they tend to be cheaper joints found in more immigrant-heavy areas. Lamesa, meaning table in Spanish and tagalog, is the first upscale Filipino restaurant in downtown Toronto. I dropped by Friday night to check out its menu about 2 months into its opening.

Adobo Pork Roll

Tuna Empanada

A $35 daily tasting menu got you a 3-course meal. For appetizers, I picked the Shrimp Pancit Canton ($8): sauteed shrimp, canton noodles, beans, carrots, and cabbage; and Green Mango Salad ($8): sour mango, carrot, radish with a bagoong caramel. For mains, the choices were Salmon Sinigang ($23): green beans, eggplant, tomatoes, and a daikon puree with a sour tamarind sauce; and Short Rib Nilaga ($23): cabbage, green beans, and a bone marrow potato puree with a ginger base.

Shrimp Canton

Mango Salad

First up was an amuse-bouche composed of deep-fried spring roll stuffed with adobo-style pork cheek. The roll was nicely crispy with earthy, meaty tones from the pork. A nice start. The noodles were chewy and greasily good with plumb and tasty shrimps. The mango salad had a nice bite to it, thanks to the (toned-down) shrimp paste accompaniment. These appetizers were the stand-out dishes.

Salmon Sinigang

Short Rib Nilaga

Both the salmon and the short rib were average. There was nothing to differentiate them from the all the other restaurants in town offering Continental/French-style cooking. For these prices, I'd rather have 3 more appetizers dishes.

The pre-dessert dish was more successful: small bite-site tuna empanada with plantain and creme anglais. The desserts suffered the same issue as the mains. They were tasty enough: Jackfruit creme brulee ($7) and Ovaltine Chocolate Mousse ($7) with sweet rice crisps but not memorable. Change the Jackfruit to, say, Durian, now you're talking!

Jackfruit Creme Brulee

Ovaltine Chocolate Mousse

The amuse-bouche, appetizers, and pre-dessert, which played up the distinctive Filipino flavour palette were more enjoyable (agreeing with me is the food critic at the Globe and Mail). Lamesa has to offer more of these instead of second-rate Continental cuisine. I would also prefer more tapas-style selection since $23 for a small piece of fish or pork did not make a good impression.

Jazz It Up

Friday afternoon, a capella group Retrocity gave a free performance at the Toronto Jazz Festival. Their set was definitely Michael Jackson inspired with Human Nature, Man In a Mirror, Rock With You (appropriately arranged as "Swing With You"), as well as snippets in several medleys. But they didn't neglect other 80s acts including Kate Bush (Cloud Busting), Toto (Africa), Queen (Killer Queen), and the Police (Synchronicity II, King of Pain). There were even some guilty pleasures such as Easy Lover, I Feel For You, and One Night In Bangkok. In a nod to the festival, in addition to Swing With You they performed a gospel and a jazz number.

It wasn't typical Jazz repertoire, but the crowd ate it up especially the Sesame Street Pinball song as well as a Sesame Street medley that started with the Sesame Street theme and then incorporated other children's shows (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood) as well as songs relating to streets and cities. With two standing ovations, and 2 encore calls, they went 15 minutes over their allotted 75-minute set time. But on such a sunny afternoon, no one was looking at their watch.

Viva Forever

At the last show with The Pining, an all-female alt-country band, I was curious why Terra Lightfoot was the guest guitarist while the regular guitarist, Emma Moss Brender was in the audience. Wednesday night, it made sense: Emma was leaving the band. The Pining held a farewell show for Emma at Ted's Collision, with both guitarists on board for the abbreviated set.

Ted's Collision and its air of benignful neglect, with its old tables, pool table, pinball and Ms. Pac-man tabletop is quite different from the glam lounges, Italian trats, and cheap sushi eats that dot Little Italy. But it was the perfect venue for some twangy alt-country tunes. The sound system was definitely lo-fi, but it was more than adequate for the small space. In fact, the 4-part harmonies and the quieter acoustic guitars and violin came through clearly, better than louder set-ups.

Each singer/songwriter had their own style. Some were fast and toe-tapping while others had a bluesy feel. It remains to be seen what Terra's style will be, though they did sing a new tune written by her. Emma specialized in slow, hurting song. Appropriately, the show ended with her singing the melancholic She's Gone.

I'm Lovin' It

Bettye Lavette

The Big Sound plays Motown covers for fun every other month. Saturday night, they were opening for Bettye Lavette. It might not be their biggest crowd at 300, since their packed shows at The Great Hall probably approaches 400 or more. But it was a more diverse, mainstream crowd and so was probably their biggest stage.

As the full 26 member took to the stage including 8 singers, the size of the band caused some astonished murmurs from the crowd. From the opening number Dancing In The Street sung by Tanika Charles to the closing Ain't No Mountain High Enough, they had the audience singing along to every tune. There was some dancing to the side, but not a lot. This older set was more comfortable seated and clapping along.

All the singers were great, especially a new male crooner: tall and imposing in long dreadlocks, with a velvety smooth voice. But Maylee Todd was a towering stand-out. I have mentioned her stage presence in Big Sound previously and she topped those appearances. The crowd stood up 3 times and it was all on her numbers. The first and last, I Want You Back and Ain't No Mountain, may have been because these are admittedly great songs. But there was no doubt when people spontaneously leapt up on their feet, hooting and hollering, half-way through her slow scorching take on Who's Lovin' You (Jackson 5) that she was on fire.

Tanika Charles

The headliner was Bettye Lavette, a soul singer from the 60s who, like Lee Fields, found success much later in her career. She came up on stage belting out a high note. For the rest of the night, she treated the crowd to what felt like an intimate concert. She would tell personal stories in between every song. Her singing had a wonderful conversational tone even on the big notes, due to the phrasing and emotion she brought to every verse. On slow numbers such as Choices, Isn't It A Pity, and Love Reign O'er Me, she played to her strength. Her uptempo songs were less successful, with the exception of You Don't Know Me At All, because her band seemed unable to find that higher energy level.