Hot Pie

Tula Yoga had move its downtown location to Adelaide St. and Peter St and was offering a week of free classes as a promotion. On Tuesday, I went to do a Hot Power Flow Level 1-2 class. I'm not a fan of hot yoga but wanted to see the space. People love free stuff so the class was packed with about 25 practitioners.

After a sweat-drenched class, my conviction about hot yoga was unchanged. Though instructions on alignment were given, people were mostly coping with the heat and perspiration to pay much attention. So there were quite a lot of poor postures over the 75-min class. Worse, the cues for for Virasana (hero pose) was entirely wrong in my opinion (and those of my long-time teachers). The instruction to slide the lower legs away from the thighs so the yogi can sit between his feet puts too much torque on the knees. Combined that with the heat allowing people to lay down right on their back ... ouch. I see a lot of joint and back injuries in the future.

As a reward, I then headed over to Pai, the new Thai restaurant in the expanding empire for the owners of Sukho Thai and Sabai Sabai. It was a busy place this early in its opening. But though there were at least 10 empty seats, and only just over 1 hour until closing time on a rainy night, apparently there was no room. I guess I'll spend my money elsewhere from now on.

I walked up Duncas St for a different kind of pie: meat ones from Kanga (Australian Meat Pie). A chicken one set me back $6.75. Though the crust was tasty, the rest was disappointing: a few bits of carrots and peas, and exactly 1 thumb-sized chicken cube. It was more of a meat tart than pie and didn't make a full meal. Though I might pay that much for an appetizer in a sit-down restaurant, I wouldn't for essentially a take-out place.

Chew Chu

On Sunday, I headed downtown for the 2nd Matsuri Summer Festival which highlighted Japanese culture. Taking place at Yonge-Dundas Square, surrounded by gleaming billboard, the space was packed with festival goers. Some were taking photos with a model formally dressed as a geisha in white make-up, others took pictures of each other since she wasn't the only one in a kimono. At the front, people were watching various Japanese groups doing traditional dances and other activities. The majority were standing in various lines to eat food being cooked by local restaurants including Fin, Hapa, Zakkushi, and Gushu Chicken. There were some 10 such booths and they all did something so simple yet so superior to the chaos and slow pace of the Food Truck festivities I used to go to: have someone walking down the line taking orders.

Though all that food smelled great, I didn't want to wait in the hot sun and eat standing up or squatting over concrete. I walked north through the oasis of the Ryerson quad and plopped myself down at Ramen Raijin, one of two places that offered both pork and chicken broth. But what I was really in the mood for was some cold noodles. So I got the Hiyashi Chuka combo ($12.30).

The first dish was a bowl of warm rice covered with ground chicken and slightly sweet egg. Accompanied by a bowl of cool salad, it was a nice start. The noodles came out with char siu pork, egg strips, and seaweed. It was delicious and well-balanced: cold and toothsome noodles; soft and tasty pork; crunchy cucumber; and earthy flavour from the seaweed. A shallow broth provided some tanginess to the whole dish.

Plink

On Saturday, I headed down to the Harbourfront for their Classical Music Festival. The theme for this year was Strings and Voices. The congestion in that whole area seemed to have gotten worse even after more than a year of major construction. Every roadway and intersection were torn up and blocked off. So I arrrived just as the Jessica Stuart Few Trio started their set.

The band had just finished a cross-country tour and had driven straight from B.C. for this last show in their schedule. It was a special set this afternoon: no electric guitar just kotos (3 of them) and Jessica's mother, ethnomusicologist Wendy Stuart, was joining her for a few songs. Without her electric guitar, the songs (Kid Dream, Winter Warm) revealed their jazzier nature. Some still had that catchy pop sound such as Dontcha and I Want To Ride My Bicycle. It was a perfect day for Jessica because not only did the organizing committee paid to fly her mother in from Vancouver for this rare musical showcase, but it was also her birthday. To that end, mother and daughter played harmonizing kotos on an old song (Climbing The Mountain), a new one (Same Girl), and a special new piece (One Day). This last tune was inspired by trips taken by Jessica with her mother around the world and the advice she has received. The main one being to live to the fullest instead of putting off for "one day", because "one day might come too soon".

Pizza In The Park

Friday Evening, I went to Christie Pits Park for some pizza to benefit the Homegrown National Park initiative. The park's outdoor wood oven was used to bake the pizza. Volunteers were busy rolling out personal pizzas ($5) and grilling corn ($1). The all-cheese pizza with its cheese coming from giant yellow bags of No-Name cheese didn't appeal so I opted for the veggie version which had vegetables provided by Fresh City Farm.

I would have wanted some corn too, but they ran out. In fact, shortly after my purchase, they stopped taking orders all-together. The take-away: come early to reduce your wait time and for more generous toppings. It was obvious they were trying to stretch the remaining ingredients to make them last. I also had to wait about 30 minutes for my pie.

Luckily, I got it just as local band Hands & Teeth started their acoustic set. Though I'd probably get more bang for my buck even at a pizza franchise, I did enjoy biting into fresh, piping hot baked dough. Hands & Teeth has gone to a harder, rock sound, but their multi-part harmonies translated well to just guitar and voice, with some percussion from shaker and tambourine. It was a fun short set, but not as gorgeous as the one they played at now-defunct Of A Kind record/clothing store. But then that show had 4-part harmonies and a foot-pumped mini organ.