Food Notes

• Starbucks now offers the ability to customize their reloadable gift cards. Check out their website for more details.
• If your loved one prefers chocolate over coffee, how about purchasing a gift certificate for a chocolate tasting? Chocolate Exquisite appears to understand this indulgence quite well, pairing rich sweets with dessert wines. Interesting...
• Speaking of wine, Wayne Gretzky joins a growing list of celebrities and sports personalities who are lending their names and reputations to vino. I can't say I've ever tried a celebrity-endorsed wine, but I'm sure it will be more difficult to avoid with time.
• It turns out south side's Passionate Plate is another "studio kitchen" - offering patrons the opportunity to assemble meals to take home (and save time making dinner late on), or simply pick up, curbside, packages already prepared. They do have a small bistro/cafe though, and I'll try to stop by some time after a spin through the Italian Centre next door.
• Just last week, I posted about Serendipity 3's $25,000 dessert. This week, they were shut down after failing a second straight inspection, when the health department spotted a live mouse, and over 100 cockroaches, among other things. The restaurant is apparently working hard to reopen. You'd think with the profits from their opulence sundaes, a cleaning staff would be the least they could afford to hire.
• Here's another one to wrap your head around - a restaurant in Taipei called "Modern Toilet" seats customers on chairs shaped like toilets, which surround glass-topped bathtub tables. But even better - they serve feces-shaped ice cream in plastic toilet shaped bowls. Seriously.
• To end on a non-disgusting note, I love what Ganda, a New York food blogger I read, has done with her restaurant reviews. Plotting her reviews on what she calls an "eat map", it's an easy way to locate her recommended eateries by neighbourhood. Given my difficulty with even using Live Maps period, this will not be an immediate development from me, but I like the idea.