Deliriously Delicious!

I love food. All kinds, any kind! I am willing to try pretty much anything and everything, however there is something about an amazing hamburger that hits my hunger spot like nothing else quite can. Fresh hot grilled beef, fresh onions, pickles and tomatoes and the perfect combination of ketchup, mustard and mayo served on a soft and delicious bun. Writing this makes me wish I had a burger in front of me right now. I just ate dinner. I would still eat it.

There are days and times when nothing will do but a burger and thankfully there are quite a few good burger places in Hamilton that can sate your craving. While every place has their features that make their burgers unique, when I need to feed the burger monster in my belly I drive down to Westdale to grab a Delirious Burger.

Simple yet classy. 

While some burger joints will offer you numerous burger options, sometimes several pages of options, Delirious Burger offers you three. A single burger, a double burger and a portobello burger for the vegetarians. Trust me when I say that any option you choose is going to be amazingly delicious and satisfying.

I grabbed this picture from the Delirious Burger Facebook Page.

I swung over to Delirious the other day to grab a burger and I ordered my personal favourite, the Double Bacon Cheese Burger. I added on sauteed onions and fried jalapenos, definitely worth the investment and chatted with the owner while I waited. I love the service at Delirious. It is welcoming and friendly and more often than not you'll get a chance to chat with the owner, who serves you with a great big smile. At the end of my wait I received my bag and below is what it contained.

Every burger, a masterpiece!

Burger Bliss!

If you think it looks like the most amazingly delicious burger in the world then you would be right. It also tastes like the most amazingly delicious tasting burger in the world. I could barely wait to dive in!

Literally amazing. Literally.

Needless to say, my burger did not last that long and pretty soon I was down to my last morsel!

Gone too soon!

It was gone far too soon but was simply amazing. I didn't get fries this time, but I definitely recommend getting them as well when you visit. They are among the best in the city.

Next time you feel the call of the burger hunger in the cold dark of night, slay that monster with a Delirious Burger. You won't be sorry you did.

He's leavin, on the midday train to the T-Dot!

While Gladys Knight and her loyal Pips took the midnight train to Georgia, on Saturday I hopped on board the mid-day train and went on a little adventure to Toronto. 

The Farm Network very generously offered us free tickets to the Toronto Food and Drink Market so we went to see what they had to offer. The market was being held on the CNE grounds in the Direct Energy Center so we took the Go Train into Toronto. 

WELCOME!

When we arrived we were welcomed by this lovely banner and entered to find a wide array of vendors. There were numerous food trucks, new product vendors and producers from all over the province. One of my favourite vendors was Nuba Tisane. They offered a delicious tisane made from hibiscus juice. It was sweet yet tangy and amazingly delicious!

REFRESHING!

Another favourite spot was 66 Gilead Distillery. They offered rum, whiskey and maple syrup. I sampled the rum as well as the maple syrup and to say they were delicious is an understatement. The rum was delicious and smooth. I often favour Caribbean rums but I would definitely purchase this at a LCBO. The maple syrup, which is aged in whiskey barrels, is quite simply the most delicious maple syrup I have ever had. Smokey, smooth, sweet and delicious, you could drink it straight but just imagine it on waffles or pancakes!

BEST MAPLE SYRUP EVER!

Finally, The Farm Network was there to rep the Hammer and they brought a bunch of their delicious products with them. While they feature products from throughout Ontario, they made sure to profile Hamilton products, including Twisted Tomato Ketchup and Dawson Hot Sauce. They were pretty busy almost the entire time I was at the show and it was hard to get close or even get a good picture, although I did get the chance to snap the beauty below. I take the heavy traffic as a sign of good things!

Hammer Town Proud!

When we left the weather was amazingly warm and it was awesome to walk around the CNE grounds. I was able to snap a few great pictures before jumping back on the train to Hamilton to finish a fantastically fun and delicious adventure. 

Gorgeous!

TACO, TACO! TACO, BURRITO!

This whole week I have been on vacation from work. It's been a great break and I have had some pretty fantastical times. Yesterday, however, was definitely the best night of my vacation so far. I had the opportunity to meet and hang out with some fellow Hamilton bloggers to try out some restaurants and it was an amazing time. I met Chanry, Justin, Sid, Rachel, Priya, Andrea, Judy and Charaya (and, of course, my lovely girlfriend Leslie was there too). What an amazingly welcoming, intelligent and fun group of people. I was truly honoured to have the chance to meet everyone and I am already looking forward to meeting up with them for more adventures! Yesterday we all headed down to Mezcal Taco and Tequila Bar to give it a full food blogger review.

TACOS! MMMMMM!

We met up inside, ordered our drinks and the kitchen agreed to give us an assortment of tasty dishes to sample. I ordered the Deer Hunter as my drink to start and Leslie ordered the Anejo Old Fashioned. Both were tasty and delicious and I would definitely order again.

Some of the Gang!

TASTY DRINKS!

From there we moved onto a few appetizers. We had salsa and guacamole to start. The salsa and guac were pretty awesome, although I tended to prefer the guacamole for taste. The tortilla chips were AMAZING! Fresh baked and crunchy they are everything you could ever want from a tortilla chip.

GUACAMOLE! MMMMM

SALSA!

We then moved on to a Jicama Salad and Cuban Chicharrones. I thought the Jicama salad was fresh and delicious. The dressing was simple yet clean and the dried cranberries provided just enough sweetness. My winner for the night by far however were the Cuban Chicharrones. They were salty, crunchy and awesome. Mixed with some of the toppings provided which included pickles they were amazingly delicious. I could see them making an unbelievable taco.

It was so good we couldn't get a picture until it was almost gone!

The Chicharrones! In one word, DELICIOUS!

After the appetizers we received a trio of tacos. We first had the fried cauliflower. As a vegetarian option, you can't get much better to be honest and in fact many of the meatavores in our group chose the cauliflower as their favourite taco. It was light yet crunchy and had amazing texture. Our next taco was the Chorizo. I thought that it was pretty tasty and you definitely tasted the chorizo, but was my least favourite taco of the night. The final taco was the adobo and it was my favourite taco. It was smokey and a little spicy and just all around fantastic.

Cauliflower!

Chorizo!

Adobo!

For desert we tried both the chocolate cake and the rice pudding. While the chocolate cake is good, the rice pudding is far more exceptional. It tastes just like grandma used to make and really put a solid finishing touch on a great meal.

MMMMM RICE PUDDING!

At the end of the day, the drinks are the most expensive part of the meal coming out to between $12 and $15 a cocktail. But if you focus on food the cost is pretty decent actually. We left satisfied but not overly stuffed and you could spend about $40 to $50 before drinks for two people. Throw in drinks and the bill will skyrocket but it all depends on the evening you are going out for. (Full credit of this section goes to Justin for the great blogging advice)

After this we could have called it a night, but we went on another adventure. We headed over to Radius for a few cocktails and buck a shuck oysters. I had never been to Radius but I must say I was impressed with the decor and ambiance for a Thursday night. It was a pretty chill place to sit back, enjoy a few drinks and have a nice chat with some new friends. I also had never tried oysters before so it was another first for me as a I bucked up and gave it a try. I was pretty impressed with my oyster and will definitely be down for more in the future! 

The night didn't end there however as we headed over to the Owl of Minerva to finish the night off with some Korean food! I was told all about the delicious Korean BBQ Ribs and I have to say I was not let down! They were amazingly delicious and tender and they didn't last long at our table!

OH MY GOD AMAZING!

Now you're probably wondering by this time how this has anything to do with gardening. It doesn't. But it was an amazingly fun evening that I wanted to share with everyone. I made some new friends, had some great food and in general had myself a ball of a time!

In terms of my garden, nothing has happened as of yet. (Especially since I planted them only two days ago). There are some positive signs however. You can see that inside the greenhouse is getting nice and toasty as lots of condensation is happening on my greenhouse lid. This is a good thing as it helps the germination process.

It's getting hot in there!

Inside everything looks great. I like to check at least once a day to make sure that the peat pods are still moist and do not need water. As you can see everything looks pretty wet, which is a good thing as you want to make sure everything stays moist and humid.

MOIST!

Off to celebrate a friend's impending marriage tonight. March Break is slowly coming to a close, but my adventures continue!