Sorry- We're Closed...

 No chicken tonight...

Ossington Avenue during Nuit Blanche 2011

Seen...Fueling Up during Nuit Blanche

1:00AM- Mobs of hungry kids at Queen and Spadina

2:00AM- Getting caffeinated for the final stretch at Yonge and Alexander

friday frequencies- celtic memories

So, we're approaching our annual Autumn vacation time and a recent episode of "Life Is A Highway" on CBC got us thinking back to a stupendous trip we took to Nova Scotia in 2004. Our second and final week was spent on the road, culminating in a few days on Cape Breton Island, and it was a life altering experience! The annual Celtic Colours festival was in full swing, and although we were unable to partake in any of the actual events, the passion was in the air everywhere we went. So, in tribute to the indomitable spirit of all Cape Bretoners, on whatever shore you may have landed, here are a couple of our favourite tunes to get us into the weekend. May you be lucky enough to attend a raucous ceilidh tonight!!

Up first, Ashley MacIsaac with Mary Jane Lamond workin' Sleepy Maggie. After that, the Rankins performing their iconic "Fare Thee Well"

Have a "reel"-y fantastic weekend!

Seen...the diminutive guard dog

This little guy was seen outside the door of a storefront in one of those bleak suburban business parks. Wonder what his story is?

Seen...Official Notice

 ...in a Kensington Market laneway.

friday frequencies- Koop takes the time to take 5

This jazzy, loungy piece caught our ears a while back. It's from a Swedish duo called Koop, who apparently painfully construct each song using thousands of clips from existing records. We think we hear a little Dave Brubeck peeking out. We like it's laid back vibe.... perfect for coasting through a Friday afternoon!

Have a great weekend everybody!!

Agua de Jamaica

One of our regular lunchspots here in Toronto is Taqueria El Trompo in Kensington Market. Sometime between that original post, when we were ordering Ginger Ales with our tacos, and now we discovered the pleasures of Agua Fresca de Jamaica (or Jamaica Tea). Now before you run out and order something that sounds like the Caribbean nation, keep in mind that this is a Mexican drink so you've got to soften that J and pronounce each vowel individually. It sounds something like ha-ma-EE-ca. Jamaica is the Spanish word for hibiscus so, as you might expect, the beverage is an infusion of the dried petals of the hibiscus flower.

We pick ours up in bulk at one of the Latin food stores in Kensington, but variations of this beverage are so widely consumed around the globe that it should be pretty easy to find. Check your local health food store if you can't find it elsewhere. If you want a packaged variety, it will be labelled Flor de Jamaica.

This is a fantastic summer cooler! On its own it's very tart, and we're pretty partial to it that way. At El Trompo, though, it comes well sweetened- not as sweet as a soft drink, but enough that the sour edge is gone. We usually dissolve a little sugar into ours, but we find the tangy-ness helps make it a lot more refreshing on a hot summer day. We brew up enough to fill a two litre juice container & keep it on the door of the fridge. It has become a household staple. Here's a good recipe. (Although we'd suggest you start first with very little sweetener then add more to suit your personal taste)

 Saludos!

Looking Up...on Yonge Street

 ...or is that "Looking Down"?

friday frequencies- 3 x Zero 7

There was a time, just slightly before the dawn of iTunes, when we came to discover a musical duo called Zero 7. Originally it was hard to tell exactly who or what they were- a band? DJ's? In fact, they turned out to be a pair of guys who had not only a strong recording engineering and production side, but were great songwriters as well. And they had a knack for putting together ensembles of musical talent to help them create their luscious albums. We came pretty close to wearing out a couple of their CD's. 

Here's a trio of our favourites to send you into the weekend. Enjoy!

Nigella Lawson, Earth Berm Markets, Jackie Kennedy Pillbox Hat, Tickling

Know what a keyword is? Every time you type a series of words into a search engine window, you've given that engine the key words you want it to use in its search. How the search engine goes about sifting through the billions of words out there on the net is best left to others to explain. Suffice it to say that some search engines are better than others, and even the best, despite their successes, will still tend to present you with a lot of content that's irrelevant to your search.

On the other side of the equation, if you're a blogger your interests are served by frequently using words that are searched most often by folks who are interested in what you write about. To be honest, we're pretty bad at this. There are those that would tell us that our post titles widely miss the mark when it comes to being obvious hits for search engines. We prefer to use titles that are pretty relevant to the post, or are hopefully going to catch your eye, as opposed to those of all the web crawlers.

We have a feature installed on Bobofeed called Google Analytics. It provides us with data on the number of visits to the blog, the countries of origin of that traffic, whether our visitors were referrals (ie from our Facebook page), direct links such as those of you who look us up by yourselves, and traffic driven to the site by key words.

It's fascinating stuff. Rest assured, your visits are private- we have no way of knowing exactly who stopped by, but we do know that in the past 30 days we've had over 240 visits from 25 different cities within Canada, amongst Americans we're most popular in California, and that our #4 and #5 countries for visitors are Brazil and Argentina. Visitors have come from more than 50 countries across the globe.

And if we start looking at the key words that brought people to Bobofeed, (often to end only in disappointment, we presume, based on some of the words searched!) the results can be hilarious. We've had several searches looking for content about earth berms and earth berm markets. (What the heck is an earth berm market? Maybe we should Google it!) OK, Bobo Areas of Paris is pretty on the mark, even Hot Boots if you consider that we've posted about sexy footware. Jackie Kennedy Pillbox Hat Inauguration, and a half dozen variations on that theme, seems to also be popular.

But our all time favourites are:

• foot tickling fetish provider brooklyn (bravo!- very focused search, although we're not sure how we ended up a hit!)
• tickling newark (OK, this searcher was obviously willing to travel around greater New York to scratch that itch)

• Nigella Lawson
• Nigella Lawson Cardigan
• Nigella Lawson Sweater
• Nigella Lawson Hips,    and of course, the inevitable after that foreplay,
• Nigella Lawson Sex

Of course there is good reason that Ms. Lawson garnered hits at Bobofeed- you may recall that we cooked up a batch of her Butternut Squash Curry last year. And so to please her many fans, and hopefully to make a few new friends here at the blog, especially those searching the net for, uhmm, "culinary indulgence", we present a little more Nigella:

 Happy Googling!