jason's blog

Admist all the ramen shops opening up in Toronto is Raijin. This is a Vancouver chain and their first location will be at Yonge and Gerrard. I will try it as soon as I can!

Unstoppable is a short commercial for the Canadian Paralympic Committee. The video below shows how they shot it – it was all done in one take and did not use any CGI for the sets around the runner. Great shoot!

MZ_Paralympics – Making Of from VAUGHAN HANNIGAN on Vimeo.

Windows 7 displayed a new feature recently. Themes, used to control how your computer looks, are now dynamic. Windows uses RSS feeds to control the wallpapers displayed on your PC, updating with new images when they come out. To download a dynamic theme, the Windows 7 Themes Online list is quite good.

Sit back and relax. This video is Chris Harris’ longest on YouTube’s new Drive channel. He takes the “ultimate” iterations of each car head-to-head both on the street and then on a track.

8,000,000 fans, that is. To celebrate this milestone, Ferrari dedicated this video to their Facebook fans:

March was “Brassaii” month for me. I ended up there for dinner twice and for Le Brunch at the end of the month. For dinner, I was pleased with the service and the food. It’s been a while so I don’t quite recall the dishes we ordered but I know that I had tried both the cheese plate and chacuterie plate on different occasions. The kitchen staff was also nice enough to accomodate a slight chance to one of the dishes for us when we asked.

On our first trip there we really enjoyed the wine pictured – Bogle Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2008. However, on our return trip it was all sold out. I’ll have to find out which wine agent sells it. We were informed it was an organic wine however I see no refernence to it being organic or bio-dynamic on the vineyards website – go figure.

Le Brunch is held at Brassaii on the last Sunday of the month. Tickets sell out fast. While I was told to expect a crazy party it was a lot crazier than even how it was described to me. Definitely super fun and something everyone has to try once. Brassaii tries pretty hard to make it fun, with the staff all dressed in theme costumes, a few entertainers and other little things that make the event stand out. I won’t be sharing any incriminating pictures from Le Brunch :)

While most of the bags at Caracalla Bath are a bit to retro looking, the Italian racing stripes on this Nero Corsa Holdall give it more modern feel. And it’s “just” 420 pounds in the UK.

I use this pan almost every day. It’s a very large simmer/saute pan from All-Clad. It has a wide, flat bottom which is great for electric cooktops. It features shallow sloped sides that can have a slight wok-like effect of cooling food by pushing it to the side.

Unfortunately it’s a Williams Sonoma exclusive – which usually implies it’s really expensive unless you get it from the USA. When I bought mine it was $125 from the USA. Fortunately, the pan just went on sale in canada for only $170. I highly recommend it. Especially if you have an oversized burner like 11″ or 12″. The sale is only on for 2 days! Get it fast!

I’ve loved induction cooktops for quite some time now. I’ve been using a Samsung range for about two years. The newest induction cooktops allow you to place your cookware anywhere on the surface and bring it to heat – amazing!