There’s a neighborhood Pho place tucked on the 3rd floor at Bloor and Avenue. A popular place for students and university employees, it’s usually packed at lunch but is only a bit busy at dinnertime. All your standard vietnamese dishes are here: pho, bun, spring rolls, etc. My only reservation about recommending the place is that they don’t give you the deep asian spoons that most places do, leaving you to slurp the broth with a small spoon.

Today I made my way there and discovered a rather dramatic price increase across the entire menu. Normally I would’ve noticed an increase, but not the extent. However they decided to put labels over the original prices and you can still see the old price underneath. In most cases, everything across the board is up $1.50-2.00 a dish. For a place where dishes were about $6, this is quite an increase. I’m not against a price increase, but did you have to make it so obvious?

Gizmodo continues their latest streak of good editorial content, not just the relinking of announcements and press releases from product companies. I may switch to them instead of Engadget as my primary source of “what’s new in gadgets” content.

Today they published a layman (well, internet layman) description about SLR lenses and their importance in taking good photographs. Sure, switching from your point-and-shoot camera to an SLR will undoubtably improve your pictures through a better sensor and more manual control, but the optics in good lenses is where the gravy is. By investing in a great zoom, and a good basic prime lens, you can enable some pretty great pictures through your camera.

Keep in mind, upgrading to an SLR is not the end all of your photography expenses. Most lenses are the cost of a small point-and-shoot camera so budget accordingly. Sometimes it’s not worth upgrading to an SLR with basic zoom.

I tried this wine over the weekend and it’s very good:

CHÂTEAU DE L’ESTANG 2004
VINTAGES 92809
750 mL bottle

Price: $ 17.95
Wine, Red Wine, 13.7% Alcohol/Vol.

Sugar Content : XD

Made in: Bordeaux, France
By: Chateau De Roquefort

Release Date: Nov 8, 2008

Tasting Note
A close neighbour to the famous St. Émilion commune, Côtes de Castaillon is an appellation on the rise. This fine wine featuring the aromatic signatures of traditional Bordeaux. Blackcurrant, bell pepper, blueberry, toast and game dominate. Dry with rich mid-palate. Medium-bodied with a long, lush finish. A natural choice for game birds, bison steak or roast leg of lamb. (VINTAGES panel, June 2008)

I’ve always used a credit card that had purchase protection. It’s one of those “bonus” features that are found in most non-point cars that I think are really worth it. The TD Gold Select is one of the few cards that offer purchase protection and don’t have a fee. This protection even covers damages to an item you purchased:

Enjoy worry-free shopping with Purchase Security and Extended Warranty Protection. If an eligible item that you purchased in full with your eligible TD Visa Card is stolen or damaged within 90 days of purchase, it may be replaced or repaired or you will be reimbursed for it. If the item comes with a manufacturer’s warranty, you may be entitled to double the warranty period by up to 12 additional months.

There’s plenty of other cards that offer this, some without a fee – so shop around! It’ll protect you from purchasing broken tv’s.

If you love starbucks as much as I do, one of the best things to get is a Starbucks Card. Not only does it make paying easier and you can get it to auto-reload from your credit card, but you get all sorts of benefits too:

• syrup and milk options (like soy) are free
• brewed coffee gets free refills
• free tall coffee when you buy 1 lbs of coffee beans
• and free 2 hours of wifi at any starbucks location

To get these benefits you just have to register  your card.

In March, the Toronto Wine & Cheese Show starts. The Summerhill LCBO had a preview of some of the display wines there, along with some hors d’ouvres.

Things must be slow at the LCBO, because this week there was yet another sale on vintages. I managed to pick up two bottles in both of my last trips there. A full list of their sale items is online.

In this article at Gizmodo, they discuss why more megapixels in a camera does not necessarily mean better picture quality. not just the size, but the quality and type of sensors used in cameras affect it.

A friend called me up recently to ask where to look for a new TV. Here are the two stores that I’ve been using over the last few years:

HDTV
325 Bamburgh Circle. Unit A103
Scarborough. ON
416-498-9233

Golden Electronics
9019 Bayview ave
Thornhill, ON L4B 3M6, Canada
(905) 881-7328

A collection of affordable sports cars vs. the new 911 (non-S) has been brought together in Japan for Best Motoring. Watch the video below to see how closely some of these cars are matched on the track.

The video is at Racing Films. I’m not embedding it since it keeps ignoring my attempts to prevent it from autoplaying.

Tags: 911, BMW, Carrera, cayman, Honda, i35i, lap, Nissan, Porsche, race, s2000, track, Video

A lot of my friends do not have a family doctor and they are not alone. The province introduced a new service this week to help people find family doctors. Called Health Care Connect, it’s a phone service that will use a nurse at a Community Care Access Centre to help them find a physician or nurse practitioner. The number is 1-800-445-1822.