evo remains the only car magazine that I consistently read. One of the writers compared the technological acheivement that is the Ferrari 458, with the visceral old-school Porsche GT3 RS. Both are amazing cars, the sound of both of them alone is enough for me to want either of them:

I was able to snap this pic on my iPhone late this afternoon. A fire broke out in a condo on Queen’s Quay:

LCBO has highlighted these two wines in their Wines Of The Month.

• MOUNT NELSON SAUVIGNON BLANC 2008, Marlborough, South Island, New Zealand, $17.95
• GIORDANO COLLECTION PRIMITIVO DI MANDURIA 2007, DOC, Puglia, Italy, $17.95

On Monday, there was a launch of the new 5-Series at BMW Toronto. While I took no pictures, this video shows a similar launch at a dealer in Quebec:

Thew new 5 is a great looking car – especially when sitting beside it’s awkward previous model which suffered at the hands of Chris Bangle. Both powerplants are turbocharged, with the turbo 3.0L inline six cylinder on the 535i and a turbo 4.4L V8 on the 550i. Two new models arrive next year, a hybrid 5 rumored to be available to North America, and the M5, due to be unveiled at this year’s Geneva Auto Show.

I picked up this cookbook, Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking, last week. I’m not normally one to own cookbooks, I find the web so much easier to find what I’m looking for. However when you’re trying to discover a new food culture, the web comes up short. I discovered lots of different dishes and variations on dishes in this book. It’s probably the best cookbook I’ve seen in ages. Luckily T&T has most of the ingredients I need for the recipes.

Harumi is well known in Japan and her first cookbook won “Best Cookbook in the World” after it’s publishing. Quite a feat for a home cook. “Home Cooking” is her second book, with three published so far.

I love the Z cars, and the latest iteration, the Nissan 370z, was recreated from plastic/acrylic in order to be used in this Shell oil commercial. Following the commercial is a “making of” documentary.

Here are the highlights from today’s LCBO Release, full list always available at their site:

• Mt. Difficulty Chardonnay 2007, Central Otago, New Zealand $24.00
• Nobilo Icon Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Marlborough, New Zealand $22.00
• Château Soucherie Chaume 2005, Loire, France $32.00
• B Crux 2004, Mendoza, Argentina $24.00
• Domaine Grand Nicolet Les Esqueyrons Rasteau 2007, Rhône, France $28.00
• Tolaini Al Passo 2006, Tuscany, Italy $25.00

This weekend I was fascinated with the coverage of the next iPhone. Many pictures and videos were produced of a product that many are feeling is a misplaced prototype of the iPhone that will be launched in June. What’s amazing is not so much the iPhone itself, but the story about the coverage, the “exclusives” and the inevitable backlash from Apple that this all happened. First it was the Engadget exclusive pictures, and a confirmation that the iPhone was in a previous leak picture of the iPad. Then Gizmodo launched a full review of the product – they had it in their hands (albeit disabled from Apple). Finally tonight Gizmodo spilled the beans on how they came to get the device (leaving out the crucial detail if they paid for the phone or not).

It’s a soap opera.

UPDATE: Apple has asked for it back – meaning they claim ownership of the device – meaning it’s real.

UPDATE 2: David Letterman posted this to his “Excuses of the Guy Who Lost His iPhone Prototype.”

• 10. “Couldn’t call Apple for help because I lost my iPhone.”
• 9. “I’m more of a Kindle guy.”
• 8. “You mean besides being drunk out of my mind?”
• 7. “Distraught Kate Gosselin kicked off Dancing with the Stars”
• 6. “Thought there was an app that would whisk it back to my house.”
• 5. “It must have fallen out of my iPants.”
• 4. “Volcanic Ash! Run!”
• 3. “Let’s Just Blame Goldman Sachs.”
• 2. “At least I didn’t lose my finger like that iPad guy.”
• 1. “It didn’t work, anyway—it uses AT&T.”

If you are a car guy, you know who Jeremy Clarkson is. For the rest of you, he’s one of the commentators on the world-famous show Top Gear. Because of it’s once UK-exclusive status, I attribute the show to the success of bittorrent as a sharing medium. Ridelust summarized the 25 best Jeremy Clarkson posts.

1. “I’d like to consider Ferrari as a scaled down version of God.”

2. [On the Porsche Boxster] “It couldn’t pull a greased stick out of a pig’s bottom.”

3. [When driving the Mercedes SLR McLaren through a tunnel] “When they debate as to what the sound of the SLR engine was akin to, the British engineers from McLaren said it sounded like a Spitfire. But the German engineers from Mercedes said ‘Nein! Nein! Sounds like a Messerschmitt!’ They were both wrong. It sounds like the God of Thunder, gargling with nails.”

4. “I’m sorry, but having an Aston Martin DB9 on the drive and not driving it is a bit like having Keira Knightley in your bed and sleeping on the couch. If you’ve got even half a scrotum it’s not going to happen.”

5. “Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… that’s what gets you.”

6. “Koenigsegg are saying that the CCX is more comfortable. More comfortable than what… being stabbed?”

7. [On Detroit] “God may have created the world in six days, but while he was resting on the seventh, Beelzebub popped up and did this place.”

8. “Owning a TVR in the past was like owning a bear. I mean it was great, until it pulled your head off, which it would.”

9. [On the Renault Clio V6] “I think the problem is that it’s French. It’s a surrendermonkey.”

10. [On the Enzo Ferrari] “I rang up Jay Kay, who’s got one, and said: “Can we borrow yours?” and he said, “Yeah, if I can borrow your daughter, because it amounts to the same thing.”

11. [On the Porsche Cayenne] “I’ve seen gangrenous wounds better looking than this!”

12. “The air conditioning in Lamborghinis used to be an asthmatic sitting in the dashboard blowing at you through a straw.”

13. “Whenever I’m suffering from insomnia, I just look at a picture of a Toyota Camry and I’m straight off.”

14. “If you were to buy a [BMW] 6-series, I recommend you select reverse when leaving friends’ houses so they don’t see its backside.”

15. “That [Pagani] Zonda, really! It’s like a lion in orange dungarees. Kind of fierce, but ridiculous all at the same time.”

16. [On a Chevrolet Corvette] “The Americans lecture the world on democracy and then won’t let me turn the traction control off!”

17. [On the Alfa Romeo Brera] “Think of it as Angelina Jolie. You’ve heard she’s mad and eats nothing but wallpaper paste. But you would, wouldn’t
you?”

18. “A turbo: exhaust gasses go into the turbocharger and spin it, witchcraft happens and you go faster.”

19. “This is a Renault Espace, probably the best of the people carriers. Not that that’s much to shout about. That’s like saying ‘Oh good, I’ve got syphilis, the best of the sexually transmitted diseases!’”

20. “In the olden days I always got the impression that TVR built a car, put it on sale, and then found out how it handled – usually when one of their customers wrote to the factory complaining about how dead he was.”

21. [On the Mercedes CLS55 AMG] “It sounds like Barry White eating wasps.”

22. “I’d rather go to work on my hands and knees than drive there in a Ford Galaxy. Whoever designed the Ford Galaxy upholstery had a cauliflower fixation. I would rather have a vasectomy than buy a Ford Galaxy.”

23. “Usually, a Range Rover would be beaten away from the lights by a diesel powered wheelbarrow.”

24. “Racing cars which have been converted for road use never really work. It’s like making a hardcore adult film, and then editing it so that it can be shown in British hotels. You’d just end up with a sort of half hour close up of some bloke’s sweaty face.”

25. “I don’t understand bus lanes. Why do poor people have to get to places quicker than I do?”