Hi! I'm in Toronto too. Just found this forum yesterday while googleing - look's great! I can see I'll be glued to the computer for the next week or so exploring it! Great to find some local members!

Welcome beripari

So today I went looking to the shwarma place on yonge that Gabmal was referring to. We didnt's see it right away and ended up eating at the shwarma place on the northwest side of Church + Wellesley... somehow my little dish of chicken shwarma + coke zero came to $10. Oh well - it was delish!

Later on in the day we saw the shwarma place but by then it was too late lol...

Glad to see some local members are showing up. Once we get some more people together we should go for lunch or something - we can post a thread like IslandGirl suggested...

Empire Shwarma is the best one I know,. It's in a small strip plaza ~ Pharmacy & Lawrence (south side), right at the west end of the plaza - there's a different one in the middle of the plaza which we've never tried.

2 for $6; 2 falafel are $5. People drive from all over - the food is fabulous! Check out the reviews: http://www.restaurantica.com/on/sca...mpire/23016067/

We usually order 1 chicken & 1 beef, SPICY (the hot sauce is great). The servings are extremelly generous. Can't beat the price for a cheap, tasty meal! They have other offerings as well but the lineups are generally for the shwarmas!

mmmmmmm sounds delish - I'll need to head over there some time... Pharmacy + Lawrence, thats more over to scarborough right?

Dang...too bad. I think you ended up at Yummi's? they're ok but now a chain so it's fallen.
The owners of Best Shawarma are the two Turkish guys who run the front. New immigrants. proud of their food. Need i say more?

Yeah. Doing low-carb and being too lazy to cook has it's rewards too.

lol!

yeah I think it is called Yummi's - right next to Sakuras.

Hey, I noticed you are on the anabolic diet - I used to be on that...for like 3 months.. Didn't lose any "weight" though I did put on muscle. I decided to switch to atkins when I stopped having time to work out. How did you adapt it for cutting?

ETA: just noticed your stats - guess you didn't really need to adapt it for cutting if you are at 120...

Yeah. the whole point of the anabolic diet is more body re-composition than fat loss (although that is a nice side effect). I'm not sure what you mean by adapt for fat loss though. Basically, to lose fat on it you have to re-organize the ratios a bit and ease up on the carb-ups. to put on muscle you re-organize ratios and cals and run free on carb-ups.

Personally, i like it because it's a very sociable WOE. weekdays with friends i go for steaks and salads etc and weekends i eat my moms cooking.
Atkins would stifle me, plus ketosis is very catabolic.

If you are interested, i have the original anabolic diet (1980's) version. i can give you the link for it.

Right. And, if you're heading out that way, just a short drive from there (about 10 mins) are fabulous samosas!! Right on the SE corner of O'Connor & Sunrise, just west of Victoria Park -- Sultan of Samosa. We take out at least once a week! Rather than typing out my comments, see what others say:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/100932

Will have to try the two places mentioned in the thread that are in Little India- when I'm not dieting! Although a friend of mine told me about a place called Ana's (?) in some small strip plaza in the Warden/Ellesmere area, on west side of Warden just north of Costco & she claims they are the best she's ever tasted; plus large & cheap!

ooooh... Please do! I may consider going on the AD in a couple of months once I get "skinny" and need some more muscle.



*gasp* samosas!!! carb alert!!!!! lol - when I ate that sort of stuff I used to LOVE "College Falafel" over by College and Ossington (I think Ossignton..not sure haven't been in over a year). Their samosas were so good I had to blog about it lol - I would go there EVERY day AT LEAST once... (no wonder I got up to 200lbs :P) They are apparently well know for their donair but I don't know what that is...

Definitely! But comes in extremellly handy in a pinch when chauffering hungry athletic kids from one sport to another - although I can't tell you how extremelly tempting it is & how much willpower needs to be musterred while they're eating them in the back seat! They don't need need to worry about the carbs!

Hey beripari! I just noticed you are on Dr. Poon's plan - FYI, not sure if you know but some of the products in his little "shop" can be found a LOT cheaper at that big sobeys supermarket over by.....hmmm....I don't know the intersection...It's a Jewish community in Thornhill... The supermarket is huge...

Anyways products like those carb free jams, and such - they carry it.

The Shirataki noodles can be found in the Chinese Supermarket attached to Promenade Mall in Thornhill, also a lot cheaper.

I think Dr. Poon marks his prices up way too high - looks like he is paying retail rather than wholesale prior to marking up.

Thanks Ethang! I'm an east ender & literally get lost whenever I venture anywhere west of Yonge! Helps if I either have the GPS with me or my 12yo navigator! I explored the No Frills on the corner near his office & found the dressings but didn't have time to look for other products - have no idea where the Sobey's might be; maybe we're talking about the same store? Not a fan of the jams or noodles but I wish there were somewhere closer to me that carried "some" products. I have a huge need for "portability" since we're constantly in the car running kids to soccer fields, baseball fields & the gym - add hockey arenas to that shortly! Those weekend tournaments are deadly on the diet!

I'm just a new "pooner" - life became really hectic with our young national athlete just after I first started - frequent competitions requireing travel, numerous injuries, withdrawal from Canadian Nationals then very serious freak accident during Cdn. performance enhancement testing - huge chunk out of his calf - which necessitated lots of visits to plastic surgeon & sports psychologist. He's just getting back to everything after being sidelined for over 3 months. Hard to focus & stick to any diet plan when you've got this type of situation & are spending countless hours elsewhere - gotta choose from whatever "limited" food is available!

I visited the low-carb store once then they moved but hope to get up to their new location. Loved that they had such a large selection!

Thanks for the suggestions though - I'll take whatever advice might help to ease the process & make it work!

Wow that sounds awful, not to mention painful.....

I def understand the need for portability. I'm not a big fan of Poon's diet... I've read some not so good things about the whole low fat, low carb, high protein thing.... I believe that ideally it should be low to no carb, moderate protein, high fat, and moderate to low cal (like depending on body weight and gender between 1000 to 2000). But then again that just my opinion - so many ppl love the poon and lose on the poon.

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So, I went to "Best Shawarma" between bloor + wellesley on Yonge.

It was alright... I told him JUST meat - no bread, nothing - he repeated and confirmed and then brought it to me in a pita. ugh. had to ask for a fork and ate it out of the pita. It was kind of dry... I think that had he brought it to me in a container of some sort the fat would have made it less dry - the pita must have absorbed a lot of it.

i was there friday evening too. (skinny kid with a big red bag sound familiar?)
You gotta say .Sharwarma plate just salad no pita or rice. He did that the first time for me too. i stopped him just in time. the language.

Oh I was there on Thursday not Friday.

I ordered some beef Shawarma at Falafel Hut on Sunday - omg...it was awful...it tasted kind of sugary and it was almost black and dry and grainy.....*shudders*