The best salad in Toronto is a toss up, especially in a city that caters to so many vegan and vegetarian diets. There are the kinds of salads that make for a healthy appetizer before digging into a juicy steak; and then there are those (like most on this list) that easily make for a meal in itself. With toppings like seared tuna, quinoa, tofu, sweet potato and almost any other imaginable ingredient, it might be true that in Toronto you actually are able to win friends with salad.

Looking for a Halloween party in Toronto this weekend? Saturday marks the return of my favourite annual holiday but the 31st isn't the only occasion to dress up and have some fun. As the list below attests, there are also plenty of Halloween parties to choose from on Devil's Night (Friday October 30th). Keep reading for my top picks as well as a long list of Halloween parties happening in Toronto in 2009.

Madama Butterfly is a relatively modern opera, set in Nagasaki in 1890. A deep tragedy of deception and betrayal, a young Geisha is married off to an American; and though deeply devoted to him, the American has no intention of being a husband to the girl.

Abandoned by husband and shunned by her people, Madama Butterfly is 'stuck by a pin, and mounted on a board.' Unable to overcome her dishonour, she is forced to commit jigai. This compelling story is one of the best I've seen on the COC stage, and we've got a pair of tickets to pass on to one lucky reader.

Nuit Blanche is set to take over Toronto next Saturday October 3rd offering another dusk 'till dawn city-wide art crawl and an excellent excuse to stay up crazy late. To make the most of the evening, I've put together a guide with some of my top picks for this year's installment of the all night contemporary art thing.

The 2009 Virgin Music Festival in Toronto suffered somewhat from poor turnout on Day 1, and Day 2 got off to a similarly worrisome slow start.

But with the help of darlings Our Lady Peace, and the significant allure of Nine Inch Nails' last Canadian festival hurrah on the main stage later in the day, the festival's last day ramped up to an awesome high note.

The Virgin Music Festival 2009 edition kicked off yesterday at the Molson Amphitheatre. Although the major concern over this year's festival has been the move to the downtown Toronto venue, it actually worked out 'ok'. Strange sound mixing issues continued to plague the performers, and there was a definite absence of a 'festival' vibe this year... but low attendance has thus far made this one of the easiest and most accessible Vfests I've been to so far!

Whether that will remain true for today's show, offering a more stacked line up headlined by NIN's last Canadian performance, remains to be seen.