As far as Toronto book club meetups go, the Nutmeg Pantry, a charming little family-run bakeshop in Scarborough, was definitely the place to be on Tuesday night if you like to drown your sorrows in the bottom of a glass of milk filled with cookie dregs. It was the first meeting of The Nutmeg Pantry Cookbook Club and July's book-of-the-month was The Happy Baker: A Dater's Guide to Emotional Baking.

Restaurant buzz this week is all about the opening of Scarpetta - the main draw at the recently opened Thompson Hotel. This is the third Scarpetta (the other two are in Manhattan and Miami) and celebrated Chef Scott Conant has been here to christen the new venture.

As an aside, the word Scarpetta (meaning "little shoe") is Italian slang for the little piece of bread you use to sop up leftover sauce from your plate. I didn't even know it had a name. I just learned to do it by watching my grandparents as a kid and have done it without thinking ever since. The combination of some form of bread dipped in sauce/oil/dressing (whether it be Italian or any other ethnic cuisine) might just be one of the most perfect food pairings on earth. So nice one on the name and concept, Scott.

The nature of Ontario's summer climate means we are fortunate enough to be able to grow a huge variety of edible stuff - all kinds of fruits and veggies, herbs, legumes, and even a few kinds of nuts.

But when you are buying foods "Grown in Ontario" it's hard to know whether big varieties like Red Delicious apples, Idaho potatoes and Bing cherries, are native to our land or if they've been brought here from abroad and grown successfully.

The best French toast in Toronto is sought after by a special subculture of the typical bruncher. If you think about it, at its most basic, the typical brunch menu is mostly just a recombination of eggs, fat, meat and bread. Throw in some caffeine for good measure. French toast is that eggy bready syrupy combination that appeals to the sweeter of brunch tooths - brunchers, who like me, start their days off with a sugar lust.

From now until June 2011 the Harbourfront Centre will be hosting a large-scale outdoor photo exhibit that explores the Greenbelt through the eyes of eight up-and-coming Ontario photographers. Beyond Imaginings: Eight artists encounter Ontario's Greenbelt examines the land through three thematic lenses: Natural Beauty, Working the Land and People of the Greenbelt.

Friday night hundreds of brew heads packed C'est What at Front and Church for their sixth annual Spring Festival of Craft Breweries. With 42 cask beers and draughts available plus ¼ pint samples for a buck it was a recipe for an entertaining, if not a little messy, night.