White Top Drive-In (Picture Not Available)
409 Manitoba Avenue (on corner of Salter)
Atmosphere: Outdoors/Drive-thru
Rating: 4 out of 5 Diamonds
It has been a while since my last post under the “you-ate-where”? (new baby might have contributed to this), so I thought I would recommend one of my new favorite burger joints. I love burger/fry joints, especially as it begins to warm-up outside. Recently I discovered a place not far from our store called the White Top Drive-in. It is a red and white striped building on Salter and Manitoba that features great homemade burgers and fries. There is a drive-thru and parking north of the building and on the street to the south for those who chose to get out of the car.
The food is good honest fare, with hearty portions, tasty burgers with generous add-ons. When ordering the french fries, consider with whom you could share as they tend to be massive. The burgers are tasty, large and come with chili, onions and mustard. Oh and the milkshakes. Well, nothing helps wash down a tasty meal like a delicious chocolate shake. I eat here often when I need a quick meal (similar price and time to many fastfood joints) or am really hungry. Ask for Deemos or his dad (don’t remember the name), but one of them is almost always there.
Recommended Fare:
Burgers – however you like them
Fries
Hot Dogs
Milkshakes
Website: not available
Hope you enjoy!
Our “you-ate-where?” feature will look at our favorite local restaurants that provide great food, are located near downtown, a great value and places we like to recommend to friends. It will highlight places that you may not have eaten at or even heard of, but that we have come to love. The west end is brimming with culture and restaurants that reflect this. From the hearty fair of New York Burgers to the savory tastes of Little Siagon to the minty fresh Vietnamese cuisine of Pho #1, you are sure to find a restaurant that satisfies your palate. It is our hope you will come to enjoy dining in the west end as much as we do.
The LineUp
98 Albert St.
Atmosphere: Casual
Diamond Rating: 4.5 out 5
This has to be one of the most interesting places to eat in the city. If you asked ten people to describe the LineUp, you would probably get ten different answers. The have 6 kinds of pizza, 3 kinds of salads, 5 or 6 kinds of pitas, 7 types of noodles-in-a-box, chicken fingers, fish and chips, and a variety of interesting french-fry options. And for those who miss Chi-chi’s, they offer fried ice-cream as a great dessert. The food is all prepared fresh and amazingly for such small place, they do it all well. I have had the coconut green curry several times which is a savory and spicy dish with chicken, carrots, bean sprouts, baby corn, broccoli, green peppers, choice of noodle, and lime. This has to be one of the best $8 meals in the city. This past week I had the falafel pita, a massive stuffed pita that comes with all the fixings you could want and many sauce options all for $7. They have a great dinner and movie combo for $11 (entree, drink, movie Globe, Imax or Towne 8). They have four parking spaces in winter for customers (in summer it becomes the patio) which is great if you are meeting someone for lunch. The staff there are friendly, take time to help and seem to know many of the regulars. I eat here a couple times a month and would recommend it to anyone as a great value.
Recommended dishes:
Coconut Green Curry (fairly spicy)
Falafel Pita
Butter Chicken
Greek Salad
Link: http://www.thelineup.ca
Hope you enjoy,
PS. First person to email me the names of all the pizza options gets a free meal jeremy@independentjewellers.com
Recently I was looking at one of our mounted diamonds and came across something really interesting. On the girdle, I noticed what appeared to be a scratch. It looked like something that could have been done in the polishing process, perhaps to remove an inclusion for the purpose of improving the clarity grade. As I was somewhat uncertain of what it was I asked our expert Jodi and she informed me it was part of the original skin of the diamond or what is commonly referred to as a natural. What this means is the cutter was skilled enough to be able to cut the diamond in such a way as to maximize the weight to the point where even part of the original outer coating from the rough crystal was left intact. The skin in this case does not affect the overall appearance, colour or clarity grade, but gives the diamond a very unique mark to identify it and to give it some attachment to both the cutter and the original crystal form it came from.
Clarity grading is interesting. The clarity grade is set based on what is seen at 10x zoom, through a microscope or corrected loupe. It can be helpful to increase the zoom to clarify what something is, i.e. feather, cloud, cluster of needles or pinpoints, but the final judgment comes based on what is seen at 10x.
There are 11 different clarity grades: FL, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, I1, I2, I3. There are two kinds of clarity characteristics that set these grades: blemishes and inclusions. A blemish is something that is only on the surface of the diamond where as an inclusion may begin at the surface of the diamond and extend inward or it might be completely enclosed. There are about 14 kinds of naturally occurring inclusions and several others that are created by treatments to diamonds. There are 11 kinds of blemishes, some occurring as a result of the cutting process and some as a result of wear and tear. While blemishes rarely affect clarity grades below IF, inclusions and their position, size, colour, nature, and number will be what set the clarity grades.
If you are interested in seeing the blemish I described earlier, give me a call or come and see me at the 493 Notre Dame store.
My name is Jeremy and I will be contributing to this blog periodically as I progress through my Graduate Gemology degree and beyond.
This is Ernest Oppenheimer. He was born in Frankfurt Germany in 1880 and moved to South Africa in 1902 to oversee diamond buying for his company A. Dunkelsbuhler. By 1929, he had become the chairman of De Beers and the AAC (Anglo American Corporation) a major gold mining company. He remained in control of both until his death in 1957 and was largely responsible for the consolidation of the production and sale of diamonds worldwide.
Today the diamond industry has changed significantly from where things were at the beginning of the1900’s. The channels through which diamonds are bought and sold have become more complex and varied. Where De Beers used to control nearly all diamond distribution worldwide, in 2005 their share was closer to 40%.
One significant change that has come about as a result of this shift in influence is the emergence of India and Asia as a major cutting centre. When the Argyle mine in Australia and De Beers began to feud in the 90’s as a result of commitments related to rough diamonds, there was a need to do something with the massive quantities of small ‘brownish’ rough. As a result they turned to India where wages where more affordable and there were a significant number of cutters. These cutters began to cut the very small diamonds (under .05ct) that are common in much of today’s jewellery. Today there are over 100,000 cutters in India and they account for the cutting of over 90% of the worlds rough by weight.
Local Culture | Jeremy May 21, 2010 | 
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