The Ben Mulroney Show - It's Xmas eve! Let's talk food options in the GTA with tripleboomdrew

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

GUEST:   Andrew Lekas – Food Reviewer/@Tripleboomdrew If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. What does top talent really want? Do our tax research tools make us seem outdated? What does top talent really want? How can we stop losing people to our competitors? What does top talent really want? What if new grads don't want to work like it's 1999? With BlueJ, you can give your people the tools they need to succeed.

Tools that make it possible to go from tax question to client comms in minutes. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ. AI for tax experts. You're listening to the Ben Mulrooney. All right, that's going to get stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Joy, I kind of hate you right now. I'm kidding. I love you. I love everybody. Merry, Merry Christmas. Happy Christmas Eve to each and every one of you. It is December 24th, 2025. Thank you so much for sticking with us all the way to

Christmas Eve. We really appreciate it. A little bit about me. I am what you might call a high level high functioning person. But when you get into the details, I'm what you might call an idiot. An idiot. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's the actual term. I forgot that the 24th was a workday. And so I planned to take my family to Montreal. And then I realized I didn't take the day off. So what am I going to do? So what I did was I drove the family to Montreal yesterday and right after the show and had dinner because it was my father-in-law's 75th, and as soon as dinner was done, came right back. Yes, indeed.

Yes, and now I've got to make my way back to Montreal after the show today. And you got home at what time last night? 3 a.m. Which is why when you came in late this morning, I said, yeah, I kind of expected it. You expected it. No big deal. But it is what it is. Frankly, I don't care.

Christmas is here. I'm in a wonderful mood because it is the holiday season. no one will take that away from me. And so we thought we'd start the show with a little bit of humor. It's the final day of our season. We're not taking ourselves too seriously today. So one guy who never took himself seriously is Rodney Dangerfield. No respect. He gets no respect.

Let's listen to Rodney Dangerfield with his best Christmas jokes. I mean, the kids today had it too good. When I was a kid, it was different, I had it rough. Well, Christmas, I got batteries, toys not included. I don't get no respect from anyone. Well, last Christmas, my kid wanted a BB gun. I gave my BB gun. He gave me a sweatshirt with a bullseye in a bag.

Look, I don't know anyone. I actually don't know a single person who doesn't like Christmas. There's some people who don't get as into the Christmas spirit as some, but I don't know anybody who celebrates who doesn't love celebrating. I worked with a woman years ago who was so into Christmas. She started celebrating it in, like, July. She was wearing Christmas stuff all year round. I was like, what is going on with this?

She goes, I just love it so much. Yeah. Well, I had a co-host once who shall remain nameless, who I think she kept her Christmas lights up into like April. I may have done that in the past, but it wasn't because of laziness. Yes, exactly. No, she did. She doesn't want to get up on the ladder. Yuletide love. But one person who does not love Christmas, would you be surprised to learn that it's Noel Gallagher?

No, I would not be surprised. Let's listen to a little bit of Noel Gallagher hating Christmas. I fucking hate it with a. Passion. Too much food. Too much. We are the world. We are the children. The jumpers, the TV presenters, the adverts, the fucking weather. Disappointed children's faces in my house

when they go. But I asked for a spider. And you're like, no, but it's illegal to bring the spiders into this country. What about the African tree fog I asked for? That's in a tree in Africa. We're in FIdeenade a veil. How about a made-a-vail garden frog That'll go down the end of the garden and get you No, well that's not got the big red eyes It's like, all right, life's a b***ing ass father Christmas

New Year on the other hand All right, there's a lot to unpack there I think the first thing that jumps out to me Is what kind of conversations Is Noel having with his kids That lead them to want tarantulas And tree frogs from Africa? I don't know. Why would you even want that in the first place?

But you have to, you got to set the, you've got to like set the preconditions for your kid to want that yeah like i don't i go to go to the catalog let me know what you like in the catalog you know you see the commercials sure hey when we were kids what was it called consumer digest no no no no consumers distributing remember that and remember how awesome that was because you did a massive book but it wasn't a store per se where you go in and look around it was like see it in the catalog and go to the go to the desk and they'd say and you I want this, and they'd go in the back together. It was like the beer store.

And I think, well, that's the way consumer retail is going to go in the future probably. Yeah, that's actually a really good point. But I remember, I love that place. Yeah. That was awesome. Yeah, I never knew it was back there, but everything you wanted always came through that little slot. Yeah, there was one on Eglinton right at Avenue Road. Oh, and I lived in Ottawa when it mattered to me.

Yeah, no, there was, I remember there was one there, and we'd go, and it was just the greatest thing. Yeah, it was the best. I don't know why we thought it was so great. I loved it. Because, like I said, it was a magic slot. There was a book, you picked it, and the magic slot gave you what you wanted. It was fantastic as a kid. But no, listen, he's not wrong about the consumerism.

But like I said, my kids, we got really lucky with our kids. They do not ask for a lot at Christmas. And they don't see commercials and say, I want that, that, that, that. And I don't get disappointed. They don't get everything, right? So we're really lucky. So the consumerism of Christmas in our house has been turned down to like a four. And so it depends.

You can make Christmas what you want. We've managed to convince our daughter that Christmas is about family. And which is great. We've convinced her. You're brainwashed her, did you? Exactly. I've been like, it's not about the, but she's more into getting gifts for others.

Yeah. Then she is about, I mean, she loves getting them. Don't get me wrong, but she likes giving. It's the, listen, that's the most fun I have, too. Yeah, and she was, she's been on me. She goes, mom has a list. We need to fill it. We need to, and I'm like, okay, okay, a lot of this stuff is not reasonable.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, exactly. It's not reasonable. We start low, eventually we go high. So yesterday, our boss, Mike Ben Dixon, pulled one of the funniest things. We were joking around on the show that because in the NFL, some quarterbacks gift their offensive linemen, an entire cow that they split between the four of them. Well, no, no, it was Josh Allen of the bills. Every one of his offensive linemen got a quarter cow.

Yeah, he splits a cow between his four offensive lines. There's more than four. Okay, so he got a lot of quarter cows. Okay, a lot of quarter cows. Anyway, but the point was, we said our boss should give us a cow. And within five minutes, he came down here with a printout of a cow that he had divided into four. We thought that was very funny.

And because we didn't specify that it had to be the actual cow. Like a real cow. He'd put the picture in. And so in effect, he actually did. He gave us exactly what we asked for. Exactly. Yeah, we should have been more specific. Yeah.

But meanwhile, I guess you had some fun coming up with something I could give you. Yeah, I said, you know, because I said, well, you know, if the quarterbacks are given the offense of his team, you know, the guys who do all this work for them and stuff, make him look good. And if he's getting, if they're getting his, if he's getting these great gifts, then maybe, you know what, Ben, you should be stepping up to the plate as well. So, I mean, Joy said, he needs to get us this. And I said, oh, this is too much. But then I was like, okay, and I looked at it. And he suggested World Cup final tickets because, you know, they're on sale now. Yeah.

It's going to be July 19th in New Jersey, so you have to go to New Jersey. Well, so what I love here is there's one ticket at essentially the 50-yard line of the football field, right? So dead center. $49,000, apparently, according to this website, amazing deal. Yeah, it's an amazing deal. But look, I can't buy that one because that's just one ticket, right? So I've got to look for where there are groupings of them. So there's 43,924 left.

That's the team right there. Behind the net, 52,000? Yeah, I can't imagine that's a better seat. You know, because we'd have to bring Ben Dixon too, right? So 52,000 per. Yeah, that feels real. That feels right. Yeah, so I think.

But I'd have to get us down there, too. negotiating contracts soon. I'd have to get us down there too, right? So we'd have to somehow fly there. So I think this is all reasonable. Joy, thoughts? I mean, for sure, man. It's completely reasonable on a Canadian media budget.

If it was asking about me to do this, that was not. By asking you to do this, it's surely reasonable. Why not? Listen, if we asked you to do it, you would have found some way to get these for free. You're that guy. You are the guy with the horse who lodged somewhere in your body. not quite sure where, but somewhere, and you would have found a way to get these free. I will not burst your bubble of this misconception of me that you have,

that I have ways around people. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think. I mean, Joy, it was a good suggestion. I appreciate it. And I have put it forth. Is there any sporting event, any sporting event, in the past, including that you would spend $28,000 on for one day? No.

No, no, no. You wouldn't go to somebody's perfect game. You wouldn't go to, uh, no, nothing like that. No, no, but then again, I'm not one of those, those guys who wants to spend crazy money like that. You think people spend like $40,000 on a wedding. I'm like, no, that's ridiculous. Put a down payment on a house. That's, you know.

Oh, look, so I think we found the Grinch. There you go. I think we found the Grinch, everybody. Hey, up next Christmas Travel with Cats, what could go wrong? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. What does top talent really want? Do our tax research tools make us seem outdated?

What does top talent really want? How can we stop losing people to our competitors? What does top talent really want? What if new grads don't want to work like it's 1999? With BlueJay, you can give your people the tools they need to succeed. Tools that make it possible to go. from tax question to client comms in minutes. Get better answers to tough questions.

Blue Jay, AI for tax experts. In the 70s, four young women were found dead. For nearly 50 years, their cases went cold. I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for global news. In the season finale of crime beat, I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer. And hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. Listen to the full season of Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon music by asking Alexa to play the podcast Crime Beat.

Welcome back to The Ben Mulroney Show. Thanks so much for joining us. And thank you so much for helping us build this show. As we say, we like to be wherever you are. And so we've placed a lot of bets. We've placed bets as a podcast on a streaming app, on social media, on YouTube. And in all those places, you've responded by helping us grow the show. show and we want to thank you, but don't just enjoy the content that we put there. We want

you to like it and share it, subscribe. That's how we get to build this show in all those ways. And thank you very much for helping us thus far. Look, I just told you my travel story at Christmas yesterday and it was god-awful. Everyone who travels at Christmas, that is probably the Achilles heel of this holiday. It is, it's never good. Any holiday traveling. Thanksgiving is bad, but Christmas, it's just, there's a little. lot of this yeah because sometimes you got to travel with presence you need you know what you need mindfulness yeah you do need remember we we spoke about that yesterday you need to be able to be in the moment and you also need to be practical and accept that you're sharing space with other people

right so enter a woman traveling on alaska airlines and what can i say what she's traveling with Yeah. She's traveling with her cats. Yeah. Yeah, because why not, right? Because nobody's allergic to cats. This guy's allergic to cats. Exceptually so. But that's okay. She needs to travel with her cats. She is insisting that she has the proper sized bag to fly home with her cats. Alaska Airlines disagrees.

Why are you the one to decide that I can't take my cats on the plane right now? You are. You could have just put it right now and I'd be on the plane. No, you can't add it if you know that. follow the policy. That's insane. You're assonite right now that this bag is quite compatible.

It goes on the plane and it fits on the plane. That's why I bought this bag specifically so that I could fly home for Christmas and you're now telling me I'm not going home for Christmas

because you don't like that I have two cats. I'm telling you that you need to listen to what I'm saying. I'm not yelling's not going to help you get any further. Yeah you are. Yeah you are. I'm here.

You're talking I can't go home for Christmas right now. Do you understand that? I'm here with you. Do you understand that? Do you understand that? You can do whatever you choose. What I'm letting you know is that there is a policy.

You know, I've had problems at airlines myself. Fighting with them doesn't help. Fighting with the people at the gate does not help. Fighting with the people behind the desk never helps. Don't do that. Telling them, I'm going to start crying. I'm going to start crying right now. And I bet you she was recording the whole thing too.

No, no, she wasn't. Oh, she wasn't? Somebody else was. Okay. I was sure she was going to have it too. She was oblivious to the fact that somebody else was recording it, and she was, I'm going to start crying. They're like, well, you can do that if you want. Yeah, you can do that if you want.

That's fine. Well, I do hope she got home somehow. Maybe she did like the mom from home alone sort of situation. Yeah. Yeah, 72 hours in a car. The mom from home alone, Catherine O'Hara. Yes. Who, by the way, I didn't even know this, is I think the aunt or the cousin of Ben O'Hara Byrne.

Oh, I didn't know that. Who is one of our, you know, who does one of our shows on the weekend? I did not. Fantastic guy. Awesome. Yeah, he's a great interviewer. Fantastic. I didn't know that.

I was out with some friends the other night that we've worked with. Who've worked with Ben before. I've worked with Ben before. And they mentioned that. And I said, really? They're like, yeah, O'Hara. There you go. I'm related to Walt Disney.

No. Yep. We had our, the Irish government did our genealogical treat. and apparently some woman who was related to my dad, Daisy Disney, Daisy Disney was a Mulroney and she married someone on Walt's side. Okay. We got no stock, no nothing. No, sadly no.

No, sadly no. But through marriage, we are related to Walt Disney. I'm related. My sister did the whole ancestry thing. Yeah. Generationally to the explorer that discovered Green Bay, Wisconsin. Or, you know, discovered it for the second time because the indigenous people were already there.

But there's a statue of them there. And there you go. And is a giant like you? No, I think it looks, to me, it would look regular size to everybody else who would look like a large statue. So, and no Japanese in your ancestry? No. No, that's interesting.

That's too bad because we're talking. Do you see any Japanese? No, it's all Scandinavian and... I was trying to segue there. I was trying to segue into our next story, but you just weren't letting me do it. No, I go to, I'm terrified to go in Japan because everything there is much smaller. And I would be afraid of them yelling Godzilla.

Yeah, it would just be a horror. Let them fight. Yes. Well, there's a Japanese town. This, I can get behind stuff like this. Yeah. There's a Japanese town that is suing a man, I guess, who live there for being, here's what they're suing him for, for being a jerk.

A jerk. A jerk. Yes, the town of Mihama, Japan is preparing to sue a resident who's in his 60s because apparently he consistently, persistently harasses and abuses verbally the town hall staff and did so over a period of five years. The lawsuit is approximately 25 grand U.S. in damages based on wasted employees' salaries and disrupted work. So apparently what happened is started in 2020 after the man, so he got a bum deal. His property was deemed ineligible for government earthquake resistance subsidies that he had to apply for.

And so this just, I guess, put him in a really sour mood with any government. You got to think that he's a bit of a grump, you know? No, but listen, if you're hoping to get some money to either rebuild your house or improve your house and the government says you're not eligible, you're going to be upset, especially if you filled out all the forms. However, I have to assume that that's a federal issue or certainly not a local issue. who know they may have been the ones that were divving it up and may have been the ones who were deciding who got it and who didn't anyway so now he's in a bad mood

and following this the man allegedly began daily visits and calls to the town hall verbally abusing the staff demanding to speak with supervisors insulting employees and eventually so here's what it was 800 phone calls but over eight months over eight months so many letters to so many departments

that they were literally clogged up because of this And so the legal action taken by the town was essentially just trying to get him to stop. So he's calling, let me see, do the math of this quickly. I don't do math. But roughly, that's roughly a hundred calls a month. Yep. So three a day. Well, no, no, no.

But take weekends off. Okay. So if you only have, like to say, like 20 work days, Monday to Fridays, right? You know, he's. So it's five a, five a day. Five calls a day. Yeah. And I'm sure they weren't short.

No. I'm sure they weren't short. But that's a lot of time of the day. So they've decided to sue him. What the town did first is they draft and passed a resolution that allows them to sue individuals for excessive and disruptive complaints. Now that's tricky because it's an after-the-fact kind of thing. But it's also something that I go, huh, I wonder if towns and cities in Canada.

Like, I don't know, like here in Toronto would think about that. I could see our government here in Toronto, our municipal government here, saying, you know what, we're going to sue you for slandering us or for not agreeing with our... But we hear our city counselors in this city saying those things about involved citizens all the time. Integrity T.O. comes to mind. Absolutely. If this was allowed here, they would be suing those guys every day.

Oh, yeah. Why? Because they record what happens on the streets and they record what happens in meetings. Shame. For shame. Shame. But you think about it. Think about how many things are going on to this city that, you know, just the average person that calls into our show that, you know, our listeners, could sue the city for. Could you imagine if it was, if you're open to be able to sue the city? Or the individuals? Are the individuals involved in making decisions? Or dereliction of duty?

Yes, for leading us down the garden path to ruin. Oh, wow. That was beautiful. Thank you. That was really well done. Yeah, I was Shakespearean. I like that. Thank you.

We'll work on that. Can you write that down? Yes. I'll make a music video for you about that. Well, to put a bow on this, they actually don't want to sue him. No. They just want to put pressure on him to stop being such a debag. And they've said that they're more than willing to drop the lawsuit if he stops being this way.

So we'll have to wait and see. You got to hope. I mean, that can't end well. No, there's no way. That doesn't look good. It just doesn't look good. It's not a good look. Oh, so, okay, after the break, we've got a great, we got a great segment.

A couple of segments, actually. So we had this guy on the show a little while ago. He's on the show with us now. We're talking Triple Boom Drew is joining us to talk about what to eat during the holidays. The eight days of eating, if you will. So don't go anywhere. I hear he can be kind of belligerent, though. Oh, yeah, he's such a mean guy.

He's negative. So he's just going to be loud. Yeah. No, he'll be loud. But he will not be any of the things I just said. Don't go anywhere. The Ben Mulroney show continues after this. Mira

Kellam Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show and happy Christmas Eve to each and every one of you listening. We appreciate you and we hope that whatever you're doing, however you're celebrating, you're celebrating with joy in your heart. and an eye to have the most wonderful holiday season you've ever had. And in that light, in that spirit, what we wanted to do, we wanted to do something a little different, right? We'll talk about presents later, but the holidays are about food, right? They're about eating.

They're about communing. They're about filling your belly with joy. And yes, there is the traditional meal at Christmas. Of course there is. And it's delicious. My sister makes the best one I've ever had in my life. absolutely. And she gets better every year, every single year. However, this is a city of incredible culinary delights. And we thought we would bring back to the show our new good friend, Andrew Lekis.

He is, of course, triple boom drew on social media. He goes out there and finds the most incredible eats around the city of Toronto for you to then enjoy. He gives his honest reviews. He's enthusiastic. He loves it. And that's what you want in a food reviewer. And he's in studio with us today. Andrew, welcome. Good morning, Ben. I'm happy to be here. Oh, okay. Boom, Ben. So here's what we want to do. We got two segments with you, and we thought between today

and New Year's Eve, right? Is that eight days? New Year's Day. New Year's Day. That's eight days. So we want to give people sort of a blueprint for an eight-day food pilgrimage in the city of Toronto, in the GTA. The GTA. The GTA. Right? So if you were to start. today. Where would just start that food pilgrimage that would take you all the way? Oh,

oh yeah, I forgot. I forgot. Before we start, because my producer is very talented with AI. I give you the triple boom song. It's Christmas time friends, and Drew's got a plan. Forget the usual turkey. Let's explore new tasty treats and so much

more. A big sandwiches are waiting hear me say. Friends, it's a food holiday. Drew says boom, boom, boom. Triple boom, a proof. Come on, let's zoom. For amazing food this festive season. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Triple boom. It's the best one you've made yet. You're getting better, man. That's a great one. Well, you know, I had to do all the lyrics, and I had to, like, I mean, the music part. You were in the studio. You were in the lab, putting down beats. It was the chorus, that was the heart, because I had to do layers and layers.

Yeah, you had to have, like, a little choir, four or five people, layering in the harmonies. You did a great job. Okay, so, welcome back, my friend. Yes, yes, sir. And you had to have enjoyed that. Come on. I'm flattered by that song. That's impressive.

I'm still trying to get away from using a cocktail napkin and a pencil, and here you are making songs. So, yeah, that was pretty good. So if people want to start a food pilgrimage in the city of Toronto today, where would they go? See, this is a tough one, because to me, you've got to break it down like a game plan here. If it's a good thing, yeah. Yeah. So what's the game plan? Let's talk about the game plan first. If we're getting into Christmas Day eating, let's talk. So we got to plan early today. Starting today, you got to say, okay, how am I going to plan for my eating tomorrow? Do I go in light today or do I come out strong out of the gates and say, I'm going all in for eight days. Look, I'm like, I'm like Joey Tribiani at Christmas. I wear the stretchy pants. But I also feel like I eat big meals before as I like to work out to get the stomach ready.

Of course. Of course. You don't want to pull something. No, not at all. As you go back for the thirds and fourths, right? and God knows how many pies, right? So, of course, you've got to have a big meal. Years ago, I went to, my brother, Nick and I, went to the rib fest in, I think it's in Burlington. It's the biggest rib fest in Canada. And I was a judge, the first and only time I went. And just to be safe, because I know I was going to eat a lot of ribs,

we stopped at McDonald's on the way there. Yeah, absolutely. That's a good, it's a good, like, you're, like, pre-eating. Yeah, yeah, it's pre-gaming. Absolutely. Right, exactly. There's nothing to loosen up with a few tea. these burgers, maybe a six-pack of nuggets, stuff like that, and you're ready for the ribs.

Yeah, it's like a boxer, right? The boxers don't go in cold. Not at all. So as the rib judge, how many ribs were you eating that? Like, were you having to take down racks or were you just tasting? Well, there was a lot of taste. But they also, because I was a VIP as a judge, I had access to as many tiny Tim donuts as I could get. Okay. Yeah, so I ate a lot of those, and that was a bad move. You're layering in the carbs, bad move. Yeah, absolutely. You got to stay away and stay focused sometimes on just that meat.

That's the problem, right? I didn't have my eye on the prize, and I should have. Yeah. Yeah. Take away the slaw and the fries and those types of things. It was Bushley. It was Bushley. But I learned from that.

I've learned from that. I've moved on. I'm pretty good at these Rib Fest now. Yeah, okay. Well, so if I was going to start out today, it's a great segue into what I brought. I would loosen up with some sugar today. Okay.

I would loosen up with some sugar. The body accustomed to it because we're going to start overloading on sugar tomorrow. Okay. So if I'm going today, and I went yesterday, I stocked up. And this is what I brought. I want to show you what I brought here. You brought like a Santa Satchel. It is a Santa Satchel.

It has a bells on it. Yeah, the bells, absolutely. We go full game. So this is from, I mentioned them a few weeks ago. This was Layla's cheesecakes. No. Oh, I'm sorry. I want you to take a look in the box right here, okay?

I promised, you said this is the best cheesecake. Okay. So this is cheesecake in a jar with spoons, of course, because I'm an enabler out here. Okay, so there are different flavors in that box. Gingerbread? Check out all those flavors. Absolutely. Share.

I had to try and guess on the flavors that you guys might like out here. So there's a variety pack of flavors. Thank you. I went in to see Layla, and I said, okay, we need some cheesecakes for Ben's show. Can I just interrupt? Ben is not picky with flavors when it comes to cheesecake. Well, there's certain ones I don't like. There's certain ones that overpower the cheesecake part.

Like, I don't want a turtle flavor. I don't want Mississippi mud. I don't want any of that stuff. I don't have any of those in a box. That is perfect. That is great. Give me a cherry swirl. Give me strawberry.

in there, yes. A white chocolate truffle. Yes. There you go. Love it all. So that's how I would start my pregame with sugar to prepare the body for the overload that's coming. So I'd go sugar today.

And let's not lie, maybe a prime rib sandwich or pizza. Okay. Sugar, but also prime rib. Yeah, I mean, we've got to still get our protein goals in there on a daily basis. Even if we're stocked up on the sugar, hit your 200 grams, whatever you need in that day, get your protein in there. So I would definitely get the body ready for more sugar that's coming. Okay.

After I got in that little quick meal with the sugars, then I would try to, tried to do the fast until tomorrow because I'm going to my parents' place. So they're probably still there baking right now. They're taking a break. And they would be disappointed if you didn't, if you were full before you got there. Yeah, absolutely. Like if you showed up and said, you know what, I had a big breakfast. I'm just not into it. Oh yeah. Yeah. My mom doesn't want hear any of that. Betrayal. Yeah. Show up and eat. That's the goal tomorrow. Yeah. So tomorrow's the family day. But this was the goal of, okay, if it wasn't family day, where to go and eat around the city. So I've been eating with family on Christmas Day for 50 years. Yeah, of course. I don't

know where to go. So I started asking friends. And they're trying to say, well, if you're downtown Toronto, hit up one of the hotels. All the hotels down to Toronto are going to have some great breakfast spots. I started searching. You need reservations at all these places now. They're gone. We didn't make reservations here. We're in trouble. Well, listen, let's not forget our Jewish friends who've known very well Chinese food on Christmas Day. Absolutely. That's the way to go. So now myself, I haven't hit up Chinese spots in Toronto yet. I haven't done any Chinese? No, I'm coming from way out west. So trying to come downtown. It's tougher to drive in 90 minutes to go and find a spot. So that's where I need help from the viewers and the listeners of where to

hit that up. I got a couple of ideas for you. A couple of ideas. Yeah. I'm open years to that. There's Chinatown authentic. Then there's the other spots, right? Yeah. The spots that do like the American Chinese food. So it depends on what you want. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So we're past Christmas Day. Well, now it's like the follow-up. So it's, are we doing leftovers? Are we going for hot turkey sandwiches? Oh, no. See, I've got a great leftover recipe in a casserole. Okay. Yeah, yeah. You put the turkey on the bottom. Yeah. And then you, You layer it with a stuffing, and then you put dollops of cranberry. Oh, yeah.

And then you put, what else? You put, if you've got vegetables, like carrots or something like that, that goes in. And you eventually, you layer it all the way to the top with the mashed potatoes. Oh, nice. In the oven for like 20 minutes. Yeah. Comes out, it's better than the day it was served. Huge.

That sounds. Except when my sister makes it, because she makes it better than anything. So she's got the best one right now. It's crazy. Okay. I have no idea how you did it. Yeah, I could go for some of that. I've made a deep dish turkey pizza.

really similar to what you've got a deep dish turkey pizza like Chicago deep dish Chicago deep dish I'm not listen I'm just going to say I'm sure I'm sure it was delicious I have no time for deep dish it's not pizza it's some weird cake yes yeah no time for that that's uh might be a hot take some people might be listening and they might say shame on you Ben I have no time for deep dish pizza like the cheese is on the bottom come on it's different it's certainly different it's not something we can have yeah it's whether it's a cake or maybe it's a pasta dish with bread I don't know yeah no one no but but but but but Maybe yours is good.

Maybe yours is good. All right, we're going to take a break. When we come back, I guess we've got four or five more days to get to. Yes. You're making me hungry, man. You're making me hungry. And I want to ask you about food trends. I want to ask you, like, where are people waiting in line?

Like, where is, what's the hot type of food these days in the most multicultural city in the world? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney show. Welcome back to the Christmas Eve edition of the Ben Mulroney show. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for Andrew Leckis for sticking around for a second segment as we as he puts on his triple boom drew hat and gives us a sort of a blueprint for a food pilgrimage through the city of Toronto and from today until New Year's Day. All right. Where were we? I think we were right after Christmas.

Yeah, but I think we have a lot. Oh, yeah. Just, like, this is, this is a Christmas movie. Yeah, let's remember that it's not always about Christmas. It's about the holiday season, and there are lots of holidays this season. And at the Festivist dinner, you gather your family around and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year. And is there a tree? No, instead, there's a pole.

Requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting. Festivus does not end until somebody pins me The Festimus for the rest of us Yeah, love it Festivus is all too real All right, so let's get back to the food All right

So I think we move past the Oh, we were talking about the leftovers We got past the leftovers now And so now it's into full-on eating on the 27-28 So you've got to plan properly now I think it's good to follow up the turkey type of leftovers with a solid steak Yeah, we need a solid steak, yeah

I think everybody's got their favorite steak spot around the city, whether it's Mississauga, Toronto. I can be a basic guy and go out to the, I don't want to say the name. We're not talking about franchises and big corporate name state. We're saying small. Nothing wrong with the keg. I love the keg. I do love the keg. I was a keger. I worked there for years. I love the keg.

It's pretty good. I'll put you on, though, to the prime rib sandwich at 14-0s. I had that for the first time last night. I was stunned, blown away. Boom! I got a triple boom plus plus. The video coming soon. But that was fantastic. So I would go for a nice steak, I think, after that.

to follow it up with a pizza. My cousin is coming in from Montreal. He said, okay, I haven't been on the eating tour with you yet, or the food pilgrimage now, as we're going to call it here. So I've got to hit him up with a few great pizza joints. So we're going to Hamilton, might take him to St. Catherine's as well. And of course, in Toronto. So one spot I've been to Queen Margarita pizza, Annette Street, Toronto, full Italian restaurant, great wood-fired pizza, so I'm going to hit him up over there too, Chef Rob, I'm coming, haven't been there in a while, and Brampton, the other Italian joint, Tonino's restaurant, Chef Danny. Their reservations are full up. Family joint, he's full up for tonight, but I'm going to get in there maybe the 28, 29th.

There's no pull on the triple boom name. We've got to wait in line like everybody else. I guess you got to remember, after Christmas, there's a few days in there where there's not a whole lot to do necessarily. Absolutely, yeah. And so if you have the opportunity, it's a great time to see if you can knock some restaurants off your bucket list as you were scrolling through social media over the year saying, you know, I got to try this place. It's a perfect time to see if you can get a reservation and try because everyone's got a list as long as they're on. of places they haven't been able to go all year long. So try to get a few of them off your list.

How about you guys have any greasy spoons for great breakfast spots you've been to? You know. This is a tough one for me on breakfast spots. Yeah, look, for me, it's always been proximity. Yes. And if I could get a table. Because you can't get a reservation at a lot of places, right? Because the turnover so quick, right?

Yes, yes. I think we've got a sunny morning and sunset grill by our house. Sure, yeah. kinds of place. The people who work there are great. The food is reliable and I know what I'm getting. Yep. I've been just I haven't found a really great one

that I enjoyed since the tulip closed. A tulip on Queen East. Oh, right. I remember that place. A legendary place and it closed down. There's a place by my house called Starving Artist that does these great waffles with bacon on the inside.

Yeah, it's really, really good. Yeah, that sounds like that one would be a great one too. It's fantastic. Yeah. I think that's important. Hit up a greasy spoon for a great breakfast spot and satisfy that bacon and egg and pancake craving maybe. Get those in. A little bit more syrup.

Yeah. Oh, you want to do the tasting? The tasting. Yeah, all right. I'm going to try one of these. Oh, here we go. This is it. This is under pressure right now.

Layla's cheesecake. Layla's cheesecake. So this, I was recommended to go and try out her place just within the last three weeks, I think it was, by chef Danny at Tonino's restaurant. He said, you got to get out and try. These are the best cheesecakes are.

So I went out. I tried them out. I mentioned them on the last show. and then when I was coming in here, I said, I'm going to laylist to bring you guys some cheesecakes. They're in Burlington, Fairview Street. It's around the Applebee line, Fairview Street area. These are the smaller jars.

They've got two sizes, the four-ounce. And I don't work for them. I just love the cheesecake. It's enough to satisfy the sweet tooth craving. I got salted caramel. Salted caramel, there you go. It's perfect. Like a portion control type of thing here with these four-ounce jars.

Dude, this is a perfect cheesecake. What do you think? You're a Montrealer here, so I know you know cheesecake, Ben. That's good. That's really good. The salted, I just ate the salted caramel myself yesterday in the parking lot. Sorry, I think I'm just going to not do the show. I have to say, I'm a cheesecake purist normally. And I don't like it when you put.

What does that mean, Sarah Lee? No, my mom's cheesecake recipe, which is amazing. And so I don't generally like putting extra things on them. You do occasionally. But this one here, hot chocolate. Hot chocolate. I feel like I have to try this because it sounds so unique. I'm anxious on this one

because I have not had my teeth around that one yet on the hot chocolate cheesecake. Oh, dear Lord. Yeah, no, that's fantastic. Layless cheesecake. It's written L-A-I-L-A. Correct. Layless cheesecake.

Oh, that's good. Yeah. Instagram, TikTok, all that stuff. See, I always say if you're going to be, if you're going to do a certain type of cuisine, there's certain things you've got to nail. If you're going to open a French bistro, there's certain things you have to get right.

Yeah. You have to have a great steak fruit. You have to have a great moul marinierre. You have to have those things. And if you're not willing to try to have the best in the city or the best that you can make, don't even try. And if you're going to get into making cheesecake, it better be good. And Layla and her team have nailed this.

We're going to have a festivist fight for those. Get the pole. We're going to get the pool. It's going to be whoever it gets the... No, but first we have to have the airing of grievances. Yes. And I do have a lot of problems with you. I've been writing them down, actually.

There's a spreadsheet. We'll be opening up after the show. Yes. All right. So let's go on with a few more. Because we have a few more minutes left, and I think I'd love to give a little love to a few more places in this city because they deserve it. Yeah. So for me, I'm more of the, I'll say the Mississauga, even at Tobago, Etobico, Mississauga out through Burlington, Oklahoma, Hamilton, stuff like that.

So I'm going to hit up pizza joints. So where am I going to be my favorite? What type of pizza do you like? Okay, so we talked about deep dish earlier. It's like a one and I can't do that so often. It's not a piece. Yeah. Okay.

So we're not going to talk about that, even though we've got one of the best ones ever. But we'll move on. New York style, the big slices, those are always great, yeah. I'm not really a big fan of the Neapolitan thin crust, but it is good. It hits a spot sometimes. So I'll do the Queen Margarita pizza. We hit that. I'm going to hit up Tony G's pizza out in Hamilton and maybe even FBI pizza on Lakeshore.

Those are three. It's tough coming up all these. I'm going to get some hate from places that I didn't mention. I had that last time. Hold on, I got a question for you. Pineapple on pizza, your thoughts. Oh, man, it's almost like you, your hate for the deep dish. could do it. I'll do the pineapple and the chicken. We've

want to try it, but... I had never done it until I did it. And now I love it. It's not awful. It's got to be right, but listen, you've got have the right kind of, like a small little bits because you don't want to get in all wet and drown in the pizza. Little bits of, little explosions of sweetness, absolutely. Now, I read that the Hawaiian pizza was invented in Chatham, Ontario.

Yes, it was? 1962, if I'm correct, on that one. Correct. Wow. So I do, I haven't done a review really on a Hawaiian pizza, but I want to get out to Chatham and review it in where it was born. And to this day, Americans poo-poo. They just loved slamming the Hawaiian pizza. Pineapple, oh, blasphemy. That's with everything else that Canadians invented that they want to slam and take credit for. I'm not getting political, so if you poke a bear here, we might go off.

Where's a swear jar? Okay, what else you got? I'm going to smoke meat. You know, I'm going to Peters. You know I've got Peters and Eagleton, always on my mind. I'm in there. We're bringing you in. Peter wants Ben Mulroney in his shop from Montreal Smoke Meat. I do have one question. Maybe we'll end on this. We'll talk about this. If you had to go to one restaurant as your final meal of 2025,

what restaurant would you go to? I'm going where they've shown me the most love and thankfulness, and that's Peters and Eichlinton. Yeah? I need, just, they've treated me so well. I did a video out of nowhere, it blew up, and he's just so gracious when I came to, the whole staff is, his staff listened to your radio show all the time.

How do they turn to profit when they give you that much meat? Like, seriously, they don't have to do that. Those, that's like cheesecake factory sizes. No, it's crazy. The sandwiches, if you go to his website, the social media is Triple Boom Drew. It's crazy. You look terrified when you're about to eat that sandwich. I don't alter things.

That's the way it is. I mean, he doesn't make anything special for me. He makes it for all of his guests that way. You know what's good, the more terrified the guy trying it looks. Yeah, oh, yeah. Like his eyes are like, oh, my God, what am I going to do? Boy, does it look delicious. Hey, Andrew, thank you so much for you.

I really appreciate this. I wish the very best of you and your family. Please pass on the best from everybody here today. and tell your mom, I'm sure that whatever she's cooking is delicious. Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Happy holidays. Everyone enjoy the season. In law, it's Lawyering 101.

It's back. This is going to be fun. Controversial cases. So you're dating a doll. Hello. Nice to meet you. Complicated relationships. We broke up.

What did you do? What did I do? You have a very aggressive personality. And courtroom chaos. She took my baby. Family law. New season Thursday, January 8th on Global. Stream on Stack TV.