Gina Mallet’s got some hand-wringing going on in her blog this week as she discusses the prospect of new taxes on alcohol and how they might affect restaurants. Will people eat out less if the taxes on wine are higher? Will tourists stop coming here if the taxes in restaurants are raised (despite being able to get a refund on taxes when they return home?) Is this even an issue at council right now? What say you, TasteTO readers - would you stop eating out as much if municipal taxes on alcohol were added to the bill? Or are certain restaurateurs just too whiny for their own good?

Over at Creampuffs in Venice, Ivonne bids farewell to summer strawberries with a tart. But does she know that a certain vendor who frequents both the Nathan Phillips Square and Metro Hall farmer’s markets grows everbearing strawberries that are available until October? I’ve got some in the fridge right now.

I may have to track down Brilynne of Jumbo Empanadas and camp out at her house until she gets her Dad to make a batch of the deep-fried olives she featured on her blog this week. Imagine - olives, surrounded in fried battery goodness. Gimme!

Alana at Wasabi Cowgirl wins the prize for the best subject line ever. In “Salmonburger, Salmonburger, Chips, no Coke, Pepsi!” she discusses making, well, yeah, salmonburgers, but only a few folks will remember that the line is ad-libbed from a SNL Belushi & Aykroyd sketch from the 70s. It’s also the standard patter coming from behind the counter at the Stem restaurant, which begs the question of whether Aykroyd (who used to live on Queen West back in the day) copied the guys from the Stem, or whether the guys from the Stem are copying Belushi and Aykroyd.

And it wouldn’t be July without the aftermath of Summerlicious horror stories, so over at Save Your Fork, I’ve got a terribly rude waitress with a hate-on for Tabasco sauce.