Adrian Cho

My Favourite Things

I don't have many indulgences or life essentials but there are some things that make life a heck of a lot more fun or are essential to everyday good living.

The Critters

My wife Duffy and I are very fortunate to live with a rather large family of dogs and cats. They mean a great deal to us and we built our current house pretty much just for them. I also moved to Canada so that my Alaskan Malamutes Kira and Chief could live in a northern climate. The photo you see here is Kira, my "little" Malamute girl who passed away in January 2006. Her departure left a big hole in my life and I will never forget a single thing about her. That photo was taken the day before she left us. You wouldn't know it from her big smile but she was suffering from cancer. Her adopted brother Chief is still with us along with many other members of our menagerie.

Many years ago the dogs decided they wanted their own website. It's is getting a bit long in the tooth (pun intended) but still has lots of great info and photos. Be sure to listen to the audio clips of Chief singing!

Natural Pet Foods and Tollden Farms

I've fed my dogs raw, natural food since they were pups. Read a bit about raw diet here. With older dogs now we are no longer just feeding completely raw wings and fish although they still do get chicken necks and bones to gnaw on. Most meals however are "prepared" in that the meal and bones are all ground up and mixed with vegetables but everything is still raw. We used to do all that ourselves but nowadays we just don't have the time. Fortunately there are so many great pre-prepared, all-natural, raw dog foods available. Our favourite (or rather the dogs' favourite) is made locally by Tollden Farms. We buy it at our favourite pet food store, Natural Pet Foods where we also get all-natural (but cooked) food for our cats. This is a great store run by friendly and knowledgeable staff.

If you care about your dogs and cats you shouldn't feed them any less than a natural diet. You wouldn't want to eat the same, processed crap every day of your life so why should they? Their lives are already so short as it is and so much processed food is junk although it is getting better nowadays. Feeding raw and natural foods has always been the way in Australia but I'm glad to see it has caught on now in North America.

Benitz Bistro

This almost downtown fine-dining restaurant is one of my favourite places to eat. Innovative cuisine, superb preparation and presentation, and great service with a personal touch. All served up in elegant, comfortable surroundings without the over-the-top, snooty, yuppie, pretentiousness of many places in the Byward Market. Top that off with easy access and parking and you can see why it's a favourite. Chef Derek Benitz and Meg McManus are genuinely nice folks who deserve every success. Together they bring their many years of experience to the dining table, having worked at and owned top restaurants in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.