It's not even officially winter yet, but it looks like the cold and snowy weather is here to stay. Whether you're embracing it or hibernating, you should probably know that there's a whole lot more of it on the way.

Yes, it's supposed to be icy cold this week (with a forecasted low of around -20 C on Thursday night), but according to the Weather Network, we also might see about five centimetres of snow on each of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, for around 15 centimetres over the three day period.

Adding to the wintry blast is the wind, which will be over 40kph on Wednesday and Thursday — so get ready to bundle up this week.

Technically, we're moving into the last weekend of fall, so if you want to have fun outdoors, there's still lots to do. Or take advantage of one of the city's heated patios and drink your winter woes away.

Toronto's newest crop of Chinese restaurants show that, in the midst of wave after wave of sushi burritos, poke bowls, Thai-rolled ice cream, and boil seafood places, there's still room in Toronto's food scene for the humble and relatively straightforward Chinese cuisine.

Here are my picks for the top new Chinese restaurants in Toronto.

Spicy Mafia

Making the waves on various Asian social media platforms is this new personal hot pot restaurant. Instead of a shared pot, each diner gets their own personal mini (spicy!) hot pot complete with the seasoning of their choice. All in a cheerful and funky Asian mafia-style setting.

Lee Chen Asian Bistro

Featuring a host of classic Chinese food favourites mixed with some fusion-inspired versions, Lee Chen's second location absolutely satisfies. Make sure to order their excellent mini xiaolongbaos, fusion pork belly bao and massive Wuxi-style spareribs.

Sichuan Kungfu Fish

This restaurant specializes in various Szechuan spicy versions of their namesake dish. You pick a type of seafood, seasoning and toppings. Spicy seafood at its tongue-numbing best!

Vintage Garden

This restaurant is the absolute epitome of a hidden gem. Previously only open to the residents of a senior home, the restaurant has only recently opened to the public. Go here for Chiu-Chow style Chinese cuisine, with a multitude of delicate dishes.

ChongQing Liuyishou Hot Pot

The ridiculously difficult-to-pronounce ChongQing Liuyishou is the first Toronto location of a large Chinese chain that serves excellent hot pot with interesting items like pork neck and sliced fried mantou buns. Their selection of Chinese desserts is also top notch.

The music industry in Toronto is ever-changing, but 2016 was a particularly difficult year for HMV. 

The Eaton Centre location announced its imminent closure when its lease came up for renewal, which was the same story at the Bloor Street store. A company that was once ubiquitous in Toronto is now down to a handful of stores. 

It leaves many wondering about the future of 333 Yonge St., the 4,000 square foot flagship store near Yonge and Dundas. It's been around for 30 years and can't help but feel like a bit of a vessel for movie merch and bargain bin pop cultural items. 

Nick Williams, the president and CEO of of HMV Canada has a status update about the store and the main message is that it's not going anywhere. 

"Every time we have to close a store or move a store we get lots of letters and emails from our core consumers who don’t like that change," he says. "The reality is the problem in some of our downtown markets, the rental markets are so prohibitive for retail in the malls.

"The big landlords and Cadillacs of this world command such high rent that we just get to the point where we can’t afford to pay them anymore. Our business model doesn’t allow us to."

HMV wasn't able to reach an agreement with the Eaton Centre landlords and left. It's now concentrating its efforts on the mega-store and what stores are left in Ontario and Canada. Thankfully, it has a lot more traffic at Yonge-Dundas Square and a better relationship with its landlord.

"Yonge and Dundas is a really important store for us, simply because it’s been there since the start," says Williams . 

"The landlord is a good friend of ours and really supports the business," he continues.

It's cool the landlord supports the business, but does the consumer?

The space has an underground concert hall for special, one-off private shows, and acts as a storage unit for their online retail store (they also have a digital locker shop where you can buy music), but is anyone buying anything at HMV anymore?

"It’s an ever changing model but one that we always feel we’re ahead of the curve on and try our best to give the right offer to our diehard fans who pop in and see us regularly," says Williams. 

Williams says music sales are about 65 per cent digital and 35 per cent physical, and Toronto is a tricky market. People here like their music handy and on a mobile device since many commute. 

This is why HMV has its digital download store and offers as much as it can, including vinyl and pop culture merchandise, for people who still collect music or need gift ideas. 

"Lots of retailers are scratching their heads wondering how to maintain a business in such a high rental market," Williams says.  "We obviously have a number of challenges and that is how people are consuming our products differently.

"It’s an interesting and challenging model, but the brand has great value, people love shopping with us ... people aren't buying music the way they used to, but we've accommodated this."

Toronto's epic ice cream cones are getting bigger. Well, they're actually becoming cake. That's right, Sweet Jesus will introduce ice cream cake in the new year, which may be slightly more exciting than the cloying (albeit delicious) white slab cake you usually grab from the grocery store for birthdays and other celebrations.

"I just loved the idea of taking our core cone offerings and taking three our four of those cones and creating a cake out of that ingredient list," says Andrew Richmond, the mastermind behind Sweet Jesus.

"We're essentially taking a cone and putting it into cake form."

The cakes are currently available to diners at two La Carnita locations - uptown and John Street - but they'll be available at Sweet Jesus starting some time in February or March.

When they launch, they'll come in flavours like Red Rapture (red velvet), Bangin' Brownie and Sweet Baby Jesus (caramel, chocolate and peanut butter) and will cost about $30 to $40 each.

A winter village popped up at the Evergreen Brick Works this week. In addition to the site's usual attractions, there are now food and drink stalls, food trucks and lots of vendors selling unique gifts for the holidays.

We stopped by yesterday to see what visitors were wearing after the big snowfall. Here are some of the looks.

Christina

• Occupation: Student
• Style: Friendly

Barbara

• Occupation: Retired
• Style: Grooving Granny

Emily

• Occupation: Art dealer
• Style: True to myself

Gideon

• Occupation: Child
• Style: Independent

Jaclyn

• Occupation: Dancer with National Ballet of Canada
• Style: Creative

Jordan

• Occupation: Event specialist
• Style: Functional

Keith

• Occupation: Marketing specialist for L.L. Bean
• Style: Outdoor gear

Megan

• Occupation: Women's emergency shelter
• Style: Practical and warm

Mike

• Occupation: Music licensing
• Style: Trying to stay warm

Rob

• Occupation: Owner of Longboard Haven
• Style: Go with the flow

Skylar

• Occupation: Dancer with National Ballet of Canada
• Style: Evolving

Stefania

• Occupation: Student
• Style: Preppy

Sustai

• Occupation: Freelancing artist
• Style: Realistic

Tien

• Occupation: Freelance Illustrator
• Style: Artistic

Timothy

• Occupation: Freelance artist
• Style: Grunge

Thanks to L.L. Bean for sponsoring this post.

Tim Hortons is diving into the premium coffee market. While the behemoth chain already offers "speciality" coffees, its latest plan involves made-to-order drinks using what it describes as premium ingredients and a $12,000 espresso machine.

As the CBC reports, the new drinks will be tried out in Vancouver and London, Ontario markets before being rolled out across the rest of the country. Franchises are being told to buy the expensive machine in advance of the full-scale rollout.

Current speciality drinks like lattes and cappuccinos on Tim Hortons' menus are made from powder, while the new drinks are brewed from Arabica beans that will be ground fresh and blended with steamed milk. It's a complete departure from the existing strategy.

The move comes as major coffee retailers like Starbucks and McDonalds race to provide more upscale offerings, a market that Tim Hortons had yet to tap in a meaningful way. It remains to be seen if people will buy them, particularly in a city like Toronto with such a robust independent coffee industry.

Stores can charge significantly more per drink for made-to-order lattes and cappuccinos, but the machines will be a major investment for some franchises.

Beyond the two test markets, these premium drinks won't likely be available elswehere in Canada until next spring. You can expect a massive advertising campaign to accompany their wide release.

If Toronto gets its way, there will be road tolls on the Gardiner and the DVP as a means to generate revenue for transit and infrastructure projects. City council voted 32-9 in favour of implementing the tolls, which won't be put in place until 2019 at the earliest.

The plan does, however, still have a major hurdle to jump in the form of approval from the provincial government, though Premier Kathleen Wynne has hinted that she would not interfere with the city on the matter.

While the idea for tolls was resoundingly endorsed at council, there's considerable political debate surrounding the plan at the provincial level, with both the leaders of the Progressive Conservatives and the NDP stating they do not support the idea. 

The specifics of implementing the tolls require further study from city staff, so there's no definitive price tag in place yet. Mayor John Tory has, however, noted that a $2 fee per trip would generate over $200 million yearly for the city. 

Today in Toronto it's time to take your headphones out of your ears and compete in our city's lip synch battle. There's a mic, a stage, lights, and a song that you know all the words to. This is always a hilarious night out and a perfect hump day activity. 

Two rather iconic Toronto brands are teaming up to create this season's ultimate parka. Drake, fresh off a huge year with a quadruple platinum record and eight Grammy nominations, and Canada Goose will launch a new winter jacket tomorrow, just in time for the holiday season.

According to Billboard, the OVO x Canada Goose collection will feature two Chillwack bombers (in black and khaki) that'll retail for about $1,195.

There will also be Cordura caps - also in black and khaki - available as part of the collaboration.

The OVO x Canada Goose collection will drop tomorrow at the OVO and Canada Goose bricks-and-mortar stores as well as online.

Baby, it's cold outside. After a super long summer and a mild fall, the weather's finally turned in Toronto. And today, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, the city's acting medical officer of health, issued the first extreme cold weather alert of the season.

The city sends out these warnings when temperatures are forecasted to dip below -15 C or -20 C with the windchill and advises Torontonians to take certain precautions when venturing outside and to check in on vulnerable neighbours, friends and family.

According to Toronto Public Health, these alerts "activate local services that focus on getting and keeping vulnerable residents inside. These services include additional shelter beds, notification to community agencies to relax any service restrictions, availability of transit tokens in some drop-ins, and overnight street outreach."

Now that the cold has arrived, the snow is also set to follow. Welcome to winter, Toronto.

The best jerk chicken in Toronto is proof that even in this cold, gigantic country of ours, you can find tropical flavours from tiny islands bursting with heat and passion.

Here’s the best jerk chicken in Toronto.

Police are calling one man the "luckiest guy alive." That's because after he was ejected from his car when it veered off the Gardiner Expressway, he walked away with only minor injuries.

According to CBC News, the driver was sideswiped by a transport truck before 7 a.m. while on the Gardiner between Strachan and Jameson avenues.

His car was pushed over the guardrail and it landed upside down. The man was ejected from his car, but police say he fell into a pile of dirt, which probably saved his life.

As the CBC writes, the truck didn't remain at the scene and police are looking at this as "a fail-to-remain crash."

If the cold weather's got your down, you're probably looking to hibernate at home with snacks, blankets and a new show to binge watch. If you've exhausted your options on Netflix (you can only spend so much time in Stars Hollow), there's now a new video streaming service available in Toronto.

Amazon Prime Video finally launched in Canada. Some speculated it would be out earlier this month, but it finally arrived here - as well as in 200 other countries - overnight, as the Canadian Press reports.

While Amazon Prime ($79 per year) and its associated perks, like two-day shipping, have been in Canada for a while, Amazon Prime Video is new - you can try it out with a 30-day free trial.

It offers movies and TV shows, including original series like Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent, the latter of which used to be available on Shomi until that locally owned service went offline on November 30. 

2016 was a killer year for brunch in Toronto. We’ve seen more creative and stunning options than ever over the past twelve months, from fry bread tacos to deep-fried breakfast sandwiches. Get out there and witness the loving marriage between breakfast and lunch performed so often and so well in this city.

Here are my picks for the top new brunch restaurants in Toronto by neighbourhood.

Annex

What goes better with brunch than beer? Crafty Coyote in the Annex may appear focused most heavily on a giant menu of local craft brews, but on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays they do pancakes, waffles, huevos and an eggs benny with both peameal bacon and turkey sausage.

Bloordale Village

Baddies serves up beautifully elegant hot cakes and breakfast sandwiches along with incredible coffee in a cozy Aussie-style cafe. The new fixture next to Lansdowne subway station is an already popular breath of fresh air. Just be aware, they’re closed Sundays.

Canary District

The Tabule family of restaurants has been bringing class and beauty to Middle Eastern cuisine for a while now, but Souk Tabule in the Canary District is amping things up with a market or “souk” vibe and a cafe. Go for turmeric lattes, harissa caesars and sumptuous platters of dips and hot pans of shakshuka.

Danforth

Sakawa Coffee promises Japanese comfort food and coffee. While they make a variety of standard and espresso-based coffee drinks as well as matcha drinks, the brunches may be more familiar to you if you’re used to Japanese cuisine. Everyone can get behind baked goods and chocolate in the morning, though!

The shakshuka at Jack and Lil's

Dundas West

Formerly just a catering company, recently Jack and Lil’s has opened their kitchen up on Sundays to serve a family-style brunch with South African influences that includes such dishes as township eggs, maple sausages, and crustless quiche.

Financial District

Lena joins the family of businesses in Saks at the Eaton Centre this year, doing a full latin menu. Brunch items include alfajores, breakfast tortillas and breakfast empanadas with poached eggs and chimichurri, as well as grapefruit mimosas.

Junction

Dirty Food in the Junction is anything but: serving up incredible albeit casual brunches that feature a ton of items cured and pickled in-house, this place is a real find in this cute neighbourhood. Discover vegan gluten-free pancakes and caesars made with beet juice along with epic fried chicken waffle sandwiches.

Junction Triangle

Love Chix prides themselves on doing a 100 kilometre breakfast with bacon steak, but since they do fried and butter chicken so well they offer brunch versions of those on their menu as well. You can also get a Station cold brew and Bailey’s or a secret mystery brunch drink.

Getting cozy for brunch at Pow Wow Cafe

Kensington Market

Where can’t you go for brunch in Kensington Market? You can get almost anything for breakfast here, so Pow Wow Cafe is offering something not seen in this area before on the weekends: fry bread tacos topped with poached eggs and smoked salmon, as well as pancakes.

King East

If hearty breakfast crepes are your thing, look no further than Crepe TO In a classy and accessible environment crepes with fillings like veggies and salami with egg scrambled right onto the crepe on the griddle are served up along with fresh-squeezed cane juice.

King West

Clubby restaurant Lavelle is probably best known for having a rooftop pool, but in snowy Canada it’s year-round brunch that’s more reliable. Cocoa nib waffles, duck hash, oysters and French toast are as jaw-dropping as the view.

Koreatown

You might not assume a great new Mexican restaurant would have opened in Koreatown this past year, but that’s exactly what happened. Creamy guacamole and cocktails shine at Los Guaca-Moles, and for brunch they’ve got huevos divorciados, burrito de huevos, chilaquiles, and enchiladas con mole filled with scrambled eggs and bacon.

The Eggs Ibiza at Janie Jones

Leslieville

If you like your eggs with a little rock n’ roll on the side, Janie Jones is the place to grab a vindaloo caesar in this Brits-on-holiday themed, black-and-white checkerboard ska/reggae spot. They do a deep-fried breakfast sandwich on house-made crumpets, as well as potatoes layered with poached eggs, smoked salmon, and horseradish cream.

Little Italy

A bustling bastion of brunch options, it’s tough to choose who clinches brunch in Little Italy this year, but in terms of pure uniqueness B’saha stands out. Their Sunday brunch includes Moroccan favourites like avocado shakes, merguez torta and beghrir semolina pancakes.

Mount Pleasant

Another pub out to prove breakfast goes great with beer is The Belsize. They serve a limited menu of a standard breakfast and a meat or veggie eggs benny, but with a great kitchen pumping out elevated pub food the rest of the time and a cold craft beer in your hand, it’s a no-fail option.

The corned beef hash at Harry's

Parkdale

Longstanding diner Harry’s has been open for decades, but was recently revamped by the Grant van Gameren team. The place is as diner-y as ever with the most basic of cocktails, beers, burgers, and breakfasts, but the details have been tightened up a bit with excellent corn beef hash, green chorizo burgers and breakfast burgers, and avocado toast.

Riverside

Springing up along with a bunch of other restaurants in the Queen and Broadview area, White Lily Diner is run by the folks who have a hand in Pusateri’s and Grand Electric. Serving up a range of patty melts, English breakfasts with house sausage, and DIY mimosas, not to mention fresh baked pastries like donuts and lemon tarts.

St. Clair West

Emma’s Country Kitchen has been open for a while west of Oakwood on St. Clair, but they’ve recently moved into much roomier digs further east. They still do the same classic biscuits and gravy and oatmeal as well as their famous baked goods including donuts.

West Queen West

Also technically just an old spot in a new location, Jules Bistro is still serving up French comfort classics but now in a new space at Queen and Shaw. They do croques both madame and monsieur as well as a quiche of the day and a breakfast cassoulet.

Yorkville

If smoothies, cold-pressed juices, and clean plant-based eats are your jam when it comes to brunch, go chill in bright and classy Planta, sure to fill you with get up and go. Banana pancakes, tofu scramble, carrot lox, and crab cake benny reign supreme here.

If you missed TEDxToronto this year, don't fret. You can still do all of your locally-inspired learning because videos from all the TED Talks are now available online.

The eighth annual TEDxToronto conference was on October 27, 2016 at Koerner Hall. The theme was Symbols + Signals and it featured a varied range of speakers and performers who both educated and entertained the crowd of delegates.

As you wait for the announcement about the 2017 conference, here a some talks to keep you informed and in-the-know during the holiday season.

Decoding the value of names. Duana Taha, TV writer, author, and name expert.

Mastering a new skill in a matter of hours. Dr. Helene Polatajko, Occupational Therapist & Rehabilitation Scientist Researcher.

Why do we accept bad design? Paul Rowan, Co-founder of Umbra

For the rest of the videos, visit the TEDxToronto website.

Winter might be descending on Toronto, but it's never too early to start dreaming about summer, especially since there's a new warm weather attraction to get excited about.

Premier Parks, which owns and operates numerous theme parks in the United States, has bought Brampton's Wild Water Kingdom. It's transforming it into Wet'n'Wild, a waterpark chain with locations in places such as Hawaii and Palm Springs.

The company's spending $25 million to revamp the existing park with so-called Canadian-inspired attractions, such as the Krazy Kanuck family raft ride and the Klondike Express mat slide racer. There will also be a tree-house-inspired kids area, a bowl slide and lots of other water rides.

“We are excited about the opportunity to completely rebuild Wild Water Kingdom into a first-class waterpark that Canadians will be proud to call their own,” says general manager Steve Mayer in a news release.

The park's slated to open in May 2017, and season passes go on sale next week.

Christmas dinner is one of those things you look forward to all year, but when it’s your turn to host, what seemed like a fun way to get everyone together in your home can turn into a stressful nightmare. Avoid the hassle this holiday season and follow these simple tips to ensure your Christmas dinner not only runs smoothly, but is memorable as well.

Here are my five tips for hosting Christmas dinner in Toronto.

Skip the turkey

You could serve what everyone’s expecting and pry napping guests off your couch, or go for something that’ll wake everyone up. Try Sanagan’s for off-the-beaten-track meat selections like sauerkraut-stuffed pork, jambon de Paris, or exotic elk, venison, or rabbit. Get really outside the box at Honest Weight and pick up arctic char, other filets or whole fish.

Pick up some new music

If you own your own record player, check out one of Toronto’s newest record shop Invisible City Record Shop on Geary Avenue and get some fly background music. Instead of having your guests humming to the oldies or snoring to boring Christmas music, you'll have them suggesting everyone do the limbo.

Rent a sick outfit

Tired of only having a couple fancy outfits you rotate between? Instead of splurging on something sort of cute simply rent something stunning from edgy boutique Studio Fitzroy for a fraction of the cost. Since hosting dinner is a messy affair, thankfully dry cleaning is included.

Take care of your vegan pals

Pick up a tofurkey from vegan grocer Good Rebel as well as other snacks like vegan cheese. Apiecalypse Now! has order forms for vegan sweet and savoury pies and shortbread.

Don’t forget about dessert

Order this part of dinner ahead of time and skip the scramble for boring berries and Cool Whip to finish off your excellent Christmas dinner. Rosen’s Cinnamon Buns is taking orders for Crismukkah buns topped with an eggnog glaze and a piece of gelt.

Brought to you by Stella Artois, the perfect beer to serve your guests this holiday season.

'Tis the season for wish lists. While the jury might be out on whether Toronto has been naughty or nice this year, there's plenty to hope for in 2017. In the spirit of dreaming big and faith in optimistic redemption, here's a list of things that would make Toronto a better place next year, from our transit options to our parks to our bars and nightclubs.

1. The Toronto Blue Jays, led by Edwin Encarnacion and Joey Bautista, bring home the 2017 World Series pennant.

2.Rail Deck Park inches toward reality as Toronto successfully purchases the air rights for the land on which it'll be built.

3. Toronto decides to try out 4 a.m. last call as part of a six month pilot project. 

4. The TTC follows suit and extends subway service to 4:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. 

5. Trader Joe's announces its expansion into the Toronto market.

6. Miraculously, the PRESTO system actually works.

7. Toronto finally decides it'll be cheaper in the long run to tear down the Gardiner Expressway. 

8. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signs a cheque for $5 billion in funding for a relief subway line in Toronto.

9. Plans for the second phase of Ontario Place's revitalization are revealed, and there isn't a condo in sight.

10. Drake announces that the 8th annual OVO Fest will be a massive free festival in celebration of Toronto.

Toronto's real estate market isn't cooling down any time soon, unlike the weather outside. According to the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, housing prices in the city have gone up for the tenth month in a row.

That's in contrast to Vancouver, where prices have gone down for the second month in a row after 21 consecutive months of price increases, notes CBC News. Home sales have dipped 43 per cent in Vancouver, but year over year, prices are still up more than 19 per cent.

As Business Insider notes, a senior economist at Capital Economics says it looks like Vancouver's housing bubble has burst.

In Toronto, prices are continuing to climb. They're up more than 18 per cent year over year. CBC News reports that in comparison, only Hamilton saw bigger real estate-related prices increases. 

Toronto might be all decked out for Christmas, but a few of Toronto's furriest residents might be going all Harry and Marv by wreaking havoc on some of the city's decorations.

As BC News reports, squirrels might be chewing through the wires on the Christmas lights that illuminate the skating rink and surrounding areas at North York's Mel Lastman Square.

Tonight in Toronto news: squirrels have no comment on being accused of chewing Xmas lights.
One time I got $10 instead of $5 from grandma.

— Merry Christ(sou)mas (@glen_ichinose) December 14, 2016

According to CBC, Filion wants squirrel-proof lights installed in order to keep the public space looking festive over the holiday season.

While Councillor John Filion blames the squirrels for darkening the square, others don't believe his theory because they don't think the squirrels could cause so much damage. Regardless, there will be multi-coloured floodlights at Mel Lastman Square to keep it lit.