Tour de Dufflet: With great food comes great responsibility

I've always been fascinated by the uneasy alliance that exists between extreme exercise and extreme eating. Micheal Phelps ate excessively large meals to become the legendary Olympic swimmer he is today. Lance Armstrong eats 6,000 calories a day to train for the Tour de France. With great food comes great responsibility...

Ever since I learned about carbo-loading when I was training for long distance runs, I've been searching for events that incorporate eating and exercise. I ran the St. Patrick Day 5k to get chili and beer when I finished. I ran the Twenty Valley Niagara Wine Country Run to sample wines at the water stations. I participated in a softball league because they threw a BBQ during the games. My latest exercise-food pairing was brought to my attention by CelestialSpeedster. The idea was simple: Eat more cake. Ride more bike. (You had me at "cake".)

The Tour de Dufflet is the brainchild of Dufflet Rosenberg, the Queen of Cake. You are required to visit each of the three Dufflet stores across Toronto on your bike. At each location, you will receive your choice of a beverage and a small baked good. For the beverage, I highly recommend the lemonade. For the baked good, I recommend everything!!! You can choose any of the delicious cookies or bars they have in their gorgeous displays.

We visited the Uptown Dufflet location first. This was Royal Pinguo's first outing in her new bike (Trek Navigator 2.0... also recommended highly). Joe and CelestialSpeedster had quickly gobbled up their cookies before we arrived. I selected a raisin oatmeal cookie and it was awesome! Royal Pinguo chose a chocolate S'Mores bar and it was by far the best baked good of the day. If you are thinking of doing the Tour de Dufflet, we recommend starting at the Uptown location first, because it has the greatest elevation. You can ride downhill to either of the two remaining locations.

We chose to visit the Downtown Dufflet location next. We tried to stay on the side streets to avoid the traffic. We biked somewhat randomly through the side streets in a roughly southwest direction. Our goal was to eventually find Dupont Street then bike south along Palmerston Avenue... all the way to Queen Street. At the Downtown Dufflet, I went lemon-crazy with a lemon lime coconut square and a glass of lemonade. The ride down was very easy because it was downhill. We took the time to shop around the area because we were ahead of schedule.

Our final stop was the Beach Dufflet. Our original plan was to take Adelaide Street to by-pass the busy sections of Queen Street. However, since we had lots of time, we biked all the way down to the Martin Goodman trail and followed it towards Ashbridges Bay. This route was very scenic and nostalgic as I've biked it many times in the past. We stopped off at T&T Supermarket for a dim sum lunch and looked enviously at people enjoying the RibFest at Woodbine Park. The ribs would have to wait... We were going to the Beach Dufflet! We arrived at the location and picked out our last baked goods. I chose a lime tart, because I love lemon-lime desserts. (I must have had scurvy in a past-life.) As we sat in the seating area in the back, we began talking about the amazing day we had. I can think of no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Eat more cake. Ride more bike.

(You get excellent value for that $5 registration fee. 3 delicious cookies/bars, 3 refreshing drinks, a water bottle, and a $5 coupon at the end!)