KUDOS AND MEDIA MENTIONS

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2005-2004

Lunar Delights: As the Year of the Rooster approaches, it's time to explore the delicious world of dumplings in the GTA
I've said it before and I'll say it again: a dumpling is a beautiful thing.... Toronto foodie Shirley Lum loves the sticky rice dumplings (“very traditional and very sticky," she's quick to note) popular during the imminent festive season. "My paternal grandfather requested them from his deathbed," she recalls, adding, "My mum made a batch and smuggled them to his hospital bedside." Her mother also makes a deep-fried sweet dumpling at New Year that's rife with symbolism: coconut for long-life, toasted peanut means wealth and sugar offers sweetness in the near year to come. Lum will be guiding her Lunar New Year mini-tours to downtown Chinatown. They feature a special tea-tasting, pastries and dim sum.
- Marion Kane, Toronto Star, Sat. January 29, 2005

The Best Place to... 20 Fun Things to Do Across Canada
#10. Find a Ghost – Ottawa, Toronto and Kingston, ON offer family ghost walks as do many of the provincial parks such as MacGregor Point Provincial Park on Lake Huron.
- Kate Pocock, Today's Parent, Special June edition, 2004

Home and Away
Shirley Lum's offbeat walking tours of city neighborhoods, eateries, ghosts and literary characters are so interesting that even long-time Torontonians love them. This summer she adds a new tour to her repertoire: Phantoms, Players and Pundits. It's a ghost walk through Toronto's entertainment and financial districts showing the spooky sides of architectural landmarks such as Osgoode Hall where the ghost of a female law student is said to haunt the corridors. Lum also continues a few favorites such as her second Chinatown Foodies Quarters tour that starts by sampling seasonal Chinese and Vietnamese pastries and ends up enjoying hosted Chinese dim sum along with a lesson in chopstick etiquette. Her popular Charles Dickens tour recalls details of the novelist's 1842 visit to the city, which he pronounced "well adapted for wholesome exercise at all seasons." It should be noted that Dickens visited in May, not January. However, the tours have been adapted for all seasons.
- Monica Olson, Michigan Living Magazine, May/June, 2004

TVO's Imprint Features Charles Dickens' relationship with Toronto
This unique television show has a literary bend, hence, when Charles Dickens ends up the featured author, Toronto's Dickens Fellowships members end up being interviewed. Of course, A Taste of the World's Shirley Lum ends up on the show with a brief interview as well, meanwhile tour guide Rene Biberstein also gets his moment of glory while conducting In The Footsteps of Dickens: 1842 walking tour in costume and top hat and all as Mr. Dickens. Airing times: Thurs. March 25, 2004 @ 7:30 p.m.; Sat. March 27, 2004 @ 3:30 p.m.; Sun. March 28, 2004 @ 3:30 p.m.; and Mon. March 29, 2004 @ 11:00 a.m. Imagine that, four times!
- TVO's Imprint Show, March, 2004