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TORY CAMP: Thai and Chinese takeout beat deli sandwiches for dinner. Thank goodness for the chocolate

BY SHAWN McCARTHY

The John Tory campaign seems to have adopted the strategy that if a reporter's mouth is full, he can't ask embarrassing questions.

Food and drink - soft drinks and bottled water - were always available, and frequently offered by the young media assistant who acted as hostess. Grazing was encouraged. Those on diets had to have iron wills, or a facility for easy rationalization.

Chocolate was in abundance.

Initially, it was your standard corner-store fare - Mr. Big, M&Ms, Skor bars (mmm, Skor bars). But as the week progressed, the choco-offerings were upgraded.

While campaigning in Oakville, Mr. Tory entered a confectioner's shop and purchased boxes of dark chocolate, white chocolate and dark and white fudge that later turned up on the media bus's food counter.

Another time, a plate of chocolate-covered bananas appeared as a lunchtime dessert.

The meals themselves were not as appetizing, but were almost always served on time and in quantity. On different days, Thai and Chinese takeout was offered. The Pad Thai was tasty enough if you got to it when it was served, but cooled quickly into a congealed mass. The low point was the day in southwestern Ontario when late luncheon sandwiches stood as supper.

But one day in Hamilton - which is known for its Italian food - the bus driver, Wayne, arranged a lunch of penne with chicken and sausages that was hot and excellent.

When the campaign was in Toronto, the menu was upgraded.

On Friday, as the bus rolled from Queen's Park a little after 8 a.m., the caterers' hot pots were filled with French toast, sausages and bacon, and accompanied by fruit salads and an assortment of muffins, bagels and croissants.

While the leader was attending a luncheon at the Toronto Board of Trade, the media were fed an assortment of thick deli sandwiches.

That night, there was the promise of steak. It sounds extravagant, but was neatly planned for an evening event in Bramalea, which most of the reporters would not be attending due to deadline pressures and the desire to keep overtime to a minimum.

Highlight: Penne with chicken and sausages from Maccheroni's in Dundas, a bedroom community of Hamilton.

Lowlight: Luncheon sandwiches - tuna, salmon, ham - for supper.

LIBERAL CAMP:Willpower dissolves as an all-you-can-eat buffet serves a full meal between lunch and dinner

BY KAREN HOWLETT

My goal before boarding the Liberals' media bus last week was to avoid eating enough to feed a family of four and having to replace my entire wardrobe at the end of the 30 days. But by day two I was already off to a bad start. I am surrounded by food morning, noon and night.

Tuesday started out okay. We boarded the bus at 7:25 a.m. and stopped at the Tudor Hall in Ottawa at 9 to file our stories. I passed up the bagels, bacon and sausages in favour of scrambled eggs and fresh fruit. Lunch on the bus was Caesar salad and chicken sandwiches - real chicken, not the processed stuff.

So far so good - until we were presented with the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Parkway Banquet Hall in Peterborough - grilled salmon, pasta salad, chicken cacciatore, raw veggies, and lots and lots of desserts.

It was 4 o'clock and you'd think I would be too busy writing to fit in an entire meal between lunch and dinner. You would be wrong. I am a pro at balancing my BlackBerry, notepad, tape recorder, laptop and food.

It was becoming apparent that the "food plan" I devised before the campaign began was flawed. I have a food buddy on the bus, Rob Ferguson at the Toronto Star. We agreed we would stop each other from heading to the back of the bus - where they stash all the jelly beans, candy bars, granola bars, drinks and fruit - for chocolate, even if we had to stick out a leg and trip each other.

The food plan was completely derailed by 8 o'clock. That night, Robin Gill from Global TV, my seatmate on the bus, opened her takeout box of Chinese food to discover 40 pieces of squid covered in glistening batter, a bit of a surprise given that the menu said "pan-fried."

I had planned not to have dinner - I couldn't imagine that I would need to eat again - but there I was, helping Robin eat the squid. It was delicious, but sat in our stomachs like a lead balloon.

We mused about bailing from the Liberal bus and jumping to Green Party Leader Frank de Jong's campaign, where we could keep fit by following him on our bikes.

On Thursday afternoon, my editor asked me to get off the bus in Woodstock and head back to Toronto to write a weekend story. Rob Ferguson sent me an e-mail telling me I missed the culinary highlight of the week - smoked salmon and des fromages exotiques.

Just another 21 days to go.

Highlight: New York steak, grilled to perfection.

Lowlight: Squid covered in batter.

NDP CAMP: A lame airport burger and fries temporarily breaks the tyranny of all that local, organic, fair-trade fare

BY JEFF GRAY

If you forget which party's media bus you're on, the food on Howard Hampton's NDP campaign trail is a dead giveaway: The first morning, we had granola. (For the record, I often eat granola, as do some of my best friends.)

Party operatives handed out a glossy sheet to the media explaining that the campaign tour's food comes from the catering wing of the organization FoodShare, and features local and organic foods in order to "reduce the ecological footprint of each meal eaten on the NDP tour." Even the cutlery was biodegradeable.

While one morning's "Indian breakfast burrito" - which featured eggs from the Quinte Organic Farmers' Co-operative, we were told - was excellent, the "aged Toscano cheese made from sheep's milk produced by Ontario Mennonite shepherds" promised in the bumph didn't materialize in the first week.

Mr. Hampton, who zipped ahead to campaign events in a hybrid sport utility vehicle, didn't eat with reporters.

Highlight: Tie between the zucchini frittata, the secret stash of fair-trade chocolate bars in a drawer by the fridge and copious cans of Creemore, Sleeman and Molson Canadian.

Lowlight: Rubbery French fries and lukewarm burgers at the Thunder Bay airport, which was actually a nice escape from the healthy virtuousness of the tour bus food.