Saturday, December 8, 2012

Chilli Chicken House


The first time I tried chilli chicken, I fell in love.  I loved the spiciness and the burning sensation in the mouth.  Not too much to kill all your tastebuds, but just enough to make you wake up.  This was at Lin Garden in Scarborough many years ago.  

Now that I live and work nowhere close to Lin Garden, I haven't had any chilli chicken in a long time.  That and the hubby is a wimp when it comes to spicy foods.  Lucky for me, my coworker is from Honduras and can take some serious spice.  We can across this restaurant on our search for our weekly Friday lunch outings.  She craved General Tao Chicken and I craved Chilli Chicken.  The lunch special includes rice and the option of a pop or a vegetable spring roll.  Because we wanted veggies, we decided to order vegetable pakoras as well.

I was told the General Tao Chicken was very good. I've never been a fan so I can't really comment on it.  The Chilli Chicken, not the same as what I remember if I compare with Lin Garden.  The sauce seemed more soy sauce based.  Not enough spice.  Just overall, not as good.  The vegetable pakoras were very good.  Lots of spice and heat and you can see the veggies.  Portions were big, so if you like quantity over quality, then head on over to Chilli Chicken House.

General Tao Chicken

Chili Chicken

Vegetable Pakoras

Vegetable Pakora Inside




































Chilli Chicken House
4040 Creditview Road, Unit # 25
Mississauga, ON L5C 4E3
Phone: (905) 232 - 1199
http://www.chillichickenhouse.com/store_hours_location.php

Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 11:30am - 10:30pm
Friday:  11:30am - 11:00pm
Saturday: 12:00pm - 11:00pm
Sunday: 12:00pm - 10:30pm




Chobani Flip Greek Yogurt

This post is yet another complaint regarding yogurt varieties available in Canada versus the US.  There's just so much more to choose from in the US.  I bought this at a Walmart in Buffalo.  Greek yogurt and chocolate.  Yum!  Chocolate chip yogurt on one side and raspberry sauce on the other.  And as the name says, you flip the sauce over into the yogurt side and mix.

Taste was pretty good.  One improvement I would like to see is maybe instead of having chocolate shavings in the yogurt portion, melt the chocolate into the yogurt.  I didn't like the chunks of chocolate. But overall, very good as a dessert substitute, much healthier than ice cream!

Chobani Flip Greek Yogurt 

Chobani Flip Greek Yogurt

Leela's Roti & Doubles

When I started work in Mississauga, I believed that the area I was in was a culinary wasteland.  It's filled with industrial buildings, car repair shops, tire shops etc.  I've tried to google, yelp, chowound, urbanspoon, you name it, i've tried looking for it.  I don't remember how I found Leela's but i'm glad I did.

We went for a late lunch, closer to 1:30pm.  There was a HUGE lineup.  I should also add, in the same strip plaza, there's another Caribbean restaurant, but it was EMPTY.  So I knew Leela's was the one to go into.

I ordered a mini sized boneless chicken roti.  I think it was $5.  It was HUGE!  I ate about 2/3 of it and felt defeated.  The curry was delicious and the roti was awesome.  Nice and chewy.  I just wish that they put a bit more curry in, so I could dip the roti into the curry yum!!!  On Tuesdays they sell the same sized mini boneless chicken roti for $3!

Boneless Chicken Roti & Ginger Beer











I will definitely be back, maybe on a Tuesday to save $2 :)  They also have really good ginger beer that tastes more like ginger than gingerale!

Leela's Roti & Doubles
900 Rathburn Road West
Unit 1 & 2
Mississauga, Ontario, L5C 4L3 
Telephone: 905.232.9070
http://leelasroti.com

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday - Friday: 10am - 8pm
Saturday: 9am - 7pm
Sunday: 9am - 5pm
Monday: Closed 

Myungdong Kalkuksu Noodles and Shabu Shabu

This place has the biggest dumplings I've ever eaten.  I'd estimate them to be the size of my fist.  Filling has a lot of meat, and some cabbage.  Good balance I think.  I love the fact that the dumpling skin is so thin!
Korean Dumplings











But thats all thats good here.  Noodles were so-so.  We didn't try the other hotpot dishes.  And I don't think we would be going back again.  The service here is horrid.  All the waitresses look angry all the time, they all have permanent scowls on their faces.  We've tried this place twice.  The first time, when we ordered it seemed like they were very impatient with us.  Made us feel so uncomfortable.  This second time we went, it was with a very large group, 13 of us.  When we told them how many, they gave us a WTF look and walked away angrily.  A table for 8 opened up and they told us to sit down.  We politely told them that we have a total of 13, they said well they're not here yet and it's busy.  We just assumed that they would give us the table next to us when the customers leave.  The customers leave and they give the table to other people.  We ask the waitress and she responded, look how busy it is and left.

This is no way acceptable for customer service.  No matter how good the food at the restaurant is, I wouldn't go somewhere where they treat customers with such bad manners.

Myungdong Kalkuksu Noodles and Shabu Shabu
8194 Bayview Ave.
Markham ON, L3T 2S2
905-707-0168

Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Beast: Donuts

I have been to The Beast once before, after one of my 10k runs (to re-fuel) for brunch.  I had no idea The Beast made donuts until a friend bought us two to try.  We got to sample the margherita and the maple bacon.  The texture of the donut is not like a typical donut.  It seemed more like a light airy and slightly sweet bread.

The margherita had a lime glaze on top and was filled with a lime custard.  So yummy and tangy and custardy.  The fact that the base of the donut wasn't too sweet  worked well with the sweet glaze.  The maple bacon donut when I first looked at it, I thought it was a coconut donut.  The crumbled bits of donut looked like toasted coconut shavings.  I thought I would hate the combination of meat and donut.  But it was delicious, better than the margherita.

Maple Bacon Donut (left), Margherita Donut (right)










The Beast
96 Tecumseth St.
Toronto, ON M6J 2H1
Hours: Monday & Tuesday CLOSED
              Wednesday & Thursday 5pm - 9pm
              Friday 5pm - 10pm
              Saturday 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
              Sunday 10am - 3pm
http://thebeastrestaurant.com/

Farm Hopping

Finally a weekend with nothing to do (this was during late summer).  I miss those weekends now.  My definition of a weekend now consists of Sunday.  This is a big reason why I'm so behind on my blogging.  Back to the summer.  We had nothing planned because that is how we wanted to spend the day.  It ended up being a farm hopping day.

Farm #1:  Organics Family Farm
From the name of the farm, you may have already guessed what type of food they sell, organic.  I'm not a big organic food eater, just because it doesn't appear that Canada has strict enough guidelines to define what is organic and what isn't.  Another part of it is, organic food cost significantly more in Canada than normal food.  I've been told in the US, there isn't much of a price difference.  The farm market was very small, had a small variety of fruits, vegetables, honey, meats and other products.  I've never tried organic meats before, so I thought, we can give it a try.  So we bought 2 organic beef tenderloins.  What really caught my eye when we parked was that they have a giant wood burning oven outside complete with pies and breads cooling on a rack right by it!

We ended up buying an apple pie as well.  One of the best pies I've ever had!  Flakey crust, tons of apple-y cinnamon-y goodness.  And not too sweet!
Organic Apple Pie

Organic Apple Pie with Hagen Dazs


















Organic beef = AMAZING! The flavour of the beef is out of this world!  If you haven't tried it, give it a try!  It justifies the price tag associated with it, but it's definitely going to be a treat, not an everyday thing.  The night after eating the organic steak (bbq-ed, seasoned with a tiny bit of freshly ground sea salt and black pepper), we went to The Keg for dinner.  If it were up to me, I would not be setting foot in The Keg.  But for some unknown reason, my in-laws love it.....so unfortunately I have to make the trip there every once in a while.  But no comparison to the flavor in the steaks.  Keg = bland and tasteless.  Organic = full of beef flavor and super tender.  If  you prefer quanity over quality then by all means visit The Keg.  But otherwise, save up your $ and treat yourself to an nice organic steak instead.

7550 19th Ave
Markham, Ontario
L6B 1A8
905-640-5206

Farm #2:  Meadowview Honey
While at the Organics Family Farm, I saw a jar of local honey for sale.  On the label it had the address and we googled it and saw that it was close by.  I thought, what the hey, we have nothing better to do and it's on the way to the next farm we were planning on heading to anyways.  I was expecting it to be a big bee farm and I've never been so it would be an amazing adventure.  However, when we got there we drove on a super long gravel road with tons of potholes to a house that was in the middle of no where.  I was really scared for my car!  I see an old man sitting on a chair in front of his house, and he comes over and asks us what we're here for.  We said honey and he asked what size.   We got our honey and drove off again.  So much for an adventure.  We still haven't tried out the honey yet because I still have a bit of wildflower honey that I need to finish first.  The honey looks much darker than the normal 'Billy Bee' honey that's sold in supermarkets.

4276 Bethesda Rd.
Stouffville, ON
 L4A 7Z5
Contact: Henry Nauta. Phone: 905-640-1564

Farm #3: 19th Avenue Farmers Market
We love visiting this farm.  There's so many types of veggies and fruits to choose from.  The best part is, that it's fresh.  When you drive up here,  you see the plots of land where the fruits and veggies are grown.  My pet peeve when visiting farmers markets is to find fruits and vegetables with stickers on them saying product of the USA.  I've seen that on more than one occasion.  These resellers should not be hogging up booth space!  End of rant.  Last weekend went up to the 19th Avenue farmers Market again (end of October) to stock up on squashes for the winter.  My favorite veggie to get from here is their orange cauliflower (mix breed of carrot and regular white cauliflower).  It's so sweet!  They also have purple cauliflower, which aside from the beautiful purple colour, didn't have much of a different taste than the white cauliflower.

Stir Fried Purple Cauliflower

Steamed Orange Cauliflower











2931 19th Ave,
Markham, ON
L6C 1L7
Tel: 905-887-8954
http://www.toptomatofoods.com/

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Ginggrae Red Ginseng Ice Cream

While waiting for friends to arrive at our restaurant meeting place for dinner, we decided to go check out the Korean supermarket right next door.  We were early.  My goal whenever going to ethnic supermarkets is to find strange foods, but normal enough for me to want to try.  I stumbled across Red Ginseng ice cream.  I like ginseng, and I like ice cream, should be good right?

First problem, after I get home and about to dig into the ice cream.  I notice the ice cream is expired for a month or so.  Oh well, too far to complain about $1 ice cream.

Second problem, no ginseng smell at home, but when you put that first bite into your mouth, you get whacked in the face with bitterness.

Third problem, all the bites after have no ginseng flavour.

Red Ginseng Ice Cream

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

I'm still on the hunt for a new burger restaurant.  My beloved Goody's Diner closed a few months ago.  I finally got a chance to go check out Five Guys (since my friend keeps saying how good it is) one Friday during lunch.  From what I remember, prices started around $6.xx for a hamburger.  Pretty pricey in my opinion for JUST a burger, no drink or fries.  However, I was reminded how expensive fast food places are nowadays.  I ordered the burger, friend ordered the the cheeseburger and fries.  Good thing we shared the fries.  Seems like what they do is scoop a paper cup full of fries, put cup in bag, and scoop more fries into the bag.  Too much!

Burger wise, when you order you specify toppings you want.  Unlike most other fast food places, there's no additional cost for the toppings.  There's even sautéed mushrooms and onions!  It's not just the regular ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato!  When they called my number to pick up my burger, i grabbed the bag and thought......WHAT THE HECK?!  Did they put in 2 burgers?  I peered inside the bag and saw one.  I sat down and opened it up and it's double patties.  That explains the weight!  Taste of the beef was BLAND.  No seasoning, not much beef flavour.  I guess compared to other fast food places, it's not bad.  But it's just not the same as Goody's :(.

Burger

Cheese Burger



















Five Guys Burgers and Fries
http://www.fiveguys.com/locations.aspx

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Dumpling Restaurant

I find dumplings so comforting to eat.  Reminds me of the days when I was a kid and would help my mom wrap dumplings for dinner.  Mom's dumplings are always the best.  I try and make them at home now, but they never taste the same.  Every so often I will buy frozen dumplings from the supermarket because they're convenient.  They don't necessarily taste very good, but they will do when you're hungry and need something to put in your instant noodles.

Whenever I pass by Peachtree Plaza, I see this very plainly named restaurant, named Dumpling Restaurant.  We went on a Saturday night for dinner, restaurant was quite empty.  Which usually isn't a good sign, but there's so much competition in Richmond Hill/Markham for Chinese food, that I just ignored it.  I was just expecting to see dumplings and noodles on the menu.  Strange enough, there's a Korean food section.  I guess it may have something to do with competition with the Korean restaurant right next door?

I have to apologize, I didn't take pictures of all the dishes we ordered.  And because it has been a while since we ate there, I may not remember all the dishes we ordered either!  From what I remember, we ordered a cold Korean noodle, bibimbap, steamed dumpling, pan fried dumpling, and deep fried dumpling.

This was the very first time i've tried the Korean cold noodle.  My cousin has told me many times before how good it is.  But it's kind of strange to see a piece of fruit floating in a savoury broth.  I'm not a fan of the salty sweet combo, so I just avoided the shredded Asian pear.  It was so delicious and refreshing.  There was also kimchi, cucumber, boiled egg and some sort of meat in there.  The noodles were the sweet potato noodles, so it had a good chewy texture.
Cold Korean Noodles











The bibimbap was nothing out of the ordinary.  Just like any other bibimbap you order at a Korean restaurant.
Bibimbap











The dumplings were very good and seemed very fresh.  I think we ordered a pork steamed dumpling and a deep fried seafood dumpling.  The deep fried dumplings were so good!  The skin was nice and crispy.  We also ordered a pork and leek pan fried dumpling but I forgot to take a picture of it.
Steamed Dumplings

Fried Dumplings



















For dessert we ordered a caramelized sweet potato dish.  The sweet potato is cooked and covered in a sugar syrup that is cooked to a hard ball stage.  You take a piece of sweet potato and dunk it into a bowl of cold water and the sugar becomes hard and crispy.  I've had it at other restaurants and it's usually pretty good.  But here, there were some pieces that were good, and some that seemed uncooked.  I'm still wondering if it was uncooked or if the sweet potato was bad.  Next time I come i'll probably just stay away from dessert.

Dumping Restaurant
8362 Kennedy Road, Suite A5
Markham, ON L3R9W5
(905) 604-7288

Panagios

Whenever I drive towards Scarborough Town Centre, I pass all the car dealerships and some random strip malls.  I noticed once day this restaurant, kind of looked like a coffee shop with a name I've never heard of.  Panagios, what is it?  After running the Toronto 10-miler, I felt like I deserved to eat something heavy.  I have learned and come to accept that there's not many good breakfast joints to choose from up in suburbia, unless you are looking for HK Style Cafes.  While googling, I came across the name Panagios and a bunch of the regular chain greasy spoon breakfast joints.  I usually try and stay away from the chains, just not a fan of them.  I really do prefer the mom and pop owned restaurants.

Panagios is a very cute diner that is only open for breakfasts and lunches.  I was starving so I quickly ordered my Eggs and bacon meal.  Hubby ordered their big breakfast that has eggs, variety of meats, and french toast.  A friend ordered their eggs Florentine.  Size of the meals were big and very filling.  Excellent treat for after running :).

Eggs & Bacon Breakfast

French Toast

Big Breakfast

Eggs Florentine




































Pangios
1928 McCowan Rd
Scarborough, ON M1S 4K1
www.panagios.ca

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

IÖGO Yogurt

I normally try and update my blogs in chronological order of when I visited a restaurant, or cooked a dish or tried a new food.  IÖGO yogurt has made break my process!  This yogurt is completely DISGUSTING!  I got 2 of the regular single serving yogurts from my mother in law.  Flavours were kind of strange to begin with.  One was a pineapple coconut, the other was peach passionfruit.  I tried the pineapple coconut first.  Smelled decent, colour was ok and had little chunks of pineapple in it.  I found it too sweet, fake sweetener sweet and oh my was it liquidy!  I'm not sure if its because I normally eat Greek yogurt now, or what.  The consistency of this was more like a watered down smoothie!

A few days later I ate the peach passionfruit yogurt.  I really didn't want to, I told the hubby to eat it, but he kept delaying it.  And no, it's not because I grossed him out by telling him how bad the first one was, it's just that he's too forgetful.  I open up the yogurt and am surprised with this weird pinkish orangish colour.  It's so weird I had a hard time describing it to the hubby, closest I got was maybe a peach or skin coloured crayon.  I really should haven taken a picture.  How can this company claim that they don't use artificial colours?  There's no pink in peach OR passionfruit.  DISGUSTING!

I really did want to like this product because of all their healthy claims and funky branding.  I guess I'll stay with my trusty Greek yogurt from Liberte or Kirkland.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Kinton Ramen

It's been a long while since I have posted anything here.  Lots of stuff has happened in the last few months, all good, making it hard for me to find the time to post on here.  I have continued on eating and taking pictures of all that I have eaten.  Now all I need is to find the time to blog about it.

Kinton Ramen, I went when it first opened, sometime in June.  I think I must have went on the hottest day possible.  At that time, they hadn't installed the glass partition in the kitchen yet, so it made the entire area HOT!  You know it's really hot in there when while you are eating you have sweat rolling down your face, and when we finished eating and walked outside, it felt cooler outside than inside.  And outside that day with humidity was low 40's!  They have since installed a glass partition, but I still find it quite warm in the restaurant.

For each soup base you order, you get a choice in light, or regular broth and pork belly or pork shoulder.  The three of us ordered a gyoza, Miso regular broth with pork belly, Shoyu regular broth with pork belly and Shio regular broth with pork shoulder ramens.  They also have a strange cheese ramen that I didn't have enough courage to try, just sounded too strange to me.  I always like to try the most basic of anything the first time I visit restaurant to see how well something is done.  The simpler the dish, the harder it is to make.  No masking of the flavours this way.  Just the pure flavour comes out.  The gyoza was nothing special.  Tasted like a normal pan fried dumpling/gyoza.  I have never been given the option of light or regular broths before.  I didn't realize that regular broth means chunks of pork fat floating around the broth.  It was not a pretty sight.  Aside from the chunks of pork fat, the broth tasted very good.  Thick and almost creamy, lots of flavour.  Never had ramen with a broth like this in Toronto, Japan yes, here no.  Broth flavour wise, I preferred the Shio as it was lighter tasting.  Miso and Shoyu was way too salty for me.  Pork shoulder was too lean, a bit too tough.  Pork belly, was like a thick slab of bacon!  They even torch it right before serving!  Delicious!  Last but not least, the perfectly cooked egg!  Again, never seen a egg cooked like this before in Toronto!  The only thing I didn't like was that the egg seemed to have a soy sauce flavour.  The outside of the egg was slightly brown too.

Overall, so far I think this is the best ramen spot in Toronto that I've discovered so far.  I have yet to try Momofuku (although I heard it's quite disappointing compared to the NYC location).  The broth here, the light version, so comforting!

Gyoza













Shio Ramen

Miso Ramen

Shoyu Ramen

Egg




































Kinton Ramen
51 Baldwin St.,
Toronto, ON
M5T 1L1
647-748-8900
Hours:
Lunch Monday to Sunday 11:30am - 3:00pm
Dinner Sunday to Thursday 5:00pm - 10:30pm
               Friday to Saturday 5:00pm - 12:00am

Monday, September 3, 2012

Vivetha Bistro

I don't know if I've said it before here, but all my friends know that my favorite type of food is breakfast foods.  Most of the time when I try and schedule a meet up with friends, I try and make it for brunch on the weekends.  Of course, most of my friends don't like waking up early on the weekends, so it doesn't always work.

As one of our last meet ups before a close friend of mine left for Singapore, we snuck in one last brunch date at Vivetha.  Small and cozy restaurant along Yonge Street.  Brunch selection is very typical, eggs & bacon or sausage, Eggs Benedict, omelets, french toast, pancakes.  While the selection isn't very special, everything is done very well with very big portions.  My hubby and friend both ordered the Brunch Combo Platter (because they both insisted they were VERY hungry) and I ordered the Eggs Florentine.

The Brunch Combo Platter comes with a blueberry pancake, a slice of Grand Marnier French toast (topped with caramelized peaches), two eggs any style, bacon, sausage and fresh fruit slices.  All of that for $10!  French toast was so good with the caramelized peaches, no need for maple syrup at all.  Pancake was just ok, a little too dry for my liking.  Both my hubby and friend could NOT finish their brunch even though they said they were super hungry!
Brunch Combo Platter










The Eggs Florentine had poached eggs served on top of spinach & English muffin topped with Hollandaise sauce.  It came with a side of salad, potatoes, and fruit slices, $8.  Poached eggs were cooked perfectly with that nice runny egg yolk.  I love how my breakfast included a nice side salad.  It makes breakfast feel just a bit healthier.  Potatoes were nice and crispy.  The only complaint I had was that the spinach was not sauteed long enough, some of it was still uncooked. 
Eggs Florentine










Vivetha Bistro
3334 Yonge St.
Toronto, ON, M4N 2M4
416.484.6100
http://www.vivethabistro.com

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Zucchini Pasta

Why didn't I think of this sooner?  Zucchini in place of real pasta.  It's carbless = guilt free!  I came across this recipe when I decided to look through all the interesting recipes on Sweet Potato Chronicles.  This is only one of the ones that I've tried.....but many more on my list. 

The sauce I used was a sausage tomato sauce. In the recipe, there's many more suggestions of different sauces you can use.

Zucchini Pasta with Sausage Tomato Sauce










Love this website!

糖醋排骨 (Sweet Vinegar Spare Ribs)

My hubby loves this recipe.  He loves ribs in general.  But as for Chinese style cooked ribs, he says he likes 糖醋排骨 more than black bean steamed spare ribs.  So I tend to make 糖醋排骨 more.  I have tried various recipes that I found online, but none of them taste as good as my mom's!  So I had to ask my mom for the recipe.  And here is it to share with all of you!

Ingredients:
500g Spare Ribs
6 Slices Ginger
2 Green Onions
3 Cloves Garlic
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
100ml Chi Kang Vinegar
1/2 cup Chicken Stock
1/4 cup Chinese Cooking Wine
30g Sugar

1. Pan fry the ribs until nicely browned and remove from heat.
2. Pan fry the garlic, ginger, onions until lightly browned and add soy sauce, vinegar, chicken stock and cooking wine and sugar.  Bring mixture to boil.
3. Return ribs to sauce and lower heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 1 hour.

I made some changes when I made the ribs.  Instead of pan frying the ribs, to stay a bit healthier I boiled the ribs in water instead.  This way can get out the excess fat.  Instead of Chinese cooking wine, I used a dry white wine because thats all I had in the house.  And instead of chicken stock, I used normal water.  I suspect I lost some flavor but seemed ok to me.

糖醋排骨

Dessert Yogurt

As i'm writing this entry, I have to admit I'm not fully paying attention.  I'm writing this with a gorgeous lake view in front of me.  But this weekend is a good time for me to catch up on all my posts.  There's not much to do here, so it's super relaxing!

Yogurt, ever since my detox diet, I have been consuming huge amounts of it.  I prefer Greek yogurt, but its so expensive.  So to cut down on the costs, I buy both Greek and normal yogurt, and do a half half mix.  I then top off the yogurt with some fresh fruit and quinoa granola (found the recipe in Jillian Michael's cookbook).  I'll post up the

But the point of my blog is actually to complain about the lack of dessert yogurt flavour available in Toronto.  When I made a trip down to Buffalo, I was able to find a variety of dessert yogurt flavours at the local Walmart.  I brought back lemon meringue pie and key lime pie flavours to try.  The lemon meringue pie flavour was so good!  Tasted exactly like lemon meringue pie filling.  Great for a real pie dessert substitute, much healthier.  The key lime pie flavour tasted like lime jello.  It didn't taste very good, very artificial tasting. 

While on my weekly grocery run, I noticed Yoplait carries a lemon parfait yogurt.  I thought, since the US flavors were by Yoplait, and this one was by Yoplait that it would be the same.  I was very wrong.  I don't even know how to describe it.  The flavours were so weird.  Now I don't know what to do with whats left of it.  I guess I could dilute it with some vanilla yogurt to make it taste better.  Guess I'll have to bring back yogurts whenever I cross the boarder.....

Yogurts












Jillian Michaels Quinoa Granola
  • 1 cup quinoa (uncooked, rinsed and drained)
  • 1/4 cup whole flaxseed
  • 1 tbs honey
  • 1 tbs olive oil

  • I added some cinnamon in for extra flavor as well.

    Mix all the ingredients together, spread on a cookie sheet and bake in a 375 deg oven until slightly browned.

    Enjoy!

    Tuesday, June 5, 2012

    Burger Hopping

    Burger week was held from May 29, 2012 to June 2, 2012 with the grand finale on June 3, 2012.  For each of the 5 days, 18 restaurants crafted special $5 burgers, 6 restaurant with slightly pricier burgers and selected restaurants with $5 Muskoka beer that comes with a Burger Week mug that you get to take home.  I didn't go to the grand finale event because I didn't want to deal with crowds, it also had a $5 entry fee and $3 sliders.

    On the night of June 1, a few of my friends and I decided to do some burger hopping.  I was greedy, I wanted to try more than 1 burger.  So the plan was to go to each restaurant on my list and order takeout and we would then split the burger to try.  On my original list was Keriwa Cafe, Gladstone Hotel, Barque Smokehouse, Drake Hotel and Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder.  But I read on a forum that some restaurants were not allowing takeout.  So I made some calls to make sure we can do the take out option.  Turns out Keriwa cafe was only doing the burger on a sitdown basis and Barque Smokehouse was only offering the burger at lunch.  My list got shortened to 3. 

    First stop, Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder.  I have been here several times for their fried chicken, deep fried poached eggs, and sandwiches, but never their burgers.  So this was a great opportunity to try their burger for cheap!  Their $5 burger offering consisted of: Beef burger with house made smoked American style cheese, pickeled sweet onion and brown butter cornichon aioli.  The burger came with 2 beef patties cooked to medium (we asked for medium rare).  I was 100% sure that there was bacon in the burger, but it was no where to be found.  Turns out the smoke flavour came from the cheese.  It was so good, but slightly salty!  I wasn't a fan of the burger bun though, too soft, I prefer something a bit more dense.  The hubby couldn't help it and had to order some fried chicken as well.
    Stockyards

    Stockyards Fried Chicken


















    Gladstone Hotel.  The service here was atrocious!  I tried to call to place a take out order when we left Stockyards to minimize the wait time.  What I got was, we're really busy right now and can't take your order, so please come into order.  I thought fine, it shoudn't take long to cook a burger so the wait can't be that long.  We arrive and see that there were a few people seated at tables but this was far from being full.  While waiting for the hostess to greet us, and for us to ask for a takeout order to be placed, I noticed that there was no food on the table for the people that were seated and a bunch of wait staff were all standing in the back corner talking.  We waited a good 10-15 mins before the hostess came over, only then to direct us to the bartender to place our take out order.  We had to wait 5 mins for the bartender to walk over to talk to us, she wasn't making drinks but rather walking back and forth behind the bar.  We placed our order and waited....and waited and waited.  A good 20 mins later, we asked the bartender how much longer.  She responded with "I don't know.  You see that table over there, they placed their order before yours and they haven't recieved their food yet."  Shouldn't she have checked with the kitchen for us?  Another 10 mins later we got our food and we headed out to try the burgers.  It was a rainy night, so the bunch of us hudled in a TTC bus shelter to try out the burgers.  Not sure if the bad service had an effect on what I tasted, but I did not enjoy this burger.  Gladstone Hotel's burger offering: Beef short rib burger with house cured bacon, tomato marmalade, sheep's milk cheddar, and pickeled red onions.  The part of the burger that I got did not have any short rib in it.  My friends showed me chunks of it.  The beef patty I found to be flavorless, not much beef flavor and over seasoned with salt.  Worst is that it was overcooked.  Beyond well done.
    Gladstone Hotel
    Gladstone Hotel Burger with Chunk of Short Rib












    Drake Hotel.  I was looking forward to this burger.  This was the most expensive burger offered during Burger Week.  A hefty 1 pounder, meant to be shared, for $27.95.  The One Pounder: Naturally raised chuck and short rib with Grand Chevalier, arugula, red onion, and tomatoes, served with house made onion rings.  Two of us ordered the Muskoka beer which came in the Burger Week mug.  I was expecting the burger to be big, but not as big as what arrived on the table.  The size of the burger was probably the size of the span of my hand.  The thickness of the beef patty was a good 1 inch thick.  We asked for the burgers to be cooked medium rare and they were.  So juicy, good beef flavor and seasoned perfectly.  My only complaint about my part of the burger (1/4 of it), was that it didn't have enough arugula.  My friends all said theirs was ok though.  The onion rings were a bit greasy for my liking, but the onion inside was super sweet.  The rings were massive.  Most of them were larger than the bangles that we would wear on our wrists!  One of the photos I put my Blackberrry next to it for size reference.  This burger was definitely my favorite of the night.  To finish off the night, we ordered a Malt Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich.  So good, the cookies had a great peanut butter flavor, and best part is that it was light tasting.  After that heavy burger, we didn't need anything else to make our stomachs heavy.
    Burger Week Beer Mug

    Drake Hotel One Pounder











    Drake Hotel One Pounder halved

    
    Malted IceCream Sandwich













    Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder
    699 St. Clair W.
    Toronto, ON
    416-658-9666

    Gladstone Hotel
    1214 Queen St W.
    Toronto, ON
    416-531-4635

    Drake Hotel
    1150 Queen St W.
    Toronto, ON
    416-531-5042

    Goed Eten

    Every year after my annual Sporting Life 10k run, I go to a restaurant I've never been to before and treat myself to a yummy brunch.  This year it went from brunch to lunch, because we lost a fellow running mate.  Since none of us wanted to carry extra weight during the run, none of us had our cell phones on us, so we couldn't find our friend.  After about an hour of my stomach screaming "FEED ME!  I'M STARVING!!!!", my friend finally showed up.  And off we were to lunch.

    I chose to try Goed Eten because it was relatively close, but far enough away so there wouldn't be hoards of other runners squished inside a restaurant, and I like breakfast food.  The menu selection here is relatively small.  It consisted of a few options of eggs bennies, breakfast type sandwiches, poutines and waffles.

    I ordered the 'normal' eggs benedict.  After running 10k, I can tell myself it's ok to have a slightly heavier meal.  My eggs came a little more cooked than I normally like them.  And the English muffin underneath tasted and looked more like a bagel but without a hole in the middle.  I think I read somewhere that they make their own English muffins here.  Not sure if I liked the texture of that or not.  The bennies came with a small side order of potatoes, nothing special, and an apple slaw.  To me the slaw was kinda strange, pickles with apple and thousand island dressing.
    Eggs Benny










    The hubby ordered a beef brisket poutine and a waffle breakfast sandwich.  When the poutine came, our eyes bulged and we all went "OMG".  It was HUGE, and was topped with large beef brisket pieces!  Delicious!  Along with the fries, beef, & cheese curds, there were these deep fried round balls of something.  It turned out to be deep fried potato & cheese balls.  So good!  The waffle breakfast sandwich, I originally thought the bread would be waffle, but it turns out it's bread that's toasted in a waffle maker, kind of like a sandwich being pressed in a panini press.  Sandwich had egg, cheese and ham.
    Beef Brisket Poutine

    Waffle Breakfast Sandwich


















    Friends ordered a fruit waffle, and omelette.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals.  After I finished my eggs benny, I ordered a plain waffle with maple syrup.  It was soooo good.  So light and crispy.  It was nothing like the typical Belgian waffles that we get from other restaurants, which are cakey and heavy.  I was expecting some egg flavor for some strange reason, but there wasn't any.  The waffle didn't have much of a taste to it, so it was good that we had some maple syrup to flavor it.
    Omelette

    Fresh Fruit Waffle

    Plain Waffle with Maple Syrup


























    If those cakey waffles we get at hotels from those 'make your own waffle stations' and restaurants are so different from these at Goed Eten, I wonder, what traditional waffles are supposed to taste like......

    Goed Eten
    188 Ossington Ave.
    Toronto, ON
    M6J 2Z7
    Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 10am - 4pm

    Wednesday, May 23, 2012

    Obessed With Spreads.....

    This was not my idea.  It all happened by chance.  I had purchased a jar of Slitti hazenut spread on a recent trip to Soma in the Distillery District.  My friends had recently come home from France with jars of Caffarel and Angelina hazelnut spreads.  Then the idea of a blind taste test was born.  We wanted to see if these fancier and more expensive jars of hazelnut spreads were worth the price paid and how it fared to the more common and wallet friendly Nutella.

    Everyone's heard of Nutella, a "healthy" option to go on bread made with hazelnuts, cocoa powder and milk.  Hey that's what the commercials advertise!  Just don't read the nutritional info on the jar, or look at the order of listed ingredients on the label.  No kid can say no to Nutella (unless there's allergies of course).  It's like eating a melted bar of chocolate on your bread.  Whats not to like?

    Hazelnut Spreads











    First thing we did was a visual comparison, after the samples were placed into bowls.  There were two that were different from all the rest.  One was darker, and stiffer than the rest of them.  This most likely had to do with the fact that it was a dark chocolate hazelnut spread.  Two of them had very similar visual characteristics.  Almost the same colour, the same consistancy and the same smell.  The last was very ugly looking.  It probably had to do with the fact that the "judge" for this blind taste testing did not stir the hazelnut spread in the jar before scooping it out into the bowl.

    Bowls of Spreads













    TIME TO DIG IN!  You can't hold a blind taste test without tasting!  We each took 4 toothpicks and dug into our samples.  Mmmm chocolate hazelnut heaven.  The first sample (Slitti), rich dark chocolate hazelnut flavor.  The downside it wasn't very spreadable.  The second sample (Angelina), milk chocolate, with a hint of toasted hazelnut.  Smooth, spreadable and quite sweet compared to the first sample.  The third sample (Caffarel), I was almost floored with how toasted hazelnutty this one was.  And then I got the milk chocolate taste.  Also very spreadable.  The fourth sample (Nutella).  I really should have tasted this one first, then maybe it wouldn't have tasted so bad.  There was no hazelnut flavor, minor chocolate flavor and holy sweet!  Did you know that sugar is the number one ingredient in Nutella? 

    The rest of the hazelnut spread samples were devoured with crepes, fruit and whipped cream.  Delicious!  Except we were on a sugar high for the next few hours.  We started this at 11:30pm :(. My favorite spreads were (listed in order of preference): Slitti, Caffarel, Angelina.......and Nutella.  I'm a little biased.  I prefer dark chocolate over milk chocolate.

    I now know, you get what you pay for.  I don't see myself purchasing another jar of Nutella in the near future even if it's wallet friendly.  And I will slowly devour my jar of Slitti dark chocolate hazelnut spread with the hopes that it will last forever and ever.
    Crepes










    All photos taken by Sandy Tam Photography.  Photos were arranged by me, hence the non straight edges.
    Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...