Market Street Catch

These days, I really don't have many restaurant options where I can eat in because of the Elimination Diet.  If i'm in the St. Lawrence Market area, I typically gravitate towards Buster's Sea Cove, because there's grilled seafood.  And aside from shellfish, I can eat all other sea creatures.  But this particular weekend, I was re-introducing shellfish, so their entire menu would be fair game.  So we decided to make the trek down to the St. Lawrence Market, and also pick up some groceries.  After we parked, we noticed that it was very quiet.  Strangely quiet for the weekend.  We just thought it was because people were still on vacation.  And then we find out, St. Lawrence Market was closed for maintenance for the weekend.  Just my luck.....

I Googled and Yelped, and found Market Street Catch.  And then I remembered that's Buster's sister restaurant!  So we went in for lunch. I ordered grilled shrimp with salad, and the hubby got seared tuna with fries.  On my plate were four ginormous grilled shrimp.  I think they called them prawns.  Same thing to me.  Cooked perfect so it wasn't tough or chewy.  Salad was fresh, nothing was wilted.  I normally enjoy Buster's coleslaw, so I assume I would enjoy it here too, but unfortunately I wasn't able to eat it because I worry that the dressing would have dairy in it.

Grilled Shrimp with Salad

The seared tuna was so good!  Amazing crispy/crunchy (how would you describe a sear?!?) sear on the outside, the inside was cool and raw.  Sounds kind of weird.  But tastes amazing.  As i'm writing this, I can't help but keep looking at the tuna.  The colour of the tuna is so bright.  I couldn't try the fries, but they look pretty normal to me.  I miss fries.

Seared Tuna with Fries

Give Market Street Catch a try.  Same high quality and fresh seafood as Buster's inside the market, but just a more condensed menu.  But I think you can order their most popular items here, with much less noise, and way more space.

Market Street Catch
14 Market Street,
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C3

Phone:  416-363-2020

Hours: Monday 11am - 3pm
            Tuesday - Thursday 11am - 9pm
            Friday - Saturday 11am - 10pm
            Sunday 11am - 9pm

http://marketstreetcatch.com

Paradise Farms Beef Bistro

Another beef place.  I made sure I ate enough beef to test for intolerances during this food introduction phase during the Elimination Diet.  My friend wanted to meet up for lunch, and I wasn't sure where.  I stumbled upon Paradise Farms Beef Bistro by looking through all North York restaurants on BlogTo's website.  So glad I found it.  A safe beef place for me during this diet now that I didn't find any reactions.  Paradise Farms Beef Bistro gets their beef from their own farm.  Beef is grass fed, which is hard enough to find in supermarkets, let alone restaurants.  I was super happy!

We ordered the burger, Wagyu roast beef sandwiches, poutine and a side of beef bacon.  In the older posts from BlogTo, when they first opened all toppings were free, even their premium toppings (i.e. caramelized onions, avocado etc.) but now they charge for those.  The only free toppings are the standard ketchup, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato etc.  The burger was a bit disappointing.  For a place that raises their own cattle, we didn't understand why the burger patties had to be cooked to a well done (they claimed it was medium well, but you can see in the picture that it's clearly well done).    The burger patty itself was dry.

Burger

The Wagyu roast beef was a different story.  It was juicy and tender.  The only complaint that we had was that as we ate, it seemed to get saltier and saltier.  My friend loved hers so much that she keeps asking when we will be coming back to eat it again.

Wagyu Roast Beef Sandwich

The poutine I was told was very good.  The beef brisket on top was better than the burger.  I had a slice of the beef bacon and it was good.  Tasted like bacon but also had beef flavour.

Poutine

Beef Bacon

One complaint that I have with this place is how unprofessional the people that work behind the counter were.  Both ladies had their headphones on the entire time.  One of them was clearly talking on her phone to her friend the entire time we were eating.  Cellphones should be used on breaks only. But who am I to say, I'm not their boss.

Paradise Farms Bistro

678c Sheppard Ave. E.,

Toronto, ON

M2K 3E7

Phone: 647-347-4195

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 9am - 8pm

             Friday 9am - 9pm

             Saturday 8am - 9pm

             Sunday 8am - 8pm

http://paradisefarmsbistro.com

Morton's The Steakhouse

It was a night for celebration (3 belated birthdays, not mine) that my friends were nice enough to plan for a night that co-incided with me testing out red meat for the Elimination Diet.  For me, there were very limited options of what I could eat.  But yet, the rest of them still ordered a crazy amount of food!  What we ordered:

Giant onion bread (came with the meal).  Light and fluffy, eggy and onion-y.

Onion Bread

Seafood Platter for Two (Cooked), meaning two of everything.  Two baked oysters, two shrimp, two bacon wrapped scallops and two crab cakes.  I was told that everything was very good.

Seafood Platter

Chopped Salad (minus the tomato and bacon and swapped out the dressing).  Not only was this salad not very visually appealing, it didn't taste very good.  Not sure if it was because I requested no tomato and bacon.  I also had to swap out the dressing.  The dressing that was supposed to come with the salad was a blue cheese dressing.  Not only do I hate blue cheese, I also couldn't eat it during the diet.  So I asked for balsamic.  The texture of the salad bothered me a lot.  Since it was a chopped salad (I didn't realize it would be chopped so finely), the fresh crispy lettuce texture was lost.  It was like a limp day old salad.

Chopped Salad

The steaks, we ordered a ribeye (that ended up being butterflied because my friend wanted it to be well done), 2 porterhouses, and a veal chop.  The steaks all had good sear on the outside and was tender and juicy on the inside (except for the strip side of one of the porterhouses because it had a tendon running through it).  My veal was amazing even without the butter sauce that it was supposed to come with.  Cooked to a perfect medium rare, it was VERY tender.  The butter I passed onto the hubby, who enjoyed it with his porterhouse.

Butterflied Ribeye

Porterhouse

Veal Chop

We also ordered a couple of sides.  The bacon macaroni and cheese, grilled asparagus with balsamic glaze, and the truffle parmesan frites.  I was told the macaroni and cheese was so-so, and that I made better.  The frites looked so good!  And the smell of the parm and truffle....so hard to resist, but I did it.  The grilled asparagus was ok, had too much balsamic glaze over it.  I think I could have actually done without the glaze.

Bacon Macaroni & Cheese

Truffle Parmesan Frites

Grilled Asparagus

Like I said I think we ordered way too much food.  The boys couldn't fit in much dessert, and us gals had dietary restrictions which prevented us from eating the desserts even though it looked so good on the menu.  The boys in the end ordered the chocolate mousse to share.  Had good chocolate flavour, but too dense.  Was an on the house birthday dessert.

Chocolate Mousse

Morton's was a good steakhouse, but nothing that I was blown away with.  Will I come back, not too sure yet since there's so many other steakhouses in Toronto that I haven't tried yet.

Morton's The Steakhouse
4 Avenue Rd.,
Toronto, ON
M5R 2E8

Phone: 416-925-0648

Hours: Monday - Friday 5:30pm - 11:00pm
            Saturday 5:00pm - 11:00pm
            Sunday 5:00pm - 10:00pm

http://www.mortons.com/toronto/

Elimination Diet

When I hear the word diet, I cringe.  Reminds me of all the countless diets that I have put myself through to lose just a few pounds.  It seems like no matter how much you weigh females all want to lose just five more pounds.  This time, this diet was for another purpose, it really was for my health.  And by health, I don't mean that I'm obese and I NEED to lose weight.  I do consider myself as heavier than I should be, although others say no.  The main motivation for me (health wise) is because of the feeling of constant exhaustion.  Everyone, including myself, thought that it was because I was over exerting myself.   I have a full time job (with a long commute time), and working towards getting my Masters part time (almost done, yay me!).  My naturopath suggested that I try the elimination diet for the exhaustion and other things I was dealing with.  Each time I go back to visit her, I update her on what I have noted.  So yes, I keep a food/mood journal.

The elimination diet is a test to see which foods you may have sensitivities or intolerances to.  Very similar to an allergy test (which looks strong reactions such as rashes, hives, swelling etc), the elimination diet looks for more subtle reactions such as gassiness, bloating, acne, tiredness, muscle stiffness, etc that may not appear in an allergy test.  This diet comes in two major phases: elimination phase, and food re-introduction phase.

The elimination phase ranges between 4-6 weeks long.  Purpose of the elimination phase is to clear your body of toxins and inflammation from the foods you are currently eating.  The following food groups need to be excluded from your diet: 

• Dairy (milk, cream, cheeses, butter, yogurt, ice-cream)
• Red meats (beef, pork)
• All gluten-containing grains (what, spelt, rye, barley) i.e. breads, pasta, pastries...
• Corn, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, potatoes
• Eggs
• Caffeinated beverages (coffee, black tea, sodapop)
• Shellfish, catfish
• Soy products (soy beans, tofu, soy milk, soya sauce, miso, tempeh, TVP
• Peanuts, pistachios, cashews
• Bananas, strawberries, citrus (oranges, grapefruit), melons
• Dried fruits
• All sweeteners (corn, maple syrups, honey, molasses, brown/white sugar, etc..)
• All fruit drinks high in refined sugars

Once the elimination phase is complete, you start re-introducing the foods that were eliminated in the first phase.  Food introduction is done in 3 day periods, making sure you at least include that type of food in 2 out of 3 meals.  If you think you have had a reaction, stop eating that particular food, and go back to the elimination phase friendly foods for the remainder of the 3 day period.  Once the 3 day period is completed, you can move to the next food group.  If you don’t have a reaction to a particular food group, you can continue to eat that food for the remainder of the diet.  I however, have decided to still cut that food out.  I always go back to the elimination phase friendly foods.

The biggest struggle that I had throughout this diet, was not the actual elimination of the food from my diet.  After the first 3 days I didn't have any bad food cravings (junk food).  What I want to eat all the time are grapes.  My social life became a bit of a bust because it’s REALLY REALLY difficult to find restaurants that offer items on their menus that are made with organic/free range grain fed chicken, grass fed beef, or items that don't include nightshade vegetables, or dairy.  The motivation to keep me going throughout this diet is the amount of energy I now have, and of course the weight loss. The other thing was that I found it extremely difficult to find recipes that were elimination diet friendly.  Yes there were some websites that claim to have recipes, but they were far and few in between.  One website claimed that they had so many recipes, enough for a cookbook.  They never actually posted the recipes online, they wanted you to buy their cookbook.  What I found did help was looking up vegan recipes, and paleo recipes.  Most of these recipes I found using Pinterest.  The key to this diet I think is to eat whole foods.  In the beginning I thought there might be snacks I could snack on, but after reading the labels on some boxes, it made me very frustrated because I couldn’t find anything that didn’t include some form of wheat, corn or soy.

I’m still in the food re-introduction phase, very close to being done!  Here are some meal suggestions/recipes that I was able to throughout this diet with a few modifications here or there.  Some of these meals I like so much that I think I’ll continue to incorporate them into my meal rotations even after I have finished the elimination diet.

Breakfast:

Breakfasts can get pretty boring, and repetitive.  The way I got through this was to change up the fruit that I added to the smoothies or hot cereals.  But texture wise, it was almost all the same.

• Smoothie (1 cup frozen fruit usually blueberries, mangoes, blackberries, 1 cup almond milk, 1 or 2 kale leaves, 1tbsp flax seeds, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp tahini)
• Cereal with Almond Milk (Arrowhead Maple Buckwheat Flakes, Whole Foods 365 Brown Rice Crisp, Natures Path Millet)
• GoGo Quinoa Quinoa Flakes, it cooks like oatmeal (For flavouring, applesauce, fresh apples that were cooked down, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves)
• Bob’s Red Mill Hot Buckwheat Cereal (For flavouring, applesauce, fresh apples that were cooked down, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves)
• Blueberry Gluten Free Pancake

Mains:

Some of these recipes required some modification, as they might have included an ingredient here or there that I wasn’t allowed to consume during the elimination phase of the diet.  So I just left them out.  Some recipes will call for cornstarch or potato starch.  What I used as a substitution instead was arrowroot flour or tapioca flour in the same quantities.  Arrowroot and tapioca flour can be found in your local bulk food stores or in health food stores. 

Also, for the soups, recipes will most likely call for canned or boxed broth.  From the boxes of organic chicken and vegetable broth, ingredients usually include some form or soy or potato starch in it.  So what I did was I either take the carcasses from the roasted or steamed organic or free range chickens, boil it down with water to make broth, or make broth by boiling a free range grain fed chicken breast in water for about half an hour, and that was my broth.  The chicken breast would then either be hand shredded or cut into cubes to later be put back into the soup.

To help cut down on costs of the meals, because organic chicken/turkey is so expensive, we went with the free range grain fed route.  But even that is more expensive then conventionally raised chicken/turkey.  So I looked for meals that used beans as a source of protein.

• Chickpea Pancake
• Steamed Chicken (Take whole chicken and steam it in a wok for about 10-12 mins per pound)
• Falafels
• Squash & Lentil Soup (boil squash, carrots, celery, onions and lentils in chicken broth for about 20-30 mins)
• Ginger Fried Rice
• Roast Chicken/Duck (The Alton Brown method for a turkey works too, you will just need to adjust the time because the chicken is smaller)
• Duck Spring Rolls (Using leftover duck, combine with carrot, cucumber, vermicelli noodles and wrap with rice paper)
• Beet Quinoa Salad
• Spaghetti Squash Yoga Bowl
• Chicken Leek Soup
• Kale Toasted Chickpea Salad
• Palestinian Cabbage Rolls
• Avocado Pasta
• Daikon Chicken Soup
• Brussels Sprout Millet Salad
• Turkish Lemon Kebabs
• Avocado Chicken Salad
• Tapioca Noodles (Cooked in chicken broth)
• Swiss Chard Spinach Quiche (chickpea flour crust)
• Zen Brown Rice Bowl
• Chicken Quinoa Soup
• Winter Roasted Kale Salad
• Turkey Pot Pie with Chickpea flour crust
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Avocado
• Sweet Potato Kale Shrimp
• Lemon Garlic Shrimp 
• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Chicken Meatballs (Ground Chicken, Egg, herbs) with Tomato Sauce on GoGo Quinoa Quinoa Pasta
• Roasted Cabbage

Snacks:

• Almonds (unroasted, unsalted)
• Almond Butter on Brown Rice Crackers
• Almond Milk (If you have to buy, I prefer that Aureeva brand over Silk or Blue Diamond)
• Endurance Crackers
• Fresh Fruits
• Applesauce (non-sweetened)

I hope to be able continue eating this healthy once this diet is done!

Studio.89 Cafe

This is one of the coolest places I've been to.  And no it's not like Studio54.  First of all, i'm too young for that, and second of all....clubbing....bleh....  Studio.89 is a non profit organization that serves up fair trade, organic, bird-friendly and rain forest certified coffee and other ethical treats.  When you purchase their food items, the money goes back towards their community hub.  They offer free workshops and resources as well as empowerment and entrepreneurship opportunities.  You can also borrow their space for community events for free (as long as your event isn't charging any money for entry).  Business concept is cool no?

Studio.89 Wall

For lunch we ordered chicken sandwich, chickpea and spinach sandwich and almond milk latte.  The sandwiches all had the same kind of topping or fillers, such as kale, tomato and hummus (can leave them out if you like).  The chicken in the sandwich was shaved deli chicken.  My chickpea and spinach sandwich were essentially flattened falafel balls.  Pretty tasty.  The only complaint I had about my lunch was the hummus.  My sandwich was supposed to have cheese in it.  Because I asked for no cheese, they offered to do double hummus, which I agreed to.  What they forgot to tell me was that the hummus was spicy.  At this point I had stopped eating spicy foods for over 1.5 months.  The spice from the hummus made my stomach feel like it was on fire. I had suggested to them to maybe do a milder version of hummus, or offer a non spicy hummus.  I doubt any kids would have been able to eat that.

Studio.89 Lunch

Another cool thing they have is the take a book leave a book program.  Good place to drop off books that I no longer want to keep.  Fun and homey feeling space, with money going towards something good.  Makes you feel good!

Studio.89 Cafe
1065 Canadian Place, Unit 104
Mississauga, ON
L4W 0B8

Phone:  647-400-0455

Hours: Monday - Thursday 10am - 10pm
            Friday 10am - 11pm
            Saturday 12pm - 11pm
            Sunday 12pm - 9pm

http://www.studio89.org/#intro

Frederick Restaurant

I love me some Hakka food.  The only place that has me wanting more is Lin Garden in Scarborough.  But it's been quite a few years since I have gone back, just because I've moved far enough away where it's no longer convenient.  As I was walking my dog during the summer, another dog wanted to come and play with my dog.  The owner came up and we started talking.  I'm not sure how we got to the topic of Hakka food, but he claims that Frederick has the best Hakka food.  Again, I should have been wary about that.  I've heard too many "best of's", and it never goes well.  But we decided to give it a try anyways.

Frederick was very busy that night, all the tables were filled, and the lineup for takeout was to the door.  Food must be good right?  For the three of us, we ended up over ordering.  We ordered the beef pakoras, vegetable manchurian fried noodles, chilli chicken and mushroom with broccoli.  The beef pakoras flavour-wise was pretty good.  There was an appropriate level of spiciness. I was expecting chopped/ground beef in a flour mixture deep fried.  But it was a slice of beef in a flour mixture deep fried.  The flour mixture texture was unexpected as well.  It was kind of gummy, maybe it's heavy cornstarch based?

Beef Pakoras

Vegetable manchurian fried noodles didn't have any wok hay.  It just tasted like oily spicy noodles with red food colouring.  They honestly weren't that spicy either.  Very disappointing.

Vegetable Manchurian Fried Noodle

Chili chicken is a must order when you have hakka food.  I had high hopes for this dish.  How can you call yourself a Hakka restaurant when your chilli chicken sucks.  And to my disappointment, the chilli chicken sucked.  The flavour of the chicken was like soy sauce chicken.  There was no heat.

Chilli Chicken

Mushrooms over broccoli, just another veggie dish that has been overly salted or soy sauced, and overly thickened with cornstarch.  The sauce was of a glue like consistency.

Mushrooms with Broccoli

Not worth the drive, or my time to go.  Will most likely never go again.  Just go to Lin Garden.

Frederick Restaurant
160 New Delhi Dr.,
Markham, ON

Phone:  905-472-1682

http://www.federickrestaurant.com

Almond Butterfly Gluten Free Bakeshop & Espresso

There is this stigma around gluten free products.  And after trying a few, I think it's mostly true.  Gluten free breads taste like dry cardboard.  Gluten free muffins/cupcakes are hard as rocks.  And i'm not the only one that thinks this.  With so much negative feelings towards gluten free products, why try Almond Butterfly?  I was in the area and had time to kill before dinner.  I also needed something to make me feel better after writing a midterm.  Essentially any bakery would have done.  But I've tried most around school already, and I always love trying new places.

Almond Butterfly sells everything from cakes, cookies, muffins, sandwiches, and coffee.  All gluten free.  I didn't order much because I was worried that I wouldn't like it.  So I ordered just a brownie.  One bite, and I was super surprised.  It was moist!  Wasn't this crumbling mess that I was expecting.  Just sweet enough (which may mean for others it may not be sweet enough), and very chocolatey.  Definitely deserves another visit in my books.  Maybe not all gluten free products are horrible.

Gluten Free Brownie

Almond Butterfly Gluten Free Bakeshop & Espresso
100 Harbord St.,
Toronto, ON
M5S 2G6

Phone: 416-948-0225

Hours: Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm
            Saturday 11am - 6pm
            Sunday 12pm - 5pm

http://www.almondbutterfly.com

Fresh Juices: The Good Press, Greenhouse Juice Co., Raw Juice Co.

Looking online, there seems to be a big debate over whether cold pressed juices or smoothies are better for you health wise.  Cold pressed juices claim to be superior because of the quantity of fruits and veggies you can drink at once.  Smoothies say they are better because juices filter out the fibre out of fruits and veggies.  And we need fibre.

I personally don't have an opinion for either side.  At home I make smoothies, but that is because I don't own a juicer.  I don't want, and don't have the extra counter space to house a juicer.  When I go out, I buy fresh pressed juices just because I love beet juice.  I wonder if I could throw a beet into my blender to make a smoothie.  Just not sure of what texture the smoothie would end up having.

The Good Press
My favourite out of the 3 juicers mentioned in this blog post.  The only reason being that they offer freshly squeezed juices that are made in the morning in a glass bottle, but they also offer freshly squeezed juices when you order on the spot in a plastic cup.  So there won't be the 'sold out scenario'. Price wise, very fair.  Not sure if they offer samples, I've never asked.  I know I have a picture somewhere.....I just can't find it at the moment.

87 Yorkville Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M5R 1C1

Phone: 416-962-4000

http://www.thegoodpress.ca

Greenhouse Juice Co.
Cute little store that offers fresh juices in glass bottles only.  So if you pay them a visit in the afternoon like me, you may not be able to purchase the juice that you intended to drink.  The girls behind the counter were super friendly and let you sample as much as you want before making a decision.  You may think that it's such a waste selling these juices in these glass bottles.  But in fact, they have a little program where if you return a certain number of these glass bottles you can get a drink for free.  Price wise, I think they're slightly more expensive than The Good Press.

Greenhouse Juice Co.

5 Macphearson Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M5R 1W7

Phone:  416-546-1719

https://greenhousejuice.com

Raw Juice Co.
I was walking down Yonge St., and noticed a sign for free samples.  Free....of course I would be there.  The gentleman behind that counter was super friendly and was able to answer all the questions and concerns I had regarding the juices because of my restricted diet at the time.  Juices come in glass bottles, not sure if there's a glass bottle return program like Greenhouse Juice Co.  And same with Greenhouse Juice Co., by the time I went into the store, some of the flavours of juices were already sold out.  Prices were fair for the juices.

Raw Juice Co.

11 Castlefield Ave.,
Toronto, ON

Phone:  416-816-8300

http://www.therawjuicecompany.com

Delica Kitchen

Some days, all I want is a sandwich, a good sandwich made from fresh ingredients.  But it's weird, something this simple is actually hard to find.  And no, Subway, Mr. Sub, those places just won't do it for me.  I like the crusty artisan breads.  We popped by Delica Kitchen after picking up our swag bags (more like boxes) for the B&O Yorkville run in September.  Clean little soup/sandwich/coffee place.  Kinda reminded me of New York/Paris.  Maybe it's because of the Pret a Manger feel.

Each and every day, Delica offers several sandwich options ranging from meat heavy to vegetarian. Veggies used are very fresh.  Good quantities of meat & veggie balance.  Bread was crusty on the outside, and nice and soft on the inside.  A place I will keep in mind for future visits when I'm in the area and looking for a healthy place to eat.

Delia Kitchen Sandwiches

Delica Kitchen

1440 Yonge St.,

Toronto, ON

M4T 1Y5

Phone: 416-546-5408

Hours: Monday - Friday 10am-5pm

            Saturday - Sunday 10am-4pm

http://delicakitchen.ca

Inaho Japanese Restaurant

My friend suggested we meet at this restaurant.  He frequents it quite a bit, at least once a week he said.  But this particular week, it would be his second visit.  We didn't make a reservation, and when we walked in, all their tables already had the plastic reserved plaque on them, and this was a weeknight!  Must be a good place since they seem to be so busy, regulars I assume.  So we sat at the sushi bar.  And as it turns out, they were all regulars.  From what I observed, everyone that walked in seemed to know the owners, and they seemed to all be like family.

My friend ordered some soba noodles, and hand roll, both of which I forgot take pictures of.  And I ordered a tempura don.  The reason my friend said that he loves this place is because the fish is fresh. He spent the last few months on the west coast eating really fresh fish, and he says this is the closest to the west coast he's had here since he's been back.  I took his word for it, since at that time I was still anti-fish.  My tempura don was ok, nothing to be crazy over.  I personally found the tempura batter to be a little heavy.  The sushi rice underneath was flavoured well.

Tempura Don

End of the meal came with choice of either ginger, green tea, or black sesame ice cream.  Pretty standard.  The only 'downside' was the little roach critter that I saw scurry by our feet.  I'm sure other restaurants have the same thing, but would have been better that I didn't see it.

Inaho Japanese Restaurant
155 East Beaver Creek Road,
Richmond Hill, ON,
L4B 2N2

Phone: 905-889-8533

Tarboosh Restaurant

Cute little family run Middle Eastern Restaurant in Mississauga in a building that you would never expect there to be a restaurant in.  I went during lunch with a bunch of coworkers for their buffet spread.  From what I recall, the buffet (vegetarian) lunch was $10.  Spread wasn't very large, but what they did offer was very good.  They had hummus, beet salad, baba ganoush, lentil soup, lentils and rice, tabouleh, cauliflower in tahini sauce, baked tomatoes, pita, and other things that I can't remember.  According to their menu, they also offer meat dishes like shwarma, but it's just not available during the vegetarian lunch buffet.

Plate at Tarboosh

Great place to visit for fresh Middle Eastern food, at a good price.  You just have to know where to find the restaurant.

Tarboosh
3050 Confederation Parkway, Unit 105
Mississauga, ON,
L5B 3Z6

Phone:  905-949-0222

http://www.tarboosh.net/home.html

Yellow Cup Cafe

Yellow Cup Cafe location wise, super out of the way.  It kind of felt like I was travelling to the middle of nowhere.  But this was the halfway point in between out houses, sort of.  More like 1/3 for them, and 2/3 for me.  But since my friend was preggers at the time, and also had a 2 year old.  Closer for her would be better.

Super cute cafe, with not a lot of seating.  During the summer the patio is open for use.  You order cafeteria style, pay, get a number that you display at your table, and they bring out your order to you.  Food wise, they do crepes, waffles, egg dishes, sandwiches, and coffee.  We ordered the Florentine crepe, and the Breakfast fajita.  The Florentine crepe was filled with eggs, cheese, organic spinach, feta, red onion and tomato, topped with béchamel sauce.  Flavours were very good.  Very light tasting.  But because the egg was broken up and cooked directly on top of the crepe, I miss the egg texture.

Florentine Crepe

The Breakfast fajita was what I wanted.  Filled with scrambled eggs, avocado, tomato and cheese, this one definitely satisfied my egg craving.

Breakfast Fajita

Wish this place was closer to home, makes for a great brunch place.

Yellow Cup Cafe
225 East Mall, Unit #1
Etobicoke, ON

Phone:  416-231-6688

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 7am - 11pm
             Friday 7am - 12am
             Saturday 7am - 11pm
             Sunday 8am - 11pm

http://www.yellowcupcafe.com

Catch Up #4: Randoms

Here's a bunch of randoms that I couldn't really put in any of the other Catch Up blog categories.

Food Truck Alley 2:  Rose City Kitchens & Frankie Fettuccine Food Truck Co.

It seems the the food truck scene isn't quite picking up in Toronto, which is kind of disappointing.  Shortly have they opened the temp location along King West, they again closed.  But I'm glad I at least got to stop by once.  The day that I went, there was Rose City Kitchens, a hot dog truck, a funnel cake truck, and Frankie Fettuccine.  I ordered from Rose City Kitchens while my friend ordered from Frankie Fettuccine.  

At Rose City Kitchens, your order includes a 'sandwich' (I'll explain why I put sandwich in quotes), salad and drink for $10.  I ordered the Greek sandwich.  I wanted something light for lunch, hence ordering a sandwich.  But I didn't want it THAT light.  The sandwich was HALF a pita sandwich.  The pita shell used was of the small size.  The salad was a kale and tomato salad heavily doused in some sort of dijon mustard dressing.  It was beyond over dressed.  Not only that, I found a cherry tomato that was covered in what looked like bird poop.  I was disgusted, and couldn't eat anymore.  But it was't like I was missing out on much.....  I was just glad I could steal some food from my friend.  One food truck I will not try again.

Rose City Kitchen Menu

Kale Salad, Greek Sandwich with Chicken

http://www.rosecitykitchen.com/#home

I should have, but the thought of all those carbs from the pasta.....  My friend ordered the arancini balls, and ossobuco poutine.  Both were done so well.  The arancini was done mini sized, compared to the Italian place I normally visit.  The tomato sauce, so tasty as well.  The Ossobuco was done like a 'pulled' beef brisket.  So very tender and melt in your mouth.  Instead of french fries, deep friend gnocchi was used.  I'm getting super hungry thinking of this.  I don't remember the prices of the dishes, but from what I remember, the portion size that you get, for the price paid was very fair.  If I see Frankie Fettuccine next year, I know where I will be stopping off for a snack.

Arancini

Ossobuco Poutine

http://www.frankiefett.com

My Wonderful Kitchen
This is another place similar to other congee/noodle places.  Popped in to check it out based on a good review I read.  We ordered the beef brisket in soup (no noodles), and ja jiang mien.  The brisket was a good size, very tender and decent flavour.  The ja jiang mien was not that great.  The sauce was very ketchupy tasting and very soupy.  I'm used to having the sauce be thicker.  Definitely do not order this dish.  Free dessert comes when you get the bill.  That night it was a shot glass full of mango tapioca pudding.  Will return to check out some other dishes.

Beef Brisket

Ja Jiang Mien

Mango Tapioca Pudding

350 Hwy 7 E.

Richmond Hill, ON

L4B 3N2

905-889-1080

https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Wonderful-Kitchen-十粥十/541062532648943

Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodle

Seems like theres a larger number of these hand pulled noodle places popping up, most likely due to the large number of immigrants from China.  I like noodles in soup, so why not give it a try.  There essentially two kinds of noodles dishes you can order, one is in soup, the other is stir fried.  Once you decide on the kind of dish you want, then you get to choose what kind of noodle you want to be in your dish.  I don't remember the exact number, but there were a good 5 or 6 kinds of noodles ranging from very thin noodles (similar to angel hair), to knife cut noodles.  On their menu, they list as having spinach noodles, but out of the 3 times I've been there, they never have them.  We ordered the Lanzhou noodle with round noodle and the beef brisket noodle with knife cut noodles.  The Lanzhou noodle is a light clear broth served with some cooked daikon, very thinly sliced beef and green onions.  In my opinion, the beef is way too thinly sliced, because when we picked it up, it just completely fell apart.  

Lanzhou Noodles

The beef brisket knife cut noodles had good flavour, and the beef was tender.  I personally like the texture of the knife cut noodles because it is slightly more al dente or chewier because of the inconsistent thickness of the noodles.  I didn't eat much of this one because it's the preference of the hubby, usually his dish.

Beef Brisket Knife Cut Noodle

Don't expect good service here.  The 2 waitresses are either really angry looking and never crack a smile, or they ignore you while watching the Mandarin TV dramas.  When they do answer you, they sound like they could care less.  

8362 Kennedy Rd.,

Markham, ON

L3R 9W5

905-470-8188

Wonton Time

We had a craving for wontons.  Simple as that.  I don't really like the wontons at Jim Chae Kee, not because the filling isn't good, because it is, but I just don't like the size of the wontons.  Classic wontons should be small, small enough to pop into your mouth.  My friend suggested Wonton Time inside of Market Village.  Apparently this place has been around for years, but I've never noticed them.  Their menu is small, fish balls, beef brisket, wontons, shrimp dumplings and veggies.  I think thats pretty much it.  But when you do something good, you don't need a huge menu.  We pretty much ordered everything on the menu, some of us with rice noodles, others with wonton noodles.  The wontons were good, shrimp were 'crispy', with just the right amount of filling.  The beef brisket my friend says it's the best place for it.  It's been so long, I can't really remember.  Maybe I should go again soon.  The shrimp dumplings is similar to the wonton, except larger, and mixed into the filling are bamboo shoots and cloud ear fungus.  There's an extra crunch in the dumpling that the wontons don't have.  I personally prefer the wontons over the shrimp dumplings.

Wonton Time

4392 Steeles Ave. E.,

Markham, ON

L3R 9V8

905-477-8882