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

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.