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

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