Dark Horse Espresso Bar

I miss the lazy days we had when we were on vacation in Vancouver.  We would wake up and sit in a coffee shop and have a latte.  I don't get to do that much here.  Where I live, only coffee shop chains exist.  All the little independent shops are downtown.  So on this afternoon, during a 6 hour break in school, I stopped off at Dark Horse Espresso Bar in Chinatown to prep for my seminar at night.  I ordered my latte, found a table and sat down.  I open my notebook and realized I forgot to charge it last night.  I think, no problem, all coffee shops must have outlets available to their customers.  I was very wrong.  Dark Horse must not have supplied enough coffee to the PM for the construction of this coffee shop.....

Back to the coffee.  I miss the beautiful latte art that comes with EVERY latte in Vancouver.  Here, they make it seem like it's too much extra work to make the drink look pretty, it just looks so blah.  The latte was very weak.  I was so disappointed and considered stopping by Starbucks.

Latte

Dark Horse Espresso Bar

215 Spadina Ave. Suite 102

Toronto, ON

M5C  2C7

416-979-1200

Hours: Monday - Friday 7am - 7pm

            Saturday Sunday 8am -7pm

http://darkhorseespresso.com

La Tortilleria

I love Mexican food, and I don't mean Tex-Mex.  This means I don't like flour tortillas.  In Kensington Market there's a restaurant that sells corn tortillas by weight.  I thought about buying a bunch home, but my freezer was full at the time, so I was left to just trying their tacos.  I regret that I didn't write this blog post as soon as I tried the tacos, because right now I can't remember which fillings we got!  All I remember is that the corn tortillas were delicious, soft, but had a slightly chewy texture to them.  The fillings, even though there was sauce, I found the meats too dry.  Definitely will go back to pick up some corn tortilla shells, but I think I will make the fillings at home.

La Tortilleria

198 Augusta Ave.,

Toronto, ON

M5T 2L6

Hours:  Monday - Friday, Sunday 10:30am - 7:00pm

             Saturday 10:30am - 8:00pm

http://www.latortilleria.ca

The Grilled Cheese

Grilled cheese, such a simple food, but so delicious.  The very first version of grilled cheese that I could remember was made with 2 slices of white Wonder bread, and a slice of Kraft singles cheese.  Kraft singles cheese is the easiest to make grilled cheese with because it takes little to no heat to actually melt it.

This little sandwich shop in Kensington Market does things a little bit fancier, no Kraft singles on the menu anywhere.  I was actually overwhelmed by the choices available, so I asked the the guy that worked there what he would recommend.  He suggested the Grilled Motzy.  The Grilled Motzy had boccacini, sun dried tomato, basil pesto, mixed greens and vinaigrette sandwiched between 2 slices of toasted/grilled bread.  I should have stuck to ordering a classic version of whatever I want to try.  I'm sure this sandwich tastes great to some people, but it was horrible for me.  Boccacini did not add any flavour to the sandwich at all because it doesn't really have any flavour to begin with.  The vinaigrette with the combination of the sun dried tomato was overpowering, making it too sweet and sour.  There will not be a next time for this particular sandwich.  The grilled cheese came with a pickle that was pretty tasty, and pre fab chips from a bag that I didn't bother trying.

Grilled Motzy

The Grilled Cheese
66 Nassau St.
Toronto, ON
M5T 1M5

Hours:  Monday - Wednesday 11am - 9pm
             Thursday - Saturday 11am - 10pm
             Sunday 11am - 8pm

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Grilled-Cheese/189651112424