Sunday, January 11, 2015

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

Friday, January 9, 2015

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

Sunday, January 4, 2015

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
 
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