Bertos Cuisine

This is only the second time I've ever tried Filipino food.  The first was at Casa Manila, which I found was meh and expensive.  This time, my attempt at Filipino food, is their breakfasts.  We had their breakfasts, for lunch.  I'm not quite sure how people can eat that amount and type of food for breakfast,  so heavy!

Whats included in these meals is that they all come with a beef broth as a starter.  It was very flavourful, but reminded me of the beef broth from the Nissan instant noodles.  The meats are then served on top of a garlic fried rice (sinangag), and eggs (itlog).  Usually the egg comes sunny side up.  We requested the eggs to be cooked through, and the cashier looked at us funny but obliged at our weird request anyways.  For our lunches (breakfasts), we ordered the beef pares silog, tosilog, and the longsilog.  The beef pares is a beef brisket, which was very tender, but my complaint is that the pieces were too small.  I guess maybe it's because it helps the beef cook down faster that way?  The tosilog, had tocino, pieces of fried pork.  Kind of reminded me of a cross between a pork chop and pork jerky.  There was a bit of sweetness in it as well.  The longsilog had longanisa which is a sausage.  While I didn't expect to like it, because I'm not a fan of sausages, I did actually like it quite a bit.

Soup

Beef Pares Silog

Tosilog

Longsilog

Pretty good tasting meal.  And good pricing as well, $8+tax and tip.

Bertos Cuisine
1063 Dundas St. W,
Mississauga, ON
L5C 1C3

Phone:  (905) 232-0203

Hours:  Monday - Friday 9:00a - 9:00p
             Saturday 9:00a - 10:00p
             Sunday 9:00a - 6:00p

http://www.bertoscuisine.com

The Dumpling Shop

I love having dumplings in the freezer because they’re great for last minute meals because they’re so quick to cook.  Filling for the dumplings can be anything really.  There are vegetarian dumplings which is I think filled with vegetables, vermicelli noodles, and egg as a binder.  Meat dumplings can have pork, beef, or chicken, mixed in with some sort of flavouring, for example, shitake mushrooms, celery, bok choy, cabbage, leeks or chives.  The dumplings can be eaten alone as a full on meal, or they can be an addition to some soup noodles.  I personally like eating my dumplings as a full on meal, dipped in some dark chi kang vinegar mixed with chili oil.   

I usually like to make my own dumplings.  I have to admit that I don’t make my own dumpling wrappers.  It’s easy to do, but I’m lazy.  I just make my own filling.  My filling usually consists of a small portion of hand minced chicken breast, mixed with a bunch of vegetables (could be cabbage, leeks, watercress), shitake mushrooms and egg.  Lately I’ve been pretty busy and tired, so I wanted to look for a place that sells hand made dumplings as opposed to the generic ones that you find at the supermarket.  Handy Yelp, led me to the Dumpling Shop in the Yonge and Sheppard area.  Pricing is decent, around $8 for 30 frozen dumplings.  Disclaimer, they use MSG in their dumplings, I asked the lady that works there, and she told me that they do.  But there’s MSG in supermarket dumplings too, so while I try to stay away from MSG, it’s kind of hard to avoid. 

 Dumplings themselves were quite large, with a large amount of filling.  I bought the pork and chive filling dumplings.  The minor down side is that the dumpling wrapper skin is a bit thicker than I would like.  But I think I would still go back for more dumplings, it’s still better than the frozen supermarket ones.

Pork & Chive Dumplings

The Dumpling Shop

184 Willowdale Ave., 

Toronto, ON

M2N 4Y9

Phone:  (416) 512-2323

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 9:00a - 7:00p

             Sunday CLOSED

Mr. Jerk

This post is due to my hubby again.  He is the one that makes me pick up jerk pork on rice for him every once in a while.  Mr Jerk, located in Peanut Plaza has been around for a very long time.  I feel like I'm sharing a secret that I don't want to share.  Lunch special is less than $10.  Great for all the students near by.  I don’t know if it’s because we don’t eat a lot, but one takeout container is enough for the both of us for lunch. Their dinner portion is just a tad bigger than the lunch special, and a few dollars more.

Jerk pork is very flavourful, not overly salty, and most importantly not dry.  I've tried the jerk chicken on previous occasions, and found that to be quite dry.  I love the rice and peas that sit underneath the pork, and its topped with some cabbage and carrot slaw.  I’m not sure if gravy is supposed to be that thick, as I’ve been to other Caribbean restaurants with gravy that isn’t nearly as thick.  You just need to get over the small grimey looking interior.  There’s no room for you to sit, it’s strictly a take out place.  But good enough to satisfy the occasional craving.

Jerk Pork Lunch Special

Mr. Jerk

3050 Don Mills Rd.,

Toronto, ON

M2J 2C1

Phone:  (416) 491-3593

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 10:30a - 10:00p

             Friday 10:30a - 11:00p

             Saturday 10:30a - 10:00p

             Sunday 12:00p - 7:30p

http://www.mrjerk.ca