Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Beast: Donuts

I have been to The Beast once before, after one of my 10k runs (to re-fuel) for brunch.  I had no idea The Beast made donuts until a friend bought us two to try.  We got to sample the margherita and the maple bacon.  The texture of the donut is not like a typical donut.  It seemed more like a light airy and slightly sweet bread.

The margherita had a lime glaze on top and was filled with a lime custard.  So yummy and tangy and custardy.  The fact that the base of the donut wasn't too sweet  worked well with the sweet glaze.  The maple bacon donut when I first looked at it, I thought it was a coconut donut.  The crumbled bits of donut looked like toasted coconut shavings.  I thought I would hate the combination of meat and donut.  But it was delicious, better than the margherita.

Maple Bacon Donut (left), Margherita Donut (right)










The Beast
96 Tecumseth St.
Toronto, ON M6J 2H1
Hours: Monday & Tuesday CLOSED
              Wednesday & Thursday 5pm - 9pm
              Friday 5pm - 10pm
              Saturday 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
              Sunday 10am - 3pm
http://thebeastrestaurant.com/

Farm Hopping

Finally a weekend with nothing to do (this was during late summer).  I miss those weekends now.  My definition of a weekend now consists of Sunday.  This is a big reason why I'm so behind on my blogging.  Back to the summer.  We had nothing planned because that is how we wanted to spend the day.  It ended up being a farm hopping day.

Farm #1:  Organics Family Farm
From the name of the farm, you may have already guessed what type of food they sell, organic.  I'm not a big organic food eater, just because it doesn't appear that Canada has strict enough guidelines to define what is organic and what isn't.  Another part of it is, organic food cost significantly more in Canada than normal food.  I've been told in the US, there isn't much of a price difference.  The farm market was very small, had a small variety of fruits, vegetables, honey, meats and other products.  I've never tried organic meats before, so I thought, we can give it a try.  So we bought 2 organic beef tenderloins.  What really caught my eye when we parked was that they have a giant wood burning oven outside complete with pies and breads cooling on a rack right by it!

We ended up buying an apple pie as well.  One of the best pies I've ever had!  Flakey crust, tons of apple-y cinnamon-y goodness.  And not too sweet!
Organic Apple Pie

Organic Apple Pie with Hagen Dazs


















Organic beef = AMAZING! The flavour of the beef is out of this world!  If you haven't tried it, give it a try!  It justifies the price tag associated with it, but it's definitely going to be a treat, not an everyday thing.  The night after eating the organic steak (bbq-ed, seasoned with a tiny bit of freshly ground sea salt and black pepper), we went to The Keg for dinner.  If it were up to me, I would not be setting foot in The Keg.  But for some unknown reason, my in-laws love it.....so unfortunately I have to make the trip there every once in a while.  But no comparison to the flavor in the steaks.  Keg = bland and tasteless.  Organic = full of beef flavor and super tender.  If  you prefer quanity over quality then by all means visit The Keg.  But otherwise, save up your $ and treat yourself to an nice organic steak instead.

7550 19th Ave
Markham, Ontario
L6B 1A8
905-640-5206

Farm #2:  Meadowview Honey
While at the Organics Family Farm, I saw a jar of local honey for sale.  On the label it had the address and we googled it and saw that it was close by.  I thought, what the hey, we have nothing better to do and it's on the way to the next farm we were planning on heading to anyways.  I was expecting it to be a big bee farm and I've never been so it would be an amazing adventure.  However, when we got there we drove on a super long gravel road with tons of potholes to a house that was in the middle of no where.  I was really scared for my car!  I see an old man sitting on a chair in front of his house, and he comes over and asks us what we're here for.  We said honey and he asked what size.   We got our honey and drove off again.  So much for an adventure.  We still haven't tried out the honey yet because I still have a bit of wildflower honey that I need to finish first.  The honey looks much darker than the normal 'Billy Bee' honey that's sold in supermarkets.

4276 Bethesda Rd.
Stouffville, ON
 L4A 7Z5
Contact: Henry Nauta. Phone: 905-640-1564

Farm #3: 19th Avenue Farmers Market
We love visiting this farm.  There's so many types of veggies and fruits to choose from.  The best part is, that it's fresh.  When you drive up here,  you see the plots of land where the fruits and veggies are grown.  My pet peeve when visiting farmers markets is to find fruits and vegetables with stickers on them saying product of the USA.  I've seen that on more than one occasion.  These resellers should not be hogging up booth space!  End of rant.  Last weekend went up to the 19th Avenue farmers Market again (end of October) to stock up on squashes for the winter.  My favorite veggie to get from here is their orange cauliflower (mix breed of carrot and regular white cauliflower).  It's so sweet!  They also have purple cauliflower, which aside from the beautiful purple colour, didn't have much of a different taste than the white cauliflower.

Stir Fried Purple Cauliflower

Steamed Orange Cauliflower











2931 19th Ave,
Markham, ON
L6C 1L7
Tel: 905-887-8954
http://www.toptomatofoods.com/

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Ginggrae Red Ginseng Ice Cream

While waiting for friends to arrive at our restaurant meeting place for dinner, we decided to go check out the Korean supermarket right next door.  We were early.  My goal whenever going to ethnic supermarkets is to find strange foods, but normal enough for me to want to try.  I stumbled across Red Ginseng ice cream.  I like ginseng, and I like ice cream, should be good right?

First problem, after I get home and about to dig into the ice cream.  I notice the ice cream is expired for a month or so.  Oh well, too far to complain about $1 ice cream.

Second problem, no ginseng smell at home, but when you put that first bite into your mouth, you get whacked in the face with bitterness.

Third problem, all the bites after have no ginseng flavour.

Red Ginseng Ice Cream

Five Guys Burgers and Fries

I'm still on the hunt for a new burger restaurant.  My beloved Goody's Diner closed a few months ago.  I finally got a chance to go check out Five Guys (since my friend keeps saying how good it is) one Friday during lunch.  From what I remember, prices started around $6.xx for a hamburger.  Pretty pricey in my opinion for JUST a burger, no drink or fries.  However, I was reminded how expensive fast food places are nowadays.  I ordered the burger, friend ordered the the cheeseburger and fries.  Good thing we shared the fries.  Seems like what they do is scoop a paper cup full of fries, put cup in bag, and scoop more fries into the bag.  Too much!

Burger wise, when you order you specify toppings you want.  Unlike most other fast food places, there's no additional cost for the toppings.  There's even sautéed mushrooms and onions!  It's not just the regular ketchup, mustard, lettuce and tomato!  When they called my number to pick up my burger, i grabbed the bag and thought......WHAT THE HECK?!  Did they put in 2 burgers?  I peered inside the bag and saw one.  I sat down and opened it up and it's double patties.  That explains the weight!  Taste of the beef was BLAND.  No seasoning, not much beef flavour.  I guess compared to other fast food places, it's not bad.  But it's just not the same as Goody's :(.

Burger

Cheese Burger



















Five Guys Burgers and Fries
http://www.fiveguys.com/locations.aspx
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