Golden Horse

Ever since coming back from Hong Kong last year, my fascination with Hong Kong style cafe foods has started to grow.  The food is usually decent, nothing over the top of fancy, but the price is always good with good sized portions too.  I typically go to this style of cafe for breakfast because I like the breakfast combo sets.  I lie, I actually just go because of the egg sandwiches included in the sets.  These sets usually cost $5 or less and either comes with a main such as pork and preserved vegetable vermicelli, or spam and egg instant noodles, a side of condensed milk toast or egg sandwich and a drink such as milk tea, coffee, horicks etc.  So much cheaper than a traditional type western breakfast.

This time, we went to Golden Horse, a HK/Macau style cafe, for dinner.  The dinner specials averaged around $9.99 and came with tomato soup or soup of the day and a hot drink.  Three of our friends ordered from the dinner special menu, seafood fried rice, smoked salmon on rice with white cream sauce and chicken filet and gravy on spaghetti.  I forgot to take a picture of the spaghetti since it came so much later than rest of the other meals.  The seafood fried rice was pretty good, not greasy, and flavorful.  The smoke salmon rice was just ok. 

Seafood Fried Rice

Smoked Salmon Rice

The rest of us ordered off the normal menu, beef brisket noodle 'buddies' style, baked porkchop rice, and beef and vegetable fried noodle.  I wish I was able to enjoy my meal more, but my stomach was hurting so much that night.  My stomach pains usually occur when I have had coffee during the day and had to wait too long for food.  From the little bit that I did eat, I enjoyed the noodles buddies style.  The broth was thick, rich in beef and pickled bamboo flavor, so it was a bit tart/sour.  The brisket was nice and tender.  My friend complained that his beef and vegetable fried noodle was very salty.  But he continued eating because he was starving.  The baked porkchop rice was ok, but the sauce was missing something.  Needs some improvement. 

Beef Brisket Noodles Buddies Style

Beef & Vegetable Fried Noodle

Baked Porkchop Rice

I almost forgot, but we also ordered a porkchop bun too since this is a Macau speciality. And this restaurant is supposed to be Macau style.  When it came, I was disappointed.  It was nothing like the porkchop bun like I had from the famous Tai Lei Loi Cafe.  This one tasted like a McD's Filet-o-Fish with a porkchop instead of fish.

Pork Chop Bun

I don't know if i'm the only one that found the Macau style dishes disappointing or what, because lots of other customers seemed to order and enjoy the baked porkchop rice and porkchop buns.  I will definitely return for their other since it's so close to home.  I have yet to try their breakfast specials.

Golden Horse
4580 Hwy 7 East Unit 3
Markham, ON L3R 1M5
(905) 940-3288

Lady Marmalade

I love eggs.  I love breakfast foods.  So on occasion, we will look for a new restaurant to visit so I can try out their brunch menu.  This time, because we planned on going down to the Beaches for my hubbys cousin's engagement shoot, I thought it would be perfect to make a trip to Lady Marmalade located in Leslieville.

Before actually going to the restaurant, I was warned about the wait times.  Unless you go first thing in the morning when they open, you will need to wait a good half an hour.  And this was no lie.  We had to wait a good half an hour for a table for 4.  Good thing the decor in the restaurant was interesting enough to keep me entertained so the wait didn't seem as long as it was.  There were some beautiful photographs on the walls.  The furniture was a different story.  It was like we were sent back in time about 20 years ago.  My parents owned a similar table, similar chairs, and i'm sure both my family and extended family owned similar mugs.

Once we were seated, we quickly placed our orders because we were super hungry.  We ordered the huevos migas, baked crepe croque monsieur, cochinita pibil benny, and brie avocado bacon benny.  After we ordered we had to wait quite a while to get our food.  I lost track of time, all I could think about was how much my stomach was making grumbling sounds.  Good thing it was loud in there, similar volume to a Chinese dim sum restaurant, or else I would have been so embarassed if anyone heard my stomach.

Huevos migas was HUGE.  It looked like a Mexican party on a platter.  Three soft scrambled eggs with cheese, tomatoes, scallions and sausage, served with basmati brown rice, smashed black beans, sour cream, pico de gallo salsa and organic corn tortilla chips.  Considering that this was enough to make my cousin-in-law full, this means that there's probably too much food for a 'normal' adult to be eating.

Huevos Migas

Baked crepe croque monsieur.  I normally don't like to order such heavy foods for breakfast or even brunch.  The thought of all that cheese that would sit in my stomach.....ughhh.  But since it was after 1pm, and also my first meal of the day, I thought, what the hey.  When the dish was first placed in front of me, I noticed that the poached egg whites were overcooked.  I then got worried that my yolks wouldn't be runny.  But as soon as I broke the eggs open, and saw the golden yellow yolks run onto my crepes, my worries were subsided.  Ooozy egg yolks with ooozy ham and cheese.  Whats not to like?  The potatoes that came on the side were just meh I thought, but the main dish was able to keep me nice and happy.  No complaints.

Baked Crepe Croque Monsieur

Cochinita pibil benny translation would be Yucatan pulled pork and citrus marinated red onion benny served with a side of salad.  The pulled pork was delicious.  Just enough spice and the pork was so soft and tender.  I think Lady Marmalade's pulled pork ranks high up there in my books!  Their hollandaise sauce was just ok I thought.  Nothing to special, actually I thought was slightly under seasoned.  There was also a herby type sauce on top of the hollandaise sauce which I couldn't figure out.  The hubby enjoyed this dish for sure!

Conchinita Pibil Benny

Last but not least, the brie avocado bacon benny.  It looked delicious. I didn't get a chance to try it, but no complaints from the person who ordered it.

Brie Avocado Bacon Benny

Lady Marmalade was great.  I just wish that the lineup to get a table and the wait for our food wasn't as long as it was.  To avoid a lineup, either show up when they open, or come at 2pm.

Lady Marmalade
898 Queen St East at Logan Ave
647-351-7645
Hours: Monday - Friday - 8am to 4pm
            Saturday & Sunday (& Holidays) - 8am to 3pm

They don't take reservations.

Photos courtesy of PixelBytes Photography

Goody's Diner: Visit 2

I had to make another trip here after I found out at the end of my last meal that their burger patties were made in house.  Just like a steak, I find there's a big difference in terms of the juiciness of a burger patty depending on how well done it is cooked.  Not all of your favorite burger joints in Canada are allowed to cook your burger other than well done because they buy the burger patties frozen.  I believe the rule is, if you grind your own meats, because you know whats going into the burger, you can allow the customer to choose how well done they want their burger.

On this trip, the hubby ordered the Farmer John burger, cooked to medium rare with a side order of fries.  For some reason the hubby loves to order burgers topped with fried eggs.  He always complains about how messy it is to eat, but yet, if it's on the menu, he will order it.  So this burger came topped with an onion ring, fried egg and bacon along with the normal, lettuce, tomato, and cheese.  I guess you can call this a breakfast burger.  Although I can't imagine anyone eating this first thing in the morning.  We cut into this burger, and was cooked to a perfect medium rare, and super juicy......DELICIOUS!

Farmer John

I know, each time I come here, I end up ordering anything but a burger.  Last time's excuse was I was on my detox, unable to eat beef.  This time, it was 1pm on a Saturday, and I haven't eaten breakfast yet.  I needed breakfast.  That and I love breakfast meals.  I could eat a breakfast type meal anytime of the day.  So I ordered their Huevos Rancheros topped with poached eggs.  It was so good!  The chorizo sausage was really spicy, making the rest of the dish spicy.  Good thing I can handle my spices!  The combination of the golden yellow/orange egg yolks, with sausage and the salsa was like a flavor explosion in my mouth each time I had a bite!

Huevos Rancheros

I'm so glad Goody's decided to open on Saturdays now.  This means I can continue to try the rest of their menu!  I promise on the next visit I will order a burger!

Goody's Diner 17-133 Manville Rd.
Hours: Monday - Saturday 9am-7pm
Phone: 647-348-9338

Khao San Road

Holy moley this place was BUSY!  Our party of 5 was lucky enough to be seated 1 hour after they opened their doors for their Saturday night dinner service.  The line just got longer and longer while we ate our dinner.

Before we even sat down for dinner, we all knew what we were going to order.  We studied the menu while we waited in line, how else were we supposed to kill 1 hour?  I actually knew what I wanted before we got to the restaurant, but thats just how I am.  I like to look at menus as soon as I know what restaurant we plan on going to. We ordered Garlic Tofu, Gra Bong (Squash Fritters), Gaeng Kaew Wan (Green Curry), Sam Roas (Chef's Special Pad Thai), Chicken Pad Gra Prao, Khao Soi and Cha Nom Yen (Thai Iced Tea).

Garlic Tofu, aside from the garlic in the sauce, I couldn't taste much garlic on the tofu.  There was really good basil flavor.  Gra Bong was really good too!  Something so simple, delicious! We loved both the appetizers so much that I decided to try and replicate it at home. 

Garlic Tofu

Gra Bong

The most disappointing dish of the night was the Sam Roas.  I loved the fact that this pad thai did not contain ketchup (finally a restaurant the doesn't use ketchup!), but the noodles were all clumpy and stuck together and a bit mushy.

Sam Roas

We had to order the Khao Soi because on every review I read, everyone raved about it.  The flavor in the curry soup base was great.  Not very curry-y but very intense in the coconut flavor.  Egg noodles were cooked perfectly, like an al-dente pasta.  On the top of the Khao Soi were deep friend egg noodles.  It provided a very nice contrast in texture.  It was kind of like dipping chips into a coconut curry broth.  YUM!  I'm not sure how a single person can finish this dish on their own.  It's super heavy.  By the end of the night I kind of wished I had brought a jar to take home the leftover broth so I could add more noodles to it for lunch the next day!

Khao Soi

The Gaeng Kaew Wan was a surprisingly good choice to order.  The flavors amazing, very clean tasting, not like the green curries that I have previously tried at other restaurants.  I could just drink the curry like soup.  The only thing that I didn't like about this curry was that it wasn't thick enough to pair with rice.  The rice swam in the curry sauce.

Gaeng Kaew Wan

Pad Gra Prao was super yummy! I didn't expect to like this dish for some reason.  It might have been because I didn't realize how much flavor would be in the ground meat.  We ordered this dish at a mild spice level, but it was pretty spicy!  Great basil and green chili flavor.  The dish came with a fried egg on top to be mixed in and also some spicy fish sauce.  Because of the fried egg, it seemed like I was eating a spicy breakfast for dinner!

Pad Gra Prao

Drink wise we ordred Cha Nom Yen.  When I saw on the menu that this drink was $4.50, I thought to myself, wow thats one expensive drink.  But when it arrived at the table, this drink was monstrous.  I think it could rival Pickel Barrel's milkshake!  I love strong coffees and strong teas, and this was one strong tea mixed with condensed milk.  Mmmm....very refreshing. 

Khao San Road definitely lived up to my expectations.  I don't think I've had Thai food as good as this in Toronto before.  I just wish it was closer to home.  But before making another trip here, I want to pay a visit to Sukothai to compare as there owners of Khao San Road came from Sukhothai.

Khao San Road
326 Adelaide West, Toronto, ON
647-352-5773
Mon-Sat (closed Sundays):
Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm
Dinner 5:00pm - 10:00pm

Bakesale Cupcakes

Every once in a while, I will purchase a 'deal' from Wagjag, Groupon, Fabfind etc.  It's a way for me to try out a new place for cheaper than it would normally cost.  In this case, I bought a coupon $15 for a dozen cupcakes at Bakesale.  I love cupcakes, if they're done right.  They have to be moist without being greasy and the buttercream has to be light.  I hate icing, it's too heavy and too sweet.  I think these should be easy to meet criteria.

Bakesale's store interior looked super cute.  Reminded me of a cozy country home with cupcakes on display behind the counter.  Cupcakes cost $2.75 and up depending on the flavor.  Thats some pretty pricey cupcakes there.  Good thing I had my coupon.  For my dozen cupcakes I chose the following flavors: Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Peanut Butter, Red Velvet, Lemon, Carrot.

Whenever I visit any cupcake store, I always judge the cupcake by their Red Velvet.  I love the redness of the cupcake, the chocolately flavor, and the cream cheese buttercream.  Bakesale fell short.  It had nice colour, but the cupcake was DRY and the cream cheese frosting was dense, too sweet and too heavy.  In general their buttercream was too heavy and thick for my liking, it was more like icing to me.  Each time I ate a cupcake I had to scrape off half the icing.  Such a waste I know!  Their Vanilla and Chocolate cupcake bottoms, nothing special, they were moist and light, but tasted like it was not made from scratch, but made from box mix.  It had a metallic aftertaste.  Lemon cupcake, cupcake had no lemon flavor, was just a plain vanilla cupcake that was heavy and dry.  The only lemon flavoring was in the lemon icing.  The best cupcake had to be the carrot one.  Yummm....real carrot shreds in the cupcake which was moist.

Bakesale Cupcakes

Considering the distance, expensive regular price, and medicore cupcakes.  I will not be visiting again.  Why is it so hard to find good cupcakes?  You would assume that if there's so many cupcakeries open, that the cupcakes must be good!  Unfortunately that's not the case.

Bakesale has two locations.  I visited Bakesale Six Points.

Bakesale Six Points
5230 Dundas St. W., Toronto, ON
416-792-6167
M-F 10-8, Sat. 9-7, Sun. 10-6

Bakesale Kingsway
3076 Bloor St. W., Toronto, ON
416-232-2253
M-F 10-7, Sat. 9-6, Sun. 10-4

Guu Sakabar: Sake Sip & Learn Tweetup

I learned of this Sake Sip & Learn event through a friend.  Cost $50 per person, 5 different sakes (is that the plural of sake?) to try and food is included.  I don't know much about sake, heck I don't know much about alcohol in general.  So I figured this would be a good event to go to.  Also, it's a great excuse to finally go and try Guu Sakabar.  I've been to Guu Izakaya multiple times and enjoyed the food and atmosphere there.

After arrival, we registered ourselves, and found a table to sit.  At each of the tables there were paper place mats with the menu for the night and each of the sakes we were going to try.  When everyone was settled, we got a brief introduction and explanation of what sake is and how it's made.  Because of Guu's loud nature, it was VERY hard to hear anything.  I felt bad for the speaker because it was really hard to pay attention to what he was trying to say.

Three of the five sakes we got to try was from the Ontario Spring Water Sake Company.  They brought over their most popular offerings:  Namanama, Teion Sakura, and Genshu.  The other 2 sakes were from Japan: Murai Family Honjozo and the last one I cant remember the full name it's Yoshi no Gawa ______ Ginjo.  My fave for the night was the Genshu from Ontario Spring Water Sake Company.  The sakes that are made in the Distillery District had significantly more flavor than the ones imported from Japan.  And it was explained to us that when you import/export these sakes you have to pasteurize them.  And the pasteurization ends up getting rid of the flavor.  So the local sakes we were able to taste hints of citrus, and plum like accents.

3 Sakes from Ontario Spring Water Sake Company

I can't not mention the food.  I honestly was expecting that for $50, which included the alcohol and food, that I was going to leave hungry.  Before I even walked into Guu, I did quick scope around the neighborhood to see what we could snack on after.  In the end, I walked out full!  The menu for the nigh included: Edamame, Assorted Sashimi, Gomaae, Seaweed Salad, Karaage, Gindara, Mushroom & Cheese Bibimbap, and Coconut Ice Cream with Yuzu Sauce.  Dishes were served family style.  I ate most of everything with the exeception of the Gindara and Sashimi.  I did try a piece of seared tuna from the sashmi platter.  Everyone around the table gushed about how good it was.  I didn't like it much.  I know I shouldn't, but I was still comparing with the Tuna in Japan.  Its been over a year, and I can still remember the sweetness and texture of it.  Favorite dish of the night was the Karaage.  I love my deep fried chicken. :)  Food quality of Guu Sakabar seems to be the same as Guu Izakaya. 

Edamame

Gomaae



Seaweed Salad



Assorted Sashimi



Karaage



Gindara

Mushroom Cheese Bibimbap



Coconut Ice Cream with Yuzu Sauce

This was a super fun night, being surrounded by good food, good drinks and good company!  I think I need to make a trip to Ontario Spring Water Sake Company for some sake.

Guu Sakabar
559 Bloor Street W, Toronto, O.N. M5S 1Y6
647-343-1101

[Mon-Thu] 17:00 - 23:30
[Fri - Sat ] 17:00 - 24:30
[Sun] 17:00 - 23:30

Ontario Spring Water Sake Company
55 Mill Street, Building 4
Toronto ON M5A 3C4
416-365-SAKE (7253)
Mon-Thu, Sun 12-6 Fri 12-7 Sat 11-7

Dimpflmeier Bakery

Dimpflmeier, German bread made with natural spring water. 

I've seen Dimpflmeier bread available at most supermarkets.  I've tried it, I loved it, and found it too expensive to be eating on a regular basis.  A package of Dimpflmeier rye at my local supermarket ranges from $2.99 to $3.49 for a 1lb bag.  One pound of rye bread only gives you maybe 8 to 10 slices of bread.  Its not the same as a loaf of normal sandwich bread, which is a lot lighter, giving you more slices.  When I found out that Dimpflmeier has a retail outlet store right next to the factory where they bake the bread, I was estatic!  By the way, I LOVE BREAD, especially freshly baked bread.

When I walked into the store, I was so amazed.  I didn't realize that Dimpflimeier made so many varieties of bread AND they make desserts too!  In the store they have their normal bread section which has the pre-packaged sliced breads, plus whole loaves of crusty bread thats sold in paper bags, and single bagels and pretzels.  There's another section of cakes, muffins and cookies.  And if that isn't enough, if you think that you're getting hungry from walking around all this bread, they have a cafe section where you can sit down and enjoy a coffee or tea and a freshly made pastries.  They make so many varieties of pastries, that it was hard for us to choose what we wanted.  I must have changed my mind a million times.  Good thing the line was long enough for me to finally make up my mind and stick with it!  In the end we tried a cream filled horn, cherry danish, and a peach & apple & cheese pastry.  Each of these pastries ranged from $1 to $1.50.  Coffee, each cup freshly made by the strangest looking coffee machine I have ever seen, was only $0.90.

Afternoon snack

 After our afternoon snack we went around loading up our shopping cart with bread.  We bought a loaf of Monastery Rye (4lb) for $5.30, 2 (1lb) Rye breads for $2 each.  They also had some 1lb pumpernickel loaves on special for $1.99.  Too bad this is so far for me, but whenever i'm in the area I will definitely go back for more.

Dimpflmeier Bakery
26-36 Advance Rd, Toronto
416-236-2701
Hours: Monday - Friday 8am-7pm, Saturday 7am-6pm, Sunday 9am-5pm

Queen's Pasta Cafe

I have to start this post off by mentioning that this is not my first time eating at Queen's Pasta Cafe.  Normally my posts are of restaurants that I visit for the first time.  But since this is the first time that I have visited Queen's Pasta after starting this blog, I figured this counts as a "first time".  I have eaten at this restaurant many times before and loved it every single time.  This is the restaurant which introduced to me what al dente pasta tastes like.  Their pastas are fresh homemade pastas that are made on site.  Across the street they have a store where you can buy their pastas to cook at home.  But I've never actually seen the store open for business.  Even when the store hours say they're open, it's always closed.

Even with all the love I have for this restaurant, I'm sad that my post about it will be a bad one.  This last visit, wasn't horrible, but wasn't good either.  My pasta was overcooked, my hubby and cousin's lobster was overcooked, the sauce in that pasta tasted funny (like a Chinese herbal soup), and my other cousin's veal was dry.  Dessert was passable too. We ordered a slice of lemon tart. The lemon filling had just enough tartness, but unfortunately it had a metallic after taste as well. What is it that gives it a metallic taste? I must do some googling to find out.

I assume this was just a bad day for them.  Out of my numerous visits here, this has been the only bad time.  This one visit will not deter me from visiting again in the future. 

Pasta Primevara in Lemon Garlic Sauce

Porchini Fettucine & Seafood in Brandy Sauce

Veal Parmigana

Lemon Tart

Queen's Pasta Cafe
2263 Bloor St West, Toronto
416-766-0993

The Maid's Cottage Restaurant

We drove all the way to Newmarket for buttertarts.  Yes you heard right, for buttertarts.  Ever since 1.5 years ago, when I had to drive to Gravenhurst for a wedding, and tasted the most amazing buttertarts EVER, I have been on the hunt for something just  as delicious but closer to home.  I was super excited when I heard a friend's coworker mention there's a buttertart place in Newmarket.  It's still a drive, but definitely much closer than Gravenhurst.  So off we drove! 

We arrived at The Maid's Cottage around lunch time.  Maybe we should have planned this out better and came around tea time then we wouldnt feel like we're obligated to order lunch food too since we're here really for the butter tarts. Since it was lunchtime, we got some tea and lunch foods.  Tea is served in cute, real china teacups. If the decor wasn't so "homey", it would have felt a little like going for high tea.  For lunch we ordered meatloaf sandwich, corned beef on rye with coleslaw, perogies and chicken pot pie.  All the bread for the sandwiches were home made.  Super soft and super fresh.  I personally don't like meatloaf so I can't comment on how well or not well made it was, but it did taste homemade.  The hubby did mention that he felt there was too much ketchup in it.  My friend loved her corned beef sandwich.  She just kept eating.  The perogies didn't look very homemade.  In fact, they look like the ones I bought from Costco.  My chicken pot pie was delicious!  Super flaky crust and lots of white chicken meat in the pie.  The only thing that I didn't like was the fact that the pie only had chicken, no veggies.  I would have liked some peas and carrots in it.

Corned Beef on Rye

Meatloaf Sandwich

Chicken Pot Pie

Perogies

Finally dessert time!  The Maid's Cottage offers plain, pecan, raisin, and currant buttertarts.  Pricing is as follows: 1 buttertart $2.35, half dozen $10.95 and full dozen $18.95.  We ordered a currant buttertart and a lemon meringue tart.  The lemon meringue tart looked amazing, but taste fell short.  For some reason the lemon filling had a metallicky after taste.  The buttertart, the main attraction, was good but still didn't compare to the ones in Gravenhurst.  The shell was nice and buttery and flakey.  The filling was nice and oozy, but a little too sweet for my tastes.  These buttertarts are good for a buttertart fix.  But still doesn't compare to the Gravenhurst buttertarts.

Lemon Meringue Tart

Current Buttertart

The Maid's Cottage
205 Main Street S. Newmarket, ON, L3Y 3Y9
905-954-0202
Hours: Monday - Friday 9am-6pm Saturday 9am-5pm