St. Lawrence Market - Buster's Sea Cove & Future Bakery

I had a great day planned out.  I had a day off from work and I was going to get a haircut, and join a friend for a late lunch at St. Lawrence Market.  The day started out great, until I get to the hair salon and the fire alarm goes off.  Turns out a water pipe burst in the basement which means that they needed to shut off the water.  While I was getting my hair cut, I see people getting their hair washed with bottles of spring water.  The worst part of my day was my hair cut itself.  Apparently my stylist didn't really know how to cut hair, and didn't understand what I wanted.  It was 3 hours of torture.

In the end I joined my friend wayyyy too late.  Good thing he was understanding.  So we met at the infamous Buster's Sea Cove at the St. Lawrence Market for lunch.  Even though it was 2 something in the afternoon, closer to 3, there was still a long lineup for food!  I ordered their shrimp po'boy.  The shrimp was perfectly deep fried and their sauce was just spicy enough, delicious!  

Shrimp Po'boy

For dessert, I wanted to get a Portuguese custard tart from Future Bakery, but they were sold out by the time I got there.  So I opted for a brownie.  The brownie which looked very good from behind the glass, was dry and crumbly and lacked the chocolatey goodness that a brownie should have.  I was very disappointed.  So avoid the chocolate brownie from Future Bakery!

Brownie

92 Front St E.,

Toronto, ON

M5E 1C3

416-392-7120

Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 8:00am - 6:00pm

             Friday 8:00am - 7:00pm

             Saturday 5:00am - 5:00pm

             Sunday & Monday CLOSED

http://www.stlawrencemarket.com

Green Tea Lounge

Green Tea Lounge is a sister restaurant of Green Tea Cafe located within J-Town.  I have always meant to go try Green Tea Cafe, but the hours were not very friendly to the people that have to work 'normal' working hours.

Green Tea Lounge and Green Tea Cafe serve the same dishes.  The only difference is that the lounge is more of a sit down restaurant and the cafe is cafeteria style.  The menu is pretty small, offering 3 options of curry rice, 3 options of udon/soba and a handful of appetizers.  That night we ordered karaage and gyoza to start, pork katsu curry, tempura with cold soba noodles, tofu udon in soup, and green tea cake for dessert.

The karaage was just ok, nothing too special about it.  The pieces of chicken were average sized and juicy.  Gyoza was tasty, I just can't remember what exactly was in the filling, but the skin was so nice and thin.  The pork katsu curry was very good.  Pork was thick enough, some places pound the pork so it's paper thin, which ends up making it very dry, but Green Tea Lounge's wasn't like that.  I like how the curry was served on the side in a gravy boat so your crispy pork stays crisp.  Since I got food poisoning from eating udon noodles, I have stayed away from udon noodles.  But I was told that the udon noodles were good.  I love soba, especially cold soba noodles.  The dipping sauce was flavored very well.  The shrimp tempura was very good as well, very light, crispy and most importantly NOT greasy!

Gyoza

Karaage

Pork Katsu Curry

Tofu Udon in Soup

Cold Soba with Tempura

The green tea cake was full of green tea flavour.  We were told that the desserts were baked by the bakery within J-Town.

Green Tea Cake

Green Tea Lounge is a great place to eat at when you want simple, cozy, comfort Japanese food.  They don't offer sushi so it's not a place to go to if you're craving sushi.

Green Tea Lounge
3120 Steeles Ave E.  Unit 118,
Markham ON,
L3R 8T3
905-944-9669

Hours:  Monday CLOSED
             Tuesday - Sunday 11:30am - 9:00pm

http://www.greentealounge.ca

Inakaya

June 21st, a few of my friends got together to participate and raise money for cancer.  This event was called Relay for Life.  This even occurred from 7pm to 7am, none of us slept.  It was a lot of fun.  I was a bit hesitant at first, but now I think I may do it again next year.  For additional details, go to the Relay For Life website.

After that fun night, our group wanted to get together again and celebrate.  I guess it was just more of an excuse to go out to eat.  Doesn't matter what the reason was, as long as my stomach was happy at the end of the night, I'm happy.  The meeting place was at Inakaya, a small, and hidden izakaya in North York.  The food here was pretty good, even the two non fish eaters were able to leave with a full belly, so thats always a good sign.  Price i'm not sure if it's on the higher end of izakayas, or if we just ordered way too much food for 5 people. That can be decided after looking through the pictures.

Overall I think the food was of good quality and fresh.  If I was in the area, I would consider going back again, but it isn't a restaurant I would make trip just to go eat at.

Beef Tataki

Miso Cod

Seafood Seaweed Salad

Spider Roll

Whole Flounder

Kaarage

Sashimi Plate

Deep Fried Monk Fish

Volcano Roll

Squid

Ottawa Road Trip Summer 2013

The intention was to help my friend move into his Ottawa apartment, the ulterior motive for this trip was so I could go eat at my favorite spots in Ottawa.

Reid's Dairy:
This was a childhood favourite.  My dad used to work near a Reids Dairy store.  Every so often he would bring home a 4L bag of chocolate milk and one of their loonie milkshakes for me and my sister to share.  Over the years, all of the store locations have closed, with the exception of the Belleville location.  Since it was on the way to Ottawa, we stopped off there for a blast from the past.  The loonie milkshakes still exist!  There are many more flavours than before, it used to be only chocolate, vanilla or strawberry.  Now there's flavours like orange, cappuccino as well.

Loonie Milkshake

Reid's Dairy
222 Bell Blvd,
Belleville, ON
K8P 5L7
http://www.reidsdairy.com

Shawarma Palace:
This is probably the only non Chinese hole in the wall restaurant I have been to.  You can tell these places are good by the amount of people that are still lining up when it's not regular meal hours.  We went to eat at around 11pm, yes 11pm, for dinner.  And there were 3-4 people ahead of us in line.  While we were eating, there was constantly 3-4 people in line waiting for food.  The food is good, fresh  and huge portions.  Last time I ordered a mixed shawarma plate, and with my husband (then boyfriend), we finished it.  This time, I ordered the same thing, and split with my friend (female), and we didn't do so well.  I felt really bad about wasting the food.....but I couldn't fit anymore inside my stomach.  Husband was sad that I didn't bring him home the leftovers.

Mixed Shawarma Plate (Before)

Mixed Shawarma Plate (After)

Shawarma Palace
464 Rideau St.,
Ottawa, ON
K1N 5Z3
613-789-9533
http://www.shawarmapalace.ca

The Scone Witch:
Moist crumbly scones.  I like.  Breakfast was at noon because my friend is super slow.  So I was starving!  I would have ordered just a scone and coffee/tea.  But I was starving.  They have a breakfast set which includes a scone of your choice, salad, scrambled eggs and toppings.  The eggs were creamy and delicious, and I'm usually not a fan of scrambled eggs.  I prefer sunny side up normally.  I chose a vanilla scone with some jam (I can't remember what I chose).  Sooooo good.  My friend got the same breakfast combo, but chose a gluten free jalapeño scone.  I didn't like that one as much.  Denser and tougher.  My other friends got scone "sandwiches".  The ham was supposedly amazing.  I didn't get a chance to try it.  Maybe next time.

Eggs with Roasted Veggies & Goat Cheese, Salad, Fruit, and Vanilla Scone & Jam

Eggs with Smoked Salmon, Salad, Fruit, and Gluten Free Jalapeño Scone

Artisanal Ham & Cheese Sconewich

Tuna Sconewich

The Scone Witch
35 Beechwood Ave.,
Ottawa, ON,
K1M 1M1
613-741-4141
Hours:  Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm
Saturday - Sunday 8am - 4pm
https://www.facebook.com/TheSconeWitch

ChaTime

So much hype!  Everyone says ChaTime is the best bubble tea in Toronto right now.  I didn’t get a chance to try it until they opened a location up in North York.  Their original location downtown was too inconvenient for me to go to.  We braved the long lineups for the North York grand opening weekend where they had the promotion of buy one get one free.  The free one was limited to roasted milk tea with grass jelly, milk tea with tapioca or mango drink.

I was able to try all three of those drinks, and I have to ask, why is there so much hype around it?  There was nothing different that made these drinks stand out from the ones that are sold in Pacific mall.

The ONLY thing that I liked about ChaTime was that you can ask for different levels of sweetness and different amounts of ice in your drink.  I just don’t get it.

Roasted Milk Tea with Grass Jelly, and Mango Drink

ChaTime North York

5494 Yonge St.,

Toronto, ON

M2N 7L3

647-748-6887

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11:30am - 12:00am

               Friday - Sunday 11:30am - 1:00am

Jelly Modern Donuts

Late night donut delivery!!!!  That is how I got to try my first Jelly Modern Donuts donut! Most of my friends know, that I’m really bad with my phone.  I don’t have it glued to me like most of my friends and family do.  When I’m at work it’s on my desk charging.  When I’m at home, it’s usually left in my purse.  So if you text me at night, I probably won’t see it until I’m at work the next morning.  You are better off calling me the old fashioned way…RING RING….RING RING……

My friend had sent me a FB message around 9pm asking if I was at home.  It wasn’t until my friend rang my doorbell and showed up with a donut for me and him telling me that he messaged me before I went to my phone to check.  Surprises are always nicer than pre-arranged things right?  For most people yes, but I think I prefer the latter.

The donut that I had gotten was maple cream (I originally thought it might have been maple bacon, missing the piece of bacon).  And it was HUGE!  I should have taken a picture of it with something as a size reference, but didn't think of it at the time.  My friend thought it was lemon cream, but there was no lemon flavor.  The base of the donut was good.  It’s a yeast based donut, so it was very light.  Exactly the kind of donut I like.  The only thing is, some parts of the donut tasted/felt kind of doughy.  Not sure if this particular one was slightly undercooked, or if the heavy maple cream sitting on it all day soaked into the donut too much.

Maple Cream Donut

While shopping at Holts (on Bloor) last weekend (mid August), Jelly Modern Donuts had setup a little stand upstairs on the second floor with donut centres to sample, and donuts to sell.  Sampling the donut hole, made me want to eat a donut.  So we bought the Oreo one.  The size of this donut was significantly smaller than the one my friend brought over.  Not sure if they have adjusted the size, or if they just made it smaller to sell at Holts.  But nevertheless, this donut base was very good!   The Oreo frosting was too sweet for me though.  I think I would prefer it if they came out with a plain donut.

Jelly Modern Donuts

376 College Street,

Toronto, ON

M5T 1S6

416-962-2053

Hours: Monday Pre-ordered pickups only

            Tuesday - Thursday 7am-8pm

            Friday 7am-9pm

            Saturday 10am-9pm

            Sunday 11am-8pm

http://jellymoderndoughnuts.com