Gourmet Gringos

There's something I find fun about food trucks.  I'm not sure what it is.  But whenever I get a chance to eat from a food truck, I make sure to go and give it a try.  When I was in Vancouver last year, I made sure to check out the food truck festival there.  I was in heaven!  And because it's a summer long event (it's on every weekend), there wasn't much of a lineup at each of the trucks.  In Toronto, it's quite unfortunate, but food trucks aren't nearly as accessible as in other cities mostly due to laws and bylaws in Toronto.  I'm happy to say though, that Toronto is slowly getting there.  There have been quite a few pilot projects, and now we have Food Truck Alley 1 and 2 for select days during the week with a few rotating food trucks that will park there during the lunch hours.

Because where I work, I don't have much of an opportunity to try out food trucks.  So when I heard that Gourmet Gringos opened a location in Aurora, I decided to pop in.  The other reason was my dog's groomer is close by, so I had an hour to kill.

I asked the server what she would suggest.  She said her favourite were the fish tacos.  I don't eat fish normally, so I chose the next most similar, shrimp tacos.  The hubby ordered the chimichanga.  Each of the mains come with 2 sides.  From what I remember, there were refried beans, salad, sopa de frijol, rice and beans, and some other stuff to choose from.  The food didn't take too long to arrive, which I expected since there weren't many in restaurant diners.  But there were many people who came in for take out.

Shrimp tacos, 3 in an order.  Looked good, tasted blah.  To be honest, I was expecting the shrimp to be grilled, not deep fried like popcorn shrimp.  Not only that, the shrimp were just very slightly warm, also overcooked.   The upside, they used corn tortillas.

Shrimp Tacos

The chimichanga was massive (I think it was almost a foot long) and super greasy looking.  I can't remember if an authentic chimichanga is deep fried and then broiled with cheese, if its just broiled with cheese.  In any case, this was a deep-fried cheesy mess.  Inside there was beef, lots of beans and rice, and more cheese.  Flavour was not bad, nothing to write home about.  I'm not sure how the hubby finished this dish and not feel sick.....

Chimichanga

From what we ordered, the best thing was the pineapple chilli sauce.  Super flavourful.  I wouldn't make a trip up to Aurora just to try Gourmet Gringos. But if you happen to pass by the food truck, then by all means give them a try.  Remember to ask for the chilli sauce!

Gourmet Gringos
15380 Bayview Ave.
Aurora, ON
L4G 0K7

905-713-9993

Hours:  Sunday - Thursday 11:00a - 9:00p
             Friday - Saturday 11:00a - 11:00p

http://gourmetgringos.com

HoHoMi Rice and Noodle House - CLOSED

Just from the name of this restaurant, you wouldn't be able to figure out what kind of cuisine it could possibly be.  HoHoMi does Vietnamese food.  Usually when I saw I want to eat Vietnamese food, I'm craving pho.  As I usually do with any new restaurant, I do some research in terms of what they're good at, and what they're not so good at.  Turns out they don't do pho very well.  What other people recommended was their lemongrass chicken, so we made sure to order that.  The portion of chicken that was brought to the table surprised me.  It was massive!  From what I remember, the chicken was deboned mostly, and had amazing lemongrass flavour.  I haven't eaten dinner yet and i'm getting hungrier and hungrier thinking about this chicken.

Lemon Grass Chicken

The other dish we ordered was the tomato vermicelli soup noodle.  I've never had this dish before, ever.  It's so good!  Very light, refreshing, and most importantly, FLAVOURFUL.  The broth consists of tomato, pork, egg, and some shrimp paste from the tastes of it.  I think this dish is a must order.  I'm actually thinking that I should try and recreate this dish at home.

Tomato Vermicelli Noodle Soup

HoHoMi, is kind of located in the middle of nowhere, so it's not the kind of restaurant where you will pass by and think, hey lets go and try it.  You will have to plan to make the trip here.  But it's well worth the trip!

HoHoMi
50 Buroak Ave,  Unit 7
Markham, ON
L6C 0A2

905-888-8558

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 10:00am - 9:30pm

https://www.facebook.com/Hohomiriceandnoodlehouse

John Andersons Charbroil Burger

I have several coworkers who have told me that John Andersons has the best burger.  I was pretty skeptical about the best burger comment, because right now, my pick for best burger is Fresh Burger in Richmond Hill.  Not to hijack the post about John Andersons Buger, but I went to Fresh Burger this past Wednesday and tried to order their signature prime burger.  The owner told me, that he only has the fresh burger.  My husband told me that he tried the fresh burger and it wasn't as good as the prime burger, so I told the owner I came (and brought my friend who has never been to Fresh Burger before) for their prime burger.  The owner then told me, that he did in fact have prime burger patties made, but he's not happy with the meat, so he is refusing to serve them.  So awesome that they care that much about what is being sold to the customers!  We need more of these places!

Back to John Andersons.  The inside of John Andersons is definitely cute/retro.  It probably looks the way it did back in the 70's.  This is definitely a family run business, owned by an Asian family.  Looks like mom runs the cash, and dad is the cook.  Your burger is cooked when you order it, so it's fresh.  But I was very disappointed to see that the burger meat was frozen, looked bought, and VERY thin.  Topping wise, you put on yourself at what appears to be a converted salad bar.  You have the typical ketchup, mustard, relish, lettuce and tomatoes.  They also have bbq sauce, which I actually mistakened for ketchup, and sautéed onions.  The burger tasted like what any frozen burger patty would taste like.  It is cheaper than McD's....but not sure if I would come back, even though it's close to work.  Also burger bun ratio is off.  The bun is massive, the burger patty is not.

Also in your combo order, you can choose from onion rings or fries.  Another coworker said that they have the best onion rings.  Even though I usually prefer fries over onion rings, I decided to give the onion rings a try.  Nothing to write home about, just like the burger patty, the onion rings were from frozen.

Burger Fries and Drink

John Andersons Charbroil Burger
1069 Dundas St W.
Mississauga, ON
L5C 1C3

905-276-8752

Bakery Hopping

This was a bad idea.....a very bad idea.  And yet my friend was trying to convince me to fit in MORE places.  We essentially went to 3 bakeries downtown before dinner because we had 1.5 hours to kill.  My tastebuds loved me that night, but my stomach tells me that if I continue to do this, I will have to buy new pants.

Our first stop was Le Gourmand.  This was my suggestion since another one of my evil friends decided to take a picture of their gorgeous spread of cakes and cookies and post it on FB.  I bought 3 cookies, 3 very delicious cookies, 2 chocolate chunk and 1 walnut chocolate chunk.  They had to be the greasiest cookies i've ever eaten, but so melty chocolately, buttery, chewy and oozing.  Definitely need to limit the trips I make to Le Gourmand, but i'm sure that if and when I decide to go back, I will be purchasing more of these cookies!  Price wise, they are quite expensive I think, but who knows this could be the normal price that cookies cost.  I normally don't buy cookies because I make my own.  But I have to say, the cookies were quite large, and based on taste, worth every penny.

Walnut Chocolate Chunk & Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Second Stop was Nadege.  I've read many mixed reviews of this place since they have opened up, so thats why I haven't been earlier.  I bought their signature dessert, the Marie Antoinette which is what I would describe as a vanilla custard tart topped with mini macarons, mini croissants, and some macarons.  The macarons on top of the tart weren't particularly good, quite dry as a matter of fact.  But it was cute.  The 'normal' macarons were very good, crisp exterior and slightly chewy inside, just the way I like them.  The mini croissants I didn't get a chance to try until the next morning, and i'm not sure if thats why, but I found them to be a little dry.

Marie Antoinette

Green Tea & Coffee Macarons

Mini Croissants

Last stop was Forno Cultura since it was right by where we were having dinner.  Walking into this bakery, I was in what I would consider heaven for me.  So much fresh baked bread......all different shapes, colours and flavours.  I love bread.  I could eat bread and butter every meal.  I'm sure again if I attempted that, I would need to buy new pants, so I try not to eat as much bread as I would like.  I wish I remembered to take pictures, but I bought a lemon shortbread, and a bread that was very similar to what I would call a foccacia.  But I don't think it was a foccacia because it was much thicker, it was like a round loaf topped with tomatoes, onions and herbs.  I could easily eat that without any butter.

Le Gourmand
152 Spadina Ave.
Toronto, ON
M5V 3S6

416-866-2127

Hours:  Monday -Friday 7:00a - 8:00p
             Saturday 9:00a - 6:00p
             Sunday 9:00a - 5:00p

http://legourmand.ca

Nadege Patisserie
780 Queen St W
Toronto, ON
M6J 1G2

416-368-2009

Hours: Monday - Wednesday 8:00a - 8:00p
            Thursday - Saturday 8:00a - 9:00p
            Sunday 8:00a - 7:00p

http://www.nadege-patisserie.com

Forno Cultura
609 King St. W
Toronto, ON
M5V 1M5

416-603-8305

Hours:   Monday Closed
              Tuesday - Saturday 7:30a - 9:30p
              Sunday 8:00a - 6:00p

http://fornocultura.com

Little Nicky's Coffee

I have a good friend who likes to drop off treats every so often because he knows I like trying new places.  The goods are usually pastries or donuts.  Thats how I heard about Little Nicky's.  Little Nicky's donuts are not the gourmet style donuts that most of the newer donut shops produce.    Little Nicky's donuts are more like carnival style donuts.  Small, two bite like.  But when compared to the typical carnival donuts, they are a little bit more dense, a little more bready like than cake like.  I actually prefer these ones more than the ones from the carnivals.

Little Nicky's Donut

Little Nicky's Coffee
375 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON

416-260-0500

Hours:  Monday - Friday 7:30am - 6:00pm
             Saturday 9:30am - 6:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Nickys-Coffee/135570936459654

Maple Bakery

Cronuts were the big food fad of last year, up until the CNE rolled around and a bunch of people got sick from eating the cronut burger.  I think the hype has died down significantly, not sure if its because it was just a fad that bakeries didn't really catch on to, not allowing the general public to be able to really try them, or if the cronut burger scare scared people off from it.  From what I remember, there were only about 2 or 3 bakeries offering the cronut in downtown Toronto.  I actually forgot about the cronut until I did a random Italian coffee shop search in Vaughan, and cronuts popped up.

What is a cronut?  A cronut is a cross between a croissant and a donut.  Interesting?  Yes.  Delicious? Also yes.  Maple bakery is an Italian bakery which offers fresh baked breads, Italian desserts and pastries, a hot food table (meats on a bun, or dinner plates), and of course cronuts.  The only flavours that they have are sugar, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate glazed.

Cronuts

My favourite ended up being the cinnamon sugar.  Out of the three, the chocolate glazed was the least liked for me because I found that chocolate was too baking chocolate like.  The inside of the cronut was very similar to a croissant, it had many layers in there.  The only part that I think resembles the donut part is the deep frying of the dough part.

Inside of Cronut

Location of Maple Bakery is kind of far, but would definitely come back for cronuts and maybe to try some more additional Italian treats.  Almost forgot to mention, their coffee was pretty good too.  We tried a latte and an espresso macchiato.  Coffee was very smooth.

Maple Bakery
10040 Keele St.,
Maple, ON
L6A 1G3

905-832-2987

Hours:  Monday - Friday 7am - 8pm
             Saturday - Sunday 7am - 7pm

http://www.maplebakery.ca

Nguyen Huong

Short and sweet this post will be.  A friend of mine said Nguyen Huong is the best bahn mi sandwich shop in the GTA.  When someone tells me that a place is the best, I'm compelled to visit.  What makes this place interesting is that rumour (I haven't confirmed what my friend told me) is that the owners of Nguyen Huong are the parents of the Bahn Mi Boys!  The sandwiches are are great!  Simple and delicious.  We ordered a chicken and a pork bahn mi.  The meat had great flavour, put in a crunchy on the outside and super soft on the inside bun and topped with pickled carrots, radish and cilantro.  It's no frills and at the price of these sandwiches, you can probably buy 3 of the ones from Nguyen Huong versus 1 from Bahn Mi Boys.

Bahn Mi

Nguyen Huong
5661 Steeles Ave,
Toronto, ON
M1V 5P6

416-292-8875

http://www.nguyenhuong.ca

The Ace

I love watching the Food Network, especially Diners Drive Ins and Dives.  Whenever I plan a trip, I always see where Guy Fieri has gone, and try to fit in a restaurant or two that was on the show.  So when a local restaurant makes it onto the show, makes me want to go that much more.  I recently watched an old re-run in which The Ace was being featured. The Ace has been on my go to list for a while now since they were also featured on BlogTO's top 50 brunch restaurants in TO.  We popped in for brunch after a run in High Park.

I was really looking forward to brunch, partly because I was really hungry and the other part being that it's on the top 50 list!  Must be pretty good right.  Sad to say, but I was very disappointed.  Our table ordered Huevos Rancheros, a Breakfast Hash Special and The Ace Breakfast.  The Ace Breakfast was nothing special.  Nothing stood out about this dish.  The bacon wasn't particularly good, neither was the sausage.  The eggs were ok I guess.

The Ace Breakfast

The Breakfast Hash Special, I can't remember the actual name of the dish, but it was named 'something' hash.  Friend said it was bland.  Not much flavour.  The hash had some sort of meat, a whole bunch of cooked cabbage, topped off with an over easy egg.  

Breakfast Hash Special

My huevos I think could be considered the worst I've eaten.  The eggs were undercooked.  I'm sure you can see the super runny whites in the picture.  There was very little guacamole and salsa.  More would have been better.  On the menu it's advertised as corn tortillas, but I don't think it was made fully with corn flour.  I think theres a mix of corn and regular flour.  The texture was off from the stuff I eat at Kensington Market.  The absolute worst part of the dish was the fact that they tried to reheat the tortillas on a gas grill where there was to much flame.  In the picture I don't think you can see, but when I flipped over the tortilla, you can see the black gas 'fumes'.  I hate to leave food on my plate, and I hate to send food back, so i ate the stuff on top and left most of the tortilla on the plate.

Huevos Rancheros

So don't always believe what you read, or watch on TV.  You can get disappointed this way.

The Ace

231A Roncesvalles Ave, 

Toronto, ON

M6R 2L6

416-792-9972

Hours: Dinner Every Night 5pm - 11pm

            Lunch Weekdays 12pm - 3pm

            Brunch Saturday Sunday 930am - 3pm

http://www.theacetoronto.com

Tohenboku Ramen

The first place in which I ate a version of ramen that did not include pork or pork based broth of any sort was in Vancouver at Marutama Ramen.  I haven't gotten a chance to blog about my trip which happened last year, because of the sheer number of places I ate it, it would take a super long time time write up a single blog about it.  I promise it's coming.  It will be done before the summer ends.

I was really looking forward to some chicken based broth ramen because it was very good at Marutama.  It can't be that hard right?  I make chicken broth at home all the time.  I do cheat out of convenience sometimes, but it never tastes as good as the homemade stuff.  I ordered the shio original Tohenboku ramen.  The husband ordered garlicky Tohenboku ramen.  They had a special at the time, not sure if it's offered now, that if you follow them on twitter, you can get a free topping on your ramen.  So the husband got an order of pork belly added to his ramen.  We also got an order of karaage to share.

My husband loves karaage, and tends to order it whenever given the opportunity to.  However, we were disappointed in this one.  The karaage was not crispy.  It wasn't soggy either, but the outside was just soft.

Karaage

Visually the ramen didn't look very appealing to me.  My soup had already partly congealed when it arrived, so I had to remove the 'skin'.  And the chicken, looked like headcheese.  It didn't have much taste to it, so it was not properly seasoned, even though you can clearly see pepper in the pictures.  The broth was weak in flavour.  Which makes me wonder what they actually use to make the broth.  Unless we went 'too late' at night and they added water to the broth.  Thats what it tasted like to me.  My husband's ramen was slightly better because the garlic seasoning added additional flavour which mine was lacking.  The noodles were cooked well, so no complaint there.  My egg was a little 'roughed' up, it was missing part of the white.  Which is a sign that the eggs are not particularly fresh. The pork belly tasted extra fatty because there was no charing of the pork.  I hate soggy pork fat.

Shio Original Tohenboku Ramen

Garlicky Tohenboku Ramen

Not sure I would make the trip to Tohenboku again.  The flavours just weren't there, which I found shocking because there are so many ramen restaurants out there competition wise.

Tohenboku Ramen
261 Queen St. W,
Toronto, ON
416-596-8080

Hours:  Monday - Saturday 11am - 12am (midnight)
             Sunday 11am - 10:30pm

http://www.touhenboku.ca