Sunday, October 25, 2015

Metro Square Food Court: Lucky Curry House, Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku

On a busy Saturday afternoon, the hubby and I were running around doing errands, it was already late, closer to 2pm, when we decided we should probably stop off somewhere for lunch.  We were close-ish to Metro Square, so we decided to stop by there for lunch.  Whenever I pass by there, I think of curry and roti.  My mom found the Lucky Curry House located within the foodcourt of Metro Square many many many years ago.  On a night where she didn't feel like cooking us kids dinner, she would grab a beef curry and roti for us.  Lucky Curry House is a Malaysian type curry.  Their curry has less spice flavouring than lets say Indian curry, and is flavoured with a bit more ginger and lemon grass.  I don't know if they changed owners, but the roti just wasn't the same as before.  I don't know if it's because my kid taste buds are different than my adult taste buds, or if reminiscing about food, the food always tends to be better.  The roti that we got wasn't as light and fluffy as I remember it being.  The one we got was small, and oily.  The chicken curry was still good.  I could just drink that stuff.....  Speaking of drink, the order came with a drink, we chose chrysanthemum tea.
Chicken Curry with Roti











There are two things that the Taiwanese are known for, beef noodle and popcorn chicken.  The hubby had a hard time decided, but ended up picking up his favourite beef noodle from Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku which is on the complete opposite end of the food court.  The beef was flavoured well, the broth was bland.  I didn't particularly like the noodles either, they tasted floury/doughy.  No something I would order again from them.  I would like to try their other offerings though.
Beef Noodle











Metro Square Food Court
3636 Steeles Ave. E.,
Markham, ON
L3R 2Z5

Phone:  Lucky Curry House (905) 947-0668
             Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku (905) 940-2008

http://www.metrosquare.ca/restaurants.php

Millie Creperie

What is a mille crêpes cake?  Its essentially a 'cake' that is composed of several layers of crêpes with a cream filling in between each of the layers.  I'm not sure if there's a typical number of layers that is usually used to make the cake, but the direct translation is 1000.  I highly doubt that there's any bakery that will make the cake with 1000 crêpes.  It would be too heavy, too labour intensive, and too big to eat!  

Millie Creperie, as their name indicates, makes crêpes, including the mille crêpes cake.  They come in different flavours, I chose to try the vanilla flavour.  The vanilla cream was very good.  I wish I could have had more.  I found the crêpe layers to be a bit too soft, to the point of being a bit mushy/soggy.  I have to say that I didn't try the cake fresh, it was purchased in the afternoon, I didn't eat it until late at night.  So I'm not sure if thats why the cake is softer than I would like.  My friend said that his (different flavour), was ok, even though he ate it late at night too.
Crêpes Cake











Seems like I need to make a trip down to Kensington Market to give them a try when the cake is 'fresh'.  But I know if i'm down at the store, I'll be tempted to try their other offerings, mainly the crêpe with Japanese green tea gelato.

Millie Creperie
161 Baldwin St.,
Kensington Market,
Toronto, ON M5V 3H9

Phone:  (416) 977-1922

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 12:30p - 8:30p
             Friday - Saturday 12:30 - 10:00p
             Sunday 12:30p - 8:30p

http://milliecreperie.com

Neo Coffee Bar

Another late night treat from a new café.  This is why I’m gaining weight.  Having treats this often, plus it being nighttime treats, can only lead to weight gain, for me at least.  But so hard to say no because they’re delivered right to my door!  These places are pretty inaccessible to me normally since they’re located in the downtown core. 

Neo Coffee Bar is a café of sorts, serves coffee and such, but specializes in Japanese style pastries.  As I haven’t been there myself, I can’t comment on whether there’s seating, how the service is etc.  Heck I can’t even comment on the coffee.  What I did get delivered was a matcha white chocolate chunk cookie, a match red bean roll cake, and fruit roll cake.

The cookie had good matcha flavour.  But the texture of it was very crumbly, almost shortbread like, but didn’t have that buttery taste.  The matcha red bean roll cake, surprisingly didn’t have much matcha flavour.  There was more red bean flavour than anything.  Which is surprising since there’s only that bit of red bean in the cream filling.  The fruit roll was my favourite.  The vanilla cake had really good egg flavour.  And I love the use of fresh fruits.  In this case, the fruits were strawberries and blueberries.  Also overall, the texture of the cake was very good.  Quite smooth, considering the amount of air bubbles the picture shows.  And most importantly, the cake was moist!
Matcha Cookie, Roll Cakes











Neo Coffee Bar
161 Frederick St.  Unit 100,
Toronto, ON
M5A 4P3

Phone:  (647) 348-8811

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

http://www.neocoffeebar.com/#top

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Pie Wood Fired Pizza Joint

Late night stop on the way up to our annual cottage outing.  It turned out to be later than originally planned, so we were starving!  Pie was on an episode of You Gotta Eat Here, so our friend suggested we stop by for dinner to try it.  By the time we made it up to Barrie, I think it was almost 9:30pm.  We had some friends that already arrived a bit earlier so they had ordered this pizza poutine appetizer.  I can’t find it on the menu online.  It’s essentially sausage, pepperoni, cheese and tomato sauce on fries.  I ate a small amount of it because I was super hungry.  But it was so salty that I couldn’t really eat much more.
Pizza Poutine











We ordered a pizza each, not realizing that they’re larger than personal sized pizzas.  So obviously we had a bunch of left overs in the end.  I can’t remember what my friends ordered, but I ordered a margherita (for some reason they call it KOBI 40), and the hubby ordered a cow pie.  The margherita wasn’t the bad but it wasn’t great.  Simple toppings of tomato sauce, mozzarella, and fresh basil, can’t get easier than that right?  But it just wasn’t memorable. 
Margherita Pizza











The hubby’s cow pie had braised beef shank, roasted potato, spinach, mushrooms, onion, cheese sauce, and parmesan.  I wouldn’t have thought about putting these toppings together, let alone on a pizza.  But it seemed to work.  What I didn’t like was the raw onion.  I hate raw onion, and there was so much of it too.
Cow Pie










Overall, I’m not sure Pie would be a pizza joint that I would necessarily frequent again.  I think it has to do with their pizza crust.  It’s a bit denser than I would prefer.  I’m not sure which region of Italy’s pizza crusts I like, but it’s usually lighter, fluffier, with bigger air pockets.

Pie Wood Fired Pizza Joint
31 Commerce Park Dr.,
Barrie, ON
L4N 1X8

Phone:  (705) 725-WOOD (9663)

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11:30a - 10:00p
             Friday - Saturday 11:30a - 11:00p
             Sunday 11:30a - 10:00p

http://www.eatmypie.ca/#about

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Redbulb Espresso Bar

I noticed this cute little coffee shop when we went to The Smokery for dinner a while back.  A small independent coffee shop in Stouffville, I never would have thought.  Considering I can’t seem to find anything (easily) in Markham or Richmond Hill.  Stouffville is a bit out of the way, but I made the trip back there to give it a try. 

What I found was a clean comfortable space with artwork on the walls to be sold.  I ordered a latte.  It arrived quickly with pretty latte art on the top.  I honestly can’t remember much of the coffee taste and flavour.  All I can remember is the taste of the milk.  It wasn’t what I was expecting.  I find there’s a big difference in organic milk vs generic milk.  And when I mean generic, I mean Sealtest, Neilson, Lactancia etc.  At home, I usually buy almond milk.  If and when I actually buy cow's milk, which is very rare, I buy Organic Meadows, Harmony, or Sheldon Creek Dairy.  Yes it’s pricier, but there’s a nice sweetness and creaminess, especially with Sheldon Creek Dairy milk, my favorite out of the three.  Here at Red Bulb Espresso, the latte that I got tasted like it was made with generic milk. I did like their fancy corrugated coffee cups.  No need for a sleeve.
Latte













Not sure if I would make the trek there for a latte, I’d rather go down south into Toronto if I have a latte craving.

Redbulb Espresso Bar
6148 Main Street,
Stouffville, ON
L4A 1A6

Phone:  (905) 591-2054

Hours:  Monday - Friday 5:30a - 5:00p
             Saturday - Sunday 7:00a - 5:00p

http://redbulb.ca/espressobar/

Redline Coffee & Espresso Bar

This is a place that is totally out of the normal neighborhoods that I frequent, but we were feeling adventurous that Saturday morning.  Maybe it had to do the adrenaline rush from my morning run, I ran 7k instead of 5k, always feels good to run more than you planned on running.  After we found a place to park, and were walking to Redline Coffee & Espresso Bar, we passed by this building, that looked awfully familiar.  OMG!  It’s a building where they shot Rookie Blue.  The past few weeks I’ve been obsessed with the show.  Obsessed to the point where I would watch episode after episode when I had the time.

Redline is pretty much at the corner of Queen East and Parliament, very easy to find.  For some reason I was expecting a super modern looking coffee house.  What I was greeted with was a coffee house with lots of kitschy little items that you can actually buy.  We ordered a mochachino, single latte and a chocolate chip cookie.  I paid with my credit card as I normaly would, but the machine was different.  Almost ancient looking.  Turns out they’re using a super old credit card machine that Pizza Pizza used to use.  

My latte was pretty smooth, but borderline too weak.  I guess I should have ordered a double.  The mocha was too sweet for me.  I find in general mochas are too sweet.  But for some reason the hubby likes to order it even though he's not a sweets guy.  That I don't understand.  What I would come back for is not their coffee even though it's not bad, but their chocolate chip cookie, AMAZING.  It rivals my favourite chocolate chip cookie made by Le Gourmand.  Thick, chewy, with just enough chocolate chunks.  So good.  I think they actually bake the cookies themselves, not too sure though, I didn't ask.
Mocha, Latte, Cookie














Redline Espresso
354 Queen St. E.,
Toronto, ON
M5A 1T2

Phone:  (647) 344-3865

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00a - 5:30p
             Saturday - Sunday 8:00a - 5:00p

http://www.redlinecoffee.ca

Friday, October 16, 2015

Pai

I think it’s extremely difficult to find good Thai food that doesn’t make your pad thai using ketchup.  So many restaurants use ketchup now, that I think a lot of people now actually believe that pad thai is supposed to be made with ketchup.  I’ve been disappointed so many times ordering pad thai that I just don’t do it anymore.  I just don’t feel like being disappointed again. 

One of my favorite Thai places is Khao San Road.  And now with the ownership split (occurred a long while ago, I just haven’t been in the area in a while to try), there is now Pai.  Pai’s menu is very similar to Khao San Road.  The very first thing I decided to order is the Thai iced tea.  Soooooo good!  Strong brewed black tea, sweetened and lightened by the addition of condensed milk.  Makes me want one now.  Love it.  Friend got Chang beer, a Thai beer.  He said it was just ok.  Hubby ordered sake.  Tasted a bit like banana....
Thai Iced Tea, Chang Beer, Sake













Food wise, we ordered the Sai Ua Platter, Khao Soi, Pad Gra Prow, and Khao Pla Tawt.  With the orders, you will be asked what spice level you want.  Sai Ua Platter, the English name would be Northern Thai Sausage.  There were Grilled pork belly sausages that had lemongrass, and garlic flavours, served with sticky rice, a relish and some cabbage on the side.  We weren’t sure how we were supposed to eat this, so I decided to eat it like a taco.  Grabbed a piece of cabbage, a bit of rice, topped it with sausage and the relish.  So good!  I’m usually not a fan of pork, let alone sausage, but this was so good.  Each bite was like a flavour explosion in your mouth.  Could definitely taste the lemon grass in the sausage, and it wasn’t overly porky tasting, or fatty.  I hate eating Chinese sausages because of the fat chunks.
Sai Ua Platter











Pad Gra Prow, stir fried ground chicken with basil and oyster sauce served over rice topped with a fried egg.  I love any dish that is topped with a fried egg.  Runny egg yolk over rice, I do that at home whenever I have no food in the fridge.  Top it with a bit of soy sauce, almost perfect dinner.  But this dish has even more.  The ground chicken, infused with the basil flavour makes this dish my favorite of the night.  I need to find out how to make it, because it doesn’t seem that complicated…..

Khao Pla Tawt, crispy basa filets served with a fresh chili sauce and a tangy tamarind sauce.  I said this is an Asian version of fish and chips, where the chips is a bowl of rice.  I took a small piece of fish to try.  It didn’t have much flavour on its own.  But I was told that basa is like that.  Between the two sauces, I preferred the tamarind sauce with the fish.  Not sure I would order it on my own, but my friend said that this was his favourite.

Khao Soi, the hubby chose this dish.  He forgot that he had this before.  It’s fresh egg noodles in a golden curry topped with (we chose) braised beef.  I really liked the noodles, cooked perfectly so they were still slightly chewy.  And of course the crispy noodles on top were delicious.  The braised beef was very tender, but still held up, it wasn’t falling apart.  The curry, the hubby loved it, the poured it on top of everything.  I think if he could, he would have drank it.  I liked the curry, just not as much.  I found there was a slight sweetness to it that I found a bit strange.
Pad Gra Prow, Khao Pla Tawt, Khao Soi










I’m not sure how accurate they were  with the spice levels.  One dish that we ordered with the same spice level was significantly spicier than the other.  Not sure if its that one of them they forgot to add the spiciness, and the other was spiced correctly, or one dish was correct, but the other was too heavy handed.  Either way, my new favorite Thai food place!

Pai
18 Duncan St.,
Toronto, ON
M58 3G8

Phone:  (416) 901-4724

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11:30a - 10:00p
             Friday - Saturday 11:30a - 10:30p
             Sunday 5:00p - 10:00p

http://www.paitoronto.com

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Nomé Izakaya

A buck a shuck oysters!  Need I say more?  Pair that with some drinks, and some snacky type food means an awesome girls night out.  We didn’t have reservations, so the hostess said that if we wanted a table for 2, they had one available, but we would have to leave by 7pm (that gave us 1.5 hours, reading reviews, they only give you 2 hour seatings anyways).  But if we chose to sit at the bar, we could sit for as long as we wanted.  Probably not a good choice for 2 short Asian girls, but we managed to get up on those stools….

Nomé Izakaya has a large list of drinks that look quite fun with interesting names, some not so kid friendly.  But kids shouldn’t be looking at alcoholic drinks anyways right?  I ordered a very kid friendly drink named Soho Singapore Sling, flavours of whole lychees, cucumbers and mint leaves muddled with gin, soho and sake.  Very delicious for a hot summer day, what made it better was that I could barely taste the alcohol.  On tap, they also had an interesting beer, an oyster beer.  We were told that it was brewed with oysters, and the shells.  My friend decided to order that to go with our buck a shuck oysters.  It took several minutes to pour, because they said that they didn’t have the right tap for it.  I’m not sure what that means.  In any case, my friend liked the beer, says it reminded her of Guinness.
Soho Singapore Sling

Oyster Beer














We ordered a dozen of the $1 oysters, Malpeques from what I remember.  They weren’t too big, good size for the novice raw oyster eaters, me.  Sweet, not fishy, a bit irony.  There were a bunch of sauces that they give for you to pair with the oysters.  We gravitated to one that tasted salsa like.  I can’t remember many of the other options except for pesto, yuzu, horseradish, regular hot sauce. 
Oysters














Next dish was the Tuna Tango.  Lightly seared tuna with ground daikon, shallot chips, and Nome’s original ponzu sauce.  This dish, I don’t think is worth ordering.  The amount of tuna that you get is so little.  The pieces itself were small, and it was cut very thinly, and there was barely any sear on it.  The upside, it wasn’t fishy.
Tuna Tango











The Marinated Black Cod was very good, black cod that was marinated with a citrus soy sauce.  Again the portion was small, but it was very meaty, and most importantly not fishy, even for such an oily fish.  Not much of a citrus flavour in the soy sauce though.
Marinated Black Cod











The last dish we shared were the Bulgogi Tacos, bulgogi with lettuce, sliced onion, fresh jalapeno, kimchi, Japense beni shoga, garlic mayo and spicy salsa.  This was my favorite dish, although spicy it was not, I did enjoy the garlic mayo, but was a tad salty for me.  I think I enjoyed it the most cuz it was fun.  It would have been even better if they used corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas.  Just a note, one order comes with 3 tacos.  We added a fourth so we could share it easier.  The price of an extra taco was $2.90.
Bulgogi Tacos











In the grand scheme of things, worth it to visit for a drink and the $1 oysters, the rest of the food, not so much. 

Nomé Izakaya
4848 Yonge St.,
Toronto, ON
M2N 5N2

Phone:  (647) 347-7937

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 5:00p - 2:00a

http://nomeizakaya.com/#!/home

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...