Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Seven Grams Espresso Bar

Coffee shops that are not Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Second Cup are difficult to come by.  I am guilty of occasionally purchasing coffee from Starbucks every so often out of convenience, and lack of options.  Coming home from my last trip to Europe, I think I'm learning to appreciate good coffee much more.  In Europe, you don’t see a Starbucks at every corner.  Instead, you see small independently run coffee shops, who take care and pride themselves on their beans.  After making some small talk with these small coffee shop owners, I learned that they would purchase only green beans, and roast the green beans in the roaster in the shop themselves.  Most of these shops have a giant roaster in the café sitting space.  Makes for a good conversation piece.  When you order a coffee, you can order also different preparation methods, ie. Siphon, Chemex, pour over, aeropress etc.

Seven Grams Espresso Bar in Yorkville reminds me of those European coffee shops.  I’m not sure if they roast their own beans though.  You get usually 2 bean options to choose from.  You also have different methods of drink preparation.  My coworker who introduced me to Seven Grams loves the trifecta method.  It was a scorcher that afternoon, and it didn’t feel like they had AC, or maybe the AC just wasn’t strong enough, so we initially just ordered a cold brew (which I forgot to take a picture of) and an iced latte.  The hubby then changed his mind and ordered one of the roasts prepared by the trifecta method.  The iced latte was so-so, nothing particularly special.  I think the addition of too much milk that diluted the coffee flavour too much.  The cold brew was good (forgot to take a picture of it).  I didn’t really try the hot coffee because it was so hot outside.  Hot weather + hot drink doesn't go together for me.  The hubby liked it and said he would get it again.  So I’ll get it a try when it’s colder out.
 













Seven Grams Espresso Bar
131 Avenue Rd.,
Toronto, ON
M5R 2H7

Phone: (647) 351-1317

Hours: Monday - Saturday 7:00am - 6:00pm
            Sunday 8:00am - 6:00pm

http://www.sevengrams.ca/home.html


Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Roselle Desserts


Mmmm dessert, my fave…..  Desserts that are different, unique, even better.  Roselle is a new bakery that opened not too long ago in the East end.  What makes them so unique to me, is that the desserts they make are just slightly different than the standard cakes.  Their éclairs is not just the éclair with French cream and glazed with chocolate, it’s a banana cream éclair.  In my opinion, a welcome change to the standard éclair.  Along with the éclair, I got to try an earl grey shortbread cookie, which was good and buttery flavoured, but not enough earl grey flavour.  Yes I can see the tea leaves, but if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have known.  Their mango mousse cake had very good mango and coconut flavour.  Very rich an smooth, but also light.  It didn’t sit super heavy in the stomach after.  My favourite was the crepe cake.  The crepe cake is exactly the way that it sounds.  It’s many many layers of crepe, with a layer of cream in between.  I unfortunately ate the cake too late, after dinner (I bought it late afternoon), the brulee top softened.  There was no way I could get it crispy again.  Next time I buy it again, I will make sure to eat it right away.  Just a note, they only make the crepe cakes on the weekends.

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookie & Banana Cream Eclair

Crepe Cake and Mango Mousse Cake



















Roselle Desserts
362 King St. E.,
Toronto, ON
M5A 1K9

Phone: (416) 368-8188

Hours:  Monday Closed
             Tuesday - Friday 11:00am - 7:00pm
             Saturday - Sunday 12:00pm - 7:00pm

http://www.roselleto.com

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Lazy Daisy's Café

Found a neat little café to meet up with friends for a catch up session.  It’s not in an area that we typically frequent, but it’s nearish our friends and is said to have decent coffee through other reviews.  Lazy Daisy café is a cute, but large family friendly café/coffee house that also serves food.  What caught my eye the most when deciding on coming here versus going elsewhere, is that they’re website says “local, farm fresh, home made food”.  Bonus if you have kids, there’s a play area for little kids with a books and toys for the kids to play with. 

Drink wise, there’s the standard brewed coffee, espresso based drinks, and an assortment of teas.  Food wise, there’s the typical pastries and cookies.  Non typical pastries, home made pop tart!  I was told it was really good, not crazy sweet like the supermarket boxed pop tarts.  Probably less preservatives too!  
Pop Tart











They also have a mini kitchen that can prep simple breakfasts, like eggs and bacon etc.  For their eggs, they use free run eggs.  I ordered “The Standard”, which comes with two free run eggs, Mennonite smoked bacon, toast with butter and fruit.  It was pretty standard, like the name says, but good.  The hubby ordered the Son of a Rise, free run egg, cheddar, double smoked bacon, avocado, and tomato on a homemade country biscuit.  While it sounds like a standard breakfast sandwich, it was the biscuit which made it stand out.  The biscuit was buttery, light and fluffy. 

Son of a Rise & The Standard











Coffees, I ordered an almond milk latte, I think the other drink was a cappuccino?  I honestly can’t remember.  My latte was ok, main complaint, not sure if it’s an almond milk vs milk milk thing, are the bubbles.  It seems more hole-y.


Cappucino & Almond Milk Latte











This is really a family friendly café.  A bonus is that they believe what I believe, support local.  Need more of these types of cafes in the suburbs…..

Lazy Daisy's Café
1515 Gerrard St. E.,
Toronto, ON
M4L 2A4

Phone:  (647) 341-4070

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm
             Saturday & Sunday 8:30am - 3pm

http://www.lazydaisyscafe.ca

Micatoni's

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned in previous posts, but I love bread.  I love sandwiches.  Doesn’t necessarily need to have meat in the sandwich, but it doesn’t hurt as long as it’s good meat.  I was Googling to see where we could grab a quick bite to eat after picking up the dog from her groomers and I found a butcher that sells hot sandwiches as well.  Even better is that they offer grass fed beef in their shop!  So the sandwiches must be good.  The reviews say that they make amazing beef brisket sandwiches and that they’re quite large.  So that’s what we got.  I think for the price that we paid, the sandwich was small.  The beef didn’t have much flavour, it was just salty.  It also wasn’t as tender as what I was expecting. 
Beef Brisket Sandwich















Prices for their grass fed beef, and grain fed chicken was also higher than other places I’ve shopped at.  Pass on Micatoni's.

Micatoni's
13321 Yonge St.
Richmond Hill, ON
L4E 0K5

Phone: (289) 234-3333

Hours:  Monday - Friday 10am - 7pm
             Saturday 9am - 6pm
             Sunday 10am - 4pm

http://micatonis.ca

Monday, August 10, 2015

Las Delicias

Finding food new foods to try near work is always a challenge.  Out of the blue, one day, my coworker had a craving for empanadas.  The only empanadas that I’ve tried before are the ones from Kensington Market, which are Chilean.  Good old Google returned a page from Insauga which lists the top 5 Columbian empanadas in Mississauga.  So off we went for a lunch date.

Las Delicias is a tiny restaurant in strip mall, where you probably wouldn’t notice if you weren’t looking specifically for them.  Once you enter, you feel like you are at someone’s home.  The decor isn't amazing, but it's comfy.  The main language that you hear is Spanish, which makes me feel a little left out as I'm not a Spanish speaker.  There’s a lady that works behind the counter, I always see her when we go, I wonder if she’s the owner.  She’s super friendly.  We of course order empanadas, they offer both chicken and beef, bandeja paisa, and sobre barriga. 

The empanadas didn’t look like the empanadas I’ve had before.  First off, they are much smaller, and second, the shell is made of corn flour and deep fried.  Flavour wise, they’re ok.  I wasn’t a fan of the beef one because it was mostly potato filling with some ground beef.   Reminded me of a samosa filling with less flavour.  But all empanadas come with a salsa/hot sauce.  This home made recipe that they serve here is amazing!  So much flavour, from the onions and cilantro, and just spicy enough.
Empanadas











The bandeja paisa is a typical dish that people seem to like to order when they visit.  It’s meat, meat, and more meat.  A little overwhelming for me.  There were 2 slices of thinly sliced steak, pork belly, sausage, beans and rice, fried egg, an arepa and fried plantains all over rice.  Everything was pretty good, just too much for me.  I probably ate 1/3 of it. 
Bandeja Paisa











The sobre barriga was delicious (and I forgot to take a picture of it).  It’s stewed flank steak with yucca and potato served with a  tomato sauce  over rice, with a side of salad.  The flank steak was so tender, it was just falling apart, melt in your mouth.  Add some of that hot sauce/salsa….and omg……

Just a note, if you plan on going with a large group of people, it's probably not a good idea.  They just can't fit large groups.  Just call ahead for takeout and eat at home or the office.

Las Delicias
59 Dundas St. W,
Mississauga, ON
L5B 1H7

Phone:  905-232-0060

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 8:30am - 8:30pm
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