Sunday, May 8, 2016

Sam's Congee Delight

Sam's Congee Delight located in Market Village has been around for as long as I can remember.  As a kid, while my mom did her grocery shopping at the Chinese supermarket next door, I loved watching the cooks roll rice noodles.  There's not that many Chinese restaurants that survive that long.  Most places close within a few years, change names, and re-open again.  The reason my friends and I decided to check out Sam's Congee Delight was because our favourite congee restaurant, My Kitchen, closed.  I have lost my source for fragrant plain congee without anything mixed in.  I know you can order plain congee at any restaurant that serves congee, but they either mix in msg, dried scallops, or they blend their congee to make it thicker (speed up the cooking process).  It's just not the homestyle cooked plain congee that I love.

Sam's Congee was packed as usual.  And unless you have enough people for a full table, you will be asked to share your table with others.  We were 4+baby, and we had to share a round table with a single diner.  I prefer not to share tables usually, it's just kind of awkward especially since i'm eating with friends to catch up with them.  But it seems you pretty much don't have a choice at Sam's.

The prices are low here, but that's because the dishes are small as well.  So be ready to order lots of dishes.  Our first round we ordered a beef and persevered egg congee, beef and fish congee, chow mien, beef and enoki rice roll, dough fritter and beef brisket on plain rice noodle (not in picture).  The food definitely arrives fast.  I guess it's not difficult to bring out the congee when they have a giant vat of congee cooking and they just ladle in whatever ingredients you want into a bowl and pour some boiling hot congee into that bowl.  We were quite hungry from waiting for the table, so we dug in before I remembered to take a picture.  Congee topping wise, there was a good amount of beef and preserved egg.  But the congee itself, just didn't hit the spot for me.  There were extra 'flavours' added in.  I was looking forward to rice noodle.  They make those in house.  Again, quite a bit of filling, but the rice noodle was too soft.  It couldn't hold up against the filling.  Same thing occurred with the brisket rice noodle.  It was super hard to pick up with chopsticks.  It was almost like mush.  At this point, I was losing hope.  So I didn't have much in terms of expectations for the chow mien or the dough fritter.  The dough fritter I don't know for sure if they make it in house, but for some reason I'm thinking they do.  It was so disappointing.  It should be crispy on the outside, but soft on the inside.  It was soft inside and out.  At least it was warm?  The chow mien, nothing to write about, its just soy sauce noodles.  We did place another order for rice noodles (because we were still hungry), but same as the first round, soft and mushy.
Sam's Congee Delight










The combination of less than satisfying congee, and the fact that they make you share tables, I think I need to keep looking for a congee restaurant.

Sam's Congee Delight
4390 Steeles Ave. E.,
Markham, ON
L3R 9V7

Phone:  (905) 479-1074

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 10a - 8p

Saturday, May 7, 2016

So Good Restaurant

Leave it to the Asians to come up with weird names for restaurants right?  The names never really make sense or match what their Chinese name of the restaurant.  So Good Restaurant is a small hole in the wall type Hong Kong style cafe that most people would drive by and not even notice.  And honestly, I was almost not going to write a post about them.  If you go on Yelp, there aren't that many reviews for them.  And that is exactly why I decided that I would post about them.  These small types of restaurants where you get quick, cheap cooked meals, most people would just overlook them.  I've had friends ask why I bother going to Hong Kong style cafes and order breakfast from there because it can be done at home.  My response is usually, any meal that you typically go out for you can technically make at home too, just takes time.  Also my hubby enjoys these types of breakfasts, so it's his treat.  I have other friends that wonder why I would blog about these cheap restaurants, because in their minds blogs are only worthy of expensive fancy places that do weird things with food.

So Good Restaurant is open for breakfast lunch and dinner.  But I've only gone for breakfast/brunch.  Prices are low, so don't expect super high calibre dining, but it's decent cooked food.  One thing that diners may have to get over is the appearance of the place.  I've seen Yelp reviews say that the restaurant is not clean.  Thats not true.  The place is a bit older but it's not dirty.  I've eaten in restaurants that have stickier table tops in Toronto.

As we typically go for breakfast/brunch, we tend to order off of their all day menu.  It usually consists of eggs and toast, noodle soup with some protein, and coffee/tea for around $6.  The day that I took the pictures, I ordered pork & preserved veggies with vermicelli with scrambled eggs & toast.  The hubby ordered chicken wings & instant noodles with fried eggs & toast.  Friends ordered luncheon meat on instant noodles with fried eggs & toast, and beef brisket on rice noodle.  Portions were decent sized, and taste is what you typically expect at a Hong Kong style cafe.  Usually when you order instant noodles, the prices of the dishes are higher, but it was quite low here.  The milk tae is pretty decent as well  And service was friendly.  A rare find at a Chinese restaurant.  Since then I have frequented So Good Restaurant quite a few times.  I thought I'd share this place with my parents.  Turns out they've been coming for years!
Scrambled Eggs & Toast, Pork with Preserved Veggies on Vermcelli

Beef Brisket Noodle

Instant Noodles, Fried Eggs & Toast



























So Good Restaurant
10 West Pearce St., Unit 12-13
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3K3

Phone:  (289) 597-6889

Propeller Coffee Co.

Propeller Coffee Co. I would consider being off the beaten path.  Kinda hard to get to by public transit (not on the subway line), and kinda hidden on a small side street in a somewhat industrial area.  But because of this, there's ample free parking, and a giant comfortable space for you to work in, meet with huge group of friends, and perhaps rent their venue for an event.  The reason why I checked out Propeller Coffee Co. even though it was hard to get to, was for my friend's birthday celebration.  He celebrates his birthday a bit differently, he does a whole day of celebrations starting off with breakfast/brunch, coffee, dinner and drinks.  He invites all of his friends, and his friends show up whenever they want to.  Kinda interesting, also makes for easier conversation with everyone in smaller groups.

As I mentioned, Propeller's space is quite large, and can fit quite a few people.  A lot of people were there working on their laptops.  There's enough power plugs it seemed.  Their coffee was great.  I got a latte, and the hubby got a drip coffee.  The latte was great, with great aftertaste that lingers in your mouth.  I don't know what roast they used that day, but they do roast their own beans.  Another plus in my books.  My only complaint is that they served my latte in a mug that was chipped at the rim.  Two chips if you look at my picture.
Latte











Propeller Coffee Co.
50 Wade Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M6H 2Z3

Phone:  (416) 479-3771

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 8a - 5p

https://propellercoffee.com/public/

El Arepazo

Ever since trying arepas a few summers ago, I have been occasionally craving them.  Theres nothing uptown to satisfy my craving, so what I now do is make them at home.  The arepa "bread" is surprisingly easy to make, its the filling part thats difficult.  I did find a brisket recipe that works well, but takes hours to make.  So when I heard about El Arepazo in Kensington Market, I told the hubby that we need to check it out.

El Arepazo's menu is pretty standard for arepas. They offer a 'slider' version where you can get 3 smaller arepas, so thats what I wanted.  When we tried to place an order for that, they said today we're not offering that.  So what they could offer was that we could order 2 regular sized arepas and they could cut them in half.  I don't see how that would have been the same as the slider version.  They still charged me the same regular price as getting the regular sized arepas, and I still got to try one flavour less.  They made it sound like it was a favour they were doing me by cutting it in half for us.  We ordered a side of yuca fries, because the hubby never had them before, a la reina, and a la de pernil.

The yuca fries came first, they were massive chunks of deep fried yuca.  I've never seen them served like that before, usually they're cut smaller.  If you have never had yuca fries before, they're starchy, kinda like potatoes, but supposedly healthier.  Accompanying dipping sauces was a red sauce, slightly spicy, and a green sauce, not spicy.  I didn't like the yuca fries, seems like they used old (old aged, I don't mean unfresh) yuca, so it had fibres that you can't eat.
Yuca Fries










The la reina arepa is like an avocado chicken salad.  The version that I've had at Arepa Cafe had chunks of chicken mixed with a chunky avocado mixture.  This one at El Arepazo had chicken that was the kinda like the texture of canned tuna.  They may have put the cooked chicken in the food processor?  Their description of the arepa was supposed to have chunky pieces of chicken.

La Reina










The la de pernil looked more promising, looked like there was real meat in there.  Their menu describes this arepa filled with Venezuelan slow cooked pork with avocado, queso fresco, and mustard salsa.  But unfortunately the pork was bland.  I put on tons of the red sauce and green sauce, and it helped a tiny bit, but not enough.
La De Pernil










Don't waste your time here.  If you're at Kensington Market try out the other restaurants instead.  If you really want an Arepa, head down to Arepa Cafe on Queen West.

El Arepazo
181 Augusta Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M5T 2L4

Phone:  (647) 472-1011

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11am - 8pm
             Friday - Saturday 11am - 1am
             Sunday 11am - 8pm

http://arepazo.ca

Torteria San Cosme

Mexican street style sandwiches, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I've never had them before.  I know that Mexican food has good flavour from all the spices that are used.  And I love me some good tacos.  And if there's good bread, I love sandwiches.  So I figured these tortas can't be bad.

We went on a Saturday aiming for when they first open in the morning.  And I'm glad we did, because it was almost full seating wise, with a short lineup at the cash.  You order at the cash and you sit anywhere you can find a spot.  I gave my hubby my order and found the last couple of stools available.  It felt like an eternity before he was able to pay.  There were maybe 2 people in front of him?  He came back and told me that he would give the order, then the cashier would repeat the order very slowly, and my hubby confirmed the order, then the cashier would then punch in the order, the cashier would then get drinks, then tell my hubby the total, hubby would then pay.  Everything just felt like it was moving in slow motion.  We ordered a horchata, a raspberry drink, a cubana, albondigas, and a pollo con mole.

The horchata was delicious.  Best horchata i've ever had.  It was thick and creamy with the perfect amount of spices in there.  The raspberry drink actually turned out to be watermelon drink.  I just took one sip, but it was good, tasted like fresh watermelon blended.

The cubana sandwich was our favourite.  It had the most amount of flavour.  We ordered this one because other reviews said it was a must order.  The cubana has smoked ham, adobo pork, bacon, gouda, avocado, mustard, and tomato.
Cubana










The albondigas I wasn't a fan of, not because I didn't like the flavours, but because i'm not a fan of meatball/sausages to begin with.  The hubby for some reason loves those kinds of sandwiches.  The albondigas has beef pork meatballs, morita tomato salsa, chihuahua cheese, avocado and roasted jalapeƱos.  Because of the jalapeƱos, there was a bit of a kick.
Albondigas










I usually love chicken mole, but this one was really bland for me.  I don't know if it was because the cubana had so much flavour, so it make the mole sauce taste bland, or if it was just under seasoned.  The poll con mole had chicken, mole, crema, cotija cheese, and red onions.
Pollo Con Mole










I would love to come back and try their other offerings, fair price for the size of sandwich that you get.  I just hope that they work out their cash line kinks.  Their horchata on a hot summer day......can't wait.

Torteria San Cosme
181 Baldwin St.,
Toronto, ON
M5T 1L9

Phone:  (416) 599-2855

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 11a - 8p
             Friday - Saturday 11a - 10p
             Sunday 11a - 6p

http://www.sancosme.ca

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...