Tag Archives: Toronto

Toronto (Final Day): Home Is Where the Heart (and ice cream) Is

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Mark T

So, it has finally come to this. The final installation in my Canadian food saga on Mastication Monologues (See 1, 2, and 3 here). While the previous chapters had plenty of panache, today’s post will be going out on a very classy note.

Our day started on a very hot note as we made the trek across the city to the famed Casa Loma that was participating in Toronto’s food week a.k.a. Summerlicious. What would be more summerlicious than fine dining in a castle? The storied structure was originally built by Sir Henry Pellatt, a business magnate and loyal military servant to the Queen. Aaron had told me before we visited that he built this mega-mansion for a woman who was supposed to come over to marry him but duped him. Turns out that when we went there, we learned that he built it because he was extremely rich. Go figure. Beautiful as it was inside with plenty of crystal chandeliers, giant halls, and dark wood carpentry, I missed a little bit of that modern air conditioning lovin’ as I proceeded to sweat my brains out. Janice and I made our way out to the garden out back, and we were greeted with a wonderful fountain, lush foliage, and oodles of Asian tourists. We had our wristbands on since we bought tickets ahead of time and on discount, so we were able to skip the long line into the Summerlicious fest like the ballers/shot-callers we naturally are. We had a look over the food they had to offer while hunting for a seat, and it all looked great. After a bit of time, Janice wrangled us a great table in the shade. Aaron and Alyssa met up with us eventually due to a Google Maps error, but Janice and I were then quickly up and ready to run the buffet ragged. We started off with some amazing Italian food. First, there was the prosciutto (pro-shoot-oh or just pro-shoot if you’re a real paisan). The word “prosciutto” comes from the Latin for “before” (pro) and “sucking out” (exsuctus) which then evolved into the modern Italian word “prosciugiare” meaning “to dry thoroughly”. What does all this drying have to do for this heavenly meat? Well, it’s basically a salted, dried, and aged leg of ham that is a pillar of Italian cuisine. At the Summerlicious festival, the chef serving it was using an interesting slicer I’ve never seen before but sped up the cutting process for the slobbering diners lining up for the meat. Janice and I picked up a rolled up slice each, and then next to the prosciutto was another Italian dish I had never tried before called panzanella. It is a salad from the central Italian region of Tuscany, and it is not very in line with the Atkins diet. The reason being is that this salad is based on bread; well, actually stale bread, but that’s neither here nor there. It consists of the bread soaked in the vinaigrette along with tomatoes, onions, and zucchini.

Panzanella and prociutto

It complimented the salty and savory meat with a light and slightly sour element to the opening plate of our meal. We then moved on to the second plate of the day which was more diverse cuisine-wise. First, I managed to snag a seasoned lamb kabob that was savory and spiced to perfection. The smell alone coming off the grill was driving me crazy. Then I followed that up with an Indian trio of butter chicken, jasmine basmati rice, and aloo gobi. The butter chicken is a very mild dish in terms of Indian food, and it meshed with the rice to be a very filling part of the meal. As for the aloo gobi, it is a traditional and simple Punjabi dish that consists of potatoes (aloo) and cauliflower (gobi). It was different than traditional Indian dishes given that a plethora of them are typically swimming in a pool of sauce. These dry veggies were aglow with a jaundiced yellow hue due to the tumeric and curry powder that was cooked into each piece. It was ok, but not great. The best part of round two was the mushroom cheesy risotto that was being served literally out of a giant wheel of Grana Padano (“grain” in Italian and the adjective for something from the Po River valley in northern Italy). It was a creamy rice dish that had a Parmesan-esque sharpness in every forkful. The final plate to the three ring circus of main courses ended with a vegetable slaw with lime dressing that was like something you could get in a P.F. Changs or slightly more upscale Chinese restaurant especially with the roasted, diced peanuts. The better part of the third plate were the bison sliders with berry mostarda. The bison tasted like a very lean beef with a bit more gamey flavor, but it was kind of drowned out by the berry mostarda that isn’t mustard but rather a traditional Italian condiment made of candied fruit and mustard flavored syrup. We couldn’t put our finger on it if they were cherries or some kind of cranberry, but it strangely went well together as a savory and sweet kind of foodstuff. Thankfully we didn’t eat breakfast because we had room for that sweet sweet dessert. While they were serving three different types of gelato, I will save the ice cream for later in this post. Instead, we chowed down on some white chocolate cannoli and a berry crumble. Cannoli are well known as a quintessential Italian dessert, but in reality they trace their roots back to the Emirate of Sicily, i.e. when the Muslims ruled the island for almost 250 years. In fact, some trace the name to the Arabic word “qanawat“. These little fried tubes of dough were filled by hand right in front of us with sweet mascarpone cheese and garnished with white chocolate shavings. I thought they could have made it better with some milk or dark chocolate shavings to balance out the sweeter cheese, but they were competently made. As for the fruit crumble, I heard that it had strawberry and rhubarb in it which was a first for me. I found it to be like eating a warm strawberry pie with the buttery crumbles, so I don’t know what the rhubarb brought to the equation. The fresh blueberries and strawberries were also a refreshing solution to beating the heat. After that we had an epic trek to one of the best ice cream places in all of Toronto according to Aaron who’s kind of a maestro when it comes to the cold stuff. Ed’s Real Scoop was nothing special on the outside, but clearly on the inside it was happening based on the butt to gut traffic that was occupying the non-A/C interior which was brutal. Still, I knew this place was my jam based on this punny size display, the large selections of ice cream, gelato, and toppings. After chuckling to myself, I made the tough decision by getting a large with creme brulee ice cream and burnt marshmallow with a free topping in the form of Coffee Crisp, a Canadian candy bar that isn’t Stateside. Pricewise, it’s not the cheapest place since my large was around 5 bucks, but I got a ton of ice cream for my money and a free topping! Not only that, but they hand make all of their ice cream and waffles cones on their own machine that is right to your left when you walk into the store. They take their ice cream, gelato, drinks, and confections very seriously, and this care is reflected in the quality from first spoon to last. The creme brulee took me right to the Riviera complete with chunks of the burnt, crunchy sugar topping in each bite while the burnt marshmallow was perfect for a summer night. All I was missing was a bonfire and some graham crackers to make some s’mores. The Coffee Crisp was like a flaky wafer coated in milk chocolate that created that s’more effect. Janice got a cinnamon cheesecake milkshake, and it was a slurptacular way to beat the heat as we walked along Toronto’s beachfront. After walking for what seemed forever, we made it to Aaron’s neighborhood in the Scarborough area. We hit up Casa di Giorgio Ristorante. By this point, we were ready to devour some food, and this Italian eatery fit the bill. The ladies got different types of pasta, so naturally I didn’t eat it. Janice seemed happy with her tortellini alla crema ($16.95) which were cheese stuffed shells with a white cream sauce. I opted for pizza instead. They have so many great choices, but I picked the Veranzano ($16.95). It had everything I love: meat, cheese, and veggies. The goat cheese and salty prosciutto balanced the fresh arugula and mild, roasted red peppers. Based on my experience and the others’ plates, it was a good Italian restaurant if you’re looking for simple but well made food. Aaron and Alyssa hadn’t even been there before, and they live there. So it was a great hidden find and a molto bene note to end our stay in TO with our good friends and even better guests. Thanks for everything guys, and see you on the open road!

Toronto (Day 3): 10,000 Leagues Over the Jenga Sea

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Mark T

Welcome to another Mastication Monologues and part three in my Canadian food adventures. Day one consisted of a mouthful of Dirty South cookin’ while day two was a yin and yang of cool waters and fiery dinners. Day three was interesting in its own respect. We started off the day nice and early at the Ripley’s aquarium which was pretty entertaining with lots of interesting exhibits and marine specimens. While the Shedd in Chicago has a lot more of the big animals like belugas and dolphins, the Toronto had bested our hometown museum with a larger variety of strange creatures. For example, the giant sawfish that was chilling on the aqua tube we walked through as tons of other fish, sharks, and even turtles swam around us. Oh, boy, I would not want to see that stuff from my kayak seat. The jellyfish exhibit was probably my favorite part since the cool blacklit chambers really made the little guys look like aliens. Janice, however, was going bananas over the puffer fish and even crawled into the middle that was intended for the children school groups. I captured her passion with this pretty cool picture.

In heaven

Then there were the petting areas where we had some hands-on action with the sea-beasties. Janice was freaking out with the horseshoe crabs, and I finally overcame my fear of petting stingrays…by petting one as big as me.

They can smell my fear

Unfortunately, none of the small, petable sharks were feeling calm enough to be friendly with the guests. Overall, we highly recommend a visit while you’re here, but try to go in the morning since there will be less hordes of shrieking children. We proceeded to walk to the nearby turntable that turned out to also be the Steamwhistle brewery. If you’re into beer and/or classic trains, this is your paradise.

Just try not to get run over

We finally got in after a bit of waiting, and they didn’t even have any food for lunch. On the plus side, we got to see the inside of the brewery, get some taster beers, and find our next party bike. The brew that we had there tasted like a slightly hoppy IPA that was light and good for a hot day. So, instead of just sitting there and waiting for the food truck to come in, we moved onto the harborfront since we had a kayak lesson in the afternoon. After a moderate constitutional, we found ourselves looking out over Lake Ontario, a perfect backdrop for lunch. We stumbled upon, surprise surprise, another brewery. This one was called Amsterdam Brewery, and thankfully it wasn’t jazzed up like some sort of cheesy homage to the Dutch capital. We got a seat on the patio where there was thankfully some shade, but it seemed like they were training a lot of new staff. Thankfully, our waitress was very on the ball since we had a deadline to stuff our faces and make it to the lesson on time. First world problems. The meal started with da beers. Even though the flights looked tempting, they had to wait. Instead, I got their all natural blonde while Janice got their Big Wheel amber ale. These big glasses quickly came out, and we had different experiences. My blonde seemed quite bland and slightly sour, but Janice’s Big Wheel was a tasty balance of caramel undertones and a hoppy aftertaste. Moving on to food, their menu was a standard bar and grill mix of mostly sandwiches, pizza, and a few slightly ethnic items thrown in there for good measure. I enjoyed their code for pairing the food with the beer through a letter system next to each food option like C for a crisp beer next to the fish and chips. We picked a few things to share before going to burn them off on the water. First, there were the sweet chili rib ends ($11). These pork chunks were delectable minus the occasional bone chip we had to make sure not to swallow. Definitely not a plate for the little ones. However, the flavor was definitely grown and developed through a mix of sweet chili sauce and a braise of lemongrass, lime leaves, and ginger. It kind of was like an Asian sweet, spicy, yet tangy twist on an American favorite. I recommend them. Then we had to get the Canadian classic dish: poutine ($8). This melange of gravy, cheese curds, and French fries was born in rural Quebec in the 1950s, but the origin of the name is highly disputed. Some believe that it is a Frenchified version of the English word “pudding” while others conjecture it comes from the Quebecois French slang for “mess” or “leftovers”. There are even links back to France with regional dialects boasting cognates like the southern Provencal word, “poutité” or “hodgepodge” in English. Whatever you want to call it, it is a super rich comfort food that will make you want to check your cholesterol levels when you’re done. I’m not a huge fan of the soggy fries that soak up a lot of the gravy on the bottom, but the perfect forkful that combines the beefy with the salty fry and tangy cheese is without parallel. Speaking of the cheese, at Amsterdam they use Thornloe cheese that has been a Canadian institution since 1940. Plus, it was founded by a guy named Rene Laframboise or Rene The Raspberry. Now that’s a cheese company I want to patronize! To balance this heavy plate, we rounded out the main course with some of the hoisin chicken lettuce wraps ($12). These were the opposite of the poutine: light, sweet, and fresh. They were basically like make your own tacos, but instead of tortillas we had super verdant leaves of lettuce. The chicken and veggies were stir fried in a light teriyaki sauce, and we received the dark hoisin sauce and a pepper seed laden sauce on the side. All of these plates together were a great value for good food, and we still had a little bit of room to split a dessert. We got the flourless chocolate torte ($7) which was totally our jam, literally, given that the raspberry coulis (coo-LEE; from the Latin colare “to strain”) was the perfect compliment to the sinfully sweet slice. An added bonus was the whipped cream, fresh strawberry, and a mysterious gooseberry that made its way onto our plate. I had never even seen one of these fruits in real life, so I didn’t know what to expect from it. Our waitress warned us that some diners didn’t care for its “interesting” and super sour taste. So, I braced myself for the worst when I popped the small, bright yellow berry in my mouth and bit down. I was greeted with a more neutral, partially earthy flavor washing over my palate. It barely left an impression on me before it was gone. Guess the kayak gods were smiling on us as we got the check and were running to the kayak dock. It was a glorious day for a paddle, and before we knew it, we were in our dual kayak. Our task of getting to the channel islands was harder than expected since we had to try to not get run over by the numerous boats and water taxis that were creating giant waves as well. As if that wasn’t enough, there were airplanes zooming overhead because the landing strip was out by the islands. Definitely got the blood pumping. Eventually, we got to the islands and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon on the calm waters. It’s also a great experience if you want some fantastic photo ops for the Toronto skyline like we got. Going back to port was maybe that just much harder given the constant paddling we had done for the previous three hours. By the time we reached the dock, we were ready for a nap before going out with Aaron and Alyssa. Once we regroups, we were back at the harborfront with the gang, and funny enough they were going to bring us to Amsterdam Brewhouse! Instead we wandered about taking in the Friday night surroundings, including Janice climbing into this contraption that looked like Dr. Seuss’ pimp-mobile. Just par for the course. Eventually, we decided to go out to a bar or two for food and drinks. We hit up the Wellington first for food and then the Banknote. Unfortunately, I don’t have pics for the Wellington, but it had some great nachos. It’s a cozy bar/restaurant too. The Banknote, on the other hand, was a great bar for late night shenanigoats. It was there that I tried another one of the Canadian beers that was also offered at the Amsterdam brewhouse: the Boneshaker IPA. It was surprisingly palatable given that I’m not the biggest fan of the typically hop-heavy IPA style of beers. Luckily, my bones weren’t shaking too much given that we played over three hours of Jenga that they have at their main long table. Then again, when you’re having a good time with great company, it’s bound to happen. Talk about a wild Friday and penultimate night in TO!

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Posted in Alcoholic, Barbecue, Beer, Beverages, Canadian, Canadian Cuisine and tagged Beer, boneshaker, brewery, Canada, cheese, chicken, chocolate, flourless, gooseberry, gravy, IPA, kayak, ribs, spicy, sweet, Toronto, wraps. Bookmark the permalink.

Toronto (Day 2): Falling In Love Is Just Peachy

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Mark T

Oh, Canada! You have provided me with such great material that I can’t wait to tell everyone about day two of our adventures in Toronto. Today’s post mainly revolves around our trip to Niagara Falls and to an extremely popular restaurant with a unique and fun to say name.

We woke up to a wonderfully gray sky that quickly developed into a legitimate downpour. That combined with the speedy Canadian drivers made the trip all the more hazardous.

Jan Jan just being trip photographer

Luckily, we made it to the famous falls in one piece, but there was no sign of the rain abating. We ran through the drops and around the hordes of tourists to the visitors’ center to get our adventure passes, and what an adventure we had. First, there was the cutesy video they showed us that was pure edutainment explaining how the falls were formed via an anthropomorphic beaver and owl. That then led to a large chamber that highlighted Niagara’s Fury which amounted to a 360 degree screen that went along with a 4-D movie complete with rain which meant we had to wear ponchos through the entire film. The only time I felt scared/disturbed was afterward in the gift shop that the movie chamber was connected to, naturally. The main reason why I was scared was due to the demonic looking beaver plushes. However, not all was disturbing since we had fun and made some friends along the way. We quickly moved on to the fun nature walk that went along the Niagara river, and it was weird to think that we were in another country even though the USA was literally a stone’s throw away in the form of New York State. Due to the rain, there also weren’t a lot of tourists on this part of the tour, so we were delighted with that development while soaking in the beautiful surroundings. My socks also soaked up the river when a huge wave crashed against the rocks right where we were standing. After all of that walking, we worked up an appetite, so we decided to try another Canadian tradition that Aaron recommended: Pizza Pizza. When Janice and I first heard him say it, we thought it was Little Caesar’s due to the mascot’s signature catchphrase. We were wrong! Turns out it is a Canadian institution that apparently also claims to have done a lot of pizza firsts like putting pineapple on a pizza, using delivery bags, and using virtual advertising. It’s their go-to for fast food pizza; it’s not amazing but not terrible, as Aaron put it. We agreed with his assessment. We both got slices of veggie pizza that was fresh and covered with peppers, onions, and mushrooms. We also split a side of fries that were well made, and I spiced it up with this lemon pepper seasoning they offered on the side. ‘Twas a nice sour and spicy kick to the delicious fries. I’d recommend trying this Canadian culinary staple. Once we were fueled up, we got on the Hornblower ship to see the falls. It was cool, wet, and wild as the wind was blowing up our ponchos a la Marilyn Monroe. After taking a ton of pictures while looking like sea hobos wearing trash bags, we left Niagara for Toronto. We had a delicious dinner date planned at David Chang’s Momofuku. It was another restaurant that was participating in Toronto’s Summerlicious restaurant week, so we were excited to finally be able to try this high end establishment. The head chef who created Momofuku, David Chang, is one of the biggest names in the cooking game.

Momofuku the creation of superstar chef David Chang brings his food to Toronto. The much anticipated resto is famous for noodles and pork buns. (Photo by Rene Johnston/Toronto Star via Getty Images)

He has tons of accolades, experience, and a personality/temper that is larger than life that also reflects his passion for finding and creating good food with simple ingredients. This outlook on cooking has resulted in Momofuku expanding to a ton of other franchises like Ma Peche, Ssam Bar, and Milk Bar in NYC. The Toronto location we were at was relatively new and consisted of five different mini-restaurant areas: Shoto, Daisho, Milk Bar, Nikai, and Noodle Bar. Clearly, there is a lot of Asian influence in his menus based on the names of the restaurants. The interior was super busy but modern in design.Noodle Bar was at the bottom with communal seating while the other areas were more traditional in nature. I’d highly recommend making reservations at Momofuku before you go. If you’re wondering, Momofuku actually means “lucky peach” in Japanese, and I think a bit of that luck rubbed off on us since they put us right at the bar in front of the open kitchen. It was all hustle bustle in the narrow corridor as we watched these artists whip together bowls of ramen, appetizers, and boil noodles like their lives depended on it. We were ready to eat with the same gusto. The menus were handed out to us, and we had a lot of tough decisions to make in a first world problems sort of way. In the end, we made our choices which consisted of four courses for 25 bucks, and they came out very quickly based on how the chefs were working. The first course took the form of a fancy fried jalapeno pepper for me. It was stuffed with cream cheese and sturgeon, apparently and had a side of ssam sauce. It was ok, and I didn’t even taste the sturgeon. The ssam sauce pepped up the tiny pepper a bit with a sweet hint, but I’ve had better ones at your average bar. Janice’s slightly larger hot and honey chicken wing was a better choice. It lived up to its name with a garlic, sriracha, and scallion glaze that was both savory and sweet with a subtle spiciness. After those tidbits, we got our bun course. They were clearly inspired by the Chinese buns used for Peking duck, and they were hearty little buggers. I’d recommend these menu items for appetizers. My spicy lamb bun was very interesting. The fluffy light bun encased a hunk of spiced lamb, bean sprouts, lettuce, and spicy mayo. Biting into it, it tasted just like an Asian inspired gyro sans tzatziki sauce. Janice’s pork bun was average. Yeah, the ingredients were fresh, and it was well made. It was just a bit blander compared to my vivacious lamb bun. Then our entrees finally came out. My ~~very~~ extremely spicy noodle bowl was vibrant in terms of presentation and flavor. Our waiter was pretty skittish when I said I wanted it spicy and even described it as “stupid spicy”, but I was skeptical of his assessment given my previous tussles with fiery meals. He brought it out with a side of soy milk just to make sure the white boy didn’t lose his mind and taste buds, but I think I lost them a long time ago when I discovered ghost pepper sauce. It was spicy but with plenty of savory, smoky flavor. It could have been a bit better if there was some sort of meat in it, but I was still happy with my choice. If you like spicy food and have a tolerance for habanero or higher fire, then get this dish.

Good to the last ember

My girlfriend tried a bit, but immediately ran to her glass of water. Janice’s Momofuku ramen was more savory than spicy. It looked exactly like the ramen I tried in Japan, and it was just as tasty. The fish cake, eggs, and melt in your mouth pork all were bobbing in a rich beef based broth. The pork was exceptional with clear layers of succulent meat and juicy fat.

Absolutely gorgeous

The noodles were plentiful and slurp-worthy,

She liked it just a little bit

so it was much more of a solid choice if you appreciate good ramen and less brash flavors compared to my spicy noodles. Rounding out the meal were our desserts. I decided to try Milk Bar’s cereal soft serve. It looked like a run of the mill vanilla cup of ice cream, but its taste was unique. It literally tasted like milk and cereal! It was a cool concept, and I’d recommend it. Janice was less satisfied with the crispy coffee panna cotta or “cooked cream” in Italian. She was entertained with the chocolate balls on top that looked like rabbit poop and the coffee layer was delicious, but the custard wasn’t up to snuff. We left the restaurant greatly satisfied, and it was a pleasing end to a very eventful day. If you’re into Asian cuisine or comfort food or both, head on down to Momofuku if you have a chance.