Food – Page 32 – Tiana Feng

Burgers and Truffle Fries @ Holy Chuck

October 29, 2013October 29, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Fork in photo is unrelated to burger eating.

Last year, for Nash’s birthday, I started the tradition of taking him to a ridiculous burger joint. We do burgers all year, when they’re in the vicinity of where we happen to be but on birthdays we’ll actually travel for the next wacky thing. Anyway, this year we ended up at Holy Chuck at St. Clair Station.

Their menu has a variety of interesting creations. Nash ordered The Village Cow ($12.99), which had two patties and seared, melted kefalotiri cheese, red onions and greek olive oil. We’ve never heard of that cheese before, but it was deliciously fried and creamy. He also had a side of fries which came in a generous portion.

I went for the Le Croissant Du Paysan ($12.99), which was egg, pancetta, fries and burger on flakey croissants. The croissants were soft and sweet. Altogether the burger was like a very complete breakfast.

Ok time for the star of the show! Since it was his birthday, I totally splurged on the Black Truffle Fries. Real truffles were always a thing I dreamt about after watching too much Food Network but Holy Cow had actual shavings on their fries (and one of their burgers that we didn’t order)! There was also a nice aged cheese on the fries but we were more intrigued by the unique wood-like taste of truffle. It was really addictive. To top it off, it was also served with a truffle mayo. So much truffle, but so much delicious. These are fries I’m still thinking of a few days later.

Watch my Vlog of the day.

Bison Burgers @ W Burger Bar

Soups @ Lim Ga Ne

October 24, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Koreatown is full of restaurants that look like they serve the exact same thing. Usually for soup the destination is Owl Minerva, but since there’s a whole couple blocks of similar things, we ventured into another for fun. We ended up at Lim Ga Ne. It had a nice homey feel, like someone’s Korean mother was going to cook us dinner.

When we placed our order we were soon presented with these chive pancakes. At first I was slightly confused and thought the waiter heard our order wrong. Apparently this is one of the freebies you get and it was delicious.

Then we were presented with even more of the traditional sides.

I ordered the Yukgaejang, which was shredded beef brisket in a hot broth. The portion was very hearty. I enjoyed it for the most part, except these weird veggies that looked like coffee stir sticks, but they were easy to pick out.

Nash had the Kimchi soup with pork. Despite both our soups being red, they were actually different in taste. His was more sweet and sour and mine was more meaty and spicy.

What we didn’t realize until we got our bill is that taxes are included on the menu so everything is conveniently round numbers. This is definitely a place worth checking out, even for the freebies!

Excuse the shitty photos, I was hungry and ate the soup right after I vlogged it, so they are screen captures.

Bison Burgers @ W Burger Bar

October 17, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I’m always up for trying burger places I haven’t been. I spotted W Burger Bar outside College station so me and Nash hit it up while we were in the area. The interior design was pretty fancy and I was actually surprised to find that the burgers were quite affordable. The menu contained bison, kobe beef, lamb, chicken and more. Both of us got bison burgers but added our own toppings. My burger had chipotle ketchup, bacon and sauteed onions. Nash added a portobello mushroom and monterey jack. I enjoyed my bison burger, it was nice and meaty and the ketchup was a nice pairing.

As a side, we shared an order of 1/2 sweet, 1/2 regular fries. I love that they had that as an option! It’s a great compromise for those that can’t decide and they gave us a decent amount for $3.50.

Watch my vlog for the day:

Tacos @ Seven Lives

October 8, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I finally visited Seven Lives in Kensington Market and tried their seafood tacos. The place has very little seating so we ordered a few to go.

I had the Pulpo On Mole Verde, an octopus taco with a pumpkin seed mole; and the Baja Fish, deep fried mahi mahi with cream sauce. They were both $5, but well worth the price considering I was stuffed from the two tacos. The fish was moist and reminded me of some of my favourite fish and chips (minus the chips). The octopus was not tough at all and I liked the texture of added pumpkin seeds and uh, CHEESE.

Nash ordered the Gobernador with shrimp, smoked marlin and cheese; and the Mushroom and Cactus with grilled cheese. I’ve never had cactus before this but I tried a bite and it reminded me a lot of this Chinese pan-fried bean dish.

Oh Seven Lives, I think I’ll definitely be back to eat everything else.

I Made My Boyfriend Eat Sushi @ Rikishi

October 2, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

In the years we’ve dated so far, I have never actually eaten sushi with Nash. He had always said he wasn’t a fan or that he didn’t particularly enjoy salmon in general. Anyways, for some reason he changed his mind and we ended up at Rikishi around Ossington Station. We found the menu endearing in the fact that there were many spelling errors including “Riquer” instead of liqueurs. Instead of Bento meals, we took the pricier route and ordered a bunch of small things.

We sampled two sushi rolls, the spicey salmon and spicy scallop (pictured above). Nash said he couldn’t taste the salmon (which I guess is a good thing since he doesn’t normally like it). Even when you dipped them in soy-sauce the scallop and salmon were battered enough that it was still crunchy.

We also ordered the fried squid which was lightly battered and not heavy at all. There was also a generous portion for the price.

Out of curiosity I asked for the “Seafood-foil-yaki” (yes the actual name), which was literally a piece of buttered shrimp, scallop, salmon, onions wrapped in foil. It was my least favourite of the dishes but I was curious as to what it was and it was quite literal to its name.

I also got this raw octopus salad dish. It came in a sweet and sour dressing, much like the pickled carrots and radish that it included. Raw octopus is actually less fishy as you might expect.

I had a mini glass of plum wine. It was sweeter than the ones I have tried in the past.

For dessert, me and Nash had icecream. He had green tea and I opted for pumpkin out of curiosity as to what that would taste like. It was very sweet, a lot like custard but with a pumpkin-like texture. It actually be my new favourite flavour of icecream.

The bill was around $44. Considering we ordered from an A La Carte menu, with alcoholic drinks and dessert this was a fair price for a decent meal.

Union Burger and the Magical Coke Machine

September 12, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I’m stuck in Mississauga this week house-sitting. I was watching an episode of Burger Wars and ended up with a gourmet burger craving. I then researched to see if there were places besides chains where I have already been (Five Guys, Big Smoke) and stumbled on Union Burger.
The place is on Living Arts Drive, right across from Square One Shopping Centre. The interior design of the place was modern and sleek.

I ordered the Peppercorn Goat Cheese Burger. It had cracked black pepper, caramelized onions, lettuce, BBQ sauce and of course goat cheese. I couldn’t really taste the pepper as the BBQ sauce was a little over powering.

I chose onion rings as my side. The breading texture reminded me of Burger King’s onion rings, but crunchier.

I finally had the opportunity to try one of the new Coca-Cola freestyle machines.

The machine allows you to mix and match your own soft drink flavour. I stuck with a classic vanilla coke. Maybe next time I’ll be more creative.

They’re not the best burgers in the world but Union Burger has some affordable and tastier alternatives to the fast food chains.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Drumsticks

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013Food, RecipesLeave a Comment

Yesterday I felt like wrapping something in bacon and I happened to have a bag of drumsticks in the freezer. They turned out moist and delicious so I thought I’d share the recipe.

Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks
Rosemary (you can use dry or fresh)
Bacon
Garlic Cloves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mince the garlic and the rosemary and toss them in a bowl with the chicken to season the drumsticks.

Wrap the drumsticks in bacon! I started from the stick and made my way to the meaty part. Sprinkle any leftover garlic and rosemary on top of the wrapped drumsticks. When you’re done stick them in the oven for an hour or until bacon is nice and crispy.

And serve! I paired mine with home-made fries I made in the oven at the same time.

Rabbit and Other Meats at Big Crow

September 9, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Situated behind Rose & Sons is what looks like someone’s fancy backyard picnic. We probably wouldn’t have stumbled on Big Crow if we weren’t specifically looking for it.

Rose & Sons is pretty new and they’ve already added this cool looking BBQ cook-out to its backyard. You can see the cooks grilling everything on the make-shift fire pit situated in the back.
The atmosphere was very laid back. We were seated in between two other sets of customers. Plates are meant to be shared so we chose 2 selections from the “little crow” menu and one from the “big crow”.

The crow sizzling bacon (“little crow”) had a sweet ancho chili BBQ sauce. It was served with thuet bread and a little slaw, which we realized later were the only veggies we ate that night.

Also from the little crow menu was the miami ribs served with a creamy tzatziki sauce. This was a meal where using your hands and getting messy was necessary.

Our “big crow” and larger of the selections was this 1/2 rabbit. I’ve never had rabbit before and it reminded me a lot of pheasant. They were coated in a sweet and spicy hot sauce.

To wash down all the meat, me and Nash both had sweet teas.

We realized after we ordered that all we ordered was meat, but it was delicious. Like Homer in Simpsons said, “You can’t make friends with salad!” I’m not sure what will happen when the weather gets to cold to eat outside, so get your meat on while you can.

Lays Flavours Review

September 2, 2013Food, SnacksLeave a Comment

Lays sponsored a contest where people around Canada created new chip flavours. The winner gets $50,000 and 1% royalty from future sales.

Right now they’re down to four finalists, each of which have received $5000. I missed out on the Perogy Platter (because they were not available at the time) but I purchased the Caesar Salad, Maple Moose and Grilled Cheese and Ketchup flavoured chips.

The Grilled Cheese and Ketchup greatly resembled BBQ chips, but a little blander. The “cheese” could be tasted when I licked the chips. The Creamy Ceasar Salad chips tasted a lot like a tamer version of sour cream and onion chips with a hint of cheese and a bit of garlic. By far the most original flavour was the Maple Moose flavour. They reminded me of firewood and camping. It was kind of atrocious on the first bite, but they got strangely addictive after a while.

My bet on the winner is probably Maple Moose as it is the most unique. The US contest had a Sriracha flavour which I wish I could get my hands on!

So.. I Tried the McLobster

Pour Boy Pub

August 30, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Pour Boy was listed in The Grid’s Guide to Being Broke and Living Large. Doing cool things on a budget is certainly in our interests at the moment. It’s close to Nash’s but we never thought to look around the corner of Bloor and Manning. The decor is unique and isn’t really asian nor white, but the menu is a mix of both.

I ordered the Gnocchi with shrimp ($7). The waiter recommended the white sauce so I obliged. I wasn’t expecting much out of pub food, but this was actually flavourful and there was a generous amount of shrimp. To drink I had a Long Island Iced Tea ($6.50).

Nash ordered the Pour Boy burger which was pretty much a regular banquet burger. It was a bit on the oily side but he enjoyed it. They came with a choice of regular or sweet potato fries or a salad.

I don’t know why I never visited this place when I was in university. It’s such a cheap watering hole. A pitcher of Sangria is $17, so we couldn’t resist. Plus, cheers to the rest of summer right?