Last month, before the holiday me and Nash ventured into the newly opened Two Bite Saloon at Bloor and Shaw. We popped in right at opening hour at 5pm and the whole dinner we were the only people eating besides a few sketchy looking people having drinks at the bar. This was a bit strange considering it was just right before the holidays and Blogto and TheStar had written about the place the month prior.
Kale Salad
As an appetizer, I had the Kale Salad ($5). I had previously not tried kale (I thought it was just a hype vegetable), but I enjoyed the “salad” which was very rich in flavours because of some smoke-ham and Parmesan cheese. I actually loved the addition of smokeyness to what people have been calling the new hype healthy veggie.
For my main dish I had the Ribs ($17). The ribs were smoked and drenched with a very tasty barbecue sauce. It was served with lightly seasoned fries and a buttermilk slaw. I didn’t care much for the slaw as I found it too creamy, but I happily ate the fries.
One was eaten before I could take a picture!
Nash had five of the sliders ($14 I think). He had two pulled pork, two pemeal bacon and I forgot what the last was. They were a bit bigger than the food truck sliders we had tried previously and 5 was pretty filling.
It was a bit pricey but we enjoyed our meal. We’ll probably return one day to splurge on some of their interesting cocktails!
When you walk in La Tortilleria at Bloor and Dufferin, it looks like a mini Mexican supermarket. People who just happen to wander by the market might even miss the fact they serve food in a little corner. We were on an adventure to try a new taco place and found this place on Yelp by searching “tacos”. In terms of atmosphere, it couldn’t get more Mexican. We were surrounded by a market of authentic Mexican treats, food and spices. There were only 3 small tables for people to eat in. Mexican music played in the background. I ordered 3 tacos for $6.99. One beef, one pulled pork and one chicken. They each had a black bean sauce at the bottom. I totally forgot to put salsa on mine so it was a tiny bit dry, but still flavourful and delicious. Plus at $6.99 I was sufficiently full after eating them. Nash ordered two “big quesadillas” for $8. They were like a cheese-steak sandwich in a pita. It was packed full of meat and creamy mozzarella and honestly one of the best quesadillas I have ever tasted.
To wash things down, we both bought some Jarrito, a Mexican soda made with natural granulated sugar. I had lime and Nash had orange. They were sweet but not too much.
For what we paid for, the food was a lot better than we thought and we will definitely be back.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, than you know that I am a huge meat eater, and don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon. However I’m always up to trying new things. We passed by Hogtown Vegan a bunch of times and in my research I learnt that they did southern comfort food vegan style so we decided to hit it up for New Years brunch. Normally, brunch is only served Saturdays and Sundays but I guess they wanted to serve those hung over from the night before. I ordered the Unchicken and Waffles ($13) with a side of Chefs Salad. The “chicken” was nicely fried and actually tasted like chicken fingers! Also the waffle was so fluffy and delicious that I didn’t realize vegan waffles can’t have eggs and milk until my friend Karol asked me about them. Hey, if I can make waffles without eggs and milk I’d love the recipe!
I washed my food down with a refreshing homemade iced tea ($3).
My friend Karol ordered the Tortilla Salad ($10), which was gluten and nut free. Romaine lettuce was topped with tortilla chips, beans, salsa, guacomole, scallions and sour cream made from sunflower!
She also had a vegan ceasar, which I assume doesn’t have any clams.
Nash ordered the Tofu Rancheros($12) which was kind of like a non-salad version of Karol’s dish with an added “egg”. The tofu egg looked like an omelette, but didn’t really taste like egg. It was delicious regardless of the fact, and well seasoned.
For dessert, Karol and I split Chocolate Mousse ($6.50) made with almond milk. It was very rich for something without any cream.
As non-vegans we were quite impressed with our selections and very excited to come back and try their intriguing dinner menu.
The place may sound like a caucasian’s attempt to speak Chinese but it is a pretty decent Korean restaurant at the heart of Koreatown in Toronto. The restaurant is known for its tofu soup and there are only 9 items on the menu with most of them just being variations of the soup. None of the items are over $9.
I ordered the Seafood Soon Tofu + Dolsotbab in medium heat. It had chunks of oyster, mussels, shrimp and of course tofu. There was a raw egg for me to crack into the soup while it was hot. The tofu was pretty melt in your mouth and even my tofu-hating boyfriend liked it. It was served with purple rice which was scooped out of a stone pot for me. The stone pot was then filled with water. I originally thought this was a way for the restaurant to keep the pots clean but I discovered its actually Koreans call Noo roong ji, where dried rice is purposely mixed with water to become some kind of “burnt rice snack”. I guess I’ll have to try that next time.
Nash dug into it before I took a picture
Nash ordered Stone Pot Bibimbop which was the standard beef stone pot with veggies and an egg on top.
We had four sides on the table to go along with the dishes. Kimchi, pickled vegetables, beans and beans sprouts. For meals under $10 a person this was flavourful and definitely filling!
Yesterday night I was eating chicken wings. I love chicken wings. While I was eating, Mom was rambling on about something and distracting me. Then I somehow swallowed a chicken bone.
I’m not sure how much bone I ingested, but it felt like at least half of one of the wing tip bones. The situation was probably not that big of a deal. However, during my ordeal Dad told me a frightening story.
He once had a friend who was very intelligent but swallowed a small rib bone. He proceeded to flush it down with rice and water. He thought nothing of it except for small pain he would have once in a while. Few days later he was dead. The bone had pierced his esophagus and arteries which lead to some complicated internal bleeding.
I started to over-think. I took to Google to self-diagnose myself and of course on the internet you can find the worst results of any case. Through this anxious over-thinking, I started to feel my own throat hurt and felt it every time I thought about swallowing a chicken bone.
However, I concluded that the condition is psychological. After some researching (in my old psychology books, not Wikipedia), I found out that this is called globus hystericus otherwise known as globus sensation, the feeling of having a lump in the throat. It can be caused by actual inflammation, but often by anxiety. Strangely after writing this post, the feeling is completely gone, so I guess I’m not going to die of chicken both death. Thanks blog.
Situated at 828 Bloor Street West, Mexitaco is much closer to Nash’s place and Exclaim! than Tacos El Asador so we thought I thought I might as well try it at least once. I was actually told their food is mediocre by people at work, but I’m the kind of person who will give everything a chance. Yelp reviewers also had very mixed feelings about the place.
We were in a taco mood. The chorizo taco was recommended by people on Yelp so we ordered them. For $8.99 there were four tacos. They were topped with coriander and onion. The chorizo meet was a bit better than at El Asador but other than that, there wasn’t really much to the taco.
A ring of toppings was brought to us with the tacos. There was two salsas, a green and a red as well as onions and limes. We weren’t exactly sure what the green one was. Our estimation was green tomato and jalapenos. Both salsas were a bit bland and runny.
We also ordered Tinga tacos which were described as chicken in chipotle sauce. There wasn’t really any other special toppings with it, just chickens in a taco. They were just okay, but either we don’t know what chipotle sauce is supposed to taste like or it tasted like burnt shoes.
Anyways, the tacos weren’t bad, just ok. Edible, but not anything special. The portions were also really small. Even though we had 4 tacos each, it wasn’t totally filling. Whereas at El Asador I could order 2 or 3 things for the same price and be sufficiently full. I will probably just make the extra walk to Tacos El Asador for now on when I have a taco craving.
Banh Mi Boys have been quite the hype around Toronto for the past little while. We were in the area for a concert recently and finally decided to try it. The menu was pretty extensive for Banh Mi sandwiches. I didn’t know you could put more than just ham in them! I ordered the Five Spice Pork Belly Bahn Mi.
The sandwich was was way bigger than I thought for a price of $5.99. Delicious sweet pork belly was sandwiched into the traditional Vietnamese sandwich ingredients of pickled carrots, radishm cilantro and cucumber.
Nash ordered the Braised Beef Cheek Bahn Mi. The baguette was filled with meat! Even with just the sandwiches we would have been stuffed.
However, not knowing what the portions was like before we ordered (remember we’re big eaters), I also had the Kimchi Fries. Yes you heard right. Kimchi on fries. Oh, and pulled pork. These 3 ingredients don’t normally sound like things that go together, but it did. And it was pretty damn addictive. I gobbled most of it up. The fries and 2 sandwiches was way too much food for the both of us though.
For a fad restaurant, I expected the prices to be way higher than they were. I’m glad it isn’t because they offer a nice selection of sandwiches as well as tacos and steamed baos. My only concern about the place is that you have to prey like a hawk for seating in their small squishy location.
One day the Exclaim! office all ordered tacos, and they looked delicious so I asked them where they were from and immediately went right after. Tacos El Asador fit in perfectly for my continuous journey of eating all things adventurous and ethnic.
The atmosphere was friendly and the staff helped me interpret what some of the things on the menu were. An interesting thing to note about the Annex establishment is that it’s not entirely Mexican food, but a Salvadorian interpretation of Mexican food as the name of the place suggests. This is why there are all those silly reviews on yelp or urbanspoon complain about it being different! I first walked into this place a month ago, and I’ve already been back 4 or 5 times.
Jalapenos and Salsa
If you eat in, your table automatically gets a giant bowl of jalapeno, coriander, onion and yellow pepper mix as well as a spicy salsa. It’s really hard not to pick at the mix when waiting for food, even if the seeds can get you heated!
Burrito and Enchilada
Nash likes to get the $10 combo that includes a burrito and an enchillada or quesadilla and a drink. The burrito by itself, is already enough to fill a person!
Fish Tacos
My favourite are the fish tacos. The fish combined with avocado, salsa and carmelized onions have a lovely creamy texture that melts in the mouth.
Crunchy Taco
Tacos come in crunchy or soft and in a variety of meats including chicken, pork, beef and chorizo. I tried chorizo which is like a spicy pork sausage, but I wasn’t completely a fan. It was a little dry. They tasted better with chicken (or fish!). I love that they double wrap both kinds of tacos to prevent any sauce leakage or have back up for accidental breakage.
Enchilada
Their take on the enchiladas was interesting. They were done in a kind of Honduran style with the black bean almost like a spread on the tacos which were served open face, instead of wrapped in rolls with sauce on top. Pupusa
Pupusas were one thing I learned about for the first time when coming here. They are a truly Salvadorian dish and was almost like their take on a fried crepe of some sort! I had one filled with pork and it was served with sauce that reminded me of marinara.
Tamale
Lastly, I also tried the chicken tamales. They reminded me of sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf that my grandmother used to make, except this was with corn and chicken. It may appear small, but one of these things definitely fills you up.
What I love most about this place is the price. All menu items are around $3, so you can mix it up and have multiple items. For the price, the food is fresh and delicious. When I have time (and the budget) I’ll hit up Grand Electric to compare, but I think I may end up favouring Tacos El Asador. I don’t care about pretension, only how things fare on the taste meter and if it doesn’t hurt the wallet, it’s a double win.
I always wanted to try Korean pork bone soup and there was probably no where better to try it than Korea Town’s Owl of Minerva which I have previously read about on BlogTO.
Pork bone soup known as “Gamjatang” was listed on the menu for only $6.20. Since the price was so low, I assumed it would be a small portion so I included the $3 add on of dumplings and noodles.
Not only was the portion pretty large and comparable to that of Pho, but it also came with a bowl of rice and a few sides. The soup was chocked full of pork. I expected a single pork bone, but there were many and the meat was fall off the bone tender. The red colour meant it was spicy, however it was a manageable heat. I totally did not need the add-ons though, there was plenty to eat for $6.20.
We never order the same thing (because that is silly), so Nash got the “Kalbitang” also known as Short-Rib Soup.
It came in a white broth that had a black pepper and garlic aroma. Ingredients included green onions, short ribs, onions, egg and glass noodles, which were very tricky to pick up! I have to admit I like my soup a bit better.
For under $20 the meal was filling and tasteful. We will definitely go back to try the non-soup dishes of which there are plenty!
I took Nash out for an early birthday dinner tonight. We decided that instead of something fancy we’d hit up one of the many burger places that we haven’t tried yet. We headed to The Works Burger on the Danforth. There’s also plenty of other locations for those of you who don’t live in Toronto.
The restaurant played on a construction work-site theme. It was very casual; like a burger joint should be. We even got our soft drinks in measuring cup-esque glasses.
The best part about this place is they have over 72 different burger combinations. That’s right 72. The menu also includes other delicious sounding things like fried pickles and an onion tower. However, we came for a burger, so that’s what we got. crazy menu
The menu was categorized by types of burger combinations, from the most popular, strange, sauced, bold, meat and veggy. You could also choose from a variation of meats (beef, chicken, salmon, portobello, ground turkey, veggie). We both had the elk. I had the Beverley Hills Lawsuit with a side of Bold Slaw.
My burger had egg, leaf spinach, Havarti and double smoked bacon. The elk was lean and delicious. I gobbled the entire thing up and did not feel like death afterwards. The combination of ingredients tasted like a very delicious quiche in a sandwich. The Bold Slaw came in a generous serving size and had a little bit of a kick from the jalapeno juice and white pepper. I would have been happier with a smaller serving of that, as I did not end up finishing the slaw. The flavour was too pungent for me to have such a large portion of it.
Nash had the Neil Young burger with a side of cucumber. Who optionally chooses cucumber??!!!.
The toppings included grilled eggplant, fresh avocado, salsa loco and feta cheese. I stole a giant bite of it. I really liked that the avocado was a literal piece of fresh avocado and not some mushed guacomole-like paste. There was a nice texture to it and the grilled eggplant went really well with the salsa and the feta. Flavour explosion in one bite!
This was seriously one of our favourite burger places (and if you are a regular reader you know we’ve been to a lot of them). We’ll definitely be stopping by again to eat one of the other 70 combinations!
Tiana Feng 