Food – Page 6 – Tiana Feng

Brunch @ Laylow

March 31, 2017March 30, 2017Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

A few weekends ago, we ended up at Laylow, kind of by accident. We were trying to get into somewhere else that ended up packed, so we strolled a few doors down to the former location of Me & Mine.

I had the Porchetta Eggs Benedict which was herb-roasted pulled porchetta on potato latkes, with two poached eggs, topped with gremolata and hollandaise. Served with salad. I liked the crunchy latkes as a replacement for toast.

Nash had the Breakfast Poutine: House-cured bacon, hand cut fries, two poached eggs, house-made marinated cheese curds, topped with gravy & hollandaise. The gravy had a strange acidity to it, but otherwise the rest of the dish was cooked perfectly.

Laylow is also a mini brewery that also serves other cool brews! Blanche de Chambly Witbier and Black River Orange Juice.

I welcome all the craft breweries and I hope to be back to try some of their own brews and dinner foods.

Pilot Coffee: Heritage

March 30, 2017March 29, 2017Drinks, FoodLeave a Comment

In Toronto, I’m blessed with a lot of local indie coffee shops that sell local brews. I picked up this Heritage blend by Pilot Coffee Roasters.

I loved this blend. It requires no sugar (in fact I feel like sugar ruins it!) and there is a lovely tone of swiss chocolate and toffee when you add just a bit of cream or milk. These are some of my favourite beans so far.

Brunch @ Love Chix

March 26, 2017Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Yesterday was a super rainy day and our regular brunch place was packed so we headed to Love Chix instead. It’s location used to be the location of Farmer’s Daughter before it had to close down.

I had a glass of “OJP Ya Know Me!” to start (orance juice & Prosecco).

We all ordered poached eggs. I had one with fried brussel sprouts on a buttery bun with a side salad. The Hollandaise was nice and creamy. One of my friends had one.

Right now, this place is still not too busy for lunch but I’m sure that will change very soon.

Little Pig Hot Pot

March 16, 2017Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

My friends and I made the trip uptown to Little Pig Hot Pot. Hot Pot if you’ve never done it outside of your house before comes with a price tag. There’s a per person charge (around $25) as well as additional charges per soup. For our party of four people we had one bowl with two broths: pork and mushroom. They had a lot of spicy soups but we kept it safe.

The cool thing about this place is you can order with an iPad, just like at AYCE Sushi. That way, every time you want more of something, you don’t have to feel guilty flagging the waiter down each time. It was super easy with the click of a button.

The sauces were also part of the iPad ordering system, so we got a little carried away (pictured). There was a huge selection of meats, noodles, vegetables, seafood and also some fried things (not for hot potting). Everything was good quality and came in relatively small portions so we couldn’t order too much by accident the first round.

There were really big chopsticks for cooking the food in. I guess so there was less chance of burning yourself.

I quenched my thirst with some delicious Winter Melon iced tea.

Dessert was a sweet jelly thing that cleansed the palate.

They also had these hilarious fun props you could use to take photos for Instagram. Genius idea!

And of course some pig themed things.

We enjoyed our meal here and this encouraged us to make more trips uptown to have authentic hot pot.

Miss Fresh Recipe 4: Kimchi Braised Chicken

March 12, 2017Delivery/Takeout, Food, RecipesLeave a Comment

My last Miss Fresh recipe was Kimchi Braised Chicken. This one was super easy and the kimchi provided had just the right amount of texture. It gave the chicken a lot of flavour and wasn’t as spicy as I thought it would be.

I blanched my Chinese Broccoli instead of steaming it because I don’t have a steamer. It all turned out delicious!

I’m sad my box is over but I may return when I have more time to do it consistently! It was fun and made making dinner super efficient.

Miss Fresh Recipe 3: Ash Reshteh

March 11, 2017Delivery/Takeout, Food, RecipesLeave a Comment

Today for lunch, I made a super simple recipe for Ash Reshteh, a Persian noodle soup.

Mine looked different from the photo because the delivery used Chinese egg noodles and the photo looks like vermicelli. Otherwise, it was a tasty, easy healthy lunch.

Miss Fresh Recipe 2: Asian Pork & Miso Eggplant

March 8, 2017March 8, 2017Delivery/Takeout, Food, RecipesLeave a Comment

Tonight, I made the Asian Pork & Miso Eggplant Recipe from my Miss Fresh subscription.

Besides the broccoli (which wasn’t packaged), the ingredients were organized in baggies with sauces portioned out.

One thing I’ll have to say about these instructions were they were slightly vague. I had to look up the meaning of “deglaze” and it didn’t say what temperature (low, medium, high) I needed to pan cook the meat. I turned it up too high in the beginning and burned it a tiny bit. I ended up boiling the broccoli instead of steaming because I don’t have the proper pot for it.

Here’s my result! It doesn’t look pretty but it tasted great. I loved the eggplant marinated in miso, mirin, honey and soy sauce.

Miss Fresh Recipes Subscription: Tarragon Citrus Crusted Salmon

March 7, 2017Delivery/Takeout, Food, Recipes1 Comment

I’ve always wanted to try a Recipe Delivery service. There are so many in Toronto. I picked Miss Fresh because there was a relatively affordable Groupon Deal for 4 meals for 2 people. The slightly awkward thing is you have to order a week (or more depending on when you’re placing it) in advance. Orders made before Monday will be delivered the next week on Tuesday. If you miss that timeframe you won’t get it until the week after.

I usually can’t plan that far ahead because of the nature of the industry I work/live in. Also because I’m not home everyday these 4 meals will probably need to stretch a bit longer than a week.

It all arrived at my doorstep in one box, with individually labelled bags per recipe. There are even bottles of portioned out sauces! All the ingredients looked super fresh.

I had instructed the delivery person to leave them in front of my apartment door. Everything remained cold in their custom box with a reusable ice pack.

For my first meal, I made a Tarragon Citrus Crusted Salmon. The recipe had fennel 2 ways: as a salad and baked.

The meat and the ingredients came in separate little baggies.

The instructions were super simple. The only time it was slightly confusing was when it called for lemon & orange zest. It didn’t really say how much zest to use so I used the whole fruit.

The result was perfect. I loved the smell of the tarragon and fennel in the oven. Everything took under 30 minutes.

Can’t wait to try the next recipe tomorrow.

You can find the recipe here if you want to try it yourself.

Muskoka Roastery: Howling Wolf

March 4, 2017Drinks, FoodLeave a Comment

In my latest coffee adventure I decided to try the Muskoka Roastery’s “Howling Wolf”. This one was actually available at Longo’s.

The roast was a medium dark roast. It was full of flavour but smooth enough that people usually into medium roasts can still enjoy it.

What are your favourite non-commercial coffee beans? I want to try them all!

Groceries

March 3, 2017Food, LifeLeave a Comment

When you move out, it’s fun to do groceries because you can buy whatever you want!

I love thinking up new recipe ideas and picking up snacks. This week I will be doing things a bit differently and trying a grocery/meal delivery thing. Stay tuned!