Thanks to The Mint Agency, I attended El Catrin‘s media launch party.The Mexican restaurant, which is located at the heart of the Distillery District (where Boiler House used to be), has one of the most beautiful patios I have ever seen. The new renovations also made it appear more welcoming to a wide variety of patrons. Inside it was colourful and inviting.
We were treated with an endless supply of margaritas. I usually think margaritas have way too much salt, but these were perfectly balanced!
Various hors d’oeuvres were served. There was enough that I wish I had not eaten dinner before hand. One of my favourites were the fried fish tacos with salsa roja. There was another taco with shaved pork, axiote, pineapple, cilantro and onion that was also quite good.
Other samplings included tamatillo and cilantro marinated shrimp; seafood ceviche; pastor pork quaesadillas with pineapple and gouda cheese; and more. Dessert included a mexican take on crème brûlée and a bacon topped fudge, which was like heaven in my mouth.
Everything I sampled was full of flavour. I looked into their menu just now and it looks reasonably priced. I will definitely come back to eat the full-sized versions!
Last night, our family celebrated my parent’s Anniversary at Iron Chef Steakhouse in Mississauga. Dad’s always looking for a good Teppanyaki place in the suburbs so we thought we’d give them a try.
As a starter, we had this sashimi platter ($7) with a selection of salmon, tuna, octopus. It was very fresh. We each had our own entree off the Teppanyaki menu. They were all served with rice, salad (with Thousand Island dressing) and miso soup.
The chef fired up all our dishes (quite literally) performing tricks with knives. I didn’t see the salt and pepper toss that I’d seen previously at other similar establishments. To add some humour to the cooking, the onion volcano fire was put out with this little thing (which I hope contains only water).
I ordered the Filet Mignon and it was seasoned with butter. The meat was very tender and melt in your mouth. The portions were quite generous totally 8oz no matter what you ordered (well 10oz if you had chicken). Dad had scallops and it still came in 8ozs which is usually rare for seafood. It was a little bit pricier than other Teppanyaki restaurants but the portions are definitely more worth it. Here you are paying more for the food than the show. The meal ended with some complimentary icecream.
Overall I enjoyed the food at Iron Chef. However I want to make some comments about the service. I found our waiter to be very rushed. She had warned us that there were was a major reservation at 8:30, which was no big deal considering we got there at 7pm. The whole process of ordering, cleaning plates, asking about dessert and handing the bill seemed very rushed. The food and the chefs are excellent but I recommend a reservation if you plan on having dinner here in the future.
I spent some time this week in Hamilton visiting grandma. Me and my sister Livia decided to head to find some Pho in the area and found The Guava. Inside it looked like it had been recently renovated.
We shared an order of shrimp summer rolls. Presentation wise they were very beautiful but the giant lettuce was a bit impractical. When you finished the roll you’d be left with a chunk of lettuce.
We both had different vermicelli. I ordered the shredded pork and Livia chose chicken. The portion sizes were generous and the fish sauce was flavourful. The pork itself was flavourful and the vegetables well pickled.
The prices were a bit more expensive than similar restaurants in Toronto, but the quality of the food was great.
Indian cuisine is probably my favourite, but I rarely have people that are adventurous enough to eat it with me. I’ve walked past Banjara‘s Bloor West location regularly and the aromas are always so enticing so finally I stopped by with my friend Karol for lunch. We really wanted to try as much as we could so we had three main dishes. The waiter was very helpful in recommending new things to try so that we wouldn’t just order Tandoori or butter chicken. His personal favourite was the Shahi Shrimp ($13.99). The shrimp was cooked in coconut milk, cream and green spices. It reminded me of Thai green curry, except with more complicated flavour notes.
I chose the Goat Rogan Josh ($11.95), mostly because of the weird sounding name and the mention of Kashmiri-style curry which I have never tried. Kashmiri style usually contains combine paprika, fennel, ginger, salt, cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, and cayenne pepper. It was very fragrant and the goat was tender.
Lastly, Karol wanted to try a paneer so we got the Paneer Makhani ($9.99) which is a sort of cottage cheese cooked in tomato sauce with herbs.
Accompanying all the curry we had saffron rice which was cooked just perfect (not too hard).
Oh, and you can’t forget the Naan, so we got garlic naan that tasted like fancy garlic bread.
To drink I had a Mango Lassi, a kind of mango shake made out of yogurt. It was great for cleansing the palette and cutting the heat in between the different dishes. We couldn’t leave without also trying dessert so we shared an order of Rasmalai, described as curdled Milk balls cooked in sweet milk with saffron and pistachio flavor. Curdled milk might sound gross, but it was very light and a sweet way to end a meal. Plus, I am alive so curdled milk did not kill me.
If you’re ever looking to try out Indian cuisine for the first time, I highly recommend going to Banjara first. They have a great selection and you definitely won’t be disappointed! Don’t go to a buffet because often the spice level may not be to your tastes. When you order at Banjara, you can choose those levels. Go tickle your tastebuds now!
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!
Yesterday I attended Soupstock at Woodbine Park. There were over 40,000 people in attendance trying out soups from 85 different booths. Bands also played in support of their land. The festival existed to raise funds to stop and raise awareness for the high-land mega-quarry. To put it shortly, the Highland companies want to blast a pit deeper than the Niagara falls in more than 2300 acres of farm land in Ontario. It would also require tons of water to be removed from the pit every day, water that people who live downstream from it need. All this just for some limestone. Though many people (including myself) originally came just for the soup, most learnt about and supported the cause.
Nash signing a giant petition.
Soup tickets were $10 for 3 and me and Nash bought 6 altogether. I brought my own bowls from home. I brought these old ugly ones because we chucked them away before heading off to a concert for the night. The first soup we had was a Pumpkin, squash and pear soup. Pumpkin, squash and pear soup
The booth was in a corner, and lines were non-existent, but it was actually one of my favourites. I generally love butternut squash soup but this was perfect in texture. It was bursting with flavour and the hint of pear was lovely. It wasn’t something we immediately tasted, but when thought about, it was definitely there.
Next we braved a line at the Rock Lobster soup tent. disappointing lobster soup
We both unanimously decided that it was definitely not worth the wait. The broth was too thin, and almost water-like. It was also pretty flavourless, or rather had a strange after taste that felt like spicy, but was definitely not spicy. There were a handful of mini lobster pieces, but not enough for it to have been worth the long line.
Chilli
After that thin soup, I wanted something with more substance so we tried the chili. It wasn’t spicy, but they had plenty of hot sauce at their station to add whatever amount of heat was desired. We dabbed quite a bit and enjoyed the filling beans, meat and cheese combo.
Susur Lee serving me soup
Up until this point we were just wandering about looking at the stands without a map, but while in line for chili, I heard one of my favourite food network chefs Susur Lee was serving soup! I haven’t been to his restaurant yet (not in my budget) but I have tried a couple of his items at various other food festivals. Sunday he was serving hot and sour soup!
Hot and sour soup
To be honest, I’m not regularly a fan of hot and sour soup. I always thought it was one of those fake Asian foods made for white folk. However Susur’s was delicious! There were a ton of flavours going on including a mouthful of flowery coriander. The ingredients in his soup reminded me of shark fin soup (which I have had plenty as a kid), without the shark fin.
Since the lobster soup was a fail, we decided not to judge a soup by its line. Instead for the last two, we went to booths with virtually no line at all. The first was the Fraser Cafe which had a lemongrass noodle soup. Lemongrass noodle soup
There was a strong flavour of lemongrass, and pieces of it were visible in the soup. The noodles were thin and soaked up the flavour. Strangely, it almost kind of reminded me of the pumpkin soup in aftertaste.
Lastly, we got a potato leek soup with sweet breads in it. Potato leek w/ sweetbreads
Sweetbreads, just as a reminder is weird organ meat. We’ve tried it once before at last year’s Food and Wine festival. The potato leek soup was perfectly thick. The sweetbreads were thick and this time, we didn’t mind the texture at all. In this soup it was a soft meaty delicacy.
Though I hope the mega-quarry doesn’t happen, I hope another Soupstock does, even if to raise support for another cause. It was a lovely Sunday, with a lovely mixture of happy people, food and music.
Last week we dropped by La Revolucion at the corner of Keele and Dundas in the Junction. The place is very modestly decorated and I didn’t know at the time, but there is also a back room that holds live shows sometimes.
I ordered the Chicken mole enchiladas. Usually I’d be turned off by brown mush on my food (and I was totally hesitant), but when I tasted it, it was quite the experience in my mouth. Traditionally mole has around 20 different spices and I definitely tasted a variety in these enchiladas. I gobbled it all up.
Nash had the taquitos which were brighter in colour (more appetizing looking). They were crunchy and delicious.
Maybe we’re just giant eaters but I kind of wish there were bigger portions. I guess we were supposed to order more than just one dish each. The food is fresh and delicious but a tiny bit pricey if you’re on a budget!
Thanks to The Mint Agency, I attended El Catrin‘s media launch party.The Mexican restaurant, which is located at the heart of the Distillery District (where Boiler House used to be), has one of the most beautiful patios I have ever seen. The new renovations also made it appear more welcoming to a wide variety of patrons. Inside it was colourful and inviting.
We were treated with an endless supply of margaritas. I usually think margaritas have way too much salt, but these were perfectly balanced!
Various hors d’oeuvres were served. There was enough that I wish I had not eaten dinner before hand. One of my favourites were the fried fish tacos with salsa roja. There was another taco with shaved pork, axiote, pineapple, cilantro and onion that was also quite good.
Other samplings included tamatillo and cilantro marinated shrimp; seafood ceviche; pastor pork quaesadillas with pineapple and gouda cheese; and more. Dessert included a mexican take on crème brûlée and a bacon topped fudge, which was like heaven in my mouth. 
Tiana Feng 