I may have grown up to be pretty Canadianized but the one thing I can’t leave behind is Asian snacks. All North American junk food cannot compare to the chocolate koala bears, flavoured Pocky sticks, ramune soft drinks, jelly cups and bizarre flavoured chips. The East was always ahead of the game in terms of adventurous snacks.
I found a Korean grocery store across from work and now my desk is stashed full of treats. What are your favourite treats as a kid (or even now)?
Burger Week was last week and 64 restaurants around town put a special $5 on their menu. Yesterday, all these places gathered together at Artscape Wychwood Barns for Burger Day. Slider versions of the participating restaurants’ $5 burger were served all-you-can eat style.
The event started at 11am, but we didn’t arrive until 1:30. A few of the vendors had already given out all their burgers. If Soup Stock last year taught me anything, long lines don’t necessarily mean the best product. This pushed us to try some less buzzed places with shorter lines.
We pounced on Emma’s Country Kitchen’s line because it was short. This was a vegan burger but it was a nice light start. The crispy corn and chickpea fritter was actually very good! I could eat 10 of these.
Hey Meatball‘s slider was like a mini version of their sandwich with their signature tomato jam.
Gameday served up a classic tasting burger. I think mine was missing teh chimichurri.
New food start-up Bold Creations was the best finding of the day. Their burger was made with Boerewors a South-African sausage. Oh and there was also brie, and goat cheese. And a sauce with a kick. Definitely the flavour punch of the day.
Greasy spoon The Lakeview‘s slider had some crunchy onions.
I love The Works but I thought their (more half burger) slider was lacking the excitement that is usually found in the restaurant’s menu of 72 burgers.
Slider Revolution provided an Asian twist on our bunned friend and the other had a semi-sweet bacon jam.
We accidentally stood in Beer Bistro‘s line for fries that came in a generous portion (for free).
Utopia Cafe had a lovely Italian sausage and beef patty. It was juicy and had a spicey ketchup.
Stockyards had by far the longest line yesterday. Coincidentally we actually went to the actual restaurant on Friday to grab the full burger. It was so packed we had to sneak our burger to the McDonalds across the street to eat it. It was definitely worth the trip for their delicious chicken-fried-steak burger.
Next year I’m definitely going to try to get there close to opening hour!
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.
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!
When I went grocery shopping last weekend, I found in the sale section, the Nestle C[RAVE]. They were discounted to 50 cents each and came in the shape of the mini ice creams you can buy at the convenient stores. I bought a chocolate one and a strawberry one.
I tried the chocolate one first. It was a soft and mousse-like ice cream. At 325 calories for the entire container, it was a pretty decent tasting. It tasted pretty much like regular chocolate ice cream. Then my sister opened my strawberry and it was completely watery and melted. However, there isn’t very much information on the containers or any of the Nestle websites that tell you it’s supposed to be ice cream. In fact, at the store and online they are labeled as Nestle C[RAVE] shakes. So, was that supposed to be melted?
I am rather confused.
We went back the next day (because they are still on sale), to buy more of them. We figured maybe we picked up one defected one. This time, we squeezed the containers and didn’t pick any that seemed way too soft to be ice cream. Many of them were “melted”. Part of me still wonders if they are supposed to be that way to live up to the shake aspect of the name. We chose to pretend they’re ice cream and went for the more frozen ones.
Does anybody out there know what they really are? If it is a shake, it makes a lousy one. If it’s ice cream, it makes a yummy dietary conscious one.
Having the house to myself again means more cooking adventures. Today I decided to make good ol’ Mac n Cheese from scratch. I read a bunch of recipes and basically did a spin of my own with whatever ingredients I had on hand. I used a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar as well as some thyme that was leftover from a random turkey I roasted last week (my parents liked the one I made at Christmas that much). I also added onion and bacon on top as garnish and it turned out delicious and worth making from scratch. I’m sure we all have KD in the cupboard right?
Here is my take on classic.
Tiana Feng 