octopus – Tiana Feng

Farmer’s Daughter near Junction may be one of my favourite new eats. The seafood restaurant is the “daughter” of Farmhouse Tavern which is located right across the street. I haven’t actually been to the tavern yet, but I’m sure that will change soon! The daughter restaurant is still fairly new and open only for brunch and dinner on certain days.

The slogan “Fried shrimp and friendship” is plastered on their signage outside and on a neon sign inside. Obviously, we had to try the fried shrimp ($9). I totally felt where their slogan came from. The shrimp was so good I wanted to hog them to myself, but I love Nash enough that I would share. You would only share these shrimp with a good friend.

The Heart N Soul ($12) was a beautiful beef tartare with salsa verde served on a beef bone with goat cheese, an egg and more.

The Octopus ($20) had a squid ink vinaigrette, sunchokes, a creamy sauce and more. There was a lovely crunch paired with tender octopus. I loved that the ink wasn’t just for aesthetic but a part of the complex flavours.

I had an (alcoholic) drink but I forgot what it was. It was a rather tasty cocktail that I believe was apple tinged.

Since dinner was amazing, we couldn’t resist finding out what the $6 desserts where. There were two that night and we ordered BOTH because YOLO. Anyways, the first was an icecream sandwich made out of ginger cookies and chocolate mousse icecream.

The second was a homemade lemon rhubarb twinkie with homemade marshmallow. Let’s just say we were very glad to have ordered both desserts.

We hope Farmer’s Daughter changes their menu up once in a while (there menu was relatively small) but I can’t wait to come back for brunch and see what else they have to offer.

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.