toronto – Page 23 – Tiana Feng

Burger Day @ Wychwood Barns

June 3, 2013June 3, 2013Food1 Comment

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.

This juicy burger from Habits Gastropub looks pretty plain photo-wise but it had the best flavour. It was stuffed with short ribs and cheddar. The citrus beet-relish was my favourite part.

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!

Henry’s Exposure Show

June 2, 2013Art, PhotographyLeave a Comment

On Saturday, I attended Henry’s Exposure Photo & Video Imaging Show. It was camera gear galore but there were also mini stations to practise different types of photography. I was carrying the heavy 70-200mm which I’m not quite used to yet but I was happy with the results.

Parrots in the bird station.

An alternative burlesqueish model.

There was this random couple (or so I think) posing for fake wedding photos. I edited these shots to make them softer and wedding-like.

Random girl on a motorcycle

There was this awesomely lit chair where you could sit and take your own photographs and my parents wanted some photos.

And some more random photos:

It was fun shooting in different styles and I think I didn’t do too badly!

The Tulip

May 22, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

We were down by the Woodbine beach area for Victoria’s Day and decided to hit up some local eats. There was too long of a line for fast things and ended up in a diner called The Tulip. The menu was reasonably priced.

I ordered the 2-piece fish and chips and Nash had the chicken parmesan sandwich. Some random buttered bread was served as we waited for our food. The service was very nice. The food portions were gigantic. However, I found my fish and chips to lack seasoning. There wasn’t really any salt on the fries, so I seasoned it myself at the table. My stomach was also iffy after which was horrible since we were hanging by the beach for the rest of the night.

Victoria’s Day at Ashbridges Bay

May 21, 2013Art, Photography1 Comment

I spent Victoria’s Day at Ashbridges Bay relaxing by the beaches. We took a walk along the board-walk and visited the skate park.

At night, we braved the chill to see their spectacular fireworks. My favourite part was when the many fireworks dispersed into what looked like mini stars.

Victoria's Day @ Ash Bridges Bay 5/20/2013

Sodastream Kraft Launch Party

May 10, 2013May 10, 2013Drinks, FoodLeave a Comment

I was invited to the Soda Stream Kraft launch party last night by the fine folks at The Mint Agency. To be honest, I had not previously known about the company and went out of curiosity and of course as a freelancer, couldn’t resist free food and drinks!The event took place at 2nd Floor Events on King Street West.The space was decorated with bottle decor to fit Sodastream’s campaign of saving the earth from bottles. The idea of Sodastream is for customers to have a system at home where they can carbonate their own water and make DIY sodas, therefore cutting down on the need to buy pop bottles.

Since it was the Kraft launch, we had the opportunity to sample the Kool-aid, Crystal Light and Country Time lemonade flavours. They were pretty good and tasted exactly like you’d expect the carbonated versions to taste like. With the exception of some added vodka, since it was a party.

The evening was catered by Brassaii who served various finger foods.
Oh, and I can’t forget about the glorious candy bar. I definitely smuggled some home.

At the end of the night, the invited guests got to take home gift bags with a Sodastream Source machine!

Here’s everything unboxed. They even threw in full bottle of the lemonade flavouring.

The normal kit comes with only 9 trial flavours. 1 of the packages makes a bottle.

To use the machine, the included bottle needs to be filled with cold water (because who likes warm soda?). Then you stick it in the machine and press down until your optimum fizziness as indicated by the LED lights. The machine doesn’t need to be plugged into anything and there was no included instructions on batteries. The first time we tried it I don’t think we pressed down hard enough because we didn’t see bubbles, but we definitely did eventually!

I had a cherry coke-lover in the house so we gave this a test.

The verdict: tastes like regular cherry coke with a lot less sugar. There’s only 7 grams compared to the 25g of sugar in coke. I think the health (and taste) aspect is a bigger seller than the environmental concerns.

DIY type people would enjoy this product. I think it would also be fun to host and play bartender at a party full of Sodastream mixed drinks with this machine!

Lunch @ Northwood

April 30, 2013May 2, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Yesterday I was at the Exclaim! office helping out and for lunch I was looking for something sandwich-y. I remembered Northwood opened up close-by. I went in and asked if they served food. Although they didn’t have a formal menu yet, they gave some sandwich suggestions.

I had a turkey sandwich with a mini edamame salad. It was only around $5 ish. I enjoyed the light seasoning on the beans. The sandwich had an interesting dijon mustard, cheese and lettuce.

It’s a cafe, so I had to buy some coffee. I had a mocha.

I heard Northwood is also a great night-time hangout with cocktails and draft beer. It’s hard to believe this cozy little new place used to be a dingy Chinese restaurant.

Fried Chicken @ The White Brick Kitchen

April 25, 2013April 25, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The White Brick Kitchen is nestled in the middle of Koreatown. It’s the perfect place to go to if you’re in the area and looking for something that is not bibimbap or pork bone soup. They serve American comfort food. The menu includes things like burgers, salads, fried chicken, mac n cheese, chilli and more.

On Foursquare their Buttermilk Fried Chicken ($17) was highly recommended so that’s what I went for. For my side I chose the mixed greens in a lemon vinaigrette. It also came with two scallion biscuits which were nice and moist. Nash loves green onions, so he was a huge fan.

The fried chicken, was probably the best fried chicken I have ever had. It was also literally half a chicken, so quite worth the hefty price tag. There was a honey mustard dipping sauce with it but I accidentally thought that was salad dressing. Silly me, but it still worked in the salad. It didn’t matter because the chicken batter was so delicious (and strangely creamy) that it didn’t need any dipping.

Nash ordered the Brisket Burger ($13) with a side of BBQ kettle chips. They reminded me a lot of my home-made potato chips. The brisket burger had some lovely pickles (which they brine in house). The burger itself was very light. Additional toppings were a bit expensive, but I had enough chicken to feed the both of us.

We’ll definitely be back soon for brunch where they have housemade beef bacon and deep fried eggs!

Frankie’s Burgers

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I saw Frankie’s on Restaurant Makeover but I didn’t know it was right at Queen and Ossington (an intersection I frequent). The new signage bravely deems it “World’s Best Burgers” and as a burger lover, I had to try it.

I had the Smokin’ Hot Honey with a side of fries. It had jalapenos, crunchy onions jalapehno havarti, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and smoke mayo. It was pretty much the meat lovers type of burger. My favourite part of it was probably the sweet BBQ sauce. The fries were homemade with sea salt. The portion sizes were very generous

Nash had the Aristotle burger which was a lot like a Greek salad on a burger. His sweet potato fries came with BBQ sauce.

While the burgers were pretty good I don’t know if I’d consider them the “World’s Best”. They’re not particularly unique or special but they definitely don’t disappoint.

Come and Get Poutine

April 9, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Come and Get It is a pop-up restaurant located in a little space on Spadina (close to Queen) where Ackee Tree used to be. The restaurant is very temporary because soon it will disappear to condo developments. This could be a few months or years, so who knows.

The place itself has a very 90s-punk atmosphere with graffiti style bathroom stores. They also love vintage 90s stuff like lunch boxes, N64 and New Kids on the Block.

The menu has four options that can be prepared as either a sandwich, salad or poutine. Besides the herbed-crusted green beans, it was really hard to choose.
I opted for the Hawaiian Pork Belly poutine. I really liked the BBQ sauce and the pork belly. There was even crispy pork crackling that reminded me of the skin on Chinese roast pig, the ones you see hanging in the windows in China Town. That was one of my favourite things growing up as a child.

Nash really wanted the jerk chicken, but they ran out so he tried the Chipotle Short Rib as a poutine. There were crispy onions on top. The meat was melt in your mouth, but I didn’t really find it spicey which I would imply in something labeled Chipotle.

The serving size was very large (maybe twice the size of Poutini’s regular), and quite worth what you paid for. I hope this place remains at the spot for a little while. It is great pre-concert food and I would love to try all the options!

Tickling Our Tastebuds at Banjara

April 3, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

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!