BiteMe

Frozen Yogurt in Toronto

Fri, 24 May 2013 01:42 -0500

Nelson: After trying some Frozen Yogurt places in Vancouver and liking, I figured there must be some in Toronto. I have definitely heard of Yogen Fruz as I see them at malls and such and decided to finally try it. I selected a "ü sensations" with the flavour of the key lime pie with graham cookie crumbs. I didn't like it that much as it tasted manufactured and fake. Maybe it's just that flavour, but not a good first impression.

Just walking around after a meal, I found one in North York called Yogurty's. Apparently it's a chain, but I have never noticed it here. We tried the mango and green tea flavours and couldn't resist adding some Maltesers. Not as much variety as Menchies, but still good tasting. I'll keep an eye out in the summer for more Yogurty's.

Heritage Fish and Chips

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:11 -0500

dre: It's hard to go out to eat when you don't want to wake up a sleeping baby, so we've been getting a lot of take out. One Saturday afternoon, we really craved fish and chips, so Mike went out to Heritage to get some. I've never been to this location before, and Mike told me that it's an actual restaurant, not just a take out place. I believe this is the original location in Brampton.

We got the lunch special, which is 2 pieces of haddock and Mike tried their poutine. They gave us A LOT of fries! The poutine was a little strange, because they had microwaved the Styrofoam container to melt the cheese (health hazard??), but Mike still enjoyed it.

The fish was good, but soggy because we didn't have it fresh, but because of the amount of fries, we were stuffed and lethargic for the rest of the afternoon!

Freddy's Kitchen

Wed, 22 May 2013 01:35 -0500

Nelson @ Mississauga: This is a Jamaican place and I like Jamaican food. This is the a simple jerk chicken, but it had a great jerk flavour and it was very moist. Rare to find that combination. It wasn't too spicy overall, but it was pretty boney. The rice was topped with beans and goat/oxtail? sauce that made it very moist and enjoyable to eat except for adding more bones to the rice. I really wished there were plantains instead of raw tomatoes. So good flavours, just be careful with the bones!

Starbucks Breakfast

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:08 -0500

dre @ Bramalea City Centre: We frequent this Starbucks to get our coffee fix. I think Mike knows the names of all the baristas that work there. One morning, we walked over to get some breakfast. Mike got a breakfast sausage sandwich there. I didn't try any as it had cheese, but he said that even though it's a little on the pricey side, it was tasty and he would get it again.

On another occasion, I went to Starbucks one afternoon to take advantage of their half price frappuccinos. I tried the vanilla bean frap and regretted it. It was too sweet and not very good.

Druxy's Reuben

Mon, 20 May 2013 01:28 -0500

Nelson @ Mississauga: Wednesday is Reuben day, so for $7.50 it comes with a sandwich, coleslaw (or potato salad), pickle and drink. Usually my homemade sandwiches only include one or two slices of meat, but having so much (about 6 oz.) when eating out is a luxury. Probably unhealthy too, but that's what makes it good. I liked this Reuben, especailly because of the dijon mustard. The buttered dark rye is toasted on a flat grill and made for a weird textured surface on the bread, but at least the cheese was nicely melty. The coleslaw was only soso. Overall, I would eat this again!

Apple Pie with Ice Cream

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:24 -0500

dre: These are 2 grocery store items. The first is the apple pie from Fresh Co. It was a giant apple pie on sale for $8.99 so I had to pick it up. It looked really attractive because it had a criss-cross top. Unfortunately, it looked better than it tasted. I found that it had too much sugar coating that it was very sticky and took away from the apples.

The ice cream is the President's Choice Cookies and Cream brand that I bought also on sale for $2. The ice cream isn't the best, but it had tons of cookies in the ice cream, which made it really good! I would get this again!

Big Chubby Burger

Sat, 18 May 2013 01:10 -0500

Nelson @ Kensington Market: We stopped by this (now) closed burger joint which must struggle to standout from all the different choices in Kensington Market.

I had the Torontonian with Havarti, cheddar, bacon, back bacon rosemary garlic mayo for $10. Yeah a little excessive, definitely over the top and a future heart attack. The grease pooled in the bottom, but I appreciated the plentiful amount of vegetables. Unhealthy, but good.

I don't know if this is possible, but the fries tasted like they were overcooked and then loaded with salt. Could be better.

The classic burger ($5.95) is pretty typical. The patty is all beef and I could taste a hint of ground pepper and especially cumin. I asked the chef and they confirmed what I was tasting. I didn't taste the rosemary garlic mayo too strongly in either burger.

Overall has some unique burgers, but still tasted homemade and hard for it to standout from all the choices in Kensington Market. I guess that's why they are closed now?

The Mandarin

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:46 -0500

dre @ Steeles & Biscayne: For my dad's birthday, he wanted to go to the Mandarin. I've only been here for lunch once, and that was many years ago. I was very surprised at the price difference between lunch and dinner. Dinner seems like the biggest mark-up, as it's almost double the lunch price. Crab legs (or whatever is in season) does not cost THAT much, does it?

Every time I come here, I always start in the same area - the sushi and grill. There were a couple of rolls - cucumber, chicken teriyaki, and sweet potato. On the grill, there was sausage, ribeye steak, and pineapple with cinnamon. Then on the other side, there were dumplings (pot stickers), steamed pork bun and spinach with garlic.

For my next plate, I went to the main food area. Everything was pretty good, and the Shanghai noodles surprised me the most. The texture was good and tasted pretty fresh. That was the only thing I got seconds.

My third plate was the other side of the main area and I got more deep fried items like chicken wings and spring rolls.

Dessert is my favourite, so I started off with some cookies and a gross chocolate dipped croissant.

Then I went all out and had a slice of chocolate cake (very fresh) with cookies and cream ice cream, a slice of apple pie with cookie dough ice cream, and a waffle with red velvet cake ice cream.

I was extremely stuffed for lunch, but I think the $14 is much better value than the $26 (weeknights) for dinner.

Helen & Glendon Wedding Banquet

Thu, 16 May 2013 01:51 -0500

Nelson: We almost booked this place for our wedding as we liked what they offered, but the size of their rooms didn't work out for us. Anyway, we got a chance to check out their food.

The menus says "Perfect Beginning, Whole Sparkling Succulent Suckling Pig Pieces w/ Jelly Fish". I didn't get a picture of the jelly fish because it came out 10 minutes after the pork came out. The pork was good though.

"Crispy Crab Claw wrapped with shrimp mousse" Always good, especially when it comes out hot.

"Jumbo scallops and chicken fillet saute with greens and mushroom"

Instead of shark fin soup we had double boiled consomme with fish maw, sea cucumber, conpoy and mushroom. It tasted good overall with strong flavours for a Chinese soup. I like this change for environmental reasons.

Strangely, the crispy chicken came with mini quiche. I have never seen that before. Unfortunately I'm not a fan of quiche and didn't think it was too special. It was unique though.

The "conpoy with pea's sprouts" I did not like almost as if it wasn't cooked correctly. Kitty didn't think there was anything wrong. Maybe I just didn't like the dried scallop.

Fresh fish steamed with scallion and soya. I got the fish head! I didn't actually eat it all, but I did take the cheeks.

I didn't get a picture of the "lobsters wok baked in supreme sauce with broccoli"...because I was too busy eating it! It was really good and the best part was that not many at my table liked lobster I probably ate at least half of the dish!

At this point I went outside to take a few photos of the dessert tables. Not only did they have Chinese style desserts, but also Italian style desserts! So much dessert!

Here are some rich cakes. I tried the chocolate mousse cake.

Some chinese milk/fruit based dessert.

Goji pudding. I didn't take any.

Never seen tuxedo sesame pudding and I tried it, but it looks more interesting than it tastes. Still decent though.

Tiramisu Mousse cup. Interesting idea, but didn't taste as good as I was expecting. Perhaps expectations were too high.

Mini pastries.

Perfect pair tartlets. Maybe it's pear. Maybe it's a pair of ingredients. Who knows?

Fruit

E-fu noodles braised in abalone essence with baby greens and rainbow & taro fried rice in lotus leaf packet.

Mango/coconut mochi served at the table. I like these.

Fruit tartlets.

Not sure what this is, but I think it's a Chinese dessert.

More Chinese Dessert.

And finally, Kitty's favourite: the Chocolate fountain. They even had cream puffs to dip into! The wedding cake was a cupcake platter.

Hardly knew anyone at this wedding (except for randomly bumping into Jo and John), but it was huge and the food was decent. Yay!

Japanese Chicken

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:46 -0500

dre: Don't ask me why this is called Japanese Chicken. During university, we made this almost everyday, which leads me to think why all that soy sauce didn't give me high blood pressure. It's a yummy dish and once in a while I still make it. I stir-fried some zucchinis to go with the chicken and rice.