BiteMe

KFC, a.k.a Korean Fried Chicken

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:44 -0500

dre & Nelson @ Yonge & Glen Cameron: After seeing Nelson's Korean Fried Chicken experience in New York, and trying a place in Vancouver, we wanted to find somewhere in Toronto. After some Internet searching, I found this place just north of Steeles off of Yonge called Home of Hot Taste.

This place was really Korean, and the servers talked to us in Korean haha. We weren't really sure what to order, so we just looked at the pictures and descriptions to see what looked and sounded good.

The first dish that came out was the Blazing Fire Chicken with Korean Style Noodle. This dish should have came out last as it ruined the taste buds of all of us because it was so spicy. The sauce was really tasty, but it was really really spicy. I liked the noodles, but then, I always like noodles.

They also gave us some salad and radishes to calm down the heat.

The next 2 chicken dishes were wings, and as I look back at the pictures, I can't remember which one as which. We got Fried Chicken with Soy Garlic Sauce which was sweet, and honey-garlic-like, and the Crispy Spicy Chicken, which was not spicy at all. (Or our tongues were numbed by the first dish).

We were still not full, but not satisfied, but decided to get a whole Original Fried Chicken. We were pleased that it was chopped into pieces, and I liked this plain flavour the best.

Kitty was feeling a little sick, so she ordered a Boiled Rice Cake Soup with Oyster.

I can't say that this chicken was really good, and we're not sure if we would return.

Rishi & Shelley's Wedding Lunch

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:32 -0500

Nelson @ Le Jardin: An Indian wedding is an all day affair and often lunch is provided. This one is a completely vegetarian lunch served buffet style. First, a bunch of Indian appetizers, mostly deep fried foods. I apologize as I can't name them, except for the samosas in the second picture which I enjoyed the most. There were also two sweet dishes right before the main foods and I liked the first one best. Right after the ceremony the main lunch dishes were served starting with the rice and salad, followed by vegetarian curry, chick peas (in a milk based sauce?), potatoes, curry paneer?, rice pudding and naan.

Even though I rarely eat a vegetarian meal, this was really really filling. Hard to resists all the heavy sweets that really bust your gut.

I really really need an education on Indian food!

Warm Noodle Soup

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:43 -0500

dre @ Yonge & Steeles: Mike was craving ramen, so we met up with Brian and Shirley and went to Kenzo.

We all tried different things this time

Instead of the King of Kings, Mike tried the Netsu Ramen, which has shredded meat on top. It is described as "Sapporo-style" on the menu, but I don't know what that meant. I thought it wasn't bad, but Mike would have preferred more substantial pieces of meat.

Instead of the Ji Su Men, I tried the Orochong Ramen, which was described as Hot and Tasty Hokkaido Ramen, the most popular to the youth. It was pretty tasty, and I liked it better than the Netsu.

We also ordered some takoyaki, which is my favourite izakaya dish.

We returned to Brian and Shirley's place, where they served dessert - old-fashioned banana split!

Lonestar for Fajita Fiesta

Tue, 15 May 2012 01:16 -0500

Nelson @ YYZ vicinity: I'm not a good judge of Tex Mex food, so I think Lone Star is decent. I need to try more authentic Mexican cuisines to be able to compare and my last try in Florida yielded good results. As it happens I was eating with a Mexican American and since I don't know any in Toronto it's going to be tough.

The Fajita Fiesta (apparently Fajitas are TexMex ie Americanized Mexican food) includes mesquite-grilled steak and chicken, sauteed garlic shrimp and pork back ribs with all the fixin's. It is for two people and does come with quite a lot of food. The shrimp was surprisingly tasty, but the chicken and steak were also good. It was more difficult getting the ribs into the Fajitas, but since they came off the bone easily it was still possible. Pretty tasty overall, but I'm not a good judge.

Girls Night Out at Sukho Thai

Mon, 14 May 2012 00:39 -0500

dre @ Dundas & Parliament: I met up with Denise, Narinder and Tiffany for dinner and this time we chose Sukho Thai. It was very far for everyone, but the trek was worth it!

We ordered some appetizers, and I got some shrimp chips, not knowing that it wasn't vegetarian friendly and one person didn't eat it. So between 2 people, there were a lot of chips. I ended up taking it home, and found out Mike also didn't like them, so I ate them all by myself :)

The spring rolls were not that super memorable, but they were tasty, and I enjoyed them.

Narinder ordered the SukhoThai Pad Thai. She got it spicy, and I tried a small bite and I cried.

Denise got the Gaeng Masaman - Masaman curry w/ peanuts, tamarind sauce and shallots.

Tiffany got the Gaeng Phed - Red curry w/ squash.

I ordered the Khao Soi - yellow noodles in curry gravy with chicken. It wasn't as good as I remembered. I think the flavours was slightly sweet and it threw me off. I got it medium spicy, so it was pretty spicy for me. Also, the oil kind of turned me off as well. I'm probably going to hesitate to ordering this again, but I feel like I should give it a third try.

Fancy Chinese Cuisine

Sun, 13 May 2012 01:48 -0500

Nelson @ 14th & Kennedy: A funny name for the restaurant, but makes sense if you are Chinese.

They start you off with a basic soup that is pretty hearty for a Chinese soup. We ordered a sweet and sour pork (heavily battered, but not too much that it was bad), some Chinese vegetables that had tofu skin. You may think Tofu skin sounds gross, but I really like it as it is similar to tofu but tougher with what I think is a pleasant texture.

Next are some massive prawns in Maggi sauce. Hard to get a sense of scale from this picture, but trust me, they are huge! And Tasty!

Next are some clams in black bean sauce (a good combination), chicken, fried tofu and BBQ Pork on top of vegetables (never had this exact combination before), and green onion and garlic lobster, two kinds of mushrooms on dou miao. Then yet another sweet and sour pork dish, but this time it's with ribs. This next dish is more unique in that there are strips of pork with potato and vegetables. Something a little different and quite good.

The great thing about dessert here is there is a choice from 3 desserts! And all were really good!

Decent Chinese restaurant that I would come back to again.

Lunches at Milestones

Sat, 12 May 2012 00:38 -0500

dre in Toronto: I went to Milestones on two different occasions. The first time was with Mike's family friends, and we were at the North York location at Yonge & Empress. I am not a fan of the entrance to that place, because no one greets you downstairs in the bar area, and I don't go there frequently enough to remember to go upstairs for real service. The decor is nice and because there are so many windows, it's nice and bright as well.

I ordered the Portabello Mushroom Chicken. I've had it before, and really liked it, so I got it again. I found it was extremely salty though, and went through a lot of glasses of water.

Mike got the Prime Rib Beef Dip Sandwich. That's another favourite of mine, so I'm glad he got it, and I got a bite of it. I remember this dish used to be more epic and came with coleslaw and lots of onion strings on the side as well. I think the sandwich also used to be bigger.

For a work lunch, we went to Milestones. There are not that many restaurants to choose from, so it was Milestones. This time, I got the Italian Sausage Ravioli. I am not a fan of it being served in the long dish. It used to be in a big bowl and had tons of sauce for me to mix around. Now, it looks like the dish got smaller (it probably didn't), and it didn't taste as good as I remembered it to be. The bread was disappointing too. They used to serve this big piece of foccacia bread.

I shared a dessert with a coworker and we got The Cookie. There was nothing special about it. It was a giant chocolate fudge cookie with ice cream on top. A very small scoop of ice cream, I might add! I wouldn't recommend this overpriced ice cream, so don't be fooled by its delicious description!

Ferrovia

Fri, 11 May 2012 01:24 -0500

Nelson @ Richmond Hill: This Italian restaurant is hidden in a supermarket strip mall which is too bad because it's pretty good.

I had the prix-Fixe menu ($23.95) which started withe the Ferrovia Caesar, romaine hearts, crispy pancetta, Parmigiano & herb croutons and a grainy mustard and roast garlic dressing. The cheese was really salty, but I appreciated the conservative amount of dressing used as a Caesar salad drowning in dressing is a big pet peeve of mine.

The crusty bread service with spread was so good that we had to get extra portions. Nice to see such a nice spread come with the meal. Someone also ordered a bruschetta pizza, which I tried as well.

I had the slow braised lamb shank with a herb pan jus with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables. The lamb was extremely tender and did not taste gamey at all. The potatoes and veggies went well with this dish as they soaked up the delicious sauce quite well.

For dessert I tried the warm banana bread pudding which I finished really quickly because it was nice and warm and of course tasty.

Overall, impressed with the quality of food here and would come by again. It's just really hard to discover on your own since it is so hidden!

Tako Mississauga

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:33 -0500

dre @ Bristol & Hurontario: For Mike's mom's retirement dinner, we celebrated by heading out to Tako Sushi in Mississauga. I am no stranger to the location on Don Mills, as my aunt and uncle love to go to that place for my family dinners.

We started with some bacon wrapped scallops.

We had all ordered the Sapporo dinner set, so it came with 3 pcs Tuna Sashimi with Green Dragon Rolls. I got some California Rolls as well as shown at the back of the picture.

Separate from the dinner set, we also ordered some soft shelled crab.

Then I started to get lazy and didn't take as many pictures! I almost forgot about the salmon until there was a small piece left. I didn't take a picture of the salad and soup, nor the scallops on shell with sake sauce.

I remembered the Teppanyaki Strip Loin Steak and Mixed Vegetables.

The best and tastiest part of the meal was the Beef Fried Rice. Everything was pretty bland and they all tasted about the same.

I like going to Teppanayaki for the fun experience, but all the food end up tasting the same and I cringe at the amount of oil and butter they use.

Sababa

Wed, 09 May 2012 01:50 -0500

Nelson @ Yonge & Steeles: We were a large group so we ordered a dip platter to start including the following three plus some falafel.

Hummus with Teheena ($4.75) made with mashed Chick Peas, Sesame Seeds, Lemon Juice and Garlic.

Tzatziki ($5.25) No one makes it as potent as us. Sababa's home made pressed yogurt loaded with garlic and fresh cucumber slivers

Red Pepper Spread ($4.75) Roasted Red Pepper with Eggplant, onion and spices, a little spicy and very tasty.

Didn't like the red pepper spread much, but the other two dips were excellent.

Someone also ordered fried cheese ($5.95), slices of semi-soft, unripened Halloumi Cheese fried in Olive Oil, and this was really good. I've never tasted something like this and I enjoyed it. I'll have to look out for it again.

I had the chicken shawerma sandwich ($6.45) and it was pretty good. Not a lot of chicken, but the taste was there.

Good prices and decent food, I would come back here again.