20150712 Toronto Trip: Messini & Chatime

We had brunch earlier at Pho Dau Bo. Andrew and I had a free day, so we called our cousin, JT, and met her at Vaughan Mills. We browsed through a few stores and then made our way to Chatime.


There are so many choices! I went with the usual grass jelly roasted milk tea. Andrew wanted to try something new. Hilarity ensues.

Cozmos Souvlaki

Our family really likes Cozmos Souvlaki. We get cravings for Greek now and then. Andrew wanted Greek for his early birthday lunch last month, so we got the Family Platter with 4 lamb and 4 chicken souvlaki skewers and a gyro meat platter to feed 6 adults.





The only thing that was left after lunch was the salad and happy faces. Wait. I recall my grandpa wasn't too pleased, as he's not a fan of anything that isn't Chinese food.

~*~
Cozmos Souvlaki
196 Greenbank Rd
613-596-4040

A Greek-Inspired Wrap – July 24, 2009

I briefly considered skipping over this post since it’s only a sandwich, but then I realized that simple foods like this were the driving force behind The Diet. I would have starved to death if I couldn’t eat such flavourful and healthy meals.



Start with a single chicken breast. Slice it in half so that you end up with two smaller chicken breasts with the same spread. Continue to slice it thinly until you end up with many thin strips of chicken breast. Marinate in a splash of soy sauce, splash of balsamic vinegar, a few spoonfuls of non-creamy salad dressing, salt, and pepper. Set aside.



Prepare the vegetables. Slice zucchini and eggplant lengthwise into quarter-inch thick strips. If they’re too thin, they’ll cook too quickly over the grill, and you’ll lose the tender bite. Quickly throw together another batch of the marinade above, and toss in the eggplant. Clean and slice the red pepper into quarters.



Slice cucumbers into sticks, thinly slice red onions, and bring out the condiments (zesty Italian salad dressing, red pepper hummus, feta cheese, and my special garlic mayo).



The garlic mayo was nothing more than four or five cloves of garlic, minced and stirred into a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise with a squirt of Sriracha hot sauce. It’s one of the smelliest sauces I’ve ever encountered, and it definitely leaves you with terrible breath. I don’t recommend this to be eaten around anyone else but family.



Assemble with warmed pitas and a little bit of everything. This was awesome straight off the grill, but it tasted good the next day, too! I found that the vegetables tasted flat after they cooled, so I stored them in a container with leftover marinade. The grilled vegetables soaked up the liquid, lending it a different flavour the next day.

I really enjoyed this because it filled me up without too much junk. Of course, the feta and the garlic mayo probably weren't great for The Diet, but it's all about using them in moderation for the flavour. Next time I make this, I'll cut the zucchini and eggplant thicker for a meatier bite to the sandwich/wrap. The thin slices turned mushy on the grill, and the texture turned me off a little. On the whole, this little dish was one of my favourite Diet-friendly recipes last summer!

An “Okay” Dinner at Windmills – September 15, 2009

While I’ve raved about experiencing a spectacular dinner at Windmills, I was rather disappointed with this one. The food was okay, the service was a little lacking, and the value wasn’t quite there. I only took a few pictures at the start of the meal. I didn’t feel like putting the effort into blogging about a meal that didn’t seem to have a lot of effort put into it.



First, I started with an iced tea. It’s hard to go wrong with a fountain drink.





Then the bread basket arrived, along with the Portuguese mussels. Windmills used to have a “Mussels of the Day” feature, but I think they got rid of that idea months ago.

The mussels were cooked with chorizo, generous amounts of sausage, wine, and cilantro. Normally, the mussels contain lots of broth. This time, there was about two tablespoonfuls of broth at the bottom of the bowl, so I was unable to enjoy my favourite part of eating mussels, sopping up the flavourful broth with massive amounts of bread.

Jimmy ordered the crusted lamb chops, which came with a side of pureed veggies (cauliflower? turnips?), yogurt-mint sauce, and prunes. He felt the flavour combination was a little strange, so we ended up switching entrées after he had taken a few bites. It tasted rather boring, until I bit into a prune. It suddenly made sense! It was a “Eureka!” moment. The strong herbs, mild mint sauce, gamey lamb, and gentle sweetness of the prunes worked really well together. However, after a few bites, the flavour combination began to bore my taste buds again. I would not order this again.

I ordered the featured salad in an attempt to stick to The Diet. It was a mixed green salad with Fuji apples, pomegranate, mandarin oranges, fennel, and a roasted lemon vinaigrette. I added a chicken breast to it, since it didn’t sound substantial enough to be a dinner entrée. I loved this salad! The bright, summery flavours really made my night. I have become quite partial to fruits in my salads, so make of it what you will. Jimmy really enjoyed the salad. Skeptical at first, he said he was surprised at how well the vegetables paired with the fruit and the vinaigrette. He didn’t like the chicken breast because it was dry and tasteless, but otherwise, he said it was a dish he’d like to eat again.

I mentioned the service was lacking, but truthfully, the waitress was adequate. She was polite, asked about our food, refilled our drinks, and did all the right things. It seemed like she really didn’t want to be working that night, which is fine, but there was no extra effort, no genuine friendliness in her manner. I didn’t realize how much I value service until that night. I know I judged her quite harshly, but only because I’ve received excellent service from her before.

We used a coupon from the “Welcome Back” magazine that granted us 10% off an entrée with the purchase of another entrée and drink (I believe). Even with that discount, the bill came to $75 including tax and tip. At this point, though we both truly loved that salad, I doubt I’ll be craving Windmills anytime soon. Now that I know what goes into the salad, I can just as easily make it myself at home, ensuring good food and perfect service for great value!

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Lunches with Lucy: Tomato Vegetable Soup, Chicken Souvlaki Pita, Banh Mi, and Pasta Salad – June 1 to 5, 2009

I don’t remember much about these lunches, so I’ll just type my notes out.

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Tomato Veggie Soup and Veggie Panini from Café Deluxe – June 1, 2009

On June 1st, I had just started with The Diet. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ll write a separate post about the rules of The Diet. There’s a quick explanation here.

Anyway, needless to say, eating lunch downtown can be hard on anyone with a diet to stick to.

I started by eating more soup because soup is a great way to eat more vegetables in a non-boring way. I noticed that many soups are really salty, which is bad for The Diet.



This soup, however, was almost perfect. It was salty and tangy without being too salty or tangy. The large chunks of vegetables were definitely filling. I totally inhaled this soup because it reminded me of my mum’s tomato vegetable soup.

I also ate a grilled vegetable and feta panini, but I didn’t take any pictures. This is one of my favourite sandwiches. It contains grilled zucchini and eggplant, red peppers, red onions, tomatoes, and feta cheese. If you’re lucky, your sandwich may be overflowing with feta because the amount you receive is wholly dependent on who made your sandwich.

The grilled veggies were mushy to the point of being creamy—not good. The sandwich was packed with herbs and seasonings (oregano and something else I can’t place), but it needed a smidge more salt. It did match well with the soup, which was a tad salty. The feta wasn’t evenly distributed throughout the panini, so some bites didn’t have cheese at all. Those bites were sad mouthfuls. In the end, I liked it, and I even wrote, “Mouth is happily stinky!”

This cost $7.86 with tax.

~ * ~

Pita Extreme (As I Like to Call It) – June 3, 2009

For some strange reason, I keep calling Extreme Pita “Pita Extreme.” Maybe working around Francophones has finally rubbed off on me, but I do end up sounding a little stupid when “Pita Extreme” slips out.

Anyway, convinced that soup will help me stick within The Diet, I had it again from Extreme Pita.



I got a small cup of Italian wedding soup. The pasta was mushy, but that was to be expected. After all, it had been sitting in a vat all morning. The meatballs were flavourful and yummy, but the texture was too bouncy and ended up feeling overprocessed. The spinach didn’t taste like anything. It did make me feel like I was eating a little healthier, though. The soup itself wasn’t too salty, which surprised me. I inhaled this little cup of soup, too. When I looked at the Extreme Pita website, I found out that the soup is from Campbell’s. This explains its general deliciousness because I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE Campbell’s canned soups! That sounds gross, but I don’t care.



As a little aside, Extreme Pita has a neat way of packaging their wraps. The paper is perforated halfway down, and you’re supposed to peel off the top half to access the pita, instead of taking it out of the wrapper and making a huge mess of things. The instructions are even printed on the napkins! I still managed to make a mess, but that was entirely caused by my slobbish manners rather than a lack of insructions.



I ordered the most delicious-sounding thing on the menu: the chicken souvlaki wrap. I only found out later that day that it also happened to be the wrap that had the most calories. Oops!

The pita itself was half whole wheat and half white, which I thought was neat. It certainly didn’t affect the flavour much. The wrap was lukewarm by the time I ate it because the chicken heated up the toppings. That made it rather meh. I would have liked more feta to perk it up, but I always want more cheese.

The chicken got lost in all of the vegetables, and I barely tasted it at all. The generic black olives were boring. It’s supposed to be a Greek pita, so shouldn’t they use good, Greek olives? The tomatoes were flavourless gobs, and they probably should have been chopped instead of sliced. I had a lot of problems trying to bite through them without pulling the entire slice out of the wrap. I think part of the blandness of the wrap could be partially attributed to the dressing they used. It felt a little oily, which could have easily muted the other flavours in the pita.

I noticed afterwards that it wasn’t overly stinky. It’s a good thing for most people working in an office environment, but I was having problems with eating a lot bland food. I need some element of stinky or spicy or tangy in order to enjoy food within The Diet.

The soup was $1.49 and the wrap (small) was $5.49. It wasn’t bad for a lunch under $10, but I could have gotten better food for the same price elsewhere. Also, the cashier didn’t attempt to upsell me to a combo which also includes another snack item or drink. Normally, this doesn’t bother me, but when I realized later that afternoon that I could have gotten more value for my money, I was annoyed.

~ * ~

Vie Bella and Homemade Banh Mi – June 4, 2009



I ordered a large cup of minestrone soup from Vie Bella, fully intent on eating within The Diet. It was chock full of vegetables: onions, celery, carrots, zucchini, green beans, corn, potato, wax beans, and peas. It was like eating a garden! It also had pasta which was mush. At the bottom of the cup, I found bits of ham. They were probably deli meat rinds. I normally don’t mind this, but if I were vegetarian, I would be pretty upset by this.

The soup itself was neither salty enough nor flavourful enough. It came off rather blah. It tasted healthier than the Italian wedding soup from Extreme Pita, but the Italian wedding soup tasted a lot better. The crackers made the soup awesome.



I bought the pasta salad from Vie Bella on a whim. I knew I had a sandwich waiting for me, but I was really craving the pasta salad. When I brought it back to my desk, I didn’t intend on eating it. The soup wasn’t interesting to eat, so I had a few bites of the pasta salad. Before I knew it, the pasta salad was gone! Another oopsie. Apparently the pasta salad was good that day, except for the overdone fusili, but the cheese and olives made up for it. I was almost full at this point.



The night before, we grilled some marinated chicken thighs for dinner. I used the leftovers to assemble an interpretation of a banh mi sandwich. I baked one of those half-baked, frozen baguettes from Costco, spread it with pepper pâté, cut up the chicken, and tossed in coleslaw and cilantro. I was surprised that it never occurred to me to make banh mi at home.

It didn’t taste quite the same as buying one from Toronto or Montréal, but it was still pretty damn good. Unfortunately, the large cup of soup and pasta salad completely filled me, so I only had a few bites. I left the sandwich in the fridge to eat for lunch the next day.



To wash it all down, I bought a bottle of green tea ginger ale from Canada Dry. I really love this stuff! I love ginger ale to begin with, so adding a hit of green tea made it super DUPER awesome! I think I have this at least once a week because it’s so good. I like to add water to it after I’ve already finished half the bottle, to water down the carbonation. It’s such a pleasant, mellow soft drink.

In total, I spent $7.50 on my lunch. The pop was about $2.00 and the small container of pasta salad cost $2.85 before tax. These pricey items are definitely a treat thing because I can’t justify spending that much on such small items all the time.

~ * ~

Café Deluxe’s Blannnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Soup – June 5, 2009



I still had the banh mi leftover from the day before, so I just grabbed a cup of soup. This time, I went to Café Deluxe for chicken noodle. The noodles were HUGE and were totally mush. The kind of mush that disintegrates in your mouth when it touches your tongue. The kind of mush that induces involuntary gagging.

The broth was flavourless and very greasy. It was also very hot, which definitely surprised me. I was upset because I burnt my tongue to shit for expensive, flavourless hot noodle water (Friends reference anyone?).



I found tons of pre-ground black pepper swimming at the bottom of the bowl. This perplexed me. How could there be this much pepper, and yet STILL have no flavour whatsoever? I was not happy with this and wouldn’t order it again.

The soup cost $3.94. Ouch.

On a much happier note, I loved the banh mi, but no surprise there.

~ * ~

Café Deluxe
77 Metcalfe Street
(Albert and Metcalfe, facing the bus shelters)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-2226

Extreme Pita
108 Bank Street
(Bank and Albert)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 680-7483

Vie Bella
87 Sparks Street
(Between Metcalfe and Elgin)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 230-0666

Lunches with Lucy: Souvlaki, Chicken Parmagiana, Italian Subs, and Pasta Salad

Chicken Souvlaki Platter from Café Deluxe – May 26, 2009

As I’ve mentioned before, I like getting my lunches from Café Deluxe. They’re a little pricey for lunch, but they offer a great variety.

I ordered the chicken souvlaki platter, which comes with a side Greek salad.



The chicken was slightly too dry and slightly too bland. Fortunately, the rice was awesome. Each bite was filled with chicken-y goodness. The rice was perfectly cooked, which is highly unusual for a fast food place.

The salad had romaine, onions, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and feta cheese. I don’t remember much about it, except that it was overdressed.

I don’t remember the price, but normally it comes to $11-$13 after tax.

~ * ~

Chicken Parmagiana from Shakey’s – May 28, 2009



Shakey’s is located in the World Exchange Centre food court, so its line ups can be daunting. The menu is hit-and-miss, and sadly, this time was a miss.



I probably should have gotten a sandwich after seeing this stuff sitting in their giant trays.

The platter comes with the chicken parmesan (a fried, breaded chicken cutlet smothered in marinara and sprinkled with cheese), rice, and your choice of salad.

The chicken was atrocious. The cutlet itself was properly seasoned, but the sauce was overly salty and tangy. It was completely one-dimensional flavour. In any tomato-based sauce, there should always be a hint of sweetness. I definitely didn’t get any of that. Worse, I was unable to scrape off the sauce so that I could just eat the cutlet. The sauce soaked the breading right through. Blech.

The rice was overdone and completely bland. Totally different from when I had eaten the chicken souvlaki rice.

The pasta salad was the biggest disappointment. It was oily, flavourless, and starchy. The peppers were the best part of the salad because they were sweet and fresh. There just wasn’t enough of them to carry the salad. Once I ran out of peppers, I couldn’t continue eating the overcooked, mushy pasta.

Since getting this, I have avoided the platters at Shakey’s. The chicken breast sandwich is a better deal. I didn’t write down the price of this, but I imagine it came up somewhere between $8-$11.

~ * ~

Italian Sub #2 and Pasta Salad from Vie Bella – May 29, 2009

This is normally my stand-by sandwich place. I am completely in love with the spicy eggplant pickles, and would take one of these subs over a lifetime of Subway’s sandwiches.



Here, I got the #2 (prosciutto, spicy salami, spicy capicollo ham), all dressed. You pay about $5 for a quality sandwich that will fill you, unlike at Subway. The sandwich is quite substantial, and you can see all the toppings they jam in there. The bread is crusty and chewy without being so chewy that you can’t take a proper bite. They toast it, which makes the little shop smell amazing.

After a few bites, you realize that there is a slight, lingering spiciness. It felt like a warm glow in my throat, not a choking kind of spicy. I liked that part.

The service here is pretty fast because they have one person on cash, one person assembling the sub and putting it in the toaster, and one dressing the sub. Subway could learn a lot from this crazy efficient assembly line.



That day, I was feeling hungrier than usual, and I was craving a good pasta salad. I also bought a small container of their pasta salad. It has bits of red and green peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, green olives, feta cheese, parsley, and red onions. It’s pretty expensive at $2.85, but it’s far more delicious than the crap salad I got from Shakey’s.

This time, however, the pasta was overcooked and mush, and there wasn’t enough cheese. The dressing didn’t have enough vinegar, which would have balanced the olive oil nicely.

The total for the day’s lunch came to $8.85. Definitely recommended!

~ * ~

Addresses:

Café Deluxe
77 Metcalfe Street
(Albert and Metcalfe, facing the bus shelters)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 231-2226

Shakey’s Deli
45 O’Connor Street, 100 Queen Street, and 111 Albert Street
(World Exchange Plaza food court)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 234-2244

Vie Bella
87 Sparks Street
(Between Metcalfe and Elgin)
Ottawa, ON
(613) 230-0666