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.

20150712 Toronto Trip: Pho Dau Bo

The morning following my cousin, JS's wedding, my aunt and uncle took us to a pho place for brunch. During the car ride to the restaurant, my aunt told us that she had friends from Vaughn that would drive down to this restaurant, Pho Dau Bo, located in the same plaza as Long Hui Supermarket.


They had an impressive spread of Vietnamese dishes.

We ordered a few bowls of noodles. I had to go with their pho with beef balls. My aunt said that the restaurant makes them, so of course, we were interested. They reminded me of the beef balls that we used to get from Montreal. Their beef balls were tiny though.


The soup tasted just like our homemade pho. It was very comforting because it wasn't overly sweet with a punchy cinnamon flavour. The rice noodles that the restaurant used was more slippery and bouncy than we're used to. I'm disappointed that I forgot to ask what brand of noodles they used. Were they fresh rice noodles?


Dad had their mild bun bo hue and enjoyed it. He preferred another place because they didn't add enough lemongrass here.

Their noodles stood out to me. I can see why people like this over other pho places. Their local chain has expanded to many locations in the GTA.

~*~
Pho Dau Bo
2437 Finch Ave W
North York, ON
416-749-9943
 

20150710 Toronto Trip: Chinatown

Our cousin, JS, got married back in July, so our family planned a trip to Toronto for a few days and then we were going to make our way up to Algonqiun Park for another few days. While in Toronto, we'd have some free time so we wanted to enjoy it.

My personal favourite Chinese restaurant in Toronto's Chinatown is still the House of Gourmet. It has become a family favourite too. When we made the trip down to Toronto, we had a chance to dine at House of Gourmet for our first meal: lunch. I wanted to check out the murals on the side of the restaurant before going in. I wonder what the person in the yellow was talking about.

Can't Get Enough Dumplings

I just can't stay away from this beautiful restaurant. Just look at it. We've written about this at least five times dating back to 2009 (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th). I try my best to visit the Northern Dumpling Kitchen when I'm visiting Toronto and the Greater Area of Toronto (GTA). I used to try to visit House of Gourmet for my noodles but I haven't been there in over two years (!). During this trip back in May, I wanted to bring VN and have her try soup dumplings for the first time.

Pho Tien Thanh: The Soup

There are some great perks to living downtown and being able to walk to some lovely dining options is certainly one of them. VN and KN both live just outside of Toronto's core around the Ossington neighbourhood. Yup -- that's the same place as Libretto (aka the best Neapolitan pizza I've had), but that's not what I want to talk about now. I want to talk about this small shop, Pho Tien Thanh, which is just down the street from Libretto.

VN and I walked to the pho restaurant and smelled their lovely broth about five feet away from their door. Once we took a step inside, the fragrant smell of BBQ'd pork (thit nuong) filled our nostrils. At that point, I knew we were in for a tasty dinner. The smell just invoked all the good memories of having Mom's BBQ pork. Our winter this year was very long, to say the least, and it seems like it was years ago since I had her marinated pork. We luckily got there just as the dinner rush was finishing up and so we were seated immediately in the restaurant.

I couldn't decide if I wanted to deviate from ordering pho or actually change it up and try the bún with the thit nuong. Either way, I knew it was going to be tasty. In the end, I stuck to my guns and went with the small rare beef, beef balls and well-done beef pho. Once my bowl arrived, I took a sip of the soup. The aromatics were there without being overpowering. It had none of that strong cinnamon taste like most of the pho in Ottawa's Chinatown. The soup wasn't overly sweet either. Most of the beef was actually still uncooked, which is a huge bonus! You could order some rare beef on a plate and then add it into your soup yourself for $2. I think it's unnecessary in this case though. Only the thin slices that was touching the hot soup had cooked. When I separated the slices, they cooked gently in the soup. I was thrilled that the beef was actually rare by the time it arrived.

This was the bun thit nuong cha gio that VN had ordered. We both liked how their cha gio was made with rice paper. It's the legit stuff. (For those who don't know, VN is Vietnamese. Like I said. Legit stuff.)

We washed it down with some cooling beverages. A refreshing coconut water with young coconut meat for VN and an iced Vietnamese coffee for myself. In our excitement to order, we accidently ordered the coconut water instead of the coconut slush had originally wanted.

The Asian Pear told me that if I wanted to have the best pho, I'd have to choose between two different pho establishments in Toronto: one with the slippery fresh noodles or one with an outstanding broth. Pho Tien Thanh is the latter. I wonder how their other dishes taste. The cash-only restaurant is open for business from 11am to 10pm everyday, so you have no excuses not to try out this place. I know I'll be returning in the future.

~*~

Sunday Picnic Lunch at Trinity Bellwoods Park

Today was a much-needed sunny and warm day. Although I was in Toronto for the past week, I had to get out and do something earlier today. I needed to keep busy.

Lunch was found at Clafouti Patisserie et Café. We: DG, VN, and myself, picked up some things at Clafouti and crossed the street to the busy Trinity Bellwoods Park. I really enjoyed the atmosphere there. The sakura trees still had some flowers, birds were singing away, dogs were having a blast, and people were just relaxing at the park -- it was a great atmosphere.

We found a spot in the park and ate lunch. I went with the Lana Del Rey panini. It was really exciting. There were so many flavours that complimented one another with every bite; the creaminess of the garlic lemon aioli, the burst of fried onion flavour, thinly sliced pork, and sweet bun. It was so good that I wanted another one after I devoured it. VN had a nice pulled pork panini (sans the cheese). DG had a surprisingly tasty grilled veg croissantwhich. The only complaint was that we didn't want the sandwiches to finish.


We also picked up a butter croissant and almond croissant from Clafouti. We liked that the croissants were sturdier and flakier than Le Moulin de Provence's rendition.


DG said that we had to get macarons from Nadège Patisserie since we were in the area. That was perfectly fine with me.

Side notes: We heard so many comments like, "these macaroons look amazing,"and "they have the best macaroons here!" Please. They're called macarons. Macaroons are the coconut things.

Also, why is it that everyone seems to know how to make macarons? The trend bugs me. Partially cause I can't make them.

These are my trio: mint chocolate chip (in the red), pistachio, and matcha macaron. I enjoyed the latter two. DG and VN both went with the salted caramel. Wise choices. I'll be getting the salted caramel next time. We happily soaked in the warm sun before I had to catch the train back home. Thanks for the lunch date ladies! It really meant a lot to me.

~*~

Final Day of Training + Porter Lounge

Morning call was for 7am. My coworker, Glenn Coco aka GC, and I had no idea there was one set. I woke up so confused. I definitely got up and then crawled back into my pillow fort. We eventually got up and ready. We checked out of the hotel and then went back to headquarters for breakfast and our last day of training. You can read about the first day of training here.

There was a platter of pastries (cinnamon rolls, bear paws, and a variety of scones), bagels, muffins, yogurt, and fruits.

The chocolate croissants were a popular item the previous day, so I checked it out for myself. It was dense in the middle and wasn't light and messy -- which is what makes a great croissant.

Blendtec Training in the GTA

This past weekend, twenty seven people across Ontario and myself were sent to Mississauga to be trained on a new demo. I currently work for Professional Warehouse Demonstrations (aka PWD). We, PWD, do most of the food demos found at Costco Canada-wide. While some companies do send their own people sometimes, we do everything else. Still aren't sure who we are? We're the people behind those red tables giving out free samples of various of products.


My coworker, Glenn Coco aka GC (her alias), flew to the the Greater Area of Toronto (GTA) on Portei Airlines -- I mean Porter Airlines. We had never flown on Porter so we were both excited. Our flight left Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, we didn't get to check out Porter's lounge at the Ottawa airport.

Toronto Weekend July 2013: Part II

Our family went to Toronto one weekend for my cousin's wedding. This is the second, and final, part. The previous day can be found here [link].


We had breakfast at the hotel's breakfast buffet. It wasn't just a sad cereal and fruit selection with juice, coffee, and hot water. No, no. They had stuff like scrambled eggs, bagels, sliced bread, cubed fruits, and a waffle machine.

I didn't mean to have a carb-heavy breakfast. Lucy shared half of her waffle. I suspected that she couldn't finish it all. The breakfast sausages were very lean. They were close to being dry.

Lucy's comments:
Being the first one in the family at breakfast, I excitedly texted everyone to let them know that there was a waffle machine available.  It was an impressive feature for a complimentary breakfast.

After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of the hotel. We headed to Pacific Mall to walk around a bit and get some bubble tea. We had already been drinking our bubble teas when we walked by a bubble tea shop that had winter melon tea available! Holy! Even though I barely had any of my drink, I was so tempted to buy a winter melon-flavoured drink. I think it must be a Taiwanese thing, because I can't really find it anywhere else. I found some expensive cans of winter melon tea at T&T. Not worth it. Next time... bubble tea shop... next time.

I have to admit that while walking around Pacific Mall, I was trying to buy time so that we could go for dim sum in the GTA before we head back home. But then I realized that we all had a late breakfast. No go. I gave up and we to Kingston for a late lunch.

Toronto Weekend July 2013: Part 1

We did a road trip to Toronto for our cousin's wedding last weekend. I'll break it up into two parts. Here's 1 of 2.

I tend to get car sick on road trips because three main reasons: empty stomach, being too warm, riding with a heavy-footed driver. Sometimes it's a combination of the three. The latter didn't apply during the trip. To prevent the first two, I made sure to have a snack before we hit the road and have a bottle of water to keep me cool during the trip.

Ottawa Ribfest 2013

The 22nd Annual Ottawa Ribfest was kicked off on Wednesday. Furious Pete was at the event and  attempted to break the world record for eating the most pulled pork in six minutes. He ended up setting a new world record by wolfing down 7.5 pounds of pulled pork in that time.

We had initially planned to go down to the ribfest for dinner on Thursday, but things changed and we went for a late lunch on Friday instead. This was the new plan:

• Andrew and I would go down to ribfest and have a late lunch
• We'd get some drinks at McD's and then get BBQ from Camp 31 and Silver Bullet
• Andrew would bus to the Dragon Boat Festival afterwards to volunteer
• I would head home with the goods

Toronto Marathon Weekend 2013

My weekend was spent in Toronto for work. I helped cover the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon as a sports photographer with the MarathonFoto company. You can read more about what it's like to work the event [link]. This post is about all the food.

*Updated* Covering a Marathon as an Official Photographer: My Experience

This upcoming Sunday is the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon 2013. I'll be joining a wonderful team of MarathonFoto photographers to cover the event. It will be my fifth time helping out with the amazing event.



Grab a cup of coffee, or in this case -- a caffé macchiato -- and read how the upcoming weekend typically unfolds for me, an official marathon photographer for the day. There won't be any food porn. I'll write about the food later. Continue if you'd like.

Breakfast at the House of Gourmet

On the morning after Andrew’s open house at Wilfred Laurier University, Dad, Andrew, and I found our way to Toronto's Chinatown. It was weird seeing the streets in Chinatown so quiet. I think I’ve gone to Chinatown before ten in the morning, maybe twice?

There weren’t many stores open when we walked out of the parking garage. It was quarter past nine after all.

Banh Mi Nguyen Huong was buzzing with activity though. People were loading and unloading stock. We picked up twenty regular sized banh mi (Vietnamese subs) to bring back to Ottawa. We asked for the herbs, pickled veggies, and peppers to be separately bagged.

If you find yourself looking for banh mi in Toronto’s Chinatown, I’d highly recommend this place. We’ve been buying their banh mi since I can remember. They have a couple of other locations around city too.

As for Vietnamese desserts, the Banh Mi & Che Cali is the place to go. When Dad feels like something sweet, he always buys some dessert from this place.

We dropped off the banh mi back in the car and then went to the House of Gourmet for breakfast. Doesn't that dragon graffiti look so amazing?

Dad and Andrew were both surprised when they walked through the doors because they haven’t seen the renovated interior (as of a few years ago). The restaurant is more inviting now and no longer looks like a hole-in-the-wall shop. The washrooms are nicer too.

Long Weekend @ Toronto: Noodle Roll Salad

On the last day of our Toronto visit, my cousin prepared a kind of noodle roll salad. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it was pretty simple to make – it was pretty healthy, too!

You can find these noodle rolls in the refrigerated noodle and tofu section of your local Chinese grocery store. There are plain rice noodle rolls, but my cousin likes the ones with the dried shrimp more. She quickly stir fried the rice noodle rolls and tossed in a few eggs. I don’t think that’s the “proper” way to make it, cause my uncle teased her when he saw the plate.

She also picked up some Vietnamese sausage (the white ones) and the sweet ones (the red ones).

I helped slice them both. Can you tell? I didn’t think I butchered them that bad!

I didn’t know how to eat this, so I guessed and tossed in lettuce, both Vietnamese sausages, a few noodle rolls, and topped it off with some nuoc cham (a fish sauce condiment). It tasted fine, but it was lacking some herbs (like mint or Thai basil).

There was also some lobster chow mein that my uncle had bought the night before.

Brunch was surprisingly filling. I didn't even touch the lobster chow mein!

My uncle, grandma, and I left their house prior to noon and did some last minute groceries before driving back to Ottawa. And just like that, another long weekend flies by.

Long Weekend @ Toronto: Chiuchow Man Chinese Restaurant

The plan was to go back to Ottawa in the afternoon, but we ended up staying for another night.

We spent an unexpected dinner in Missisauga somewhere called the Golden Square Center. We found a place called the Chiuchow Man Chinese Restaurant (most of the website is in Chinese) and tried it out. The small restaurant was packed when we got in. We were lucky and got there just as a small table paid their bill and left.

Unsure of what to order, we decided to be safe and order a noodle dish and something else. The lobster with chow mein caught my uncle’s attention. I’m pretty sure this dish is from Hong Kong… Anyway, my uncle requested extra lobster sauce for the chow mein. It didn’t look like that added that much more sauce. We could smell the smokiness from the dish when it arrived. My stomach rumbled. I tried a small bowl of chow mein and had a small piece of lobster. The gooey sauce was bland. It needed more oyster sauce/salt and ginger. The lobster itself was sweet though.

My uncle ended up ordering a plate of rice noodles with vegetables, since the lobster dish would barely have any vegetables. The disappointingly small plate of rice noodles had lots of bean sprouts, but barely any carrots, celery, and green onions. I knew it was a Chiu Chow rice noodle dish because there was egg in it. My dad said that Chiu Chow people love eggs in rice noodles. *Shrug* Just like the lobster sauce in the chow mein, the rice noodles were quite flavourless. We needed a few shots of soy sauce to brighten things up.

The only thing that was great about the rice noodles was the smokiness of the dish. Love. Love. Love.

It’s weird to say it, but I’d come back even though our dinner was lackluster. I noticed that the restaurant was packed with Chinese people. The restaurant did quite a lot of takeout orders as well, so they must be doing something right.

~*~*~

Address:

Chiuchow Man Chinese Restaurant

1177 Central Parkway W

Mississauga, ON

905-803-8783