gathering 'round the table

Back in university me and my housemates had a weekend ritual where we would make a huge breakfast on the weekend and enjoy it all together. We were never able to do this on weekdays (because we had classes), but on weekends when there was no rush we would indulge our appetites.

Our breakfast feasts comprised of goodies such as: freshly brewed Tim Horton's coffee, bacon, sausages, pancakes, eggs, hash browns, toast, fresh fruit, etc.

I miss those amazing breakfasts and the great company that came with it. Nowadays when I want to indulge my breakfast appetite I head to a diner or a place like Cora's. I never expected I'd be lazier to make food when I was done school.

way to a man's heart

I made these chocolate-chip pancakes many years ago for my sweetie-pie for valentine's day.

They were actually a lot harder to make than I had imagined. I had a pancake form to shape them while on the griddle, but that meant making 1 pancake at a time and being very careful that the pancake mix didn't escape from the form.

Next time I make these I think I'll cheat & just cookie-cutter the pancakes afterwards. =P

restaurant review: tea shop 168

Restaurant: Tea Shop 168
Location: 5661 Steeles Ave. East, T&T Supermarket Unit #12
Website: teashop168.ca

Meal type: Drinks (bubble tea)

Average price per person: $0-$10

What I ordered: Traditional Bubble Tea with Tapioca

Ratings:





Comments:
Okay, so it's not exactly a "restaurant", but I couldn't resist reviewing it anyways.

I love the sealed bubble tea cups - they're really convenient expecially if you're holding a bunch of other things and trying to juggle a drink at the same time. Also, it made shaking the tea so easy & non-messy to distribute the cold of the ice around. My only complaint is that the tapioca balls were not sweetened so it was more bland than I'm used to & than I like.

Their special price for the plain bubble tea ($1.99 + tax) is great though, especially since that is what I always get anyways, so I'll overlook it.

taiwanese shaved ice dessert

Not too long ago I tried this dessert for the first time while having dinner with my family at Great Khan Mongolian Grill.

According to my search results on wikipedia it's called "tsua bing" in Taiwanese.

It's made up of: ice shavings, toppings, and finished off with condensed milk.

The toppings can include: fresh fruit, red bean, fruit jellies, or all of the mentioned. My favorite topping is the mango jellies. Nice a simple and really lets the mango flavour stand out. It's a very light and refreshing dessert. It would be awesome to be able to make this at home!

Time to dust off my snow-cone maker!

new york chronicles: coming in september

We're planning out trip to New York city in September! I can't wait! Besides all the glorious shopping I'm anticipating all the glorious food we'll be eating! Since we'll be travelling on a budget this will most likely mean dining on a budget. But I've heard great things about New York city street-vendors and all the amazing variety they have, so that should be easy. If you have any recommendations - please let me know!

restaurant review: babur

Restaurant: Babur
Location: 273 Queen St. West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1Z9
Telephone: 416-599-7720
Website: babur.ca

Meal type: Dinner

Average price per person: $26-$60

What I ordered (shared between 2 people):
- Vegetable Samosas (crisp patties stuffed with peas and potatoes
- Butter Chicken (boneless chicken marinated in yogurt and spices barbequed in Tandoor and cooked in cream sauce)
- Mutton saagwala (lamb marinated in yogurt and spices, stir fried and cooked with spinach and sauce)

Ratings:










Comments:
We were walking along Queen Street looking for a place to eat, when we came along Babur. There is so much to choose from on Queen St. when it comes to restaurants, but having customers inside is always a good indication of a decent restaurant. And there was a constant flow of satisfied looking diners the whole time we were at Babur (including us).

The restaurant is clean and simple (although I’d get rid of the plaid tablecloths) and the service was very fast and attentive.

The samosas were amazing and the perfect appetizers. Our dinner was good (not the absolute best we've had, but definitely a close second I think). We weren't sure if we had ordered enough, but we were stuffed and didn't even have room for dessert! I'm glad we've found another great Indian restaurant to frequent!

jam

Before I stopped off at Brus' I bought the cheapest jar of jam from the grocery store to spread on bread for breakfast at work. It was disgusting and I couldn't even finish the 1st piece of toast. That's how bad it was!

So during a recent excursion I picked up a jar of home-made jam from Brus' Orchids & Winery located in Tillsonburg, Ontario to see if there was a drastic difference.

Brus' carries: apples, cider, honey, berries, sweet corn, goat cheese, eggs, and various other products produced on site. They also sell jars of bee pollen. Cinnamon Kitten mentioned that she had read that bee pollen was actually very good for us. But since i'm allergic to bee pollen I decided to do a bit more investigating before buying some to try.

I'll stick with jam for now...

Aunt Lena's Preserves
Cran-Rasberry Jam
Cost: $3.25 per 250mL jar

I've been eating this jam on english muffins for the past week and it is so good! It's sweet and flavorful, but not tart at all! The taste is strong, but lovely. Definitely loving this new jam. Hail the homemade jams!

For more information about Brus': brusorchards.com

korean bar-b-q

Korean BBQ is essentially pieces of meat (all kinds) marinated in a Korean sauce and prepared on a little grill. We were contemplating whether to go for Korean BBQ the other night & I was reminded about that time back in university my fiance sent me a link to this really funny and addictive game all based on korean bar-b-q and not burning your meat. Unfortunately the link doesn't work anymore, but it was great while it lasted....ah the memories.

the diner's companion

Okay, so this post technically has nothing to do with eating or drinking, but it has to do with dining, so I couldn't resist posting about it.

While dining in Ottawa last month a woman at the table next to us was using a purse hook to hang her purse. This was the first time I had ever seen a purse hook and I was mesmerized. How genius!

For all of you that have also never seen or heard of a purse hook, it’s simply a hook that allows a person to hook their purse/bag to the side of a table. So instead of putting your favorite bag on the dirty floor, or have it take up valuable chair space, or hang it on the back of your chair where you can’t keep an eye on it – it’s hooked under your table where you can easily keep an eye on it and rest assured that it’s not picking up any floor germs.

I did some searching on the internet and found lots of different types of purse hooks. But I wanted to find the one the woman next to us was using, because it was so simple and chic looking. I finally found it at: luxelink.com. Unfortunately it's a little pricey for something I technically don't need. But still a very cool thing to have.

Image from: luxelink.com

restaurant review: katsu sushi

Restaurant: Katsu Sushi
Location: 572 Danforth Ave., Toronto, Ontario M4K 1R1
Telephone: 416-466-3388
Website: hrg88.com

Meal type: Lunch

Average price per person: $0-$10

What I ordered:
Toronto Roll (Eel, avocado, salmon skin, tobiko with sweet sauce) & green tea

Ratings:

Comments:

I had high hopes for Katsu, because it is actually affiliated with 1 of our favorite sushi restaurants, Masa Sushi. Right away we could see that the service and atmosphere were definitely different from Masa. Katsu is definitely more "homey" and casual.

My fiance had 1 of the lunch specials and at first appearances we were impressed. It seemed like a lot of food for a very good price, but we soon came to the conclusion that Katsu can offer these prices because most of their rolls are based on items that don't have to be fresh (i.e. non-raw-fish items).

Overall, the food was very sloppy and I didn't enjoy the combinations of taste at all. And there was either too much going on, or not enough. We were actually a little turned off of sushi afterwards, which I never thought possible! So, we were pretty disappointed - it's definitely cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for.