Saturday 30 December 2017

Kwan Dim Sum

Xiao Long Bao

Deep fried taro dumpling with chicken and pan fried turnip cake

Har Gow

Pot stickers

Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf

Shrimp rolls and steamed rice flour rolls with shrimp

The dim sum dishes were all really good, but it was a pricey meal compared to other dim sum places and it's a lot smaller with a lot more small tables than big tables. 

Website: http://kwandimsum.ca/

Friday 29 December 2017

Guschlbauer

Dec 29, 2017 
Lychee cream puff
I came back for this because it's so good! 

Dec 21, 2017

I saw that Toronto opened a new Austrian Cheese Bun place selling sweet cream cheese buns and cream puffs, so I decided to try it out. 
 

Chocolate Cheese Bun
I'm not a fan of soft cream cheese (I love New York Style cheesecakes, but I have a terrible time with oozy and soft cream cheese textures), so I thought if I got a chocolate flavour that it would help mask the cream cheese flavour and texture (since chocolate is one of my favourite flavours). It didn't really help and I concluded that I'm probably not going to try another cheese bun. On the other hand, it was a good thing I got a cream puff so I could try something else. 

Lychee Cream Puff
The lychee cream puff was delicious! I loved the strong lychee flavour and the slightly harder outer shell of the pastry. I would definitely come back for this!

Sunday 24 December 2017

Casa Manila

December 24, 2017

Sizzling Chicken Sisig Fries
Super yummy! These fries were crispy and topped with delicious chicken sisig, pickled papaya slaw, garlic aioli and green onion. It was also featured on You Gotta Eat Here, so we had to try it!

Tomato garlic beef and Pancit Canton

Halo Halo
A must have! This Filipino dessert is fantastic and there's something fun in every bite!

January 28, 2017
Another restaurant on You've Gotta Eat Here and they do Winterlicious at lunch for $18! It sounds like a deal to me.
*Items in Red are what I would order again

Clockwise from the top: Beef and Vegetable soup, Chicken Spring Roll, Casa Manila Salad and Seafood Noodles.

The Beef & Vegetable soup was rather simple, but tasty. The chicken spring roll was crispy, savoury and sweet and sour. The Casa Manila Salad had pickled papaya slaw on a mix of greens, carrots, peppers, onions and tangerine with a light sesame dressing. The Seafood noodles were also really good and had a strong shrimp flavor. There was also a lot going on with the egg, squid rings, fish flakes and thin noodles that were perfect at absorbing the flavour from the sauce.


Milkfish and Crispy Pork Belly
The fish was pretty tasty and it was nice that it was mostly boneless. All the dishes came with garlic rice and vegetables (mostly green beans). The pork belly was simply lechon, which is delicious, but I found it a little too fatty for my liking. I'm also used to the Chinese version of roasted pork (siu yuk), which usually has a less fat (depending on the cut, but my preferance is usually leaner meat) and it's packed with flavour and a side of hoisin sauce. So, while this version was good, it just didn't really compare to what I usually get from a Chinese shop that sells siu mei (roasted meat).


Pork Bicol Express and Adobo Coconut Beef
These dishes were much better! The coconut ginger sauce nad shrimp paste were cooked with pork, eggplant and peppers and it was really flavourful and tasty. The Adobo coconut beef was really yummy with really tender beef and a fragrant coconut milk flavour.
Coconut Milk Stew and Banana Crepe
The banana crepe was pretty tasty with a slightly crispy outer shell and I thought the jackfruit was a nice touch. The coconut milk stew was a little strange (especially since it was a warm dessert) - I wasn't really a fan of the rice balls in the stew. It had a lot going on with the sweet potatoes, banana, jackfruit, glutinous rice balls and yam. 
Ube Cake
I saw this on the menu and asked them if I could get a slice of their ube cake instead of one of their set desserts. The staff were really accomodating and gave me a slice - the ube was this gorgeous purple colour - however flavour wise, it didn't really come out as strongly as I would have liked - but it's hard when it is purple yam which isn't a really strong flavour. The icing was really good and ube-flavoured!

Overall: Good Winterlicious meal here. The service was a little slower than usual since there were a few other big parties in the restaurant doing kamayan meals. 

November 1, 2016
After Sorento's, I was still craving dessert and I've really wanted to try the Halo Halo at Casa Manila for about 2 weeks (ever since another friend mentioned Filipino food). So here we are!
 Chicken Sisig fries
I saw this on "You Gotta Eat Here" and in the spirit of eating everything I've always wanted, my friend and I decided to split this and the halo halo and another dessert (we were being super overambitious for two Asian girls - but in our defense, we did eat EVERYTHING). 
The fries were really good! It was like Filipino Canadian poutine. I loved that they were on the hot plate, because it kept our fries warm when we got distracted by dessert. The flavours and textures of the Chicken sisig fries were great! You got savoury, tangy, sweet (from the onions) and crispy from the chicken and fries. Yum!

Halo Halo and Leche Flan
OMG the Halo Halo was everything I dreamed...but it was a lot bigger than I expected. 
The ube ice cream was amazing...the jelly stuff was "interesting" and it was all so sweet and yummy together that I just kept eating. 
The flan was really good too, but I think we should've just kept it at the Halo Halo for dessert (we were like comatose after our meal - considering we also had pasta dinner at Sorento's). 

Saturday 23 December 2017

The Keg Steakhouse & Bar @ Leslie Street

December 23, 2017

Of all The Keg restaurants I've been to in Toronto, the Leslie Street restaurant really does the best prime rib of them all. I love coming here for their prime rib. 

14oz prime rib cooked to medium rare perfection with a twice baked potato (my go-to combo)

Steak with vegetables and a twice baked potato
The prime rib was definitely a much better choice than the steak

Billy Miner Pie
Can't forget to finish off with this delicious dessert! 

November 2, 2017
14 oz. Prime Rib with twice baked potato
I can always count on The Keg to cook my beef perfectly, or they'll take it back and do it again. The meat was cooked to a pinkish medium rare and was really tasty. I love the spices on the outside of the roast. The twice baked potato is also the best side dish! Yum. 

March 29, 2014
We were craving red meat, so we headed to The Keg for their classic Sirloin and Prime Rib.


12oz. Grilled Top Sirloin with vegetables and roasted garlic mashed potatoes
It was a little pinker than medium rare, but I guess it might have been hard to gauge when something that round and thick is the perfect temperature. A sirloin is a tougher cut than the New York striploin that I usually order and this was a huge chunk of meat. The mashed potatoes had the skin still in the mix (which I wasn't a fan of). It was adequate, but not particularly enjoyable.


12 oz. Prime Rib with a twice baked potato, crispy onions, horseradish and au jus on the side
The prime rib was delicious! Tender and juicy and I loved the au jus and crispy onions. The twice baked potato is definitely my favourite accompaniment.


Billy Miner Pie
Amazing mocha ice cream cake on a chocolate crumble crust with caramel and fudge drizzled on top and finished off with almonds! Wow - it plainly requires more than one person to finish such a crazy huge slice of ice cream cake (it's almost a meal in itself). Bonus: you get a free slice of this on your birthday!

Overall: It's the Keg - their specialty is affordable red meat. Enough said.
Dessert was pretty spectacular too.

Thursday 21 December 2017

Aroma Espresso Bar @ Bay and Charles

Dec 21, 2017

As a lover of all things pistachio, I had to try out this new pistachio latte drink at Aroma
It was topped with pistachio syrup and crushed pistachios on whipped cream
However, other than those pistachio ingredients, it didn't taste like pistachio at all. I was expecting that it would taste like a hazelnut latte with the nutty flavour throughout, but it wasn't. 

May 25, 2016
Freebie alert! Aroma Espresso Bar (one of my favourite salad and sandwich places) announced that they would be giving away free smoothies between 2pm and 6pm on May 25th. 

Kale and Mango & Beet and Mixed Berry
Both smoothies were pretty good.  I'm not sure I'd order it at regular price, but at least I've tried it! 

Wednesday 20 December 2017

Nando's

There's a lot of hype about Nando's - so I wanted to check out their newest location near Bay and College for lunch
The chicken is really good! I love the PERI PERI sauce, but I'm not sure it's worth the price I paid for it. It was almost $10 with tax for the chicken leg and the salad (the salad was nothing to write home about). 

Friday 15 December 2017

Cookies & Shortbread from Dublin and Scotland

Shortbread cookies from Edinburgh
The brand at the top is Campbells (which I haven't seen in Canada) and the brand below is Walkers (which I see in Canada - but I thought I'd try in Scotland to see if there's a difference). 
Both were good shortbread cookies - but they weren't exceptional (and I was hoping to find some amazing shortbread in Scotland). 

Another amazing find from Marks and Spencer in Dublin
I love pistachio and almond - so these are like my dream cookies. The only downside was that these were hard cookies rather than soft cookies. Otherwise, these cookies were delicious! 



Thursday 14 December 2017

Garden Terrace & Butlers Chocolate Cafe - Dublin Airport

Farewell Dublin!


Full Irish Breakfast
I bought this to compare it between the Scottish breakfasts I had before to the Irish Breakfast. 
I have to say, I liked the Scottish breakfast much better with haggis - the Irish breakfast had black pudding (ew) and beans (also not a fan). However, it usually comes with soda bread (and I love soda bread) - the version at the Garden Terrace didn't have soda bread. Otherwise it was okay. 

 
Hot chocolate and a chocolate! Yummy!

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Edinburgh Aspire Airport Lounge - Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

Airport Lounge
Pasta, rice, tomato and mushrooms

Soup 
Decent airport lounge food compared to my other airport lounge experiences. 

Elephant House - Edinburgh

 

 

Elephant Shortbread cookie

Elephant House Breakfast
Haggis, egg, tomato, roll, sausage and ham
Haggis is great! I've had a good experience eating haggis everywhere in Scotland.