Pie Squared

In celebration of Pi Day (3.14), a few places around Toronto were doing a Pi promotion! 

Pie Squared was selling all of their pies for $3.14. There was a line up to start and they had sold out of a lot of their pies around lunch. However, they did say that if I placed an order at lunch, I could come back and pick it up later in the day. So that's what I did! 

Cp: Chicken Pot Pie; M: Sweet Moroccan Vegetable; GS: Guinness Beef and Potato and SC: Steak and Cheese Melt

So many varieties! I was pretty excited to try them all. 

SC and CP

They had a really good pie crust - crunchy on the outside and flaky on the inside. Also, the pie crust bottoms were perfect (not soggy and not too dry). The chicken pot pie was really good with huge chunks of chicken. I wasn't as big a fan of the steak melt. 

 

Up close and personal with the pies. 

Moroccan Vegetable and Guinness, Beef and Potato pie

The Moroccan vegetable was interesting and actually pretty appetizing with all the spices and scrumptious veggies. The Guinness Beef and Potato pie was really good as well - something about how it was put together just made it much better than the steak and cheese melt. 

Overall: Really good pies and they're a good snack size so you can try a few different flavours. 

Website: https://www.piesquared.com

Peoples Eatery

My friend was back in town and wanted to try out Peoples Eatery in the heart of Chinatown.

We got their tasting menu and started off with a platter

Smoked fish platter
The fish is smoked in-house and presented with sides of capers, radishes, cucumbers.
I thought the entire platter was really nicely done and the fish was delicious!

Croquettes with Indian butter sauce


Tofu with sauce
The tofu was crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy inside.


Whitefish salad with wasabi and toast and skewers of apple and ham/prosciutto
I really liked the crispy bagel toast and whitefish with wasabi.

Moroccan Eggplant
Interesting...but not the best eggplant I've eaten (I really like the Chinese version at Maple Yip or Shinobu's Japanese version)


Salad




Peking Duck

The cooked duck dish (that goes with the Peking Duck)


Dessert

Overall: An interesting eclectic fusion experience.

Website: http://www.peopleseatery.com/

Casablanca - Ottawa

The last time I was in Byward Market, I came at night for Nuit Blanche in Ottawa, so I didn't really get a good feel for the landmark. This time I was inside looking for a meal for lunch and it really is quite nice inside:

I walked by Casablanca and the food looked really appetizing. 

 

The inside was furnished with some nice Moroccan accents including plush cushions and nice gold accents.

Chicken Pastillo platter with a side of stuffed eggplant and rice

It looked so lovely and delicious! The eggplant was the vegetarian option for the day, but they let me substitute it for the normal veggies. The eggplant was  nicely spiced and delicious if a little on the greasy and oily side. The rice was also lightly fragrant and worked well with all the juices from the eggplant side.

 

The pastillo was really delicious! It was a great combination of sweet and savoury with the powdered sugar on top of a crunchy baked crust. The pastry was filled inside with chicken, almond slivers and a great blend of spices to make it hearty and tasty. The lemon added a nice zest to the pastillo. 

Overall: Great meal! If a little on the pricier side (which might be due to the novelty of the Byward Market).

Website: http://www.byward-market.com/

   

The Sultan's Tent

Ambiance pictures: (Super dark inside - but really nicely decorated and suiting for the theme)

It was super dark in there and my Ipod Touch didn't have Flash - so I was left taking pictures in really bad lighting.

Round 1: First Course

I upgraded to the Duck Confit Salad which was delicious! The vinaigrette was perfect - we tried to dip the bread for the table into the vinaigrette to soak it up because it was so good! Who'd have thought that Champagne & Pomegranate together would taste so yummy? One one complaint about the salad was that the duck was all off on one side and there definitely was not enough duck for the salad. My friend had the Harira soup which was really strong for our tastes - felt like it totally cleared up our sinuses, but once we dipped the bread in and diluted the fragrant spices - it made it easier for us to finish the soup.

Winner: Duck Confit Salad -one word: vinaigrette!!!

Round 2: Second Course

  

Next I had the seafood briouats (seafood wrapped in flaky pastry) and my friend the maftoul (Moroccan cigars pastries). The pastries were very flavourful and nice. The seafood briouats were super filling - so much so that I didn't know if I would be able to handle the next two courses.

Winner: Maftoul - light and refreshingly different

Round 3: Third Course

 

The Braised lamb feast vs. Moroccan beef short rib. Again I have to reiterate, I'm not usually a huge fan of lamb, but I love the lamb here - they make it perfectly! Seasoned nicely and tasty morsels of fall off the bone lamb along side a portion of couscous and carrots and sweet potato cubes. I can't comment on the the way the couscous was prepared because I really don't like the taste and texture of couscous- to me: it's not rice and it's not quite the same as pasta and therefore, not high on my "yummy" list. 

On the other hand, the short ribs were delicious - tender and juicy and melt in your mouth goodness with mash potatoes and veggies on the side - what a great main course!

Winner: Moroccan beef short rib - yum!

Final Round: Fourth Course

At this point, my friend and I admitted defeat - it was a LOT of food during the course of 2.5 hours and I even got a belly dancing lesson between my third course and dessert (so I worked off 1/100th of my salad since I turned out to be a terrible belly dancer). The belly dancer was very talented and made the experience of learning a ton of fun! She let us tie the jingling scarfs on our waists and shimmy around - we tried to copy her actions but mostly it was just pretending to go along and trying not to step on her toes...

Anyways, back to dessert - we both got the Moroccan treats which were mostly cookies dusted with sugar and cinnamon. The cookies (especially the chocolate covered one) were great! Not too hard and not too soft and given the crazy 4 course meal we ate - a pretty nice way to finish off and end our meal on a good note. 

The Sultan's Tent is a great experience and I would totally recommend it to anyone interested in Moroccan food and a introductory belly dancing lesson! 

Website :http://www.thesultanstent.com/