Pondicherry Caters (Tasty Thursdays)

I think the appeal of Food Trucks is that it's exciting to try out a new restaurant or place that doesn't have a set/permanent location. It's quite a novelty to be able to say that you were the first to eat at a new and diffcult to get to (or follow) place. The same principles apply to food festivals: a lot of vendors who don't normally have a permanent restaurant can set up and show off their culinary delights at their booths. 

Malaysian Cuisine

What is a Murthabak?  

Chicken Murtabak

The chicken and potatoes had the curry flavour from the garam marsala. There was a smidgen of spiciness which accentuated the flavour of the curry. I loved the pancake it was wrapped in - perfectly soft and chewy, but with a harder crispy outer shell. Delicious!

Beef Murtabak

When I originally ordered, I asked the woman about the spiciness of the murtabaks and asked which one was least spicy. She told me that the murtabaks were mild to medium and that the chicken was the least spicy out of the three options. After I tried the beef murtabak, I realized she was totally wrong: the chicken was spicier. I noticed that there wasn't a lot of meat in either of the murtabaks, but there was a lot of potatoes - maybe that helped reduce the spiciness of the murtabaks. 

Overall: This was my first experience with Malaysian street food and it turned out pretty well. I wish they served more meat in the curry, but the roti was awesome.

Taste of the Danforth

Every year in August, Danforth Avenue hosts the Taste of the Danforth celebrating Greek food and culture. It has expanded to include other cuisines from Thai to Brazilian and Spanish to Indian.

It is one of the biggest and most popular street festivals in Toronto with entertaining shows & performances, games, rides and tons of food!

It spans the Danforth closing down traffic on the road from Broadview to Jones for three days.

Near the start of the street festival (outside of Broadview station) was Embrujo Flamenco, a Spanish tapas restaurant, and they were serving dishes of paella and churros.

Paella $5

The paella had mussels, shrimp, peas, chicken and chorizo sausage. The rice wasn't quite fluffy or sticky enough to absorb the flavours from the saffron and seafood broth, so it wasn't as fragrant or delicious as the paella I had at Frank or the Boqueria in Barcelona.  

Right next to Embrujo Flamenco's food stall was Rodeo Brazilian Steakhouse Rodizio - a Taste of Brazil

Grilled Pineapple

Great snack! The cinnamon and sugar on the pieces of grilled pineapple brought out the sweetness of the fruit. Yum!

Messini Authentic Gyros

As we walked east from Broadview, we started passing food stalls selling skewers of chicken and pork souvlaki, gyros and roasted quails. More people were trickling in to the festival as the rain started letting up, and we started seeing longer line-ups along the street. After passing by a few people eating these perfectly wrapped gigantic gyros, I was seriously craving one for myself. We kept walking until we found the place selling them - Messini Authentic Gyros and we got in line. 

Chicken Gyros $5

This totally hit the spot. 

First, I've got to praise their tzatziki sauce because it was amazing! Great balance: fresh and tasty without being super heavy. Top that with fresh tomatoes, onions and strips of tender & savoury chicken all inside a warm and toasty pita and you've got a winner. Super filling and delicious!

The french fries were an interesting addition to the gyros; I didn't know that french fries in gyros were customary in most Greek Cities (I learned that from the website after)

Akropolis Pastries

Baklava $2

Fantastic! It was very nicely balanced: sweet with the honey drizzled on, but not too sweet and really flaky with sticky layers. I loved the mixture of grounded nuts in the middle layer. It was a little hard to cut with a plastic fork though.

Dolce Gelato

I was actually excited to come here because BlogTo considered Dolce Gelato the best gelato place in Toronto.

Small cup of Candied Pistachio and Tiramisu $3.75

I love the candied pistachio flavour! I tried the Sicilian pistachio as well, but I chose the candied pistachio because I love that it was a sweet and enhanced version of the classic pistachio taste. The sicilian pistachio was smooth on my tongue and had a great finish, but the candied pistachio just delighted my tastebuds (I could eat tubs of this stuff). 

The tiramisu was okay - there were chunks of soaked cake (or ladyfingers?) in the gelato, but I found the taste of the gelato leaned pretty heavily towards the espresso flavour. 

Conclusion: Taste of the Danforth is a blast! You get a ton of freebies (bags of chips, hummus, McDonald's smoothie samples, and more) and you can sample a ton of food - what more could you ask for?

Website: http://www.tasteofthedanforth.com/tasteofthedanforth.php

Per Se Mobile

I'm a huge fan of the Food Network. I really like watching Eat Street, The Great Food Truck Race, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and You've Gotta Eat Here. Those shows give me a ton of ideas for my next meal. 

Food trucks have been growing in popularity in Toronto and for avid fans, a Toronto website has been set up to follow the trucks (http://torontofoodtrucks.ca/). 

 

My friend tried the shrimp tacos at Per Se Mobile at the Street Food Fridays @ Market 707 before and really loved them. So, we were super excited when the Per Se Mobile food truck decided to serve lunch at Bay and Front today.

The menu was pretty simple and everything sounded amazing: I couldn't believe that they served porchetta! 

Top: Jerk Chicken Sandwich and Bottom: Shrimp Tacos

Shrimp Tacos

The tacos had a refreshing taste - I could taste the lime juice heightening the fresh ingredients in the taco. The guacamole and salsa were delicious, but shrimp was cold and I didn't like the texture of the tortilla which was crumbly and slightly hard. All in all, I was rather disappointed with the way the tacos turned out (especially after Taco Takedown).

Jerk Chicken Sandwich

On the other hand, this Jerk Chicken Sandwich was AMAZING! I loved the fragrant spice rub on the meaty pieces of grilled chicken. Usually jerk chicken is kind of dry (from the spice rub and grill), but Per Se Mobile really perfected their recipe by adding sweet potato and using the egg bun. Those were great choices to complement the chicken because they helped add more moisture to the sandwich. Really delicious! I would totally recommend this sandwich.

Porchetta sandwich

I was disappointed with this sandwich because I was expecting crispy porchetta skin (crackling) in the sandwich. I got too excited thinking about that porchetta sandwich I had in Rome. I really think that a porchetta sandwich should have crackling: this sandwich should have just been called a pulled pork sandwich. The pork was okay, but there was this weird pickled banana pepper in the middle of the sandwich which added a strange sour note to the sandwich. 

Overall: I would definitely go back for the Jerk Chicken Sandwich if I find the Per Se Mobile Food Truck again, but the other items were a bit of a disappointment.

Hong Kong Style Cafe

The aptly named Hong Kong Style  Café serves their namesake: Hong Kong style cafe food.

You may ask what is Hong Kong style cafe food and it can be simplified as follows: 

1) Variety of options - breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner specials

2) Cheap and you get good value because of #3

3) Decent sized portions (usually pretty large)

4) Fast service & Turnover

 

Inside the restaurant

Hong Kong Style Cafe offers a set menu option: (a) coffee/tea, (b) soup and (c) an entree for less than $10!

(a) Vegetable soup

There weren't a lot of vegetables in it, but the soup was really flavourful (probably because it had a lot of MSG).

(a) Tomato Borscht soup

Slightly spicy with lots of onions.

(b) Baked Pork Chop with fried rice 

The ketchup sauce was tasty and it even had cheese baked in. The pork chop was a little tough, but okay. They used a lower grade rice to make the fried rice. But overall, it was a filling dish and it was only $6.99!

(b) Black pepper steak with spaghetti 

The sauce was very peppery - almost overwhelming for me. The steak portion was on the medium well done side and gigantic! We couldn't believe that it was only $7.99 for all this food.

(b) Baked fish and cheese on spaghetti $6.99

The fish was breaded and when we bit into it, we found that it was more batter than fish. The sauce was good - pretty creamy and a little heavy, but it worked well with the spaghetti. 

Overall: Hong Kong Style Café really suits it's name: large portions, cheap and fast service. However, the food was mediocre in my opinion. 

Hotel Ocho

Hotel Ocho is an industrial style hotel with the restaurant/lounge area on the first and second floor. 

The Lounge area on the first floor

The restaurant on the first floor and a tiny glimpse of the upstairs part of the restaurant

To start: warm crusty bread with slightly spicy olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Ahi Tuna 

The presentation of the rice and stir-fry vegetables alongside the tuna was really nice. It looked really pretty and the stir-fry was a little spicy. 

The best way to cook ahi tuna is sear it rare to really bring out the flavours of the fish. This fish steak was totally overcooked: there was no pink in the center of the steak and it tasted like a chunk of meaty fish with lots of pepper ground on top. Not very good.

Crown Roast

Rack of lamb in a mint sauce with butternut squash puree and grilled asparagus.

The lamb was well-done (the waitress never asked me how I liked my lamb or maybe the lamb is always well-done here). I found the meat tough and it was drenched in sauce. My favourite part of this dish was the butternut squash puree. However, I wouldn't come back here and pay $28 for the Crown Roast again. 

Overall: The building looks amazing and it's very impressive inside. However, the food didn't make as great an impression.

Website:http://hotelocho.com/food.html

Kinton Ramen

At the end of the restaurant street in Baldwin Village is Kinton Ramen, one of the most talked about restaurants in Toronto this year. 

Interior

The Kitchen

The Ramen Spoon...

Gyoza ($3.50)

I love dumplings, especially fried dumplings. These were really delicious: the skin was really thin and delicate and the meat was savoury. I would have preferred it if the dumplings were a little crispier, but it was still really well done. The soy sauce was sweet with a spicy kick at the end. 

Shoyu Ramen with pork belly and regular broth ($9.50)

Soy sauce, kinton pork, beansprout, scallion, nori and seasoned egg

First up: the broth which is the base and main flavour of the ramen. I had 3 choices: light, regular and rich. The way the waitress explained it to me was the light broth was a little less salty, while the regular and rich broths had more flavour. I decided to try the regular broth to be on the safe side. It was a tad on the salty side but really tasty and it even had little chunks of meat. 

Next is the pork belly which is a fattier cut of meat compared to pork shoulder. I think my expectations were a lot higher due to my recent eating experiences (Momofuku and Braised Pork Belly) because I didn't find it as tender as I would have liked. It was meaty and probably not as fatty as I expected. 

The noodles were al dente and good with the broth.

The coolest part: the Ajitsuke tamago (soft boiled egg). The yolk was soft, semi-solid, but still a little oozy and it looked like a hard boiled egg on the outside. So cool!

Overall: Very authentic and reminiscent of Japan; from the long ramen bar with the haphazard seating to the welcome greeting "irasshaimase!" shouted in the restaurant when you walked in, I felt like I was back in Tokyo. The service was fast and the food was great. 

Website: http://kintonramen.com/