Light Lunch @ Taro's Fish

Light lunch at Taro's Fish this afternoon. This fish market/take-out place provides only a handful of seats by the window for eat-in, however, we never minded squeezing ourselves into their tiny bar stools because the quality of the fresh fish and price ratio is better than most of the Japanese restaurants in the North Toronto area.

Hubby and I shared the deluxe sushi, blue fin tuna sashimi, and organic salmon sashimi (not in the picture) for less than $50.00 CAD. I don't think you can get any better than that (if you know, please let me know) in North Toronto when compared against the quality and freshness provided in Taro's Fish. ^^

Photos from Taro's Fish in other occasions on flickr

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休閒篇: 花

Loving my plants and flowers in front of my lovely home this summer ^^

I hope these plants will survive longer than the mums I had last fall which I had to throw away the two pots of them because the pots broke after a heavy storm.

The miniature flowers above are so tiny but yet they still consist complex details.  God works intricately in the fine details for everything ... even the smallest flowers. ^^

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Le Sélect Bistro

Woohooo!!! Second brunch in the month of May! ^^

This time we went to Le Sélect Bistro located in the heart of Toronto and yet tucked away from the downtown busy streets. As a result, finding parking was not a problem for us. I loved the atmosphere of the entire place, from the front patio to the interior decoration -- very charming and elegant (sorry, no pics because I was busy carrying Baby J). In addition, the lady who served us was also very attentive and friendly.

I ordered the Escalope de Foie Gras aux Lardons et aux Figues -- seared fresh foie gras on a thin French Toast with lardons, pears fambe in Brandy and a fig compote. Served with an egg en cocotte and a Port maple sauce. It was a well prepared dish, everything in the dish paired well with the foie gras but at the same time I did not find it extraordinary.

Hubby ordered a Steak Grille, Ouef a Cheval -- grilled centre cut filet, topped with a "fresh air" egg, and served with mushrooms and frites. The meat was tendered and we loved the sauce and it was a better dish than the foie gras that I ordered.

Baby J had the Ouefs Bebedicte -- two poached (well-done) eggs on a croissant with ham and Hollandaise, served with frites -- from the kids brunch menu. No complains from Baby J, he enjoyed a bit of everything and 1 fries (first fries for him ^^) and we finished the rest for him.

Overall, we enjoyed the atmosphere, the food, the service and we will definitely be visiting again.

Le Sélect Bistro
432 Wellington Street West,
Toronto
M5V 1E3
TEL: 416.596.6405

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Japanese Style Curry Beef

Japanese style curry beef, one of the easiest dishes to make.  Although it is easy to make, I haven't cook this for a long time.  Sweet onion, beef, carrots, potato cooked together and add the secret ingredient -- Glico curry blocks last, it is a dish that one will never screw up cooking. ^^

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Lovely Sunday Afternoon

Lovely weather today.  Enjoyed the sun and the breeze while Baby J was taking a nap!

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Grains Bistro

I love brunch but almost always there was no time to go in the past year.  However, I was determined to go this weekend and after some last minute research, we went to Grains Bistro.  Grains Bistro is a modern, child-friendly, relaxed place.  The patio looks great too but we decided to sit indoor by the windows anyway.

We were impressed by the toddler (under 4 years of age) eats free menu because the food, and the plating exceeded our expectation in a free food point of view.  I cannot recall the last time we had free food, let alone free food with good portion and decent plating.  I guess this point is well-known by its neighborhood because we also saw other tables with many toddlers as well. There is no free lunch, but there is free brunch ^^

I orderd a latte, and a Smoked Salmon Benedict.  The latte was average but I was satisfied with the delicious benedict.  Eggs were poached perfectly with warm, creamy, runny egg yorks and Hollandaise sauce.  Yum!

My hubby ordered the Certified Angus Roast Beef Melt which he did not like because the meat was too tough. He ended up not able to finish the entire plate.  Despite the fact that his dish did not come out as well as he wished, he still would give Grains Bistro another chance because he tasted my benedict which he loved too.

Overall, we were happy with our experience and will likely return to try another brunch or lunch / dinner.


Grains Bistro
8707 Dufferin St., Unit 12
Thornhill, ON
L4J 0A2

TEL: 905.907.9000
Website: http://gbistro.ca/

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Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar

We went on an Ottawa road trip last weekend to visit friends and tried Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar in the ByWard market on Saturday night because (1) it was the only restaurant that still have 5:30pm reservation by the time we booked (which was around 2:00pm on the day of) and (2) our friends told us the chef, Johnathan Korecki, is competing in the current series of Top Chef Canada. 

By the time we arrived, the place was not packed but I realized immediately that it was not stroller friendly at all due to the stairs to the main lounge and eating area.  However, the hostess saw Baby J and the stroller, she then offered another waiter to carry our stroller to our table.  That was very nice of her and I didn't mind that it wasn't stroller friendly after all.  The environment was comfortable and we did not find it too crowded with Baby J around.

The food served was tapas style, since we went in as a group of 4 plus Baby J, we were able to order a few more dishes to try.  We tried the fish tacos, lamb tacos, and pull pork tacos.  The tacos were great but not much to wow about.  In addition, the sauce used in the lamb and pull pork tasted similar to me.  Overall, the tacos were good but the other dishes we had after were better and more interesting.  The tuna sashimi was very different from what you normally would have in a Japanese restaurant.  It was served with a jelly sauce with jalapeno pepper, this combination gave us a kick in our taste buds and it was very refreshing.  The broiled black cod we had was well marinated but the portion of the fish was very small (as you can see in the picture).  The way you eat it was to lettuce wrapped the blank cod with the provide condiments.  Although the portion given for the main ingredient of the dish was very tiny, we still enjoyed it because the lettuce and condiments combined well with the fish.

The spring roll was brought to our table by mistake but we ate it (and paid for it) anyway :)  Lettuce wrapped spring roll and I liked it too .... it was a lot more delicate than those Chinese spring roll from the Chinese dim sum restaurant (haha, and of course, more expensive too :P )

Highlight of the night had to be the Grilled Alberta Tenderloin!!  It was cooked just right, delightfully tender and juicy!  The mushroom absorbed the reduced jus was perfect too.

For desert, we had the Donut Platter, it was fresh, fluffy, and not too sweet. I almost wanted to have my hubby's share as well :P

 
Overall, we had a pleasant experience, the taste of the food was refreshing and well balanced and the service was good.  Most of all, we had good companies to enjoy the dinner with which made the food even tastier.  Food tastes great only when you are with good companies. ^^

By the way, if you are wondering if Chef Korecki was absent from his kitchen because of competing in Top Chef, we did see him in the open kitchen busy preparing meals for his customers.

Sidedoor Contemporary Kitchen & Bar
20 York Street, ByWard Market, Ottawa, K1N 5T5

TEL: 613-562-9331
Website: http://sidedoorrestaurant.com/contact.aspx

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Enjoying a Sunday Afternoon

What a way to enjoy a Sunday Afternoon!  Baby J is napping while I sip my coffee and enjoy a lovely piece of green tea cake.  Thanks A for the cake, it tasted awesome!  Also, want to note that the new Valentine's theme Starbucks cup is CuTe.

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Almond Butter

To see if my baby boy is allergic to almond, I made almond butter for the first time.  The recipe was very simple and I do not have the exact amount of the ingredients I used because I just added in enough amount to reach my desire thickness. The taste of almond in my almond butter was not very strong, it might be because I added water to the mixture as I did not want it to be too sticky. However, I still like the result of it because I know now that my son is not allergic to almond! Yay! Next thing to try would be peanut butter...

ingredients

• almond
• olive oil
• water

preparation

Roast the almond at 300 degree oven for 20 min
In blender/food processor, blend the almond until smooth. Remember to make it super smooth if you are using it for your baby or else they might choke.
Blend in olive oil and water until the mixture reaches your desire thickness. (There was not an exact amount of olive oil / water that I used but I used more water than olive oil because I did not want the mixture to be too sticky such that it might be a choking hazard for my little one)

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休閒篇: 花

After the mums, I fell into a flowery mode and decided to use some flowers to refresh my home a bit.  I dig up some old vases that I haven't use for months and bought some cheap flowers to see how it goes.  It was always difficult to arrange flowers in the horizontal vase, however, this time it wasn't bad at all and I am happy. ^^

 

More photos on flickr.

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秋菊

Autumn, my favourite season of all, has arrived!  In addition, our front porch finally has some flowers, fall mums in a pot.  My first time caring for outdoor plants and I hope they bloom well. 

 

More photos on flickr.

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Turkish Coffee and Pancake (Istanbul)

We tried The Han when we were in Istanbul, Turkey. It is located near the Topkapi Palace and the things that attracted us to The Han were that there was a woman making gözleme (turkish pancakes) by the entrance, its Turkish seating area and its decorations (haha, of course we knew that all of these gimmicks were just to attract tourists like us, but we went in anyway :p ).

We ordered Turkish coffee and the gözleme. I liked the coffee because it was super strong but the gözleme was very plain (not sure how to judge it since it was the first and only time that I have tried it but it was not very tasteful).

Overall, the experience and the food was average (nothing to complain nor rave about).

For more photos of The Han, please visit here.
For more photos of Istanbul, Turkey, please visit here.

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Caffe Gilli (Florence)

Caffe Gilli, Florence is the only place in Italy where we tried cappuccino during our 14-day Mediterranean cruise. In Florence (or most of the tourism places in Italy), you will be charged extra if you want to sit in the patio, so we ordered the cappuccino from the bar.
The cappuccino from Gilli was rich and very silky. We enjoyed it and it wasn't expensive at all because we took it from the bar not the patio (I think it was only around €2). It was a nice break from all the walking even though we just had lunch across Gilli in the same piazza =^U^=

The barista who was making our cappuccino (above) and my cup of cappuccino (below).

I really like the picture that I took below because it really showed the Italian relaxed style of living.  By the way (since I show the picture here), this is the patio where we had our lunch in Piazza della Repubblica. The food in this place is not worth talking about and the service was not good either.  We just randomly chose this place (wasn't a good pick).

For more pics of Florence, check them out on flickr.

Gilli
Piazza della Repubblica, 28, 50123 Firenze, Italy

Tel: +39 055 213896

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A Stroll in Sarria, Barcelona

During one of our 4 days in Barcelona, we traveled around using the hop-on/hop-off bus. In our busy day of sight-seeing, we still found time to relax and enjoy some comfy sweet in a quiet neighbourhood, Sarria.

From the hop-on/hop-off bus tour guide, Sarria is described as follows:
Sarria, just like the neighbourhood of Gracia, was also an independent town before it became part of Barcelona in 1921. If you get off at this stop you can discover the old part of Sarrria, whose historic value remains unchanged. Today it is the heart of the neighbourhood, where you will find the market, the church and the town hall. The atmosphere of the squares, where there are weekly book and antiques fairs, the pedestrian streets with their typical shops ... there are a number of important cake shops and the variety of small restaurants, make this area the perfect place for a stroll.

After we got off this stop, we were not able to figure out where the old part of Sarria is located ... hehehee ... and me being love to eat, Hubby and I gave up on sight-seeing and set out to find those cake shops instead for a nice after lunch break. =^U^=

We strolled down the Carrier Major de Sarria, it was a very quiet street, a lot of the shops on the ground floor were closed. Luckily, there were a few cafe and cake shops opened and we decided to go inside Caffe San Marco to take a break. We ordered a regular cappuccino and a mini cappuccino. To our surprise, the mini cappuccino tasted super rich and had a strong chocolate favor. The regular cappuccino was not bad either but we loved the mini one a lot more. It was indeed a very nice find considering the street was super quiet.

 

Across from Caffe San Marco, there is a very attractive pastry shop, Pastisseria Foix de Sarria. Of course, I couldn't resist myself and went inside anyway even after the nice break in Caffe San Marco. Inside, there were so many truffles, chocolate, cakes, gelato and not to mention, freshly baked panettone!!! Unfortunately, I couldn't eat much more sweets as I was already full and my hubby reminded me that we still have a lot more sight-seeing to go ... as a result, we only got a few pastries to go (we did not want to carry too much and we chose the ones that won't melt easily either, since we won't be eating them right away) and a gelato to eat on our way back to the bus stop. I would come back to this place again if I visit Barcelona again.

Check out more pics on flickr.

Caffe San Marco
Calle Pedro de la creu, 15, Barcelona

TEL: 932 802 973

Foix de Sarrià
Calle Major de Sarrià, 57, Barcelona

TEL: 93 203 07 14 - 93 203 00 04
Website: http://www.foixdesarria.com/benvinguts.php

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La Dama Restaurant (Barcelona)

We wanted to have a nicer dinner during our last night stay in Barcelona (we stayed 4 days/3 nights in Barcelona prior to our Mediterranean curise) and since we did not do much research before the trip, we chose La Dama Restaurant because it is close to our hotel (maybe 15 min - 20 min walk) and it has a good rating in the 2009 Frommers.

La Dama Restaurant is an upscale restaurant in the heart of Barcelona in an elegant 1918 building designed by Manuel Sayrach. Its hall is decorated in a Art Nouveau style with a beautiful classic old world type of dining room and excellent service. The restaurant serves Catalan and French cuisine and we chose the 98,00 € p.p. tasting menu.  I loved the delicate plating of each dish, as for the taste, it was good but did not give me a wow factor.  The dessert was only average, we did not enjoy the dessert as much as we enjoyed the other dishes.  One thing to mention, the service was impeccable from the minute we entered the building to the minute we left the building.  From the fact that we only found this place when we reached Barcelona, I have no complains and we enjoyed the night.  =^U^=

Check out more pics on flickr.

La Dama Restaurant
Diagonal 423, Barcelona

TEL: 93-202-06-86
Website: http://www.ladama-restaurant.com/

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Citrus Restaurant (Barcelona)

The first stop of our honeymoon trip last year was Barcelona, Spain.  After a long day of sightseeing, we ended up on Passeig de Gracia and were trying to find a restaurant to relax and to have dinner.  By chance, we chose Citrus Restaurantus (Mediterranean cuisine)  because it started to rain when we were right outside of its entrance.  It was around 7:30pm when we arrived, I guess it just started the dinner hours and we had to wait a while before we got seated.  However,  we are still glad that we found this restaurant because:

1. Quality, quantity, and presentation of the food was good
2. Not expensive (we found that it is actually cheaper than the tapas we had the night before) ... the entire meal (1 appetizer, 2 starters, 2 entrées, 2 latte, 1 dessert) was only 54Euro!!
3. Server was polite, efficient, and provided good suggestions
4. Decoration of the place is modern, with huge windows of views of Passeig de Gracia

We loved this place so much that I recommended it to my in-laws when they traveled to Barcelona earlier this year.  They too said that it was a nice place.  However, I found out recently that Citrus got a mixed reviews from Tripadvisor, some people complained the service was poor and small dishes ... luckily, our enjoyed our experience. =)

After our dinner, the rain stopped and we were able to take a good shot of Casa Batlló at night that is nearly by the restaurant.

Citrus Restaruant
Passeig de Gràcia, 44 (Barcelona).
With Consell de Cent. (Eixample Dret.)

TEL: 93 487 23 45

OPEN
Mon to Sun 13-16:30hr and 19:30-24:30hr.
Sunday and bank holidays until 24 hr. Friday and Saturday until 1 hr.

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Broccoli Soup with Cheddar Cheese

This is a quick, easy and healthy recipe that I found from the DairyGoodness website.  The only ingredient that I think might not be that healthy is the chicken broth, so I used the low-sodium type to make myself feel better.

I found the soup did not turn out as green as I liked it to be, it is probably because my bunch of broccoli wasn't large enough (next time, I'll need to add more).  Overall, I liked the taste and texture of it.  A good and comfort soup for the fall. :)

More photos are posted on flickr.

Broccoli Soup with Cheedar Cheese

ingredients

• 1 bunch broccoli (1 1/2 lb/750 g) (I did not put enough ...)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced (I skipped on this)
• 2 cups (500 mL) chicken or vegetable broth (I used chicken broth)
• 1 tsp (5 mL) grated orange rind
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper
• Pinch dried red pepper flakes
• 2 cups (500 mL) milk
• Salt to taste (Optional)
• 1 cup (250 mL) grated Canadian Cheddar cheese

preparation

Peel and chop broccoli stems; coarsely chop florets to make at least 6 cups (1.5L) total.

In saucepan, combine broccoli stems, onion, potatoes, garlic, broth, orange rind, thyme, pepper and red pepper flakes; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 min. Add florets; simmer, covered, for 5 min or until vegetables are softened.

In blender, food processor, purée soup, in batches, with milk until smooth. Return to pan and heat through but do not boil. Add more milk if too thick. Season with salt. Spoon into bowls; sprinkle with Cheddar cheese.

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