Wednesday, August 6, 2008

What's Cooking Wednesday: Toronto Week: Toronto Restaurant Reviews



Please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

This just in: I did no cooking last week.

From Sunday morning through Saturday afternoon we were on the road. Since then, I've been lazy.

This morning was farm share day, and today I've blanched and frozen kale, made a blueberry-peach cobbler, a batch of borscht, a Russian cucumber-sour cream salad and prepped a summer squash gratin.

But I'm not going to write about any of those.

If you want any of the recipes, leave a comment and I'll post one for next week. ;-)

This week I'm going to talk about all the wonderful food that D and I ate in Toronto.

Now, here's the thing that stinks: our camera wasn't working. So I'm going to have to post links, etc. You'll just have to take my word for it that the food rocked.

Favorite restaurants:

King's Noodle House



Image from: Houston Daily Photo

We had this very dish - a flavorful broth with unbelievably tasty barbecued duck and wontons filled with shrimp, along side bok choy and perfectly cooked Chinese egg noodles. We also had the best shrimp we've ever tasted - it was steamed together with garlic and served over rice noodles. The dinner was cheap and probably the best Chinese food D and I have ever had (and that includes food in NYC, San Francisco and Vancouver). This is not the place for a relaxing dinner - there's virtually no ambiance, and you're usually seated with others at huge tables, but the food is.... amazing.

Terroni

This was a suggestion from NYC/Caribbean Ragazza, and I am so grateful to her! D and I shared a fabulous pizza, suggested by the server, that included mozzarella, gorgonzola, speck, basil and mushrooms. It was truly out of this world. To give you an idea of what the pizzas at Terroni are like, here's a picture from
alau2:



We also had very good meals at
La Bruschetta (a wonderful pear and gorgonzola salad with a pear-infused vinaigrette, and chicken breasts stuffed with roasted vegetables over a bed of pesto cappelini)

Avli:



Image from www.dine.to


At Avli, in the Greektown secion of the Danforth, we had magnificent Greek food - a mezze plate with the best taramosalata I've ever tasted and a perfect lamb pie, with huge chunks of succulent, grilled lamb.


and Little India



Image from Food TV/Canada

We had the buffet lunch depicted here. The butter chicken was out of this world, as was the rasmalai.

And, at the risk of boring you (or starving you) to tears, I have to mention Dufflet Pastries, where we had this:



"Passion Fruit Mousse Mini
Delicate layers of polka dot chocolate sponge surround dark chocolate mousse and passion fruit mousse; garnished with a mirror glaze and a swirl of chocolate."


Image and text from Dufflet Pastries

Bon Appetit!

17 comments:

Jen said...

Meg, Sandy and Alex - there was something weird with my original post, so I reposted and lost your comments.

Meg - the Film Festival is in Yorkville, I think, and I know that area is filled with celeb hangouts. I know Terroni is popular, as is La Bruschetta and Susur.

Sandy, the tart was to die for. Very, very light and fruity with undertones of rich chocolate.

Alex, it was nice to escape cooking for a week. ;-)

anno said...

OK, it's 10:30 p.m. Do you think I could make it to Terroni's before it closes? Wow -- everything looks just terrific!

Also, I'd love to get your recipe for the Russian cucumber salad with sour cream. I'm always on the look out for a good cucumber salad recipe... Thanks!

Jen said...

Anno, Terroni was soooooo good! And yes, I'll post the cucumber salad next week. And Sandy - I'll post the cobbler recipe, too, but I want to tweak it first... it was good but I was tasting too much of the baking powder in the topping, so I want to play with that.

glamah16 said...

Doesn't Toronto have good eating.

Jen said...

It most certainly does! Where did you go when you were there, Glamah?

Brittany | the Home Ground said...

That sounds so fantastic! I especially am in love with the ingredients and presentation of that chocolate treat! Gorgeous :)

I've actually found a lot of authentic prayer flags on eBay. Yay! I think I will check in Ann Arbor, though.

Mae Travels said...

Toronto is really an amazing place to eat. You mentioned one performance -- what else did you do?

Laura Paterson said...

Mmmmm - I can't wait til I'm next back in Toronto, I forgot how good the food is!

Your pizza looks gorgeous and the pear/Gorgonzola salad sounds divine!

Korie said...

This is great! CB and I were considering a 2 day stopover in NYC when we vist Pittsburgh in April but that might fall through so I mentioned a weekend trip to Toronto and these restaurants are making me think I'll be really pushing for the Toronto trip.
Oh and we keep getting beets in our biopacket so could you maybe post the borscht recipe?

Marianne Arkins said...

Squash gratin? Sounds yummy! And, I'm always open to something new to use cucumbers for... I have about half a million.

Loved the little dessert. And the pizza. And...

*sigh*

Food is a weakness of mine.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

glad you had such a great time in Toronto. It's such a great city, especially if you like food.

Yes the film festival's base is in the Yorkville area.

Jen said...

Brittany, it was really delicious. I miss that kind of light pastry in Ann Arbor.

Mae - we saw Avenue Q and Second City. We walked through many, many neighborhoods. We saw a ghost walk (but it was not good). We went to the ROM and Casa Loma and the Bata shoe museum and St. Lawrence Market. We hung out with our wonderful hosts. Mostly, though, we explored neighborhoods - the Danforth, Cabbagetown, both Little Italy spots, West Queen West, Chinatown/Kensington Market, Yorkville, etc., etc.

Kittie, they were both great!

Lilac, I'd highly recommend TO - it's like NYC, only cheaper and more friendly. ;-) (Said by a New Yorker)

Mine, too, Marianne! And yes, I'll post that.

NYC, we really, really loved it. So much to see. It felt like home.

Anonymous said...

OMG. Total YUM (You know, when I travel I'm all about the FOOD).

I'd love to know how to blanch and freeze kale. Never thought of doing that. Do you have to dry it before freezing, or just pop it into a bag after blanching?

Anonymous said...

Wow, that pizza looks just like something from Silvio's! So if you're jonesing, just go to North University Ave and save your gas money for...well, everything else on this page... :)

thailandchani said...

That pizza looks wonderful! I've been on a bland diet recently and, oh!, you have no idea! :)


~*

Jen said...

Amy, all you need to do is wash the kale really well, boil a pot of water, cook the kale for 2 minutes, then scoop it out and rinse it with cold water (to stop the cooking). When it's good and cold, squeeze it out and put into a freezer bag. That's IT. ;-)

Emily, Silvio's is wonderful, but I have to say that Terroni's was so, so much better. Mostly because I find that with Silvio's it really depends who's cooking that day, who's in front of the counter, etc.
Plus, this was a place for a leisurely meal.

Oh, Chani, I'm sorry to have this be so tempting!

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I grew up in the Toronto area but I am sure it has changed along with the restaurants since I was there last.