Winterlicious!!!! part deux!

In this never ending winter I went to my second Winterlicious event of the season, Momofuku. Momofuku quite widely known in the culinary world for its ramen, various other asian inspired dishes and its celebrity chef David Chang. This well known ramen establishment is located in one of Toronto's luxury hotels, Shangri-La.

Momofuku seems to have built itself quite the following in the states and in the media, which really surprised me when I walked into the restaurant and everything was quite unassuming. Inside looked like your typical Ramen place in Toronto. The decor was simplistic, clean, and really didn't have anything that made it stand out. There wasn't a lot of private tables for patrons because it was more communal tables to help feed the massive crowds that seemed to never really stop streaming into the restaurant. The communal tables can be off putting to some but I was perfectly fine with it because I've been to other ramen restaurants and other places which had the same kind of setup.

To start my meal at Momofuku I had their Kimchi in a jar and my dining companion I had their steamed pork bun.

Kimchi is exactly like it sounds: Kimchi stuffed into a large glass jar. The kimchi was actually quite tasty and was better then the kimchi I would get at korean restaurants. To be fair to the korean restaurants, the kimchi I get at restaurants is free and the jar I got here is something I paid for, which hopefully means Momofuku did something special with their kimchi. The Kimchi I had exploded with flavour and was spicy and sour.

When the pork bun arrived, I was a little surprised because it wasn't what I imagined.  I thought the bun would be your traditional steamed pork bun. The "bun" was good but it didn't really stand out too much.

Dan Dan Mein

The Robin to my culinary experience at Momofuku ordered the dan dan mein, a dry spicy pork noodle dish. The noodles used in the dish were the same noodles used in the ramen, the pork was seasoned well and was not as spicy as advertised. The noodles were tasty and went well with the pork but again this dish didn't really stand out from similar dishes I've had in the past.

Smoked Chicken Ramen

I had their smoked chicken ramen, also on their regular menu, which had a nice broth with tons of toppings. There was crispy chicken skins, a barely poached egg, mushrooms and all sorts of goodies. There was a lot of flavours going on, the broth was nice and there was an earthiness from the mushrooms. There was also a variety of textures to be enjoyed: the crispy chicken skin, the silky poached egg and of course the ramen noodles. This was a great ramen dish and I really enjoyed this as part of my 3 course meal.

 Chocolate Pudding

For the finale I had the chocolate pudding. The chocolate pudding was the highlight of the meal for me. The pudding was smooth and creamy like how great puddings should be. Floating on top of the pudding were chunks of the "compost cookie" and what I think were were chocolate covered malt balls. This wasn't a very heavy desert and was the perfect way for me to end my meal.

Compost Cookie

My dining companion ordered the compost cookie as recommended by the wait staff. The name might not sound appealing but I can guarantee you that it is one of the best cookies you'll ever have. There were chocolate chips, what I think was granola and oatmeal. The cookie was chewy on the inside and had a really nice crispy caramelized outside.

Here was the full Winterlicious menu form Momofuku:

This was a very filling meal and a great value for 15 dollars for 3 courses. Normally I would never go to Momofuku because the regular menu is quite steep but I'm glad that Winterlicious provided me the opportunity to have a Momofuku experience. I can't say I will be back anytime soon, but I will jump at another opporunity to come back for Summerlicious or Winterlicious.

For more information.

Momofuku

Winterlicious!!!! (Cibo)

To those that have no idea what Winterlicious is all about; It is a glorious time of year, much like Christmas,  when restaurants all over Toronto offer a price fixe menu to gluttonous people (like myself) at very affordable prices. For my very first foray into this wintery culinary adventure I braved the cold and traveled all the way to Cibo wine bar for some fine Italian fare.

Cibo wine bar, (pronounced Chee-Bo) is one of Toronto's latest addition to the wine bar scene. The wine bar is separated into two sections: one dining area and a one cocktail/bar area. The full menu is still available in both areas; the only difference between the two sections is the atmosphere. The dining area is just as it sounds, quieter then its counter part and well suited for a romantic night out with your significant other. The cocktail/bar area has more of club atmosphere with load music and a younger vibe.

Winterlicious restaurants usually offer two different price fixe menus: one for lunch and one for dinner. The lunch menu is often the better deal of two, which is why I went to Cibo for lunch. For 15 dollars at Cibo I was able to order a 3 course meal for lunch, pretty good deal considering its about the cost of 2 value meals at McDonalds.

Fresh bread with Olives

One of the best things at Cibo is their fresh baked bread, the bread is chewy, fresh tasting, and is topped off with some toasted herbs and salt (just drooling when I think about it). The olives were fresh tasting and looked like they were marinated in a chilli oil, too bad I hate the taste of olives.

For my first course I decided to see how they would handle the Caesar salad. The lettuce was fresh, the dressing was nice and the salad was not over dressed. The salad wasn't the greatest salad in the world but it was a light and a nice way to begin my meal.

My compatriot for this meal ordered the baked Eggplant. According to Cibo's menu the roasted eggplant had melted bocconici, parmigiano, with a light tomato sauce. When the dish first arrived to the table we both thought this dish was going to be heavy like a lasagna; we were very surprised that the dish was very light when got our grubby little mitts on it. The combination of the tomato sauce, egg plant and bocconici wasn't heavy but tasted fresh. Personally, for me the dish was a little bland a could have used a touch of salt and pepper.

Now for the main event of my meal, Quattro Stagioni (according to the menu). The delicious disk of food was topped with red peppers, mushrooms, olives, zuccini, and eggplants. The pizza was a thin crust neapolitan style pizza. Each slice of pizza packed a ton of flavour and loads of tasty veggies. Topping the slice of pizza with a little bit of their chilli oil creates a little bit of heaven in the palm of your hands.

The other main dish that arrived at the table was tagliatelle with shrimp, pesto, pine nuts, mascarpone in a touch of tomato sauce (again according to their menu). This was a little misleading because as you can see, it is actually tomato sauce with a touch of pesto instead of the other way around. The tomato sauce was creamy with a little bit of tartness and the shrimp was cooked perfectly and fresh like it was just fished out of the ocean. The tagliatelle was house made fresh pasta; cooked perfectly al dente. It was hard to stop myself from leaping across the table to consume this dish because it tasted so good.

To help me finish off my food coma, I ended my meal with a tiramisu martini. This was a very pretty dessert, which made it hard for me to want to plunge a spoon into it (for about 10 seconds). This was not an overly sweet desert but more of mature desert because you could really taste the espresso to compliment the nice cake beneath the whip cream instead of tasting tons of sugar and chocolate.

The vanilla bean panna cotta with candied blood orange and tangerine arrived next. This was a fantastic dessert, which wasn't overly sweet and had an amazing texture. The vanilla bean really stood out and combined with the candied blood orange sauce created a flavour explosion in my mouth. 

The meal here was quite amazing and the price here for Winterlicious is tough to beat. Cibo has extremely friendly staff and amazing food, which makes me want to come back soon and try something on their regular menu.

For more information:

Cibo Wine Bar 

The Pulled Pork Paradox

I know it is a little bit late to be talking about christmas presents but over the holidays I received what I deem to be one of the greatest inventions of all time, the crock pot. I've never owned one or ever used one but I was quite excited to crack open my crock pot recipe book and get started. As I flipped through my crock pot cook book (quite the mouthful), "Slow Cooker Revolution", the beginners pulled pork recipe immediately appealed to me. 

I've tried making pulled pork before and was a little bit of a disaster. My first attempt was quite dry and didn't have much flavour. This was mostly due to my blind ambition because I just guessed and improvised my way through the recipe, much to the chagrin of my partner. This time however I was going to follow the carefully constructed recipe and conquer my nemesis known as pulled pork.

I bought 4 pound pork shoulder (pork butt) and all the spices (cumin and oregano) and the rest of the ingredients from my local grocery store. None of the ingredient were too difficult to find and could be reused for over recipes so I'm not going to have an ingredient making a long term home on shelf or in my fridge.

One of the first things that the recipe asked me to do was create a rub with brown sugar and my spices and apply it to my pork butt (I just like saying pork butt). I liberally applied the mixture and wrapped the hunk of meat in cellophane and placed it in the fridge to marinate for 24 hours (oh the anticipation).

In my new fancy toy, I created a nice shallow well of liquid with cider vinegar and covered my pork with some store bought BBQ sauce. I lowered my pork butt into the liquid and set the slow cooker to low and I let it cook in its own juices for 8 hours. As my meat cooked it slowly perfumed my home with the sweet sweet smell of BBQ.

When the pork butt was ready to be pulled out of the slow cooker, I needed to skim all the fat from the braising liquid (there was quite a lot of fat, definitely not a diet food). My lovely kitchen assistant at home selflessly volunteered to shred my pork butt, which created quite the lovely meat confetti. After the meat was shredded, I picked a nice pile of meat up and threw it in a hot pan with some of its braising liquid and some more BBQ sauce. 

As soon as the meat absorbed all the lovely juices and sauce from the hot pan I surgically placed the meat on some slider buns and topped it with a pickle.

Open

Closed

The end result was quite delicious. The meat was still moist, tangy from the cider vinegar and sweet from the BBQ sauce. Overall I was quite happy with results, which was a giant improvement from my first attempt. This was still a lot of work but I viewed this more of labour of love. I'm definitely going to keep this recipe in mind whenever I do have the hankering for some delicious BBQ, i might even make my own little tweaks next time.

Lobster, Lobster, and more Lobster

Lobsters are always considered to be one of the super elite foods that people eat at very haughty type restaurants, which is funny considering at one point in time lobsters were considered peasant food. On a very very chilly night in January I decided to visit Rock Lobster Food Co. to feast on delicious lobster and other creatures from the sea.

You may have heard of Rock Lobster Food Co. as they specialize in seafood and have made quite the effort in promoting their wares at a lot of food events in Toronto. Rock Lobster Food Co. Even has multiple locations; one located on the Ossignton strip between Dundas and Queen, and one around Queen and Bathurst (their step to ruling the Toronto seafood scene). For this entry I'll be talking about my visit to the Queen and Bathurst location.

The Rock Lobster Food Co. located on Queen and Bathurst is the newest addition to their empire and currently occupy the former neighbourhood favourite "Shanghai Cowgirl." When you first walk into the restaurant you feel like you've walked into an eloquent fish market (similar to Rodney's, if you've ever been there). There is fresh seafood right at the bar and the place brightly lit through out the restaurant.

On this cold winter night I decided to start my meal with one of Rock Lobster Food Company' s daily specials. Deep fried okra stuffed with shrimp, rolled in cornmeal and served with a donair sauce. I wasn't expecting a mountain of food but when it arrived to the table I was a little surprised at the diminutive size. However I can't be too upset about the portion size considering that it was only 6 dollars (when was the last time an appetizer in Toronto cost 6 dollars?) The okra halves were nicely fried and held a nice shrimp surprise in the middle. The donair sauce was something I've never seen before, which I discovered to be sweet and sour (upon further research, I discovered donair sauce is just condensed milk, vinegar and garlic) and complimented the tiny morsels nicely.

 For the main event of the evening, I feasted upon Rock Lobster Food Company's Lobster burger. This delicious creation is essentially a surf and turf between a burger bun. The burger patty was juicy and cooked to a beautiful medium (which is what all burgers should be cooked to). Now to make a good thing even better, the restaurant decided to top my burger with delicious lobster meat. At first I thought the taste of the lobster would be totally lost because of the beef's strong taste, but I was wrong. As I chomped into the burger and savoured my food, I could distinctly taste the lobster along with the beef. I thought the beef was still had a stronger taste than the lobster but both proteins did compliment each other really well.

Rock Lobster Food Company on Queen and Bathurst was unexpectedly good. I had my reservation because I thought the food was going to be too expensive and not live up to hype that Rock Lobster Food Company was building around their brand. The food was priced right and they were really really creative with their offerings. I personally can't wait to go back and bring my partner in crime.

For More Information:
Rock Lobster Food Company

Home of The Brave (no witty title needed)

One of the newest locations in Toronto that is starting to create a little bit of a buzz is a little spot located above Lou Dawgs called "Home of The Brave." I did have a few expectations of the place and I can safely say after my visit that it does exceed my expectations and does live up to its hype.

One of the first things you'll notice is the speak easy vibe that seems to surround the place. One of main eye catching pieces that I think most people will notice is the beautiful bar that sits at the front of this fine establishment; it is big and combines a western theme with the style of a prohibition bar. The space itself is not that big but is quite long and has quite a few booths spread through out the place, which indicates that this would be a great place for a few friends to enjoy some great food and drinks.

"Home of The Brave" lives up to its speak easy vibe by offering a nice variety of cocktails that are carefully crafted by their expert mixologist. On my visit I ordered their Bourbon and Beer, which does sound quite boozy but I can assure you the name is quite deceiving. Bourbon and beer actually consists of bourbon (of course), vanilla, femet (no idea what this is) , and root beer. This was one of the best concoctions that I have ever had. The cocktail wasn't overly sweet but was refreshing and i could pick up all of the flavours of the different ingredients (which is how a good cocktail should be.)

Looking over the menu you can immediately see that "Home of the Brave" focuses on home style comfort food with a twist; tater tots, and boloney sandwiches. For my dining pleasure on this visit I ordered one of their daily specials (and one of their best sellers) the chicken and waffles. This southern US dish was served with a savoury herbed waffle topped with crispy spicy fried pieces of chicken .......... (lost my train of thought for a moment).  The pieces of chicken were quite tender and when combined with with the savoury waffle and hot sauce honey..... well you just booked yourself a one way ticket to "flavour town" (yes i know a Guy Fieri reference.)

My culinary Side kick ordered on this visit another one of their best sellers, the Kentucky Fried Chicken Hand shake sandwich. This was quite the massive sandwich; the sandwich contained a massive seasoned and deep fried chicken quarter which was 90% deboned. Why was it 90% deboned? because they left the end with the chicken feet still attached to the chicken quarter, hence chicken "hand shake." I though this was quite amusing, unlike my slightly disturbed dining companion. After I helped my partner surgically remove the extremity from her sandwich, she dug in. This sandwich again displayed the virtuoso skill that seems to be working the deep fryer. The sandwich was seasoned like a piece of KFC chicken and was crunchy without being too oily. This was definitely a sandwich that surpasses one that could be offered by the original colonel.

I really enjoyed the vibe of "Home of The Brave," which created a nice dark ambient environment that wasn't too loud for me to enjoy. The home style food was a really big hit with me and always surprised me with their twist on things. I definitely want to head back and try their other menu items and bring my friends for a great night out on the town.

For More Information:
Home of The Brave

Beef tasted better corned

You may call me simple but I cannot deny that I love sandwiches. Sure sandwiches can be simple but they can also be as complex as launching a NASA space shuttle. There always seems to be a never ending list of vegetables, meats, breads and spreads the can be used to assemble the perfect sandwich. However, sometimes the simplest sandwich can often be the best sandwich, just the like the sandwiches at “The Corned Beef House” in Toronto.

On another oh too familiar “had to stay late at work” kind of day I decided that I would venture through the concrete jungle in the entertainment district and scavenge for my dinner. My hunt didn’t seem to last too long as I found my prey on the corner of Adelaide and John, The Corned Beef House. I pushed open the glass doors to reveal a nice bar setting inside and walked up to a very pleasent server at the bar and handed my magical parchment to her, a coupon for 50% off a huge and a pop.

I quickly scanned through the menu and narrowed my decision to two choices. a voice inside my head said to me “a placed called the corned beef house, how could you not get corned beef sandwich?” but the more dopey voice inside of my head whispered “Montreal smoked meat” like sweet nothings in my ear. Well of course I made the obvious choice and picked the montreal smoked meat sandwich at a place called “The Corned Beef House”. It did seem a little blasphemous to be ordering a montreal smoked meat sandwich in Toronto and I did wonder if i was breaking some kind of law that I would need to take shelter from to hide from those montreal smoked meat purists.

The sandwich was assembled promptly and I assume with lots of tender loving care. The sandwich was quite basic; rye bread, 7 oz of delectable meats and mustard. One of the first things I noticed when I was served the sandwich was the delicious aroma emanating from the plate that remind me of sitting at the counter of a montreal deli. The food looked so good that I immediately dislocated my jaw to clamp down on my meal like a snake devouring a mouse. The bread was tasty and very sturdy, which it had to be in order to hold the mounds of deliciousness. The ambrosia like meat was very moist and salty and hit all the right taste buds in my mouth.

I hope nobody from montreal reads this but I think the montreal smoked sandwich could stand up toe to toe with the sandwiches from montreal. The flavours were there and “The Corned Beef House” kept it traditional by keeping it simple. After Sampling one of “The Corned Beef House’s” wares, i’m anticipating another visit to try what I assume is their specialty, the Reuben.

For more information

Corned Beef House

Frankenstein Creation

I haven't been updating my blog as much I should because of work but I am going to try to be more active about writing to remind my palate of all the great things I have consumed.

On this day in particular I decided to put on my doctor Frankenstein persona and attempt a monstrosity of a grilled cheese sandwich. I had a few Ingredients laying around the house, bread and cheese, but I needed more if was going to create something utterly devious. What I needed was a magical ingredient, bacon! not just any bacon but pancetta  (fancy Italian bacon).

I took the slice of pancetta and pan fried them until they were crispy wafers of meat. I next pulled out the slices of my Dempsters whole grain bread (because i'm health conscious) and my fancy Kraft Singles and started the assembling process. I laid the slices of cheese on the bread and then placed my crispy pancetta on top of the cheese. I then paused for a moment and felt i needed to add something, caramelized onion jam!

I bought the caramelized onion jam from an artisan's fair and is one of the most delectable spreads i have ever had. The jam is sweet like caramelized onion but also savory at the same time, quite the unique taste sensation.

I spread the onion jam on top of the fried pancetta and I closed up my sandwich and was ready to butter up the slices of bread. As I reached for the butter I noticed I still had bacon fat in a pan and the light bulb turned on, I'm going to butter my bread with bacon fat! (the healthy choice).

After I finished covering my sandwich in bacon fat, I threw my sandwich in a new frying pan and I fried it to crispy perfection. I cut it up diagonally and I stood back and I admired my master piece.

I picked it up with both hands and I could feel the bacon fat cover my finger tips but it didn't stop me from taking my first bite. I bit into the gooey creation and broke off a piece of the crispy pancetta and started to chew my creation and let the flavors envelop my mouth. Each mouthful of the franken-grilled cheese filled my mouth with the saltiness of the pancetta, the sweet and savory taste of the caramelized onion jam and the gooey richness of the processed cheese. I thoroughly enjoyed my sandwich but I don't know if using bacon fat to cover my sandwich added any benefit except for shaving a few years off my life and adding a little bit of fat to my arteries. I still think it was a great to reuse bacon fat.

Bon A petite!