Canadian Music Week Edition

Hey All,

Have been out of town a lot lately, trying to eat at home and also lazy. Therefor, this post is a long time coming and I will try and get things up more consistently.

Now I had 2 things to eat in the city during Canadian Music Week.

The first thing was simple. I had some street meat at the corner on Spadina at Queen.
The Hotdog was solid. Good size along with some fine cooking. The banter with the vendor was great as well. He was really someone I could hold a conversation with and that is a big part of a cart food for me.
The toppings were full and varied. That's all you can ask for when looking at toppings.

All in all a good street meat experience and I will attend again.


Later on that night I hit up Sneaky D's. I have had their nachos before but I will fill you in on the particulars.

This is what you get here. The Kings Crown Nachos.

Included:
Ground Beef
Tomatoes
Onions
Tons of peppers
Jalapenos
Salsa
Sour Cream
Salsa
Guaq
Cheese

Everything needed piled high.
There is a secret that you need to do when you order. Ask for the Guaq to be baked into the nachos. What that does is it gets spread under the cheese and baked in along with them.

Also, something you might not know is that you can order them upstairs in the concert venue. I did not know this and was amazed because I didn't have to stop watching the bands

Top 2 nachos in the city. And the kitchen is open until these close.

Keep on eating!!

Back on the Horse

OK this has been a long time coming.

I will come back with a bang I promise.

BANG

Gastro pub crawl.

For my friend Kat's birthday we hit up some amazing food places. We started with Pizza Labretto on the Danforth for some gourmet pizza samplers. We had Duck Confit pizza as well as some juicy sausage pizza. I am usually not a fan of duck because I find it too greasy but it was fantastic and with the consistency of pulled pork. The last thing we had was a bottle of sparking wine.......... except it was red. I have never had sparking red wine but it was pretty good and very different.

Our second place was Campagnolo on Dundas West. This is a smallish place with very good food. We sampled Burrata cheese, which is like a mozzarella with cream, on some amazing bread and also crab with Carpaccio, shaved thinly beef, and shaved truffles. Very rich and it was perfect in the small dose I had. Not sure if it would be great to have a lot of it. Here is where I also had the best beer in my life. It was from Beau's and it was a limited run bottle called Hogan's Goat. You can't buy it on your own but this alone was soooooooo good i would go back just for it. I even hugged the waitress, named Caitlin, for suggesting it.

On to our last stop we hit the Black Hoof. It is an amazing joint. 1st of all they have a little sort of "waiting room" bar across the street to have a drink while waiting for a table. This place used to be their brunch restaurant called the Hoof Cafe. Great selection of beer including Duggan's No 9 IPA. When seated we ordered much food. I had pork carnitas which could be one of the best taco's in the world. With a pork rind added on top we could not get enough of it. A meat plate with curizo, summer sausage, tongue, and sopressata (a dry cured salami). half of it was great and the other half was pretty standard. Our last point for the night was bone marrow on bread. This was interesting and unique. It was pretty much a big bone cooked and cut in half where the marrow was half way between a fat texture and an oil. spread on break it was a great topper to the night.

Hitting all these places were a treat. Going to be updating more often come soon so keep reading.

MMMMMM Pizza

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I hope this finds you all well.

Over the Holidays I found a few places and the 1st one was Pizza Libretto. Now this is a pretty well known place in Toronto so it isn't all that new but this is a new location and the one difference is... they take reservations.

1 word of that to get here. PIZZA. Do not get other things for a main course because you aren't supposed to.

I started off with some amazing crab Ravioli. it was mixed in a sea urchin mushroom and citrus cream sauce. As you can see in the picture it was gone before I could even take the picture.

For my main course I chose a Pork Belly pizza with smoked tomato ragu, mozzarella, bomba, caramelized onion and lemon thyme. Also could not hold back on this. the pork belly is similar to bacon (looks and taste) while the other ingredient accent the flavour fairly well.

For my beer I had a Duggan No 9 IPA. This is a tough beer to get as the brewery has closed but it is still being brewed in small batches at another brewery.

A little pricey so if you are not up for paying a decent price for pizza then stay away. But, if you like a little gourmet on your pizza hit it up.

Cheers.

Wood ovens made out of clay. A glowing fire. these are the makings of good pizza.

Hair of the Dog

Hey all,

Got some great food at an old place with a new menu and beer list. You have to check it out.

Hair of the Dog is on Church street just north of Carlton and has a rooftop patio in the summer as well as around the side.

It has been newly painted inside and has some great features upstairs and down.
Now to the drinks.

Their whole beer list has been overhauled and has some of the best choices for a bar with few taps in the city. I would suggest trying them all.

On to the food. I had a couple of things that were all well made and presented.

Nachos: These were awesome mostly because instead of chips they used baked flour tortillas as the base. Might be the best idea I have seen in nacho land.

Southern Fried Chicken: MMMMMMMMM. You never get it good in this city and with the veggies and the gravy it was perfectly spiced to perfection.

Cheese Plate: 4 cheeses. I don't like blue cheese but the other 3 were delicious. Smoked Cheddar, Gouda, and Brie rounded it out.

Meat Plate: Goes with cheese well and and had a pate like meat that was pulled pork mustard a little bit of fat and oil. This was amazing along with a seeded mustard that gave just the right kick.

I would and will hit this place up again and if you want to take me there I am fine with it too.

All You Can Eat Sushi on the Danforth

Hello,

2 days in a row.

Mariko Sushi on the Danforth at Chester. I could walk to it and it has all you can eat sushi.

It is $14.99 which is fairly decent and the selection is large. Below is the selection that I had and just keep in mind that I do not like the raw fish part of sushi so I do not choose that but I was told it was quite good.

Sesame Chicken: Not amazing. I prob would not have this one again
Teriyaki Chicken: I actually really liked this and was a good amount of sauce
Yam Tempura: Always great and fresh
Edmame: nice little bits to start the meal
Beer Teriyaki Roll: Kind of different with the hot inside of the sushi roll. interested but not favorite
Dynamite Roll: Yes, amazing and would get 2 of these in the future

Pretty decent sushi at a decent price. I will be attending again and refining my choices for the all you can eat

Kalendar on College

Hey all,

Been lazy updating this in the past few weeks but I will throw a few out there this week.

If you are looking for a good birthday place that has great food, isn't too expensive and has some of the best dishes in the city, hit up Kalendar on College just west of Bathurst.

I have been here twice so I will report on both dishes that I have had there.

However, I will put it out there first that they have a great selection of beers both on tap and in the bottle. Good enough that it impressed a beer snob :)

On to the food.

They have a large selection of a unique dish that they call scrolls. Now a scroll is a crepe style roti with some delicious insides. The options are a sigle scroll, a single with salad, and a dinner (double). The dinner is a massive amount of food and will fill you for days to come.

I chose scroll 5 which was oven roasted chicken, avocado, plum tomatoes, feta & herbed mayonnaise. WOW. It was amazing. Each bite had all of the flavours that I needed and it was held together by the crepe roti that contained all of the goodness. Perfect idea.

The second time I was there I chose the New Zealand Spring Lamb Chops which were six delicious spring lamb chops with a mango chutney served with sweet mashed potatoes & sauteed vegetables. They were spectacular as well. The lamb was amazingly moist and I almost couldn't finish them it was so much food. The only thing I would change about this is the amount of chutney on the lamb. It was almost too much and I scraped some off but I ended up using it with the rest of my sides as it was delicious.

Go here and you will love it. I promise

BBQ in the North

Bamm. Hit some BBQ this week. The BarQue Smokehouse is located on Roncesvalles Ave in the west of the city.

This places screams good food right when you walk in and all you can smell is awesome smoked meat (they even have a smoker cam on their website http://barque.ca/?gclid=CNeAhvfomKwCFYXrKgodoUS5Ow ).

Right when you sit down you have a bucket of popcorn on your table along with 2 types of Bar-B-Que sauce. One is a mustardy sauce, that was my favorite, and the other is fairly regular sauce.

I could not decide what to get on the menu so I went for the taster platter.

You can choose 3 of 4 mains as well as 2 sides to your meal.

choice 1: Beef Brisket sliced into strips and slow cooked in the smoker. It was amazing and tender with a crispy outside that was perfect with the mustard sauce. mmmmmmmmm

Choice 2: Chicken thigh also from the slow cooker. It fell off the bone when I touched it. Thought it might be a little bit bigger but was delicious and juicy.

Choice 3: Beef Rib that looked like it was from the beginning of the Flinstones that tips over the car. It is huge and made for a great portion of the meal. Again dark and juicy and slow roasted to perfection.

Side 1: Smoked Cuban Corn that had some sort of spice on it that I didn't know what it was. It was a perfect compliment to the meal.

Side 2: Smoked Tomato Gnocchi that was in a skillet that was amazing. This is my fav side and has some spinach on top as well.

To top it off I had a bottle of Boylan Cherry Cola that went right along with the meal.

Side Note: When I left I still wanted to try their baby back ribs in a dryrub. Luckily they have them in carry out form where they are vacuum packed and ready to go. It is actually in the oven as I write this and I will edit it just as I finish them for dinner tonight.

Followup: They were awesome. Perfect amount of spice to not hide the amazing smokeyness from my mouth. They would be even better if I had them in the restaurant.