Back in August, I posted about the best onion rings I had ever had. They were from Craft Burger and they were tremendous. This past Friday, I ordered them again. Guess what... they sucked. The batter was not crispy and the ring was very very greasy. It was the limpest saddest thing I've ever seen... you had to hold it with two hands otherwise it would sag over and the onion would fall out.....
so the search is back on.....
On an unrelated note, the poutine was quite good. I can't rank it though because that is the first time I've ever had poutine. Later skater, kids are ringing my doorbell like it's out of style.. better go give them candy before they start egging my car.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
TOP 4 SPICY LUNCHES ON BAY STREET
I’ve had a gripe about the lack of spicy food in food courts for years. Whenever a fast food joint comes up with a “spicy” menu item, it’s laughable. Adding a little extra blac
k pepper and a drop of Tabasco doesn’t make it spicy. The masses can’t handle spicy food, so Harvey’s can’t sell a mass amount of a spicy burger if it burns the fragile palettes of its clients. Even the fast food Thai and Indian places “Americanized” their hear levels. Well, damnit, that’s not good enough! There are people out there that want REAL spicy food!
Do I sound angry? Well, I was angry, until recently. As we’ve mentioned in our previous blogs, over the past couple years our fast food has become more “gourmet”. Processed foods are out, real foods are in. And thankfully, so are real spice levels! Vindaloo is finally spicy. Jalapenos are not always from a jar. And “chipotle” and “habanero” and not just marketing terms.
This phenomenon motivated me to write about my top 4 picks for the best spicy food on Bay St. The criteria was very simple. It must pack heat. It must be delicious. That’s about it. Please enjoy and I look forward to any comments on my choices or suggestions for other great hot spots.
4. Piazza Manna
(Exchange Tower; http://www.piazzamanna.com/%20locationsPiazzaManna.html): Th
ere are a few locationsof this Mom ‘n Pops type Italian takeout shop, but I have a strong preference for the one in the Exchange Tower. I get the veal sandwich with the hot peppers. The sandwich itself is very good. Fairly tender veal on a fresh Italian bun. Lotsa tomato sauce and your choice of toppings. Their sautéed hot peppers add quite a kick. Though inconsistent, ranging from spicy to searing, the chilies are immediately noticeable. More of a heat that stays in your mouth than travels through the body.
3. Burrito Boyz
(Adelaide St; http://www.burritoboyz.ca/): Walk a couple mins, wait in line for a long time and walk away with perhaps the best burrito in the city. The halibut burrito is really special, but the chicken is also good for the less adventurous. But I digress. This shop makes the list because of its habanero hot sauce. Oh man, this stuff is potent! For “hot”, you’ll get about 3 drops of it. If you want intense heat though, ask for at least 5 drops and it’ll knock you out! The heat is immediately noticeable on the tongue and hits your torso almost immediately. Love it!
2. Amaya Express
(First Canadian Place): Finally, the first truly good Indian food I’ve ever found in any food court. For $6.99, you get a healthy amount of food with an intense flavour punch. Pick your rice, main and veggie side. The beef vindaloo is out of this world. Super tender cubes of beef simmered in a wildly spicy curry. The heat level is absolutely perfect and continues to build on you. It’s a deep heat, the kind that you feel throughout your body and does not sting the mouth. This, to me, is a great example of comfort food and is incredibly satisfying.
1. Gandhi Roti
(Queen & Bathurst; http://www.desiconnection.ca/webmaster2/motherindia.htm): Ok, this technically is off Bay St., but it’s worth an exception. Gandhi Roti is Toronto’s best roti and up there if comparing the top Indian food in the city. They have a variety of meat and veg choices, all delicious and superbly rich, encased in a paper thin, fluffy roti. The portions are massive and eaten with a fork and knife. And the best part is that you can order anything
mild, medium or hot. Oh wait, that’s actually not true… the BEST part is that “hot” will blow your head off and eat a hole in your stomach! Very, very few people can handle the hot. Seriously! I can handle spice and have eaten the hot a few times. Each time, I swear I’ll never do that to myself again. Like Amaya’s hot, it’s a deep heat that builds and leaves you with a nice warm feeling all over. If you want intense heat, get the medium. If you want insane heat, get the hot. If you can’t handle heat, do not DARE order anything above mild. My favourites are the chicken korma, butter chicken and chicken tikka masala.
k pepper and a drop of Tabasco doesn’t make it spicy. The masses can’t handle spicy food, so Harvey’s can’t sell a mass amount of a spicy burger if it burns the fragile palettes of its clients. Even the fast food Thai and Indian places “Americanized” their hear levels. Well, damnit, that’s not good enough! There are people out there that want REAL spicy food!
Do I sound angry? Well, I was angry, until recently. As we’ve mentioned in our previous blogs, over the past couple years our fast food has become more “gourmet”. Processed foods are out, real foods are in. And thankfully, so are real spice levels! Vindaloo is finally spicy. Jalapenos are not always from a jar. And “chipotle” and “habanero” and not just marketing terms.
This phenomenon motivated me to write about my top 4 picks for the best spicy food on Bay St. The criteria was very simple. It must pack heat. It must be delicious. That’s about it. Please enjoy and I look forward to any comments on my choices or suggestions for other great hot spots.
4. Piazza Manna
(Exchange Tower; http://www.piazzamanna.com/%20locationsPiazzaManna.html): Th
ere are a few locationsof this Mom ‘n Pops type Italian takeout shop, but I have a strong preference for the one in the Exchange Tower. I get the veal sandwich with the hot peppers. The sandwich itself is very good. Fairly tender veal on a fresh Italian bun. Lotsa tomato sauce and your choice of toppings. Their sautéed hot peppers add quite a kick. Though inconsistent, ranging from spicy to searing, the chilies are immediately noticeable. More of a heat that stays in your mouth than travels through the body.3. Burrito Boyz
(Adelaide St; http://www.burritoboyz.ca/): Walk a couple mins, wait in line for a long time and walk away with perhaps the best burrito in the city. The halibut burrito is really special, but the chicken is also good for the less adventurous. But I digress. This shop makes the list because of its habanero hot sauce. Oh man, this stuff is potent! For “hot”, you’ll get about 3 drops of it. If you want intense heat though, ask for at least 5 drops and it’ll knock you out! The heat is immediately noticeable on the tongue and hits your torso almost immediately. Love it!2. Amaya Express
(First Canadian Place): Finally, the first truly good Indian food I’ve ever found in any food court. For $6.99, you get a healthy amount of food with an intense flavour punch. Pick your rice, main and veggie side. The beef vindaloo is out of this world. Super tender cubes of beef simmered in a wildly spicy curry. The heat level is absolutely perfect and continues to build on you. It’s a deep heat, the kind that you feel throughout your body and does not sting the mouth. This, to me, is a great example of comfort food and is incredibly satisfying.
1. Gandhi Roti
(Queen & Bathurst; http://www.desiconnection.ca/webmaster2/motherindia.htm): Ok, this technically is off Bay St., but it’s worth an exception. Gandhi Roti is Toronto’s best roti and up there if comparing the top Indian food in the city. They have a variety of meat and veg choices, all delicious and superbly rich, encased in a paper thin, fluffy roti. The portions are massive and eaten with a fork and knife. And the best part is that you can order anything
mild, medium or hot. Oh wait, that’s actually not true… the BEST part is that “hot” will blow your head off and eat a hole in your stomach! Very, very few people can handle the hot. Seriously! I can handle spice and have eaten the hot a few times. Each time, I swear I’ll never do that to myself again. Like Amaya’s hot, it’s a deep heat that builds and leaves you with a nice warm feeling all over. If you want intense heat, get the medium. If you want insane heat, get the hot. If you can’t handle heat, do not DARE order anything above mild. My favourites are the chicken korma, butter chicken and chicken tikka masala.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Oxford Word of the Year for 2009: Locavore
Yep, it’s all the craze these days. Everyone’s eating local. Why buy an apple from Chile when you pick one off a tree from the farm up the street? And few embody it as much as Jamie Kennedy does. While his high end restaurant empire was showing signs of cracks, he began opening up locavorized, affordable lunch spots (“locavorized” - no, it’s not a word, but maybe Oxford will consider it a candidate for next year – I want all the cedit!).
Within walking distance to Bay St., there’s Hank’s. Who is Hank and why is it not called Jamie’s? I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t even care, I just care about getting good food. The menu at Hank’s has some regular items. A few sandwiches and a couple other, simple items. Additionally, each morning they post a blog (much like this blog, but not nearly as good) and introduce their daily specials of soups and a nice variety of salads. What’s locavorized about it? Well, pretty much everything. The meat is organic and from nearby farms. Same with the cheese. And same with the veggies. Kinda makes you feel good about supporting the local economy. The truth is, there’s so much more to this movement. The products used in the food are very high in quality, ultra fresh and super tasty.
I’m tempted to order the smoked lake fish sandwich, but I’m feeling carnivorous today. So the flank steak gets the nod: “Flank steak marinated in mint and lime, smoked sheep’s cheddar, jalapeno
mayo, acidulated onions, local greens.” Sounds awesome! But when the sandwich arrives, a sense of disappointment comes over me, because it seems a little on the small side for $9.50+tax (pictured here is half of the full sandwich). I press on, unwrapping it and examining it before taking a large first bit. The disappointment quickly fades and turns into… for lack of a better description… Mmmmmmm. The sandwich is perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of each ingredient. And while each ingredient is great on its own, all the flavours work phenomenally well together. The bread tastes like it came out of the oven an hour ago (probably not too far from the truth… it’s multigrain sourdough from St John’s bakery down the street), dense and flavourful. The steak is tender and tangy. There’s a perfect amount of spice from the mayo and the cheese adds an extra layer of complexity. Absolutely delicious! I love it!
But there are a couple negatives. First, the price. I understand why it’s priced high and can’t say it’s unreasonable. If I ordered this at a restaurant on a Saturday, I would actually think it’s great value. But for a takeout lunch, it doesn’t pass the “under $10” test. And it doesn’t fill me for the rest of the day. If it were $8, I’d get it a lot more often. And second, Hank’s doesn’t serve the infamous Jamie Kennedy fries. Blasphemy!! The fries, available at his other locavorized lunch spot, Gilead Café, are without a doubt the best in the city. Not having access to them kinda pisses me off, but I can get over that.
http://hankstoronto.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamiekennedy.ca/PDFs/hanksmenu.pdf
Within walking distance to Bay St., there’s Hank’s. Who is Hank and why is it not called Jamie’s? I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t even care, I just care about getting good food. The menu at Hank’s has some regular items. A few sandwiches and a couple other, simple items. Additionally, each morning they post a blog (much like this blog, but not nearly as good) and introduce their daily specials of soups and a nice variety of salads. What’s locavorized about it? Well, pretty much everything. The meat is organic and from nearby farms. Same with the cheese. And same with the veggies. Kinda makes you feel good about supporting the local economy. The truth is, there’s so much more to this movement. The products used in the food are very high in quality, ultra fresh and super tasty.
I’m tempted to order the smoked lake fish sandwich, but I’m feeling carnivorous today. So the flank steak gets the nod: “Flank steak marinated in mint and lime, smoked sheep’s cheddar, jalapeno
mayo, acidulated onions, local greens.” Sounds awesome! But when the sandwich arrives, a sense of disappointment comes over me, because it seems a little on the small side for $9.50+tax (pictured here is half of the full sandwich). I press on, unwrapping it and examining it before taking a large first bit. The disappointment quickly fades and turns into… for lack of a better description… Mmmmmmm. The sandwich is perfectly balanced. Just the right amount of each ingredient. And while each ingredient is great on its own, all the flavours work phenomenally well together. The bread tastes like it came out of the oven an hour ago (probably not too far from the truth… it’s multigrain sourdough from St John’s bakery down the street), dense and flavourful. The steak is tender and tangy. There’s a perfect amount of spice from the mayo and the cheese adds an extra layer of complexity. Absolutely delicious! I love it!But there are a couple negatives. First, the price. I understand why it’s priced high and can’t say it’s unreasonable. If I ordered this at a restaurant on a Saturday, I would actually think it’s great value. But for a takeout lunch, it doesn’t pass the “under $10” test. And it doesn’t fill me for the rest of the day. If it were $8, I’d get it a lot more often. And second, Hank’s doesn’t serve the infamous Jamie Kennedy fries. Blasphemy!! The fries, available at his other locavorized lunch spot, Gilead Café, are without a doubt the best in the city. Not having access to them kinda pisses me off, but I can get over that.
http://hankstoronto.blogspot.com/
http://www.jamiekennedy.ca/PDFs/hanksmenu.pdf
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