Category Archives: asian

Insane seafood bridge at Yunshang Rice Noodle

14 Thursday Mar 2019

Posted by in asian, canadian, chinese, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, travel, Uncategorized

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I always love trying out new cuisines, flavours, and food! I find it so fun and feels like a mini adventure to see how other cultures prepare food (and to taste it of course!). A small part of me always feels like I’m taking a little trip overseas when I try anything new. This is why I was so excited when I got invited to taste a few dishes from Yunshang Rice Noodle, opening tomorrow (March 15) in North York!

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A bit of backstory – they are the largest Chinese rice noodle chain in North America, serving up Yunnan cuisine (which I have never tried before). They do have a few locations in Toronto, but this is their first North York location. When I spoke to the manager, he mentioned that they make it a point to source fresh and natural ingredients. They use a lot of bones as well to make the broth really tasty – like pork, ham, chicken, and beef. And guess what, the bones are boiled for more than twelve hours, and made everyday with no MSG or other artificial flavours! This made me so excited to try the dishes, and they didn’t disappoint!

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Up first was a jaw dropping, Instagram worthy dish – their exclusive “Yunshang Bridge Rice Noodle”, made specifically for this location and only available for two weeks. There is so much served here, from Canadian Atlantic lobster tail, oyster, sea scallop, beef slices, and sooo much more. At first glance you may be overwhelmed with so much food, but it’s really simple! The idea / cooking technique for this and the other rice noodle soups is that boiling soup will be served to you in a super hot stone bowl, and then you would drop these ingredients in, basically cooking them. Here, I tried the tomato sauce, which had more of a sweet and slightly tart taste.

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Here’s some more deets on what this comes with: Canadian Atlantic lobster tail, fresh French Kiss oyster (sourced from Diana’s Seafood), sea scallop, shrimps and crab sticks. It also comes with other ingredients like beef slices, fish cakes, ham, enokitake, Chinese lettuce, and egg tofu.

Hot deal: For their grand opening tomorrow (March 15) to March 16, the first 100 people will get this bridge for free, starting 6pm each day! No purchase required, first come first serve, and the giveaway is only available at the North York location.

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I was also able to try two yummy sides, fried Chicken Wings and Popcorn Chicken (yes I love everything fried) – both so delicious, flavourful and juicy. You really can’t go wrong with these. I loved the spices that were used to flavor both dishes, although if you had to ask me I preferred the Chicken Wings more. It was just so juicy!

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I also got to try their Oriental Rice Noodle with Curry Coconut Sauce. I really enjoyed this broth over the Tomato sauce version. To me, this reminded me more of a Malaysian Laksa and I liked how the meat tasted with this type of flavour profile over the tomato broth. It also came with ten little sides that you would drop into the soup to cook as well.

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Definitely give them a try for a unique and delicious experience.

One last tip: they give free refills for the rice noodles!

Yunshang Rice Noodle
Unit 5 – 5285 Yonge St.
North York
http://www.yunshang.ca

Four decadent desserts from Cheese Garden!

12 Friday Oct 2018

Posted by in asian, cakes, comfort food, dessert, japanese, review, reviews, toronto, Uncategorized

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There’s a Japanese café near me called Cheese Garden that’s known for their super delicious Japanese pastries like cheesecake and tiramisu. I was given a few to sample and WOW!!! I was so blown away by how delicious they were! You can tell the pastries were made from really high quality ingredients, each all so unique. I really don’t know any other place that offers desserts like these, so I highly recommend checking them out.

First up is their Yuzu Pistachio Double Fromage Cheesecake, a new limited time pastry that they created to celebrate their 2nd anniversary. Absolutely LOVED this – when you bite into it, you immediately taste the yuzu citrus and slight pistachio flavour, which go so deliciously with the rich and luxurious cheese notes. There are a ton of layers in this pastry, each complimenting each other very well:

  • The cheesecake base is made of pistachio sponge cake – super soft and delicate
  • On top of that is a rich, smooth, baked pistachio cheesecake, with some sugar roasted diced pistachios added into it
  • Above that is a rich and creamy yuzu mascarpone cheesecake
  • The cake is finished with a layer of pistachio sponge cake crumbs, sprinkled with gold flakes and decorated with a cute yuzu shaped chocolate button

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Make sure you grab this because it will be on sale only from October 13 to November 4, with 50 available per day, limited to one cake per person! If you drop by any of their locations from October 13 to 14, you can get 50% off one pastry item (this promo does not include the Yuzu cheesecake).

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The next pastry I tried is the Baked Cheese Tart. It’s freshly baked, filled with decadent molten cream cheese. I heated it up in the oven for a bit, and really loved the crispy outer shell of the puff pastry. The crust was a nice contrast to the delicious centre: gooey, salty, and sweet.

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I also really liked their Double Fromage Cheesecake, with layers of mascarpone, baked cream cheese, sponge cake, and coated with sponge cake crumbs. The cheese flavour tasted so delicate and delicious. Make sure you take a bite with all the layers – it’s a great combination of creamy vanilla and Japanese cheesecake flavours. Just slightly sweet and perfect. When you get this make sure you eat it at room temperature because it is usually stored in the freezer.

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Finally, one of my favourites from the desserts, their Uji Matcha Tiramisu. I am a huge sucker for anything matcha, and I enjoyed this so much! Soft, creamy, and bursting with matcha! It’s made with premium Uji matcha powder, matcha cream, double layers of fluffy cream cheese and specially made ladyfingers. This is a must buy!!

Make sure you try the Yuzu Pistachio Cheesecake, or any of the desserts really, especially because of the promo that they’ve got going on this weekend!

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Cheese Garden
5291 Yonge St, North York, ON M2N 5R3
www.cheesegarden.ca

The Dessert Kitchen Toronto

26 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by in asian, chinese, dessert, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, Uncategorized

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I’m a huuuuge sucker for Asian desserts, especially icy goodness topped with fresh fruit and milk. YUM! Okay, it’s probably because I grew up in the Philippines, where it was really hot most days, so I ate halo-halo pretty regularly. If you haven’t tried, its a really delish shaved ice dessert with fruit, beans condensed milk. Most of the time though, these icy desserts are made with sooo much sugar, which is why when I was told that The Dessert Kitchen makes their desserts with low sugar in mind, I was super intrigued!!

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I was invited to try a few desserts during the soft opening of the The Dessert Kitchen, located in Harbord Village (not to be confused with the one in Markham), so I brought along my best friend Stephanie who also looooves these types of desserts. Here are a few things that I learned:

1. Apart from their desserts being made with low sugar in mind, they make a lot of their treats in house, like the really delicious Uji matcha ice cream on this eggette. This Green Tea Eggette was one of my faves, it was super crunchy, and was a lovely contrast to the bitter green tea ice cream. I ate this soooo quickly!!

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2. They have an award winning signature dessert called Purple in Love, which is made up of crushed ice, topped with grape syrup, milk, mochi ice cream, rice balls, fresh grapes and Kyoho seaweed balls (which are also made in house). This one was pretty refreshing and I would really recommend this to grape lovers.

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3. Their menu is HUGE so you’ll find everything from sundaes, shaved ice and they even have a Japadog!! I also tried this ice cream sundae called The Dancing Queen, which has their homemade green tea ice cream red bean, green tea kanten, mini rice balls, milk pudding and soft serve vanilla ice cream (made in house as well).

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Needless to say, it’s my new fav dessert place! I wish they’d open up one near me at Yonge and Sheppard!! Yes, it’s true – pretty much all the desserts that I tried were made with lower amounts of sugar compared to most dessert places (with the sweetest of the bunch the Purple in Love). My best friend and I tried four different kinds of dessert, plus their yummy and super authentic Hong Kong style milk tea, and we weren’t feeling sick at all, which usually happens when you have one really sweet dessert. I can’t wait to go back!!

The Dessert Kitchen
73 Harbord Street Toronto, ON M5S 1G4

Healthy bites at e11even Toronto

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in asian, healthy, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, Uncategorized

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If you’ve been following along with my food adventures, you know that I love indulging in the ultimate comfort food. You may or may not agree, but it’s been EXTREMELY hard to resist pasta and all the wonderful carbs this winter!! Well, ever since it hit January 1, I’ve turned over a new leaf!! I’m on a mission to eat healthier, mostly because I have a beach vacation coming up in a few months… which means resisting the bad carbs and stop eating sweets. Yep, I’m 100% guilty of my nightly Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

It’s just SO fulfilling to eat comfort food, and where I live, it’s a bit more difficult to find a good restaurant that has delicious healthy food options. Sadly, in North York I’m surrounded by a lot of Asian cuisines (from Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese), which I adore, but it also means tons of rice, and really limited salad options.

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Thankfully, there are more healthy options downtown! BUT sometimes you can go overboard when you eat salads, especially if they have a lot of meat, high calorie toppings like bacon or fried chicken, tons of cheese and very heavy dressing. Here are three things I look for in a healthy, well balanced meal:

  1. An awesome lean protein like fish, chicken or shrimp
  2. Good carbs such as quinoa or multi-grain toast
  3. Vegetables

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Eating healthy doesn’t have to be tough and unenjoyable, and my nice sister lunch date at e11even just proves my point!! We started off our meal on a wonderful note with their fresh Peach and Ginger tea – it had the perfect balance of sweetness and a slight spicy bite from the ginger. Delicious! I wanted to gulp mine down.

Up first was the Tuna Tartare appetizer, a beautifully layered masterpiece with chunks of avocado and fresh tuna on a sweet soy glaze, topped with crispy shallots. It was served with fried wontons, but you can pass on that if you’re trying to watch your carbs – the tuna by itself is amazing! We were REALLY blown away by the freshness of the fish. I love how e11even takes two simple and fresh ingredients, avocado and tuna, and combines together to create an awesome appetizer.

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We had two salads next, their Seared Tuna Salad (one of my favourite salads ever!) and the Grilled Chicken Salad. I was impressed that both salads were very lightly dressed, and this highlighted the crispness of the leaves – it was so refreshing to eat and I could tell that the greens they used were very fresh!

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I absolutely loved the Seared Tuna Salad, because I was once again pleasantly surprised by the delicious and fresh tuna! It was served with sliced avocado and a ginger dressing which perfectly complemented the salad as a whole. I highly recommend this as a perfect dish for lunch – something you can grab to-go if you work nearby!

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The Grilled Chicken Salad was also very delicious, tossed with a honey lime dressing and topped with peanut sauce. I think there were hints of sesame as well in the dressing and I’m a sucker for Asian inspired salads. Overall, I really liked how everything came together here!

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Finally, my sister and I both split the Atlantic Salmon, served with couscous and grilled lemon. All I can say about this dish is WOW!!!!!!! I was already feeling confident that e11even would serve us fresh salmon, but I was really impressed by how perfect the salmon was cooked! The salmon was lightly seasoned, very moist, tender and juicy. I cook salmon a lot, and I wish I knew how they made this!! I’m definitely going to have to go back to have this again.

Make sure you add e11even to your list for some really delicious and healthy meals in the downtown core!!

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e11even
15 York St
Toronto, ON M5J 0A3

I can die happy now.

21 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by in asian, beef, japanese, lavish, review, reviews, steak, travel, Uncategorized

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Oh, Tokyo. I often think and daydream about what an amazing adventure the two weeks my boyfriend and I spent there in February. And when I say often, I really mean once every few weeks (not ashamed to admit it at all!!).

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The country. The culture. The food. The people. Everything is wonderful. And it’s unfortunately taken me ages to post about the best beef experience and all in all best restaurant that I’ve experienced / had the absolute pleasure of eating at in my entire life thus far – Sumibi Yakiniku Nakahara (炭火焼肉 なかはら). Mostly because I was unsatisfied by the photos I took (low lighting struggles), and because I really needed the photos to clearly capture the meal. It was SO epic, from the service to the food, which is so meticulously prepared and cooked.

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It took me two months of deep research to narrow down a solid Tokyo food itinerary (consulting Tabelog, and other food blogs), and this spot topped the list of must-eats. I’m a HUGE steak person, and needed to experience wagyu in Tokyo. This highly recommended spot needed a reservation made one month in advance, and it was a thousand times worth it.

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My cousin, boyfriend and I sampled different slices of cuts from the highest quality Tajima Black Wagyu beef, from wagyu sirloin, oyster blade, ribeye, and so many more.

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Look at this beauty – MY GOD, the marbling!

This was 100% on another level – my eyes literally rolled to the back of my head with every bite of meat, with my favourite being the ribeye. This is likely the best beef experience in the entire world.

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The charcoal grill was really important in melting off a bit of that fat, and it also gave the meat a slight char/torched flavour. This is mainly the reason why I chose to go with yakiniku style (grilled meat) of cooking for wagyu. To top it off, the service was outstanding, and it felt like we were welcomed in the restaurant like we were old friends.

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The tireless search for perfection of food and of the craft is evident in so many restaurants that I visited, in Tokyo. Sumibi Yakiniku Nakahara in particular stood out to me, when I read a what owner Kentaro Nakahara said about wagyu: a miniscule 0.2mm difference in thickness or a slight change in knife angle can cause a complete transformation in texture and taste. I was lucky enough to speak to him in person, and you really can see his passion and commitment to the serving highest quality beef and hosting an amazing yakiniku experience.

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These pictures don’t do the entire experience justice at all. If you’re visiting Tokyo soon, I would REALLY recommend booking through here!

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Sumibiyakiniku Nakahara (炭火焼肉なかはら)
GEMS Ichigaya 9F, 4-3 Rokubancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo (map)
+81 3 6261-2987