Category Archives: chinese

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

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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

Cantonese Pork Belly with Grilled Peach Slaw

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in asian, chinese, comfort food, easy, food, mexican, pork, pork belly, recipe, recipes, summer, Uncategorized

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Ohhh boy. I made such an INSANE Asian fusion dish, which I swear had angels singing (or crying tears of joy) because it was on a whole ‘nother level! My boyfriend even said it’s up there in his top five dishes of all time!

Five spice pork belly with grilled peach slaw – who would have thought that they’d be crazy good together?  I really, really loved how the warm, slightly salty flavours of the five spice Cantonese pork belly complemented the tangy but sweet Southwestern inspired slaw. The first bite is an explosion of flavour and crunch (did you see that crackling?!) that just works well and tingles your lips at the same time.

What really helped elevate this dish was using local peaches from Niagara, which were SO sweet and juicy. They didn’t have to travel that far like the peaches from the US, and are in season right now in Ontario. This was my first time grilling them and can definitely say their sweetness is brought out even more after being barbecued! It’s perfection tossed together with homegrown cherry tomatoes, shallots, parsley, red pepper and lime juice. I was trying to find a kickass recipe that involved peaches for the Loblaws Share the Food Love contest, and this did not disappoint!

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Ah, pork belly, my second favourite type of meat… with ribeye being the #1. LOVED this so much. The five spice, shaoxing wine, salt, pepper and a touch of soy sauce worked really well. Not to mention it was baked at a low temp, and then put on broil for a few minutes to get that crunchy crackling. I used an interesting technique, placing sea salt on top of the skin so that the skin doesn’t cook while it bakes and allows you to finish the crackling evenly at the end.

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Overall, not complicated to make, and the payoff is huge. The vibrant colors and fresh flavour of this summery dish leaves me feeling bittersweet that summer’s about to end – make this dish ASAP and serve it with salad!

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Get the Recipe!

Brisket + Hand Pulled Noodles

16 Thursday Jun 2016

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

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Big Beef Bowl
1 Byng Ave, North York

I was really excited to try this new spot that just opened at Yonge and Finch, mostly because I’ve been craving for a nice big bowl of beef brisket soup… And also – look at those noodles! Really flat, thick and hand pulled. I’ve never seen anything like it!!

First things first: Big Beef Bowl is a small restaurant that probably fits 10-15 customers, so I imagine they get really busy at lunch and dinner. The food is awesome though, and pretty legit. Aside from the large bowl of noodles I ordered, my boyfriend and I also got pork, chive and egg dumplings as well as the spicy roasted corn. Both SO delish! I should have taken pictures but I was really focused on my bowl of noodles which was amazing: spicy, rich broth reminiscent of pho. By reminiscent I mean that there are spices in pho that I taste in the broth, but both are totally different dishes. Loved the noodles too, they had an amazingly chewy texture. The chunks of beef brisket were really tender, I wanted more!! The service was great too, no complaints!

Will definitely be back to try another noodle size and probably extra beef.

3.75/5

Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (餃子 jiaozi, 鍋貼 guotie)

19 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in asian, chinese, pork

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Happy Chinese New Year!

In honor of the holiday, I decided to make pork and cabbage dumplings… from scratch.

Yep, I was most likely possessed when I decided to do this dish, because making dumplings from scratch means hand rolling every individual dumpling wrapper. And it wasn’t easy.wrapper

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To give you a little backstory, pork and cabbage dumplings (known as 餃子 jiaozi when boiled or 鍋貼 guotie when pan fried) represent wealth because they are shaped like an ingot—an antiquated form of Chinese currency. It is believed that the more dumplings you eat, the wealthier you’ll be.

I’ll be honest. I stuffed my face with these dumplings, which were absolutely fresh and MSG free.

The first bite is a surprise—an explosion of flavor: juicy minced pork, a hint of garlic flavor from the Chinese chives, the light crunch from the slightly neutral tones of the Napa cabbage, and contrasted by the intense but complementary flavors from the shiaoxing wine, sesame oil and soy sauce.

The first rule of dumplings is, it’s easier to make them when the filling is cold. It’s just easier to pleat the dumplings when the filling isn’t very watery. When it’s cold, the fat from the ground pork is hardened a bit so you can easily fold the dumpling wrapper.

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Here is a video that shows you how to wrap a dumpling.

The second rule of dumplings is, northern Chinese tradition says the more dumplings your family makes together, the more luck and prosperity will greet you in the new year. In my case, I made them alone, but a lot more hands really gets the job done faster. A rolling pin was definitely key.

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Want to try this at home? Here’s the recipe I used! I served these dumplings with Chinese chili oil and black vinegar. SO GOOD!