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Sunday Brunch @ East Thirty-Six

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in american, breakfast, brunch, comfort food, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, Uncategorized

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Okay, I’ll admit that I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to brunch with my boyfriend… and we’ve been together for FOUR years! I normally don’t lean towards it, and maybe it’s because the area that we live in, Yonge and Sheppard, doesn’t have a good brunch spot (sadly). I also always crave for heavier meals like Japanese or Korean, which I can find a lot of near me. Well, after checking out East Thirty Six this past Sunday, my feelings for brunch have now changed!!

East Thirty-Six just started their brunch service, which takes place every Sunday from 11am-3pm, and invited me to sample a few of their dishes.  The food was incredible, and my mouth is legit watering right now just thinking about their Fried Chicken & Waffle. I really can’t wait to go back!!! But first thing’s first: they offer $5 Mimosas and $5 Caesars. A super awesome deal! I really enjoyed both, especially the Caesar, which was well spiced, and even had horseradish in it!

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Up first from the starters were Kimchi Fries and Cauliflower. Both delicious in their own ways, with the Cauliflower being the lighter of the two. It was cooked (roasted?) with capers, lemon, brown butter, roasted hazelnuts and topped with parsley. A unique ingredient list but it works! The Kimchi Fries on the other hand is an indulgent starter, with authentic kimchi made in house by their head chef. I loved the pecorino aioli which went really well with it!

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For the mains we tried the French Omelette, which was a lovely and light dish served with a salad and crème fraiche. If I could describe it with one word it would be: BUTTERY. Wow, totally blown away by the soft and tender texture. The mushrooms inside just adds to its richness. But it’s really the slightly tart flavor of the crème fraiche that really elevates and adds an extra savoury flavor – I really wish I knew how to make this dish!!

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The Eggs Benedict with salmon was also extremely delicious! Everything from the buttery toasted muffins, to the salmon, creamy hollandaise sauce and the perfectly poached eggs – all beautifully done. An indulgent treat of this classic dish and is done exceptionally well! Enjoy my failed egg yolk gif below:

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We also got to sample their Waffle + Fried Chicken, which I’m still dreaming (drooling) about. Their spin on it is unique, because it’s topped with cheese garlic mayo and pickled radish, but they all go with the dish!! First bite of this and my day was instantly better!! The fried chicken was so juicy, crunchy and spiced extremely well. The waffle was light and a nice contrast to the super tasty chicken. This is the dish I would come back and have every Sunday if I could!!

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Finally, we got to also try their dessert, an awesome chocolate ganache piece topped off with salted caramel sauce and peanut brittle. WOW. What a way to end a delicious meal. The ganache (which I believe was dark chocolate), just melted in your mouth. Ohhhhh boy. You’d be crazy not to love the salted caramel and chocolate combo!!

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If my blog post hasn’t made you grab your phone and make a reservation now (which I highly recommend as they get booked up) – you need to do it ASAP!! I really can’t wait to come back.

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East Thirty-Six
36 Wellington St E,
Toronto, ON M5E 1C7

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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

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

Fried Chicken Fave!

23 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in american, comfort food, food, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, travel, Uncategorized

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There are two things that I look for in my fried chicken: crispy skin flavoured with salt and spices, and inside… really juicy meat. It doesn’t seem like a lot to ask for, but it’s really tricky and can be easy to mess up if you’re cooking it yourself (read: undercooked and bloody). You really need a ton of oil and patience, because it can take almost half an hour to cook!! Fried chicken falls under the category of something I can eat everyday (like my love of ice cream), AND paired with spaghetti. Yup, you read that right, spaghetti!! But I’m not talking about the Filipino sweet spaghetti you may heard about, which has little cut up pieces hotdog in it. I’m talking about classic Bolognese but with some slight sweetness to it. One of my favourites growing up! Such an interesting combo but it really works.

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Now back to fried chicken, I recently tried some outstanding, juicy fried chicken from Cluck Clucks, a spot in downtown Toronto known for their chicken and waffles. Let me tell you that you have to drop everything you’re doing right now and run over to their location at the Esplanade!!! Ooooooohhhhhhhhh boy. I got to sample a few dishes, and their fried chicken really stole the show! My mouth is watering just thinking about how much I loved their fried chicken: huge pieces, lightly battered, and super flavourful. Every bite was an explosion of spices, and they were perfectly cooked and juicy!

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You really can’t go wrong with anything that you choose (I’m loving their wedges), even the wings were on point!! Dare I say this is the best chicken and waffles place I’ve tried so far in Toronto!? I’ve had School and Dirty Bird but their fried chicken don’t even come anywhere close to Cluck Clucks, which is also Halal by the way. MMMmmm can’t wait until my next visit!!

Cluck Clucks
222 The Esplanade
Toronto, ON M5A 4M8

In love with the Cheesecake Factory Toronto

17 Friday Nov 2017

Posted by in american, comfort food, review, reviews, toronto, Toronto restaurant, Uncategorized

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Oh man. The Cheesecake Factory and I go waaaaaaay back! 2010 to be exact, when I visited their San Francisco location for the first time. Big portions, super legit comfort food (I am all about this), and an amazing strawberry cheesecake… I was HOOKED!!! My go to is for sure their Chicken Alfredo, with it’s really creamy, parmesan goodness. Ah, I love comfort food so much!

So when I got a chance to try the first Canadian location in advance of the opening, I started counting down the days!! No lie. Finally… the day arrived! My first impressions are that the Yorkdale location is huge and extremely busy. They’re expecting it to be busy for a few months though, so get ready for long wait times Toronto.

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Ok now on to the food. I should say though that they offered a limited menu for the media preview (with their full menu being around 200+ items). First up, apps. My boyfriend shared their Buffalo Blasts, which came as a HUGE portion of a lot chicken pieces. Man, I really forgot what their sizing was like. The only way I can describe it is cut up chicken pieces with buffalo sauce and cheese that had been coated in a spicy wrapper and deep fried. I’ve never tried anything like this app before and I really have to say that it was an awesome surprise. A super interesting take on chicken fingers. This is definitely best paired with a pint. By the time we finished this, I was feeling pretty stuffed (and we were only on the apps!!).

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For the entrees we tried the Chinese Chicken Salad, and the Bacon Bacon burger. Again these were huge (I LOVE this about Cheesecake Factory). Let’s start with the Chinese Chicken Salad, which is a staple for me whenever I visit a location. Presentation wise it was awesome, but taste wise it felt lacking and a bit bland, kind of like they went light on the dressing. The ingredients still tasted fresh though!

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The Bacon Bacon burger is not a typo!! This burger is pure American goodness with two different types of bacon: crispy bacon and thick cut slow roasted smoked bacon. Loved how juicy the patty was, and the slight sweetness of the smoked bacon. This also came with fries. At this point, I was struggling to breathe and mentally unbuttoning my pants… and I was in heaven!!!!

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And now we get to my favourite part, the cheesecake!! I typically get the original with whole strawberries and whipped cream, which is a classic and something I would recommend anybody. This time we shared the Oreo Dream Extreme cheesecake, and man the name reflects how decadent and delicious this was! Everybody, this is the best Oreo cheesecake that I have ever tried!!! They’ve baked whole Oreos into their original cheesecake, sandwiched between layers of fudge cake and an Oreo cookie mouse, topped with a milk chocolate icing and a huge piece of Oreo. I died and went to heaven!!!

To wrap up this super long post, I strongly urge you to give one of my favourite classic spots a try (hopefully when the lines die down). You will for sure love the food and not to mention the service is pretty great!

The Cheesecake Factory (opening November 21, 2017)
3401 Dufferin St,
Toronto, ON M6A 2T9