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Lunch at Jack Astor’s – Friday October 19, 2012

Oct20

So, yesterday my BFF and I stopped for lunch, at Jack Astor’s. I ordered the Jerk Pork and she ordered the Lamb Kafta.

Mine was OK. The pineapple salsa was great, but you can’t go wrong with pineapple in my book!! The jerk marinade on the pork had a bit of kick, not as much as I’m used to, when my hubby makes it at home though. The rice and peas that came with it though was SUPER bland 😦 Not sure if they did that, to bring out the flavour of the jerk pork more, but it was disappointing.

(Photo courtesy of Christine R. on Yelp)

As for my BFF’s Lamb Kafta…it was a disaster!! It tasted like overly salted sausage, with confused seasoning. The spices weren’t Mediterranean, or even Middle Eastern. The clueless waiter ‘thought’ it may be Greek, but it wasn’t even close. So, I’m guessing it was a badly executed Tandoori seasoning, because of the red colour. And although I love Tandoori chicken, when it came to the ‘Lamb Kafta’ the colour was SO off-putting…at least for me. She was a trooper and ate most of it, to give it a chance, but that’s a dish I’ll NEVER order there.

We’ve been to Jack Astor’s numerous times over the years, and back when they first opened they had some pretty good dishes. Now it seems, ever since they’ve gone the ‘chi-chi’ route, with the ‘upscale’ decor and novel-length menu. They should’ve stuck to the no nonsense menu they had before. Unfortunately Jack Astor’s is really disappointing me, more and more, each time I go 😦 I do hate writing negative reviews for places, but sometimes, it’s just plain justified. Of course it’s up to all of you, to decide for yourselves right?! You may enjoy Jack Astor’s, more then I do, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Afternoon at the Brampton Fall Fair – September 15, 2012

Sep16

So, today we spent the afternoon at the Brampton Fall Fair. It’s a small fair, but still a good way to spend the afternoon with your family. The weather was perfect as well…not too hot and not too cool either. Was very comfortable for walking around, photographing the grounds and noshing a bit as well 🙂

Ah…kettle corn. No fair is complete without it!! Alas, we skipped buying any, but I couldn’t help taking a photo of it – especially with the multicoloured variety 🙂

This food stall look familiar?! Yep!! It’s the same Hank Daddy’s we tried out at the CNE 🙂 This time though, we tried their smoked sausage, with sauteed onions and Carolina mustard sauce. Now, it doesn’t look like much, but the sausage was amazing. It had that, fantastic snap when you bite into it, and was super juicy on the inside. The Carolina mustard sauce was sweet, and if you ate it on its own, it would seem even more so. But, in combination with the onions and sausage, it paired up really well with the savory flavours of both. I would definitley recommend you give them a try, if you ever come across their truck/trailer. Right now they only do the Fair and Festival circuit, so if you’d like to find out where they’ll be next, just start following them on Twitter (@HankDaddysBBQ). They tweet which upcoming events they’re going to be at 🙂

Hank Daddy’s BBQ

Other then that, I got me ANOTHER candy apple, as the last one was a dud 😦 First, whoever made the last one, didn’t wait long enough for the candy to harden, before putting the plastic wrap around it. So, when I went to take the wrapper off, basically all the candy went with it…BOO!! 😦 What was worse, was the apple itself, wasn’t the best either. So, hopefully this new candy apple will make up for it!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Firdous Classic Persian Grill – September 10, 2012

Sep11

Last night, we took another foodie adventure, with a deal voucher. You all know by now, I’m a deal voucher junkie, and will try anywhere with one!! Since my hubby came home late, and we ended up walking late, we decided to go to Firdous to grab dinner. If you’ve ever had Mediterranean style food at all, you’ll like Firdous as well. Lots of grilled meats to choose from…beef kebobs, beef kaufte (ground meat), chicken kebobs,  and lamb chops. We chose to get the chicken kebobs, with rice, salad and whole wheat naan. The food was good, and wasn’t super salty, like the last place that was in their location – with similar food. But they didn’t stay open very long, so that should say something about them. We brought our food home, but they do have some seating, if you want to eat-in. We’ll definitely go back, as you get a good amount for $10/pp. We only ate half, and will have the second half on another day, with a salad made at home to go with it.

Firdous Classic Persian Grill

Bon Appetit Everyone!! 🙂

Jeanie’s Resto Bar & Pool Lounge – September 4, 2012

Sep6

 

We had decided to not cook at home, and take advantage of another one, of our many deal vouchers we have 🙂 So we chose to go to Jeanie’s, as it’s a place we’ve always passed by, and wondered what it was like.

It happened to be $4 margarita and Corona day, so my hubby and I gave in and ordered one 🙂 The margarita was a bit too sweet for me, so I ended up only drinking half of it.

After deliberating, for what seemed like forever, we finally decided to just get some apps for dinner. It’s amazing how little you get for $30 these days, but we decided on 2lbs of wings and potato skins to share. Now, bar food is bar food, so I can’t say much about either. Other then the fact that the wings were cooked and sauced well, we chose half medium and half sweet chili. The potato skins were just plain nummy because they were also fried…omnomnom. More so then anything, the company and conversation were the stars of the evening, as the bar was somewhat quiet – other then the mini poker tourney going on in the back. I can’t say anything, about the rest of the menu, as we didn’t try any of the entrees or burgers. But if you just want, good ol’ bar food with your beverage, Jeanie’s does the trick 🙂

Jeanie’s Resto Bar & Pool Lounge

Bon Appetit Everyone!! 🙂

Scotiabank Toronto Buskerfest – August 25, 2012

Aug30

So, last Saturday my hubby and I went to the Toronto Buskerfest, for the second year in a row. It’s in support of Epilepsy Toronto, which is a cause that’s near and dear to my heart. So, if you have the chance to go next year, do so – it’s for a great cause 🙂

We were HUNGRY!! So, we decided to nosh on a little something, before checking out the buskers 🙂 We came across a stand, which I can’t remember the name of, and forgot to take a photo of!! We saw that they had BBQ Pork sliders…SOLD 🙂 The BBQ pork was really good, but then again, when is it not?! LOL The bun was a bit sweet and was surprisingly REALLY dense. Was a good way to begin our Buskerfest afternoon though!!

The first busker we came across was this hilarious juggler. I couldn’t believe he was so dressed up, as it was sweltering that day in the sun.

After his act finished, we came across a poutine truck, called The Poutine Machine. Mmm…poutine!! The fresh cut fries were perfectly crisp and hot, and the beef gravy did not disappoint, but the cheese curds did. They were COLD 😦 I get that they have to refrigerate them, due to the fact that it was super hot out, but it made for cold curds that didn’t melt and get all gooey – like they should. It was disappointing, and while we were eating it, we kept saying we should’ve just bought the fries with gravy instead.

No buskerfest is complete, without an Elvis mime!! 🙂

As we kept on walking through the fest, we came across this food stand, called Yes to Fresh. We weren’t feeling up to having a burger, or anything heavy, so we chose a fresh vegetable spring roll. Basically, it’s exactly the same as the shrimp ones we get, when we go for Pho – minus the shrimp. It was good, very simple, with carrots, daikon radish, rice vermicelli and cucumber thinly sliced and packed tightly together in rice wrappers. We had it with some sweet chili sauce…omnomnom!!

This juggler/fire eater was hilarious as well, and really good at what he did. It was a bit of a sad year, as he told everyone, this was the last fest he’d be breathing fire.

This golden mime, was just standing there, as if she was a statue…until you put a coin into her coin box in front. Once you did, she came to life!! Her routine was way longer then the 3 photos depict though 🙂

For dessert, we chose to have these tiny cupcakes, from Bite Bar. They were the perfect end to our noming pleasure 🙂 We had gotten 2 chocolate mint, 2 chocolate coconut, 1 lemon drop and 1 double chocolate cupcake. We shared the last 2 and had 1 each of the other 2 flavours. They were all good…but you can’t go wrong with those flavours!!

The last performance we watched of these 3 girls who do acrobatics and fire baton and fire sword twirling. They were pretty funny and VERY hyper…which got the audience really into it with cheers of encouragement 🙂

Before we left, we came across this artist, and her 3D road art. This art form is awesome, and I couldn’t leave without photographing it!!

All in all it was a great day, filled with super talented buskers, entertaining the masses for a very good cause. Which is why we go every year!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Dinner Tonight…Courtesy of the Saucy Kytchen

Aug28

My hubby and I decided to finally use, the deal voucher I had bought, for the Saucy Kytchen. We hadn’t had an italian sandwich in a long time, and the expiry date on the voucher was coming up at the end of this week LOL

We got the Eggplant Hot Sandwich with a side of Fava Beans. The sandwiches were HUGE!! You could easily just eat half and save the other for lunch the next day. The eggplant was thinly sliced, lightly battered and fried to perfection. We opted to add on sauteed onions, mushrooms and hot peppers. There’s also a sweet and medium option for the peppers. OMG…was it ever spicy!! It was good, but next time I think I’ll opt for the medium LOL The fava beans reminded me of the Turkish way my Mom makes hers, cooked in olive oil with garlic and onion and tomato…omnomnom. Their prices aren’t bad, so we’ll definitely keep them in mind for trying out again, when we’re craving a good italian hot sandwich. If you ever in the area, give them a try – I’m sure you’ll end up liking them too!!

Saucy Kytchen

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Day at The Ex – August 24, 2012

Aug28

Let’s go to The EX…oh baby!! Where we filled our tummy’s with food along with lots of walking around 😀

We made our way there for lunch, and we started out with an ice cold lemonade and a jumbo corn dog. The EX is one of the only places I have a corn dog, and the fried goodness never disappoints…omnomnom. Just look at the beauty above, and tell me you don’t want to have one yourself?!

After coming down from our corn dog and lemonade high, we chose to go through the Direct Energy Centre to walk them off and make room for more yumminess. Every year they have a sand sculpture contest, and this year’s was no exception. This Grim Reaper was pretty awesome…check out how it was strategically placed so that the eyes were lit by the balloon lamp behind 🙂 The castle was our favourite though, and got our vote. The waterfalls at the bottom were so detailed…and well…I love castles!!

The Friday we went, food trucks were there for the whole weekend, for our nomnoming pleasure – called the Food Truck Frenzy!! Once we were done walking through the Direct Energy Centre, we went outside to get our food truck food on 🙂 We started at the Pretty Sweet truck, where we got a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. The cupcake was really moist, with a cream cheese frosting that wasn’t in your face sweet.

The trucks were lined along the front of the Automotive building. If you’ve ever been to the CNE, you’ll know what I’m talking about. So, we walked along checking all the trucks out and deciding where we wanted to eat 🙂 After the cupcake we came across the Gourmet Gringos truck. We’re ALL about Mexican food, so we definitely wanted to try them out!! We decided on having the mole braised short rib tacos. They were pretty good as well. The short ribs were perfectly braised and melted like butter in my mouth. The best part of the tacos was the green salsa. It definitely brought out the flavour of the ribs.

We ended up chasing the tacos down with another cupcake LOL As we came across the Sweetness Bakery truck, and I can never pass up a good cupcake!! We had the key lime cupcake, which was another winner!! There was a key lime centre, that was a nice surprise…omnomnom…key lime 🙂 Again, the cupcake itself was moist and the key lime butter cream was the perfect topper.

When we finally made it to the end of the caravan of trucks, and came across Hank Daddy’s Barbeque. We knew we didn’t want the chicken or pulled pork sandwich, but the cowboy fries peaked our interest.  It consisted of sweet potato fries, with pulled pork and coleslaw on top. The sweet potato fries were crispy, the pulled pork was tender and perfectly sauced, and the slaw was lightly dressed which was a great contrast to the fries and pulled pork…omnomnom!!

After our food truck caravan experience, we went to ride the Sky Ride, that was put up this year. Years ago there was a ride called the Alpine Way, which lasted from 1966-1994 at the CNE. Back then it was a gondola style ride that stretched across the grounds over 100ft up. This year they brought back something similar, but now they’re using ski lifts instead, at 40ft above the exhibition and I was SO happy to see this ride back!! Anyway, my hubby and I went on it, at sunset, and even though it was a 10mins ride, it was great 🙂 It took us back to the other end of the CNE, where we walked through the Arts and Crafts building before finally hitting the Food building!!

Ah…the Food building…how we love thee!! In the food building is a smorgasbord of Bob’s Shack style food stalls, dotted with a few well known stalls, such as Swiss Chalet and Pizza Pizza. In my opinion, it’s sacrilege to eat at the well known stalls, as this is an opportunity to try a new place and new food out. But, I do understand that people have or know picky eaters. Anyway!! We started our Snack Time off with our old faithful…99c spaghetti and tomato sauce from the PRIMO stall!! It’s literally just plain spaghetti and plain sauce, but I don’t care – I love it 🙂 We then ended with the 99c chicken tacos, we found, at a stall I cannot remember the name of!! Which is okay, because the tacos were just SAD. You can see from the photo above, that I speak the truth. Barely any chicken, which was greasey and hardly any lettuce or anything else to compliment it. We won’t ever have those again. Kind of sad that we ended our night with those, but what can you do, when you try out a new place right?!

Other then the tacos we had in the Food building, we had a great day of sampling all the great fare the CNE has to offer, as well as walking around checking out all the buildings. We go to the CNE every year, and we never get tired of it. It’s a wonderful tradition, that our parents shared with us growing up, and hopefully we can do the same with our own kids one day…

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Viet Summer Fest 2012 @ Celebration Square

Aug5

We were passing by Celebration Square, and noticed that there was some kind of festival going on. So, after our walk around the mall, we decided to check it out, and saw that it was the Viet Summer Fest.

We noticed there were 2 food stalls serving Vietnamese fare. So, we bought a beef ball skewer and a couple of spring rolls first. Unfortunately we gobbled those up before I remembered I didn’t take a photo LOL We then saw that they were also making fresh chicken spring rolls, and we wanted to try them out too. They were overflowing with rice noodles, cilantro and mint, which was a great combination. Personally, I prefer the shrimp version, but this chicken one wasn’t too bad either. They were also serving Vietnamese sandwiches, whiched look scrumptious, but by the time we noticed them we were already full LOL We’ll have to check them out next year for sure!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Mambo Lounge Summerlicious Menu – July 14, 2012

Jul18

So, my hubby and I chose to try out Mambo Lounge, for Summerlicious. The menu looked pretty good, and we had never had Cuban food before. It was a quaint little restuarant, near the beginning of Greektown, on the Danforth.

WOW was it ever hot that night though!! They didn’t have their A/C on, for whatever reason, so I asked to be moved to the patio – in hopes of a little relief. Unfortunately there wasn’t much relief outside, though the minty fresh mojitos we ordered helped a little!! 🙂

I ordered the Ensalada de Chef, consisting of  baby spinach with pears, walnuts, roasted red peppers, and blue cheese, dressed with lemon vinaigrette. My hubby ordered the Tropical Salad, consisting of seasonal mixed greens, tomato, avocado, and fresh mango tossed in a sweet mango-balsamic dressing. Both were tasty, and a good way to begin our evening. I love, love, love blue cheese so it really hit the spot 🙂

For our main course we both chose the Mero Antártico, consisting of filet of sea bass served with coconut rice and salsa tropical with vegetables. Though, there was nothing ‘tropical’ on our plates when they came, so I assume the they ran out of the salsa or just never made it for that evening. The sea bass was perfectly fried though, with a nice crispy skin underneath…omnomnom!! Also, the vegetables were sauteed nicely, and the coconut rice was nummy.

For dessert I chose the Torta de Chocolate, which was a chocolate mousse cake. My hubby chose the Flan de Coco, which was a Cuban crème caramel with coconut. The mousse cake was nice and light, with lots of chocolately goodness, and my hubby’s flan wasn’t too sweet and creamy.

Other then the crazy heat that night, it was a pretty nice dinner out with my hubby. Not sure I’d go there and pay full price though, but that’s just me. To be honest, I’m all about the hole in the walls and little Bob’s shack types of places, with simple yummy food at decent prices…

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂

Hot House Cafe Summerlicious Menu – July 9, 2012

Jul12

My BFF and I went to Hot House Cafe, to try out their $15 pre-fixed, Summerlicious lunch menu. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to eat outside, on the patio under the shade of a big umbrella 🙂

We decided to start with the Louisiana Crab Cake with Chili Lime Aioli. The crab cake itself, was fried to a crispy golden brown. It was seasoned perfectly and tasted just like a good crab cake should – simply flavourful. The chili lime aioli was ok, but that’s only because, I’m not a particular fan of mayo-based dipping sauces. After taking the aioli off the shrimp chip, it was nummy, but when is it not right?  The mixed greens was a nice accompaniment to the crab cake as well.

For our main, we both decided to go with the  Grilled Cheese Supreme with Sweet Potato Fries. The sandwich consisted of  Gruyere, Aged Gouda and Fontina cheeses, Proscuitto di Parma, fresh tomato slices in between thick sourdough bread. The combination of the 3 cheeses culminated in ooey gooey goodness!! The proscuitto was too salty for my taste, and could’ve done without it really. In my opinion, you can’t go wrong, with tomato in a grilled cheese either. The sweet potato fries were surprisingly crispy!! It’s usually so hard to find them that crispy, as they tend to be soggy most of the time.

To end our meal we both decided on the White Chocolate and Peanut Butter Pie. I have to tell you, if you’re a huge fan of peanut butter and chocolate, like I am – you will LOVE this pie!! The white chocolate was light, which is good, because I’m not that big on white chocolate. The peanut butter mousse was definitely the star of this dessert!! OMG…I could’ve had another piece it was so good!! I loved it so much, I ate the whole thing, instead of taking half home for my hubby LOL

Everything we ate was really good and om nomnom-worthy. The service on the other hand, not so much. It took them 3 different trips to finally bring me a completely clean cloth napkin 😦 Not sure where they get their napkins cleaned, but wherever it is, they need to change it. As it was lunch time, they did get quite busy, and seemed a bit under staffed. Not sure if that was a fluke or not though. I would recommend Hot House for their food, but not sure what your experience may be with the staff though!!

Bon Appetit Everyone 🙂