Tag Archives: Food

Favorite Eats: Toronto

Please note: I was only in Canada for about 50 hours and I am basically listing every place I went to. And they are all my favorite!

Rua Vang (Golden Turtle) Restaurant. The menu at this Vietnamese restaurant is extensive! I would have loved to try a lot of items, but I needed something bland and was craving rice. So I had the chicken fried rice. Yes, boring, but also tasty! If I have a chance to go back, I hope my stomach is up to being more adventurous.

Hurricanes Roadhouse. We found this place when we were looking for a bar in which to watch UFC. Seems hardcore, but is actually quite cozy. This is also the place where I tried poutine and it was delicious. Mmmm… poutine… Great sports bar, relaxed vibe, and good food.

Crafted by Te Aro and i deal Coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee! Both of these spots are great coffee places with great atmospheres. And the coffee is awesome, too! I won’t pick one over the other since, duh, I’ve only been to each place once and I ordered different items. I did enjoy both places, though, and they both sell super fresh baked goods along with their coffee.

Prince of Wales Hotel – Churchill Lounge. The lounge at the Prince of Wales Hotel was a saving grace for us at a time when we were desperate for a nice dinner when most places were already closed. Hands down, one of the most incredible burgers I have had in I don’t know how long. Perfectly cooked, magically seasoned, and extremely satisfying. Yeah, technically this isn’t in Toronto. Whatever.

Wish I had

  • Tried a hot dog from a street vendor
  • Eaten more poutine
  • Been able to bring fruit back home with me
  • Eaten more poutine
  • Been there longer so that I could try out more places
  • Eaten more poutine

Adventures in Snickerdoodle-Making

I’m snowed in and wanted to have a sweet treat, so I thought – hey! I’ll bake cookies. [cue laughter] I suck at baking. But I do have Snickerdoodle cookie mix, and today felt like a great day to try it out.

Got my mix, got my egg, got my directions. Previous experience has taught me that I am the only person on the planet who is capable of screwing up ready-made baking mixes. And, yeah. I took out the electric hand mixer shortly after taking this picture. How cute was I to think that I could mix cookie dough with a whisk?

Okay. I’ve got my cookie dough and my cinnamon/sugar mix. I don’t know what that packet of ketchup is doing there, but don’t worry: I didn’t use it in the making of these cookies.

Rolling the dough in the mix. As per usual, I made sure to pick my nose before touching every dough ball. It’s the Special Ingredient in all my dishes.

Hm. Okay. This looks right. Right? Whatever. Into the oven it goes (this is cookie sheet 2 of 2).

Cookies be baking!

One was DOA. Bad cookie! I curse you!

I burned the cookies a bit. My Dad’s comment when he tried one later: “They’re crispy!”

Crispy or not, I thought they tasted pretty damn good. I declare this baking adventure a success.

03.06.2010 The Flower Flat

I had breakfast yesterday at The Flower Flat, which is a charming little place in East Lakeview. I got the waffle, which was very good and came with fresh fruit (pomegranate, banana, gooseberries), but I envied the scrambled eggs that my dining buddy got. Note: the scrambled eggs came with fresh fruit, too. (I really should stop being an asshole and stick to savory breakfast dishes.) That was the main selling point for me with the waffle, in my attempt to go healthy. One negative thing to point out – the bacon doesn’t quite measure up, however, it’s a plus that it wasn’t greasy. Coffee is delicious as ever Intelligenstsia, served in a french press carafe. Handmade jewelry, accessories, and art are for sale throughout the place. Fresh flowers are also sold here, and they were beautiful. I’ll definitely go back, especially since it’s a short walk from The Condo.

P.S. I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures of our actual dishes. I just wasn’t thinking about it at the time.

03.02.2010 Happy B-Day Mom, Rolf's Patisserie

Juliana, Mom, Jocelyn. 'Lola' is 'grandmother' in Tagalog.

I got Mom’s birthday cake from Rolf’s Patisserie in Lincolnwood. While all the cakes looked delicious, I opted for the Chocolate Hazelnut cake, which we hadn’t tried before. It’s chocolate cake with a hazelnut mousse layer. It was very, very good! To add a healthy component to our dessert, which followed a delicious take-out dinner from Opart Thai House*, I got some fresh strawberries, blueberries, and grapes to accompany the cake.

If you’re in the Lincolnwood area and in the mood for cake or pastries, I recommend Rolf’s. They have some seating if you want to hang out and have some coffee with your treat. All the things I’ve tried from Rolf’s, including cookies, coffee cake, and cannoli, have been very good. They always have a large selection of cakes if you need anything at the last minute.

And now that I’ve written this post, I’m gonna go have some leftover cake. Pardon me while I stuff my face.

*If you ever go to Opart Thai House, get the Moo Ping.

Kona Grill: Skip The Red Velvet Cake

Picture 9In retrospect, we were pretty dumb to think that an American-Japanese/Hawaiian or whatever restaurant chain would have tasty red velvet cake. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Last night, some friends and I ate at Kona Grill, Lincolnshire location. We got there about an hour and a half before closing time. It was a cold night, so it was already pretty uncrowded to begin with. Our server was super duper friendly fantastic! There were some issues, though. First, he kept saying “Can I get anything else for us?” to the point where, if I had been drinking tequila, I would have responded with, “Who is this US you keep talking about?” Second, a soy sauce puddle ended up on the table after our dishes were taken away and he never came back to clean it. Overall, though, tall white guy with glasses was a good waiter.

Of course, we had some cocktails. I opted for a raspberry mojito, even though I am pretty sick of mojitos and picking mint leaves from in between my teeth. But it was tasty, and came with a bonus stick of rock candy.

For our appetizer, we ordered the avocado egg rolls. Oh, shit. Yum. The sauce that comes with it is super yummy as well. YUM. We didn’t get entrees and instead shared some rolls: the Atlantic roll, the Las Vegas roll, and the Volcano something or other. All were tasty.

That leads to the disappointing dessert. The red velvet cake looked yummy, but it did not live up to our expectations. PRO: the actual cake part was very good. CONS: the icing tasted like pure butter, was globular, and was NOT cream cheese icing. We seriously should have gone to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert instead (they have an excellent red velvet cake).

Overall: Decent place for sushi and I would bet that the rest of their menu is good. Very limited cocktail menu but I’m pretty sure they have a full bar and the wine list looked decent. Avocado egg rolls are delicious. And do not get the red velvet cake.