Summerlicious 2014: Paese

After the disappointing start to Summerlicious with my visit to Fred's Not Here. I really hoped that Paese would not just be more of the same. Paese Ristorante on King St. is the younger brother (or sister) of the storied Bathurst location. First opening its doors in 2010 (almost 21 years after the original!) Paese on King has quickly become a local favourite for Italian fare. It goes without saying I was very eager for my first visit and Summerlicious was the perfect excuse to make it happen.

We started off the night with Calamari. Now considering we ordered this at Fred's I was a little weary about ordering it again. Paese was more than ready to aleviate my fears with a fantastic appetizer that really highlights how to correctly execute a dish. Expertly seasoned but light, intensely smoky without being burnt, just perfectly cooked. The tender calamari was accompanied by lemon mayo, capers, red onion and a little bit of greens. All the ingredients served to elevate the squid without covering it up.

The second appetizer of the night was Meatballs. Now meatballs fall into two camps, ones that have a soft tender texture due to liberal use of breadcrumbs and wet ingredients and ones that have a coarser texture due to being predominantly meat (its a constant battle between finding the ideal texture and making sure the flavour of the meat comes through). The ones we had at Paese fall on the meaty side. The flavour was decent, Paese uses three different cuts in their ground: short rib, sirloin and brisket. Many places (especially burger places) will experiment to get the perfect ground that gives you the best combination of flavour and texture. The real highlight of the dish for me was the tomato sauce; vibrant and bright. The pecorino on top was kind of tough and was difficult to cut so it was hard to incorporate it into mouthfuls but the cheese itself had a mild nutty flavour.

For our first main, we had the Ravioli with Lobster. The lobster was expertly cooked, perfectly tender. The ravioli itself was delicious with the cheesy polenta combining well with the tarragon butter sauce. Cherry tomatoes were strewn throughout to help cut the richness of the dish. The pasta skin itself also had an interesting peachy flavour that I had trouble identifying. If anyone has experience with how this dish is traditionally made and can give me some insight, I'd love to hear from you!

Now the next dish really highlights how Paese does a good job of letting their ingredients shine. I ordered the Semolina Crusted Chicken that was accompanied with Panzanella. Panzanella is a Tuscan bread salad; the one at Paese included cherry tomatoes, cubed English cucumbers and some leafy greens. If you appeciate fresh vegetables that are not covered up by complex sauces then you will really enjoy the dish. The crust on the chicken has a nice crunch due to the slightly cheesey semolina and a ring of chili oil encircles the plate as a garnish for those who like a small kick.


Before I start on the desserts I feel like I should point out that the portions at Paese were extremely generous. I'm not much of a stickler in terms of portion sizes but my meal at Paese genuinely had me wondering if I'd be able to finish, haha. Good thing I have a different stomach for dessert because the dessert here was exquisite.

To finish I ordered the Lemon Semifreddo and boy was I happy that I did. The semi frozen lemon custard was topped with shortbread crumble, blackberries and mint. The superbly light but deliciously lemony custard went so well with the crumble and blackberries. The texture of the crumble plus the little bite of the blackberry seeds all on the canvas of custard was heavenly. I really can't stop going on about how lemony the custard was, in my head I imagine a poor chef's apprentice being tasked with zesting 1000 lemons just to achieve this mind blowing result.

The final dessert of the night was the Cioccolato. Sooooooooo much chocolate. I'm a huge chocolate fan (check out the blog title *cough*cough*) but regardless of my unhealthy addiction to cocoa, this dessert was fantastic. The cioccolato had two layers of moist chocolate cake sandwiching a delicious white chocolate mousse, all upon a bed of warm nutella and topped with hazelnut brittle . It goes without saying that the dish was sweet, but not overpoweringly so. Even the white chocolate was airy and light. One the best desserts I've had in a while.

Paese was a breath of fresh air for my Summerlicious escapades and I look forward to a return visit in the future to try things off their regular menu. If you enjoy great Italian fare with fresh ingredients that doesn't over complicate then you should definitely swing by Paese.

Recommended

Summerlicious 2014: Fred's Not Here

This past weekend marked the beginning of Summerlicious 2014! In the past I have often been critical of Summerlicious restaurants as I feel that not all restaurants handle the influx of customers well, which hurts the consistency of their food and hurts the overall dinning experience. Nonetheless Summerlicious is a great event for people looking to try restaurants that they otherwise would not be able to, whether that be due to price, exposure or simply not knowing whats good on the menu.

Spanning two weeks in the month of July (4-20th) over 200 restaurants will participant in Summerlicious and provide 3-course price fixed menus for patrons who visit. Lunches will be fixed at either $15, $20 or $25 while dinners will range from either $25, $35 or $45. If you haven't yet made a reservation, do it soon, as many restaurants have had their bookings filled tight since last week. But enough of the chit chat, lets talk about some food!

Fred's Not Here is located at 321 King St W. (Right across the street from TIFF/Bell Lightbox!) and specialize in steaks and seafood. During my visit we ordered off the Summerlicious dinner menu. A fellow beef eater had suggested the restaurant and after looking at their offerings I eagerly agreed.

For appetizers we started with Fred's self-proclaimed "Famous" Lobster & Crab Soup. The dish certainly built anticipation as we quickly saw these buttery domes fill the servers table and make their way around the restaurant. The soup itself was exquisite. Intensely flavourful and creamy but not overwhelminly heavy. The flavour of the shellfish is front and center, lifted by the creamy base. My only qualm with the dish was that one of my friend's pastry did not cook all the way through. Fantastic start nonetheless and definitely the best dish of the night. Sadly Fred's strong start to the meal did not last.

The second appetizer was the Wood Grilled Calamari & Chorizo Sausage with Arugula. Unlike the first appetizer this one was poorly executed. Unevenly cooked squid; some parts were overcooked while others were undercooked and a lack of proper seasoning (seriously where was the salt?) plagued the calamari. The plainly sliced chorizo on the other hand had an abundance of flavour. It had a slight bitterness that went well with argula and offset the sweet mustard based sauce beneath. Despite this, the lack of seasoning would foreshadow more execution problems down the line.

The first entree of the night was the Wood Grilled “California Cut” New York Strip Steak
with Sautéed Garlic Mushrooms, Duck Fat Frites & Vegetables. I'm just going to get this out of the way now and say the steak was NOT SEASONED.  Now if you thought I ranted about this enough when I was talking about the calamari than you should prepare yourself. There is nothing, I mean NOTHING more blood boiling than seeing someone ruin a steak without properly seasoning it. The only dressing up a good piece of beef needs is an adequate amount of salt. This is a rookie mistake and seeing it from a restaurant that considers itself a steakhouse makes it even more ludicrous. Not only that, but a large portion of the outside of our steaks were burnt, which lead to an overwhelming carbon taste with. I've made better steaks at home with inferior cuts of meat. To make matters worse even the fries were not salted enough and we had to liberally apply it ourselves at the dinner table. Now people will tell me that the latter part regarding the fries was not a big deal, but anyone who knows good fries will tell you that the reason you season right after frying is so the residual heat from the fries dissolves the salt. By the time we realized the fries needed salt at the table there was no residual heat.

Praise a higher power that the Roasted Prime Rib of Beef with Celeriac, Yukon Gold Mash & Vegetables was good. The meat was seasoned well, although the black pepper crust was a little overwhelming for my taste. Doneness wise it was a perfect medium rare and the accompanying gravy tasted great without overpowering the meat. I also thoroughly enjoyed the mash and thought that the green beans (the same ones featured with the steak) were cooked to a perfect doneness; tender but still holding a crisp snap. Now this wasn't all smooth sailing as my cut of meat was not trimmed properly. There was a tough piece of tendon that could not be cut with a knife running along one side of the prime rib.

Now it was one of those nights where the stars aligned and everyone in my party ordered a different dessert. Which meant I got to steal little bits from each! To begin I had the Caramel Pop Corn Chocolate Hazelnut Sundae. The flavour combination in and of itself was quite good. The chocolatey ice cream had a hint of hazelnut that mixed well with the sweet caramel and fudge. Sadly the ice cream was half melted when it made it to my table and cold popcorn has a tough almost stale texture that is chewy in a stick all over your teeth type of way, probably not the greatest idea in hindsight.

Next we had the Fresh Fruit Ice. This was probably the most forgettable dish of the night, decent enough without any weaknesses but nothing to make it memorable. Similar to the sorbet, the Daily Selection Cheesecake (which in our case was creme brule cheesecake) was not memorable either, so much so that I even forgot to take a picture of it.

The Mixed Berry Shortcake however was the best dessert of the four. The cake itself was a moist backdrop to the tart and sweet berries on top.

Overall my visit to Fred's Not Here was mired with disappointment. I know I often tell people to not be overly critical on Summerlicious outings; but improperly cooked food and multiple lapses in seasoning are not acceptable from any establishment. The food at Fred's Not Here simply didn't make the cut on my first visit of Summerlicious 2014, I guess Fred really wasn't there that night.

Not Recommended.

Restaurant Review: The Fry

Address: 6012 Yonge, North York, ON M2M 3V9 (North of Cummer)

Hours: Dropped the ball on restaurant hours, will edit in after a return visit

I have been a fan of fried chicken ever since I could remember. I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say you'd be hard pressed to find a child in North America whose eyes wouldn't light up at the sight of the famous Colonel on a greasy paper bag and I was no different. Now I'm not knocking the Colonel (actually scratch that I am) but my fried chicken preferences have since evolved. I've learned to appreciate a good seasoning, a great batter (or lack thereof) and of course a great sauce. So although I am very familiar with KFC, I only recently experienced the Colonel's Asian counterpart, Korean Fried Chicken.

The Fry is one of a growing group of establishments in the GTA that specialize in Korean Fried Chicken and out of the ones I've tried they are definitely my favourite. Located on a strip mall (Man I eat at a lot of strip malls) north of Cummer on Yonge, The Fry is a small establishment, with probably only six or seven 4-seat booths (you already know the takeout option is well exercised). The menu is also small, which is usually a sign that you serve something worth eating (because why order anything else amirite?) so it didn't take us long to pick out things to order.

To start the dinner off we were brought two sets of appetizers. The first can be seen above, a simple plate of pickled radish, lettuce salad and macaroni salad. Definitely selling the East meets West theme with this one, as the first two appetizers are frequently seen in Korean and Japanese restaurants in Toronto while the latter is a fried chicken staple. Although the radish and the carrot-ginger dressed salad were typical (enjoyed them nonetheless) the macaroni was a nice surprise. Maybe it reminded me of the Colonel, for better or worse, but I like it either way.

The second appetizer was oiled hot plate of sweet corn. The corn itself had a sweet almost nutty taste due to the carmelization that was happening on the hot plate. I've never had corn served like this and it was a pleasant surprise to tide us over before the main course.

The first of the fried fowl to reach our table was the green onion fried chicken tenders. This was my favourite dish of the night; the tenders were extremely crisp and crunchy that held up well under the sweet soy-based sauce drizzled over neath. The spring onion strips impressed me by retaining their bite despite being extremely thin. In addition to this they were tossed in the aforementioned sauce which solved the issue of watery tasteless green onion ruining my chicken (an issue I had at Home of Hot Taste). I still can't get over how crispy and crunchy they were, the coating wasn't even overly thick. All in all it was an extremely satisfying dish, something I would order again.

Next up was the Korean fried chicken that we came for. We decided to get the half-half version which meant half of the chicken was smothered with sauce while the other half had the sauce on the side. I am pretty sure we were given the non spicy sauce by accident (we failed to specify and assumed we would get the spicy version) since this was not spicy at all. Like some of the KFC I have tried before the sauce was very sweet although this was less of a problem here than at other places. I would have enjoyed more seasoning in the breading as the lack of seasoning really shines through in the sauce-less basket. The coating was a standard thin Asian breading as opposed to the thicker craggy Western one that is often seen with fried chicken. Although both baskets were juicy on the interior the sauceless basket I would not order again. However I did enjoy the sauced basket and would come back again to try the spicy version.

The last dish of the night was spicy chicken with cheese. I love Korean dishes that feature cheese so prepare for some bias (if you're a return reader you would know that I'm hugely biased anyway :P). The dish contains pieces of chicken marinated in a gochujang based sauce (Korean chili paste) over a bed of cabbage, onions, and a variety of other shredded veggies. The whole thing is then baked with cheese (mozzarella in this case) until everything is goey and melty. The mozzarella was stringy and delicious, offering a rich accent to the spicy and sweet gotchujang. Like a true Asian I felt like this dish would have gone great with rice which is as good of a compliment as you can give to something you taste at a restaurant.

In the end I enjoyed my visit to The Fry. Whether or not you will enjoy yours will hinge on how you feel about sweet and spicy Korean dishes or juicy fried morsels of chicken.

Yea, I thought so.
Recommended

Restaurant Review: Gourmet Malaysia

Gourmet Malaysia

Address: 4466 Sheppard Avenue East, Scarborough ON M1S1V2

Hours: Open from 11 am everyday till 10:30 pm Monday-Thursday, 11:30 pm Friday-Saturday and 11:00 pm on Sundays.

I remember visiting my uncle in Malaysia as a young child, it was probably the earliest step towards my love of spicy foods. Fresh and dried Asian chilis frequently accompanied every meal and sauces that incorporated chilis were everywhere. Although not many memories regarding the food remain, often times I will taste something and a tinge of familiarity will spark in my mind, almost like deja vu. But enough of the nostalgia, we have a review to go through.

Gourmet Malaysia is a Malaysian/Indonesian restaurant located near the corner of Sheppard and McCowan. The restaurant resembles a large dining hall, with rectangular tables setup in row by row fashion and booths lining the windows. The menu is large and although I usually have my misgivings regarding large menus, in South East Asian restaurants this seems like common place. As I begin to peruse the menu something catches my eye. "Roti with beef curry". Roti canai (the South East Asian roti) is one of my earliest food memories. During a family trip to Thailand I remember coming home late with my mom and aunt after a long day of shopping (much to the dismay of my poor little feet). With the shopping spree over it was finally time to eat and we stopped at the only place open late on our way back to the hotel; a street vendor selling roti with curry. We took our new found meals up to our room and while my parents struggled with the lack of utensils I dove right in with my hands. The roti was chewy and buttery, almost flaky. Accompanying it was an aromatic yellow curry that was bursting with flavour, needless to say my young self mopped it all up. Ever since then I've been a huge fan of roti and I order it whenever I can.

Gourmet Malaysia's Roti with Curry Beef didn't disappoint, the roti itself was chewy and rich, a great accompaniment for the complex and flavourful Malaysian curry. Our group lamented that we should have all just gotten individual portions of roti, I wholeheartedly agreed.

Next we had the Crispy Boxing Chicken (due to one of my friends finding the name amusing). The chicken was prepped "lollipop style", which means the drumettes were cut near their smaller end and the meat was scraped with a knife towards the larger end (incidentally I've been told you can do these with the wing itself once you take out the smaller of the two bones). The dish is accompanied by generic sweet chili sauce and like the sauce the dish itself is not very memorable. I like fried things and the chicken was good, but you wouldn't be missing much by skipping this dish.

Next up on the docket was Soto Ayam, an Indonesian chicken soup accompanied with noodles. My friends enjoyed the soup while personally I found the taste of hard boiled eggs too pervasive. The chicken itself would have had a better texture if it was cut thinner or if it was shredded before being added to the soup. Decent nonetheless.

 

The next appetizer was Deep Fried Prawns with Chili and Garlic. With shrimp I have always struggled with whether I preferred them cooked shell on or off. In this case I would have definitely preferred it cooked without the shells despite it traditionally being done otherwise since the flavourful coating on the outside ended up being lost when you peeled the shrimp. Ways around this include eating the prawns shell and all (I tried this with a couple shrimp and found it a little unpleasant) or sucking the shell for flavour before removing it and eating the shrimp (the best compromise I could come up with). Overall this appetizer was good, though like all fried things you need to eat while hot!

Next we tried Nasi Goreng with Seafood in Belacan Sauce (pictured above). Now that I'm at home I was able to find out that nasi goreng simply means fried rice in Indonesian and belacan sauce was another name for shrimp paste. We ended up ordering Indonesian fried rice with shrimp paste, which was unfortunate because we also ordered another dish... the Indonesian fried rice -_-. I bet the chefs in the back had a great laugh about that. Overall I the fried rice was decent, the flavour of the shrimp paste was strong, acting as a backdrop to other familiar Indonesian flavours of chili, garlic and shallots.  I have almost become numb to the presence of frozen vegetables in Asian fried rice, but  the rice here also had morsels of shrimp, squid and other seafood nestled within.

For dessert we had Ice Kacang, otherwise known as ais kacang or Malaysian shaved ice. Asian shaved ice always seem overloaded with toppings in a comical kind of way and honestly thats just the way I like it. The shaved ice at Gourmet Malaysia had agar agar, grass jelly, what I think is cendol (correct me if I'm wrong), red beans, sweet corn and condensed milk plus a single scoop of vanilla ice cream. To me the ice kacang was the perfect ending to a meal, especially since good Asian shaved ice is limited in the city. Keep in mind I'm a sucker for dessert though =D

Although I barely scratched the surface of Gourmet Malaysia's behemoth menu, what I was able to try has been promising. Sure there were some average at best dishes, but there were some gems of delectable proportions to be had as well and with a menu this big, who knows what other treasures lie hidden at Gourmet Malaysia.

Recommended

Tidbits: featuring Hogtown Smoke, Smith Brothers, Pho Vietnam and The Burger's Priest

I haven't had the chance to do a full review of a restaurant in a while but I still want to share with you guys some of the things I've had the pleasure (or displeasure) of eating recently. Therefore I've decided to introduce a new series of posts called Tidbits. These posts will showcase specific dishes from several restaurants I've visited within the last couple of weeks. Hopefully this will allow me to create more content when times get busy and I can't take the time to do a proper review. Sorry for the bad pictures, I've been making due with my crappy camera phone for now until I get an upgrade.

First on the docket is the brisket infused burger at Hogtown Smoke. Hogtown Smoke originated as one of the first food trucks in the Toronto area and they opened up their first physical location around the end of last year in The Beach area. The burger itself is Angus ground, topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce, caramelized onions, red peppers, three cheeses and bacon. First impressions, this thing is massive. I've always held that the best sandwiches were the messiest ones but I feel like this burger takes it a little too far as the pulled pork falls off, which in and of itself wouldn't be a bad thing if the cheese wasn't melted onto it. Once the cheesey pork fell off it was hard to put it back onto the burger which was disappointing since the flavour from the cheese was very good. The pulled pork/onion/pepper topping was too sweet for my taste, I feel like the sweet BBQ sauce and the sweetness of the onions kind of overpowered everything. Despite this the burger patty itself was very flavourful, but it was not without its flaws. Personally I like two different types of burgers, ones with thick meaty patties that are cooked almost medium/medium rare like a steak and thin patties with great crust (the only reason I separate them into these categories is that I feel its hard to get the best of both worlds). The Hogtown burger was thick but it was very dry in the middle, which made it kind of tough. Overall not the best effort, considering how good the BBQ from this joint is.

Next up is the New York strip from Smith Brothers. Accompanied by Smith's signature shoestring fries this New York strip is a thing of beauty. I am a vehement meat eater, so nights like these have me smiling like a little kid on Christmas. This was the first time I've ever had shoestring fries and I admit I was a little disappointed. I love fries (jeez what the hell do I not love) and I expected shoestring fries to be super crispy delicious morsels of carbs. Sadly that was not the case as the fries did not have the expected crispy nor crunch. The sauce that I ordered was the Mushroom Cabernet, the flavour of the wine definitely comes through but the earthiness of the mushrooms seems lost in the sauce. The steak itself is cooked to a beautiful medium rare and its flavour is pretty good. Not the most flavourful steak I've ever had but definitely juicy and cooked well. I do wish there could have been a better crust on it, but in the end it was a valiant effort.

Third up is pho from Pho Vietnam. This was probably the most disappointing dish of the post. Good pho has deep complex flavour and tons of body which the broth at Pho Vietnam lacked on both fronts. The broth felt like it wasn't given enough time to develop proper flavour as the depth normally seen in pho was missing, this was probably due to the onions and ginger not being charred enough during the cooking process before they were added to the soup. In addition to this the broth was very thin and didn't have the usual coat your mouth texture that good pho broths have. Overall disappointing since there are numerous good pho places in and around the city.

Nearing the end of the week I felt a little lost, so I decided to drop by The Burger's Priest for a little 1on1 with his Holiness. I ordered the Priest which is a traditional cheeseburger with an added cheese stuffed portobello mushroom patty. The portobello and cheese patty is coated with panko breadcrumbs (the superior breadcrumb, hue) before being fried up and served hot. The patty itself is fantastic, intensely flavourful with a nice light crust on the outside but the star of the show was definitely the portobello patty. The secret cheese blend oozes out of the crunchy exterior of the mushroom patty when you bite into it, smothering the rest of the burger in its delectable flavour. The burger is a messy one, but not overly so, and every bite is as delicious as the last. Definitely one of the best burgers I've ever had.

Thanks for reading! You can find more information on the restaurants featured here below:


Hogtown Smoke: @hogtownsmoke

Smith Brothers Steakhouse: @smithbrossteak

Pho Vietnam: Yelp Page

The Burger's Priest: @burgerspriest

Restaurant Review: Aoyama Sushi

Aoyama Sushi 

Address: 2766 Victoria Park Ave Toronto, ON M2J4A8 416-494-7373416-494-7373 

Hours: 5:30 pm to 10:00pm Monday to Friday and 5:00pm to 10:00 on Weekends

(skip the first paragraph rant on sushi if you just care about the review)
I have been meaning to try Aoyama for a long time in the hopes of finding a quality sushi establishment uptown. Japanese cuisine in Toronto is dominated by AYCE sushi restaurants and although I do enjoy the occasional binge with friends I've never been much of a fan. Sushi may seem like a simple food to create but like any good dish there are many intricacies that lead to a quality end product. The thinness of the fish, the acidity of the vinegar, the rate at which the sushi rice is cooled during the mixing process and the way each piece is molded all influence its taste (not to mention the variety of condiments and/or toppings a chef decides to add to each piece). These things are all but lost in the AYCE culture which is a shame because once you have a quality piece of sushi you almost never want to go back. In the end the most important factor in making good sushi is the freshness of the fish and good chefs will make sure that the fish is the star of each bite and not overpowered by any of the other ingredients. But enough with the banter, on with the review!

Nestled in a strip mall on Victoria Park, just north of Sheppard sits Aoyama. This unassuming restaurant is small; having only enough room for probably just under 30 people. There is a single sushi chef working behind the counter with two Japanese speaking servers rounding out the front of the house. On my first visit we ordered the tasting menu (forget the exact name since they have multiple, sorry!)

First came a round of appetizers which featured a couple yakitori skewers (chicken thigh and green onions), salmon pate with a ponzu like sauce and some steamed edamame. The skewers were okay, standard teriyaki glaze, ours happened to be cold by the time they made to the table which was a little disappointing. The salmon follow-up was interesting, the sauce had a sour almost tomato-esque undertone while the pate itself was flavourful, its richness accented well by the sauce. The edamame were good, I'm a big fan of edamame when done right and although these weren't perfect they were better then what you usually get in Toronto.

Some of you may have noticed the flat tea pot in the above picture. Despite what it looks like, there was no tea in the pot but instead a delicious seafood broth. It was a pleasant surprise; it appeared to be a simple dashi stock with a variety of seafood added to it but it was so good that it became the highlight of the night (eat that Sports Center).

Following the apps came grilled black cod. Something very commonly seen in Japanese restaurants, often accompanied with a miso glaze, the cod at Aoyama was average, the buttery flesh had great flavour but the fish was a tad overcooked for my taste.

Next came the main event; sushi! From left to right/top to bottom: we have toro (fatty tuna belly), hamachi, salmon, kani (real crab meat), tamago (sweet egg), ika (squid), raw sweet shrimp, uni (sea urchin), bbq eel and some salmon maki. Now I want to preface this part by saying that toro is my favourite type of nigiri of alllllllll time. On my first trip to Japan I was introduced to it and I literally finished the restaurant's entire cut of tuna belly (not a good financial decision in retrospect btw) so I was a little disappointed by the toro here. Some general notes: the sushi in general was very fresh but the rice itself and the way they were put together were very inconsistent. Some rice clumps were irregular in shape and fell apart, while some cuts of fish (namely the toro and salmon) had tears and incomplete cuts that were simply hidden under the sushi and not completely cut off.

There were bright spots though. The salmon and sweet shrimp were great, full of flavour and very fresh. The uni, crab, tamago and hamachi were good as well, while the rest were average. As I alluded to before the toro was a big disappointment, this was exacerbated by the sauce that was brushed onto it before serving which overpowered the sushi with a watery almost sour taste. Overall the first visit left me with mixed feelings and a little underwhelmed, so I decided to go again in the hopes they could redeem themselves.

 

On my second visit we started with sashimi omakase (which means chef's choice) which was a huge step up from sushi. The scallop and sweet shrimp were amazing and we would have been happy with a whole plate of just those two cuts. The rest of the fish was also very fresh, much better then what you would usually find uptown and rivaling those of some great downtown establishments. Good start.

Next came the spicy salmon and shrimp tempura rolls. The rolls once again showed some sloppy craftsmanship that we saw before in the sushi. The rice was uneven, the roll itself fell apart at places and the tempura had an odd thick coating when compared to normal tempura batter. The taste itself wasn't hurt too much by this but it was still resoundingly average.

Next came something different. Labeled on the menu as mountain potato with tuna sashimi, some later research revealed it to be Yamakake (shout outs to Viv for that Japanese hookup), a type of Asian yam. I have actually seen my aunt use slices of these in her soups, they have a bland taste a tad lighter then a regular potato. Once grated the texture can only be described as sticky and viscous, similar to natto (a Japanese fermented bean dish). We were advised to put wasabi and soy sauce straight into the bowl and mix it all together before consuming. Although I found it kind of bland even after the aforementioned additions, I can kind of see what the dish was trying to do. The yam being a light backdrop that helps highlight the flavour of the fish while the soy gives you the umami and the wasabi the kick. Although I didn't enjoy it, it was definitely interesting.

To finish we had beef tataki served with ponzu (yep beef for dessert). For the life of me I could not find online what the red stuff next to the green onions were, which bothered me since when added together to the ponzu it really elevated the dish (a cookie to the first person that can tell me what it is). Shoutouts to Ken for informing me that the red stuff is momiji oroshi a mixture of grated daikon radish and chili peppers. The beef was a little unevenly cut but flavour wise the dish was good, nice smokey notes from the marinade and sear on the beef plus the spicy, sweet and sour ponzu was a perfect accompaniment.

For the price I feel like Aoyama falls short on some fronts, but while my first visit was disappointing the second definitely made up for it. In the end the food can still be considered a cut above other Japanese restaurants in the city; provided you know what to order.

Recommended

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Restaurant Review: Pho Viet/Return Post

 Feel free to skip the opening paragraph if you only care about the food review!

"Its been one week since you looked at me"

More like two years if you were my food blog. I admit I flirted with the idea of bringing back the blog (often at the most inappropriate times, like right before finals) and lack of time wasn't the reason I let this place collect dust for so long. In two years a lot has changed, in my life and my perspective with food. I got my undergraduate degree for one thing (yay!) and am looking to take my first steps into a new career. But despite all the "knowledge" my academic transcript says I've gained over the last four years, the most poignant realization I've come too is that there is a hell of a lot of shit I don't know anything about. This was the first reason for my hiatus. Although I have decent knowledge about food I have no experience with reviews and it didn't feel right to be throwing around numbers arbitrarily just because I didn't like the chili marinade in someones ceviche. The second reason for not picking things back up was predominantly out of respect. Those who know me understand that I have a deep respect for food and I realized that this same respect should extend to restaurant reviews. Real people are trying to make their livelihood from some of these restaurants, not every establishment is backed by giants like O&B or Cara Group. Therefore if we're going to critique and share our opinions regarding a restaurant for 2.7 billion (and counting, more people are using the Internet every day) people to see then we better do it right. With this in mind I hope to resume trying delicious things and writing about them but in a much different format then before. I've decided to implement a variety of changes to the way reviews will be done around here and they are as follows:

• Every restaurant will have a minimum of two visits within 3 weeks before a review will be written. This will help reflect that restaurants are not static establishments, your experience at a restaurant can dramatically differ from one visit to the next. Consistency is the mark of a good kitchen!
• No numbers, I'm not an experienced food critic (yet!) so there's no reason to act like one. I will simply write about each dish tried and about what I liked and disliked. At the end of each post I will simply recommend or not recommend the place for others to try
• Timing matters, restaurants constantly change staff, chefs and menus so if a review is more than a year old I'd probably look for a second opinion
• Finally take everything written here with a grain of salt. Ultimately any review will be subjective, regardless if its been written by Zagat or Bruce the burger eater

 Now with that out of the way lets get on with the goddamn review.

Pho Viet, located at the corner of Warden and Steeles in the same plaza as the T&T supermarket (and the hordes of horrible drivers that frequent the parking lot, trust me I'm one of em). As you probably guessed from the name the place serves Vietnamese food. I frequent this small establishment often (which should be a hint for what I'm going to say later) especially during the winter time. Like most Vietnamese places in the city this one serves pho so you bet that was the first thing I ordered. I must admit that initially I was not that impressed, the broth itself was less flavourful and deep compared to other pho broths I've had in the city (Pho Hung and Pho 88 come to mind). But I want to comment on this and use it to illustrate the subjective nature of food. When it comes to soup noodles, I'm a broth guy. The first thing I do when I get a big bowl of noodles is taste a spoonful of broth. I usually don't enjoy adding anything to the noodles other than some chili oil (mmm feel the burn) so the Sriracha sauce and hoisin sauce that you so often see at pho restaurants are usually relegated to dipping sauce and never make it into the soup. But I have read discussions online that in some regions of Vietnam (predominantly in the south) their pho is often eaten accompanied with Sriracha and hoisin mixed directly with the broth. So I went again to Pho Viet and ordered another bowl of pho and this time mixed Sriracha and hoisin straight in and tried it. I must say the sauces definitely helped patch a lot of the holes that I initially felt the dish had and made me think that perhaps I was unfairly judging the pho here when I was too used to eating it without  the sauces at other pho places.

Next up on the menu were rice dishes and I must say they were underwhelming at best. The sauce on my tamarind chicken was overpowering and way too sour. This was made worse considering that most of the plate was drenched with it leading to me having to abandon most of that meal. The deep fried chicken wings with fried rice was better as the chicken was crisp and juicy but the rice was dry and a little cold coming right out of the kitchen.

This far down I'm sure you must be thinking if you don't like their pho and you don't like their rice why do you come here so often. Well sometimes all a restaurant needs is one star to get you coming back, one knockout punch, one heavy hitter and at Pho Viet its the bun bo hue. Bun bo hue is another Vietnamese soup noodle dish, but unlike its pho cousin bun bo hue noodles are thicker, rounder and white. The broth itself is beef based and tasted heavily of lemongrass, fried garlic, onions, spring onion, cilantro and of course chili oil. The broth was intensely flavourful, smoky and had various elements of sour, sweet and spicy all working harmoniously. The dish is accompanied by shredded cabbage along with the usual pho sidekicks: bean sprouts, lime and mint. The dish also features chewy pieces of beef flank/tendon and wonderful Vietnamese ham (otherwise known as cha lua). O boy do I love that ham. My only qualm with the dish is that at times the noodles are a tad softer then what I would like but the broth more then makes up for it. Overall the bun bo hue is a great dish and one that you don't often find at the generic pho places in the city and this alone lures me back time and again.

Recommended

Pho Viet is located at 7010 Warden Avenue, Markham, Ontario unit 17 & 18 you can learn more about them here on their website.