Smoke's Poutinerie

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

My sincere apologies! When the "break" rolled around, I found myself quite busy with things that I thought I wouldn't be busy with (school -_-...). But now that school has started, the procrastination of studying begins, meaning: more blogging!

I have been on many food adventures since the last time I blogged, and unlike my muscles or brain, my tongue has a very short memory so it cannot recall all the wonderful foods it has tasted. So, for today's blog I will talk about one of my favourite foods that I have eaten quite recently: poutine!

After reading reviews on it, and being a sucker for poutines, I always wanted to go down and try Smoke's Poutinerie out. But, since I constantly ran into my excuse of "another time", I ultimately put off ever going. Then one eventful day brought me down to the area of one of its locations (intersection of Spadina and Bloor aka The Annex). It was a very small shop, quite hidden actually. But, upon spotting the checkered head-sign and the distinctive stalker-eqsue-face logo, I knew where I was and that I had to go in to try.

 Pulled Pork Poutine (Large $8.99)

 Seeing that we were all very excited to try the poutine (and because someone else offered to pay...), everyone ignored their "no food past 10pm" diet, and decided on sharing a large pulled pork poutine. This poutine was filled with a whole bunch of chipotle pulled pork goodness, mixed with a generous helping of melted and creamy cheese-curds, thick crispy fries, and topped off a heaping portion of hot, rich gravy. Sounds good doesn't it? It was. The pulled pork was excellent. All the fine tendrils of pork were very tender, and perfectly encased the essence of the savoury yet slightly sweet chipotle sauce. The fries were on the more thickly cut side and quite crispy, yet simultaneously, slightly soggy and soppy as to absorb all that gravy goodness.What I particularly liked was that they were not salted (or as I tasted at least), so when combined with the rich gravy, it did not leave your lips pruned due to water deprivation. Another thing I enjoyed about Smoke's were their cheese curds. A common problem many poutineries face is the fact that their cheese curds come out more lumpy than "stringy-cheesy", making consumers find it rather hard to enjoy the poutine, considering that you have to stab your fork into a lump of segregated cheese and fries to get a combined taste. At Smoke's, though there were the occasional lumps of translucent cheeses here and there, the majority were well melted and mixed with the savoury gravy and fries, so when you lifted your fork, you got that mouth-watering cheesy string trailing afterwards, just waiting to be twirled around your plastic fork and shoved into your mouth.   

 Chicken Peppercorn Poutine (Small $6.99)

Seeing that I had promised C that we'd go together before he left for his internship, when he returned, we promptly headed over to Smoke's to eat. Since I enjoyed the pulled-pork poutine so much, I urged C to order that for himself. As for me, considering that I am a huge chicken fan, I knew I wanted something from their chicken selection. I had my doubts when I finalized on getting the chicken peppercorn poutine since its gravy was not what I was used to. My doubts, though, were soon erased once I took a nibble out of this delicious dish. The poutine consists of the golden, thick fries, tender grilled chicken pieces, soft and juicy sauteed mushrooms, and wholly topped off with peppercorn gravy and stringy cheese-curds. The fries, this time though, were slightly soggier than the first time I tried them, but nonetheless, it still satisfied my taste buds.The chicken pieces were slightly on the dry side (maybe because it was white meat instead of dark), and did not really contain any individual flavour of its own. The mushrooms were a wonderful addition, for they were very juicy and not at all soggy. They had a very simple flavour, and although they were drenched in gravy, the mushrooms were still able to contain that distinctive taste all fresh mushrooms seem to possess.  Now, for the gravy! I did not realize any real significant differences in the peppercorn gravy, and the original gravy Smoke's uses. If anything, the peppercorn gravy had more of a "kick" to it and a slight undertone of, of course, pepper.

a close-up picture. drool my food buddies. drool.

an additional photo of their wall

sorry for the position, i'm not sure why it's like this. C's pulled pork poutine and my chicken peppercorn poutine.

  

    Conclusively.  .   .. ...

food: 8.5/10  (slight inconsistency)
atmosphere: 9/10 (very relaxed)
service: 10/10
portion: moderate
 price: reasonable (<$10/dish)

Located at: 490 Bloor Street West
Phone Number: (416) 588 2873

happy eating!

 xoxo,
-A

Kenzo Ramen

After reading through some of my blogs from April, I noticed that I tend to start all my blogs with "hello hello". Seeing how annoyingly repetitive that seems, I've decided to start each blog post with a greeting in a new language. SO!

こんにちは(konnichiwa) everyone! Moving on with today's blog...

After visiting the fresh cherry blossoms at High Park with S and C, we were extremely tired and hungry. S had researched earlier of a good new ramen place that just opened on Bloor and was itching to try it out.

Kenzo on Bloor; image taken from Google

With those unfamiliar with the term ramen, ramen is a Japanese noodle dish. The noodles in ramen are not your typical Western spaghetti noodles though, rather they are wheat-noodles, so (as I feel) they have a more chewy texture. The broth that comes along with the noodles are usually meat or fish-based, and flavored with soya sauce or miso. Miso and soya sauce are the most basic ramen broths, but there are many different kinds of ramen, depending on the locality of Japan. 
There are actually three locations for Kenzo Ramen; Dundas, Bloor, and Yonge. The Dundas and Bloor locations can be spotted on GoogleMap, but for some odd reason, I can't find the Yonge one. The only reason I even knew about the Kenzo on Yonge was because C had gone there many times beforehand for ramen. I have never visited the Dundas location, so I'll only be reviewing the Yonge and Bloor locations. 
                              BLOOR LOCATION
  Sho-Yu Ramen
Both C and I ordered this type of ramen. Sho-Yu is considered as one of Kenzo's most basic ramen, consisting of wheat noodles in a fish or meat based broth and seasoned with A LOT of soya-sauce. The noodles were served with two pieces of seemingly lightly seared pork, half a boiled egg, a seaweed strip, and a naruto! No, I do not mean the anime Naruto, but rather that little pink/white thing placed beside the seaweed strip. A naruto is basically a processed sliced fish cake and is also commonly called kamaboko in Japanese. The noodles served at Kenzo are definitely different than the ones I've tried at other ramen places (e.g. Ajisen Ramen...). Not only did they possess a favourable chewier texture, the noodles retained more flavour in them than other places. The pork served with the noodles were extremely tender, and literally fell apart into thin strips in your mouth when you ate it, making it very easy to separate the fat portion of the pork slice from the desired meat. As for the taste, the pork did not have much distinction from the soya-sauce broth it was immersed in, it was only slightly more savoury and salty. Nevertheless though, the pork was a great addition. What I liked most from the dish was the egg. I feel that many people tend to overlook the half-egg served with ramen, considering that it just simply looks like a hard-boiled egg. What they fail to realize, though, is that quite a bit of preparation is necessary to make a perfect "ramen egg". Since the perfect ramen egg will have a creamy yolky-centre, temperature is very important, since over-boiling the egg leaves the yolk dry, yet if you don't boil it long enough, the yolk tends to be..well, too yolky. Even after boiling, the egg shell has to be peeled off (which is extremely tedious), and then the egg-whites have to be seasoned with a bit of broth and a dark-soya sauce/light-soya sauce/ pepper concoction to give it that adorable brown color. Kenzo's ramen egg, I feel, captured the whole idea of a ramen egg. The yolk was extremely creamy, and the egg whites were wonderfully fluffy and distinctive in taste. It was truly...eggcellent!

 Tonkotsu Ramen
This was S's order. Labelled as one of Kenzo's Special Ramen, this dish was truly special...at least according to S's reaction (which I highly trust considering how she's also an avid food-lover). The bowl consisted of the same wheat-noodles as the Sho-Yu ramen, and was also served with seared pork, a half hard-boiled egg, seaweed, a naruto, and garnished with green onion slices. The type of broth used was, as the title says, tonkotsu. Tonkotsu is basically a thick broth made from boiling pork bones, fat, and collagen for a long period of time to come out with a cloudy white broth with a creamy consistency able to battle butter.

 Takoyaki
Since S and I cannot (absolutely cannot) resist takoyaki, we jumped at the option of ordering the dish when we saw it on the menu. As stated in my Guu Izakaya post, takoyaki is basically soft and chewy batter balls filled with octopus pieces, drizzled in takoyaki sauce and Japanese mayonnaise, and garnished with super chopped green onions and curling bonito flakes. Compared to Guu, I felt the takoyaki served at Kenzo were better. This was partially due to the fact that their octopus pieces were larger (way larger!) and their addition of a small ingredient that surprisingly added a lot of flavour; cheese. Both C and I felt the creamy and stretchy cheese in the takoyaki was a great addition because it added a more savoury and memorable taste to the dish, that not only kicked it up in flavour, but also kicked it out of the generic takoyaki ball-game making it the winner. S, on the other hand, did not enjoy the cheese inside the takoyaki and would have much preferred the dish without it, so the cheese addition is rather a subjective experience.

                      YONGE LOCATION

C and I went to visit the Yonge location of Kenzo on another occasion before we got down to do some hard-core studying at Starbucks (sigh summerschool). Sadly, S did not accompany us on our ramen venture this time, but I will surely bring her here to try this location sometime. The decor of the Kenzo located along Yonge was not as modern and aesthetically appealing as the Bloor location. In fact, their cash register/ food prep area reminded me of a residential kitchen. I felt slightly intrusive...BUT, as people say, never judge a book by its cover. Though the decor of the store was not as great as the location along Bloor, the ramen was definitely better, both taste-wise and portion-wise.

Karashi Ramen
This was the ramen that I ordered from Kenzo and is considered one of their "Hot" ramen, with "hot" in the most literal term.  The bowl consisted of doughy wheat-noodles, a bed of bean sprouts, seaweed slices, shiitake mushrooms,  2 seared tender pork, one tamagoyaki, and (of course), a naruto! The broth was different from the one I tried last time, for it was mixed with karashi japanese hot sauce, making the overall soup supposedly spicy. The spiciness was not an acute one, mind you, but was rather accumulative. Alongside that, it was also the deadly type, you know, the type that if you swallowed down the wrong tube (such as the breathing tube, instead of your eating tube *damn connected pharynx..*) it would cause much pain and gagging. I honestly loved it. From eating this one bowl of ramen from the Yonge location, I could already tell the difference in quality compared to the location on Bloor. The shittake mushrooms served with the noodles were very juicy, and had an odd, yet wonderful, sweet taste, a characteristic acquired from soaking the mushrooms in mushroom stock+mirin+soya-sauce+sugar mixture.Not only were the portions bigger, but the soup quality, pork, and vegetables tasted fresher, the noodles though had no real difference. The seared pork slices were noticeably thicker and larger, and had a more distinctive seared and 'ashy' taste, totally complementing the noodles and broth. The egg (yellow rectangle) served with the dish, is called tamagoyaki, and is basically a bunch of sweet egg layers. The sweetness is derived from combining the eggs with rice vinegar, and sometimes sugar and soya-sauce. Tamagoyaki is most commonly seen in sushi, such as niri, but it tasted just as good served with the spicy soup. I am not usually a fan of taste combinations, especially sweet and savoury. But, seeing that the chef(s) added two sweet side-dishes to the spicy soup leads me to actually slightly change my perspective and opinion on odd combinations like so. But, don't get me wrong, I'll always hate foods along the same tangent as Hawaiian pizza. Beyond the addition of the tamagoyaki and sweetened shiitake mushrooms and the spicy broth, the only major difference between the Kenzo on Yonge and the Kenzo on Bloor were the seared pork slices (as mentioned above).
Sho-Yu Ramen+Pork Cutlet
First of all, I would like to apologize for the vertical photo-placement, for some odd reason the silly photo refused to be horizontal...anyohw, this was the dish that C ordered for the day. The Kenzo location along Bloor actually did not offer this pork cutlet and ramen combination, leading me to speculate that the combination was a franchise difference based on management. The sho-yu ramen, as mentioned above, is basically a basic meat/fish based-broth with a lot of soya-sauce added inside, and served with wheat-noodles. The major difference between the sho-yu ramen served at Yonge and the one served at Bloor are basically, the size (Yonge is more generous), the seared pork, and the addition of a small pile of corn. The seared pork at the Yonge location is a lot more distinctive in flavour and is thicker, but is equally as tender as the pork served on Bloor. Beyond the pork, though, I didn't find any substantial differences. The pork cutlet that was served with Katsu sauce, was, as I felt, just standard. There was nothing really to set the pork cutlet apart from other places that serve cutlet. It was though, successful in satisfying a crunchy pork cutlet craving.  

 Takoyaki
Again...delicious takoyaki! This time, C and I mostly tried out the takoyaki to see if there were any noticeable differences. Actually, considering that C has been to this Kenzo many times, it was mostly just me doing the trying hahah. The location along Yonge had a wider choice selection of which type of takoyaki you wanted, whereas the location on Bloor on provided the most basic and common takoyaki. Seeing that both  C and I enjoyed the cheese in the takoyaki last time, we decided to order it here. The batter and set-up of the takoyaki were more or less the same as the ones served at Bloor. The cheese inside was what seemed to be a mix of cheddar and mozzarella slices. Unfortunately though, the cheese was not very stretchy and was actually somewhat hard. The batter to cheese ratio was grossly unfair. Don't get me wrong though, the takoyaki were delicious, but in comparison to the ones served at Bloor, I would say I lean towards the ones along Bloor. This preference, though, could possibly be due to the fact that they were different takoyaki types, rather than the cooking style. 
 

katsu sauce, i thought the little pear was cute :)

S eating the moving noodle-display at the location on Bloor

Kenzo along Yonge; image taken from Google

     Conclusively.  .   .. ...

    
                                   BLOOR                                   YONGE

  food:                           8/10                                          9/10
atmosphere:            9/10                                        7.5/10
service:                  8/10 (very busy place)        7/10 (need more staff)
portion:                moderate                           towards the large side
 price:           reasonable (< $10/dish)     reasonable (< $10/dish)

**yonge location is cheaper

Located at: 372 Bloor St. West                                6180 Yonge St.
Phone Number: (416) 921-6787                              (416) 229-4526

                                                                          

  happy eating!

 xoxo,
-A 


yonge

  bloor

Saigon Star

Hello hello! It's been awhile since I've last updated my blog hasn't it...my sincere apologies!

But, without further ado, let me introduce you to a recent food adventure!

Every week, my parents, siblings, and I go and have lunch or breakfast at a restaurant. Like any other family, we have a small set of restaurants that we go to when we eat, or just can't think of any other place to go. For us, one of  the default restaurants is Saigon Star. Located  in Richmond Hill along Highway 7, Saigon Star specializes in fusion cuisine and is hailed for their seafood, particularly their curry crab (their chef won an award for it!). For those not used to the term "fusion cuisine", it's basically a combination of elements of various culinary traditions, and in the case of Saigon Star, it is between Vietnamese and Thai.

Whenever my family and I eat at Saigon Star, I usually alternate between their lunch combo or Tom Yum Noodle soup. This time, craving for some Pad Thai, I ordered one of the 3 lunch combinations.

the cool looking wall. please ignore my finger on the left corner...hahaha

 Thai Combo ($7.99)

This was one of the 3 lunch combos that Saigon Star offered. It consisted of a daily soup, chicken and shrimp pad thai, two Thai springrolls accompanied with spicy fish oil sauce, and two curry-chicken skewers. With much on the plate, I am actually quite unsure where to start writing...I guess I'll start with what I usually eat first. From what I've experienced, the type of soup varies day-to-day, alternating from  sweet and sour, a vegetable medley, and sweet corn and egg drop. Luckily for me, on this particular day I received my favourite out of the trio; the sweet corn and egg drop soup. The soup isn't as viscous as you would expect it to be, but the viscosity doesn't affect the flavours in any way for the soup is actually quite delicious and possesses a very natural and fresh sweet 'corny' taste. What I particularly like, is that the corn pieces aren't soft or soggy, but rather still slightly crisp. The Thai springrolls are probably the only things that I don't enjoy from this dish. The springrolls consisted of only vegetables (such as lettuce, sliced carrots, etc..) that seem to be slightly soaked in a thick juice, wrapped in rice-paper, and deep-fried. There was a slight herby taste to it, making it seem very generic. The springrolls honestly reminded me of something you'd find at any "Chinese" buffet under the label of "Vegetarian Springrolls". Moving onto the entree of the dish; the pad thai. The Pad Thai is a delicious dish, but there are times where the noodles are too soft and sticky, a problem that arises from prolonged stir-frying. The dish though, has a very savoury and slightly tangy taste, and it really feels as if the flavour has seeped into the noodles. The noodles are served with egg pieces, shrimp, and chicken slices, all of which are cooked wonderfully. I really enjoy the egg pieces because it's the most absorbant compared to the shrimp and chicken and since it absorbs a lot of Pad Thai sauce, the eggs are overall very juicy. Now, you may cringe at the thought of "juicy eggs" and probably wonder what the hell they are, but honestly, they are nothing more than soft egg pieces literally soaked in the sauce they are immersed in and is something you've at least tried once, whether you knew it or not. But, be sure not to confuse juicy eggs with soggy eggs... Last but not least of the dish are the curry-chicken skewers. The skewers probably contribute to 60% of the reason why I always order the Pad Thai combo. Though slightly on the burnt side, the skewers are grilled very well and have that very distinctive 'ashy' taste to it. The chicken on the skewers are always tender, and have a wonderful tendency to separate into nice thin strips when you bite into it. The curry used is very unique, as I have never tasted any other like it. Slightly rich in taste, the curry is very savoury and has little chunks of what seems to be little pieces of lemongrass inside. I honestly cannot describe the curry taste of it, all I can say though, is for you to just go and try it yourself. It really is unique and UBER delicious!

Spicy Red Curry($7.50)

This was the dish that my mother ordered that day. The dish was also served with the soup-of-the-day, 2 Thai springrolls, a big bowl of chicken curry, and a French-influenced Vietnamese bun (called bánh mì  in Vietnamese). Seeing that I've reviewed both the soup and the Thai springrolls in the very large paragraph above, I will only talk about the spicy chicken curry and the bun. Many people who've bought "Vietnamese Buns" at their local Asian supermarket (such as TnT, Foody Mart...), should be familiar with the type of bun used for the curry dish, but there are actually quite a few different types of banh mi-s that vary in size. I personally find that this particular type is a hit or miss; it can either be crispy and fluffy, or soggy. The perfect type would have a crunchy shell housing fluffy bread inside. As for the one served at Saigon Star, I would say they nailed the bread. The bun was clearly kept inside a freezer and reheated because it possessed that 'defrosted' taste, but it still tasted quite good. The shell of the bun was very crunchy, whereas the middle, though slightly too thick, was fluffy and warm and retained the curry very well when dipped. The curry had a deep and rich coconut taste and was slightly tangy, but it wasn't very spicy. The texture of the curry, though, wasn't as creamy as you'd expect from a Thai curry, and actually was quite oily. Inside the bowl were chicken pieces, fried-tofu, parsley garnish, portobello mushrooms, and bean sprouts.

Thai Green Curry ($6.50)
This was the dish that my father ordered. It was basically green Thai curry served with thick rice-noodles, and an assortment of additions ranging from fried-tofu, mushrooms, red peppers, bean sprouts, all topped with fresh basil leaves. I wish I could give you an honest opinion on this dish, but I sadly did not try it (my dad looked really famished).

  

 

Hong Kong Style Milk Tea

I never really order drinks with my meals, partially because I don't drink beverages as I eat and partially because I'm..frugal. There is only one drink I ever make an exception to and that would be Hong Kong milk tea, called lai cha in Cantonese （奶茶）。 Usually my family and I would each get a hot cup of milk tea at the end of our meal, but seeing that it was a hot day, I opted on getting the cold version. For those unfamiliar with what milk tea is, it's basically a mix of several types of black tea, evaporated milk, and sugar (which you add yourself, depending on your preference). Sometimes, a tablespoon of condensed milk is used alongside the evaporated milk to give the tea a richer feel. What I like about milk tea is that it has a very distinctive and truly unique taste, as it is both sweet and bitter,  yet is also capable of maintaining a very silky texture. Though I've tried better milk tea, I must say that Saigon Star's milk tea beats a lot of places that serve milk tea in their afternoon tea menus, for example those HK cafes (cha chaang teng; 茶餐廳）。It maintained a deep creamy taste, that always manages to sit at the back of my tongue regardless of what I eat, while at the same time, is able to possess a deep and soft bitter taste that keeps my tongue smacking for more (literally smacking haha).Though the beverage has an ever so slight grainy texture, it is overall still very good, and is very refreshing for hot days.

their pretty chandelier arrangement on the ceiling

     Conclusively.  .   .. ...

food: 8/10
atmosphere: 9/10
service: 7/10 (slow and inattentive at times)
portion: moderate
 price: reasonable (< $10/dish)

Located at: 330 Hwy 7, Richmond Hill
Phone Number: (905) 731-7221

happy eating!

 xoxo,
-A 

Kamasutra

Hello hello! For today's blog, I will be reviewing an Indian restaurant and wine bar called Kamasutra. The restaurant is located along Bayview Avenue, south of Eglinton. I actually ate at Kamasutra 2 days ago, but I got a bit too indulged in my studying to post the blog, so sorry :(. C and I had planned dinner together after he got off work that night, but I actually had no idea where we were going because he wanted to 'surprise' me. When we arrived at Kamasutra, I was really excited to try it out because I had told him a couple days ago that I was craving Indian food! One of C's friends had told him about this place and apparently he had wanted to google it, but didn't want any provocative images to pop up on his laptop (kamasutra...karmasutra..).

kamasutra; image taken from Google

When I entered the restaurant, I was slightly stunned by the decor inside. To your right, you see a dimly lit bar with a large, wooden shelf and a huge sign with the name of the restaurant. To the left were the seating arrangements consisting of dark wooden tables draped in white tablecloths, and matching dark-wood seats. My favourite part of the restaurant's decor were the big fabric drapes that were looped in between the black-painted and inconspicuous air ventilation tubes on the ceiling (talk about double functioning!).The set-up, lighting, and wine-red color theme, gave off a very cozy, yet sophisticated feel.

We were offered a bound menu that had all the food choices placed behind a plastic cover, as if you were looking into a photo frame. The menu was divided into a bunch of subsections in which different dishes were placed according to some system. There were also mini chilli symbols ranging from 1-5 to indicate the level of spiciness. For dinner that night, we ordered 4 dishes.

Complimentary garlic-butter naan
As the title says, this was the complimentary naan given to us for the night (yay!). Since we ordered two types of naan for the night (we ordered a plain one and the garlic-butter one), I think I'll review both of them here. For starters, naan is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread. It is created in a tandoor, which is basically a large and heated contraption that resembles a metal well. The naan dough is smacked onto the side of the 'well', where it is cooked under extreme heat. Though I've eaten better naan before, the one from Kamasutra wasn't bad at all. The naan had a crispy exterior, and a very doughy interior. At times it could be a little too doughy, but considering that I am a fan of doughy foods, I didn't mind (C on the other hand prefers his naan slightly crispier). Though both naan had the same crispy-doughy texture, the tastes did differ. The garlic-butter naan was certainly  more savoury and had a herby taste to it, whereas the regular naan didn't really have any flavour at all.               
Onion Bhaji ($5.95)
This was the appetizer (or sampray-yogika as they called it) that C ordered. They were sliced onion rings that were covered in a batter comprised of Indian herbs and spices. The dish was accompanied with tamarind chutney, as well as freshly sliced ornamental carrot strings. The onions in the rings were thickly sliced, and had a natural sweet taste to them, whereas the batter was very crispy yet doughy, simultaneously. The tamarind chutney that accompanied the rings was basically a slightly viscous and lumpy deep brown sauce that had a sweet and ' Indian spice' taste to it. The onion rings  by themselves were yummy, but were not spectacular, even if the batter had Indian herbs and spices inside. But, combined with the tamarind chutney, the rings had an overall unique taste.



Butter Chicken ($12.95+$3.00) 
Since this was our first time eating here, C and I both wanted to try their butter chicken curry, a dish that we are both familiar with and enjoy eating. The curry itself cost $12.95, but with the addition of three more dollars, the curry was made into a 'dinner', and was served with a bowl of basmati rice and your choice of any naan bread from the menu. Seeing that we had to order naan bread anyway, C paid the extra cost.The sauce of the butter chicken had a tangier taste than others that I have tried before, thus making it also slightly sweeter. Though the picture may lead you to speculate otherwise, the sauce was actually quite viscous and stuck nicely onto the naan bread. The chicken in the curry were not sliced or bite-size, but rather they were large chunks that both C and I had to individually scoop onto our plates and slice to eat since it didn't fit on the naan bread. Though the chicken pieces were indeed tender, I felt they leaned ever so slightly on the dry side, leaving my mouth with a grainy and stringy feel. Since C and I wanted our dish to be spicier, we asked the waiter for some chilies. Instead, he gave us a red, oily sauce that was apparently spiced chili extract. The heat of the chili extract was accumulative and gave our mouths a slight burning sensation the more we ate it. The extract also gave the curry a sweeter taste, which both C and I feel, improved the dish. Overall, though the dish was delicious and could easily beat other restaurants, it itself can also be beaten.

                                                                Saag with Tender Lamb ($13.95+$3.00)
Just like the butter chicken, we were given the option to upgrade the dish into a dinner with the addition of three dollars. The dish, though, differed from the butter chicken in the fact that you had an option on which type of meat/fish you wanted to add inside. The selections were chicken, lamb, king prawns, fish, and veal. Since we already had a chicken dish and I wasn't feeling for any seafood, we settled on ordering the lamb. The base of the dish was a very rich and creamy  dark-green spinach sauce that was sauteed with garlic and green chilies. I have eaten saag before in other restaurants and usually they are quite stringy due to the spinach, but at Kamasutra, the sauce was more like a homogenous lumpy and thick mixture, which made it easier (and more elegant) to eat in my opinion. The saag had a very nice savoury and creamy taste that really suited the basmati rice that was served with the meal. The lamb, like the butter chicken dish, was served in chunks, though slightly smaller. The texture of the lamb was very tender and required little effort to chew. It harbored the distinctive sweet aftertaste that was nothing short of perfect. This was my favourite dish of the night and the quality of the ingredients used were extremely apparent.
Ras Malai ($4.95)
This was the dessert dish that C and I ordered at the end of the meal. It was basically cream cheese flatcakes that were soaked (literally) in a sweet milk syrup and garnished with mini pistachio crumbs. The 'flatcakes' as they called it, were not flat and were actually quite thick and heavy. I wasn't very fond of the dish and the reasoning behind that wasn't because the taste was bad, but rather the texture of the dish was what turned me off. The milky syrup that the cakes were dunked in actually tasted quite nice and it was very light and cool, and had a very nice creamy taste. The round 'flatcakes', on the other hand, possessed an odd moist and spongy texture that somewhat stuck to my mouth, but at the same time, managed to leave my mouth with a grainy feel. I did suspect that the grainy feel could be a result of the pistachio crumbs, but after eating more of the dessert, I decided that there just wasn't enough little crumbs to create such a substantial grainy texture. I've never eaten this particular type of dessert before so it's hard for me to determine whether the texture was due to an incorrect cooking procedure, or if the dish is just supposed to feel that way. Regardless, it was indeed a very odd combination....

the basmati rice that came with the dinner. it had the dry texture that you expect from basmati (VERY different from chinese rice). i assume that the chefs used a stone-pot because of the random pieces of crispy and golden brown rice. the crispy rice grains created a great contrast in texture when you added curry to it. was very nice.

our dishes

while trying to take a picture of the bar from our seats, C decided to strike a pose...

another pose...of him facing a wall

    conclusively.  .   . .. .

food: 8/10
atmosphere: 8.5/10
service: 8.5/10 (very kind waiter, was very nice)
portion: moderate, filling
 price: slightly pricey (<$20/dish)

happy eating!

xoxo,

-A

   

Johnny's Hamburgers

Now that the majority of my exams are complete, I'm pleased to be able to update this blog more often with recent food ventures. 

The place I'll be reviewing about today is called Johnny's Hamburgers. Located at the intersection of Victoria Park and Sheppard, this humble burger shop is hard to miss. It's covered in bright orange paint, and has an equally bright orange sign that lights up at night. The whole store is surrounded by nothing but flat and seemingly barren land all waiting to be leased, so it really sticks out like an orange, sore thumb. Since I live relatively close to the area, I happen to pass by the place quite often and would always wonder how it could still possibly be open seeing that all the other stores around it were closed. After eating one of their burgers though, my recurring question was answered. 

C and I had spent the day downtown at Robart's studying for exams...well actually it was just me studying for exams, he was mostly on his mac reading Reddit/Imgur (I think) and keeping me company (♥). Anyhow, when it came to eating time, C knew exactly what he wanted; a Johnny's burger. Apparently he had been craving it ever since he passed by the place on his way home from work, so up we went to go satisfy his burger craving.

Turning into the large cement parking lot, I was shocked to see how many people were inside. There isn't any real sitting areas in the store, only one long wooden bench located along the window pane. The moment you walk in, you are embraced with the deep scent of delicious burgers being fried over charcoal, and a slight feeling of nostalgia. It felt as if you walked into a time portal and walked out into an old-school fast-food burger shop. The menu is located over the counter, and has the same set-up as a fast-food joint, except Johnny's had less pretty pictures to look at. All the staff wore the same uniform; orange polo, royal blue apron, and a white diner hat. I actually found this quite endearing, especially the man who greeted us. He had a husky aura that you'd stereotypically expect of a burger chef.

MOVING ON...I apologize for going off onto tangents! Both C and I wanted something light to eat so we only ordered one cheeseburger and onion rings. The burgers were grilled right in front of us on a simple charcoal grill. Since the place was busy, C and i waited about 10-15minutes before our order was called out. Located on the left side of the restaurant were a couple of bowls that contained condiments and additional burger-luxuries such as tomatoes, chopped onions, pickles, red/yellow peppers... you know, the works. C and I asked the chef to put all of the luxuries (I'm not sure why I call them luxuries...) in, except for the red/yellow peppers, and added both mustard and ketchup. After receiving our meal in a brown paper bag, both C and I walked out to his car, where we sat and ate (hahah I realize how lonely that sounds...but it was fun, really!) 

 Cheeseburger ($TBD..i forgot囧)
This burger was one of the best I've ever eaten...and I'm a really, really, really picky burger-eater. The patty was, to me, the perfect thickness. The meat wasn't at all chewy (like some patties are, particularly 'juicy' ones), and it possessed a very rich and savoury flavor that just kept my taste-buds craving for more. The bun was a little ordinary and had a slight undesirable 'crust-on-sliced-bread' taste, but that's no fault of the restaurant's cooking, but rather their bun-purchasing abilities. Besides the 'dry taste', the bun was what you'd expect for a burger; crispy on the outside, and soft and warm on the inside. Though delicious, the burger was quite difficult to eat since it was slightly too big for our mouths (or at least mine..). Juices were dripping and all the contents were slipping out. But really, there was no one to blame but ourselves for the mess since it was probably the result of our greed to add (almost) all the vegetables offered.Unfortunately,we also ran into the common burger predicament where the bun to patty ratio gets mixed up somewhere along the way and you end up with more bread than patty at the end of the meal (or vice-versa). 
Onion Rings ($2.10)
The onion rings offered at Johnny's were quite scrumptious. Though the rings were served with a heaping helping of hot and rich gravy, the onion rings still managed to maintain their crunch. The onion inside was very sweet, soft, and most importantly, thick, allowing you to actually taste it. None of that burnt and thin crispy-onion business here.The batter of the rings had a slight salty-seasoning. Together with the gravy I found it slightly too salty, but nevertheless very good. I'm even starting to crave for them as I write out this blog... 


Conclusively.  .  . ...

food: 9/10
atmosphere: 7.5/10
service: 9/10 
portion: moderate, a little on the small side
 price: reasonable (<$10)

happy eating!

xoxo,

-A