Quck and Easy

Siu Mai from Richmond Court courtesy of Jo:

They were 4 for about $1.75

Japanese instant noodles:


Josie, before adding the hot water: Tastes like if you made soya sauce into a thick sauce.

I've never seen instant noodles get so brown with the sauce. So salty. So so salty, even for me

Junky Goodness

Andrew's chipotle chicken wrap:

Andrew: They should put chipotle sauce on Big Mac. I'd eat that.

Filet-o-fish again:

Can't resist.

Mrs. Fields brownie for $1.95 (including tax):
Soft and chocolaty. It seems I like some texture in my brownies because I appreciated the chocolate chips. Had a nice bite to it.
This is your vision on sugar:

Beer Bistro

Beer Bistro (18 King Street East, Toronto)
http://www.beerbistro.com/

Stuff I split with Jo
Schneider Weisse beer and a Lindemans Apple beer:

Made me look really weak ordering such a fruity beer that came in a delicate glass. The juxtaposition of the big beer next to the Lindemans drink only emphasized the girlishness of fruity alcoholic drinks. The Belgian girlie drink didn't taste much like alcohol, and it was slightly sour. I liked it, and others noted that it smelled like apples.

Half Duck Confit pizza and half Hog Wild pizza:
The Hog Wild tasted better with its sweet BBQ sauce (or something like it), despite the random cubes of pure meat fat. It also had whole cloves of garlic, but I like garlic, so it's all good. I liked the cheese in the duck confit. According to the menu, the dough is made with McAuslan Oatmeal Stout.

Sticky Lamb Ribs:
Not recommended. Wasn't really "sticky" as advertised, and it was considered dry by everyone who tried it.

Devil's Puttanesca mussel bowl:
I enjoyed them. They seemed well-flavoured to me. Dipping the bread in the sauce was a great experience. Very tasty. Josie kept getting the anchovies, but I didn't get any of it. She counted three meatless shells.

Damage: ~$50


Andrea and Mel's Food
Steak Tartare:
Baked Mussels Florentine:
Wild Hog Beer Bread Pizza:


Random notes:
-Everyone seemed pleased with the food in general. There was praise for the smoked ketchup that came with the Belgian Frites.
-The sorbet came in a glass ash tray. I thought it was weird, but Andrea thought it looked cool.
-Server didn't check up on the food with us, and Mel had to ask for more water.
-Andrea and Mel liked the Steak Tartare the best out of their food choices.
-At another table, I snuck a bite off of Berta and Jess's dessert plate, and that mouthful of beer ice cream and brownie bits was surprisingly tasty.

PC Belgian Chocolate Mousse Cups

Chocolates courtesy of Josie:


Creamy. The pistachio one doesn't really taste like pistachio, but it was still good. I liked the lemon one. Oh, and you discover that there are different layers in most of them when you bite into it. That's assuming that you take more than one bite to eat a piece.

Outback Steakhouse

Outback Steakhouse (30 High Tech Road, Richmond Hill)
http://www.outback.ca/
Complimentary bread and butter:
Mmm... warm. Soft on the inside like bread should be.

Bloomin' Onion:
I'm not crazy about the sauce, but this is what everyone needs to get at Outback. It's practically a meal in itself! Crunchy, fried goodness!

Potato soup:

My eight-ounce medium rare prime rib and mashed potatoes:

Chris's 16-ounce prime rib with mashed potatoes and vegetables:

I'll admit that Chris's plate looked way more exciting than mine.

The potatoes were too butter-laden. The meat was decent, but not as good as the prime rib Steph had at the Keg last time.

Our server was friendly and on the ball with the drink refills and check ups.

Damage: $71.59, not including tip, for two meals, an appetizer, and drinks (non-alcoholic).

Pizza Pizza

2 for 1 Movie deal: 2 12" (medium) pizzas with 2 toppings each, 4 cans of pop, and two 2 for 1 movie admissions for $19.99 plus tax (Comes up to $22.59).

Thin crust pizza with Italian sausage and green peppers:


Whole wheat thin crust with steak and ground beef:

Mel said the whole wheat crust tasted weird and wouldn't get it again. That's what you get for trying to make fast food pizza healthy. I thought it was fine. The two of us left five slices for leftovers.

Moxie's Classic Grill

Moxie's Classic Grill (Fairview Mall, Toronto)
Maple Glazed Wild Salmon with broccoli and rice:
Rice was good. Salmon was okay, but a bit dry. It had some pineapples on it. Broccoli came in one giant chunk, tasted alright, was a bit mushy.

Mini Chocolate Mousse with Chocolate Biscotti:
Mousse came in a shot glass and was really thick and denser than expected. In hindsight, I should've used the biscotti to get the mousse at the bottom of the cup where the spoon was too fat to reach.

Other notes: Amanda wasn't a fan of her white chocolate brownie.
Service was polite and friendly.

Crème Brûlée

Torch-Happy:

More torch!


Umm... FAIL! The right kind of cream is extremely important. Simon and Sheila said that it was "good", but I wasn't a fan of the gooeyness. It was more goop than it was custard. I agree with Renée, however, when she said that "burnt sugar should go on everything."

I Got My Cake! Craving Satisfied

Takeout fried noodles and rice noodle rolls with hoisin sauce:

Six inch LaRocca chocolate truffle cake from Loblaws, ~$15:

Deliciousness:

Renée and Simon's escargots with basil, garlic, and butter:

Escargots from cans. Idea stolen from Renée's brother. Still yum! :D

Yellow Food

Fridge curry:

Yum! Spicier than usual. I threw in the carrots and melon (of unknown English name) from some other leftover box.

Yellow and green kiwis:

I prefer the yellow. The green one wasn't at best ripeness to eat.

Egg tarts:

The lighter coloured one is with milk, I think. I prefer the original yellow one.

I'm not making a statement by my food colour preferences. It's just that I prefer their taste.

Messis

Messis (97 Harbord Street, Toronto)
http://messis.ca/index.html
Crab cakes:

There were two, but one was consumed before picture taking. Normally comes with green cilantro sauce on it, but we asked for the sauce on the side due to picky eaters. They tasted pretty good with the sauce to me. Jess said they were a bit dry without sauce.

Cornish hen:
The skin of the meat was flavorful and quite crispy (in the good way). I later realized that some part of the seasoning of this dish scratched my throat a bit. I have no other way of explaining it. I preferred the hen to the vegetables it was served on.

Lamb shank:
Wow, that meat was moist and tender.

Amaretto crème brûlée:
Jess and Berta enjoyed the "eggy" taste, but Berta found the crusted top to be too thick. I couldn't taste much of the Amaretto, but I thought it was pretty good anyway.

Grand Marnier chocolate mousse cake with rasberry ice:
The "ice" was like sorbet, according to the waiter. I wouldn't know; I didn't eat any of it. Child seemed to really enjoy it though. The mousse was thicker than expected, but I liked the taste of the cake.

Cointreau cheesecake:
This was my favourite dessert. I didn't even mind eating around the berries. There was praise from Jess and Berta for it's bottom crust. I enjoyed the Cointreau and cheesecake flavours mixed together.

I didn't realize until after we ordered that all three of the desserts we ordered had alcohol.

Damage from the restaurant: $30 total for my hen and the split cost of desserts. Includes tax and tip. Calculations by Berta's phone.

We finished up with a bottle of 2007 Inniskillin Riesling. It was a bit on the dry side for me, but it seemed to please Jess, as she asked for seconds.

More Fried Crap You Can Eat!

Arby's large curly fries:

Sometimes, I just want fries (and a cookie) for lunch.

Just Wing It (Formerly Wild Wing at 20 Fred Varley Drive, Unionville)
I have no idea why the Wild Wing franchise in Unionville decided to become Just Wing It, but they still have wings, and they still have the same flavours (for now). In fact, they just stapled the old Wild Wing menu inside out for you to choose your favourite kinds. 

The waitress was impressively polite. As a general rule, "please" and "thank you" go a long way. Nowadays, I'm impressed when I receive the same amount of manners that I give at an eating establishment, without differentiating between bling and fast food.

The wings looked smaller than usual. My dry cajun lacked a bit in flavour, but Andrew's Dirty Nelly wings were kicking. So much so that they made him sweat.

The dry cajun wings:
I ordered ten; they gave me 12. I'm not complaining.

The onion rings:

Soup Noodles!

Kitchen counter noodles! Yay! These soup noodles had chunks of chicken and a slightly spicy soup base.

Brownies!

Harbord Bakery (115 Harbord Street, Toronto)

Steps away from the UT Athletic Centre lies this this bakery. I was looking for sweets, and Starbucks just wouldn't cut it.

The one with nuts was a bit softer, but they were both quite tasty. I liked the added crunch from the walnuts. Jon was hoping for something more dense.

Regular brownie, $1.75:
Nutty brownie, $2.25: