French Toast Man Evolves!

The thick bread from the Chinese bakery soaks up the wash like nobody's business and makes this creation more eggy than usual. Apple slices are there to cut the sweetness of the fried Nutella sandwich.
I feel like it's missing something...
Pupils!

Insert schoolgirl giggle.

Dri Eats at Home

I made yet more chocolate chip cookies.

More chewy:
More not so chewy:
By "gourmet", they must mean extra fatty.
This freaked me out:
Leftovers on English muffin. Mmm...
Some apple pastry:
Yeah, I know that picture makes it look nasty, but it wasn't bad.

Plate full of leftover dim sum!
I like the buns with the shiny, sweet glaze. 

Oatmeal raisin cookies:
Finished the chocolate chip cookie dough, only peanut butter to go.

Threw processed cheese and Black Diamond mozzarella chunks on leftover pasta. Ding-ed it. This was the yummy, gooey result: 

Arby's Prize: Curly Fries

In the fast food war for my hunger, it's Arby's for the win with their spiralled fries:
Total damage: $2.93 for large fries.

Home of Hot Taste

Home of Hot Taste (710 Yonge Street)
As we walked in, the place was dimly lit by small tealights and Christmas lights. It was a little difficult reading the menu, but we managed to order things off it.

Egg soup that came out bubbling:
I tried a bit of it, and it was on the salty side.

Blazing fire chicken fried rice:
I really liked the rice. It was sticky without being mushy, and its density gave a nice bite to it. Good-tasting rice is necessary when I'm putting such spicy foods in my mouth. I think that's about all the blazing fire chicken I can take. This stuff is probably potent enough to burn my stomach lining, never mind my mouth. I do love pushing my threshold, so I'll probably go back for a full plate of that stuff. ;)

Damage: $5.99 pre-tax, pre-tip.

Sweets

More of those chocolate chip cookies:
Kindly ignore the organic shapes. I don't have time to mould things into circles.

Crème brûlée from the basement of St. Lawrence Market:
It came in this edible pastry cup. It was an interesting idea, but the crème brûlée had more of a cake texture than I was expecting. Maybe my expectations are off, but I always think that this dessert should be more of a custard. Regardless, the one that I bought tasted good, but it was a bit pricey.

Damage for the dessert: $4, no tax.

Hot House Cafe

Hot House Cafe (35 Church Street, Toronto)

Some appetizer that had the word "Trio" in it.
There was cream cheese, some olive spread, and seasoned tomatoes. I thought the olive spread tasted like that President's Choice tapenade, but I think it was baked, so it had a weird density to it. Dorothy and I were annoyed that it wasn't quite spreadable. We all agreed that putting the cream cheese and tomatoes together was a good combination. We probably wouldn't have been able to finish the sauces without the basket of warm complimentary bread.

Hot House penne:

It was well done and quite filling. I would have preferred the mushrooms to have been cut, but it wasn't so bad. I'm a sucker for Italian sausage.

None of us were particularly pleased with our server. When Renée asked for more water, Simon got another glass. The rest of us had to make do with our half empty glasses for the rest of the dinner. We noted that our particular area was particularly dark compared to the rest of the restaurant. We also noted that the servers in the front were a lot more friendly towards us than our own waitress.

I'd go back, but I'd ask to sit in the larger, brighter area in the front - with the friendlier servers.

Chili Secrets

Chili Secrets (9021 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill)
Or spelled as "Chilli Secrets" on the menu.

Left to right: Lamb something, spicy chicken something, #330 dan dan noodles.
I was pretty pleased with all of it. The dan dan noodles were the spiciest of the dishes. It had two chilli peppers beside it on the menu, and we asked them to make it a bit milder. I can't imagine what they would've tasted like had we not requested a wussy version - probably like burning, considering that the soup was completely red in the menu picture.

Some sort of choi: 
Damage: I have no clue, since I didn't pay. Yay!

Creationism! No, Not Really.

What to do with all those leftover egg whites from making crème brûlée? Make egg white sandwich on an English muffin, of course! With processed cheese!

What to do with leftover Uphoria Asian Pear liquor? Make a mixed drink, of course!
One can of Sprite, one ounce of vodka, and whatever was left of that asian pear liquor. Maybe the vodka wasn't such a great idea.

Baked English Bay chocolate chip cookie dough. I'd have to really be trying to mess up pre-made cookie dough.
They taste like they'll be moist forever.

I like grapefruits. And melted processed cheese.

Baked escargots in garlic butter and oregano, topped with melted and grated Parmesan cheese:

 $0.99 for a No Name can of large escargots. So worth it.

My Kitchen

My Kitchen (9021 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill)

One small minced pork and preserved egg congee and one small beef congee with preserved and salty eggs:
They really packed those congees with solids. 

Vegetarian (empty) rice noodle rolls ("gai been cheung fun" or "zai cheung"):
Soaked in sweet soya sauce, these were both cost efficient and tasty! There were other condiments on the table to use on them as well, including hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, hot sauce, and sesame seeds.

Classic table crunch from Jo:

My favourite part was the rice noodle dish. No, wait... my favourite part was that it was so cheap for the two of us to eat and be full.

Damages: $4.25 for each congee, $2.50 for the rice noodle rolls, $1.50 for the deep fried dough sticks (for the congee), $0 for the little dish of pickled white radishes and carrots, and my belly hanging over my pants. 

Fry Truck, I Think I Love You

Oh yes, poutine is back in my life!
The fries and gravy come at you with their steamy, crispy potato goodness. The medium portion was large enough to fill me up after a hunger built up by dance class. I would've preferred meltier cheese, but I was pretty satisfied with what I got. Jo had trouble finishing hers, but I left nothing for the birds. 

Downtown just wouldn't be the same without the blue fry truck. If the suits line up for it, you know it's good. 

Damage: $4.50 total for a medium poutine.

Deep Fried Cheese Things

It's so necessary to munch on Doritos while you cook.

That darker, messed-up-looking one has extra flavour.
Ingredient #1: Spring roll pastry wraps. Purchased from T&T.
Ingredient #2: A Heaping pot of oil. This was one full jar of canola oil. 
Ingredient #3: Black Diamond Cheesestrings!
Ingredient #4: An egg.

Ingredients #5 and #6: Panko bread crumbs and Italian bread crumbs.
Equal parts mixed together:

Andrew shows me the triangle method of wrapping the half chunk of cheesestring in a wrap:
Cheese wraps waiting to be battered:
Egged and crumbed product:
One at a time was too slow.
The oil comes alive!


Baking chicken wings at the same time. PC Louisiana-Style spicy chicken wings:
The paper towel soak-up:
Cheesy innards:
Crispy outside:

I made empty ones to see if they'd come out like egg rolls (like this, but fatter and flatter):
They did not come out like egg rolls. They were weirdly chewy and uncooked on the inside.

After each trying one, we both agreed that the cheese sticks required some kind of sauce. We used pasta sauce, naturally.

The final product:
Deep frying is fun, but I think I need some fruits and vegetables now.