Ice Cream Break!

What would make black sesame ice cream better? Throw in chunks of cheesecake. Result: dessert gold.

Black sesame ice cream from Asian supermarket. Cheesecake from Loblaws (PC Vanilla Bean Mascarpone Cheesecake). So good.

MeNami

MeNami (5469 Yonge Street, North York)

416-229-6191

Sunday: 11:30 a.m. - 12 a.m.

Monday - Saturday: 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 a.m.

Fun cocktail list.

Corn Kaki-age

B seemed to love this a lot. I was a bit skeptical at first, but it's pretty cool. Crispy, corny, and more delicious than I expected it to be.

Sailor Moon Gone Wild ($10)

I don't see the connection to Sailor Moon... Mostly orange-flavoured, it was pretty tasty. I just wished it had less ice. I felt like I took 3-4 sips and the drink was done. It didn't seem like there was much liquid in the cup. Perhaps it was trapped by the ice.

Black sesame udon ($15)

Portion was good, beef was reasonable amount. Noodles were excellent. The udon had a nice bouncy chewiness to them. The black sesame made it feel a bit heavy, but overall it was a tasty dish. Also, it can be a bit splashy to eat. B tried it and thought it was spicy. I did not notice this.

B seemed to enjoy her creamy salmon udon. The salmon looked pretty soft, and she said it tasted poached. I tried a bit, and the sauce was reminiscent of the creamy rice cakes from Han Ba Tang.

Would I return? Yeah, I would. It's from the same owner as Han Ba Tang, which I also enjoyed. The actual udon noodles were pretty tasty and they have some unique sauces to serve them with. The corn thing was pretty good, too. I might be a little wary of the cocktails, as tasty as they sound, but there's also a decent selection of sake and beer to order. My one gripe with this visit was that as a server was pouring tea into my cup, half the liquid was going into the cup, and half was spilling onto the table. She didn't notice for a few seconds, and I'm not sure if she heard me or not when I gently pointed it out. It sounded like she acknowledged me since she stopped pouring? But she also walked away, and never returned to clean it up. It was a little weird. The other server was smiley and friendly enough. She also helped us identify the menu item from a picture on B's phone.

Total damage (post-tax, pre-tip): $48.59 for 2 udons, 1 cocktail, and 1 corn thingy. 

Hashi Izakaya

Hashi Izakaya (5582 Yonge Street, North York)
416-224-8179

Before Hashi, this was Yuzu Izakaya, and before that, it was the green sign place with the best kim chi fried rice on the block.

To be honest, my trip to Hashi Izakaya was a while ago, and most of what I remember involved environment: very very dim, quite loud.

Upon uploading these pics, I realized there are red and blue bits around this roll. What are they??

Total damage: approximately $70-something for two people, including one Asahi Black. 

Would I return? I guess so. Prices were neither here nor there, depending on food item, and I think the quality of the food was pretty good. Plus, I'm kind of partial to anywhere that serves Asahi Black.

Pictures in focus by Andrea.

BOOZE

My first bourbon: Knob Creek straight bourbon whiskey.

Not as sweet as I thought it'd be. Also, I found it quite a bit harsher on the throat than the usual Canadian rye whisky that I'm used to. I drank it, but I might not get it again.

Jo's import from France: pear-flavoured Giffard eau de vie.

Water of life, indeed. How do they get the pear inside the bottle? Mysteries of life! Slightly sweet, subtly pear, it's a nice, clean spirit. I enjoy!

Soft-Boiled Egg

The perfect soft-boiled egg is all about timing. :D

Le Papillon

Le Papillon (69 Front Street East, Toronto)

416-367-0303

lepapillononfront@gmail.com

Hours:

Sunday: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Monday: Closed

Tuesday - Thursday: 11:30 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Friday: 11:30 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

Another Winterlicious entry.

 The soup

The salade rouge

Pork terrine

Braised lamb shank

Meat was nice and tender. Good size. Can't remember if there was a weird flavour to it.

Mixed seafood bouillabaisse

I think the comment was that this "seafood" was mostly fish. Actually, it was just fish.

I cannot remember what this was...

This neither.

Papillon s'more

We joked that the plainest-sounding dessert was usually the best. It certainly looked the fanciest.

Bread pudding

Pouding chomeur

They didn't believe me when I translated this to unemployment pudding, or poor man's pudding. Joke's on them.

Our server mentioned $7 martinis for any martini. So I ordered a gin martini, and was given some options of gin to choose from. When the bill came to us, my martini was about twice the price of the advertised special. Apparently, top shelf gins were NOT $7. It would've been nice had this been mentioned to me when I ordered my drink. I wouldn't have minded if it wasn't explicitly told to us that it would be $7 for ANY martini.

Food was good. I think there was disappointment with the "seafood" bouillabaisse, but my lamb shank was fine.

Cheers to Phoebe for the fancy photos!

Oh Geul Boh Geul

Oh Geul Boh Geul (5320 Yonge St, Willowdale)
416-733-3385

We were looking for a new tofu soup place as Buk Chang Dong Soon tofu place increased their prices and gave me and others stomach problems on different occasions.

So a storefront or two down from The Owl lies this place. You can choose to have a non spicy tofu soup if you want, which satisfied Renée. They start you off with lots of banchan, including this yummy savoury pancake thing. I approve. The soon dobu soup was acceptable as well. Lots of tofu in it.

Other things to note: at least one server can speak Mandarin in this Korean restaurant, orange slices come with the bill, the rice was a bit hard, they fill in the middle seating area before allowing people to sit at the curtained-off booths lined along the wall.

Would I return? Yeah, probably. It's unassuming enough, and provides many of the Korean staple dishes. Plus, I enjoy the banchan offerings.

Update with the banchan pics. The pancake is the best. I also enjoy the spicy potatoes.

The Cantina

The Cantina (501 Queen Street West)

Tomorrow is the last day!

Campbell's newest marketing strategy: 

I thought the ramen and roasted beer can cream of chicken soup were lacking in flavour. Also, I think just having regular ol' chicken and beer would taste better. The creamy tomato black bean taco soup tasted like... well, exactly how it sounded. My favourite was the Thai chicken and rice khao soi. It had the most flavour, and stood out to me. I thought these things were heat and serve, but apparently you have to add other ingredients/work. Oh well. Free soup. Can't complain.

Also free, was a little grab bag that was handed to me as I was leaving. It contained two cans of Campbell's Star Wars pasta, a soup kit, and a recipe booklet on how to make the four soups that were served. I'm staring at the soup kit and wondering if I can just add it to the cans of pasta in broth... 

Anyway, closing time for free soup is tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.