Green Thai

Green Thai (Richmond Hill)
We ordered a bowl of soup noodles and green curry with roti. When the curry and bread came, there wasn't enough bread to soak up the curry, so we ordered two servings of rice. That took a while since we had a lot of trouble getting the waitress's attention in the near empty restaurant. Every time we'd look over, she'd look away.

The food was okay and the decor was interesting enough. I think the noodles could have been cooked longer, and Jo thought the meat in it was a bit on the rare side.

Rice with curry spooned over it:

Pizza Hut Buffet Lunch

Vegetables!
The mess I made on the table:
I accidentally deleted one of the pictures, which was just more pasta and a slice of pizza. I think I prefer Pizza Hut over most pizza chain varieties. Also, that cherry dessert pizza looked pretty gross.

Damage: $8.95 and a $2-something refillable 7 Up. Tax and tip on top of that.

Sweets

Ten Ren's Summer Breeze:
Mix of tea, pineapples, and pear juice. It was good, but for $6-something, it better taste good.

Chocolate croissant from the kitchen counter:
Mmm... tastes like the ones I used to eat at school but softer.

I attempted to make crème brûlée again. This time I threw some mango chunks at the bottom.
I must be missing a really important step or something because it was failure.
Green tea and red bean cake and mango cake.

I think I like mango cake better. Green tea is a bit bitter for me in my desserts.

Sapporo Sushi

Sapporo Sushi

Sapporo sushi again, but this time it was a little more hectic. The waitress was running a one-woman show, and everything seemed to move swimmingly at our table up until it was time for ice cream. Our lunch then got dragged out to total one hour and forty-five minutes. If only we skipped ice cream... And the bill.

We got some noodle appetizers which was a nice surprise, but now I wonder if this is served at every sitting since we didn't get this dish last time. 
Miso soup:
Josie's salmon sashimi special:
My salmon sashimi special:
Sheila's chicken terriyaki special:
Andrea's salmon sushi special:
Andrea's fail at picking up sushi after dunking it in soya sauce.
The specials also included ice cream, but it was strawberry this time so I promptly shoved mine at Sheila.

Damage for my meal: $10.50 total.

I Live to Eat

Galaxy Dim Sum and Seafood (350 Highway 7 East)
We meant to go to Jade Dynasty on the other side of the building, but it had sale signs on its windows. According to Mel and Casey, Galaxy is under new management, and the food quality seems higher now. Casey has said that dim sum restaurants can be judged by how good their staple dim sum dishes are. Well, the har gows were pretty large here. They were stuffed with shrimp and quite tasty.



Congee, rice noodle rolls (beef and shrimp), tripe, bak choi with garlic, fried white radish cakes, chicken (I think):
I think they call this the thousand layer cake:
Viv said that the orange stuff in between the layers is papaya. Simon said it was pork fat, but we all think that his parents tricked him into believing that when he was little so that it'd justify them not ordering it.

Deep fried ball of something meaty with vegetables:
Don't ask me exactly what's inside it, but it's pretty good.

Fried dough-like substance with honey.
I'm not really a huge fan of Chinese desserts. I was expecting them to be crispy, but maybe they were soaking in honey for too long.

This doesn't really look that appealing, but this is one of the more acceptable desserts:
It's fried sesame ball with black sesame paste inside. I like the ones with nothing inside as well, but I can't read Chinese, and I can't translate what it's called in Chinese to what it would be described as in English so I can't order it.

Random note: The bowls and cups weren't the traditionally shaped Chinese restaurant china. The bowl sort of had a small handle, and the tea cups were more like coffee cups. After an initial quizzical eyebrow raise, the dinnerware had no effect on my dim sum experience.

Overall, the food quality was pretty good; however, I didn't like that they gave us three different types of tea and charged us a tea fee. Who charges for tea?

Damage: $13.50 per person including tax and tip.

Without looking at the bill, I was pretty accurate by using my superior probability statistics to estimate a total of $12-13 per person.

Renée and I each got a medium bag of Kernels popcorn at the Markville afterwards. With SPC, it's buy one medium, get one free.

My buffalo wings flavoured popcorn:
Renée's cheesy dill:
I should have ordered cheesy dill.

Damage: 2 medium bags of popcorn for $6, thus $3 for mine.

Feeling a little full of unhealthiness, we hit up Loblaws in search of fruit. We got what we thought were white flesh peaches.
Two of the four that we purchased turned out to be regular peaches:
Thumbs down to being tricked by the pile of mixed peaches with one sign. Having said that, the peach that I had was the best of quality from our sample - no bruises, no discolored flesh, no scratches or scuff marks. Maybe we just don't know how to pick peaches. Casey knows how to pick oranges though because those were quite sweet.

All that eating, and it was about dinner time. We headed to St. Louis. I didn't feel like having chicken wings so I got the beer battered cod fillets. They were actually pretty good, and I was satisfied with my pick. I had to order some of their dill sauce though because that tartar sauce just wasn't doing it for me.

Sorry for the poor picture quality.

The medium wings that Mel, Casey and Andrea had were said to be too dry. The potato skins they had received disappointing comments, but the onion chips seemed okay. Renée seemed pleased with her honey garlic wings and Simon cleared his Philly cheesesteak. Everyone agreed that the fries were pretty damn good.

Damage: $8.95 for the fish, and $0.75 for the dill sauce. These prices don't include tax or tip.

Ackee Tree

Ackee Tree (170 Spadina Avenue, Toronto)

The restaurant is just north of Queen on Spadina. Right when I walked in, I was greeted by a large painting of a cartoon penguin. I like penguins. The feel of Ackee Tree is very comfortable. It's not stuffy or fussy, and I really like how it's casual. The space isn't very big, and it has some interesting artwork for sale on the walls. The place is dimly lit, and it sort of made me feel like I was sitting in my living room at home. Maybe that's just because I was facing the wall, and not the cash register beside the display of bottled drinks on a bed of crushed ice.

I started off with a ginger beer.
Jon was pretty on the ball when he said it tastes like Sprite with ginger. I'll have to try the Kola champagne next time.

Medium Jammin' Jerk Chicken with rice and beans and coleslaw:

I've never had jerk chicken before, but I think I like it. It was a bit spicy (spicy enough to make Sheila and Jon sweat, but not spicy enough to make my nose run) and very moist. The skin of the meat was definitely where all the flavour was located. Bonus points to this place for meat that just slides off the bone. I'm used to fluffier rice, but it wasn't bad. The slaw wasn't overly dressed with mayonnaise, and it had a good crunch to it. Sheila appreciated its refreshing features, but that's probably just because she can't really eat spicy foods. 

Jerk fries:
Good flavour. Decent texture.

Overall:

I'll have to remember to just say no to sides next time. If that was a medium plate of jerk chicken, I think a large would knock me out. I was pretty slow and lethargic walking out of there.

I forgot to record the damages. Next time. :p

Link to Sheila and Jon's post about the experience.

Escargots and Soup Noodles

Tried my hand at escargots from a can again.

It was swimming in delicious garlic butter and sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese.

Thought I needed more food, so I made soup noodles too.

The most exciting part of the meal was putting that buttery garlicky residual goodness on a toasted English muffin.

Breakfast!

After reviewing some of my past posts, I decided to have healthier breakfasts. The best I could come up with was carbs and fruits.

I banana-ed and Nutella-ed a Chinese pineapple bun. I included the mini bowl of almond Oatmeal Crisp cereal because I'm trying to finish the box and use that free movie ticket that it came with.

Toasted English muffin with butter is easy and awesome.

St. Louis Bar and Grill

St. Louis Bar and Grill (5307 Yonge St., North York)
http://www.stlouiswings.com/StLouisHome.html

Thursday special (available after some hour of the day): Five drummettes and fries.


I thought "drummettes" were going to be small, but they were pretty massive. And moist. I had the cajun dust flavour, and I choked on spice at first, but it was quite tasty. I enjoyed the rippled fries - crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

I'm not normally a sauce person, but I really have to commend the white dill sauce that came with each person's meal. I think it was for the meat, but I mostly used it for my fries.

Damage: $6.95 for the meal, $2.75 for the glass of Sprite. Prices noted don't include tax or tip. The meal was worth it; the drink is always a rip-off.

Yet More French Toast People!

After seeing my last French toast man, Sheila decided that she wanted in on the French toast goodness. Bread provided by Sheila.
I decided to do it a bit differently this time. Jon and Kate aren't the only ones who can make twins:


I cut off the crust this time to see if it would make a difference. It didn't really. I guess I'm still in the dark on how to make Hong Kong style French toast. (Hmm, seems paradoxical.) I stirred the maple syrup in the egg wash. Also didn't notice a difference from that. The butter from the pan soaked into the bread a bit too much for my likings, but I don't care because my fried people are so cute that they could be deformed Pokémon. :D