After spending a good few days in New York; my low-carb diet went out the  window.  Running around, enjoying cheap thrills and eating burgers, cakes and  coffee have left me feeling guilty.  I did find a couple of nice cafes/restaurants but now that I'm back, it's time to go back to basics. 

Asians eat congee when feeling cold, blue or under the  weather.  It's warm and soupy texture makes it perfect for colder days and is truly enjoyed year-round (except when I'm in Hong Kong on a typical hot, muggy summer day).  I guess it is sort of like western porridge or oatmeal though it's just for breakfast.  Congee can be had any time of day.  I like it best on cold winter afternoons or late-night  snacks. 

But here is yet another difference I share with my sister  (I'm thinking paricularly of Bamboo Girl #2 here); I find it interesting where I would gravitate to congee as comfort food and she would probably choose chicken noodle soup.  One late night, she called for late night snack suggestions and I immediately thought of congee, rice rolls, wonton noodles and the likes.  She came back with McDonalds; not to say I didn't mind munching on a few french fries but it left me thoughtful about food choices and how it is a reflection of our characters.  I'd say my family is quite muliculturally diverse when it comes to food. 

But about Congeetown in Scarborough; now this is my kind of place.  For less than $5 you get a huge bowl of congee, enough to feed 2-3 people depending on what other dishes are ordered.  I had one of the most typical version of congee today, Lai Wan congee.  It's a mixture of squid, pig's skin, shredded lettuce, a bit of meat and topped with spring onion and a bit of roasted peanuts. 

Now I know I talked about cleasing the palette with a simple rice congee...But seriously, one cannot have congee without something crispy to go with it.  Usually, I go for the deep-fried doughsticks, or sweet cruller.  But today, Rice-noodle covered doughsticks and minced beef caught my eyes. 

The minced beef tender and flavourful but the fried dough could have been a bit crispier.  It came sprinkled with toasted sesame and small dishes of soy sauce, sesame sauce and sweet sauce.  Although it was interesting and tasty, I think I prefer having it separately...Rice Rolls with Fried-Doughsticks and Rice Rolls with Beef. 

Who doesn't like to travel in style? Forget what people say about character building or how they get to see the real world...Hand them a big fluffy towel and point the way to where a steamy bath is waiting and they'll be dashing off before you could even say 'bye'.

This blog is focused on my year-long stay in Toronto and the fine things I am discovering or re-discovering; so I'm not going to elaborate much on my travels here. However, I'm finding out that one doesn't have to fly to New York...One can bus for over 10 hours and still make it there, a little stiffer perhaps but safe and sound and with more money left to go shopping...And isn't that the point of New York?

I have a sweet tooth.  A terribly big sweet tooth.  Fortunately, I am also reasonbly disciplined with this tooth of mine.  But after a week of this low-carb diet and avoiding wheat, starch and carb, this girl needed cake.  And cake that she can have seconds without guilt or regret. 

A quick search of on the Internet produced two good news.  1.  Flourless Chocolate Cake and 2. Clementine Gluten-Free Cake. 

Munching thoughtfully on some Godiva dark chocolate, I decided to try the Clementine Cake first.  Apparently you need to boil 4-5 clementines for at least 2 hours.  We normally have some poor forgotten clementines at the bottom of our fruit basket.  But as Murphy's Law would have it; the one time you truly need some bruised and battered clementines, it is the one time you don't have any.  So what is a cake-starved girl to do?  Buy fresh ones and kill them in the pot.  I did feel a little bad for the clementines.

This following recipe is taken from 'A Dash of Sass' who modified the cake recipe from one of Nigella's.  I sort of combined the two recipe and ended up with that lovely cake in the photo above.

The cake turned out delicious despite it being made with just a few ingredients.  It was moist, flavourful and had such a vibrant colour.  The nuts added a lovely overall crunch.  Very delish!

INGREDIENTS:
-4-5 clementines
-1/2C honey
-1 1/3 C almond malt (finely ground almond which I bought from Bulk Barns)
-3 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla
-1 tsp baking soda

Chocolate Glaze (optional)
-3oz dark chocolate -chopped or grated (I bought the darkest there was at Bulk Barns and it too bitter!  Had to sweeten with 1 1/2tbsp of honey/sugar. Better to mix with some semi-sweet chocolate)
-1 1/2 tbsp butter (this makes it creamier but can be omitted depending how gluten-free you need to be)
-1/2 tsp vanilla
-1 tbsp table cream/milk
-chopped nuts
- icing sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Rinse/scrub the clementines.  Place in small pot and cover with water.  Bring to boil and then reduce to medium heat and gently boil for minium 2 hours.  This is to take the bitterness out of the rind.

2. When cool to touch, cut in half and remove seeds.  Place in food processor/blender and puree. 

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

4. In bowl, beat eggs until frothy.  Add almond malt, honey, vanilla and baking soda.  Stir until well mixed.  Mix in the clemetine puree.

5. Grease cake pan or muffin tins depending on how you want your cakes.  For cake, you will need to bake for about 1 hour.  Cover the top of the cake with tin foil after about 20 mins to prevent top from burning.  This is what I made.  In 'A Dash of Sass', mini-cakes or muffins were made and apparently it takes only 30mins.  Will try it this way next time. 

I suggest testing the done-ness of the cake every now and then by sticking a bamboo skewer into the middle of the cake.  If it comes out clean, your cake is done!

6. Glaze: While cake is cooling (we stuck it out in the porch...Toronto in March is still very cold!) Melt chocolate with the butter in a double-boiler.  Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and cream. If your chocolate is too bitter, add some honey/sugar.  Stir until well combined.  Spread of cake.  Finish of with chopped nuts and powdered sugar. 

This was a delicious cake; made with just a few ingredients.  The cake was moist,  flavourful and had such a vibrant colour.  The nuts added a lovely overall crunch.  Very delish!

Ahh...Brunches.  Nothing says indulgence like brunches on the weekends...Or Afternoon High-Teas...Or Dessert Buffets...Or maybe even Mid-night Snacks (more of an Asian thing I think).   I believe that any time you are enjoying one of these meails, it means you're off from work, free and don't give a nilly as to the time of day.

This is my third visit to Panagios.  It's an unassuming all-day breakfast spot dishing up the usual suspects...Omelettes, sausages, eggs benedict, breakfast wraps etc with a small lunch section as well.

I went with scrambled eggs and sausages and asked for the toast and home-fries be substituted with more fruit.  While they readily agreed to it, it wasn't that much more fruit. The toast and home-fries make for a better deal.  Coffees came with refills.  My friend ordered the Eggs Benny and commented the tasty Hollandaise sauce.  While we enjoyed ourselves today...The food this time 'round wasn't as good as my previous visits.

On this Saturday, the place was full but not fully packed and so we enjoyed our meal slowly and chatted away.  Every girl needs a few great girlfriends to chatter with and to go shopping with...Which we did!  But only to work off the calories...

Moro Oranges, a type of blood oranges...I am sure you can see why it is so named.  Frankly, they look a little scary.  The label on the packaging says it tastes like berry juice.  Was a bit sour/tart for me but did make for interesting colour contrast.  They're about the size of clemetines...I placed one next to an orange so their sizes can be compared.  At about $4 a bag, I suppose not bad for novelty...But probably will stick to good ole oranges.

While there ain't much free these days...And if it is, do exercise some caution...But if it's coming from McDonalds?  You take it!  I don't care how my coffee aficionado friends swear by their gourmet cups of coffee...It's all caffeine in the end.  And if it's free, I say it tastes even better ;D

And nothing beats a nice, hot cup of free coffee after shovelling 3 rounds of wet and heavy snow.  When the driveway and sidewalks are cleared of snow and you're tucked warmly inside the familiar neighbourhood McD and only have the strength left to lift that fraqrant cup of coffee and play a little Sudoku from the free Metro News paper...Ahhh...Small pleasures, small pleasures.

One of Toronto's appeal is that there are ethnic/cultural pockets scattered throughout the city.  There's Chinatown, Korean Town, Little Italy, Greek Town etc. that's just perfect for exploring and sampling ethnic fare.  What's interesting though, is to see how ethnic food creeps into different restaurants.  The pub visited had traditional pub food, but a twist of Indian and a touch of Thai can be found.

This beefy stew is from Scotland Yard.  The Guinness stew is tender chunks of sirloin steak braised in Guinness, carrots, potatoes served on a Yorkshire pudding (a bready pastry) and is a dish I'd probably expected to find here.  It was tasty but was too beefy for me.  What I did find particularly delicious probably shouldn't be in a Scottish pub...Butter chicken and naan!  So, a little bit of Indian food to go with the ales.

The butter chicken was moist and tender and the Tandoori tomato sauce was not  too spicy and also perfect for dipping the naan (which was more like sliced
pita). I much preferred this dish. There was a side of yogurt too which served as dipping sauce too...But the Tandoori sauce was much more flavourful.  At $13.00 for each of the two mains ordered, not bad for dinner.

Also had Torpedo Shrimps as a starter and came with sweet Thai chili sauce for dipping.  Crunchy!  Yummy! 

The pub itself had character...The low lighting really set the mood.  Booths to the side, lamps and stained glass artwork, recessed bookshelves with old-leathered tomes...An area for people playing darts...Quite a relaxed place to enjoy a beer or two with friends.  It's along a short street with other pubs and so the area is fun for those who wish to do a little pub/bar-hopping. 

Our host was friendly and was helpful in allowing some dish adjustment to suit my low-carb diet (substituting the chips from from fish & chips for some extra greens).  In the end I didn't go for it but I appreciated the help.

That's right!  You read the title correctly...Carb-free sushi at Tekka Sushi.  How?  By eleminating the rice!  I was skeptical about it but figured if it's going to help with my low-carb diet, might was well try it.  And I'm glad I did!  

It's a refreshing sushi, more suitable for the warmer months but just as tasty now.  Crab meat, salmon, tuna and avocado rolled up in thin slivers of fresh, crunchy cucumber slices.  Very tasty!

The other dishes ordered were good but didn't really stand out.  We had an order of gyozas...They brought out two accidentally and we just weren't sure if they had split the dish into two portions.  We finally asked and then they took it away.  mm, wouldn't have minded if they just decided to give it to us...There weren't too many other diners at that time anyway.  The deep fried tofu tasted as expected but the  chicken terriyaki was thin and this resulted it being dry. 

The restaurant functions as a buffet but as we were only in a nibbly mood, we opted for the a-la carte.  If we do come back, it'll be to try the buffet or to have more of the no-rice sushi!

Fushion food is fun...You get mix-matched items and the pairings can be endless.  It either suits your personality or not...And since I'm a 'Bamboo Girl' (mish-mesh of Western/Asian upbringing) fushion is me!  Though I must say, of the three bamboo girls in this family, I am probably the one who would most often opt for asian fare...Give me a HK-styled milk tea over a latte any day!

Perhaps more accurate to describe this as Hong Kong-styled breakfast; it usually includes or a variation of: choice of eggs, choice of breakfast meats (ham, luncheon meat, bacon or sausage), toast and bowl of soup noodle (Macaroni or vermicelli with ham, satay beef or minced pork with peserved vegetable.  This all gets washed down with a hot drink, lemon tea, coffee or Hong Kong-styled milk tea. 

Pros: Very filling breakfast at around $5-$6.00.  Much cheaper than a western brunch and healthier than a fast food breakfast.  Love the mix of dry, salty food (eggs and bacon) with a soupy noodle (this is the Asian side of me coming out).  Love milk tea!

Cons: My pet-peeve...They use the word 'sausage' but it's really hot dog wieners which leaves me disappointed.  Places that serve this food tends not to be a place where decor and comfortable seats are priority.

But here at 'Made in China', the place is relativey clean and they've got some interesting bird cages going on as their ceiling decoration.  The booth seats are much too wide to eat comfortably though and we changed to regular tables/chairs.  It's an interesting restaurant; it shares the kitchen in the back with their sister restaurant next door, a Korean BBQ.  Made in China is a hot pot lunch/dinner restaurant but they're clever to draw in the morning breakfast people.  The staff are young and can be a bit abrupt but I'm here for good food and value. 

Brunches and good friends are a terrific combination and I suspect there will be many entries on this topic. 

The Bristol yard was recommended by a friend and it certainly lived up this it's name.  There's an eye-catching unionjack hanging above the front door.  The all-day break ranges from about $12 - $15 and the portions are generous.  The only draw-back is that it's TINY.  Seems like everyone was out this day for exactly the same thing...A big hearthy brunch meal.  We waited a good 30mins or more for our table.

Given my low-carb diet, I opted for what sounded like a vegetarian-option...The description did not mention anything about my portobellow mushrooms and heirloom tomatoes being served on a English muffin.  So I was a bit disappointed at not getting what was expected. 

However, to be fair, the food was great and the few little pieces of homefries I nibbled on guiltily were tasty. You cold get brunches a bit cheaper, but if you're a big eater, this is the place to go.