A Taste of Iran: Paramount

In case you were wondering, I’m getting a little tired of eating out so yesterday I compromised by getting takeout from Paramount.  Paramount serves middle eastern cuisine.  There might be better choices in Toronto for Persian food but I’ll probably need to discover more about their cuisine before I’ll truly know the difference.

I debated between ordering tabbouleh and the fattoush salad but finally settled on the salad.  Aside for the parsley and crispy pita pieces in the salad, the thing that really makes this salad different is the dressing.  Any other dressing on this salad would make it seem fairly ordinary.  I don’t know what is in the dressing but I’m pretty sure there is a good dose of garlic.

I then ordered the beef and cheese manakeesh.  It’s an Arabic style pizza.  The crust is really thin.  The beef seems to have been cooked with some sweeter spices, maybe cinnamon or nutmeg or something along those lines.  It’s a nice flavour change.

I ordered one skewer of kafta which is ground beef and spices that gets formed and cooked on a skewer.  It was served with some “mixed pickles” and a little shredded lettuce.  They also gave me two large pitas and a small container of hummus.  I assume those came with the kafta.

Finally, I ordered some dessert.  Most of their desserts are sold by weight so I asked for a small container of baklawa.  This is very similar to Greek baklava but here it is served in small bite size portions in various shapes. 

There are a number of other things on the menu that I rarely or never eat, like the stuffed grape leaves or the okra.  I'll have to try them next time. :)

A Taste of England: Queen and Beaver

Today I went to the Queen and Beaver for lunch.  I’m pretty sure I saw a news clip last week of the fans watching England’s second game on the second floor.  Not surprisingly, there were no camera’s here today and the second floor was showing the other game for group D.  I got there just after the restaurant opened and had second choice of seating.  A small group had already claimed the big couch in front of the TV.  All the other chairs had been wisely rearranged to face the TV.  I grabbed a seat and table off to the side of the couch so that no one could block my view. 

I’ve been here a couple of times before and both times I ordered the mushroom pithivier.  It was really good.  I didn’t write anything else down the last time I had it so that’s I can really tell you about it.  I’m sure I’ll end up having it again.

This time I started with a Pimm’s cup and ordered the rabbit and potato pie.  The pie turns out to be very similar to the pithivier.  The only difference I could see was it had rabbit instead of mushrooms.  Both dishes are served with a small salad that has been tossed in a light vinaigrette.

The rabbit seemed to have been cooked with some tarragon which I could taste when I bit into the meat.  I do think they slightly overcooked the rabbit pie though as the crust seemed a little overdone.  Aside for that it was good.

I’m pretty sure this is only the second time I’ve had rabbit in my life.  If I had been told it was chicken I doubt I would have thought twice about it.  I think I’ll stick to the mushroom pithivier though.  I don’t feel bad about eating mushrooms but I do kind of feel bad about eating rabbit.

If you are going to the Queen and Beaver to hang out with friends and have some drinks, go upstairs.  The main floor looks like it’s more for dinner service or at least what I’ve seen of it.

A Taste of Belgium: Le Petit Dejeuner

There is a restaurant in my neighbourhood that I always assumed was French.  By chance this week I discovered that it was actually Belgian.  Le Petit Dejeuner is a popular brunch spot on Sundays.  It seems like there is always a line waiting to get whenever I walk by after 10AM on a Sunday.  I didn’t want to get caught in that crowd so I got over there just after they opened at 9:00AM. 

There were already a number of tables taken when I arrived and since I was there on my own this morning I took a seat at the bar.  There was a Belgian flag hanging on the wall and one of the waitresses was wearing a Belgian jersey.  I could see two TVs in the space, one at the back and one behind the bar both of which were showing the formula one race as the soccer games were still a few hours away.

My decision on what to eat was pretty easy.  There were a few options for Belgian waffles on the menu but I stuck with the "Brussels’ Strawberries".  I can’t remember the last time I ordered waffles but it has definitely been years.  I was picturing my waffles coming out with a generous serving of strawberry syrup, the kind I remember from my youth.  What I got was much better; waffles with fresh cut strawberries and julienned apple. 

Even though I don’t eat a lot of pancakes or waffles as an adult I still like to have a lot of maple syrup on them.  These waffles came with a small serving of syrup on the side.  I think I could have used two or three of them for the amount of syrup I typically like to have.  That’s about the only thing I would have changed with this but everyone has their own tastes for that sort of thing.  Plus with the amount it came with it meant that I could actually taste the waffle instead of just syrup. ;)

A Taste of Italy: Vivoli

I went over to little Italy on College street early Friday arriving around 10:40. Many Italian restaurants were already filling up with Italian fans including Vivoli.  I claimed a table for three on the patio and patiently waited for my friends to arrive.  The street beside Vivoli was closed down and had been taken over by the restaurant on the other side.  Their patio extended into the street and a DJ was already set up and cranking out music.  As I waited, every so often I could smell basil on someone's food and it started to make me hungry. 

30 minutes prior to the game starting the hostess was getting antsy.  My friends hadn’t arrived and she started to threaten to take the chairs even though I knew they were on their way.  A little more time went by and she started to threaten to take the table.  So I called the waitress over and ordered our food and drinks.  Perhaps that is what the hostess was hoping for but either way I wasn’t giving up the table.  One of my friends arrived a few minutes later and the hostess didn’t give us any grief about the table after that.  My second friend arrived after the game had started and then spent the first half on the wrong side of the patio fence.  Apparently they were at capacity and couldn’t let her in until someone left so her chair sat empty until she could enter.

Back to the good stuff.  I ordered the classic caprese salad.  After smelling the basil earlier I had to order something with basil in it.  There was also a buffala caprese salad but I figured there would be enough cheese on the classic for my liking as it used bocconcini.  The salad was good and I made sure I enjoyed the basil.

I also ordered the sanremo pizza.  The pizza was classic thin crust pizza, just the way I like it.  As we ate it, I noticed my Italian friend using the balsamic and oil dipping sauce for the bread to dip her pizza crust in.  I never thought to do that but that is a brilliant idea.  I bet all Italians do this, I just never noticed before.  The next time I don’t feel like eating my pizza crust I will implement this trick. ;)

My Italian friend ordered a red sangria to drink.  She generally drinks red wine and sangria and Vivoli’s sangria is her favourite.  After seeing the drink and knowing this was her favourite place to get it, I decided to order one too.  I don’t drink much red wine or sangria but I really enjoyed it.

Aside for the difficulties with the table (which I’m not overly surprised by as this sort of thing happens a lot everywhere for events like this) the rest of my experience, i.e the food and drink, was good. 

A Taste of Colombia: Valdez

I took in the third game of the day at a Colombian restaurant called Valdez. I got there just as the second game was finishing and managed to get one of the few seats that opened up and wasn’t immediately reserved for someone in the next wave of people coming in to the rooftop patio. Some Latin music was playing loudly from the speaker positioned above my table which was perfectly suited to this place and their food.

Today I decided to try a few things from the appetizer menu.  I started with an order of empanadas and something called La Reina (which mentioned arepa in the description).  The three empanadas were served in a small paper bag.  They seemed to be made with a corn based dough which I guess is the Colombian way (see my other post for the Chilean version) and came with a small container of sauce.  There were some nice spices in the dish but I think I prefer the Chilean version of empanadas over these ones.

I’ve only had arepa’s from the Arepa café where it is served sort of like a stuffed pita.  I assumed that that was what an arepa was.  I assumed wrong.  I just googled it and the arepa is just the flat bread part which is generally made from ground corn.  Feel free to correct me if I’m still wrong. ;)  The La Reina was an arepa that was served kind of like an open faced sandwich.  It had guacamole, pork and some other things topping it.  It was pretty good too.

While we were eating the patio briefly filled up with a bunch of smoke.  They had a BBQ in the front corner where they must have been cooking some of the food.  It turned out that it was also their one year anniversary so there was going to be a party later.  I also noticed that very few people were actually watching the game.  Most people had just come to hang out with friends and enjoy the food, or perhaps wait for the party.  The Chips and Guac seemed to be a very popular appetizer too.  There were quite a few orders of those going by.  The chips included plantain, yucca, taro and potato.  It’s something I’ll have to try next time.

I did have room for something more so I also ordered the Chuzos al Plancha or two beef skewers with chimichurri sauce and arepa.  When it first came out is was visibly raw in spots.  I don’t know if it was supposed to be that way but I prefer my meat to be cooked medium rare at the minimum, not blue, so I requested that it be cooked longer.  It took quite a while for it to come back and my waitress was keenly aware of this.  She continued to check on it and eventually brought it out with apologies.  It was worth waiting for. It was really good.

When the game finished the Latin music was turned back on and their anniversary celebrations began.  They started with some great entertainment as shown below.  I’m surprised that no drinks were knocked over by the dancers costumes.  I saw lots of people getting feathers in their faces though.  It’s always fun when you stumble onto these sorts of celebrations.  It’s nice to be surprised from time to time. :)

A Taste of Australia: Kanga

Not too long before the world cup a friend of mine told me about an Australian meat pie place downtown call Kanga so naturally I had to add it to my list of places to visit during the World Cup.  I went over early today before lunch was even a thought for most people.  One woman was working (which may have been one of the owners) and was preparing a coffee of some sort for another customer.  There was a display case of the fresh meat pies and rolls to choose from.  On the counter were a number of tasty looking baked goods. 

I ordered a “Traditional Aussie”.  According to the small menu I grabbed this was “minced beef in a rich beef, tomato and vegemite gravy”.  I considered also ordering the Kiwi Classic (Kiwi as in New Zealand, not the fruit) but restrained myself.  I’ve been eating too much already this month and decided not to overdo it. It would be nice if my clothes still fit me at the end of the month!  They also had a baked treat called the billionaire shortbread that looked good but I had to restrain myself from ordering that too.

The meat pies are hand pies hence they are supposed to be eaten with your hands and are served in a paper bag.  I preferred to eat it with a fork and knife so grabbed some cutlery along with a packet of ketchup as suggested by the woman.  A friend had warned me of his experience with vegemite so I assumed the ketchup was to counter the taste of the vegemite.  The first few bites I took were without ketchup and I really liked it without it.  I then tried it with some ketchup but I personally found that it hid the yummy goodness of this meat pie.  The woman behind the counter asked me how the meat pie was and I commented on the vegemite to which she said theirs was mild.  So I still don’t quite know what vegemite tastes like but thanks to this hand pie I’m ready to try anything with vegemite in it.

If you like these hand pies, they have entire boxes of them available in the refrigerator or check out their website to see other stores that sell them.  Most of my Toronto friends reading this are probably within walking distance from work to this place on Duncan at Queen.  You might as well take a walk over for lunch sometime! :)

A Taste of Germany: The Beer Hall

Time to pull out the lederhosen and dirndl and celebrate with a German beer!  Anyone that knows me know it's a rare occasion to see a beer in my hand.  You have almost as much chance to see me in a dirndl (which currently happens once a year around Halloween).  Today however a beer seemed to be required, especially since my lunch location of choice was The Beer Hall in the distillery district.  I followed my friend's lead and ordered a pint of Weizenbock.  I was actually quite okay with it.  I'd consider ordering it again if a beer was required in the future.  I hope that says something good about the beer!

For lunch I ordered the most German thing I could find and that was the schnitzel sandwich.  To add a little bit of something healthy I got it with the arugula salad instead of fries.  As large as the schnitzel was I'm afraid it just can't compare with the schnitzel sandwiches at Schnitzel Queen.  Don't get me wrong, it was still pretty good but not the best schnitzel in the neighbourhood.  In my opinion, if you want to have something German at the Beer Hall, go for their dinner menu which has a schnitzel served with spaetzle and braised red cabbage.  That's a better choice.  I would have preferred to have had that for lunch but it was not included on the lunch menu. (There is a picture of spaetzle in this post if you want to see what it looks like.)

To add a little more German to my lunch I ordered a plate of pretzels.  I really liked these.  They were soft and warm and not too salty.  The cheese dip was pretty good too.  The flavour was on the mild side and was a mix of beer, cheddar and mustard.  I'd say it's a good accompaniment to a glass of beer if you are sitting around watching a game.

The Beer Hall wasn't very busy, most likely because it's a Monday.  They have a very large patio that is perfect for soaking in some summer sun and there are lots of TVs inside all year long if you are ever looking for someplace to take in a game at any time of the year.  It's definitely worth a visit any time of year.

A Taste of France: Le Neuf Cafe

Today I went out for a French breakfast near Spadina and Wellington.  There is a small park at the intersection that is lined with some townhouses that I never paid much attention to.  Turns out there are some businesses in them including a French café named Le Neuf Café.  Doing some research on the place I got a little excited and I have to say it did not disappoint.

The interior of the place was decorated with a lot of French art, some classic French photos including one of Edith Piaf, books on French stuff, small statues of things like the Eiffel tower and even boxes from French businesses like Laduree.  No opportunity to incorporate French culture was lost.  From the high ceilings to the coasters and napkin dispensers, it all said France to me.  The napkin dispenser on my table in particular had the Little Prince decorating it.

I don’t eat a lot of almond croissants but I occasionally have one as a treat and today was going to be treat day.  Le Neuf’s almond croissant may have been the best one I’ve had. I’m used to them being filled with a line of almond paste just in the center but this one had almond paste throughout, a healthy sprinkling of almonds on top and a dusting of icing sugar.  Yummy!

For my main dish I ordered the montagnarde crepe.  I loved the presentation with the egg yolk centered and peeking out from the crepe.  There seemed to be more cheese than egg in the crepe but I think that’s how the French like it.

I like how quaint the place feels.  If it was closer to my neighbourhood I think I would be in there often.  I do highly recommend others check it out with one catch.  There were two people serving the customers.  The waiter I had was good and friendly.  As I left I decided to take a picture of the exterior with my larger camera.  I took one picture just as the waiter that was serving the customers on the patio was coming out.  As I snapped a second picture for good measure, he appeared to wag his finger at me as if to say “no, no”. (The finger turned out to be a spoon on closer examination of the picture.)  So I’m not sure if you may get some stereotypical French attitude from some of the staff if you “step out of line”.  I hope not.  If any of you should happen to go, please let me know.

A Taste of Greece: Mezes

Saturday was a good day to be wearing blue if you wanted to blend in and cheer for multiple teams with Greece, Uruguay and Italy playing.  I headed over to the Danforth early to take in a game with a Greek friend.  I got to the area an hour and half before the game started  and noticed a place called Trapezzi was already quite full with the Hellas fan club who were chanting and drumming away.

Instead of eating and watching the game at my chosen restaurant Mezes that my Greek friend suggested, we took in the game at the fox and the fiddle which was packed with Greek supporters and strangely a few groups of Colombian fans.  I found the presence of the Colombian fans a little odd.  It makes you think someone in each group likes to cause trouble, but I could be wrong.  The atmosphere was very intense and by the end of the game some of the Greeks were clearly not impressed with at least one Colombian fan who was not in my view so I'm not sure of what mischief he was up to.

After the game I headed back over to Mezes which appeared to have been busy with their own crowd who took in the game on the one TV that I assume had been mounted just for the tournament. 

Before I got around to ordering my food a couple of saganakis had been set ablaze.  If you have never had saganaki you should, even if only for the fun factor. :)  This time I decided to try something different in the Greek cuisine as I've had my fair share of souvlaki and gyros in my life.  This time I took my friend’s recommendation and ordered the kleftico, a chicken breast wrapped in phyllo and stuffed with spinach, cheese, tomatoes and onions.  It came with the elliniki salad (Greek salad) which had lots of yummy feta cheese on it.  Everything was delicious. The one thing I would have changed was I would have preferred the traditional Greek potatoes rather than the red potatoes I got.  I love Greek potatoes!  I’d even skip the rice and take a double serving of Greek potatoes!

And what would a Greek lunch be without some ouzo?!  I ordered a glass of that too.

This place has a pretty big menu.  There definitely are a lot of other Greek dishes I should try.

A Taste of Mexico: El Catrin

Today I had planned on going to a Mexican restaurant in the Distillery district that I had been to before.  I "knew" they did not have a TV so decided to go for a late lunch but not too long into the first half of Mexico’s game I wondered if they would have brought in some TVs for the game.  I called and found out that they were in fact showing the game so at halftime I made my way over. 

The place is called El Catrin and my understanding of the place is that the owner took a trip to Mexico and fell in love with the cuisine.  As a result he/she revamped the restaurant to serve an authentic Mexican cuisine.  When I arrived I realized that by accident I was wearing a green top similar in colour to the Mexican green so I blended in well with the Mexican fans.

I started by ordering a drink called the Hibisco Rosa. It had two types of tequila in it, hibiscus syrup, rosewater and citrus.  I really liked it because it was so different from what I’m used to drinking.

As I reviewed the lunch menu I knew I wanted to try at least two things.  So I settled on pork tacos and a shrimp, mango and papaya salad called Ensalada Destileria.  The waiter was kind enough to inform me that I could order two tacos and a side salad of my choosing for a lower cost which was perfect because I really didn’t need all the food I was expecting with my original order.

The restaurant and large patio seemed a little over half full but my waiter was quite busy running between customers inside and outside.  Only a fraction of the customers were there for the game and the restaurant is set up to show all the games.  I’d say if you are looking for someplace to hang out and watch some games then this is a great spot, especially for last minute plans.

I really enjoyed my lunch today.  The salad was delicious.  I don’t know how they managed to slice the mango and papaya so thinly.  If you’ve only ever had Canadianized tacos/tortillas then you really should try these ones out.  The tortillas are different from any typical tortilla shells you get at most places, unless of course you’ve been eating authentic tortillas somewhere else.

Given that this was no less than my fourth visit to the restaurant it is safe to say that I will continue to return here.  If you want to try various tequilas  a) be careful with that stuff as it could have you doing unexpected things later  b) this is a good spot given all the varieties they have behind the bar.

A Taste of Spain: Barsa Taberna

I had planned on trying out a new Spanish tapa place in the neighbourhood on Market Street during the World Cup called Barsa Taberna.  It just so happened that some friends had planned a dinner there so I went there sooner than I expected but got to try a lot more dishes.

The patio isn’t open yet but looks ready to open at any time.  The interior was nicely done with grey exposed brick and a colourful glass bottle mosaic in the main room where we sat.  I was too busy engaging in conversation to notice much of what was going on around me.  I also have to admit that the food didn’t get my full attention.

Half of the menu is tapas (sharing plates) and the other half is some larger plates that you can either share or eat as a main.  We tried a number of sharing plates including two orders of the Iberico croquettes, a citrus calamari, lobster and scallop pogos, patatas bravas, pork tortita, manchego churros, braised beef short rib, pok pok prawns. 

The waitress said that people really love the croquettes. Although I wasn’t paying as much attention as normal to the food, I found them to be average.  Perhaps I expected more based on the waitress’s review.  The calamari on the other hand was quite good.  I’m not sure what the spice was on them but I liked it.

The lobster and scallop pogos I don’t think I would order again.  There just seems like better ways to eat lobster and scallops.

I wasn’t excited about the patatas bravas the way I was with them at Patria.

I didn’t try the pork tortita but it looked pretty good. 

The churros with cheese tasted good but I don’t eat a lot of churros so I don’t know how they compare to others.

The braised beef short rib had an unexpected presentation as it was stuffed in small roasted red peppers.  The pok pok prawns were good but I was expecting more from them since the waitress said that people really like them too.

For some of the larger plates, the broccoli salad, hamburgesa, cumbraes striploin and lobster linguine were ordered. 

The broccoli salad was a nice side.  The hamburgesa is a little difficult to share given it’s a hamburger but I got to try some.  It had some decent flavour happening but was a bit dry.

I did not try the cumbraes striploin.

The best dish of the night for me was the lobster linguine.  The sauce was very light and if memory serves me correctly, it seemed lemony even though I didn’t see lemon in the list of ingredients.

A Taste of Brazil: Rio 40

Today is the first day of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil so what better way to start than with a Brazilian lunch.  I was hoping to stay downtown by going to the new Copacabana on Adelaide but the related Asian part to the restaurant was only serving sushi on their menu and the Brazilian meats have been temporarily removed, or so the hostess informed me.  If I wanted to eat there today I would have to eat an all you can eat dinner buffet.  To get my money’s worth I really would have to stuff myself and that’s the last thing I want to do right now.  I’ve already been eating out more than I wanted to in the past few weeks and will be eating out a lot for this blog for the next little while.  I’d like to be able to fit into my clothes at the end of the World Cup.  So I headed up to St. Clair to Rio 40.

When I arrived just after 12:00 I took a walk through the interior and noticed that almost every single table had a reserved sign on it and not a single customer was inside.  So I walked out to the patio where they were finishing mounting TVs to the exterior wall.  I took a seat and enquired about a few items on the menu.  The waitress made a few recommendations including a rump steak.  Based on what I saw on the menu, it didn’t seem very Brazilian even though I know Brazilian meats is a thing, so I upgraded to the rump steak and Brazilian sausage just to make sure there was something Brazilian about my lunch. 

I also ordered a Brazilian drink called a Caipirinha.  It has liquor in it called cachaca which is made from sugar cane.  I’ve had this drink before and really enjoyed it, so much so that I previously went out and bought a bottle of cachaca.  When I buy a bottle of liquor I always like to try it on its own before mixing it, just to see what it tastes like.  I can say without a doubt that cachaca is not good on its own, at least not to me and I can drink things like whisky, scotch and brandy without compliant.   Caipirinha has as much or more sugar in it as it does cachaca which would be why it tastes so good.  It also has limes in it for a fresh flavour.

As I waited for my food, the staff wandered around serving the patio patrons and setting up for the onslaught of revelers while wearing large hats, headbands and sunglasses in the Brazilian yellow and green.  A few early partygoers showed up in what I will call their Brazilian boom boxes.  The music coming from a car and pickup truck was loud enough to cause permanent hearing loss if you stood too close.  They drove up and down the street a few times honking their horns with the music blaring, then kept trying to park their vehicles as close to the patio as possible, re-parking them as other vehicles left the area.   Every time they moved a vehicle the music boomed out of it.  A woman walking her infant yelled at them and that was the last I heard of it.  Then the pickup owner dropped the tailgate reveling why it was so loud. The entire opening was filled with one massive speaker.  Brazilian boom box indeed!  If you like loud music with your soccer then that was probably the patio to be on today as long as you don’t mind some hearing loss! 

My food arrived and I was delighted by the presentation.  The meat was hanging on a skewer.  The waitress pulled all of the meat off the skewer at the table and presented it on a side plate.  It was served with fries, rice, beans and farofa which is something that resembles bread crumbs.  The sausage was good but I found the rump steak to be rather chewy.  Is that normal?

I couldn’t finish my meal and as I said, it’s probably best that I didn’t in hopes that my clothes still fit me in a few weeks.  ;)