Glutinous Rice Wraps - "Zong Zi" from T&T

Zong Zi is this Chinese food in which glutinous rice with stuffing is wrapped in leaves and steamed. It can be savoury with meat, mushrooms, egg yolk and other fillings, or sweet with red bean, purple rice, etc.

T & T, the Chinese supermarket (http://www.tnt-supermarket.com/en/) is selling them for the upcoming Dragonboat festivals. The regular ones are $2.49, 5% off for 3 or more, or 10% off for 8 or more. They have the big fancy ones with dried scallops and other seafoods for $3.99, 5.99 and 7.99, but I'm happy just sticking with the little cheap ones.

I bought 6, 3 meats and 3 vegetarians, but managed to pick the ugliest one to take an unwrapped picture of. In general, they were pretty delicious with plenty of filling, which justifies the slightly higher price in comparison to the other Zong Zi sold in the store.



This is the vegetarian one that had 3 whole chestnuts surrounded by diced shiitake mushrooms buried in the rice, which was flavoured by soya sauce. I think there was taro in it too, but there were so little of it that I barely tasted it.

I had another one with black sticky rice, red kidney beans and dried longan that I thought was a lot more exciting. But the red kidney beans were WAY too sweet, making the whole thing a little hard to swallow. The red bean with rice one was loaded with red beans and sweetened just right, but unfortunately that was the only ingredient in the whole wrap, making it less exciting than the other selections.


This is the Cantonese style one with salted egg yolk, three big chunks of lean pork meat surrounded by a layer of crushed mung beans. I really enjoyed this one as it wasn't too salty, and had lots of satisfying fillings. However, my less forunate friend who bought the same thing ate her entire wrap to find no egg yolk in it. So cross you fingers for a legit one when you go buy these things.

Overall, the wraps are a little pricey but they do come stuffed with quality ingredients inside. Since I'm a huge fan of sticky rice foods, I'll probably be living off of these convenient lunch options for awhile until they stop selling them.

Panago - Restaurant pizza for delivery!

I've always walked by Panago on 1 Gerrard St. (Bay and Gerrard) just like the 50,000 other pizza joints I see on the streets without thinking too much about it. But this one stormy night during exams, I was craving for pizza because my fridge was empty and wanted restaurant quality ones to be delivered right to my doorstep. Edwin's always been a huge advocate for Panago, so we decided to give this place a try.


We ordered Primo Veggie ($14.50 medium, left) with Pesto sauce, fire roasted tomatoes, baby spinach, red peppers, caramelized onions, roasted garlic and formmagio blend+mozarella on thin crust whole wheat (yes, I know it can't get an healthier than this), while Edwin had The Mediterranean ($13.75 Medium) with Fresh passata tomato sauce, beef, red onions, tomatoes, feta+mozarella on hand tossed crust. Every pizza comes with a free sauce/shaker, so we had Ranch sauce and chilli shaker. Delivery was $2. No price variations for different crusts.

The pizza came in 40min nice and warm. I had little expectation for the Mediterranean beucase the toppings didn't sound exciting. To my surprise, I liked it a lot more than the one I picked. The veggie one was loaded with toppings but didn't have much of a kick in flavours but thankfully I had my chilli shaker to spice things up with. On the other hand, the other pizza had chunks of oregano scented diced tomatoes that gave the pizza texture and sense of freshness, while the beef had a hint of cumin/chilli in it and was very juicy. The hand-tossed crust was soft on the inside and crispy on the edges - none of that cardboard Pizza Pizza uses for their creations.

Overall, it was the best take-out pizza experience I've had. If I were to order for delivery again, I'd definitely go with Panago.

Hornero - Wood burning oven baked pizzas

This is a spot I always see passing by Wellesley and Yonge on 528 Yonge St. (www.hornero.ca) Read a lot of good reviews for its pizzas so decided to come try it out. Although it was 7 on a Saturday night, the restaurant was quite empty. The place was quiet, clean and dimly lit, so it was a comfortable dining environment at least.


I had the #19 - asparagus, roasted red peppers, grilled eggplants pizza ($12). The crust was thin, toasted and crispy, topped with large pieces of fresh veggies which my Dad and I both thought were very delicious. However, there wasn't much taste in the pizza itself. There wasn't any sauce and the herbs didn't add enough flavouring.

This is the 10 oz New York Strip Loin Steak with Grilled Veggies ($16). Yes, what you see is all you get. The steak was very juicy and cooked medium rare just as we'd asked for, but again, no flavour. I have very sensitive taste buds and usually find things too salty, but these two dishes were light even for me.
My friend ordered seafood linguine with shrimps, mussels, and calamari ($15). There were 2 jumbo shrimps and 2 mussles in there, and the calamari pieces were mixed in a typical tomatoe sauce that actually was quite tasteful. However, if you have an above-average appetite, the portion will probably be too little to satisfy your hunger.


Overall, service was good - the waiter was very patient with my questions and tentative to our requests. The food tasted decent, but slightly over priced for their quality..except for the pizzas, maybe.

Home of HOT-Taste: More Korean!

I think I'm on a Korean addiction - I've had Korean food for 4 days in a row now, three of which consisted of pork bone soup (pbs) . Some people go for wine tasting, so I guess I can go around savouring PBS too.
This spot is a favourite among some of my friends who live near by on Bay st. Home of HOT-taste is located on 714 Yonge St., next to the Countryside Coffee. It's also a very popular spot among young Koreans, perhaps because of it's dim lights and loud atmosphere, and two big flat screens that air Korean music videos all day long. The boys can enjoy some firey dishes while drooling over Hyori-lee's booty-shaking.
The restaurant boasts its firey chicken dishes. While there are the standard tofu stews, soups, pork stir frys and bbq rib dishes with rice combos priced at 5.99-8.99 posted on the wall with pictures, its menus are filled with items such as "spicy firey chicken" or chicken wings for around $14.49 for a plate. The plain fried wings are popular as well.


Being on a PBS addiction, of course I had to go for the PBS ($6.99) because I found that every restaurant has their own unique broth. This one puts a lot of peppercorn and green onion in their soup and the pork is stewed just to the right tenderness that it falls apart as you bite down on it. I didn't find it overly spicy nor salty, and really liked the kimchi and potatoes in the soup.

Second dish was the rice cakes with fish cakes and onions. The rice cakes ($5.99) were chewy but not tough and the sauce was mildly spicy with a sweet undertone (makes me think they put a hint of ketchup in it). The fish cakes were just thin slices of standard fish cakes that were in the dish for a ride. The whole plate had the stir-fried-over-open-fire kind of taste to it that I really liked.

Finally, the most ordered dish in the restaurant. The famous spicy firey chicken with fried rice for $5.99. The chicken's not that spicy and very tender with a bbq taste to it. It's one of those "you might not love it but you definitely won't hate it" safe dishes. I didn't try the fried rice but it glistened under a layer of oil with some vegetable bits in it. Standard.

For sides, the restaurant gives lettuce salad with soya sauce and miso dressing, pickled turnips and kimchi upon request. Service was alright, but a little slow because there was one waiter runnin around 12 tables....(poor guy).

Overall, it's a good place for those of us who don't mind a loud environment with a cheap, filling and tasty meal, and/or for those who just want to sit googly eyed staring at Korean pop stars all day.

Demitre's Dessert

This is a very popular dessert chain around Toronto. After Nak Won korean food we headed up to Mississauga for some sweets at Demitre's. We went to the one in 90 Courtney Park, next to the AMC.
There was a big line up even though it was already 10:30, 1hr away from their closing time.

We waited eagerly for a seat while watching them cut the different cheesecakes, and popping out waffles with a mountain of ice cream on them, giant waffle cones and super delicious looking sundaes and shakes. The fudge cake was literally 30cms tall.....it was one gianormous beauty.

Deciding on what to order was hard..Diza and I debated between Banana Split, cake or crepes, and finally we settled on the crepe just like our other friends. The crepes are all $9.95, you can upgrade it to a Belgian waffle for extra 85 cents.

Karen and Brian had the One Bad Apple, which was crepe with white chocolate ice cream, spiced Apples with cinnamon and caramel drizzle. I'm a big apple fan so I thought theirs had great flavours blending together. The ice cream was very, very sweet though, it gets heavy after a couple more bites. But the apples and the cinnamon went very nicely with the crepes.

Hamid, being a chocolate fiend, ordered the one with the MOST chocolate in it. I don't remember the name, but it was bittersweet chocolate ice cream with brownie bits, dark and white chocolate bits. He loved it and inhaled that thing in about 20 seconds. Then he got too full and left it up to me.....as usual.... I liked the chocolatey-ness of it, but the chips kept on getting stuck in my teeth, which was annoying. Perhaps there was just too much chocolate stuff in there with no variance in texture, so it got very sweet and overwhelming quickly.
Diza and I shared The Last Straw, with fresh strawberries and honey vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce drizzle. The strawberries were very fresh and sweet, so pairing them with the ice cream was just heavenly. The ice cream was not as sweet as the others, but you can definitly taste the honey. The texture is stickier and milkier than the usual ice cream you'd buy from grocery stores. Diza didn't even breathe. By teh time I took my second bite, she already killed off half of the crepe, mumbling "this is so amazing...omg...so good.." with her eyes bulging out as if she wished she had a second mouth to stuff this goodness in.

Overall, Demitre's a tasty place. THe desserts are certainly over priced, but I guess their justification is the monstrous size of them all. I'd say sharing a plate with a friend serves as good portion and budget control.

Nak Won Korean Table BBQ Restaurant

I had dinner with my best buds from Ottawa. We were originally going for a "REALLY REALLY great Persian Restaurant" at 5529 Yonge St.....the closest thing we found to that was a closed Persian grocery store. Thankfully, there were enough Korean restaurants in the area as back up.

It was very cold so we didn't want to wander far from where we were, so following the Chinese rule, I picked the place with the biggest crowd. This is Nak Won Table BBQ at 5594 Yonge St.


The place had a very impressive selection of side dishes. Everyone is greeted with a place of lettuce salad with a creamy sweet mayo dressing. Then there were the seaweed (a little too salty), honey coated potatoes (very, very delicious. We had to ask for refills twice before our food came), cellophane noodles, bean sprouts, marinated cucumbers, turnip strips, sliced fish cakes, kimchi (that's a given), and marinated beans. I could get full just eating the side dishes alone.

Diza wasn't particularly hungry so she wanted something small. But after we all ordered she still wasn't sure what she wanted, so out of pressure she got the spicy tofu stew ($6.99) under the waitress' recommendation. It came bubbling hot with chunks of tofu and the egg and shredded pork and onions. A very standard tofu stew that was quite spicy. She couldn't handle the spicyness so I actually had quite a bit of it. I found the taste to be more prominent once the dish cooled down.
Brian and Annie wanted the stone pot bibimbap ($7.99) because that's what they always get. There wasn't a lot of beef in it so without the hot sauce, there's not much taste in the dish itself. I found a huge piece of burnt rice at the bottom of her bowl at the end of meal and gasped as if I hit jackpot. Brian's eyes lit up when he saw me lift that crispy, golden piece of rice up...and of course I split it with him :)
Hamid was very specific in what he wanted. He wanted stir-fried noodles with beef/chicken and vegetables..the closest thing I could find was this stir-fried noodle with seafood and vegetables in spicy sauce ($12.99) under the Chinese dishes section for him. It was smothered in a sweet and sour-like sauce with a spicy kick to it, andwas definitely the most flavourful dish of the evening. The vegetables and seafood weren't very prominent in the dish, but there were a lot of onions that added some good flavours to the noodles. I managed to dig out a small shrimp, and Diza found a "very cute" baby squid that she demolished without blinking.

Finally, Karen and I ordered the pork bone soup. Although I just had pork bone soup ($6.99) from E-wang downtown the day before, I was craving for it again. Disappointingly, the pork bones weren't stewed for long enough so they weren't fall-off the bone tender and made the eating process even more time consuming. The broth was different as they put a lot of ginger in it. The potatoes weren't tender either and the flavours from the broth did not make its way into them.

Overall, the service was good and the prices are reasonable. I really enjoyed their side dishes, but main order wise, they still offered us a satisfying meal but there are certainly improvements that can be made.

Not the Best Chicken of My Life

Although not a legit restaurant post, I feel like I should post this up just because it has almost turned into an inside joke from our graduation formal dinner, which took place in the 5-star Fairmont York Hotel near Front St. (http://www.fairmont.com/RoyalYork). The evening was great, I really enjoyed the company of all my friends, but the food was quite disappointing.

We were promised the best chicken of our lives as part of a four course meal prepared by a top chef at this famous hotel. Our first course was an assorted bread basket. Fair enough, bread is food. Then there was the cream of mushroom soup, which was somewhat salty and watery, but most people found it flavourful enough to enjoy it.

Then came the entre that we were all anticipating, which looked pretty good. But it was the driest piece of meat I've ever had. The vegetables around it were cooked just right and well flavoured, but the chicken....man....that chicken.... I've had a better time eating those rotisserie bbq chickens from grocery stores.

Lastly, there was the dessert, which had a layer of lemony ganache-like topping on a dark chocolate tart. As a person who enjoys dark chocolate and sour, fruit desserts, I liked it alright, but was disappointed by the canned fruits and low-quality jello that garnished the plate.


I understand we were a big party of 600 students who do not fit the profile of the restaurants' target clients, but considering the status of the venue, I was hoping for something a little better. I'm sure they have better selections during their normal service to keep people impressed.....

Woo Buffet Restauarant and Lounge

We ditched Eggspectations for brunch to come try out this new place at Dundas and Yonge, right next to the AMC theatre that had just opened a month ago. It’s a buffet restaurant that turns into a lounge with “really great drinks”, as recommended by one of the super friendly waiters there.


The lunch is $12.95, while dinner is $22.95. (Details on www.woobuffet.com ) For lunch, I think it was a really decent deal. The interior décor was spacious, chic and very clean with lots of seating. The buffet bar consists of 5 counters that had a variety of food items:

Sashimi and Makis: Salmon and snapper sashimi were pretty fresh, so I enjoyed quite a few pieces of that. Maki’s weren’t that extraordinary looking, with the typical California, unagi, vegetarian rolls. The had a smoked salmon vegetable roll (see picture) that was quite interesting if you flavour it up with wasabi and soy sauce. I really enjoyed the Calamari salad, which consisted of spicy, well-flavoured slices of squid with mixed vegetables.


Salad bar: There were quite a few selections, from the plain mixed greens and romaine lettuce leaves with 3 or 4 dressings for your to mix up, to more exciting selections such as the mango salad – a zesty blend of sourness, sweetness and spiciness that is fit to take on most mango salads you get in thai restaurants. They also deviled eggs, mixed fruit salads that were also very good.



Dim Sum and the Big Meats: Shrimp dumplings, sticky rice pork, siu mai were all present. They were better than the freezers ones you microwave at home…but the Kalbi (Korean bbq beef ribs) were just as good as the ones you get from Korean restaurants, and the bbq pork ribs were well flavoured, and fall-off-the-bone tender.

Chinese Stir-Fry: There were a lot of Mandarin-like dishes, the typical vegetable stir fries, lots of tempura (I think they might’ve tempura-ed Maki too..not sure), mussel in black bean sauce, chicken curry Chinese style, shanghai noodles, fried rice, the usual deliciousness that you find in Asian buffets.

The Sweet stuff: Fruits were very fresh, the pineapples and strawberries were sweet and juicy. They had a good selection of around 8 types of ice cream and frozen yogurt, but only 1 cake and some macroons for dessert. As with most Asian buffets, the dessert’s pretty weak so don’t get too excited about that.


Overall, the service was excellent. Waiters there were super friendly and attentive. My friends all left me to get food at one point and our waiter actually sat down to keep me company for a little bit. J I just hope they’ll keep up with the service and food quality as their business picks up.