Toronto food adventures

So I've been in Toronto for almost 3 weeks. Fortunately, Toronto is pretty friendly to someone who is on a cash saving mission (plus I live at home when I'm here) as there's not much to do ... so eating and horse riding (mutually exclusive events) have been the highlights of my trip. Here are some of my favourite foodie experiences so far.

1. Shiso Tree Cafe

Japanese cafe that sells pasta, regular style and J-style. I mean, seaweed and tartare sauce on your fries? Genius. Plus, they have a salad / pasta / garlic bread combo at lunchtime. Here's some of the weird and wonderful stuff we ate

2. Ten Ren tea house

Bubble tea plus taiwanese food, great for cheap snacking or lunching. Bring on the tapioca and brick toast with condensed milk!!!

3. Asian Legend

I love asian food shop names eh, but this one is actually pretty legendary as far as their siu long bao goes (I have no idea what this is in English, soup-filled pork dumplings?) And they had a crispy rice with seafood thing ... was almost like eating deep fried rice crispies. Sounds weird, but it was awesome.

4. Yoghurtys

Froyo is in abundance here and we're fortunate enough that we have one round the corner (ok its 10min walk but by Toronto standards its around the corner). I love the marketing, love the flavours, love love love just generally. Miss B and I went on a froyo walk on more than one occasion and this was definitely the winner for me. Who can resist flavours like caramel corn, tiramisu, passionfruit, green apple, peanut butter and pistachio? Plus about 50 different toppings?

5. McDonalds.

Yep, its as good as Sydney here. Mr T and I go and eat Maccas everywhere we go just for comparative purposes and Toronto is pretty high on the list. There's also a Maccas at either end of our street (no kidding and its a recipe for disaster!) Can you believe the strawberry sundae actually had chunks of strawberry in it ... sooooo exciting!!! and they even asked if you wanted peanuts! (we ended up giving these to dad who ate them as part of afternoon tea) There was also a mysterious McChicken sauce, who on earth knows what kind sauce it actually is ...

6. Assortment of random yummy food

I love food here, its almost like being back in Sydney. Even the lettuce tastes good. Below is a mixture of family food at home and some more yummy stuff outside ... oh and I gotta finish off with the orange juice. Extra pulp orange juice! Unheard of! (don't worry I know you're shaking your head at this already so I won't bother with a picture .... though I did take one). I also made a couple of cakes whilst here, but more on that next time.



Till next time, Happy Eating guys!

Bubble tea boost - Cha Time

Bubble tea is awesome. My cousin in HK first introduced me to it many years ago and then it a chain store called Easyway opened up right next door to uni in Sydney's eastern suburbs (and various other locations). For the uninitiated, the basic bubble tea is a cold (sometimes hot) milk tea with tapioca pearls in it. The variety is amazing though in both tea and toppings - I think the weirdest sickly sweet combo I've seen anyone order is grape tea with rainbow jelly and pearls. Here's a sample of regular bubble tea, and a roasted milk tea with grass jelly.



A few years post-uni I saw a new shop in Chatswood, Cha Time. I fell in love. I went to Cha Time every weekend to get a bubble tea or my other favourite, roasted green milk tea with grass jelly (sounds gross but its awesome. Really). All my bubble tea dreams came true when a Cha Time opened up next to work (now we weren't limited to just Easyway!), and I dragged my Malaysian desk buddy there constantly. After she left, I took my Australian desk buddy there too.

Unfortunately, I left Cha Time behind when I came to London. I was super disappointed when I was taken to a bubble tea place that was "good for London" and haven't been back since ... that was months ago. But you know what? Someone else told me last week that Cha Time was in London! I made it there within 3 hours of finding thsi out, then went back again the next day only to run into a whole bunch of Sydneysider friends who had independently gone to pay a visit. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Cha Time lady recognises me now after I asked her for the nth time whether she had a loyalty scheme...

Its not quite the same as Sydney Cha Time but it'll do. For those that are interested, Cha Time is located in Soho, link to the website is here. In the meantime, here's a quick happy snap of Mr T and a couple of our friends enjoying their Cha Times on a sunny Saturday.