Food diary: Toronto

It feels like forever since I've posted, but realistically its actually only a little over a week. Since meeting the lovely Nigella Lawson a month ago, I have managed to accumulate 7 lots of photos to sort through! A symptom of the Christmas season, with parties, food, food and more food, New Years ... and of course the list goes on. I'm actually at a loss as to what would be the most interesting to read / write about, so I'm going in favourites order.

The Toronto days have definitely been my favourite in recent memory. Mr T & I went to visit the family for a week, and there was so little stress, so much to eat, and so much freedom to do, well, nothing that it was completely awesome. Day 1, I even managed to unintentionally wake up way too early at 7.30am and take photos of the sunrise outside my window.



I got so over excited by the food that I even forgot to take my camera at times, I was so busy eating  - so unfortunately this is only a sample. And then there was the day where the SD card disappeared from the camera temporarily so I missed a WHOLE day of photos... but anyway, I won't talk about that.

Back to the food and my over excitement, the stand outs:

1) The standard Chinese place just down the road there's nothing particularly special about it but Mr T was raving on about the free soup that came before the meal, and I ordered my favourite spicy eggplant and pork and devoured the whole thing myself.

2) 4 lunches in a day - maccas, pho, ramen, donuts ... then going home for dad's big birthday dinner!

Here's some delicious ginger/spring onion crab and sesame glutinous rice balls in a ginger tea, that we had at home (don't ask me why there's peking duck written on the spoon).




Ramen from Ajisen. I am not usually a ramen fan (Miss B is) but this white soup based "tenderous ribs" ramen was pretty darn good. I was particularly thrilled that they had soy sauce eggs! (surprisingly hard to find in London). So thrilled I had to have two.



Then some turkey, stuffed clams (the stuffing was mixed with the clam then put back in the shell - you did wonder where the clam pieces were, but it definitely was tasty), escargot (family favourite for all except me) and a variety of western and asian sides for dad's birthday dinner. Yes peeps, that is choy sum you see next to the beetroot and sweet potato! We even had fried rice!



The birthday cake was a champagne mousse cake. Interesting and had a few different textures; the middle one was like a berry compote but in a jelly form; I must try making this.



Dinner was followed by presents, Mr T got another Lakers hat which I've stolen for the purposes of this picture. Oh and I must mention the junk food we ate on Christmas day. Whilst waiting for the evening party to be catered, we went to Popeyes since KFC wasn't open. I am loving their slogan! and the chicken was pretty good too. Being Christmas, the guy at the counter was feeling generous and gave us a free coke. I finished this off with some of my favourite popcorn of all time - Kernels. I can't find it in the UK and it shut down in Australia awhile ago so I was pleased to find it again.



 

Finally, something which I've never eaten before but were particularly good - deviled eggs (also known as eggs mimosa or stuffed eggs). These bad boys had the yolks taken out of them which were mixed with mayo, then piped back into the white and with a sprinkling of bacon and herbs on top. Yum! I'll definitely be making these as a snack next time we have a party.