Deer Garden Signatures 鹿園魚湯米線 (Toronto)

Posted on Saturday, April 11, 2015 by

While pho uses beef bones for their stock and ramen uses pork or chicken, Deer Garden Signatures offers their noodles with fish. First opened in Vancouver, there’s now two outposts in the GTA serving quick but satisfying meals. Although they have a variety of other rice and noodle dishes on their menu, what people come for is the no msg fish soup.

The broth is creamy and rich but has a lighter quality to it since there’s not an ounce of grease in sight. It’s the type of soup that you want to continue drinking even after the noodles are done and won’t leave you feeling parched an hour later. For those who don’t enjoy seafood, rest assured it’s not fishy; plus there’s always white pepper at the table that helps to mellow out the flavour.


Their noodle combos are the way to go – just pick up a slip of paper and check off the soup base, noodle type, toppings and drink you’d want. It’s a satisfying portion of food for only $8.75. With five fish soups, for my first taste the plain original option seemed to be the way to go. My mom had the tomatoes and pumpkin one, which completely changes the flavour profile with the freshness of the vegetables: it’s good but I find the tomatoes really drowns out the seafood essence.


For those who aren’t into seafood, other choices include chicken broth, tom yum, laksa, Szechuan and peanut sauce with chili. Sure, they all sound delicious but somehow I know they will remain a mystery to me as I’d much rather go to a Japanese, Thai or Malaysian restaurant to have these. If you’re going to visit a restaurant always order what they’re known for!

Next is a choice of 32 toppings (two are included with the combo and extras are $1.50). Mine incorporated the sliced cuttlefish and fish tofu to maintain the seafood theme. But, there’s also meat and vegetarian options available. Deer Garden certainly didn’t skimp on the cuttlefish, it seemed like every bite of noodles had a piece in it. The fish tofu is worth a try and has such a great salty flavour. They also throw in cabbage, mushrooms (button and prince), beancurd sticks, parsley and green onion so it ends up being a very hearty bowl.

The thick rice noodles ended up being a poor choice as they were much too soft for my liking. The Korean style sweet potatoes crystal noodle would have been better as they maintain their springy texture much better.

Ordering a couple side orders is a great way to start for the table. For only $1.95 they’re inexpensive and there’s just enough to share amongst a table of 2-3 people. The pan fried pork chop in maggi sauce was tender and flavourful. While the desert wings with ginger wasn't nearly as exotic as the menu describes, they were still decent crispy hot chicken wings.


One of my favourite foods is a big bowl of noodle soup – there hasn’t been a variety that’s disappointed me so far. I’m so glad to be able to add Deer Garden to the mix. It’s inexpensive, fresh and so satisfying. It’s that good that it'll become a year round eat – hopefully the restaurant has adequate air conditioning for the sweltering summer months.

 Overall mark - 9 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 633 Silverstar Blvd

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!




Part 2: The "Master" Plan

Posted on Sunday, April 05, 2015 by

If you’ve just stumbled upon this post. Get the background of what this is about by visiting the main page of my journey in developing a career with food.
Now that I’ve decided my career should revolve around the food industry, things will just fall into place right? After all, it’s something I’ve thought through and so passionate about it. But, being a taste advisor and food writer isn’t just a walk in the park. There is tons of competition out there and frankly what I feel is little demand for paid services.

Nonetheless, for achieving a life of contentment and happiness you have to give it a try. So, to begin, I start with what I do best – develop a plan. At the beginning, you may feel like you don’t know where to start, planning helps calm me and focus efforts to specific purposes. Unlike my past efforts of planning a wedding or vacation, this one will be more fluid and I’m certainly willing to branch out and do more as I become immersed in learning about the industry.

Generally, the “master plan” is made up of the following rough steps:

Develop credibility. Just like attending a well-known University and earning a designation developed my current career, I have to distinguish myself in the world of food. Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to return to school to study journalism, but some continuing education courses wouldn’t hurt. Luckily, George Brown offers a food writing course, and starting mid-April the weekly evening classes begin. I can’t wait to learn from someone who does this professionally!

Connect with the industry and develop the necessary connections. Admittedly, this is the area where I’m stumped. Attending more media events and speaking to more food bloggers certainly has helped. But, I’ve yet to meet individuals who actually do this for a living. If you’re a food writer or menu consultant and are feeling generous with your time, please connect with me, I’d be so grateful.


Gain and build experience to prove my work abilities. At Gastro World, I’m able to do plenty of posts on restaurant reviews. But, for food writing the articles need to be more diverse. So, expanding into more interviews (I did one with Kanpai Snack Bar) and product placement are a few areas I need to work on. If you’re a company with a food product please reach out. If it’s something I enjoy and can stand behind we can do some interesting things together.

 On the taste advisory front, restaurants need to learn about the value of having someone who’s not their chef or employee trying their products. Likely, I’ll need to reach out to a few places to offer these services on a complementary basis first – if you’re a Toronto restaurant that want to try out my services please contact me.

Have the necessary resources to pursue the dream. By resources, it means both time and money. Certainly, at this point, leaving my job is not an option as there are still annoying financial obligations to maintain. But, I also can’t work in a role that expects a lot of my time beyond the 9 to 5 as between classes, writing, connecting and researching a lot of time will need to be spent on the dream. 

 Eventually, I’m likely going to have to take the plunge and focus my efforts full-time to make this work. Before this can happen, it's important to build a nest egg to get me through the “tough” times. Also, starting to develop some sources of income (even if sporadic) is needed to let me know that this could work. Simply developing a “Work With Me” section and adding an Amazon store are first steps at attempting to monetize the efforts.  

Thinking through everything and taking first steps towards some of the above goals has really gotten me excited! You hear time and time again that people now have numerous careers in their lifetime – some very different from each other.

Frankly, I never expected to branch out of the corporate world. But, with every year that passes, it’s becoming clearer that although it’s comfortable and safe, it’s not for me. Who knows, perhaps, I have a bit of my father’s entrepreneurial spirit in me after all… something I was so adamant to deny. 

 Next: Going on a roller-coaster ride

Casa Manila Sauces

Posted on Saturday, April 04, 2015 by

After a delicious media dinner, Casa Manila sent us all home with a bottle of their sauce so we could attempt creating a Filipino dish at home. This was what owner, Mila, envisioned when looking for something to complement the restaurant. Her mission was to find another way they could introduce Canadians to Filipino cuisine without opening another restaurant.


So, they worked with George Brown’s culinary division to develop a large batch recipe of their popular sauces so customers and purchase and use at home ($8.99). From the nutty Kare Kare, creamy and light coconut ginger coconut or tangy and zesty adobo sauce each has a distinct flavor profile. To inspire us, a cooking demonstration was done at the restaurant where parboiled vegetables or meat were stir fried to make a meal in less than 30 minutes.


I've always been a “just wing it” type of girl with cooking (unless I'm hosting a dinner party) so rather than relying on a recipe I made up my own. Somehow, the slow cooker seemed like a good option where I could throw in a bunch of ingredients and allow the chicken to cook in the adobo sauce seeping in all its flavours. After all, to me, cooking is like art where you need to just play with ingredients until you develop something that meets your unique tastes.

First, a layer of sliced onions were placed on the bottom of the slow cooker to add more aromatics to the sauce. This was followed by about 10 drumsticks of skinless chicken as food blogger Adrienne noted bone-in is best to give the dish a richer flavour. 


Next the entire jar of adobo sauce was poured in and cooked with the chicken and onions for about three hours on low. Wanting to add more to the dish, I decided to throw in some shrimp and long eggplant near the end for about an hour more on the high setting. When I could smell the wonderful vinegary garlicky sauce permeating through the air the dish was done!


Paired with steamed rice and green beans the meal was complete and looked impressive. I'd like to say that it was a resounding success and I should immediately publish this recipe for the blogosphere to see, but unfortunately things need to be tweaked and perhaps this art form wasn't one of my best creations.


Don't get me wrong, it was edible. But, if I were to attempt this again there would definitely be changes including:
  • Not using the entire jar of adobo sauce. I’d save a third of the bottle so a sauce could be made later and drizzled on top of everything. Unfortunately, with the onions and other ingredients the sauce in the slow cooker became very watery and not the most appetizing.
  • Skip the shrimp as how long to cook them is hard to gauge and I definitely over did them in the slow cooker.
  • Finally, I found the adobo sauce was more acidic than I would've liked. So, adding another sauce like hoisin or sweet bean paste, may be better to cut down the tanginess for my taste.
Although it wasn’t a success, it was so easy to use this sauce at home. And I'm sure that this was what Mila had in mind when Casa Manila developed the sauces. At home chefs need something else to use to help spark their creativity and broaden their tastes. I'd love to hear about your adventures with the sauces, so please contact me with what you did with it and if it’s a successful recipe please send it to me so I can share it on this post.


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 879 York Mills Road

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog


FINISHED - Let's Be Frank Contest

Posted on Saturday, April 04, 2015 by


Did reading my post on Let's Be Frank get you hungry? Well you're in luck. Thanks to the folks there, Gastro World is giving away a $25 gift certificate so you can try out their delicious dogs!

Choose any of the two ways to enter through social media:

Tweet about it on Twitter
  1. Simply follow me on Twitter
  2. Tweet out the following (in it's entirety)
Hot dog  has tons of options. , I'd like to try one for myself! http://www.gastroworld.ca/2015/04/let-be-frank-contest.html 
Comment on Instagram
  1. Simply follow me on Instagram
  2. Look for the picture below and in the comments section let me know which hot dog from Let's Be Frank you want to try. If you need inspiration you can read the Let's Be Frank post.


Do both and you'll score two entries!

Other Things To Keep In Mind:
  • One entry per person, per social media platform
  • Contest will run from Saturday, April 4 and the winner announced on the morning of Sunday, April 12
  • Winner will be contacted through direct message with instructions on emailing address so I can send out the prize
Good luck and enjoy your dog!



CLOSED: Murgatroid (Toronto)

Posted on Friday, April 03, 2015 by

First off, thank you Zomato for sending me a Murgatroid gift card, I may have never found this place myself. Located on the city’s east side, its entrance is set back slightly so look for their logo (a large ‘M’ surrounded with orange) to find it. 

You may be thinking, what does Murgatroid mean? It sure doesn’t sound like a restaurant. In speaking to the owner, it’s actually from the Snagglepuss cartoon, where the character’s favourite saying is “Heaves to Murgatroyd”. The name intrigued him and became a placeholder in his life, a promise of things to come. So, while planning for the restaurant and not knowing its name, he used Murgatroid and it just stuck.

And how did I find all this out? I simply asked! Murgatroid is a small neighbourhood spot run by the owner and a chef. So, as soon as you walk in you’re greeted and served by the person who is the most knowledgeable about the place. From every ingredient being used in the dish, to the place's history.  

They focus on lunch and brunch service and are likely most known for their decadent take on eggs benedict. For me, the Murgatroid sandwich ($9.30) sounded delicious. A fluffy Blackbird bakery kaiser is stuffed with a mountain of tender juicy roasted chicken and sprouts. Tons of bold flavours are abound with the rich Ontario gouda-style goat cheese and bit of spice from the fermented pepper relish. But, what really made the sandwich was a thin slice of crispy chicken skin which added the right amount of crunch and saltiness to the sandwich.


For an extra $5 you can add a side and drink. The canoe potatoes are wedges of roasted potatoes finished off in the griddle until crispy and golden brown. If you like hashbrowns you’ll likely enjoy this as the wedges develop a thick crust on the outside. They were good just a tad salty for my taste.


Although I was pretty full I couldn't help but try their cinnamon roll ($2.95) as its one of my favourite sweets. Normally, the ones I eat are of the Cinnabon variety – tall, soft, buttery and doused in a sweet glaze. Murgatroid’s is very different and almost reminds me of a harder cinnamon Danish. It’s flaky but not greasy and has a very pronounced cinnamon flavour. The icing on top is thick and has that tanginess you’re expect from cream cheese.


The owner and chef both show such passion towards their food. All ingredients, whenever possible, is sourced locally and made from scratch. From the not overly sweet ketchup made with local tomatoes, the zingy hot pepper relish smeared in the sandwich using peppers grown in Downview Park and even the locally milled flour that was the staple of the cinnamon roll. Even the table I sat at was constructed from wood salvaged after the demolition.

Murgatroid is what you’d imagine a neighbourhood lunch place to be. Sure their service may not be as quick as some, but it's that individual attention from their chef that ensures their quality is sustained.

And it’s the unhurried pace that makes Murgatroid a place where you feel welcomed to sit around and have another cup of coffee. In fact, they even have a decent selection of board games available so you can sit around and play with your friends and family before you leave.


With so much demand for similar board game cafés Murgatroid may be the hidden place to go for a decent cup of java and food without a long wait.

Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 568 Parliament Street


Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!





CLOSED: Let's Be Frank (Toronto)

Posted on Sunday, March 29, 2015 by


While the gourmet burger craze has swept the city over the last five years, it's only recently the haute hot dog options are starting to pop up. Beside El Mocombo, on the diverse Spadina stretch, is Let’s Be Frank - a cheerful combination of restaurant, bar and overall cool place to hang out (Bring Your Own Vinyl Tuesdays for the music lovers perhaps).

Their location is ideal for the late night crowd (they’re opened past 2pm). So, when you’re feeling the munchies and want it paired with a tall pint of beer, Let’s Be Frank is there. For those who need a stronger drink, cocktails are also available. The Sour Dog ($7.99) is an easy drinking, eye puckering concoction of gin, lemon juice and syrup, whimsically garnished with a sour key.


With over a dozen options on the menu deciding on what to eat may be difficult. Luckily, they offer almost all their dogs in three sizes (3.5” slider, 6” regular and 8” big dog) so you can taste from the plain naked dog to the generously dressed pulled pork po’boy.

The pulled pork ($3.99/$7.95/$8.95) is a meat lover’s friend with the juicy frank topped with more meat, zingy BBQ sauce (care of Dine Alone Foods), tangy coleslaw and some hickory sticks to add some crunch. I’d suggest trying this with the “bed of fries instead of a bun” option, which you can do with any of their dogs for free. For those who want to skip carbs or meat, you can also substitute the bun with romaine lettuce and the beef frank with a veggie wiener instead.


A favourite of owners Christa and Julie (and me) is the Katsu Dog ($3.49/$6.95/$7.95) where the crunch from the deep fried panko coated dog goes so well with the soft bun, sweet katsu sauce, wasabi mayo and fresh green onions. It’s satisfying but not overly heavy feeling, although I would have liked more wasabi incorporated into the mayo as the slider didn’t provide that heat as expected.


The corn dog ($2.49/$4.99/$5.99) is where you can savour the succulent Nathan’s Famous beef frank in its fully glory. Simply covered in a corn batter and deep fried it's covered with a liberal squeeze of the slightly spicy BBQ sauce. Our table saw possibilities of combining the katsu and corn dog. Just imagine having the crunchy panko fried frank as the base, a smear of thicker gooey mac n’ cheese in the middle and then covered with the sweet corn dog coating. What an amazing texture combination that frank would be!


If you have a sweet tooth, Frank also offers the Ivana Banana dessert dog ($4.49) where a deep fried banana stands in for the wiener and it’s covered with gooey peanut butter, Nutella and a light jelly. Although I’m not a fan of the peanut butter and jelly combination, this was actually quite nice. But, the banana itself could be larger to stand up against all the condiments.


Some snacks you could have include the hot dog “wings” ($5.99 for 6 pieces) which are bite sized deep fried hot dogs tossed in buffalo sauce and served with a thick blue cheese dip and veggie sticks. For me, these were a tad salty given the hot dog is already so flavourful and perhaps served full size on bread may be better.


Let’s Be Frank also offers various sides to round out the meal. Of course, the tried and true fries are available. But, there’s also a saucy mac n’ cheese or hot dog gravy poutine (both $4.99 for small and $6.99 for large) for those who want something more substantial.


What impressed me most was hearing about the perseverance Christa, Julie and Simon had with starting Let’s Be Frank. The partners dreamt of a place where they and their friends could meet-up for drinks. But, they wanted to serve no-fuss food as well and what could be more fun than hot dogs?

Mac Daddy ($4.49/$8.95/$9.95)
Although it only opened in late 2014, this business was a five year endeavour all starting with a catastrophic festival attempt (think no tent in pouring rain, dropped chili with no backup and tons of unused food at the end of the night). But, like true entrepreneurs they learned from this experience and went on to do more festivals, purchased a food truck and did a pop-up restaurant before settling in their permanent location.

To top it all off, they all had regular full-time jobs (Simon has now since quit his to focus on Frank)! I can only imagine the dedication and hard work required to put in 50+ hour weeks and then start prepping for busy weekend festivals right afterwards. As an aside, the best part of attending media events (other than sampling food of course) is hearing about each restaurant’s history and meeting the people behind the brand. I have the utmost respect for restaurateurs as it’s definitely an industry that takes dedication and skill to be successful in.

Korean BBQ dog ($3.99/$7.95/$8.95)

So will the haute dog trend start in Toronto next? Only time will tell, but until then, I’m sure there’s a contingent of people who don’t care and just like wrapping their hands around a big juicy frank.

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10
Disclaimer: The above meal was complementary, but rest assured as noted in my mission statement, I will always provide my honest opinion.
How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 460 Spadina Avenue

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!




Elegance Chinese Cuisine (Markham)

Posted on Saturday, March 28, 2015 by



With so many Chinese restaurants across the GTA, there’s no shortage of options for eating dim sum. However, on weekends, demand is at its highest and it seems like wherever you go after 11:30 you’ll be doomed to wait for at least half an hour. Enter Elegance Chinese Cuisine. Somewhat hidden in a small plaza I didn’t even realize it was there until someone told me word-of-mouth. This means, that they’re not overly busy and upon arriving at 11 we instantly received a table.

At Elegance diners are given a sheet upon arriving and you simply select as many dishes as you desire (depending on the sizes about 3 per person is a good rule of thumb). However, they also have some “special” items which are wheeled around in a cart (think soups, braised offals, etc) to entice patrons if you’re still feeling hungry.

Personally, I’m a traditionalist and tend to enjoy the cart version of dim sum instead (you can read all about dim sum here). But, ordering off the menu does have its benefits: the food arrives piping hot, it’s generally faster and for those who don’t understand Cantonese is an easier option.

At Elegance, the frustrating thing is that everything comes in quick succession and you end up with a table full of items getting cold. Some traditional items ordered included the steamed squid with curry sauce (M; $4.20), which was very well flavoured with the savoury Singaporean style curry.


The steamed minced beef balls with vegetable (S; $3) were decent, but sadly arrived with not a vegetable in sight. The description is rather misleading as I would describe the beef to be more paste like than “minced”. It’s essentially processed until smooth and then steamed so that it becomes airy.


A crowd favourite is the sticky rice filled with assorted meats and conpoy wrapped in lotus leaf (L; $5.20). In the past, these use to be one large rice packaged stuffed with a piece of chicken, lap cheung (Chinese cured sausage), yun cheung (Chinese liver sausage), salted egg yolk and Chinese black mushroom. However, to cut down on cooking time and amount of ingredients, they have morphed into individual sized packages and is stuffed with a minced meat and mushroom filling instead. 



At Elegance, theirs is a cross between the old-fashioned and new aged method: they are miniature and uses the minced meat mixture but also has a piece of lap cheung and half a salted egg yolk with it.  This is one of the better versions of the dish eaten where I found their rice to be smooth and almost creamy.


The pan fried “tainam style” onion cake (M; $4.20) is predominantly a flaky pastry with minced onion in the middle. It’s very different from the green onion pancakes you’ll find at Shanghainese restaurants being much airier yet slightly greasy.


I recommend trying the steamed rice roll with crispy bean curd (L; $5.20), a great combination between the silky soft rice roll, crispy bean curd layer and succulent pork and shrimp filling. It’s enjoyable both with the warmed soy sauce or thicker sweet hoisin and nutty sesame sauce on the side.

  
During dim sum, it’s customary for the restaurant to add on a “tea” or “seating” charge. On the bill, you’ll generally see it as a one-line charge before the subtotal. It's generally about $1 a person and at Elegance is $1.20. All in all, Elegance serves a decent dim sum (perhaps a tad expensive for the quality) but if time is important to you, this would be a good option. 

Overall mark - 7 out of 10
How To Find Them
 Location: Markham, Canada
 Address: 20 Gibson Drive

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System
  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!




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