If the king-sized dumplings ($10.99) are what attracts you to Myungdong Kalkuksu Noodle and Shabu Shabu, they're worth a try but don’t get too excited. For me, there's a reason the dumplings didn't make it into the restaurant's name (after all, they're highlighting "noodles" and "shabu shabu"); sure the gigantic tennis ball sized look impressive, but they merely taste passable.

The pork filling is combined with a filler, which could be egg white, so there's a crumbly texture to the dumpling with little actual meat flavour. What stands out the most is the chives peppered throughout creating a rather bland dumpling that really requires kimchi, hot sauce, or ponzu for flavour. Moreover, what I love most about dumplings is the juices that collect within the wrapper… at Myungdong Kalkuksu there is none.

Luckily, you’ll get plenty of kimchi and having heard the compliments from reviewers about this complimentary side dish, I can see why it’s so well regarded. The cabbage is fresh and crispy and the spicy sauce spiked with tons of garlic for an aromatic heat. Our table of two almost finished the entire jar.

Their shabu shabu ($15.99 a person for a minimum of 2 people) is a fair size, especially if you add on dumplings, and has a sufficient amount of thinly sliced beef. For “two thirds plate full” individuals, it comes with tons of vegetables (napa cabbage, a slightly bitter leafy green, baby bok choy, pumpkin, and carrot) and mushrooms (prince and enoki). Dig through the leafy greens and you’ll also find four glutinous rice dumplings, filled with sweet potato and cheese, which takes a while to cook, but have a great chewy texture.

The actual shabu shabu broth doesn't have the lump of collagen you’ll find in Japan, so it relatively plain. However, once all the beef, vegetables, and mushrooms infuse into the soup, the ingredients help to add flavour.

After finishing everything, our waitress brings overs noodles and places it into the broth. We’re advised to cook them for four minutes and then dug into a bowl of chewy springy noodles. After adding the infused broth and a couple pieces of chopped up kimchi, it was a satisfying last bowl.

Much of what’s served at Myungdong Kalkuksu is made in-house: the king-sized dumplings, chewy noodles, and the garlicky kimichi. While paying for the bill, the owner joked that even the after dinner mints were house-made – they’re not but could be given their haphazard rustic look. I love the homey comfort food meal, just maybe not the dumplings.

Aside from the beautiful land, what I love most about Canada is our diversity and that we’re generally a country that celebrates multiculturalism. Being a child of immigrants, my parents left their families and travelled here for university. Of course, it wasn’t easy – getting comfortable with the language and having to work harder to prove their worth – yet, they love their decision and would never return to Hong Kong … Canada is home.

Hence, when it came time to celebrate Canada’s 150 anniversary, forgoing the typical BBQ and celebrating with Shoushin’s special Canada omakase ($150), served until the end of July 2017, seemed like the patriotic thing to do.

The first bite from the dinner is the mozuku, a refreshing start with finely cut seaweed slivers mixed with a sweet vinegar. Its consistency is a bit slippery, but since the seaweed has little flavour, it’s not off putting. Garnished with tomato pulp, grated ginger, and daikon slivers, these add a nice crunch and additional flavours to the starter to keep it interesting.

As a first experience goes, the lobster sashimi wasn’t horrible. Although it’s not something I’d want to eat again, the east coast crustacean actually had a crunchy consistency and wasn’t soft and gummy as expected. Chef Lin notes that lobster sashimi is really about the texture as it has little taste. He was right; while it was simply adorned with seaweed salt and wasabi, I still couldn’t taste much sweetness (something that seems to develop when it’s cooked).

The aroma emitted from the grilled unagi is heavenly, the perfume of sweet caramelized soy that makes you want to dig in right away. Since the eel is from Quebec, it’s much larger and hence meatier than the typical unagi found on rice or topping sushi. Glazed with mirin, soy sauce, and chocolate (if I heard correctly), it’s sweet and peppery thanks to the chilli berries on top. It would have been even better if it were cooked a touch less as I found one piece a tad chewy and dry.

Before the sushi procession begun, a bowl of nyumen arrives, the kelp and bonito infused broth swimming with silky somen noodles, crunchy snow peas, and earthy re-hydrated shiitake mushrooms. The dish is simple but wonderful, the soup ideal for readying the palette for the raw seafood that follows.

Starting light, the first piece of sushi was a Japanese flounder. While it’s a meaty fish, there’s an interesting almost fluffiness to its consistency.

Though the west coast big reef squid’s slightly sticky chewy texture isn’t the greatest, it’s not repulsive either and likely due to the thicker slice given. After getting past the consistency, it’s a nice light squid with the main flavours stemming from the swipe of soy on top.

The golden eye snapper is always a treat, even as a milder fish, there’s still a prevalent flavour to it and pairs rather nicely with the vinegar mixed into the rice. As commended in a previous post, Shoushin makes excellent rice: it’s heavier on the vinegar so that grains actually have flavour and the temperature is spot on (warm enough to enhance the fish without changing the temperature).

Shoushin also makes amazing horse mackerel sushi! Since the fish is cleaned so well any gamey fishiness is removed. On this occasion, they added a healthy sprinkle of green onion on top creating an extra zip to the sushi. It’s by far the best horse mackerel I’ve had.

Midway through the 11-piece sushi meal the tuna parade starts, following the leanest to fattiest sequence. The lean blue fin tuna has that vibrant red colour that’s so mesmerising. Meanwhile, the warmer rice with the medium chu toro was fantastic, causing the tuna taste to cover the tongue and linger even after the piece was finished.

Typically, the fattiest piece of the tuna comes from the otoro or tuna belly. In this case, Shoushin introduced me to the fattiest part of the tuna’s back, which still melts in the mouth and has a much stronger flavour.

After such lovely pieces of tuna, the gizzard shad was out of place. Having had it before, this piece was overly salty and the skin too thick – it felt like I was chewing forever when I just wanted to swallow the salty fish down.

The east coast surf clam wasn’t any better. At first it had a crunchy texture emitting a sweetness, but as chewing continued, the clam finished off with a fishy aftertaste. Take my advice: chew and swallow quickly, this isn’t one for savouring.

Thankfully, the following east coast scallop was better: with a hint of seaweed salt and lemon on top, the ingredients helped augment the scallop’s sweetness. Not having been blow torched, you could still taste the seafood in a delicate manner.

In lieu of the traditional hand roll, a piece of sushi topped with pop-in-your-mouth Canadian fish eggs arrived. With a light dusting of yuzu zest on top, it was a cold and refreshing ending.

Of course, we were also served a piece of tamago, which Shoushin does so well. The beautiful layers and rich delicately sweetened egg is the perfect bridge between sushi and dessert.

Whenever they serve some sort of rendition of a green tea pudding, that’s what I have for dessert. The matcha flavoured jelly is generally accompanied with a sweet red bean paste (a staple in Asian sweets) and a chewy unfilled glutinous rice ball. In this case, the Canadian theme continued with the pool of maple syrup on the bottom, helping to add a sweetness to the dessert.

While not as impressive as their general Yuri tasting menu, this one was still decent. However, for something classified as a special “Canada celebration” menu, it’s disappointing that less than half of the dishes were made from Canadian ingredients.

Understandably, sourcing an entire Canadian menu for sushi may be difficult, but at least the individual courses such as the seaweed (from Okinawa) and somen noodles (presumably from Japan) should be Canadian related. Either they could be sourced from Canadian ingredients (wouldn’t we produce seaweed?) or replaced with something signifying our country (an Angus beef tataki would have been delicious).

Without a doubt, I love Canada for its diversity. Nonetheless, perhaps refined sashimi and sushi should be left for other days of the year.

Sweet Lulus is the first fast casual restaurant I ventured into years ago. Once I started working in Toronto’s Financial District, I needed a lunch venue that wasn’t a food court, but we could finish a meal within an hour and under $15. Based on the advice of a co-worker, we visited Sweet Lulus and the rest, as they say, is history.

Although the vegetarian spring rolls ($5) arrive blistering hot, I wish they would have taken two minutes to properly shake off the excess oil so it wouldn’t pool on the plate and completely soak through a napkin … only to still leave a greasy coating throughout the starter. If the spring rolls were wrapped together or incorporated more filling, perhaps this would have been enough to keep all the oil out. Sadly, the poor craftsmanship and meagre cabbage, carrot and bean sprout filling made every bite an oily mess. From now on, I’ll skip the appetizers and just stick with the mains.

In reality, you likely won’t need a starter as Sweet Lulu’s portions are pretty generous. The stir fried noodles (ranging from $9.95 - $15.70) always satisfy with four noodles, four sauces, and various toppings to customize to your tastes. I find the thinner noodles, such as the rice stick and wheat, go better with soup (their Tom Yum base is decent), while thicker Hokkien ones stand up better to the flavourful sauces used in a stir-fry.

My go to combination is either the vegetarian ($9.95), chicken ($11.95), or beef ($12.45) with Hokkien noodles, hot Thai sauce, crushed garlic, and sweet basil. The hot version is still relatively tame, so if you like it really spicy add the crushed chili flakes and grab a bottle of hot sauce from the front. For me, I find it has enough heat to meld with the savoury sauce and slight refreshing sweetness of the basil. Plus, there’s always plenty of vegetables (broccoli, Shanghai bok choy, bean sprouts, carrots, and onions) tossed with the chewy noodles so there’s a bit of topping with every bite.

Although not terrible, the green curry chicken with steamed rice ($11.95) needs to be spicier and could use more coconut milk. I understand, it’s made in large batches and hence needs to be “safe” for the majority of customers. Unfortunately, the milky curry doesn’t lend itself to adding chili flakes or hot sauce into in order to make it more flavourful. Overall, let’s call this green curry for beginners.

As the prices have risen and competitors such as Thai Express have entered the fold, Sweet Lulu’s notorious lines have thankfully decreased. Nonetheless, to get a seat at one of the 40ish dine-in spots, you’ll want to arrive before 12:30. After eating at Sweet Lulus for years, it still continues to satisfy. Their model of ordering at the cash register, getting a number to bring back to your seat, and then your meal gets delivered to the table is now widely used across the city – seven years ago, it seemed like a genius idea.    

As much as I love airy opulent dining rooms, there’s something about a small mom-and-pop shop that brings comfort. A feeling that soon I’ll be nourished with something hearty and I’m really supporting someone (not a massive corporation) in the process. Hence, when South China Noodles Delight came on the radar, a two-person team in a 20-seat restaurant, I bee lined there as soon as it opened and found it mercifully had no line.  

Despite furnishing the place with the narrowest tables I’ve ever seen (construction workers may mistake the thing for a work bench), the dishes are substantial – for a table of three we ordered two large bowls with a side of boiled vegetables ($4) and it was enough to satisfy. Small versions are available for $2 less.

The ox tail vermicelli in soup ($13) is the perfect combination of bites of tender beef augmented with bits of sticky chewy tendon. It arrives steaming and with all the bones and cartilage, the soup base was certainly hearty – a bit salty on its own, but goes wonderfully with the neutral noodles.

Without a doubt, the pork chop ($9) vermicelli is a great deal: incorporating at least two large lightly dusted deep fried pork chops, made fresh to order. For this, we tried the dry option, which still uses a layer of soy sauce broth at the bottom but is then also topped with pickled preserved vegetables. For me, it’s a little bland, but with a couple of drops of fragrant chili oil became tastier.

As a warning, the restaurant is small, so leave the strollers outside, refrain from wearing a huge jacket (it’ll reek like food anyways), and there’s nowhere to hang a purse so bringing a compact bag is key.

Nonetheless, South China Noodles Delight makes a great bowl of noodles. Not to the point that it would warrant travelling great distances for – after all, the entire meal lasts under an hour. But, if you’re hungry and in the mood for some hearty “home-cooking”, bring an appetite and your craving will be sedated.