Well no one has started one this year so I thought I'd start it this year.

I go every year and this year, we ate at Thai Chef. They make the pad thai right there in the wok fresh when you order it. No pre-made pad thai. It was just over $10 and included a spring roll. We had both the regular pad thai and the basil pad thai. I really liked the basil pad thai as I have never had it before and loved the thai basil flavour. Nice people too!

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Thai Chef Restaurant
300 Lakeshore Rd E, Oakville, ON L6J1J2, CA

It's for less than 10 people, food quality is more important than atmosphere.

What's your favourite? Driving is not an issue. Thanks It's for a birthday dinner.

I know there's a ton of places on bathurst to go shopping for kosher chicken, but I am downtown College street. Anybody know where I can find kosher uncooked chicken downtown? thx.

hmm if you posted it earlier I can't find it.. anyhow, it doesn't sound it has impressed anyone yet anyhow

hi all,

what's your favourite way of cooking chicken thighs without using a store bought sauce?

Thanks

Yes I'd say it's new....but I figured the chowhounders would be the first to know about it. I haven't had time to stop and lock my bike up to walk in and find out what they offer. But if anyone here lives close by...please report! I've had less time to investigate restaurants since having a child!

hi there,

nope I've been to pomegranate. It's across the street from them.

Hi all,

I keep bicycling by a restaurant on the south side of college street, it looks persian or morrocan
ajlwash?? I never seem to get the name right as I keep trying to find reviews of it anywhere and to no avail.

Can anyone help me with the name of the restaurant? The type of cuisine it is? and if anyone has eaten there...what's it like?

Thanks

I am sad to hear Il Gelatiere has gone downhill as it was a favourite to go to last summer. I tried a new place at the taste of little itaty at Creme. It's a patisserie but they have a few flavours and we had the pistascio nut gelato and it was really good. Anyhow else tried this place yet?

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Il Gelatiere
647 Mt Pleasant Rd, Toronto, ON M4S, CA

Aloha chowhounders,

I will be visiting Oahu April 1-15, staying in Waikiki (with in-laws & it's free) and likely doing some eating in. I've looked at restaurant recommendations already but couldn't find any suggestions on where to buy sashimi. I think I could just eat that for a week though I'd have to go shopping for it each day to keep it fresh.

I'd appreciate if you could tell me if I could get there by public transport (bus) or if I'd have to drive. We will be renting a car part of the time but not the entire time we're there.

much appreciated.

Thanks for the the tips I got but since I got so few recommendations on downtown, I thought I should give an account of what I did get and it was very good.

I ended up going back to Pearl Harbourfront Chinese Restaurant. It was my 2nd time there. There were 6 of us. We had har gow, sui mai, chicken feet, turnip cake, taro balls, scallop dumplings (these weren't too exciting), spinach & spring dumplings, shrimp spring rolls w/ sweet & sour sauce(very clean not greasy), eggplant stuffed with shrimp, octopus deep fried( tasty but a bit too much MSG), curried baby octopus, shrimp wontons with ginger sauce (this was new to us and one of everyone's favourites), shrimp cheung fun, deep fried black sesame balls with black sesame paste inside(nice change from white, I think another shrimp dumpling too but they weren't as good at the shrimp wontons.

Cost for $172 plus tip. we did have multiple of the har gow as my son (#7 in our party) only eat these dumplings. We also had doubles of some of the other dishes.

We didn't get a window seat which is one of the nice things about the place but the food was very fresh, mostly hot (some warm) and there wasn't a long wait for food and it came on the carts. I would recommend it as place to go if you're downtown and they take reservations so that's a nice thing to not have to wait 1/2 to get a seat.

The one downside is parking is expensive there. We went on Sunday and parked next door for $12 and that was the cheapest we could find. But I still think it's worth going to if you don't want to drive uptown.

the best butter I've had so far is beurre echire. I did buy some over xmas at st.lawrence markets as listed in this thread. I don't know if you'd want to bake with it as it is so good but I did consider making shortbread with it just to see how good it would be.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/427255
I get fresh farm eggs at the market too. though sadly, the original egg man died late 2009 and new people are there selling eggs on the north side of the market. on saturdays, they have thursday eggs there..so I think that's pretty fresh.

I thought I'd attempt to see what would come up for recommendations as I have read some of the earlier threads on Yangs, Case Imperial and others up north and I will go to one of those places when it's warmer and I want to drive up there but for now...let's talk downtown.

So truly for those who actually eat downtown, where do you go and why? price? variety, no carts, carts?
I have been to Rol San, Bright Pearl, Pearl Harbourfront, Sky Dragon though I haven't been to any place in particular in a while. I was also curious as to how Gerrard street compares to Spadina.

thx.

Thanks for the suggestions. I will check the store on Queen Street and Danforth. I have bought the Zatoun before. It doesn't taste the same as the olive oil I am speaking of.

hi all,

My friend had brought me back a bottle from Jordan and I'm out. She tells me it's hard to find olive oil made of olives from these areas. In fact, she hasn't found any here.

If anyone knows, you would know..so can I find it anywhere here?

Thanks

thanks for the info on that. that explains why our butter doesn't taste as good as I remember growing up.

oh I forgot I have been to maple yip before on Charles Yu suggestion and it was wonderful, good and fresh but my son who is 2 hated how loud it was there.

okay I've been reading all the posts from the past and still can't decide which would be the best place to go tonight. I know it's late as it's already 2pm on Sunday but I thought I'd ask anyways.
I am not as worried about price as I am about quality of food and atmosphere. Since I don't have a reservation anywhere, maybe a suggestion as to time I should go before it gets really busy would be helpful.

What I am looking for is good seafood, fresh vegetables, Cantonese style cuisine. If possible not too crazy loud as it can be. from this list which would you choose based on that criterion or if do you have another suggestion?

this list is from Charle's Yu posting and his suggestions from another post on chinese food.

Yang's
Emperor
Regal Palace
Wu-Yi Villa
O Mei,
Regal16
Casa Victoria,
Judy's Cuisine,
Fantasy Eatery,
Legend, - this is northern chinese I think so I ruled this one out.
Tanchikee,
Ambassador

that's great...I will give it a try next time I am there. thanks for doing the research!

I finally got to try them as I had to see for myself if they were that bad or that good...as I have read good things about them. I asked what their chocolate source was and it's Bernard Callebaut so that's decent chocolate (JS bonbons used the same when she was around).
I did love the salted caramel and the raspberry and chai. A friend told me the chocolate isn't as good as Soma's, obviously, but the fillings are intense. I agree, you don't need to see the label to figure out what they are, the fillings are so intense, the raspberry filling in the white chocolate was so raspberry...it was very good. I didn't try the spanish flavours so I can't comment on the chorizo chocolate.
My main complaint would be there wasn't enough dark chocolate selections as I love dark.
I also had their dark chocolate covered orange rind (really good) and I don't usually like orange and chocolate but I couldn't stop eating them. And they were especially good with the chocolate sorbet. Very tasty, reminded me of the chocolate sorbet from Gelato Fresco, Toscano Black which you can only get on special order.
Definitely worth a 2nd visit and I will save room for ice cream or sorbet again.

when I can't get out to London to buy Arva Flour, I go here, Grain Process Enterprises
115 Commander Boulevard
Scarborough, ON M1S 3M7
(416) 291-3226
They aren't open late and I didn't get a chance to even call as there isn't always someone answering but they do have spelt flour (white and whole in large bags) but I didn't look for the high gluten flour. But I believe you will find it there. They also had organic unbleached wheat too.

I was there opening day 1.75 for admission! going back this weekend to shop. I have been disappointed with the food selections at the CNE and last Friday I ate at the ribfest and had some good ribs there. So if you like ribs there were 4 purveyors selling their ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and at least of them had beef ribs even. Some were even selling their bbq sauce.
I still love tiny tom donuts and read an article that you can get coupons off their website buy 2 dozen get the 3rd free. much better than buy 4 get the 5th free! here's a link to their website.
http://www.tinytomdonuts.com/
I couldn't even find really good hand cut fries. I am not a fan of the curly q fries. I like my fries reg. cut or thick. The thin stringy ones just get crispy and crunchy without any substance. So I am disappointed with the CNE these days.

p.s. i miss the billy bee honey booth too! I dont remember the sally lee marshmallows.

hi all,

I was told by a friend there was a good german bakery around markham and lawrence, if so, would anyone know the name? Or if not, anyone know of one in the GTA? I am looking for strudel and black forest cake.

thanks

this was asked about before...and I copied a link ..here it is again

http://www.abitofhome.ca/page/C1/PROD... which has SKIPs brand that you can order here.

http://www.glencoltonfarms.com/ Here's a link to Michael Schmidt who sells shares of his cows so people can have access to raw milk as you are an owner, not a buyer. Anyhow, he has been going to court over it. He may be able to help you with this.

I just happened to be looking myself and found this link on-line. According to them, forbes was the only one selling them fresh but many locations had them frozen.

http://www.augustsharvest.com/wtb.php

wow...thanks for all the reviews....I think we'll have to just wing it and see how hungry we are when we get there. I like the idea of having 2 different price points just to see what the difference is. I'll keep reading everyone's reviews...but thanks for the help.

hi all,

I will going for my first time next weekend and was wondering if anyone has been there more than once to have the $80, $100 and $120 menu.

a) How much food do you get at $80 or $100
b) it is worth upgrading to the $100? let alone the $120?

Thanks

I haven't looked if there are plastic parts but you can also buy one at the korean supermarket on bloor street in little korea at the P.A.T.