Sunny Food Mart

My boyfriend was feeling like pho for dinner tonight, so I met up with him at our usual place in a strip mall just south of Don Mills and Eglinton. We needed milk at home, and he mentioned how he thought there might be a grocery store nearby.

Was there ever!

Tucked into one end of the strip mall, and pretty invisible from the street, was this really clean, large grocery store - Sunny Food Mart. We were only in the place for a short time, but I was amazed. It is essentially a Chinese and Middle Eastern grocery store COMBINED. If a T&T and Adonis (my favorite Montreal Lebanese grocery store) had a baby, it would be Sunny.

Really, really huge produce section and a great meat section filled with large cuts of lamb, goat and ducks as well as the usual suspects. The frozen seafood section was also big (a la T&T) and they had an entire room set aside in the store for fresh fish and seafood. They had a bakery section that had chinese buns sitting side by side baklava. And there was a hot deli counter featuring the usual dim sum and chinese take out stuff side by side some yummy looking samosas.

The place is obviously playing to its market - Flemingdon Park has big Chinese and Middle Eastern and Central Asian populations. And at 6pm on a weeknight, it was pretty packed with shoppers.

We only spent a few minutes in the place because we were in a rush to get home, but we'll be returning soon for a real, in-depth grocery field trip. Anyone go there often and have some good recommendations on what to look out for in particular?

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Post wedding reception for a group of 30-40

Argonaut Rowing Club? They have a great (but smallish) patio attached to their function room which overlooks Lake Ontario. Not super fancy, but a nice low-key spot (and you can bring in any caterer you want!)

http://www.argonautrowingclub.com/Content/Facilities%20and%20Rentals/Rooms.asp

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Diana's Seafood opening restaurant

My boyfriend and I finally made it out to Diana's this past weekend to pick up some oysters (amazing Fanny Bays!) We were both super excited to see that work seems to be gearing up on the restaurant/oyster bar in front of the retail unit - including a posting on the wall that they were hiring front of house staff. A quick look inside gave a glimpse of some tables and chairs (I think) and everything appeared to be freshly painted and relatively clean - i.e. more of a finished restaurant than construction site.

Any word on when the place should be opening? The July 2011 deadline has passed...

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Special Birthday Meal Recommendation Needed – omakase?

I will be in New York with a friend in mid-November and she has very generously agreed to take me out for a special birthday meal of my choice while we are in town. Yippee, right? Except, faced with the idea of eating out in NY anywhere I like (optimally wanting to keep things between $100-$150 pp at the most) I am now overwhelmed with options and turn to you for your guidance.

I am a sushi/Japanese nut. Living in Toronto our options are a limited for real Omakase and I was thinking that could be fantastic.

The background:

We will be staying in midtown, but are happy to travel anywhere in Manhattan or within a 20 minute subway ride in the boroughs. I’ll be turning 27 and she’s in her 40s.

We are both adventurous foodies except I have a strong aversion to peanuts and she is allergic to avocado so the restaurant would need to accommodate that.

Any recommendation has to be somewhere where two women dining together will not be treated poorly by servers (which we have sadly encountered before!)

Finally, wherever we end up must accept reservations.

While I would love to go somewhere hip with nice décor, the most important thing is the quality of the food. No loud music.

Also, I don’t want to end up someplace so authentic that the fact that we don’t speak Japanese would be an issue.

I would want to do an omakase that is not *only* sushi and which has an inventive and playful side.

A place with really good sake selection, or which (even better), offers a drinks pairing to its omakase is preferred.

The options under consideration:

I went to 15 East last time I was in the city, but was working on a budgets so limited myself to the octopus appetizer and sashimi combination. It was lovely, but I would like to try somewhere else this time.

I have looked at the following options and would love your feedback on them all:

Sushi Yasuda
Blue Ribbon
Matsuri
Megu Midtown or New York
Morimoto
Matsugen
Nobu

Am I missing anything? What are your thoughts on the above?

Thanks in advance!

-----
15 East
15 East 15th Street, New York, NY 10003

Sushi Yasuda
204 E 43rd St, New York, NY 10017

Nobu
105 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10013

Matsuri
369 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

Morimoto
88 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10011

Megu
845 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017

Matsugen
241 Church Street, New York, NY 10013

elkerette in Manhattan

Good pick-up food around St. Clair-Bathurst area

It's a little further west than St. Clair/Bathurst (St. Clair and Christie - 750 St. Clair W.) but Nama Sushi has awesome sushi that is very well priced and of good quality. Very low-key, super nice staff and they do a TON of takeout as their dining room is super tiny.

-----
Nama Sushi
750 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, ON M6C1B5, CA

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

What to eat at Amaya Bread Bar

I went to Bread Bar for the first time at the end of September for a friend's mini birthday celebration. Two kids at the table had jalapeno onion rings, a veggie dish, a butter chicken and assorted na'an plate à la carte. My friend and I each had the tasting menu.

The tasting menu is a LOT OF FOOD. I am a big eater but this thing totally did me in given the number of courses that they cram in. They do, however, let you doggie bag the tasting menu so, if you want a little bit of everything, this is the wya to go. If you have a teeny, tiny appetite (rare for 'hounds, but who knows) I would pick and choose off the à la carte.

Of everything I tried, the lentil dish included in the tasting menu was my favorite, followed by the watermelon shooter amuse. The fish and beef were also excellent.

The kids loved their butter chicken and the jalapeno onion rings. The na'an went quickly too. The veggie dish was a little boring (although that may have been a result of too many other things to taste!)

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

The best thing your school cafeteria served

As a staff member at at boarding school, I *still* eat in high school cafeteria every day. And it can be astoudingly good stuff.

Some favorite items:

1) tabouleh and avocado/shrimp/corn salad from our salad bar
2) chicken piccata
3) vegetarian quesadillas with black beans and freshly made salsa cruda
4) red snapper with mango-jalapeno salsa
5) a beet/green apple/walnut salad that is to die for

Of course, we also get the occasional greasy chicken, frozen burgers and fries too. But the number of good dishes outweigh the awful.

When I worrk weekends I also have access to our Sunday waffle bars.... yum. And then there was the time our chef hand-torched hundreds of pineapple pieces and brown sugar as a dessert for a Carribean themed lunch.

We are all certainly spoiled.

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

Pub w/ Private Room?

Scallywags at Yonge and St. Clair has a great second floor party room that you can book for free!

http://www.scallywags.net/parties.php

I've used them for a University Alumni Association Pub Night and they were really wonderful and accomodating (and relatively cheap!)

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Where to eat on Canadian Thanksgiving?

I'm a Canadian who has accidentally scheduled travel in the states over American Thanksgiving.

Although enjoyed, Canuckian Thanksgiving is NOT the be-all end-all holiday it is the States. Restaurants will be open on Sunday almost certainly, with many open on the Monday - this is especially true if you will be downtown.

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Do you feel strongly about the perfect cracker?

Pre-broken in half Finn Crisps (http://www.vaasan.com/public/en/01_export_products/01_finn_crisp/index.jsp) are my favourite cracker with goat cheese and red pepper jelly... so fibrelicious.

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

St Clair West

As someone who lives west of Christie in a very nice home between St. Clair and Davenport, I will look past your description of my hood as 'ramshackle' and give some of my rec's for the area:

1) La Paloma is the best gelateria in Corso Italia (perhaps all of Toronto) and is indeed at St. Clair and Lansdowne

2) The Big Ragu mentioned below was also very good but the loss of their chef recently has supposedly resulted in a downturn in overall quality

3) Nama Sushi at Arlington and St. Clair makes what I consider to be the best dynamite maki roll in the city. Yum. Yum. Really nice staff as well (Korean though... not Japanese operated if you are that kind of sushi snob)

4) Marcellos is a low-key, family sort of Italian eatery with very good pizza and pastas. Nothing fancy, but great, attentive service and good vibe

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

What do Chowhounds do for a living (besides eat of course)?

I'm a fundraiser for a Canadian University - which means my salary is low (although like many others have mentioned, I do have a cheese budget!)

The one advantage of fundraising is that you have to meet with very, very wealthy people who often end up taking you to very, very nice restaurants to negotiate their gifts... and then they pick up the tab for the food!

elkerette in Not About Food

Grilling Cookbooks

I strongly recommend Weber's own "Real Grilling" cookbook which can be purcashed from their online store, Amazon or other locations (I personally bought my copy in a Toronto-area CostCo!)

http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/shop/product/view.aspx?ProductID=1069

Beautiful photos of each and every recipe...

Also, the Bobby Flay "Boy Meets Grill" book is great (I noticed that you were already thinking about Flay) although this one doesn't have tons of pictures.

elkerette in Home Cooking

Who serves your favourite tabbouleh?

It is indeed bulgur wheat and not couscous - a common enough misconception given that they are both small Middle Eastern pasta-like balls.

A surprisingly good source of ready-made tabouleh is CostCo (believe it or not). Normally it is stored near the cheese/pasta sauce areas.

My favourite way to eat tabouleh is like a very dry dip on toasted pita wedges... yummers.

elkerette in Ontario (including Toronto)

Things that don't necessarily agree with you, but you eat anyway ...?

More than one slice of bacon after 12-noon will give me such horrific stomach pains starting about three hours after I fall asleep.

Something about bacon fat and lying horizontally when I sleep = blech.

EK

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

What Type of Cheese to Pair with Burgers?

I have always enjoyed a nice big chunk of chevre on burgers... then once the cheese has softened (it doesn't quite melt) I throw a ton of Frank's Red Hot sauce on top of it.

Great creamy, spicy combo.

elkerette in Home Cooking

What else is better in Canada?

As far as I know, my grandmother never drank regular beer at all. She also never wore pants of any sort, just skirts and dresses but that's a WHOLE other story...

She put salt in everything though, so I am sure if she did drink beer, it would involve at least a few twist of a salt mill.

We grandkids memorized the periodic symbol for sodium, NA for Nannie (which is what we called her)!

To get back on topic, salt in regular beer just sounds disgusting.

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

What else is better in Canada?

I do know which one you are talking about... it's nearby to the Bell Centre and is called Restaurant Bertrand. I believe it is indeed still there.

Here is a blog posting about the place (not mine) from 2002 which describes the spruce beer there in more detail:

http://www.blork.org/blorkblog/2002/09/20/prelude-to-a-grease-bath/

I never actually made it inside unfortunately (it's in one of those areas you have to either live in or plan a special trip to)

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

What else is better in Canada?

Spruce beer is still widely available in QC. The best description of it is delicious carbonated turpentine.

My grandmother from the Point St. Charles area of Montreal (think uber poor working class Irish/French ghetto) insisted that in order to be properly enjoyed you had to add a dash of salt to spruce beer immediately upon opening the bottle. This would make the stuff foam a little and would, actually, bring out more savoury tones to the beverage (as opposed to just sweetness).

Most grocery stores have a store-brand version including (the ones I know about) Loblaws/President's Choice and IGA/Our Compliments. Crush also makes a mean biere d'epinette.

There are also several smaller manufacturers.

I would kill, kill, kill to be able to get it here in Toronto (especially given that Loblaws and IGA are everywhere in this province!) So far no luck. An attempt to contact breuvagesmarco.com about shipping it to me has returned no reply.

I will have to make do with driving literally DOZENS of cases back with me after every trip to Montreal.

elkerette in General Chowhounding Topics

Help with a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff

Thank you all so much for your help with this... I did end up making something very similar to the recipe above (substituting mild gouda for the smoked gouda).

You can see the results of the competition in my housemate's youtube video (I was contestant C - aka the woman in the blue shirt whose Mac n' cheese was on the multicoloured dessert plates)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3R-RAADQTI

The sight of my housemate's youngest daughter singing the Mac n' cheese song she made up is worth the time of viewing the video alone!

elkerette in Home Cooking

Help with a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff

I understand where you are coming from regarding the small addition of a hot ingredient to add to the total flavour while not making the dish actually "hot". It is something I will definitely consider along with the stilton siggestion.

elkerette in Home Cooking

Help with a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff

Only on chowhound could the description of a highly competitive macaroni and cheese cookoff among friends be taken seriously AND include a reply from someone who did the same a few weeks before!

I love the idea of the secret layer of panko in bottom and will probably use it!

elkerette in Home Cooking

Help with a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff

All four judges live for Bacon which made me think of at least sauteeing the onions in bacon grease.

Unfortunately, one of the other competitors is a vegetarian, and to keep things fair, we are not allowing the use of meat.

:(

elkerette in Home Cooking

Help with a Macaroni and Cheese Cookoff

You folks officially rock btw. Keep the suggestions coming.

The one response I have thus far is regarding the hot sauce suggestion of snoboardbabe77. The two girls don't like hot stuff along with Mr. Late 30s so that has to be out.

I *do* think one of the other competitors is going to go with his standard reciepe which I know includes siracha sauce.

BTW clarification - I accidentally wrote jarlsberg as being the 7 year old's favourite cheese when in reality in is provolone (I believe).

I think the non-smoked gouda is a go(u)d idea too! :)

elkerette in Home Cooking