Monday, September 24, 2007

Utopia

586 College Street
(416) 534-7751


Description: very chill, small place - a bit too cozy - with a charming back patio, brisk service (water refilled every minute), lots of veggie/vegan options (veggie burger, crispy fried tofu, or grilled tofu)

Price: Around $10 sandwiches, burgers, and wraps

What we ordered:

Breakfast Burrito: big, with a rich filling of sausage, and chedder cheesy soft buttery scrambled, or freshly deeply green looking baby greens well dressed

Veggie burger, fries & wasabi mayo: on a foccacia-esque bun flecked with herbs - a bit on the dry side, maybe day old, but definitely from a nice bakery - a thick char fragrant satisfying flavourful soy patty served with red onion, dill pickle slice, tomato, and lettuce - so huge I couldn't finish it. Flavoured mayo options ho-ya! Comes with a choice of giant side of hand cut fries so good I had to bag the rest



Friday, September 21, 2007

Mezes Greek Restaurant

456 Danforth Ave (near Logan)
416-778-5150


Description:
Busy on a Thursday night with a constant line-up, stylish enough for a date, casual enough for family dining, friendly and just right attentive service. Known for their self-titled name, large variety of mezze to share

What we ordered:

Small dip platter (hummus, tzaziki, baba ghanoush & spicy feta - creamy, flavourful, addictive - you'll need an extra order of the hot buttered thick pita rounds)

Grilled Calamari (perfect! Just slightly crisp exterior, smoky grill flavour, sweet oh so tender squid, goes great with the tzaziki)

Grilled Eggplant (a large whole eggplant - it's skin missing, having been presumabley charred and removed, silky, lovely spread on the pita, accented with bhaba for a double eggplant kick)

Chicken Souvlaki and Fried Calamari dinner (comes with a typical salad of ice berg lettuce, some crumbled feta and a couple of olives, skip it and save room for the small toothsome rings of calamari; rice and potato as well are ok, standard but not worth taking up room from the meat and seafood)

Prices: Mezzes mostly under $10, more for seafood and meat, meals around $15

Note: overpriced wines! 32.95 for a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz?


Friday, September 14, 2007

The Tulip

1606 Queen Street East (at Coxwell)
416-469-5797

Description:
It's been around since 1929 and is still a beloved neighborhood diner with line-ups out the door at all meal times for a reason.

On the Menu:
breakfast, steak, hot sandwiches, 2 kinds of spaghetti, cheap bottles of domestic beer

What We Ordered:

Peameal Eggs Benedict (huge serving, greasy sliced homefries, points off for packaged Hollandaise - apparently the same kind they use at Victory Cafe)

Open-faced Turkey (nice gravy - goes great with the homefries)

Burger (plain, but filling, fries extra - from the freezer, but the extra crispy battered kind)

Spaghetti (on the daily special menu -cheap- huge again, but your basic store bought sauce & pasta)

Prices: Under $10, except for the steak

Going back?

Yes! Steak!

Note: all day breakfast is advertised, but we're told this isn't the case




Eggspectation


220 Yonge Street (at Shuter) Toronto Eaton Center location
(416) 977-3380
www.eggspectation.ca

It was more than 10 years ago during a crazy weekend in Montreal - a first with some of my teenage friends during an trip which included: narrowly escaping a 20 car pile-up on the 404, buying beer at some grotty club expecting hip hop but getting instead then unknown Backstreet Boys (or at least that's what we think) performing which caused us to leave in a huff (this isn't hip hop!) - and eating a giant satisfying breakfast (what's a mensch?) at the booth beside Aidan Quinn on location for that dreadful film "The Assignment".

But today, what stands out in my mind was a desire to go back and have at the giant plate of potato latkes, bagels, and more. So, when I heard it became a giant chain and there was one in Toronto, it was on my list of haftas.

Finally years later, we made a double date for brunch. Warned by D that there was usually a line up, we made sure to get in there to leave our names asap. They wouldn't seat us until all of our party arrived.

I was delighted by the multiple offerings of bennies (their Signature Eggsbenedict menu) and opted for the California because it sounded partly healthy, boasted a combo of asparagus and spinach, smoked salmon, and gruyere atop whole wheat toast.

There was no giant bread basket, although we did get served a basket of toast which seemed to come with everyone's order.

My plate had a lax presentation effort and paltry everything - like not even a decent slice of the salmon or more than a couple of bites of spinach. The hollandaise was rich and tasty, again, just a touch, this dish overall more of a diet plate then a Sunday treat eat out. The toast became soggy and was unappealing. The only thing decent was the coffee refills.

Although now they serve lunch and dinner, I'd rather try Cora's again.


The Veggie Challenge


Inspired by a recent visit to the 2007 Vegetarian Food Fair held at Harborfront Centre two weeks ago, I signed up for one week veggie challenge.

Why?

It all started six years ago. I was watching an episode of the X-Files and eating leftover shiu mai for dinner. As the events of the episode unfolded, merely the opening sequence before the show intro, I spat out the suddenly offensive dim sum and cringed. Somehow the image of a 300 hundred pound man sitting atop a blood-soaked motel room bed, his body having housed a child-sized Indian man simutaneously experienced with the taste of pork fat drippings in my mouth created a sudden realization: you are eating dead flesh.

Disgusted by anything flesh, I went almost vegan for 2 weeks (eggs completely grossed me out), but I continued to consume dairy. I eventually went the lacto ovo route finding it too difficult otherwise because at that time I thought salty beans were disgusting (I was used to red and green bean soup desserts) and soy cheese at that time tasted like solid margarine (although I have yet to try today's non-dairy cheese products).

Then I moved to Taiwan.

Quite popular are the "veggie buffets" scattered throughout Taipei. Due to the prevelance of Buddhism, many Taiwanese will occasionally eat vegetarian meals; the restrictions similar to a yogic diet. The Chinese Buddhist vegetarian diet is exclusive of meat and seafood (of course), dairy, garlic and onions. This was important to remember when dining out at "western" style places when I requested a dish be vegetarian. They would ask if you ate "complete vegetarian" or "healthy vegetarian" because if you agreed to the prior, they wouldn't serve you anything with garlic or onion. Hence, asking for a veggie pizza at Domino's, you might get your pizza sauceless or substituted with ketchup!

Most of the Vegetarians I met were usually westerners. It seemed the Taiwanese didn't really understand why one wouldn't want to eat animals, especially since they eat every part they can including ears, tongues, feet, and eyes. Not only would mention when you ordered that you didn't want "meat", you'd have to specifically say you don't want cow, pork, chicken, or fish. It seemed to be true in most Asian countries I'd visited. Once in Seoul, I asked my friend to order me something as he read and spoke Korean. The only thing I could have was the noodle dish. We reconfirmed with the waitress that it didn't have meat. When I dug in, I immediately knew something wasn't right. It was noodles alright, but jammed in an intestinal casing. Ew. We complained, but they still insisted, "it isn't meat."

It seemed difficult for people to understand unless you brought in the religious context, or they assumed you were doing it for that reason. It was believed that you could pray for things you wanted or wished to happen, and in exchange make a sort of bargain to eat vegetarian for a certain duration. Let's say, "I'll eat veggie for a week in hopes I get this new job." So, some restaurants will serve mock-meat dishes whimsically, painstakingly putting a glutin protein on a real bone to simulate a drumstick. Since a majority are part-timers, they didn't find this offensive or contradictory.

I frequented these restaurants often. They are buffet style in that you serve yourself, and then pay for your food by weight. Sometimes they offer all you can eat after prime time for the steal of a mere 2 or 3 dollars. Although my favorite was deep fried oyster mushrooms with spicy basil, I did choose the mock meats having acquired a taste for soy meat from many a packet of Yves Veggie dogs. (I once found them at with glee at a high end grocery store to pay an exorbitant $8.30 Cdn!)

Not having a real kitchen to cook for myself, and tired of eating the same things, I started to eat seafood. Then I broke down one day and ordered a steak. I blame it on the fake meats!

For two years, I could easily detect even a whiff of chicken broth used in a seemingly meatless dish, and couldn't stand it. How was I able to go from that to 10 oz steaks?

I think it was the mix of being around former veggies who raved about going back to meat due to the difficulty of eating right in Asia, and the scandal that 70% of all mock meats in Taiwan had meat juice or oils as flavouring agents.

In any case, I always promised myself when I moved back to Toronto that I'd be veggie again because it was one place you could do it quite easily and affordabley.

I was hoping for new ideas from the annual Vegetarian Food Fair held by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. They provided helpful pamphlets, guides to local eateries and restaurants, as well as a starter kit for those willing to try their 1 week vegetarian challenge.

When I signed up, I thought, sure no sweat. Maybe it will be a good way to kick start a true lifestyle change. Sampling the various products (or trying to, as they had quite a turn-out), I discovered many new foods that I hoped would be readily available at your average grocery store.

Favourites:

Tofurky line of slices and sausages: absolutely delicious and makes Yves taste like cardboard (although, some might say it doesn't need the help, as one vegan disdainfully said to me, "I'd rather eat a real hot dog than a veggie dog!)

So Soya trail mix: crunchy, nicely spiced with variations that include chocolate chips. Even better than the soy, black bean, raisin, pepita mix you can find at Chinese grocers.

Chocolate mint soy cream: the strong flavours masked the soy (unlike the limp mango flavour) and had a rich smooth texture.

Not soy good

Tofu kebabs: Shrink-wrapped marinated tofu slices (they have a store at St. Lawrence Market) which were a bit too salty and really not worth the price. You can buy your own firm tofu and marinate it yourself for a fraction of the cost. However, the wrap with curry flavoured tofu, lettuce, red onion, and poppy seed dressing was super delish.

Food Stalls:

The Indian and Hare Krishna were surprisingly bland. There are loads of restaurants throughout Toronto that serve standard dishes like chana masala or various dals. Maybe they were vegan though, and missing the ghee? Except that the HK halava (my first taste of this buttery semolina and raisin concoction) was rich and addictive.

There were many more I didn't get a chance to taste: sushi, dim sum, Jamaican patties, not to mention the plethora of sweets: cakes, cookies, bars. Also of interest were specialty services such as weekly deliveries of organic groceries, or gourmet vegan prepared meals.

With this seemingly vast array of tasty, heart-healthy options, wouldn't it be easy?

As I poured over the Vegetarian Starter Kit, I noticed that what they were promoting was more of a vegan diet, suggesting that you also go dairy and egg free. If you've read my blog before, you'll note that the only thing I order for brunch is Eggs Benedict. And as I've mentioned, I love cheese.

Looks like this isn't going to be as easy as I thought. Good thing I like beans now. As I slowly make the transition to first, a L-O level, (baby steps!), I will be trying out and rating veg products.