Wang's Kitchen

Location:

4559 Hurontario Street, Mississauga

Apart from the date pancake I had...the food is just okay at this Kitchen.  But maybe that's only 'cause I do like Maraschino cherries.

TRAVEL: India, Delhi: Yo China!

Location:

Third Floor, City Square Mall, Rajouri Garden, Delhi

www.yo-china.com

Definitely one of the highlights from our trip to Delhi was eating chinese food.  That may sound weird, but chinese food in India is simply superb!  It's spicy and flavourful in the way that chinese food isn't in the west.  The closest you can get to that taste is haka chinese and Spadina Garden comes close, which is why it's a fave of mine.

We were treated to an open menu dinner by the wonderful owners of Yo China!

The service was outstanding, and the presentation of the dishes, exquisite.

Just take a look:

Honey Chilly Potato Fries, which is their signature dish - crispy potato fingers, stir fried in the wok with honey chilly sauce & sesame seeds

Honey Chilly Potato - RS 79

Chilli Chicken, Dry:

Chilli Chicken Dry  - RS 89

Prawns tossed with ginger lemon coriander sauce:

Prawn Singtu RS 159

Chicken Satay:

Chicken Satay RS 139

Legendary Malha Sizzler:Babycorn, Beans, Broccoli, Mushroom and black mushroom, red and yellow peppers tossed in the legendary Malha sauce served on a sizzler

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="576" caption="Chicken Satay RS 139"]

Legendary Malha
Sizzler

[/caption]

Dumplings

Dumplings

Inside the dumplings

Lobster (off menu)

ChickenFried Rice 69

American Chop suey

Devil's Chocolate Cake With Ice Cream

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="342" caption=" Yo ! Snicker Sundae"]
[/caption]

By the time the lobster came out, we were fully stuffed 'cause the portions are massive.

And then when the dessert came out, well, I wasn't going to refuse this:

Highly recommended!!!

All around a fantastic place to get chinese food!

Canton Chilli

Location:
418 Spadina Ave., Toronto
cantonchilli.com

For HUGE portions of good hakka chinese, look no further than Canton Chilli on Spadina.

I can't get over the dissimilarity between the website and the restaurant. But hey, they have a website!

Anyway, we chose from the special group menu which included soup and spring rolls. Each of us had to order a main from the list. So we chose wisely (it was late though and we'd had some beers earlier, so not all of the following may be true): Hunan Tofu, Eggplant in Garlic Sauce, Hunan Chicken, General Tso Chicken, Szechuan Beef.

The hot and sour soup really WAS hot, all of us were in tears and sweats.



That alone was a meal in itself, but we were greedy and wanted more! MORE!

Here's more:













All of it spicy, all of it delicious!

Aside from the one hair we found, and now I can't even recall where it was found, this place is what I like to call, yummaloush!



And look, FREE PARKING!! It says.

TRAVEL: India: Delhi: Haldirams

Location:

somewhere in Delhi

www.haldiram.com

Anyone who has ever visited an Indian family's home or is Indian is familiar with the Haldiram's symbol.  See below (image from Google)


No Indian tea-time is complete  without Haldiram's.

A bag of bhel puri or chiwda will always be kicking around the cupboard of an Indian home.

So think of the impact of going to a Haldiram's RESTAURANT.  I was amazed, astounded, in awe of the industry that is Haldiram's.

Look at the number of servers behind this counter as you walk in:

now that's service !

There were three people asking me what I'd like.

And then there's the sweets.  My God, the sweets!  Imagine the biggest Indian Mithai (sweet) shop you've been to in Toronto, then triple that!  Row after row of delectable goodness...all so fresh, too!

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeets

Then there's the "restaurant" part of it, more like fast food, where you pre-order then wait in line and bring back your goods to round tables that you stand at to eat.  It was lunch time when we went and incredibly packed so at least they've figured out that putting chairs into the equation would be a waste of time.

The chinese food was delish!!!  Made specifically for taste buds that can appreciate spice.  I don't know why fries are a chinese dish in India, but we saw it a lot.  Spicy fries.  Can't complain though, I'd never be able to get spicy fries in the Western world unless I made it myself.

the chinese food (with fries)

The channa batura was....well, see for yourself.

channa batura!

HUGE!

You even have to go through a security check/terminal to enter Haldirams.

Now, that's hard-core!

Oaks Gardens Restaurant

Location:


128 Speers Road, Oakville, ON

Cost: $25 for 2

For chinese take-out this place is always reliable. Consistently tasty and they always use good cuts of meat - chicken breast in everything!  The orange chicken (sweet or spicy; had both) is delish! And the portions are huge - and they're not stingy (ie. always loads of shrimps in the fried rice!). We've never sat in, only always done take-out or delivery...but we've never been disappointed.

Inexpensive and yummy chinese in the Ville!

Lots of shrimp in the shrimp fried rice

Chicken

Shanghai noodles with chicken

Orange Chicken

Swatow

Location: 309 Spadina Avenue, Toronto

Cost: $25 for 3 (with one split entree)

I've got a serious case of the sleepies as I type this 'cause I've just eaten at Swatow. General Tso wouldn't be proud...but it doesn't really matter because it's not the 1800s and I've only just had his namesake in chicken.

At $12.50, we assumed that the General Tso Chicken would be a large platter fit for two to share. Good thing I wasn't too hungry! I know my friend who shared the dish with me was just being polite and waited until I urged him to finish the rest.

We both agreed that the dried red chillies in the dish were hoooo-ooot!



A steamed rice cost an additional $1.60.

My other friend dined on the Assorted Meats with Vegetables on Rice for only $6.25!!! And his plate was heaped with assortment!



The restaurant is tiny and brightly lit! And there was a line-up after we sat down. Definitely a busy spot for lunch.



While the food is tasty, I still much prefer Spadina Garden and House of Gourmet where I know I can count on going home with more to eat later!



Still, everyone who passed by when I was trying to capture the exterior (and this is the second shot), craned their necks for a fleeting glance at the menu!

Spadina Garden

Location:

114 Dundas Street West, Toronto

Cost: $50 for 2

One of our friends has been talking about this place for so long, claiming it to be his favourite chinese restaurant. Ever. And we had tried, on numerous occasions, to eat-in (and even do take-out from) there, with no luck.

So, it became the perfect dinner venue for us on the night we saw WALL-E at the AMC theatre at Yonge and Dundas. There was no question where we really wanted to eat, even after a walk down Elm St. with all the fancier places (like Oro, Thirty-Five, Adega - which I actually DO want to try sometime) toting their Summerlicious menus and vacant patios.

Spadina Garden doesn't have a patio, but I suspect if it did, it would be packed. it does however, have a very nicely decorated interior with very comfortable chairs.



Since we had less than an hour to eat, we looked around at what other people were enjoying and asked our host what he recommended on the menu. His suggestions mirrored our own for the most part, so we went with the dry chilli chicken, the chicken in ginger sauce, a vegetable noodle dish and later decided we also wanted shrimp fried rice instead of plain rice.

We were warned that it would all be too much but we were inclined and happy to finish the rest the next day.

Our vegetable noodles came out in no time. Colourful and crisp.



Then our chicken in ginger sauce arrived....which I thought looked like it may have been the dry chilli chicken.



But then the dry chilli chicken arrived...



The fact that all the dishes reached the table separately bugged us a little bit. I'd have preferred having everything arrive together, at once, so that we wouldn't have been eating noodles first, and then chicken in ginger sauce and then dry chilli chicken.

And how about the shrimp fried rice, you want to know. Well, we had to double check that they'd received our order. They had. And there it was...



With lots of shrimp dispersed within the rice.

But, Foodhogger, how did it all TAAAASTE???

Incredible! Very spicy (we asked for it), fresh and not greasy. It's very good chinese food...maybe a bit haka-ish.

Speaking of spicy, we also requested a SIDE of hot sauce and this is what arrived at our table! None of that Tabasco s***.



You might be interested to know that the left-overs were even BETTER the second (and third - yep, that's right) time around. Highly recommended. Thanks friend.

House of Gourmet

Location:

484 Dundas St. W.,Toronto

Cost:  $5-20 pp



In the hustle and bustle of Chinatown, you're almost guaranteed to never know where to eat...there are just too many choices!  But once you've tried a place you like, you're almost guaranteed to keep going there.  At least, that's the way I am.  House of Gourmet is one of those places I keep going to. 



The roomy interior is always packed with hungry lunch patrons (it's busiest between 11:30am-12:30pm; this photo was taken around 1pm when it started to empty out a bit).



There's hardly a wait before your food arrives.  The veggie shanghai noodles are delicious and hearty...plenty for four to share. 



Congee...one of the best items on their menu and great on a blustery cold rainy day like the one we had the day we went (I even broke my umbrella on the trek over there).



Schezuan chicken...the best part is that they can make it reaaaaaaaally spicy! Even mild, like the one we had that day, is so flavourful there's never any left over!



The veggie stir fry is crisp! 



I think one of our favourite parts is the lazy susan...and the view...



...but mostly we love going there because it's a quick, affordable and incredibly tasty lunch!  It's also just across the street from a Timmy's.  What more can you ask for?

Chopstick Foods: take-out

Location:

3300 Danforth Avenue
Scarborough, ON
416-691-2104

Take-Out & Delivery
Tues-Sat: 4 PM- 1AM

Cost: under $50 for chicken balls and five mains

If you've ever had Chinese food cravings at midnight and wondered who to call....call Chopstick Foods. Mr. Chopstick himself will deliver your Foods, before he closes. And he's been open since 1955.



Not only will Chopstick Foods cater to you (and your friends') bizarre night-time cravings, but you'll remark at how incredibly fresh the food is! For under $50 you'll have plenty to chew on by way of midnight snacking with lots left over.



It all goes down very well with a lovely glass of home-made sangria. Why, how did you know it was a girls night in?

You'll even consider having Mr. Chopstick over during regular business hours.