Greece: Mykonos, Catari

Location:

Aghia Anna | Old Port, Mykonos Town 84600, Greece

www.catari.gr

What a delightful and delicious find! After our sunset meal, and some window shopping and exploring of the island, we searched for dinner. Coming upon Catari and it's adorable outdoor seating and pretty lights made it an easy choice for a pizza dinner. Enough of gyros and fries, I say. As everything else in Greece, it was pricey, but the service, atmosphere and chilli flakes from home-grown chillis on a delicious pizza pie made for a wonderful evening.

New York City: Dos Caminos

Location:

825 3rd Avenue

New York, NY 10022

www.doscaminos.com

Came highly recommended. Didn't know it was a chain. And for someone who spent more than 8 hours at the Met without eating anything, I was, to say the least, starving. The service was top knotch, and because we said we were incredibly hungry they brought out everything in literally 10 minutes. 

The rice and beans were unlimited, and we (mostly me) had about 5-6 refills. 

The fish dish was spicy just as I ordered, just wonderful. Ah, to have it once more. 

New York City: Sapphire

Location:

1845 Broadway, New York, NY

www.sapphireny.com

After taking in the last runway show at NYFW one evening, I was in the mood for Indian food. We ended up at Sapphire which is near the Lincoln Center and across from Central Park. 

The piping hot peshwari naan is, hands down, the best I've ever had! Our food was served onto our plates. The salmon was marinated and flavourful. And our request for less mutter (peas) and more aloo (potatoes) in the aloo gobi mutter dish was in fact, granted and well-executed. 

Everything was incredible! We literally cleaned up every dish to the last morsel. 

We were so content with our meal that we went over to thank the gentleman at the front and tell him that we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. He ended up being the owner, Satish Arora, who then very graciously offered us drinks and desserts at the bar. We obliged and was amazed when we saw a bottle of Crown Royale in his name! 

We had a wonderful time chatting with Satish about his life in NYC and also found some common links of his in Toronto. The decor is all authentic and brought over from India and the restaurant is very popular with celebrities as well.

Thank you for showing us a delightful time Satish, we look forward to coming back soon! 

MA: Priya Indian Cuisine

Location:

1270 Westford Street, Lowell, MA

www.bostonpriya.com

Looking for amazing Indian food in Massachusetts? Look no further than Priya's. 

Authentic north and south indian fare that's well priced and so delicious. We ordered half the things on the menu (some not pictured) and everything was excellent. Service, although friendly, is a bit slow. One of the tables beside us pre-ordered on the phone prior to coming in, which seemed like a good idea as they sat down after us but were eating well before us. 

Still, a great place for indian food and big enough to host parties and functions. (Photos via underwater camera)

Boston: Border Cafe

Location:

32 Church St., Cambridge, MA

Appearing as though it's the red light district of Harvard Square, this Border Cafe in Cambridge is loud, crowded and welcoming.  

The margaritas were STRONG, the nachos crispy and the Cajun/Mexican mains absolutely delicious.  Each of us in our party of five enjoyed our round-table meal.

I even spilled a drink on my brother in law.

If you can't have a good time here, there is no hope for thou. 

Product Review: Ruchi Pickle

What's wrong with this photo?


Despite this quite humorous typo, the TID bits are very good!

Recipe: Summer Skewers

Here's an easy BBQ recipe for Summer Skewers.

Cut into cubes, desired veggies (like zucchini,eggplant, onions and mushrooms), fruits (like pineapples and/or watermelons).  Optional:  tofu and/or shrimp (marinated in soy sauce, chilli sauce, black bean sauce)

Skew the cubes onto skewers and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and BBQ.



Enjoy with a nice cold beer (such as  London Pride) on a hot summers day.

Recipe: Spicy Baked Tilapia

Okay, here's my latest favourite tilapia recipe. Inspired by Olivado's Lemon Zest Avocado Oil! Nyum nyum.

Ingredients:
8 frozen or fresh tilapia fillets
Enough lemon juice to wash and lightly coat the fillets
2 tbsp Olivado's Lemon Zest Avocado Oil (or any lemon infused oil or olive oil)
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of Ajvar (spicy relish that you can find in any grocery store)
1 tbsp of maple syrup
pepper if desired

Directions:
Set oven to 350 degrees F
Cover two standard baking pans with foil.
Wash the fillets thoroughly with cold water and then with lemon juice.
Place four fillets in each pan.
Lightly drizzle the oil over the fillets.
Add chili, turmeric and salt evenly to fillets, using utensil or hand to rub the dry spices into the fillets, on both sides.
Add Ajvar onto fillets, evenly on both sides.
Drizzle maple syrup on top of fillets.
Add pepper is desired.
*Optional, crush handful of cornflakes and add to the top of fillets.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until fish is tender. Then broil on high for 2-5 minutes (or longer if you prefer it more crispy/dry).

Serve with anything you like (rice, pasta, salad).

Tastes incredible wrapped in a tortilla shell with with avocado, refried beans and spanish rice, like a fish taco. YUM!

The Magic Oven

Location:

6 Wellesley

When green chillies underly an innocent tandoori chicken pizza, you KNOW the chef knows his biniss.

As he should at THESE pizza prices!!

Smelt flour or no smelt flour...I hope these pizzas have some magic in 'em 'cause they're expensive!

Not a fan of the Liberty Village location as I got sick twice as a result of their lunch time slices, but the Wellesley location made for a wonderful dinner with friends. Very cosy atmosphere, we had almost the whole (tiny) restaurant to ourselves. And those hidden green chillies? We were in tears 'cause the menu made no mention of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to see green chillies in anything, so they were tears of joy.

We've also had MO pizzas ordered into work, and as delish as they are, the four pizzas we ordered came to something outrageous as $100 and there still wasn't enough to go around. Sometimes, you just need a bunch o' $9.99 pepperoni pizzas.

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.

Sukhothai

Location:

274 Parliament Street, Toronto

www.sukhothaifood.com

So it's in a shady location, what does it matter when you can get real, authentic Thai food?

Sukhothai, which sounds wonderful when chanted (su-kho-THAI! su-kho-THAI!) as my friend did in anticipation of our visit, is a tiny Thai resto in Corktown.

We got there at a decent hour when most of the tables were free and we could have our pick (so we picked a table for four for two of us), but soon it filled up and there was a massive line-up.

It must be pointed out, that we weren't ever rushed to leave because of the large line.  It brought to mind the awful Mildred Pierce in Liberty Village where filling seats was more important than food and service.

It should be pointed out also, that we ordered enough food for six and needed that table for all the dishes!

Since I am pointing things out, I could also point out that I don't like soup, and you would already know this if you're a regular reader of this blog, but if not, I'm telling you that I only partake in soup when a) I am sick b) it's home-made FOR me c) it's the dead of Winter and everyone else is going for soup and I don't have a lunch.

That said, the coconut, chicken soup at Sukothai is to die for.  I hate when reviews use words like 'bursting with flavour' but I am at a loss of words to describe it in any other way!

(dish descriptions from Sukhothai website menu)

Tom Kha Gai :
a creamy coconut, chicken soup, overflowing with fresh cut herbs. Galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, onions and tomatoes.  Served with rice (starter portion also available)

Coconut soup

We had the starter portion and shared it. Even after trying all the other dishes, we still came back to this one, in awe. It's eye-googling good. I'm coining this the word for when you taste something so good that you look at another person with such incredulity on your face with eyes open wide. Eye-googling. That's how good it is.  Something Derek Zoolander would say.  Eye-gog-a-ling.

Spring rolls:
Crispy vegetarian rolls with glass noodles, mushrooms, carrots and beansprouts.  Served with our home-made, sweet and sour, garlic sauce.

Spring Rolls

We pounced on our rolls right away and they were steaming hot.  S o much so that we couldn't really taste much after oohing the hot air out of our mouths.

Spring Rolls

So the last of the three rolls we left to cool down completely before trying again and then realized it tasted a bit funny.  Spoiled or perhaps just a distinct flavour of sourness?  Couldn't tell so we left it at that.  It didn't ruin the rest of the meal for us that's for bloody sure.

Sukhothai Pad Thai: Our “Sukh’ed up”, Northern Thai version of the Pad Thai is a must to try.  You will find a slightly different take on Pad Thai depending on where you are in Thailand.  This is a taste of our Chef’s hometown goodness.  Extras:  made with peanuts, more herbs and a small-town, northern-style, authentic-Thai twist.

Sukhothai Pad Thai

Sukhothai Pad Thai

Nyum nyum....didn't blow us out of the water upon first try.  At home, as leftovers though, incredible!!

Khao Soi:
Yellow noodles in curry gravy with green onions, coriander and a light, crispy noodle topping.  Choice of chicken or beef.  A specialty from Northern Thailand, it’s got a lot of texture and even more flavour.

They suggested this would be better with beef, but I don't do beef too much, so chicken it was.  We both agreed it was good, but the overpowering curry taste did us in.  The crispy noodles on top were perfect with the soft noodles below.  I don't like anything to be too gravy-ied so the gravy was  a bit much for me.   Good with rice as a curry dish, and definitely quite heavy.  Great for sharing and as left-overs!

Khao Soi

Crispy noodles, Khao Soi

Gaeng Panang:
Panang curry with kaffir lime leaves, basil leaves, red and green pepers and coconut milk. Choice of chicken, beef or tofu and served with rice.  Richer than the others and more about the meat.

Gaeng Panang: All about the meat, indeed

Gaeng Panang

This was a lovely dish, really fresh ingredients.  The kaffir lime leaves - goodness!! Absolutely delightful with rice.  I can see this one being a hit with my Moms.

They gave us our dessert on the house.  <3!!!

Tapioca with coconut milk:
Tapioca doused in sweet coconut milk.


Tapioca with coconut milk

Neither of us are fans of tapioca....especially when it's in bubble tea, but this...was insanely good!

Exceptional service and the dishes are just outstanding!!!  If I were to flip a coin between  Sukhothai and Flip, Toss and Thai...well, it would have to be a toss-up between these two.  Sukhothai might have a bit of a lead because of the actual dining space and ambiance which FTT lacks.

But yes, Sukhothai also has a chili scale..just let 'em know how hot you like it.

Can't wait to go back and take everyone I know with me.  Who's in?

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

TRAVEL: Montreal: Chu Chai

Location:

4088 Rue Saint-Denis, Montreal, QC

Cost: approx $90 for two (incl. glasses of wine)

www.chuchai.com/

Mock duck, you say?

I never thought I'd actively scope out a vegetarian Thai restaurant...but that's what we did when we were in Montreal. Coming highly recommended from more than a few friends, Chu Chai is a trendy zen-like Thai resto boasting authentic thai dishes made from completely veg/vegan friendlyproducts (ie. soya, tofu, seitan).

In Toronto I've only tried a handful of veg restaurants, such as Fresh, Cafe 668 and Le Commensal, that too mostly under the persuasion of my mock-meat eating friends, so I'm no expert on the best veg restaurants in Toronto. I've heard Vegetarian Haven, Urban Herbivore and Hibiscus are good but haven't gotten around to trying those out, yet. [By the way, a great site for you veg eaters is the Toronto Vegetarian Association: www.veg.ca]

Now back to Chuchai! With no reservations, we took a cab out to St. Denis around 9pm on Saturday night, and found the place to be pretty packed. We were assured that we'd be seated as soon as they could get us a table leaving us to wonder about the one vacant table to our left. We were then told that the table had been reserved but the patrons were now more than 1/2 an hour late. I guess that table had our name on it, afterall.

Eyeing the dishes on the tables made us realize how famished we really were but a quick glance at the menu proved we'd be taking a while longer to decide what to eat!

Finally, after much deliberation and chats with our friendly and helpful server, we decided on won ton soup and dumplings in peanut sauce to start.



The dumplings in peanut sauce was not only lip-smacking good, it was
plate-scraped-with-fork-many-times-over-because-you-can't-literally-lick-the-plate good. Damn. Just remembering it now makes my mouth water.



And the won ton soup was a perfect complement to the sauciness of the dumplings. Yum!

Next we got a mock beef and duck dish.

The mock duck curry was amazing with pineapples, green peppers and tomatoes.  The beef dish suggested to us came with bamboo shoots and was also a curry (I was expecting more of a dry/fried dish - should have gone with the beef with chili and basil afterall!)  Still, they were both really good.





Both had amazingly accurate meaty textures from the seitan (wheat-gluten) in highly flavourful curries; however, the mock duck beat out the beef dish that was recommended to us.

My only gripe is the miniature portion of the serving of rice...argh! Seriously? The sticky rice we ordered (not included with the dishes) arrived in a fancy basket which I thought was at least the depth of the basket...only to discover that the rice was sitting in an even shallower basket within!



There was barely enough rice for one person in there! We had to order a second, plain rice, which came in a white ceramic bowl; still a small size but more of the standard side-of-rice bowl. Combined it was barely enough to finish the curries (which didn't stop us from finishing the curries, mind you - they were so tasty).  Besides the ridiculousness of the rice portions, Chuchai is a winner in taste, presentation, and service....a delicious place for both veg and non-veg eaters.

We're already planning to bring my sister and family of vegetarians out to Chuchai; and I have to admit, I can hardly wait to go back (even though we both felt slightly ill afterwards...perhaps from all the soy/gluten or peanut sauce?  Not sure).

Also, Chuch the restaurant next door, under the same ownership, is more of a casual (and cheaper), take-out place which allows you to BYOB but perhaps instead, I can Bring My Own Rice?