Kensington sweethearts

Jenn was my Kengsington sweetheart yesterday as we perused Toronto's Kensington market in search of desserts and other baked goods to satisfy our sweet-tooth.

I never used to be big on sweets. I always preferred a bowl of chips over a double chocolate brownie with double churned French vanilla ice cream. But this pregnancy has definitely heightened my sugar cravings. I will actually pass on the calamari appetizer to try and save room for some dessert now.

Jenn and I created our own little tour of dessert stops in the Kensington Market, sneaking in a little savoury refreshment here and there.

It's amazing how quickly we filled up on baked goods.

We started at the Moonbeam Coffee Company and started with a savoury light and flaky spinach and feta pastry called a boreka, coffee and mini chocolate croissant to finish.  All of their pastries looked divine, and there was that lovely homey Kensington Market feel that made me wish I lived nearby.

Our second stop was probably my favourite. Much smaller than Moonbeam Coffee Company, Miss Cora's Kitchen was filled with baked goods made from local market ingredients. There were options for any vegan, gluten-free, or all-the-works patron; we definitely had trouble narrowing down our choice selections for this leg of our sweets tour. Although Miss Cora was not present that day, Miss Carmel made some suggestions and we settled on a flourless chocolate cupcake, a vegan peanut butter cupcake, and my favourite: a jam-filled strawberry cupcake.  All fantastic.

Stop number three was at Panchos Bakery where we, naturally, ordered churros and hot chocolate. The churros were a little heavier than expected, perhaps even a little bland although covered in sugar. I would recommend asking for extra caramel sauce.

We made a quick stop at the Chocolate Addict and chose 6 truffles to bring with us to our last stop: Krepesz.  The Chocolate Addict is a tiny shop with a decent selection of truffle flavours. We settled on (clockwise from top left) jasmine, green tea, pomegranate, caramel sea salt, chili, and chai.  The chocolates were delicious, but I'm not sure if it was my tired palate or perhaps my under-appreciation for simple chocolate bonbons, I didn't think the chocolates were anything extraordinary.

Krepesz was our last stop.  The sit-down area was quite a bit more upscale than the average Kensington Market venue, so it was nice way to end the afternoon.  Krepesz is a Hungarian crepe shop; they also have on their menu a "chimney cake" that looked rather interesting. The afternoon of sweets (and the heavy churro) left us with little appetite, but we decided to share a savoury crepe filled with spinach, tomatoes and feta. A friend joined us and ordered a strawberry and nutella crepe. The crepe itself was delightfully light (thank goodness.)  I would definitely return and order one of the heavier dessert crepes next time (and save room for a chimney cake).

Our tour of sweet shops in Kensington Market was great. We knew there were official tours you could sign up to take with a group of people and an official guide, but doing it ourselves, and in a small party of 2, let us go at our own pace and not feel rushed (or too cramped.) I'm not sure if my sweet-tooth will remain after my pregnancy, so the timing for this sugary adventure was perfect.

I hope you've enjoyed the vicarious sweets tour of Kensington Market. Let me know if you have any Kensington Market sweet secrets you'd like to share!

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Bannock: Canadian comfort food

I love trying new restaurants. One of my many pretend jobs is food critiquing. I drag Dustin to a new restaurant, convince him to get what I want him to get, and then I judge the food as if it's my job.

I've shared some of my past restaurant experiences, but there are so many more that I don't post about. It's usually because I don't have nice pictures to accompany the gastronomic experience. And what's a food post without pictures of the food?!

Last week, we celebrated a coworker's upcoming wedding at the new O&B restaurant: Bannock. We've been eagerly awaiting its opening as it boasts a menu of Canadian comfort food: poutine, tourtiere, pea soup, PEI mussels, pot pie, lobster roll, and of course, the deliciously simple, native bannock bread. Are you drooling yet???

I ordered the steamed PEI mussels with fennel and celery root. The flavours were divine. Tasty and light, a touch of the sea. I'm a fennel fanatic, and I think it pairs so well with shellfish.




My lucky coworker (lucky because he was sitting across from me and was therefore obligated to share some of his meal with me...) ordered the roasted duck poutine pizza. It's exactly what it sounds like. Crispy french fries smothered in a roasted duck gravy, all atop a thin slab of bannock bread.




It's always great when coworkers have happy moments to celebrate, especially when you're looking for a reason to try the great new restaurant on the corner!

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Chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling

Although my sewing projects are moving along too slowly to be an interesting blog post, I seem to have plenty of food experiences to share.

Today we celebrated a friend's birthday at her favourite Japanese restaurant, Izakaya Ju. Described as a "Japanese bar and grill", it is similar to the better-known Guu Restaurant. (That's darling Caleb eating shredded nori with his hands.)

Different than the typical sushi-Japanese restaurant, the menu had things like soba noodles, grilled meats on rice, grilled skewers of pork belly, black cod, pork cheek, etc. The most amazing of all: chicken wing stuffed with pork dumpling.

At first, we thought it was a typo. "Chicken wing" was on the first line and "stuffed with pork dumpling" was on the second. Perhaps these were two separate menu items?

Nope. It was actually a chicken wing where the bones were removed from the middle wing and then stuffed with a pork and chive dumpling. It was fantastic.


I also ordered a hot soba noodle dish with grilled duck breast and leek...

... which I split with Jess who ordered a garlic soy marinated tuna sashimi on rice. Both were fantastic.

Sometimes it's nice to get some authentic Japanese cuisine and to try something different than sushi. Even the wasabi was a real grating of fresh japanese horseradish, not the stuff in a powder or tube!



I will have to work up the motivation this summer to brave the long lines for Guu so I can compare Japanese Izakaya food!

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Enjoying a lacy Saturday

The weather today was amazing. The perfect spring day to go lace shopping with Jenn.

We both signed up for a class at the workroom to learn how to sew our own underwear. Exciting, isn't it??? We needed to purchase some stretch lace to bring to our first class. There were just too many beautiful colours and patterns to select only one. I decided to choose two. Jenn chose three. I changed my mind and got three.

We also went hunting for elastic trim. There were even more colours and styles of trim. Sussman's (420 Queen St West) has an entire wall of elastic trim! I chose a mint green, lace-like trim and a ruffly pinkish-violet trim. They will be used to fancy up my super-soft olive green bamboo cotton. To celebrate our successful shop, we had brunch at the Bellevue Diner in Kensington Market. The weather was superb, the food was delicious, and company (as always) was top notch. Here's to many more perfect Saturdays.

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Bah Hamburger

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season. My Christmas was filled with the usual too-much-delicious-food.

Most of our meals were the usual yummy Christmas foods: turkey, stuffing, roast beef, lobster... We were also spoiled with my parents' amazing home cooking. But this Christmas, the hamburger -- yes: hamburger -- made not one, but two appearances.

In Ottawa, we had lunch with my sister at The Works, a gourmet burger joint with a touch of workshop pizazz. Milkshakes are served in pyrex measuring cups; the salt and pepper shaker are incandescent lightbulbs. And the burgers are huge. Dustin ordered the Hamburger Mary (real mayo, fried egg, ripe red tomato, cheddar cheese & crisp bacon strips) and I ordered the Big Ben Plus (montreal smoked meat, sauerkraut, & swiss...a la Kravitz with mustard) but with a portobello mushroom instead of a beef patty. I ate maybe half of my burger.

In Toronto, we went for a nice dinner at Mildred's Temple Kitchen. From the name, you'd think it was a cozy little rustic restaurant, but it was quite the chic little lofty restaurant. I ordered a seared tuna with grilled eggplant on polenta. Dustin: the hamburger. Usually I would try a nibble or two of burger. This burger was so delicious I took 3 bites.





For dessert we ordered profiteroles. If you wanted to order a "mini dessert burger", the profiterole would be it. The puff pastry "bun" was light and crisp, the ice cream "patty" was sodarn tasty. It's been a good burger holiday. I don't think we'll be making a habit of it, but I just found out that Mildred's Temple Kitchen is participating in Winterlicious. And the burger is on the menu...

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