Ladies, pay attention. I have discovered sex in a bottle. That's right, chocolate grappa. It is the best thing since... Geoff's mother's cooking. Yes, that's right, that's how good it is. Now, I'm not a fan of regular chocolate liqueur. Creme de cacao is awful and chocolate martinis are an abomination to the entire martini food group. Chocolate grappa, however, is like liquid dessert. Imagine drinking chocolate fondue out of a shot glass with a bit of a kick at the end. Ah, so good.
I feel like I need to provide a backstory for this information. Last night, I went to the Fat Belgian for dinner with Anjali and two other girlfriends. I really like this restaurant and wish that it wasn't across the street from Hooters and Circa. However, the location is great if you want to have dinner and drinks downtown before you go out to a club. Or even if you don't plan to go out afterward. If you can find room in the budget to pay $10 for parking and can forgive the occasional fire truck that pulls out of the neighbourhood fire hall (ooh, chocolate grappa and firemen! I digress), this restaurant doesn't disappoint.
I have had dinner here many times before. Their online drink list doesn't appear to be up to date. I had my usual pina colada style martini but if I had seen the butterball martini on the menu, I definitely would have ordered that for dessert! We shared the fried calamari and the goat cheese wrapped in phyllo pastry appetizers. For our main course we shared the Fat Belgian mussels and the moules mariniere. All of the food here was excellent as always so I won't even bother to tell you that the phyllo was flakey, the calamari was crunchy and the mussels were tasty enough to make a toxicologist forget that they're filter feeders.
The head waitress comped us a round of shots. This is when we discovered the chocolate grappa. As soon as I post this, I'm going to the liquor store to buy myself a bottle. Or seven. It is not available at all LCBO stores though so check before you head to your local store. And a word of advice from the waitress. Before you crack the seal and serve, give it a good shake otherwise it will pour out lumpy. Yes, that's how chocolatey it is!
For dessert, we indulged. We shared the Deus creme brulee, the mango sorbet and the chocolate trifle. All were excellent. A warning about the creme brulee though. Deus Brut de Flandres is a champale and you can definitely taste the ale. If you don't like beer flavoured food, give this a miss. It was otherwise an excellent brulee.
In the interest of full disclosure, I only sampled two spoonfuls of the creme brulee and trifle as I'm allergic to eggs. After we split the bill, we ended up paying about $50 each so this was not a cheap night out but I thought it was worth it. I hope I still think that when I get my VISA bill!
The Fat Belgian is definitely a big hit. I'll be back there in less than a month.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Oh right, I'm Indian too
I have had a very Indian few days. Not only have I had Indian food three out of the last four days, I saw the most atrocious film. But this is not about that (because I don't want to slam the film and put my name to that review) This is, however, about fooooood.
Udupi Palace, 1460 Gerrard St. E (at Coxwell), Toronto
On Friday night, I had dinner at Udupi Palace. A (non-Indian) friend wanted a dosa for her birthday dinner. She had the Mysore masala dosa which she seemed to enjoy and I had the regular masala dosa and a mango lassi. Our other brown friend had the paneer dosa (yummy and filling).
For those of you unfamiliar with dosas, they are basically an Indian-style rice crepe. They can be quite large but only the centre part is stuffed so start in the middle and work outwards. Usually dosa is served with chutney and coconut sambar. The paper dosas were *huge* so be warned!
We ordered appetizers because we were starving. We shared the combo platter (idly, daal, pakoras, medhu vada - like a lentil donut - and chili pakoras) and samosas. The samosas were good as were the idly and pakoras. I opted out of the chili pakora and the medhu vada was a little dry but perhaps it's supposed to be? Frankly, I have no idea.
For dessert, they were out of rasmalai (my favourite, I was heartbroken!) so I had the gulab jamun ice cream. If you like gulab jamun (dry milk and cottage cheese balls, deep fried and dipped in light syrup and rose water, served warm), skip the ice cream. It basically froze the second piece of gulab jamun before I could start eating it and the entire thing was too sweet, even for me.
They serve vegetarian, vegan and jain food. It looks like a basement food court with the bright lights and ghetto furniture but you don't seat yourself, you order from a waiter and they bring you the bill. Apparently they request that you tip in cash but we paid the entire bill in cash so we weren't asked. Bathrooms were not too bad but it was early in the evening (7.30 pm).
I will go back there if I'm feeling like dosa or want to remember whether or not I like utthapam. Overall good value for money ($80 for 5 people with tax and tip), decent service given the ambiance, excellent mango lassi.
Lahore Tikka, 1365 Gerrard St. E.(at Greenwood), Toronto
On Saturday night, I had dinner at Lahore Tikka. Another non-Indian friend (and altogether different ethnicity) wanted Indian food. Actually she loves all things Indian but her family won't eat Indian food as it's too spicy. She is vegetarian and heard about this place through her brother's girlfriend.
It's a large restaurant and can be quite confusing. When we walked in, we seated ourselves in what appeared to be one of a number of different rooms. The tables and chairs were patio furniture and I think that the entire restaurant was a series of interconnected trailers. It wasn't exactly clean and it's cafeteria style dining. The waiters will bring you a menu and a pitcher of water but you have to place your order at the front cashier. They give you a number and the food is delivered to your table.
We had the paneer tikka masala, the combo sizzler, till (sesame) naan, regular naan and I had a mango lassi. The combo really is a mixture of palak (spinach), chana masala (chick peas), aloo ghobi (cauliflower) and tarka dal (lentils). It was actually not very appetizing. The paneer (cottage cheese) tikka masala was good though. We forgot to order rice but, when we did ask after the food arrived, it came quite quickly. The portion sizes were not very large, especially considering how much we paid ($22 each with tax and tip). The lassi was only passable and we didn't try dessert. I don't think I will go back there.
Eddie's Wok and Roll, 6400 Millcreek Drive, Mississauga
I had lunch with a coworker here today. It's close to the office, located in a plaza at the south east corner of the intersection of Erin Mills Parkway and Millcreek Drive. The restaurant serves Hakka food and was nicely decorated, quiet despite being quite busy (arrive at noon if not earlier) and the service was excellent.
I had the butter masala chicken lunch special ($7.50) and the mango lassi ($3.50). I had to forgo the soup choice (hot and sour or creamed corn) because both had eggs in them. Instead, the waiter gave me an extra spring roll. The portion sizes were generous and I took half of mine home. The butter chicken was actually very good. I was quite surprised and will definitely go back there to try something different. Or maybe I won't be adventurous and stick with what I like :)
All three places were reasonably quick. There are other places on Gerrard Street that I would like to try (Siddartha, among others) but I would venture back to Udupi Palace with vegetarian friends and definitely will go back to Eddie's for lunch when I'm back at work full-time.
Udupi Palace, 1460 Gerrard St. E (at Coxwell), Toronto
On Friday night, I had dinner at Udupi Palace. A (non-Indian) friend wanted a dosa for her birthday dinner. She had the Mysore masala dosa which she seemed to enjoy and I had the regular masala dosa and a mango lassi. Our other brown friend had the paneer dosa (yummy and filling).
For those of you unfamiliar with dosas, they are basically an Indian-style rice crepe. They can be quite large but only the centre part is stuffed so start in the middle and work outwards. Usually dosa is served with chutney and coconut sambar. The paper dosas were *huge* so be warned!
We ordered appetizers because we were starving. We shared the combo platter (idly, daal, pakoras, medhu vada - like a lentil donut - and chili pakoras) and samosas. The samosas were good as were the idly and pakoras. I opted out of the chili pakora and the medhu vada was a little dry but perhaps it's supposed to be? Frankly, I have no idea.
For dessert, they were out of rasmalai (my favourite, I was heartbroken!) so I had the gulab jamun ice cream. If you like gulab jamun (dry milk and cottage cheese balls, deep fried and dipped in light syrup and rose water, served warm), skip the ice cream. It basically froze the second piece of gulab jamun before I could start eating it and the entire thing was too sweet, even for me.
They serve vegetarian, vegan and jain food. It looks like a basement food court with the bright lights and ghetto furniture but you don't seat yourself, you order from a waiter and they bring you the bill. Apparently they request that you tip in cash but we paid the entire bill in cash so we weren't asked. Bathrooms were not too bad but it was early in the evening (7.30 pm).
I will go back there if I'm feeling like dosa or want to remember whether or not I like utthapam. Overall good value for money ($80 for 5 people with tax and tip), decent service given the ambiance, excellent mango lassi.
Lahore Tikka, 1365 Gerrard St. E.(at Greenwood), Toronto
On Saturday night, I had dinner at Lahore Tikka. Another non-Indian friend (and altogether different ethnicity) wanted Indian food. Actually she loves all things Indian but her family won't eat Indian food as it's too spicy. She is vegetarian and heard about this place through her brother's girlfriend.
It's a large restaurant and can be quite confusing. When we walked in, we seated ourselves in what appeared to be one of a number of different rooms. The tables and chairs were patio furniture and I think that the entire restaurant was a series of interconnected trailers. It wasn't exactly clean and it's cafeteria style dining. The waiters will bring you a menu and a pitcher of water but you have to place your order at the front cashier. They give you a number and the food is delivered to your table.
We had the paneer tikka masala, the combo sizzler, till (sesame) naan, regular naan and I had a mango lassi. The combo really is a mixture of palak (spinach), chana masala (chick peas), aloo ghobi (cauliflower) and tarka dal (lentils). It was actually not very appetizing. The paneer (cottage cheese) tikka masala was good though. We forgot to order rice but, when we did ask after the food arrived, it came quite quickly. The portion sizes were not very large, especially considering how much we paid ($22 each with tax and tip). The lassi was only passable and we didn't try dessert. I don't think I will go back there.
Eddie's Wok and Roll, 6400 Millcreek Drive, Mississauga
I had lunch with a coworker here today. It's close to the office, located in a plaza at the south east corner of the intersection of Erin Mills Parkway and Millcreek Drive. The restaurant serves Hakka food and was nicely decorated, quiet despite being quite busy (arrive at noon if not earlier) and the service was excellent.
I had the butter masala chicken lunch special ($7.50) and the mango lassi ($3.50). I had to forgo the soup choice (hot and sour or creamed corn) because both had eggs in them. Instead, the waiter gave me an extra spring roll. The portion sizes were generous and I took half of mine home. The butter chicken was actually very good. I was quite surprised and will definitely go back there to try something different. Or maybe I won't be adventurous and stick with what I like :)
All three places were reasonably quick. There are other places on Gerrard Street that I would like to try (Siddartha, among others) but I would venture back to Udupi Palace with vegetarian friends and definitely will go back to Eddie's for lunch when I'm back at work full-time.
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