A Year Ago Today…

One Year as Mr. & Mrs. McMunkie

The 2 basked in the glory of engagement-hood for over 3 months before deciding they wanted to get hitched in 2012. They decided to go venue hunting in Canada in January. That was a major failure. They went again in February with more promise. They finally locked down a venue & photographer in March. By May, the venue informed them their head chef quit, so they were left without a caterer. With some fast acting, a caterer was secured & the wedding was saved. 5 months of wedding planning ended up being highly stressful (more so for the bride than the groom), but it was totally worth it when everything came together.

It was a very hot day for the wedding, but it was sunny & beautiful as well. The ceremony lasted all of 10 minutes (the couple didn’t want to bore the guests, who were already dying of heat & starvation). Unfortunately, the venue did not have any AC. The cocktail hour began & the guests hunted down all the food servers & started to drink themselves into a stupor. While everyone was enjoying themselves & were all congregated within the venue, the weather Gods decided it was time for some rain. It provided the guests with some welcome relief from the hot day. Then, as fast as the rain had come, it was all gone & completely dry in a matter of minutes.

Speeches were made, first dance as husband & wife, father/daughter dance, some fancy schmancy dinner was served & then the bride’s Papa decided it was time to get the party started. He was the only one on the dance floor, soon a crowd formed & everyone danced & laughed the night away. The Sweets table was an absolute hit with the guests, but especially the ring bearer. He was bouncing off the walls after devouring all the sweets!

For all the blood, sweat & tears involved in the preparation leading up to the wedding day, it was blissfully gone within a few hours. What is left are the memories of the most perfect wedding ever (in the bride & groom’s eyes, anyway).

Happy One Year Anniversary, my Love!

Adventures in Canadia – Desserts

Let’s talk about Desserts. Yes, I’m talking about those yummy delicious bites of goodness after having a nice, filling meal. Or for some, they’ll eat it as their meal. 🙂

LES CHATEAUX BAKERY
8360 Kennedy Rd
Markham, ON L3R 9W4
(905) 940-1303

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve come here for their fresh out-of-the-oven, piping hot, delectable egg tarts. Oh, if there was something I can eat every day, it would be these egg tarts. I ate 2 while on my last trip to Canada last week, and I’ve eaten one per day since I came back. Ummm…you caught me, I brought 2 dozen back. *burp*

They offer egg tarts with 2 different crusts. One is a more crumbly cookie crust, while the other is my personal preference, the tender, flakey, buttery, layered, puff pastry type of crust. See, even the description of that sounds so much better. 😀

The egg custard is best when it first comes out of the oven. It is smooth, creamy, tender, warm custardy goodness. Oh, words cannot describe how it tastes, but pictures can try to convey this to you. You can always re-heat them in the toaster oven, but they’ll never taste as good as when they first come out of the oven.

CAFFE DEMETRE
(they have multiple locations)

Let’s talk about crepes. The hubby’s cousin brought us here over the winter. She was just there the night before, but she was more than willing to go again. Yes, she loves food just as much as we do. Hubby’s entire family loves food, so I guess I fit right in.

This is a place for the young kids to hang out late at night. It was completely packed & there was a line streaming out the door. While waiting on line, we watched the people behind the counter prepare large plates of crepes with extra portions of whipped cream, cut huge pieces of cake & top with more whipped cream & make waffles with fruit, ice cream & drizzled with a generous amount of fudge. I was getting a little nervous by the huge portions & the amount of sugar I was about to ingest.

We ordered the Moo La La. It’s a crepe filled with a huge serving of Nutella ice cream, bananas, almond slivers & drizzled with fudge.

The other item we ordered was a waffle with chocolate ice cream, strawberries & whipped cream.

Both were huge but the 3 of us devoured it & only left remnants of fudge on the place. The highlight was the homemade Nutella ice cream.

YAU WOO SOYA BEAN SPECIALTY FOODS
4390 Steeles Ave. E
Markham, Ontario
(inside Market Village which is the older part of Pacific Mall)

Hubby’s cousin recommended this place to us. We were a bit skeptical about eating here because it looked like a complete hole in the wall. But, we were proven wrong. They specialize in soy beans (obviously) & we were blown away by their sweet tofu desserts. The creaminess of the tofu was unbelievable without any graininess whatsoever. They have most definitely perfected this recipe. Each bite was better than the last. We ate here twice last week. Oh, the gluttony.

The hot tofu with ginger syrup (top right) was perfect for a cold day (we had this one earlier in the year). The slight spiciness from the ginger just warms your tummy. The cold tofu with coconut milk & tapioca (middle left) was so delicious that we went back the next day to order more. It’s only good if you are a coconut milk fan. We loved it. The hubby’s mom ordered the hot tofu with sesame (lower right). I wasn’t a fan of this one because the sesame soup was really thick, plus we ate it on a hot & humid day. I prefer the cold tofu on a hot day.

TUNG TUNG DAN QUEN KING LTD
2 Locations – Pacific Mall & Market Village (one in the old side of Pacific Mall)
Pacific Mall – 4300 Steeles Ave E, Unit N-6/N-8 Pacific Mall, Markham, ON L3R
Market Village – 4350 Steeles Avenue E, Unit 106, PO Box 85, Markham, ON L3R 9V4

These are world famous Egg Rolls. No, not the ones you get at fast food restaurants. These are crunchy, thin cookies rolled up. They start out using batter that resembles pancake batter. Then they put it on a machine that cooks the batter, almost like a crepe. Then these little ladies takes what looks like a curling iron & carefully folds them & roll them to the egg roll shape. A package contains 16 of these addicting egg rolls. We always end up bringing home at least a box or 2 (10 in a box). They also offer a flat version filled with dried coconut shred which is also good, but not as popular.

Here comes the fun part. When I went home, I stuffed them with coffee ice cream & let it re-freeze again. You should eat these as soon as possible because the egg rolls eventually get a little soggy. Of course, these usually don’t last more than a day because they’re so yummy. This is my version of a cannoli! 🙂

This place is also famous for their eggettes or eggies or egg cakes. Whatever you want to call it, I’d call it delicious. These are made fresh & piping hot. You pull off one or two & pop them into your mouth. They have a slight crunchiness on the outside & a warm, soft center. Heavenly little pillows of goodness.

I look like a crazed person, but I’m just crazy for the eggies!!!

MAXIM BAKERY & RESTAURANT
9665 Bayview Ave, Unit 1-4
Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9V4
(905) 883-1465

We only go here to pick up their scrumptious meringue cakes. The cake is made out of meringue & almond pieces. They offer 2 fillings: strawberry or mango. Both are equally delicious, but we’ve been ordering mango more lately (it’s also my 1st choice). The filling is made up of unsweetened whipped cream & diced fruit. The meringue is sweet enough. Sometimes tooth achingly sweet where I would cough from all the sugar, but it goes so well with the whipped cream & fruit that I’d still continue eating my piece.

They offer 6″, 8″, 10″, 12″ & 14″ for $20, $28, $38, $59 & $60 respectively. They pre-cut the slices for you because if you cut it yourself, everything would crumble & get smushed. Not a pretty sight but I’d still eat it if that happened! The large feeds 12 people, which is great for a large party, or 6 sugar addicts. It is on the pricey side, but it is another splurge we are willing to make.

Oh, Canadia, why does everything taste so much better in Canadia?!?

Adventures in Canadia – Matsuda Japanese Restaurant Review

MATSUDA
5651 Steeles Ave. E
Scarborough, ON M1V 5P6
(416)298-2998

Matsuda is an all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. They give you a menu & you put in your order. The place is wildly popular since the food is great with good service & of course, it’s all you can eat, which means every Asian & their mamas are here. Even on a weeknight, it’s packed, but it gets even crazier on weekends. The price is $2 cheaper on a Mon-Thursday at $21.99 for an adult. Weekends & holidays, the price goes up to $23.99.

They have a good offering of raw foods as well as a whole bunch of hot foods such as robata (grilled items), salads, teppanyaki, noodles & tempura to accommodate those who don’t like raw.

Now here comes the picture. There were many hits, but there were also a few misses. Let’s do a photo review of Matsuda.

I couldn’t stop eating the Salmon & White Tuna Sashimi. They were super fresh, came in large pieces & melted in my mouth.

The Chawanmushi aka Steamed Egg was absolutely divine. It was so silky smooth, hot & delicious. This was such a perfect one person portion, but alas, I had to share with the hubby. We didn’t want to order more in case there were other goodies to fill our tummies, but this was possibly the best steamed egg I’ve ever had.

The Hand Rolls were good. They weren’t anything fancy. The Sushi Rolls were only okay because we had ordered cooked fish in them to accommodate grandma, so I didn’t eat too many pieces. I think the raw fish would have been much better since the sashimi was really good.

The Beef Tataki was sliced thin & was another absolute hit. It was so tender & flavorful. I know some people are afraid of raw beef, but this was another must order item on the menu.

I didn’t try the Fried Mayo Shrimp. I was avoiding the fried foods since I have been eating too much lately. I think these were standard mayo shrimp that most Chinese restaurants offer.

I don’t remember what fish this was but it was nicely cooked with teriyaki sauce.

The Inari (sweet tofu sushi) was really good. They make them different from the ones I’m used to (the ones that they stuff rice into). This was some of the best Inari I’ve ever eaten. It was addicting.

The Unagi Don aka grilled eel over rice was a tiny portion, but the eel was tasty. There was too much rice for such a small piece of eel though.

This Avocado Seafood Salad sounded so good on the menu. They stated it takes 25 minutes to prepare. We ordered 4 in anticipation of this delicious yumminess. It turned out to be such a disappointment. The avocado wasn’t even seasoned, but if you’ve never had warm baked avocado, I would suggest you never to try it. It was disgusting. Some small bits of seafood were mixed into it, but it just did not work. We were majorly disappointed with this one.

The Cold Buckwheat Soba Noodle was presented so beautifully. A tiny uncooked quail egg with the top of the shell cracked open. A plate of sauce & the soba noodles in a little box.

You take the egg & mix it into the sauce, then you put all your noodles in & coat every strand, then you eat. Unfortunately, the dish was really under seasoned, so all you tasted was cold noodles.

And to end off the meal, everyone ordered multiple desserts. Yes, multiple. The most popular being the Mango Yoghurt (that’s how they spell it over there). This is a mango puree over some gelatinous yoghurt. Hubby’s uncle ordered 6 of them! I tried one, & then had 2 scoops of Green Tea Ice Cream. The mango yoghurt was definitely a winner. It wasn’t too sweet, the perfect balance of flavors. But, the green tea ice cream was dreamy. I can eat a gallon of that in one sitting, even though I’m not a big ice cream person. I’ll be dreaming about it tonight. 😀

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed my review & pictures. Happy eating!

ENJOY!

Adventures in Canadia – T&T Supermarket

T&T Supermarket
They have multiple locations in the Markham/Scarborough/Toronto area:
Woodbine – 9255 Woodbine Ave., Markham, ON L6C 1Y9
Milliken – 5661 Steeles Ave. East, Scarborough, ON M1V 5P6
Unionville – 8339 Kennedy Road, Building C, G/F, Markham ON L3R 5T5
Toronto (Downtown) – 222 Cherry St., Toronto, ON M5A 3L2

Put me in a T&T Supermarket & I will run rampant. An adult (namely me) in a T&T supermarket is the equivalent to a kid in a candy store. I can go buck-wild in this store. I can spend hours on end going up & down every aisle & then walking them all over again. There’s so much to explore. Some stores are bigger than others, but they all have great quality food. I am absolutely in love with this supermarket.

Chicken Pot Pie, Beef Curry Pastry and Egg Tarts

Upon entering the store, the first thing you’ll notice is the bakery. They bake all their breads & bun pastries fresh, daily. They’re so fresh that they can’t seal the bags because they’re still piping hot. You’ll have to grab a twisty tie when you grab a bag to close it up. That’s how fresh it is.

Taro paste baked into fresh Bread

Pineapple bun with Red Bean filling

Seriously, these bakers are so skilled in their craft. Everything is tender soft. The fillings are always delicious & never overly sweet. You can’t go wrong with anything you pick up.

Fresh Sushi

Spicy Salmon Onigiri

They also have a vast section devoted to hot & cooked foods. You can get roast pork & soy sauce chicken over rice, dim sum items, sushi, Vietnamese sandwiches, steamed buns, sweet tofu dessert, egg tarts & lots of other Asian food items. They even offer tapioca drinks & soy milk.

Fruits and Produce

After all that, then you realize this is a supermarket! There’s fresh produce & fruit, frozen items, baking items, sauces, meats, fresh seafood & so much more. They have an extensive snack section for Asian cookies, candies, chocolates & potato chips with weird flavors that you don’t usually find (i.e. curry, sushi, roasted chicken, okonomiyaki, & seaweed flavors).

Hot Foods

Some stores even have a whole beauty section with imported items from Hong Kong, Korea, China & other countries. All the packaging is so cute!
The Milliken location in Scarborough has a food court. These are restaurants not associated with T&T. We went there for breakfast before we headed back to NY. The food at Original Congee restaurant was delicious. They were Hong Kong style dishes, which I love. Fast, cheap & good food. This kind of food makes me wish we did live in Canada…sometimes.

Rice Roll, Fried Noodle, Congee, Turnip Cake, Rice Roll (again)Fried Sweet Dough

Visiting a T&T supermarket is always on our agenda when we visit Canada. We always shop on the last day so we can bring back some fresh baked goodies on the ride home.

ENJOY!

Adventures in Canadia – Casa Victoria Review

CASA VICTORIA
8601 Warden Ave, Unit 4-6
Markham, ON L3R 0B5, Canada
905-948-1618

If you want high end dim sum in the Markham area of Canada, then Casa Victoria is the place for you. The restaurant is elegantly decorated, the food is excellent & the prices matches the quality of the food. It is definitely on the expensive side, but if you want to indulge, then this is the place to do it.

The restaurant is very popular during lunch time, so if you plan to go, you’ll most likely have to wait for a table. The place is quite large, but it fills up quickly because the Asian community really love their dim sum. It is a madhouse during the weekends, but if you go early or on a weekday, you might luck out with a table.

From left to right:
Spare ribs, fried tofu rolls, beef ribs, fried dough rice roll (can’t remember what was in the 2nd rice roll), chicken feet, beef tripe, sui mai & har gow.

The food is amazing here & it is a place you should try at least once. Everything is made to perfection. From the thin, freshly made silky smooth rice rolls to the finger licking good beef ribs to the har gow which is 3x bigger than your normal shrimp dumplings, you will not be disappointed. We absolutely love it here.

If you are in the area or plan to visit, this is a must try.

ENJOY!

Adventures in Canadia – Dragon Dynasty Review

Hubby & I trek to Canada a few times a year to visit his relatives. It’s almost always a food eating fest when we get up there. Our plans always revolve around food. The Asian foods up there is by far some of the best we’ve ever had, even compared to foods in Hong Kong.

Let’s go on a little food tour of Markham/Scarborough area in Ontario, Canada. This area is about a 30 minute drive from downtown Toronto. It is densely populated with an Asian community; therefore, there are tons of Asian restaurants & shopping centers in the area.

Let’s start with Dim Sum. You cannot go to Canada without having eaten at least one or two meals of dim sum. I once ate 5 consecutive days of dim sum, which caused a major dim sum overdose. I would not recommend that unless you are a die-hard fan of dim sum.

Dim sum, translated, means “touch your heart.” It’s is the Chinese version of tapas. Usually, little ladies push food carts around the restaurant & you pick & choose what you want. They are small plates of food so everyone can try a little piece or 2.

DRAGON DYNASTY
2301 Brimley Rd
Scarborough, ON M1S 5B8
(416) 321-9000

TIP: If you get here before 11am & put in your order (they have a sheet to pick & choose what you want), all the dishes is one price. Usually, they go by S, M or L. The small being cheaper & the large being more expensive. Get there early to save some money & also you’re most likely to get a seat because it gets crazy in there with long wait times if you are a large party.

Chicken Feet (bottom)– This is marinated in a fatty lard sauce. Some people have an aversion to chicken feet, but I love it. It’s so tasty. You pull off the skin with your teeth & spit out the bones. I’m a classy lady, so I love spitting out bones in front of everyone.

Roast Pork wrapped in phyllo (right)– flakey crust filled w/ Chinese roast pork. These were smaller than the triangular ones we usually get, which means less filling for us. Boo.

Vegetable Spring Roll (upper left)– grandma likes this dish so we ordered it. Not sure what the fuss is all about but she really likes them.

Beef Rice Rolls – this is a standard dim sum dish that most everyone orders. It usually comes with beef or shrimp drizzled with soy sauce. You’d want the rice wrapping to be thin yet soft & silky.

Sui Mai – Pork filled steamed dumplings.

Har Gow – Shrimp dumpling in a thin, translucent wrapper.

Tofu skin wrap – These usually have veggies inside & either chicken or pork. I think this one had chicken. I absolutely loved this. It was so delicious that I think I ate the whole dish by myself.

Pineapple bun filled with Roast Pork – there isn’t any pineapple in this bun. The name comes from the cookie like crust on top that resembles a pineapple. The crunchy topping, soft bread & the tasty roast pork filling were so incredibly satisfying.

Custard buns – In Chinese, these are called “leaky sand” buns & they should come piping hot. When you bite into it, the custard is supposed to leak out if made properly. These were decent.

Note: the standard tip in Canada is 10%, but you can always tip more if you’d like.

That was a good start to our day in Canada. The rest of the day was devoted to more gluttony. More updates to come!

ENJOY!