南翔上海料理 - Yu Garden (soft opening)

On a lazy Sunday afternoon, Mr. "E" and I decided to try the new Yu garden recommended by a friend in Richmond hill. When we got here, we found out that it is a branch from a famous shanghainese dumpling place that operated since 1559 in Shanghai.

The menu is famous for the 灌湯包, pretty much consume steamed inside a huge dumpling which you drink through a straw. Obviously we had to try both the sharks fin and crab roe soup dumpling.

As you can see from the menu, they have some pretty gourmate xiao long bao for tasting purposes. 

To start we ordered 馬蘭頭 a classic minced vegetable (Indian aster) with tofu cold dish. It was quite tasty and refreshing for a hot summer day.

Then came the soup dumplings. Maybe because of their soft opening, the crab roe soup dumpling was flavourless. 

As for the shark fin soup dumpling, it was a tad better with the chicken stock which was as expected. I had to season with ample amount of vinegar and salt. But I have to say it was quite bland, and lacking the umami flavour we were hoping for to find. 

We can not go to a shanghainese restaurant and not get the classic 小龍包, xiao long bao. Much better than the massive soup dumplings as it is more flavourful. 

Mr. E got one of his favourite 東波肉, braised pork belly. The flavour is solid, but the sauce needs further reduction and the pork needs to soak in the sauce more to absorb the essense of the sweetness and saltiness. It was quite good with the rice. 

As for the last dish, we finished with was a classic shanghainese scallion noodles with dried shrimp. Once again, we were hoping for more but the flavours were bland. You can say they were subtle. The noodles wasn't bad though. 

We had really high hopes for the restaurant after reading the restaurants biography, and how it introduced that both Bill Clinton and the Queen ate at the Shanghai branch. Overall, the food needs work. The kitchen needs time to settle in as their signature soup dumpling really needs major improvements. 

Service: 3/5

Quality: 3/5

Price: $$ 

Taiwanese food in toronto?!?!? Really!?!?

As a big fan for all things taiwanese and japanese, I always wondered when I could find a decent taiwanese place in toronto. Upon recommendations from a close friend Ms. J, we came across Koo Koo chicken in Mississauga. Yes and this place is in the middle of no where in a non distinct strip mall. But man was it good! Much like food court, you order, get a number and sit. They will bring you the food. 

Since there were 4 of us, we pretty much ordered the whole menu. First off is the sesame oil braised chicken (麻油雞) with thin noodles. The fragrance of the rice wine is amazing. Only lacking is the texture of the noodles, too soft for my liking. 

Next is the braised pork rice with pickled vegatables. My much hated pork, but man I love braised taiwanese pork (滷肉飯). The texture of the pork is succulent and not oily at all. 

How do I usually decide whether a taiwanese restaurant is legit. I must get their osyter pancake (蚵仔煎). The homemade sauce is very authentic, better than ones from vancouver and closes to that of taiwan night market stands. It is interesting how they use watercress instead of Napa cabbage. My favourite!!!! 

We cannot come all the way and not get fried chicken nuggets and cutlets. They have different powders to go with it like curry, seaweed, plum and lots more. Only complaint is I would've wanted to taste more of the basil that they use to fry the chicken with. 

Chicken cutlet is a lot of tender and juicy than the nuggets. I would say better done technically and I would get this and not the nuggets. 

Overall, highly highly recommend for people who love and crave taiwanese food. God was I glad for Ms. J's recommendation. It would have been ashame not to know of this place.

Service: 3.5/5 

Quality: 5/5

Price: $ (super affordable) 

When you crave tuna!!!

I have been craving albacore tuna! So Mr. E says why not we buy a slab of albacore and make a homemade japanese izakaya style dinner. As such we brought a $30 slab from J-town and began our cooking adventures. 

For starters, let's have some shisoto peppers! Out of the 40 little peppers I ended up with all the hot ones! (Apparently you get 1 hot one out of 12) 

We decided to prepare the tuna two ways. First is the tuna tataki, lightly seared tuna served with a ponzu soya sauce. Yummy!!!

Next is the famous hapa izakaya style negitoro. More or less it's one part soya, one part sesame oil and one part peanut sauce. We served this over baguette. Delish!!! 

Lastly as our main how can we not have yaki-udon. We made it with pork collar instead of beef as Mr. E loves his pork!! 

Food Adventures in Singapore, "Say What…. Hawker Centres…"

When the plane landed, the heat was scorching hot. Mr."E" understands that the heat and I are like water and oil. He decided to ease me in by taking me to an indoor Hawker Centre at the Ion Orchard.

Had my first Hainanese Chicken rice! Omg delish…. They have different sauces from north american Haianese chicken you get at "Cha Chan Tang". They have dark soya sauce (quite thick) which enhanced the texture of the chicken.

Another famous dish is their fish noodle soup. Eventhough the Hawker Center inside Ion Orchard isn't really known for their food, this fish soup still blows my mind.

The next stop was China town. The streets are still filled with colonial architecture which gave the area a very colonial atmosphere.

Through the winding streets you will find small food stalls around every corner. But most of all you will find foot massage places everywhere!!!! We tried both the Kinko fish food spa & a traditional chinese foot spa. So comfy after long days on your feet.

The point of coming to Chinatown is this place, MAXWELL food centre. As more of you will know of this place if you are a food fanatic and an Antony Bourdain follower. They have "Tian Tian Hainaese Chicken Rice", oyster pockets, fish noodle soup, fresh squeeze southeast asian fruits and much more. This is absolutely a food haven. Sadly, it was quite hot and there is no air-con. So Mr. "E" decided to buy some of the food for take out & enjoy in the luxury of our hotel air-conditioned room.

Lets start the meal with some fresh dumplings. This pork & leeks. Have to say the meat was super fresh & the sauce is complex & heightens the flavours of the dumplings.

Osyter pockets!!! I love oysters & telling you, it is filled with succulent huge oysters. Yums!!

This blew my mind!!!!! The best fish soup I ever had in my life. Even after coming back to Toronto, I can remember the rich, creamy flavours of the sea. As mentioned, I hate the heat, but this, I was willing to inhale it despite all the sweating. It was absolutely amazing!

To cool down, lets have some guava and soursop juice. So refreshing!

How can we come to southeast asia and not have mango!!!! So sweet, so much better than the unripe sour mangos we get in North America.

This is what we came for! Tian Tian chicken rice. By this time we were getting a little full. So we decided to do take out to enjoy back at our hotel.

Lunch time! Yes all the above was pretty much a huge brunch!

The chicken mmmmmmmm sososososo good. The texture was so tender and smooth. The dark sauce and house special spicy sauce added so much flavour to the simply salted chicken. I think this is a hard dish to beat anywhere in the world if you are a true lover for chicken (which is me!!).

Singaporean style fried beef noodles. It has a sweet note to it compared to that of the cantonese style fried beef noodles. Absolute delicacy.

For dinner, we headed to the Newton Hawker Centre. They are known for their seafood heavily influenced with malaysian and indian stalls. Since the sun is down, the heat is way more bearable. So you just pick a table, remember your table number and they will bring you the food when you order.

The oyster omelette was highly recommended by food bloggers everywhere! Osyters!!!

Couldn't have agreed more. The omelette was crispy much like the Chaozhou style omelette. There was plenty of oysters & they were huge, just slightly undercooked making them super succulent. The hot dipping sauce help bind all the flavours together.

Yes, this is bbq honey chicken wings. It is actually a soy honey glaze and finished off with lime juice. The lime juice helps cut the fattiness of the skin.

Cantaloupe juice, so sweet!

Grilled fish with banana fish with a sambal belacan sauce. The fish was cooked perfectly and provided the perfect sauce delivering vehicle for the belacan sauce. Sweetness of the tomato, fragrance of the turmeric and richness of the coconut mixed into the sauce, mmmmmm, so yummy!!

How can we eat a meal without my favourite food group!!! Veggies!! These are Water convolvulus, the centre is hollow and can take up the dried shrimp sauce perfectly.

Highly recommended indian bone marrow curry. You literally take a straw to suck up the marrow. Super delish and this dish is actually not hot at all. However be warned, don't wear any nice clothing as the sauce will stain anything red it comes in contact with, including your fingers!!

Traditional breakfast, Koppi (cheap coffee with condense milk) and Kaya toast (toast with a fine layer of coconut spread).

Second day lunch, we decided to get some Nasi Lemak with fried chicken. It is coconut rice cooked in Pandan leaf. Traditional malay lunch for the working class!

Second day dinner, we went to Jumbo seafood restaurant at Clarks Quay. I treated Mr. "E" to his favourite seafood, CRAB!!!! We got chilli crab which consist of Sri Lankan crab (much more meat) & a sweet chili sauce.

To soak up the sauces, we didn't get rice, but the famous chinese fried buns!

Also got fried taro nest with huge scallops. So yummy!

Look at the size of that claw!

To finish the day, we went to get cantonese style dessert which focuses on using fresh fruits and served in a liquid form. This place had a line up at 11pm at night!!!


I had Mango with grass jelly to help with the heat

Eric got the famous mango puree with fresh mango, sago & pomelo. So much fresher and sweeter than any of the places in Canada.

Last breakfast in Singapore, we went to Tim Ho Wan, a michelin star dim sum restaurant.  

They are best known for their bbq pork buns.

I am not a dim sum fan, but this bun was lovely. The outside was crispy, but the inside was so soft and moist.

Some carrot cake.

My favourite steamed rice roll with peanut and seafood sauce. The rice roll is super smooth and slides right down your throat. I love the texture!

Steamed Malay cake! Much like a sweet brown sugar sponge cake, steamed instead of baked.

Pork dumpling! Yummy!

Can't leave without some Osmanthus flower jello! So fragrant, but Mr. "E" doesn't like this.

Our last snack at Singapore Changi airport - the Ya Kun family cafe famous for their koppi and kaya toasts.


Kaya toast with slabs of coconut spread & butter.

Mr. "E" got the kaya toast fresh toast style (not that good).

Last koppi before heading to the security!