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!!