Snacking Our Way North on Yonge St.

Walking along Yonge St. between Davisville and Lawrence, there are many opportunities to get a quick snack, without having to invest the time or money on a sit-down meal.  We have a few favourites that we frequent regularly, and also found a new place that we are waiting to try.

The pizza available at lunch time at Falasca reminds me of our experiences eating pizza in Rome.  Large square slabs of pizza with different sauces and ingredients are on display behind the counter.  A small number denotes which of the 31 different pre-determined pizzas from the menu are currently available.  For example, number 7 is the Arrabbita, a spicy pizza made with fresh mozzarella, scamorza cheese, garlic, chili powder, cherry tomatoes while number 23 is the Norcina, with mozzarella, black truffle, Italian sausage, and pecorino cheese.   There are no pre-cut slices to be purchased.  The pizza is sold by weight with a different price per pound for each type, depending on the type of ingredients found on it.  You can order as little or as much as you want from the various slabs and the proprietor will cut and weigh your selections.

The pizzas have thin, crispy crust, just like we found in Rome.  When we arrived, two new pizzas had just come out of the oven–number 6 is the funghi e Salsiccia (button mushrooms, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella) and number 9 the funghi e provola (Button mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, smoked provola).  We chose these two since they were freshly baked and did not need to be reheated–and having mushroom (my favourite) as the main ingredient did not hurt!  It was interesting to note how many of the 31 pizzas (including our two choices) did not include tomato sauce, that staple of North American pizza.

Although Street Fish Market is a seafood store that sells raw fish and shellfish, it also offers some delectable prepared food options.  Battered haddock pieces are served on a stick, like giant popsicles, and come with fried potato wedges or an elaborate choice of salads such as the asparagus and mushroom salad that we chose.  Also available were lobster rolls, fish tacos, fried smelt, and more.  All the seafood is prepared on the spot using the freshest of ingredients. You can even purchase any piece of raw fish and ask for it to be prepared to your liking. 

Unfortunately, since the store was not designed for dining, there is very little seating available to eat the delicious food.  You have a choice of a few bar stools along a ledge adjacent to the cash register, or you could fight for the one small table at the back of the store, or jockey for position on the bench in front of the store.  The high quality, great tasting food definitely make it worth a return visit.  But we made a note to self to return on a week day, since the volume of customers on the weekend made for long delays to even order, let alone get your food served and find seating.

Finally, the store that we have scouted out but have not actually tried yet is called Douce France.  It is a patisserie, bakery, confection shop where all products are imported from France.  What caught our eye was the sign advertising authentic Angelina's Hot Chocolate from Paris.  We have had the hot chocolate from Angelina's when we were in Paris and it is out of this world.  The hot chocolate is so thick that a spoon could almost stand straight up in the cup.  This is accompanied by a bowl of beautifully whipped cream and a cup full of sugar, which the customer can add to their taste.  On the day we passed by, it was much too hot to contemplate drinking hot chocolate, but we've made a note to return once the cooler weather hits. 

 Falasca Pizza - 2059 Yonge St.
Street Fish Market - 2584 Yonge St.
Douce France - 2471 Yonge St

Dining Choices at Yonge & St. Clair

 The area around Yonge St. and St. Clair Ave. has accumulated some good eating locations over the past few years.  We have a couple of high-end "destination" restaurants, with Didier serving classic French cuisine and Cava specializing in tapas from the Iberian peninsula.  There are also a slew of mid-range eateries that are a cut above the typical fast food chains.

Nove Trattoria has been bustling with business since it first opened, and it is not surprising.   The restaurant is owned and run by members of the Bianco family, who have decades of experience cooking in Italy.  It serves authentic Italian cuisine at reasonable prices, using the freshest ingredients that are reminiscent of dining in Tuscany.

The caprese salad ($14) is made with the moistest, most flavourful buffalo mozzarella that I've ever tasted.  There are nine pizzas ($12.50-15) on the menu, each one named after one of the nine Bianco siblings, as is the restaurant itself, since "nove" means nine in Italian.  The homemade pasta ($12.50-16.50) is cooked perfectly al dante, accompanied with a variety of cream, tomato or olive oil-based sources.  My favorite is the "fettucine della nonna" which comes with grilled chicken, porcini mushrooms and spinach in a cream sauce.   The "secondi" courses range from $19-24.50 for salmon, chicken, seafood, ribs and steak dishes.

Bushi Udon Kappo specializes in chewy udon noodles that are freshly made on the premises.  The udon is served either hot or cold in a "soy-sauce-based Bonito broth soup" and comes with ingredients such as pork, mushroom, tofu, seaweed, shrimp or veggie tempura.  The best option that we've tried is the curry udon with beef and veggies ($10.50), which has a thick spicy broth.   I would stick to the udon though.  When we strayed and tried the tempura, we found it to have limp and soggy batter.

 The Urban Bistro at St. Clair just west of Yonge St. is home to a series of separate food kiosks including a breakfast place and an Asian noodle place.  The most interesting stall belongs to the makers of Hot Bunzz, taking the concept of  the baked Chinese pork bun and putting a spin on it.  Instead of the traditional filling, the buns are stuffed with choices like bison short rib, pork belly, elk, pulled pork, sausage, Thai basil beef and coconut curry chicken.  Vegetarian options include mushroom and spinach or Quebec 3-cheesed.  The buns are served with homemade potato chips that are spiced with black pepper and rosemary.  The choices for sides, which consist of variations of green salads, potato salads and coleslaw, change on a daily basis.  These exotic buns are surprisingly cheap (abet a bit on the small size) at only $3 each, with volume deals such as buy 5 buns and get the 6th free.

Holy Chuck has been voted one of the top burger joints in Toronto, coming second only to Burger's Priest.  Apparently, it's all about the beef.  Holy Chuck uses local, Ontario beef which they grind into hamburger meat several times a day.  The freshly made patties are pan grilled to produce thick juicy burgers.  The signature Holy Chuck Burger ($9.99) is a double cheeseburger with bacon and caramelized onions and the menu implores you not to add anything else to it.

More unusual options include the Animal Feed (panko crusted portabello mushroom, feta, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, lemon aioli), the Croissant du Pay San (beef patty, fried egg, pancetta, french fries in a croissant),  and the Holy Duck ($27.99 for beef patty, double smoked bacon, fois gras, truffle oil, maple syrup, black truffles).  The ultimate eating challenge is called "Go Chuck Yourself"– 6 patties, 6 cheeses, triple bacon and caramelized onions stacked between THREE grilled cheese sandwiches.  Why anyone would want to eat this volume of food is beyond me, but there is photographic evidence of the people who have  succeeded. 

It's really nice to have so many good dining options just steps away from our home.  Wonder what we should eat today? ...

Nove Trattoria - 1406 Yonge St.
Bushi Udon Kappi - 1404 Yonge St.
Hot Bunzz / Urban Bistro - 21 St. Clair West
Holy Chuck - 1450 Yonge St.

Marianne's Sausages

Who would have thought that one of the most interesting street vendors in Toronto would be situated on "Hospital Row", the stretch of University Ave. just south of College St.  The sausage stand even has a name–Marianne's, as shown at the top of its lengthy menu.  In addition to the usual Italian pork sausages, the menu also offers such exotic choices as Halal beef, jerk chicken with coconut sauce and onions, vegetarian tofu, and wild meats such as elk, bison, and wild boar.  The jerk chicken sausage is my favourite, as it is moist and juicy and deliciously spicy with a good kick to it.

The prices are quite reasonable, at $7 for the wild meat sausages, and $3-5 for the other choices.  Potato, sweet potato and quinoa salad are offered as sides.  Depending of the day of the week, specialty sandwiches include pulled pork, peameal bacon, and roast beef sourced from Barberian Steak House.

One of the most popular menu items is the "Love Plate" which consists of a sampling of the various items.  The plate includes half of a jerk chicken sausage with the trimmings, choice of baked or sweet potato, and choice of quinoa salad or another half of one of the wild meat sausages.   All of this is topped with a dollap of sour cream.  The plate was apparently so appealing that a passerby asked us what we had and actually took a photo of our lunch.   

Sushi Kaji Tasting Menu

Based solely on location and appearance, you would not peg Sushi Kaji to be a fine dining establishment, boasting some of the best Japanese food in Toronto.   Nestled in southern Etobicoke, in midst of an inauspicious set of low-rise storefronts on the Queensway between Islington Ave and Royal York Road, you can even find free parking after 6pm right in front of the restaurant - no valet parking here!  The interior does not seem much different from any other sushi joint, except for the large wrap-around chef's counter where you can choose to sit and observe the sushi masters at work.  The piped-in muzak playing a cheesy Gypsy King version of "I Will Survive" didn't do much to change first impressions.

But once you try the food, you will know that you are in for something special.  Sushi Kaji has no a la carte menu, but offers two omakase (chef's choice) tasting menus, priced at $120 or $150.  We have eaten there twice in the past five years, each time to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  Both times, we chose the higher priced menu which offered much better selections, since once you are up at those price points, you might as well go for broke.

Rich ordered a cup of sake, which was served in a most interesting fashion.  The sake was poured into a large ceramic "shot glass" sitting in a square ceramic saucer.  The waitress poured the sake right up to the brim (at which point I thought whoa... it's going to overflow), and then continued to pour so that excess sake fell into the saucer.  It took a few seconds to realize she was doing this on purpose.  Apparently this is meant to symbolize wealth (overflowing riches).  Now the trick was how to drink from this without spilling it all ...

The tasting menu started with three delicious appetizers including a battered fish cake with shredded snow peas sitting on top of a daikon radish, Japanese eggplant with a chicken miso sauce, and my favourite–a sweet asparagus soup made with kuzu sauce and a crispy asparagus cake.  At least, that is what I think we ate, since it was very difficult to discern what was being said by the heavily Japanese-accented waitresses.

The sashimi course contained the freshest, tenderest cuts of fish and seafood including Spanish mackerel, red tuna, octopus, sea bream, and hirame (Japanese sole).  There was also shredded white carrot, seaweed and cucumber that was to be dipped in a special sesame sauce.

The most beautifully plated dish consisted of a slab of seared black cod, lotus root slices stuffed with sharp tasting mustard seeds, and a slice of corn on the cob which was hollowed and stuffed with a shrimp/crab mixture.  Brightly coloured edible flowers and dabs of sweet hoisin-like sauce completed the the artistic creation.

The main course was not only tasty but also a unique dining experience.  A personal Hibachi burner was placed in front of each of us and then a pot full of udon noodles, greens, enoki mushroom and slices of raw wagyu beef was set on top of it.  Once the burner was turned on, the soupy sukiyaki dish quickly came to a bubbling boil and we were given instructions to allow the beef to cook until about 80% done.  A bowl containing a soft-poached egg was placed beside the burner.  We were told to stir the egg into a sauce and use it as a dip for the noodle dish.  The result was bursting with flavour and I only wished we were given a spoon so we could drink the broth at the end.

By the time the exotic sushi course came, I was already nearly full, but soldiered on.  The pieces of nigiri seemed never ending as we were presented with seared scallop, tuna tartar, hirame with plum sauce, fried abalone, as well as the more traditional red and white tuna and shrimp.  It was interesting that we didn't seem to get any salmon in any of the courses.  I guess this was considered too commonplace and uninteresting for the chef.

The meal finally ended with a bowl of cold somen noodles with ginger and green onion, followed by a different dessert for each of us.  I received a green tea creme brulee, while Rich got a fruit salad with jello squares and a blob of red bean paste (yuck!).  Neither desserts were quite my cup of tea (where was the chocolate??) but since Rich loves creme brulee, we switched.  I made him eat the red bean paste, but enjoyed the fruit salad which had strawberries, watermelon, pineapple, blueberries and honey dew.

All the staff including the host, waitresses and chefs seemed to be Japanese.  The one conspicuous exception was the white apprentice chef, who spent the first part of the evening merely observing the others.  But by the end of the night, he was taking part in creating the sushi and sashimi dishes.  It was fun watching the sushi master, who was so graceful that his hands seemed to be doing a dance or tai chi movies, as he scooped the rice and the fish and joined them together.



Sushi Kaji
860 The Queensway,  (416) 252-2166