Eating can be hard work

As I sit here typing on my laptop in Bermuda, I am remembering some of the meals that Vivien and I enjoyed in Penang in that last frantic week before we left on our annual pilgrimage. Why frantic? Well, it was because Viv had been away in China for a couple of weeks before that and I was pretty much laid up with a sports injury as well meaning that our fairly usual ritual of tennis, beers and then dinner at some restaurant with 8 or 10 others hadn't happened for a while. So when Viv returned and I made my first foray back onto the court post-lay off, there seemed to be some sort of almost desperate need to catch up. And as we only had a week in between before we left for Bermuda, all those dinners had to be crammed into a very short period of time.

I know, 'had to' does imply some form of compulsion that of course was not the case but when people that you haven't seen for a while ask you how you are, buy you a beer and say those dangerous words 'what are your dinner plans tonight?' .... well it would be rude to do other than agree to whatever was taking place for that night.

But it was relentless.

Curry mee and fried fish belly

Steamboat

Fish restaurant

Korean

Champagne brunch

Japanese homestyle

See what I mean? The steamboat dinner was especially memorable not only for the food but also for the other stuff....

Doesn't show the whisky to finish!

If this wasn't enough, when we arrived in Toronto we went to our favorite steak restaurant for a fix of large chunks of red meat...

I need a rest.

2 Fried Eggs on top, please

I'd watched a Food TV programme on deli's and included was Caplansky's in Toronto, on College Street near Kensington Market, so I had to try it out for myself.  Mind you I decided for some reason to go in the evening rather than daytime but wasn't going to be deterred as apparently their smoked meat hash was the bees knees.

It isn't an imposing building or that neat really either.  Its sort of long and thin with a bar at the back (that I missed until I saw someone else slurping on a beer) and the counter taking up most of one side behind which was a sweaty young guy, not the guy that's on the website, carving up large chunks of meat with aplomb.

It was pretty busy as being a deli its not a place to break the bank as most of the customers appeared young, college types no doubt from one of the universities that dot the city and surrounds.

I ordered chicken soup with matzo balls and the smoked meat hash -- "We do it differently here so we can't really call it corned beef or pastrami although its closest in flavour to corned beef" said the waitress.

The chicken soup was just great and the matzo balls really nice and doughy.  Call them what you will, they're only a different type of dumpling but they taste really nice in that soup I can tell you.  Real comfort food.  Had I been sick, I'd have felt better already.

The hash came after quite a long wait -- "We ran out of one of the ingredients so had to do up a fresh batch" was the reason.

Now I consider myself not quite an expert but definitely a devotee of hash.  I will always eat it if its on a menu so I was looking forward to it coming as it did with a couple of fried eggs on top.

This last I think is the perfect accompaniment to any meal.  If you like the meal, add 2 fried eggs on top and that will elevate it to all new heights.  One word of warning though, it doesn't work that well on top of a chicken curry, but that aside there's precious little that fried eggs won't enhance.

It worked well here though as the hash was yummy.  So yummy that I bought a pound of the smoked meat to take home with me.

Caplansky's Delicatessen
356 College Street
Toronto

Tel: 416 500 3852
http://www.caplanskys.com

Hey!

I like the TV food programme Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives because I like the presenter, Guy Fieri, and the no nonsense way he digs into the food.  Also the places he frequents aren't fancy fine dining by any means, just simple no nonsense fooderies which won't break the bank.  Any time I see a place triple-D frequents, I make a note so I can try it myself.  Hence my visit to Hey Meatball in Toronto a couple of days ago.

The TV programme made it look like the place was big and jammed with people all of who could give 5 minutes on any food items major ingredients.  I can't do this very well.  To me its just yummy or not.  How it gets to that point escapes me in the main so don't expect much in the way of detailed analysis of this ingredient or that technique.  Just yummy or not.  OK?

Its on College Street in the Little Italy district and I did expect it to look slicker than it was.  It actually looks a bit like an old launderette from the 1980's -- pretty bare and white.  What gave it away was the big red Hey sign out front.  I missed the small clapboard sign on the pavement and wandered in.

"Hi, man," screamed out one of the guys from the back.

Notice I didn't say 'the kitchen' because there wasn't one.  Simply an L-shaped counter behind which were a couple of sweaty looking cool dudes, one of whom had called out to me.  No table service.  You order at the counter.

It was also empty.

Mind you it was around 1.45 pm so after the lunch rush but if it was that good you'd expect there to be someone there most if not all of the time.

"What's your name, buddy?"  Now I'm English so reserve comes naturally to me.  This was a shock but I did confess my name was Mark.

"Whaddya want Marky-Mark?"

I hate it when people call me that.  My mum called me Marky when I was in my thirties and it was agony.  This wasn't going well.  But I persevered and asked what was good.

"Meatballs are good."  Well of course they are, or rather have to be.  This is a meatball shop for goodness sake.  If they were rubbish you wouldn't be in business.

I asked for spaghetti and meatballs as that was what Guy Fieri had on DDD along with a side salad and home made soda.  I asked which was nicest.

"They're all nice of course.  Mind you lime is probably my favourite," which rounded out the meal.

I sat myself down and few minutes later Marky-Mark's salad appeared soon followed by the spag + meatballs and soda.

The salad was half a lettuce chopped into 4 parts with blue cheese dressing and bacon bits drizzled over the top and was really nice.  The lime soda was great and the spaghetti and meatballs simply awesome.

It wasn't a big bowl to be sure but it was really hefty so very filling indeed.

I asked the guy about the TV show and he was vague about it.  "That was months ago now.  Yeah, they came in with about 20 guys and pretty much filled the shop.  They hung around for hours too filming all over the place.  Our customers couldn't get in.  The guys seemed OK to talk to."  Not really that informative then!

Mind you he did offer that business was so good they're opening another store out East, presumably near the Beaches in eastern Toronto.

Pretty good for $20!  You go here for the food not the decor!

Hey Meatball
719 College Street
Toronto
Canada

Tel: 416 546 1483
http://www.heymeatball.com

We didn't mean it to be like this... really!

We'd had a really long day.  We'd driven back from Niagara on the Lake already and had agonised with the one way system and the road works around Union Station looking for where we had to return the rental car.  But finally we found the right spot and said goodbye to the Jeep which had been a fun car and together decided that we rather fancied a cocktail as it was certainly 5 o'clock somewhere ... it was actually 5 o'clock in Toronto.

The question was where?  Now we've been to TO many times before and knew quite a lot of restaurants and bars but thought we'd like somewhere new so headed towards the financial district which at 5 pm was bound to be thronging with workers quenching thirsts prior to the commute home.  Bars would likely feature highly.  But walking up Yonge Street we only found places we'd already been to and wanted somewhere new.

By the time we reached Wellington, we were getting desperate so turned left off Yonge as I thought I remembered a couple of bars that looked like fun and saw this terrace thronging with people busily slurping booze of some sort and shouting at the top of their lungs (or so it seemed as the noise was pretty impressive).

Multiply the crowd by 10

"This was the place", we thought.  "Go where the crowds are.  It must be decent".  However it was a bit chilly so we didn't fancy sitting outside so checked in with the hostess who said that in addition to the multitude, there was a private party so we needed to go to the basement (aka dungeon) if we wanted a drink.

We didn't get in here

Not an impressive start we both thought and were within an ace of moving on when we found the door to the basement and entered into the palatial interior.

The basement

We were shown to a corner table and a waitress took our drinks order -- both vodka martinis with olives -- and settled in.

The room was pretty empty at this time with only another table occupied by a couple of people having what looked like an after work drink (beer and wine, no cocktails).  The martinis were nice though, good olives too.  This is important in a decent martini I think.  You can always tell good places by the quality of the olives.  The best we'd ever had was in the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong.  They and the martinis were sensational.

The waitress came over with a menu just in case we changed our minds.  And amazingly after the first martini, we had.  The question though was what nibble should we have with our second martini?

They served oysters which are like catnip for me.  Viv on the other hand doesn't like their sliminess but had persevered in the onslaught that was my prediliction for the humble mollusc and had bent in Newport, RI a couple of years back and downed a couple, and had done so again on several other occasions since.  I ordered a dozen of 3 different varietals (I forget which) whilst Viv ordered the seafood platter -- pretty much every type of raw and cooked seafood you could think of on a big tray.  As it was food we also ordered a bottle of nice Niagara rose wine to wash it down.

They were scrumptious.  Viv chowed down on plenty of my oysters but returned the compliment with the platter and together with the wine, this was something.

A second bottle of rose followed as we munched and slurped away.  This was a great meal.  However we realised as we finished the platters that all we'd actually eaten was a bunch of molluscs and crustaceans -- we were actually still a little peckish.  It wasn't a big steak kind of peckish, rather a sort of "I'd really like a non-fish savoury to finish" kind of peckish so we negotiated a veggie pasta to finish.

Oh yes and with the pasta we just had to have a bottle of nice Niagara red as accompaniment.  It was a pinot noir (I cannot remember which winery though).

The pasta was lovely too -- the sauce was a Mediterranean sauce with plenty of veggies cooked just right.  Viv and I shared an appetizer sized portion which was still pretty substantial.

This was a great meal but the bill was eye watering too.  "What was the name of this restaurant again?" I asked the waitress.  "Bymark" she said.

I'd heard this was a nice fine dining restaurant and can now confirm that it really was!

Chef Brooke McDougall

Bymark
66 Wellington Street West
Toronto, ON
M5K 1M6
(416) 777-1144

www.bymark.mcewangroup.ca

Noodles anyone?

Viv did it again!  Again I've said that before and will say it again sometime soon I've no doubt.  We'd found a great 24 hour ramen noodle shop in March when we were in Miami to watch the Sony Ericsson Tennis Tournament (blogged elsewhere).  It was a wonderful experience and with the large Japanese population in Toronto, Viv wondered if there was something similar there.

There was -- the Hokkaido Ramen Santouka restaurant just away from Dundas Square in downtown TO.  Apparently the boss, one Hitoshi Hatanaka, ate a ramen meal with his family that was not to his taste and vowed to do it better himself.  This was in Hokkaido and subsequently the Santouka Ramen franchise has mushroomed all over, including TO.

The premises are as you would expect, slick and clean but with really long lines outside (this was as we left not as we arrived which was fortunately in the middle of a rain shower so presumably washed away the lines).  Mind you the place was jammed to the gills inside so Viv and I sat at the counter to watch the chefs weave their magic.

There was certainly nobody sitting down chewing the fat.  It was all business for the numerous help.  And it was hot and steamy too, not surprising I suppose given the need to boil the pork soup served with the ramen for 20 hours or so.

Small menu but that's typical for ramen shops -- mostly based around either pork jowl or cha shu (pork back not belly as I thought given the similarity with famous BBQ Chinese pork).  Variations were with what came in it.

We chose the cha shu ramen and the toroniku ramen (pork jowl) with Sapporo beer to wash it all down.    It came in virtually an instant and boy, was it good and hot.  The pork jowl was sensational and the noodle/soup combo... well I'll have to admit here that I am a total sucker of soups in all shapes and forms.  And if you put something in it, well...

The Toroniku Ramen dish, pork jowl to left

This is a great place for a quick fix of noodles.  I will be back!

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka
91 Dundas Street East
Toronto, ON M5B 2C8
(647) 748-1717

www.santouka.co.jp/en

Leave it all to Chris

I can't remember how we'd heard about Cava, a tapas style restaurant at 1560 Yonge.  It may have been in many of the Top 10, Top 25 or Top 100 restaurants in Toronto but in any event Viv and I had been there before with another friend, Nick, but this time it was another friend David's turn to put up with this place.

Its location is on the Yonge Subway just up from St. Clair so an easy hop from downtown, and when we arrived unfashionably 1 hour early for our 9 pm reservation (on a Sunday! Give me a break. The place was half empty!!) we found David chatting to the barman and drinking a vodka martini.  A nice one too, he said.

He'd also read about Cava and particularly the bit about if in doubt as to what to eat, simply "Leave it all to Chris".

Viv and I caught up with our martinis; she vodka with olives, me a James Bond Vesper martini that I had to show the barman how to make.  Mind you he had Lillet and made a magnificent one before admitting he'd just joined and was actually the bus boy and not the regular barman.  He needs to change jobs!

We told our waiter that we were leaving it all to Chris and ordered a nice hearty Spanish red as we sat down.  Then came the plates.

Iberico ham, followed by Quebec foie gras on toast -- sorry, Pinchot of Gamay poached foie gras with rhubarb compote (magnificent incidentally), roasted beet salad, kingfish ceviche, asparagus, roasted lion's main mushrooms, grilled sardines, squid, clams, sablefish, 48 hour beef brisket... my God, it was endless!  And to follow chocolate souffle and a cheese plate with a small savoury of even more foie gras at the very end.  Just in case it was needed!!

Just spectacular.

Mind you, so was the bill at the end but it was one of those cases when it was all worth it.

My son Alistair and I had visited San Sebastian on our Euro road trip in 2011 and had discovered that the old town there was the world capital of tapas bars.  There the food was simpler but equally magnificent.  At Cava it was fancier but certainly all that one could have wished for.

I will go back again when my waistline permits!  Next time with Ali.

Cava Restaurant
1560 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON

(416) 979-9918

www.cavarestaurant.ca

Burgers in Toronto

My friend Byron suggested a burger joint on Queen West called the County General for lunch with our respective wives this week when we were in Toronto.  The premise is usually the same -- good cocktails and decent food -- so it's not a bad place to begin this new blog which will be all about the fooderies that I've found, enjoyed and maybe have not enjoyed.  Much of what I do when I travel is to find great places to eat so its nice to remember the good ones.

The place is funky -- our martinis came in old style champagne glasses and Daina's iced tea came in a large jam jar.  Daina said a lot of places do this now.  I'd only ever seen it 6 years ago in Alaska in a bar in a one horse town by some vast waterway.  The beer then was home brew and they had some fine blues on the sound system.

One horse town in Alaska

The menu was fairly simple for lunch -- burgers, sandwiches and pretty much anything hand held.  One thing I liked was the ability to add bacon and a fried egg to anything for $2 each.  This charming addition reminded me instantly of Dorothy's Coffee Shop in Bermuda, the home of the finest burger in the world.

Mind you the County General's burger was pretty darned good too.  I had fries with mine, well I ordered them anyway.  They were somehow eaten by someone else who ordered a side salad instead!

Trouble was this time, Viv and I had something on in the evening and with Byron and Daina admitting to having to work in the afternoon, we had to curtail things only 3 cocktails in.

Fun place indeed!

The County General
936 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M6J 1G6
(416) 531-4447

www.thecountygeneral.ca