grand electric

What began as a walk through Parkdale, ended in a spontaneous dinner at Grand Electric. We started with the guacamole and chips. Check out that chicharron!

Spicy squid. Sweet, tangy and spicy. Delicious.

There were six taco options. We decided to try all of them. Round one(from top left): beef cheek, baja fish and spicy arbol chicken.

Round two (from top): pig tail, fried queso and roasted poblano, and pork belly al pastor.

Our favs of the night: the baja fish, beef cheek and fried queso. They were so good that we actually went for round three before lugging our full bellies back home. 

Grand Electric

1330 Queen St. W

pizza! pizza!

This pizza dough recipe from Pizzeria Mozza is fantastic! No really, it's probably the best dough I've ever made. There are a couple unconventional ingredients (rye flour and wheat germ) and the dough takes a while to make since you need to make a starter and let the dough rise a few times, but the resulting crust was so worth it. Chewy, full of bubbles and mega-flavourful, I couldn't stop saying "How good is this pizza!?" Here's the final rise of the dough (I made four medium-sized pizzas). You can see the bubbles forming.

Toppings! A good way to clean out the fridge.

Check out that crust: 

The recipe calls for using a pizza stone, but mine cracked a few months back so I improvised: I turned a large baking sheet upside-down and heated it in a 500-degree oven just like you would a stone. I'm already planning next week's pizza night.

farm anatomy

Farm Anatomy has quickly become one of my favourite books from 2011. Covering everything from barn styles to how a cow's stomach works, this illustrated guide to the basics of farm living has me daydreaming about moving out of the city and settling down on a small hobby farm somewhere in rural Ontario. 

finders keepers

Here are some of my favourite vintage finds as of late. This peanut butter pail wasn't really a find, Adam kindly gave it to me for Christmas. I love it and it's a great addition to my collection.

I've been looking for a kitchy fondue pot for a while, so when I spotted this baby along with four matching fondue plates, I scooped them up right away. Now I'm looking for a couple more of these plates.

I'm starting to build a set of vintage teacups and these two bone china ones looked so classy that they had to be mine.

I have a thing for old fishing pictures. I picked up a great ice fishing painting a couple of summers ago at the Aberfoyle Market and have been looking for more ever since. I hate the frame on this one, but I have plans to sand it down to get rid of some of the shine. If that doesn't work, I'll have to find a new frame.

brown rice bibimbap

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been eating this brown rice bibimbap at least twice a week. It's loaded with fibre and vegetables and can be thrown together in no time (if you do a bit of prep work). I use Korean short grain brown rice which has the perfect texture. I make the toppings at the beginning of the week so that I have them ready come dinnertime. From left: shredded carrots sauteed with soy sauce, spinach with sesame oil, mushrooms with garlic, Korean zucchini with onions.

Sometimes I'll throw in slices of pan-fried firm tofu, but this time, as a treat, I added some marinated pork. Finish it off with a dollop of gochujang and a perfectly fried egg. 

 Mix it all up and you're ready to eat.

granola

I'm really picky when it comes to granola and it took me a while to come up with a recipe that I love. I can't stand granola that's sticky or god forbid, chewy. It must be crunchy and there must be clusters. And please, no raisins.

I'm not ready to reveal my recipe to the world, but over the years I've replaced most of the fat and sugar in my recipe with olive oil and brown rice syrup making it that much better.

dim sum king

Ever since Bright Pearl closed down for "renovations" I've been searching for a good dim sum place with carts. Over the weekend I decided to check out Dim Sum King, a new-ish restaurant on the third floor of a random Chinatown mall on Dundas St. Funny enough, I recognized a lot of the cart ladies from Bright Pearl (maybe they got head-hunted for their cart skills?). I got there just before 11 a.m. and by noon the tables were filling up quickly. The usual dim sum fare was offered up hot and fresh and I happily walked out stuffed. 

Top to bottom: sweet beef ribs; char siu bao (bbq pork buns); deep-fried shrimp dumplings; har gow (steamed shrimp dumplings) and siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings); haam sui gok (savoury deep-fried glutinous rice dumplings); black bean spareribs; rice flour roll with shrimp.

Dim Sum King

421 Dundas St. W, 3rd floor

momofuku confetti cookies

Since the first of January, it's been all vegetables, no meat and little sugar over at my house. And while that's been all fine and dandy, and my body has been thanking me after stuffing my face throughout the holidays, I decided it was time for a treat. Momofuku Milk Bar's confetti cookies it is!

These cookies have the best texture: crispy and chewy (a bit like a cross between a snickerdoodle and a sugar cookie). At first I thought they were a bit too sweet, but I let that go pretty quickly after I scarfed down my second cookie.

You can find the recipe over at Serious Eats.

ancaster mill

I've been wanting to go to the Sunday brunch buffet at the Ancaster Mill for a while and this past Sunday I finally got the chance to experience it. Here's the view looking down at the restaurant. 

We got a table looking out at this waterfall.

The executive chef at the Ancaster Mill also owns Bread Bar in Hamilton (you can read about the meal I had there here), so I knew the food would be fresh and delicious and not like typical steam-table buffets.

If you're in the mood for a gluttonous couple of hours of eating, this is the place to go. I loved the fresh-baked focaccia, cheese board and made-to-order Belgian waffles, but there was just so much to choose from that I didn't even try half of what was offered. Which means I'll just have to go back! 

Ancaster Mill

548 Old Dundas Rd.

Ancaster, ON.

le select bistro

Joe and I recently went to Le Select Bistro for an impromptu Saturday night dinner. It's one of my go-to restaurants in the city and is the perfect place for a classic French meal. Hope you don't mind the candle-lit photos, I really don't like using a flash when there are other diners around.

Our starters: vol-au-vent d'escargots (a puff pastry tower filled with escargots in a creamy white wine and herb sauce) and duo de gravlax et de tartare (salmon gravlax and tartare)

Our mains: steak frites and seafood bouillabaisse

Le Select Bistro

432 Wellington St. W

bread in a pot

Jim Lahey's famous no-knead bread recipe is all over the internet and a lot of people swear by how tasty it is and how easy it is to make. You basically start the dough a full day before you bake it and let it sit at room temperature to ferment. Here's my dough ready to ferment:

When the dough is ready, you plop it into a dutch oven (though I'm sure any heavy oven-proof pot will work)and bake it for 45 minutes. Here's my bread after baking:

This bread was such a surprise. Crackly crust, bubbly innards and a nice yeasty flavour. It will definitely go down as one of the easiest breads I've ever made. I'll be happily making paninis with this loaf all week.

tofu village

When I need my soon dubu (spicy Korean soft tofu stew) fix, I usually make a beeline for Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu or Tofu Village. Both restos offer really good soon dubu (admittedly, I favour Buk Chang’s more because I can get kimchi soon dubu), but Tofu Village has a more diverse menu for those who want more than just soup.

My favourite part of Korean meals is the banchan. At Tofu Village you get sesame tofu, seasoned soybean sprouts, candied potatoes and really good kimchi.

Unlike at Buk Chang, you don't get to chose what kind of soon dubu you get. All come with a mix of seafood, beef and plenty of soft tofu. I get mine medium spicy. Crack in a raw egg (the soup is boiling hot so it cooks the egg), give it a stir and you're ready to eat! 

If you get a combo, go for the kalbi (Korean ribs) and soon dubu meal. The ribs are nicely marinated and come out on a sizzling hot plate. 

Tofu Village

681 Bloor St. W.