Mucho Burrito

Halal Food Festival Toronto 2013

We've been travelling (mainly to Toronto) quite a lot lately. Although I do cook since we stay in a place where there is a working kitchen, but we eat out a lot too. Most of the time we go to the same old 'tried and tested' places, for there have been times when we have tried a new place only to find out that, not only did the food taste good.. but it was downright bad. As in stomach issues causing bad.

 

Anyhow, every time we feel like eating out, I Google "desi/Pakistani/Indian/halal places to eat in Toronto", and one time "The Halal Foodie" blog came up. It was a good read, also like the food photography. So I started checking her blog for updates now and then. (To be honest, I haven't really tried any of the recommendations, because there were two restaurants that were viewed by the blogger that I had the misfortune of dining at.. and was super disappointed.)

 

Anyhow, I have this annoying habit of digressing so getting back to the subject at hand.. 

 

A couple of months ago I found out about the Halal Food Festival and instantly thought, "this sounds like fun.... gotta try and attend".  As luck would have it we were in Toronto when it happened and I was able to drop in on Saturday, the first day of the festival for an hour around noon. We went straight in, got registered, got $10 worth of tickets and went about sampling some great Halal cuisines from all over Toronto. Food items I never thought we could get in the halal form and as tasty as the real thing. Everything was fresh and decent sized for one person. There were information session, live cooking presentation, and lots more that was waiting to happen.

 

There were stalls for jewellery, clothes, décor, some other stuff. Walking outside there was some serious grilling happening. It was SO hard to pick one thing to try... I finally gave in to the Ribs from Karachi Kitchen, which were A-mazing.

 

The thing I loved about Sample City was that I could try everything. It was like going into a restaurant and ordering and eating everything on the menu for 10 bucks. No wondering what the yummy looking dish tasted like on the next table :P

 

Another good thing that came out of this was that I now have a list of the places I will be eating at every time I visit Toronto. Thanks to The Halal Foodie and The Halal Food Festival.

 

Here are a few snapshots from the event.

I was NOT able to get as many shots as I wanted.

 

Shortage of time and lots of try :)

Hopefully Next Time!



 

Registration



Sample Tickets



Crave Halal Grill: Alfredo Pasta with Beef steak.. Lip smacking good!



Zaytoun Mediterranean Grill: Lasagna was tasty. 

 

Gourmet Burgers: My husband kept going back for them!



Indian Street Food: Good stuff!



Karachi Kitchen: Ultimate Ribs!

Too Hot to Handle!!!

Poached Fish Filet and with Super Spicy Sauce

The first time I tried this Szechuanese dish was in Seattle some years ago. My husband had tried it on one of his previous visits and kept telling me that I must give it a try... at least once. He did warn me that some people start sweating , some turn a bright shade of red and some even walk out of the resturant to cool off the heat... but they always come back for more.

I remember looking at the serving bowl with a ton of chillies floating of top and wondering if this was such a good idea after all :)

Long story short....

1st bite.. "Not too hot...  great smell".
2nd bite.. "Yummm... those peppercorns tastes amazing "
4rd bite.. "oooohhh feeling the heat now"
6th bite... "Ahhhh... my mouth is on fire"
8th bite.. "eyes watering/nose dripping... I'm done!!!"
10th bite... "I can't take the heat... I can't stop eating"
End of the meal... "that was fantastic... when we coming back again?"

So we used to go there quite frequently. So much so that at times, our order of szechuanese fish and stir fried green beans was brought to our table without even ordering :)

Coming back to Canada. Me and my husband googled and yelped GTA and Montreal resturants, searching of something similar ... and we finally came upon this place in downtown called the Szchuanese Cuisine on Guy.

Their fish is Good.

Not as Good as Seattle.

But, good.

Do try it if you're tired of bland boring food. One taste of the lemony/spicy/tongue numbing Pink Peppercorns and you will be coming back for more!!!

p.s. There is another place in downtown Montreal that serves fish in spicy broth thats good as well, don't recall the name. Will do a review on it soon.



Nandos

Nandos Flame Grilled Chicken 

 

So I went ahead and tried it. Had bin hearing about it alot from family and friends. Though I had tried it once before some 6-7 years ago, I had no recollections of what I had had and what it tasted like. And soon enough I found out why... too bland for my palate. Tried their Peri Peri chicken. It was good. Moist and succulent... But, not the kind that will make me come back for more :P 

Great Eggspectation

Mushroom and Cheese Omelette


Eggspectation: One of the best breakfast places in the Montreal Downtown area. The food tastes good, the place is clean and the service is pretty good.. Their pankcakes and sandviches are worth a try. Tea not so good. If you are a desi tea lover like me... bring your own tea bag and ask for a reheat when they bring you hot water for your chai :P 

Go Brazil :)

My sister's bin raving about this brazilian bar-b-q for the longest time. She tells me its a real treat and that we'll go there whenever I visit her in the US.... Unfortunately, I've bin stuck in Canada for one reason or another :P

This past weekend, she and the kids came to visit me while I was in in Toronto and she mentioned again this oh-so-amazing "carnivore heaven" where they live....  I made a mental note of trying to find a similar place asap nearby ... and find, I did :)

So this place is called the Copacabana on 150 Eglinton Ave. East, Toronto. And this place ROCKS. Its expensive and one needs to make a reservation on a weekend (not sure about the weekdays) trust me, it is worth the money and the wait.

It was a sunday and we tried to make a reservation online which did not work. So we called instead but ended up with the busy ringtone that went on and on. We decided to go there and see if we cud be accomodated and if not, then act on plan "B". Plan B being any other decent place nearby :).

We reached around 6ish to a very crowded restaurant and asked for a table for two. We were asked if we had a reservation... on hearing that we did not, she said that we would have to wait. We would have to wait for 1.5-2 hours. My husband looked at me with a questioning looking, "wanna wait that long"? and I was like 'Hell Yeah!'. So she wrote our name down and we went out for a stroll... found this really great place selling discounted books and spend something close to an hour over there. Then it was time so we headed back and sure enough there was this really big party (20 or so) people leaving the restaurant.. we got seated immediately. I went to check out the salad bar... and cud not resist trying some of the stuff. There was a huge variety of salads from green leafy ones to tuna, crab, mushroom, potato, etc etc.. there was soup, there were different kinds of pasta and there was different kinds of bread. I tried a couple of salads... tasted pretty good. Back on the table, we were give this card (photo insert) the flames one meant: "bring it on" and the smoke one meant: "time out" :P

So the food started pouring in, one after the other. The guys would bring bar-b-qued meat still  on a metal skewer, out to the tables and ask if you wanted some.... and then they would cut out as much as you wanted and then move on to the next table.

They had all kinds of meats.... Beef, chicken, shrimp ... tender, succulent different parts of the meat in different sauces. Among other yummy goodnesses :) It was Amazing :) Seriously :) The Service was excellent as well :) Besides the food, the entertainment was pretty good as well... there was live music, salsa dancing and singing.

It was wonderful combination of great food, great entertainment and great service.

Perfect night out :)

Applebee's

So, I'm out of town again... Over the weekend we went to Applebees for lunch. We ordered the hot Artichoke and Spinach dip, which was pretty good. I ordered the Cajun Shrimp Pasta... which was okay. A little too bland for my south-asian tastebuds to be honest. And my hubby ordered the Mexican Cheesy Chicken ( I don't really remember the name ) which was okay too. The cheese was a bit over-powering :P I guess after the appetizer, the entreez did not seem too appetizing.

Note to self: Order an appetizer only if there are more than two ppl eating out. Or order one appetizer and one entree. So that justice can be done.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Mexican Cheesy Chicken