Madras Palace: Take 2

Location:

1249 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, Toronto

Cost: $40 for two (incl. tip)

www.madraspalace.com

The last time we went to MP, we had some service issues, but we’ve since realized that the key is to go when it’s not crazy busy because the food really is exceptionally good.

This time we got there for dinner around 6:30 and while there were still quite a few diners preoccupied with their dosas, we still managed to receive plenty of attention from our servers.

The owners of MP, the Purushothams opened the restaurant in 1991; the first South Indian eatery in Scarborough. For this reason, you don’t really mind the decor, which has already undergone an update into its current look of Floridian-style cane seating, dark green walls and wood paneling. Sure they could benefit from a sleeker design in keeping with current trends, but that would certainly risk losing it’s homely, authentic feel. Although, I must say they could turn up the dial on the light switch and their bathrooms could use some revamping.

If you only need to wash your hands however, there’s a sink placed conveniently on the same floor at the back of the restaurant. Anyone who’s been to India knows that it’s very common to have a sink in the corner of the dining room for convenience and hygiene, especially because South Indian food really requires the use of fingers for eating.

But, on to the food!

We already knew what we wanted, so we got a masala dosa to start, a Kerala fish fry (I admit, this is the same thing I had last time I was there!), the chilli chicken masala, one chapathi, some plain rice, a beer and we knew we’d have a coffee after.

I timed the wait, thinking it would be a long time before we got our dosa, but less than 20 minutes later, our crispy pancake arrived, piping hot!

The potatoes are spiced just enough to satisfy any pangs of longing for back home. Every finger-ful of dosa that’s dipped into the separate compartments of coconut, tomato and cilantro chutney creates the perfect savoury combination on your tastebuds. The sambar is so incredibly tangy that you needn’t have any accompanying dosa to go with it, it’s delicious on it’s own. It’s just heaven on a thali (plate).

Everything went down really nicely with our Kingfisher Indian Beer.

We sure cleaned up well!

Next up was our Kerala fish fry, chilli chicken, rice and chapathi.

All I can say is Yumyumyum!

The Kerala fish fry was must better presented this time and the king-fish was fresh and well marinated, tangy and spicy very spicy. Also, curry-leaves are my all-time favourite herb (Karuveppilai in Malayalam or Kari Patta in Hindi are leaves that grow on small tree plants native to India). I love it fried and garnished like this, in everything, and hate to see it wasted on someone’s plate! The aroma and flavour of them really highlights a lot of Indian cooking. It’s sort of like the bay leaf in coconut milk curries. I also lovelovelove bay leaves.

Sigh.

Okay, moving on.

The chilli chicken was incredibly hot and spicy, but oh-so-delicious! The curry was dense and the chicken perfectly cooked to fall off the bone. We both felt our pores open and sinus’s clear during this meal!

You will not have fully enjoyed a meal at Madras Palace without leaving with an excellent cup of
coffee.

I think you really have to know your stuff when you go to MP – or go with friends who know the food. I’ve read too many negative things about the food on Restaurantica because people don’t know what to order! You don’t order mattar paneer here, if you want mattar paneer, go to Lahore Tikka House or Babur! If you want really authentic Kerala/South Indian cuisine, this is really one of the best places to get it. The other place is Saravanaa Bhavan, but that’s for another review.

I Love Sushi

Location:

494 Queen St. West, Toronto

Cost: $34 – 44 per platter (61-64 pieces)

www.ilovesushi.ca

Contrary to this post’s title, I don’t love sushi. I opt for it only when I get crazy pregnant-woman cravings. I am also not pregnant.

However, when you’re working late and the options are pizza or sushi. And you’re lactose-intolerant and you don’t feel like grease, sushi sounds mighty good.

I Love Sushi is very popular at work and cheaper than most sushi places and for the value, it certainly isn’t bad take-out (I’ve never eaten at the restaurant). They have a kick-ass website too.

Our company ordered a couple of platters – one veggie and one seafood, a couple of tofu salads ($3.50) and a couple of containers of edamame (boiled soy beans with salt – $3.95).

The platters arrive full, I just couldn’t manage to capture a shot before everyone jumped in on the rolls!

The seafood platter.

The veggie platter.

The tofu salad, which was really, really delicious; the tofu was smooth and flavourful, the lettuce (albeit iceberg) was crispy and fresh.

And edamame is always a yummy snack.

I’ve had good sushi experiences at Ichiban Sushi, Ho Su, Sushi on Bloor and Kuni Sushi Ya in Baldwin, but I’d definitely like to try the more upscale sushi bars like Blowfish, Sushi Train (conveyor-belt sushi) and Hiro, but as I said, sushi definitely isn’t my forte, so you’ll have to tell me what’s best.

Québec City: D’Orsay Pub

Location:

65 rue de Buade, Québec City

Cost: $60 for two

www.restaurantpubdorsay.com

Bonjour tout le monde!

I must admit, my French is atrocious, but by the end of our Quebec City trip I was readily throwing out “bonjours” and “mercis”, not to mention fully formed-sentences, at my husband, at least.

But enough of the French lessons, let’s go back to the beginning.

By the time I landed in Quebec City it was past 9pm and then past 10:30 by the time we got to our hotel and were ready to go out to eat. We then realized that almost all the kitchens around the Chateau Frontenac were closed.

Finally, we were directed down a side street and then just around the corner we saw it. The D’Orsay Pub. Which was one of the restaurants on my list to try!

We were quickly seated at a beautiful folding window in the very charming, rustic interior, with its checker-board-floors and cobble-stone fireplace. Their terrace is a terrific people-watching spot as well as a great place to catch some sun. Unfortunately the weather was too chilly for us to enjoy the outdoors that night.

Seeing Leffe beer on the menu got me excited as it’s not easy to find in Toronto, so we got a Leffe Blonde, $8.50 and a Belle Gueule Rousse (from Quebec), at $7.50 (which was mighty tasty!)

My husband had already had dinner, so this, in LOTR form, was second dinner for him. We knew poutine was a definite and I was feeling fishy, but almost all the seafood was in a cream sauce and while the wall-eyed pike sounded good, the salmon fillet with balsamic vinegar and orange sounded better. At $18.50 though, I assumed the salmon would be stuffed with oranges or orange chutney or something….again, too unusual to be true and sadly the dish was again what we conjure up at home. I was ravenous, so it didn’t matter, but I wouldn’t order that again.

The poutine on the other hand…..

MMMm……my mouth waters now just thinking about it!

I am no poutine expert, in fact, I’m lactose-intolerant and can’t really stand cheese and this was only my second time eating poutine, but I must say, those cheese curds were something else. So spongy, so succulent, so very filling! Lookit how big that cheese curd is!!

Mmm…..is it correct to say it was tout le gout???

I could have eaten that all night!

The next day, D’Orsay’s kitchen must have been an assembly line of poutine ’cause the terrace was packed with hungry patrons scarfing down the cheesy goodness, but alas we had other sites to see and a variety of other places to eat!!!

D’Orsay is a definite don’t-miss!

Swatow

Location: 309 Spadina Avenue, Toronto

Cost: $25 for 3 (with one split entree)

I’ve got a serious case of the sleepies as I type this ’cause I’ve just eaten at Swatow. General Tso wouldn’t be proud…but it doesn’t really matter because it’s not the 1800s and I’ve only just had his namesake in chicken.

At $12.50, we assumed that the General Tso Chicken would be a large platter fit for two to share. Good thing I wasn’t too hungry! I know my friend who shared the dish with me was just being polite and waited until I urged him to finish the rest.

We both agreed that the dried red chillies in the dish were hoooo-ooot!

A steamed rice cost an additional $1.60.

My other friend dined on the Assorted Meats with Vegetables on Rice for only $6.25!!! And his plate was heaped with assortment!

The restaurant is tiny and brightly lit! And there was a line-up after we sat down. Definitely a busy spot for lunch.

While the food is tasty, I still much prefer Spadina Garden and House of Gourmet where I know I can count on going home with more to eat later!

Still, everyone who passed by when I was trying to capture the exterior (and this is the second shot), craned their necks for a fleeting glance at the menu!

PYO: Cherry Picking

Locations:

E.D. Smith Cherry Farm
980 Highway #8, Winona, Ontario

Puddicombe Estate Farms & Winery
1468 #8 Hwy, Winona, Ontario

All summer long I’d been meaning to go strawberry picking…which by late summer had turned into peach-picking. Finally, when the opportunity for anything-picking came up, our GPS was eagerly set up to locate the E.D. Smith farm. Unfortunately, E.D. remained a mysterious location on our GPS, but our old-fashioned road-trip technique of stop-and-ask-for-directions worked out perfectly and brought us to E.D’s gate which…was CLOSED?!?! You had to be kidding me.

Good thing our GPS located another farm close by. Puddicombe!

For cherry, apple and pear picking.

Didn’t look like there was anything to be picked when we got there though. We were too late for cherries and too early for pears or apples. The boy behind the outdoor stall mentioned heavy rainfall having ruined the cherry crops, but the Puddicombe railway and petting zoo was open. None of us were five years old however, so we decided to taste some wine, instead. Blueberry, raspberry, cranberry and pear. Deeeellliiiiicious! Our journey wasn’t completely wasted; we bought a couple of bottles of blueberry wine and called it a day.

As for pear-picking? Maybe next year.

Jodhpore Club

Location:

33 Baldwin Street, Toronto

Cost: $23

Way back before we knew how good Spadina Garden really was, we dismissed it and the buffet at Indian Flavour because all we really wanted was some tandoori chicken and naan. Really. That’s all. So, when we arrived at Jodhpore Club at Baldwin Street – because Jodhpore had been a tried, tested and true choice (note I use past tense in this context) – we thought we couldn’t possibly be let down.

Jodhpore, in the middle of Baldwin Street, is one amongst an eclectic mix of restaurants nestled within a residential area – away from the hustle and bustle of University and Dundas, nearby. The last time we’d been was in the summer of ‘06 and we sat outside, and I remember the food being delicious.

On this particular evening, it wasn’t busy…perhaps it was the rain, or not…

As I type this, I wonder why we didn’t end up simply ordering tandoori chicken and naan. That was really all we wanted, right? Instead, we asked our waitress what SHE recommended. Well, she recommended the ’special’. Which was a tava (pan) sabzi (vegetable). So I asked whether it included ALL the vegetables, especially okra and eggplant, and was assured that it did, indeed. Very well. We then took two more steps back and ordered the Hyderbad ‘roadside’ spicy chicken curry and whole-wheat rotis stuffed with peas. When our dishes arrived, we both thought we’d ordered the wrong dish. What we had on our table was a very rationed portion of “vegetables” which was really only cauliflower, onions and maybe some green peppers.

Hmm. We plopped a spoonful onto a plate, and then further dug around the serving dish looking for the so-called okra and eggplant. Not only was there no eggplant, there was no okra. What we found was a tiny slice of something I can only call “oak”, the “ra” must have still been on the tava, ready to be served to someone else who was stupid enough to ask what the “special” was.

We beckoned to our server and asked her what our dish was to which she replied, “tava subzi”. That’s when I pointed out the lack of ’subzi’. I showed her the okra and said we wanted something with more than one piece of okra and not this. Her response was very clear. She asked us to return the spooned out subzi from our plate BACK into the serving dish and whisked the dish away. Aghast, we both turned to the chicken.

The measly portion and poor cuts of bone-in chicken definitely deserved the name ‘roadside’ Hyderbad chicken! It was overly spicy, the chilli so hot, it overpowered the palate.

And don’t get me started on the roti.

Burnt, dry and stuffed with frozen peas.

Yeah.

Sometimes it’s better not to stray away from what your stomach really wants.

Panago Pizza

Location:

44 Gerrard Street, Unit E, Toronto

Cost: $32 (incl. tip) for 2 small pizzas

www.panago.com

Everyone has a favourite pizza place, right? And the first time we tried Panago Pizza we swore we wouldn’t ever order anything else. Unlike Pizza Pizza, Pizza Hut, Mama’s and even Pizzaiolo’s pizza, Panago’s is truly bursting with flavours and crisp, fresh toppings. I can’t remember which pizza we ordered that first time, but I remember it being the. best. thing. ever. (Note: The Magic Oven at 6 Wellesley St West is the only other place competing for number one spot on our favourite list….review to follow soon).

Last night we ordered from Panago’s again. Unable to decide how much pizza we wanted we opted for 2 smalls after learning that one small proffered six slices. We got the ‘garden veggie’ with extra jalapenos and the ‘tropical chicken’, again, with extra jalapenos. For dips, the chipotle cilantro sounded swell and the 3-chlili shaker seemed appropriate ’cause we like it hot.

45 minutes later our pizzas arrived.

I think part of the appeal is the packaging.

Admittedly, the ’small’ really was quite small, but we ended up with enough left over for work the next day. And even though the pizza looks home-made (and we actually do make pizza that looks like this), maybe that’s what makes it so great because it’s not like extra-large, greasy, pepperoni-filled corner shop pizza.

The garden veggie was brimming with black olives, sauteed mushroms, roasted garlic, pineapple, green peppers, fire-roasted tomatoes, red onions, jalapenos and mozarella. We got the THICK multigrain crust for the veggie and it was quite good – not very flavourful as far as crusts go, but we really enjoyed the thick as opposed to the thin crust which we got on our other pizza.

The meaty one had a sweet and smoky “tropical” sauce, grilled chicken, pineapple, green peppers, caramelized onions, cheddar and mozarella with jalapenos to top it all off. The THIN multigrain crust is new at Panago’s and didn’t really do much for us. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but next time I’d go with the thick for sure.

Not as good as the first time, but still very good (and great the next day!), but at $15 per small pizza, it’s a tad bit too pricey. It’s not something we’ll be ordering all the time. Oh, and don’t get the chipotle cilantro dipping sauce, as delicious as it sounds, it was quite revolting.