Truscott Italian Bakery and Deli

Location:

2425 Truscott Dr, Mississauga ON

I’m sure you will agree, there’s nothing quite like freshly baked bread; the smell, the taste, the warmth, it’s all so very good! 

I definitely heart bakeries. When I was growing up there was a lovely little bakery called Hot n’ Crusty where the breads were baked fresh every morning; it was always such a treat to go there.

Recently we discovered Truscott Italian Bakery & Deli – a quaint little bakery right in the middle of a parking lot on the border of Oakville/Mississauga. It’s been there only eight years yet it appears as though the parking lot was built around it.

I imagine though, that the past eight years have been enormously successful judging from the steady stream of customers at 8 in the morning! 

The cappuccino on the patio sounded like a great idea!

The breads! Rows of crusty, floured, multigrained loaves.  I wanted to try them all…and in due time I will, but to begin….we got some fresh buns, croissants, and this:

Spacatelli….which I’ve never had before, but which was undeniably fresh (and still warm!!!).

The trays of muffins, pies, cookies and pastries were astounding!

 

I’ve yet to try their hot-table items, but I got their mini cakes/tarts for a tea party recently and they not only looked pretty they were pretty delectable, too.

Then there’s their deli meat counter which boasts a variety of European meats, the huge selection of pastas (I recently purchased some corn pasta [gluten free] and added to it the all natural Mediterranean Garden’s “fiery hot arrabiata” pasta sauce, which was fantastic), fancy imported drinks (lemonades and juices), farmed fresh eggs, and of course a massive collection of olives and olive oils!  Heaven!

With our morning breakfast made complete with the addition of a divine ”elephant ear” – stuffed full of chocolate – we were ready to start the weekend!

I’m sure many start their weekends this way and I for one can’t wait to do it again!

Product: Ricepod Wasabi Mix

From: Fresh & Wild

Location:

69 Spadina Avenue (King & Spadina)

Cost: $2.99

My friend just offered me some of this. 

It says it’s ’spicy’ on the package but I know spicy; I laugh in the face of spicy. Bwhahaa.

I had two that were stuck together and my head just exploded. 

It’s raeally hared to teaype with brain awell ovwer teh kyewbaord.

Salad King

For this review of Salad King, I’ve invited one part of the wonderful couple (and fellow bloggers) I dined with at SK, to contribute her take on this restaurant which will be up soon.

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A couple of the neon lights in the “Salad King” sign were out when we went – so it read “SAD KING” …which is absolutely APT for this dump of a restaurant that 275 of you on Urbanspoon claim is the best Thai resto in Toronto.

Are you kidding me?  Where else are you people eating that this has become the place to go for Thai??!

To start, we ordered the Papaya Salad (which boasted “dried shrimps”…the salad that came to our table had non-existent dried shrimp (must have been so dry that it shriveled away?) and a garnish that had black spots on it.  Good start, right?

Our “medium” heat Shrimp Delight ($8.95 – Shrimps, bell peppers, onions, yellow bean sauce, chilli sauce, lime juice, steamed rice) arrived with neither heat NOR shrimp (nor delight for that matter!) and plenty of accompanying liquid “spicy” water. We weren’t aware we’d ordered soups?

The Spicy Fish dish ($8.95 – Red cod fillet, lime leaf, carrots, onions, bell peppers chilli, garlic, shallots, palm sugar, steamed rice) came with hardly any fish although what was there certainly was still swimming..in a pool of oily liquid!

And the Evil Jungle Prince ($6.75 – Egg plant, baby corn, peas, carrots, onions, chilli sauce, lemon grass, bamboo shoots and steam rice) which was supposed to contain eggplant and veggies came with one tiny piece of eggplant, plenty of frozen peas and a generous portion of WATER!

How disgusting.

I asked the server whether the dishes were always that watery – to which she replied ‘yes that’s how they are made’.  I told her it was a disappointing meal to which she shrugged and moved along to serve the next table of assembly line patrons.

Salad King will forever be SAD KING to me – it’s the worst thai food I’ve ever had and I’m really sorry that so many of you think that that’s what Thai is supposed to taste like!  I’d really love to see where else the 275 of you are eating and stay the hell away from those places!

Foodhoggering

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Craft Burger

Location:

573 King Street West, Toronto (this review)

Other location:

830 Yonge Street, Toronto

Cost: $10 burger combo (includes can of pop or water & fries or onion rings)

www.craftburger.com

It used to be El Penco. *Sniff sniff* how I loved El Penco…the chimichangas were so cheap and so good. And the sandwiches were always made with love.

Craft Burger’s burgers are made with…hands.

As much as I still do miss El Penco, I have to say Craft Burger is sloooowly winning me over. I still dislike the interior cramped-ness; eating in makes me feel claustophobic (somehow it always looked way bigger when it was El Penco..*sigh*).

Oh, I’m also not a fan of the fries; do they have sweet potato fries?

The Classic Burger is $5.65 or you can do the combo for $10 and get a can of pop or water and fries or onion rings. I’ve yet to try anything BUT the classic burger though…old habits die hard (I’ve only been to CB twice). I hear the cookies are some of the best in the city?! Is this true? Somebody tell me. I also hear the veg burger is amazing….again, will have to test out this theory…someday only though ’cause lookit how delish this is:

It’s a tasty burger. I wouldn’t say it’s the BEST burger in town ’cause I wouldn’t know. You’d have to tell me which is the best. Down the street at Banknote you can get a pretty decent burger combo that’s mighty good, too.

But how about the size of the onion rings:

At those sizes, I think there were only a couple of onion rings in the bag.

So is it open late for dinner? (A friend of mine responded with: “Then it should be called Craft Dinner”…haha, she is so witty, that one.) And the answer is yes, they’re open till 10pm (Mon-Thurs) 11pm (Fri-Sat) and 9pm (Sun) and it’s much tastier than Kraft Dinner (some may disagree).

David’s Tea

Location:

336 Queen Street W, Toronto

Cost: $6.50 for 50g

www.davidstea.com

Beside the well-known Rivoli on Queen St. there is a sliver of a store that looks like it could be an urban bubble tea cafe. It’s urban alright, but not bubble tea. The place is called David’s Tea and it boasts over 100 varieties of loose-leaf teas.

The first time I walked in, I wasn’t greeted by any of the upbeat staff which surprised (and offended) me, although I must admit I sort of liked perusing the shelves of tea cups and pots and eyeing the wall of stainless steel tea canisters labelled ‘pu’er’, ‘earl grey’, ‘rooibos’ without being harrassed.

The next time I went in admittedly intrigued by the tea offerings and expensive fancy tea pots, I was offered a little ceramic shot glass filled with a peach-something-or-other tea. A tiny droplet hung off the side of the cup, which I scooped up and tasted fully expecting some pleasant orchard peach flavour. Instead, I received the bitter taste of dishwashing detergent! It wasn’t a taste the peach tea could wash away after either, that’s for sure. Once again I left with a bad taste in my mouth, this time, literally.

Then Spring came along and whilst on a break with some coworkers, we were greeted with a $2 special iced tea stand outside the store. We decided to try the almond spring tea (black tea, almond oil, toasted almonds, rooibos, chocolate, caramel, vanilla and coconut). This time, I luckily didn’t come close to tasting any utensil cleaning substances, but found that it was a tad too vanilla-y and and also a bit bitter. It needed loads of cane sugar to sweeten it up for me.

Then one day, I finally bought some loose-leaf tea: Earl Grey, Zing Me Tea and Kiss my Lips. The Earl Grey is good – perhaps not as strong as I’d like, but it’s reliable. The Zing Me (chinese black tea with ginger bits and lush pieces of peach and apricot) is just fantastic! It claims to induce “an instant feeling of well-being” and I have to say that it truly does! Must be the peaches or the ginger. I’ve yet to try Kiss my Lips (chinese black tea, vanilla, peppermint, chocolate bits and spicy red peppercorns) but I loved the minty chocolately smell. In fact it looks like potpourri so I’d probably be just as happy putting it in a bowl and air-freshening my work space. **update** The Kiss my Lips was a definite dud. Overly strong minty smell and aftertaste with a muddied hint of chocolate. Definitely not recommended. I’d much rather bite into an Aero mint chocolate bar.

I’ve also been fascinated by the tea pots at David’s Tea, especially the Brewt which I’ve seen at work firsthand and find completely marvelous, but most of them range from $25 – $75 and $179 for the svelte Eva Solo Tea Maker (!).

I also feel $6.50 is a bit much for only 50g of tea, and if I had more tea experience I’d be better able to voice an opinion, but it does seem to be a popular choice in the area (even coffee houses such as Dark Horse Espresso has started serving it).