Maultasche and Schweineshaxe

Gasthaus Loewen is some pretty good German eats....

I had the Maultasche, which is kinda like a Swabian ravioli case, filled with onions, egg and ground pork inside. Of course there's alot of sauce, which is the way German food is supposed to be eaten. I liked it quite a bit, and for 7,50 Euros, I think its rather reasonable.




Betty had some pork hox, or Schweineshaxe, which is actually a Bavarian specialty. It was a bit too dry, if you want good Schweineshaxe, I recommend the open air market in Munich. Its much juicier, and I'll post photos of that next time. This Schweineshaxe cost 7 Euros, but wasn't as good as expected.

Schnitzel anyone?

A real cool place by the Augustiner Platz is called Tacheles. You can get some real good Schnitzel there. It's cheaper for lunch on weekdays, 5.90 Euro gets you two pieces of schnitzel, a salad, and a side (fried potatoes, noodles, rice, or fries. At other times its 6.90.

They claim to have over 300 types of schnitzel, but their menu only seems to have about 20-25 different kinds.
All the same, some good German eats for reasonable prices. I recommend the Badisches Schnitzel mit Bratensoße.

Here's the webpage:
Tacheles



Pictured: Top one is the Badische Schnitzel, Bottom one the Schwarzwald Schnitzel.
(I'm not sure how to rotate a picture in html)

Secret Sandwich - Vancouver

Finally I found Vancouver's answer to the Kensington S.S. Not surprisingly, it's on Commercial Drive. La Grotta del Formaggio.


It's an Italian deli and cheese shop that has a surprisingly small selection of cheese. But the sandwiches are great! For $6.50 you get a large bun with your choice of meat, cheese, and any number of toppings. If you consider how much you can load on that baby the price turns out to be pretty good. Here's half a salami:

Italian Food in Freiburg

Unfortunately I don't have a camera here, but I can tell you about one of my favourite restaurants.

You can get some pretty decent Italian eats here in Freiburg, and some pretty good sized pizzas for only 4 Euros or so.
The pastas are pretty good too and also very reasonably priced.

It can be found at Friedrichring 5, which is less than 10 min. from my place, just north of the Altstadt, and also less than 10 min. from the Institutsviertel.

You can find their menu/webpage here:
Restaurant Webpage

Joyce's West Indian Grocery

Joyce's, a tiny ass West Indian grocery at Bathurst and London St. (across from Bathurst subway stn.) recently underwent a reno and started serving up cooked meals.

Last week I checked out some peppersteak on rice. Nice spicy sauce and a big helping. Thought they have a big menu posted, it's more of a rotation - not everything is a go everyday. Today I picked up a goat curry on rice and peas and a "goat soup". $9 for both.



The goat soup was more like a stew, not something I'm usually big on, but this was pretty spicy and tasty, with noodles, some potato, dumplings and a decent amount of meat.



It came with a token salad and a couple pieces of plantain (bonus!).

It's nice to a have good west indian take out so close by, it's at least as good as Albert's, the servings are bigger but it's not open as late.

At the moment there is a counter but no seating inside, and the service is still in an awkward stage - typical for a new place.

New Years Dinner

I wasn't into going out for New Year's so I got patties and doubles from Albert's Real Jamaican (St. Clair & Vaughan). $6.76 incl. Ginger Beer and tax.

Albert's Real Jamaican

I've been hitting up Albert's Real Jamaican (at St.Clair and Vaughan) a lot lately. Even though it's uphill to St.Clair, it's still only 5 mins. away. Albert's is pretty small, so but it has a constant stream of take out customers and is open late.



$6.50 gets you a small goat on rice (w. peas), includes 'slaw, the ginger beer was an extra $1.25. The rotis, doubles and patties are also damn good.

Papamios Veal Sangwich

I've hit up a Papamios veal sangwich (Dupont + Manning) a few times.





It's a lot better tasting than it looks.

The veal is sitting in some sauce, so it's really soft and mushy in the sangwich - the effect is like a veal sloppy joe, and it's messier to eat than a San Fran sangwich. It's nicely seasoned though and you can get it topped with some marinated hott peppers which have some bite. ($5.75, also $8.50 with penne pasta).

Everest Buffet

Everest on Bloor near Brunswick is a pretty good Indian buffet for $8.95.



You get fresh naan, and the butter chicken has a nice tangy, juicy taste. The other dishes are pretty decent too, esp. the veg. meals. The items are not that different from other typical Indian buffets, but the execution is really good a Everest, and easily better than Nataraj across the street (which is only a buck cheaper).

Centro Trattoria Formaggi

Today I assbiked up to St.Clair and Dufferin to Centro. Centro is an Italian grocery store with a cafeteria at the back where old Italian ladies cook up homestyle meals.

Ian showed me the place and I've been there and had the veal, but a place like Brasiliano does just as good a veal with some sides for a bit less price. Centro does have a lot of other authentic Italian type stuff Brasiliano doesn't.

I went for the cannelloni, which was stuffed with basil and ricottta, and the caprese. I also tried the tripe, which Ian's dad is nuts about; and now I see why. The tripe is stewed up in a really tasty anchovy sauce.



Usually when I cook Italian type dishes, I get really strong flavours. Everything at Centro is really tasty, but the flavours are subtle, not overpowering -- and not salty like a lot of Portuguese places are. My impression is that it really is homestyle Italian cooking.

The canneloni was good, but the tripe was INCREDIBLE. So good. Next time I will go for a tripe plate. They usually pair it with rice or a less fancy pasta and green salad.

Because I deviated from the menu format and got caprese and tripe on the side, it added up and came to $12 w. drink. Typically two cannelloni, or a veal plate is about $6-7. Each side was another $2-3.

For the record the back room cafeteria is open everyday, though Saturdays are probably the busiest and it's closed Sundays.

Big Daddy's Crabshack

Last week I hit up Big Daddy's Crabshack for a Happy Hour throwdown. 3-6pm and 10pm-close. Thirty Oysters, mussels, crawfish, blackened shrimp and etouffe.

The Happy Hour specials are hit or miss. The Oysters are awresome, $5.99 for 5. Mussles are a deal too, $3.49 a dish. The rice and pasta dishes are good value, a lot of food for the money. The blackened shrimp is pretty tasty, but a bit pricey and the crawfish are ass, though you get a lot. They are supposedly like mini-lobsters, but there's not a lotta meat in one, and it's a bit of work getting it out.

It looked like a war scene after we were done.



The food prices are good, but The drinks are expensive ($7 for a Keith's after tax), that's how they get you.

That's the blackened shrimp below.



Amazingly it's usually pretty dead most nights (like a lot of TO places lately it seems), so they sometimes close early.

One place that was hopping was the new York Street Keg Steakhouse. It is huge and loud, it was mad-packed with a bright lights, big city crowd. It's apparently got a kickin' patio (which I didn't get to experience since it was rainy). Worth making a trip back -- though it ain't cheap.

Portuguese Chicken on College

We went to some Portuguese chicken place. Pretty big selection with roast and grilled chicken and ribs and sausage.



The place was tiny inside and asshot. The place was boiling and the dude behind the counter was sweating like a hog, so I;m sure the meal was 3% sweat. It wasn't cheap either with the half chicken meals with drinks coming to over $10.

We ended up eating it all in the park:



Up next ribs and sausage.

Phil's BBQ and Linux Caffe

I was in the mood for a brisket sandwich so I headed to Phil's Original BBQ on college. There aren't too many real BBQ places in tha T-dot. It was busy with a midsummer College St. crowd, but I got my brisket sandwich pretty fast. The sandwich itself is smallish and it comes with a side (one of slaw/fries/potato salad). I got mine with a little cuplet of potato salad. $6.75. The style might be authentic American, but the portions are not. It was all very tasty and satisfying, but it won't be enough food if you're starvin'.

So so deal, but there's no real competition I know of in Toronto. It's not a super value, but I will probably splurge on a Phil's sandwich every now and then.

On the way home I stopped at the Linux Caffe. It's a small corner cafe with a slightly condescending hippie vibe. And I'm sure if you're not careful you'll be treated to a lecture about open source or some other nerdy obsession.

I paid 1.50 for a sorta small cup of coffee. It's a free hotspot and they have computers for $3.00/30 mins. They have free code if you give a shit abot that sort of thing.

Father's Day Churrasco

Today I went with my dad to Bairrada in Mississauga for some Portuguese BBQ. We Had :

Breaded Shrimp ($5 5 or 6 pieces -- hose)
Chourico sausage ($10 kinda pricy)
BBQ Chicken plate ($8 HUGE)
Beers ($3.50 ea)



The Chourico came on a weird pig dish and was flaming. It was pretty tasty and filled with CHUNKS of meat. But at $10 it's a bit steep unless you're really looking for some sausage.



As a rule here, the appetizers are small and pricey, but the size of the BBQ chicken main, which comes with rice and potatoes, made up for it. Plus you get a load of fresh Portuguese bread. What we ordered could've fed three. Total bill with tax (before tip) was less than $25.

R Shop Cafe

I went down to King+Spadina today to have lunch with Karen (hooray for the metropass - assbike for the unfit). We went to this furniture store/cafe called the R-Shop, which I'd heard about on metro morning. I had the chicken katsu don ($6.75):
and Karen had some noodles in soup with wontons ($7.55). The soup noodles were a hose considering the price - you could make the same thing at home for under 2 bucks. The chicken katsu was actually pretty filling, even though the (pretty huge) plate looks empty in the picture. They use brown rice, which has a nice taste and texture. $6.75+tax is still not cheap, but considering the area, I guess it's okay.

Big Daddy's Crabshack

Tonight I hit up Big Daddy's Crab Shack at King + University. The bonus is that from 3-6pm and 10pm-close everyday they have a Happy Hour menu at the bar. The prices are ass cheap, so naturally I went nuts.



Raw oyster half shells (5) 5.99
Mussels 3.49
Big Daddy Platter (catfish,calamari,gator,coconut shrimp) 10.99
Blackened Catfish 3.49
Jumbalaya 1.99
Bread .75

It was like an undersea exhibition, with lemon and cocktail sauce on the side. Beware though -- beers are expensive -- Keith's $6, Stella $7.

PS. My buddy had the fettucine (2.99) and chicken satay (5.99 -- hose).

Ghandi Roti

Last Sunday I was strolling around Queen W before noon when I saw Ghandi, which NOW claims has the best roti in town. Unfortunately, they weren't open yet so I had to carry around a roti craving for the rest of the week. Finally, today I managed to go there again, this time during their working hours. I ordered a lamb roti (no goat), medium spicy, for $8 including tax. In addition to lamb, they also have vegetarian (potato, spinach, cauliflower, chickpeas, etc..., as well as some with paneer), shrimp, and 5 types of chicken roti: chicken, chicken jalfrizi, chicken tikka masala, butter chicken, and chicken korma. But I had to have the lamb in order to compare with the roti at Roti Palace (lamb and goat are the same word in chinese).

The roti itself was HUGE - they serve it in metallic takeout containers which are about the size that you get for takeout lasagna at pizza places, and the roti filled the container. Definitely enough for lunch, and maybe too much if you're not starving. There's clearly a difference between the Indian roti here and at Roti Palace, which is Caribbean-style. The roti bread is not like the chewy, moist bread at RP - it's more like a really thin naan in texture and taste. The lamb curry had definite Indian spice to it with cardamom and cinnamon notes, and it was kind of acidic from what tasted like some tomato (I could be completely wrong here - it's just a best guess). There were some large hunks of lamb fat along with the meat and potatoes, but no bones. The medium hot version was probably spicy enough for me. I could probably take the hot but I don't think I'd enjoy it.

So would I go again? Definitely, if I'm in the area. I'd like to try one of the vegetarian rotis, particularly one with cheese (paneer), and it's a nice, non-pretentious place on the Queen W strip. But it took something like 10 minutes for them to cook up my roti, which was made more painful than it should have been because they had a dude drilling holes into their display case the whole time. And I think I like the style of the roti at RP better, but Ghandi is pretty good for a change of pace.

Dupont BBQ Chicken

I pass by this place (1519 Dupont) all the time. It looks like just a dirty little storefront, but I always had the sneaking suspicion it was serving up some good food.

When Plan A (some German place in Etobicoke that serves up pork hocks) and Plan B (Piri Piri at Lansdowne and Dupont) were closed by 9:30-10 Wed. night we called an audible headed across the street (and a bit west) to Dupont BBQ Chicken (Churrasqueira).

Churrasqueira is Portuguese for damn tasty food.

Out front they have a bunch of steam tables, where shit is piled up willy-nilly behind totally dingy looking plexi-glass. They got chicken, veal (?), lasagna, rice, potatoes, you name it.



After a day of drinking like a mad fiend I was starving. So I pointed at pretty much everything and they piled it up high. Lasagna, chicken, potatoes, sausage, everything. My friend had a chicken plate, with again, pretty much all the sides he wanted.

But the big surprise is the pretty large rear dining area, which I had not even imagined in my wildest fantasies. And I swear it was full of Portuguese dudes in a heated argument about a card game or something. Apparently.

One dude was wearing a shiny shiny yellow bowling shirt, unbuttoned all the way, airing his hairy (and most likely sweaty) Portuguese torso in the very same atmosphere we ate our barbecue meats in.

All the food was incredibly good, and I doused it all in the organgey Portuguese hot sauce.

No one in the place spoke any English whatsoever, so when the old lady said something about drinks, I was totally unsuccsessful in getting a Diet Coke, the old lady just looked at me like I was from Outer-Space and brought over cans of Sumol.



I checked out the drink fridge. No Diet Coke, no Diet Pepsi, it's just Sumol .... or water. So I just had water.

The best surprise was the bill. Which looked like this:

Lasagna $7
1/4 Chicken $6

Apparently you only get charged for the biggest thing you eat.
I will def. be going back.

King Palace / 101gas.com

I got another chance to hit up King Palace aka. 101gas.com, at the corner of Richmond and Sherbourne. They list a million "combos" which are not organized in any way to be useful.


But the way to order is from the steam table -- which is like a 31 flavours for Indian food.



So I just ordered what I did the last time. I had an order of meat (boneless beef something this time) and a vegetable (spinach and chickpeas) on their usual multicoloured rice.

Kings Crown and Beer at Sneaks

After the ballgame on Wednesday I still had some room for some beer and eats. So we assbiked over to Sneak's for the Wednesday Nite Special.



King's Crown is a torilla bowl filled with beans and ground beef topped with nachos, melted cheese and a big helping of guac and sour cream. $19.50 w/ pitcher of cheap-ass Sneaks beer.