BlogTO continues their “Best of Toronto” series with a timely “Best Patios in Toronto” post. Out of their list, my two favorites are Brassaii and Le Select Bistro. Their site also has a handy Google Map of all their selections. Check the article out and discover some hidden gems (like a few in Kensington and the Annex).

Tucked away on Dupont is a new shop called Nancy’s Cheese. Once part of Harbourd Bakery, this is now her exclusive new location and opened just before the winter. She hostsCheese chaTon aTuesdaY for $25 you get to sample about ten different cheeses. With a strong focus on Ontario and Quebec cheeses, this shop is a welcome addition to the North Annex.

A review at Martiniboys was posted in February.

I haven’t been yet, but The Host has opened up a location on Wellington St., near Wellington and Blue Jays Way. Related to the other Host’s around the city, I can only guess that it’ll have the same fine Indian food as the others.

The warmer weather has allowed me to go out and explore the area near my new office at noon. This Friday I went down to Ravisoups near Peter and Adelaide. I’ve heard about it before – it got great press when it opened – it was also mentioned on the office list of “recommended places to go” that sits in our lunchroom.

Ravisoups is a nice and cozy spot. It has a back area for a patio but it wasn’t open because it was still pretty brisk outside. Two of us ordered the corn chowder and it was delicious! A lot more filling than I would’ve though but the crab meat piled nicely in the middle of the thick broth fills you up. Each soup came with a biscuit. The others tried different soups, that I forget, but one of us also ordered the lamb wrap which she said was quite good. Ravisoups is definitely a place I will go back to.

Ravisoups
322 Adelaide St. W.
647-435-8365

Yuzu is a new sushi restaurant on Adelaide street. I went last week with friends and it was quite good. The make rolls were great with spicy sauces not overdone or too “mayonaissey”. Sauces are also put on the plate to avoid too much sauce on the maki.

We started with tempura and edemame, and moved on to dynamite and spider rolls, an assorted set of sashimi and a dragon roll. All were really good.

Here’s a set of reviews on Yuzu:
Now Magazine
Chowhound
Martini Boys
Toronto Life

Yuzu Sushi and Sake Bar
236 Adelaide Street West
Toronto, ON
(416) 205-9808

There’s a neighborhood Pho place tucked on the 3rd floor at Bloor and Avenue. A popular place for students and university employees, it’s usually packed at lunch but is only a bit busy at dinnertime. All your standard vietnamese dishes are here: pho, bun, spring rolls, etc. My only reservation about recommending the place is that they don’t give you the deep asian spoons that most places do, leaving you to slurp the broth with a small spoon.

Today I made my way there and discovered a rather dramatic price increase across the entire menu. Normally I would’ve noticed an increase, but not the extent. However they decided to put labels over the original prices and you can still see the old price underneath. In most cases, everything across the board is up $1.50-2.00 a dish. For a place where dishes were about $6, this is quite an increase. I’m not against a price increase, but did you have to make it so obvious?

In March, the Toronto Wine & Cheese Show starts. The Summerhill LCBO had a preview of some of the display wines there, along with some hors d’ouvres.

Things must be slow at the LCBO, because this week there was yet another sale on vintages. I managed to pick up two bottles in both of my last trips there. A full list of their sale items is online.

Today I made a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s show, Oliver’s Twist: Cellophane Noodle Salad

• 4 oz Cellophane Noodles
• olive oil
• 8 oz minced pork
• 1 large pinch five-spice spice
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 handful prawn, peeled, and, deveined
• 1 handful plain and skinned peanut, roughly, chopped
• 1 bunch spring onion, finely, sliced
• 1 bunch coriander, chopped
• 1 bunch mint, chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
• 2 red chili, finely, sliced, with seeds
• 2 lime, juiced
• 1 tbsp soy, sauce

1. Soak the noodles in boiling water and drain.
2. Heat the oil in a pan, and cooking in batches, lightly brown the pork with the five-spice powder.
3. Add the garlic, sugar, prawns, and peanuts. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the dressing.
4. Add the drained noodles and the meat with the prawns and season with a little extra soy and a drizzle of olive oil.

I’m reposting an earlier recipe because I took a pic of the finished product earlier today. This is one of my “go-to”recipes since it’s not that hard to make, however it does require a lot of prep in terms of cutting and chopping everything to be ready for the quick stir fry.

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup tamarind paste (store-bought or made yourself – can be substituted with ketchup in a pinch but not recommended)
• 2/3 cup fish sauce
• 2-3 thai chili’s (or other chili that you prefer)
• 4 garlic cloves
• firm tofu (optionally soaked in soy sauce for a few hours)
• 1 package pad thai noodles
• 2-3 green onions
• 1 cup loose bean sprouts
• 1 carrot
• 1 lime
• 2 eggs
• 1 chicken breast (or 12 shrimps or combination of chicken and shrimp)
• 2/3 peanuts
• coriander/chinese parsley for garnish

1. Soak the noodles in warm water for 30 minutes, do step 2 while waiting.
2. Prep all the ingredients by slicking the green onion into 3/4″ pieces, julienne the carrot and tofu, wash the bean sprouts, and slice the chicken breast into thin strips.
3. Make the sauce by combining the fish sauce, sugar and tamarind paste, stir well until sugar is dissolved.
4. Put the wok on the stove and turn to maximum setting, when the oil in the wok is smoking, quickly add the garlic and chilies, followed by the chicken. If using shrimp, add shrimp when chicken is almost completely cooked and then cook thoroughly.
5. Move the cooked chicken and shrimp to one side of the wok, exposing about half of the bottom of the wok, add a bit more oil. When the oil heats up, add the eggs and scramble lightly, then mix the entire meat mix with the eggs.
6. Wait for wok to heat up again then add the softened noodles. Add the sauce to the mix and toss until almost cooked. Add the carrot/green onions/bean sprouts, toss, then serve on a plate.
7. Garnish with coriander and crushed peanutes, and slices of lime.

My version of beef stew is an variation of Alton Brown’s recipe from Good Eats. It involves seperately roasting the stew meat low-and-slow in the oven before adding it to the stew. This accomplishes a few things – makes the stew meat extremely tender and keeps the vegetables in the stew from being all mushy.

• tomato paste
• canadian rye
• Worcestershire sauce
• paprika
• dried herbs, any combination of thyme, oregano and rosemary
• stewing beef, bought from the grocery store
• kosher salt
• large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• carrots chopped
• celery chopped
• red potatoes, unpeeled and diced small
• Freshly ground black pepper
• chopped fresh parsley leaves

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the tomato paste, rye, Worcestershire sauce, paprika and dried herbs. Set aside.Season the stewing beef with kosher salt. Place a large grill pan over medium-high heat and sear the meat until browned on all sides. Once browned, remove the meat to the bowl with the paste and toss to coat. Transfer to a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil and seal tightly. Place the package into a metal pan and put into a cold oven on the middle rack. Set the oven to 350 degrees F and cook for 2 hours.

In a large saucier heat some butter on medium heat. Add the onion with salt and stir to separate the onions into rings. Allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes along with a pinch of black pepper and stir to combine. Next, add the liquid from the meat and stir. Cover tightly and decrease the heat to low so that no heat is escaping the lid. Cook for 30 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Once the potatoes are tender, uncover and set the meat atop the vegetables. Add carrots and celery and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Serve sprinkled with the parsley.