Her Chef

Where? Her Chef (Koreatown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Map Menu

When? Saturday October 16, 2021

Who? Me

Food Style? Home-Style Korean Fusion

Her Chef is one of my favourite restaurants in the entire city. It’s a small, cozy place near Bathurst and Bloor run by a Korean chef who started cooking for international students because they missed their mothers’ cooking. The signboard on the restaurant wall talks about how food is his love language, and he brings attention to the “Konglish” names on his menu. This restaurant offers truly some of the best Korean fusion comfort food you’ll find in Toronto. Do take some time to read the signboards, I find his story fascinating and heartwarming.

I’ve tried a lot of the items on the menu here, and I love the chicken mayo (chicken karaage with kewpie mayo), the pig bulgogi (pork with spicy gochujang sauce), the sogogi (sous vide sirloin steak with Kalbi sauce), the kingkatsu (pork tonkatsu) and the chicken croffle (chicken and waffles made with croissant batter!!). There’s no shortage of delicious food but today I’m ordering one of their more unique dishes.

Mains

Sun, Cloud, Rock and Snow (SCRS) Original: Sunny side up cloudy egg, beef + pork + zucchini + carrot + onion burger patty (rock), with Her Chef’s katsu sauce on top of rice (snow)
Called the SCRS, or Sun Cloud Rock Snow, this ingenious dish is a sunny side egg yolk (the sun), with a savoury fluffed egg white (cloud) on top of an onion burger patty (rock) and rice (snow). You can also order a version called the High Mountain Tauren because of the addition of beef bulgogi, and I absolutely love the Warcraft reference here.

The fluffy cloud meringue gives way to the molten egg yolk as it seeps into the rice below, adding that delicious richness to the meat. It’s hearty and rustic, and really does feel like my parents could have cooked this if they were Korean. It’s a well made dish with lots of flavour and interesting textures. It’s the perfect size for lunch before badminton; if you want something a bit more substantial, definitely throw in an appetiser or go for the chicken croffle.

Posted by Jeremy at 12:26am on Monday January 17, 2022 :: 0 comments ::

KL Kitchen

Where? KL Kitchen (Chinatown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Map Menu

When? Thursday September 30, 2021

Who? Me

Food Style? Indo-Malay

It’s been a long time since I got to sit in a restaurant by myself and enjoy writing about food. 18 months of sadness much of which was spent in lockdown really took its toll on my food blog (and my mental health) but with the vaccine rollout largely a success in Ontario, we can finally enjoy dine in again.

I’m in Chinatown to try out an Indo-Malay restaurant called KL Kitchen. There’s a variety of Indonesian, Malay and Thai food available, as well as a Malaysian snack shelf full of delectables like keropok, instant noodles, durian biscuits and Penang white coffee. Most notably missing from the menu is Nasi Lemak, the national dish of Malaysia, but since I’m pretty good at making it myself, I’m not too fussed about its absence. Instead, I’ve ordered something that is difficult to make at home: CKT

Mains

Char Kuay Teow
Char kuay teow is delicious flat rice noodles, bean sprouts, onion, chives, eggs and meat (in my case, beef, but often chicken, Chinese sausage or seafood), fried together in a hot wok to impart that famous and absolutely important smokiness - wok hei. Here, they’ve hit all the notes correctly. It doesn’t sing of my favourite CKT from Penang’s auntie with the red hat, but it is very good and something I would order again.

I think it’s missing a bit of seasoning so I ask for a bit of sambal on the side. The waiter is surprised I know what sambal is and asks me if I’m Malaysian; I smugly grin and explain that I was born there but grew up in NZ. He gives me a knowing nod and fetches the sambal. It hits the spot.

Posted by Jeremy at 12:20am on Monday January 17, 2022 :: 0 comments ::

Rustle and Still

Where? Rustle and Still (Koreatown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Map Menu

When? Saturday January 11, 2020

Who? Me

Food Style? Modern Vietnamese Cafe

It’s a rather wintery day and the ground is icy and slippery. I usually walk to badminton on Sundays, grabbing something quick on the way, but today I don’t want to risk injury so I’ve taken the TTC instead to Bathurst Station. Rustle and Still is a relatively new, trendy cafe with a warm, welcoming interior and lots of plants. It’s bustling with millennials here to enjoy some Vietnamese coffee while Instagramming or Snapchatting their banh mis.

The traditional Vietnamese banh mi showcases some of the French influence on the region - the most obvious being the baguette and the pâté. It can be filled with a variety of ingredients and today I’ve chosen a mixture of pork and chicken with lemongrass, an important herb in Vietnamese cuisine.

Mains

Combination Banh Mi
The baguette is nice and crispy, slightly toasted and warm. The taste of mint is pronounced and goes well with the coriander and lemongrass, which is not as strong as I would like. There is a noticeable hit of chilli with the meat though, just the perfect level for me. The carrot and cucumber have a nice acidity from the pickling and it gives the sandwich a lovely freshness. All in all, a very solid banh mi, though a bit pricey for what it is.

Posted by Jeremy at 10:54pm on Sunday January 16, 2022 :: 0 comments ::

Mahony's

Where? Mahony's (French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America) Map Menu

When? Sunday December 29, 2019

Who? Me

Food Style? PoBoys

My final meal in New Orleans is at Mahony's, another restaurant in the French Quarter famous for its poboys. A few doors down from Killer PoBoys, this joint is more traditional in its flavours, with fillings like fried shrimp, fried oyster, alligator sausage and roast beef. I've gone for the fried shrimp with full dressing.

Mains

Fried Shrimp PoBoy with lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo
The shrimp is crispy and tasty, and there's a lot of it. This is a very generous portion. It's really the hero of the poboy, and all the other additions are nice accompaniments that highlight the protein. The pickles give that hit of acidity and the mayonnaise gives that delicious creaminess without overpowering all the other flavours. A few shakes of tobasco and this sends me to cloud nine. A bottle of root beer to wash it all down - perfection. Thanks, NOLA, what a fantastic time.

Posted by Jeremy at 9:53pm on Friday January 3, 2020 :: 0 comments ::

The Court of Two Sisters

Where? The Court of Two Sisters (French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America) Map Menu

When? Saturday December 28, 2019

Who? Me

Food Style? Upscale Creole

For my final night in NOLA, I'm boujie af and fine dining with the Reveillon Menu at the very famous Court of Two Sisters. This is a very upscale restaurant in the French Quarter near Jackson Square, and the inside is beautiful and impressive. I'm here at opening time and it's practically empty; I made a reservation yesterday, since the restaurant was at capacity when I wanted to dine here.

Reveillon is a French word that means “awakening” and it refers to a long dinner usually held on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve. Participation usually requires staying up past midnight, since people would come home to eat after midnight mass. This style of dinner is commonly celebrated in the French Quarter in New Orleans, but at more conventional dining hours.

First Course

Turtle Soup au Sherry with lemon and parsley
This is very interesting. It reminds me of the tortilla soup I used to get from Viva Mexico, in Wellington's Left Bank. It has a rich tomato taste, but no seafoody flavour at all. The turtle is shredded and feels mostly lean with a few bits of fat. It goes well with a slab of butter on the baguette.

Second Course

Seafood Stuffed Puff Pastry with champagne sauce
It's a giant bread dumpling in a butter sauce with a hint of Cajun spices and shrimp on the top. There is so much butter. It's quite tasty but wow, it's incredibly rich, perhaps too over the top. It really needs some acidity to break through that richness. I feel my arteries tightening. If that portion was any larger, I'd be having a heart attack.

Third Course

Grilled Beef Tenderloin with new potato mash, roasted almond, haricots verts, dijon and caper cream reduction
Immediately after, my beef comes out. I need a break from the previous course, they should be staggering these out instead of serving them one after the other. The menu is supposed to be reveillon after all, not a rush.

The tenderloin is so soft, it's cooked a perfect medium rare, and melts in your mouth, but doesn't have a strong flavour to it. I think it needs some more umami, a garlic hit or a nice non-cream sauce. However, the rest of the plate - the potatoes and beans - is just more cream and butter, and I'm kinda fed up with that taste after the last course. The toasted almonds were added too early and have softened, losing that vital textural component on this dish. After a while, I decide that I'm not going to finish the potatoes. It's too overwhelmingly rich and that creamy taste is saturating my tastebuds.

My water keeps getting refilled every five minutes. It's a bit annoying.

Fourth Course

Bananas Foster: flambed tableside with brandy and banana liqueur, served over vanilla ice cream
This is kinda the real reason I'm here. The authentic Bananas Foster can be found at Brennan's, the restaurant that started it, but there is a minimum order of two per table! The reviews on Google for this one are stellar, so here I am.


The flambé is impressive and I can smell the smokiness and sweetness of the rum from two metres away.

It's decadent, the caramelised sugar, the spicyness of the cinnamon and the bitterness of the rum make this dessert a real treat and a fantastic way to finish the night, despite all the disappointments in the previous courses. Definitely a step up from the deconstructed cheesecake from a few nights ago, and a fitting way to end my time in New Orleans.

Posted by Jeremy at 9:48pm on Friday January 3, 2020 :: 0 comments ::