Restaurant Review - Sakawa-ya Japanese Restaurant

This small restaurant located at 867 Danforth is one I had gone to when I was dating my beautiful Thai Bride. The interior was not much to look at, small tables and a little dark, though we sat next to the window. We ordered several dishes, Tempura vegetables, Spinach with soy sauce and sesame seed, and Teriyaki Salmon with rice and condiments. The food was pretty good and came fairly promptly and very nicely presented. We finished off the meal with green tea ice cream, a favourite of my beautiful Thai Bride. We would go again, if we lived in that area.

Lindt Factory Outlet

I was told by one lady at work, that Lindt has a factory in Brampton, and that there was a factory outlet at the factory, so I had to go check it out. Here's the details. Located at 7090 Kennedy Road, north of Derry Road, it is open Monday to Fridays 9am to 7pm, Saturdays 9am to 6pm and Sundays 11am to 5pm. There are usually deals for chocolate that is almost expired, for example we picked up some Lindt Excellence bars for $1.22, while normally they are over $3. They also have fresh chocolate truffles of various intriguing flavours and combinations. I purchased a couple of new bars that I had never seen before, one with chocolate and chili, the other chocolate and caramel.

Reese Dark Chocolate

This version of the class Reese Peanut Butter Cups includes a layer of dark chocolate to replace the normal milk chocolate. Other than that, it tastes pretty well the same.

Lemonade

This makes a great lemonade, much better than the citric acid based ones you can buy in the grocery store, of course because it is freshly made, and you can control how much sugar there is in it, but it also really tastes like lemons. Very refreshing with ice on a hot day, and sour like lemonade should be. You can also substitute limes, but you'll need 1-1/2 to 2 times more. I halved the recipe I got from Martha Stewart.

Lemonade
2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 10-12 lemons)
1 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups water

In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup lemon juice and the sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat, and let syrup cool.

When it is cooled, stir together lemon syrup, remaining 1 cup lemon juice, and water.

Serve over ice.

Elysia Noir

This dark chocolate comes from a German company, around since 1895. This chocolate bar tasted pretty good, I think I would eat it again, if I could locate it anywhere again. There is 70% cocoa content, and the ingredient listing is fairly short, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, soya lecithin as an emulsifier, and real vanilla as flavour.

Thai Style Eggs

These turned out to be delicious, another excellent dish prepared by my beautiful Thai Bride. The preserved radish can be found in most Chinese supermarkets. It is kind of like scrambled eggs with a little flavour boost, the basil combines well with the tomato.

Thai Style Eggs
3 eggs
1 medium tomato, chopped, seeds removed
1 small onion, chopped
handful of fresh basil
2 Tbsp preserved radish

Beat eggs till mixed. Add all other ingredients, then cook in frying pan or wok with a little oil till eggs are set.

Restaurant Review - 360 Restaurant CN Tower

For my beautiful Bride's birthday, I took her to the revolving restaurant atop the CN Tower, 360 Restaurant, which features upscale appetizers, meals and desserts. The main attraction of the restaurant, other than the food, is that it revolves, and you can get a view of Toronto as the platform moves through the 360 degrees in about an hour. I found the prices of the selections to be a little high, though later I found that it included the price of the elevator ride, close to 50 dollars in itself. My beautiful Thai Bride chose a Price Fixe meal, from which she chose an appetizer, a main course and a dessert, the total cost is reduced a fair bit, while I decided to choose from the menu, as the selections in the Price Fixe menu did not appeal to me.

To start with, I chose the Watercress Salad with Roasted Figs and Hazelnuts (you may have guessed already why), which also featured crisp smoked paprika pancetta and passion fruit vinaigrette. This was quite excellent, though we found some of the watercress to be wilted. My beautiful Thai Bride chose the 360 Caesar Salad, with Hearts of Romaine, pancetta (which she chose not to have), vinaigrette and Parmesan cheese. This too was quite tasty. We neglected to take pictures of these two appetizers, so caught up in the experience, I guess.

For our main meals, I chose the Pepper crusted grilled Berkshire Pork Rack Chop and crispy Pancetta, which also came with Klondike Rose potatoes, sage and almond aioli, and golden raisin verjus. This was quite tasty, though I found the pork to be quite dry. My beautiful Thai Bride chose the Pan seared Fillet of Atlantic Salmon on wilted baby Spinach, which also came with Creamer potatoes, coriander sprouts, toasted pumpkin seeds, and warm green tomato vinaigrette. This was quite tasty.

To finish the meal off, and what turned out to be the best and tastiest part of the meal, we each ordered a dessert. I had the Dark Chocolate Tower with preserved Summer Fruits and raspberry vanilla crème Anglaise, which I had had one time before and enjoyed, my beautiful Thai Bride had the Niagara Peach and Strawberry Crumble with cinnamon crème Anglaise and vanilla ice cream, the better tasting of the two.

All in all, I was a little disappointed by the quality and taste of the whole meal. The view was quite good, the experience interesting, we took a lot of pictures, but the meal was not worth the high price.