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Archive for February 28, 2012

28 Feb 2012
dishcrawl

Toronto Roncesvalles Village Feb 22nd 2012

The long awaited Roncesvalles Village Dishcrawl finally came; our first visit was for dessert at  The Chocolateria!! Tim the owner gave us a fantastic explanation of chocolate, from beginning to end and everything in between. We were presented with an assortment of house made truffles (balsamic vinegar, fresh mint and rosemary, Tanzanian dark, Madagascar vanilla, chai & garam masala to name a few), Chocolate dipped potato chips (their specialty), & Chocolate tasting featuring chocolate from Belgium, Columbia, Tanzania, Ghana, and Cuba.

All hopped up on chocolate, we crossed the street to our second stop at Blue Plate. We were all delighted to be served Brisket & braised cabbage, Mini lamb burger with smoked gouda & crispy bacon, Asiago scalloped potatoes, & bread & butter pickles. Absolutely delicious, thank you Melissa & Jules!!

And on we marched over to Pizzeria Defina a friendly pizzeria, not a very traditional place with toppings like butternut squash and duck confit, but amazing!  We ate a  Crispy Green Beans ‘fritti’ with truffle aioli, Bacon wrapped dates, Wide arrange of Pizza’s including the Roncy – potatoes, pancetta, asisago, & cracked black pepper., and a special Dishcrawl pizza – Bacon, dates, fennel, & almonds. Delicious!!  

Our final stop for the evening was Fat Cat Wine Bar this was the last but certainly not least! Matt the owner served us Diver sea scallops with fennel salad & tomato dill sauce, Pepper crusted beef Carpaccio with Dijon dressing & French beans, and Arugula salad. Wine pairings: Arboreto Montepulciano d’ Abruzzo, Muscadet Cotes de Grand Lieu. Cocktail: Lavender Lemon Drop Martini

The parting gift for the evening was delicious chicken, fish, & BBQ rubs from Alphonsas specializing in fine seasoning blends, infused oils, vinaigrettes, and salad dressings.

Thank you to all the fabulous places that shared their nearest and dearest items, THANK YOU! Feel free to stop by and say, “Hi” next time you’re passing through.

Don’t forget to check out all the other photos from the night here and to add us on Facebook and the Twitter!

Until we eat again!

Your friendly Dishcrawl duo,

Gretchen & Zeion

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Gretchen | No comments
22 Feb 2012
Uncategorized

Asian Culinary Journey in Cupertino

It was an amazing night with delicious Asian gourmet and a fun ribbon cutting, as we Dishcrawled Cupertino for the first time.

The journey started at Merlion, an authentic Singapore restaurant. The managers Abe and Becky, who are also children of the owners, gave all the Dishcrawlers a warm welcome by offering a special drink “Singapore Sling” for $5, exclusively for us.

The food we had here were Roti Prata, a warm light fluffy bread served with a curry dip; Singaporean Satay, marinated Chicken served with a home made peanut sauce; and Prawn Mee Soup Noodle, shrimp noodle soup with chicken kang kung, bean sprout and egg. The food was amazing, everybody enjoyed it a lot.

Before we moved to the second stop, we did a quick but cute ribbon cutting in Merlion. We were so pleased to have Cupertino Council member Gilbert Wong participate!

The second stop, unexpectedly, is a dessert place called Beard Papa’s Cupertino. It is famous for its Japanese Cream Puffs with different flavors—Vanilla and Chocolate as basic ones, and a special flavor each week, Strawberry, Green tea and so on. Of course we didn’t have dessert as our 2nd stop. After a quick stop by, and a short introduction by the manager Adam, we were heading to our third stop.

It was a 2 minutes drive to Loree Center of Cupertino. Our 3rd and 4th stops are located there. Because our group was so big, we were split into two teams. As a member of team Red, we went to Michelle’s Pancake House first, while team Blue went to Shanghai Dim Sum.

 

Michelle’s Pancake House was famous for its pancakes; everything they serve is hand made freshly. Although it’s a new store here (it was also their grand opening the same day!), it is already famous in LA and some other cities in Southern California. The manager Eric prepared 8 different dishes for each person! We had Beef Rolls, Beef and green onion Pancakes, Vegetable Pancakes, Fish Dumplings, Pork Dumplings, Handmade Noodle with Fried Bean Sauce, Red Bean Pancakes, and Cucumber Salad. What a great portion! And what was even better was the taste!

After Michelle’s Pancake House, everyone was well fed. However, we had one more place to go—Shanghai Dim Sum. This authentic Shanghai Restaurant is owned by a Shanghainese couple, Tina and John. For this special night, they prepared Shanghai Soup Dumplings, Fish with Sea Moss, Pineapple Ham Fried Rice, and Chicken Salad. Although we were almost full, we still ate because of the great flavor. Some of the Dishcrawlers even took the leftovers to go!

At the end, everybody got the cream puffs delivered from Beard Papa’s, 3 mini puffs in Vanilla, Chocolate and Strawberry, and the awesome night finally ended.

We are looking forward to see our dishcrawlers again,and we always welcome new faces! Come look at our upcoming food adventure in Downtown San Jose, Sunnyvale and Milpitas!

Don’t forget to check out all photos on our Facebook Album, you may find your own photos! We are also on Twitter.

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Yiren | No comments
17 Feb 2012
Ottawa

Dishcrawl Gets Pressed

We came, we saw, we ate sandwiches.

On this dishcrawl we changed the format a little bit, staying in one place instead of trying a little bit at a lot of restaurants, and I’m so glad we did. Pressed is a fantastic restaurant that deserves all the good press it’s getting (I’m so punny!). Jeff has done a great job creating a wonderful space that is casual and homey while still achieving culinary excellence. He focuses on quality ingredients, cooked over a long time to produce amazing and flavourful results. He doesn’t need truffles or foie gras, he’s got a smoker! And he knows how to use it.

We started the night with a rich beet and apple soup. Jeff topped it with fennel seed and a little creme fraiche, making a beautiful contrast, almost too good to eat.

Then we moved on to a trio of sandwiches: pulled wild boar, beef brisket and the special Dishcrawl Club! The pulled boar had an apple kale slaw, giving it a nice crunch, the beef brisket came with caramelized onions and gooey cheese and the Club, oh, the Club. It was house-smoked chicken, house-smoked bacon, house-made guacamole, and (and???) goat cheese! It was a pull out all the stops kind of sandwich.

Jeff also served us several sides. We had collard greens (with a little more house-smoked bacon!), Mac’n Cheese, and sweet potato chips…I suppose I should say addictive sweet potato chips. While some of us couldn’t possibly eat any more, everyone made room for the fantastic cupcakes Robin of Morsels brought us. She brought a Red Velvet cupcake and a Turtle Cupcake. Some people noticed the Red Velvet lacked the excessive red colour you sometimes see. It’s true! Robin keeps it authentic, using the chemical reaction between the baking soda and the cocoa to create a slightly red hue, rather than adding red dye. The Turtle cupcake had it’s own surprise. Inside the cupcake, there was MORE caramel, giving the very appreciative consumer a little caramel and chocolate combo throughout the entire cupcake experience.

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did last week. I’m really glad I had an opportunity to feature this fantastic restaurant and I hope you are too. If you’d like to see some more pics from the evening, click here. I’d happily add your pics from the night to the album! You can also check out Jodi’s blog post on the night here. You should also click on the video she uploaded, especially around the 2:30 minute mark when Jeff opens the smoker and everyone goes “AHH OHH!” Thanks to everyone who came. I hope to see you at another event very soon!

Until we eat again,

 

Sarah

@dishcrawlOTT

sarah@dishcrawl.com

 

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