Accord-Ing to Stella: A Weekend in Montreal

Squeezing in a road trip before winter was the best idea ever! Two weeks ago, Jon and I took a road trip to Montreal for three days - Friday to Sunday - where we filled our tummies with food and drinks...a lot of food and drinks. I gained almost five pounds! No regrets though because every calorie we consumed was worth it; we didn't have a single bad meal there.

Thanks to Honda Canada (Twitter: @HondaCanada, Facebook: Honda Canada) we took the 2015 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring to Montreal. This was my first time driving a hybrid and I hope it's not my last. Truth be told I really didn't want to give it back, not only because it was such a nice ride but it was so good on gas.

I'm not sure if you know but aside from being into food I'm also really into cars. I've loved cars ever since I was little. From gawking at cars on the street, spending hours building Tamiya models and watching Initial-D at home, to learning how to drive manual, attending car shows and making the trek up to Shannonville and Mosport with friends, cars have always been a big part of my life. As corny as it sounds I have a special place in my heart for Hondas too. I think it runs in the family! Right now my dad drives an Accord (his third one), my mom an Acura RSX, my brother a CR-V (he drove a Civic and a Prelude before too). As for me, I have a 2003 Civic Si-R. It's an oldie but a goodie.

So, was I stoked that Honda lent me an Accord Hybrid Touring (#AccordHybrid) for my road trip? Hell, yeah! Especially because I know the Hybrid will be amazing on gas The car achieves its excellent fuel economy by basically using three drive modes: EV, Hybrid and Engine. EV drive draws solely from the power of the lithium-ion battery  Engine drive utilizes the 2.0-liter DOHC i-VTEC® Atkinson cycle 4-cylinder engine, sending power directly to the front wheels for medium to high speed cruising. Hybrid drive blends the two for powerful acceleration and more efficient driving in stop and go traffic than Engine drive.*

*from Honda.ca

With our bags packed and the navi all set up we were ready to hit the road. But first, McDonald's! Every road trip should start with breakfast at McDonald's :) Mad love for their hash browns.

Crêpe & Co. European Café

Crêperies. Very limited number of them in Toronto. Having said that it's still not too too hard to find the classic French dish in the city - a number of dessert places come to mind actually, such as Caffe Demetre and Spin Dessert, as well as Crepe De Licious which you'll find in various shopping malls. However, when it comes to stand-alone crêperies that specialize in both sweet and savoury crêpes, I can only think of three: Café Crepe, Crepes A-Go-Go, and Millie Creperie (which serves French crêpes with a Japanese twist).

Anyway, unbeknownst to me, Crêpe & Co European Café (Twitter: CrepeCoCafe, Facebook: Crepecocafe) opened last summer across the street from the Gladstone Hotel on 1167 Queen St. W. So make that four crêperies. I visited the cozy European-style café for an early dinner during the Christmas holiday. 

Inspired by their travels and the delicious thin pancakes found throughout Europe, husband and wife Andrey and Natalie were determined to open a café, one specializing in the traditional French crêpe, both sweet and savoury, with Eastern European influenced fillings (i.e. "My Big Fat Greek Crepe", "Chicken Kiev", "Polish Sausage & Mushroom") 

There are a total of 14 savoury crêpes and 16 dessert crêpes. It shouldn't be hard to find one you want to try; the real problem is choosing only one.

French Dining at Le Papillon on Front

Nestled in an Old Town Toronto building, Le Papillon on Front (Twitter: @PapillonOnFront, Facebook: Le Papillon on Front) provides a relaxed yet sophisticated bistro setting in which to enjoy causal French food. The restaurant's menu calls on classic French favourites such as French onion soup, crepe and duck confit alongside contemporary seafood, steak and pasta dishes. Here's a fun fact: Did you know Le Papillon opened Toronto's first creperie in 1974? That's 40 years ago! Knowing that countless restaurants open and close within a year's time these days makes this tidbit even more fascinating.

Le Papillon on Front's large interior is warmed by its cozy warm tones.

My friend May and I went for dinner before the Christmas holidays (hence all the festive decorations).

BLOODY CAESAR ($7.25)

Recipe For Change 2013

FoodShare Toronto (Twitter: @FoodShareTO, Facebook: FoodShare Toronto) is Canada’s largest community food security organization. Founded in 1985, FoodShare works with communities to improve access to healthy, affordable, sustainably-produced food through community-based programs and policy recommendations, with a vision of Good Healthy Food for everybody. FoodShare's programs, which reach over 155,000 children and adults per month in the City of Toronto, include fresh produce sourcing and sales, childhood nutrition, hands-on food education from junior kindergarten to grade 12, a healthy school cafeteria model, gardening, composting, cooking, and urban agriculture. 

FoodShare’s annual Recipe for Change event, presented by GE Cafe Appliances, is a celebration of food as well as supporting FoodShare's work. This dining event raises funds to teach school aged children how to cook, grow food, compost and more. It also raises needed consciousness as to why teaching children these skills are important, in that they can become food conscious, competent and literate. 

Thanks to Mary Luz Mejia of Sizzling Communications, I was invited to Recipe for Change last night, which took place at the historic St. Lawrence market. The event consisted of 30 chefs, 30 VQA wines and 9 local beers. All the chefs created plates that showcased their own creative vision, combining foods and flavours to form a small meal.

Here is a recap of what I had last night.

Hooked: Cooke's Cove, PEI, and Leslie Hardy & Sons oysters - Served with house made horseradish, Ontario Riesling mignonette, Hooked hot sauce and fresh lemon

Chococrepe: Savoury pulled pork mini crepes and vegetarian mini crepes.

Momofuku: Momofuku brisket on a steamed bun with mustard, cabbage, and horseradish

FRANK at the AGO: Vegan fava puree with sunchokes and winter vegetables

Palais Royale: Rosemary smoked duck breast served with a mousse of duck confit, and a blueberry and raw chocolate coulis

George Brown Chef School: Savoury bread pudding with seasonal root vegetables and house made pickles

Fidel Gastro: PeKing Elvis sandwich  a butter grilled pita featuring spicy orange duck meat, green onion and the King's secret sauce

Chococrêpe Contest

Do you like crêpes? Are you ready to taste some of the most delicious savoury and sweet crêpes in Toronto? Here is your chance at chococrêpe!

The winner of this chococrêpe contest can bring along 3 friends, where the 4 of you can each enjoy a drink, a savoury crêpe, and a dessert crêpe...all for FREE! Thanks to chococrêpe! :D

HOW TO ENTER

1) You MUST follow me (@foodieyu) and chococrêpe (@chococrepeTO) on Twitter;

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown, nothing before or after it: 

I want to win a meal for four people @chococrepeTO! http://bit.ly/S1qWvb #chococrepefor4

*Limit one entry per person*

*Contest is tracked by the #chococrepefor4 hashtag stream*

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Friday, August 17 and ends on Friday, August 24 at 12PM.

The lucky winner will be chosen randomly from www.random.org. I will announce the winner on Monday, August 27.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^

chococrêpe

Generally speaking, most people associate "crêpe" with "dessert". Fair, since there are numerous dessert spots that offer sweet crêpes on their menus alongside cakes, ice creams, waffles, etc.. However, the chances of one finding a savoury crêpe as an entrée at a restaurant is rather slim. Well, in comes chococrêpe (Twitter: @ChococrepeTO, Facebook: Choco Crepe), a creperie located on Queen West (620 Queen St. W). Owners Dewey Troung and wife Kim of chococrêpe are determined to change the popular perception of "crêpe = dessert" by concentrating on not just dessert crêpes but also on a variety of delicious savoury crêpes for lunch and dinner. The couple's inspiration for savoury crêpes came from vacationing in Montreal and Europe where they often indulged in crêpes as their main course.

As I mentioned previously, there are two types of crêpes at chococrêpe: 1) Savoury: currently with 12 savoury crêpes on their menu, chococrêpe uses buckwheat flour for these (which has a lighter texture and is slightly sweeter than their normal crepe batter) and 2) Sweet: 12 sweet crêpes made with regular crêpe batter (you can add a scoop of gelato or sorbet to any sweet crêpe).

My friend Audrey of Tasty Tours (@tasty_tours) and I had quite a crêpe tasting on our visit; we shared 3 savoury crêpes, a salad, and 2 sweet crêpes.

Star Noodle (Maui)

After a day on the beach yesterday, we headed back to the condo. While my friends went shopping in Lahaina afterwards I decided to stay back and take it easy. I also took on the responsibility of finding a place to eat for dinner.


I came across Star Noodle on Tripadvisor (ranked #10 in Lahaina) and with pretty decent reviews on Yelp (4/5 with 509 reviews) and Urbanspoon (92%), Star Noodle seemed like a good choice. Its website also indicated that Star Noodle's Chef Sheldon Simeon has recently won "The People's Best New Chef" in the Northwest & Pacific region from Food & Wine Magazine. Their online menu shows tapas-style plates with a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Thai ingredients, and with chef Simeon's Hawaiian background, I was excited about Star Noodle.


Star Noodle is located at a really remote area away from all the tourist-y shops and restaurants in Lahaina. 

Food & Wine Magazine displayed at the entrance.

 A long communal table in the middle with smaller tables surrounding the perimeter. 

Cheese School 101

When Jo (@clickflickca) asked me whether or not I would be interested in going to #CheeseSchool at School Bakery & Cafe (@schoolville), a tweetup event where cheeselovers get together to learn about cheese and eat like a king in the process, I was thrilled. Not only do I love cheese, but School happens to be one of my favourite, if not the favourite, brunch places in Toronto (check out my blog post about School brunches). I've also been to School for dinner recently and it was just as fabulous (I haven't posted about the dinner yet because as usual, I'm backlogged). I was probably the first one to to RSVP for #CheeseSchool, being the keener that I am. I also invited my friend Cindy along too.


I had a so much fun at #CheeseSchool - it was great seeing familiar faces and also meeting new tweeps. Thanks again to Reggie (@reggieramone), Sarah from School, and Jo for organizing such a fun and successful event. Also, a special thanks to David from The Village Cheesemonger (@TOcheesemonger) for providing all the delicious cheeses. Oh, and our server was also very nice and attentive so a shout out to her too (I didn't get her name).


School had set up a special section for #CheeseSchool at the back of the restaurant. Here we are waiting for #CheeseSchool to start. What is Jo is taking a picture of?

The cool chandelier made of sheets of paper held by paper clips, of course.

I had to take a picture of this. So true. Don't feed supermodels. Feed me instead!

Happy Birthday Jason!

It was my brother's birthday yesterday and to celebrate, we all went out for dinner at Apricot Tree Café. I've blogged about the restaurant before (see post here). I absolutely adore this place, it is my favorite restaurant in Mississauga. It is a quaint little café with good food, good service, and very reasonable prices (I included the prices on this post to emphasize my point). Better yet, I was able to use two of my dealfind vouchers at the same time last night as there was 5 of us (the deal was a $60 voucher for $25, can use two coupons for a table of 4 or more). I swear to God if Apricot Tree Café has any deals like that again, I'm going go buy like...10 vouchers.

 
If you want to see pictures of Apricot Tree Café (i.e. their European café decor, open kitchen, dessert display, etc.) go see my first post about it because I'm just going to dive right to the food this time.


Besides their regular menu, Apricot Tree Café has different specials everyday. They always have a special for each of the following: soup, salad, pasta, crepe, entrée.

Appetizers

Smoked Salmon - Smoked salmon served with pita bread, bermuda onions, capers and dill sour cream ($7.95). 

Bright, orange smoked salmon with soft pita bread. Yum. The onions were too big though; they could have done a better job on those for sure.

Amore Trattoria - Worst Brunch Ever

My two friends and I went to Amore Trattoria for brunch one Sunday a couple of months ago. It was a last minute get together and we were looking for something around the Yonge & Eglinton area. There are a lot of restaurants on that Yonge strip (I find that most are Italian restaurants) and because I don't frequent that part of town often, I didn't have a preference on where to go and so we stumbled into Amore Trattoria.


After I set foot into Amore Trattoria, I was pretty sure I have been there for brunch before a few years ago but I can't be 100% sure. Can't say if that's a good sign or a bad sign.

Pretty empty for Sunday brunch. It was around 11 at the time so it's not like we were super early. Please excuse the quality of the pictures by the way; these were not taken with my SLR or my Samsung point and shoot but rather with my iPhone4. Not too shabby still, no?

Pizzzaaaaaa! Nobody is even manning the oven so obviously no pizza brunch for me.

Apricot Tree Café

Apricot Tree Café, located in Sherwood Forest Village, is probably one of my favorite, if not the favorite, restaurant in Mississauga. This is saying a lot - not sure if you know but I hardly dine in Mississauga (I'm a downtown and uptown girl even though I live in 'sauga) but as yet, I still haven't found a place like Apricot Tree Café outside of Mississauga. I've been to Apricot Tree Café many times now. My parents also go often by themselves for dinner.


I love how Apricot Tree Café is small and cozy - its cute decor and space is surrounded by greenery, white street lamps, wood window panes, and green roof shingles. The walls are painted blue like the sky. All this, coupled with the cafe's simple tables and wooden chairs, often makes me feel like I'm dining on the streets of Europe somewhere. The staff there are also very friendly and helpful.


Here are a few pictures from their website:

And you know how I love open kitchens? WELL THEY HAVE ONE TOO! =)

Montreal Food Journey - Day 2: Jardin Nelson

I looove crepes. I have crepes in Toronto all the time for dessert, and every so often I would go to Apricot Tree in 'sauga for some savoury crepes, and I have also been to Le Papillon in downtown. However, I knew I wanted to go to a crepe place in Montreal (i.e. one that is known for their crepes), and preferably located in Old Montreal, and preferably with a patio with a nice / romantic atmosphere haha. And just my luck, I found all my requirements at Jardin Nelson. It has a lovely courtyard, with trees and plants surrounding the place, and has jazz music playing in the background at all times. Like its website says, it is "a small and comfortable oasis where the summer breeze is always present", and I cannot agree more.


According to Jardin Nelson's website:

• Their courtyard's plant design was purposely matched with the restaurant's architecture, which dates back to 1812. 
• Different kinds of jazz music is played depending on whether its noon time, afternoon, or evening, and also changes depending on whether its a weekday or a weekend.
• Their huge parasols are unique to in Quebec; they allow customers to finish their meals if it starts to rain.

There are two of these parasols in the rear courtyard