The Stop Night Market 2012

The Stop's Night Market 2012 from Gabriel Li on Vimeo.

We were asked by the Stop this year to help document their first annual night market in the Honest Ed's alleyway.  Beer tents, shaved ice, food carts built by architects/designers, famous chefs, new restaurants and not to mention everything was all you can eat.  What an amazing event, with proceeds towards a meaningful organization, congratulations.  There are too many details to write about, so hopefully the timelapse and following slideshow will help tell the story.  Most of the photos are take by the two of us, and some additional photos in the collection are by our good friend Titus who joined the two of us for the evening.  You can flip through the below or view it larger, here.  Don't miss out on this next year!

Burger Week RoundUp

This past week was burger week here in Toronto, and it was glorious! A huge thanks to the wonderful food lovers over at GridTO who organized the event; they continue set the bar higher and higher when it comes to food coverage across our amazing city. We love food of all kinds from simple to gourmet and the best part about this food event was how affordable it was. C'mon, $5 burgers across the city at great establishments with major proceeds benefiting The Stop community food centre, thumbs up all around. Check out all the great places that participated in the burger love fest.

And you know we're such suckers for good burgers, I'm not going to even shy away from it. After a week long burger feature across the city, everyone gathered at week's end for the ultimate party with $3 slider versions of what they served all week. The weekend sky was gloomy no doubt, and we had a lot of work to do, but May and I rolled out of bed late 1030am, shared a bananna for 'breakfast', and made our way to Wychwood Artscape Barns. You know, just so we had a little bit of fruit in us, and a little less guilt about packing in the meat for lunch. And good thing we got there right when it all started because I heard later on when we got home, that they ran out of sliders 3 hours after it all begun; yes, over 11,000 sliders sold in the first annual event.

We're going to do our best to share our engorgement; with a short description and some of our favourites. I think it is hard to really call one burger the absolute best because it really depends on how many burgers you've had (i doubt one person tried them all), and even good quality beef after a few will all start to all taste very similar so its hard to properly distinguish or evaluate. There were definitely some standouts for different reasons, so here we go!

The first two are the $5 burgers we visited during the week at their respective restaurant. Habits Gastropub on the left hooked us in with their Beer battered Cremini Blue Crab Burger with a corn relish. The burger had a tasty combination that could hold up against the cattle competition, but we felt it could have been fried at a better temperature, as ours was on the greasy side. We also shared a confit duck poutine to add to our meal. On the right, The Beet served us an organic lamb burger with apricot chutney, Quebec mozzarella and pickled jalepeno. It was good, but not particularly memorable; however i really enjoyed the watercress almond soup for a $4 side upgrade.

Now onto, the burger day sliders! Our first slider was Barque's smoked brisket burger, with candied bacon, sauteed mushrooms, aged cheddar, chipotle mayo and house-made pickles on a Portuguese bun. May didn't like the fact her bun was cold, but otherwise the overall burger had a really nice smokey punch that we enjoyed. On the right is Bestellen's Stilton, house-made HP sauce, onions and rocket. I wish i knew what cut the meat was, but either way the patty was charred nicely and had a nice soft tasty bite to it together with the sharp cheese and carmelized onions. Bestellen's was also the prettiest burger of them all as you can see.

E11ven's California burger had prime shoulder chuck with lettuce, tomatoe, pickle, onion, mayo, mustard topped with jalapeno havarti and sliced advocado. Their slider had the most pronounce supporting flavours, it was refreshing yet it had a sharp richness from the cheese and advocado. The slider on the right is Keriwa's bison patty with Saskatoon berry chutney, wild leeks, aioli and thunder oak gouda on a red fife bannock bun. The bison was a welcomed change in taste, and the berry chutney was a perfect compliment to the meat and as much as I liked the bannock, we felt there was a little too much in proportion to the entire burger.

The Caledonian served up a unique haggis and lamb patty topped with housemade highland chutney on a brioche bun. The haggis was there but subtle, as the lamb was the major flavour, very well made and completely for lamb lovers. The Gladstone served up a beef short rib burger with house cured bacon, tomato marmalade, sheep's milk cheddar and pickled red onions. As a last second decision, I think they revolutionized the afternoon by serving their burger upside down which definitely added to the overall enjoyment and presentation (hehe); but honestly, I would say their patty was the best beef patty that we tried; it was seasoned very well and was the most memorable, and not to mention perfectly shaped.

Hrvati Bar served up a two flattop ontario beef patties with smoked mozzarella, carmelized onions on a croatian steamed bun. By far the best slider bun and a good beef carmelization. And to end off our lunch, we had to get the dessert burger by Yogalicious. A probiotic frozen kefir chocolate "patty", kiwi relish, roma strawberries, a mango cheese slice on a sesame seed pastry puff. A very inventive and fun palatte changer but we wouldn't have been upset if we had another burger 'burger' instead.

And... that's it! Out of the 25 or so burgers, we managed to try about 10 of them (8 of them on burger day); so I think we did pretty good considering. We each had one of the first two sliders before we smartened up and realized we could just share one at a time and try more. Admittedly, we tried more of the black tie burgers vs. the $5 burgers since they all cost the same on burger day. And although its hard to declare a best burger, we had some that stuck out of the bunch. The Hrvati burger was very unique and by far the tastiest of the $5/resto entries. The Gladstone had the best tasting patty and E11ven was the most refreshing. Bestellen is easily our burger of choice, as the toppings are likely what we'd put on our own burgers if we gourmet'd it up on our home grill. So we can declare Bestellen's, the burger we-could-eat-everyday-anytime. So Rob Rossi, save us a seat, we'll be coming again soon!

burger'd out!



ps. if anyone is interested, we'll be donating our time and photography at the NightMarket in the Honest Ed's Alleyway on June 20th. Come out for fun evening under the moon, a bustling street scene and of course, food carts! Tickets went on sale today, and again proceeds go to The Stop Community Food Centre

The last of New York

We're finally going to wrap up these New York posts, I believe they've been lingering for a little too long by now. The last two days of our New York trip back in November (that's a long time ago!) was pretty relaxing. To start off Sunday, we went to Williamsburg Flea which happened at the same place as where Smorgasbug market was on Saturdays. Some of the food vendors are there for both days of the weekend, so we had a delicious lunch taken care of. We checked out a camera store and shopped a little then ended up in Chelsea for dinner. Gabe's cousin Vivian, who also happened to be in NYC that weekend, suggested us to have dinner at Fig & Olive. We had a wonderful meal that was inspired by Spainsh, French and Italian flavours. You can try so many kinds of olive oil, I'm always surprised to find how different olive oils can be.

Our flight was on Monday afternoon, so we woke up bright and early to savour the last little bit of time we can spend in the city. I had never been inside of Central park before, and I'm always very impressed by the photos I saw in books and magazines, but when I finally surrounded myself within this enormous park, I was blown away. I'm so glad we visited during the fall, because the layers of colours make this public space more beautiful than it already is. We also heard about this little bakery by the park called Levain has great pastries, so we bought some chocolate chip brioche and cookies to bring to the park. I have to say they brought our experience to another level, I highly recommend those brioche.

Before we had to head back to pack up our suitcases, we walked through Union Square market and dropped by a Momofuku Milk Bar for some cereal milk. I'm not a big fan of the cakes and cake truffles, but I really enjoyed the cereal milk shake we had. Maybe Gabe and I should try to make a cereal milk ice cream, mmmmmmmm,

Bye bye New York.

Brooklyn NYC - Day 3

Let's just pretend we haven't skipped a beat with our blogging, and now we're magically onto our Saturday food adventures in NYC. And boy did we pack in a lot of food! After a full afternoon and evening of photographing a wedding in Brooklyn and at Bubby's, we got up pretty early to hit up the flea markets out in Williamsburg. But before we got on the G line train, we walked into "dough" for a healthy breakfast, DONUTS! these donuts are really the size of small cakes, but they came with high recommendation so we each had to have one. May had the Earl Grey Chocolate and I had the the Blood Orange which you see in the photo. Slightly denser than most Canadian donuts that we eat, there was a very satisfying chew in texture; but at the end of the day i'd have to say the draw to these donuts are their very unique flavours. The lineups all over speak for themselves.

After a quick visit to Artist & Flea, we walked right to the water's edge for Smorgasburg. My kinda market, this otherwise clear park space was full of food vendors. A wide range tents serving ready made food of all sorts. Anything you can imagine it was all there, we are talking about grilled cheeses, beef jerky, ramen noodles, tempeh, smokehouse bbq sandwiches, smoores, pickles, yes everything. After a long deliberation we shared a lobster roll and schnitzel. At $16, the lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound was good, but not particularly unique. But holy schnitz! that pretzel bun schnitzel was likely one of the best sandwiches we've ever had. Called the "Bamberg", the chicken had a parsley panko crust, with cucumber daikon and carmelized onion mustard. boomshakalaka! this is a must for everyone.

We spent the late afternoon walking the amazing Highline and exploring around Chelsea before we eventually made our way to Eataly. What is Eataly you ask? well it is this amazing Italian food emporium that prior to this trip i read so much about through the new york times. Look, if Mario Batali is involved, you should have high expectations and that it definitely met. Just imagine every kind of inspiring and delicious food venues squashed into one big space. We're talking about aisles of imported and freshly made italian foods, specialized grocery selection, culinary and wine classes, and multiple food stations/restaurants serving up delicious eats. I was initially worried how pretentious this kind of place might be, but if you can appreciate the level of quality a place like this delivers; Eataly is an extremly lively and socially engaging space. It was noisy, crowded but everyone was excited by food in all ways imaginable and we were no different. We eventually found a bar infront of a pizza oven. May had the Salsicciotta, which was a Napolettana pizza with smoked provola cheese, mushrooms, neapolitan sausage and fresh basil. I had the Rigatoni with sweet sausage, tomato, grana padano, pecorino and bitter greens. Simply perfection; so good infact that our oohs and ahhs convinced the people next to me to order the same thing, true story. And like every good evening, we ended it off with pistacio and coconut gelato, yes sir.

Do you like the places we visited? Don't forget to visit our NYC google map for all the locations we've visited and more!

Brooklyn NYC - Day 2

Hello, I haven't appeared on the inter-webs for a while, but here I am blogging again!
Day 2 of visiting NYC was a busy one for us because it is the day we shot Rosanna and Woody's wedding. You can check out the wedding photos soon at Gabe's photo blog, but for now, I will talk about the yummy brunch that prepared us fully for this working day.

Our Air BnB host Tammy is a super sweet girl and suggested a bunch of places for brunch. Gabe and I picked Maggie Brown since it's only a 5 minute walk from where we stayed. I ordered the Grandma Harriet, which has crispy eggs over jalapeno cheddar grits. This dish is done very well, if you like a good southern breakfast, you can't go wrong with this one. Gabe had the corn Beryl Evans which is a corn beef hash topped with two sunny side up eggs. Your traditional corn beef hash with a unique flare to it. I have to say my favourite part of this meal is the raspberry butter; this sweet whipped butter on top of home made biscuit is such a delicious treat. If any of you have a recipe, please let me know because I really wish I have a jar of it in the fridge.


MAGGIE BROWN
455 Myrtle Ave.
Brooklyn NY 11205
718-643-7001

Brooklyn NYC - Day 1

View Gabe + May's New York City in a larger map

So! our brooklyn trip! oh and a happy twenty twelve folks =]

May and I definitely had a lot of ideas and suggestions for places to eat in new york city but naturally we knew we probably didn't have the time and flexibility to jump from place to place in the big crazy city so we just threw everything onto a google map just so we new our options depending on where we were. You can imagine how often I stood in front of a starbucks pawning their wireless just so I could pick a place to eat off our google map. i really should have printed something like i had planned to, but we left toronto in a bit of a scramble.

the first morning after we arrived we met up with Rosanna in DUMBO (Down Under the Manhatten Bridge Overpass) to talk wedding and check out her venue Bubby's, this charming restaurant down by the water serving comfort food. The first wedding i've ever been to where we had fried chicken, mac n' cheese and pie! that's right.

She then suggested we go grab some pasteries at Almondine Bakery, this small humble french bakery just around the corner. With our morning coffee we had merigue, chocolate eclairs, a peach danish and probably the best almond croissant i've ever had. After talking shop with Ro, May and I headed off and spent the afternoon spontaneously walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and eventually ending up at the New Museum. The weather was incredible, I was walking without a jacket and the sun was blazing mid november, we were so lucky for our entire trip.

By early evening we were midtown and found ourselves lining up at Ippudo, a very well known popular ramen place that I had visited in the past on a friend's bachelor party weekend. Hungry and cranky, we walked around the corner to sunrise mart near NYU's campus and grabbed some snacks to carry us over and we thought it was funny to buy some packaged ramen for a breakfast morning. Sunrise Mart was pretty amazing (also recommended by Rosanna) it was basically an asian grocery snack mart just like we have here in Toronto/Markham but crammed into a tight second floor space. I found a bottle of Ginger beer for $17.99! but we didn't buy it, yeah right! the packaged ramen however was just $0.99. After an hour and change, we got a seat at Ippudo after 10pm and we shared a Chicken Karage app, perfectly crispy with a mayo green onion salad compliment. May had the Kogashi Miso Ramen (the red bowl) and I had Shiromaru Hakata Classic which is a Tonkotsu soup broth. The Ramen was a straight noodle, with a nice chewy consistency and the broth had a nice smokey and nuttyness. Remember the sesame grinder I was so happy to find in Toronto's Sanko? This is the noodle place i first discovered it.

Oh and if you're interested in what we're eating so far, or you're heading over to brooklyn or NYC sometime soon, check out our google map! its full of recommendations from our friends, some of which we may have gotten to on our trip. There's also things to do, not just food, so enjoy! and do tell us about your visits to brooklyn + NYC too.

we're back!

Hello! Its been a while, we're sorry. We haven't been very good at posting lately but we promise to make a regular appearance once again. Over the past month we've been pretty busy with work, playing with our kitten, and we also went on a trip to Brooklyn; but the real reason is probably just general lazyness. Please forgive us =] We'll start with our brooklyn food posts next.

One thing we have been doing for a little while now (if you dont already know) is instagramming our random meals, ones that will never make a blog post here. Its just a quick simple way to document our food experiences with our phone; and more importantly, get down with the eating.

// 4417 leftovers // may's instagram // gabe's instagram //