Costa Dorada, Spain: Tarragona and Cambrils, Spain, Snacks and Lunches

Last Summer, my good friend Jenny and I took a lil trip to Spain to relax in the beautiful southern beaches... I was a lil tardy, as usual... since i didn't pay attention to my ticket, and forgot how to read military time and ultimately... missed my flight... it was a crazy crazy 24 hours getting my ass from Toronto to Madrid, to charter to Barcelona, train to Barcelona Sants station from the airport, and catch the second to last 2+ hour standing train ride to Salou and cab it to the resort... but i made it! and will NEVER mistake 20:55 for 10:55PM AGAIN.... on our second day, we made a trip to Tarragona, Spain. It's a gorgeous southern Mediterranean coastal city, and as you can see from my pic above, boasts ruins from ancient roman times,

a few steps from our sidewalk snack break

mmm fresh spanish gazpacho

We went for a huge walk, as, we're (or i am) a horrible map reader, and was super parched for refreshment.  Since Gazpacho (a cold tomato based veggie soup), originates from Spain, I had to have it! And no wonder, a great summer soup, it was super refreshing, like herby/savoury yet fragrant, it was actually my first time! yum yum! 

fresh? or not fresh. but mussels aioli plucked from the sea.. beard and all

I also figured, hey im at the sea, might as well have some seafood, and ordered the Mussels Aioli, which i only knew how to pronounce from watching Top Chef... they love making aioli,  the waitress was so impressed i could pronounce it, and i was so impressed that she was impressed, so i went to figure out what the hell it was: Aioli is like a creamy garlic, olive oil, yoke sauce, and hmmm i think they grabbed the mussels straight out of the sea, cause parts of it was still attached to it... but the sauce was good!

A few days later, we took a catalan over to Cambrils, another fishing village on the south, to the east this time, of where we were staying in Salou.  What i LOVE about spain, is their prix fixe menus, i read that since lunch is the largest meal of the day, cheap prix fixe meals are sanctioned by the gov't .. awesome for me! I mean check this out. a drink (beer or mineral water), appy, main, dessert, for 11.90 EUROS. that's not even 20 bucks CDN for a great lunch.  and the food, do i even need to say, was great.

so here's my lil cervasa! otherwise, my preferred drink is Fanta. haha.

Here's a free tapas from the bar, we were outside at the patio, but i think if we were to hang out inside, that's were the freebees are. its like a fried tater cheese top.

Started off with some Calamari, great light breading, not overcooked or stringy, though i will reconsider ever ordering a squid dish for myself again cause it can get super heavy.

My main was this awesome grilled fish on top of deep fried battered peppers. I really liked the fried crispy veggies as a contrast to the fish, it just gave me some texture to play with. super awesome.

And look at this! decadent piece of awesomeness, I have no idea what i ordered, can you read what i ordered? but it was good, and soaked in sweet goodness. 

And here's Jenny's prawn salad! Those prawns are the size of giant fingers!

Oriental Cafe @ Richlane Mall in Richmond Hill

I went out for lunch with my coworker, Maria, well, a 3:30 pm lunch, and i suggested we try the awesome asian mall by our work that i love eating at, the most awesome Richlane Mall! I mean, its awesome in it that it's close to use, and really there are only what, 12-15 stores/restaurants in there, but proximity is king.  Today we tried a new place to me, Oriental Cafe... psst. i picked up a take out menu:

Oriental Cafe 905-884-8678

9425 Leslie St. Unit 3, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3N7

It's headliner special is the Chef's special chunked beef noodle in soup, and Shanghai stye minched fish noodle in fish broth.  Along, they offer great "afternoon tea" snacks (toast w/ condense milk types) and value dishes (Afternoon Tea usually comes with a dish, and a hot drink, like a Hong Kong milk tea, and extra $1.00 for cold drink. ALWAYS extra $1.00 for a cold drink... how much does ice cost anyway)

As well they offer shanghai dim sum (my fav), noodles in soup (my fav), fried noodles/lo mein (my fav), rice, curry, steamed veggies, baked rice/spaghetti, rice cake, fried noodles, and soup.

After an hour of debating what to get... Maria went for the Cantonese Style Chow Mein @ $7.99.  I agree that I am also used to the kind where there is more seafood (like scallop and squid), this included bbq pork, but i guess you can put whatever you want in there, im guessing Cantonese Style means, we'll just throw leftovers on top of fried noodles.

And I went for the pork cutlet in noodle soup.  It was great! the pork was tender and not overcooked, plus the noodles were the right bite, great flavour, the broth was not too salty, and i think it came to, along with my HK milk tea, $7.99 as well. 

buffalo chicken salad

I had a work trip to New Bedford, MA (hour out of Boston), a while ago, and got to order in lunch.. everyone else ordered hoogies or pohboys or whatever you wanna call dem subs, but i went another route, cause i was trying to be "smart" by ordering a "salad" and was eagerly saving myself for a large bostonion lobster feast that never happened, so the tastiest meal of my day was this... and it was DELICIOUS! I'd never even heard of a buffalo chicken salad, with blue cheese dressing, and a heaping ot cheese to top, it was delicious, the crisp letteuce and cucumbers really cut the spice, it was sooo good. plus the spice kicked me back awake during the presentation. double benefit for stomach and mind!

Korean Supermarket Galleria Food Court

The Galleria Supermarket re-opened up at a newer southern yonge location @ 7040 Yonge St (north of yonge and Steeles) and its... wait for it... open 24 hours!!!! Things i love about Toronto > Vancouver, the amount of 24 hour stores that are available... awesome! (Although i dont think the food court is open 24 hours)  It's a pretty huge Korean Supermarket, with fresh bakery, meat/seafood and ready to eat food sections, plus ailses of ramen, kimchi, and other korean and asian staples.  I actually didnt buy anything on my visit to check things out, but did check out the "food court" aka the 3 food stands in a row. I got a Pork Bone Soup from Wow Korean Restaurant Inc. and it was pretty good, it came to around 7-8 bucks, complete with freebie sides, and the pork was super tender and the broth was just as tasty as any korean restaurant in new korean town.  However i will judge, that usually at the end of my meal, at say, Owl of Minerva in North York, i'm usually about to roll over in a meaty pork induced coma, while at Korean food court, i'm just pleasantly full... which is good... i mean really who needs to puke a lil in their mouth from over eating....  

Here's the front...i think you have 15 options for food. haha.

And to the right, some japanese options:

Such as the pork katsu with udon.... im not a hugh fan of tonkatsu sauce but the cutlet was great.

Sushi Bong Reprise and every single pomegranate in the world in one place

So last week, i had dinner with my lovely co-worker girls, and we all loooove sushi, and since i'm the lone pedestrian, they let me pick the place, somewhere close by me, so they can drop me off after work. (they're the best!).  And since i'd been raving about the neighbourhood hole in the wall, Sushi Bong, i insisted we check it out. We did end up getting kicked out of the 10 people seater eatery, so i suggest you be ready to cut your meaningful conversations short when the sole waitress hands you the bill to get the hell out. 

Here's the bong sashimi for 2, @ around $20 bucks.

shrimp tempura @ around 9 bucks

this is 1 softshell crab roll... @ around 10 bucks

Dynamite roll @ around 6 bucks and spicy salmon roll @ around 4 bucks.

So after we got kicked out of Sushi Bong, it was SOMEBODY'S good idea to walk into the first brightly lite store, Marouf Tochal... i still have no idea what this place is! Like Ned Flanders' store where everything is left handed, everything here is pomegranate, pom juice, pom ice cream, pom slushes, pom smoothies.... 

After mulling over the menu for about 5 minutes and not finding anything, 2 of us decided to try the pomegranate ice cream with pomegranate syrup.  Which, the syrup is actually quite interesting (they sell it there in bulk as well, for making dressings, or marinades, etc.)  The ice cream was tart as hell, and i had an instant Renee Zellweger lemon face, but.. it tasted healthy! the PERSON who brought us to this place ordered nothing... haha

I checked out its facebook page and it lists it as:

For ppl who love sour flavor of pomegranate juice,pomegranate ice cream,pomegranate lavashak! and more products of pomegranate!

which, i cant really fault it. if you like sour. this is what you like

Lots of pom EVERYWHERE.

proscuitto & mozza roll sandwich

Had a quick snack the other day at work, you know those proscuitto and mozzerella rolls? sometimes with basil wrapped in as well.  Unrolled it out on a section of ciabatta that i sliced up at home, took a packet of mustard i stole from the movie theatres. put it thru the toaster oven and instant sandwhich. mmm.  Those rolls are awesome! meat and cheese and herb all in one. toast. eat. done. easy.

Ricotta Stuffed Chicken + Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Yesterday my dreams came true and I acquired  myself a housewife/husband. And it was awesome. Came home after work, the place was cleaned and tidied up, there was a home cooked meal sizzling in the (stupid) toaster oven, ready to be consumed after a hard day's work. I can get use to a wife.

It really tasted as delicious as it looked, and it was awesome too because this was a first ever attempt.  The filling, if I remember correctly, is ricotta, fresh parmesan, bacon, garlic, salt and fresh ground pepper, chilli flakes and hot cayenne pepper. The chicken breast was cut in half and pounded out, and topped with a rose sauce with pancetta, more parmesan and bacon.  And baked, I would go for 350 @ 30-35 mins probably. While turning up the heat at the last throws of baking it to crisp up the top.  The side salad is a basic balsamic + olive oil dressing.

Had some fresh strawberries in the fridge and decided a good way to end dinner for my wonderful housewife/husband was to make some chocolate covered strawberries.  My first attempt and it was easy peasy.  Makeshift double boiler to melt some 75% dark chocolate, put in some butter, dipped, froze, eat.  

I also made some whipped cream, with vanilla extract cause we're over the top that way. All in all. A really delicious dinner :)