Listen up Toronto, I'm back!

Leaving tdot!

Boy do things change over a few months. Just when I was settling into working in downtown Toronto I recently got interviewed and offered a dream job in Dubai UAE! So I will be on the move again this time half way across the globe! But Toronto will always be home!

Balmy Weekend!

It snowed like crazy in February but the weekend was great with sunshine and 10+ temps! Everything is melting and I fear puddles of water (flood types) will be around! The good thing is Loonies (ever beloved shit dropping Canadian geese) are landing in snowless areas! Which all means SPRING is in the air folks! Cheers to warm sunshine! And welcome home Loonies hope your vacay in the South was great!!

Tokyo Grill - T.O.’s Homestyle Japanese Katsu!

Nowawadays I always feel skeptical dropping by the smaller eateries on Yonge street in downtown Toronto! Being a Japanese foodie we stopped by to grab lunch on a chilly January afternoon. It’s situated right next to a peep (XXX) video store but don’t get turned off. Tokyo Grill is small, cozy and serves up some delicious Japanese food. Ordered Chicken Katsu with curry which was delicious for a cold day. The curry is made in-house and offers a sort of homemade feel which I enjoyed. We also ordered the Beef Sukiyaki which was fantastic. It was full of flavor and the beef cooked just right. The serving size was big and more than enough for 2 people to share. Price is excellent, both for around $20 without tips. Don’t get turned off by the size of the place, it is overall clean and an excellent choice to get yummy Japanese food!

See pic below of the awesome beef sukiyaki and chicken katsu!

Located at: 582 Yonge St
Price: $
Overall Food: ****

Never Give Up! Congrats Felix!

I was glued to the TV earlier today watching Felix Baumgartner’s extraordinary daring mission to sky dive or more like space dive from 120,000 FEET (36.5 KM) above earth from his floating capsule. It was nerve racking watching this amazing feat unfold from his ascent up to the heavens, the capsule door opening up in nearly zero oxygen surroundings and then leaping down to earth! This is how superman would have looked like if he was real! In under 10 minutes Felix was back to earth safe and sound (whew) but at one point he broke the speed of sound traveling at over 700 MPH! This man broke the record for the highest ever sky dive and also to break the sound barrier speed on his descent! It is amazing that while we are all cozy glued to our TV sets he just added a new benchmark in what mankind can do if they have the passion, dream and willpower to do so. Never give up on your hopes and dreams, it will always come along if the desire is there! WE SALUTE YOU FELIX BAUMGARTNER.

Subway/Bus Etiquette… Grow Up!

Sometimes I feel we live in such a peculiar society. Toronto is a massive melting pot - I take pride in living in a city that has so many different kinds of faces that, at the end of the day lead harmonious lives. But all this simply ceases to exist when taking public transit. I have over the past 2 weeks on numerous occasions STOOD for 1 hour & 45 minutes on both the TTC Subway & VIVA bus services! There is no seat to sit on during rush hour - you can’t get one as, teenagers & young people are hogging it left and right with their huge ass backpacks & oversized headphones poking your every joint! I am not old, that isn’t my rant, what concerns me is that young people and particular snooty men (I am male, BTW) sit on available seats without ever giving the thought of standing and letting the elderly and women take a sit.

It disgusts me, and it really churned my stomach this afternoon when a lady who was PREGNANT was standing when I squeezed myself into the train. She stood in front of a guy who was looking down (very strategic to avoid eye contact) glued to his cheap piece of s%&$ smartphone and a teenaged hipster who was listening to some loud music on her neon coloured headphones. I was so pissed at the sight that I went ahead, poked on the guy’s shoulder and pointed to the pregnant lady’s stomach (please forgive me whoever you are) and grudgingly he got up to let her have a seat!!!! My karma was imbalanced because the pregnant lady gave me a nod of gratitude while the asshole gave me a shot of evil eye! Well I’m sure I managed to send an evil eye back for that matter.

So here are my simple requests:

1) If you see a person who is older than you, looks like someone who just is sick, pregnant, on a walking stick - PLEASE get up and let them have a seat. It’s the least you can do for your fellow citizen.

2) STOP talking on the frigging phone! I don’t give a shit what coloured shirt you are going to wear for your date to mcdonald’s - unless your grandma is dying or you have a million dollar deal to settle, stop chattering on the phone! text if you have to but silence is highly appreciated after a long day at the office. This also applies to people who listen to loud music where it beats the point of having headphones - YOUR choice of music is not MY choice of music so lower the volume already!

3) Grow the F&%$ up - what happened to minimal decency these days and a little bit of etiquette - what happened to the days of Gentlemen who actually rode on horses and threw down the coat for their fairlady?

I know we all have hard days at work or whatever the hell we do all day, but sometimes it’s just nice to do simple decent things. I’m still young, I think I can bare the standing once in a while! Be a Torontonian for a change, a good Citizen, you wouldn’t let your mom stand on the bus while you sat would you?

Momofuku Noodle Bar T.O. Review

NYC’s David Chang just opened up one of his Momofuku outposts here in our beloved Toronto last month! Being an avid ramen fan, my better half & I swung by last night (Friday) for what we were hoping for would be a quick slurp of steaming noodles! Momofuku restaurant opened up 4 of their concepts right next to the swanky Toronto Shangri-La and we stopped by the noodle bar, famous for Ramen & buns. The place was packed with post Friday office goers and the girl at the door told us we had a hour wait to get a seat but we were more than welcome to go upstairs to “Nikai” to hang out at their bar/lounge to pass the time, which we did and thus adding Chang’s 2nd concept into our itinerary (how convenient). Anyways, we were mighty hungry and the bar didn’t really have any munchies on offer except for in house Yukon potato chips with some tangy garlic dip and some other array of bar snacks like nuts and kimchi! We grabbed a couple of beers & chips to pass the time and stayed away from the overly priced cocktail menu. Decor of the place is pretty cool but since my main concern in being a foodie is the taste of the food and the cleanliness of its preparation, I’m not really going to describe to you the adornment! Ambience was definitely boisterous and the staff pleasantly cheerful.

After about 45 minutes we got a text that our place on the floor was available and we simply were very eager to be seated as we were really hungry! Being a noodle bar we were seated next to some other people who were having their meals but it was definitely not how I had experienced of Ramen places in Japan! Anyways we ordered fairly quickly including Chicken Buns, Momofuku Ramen, Steamwhistles (Toronto’s very own beer) & Mexican Coke! Buns came first and they were delicious. They were these yummy chicken bits cooked with hoisin, scallion & cucumber and wrapped in these soft doughs. We downed them super fast and then came the ramen noodles. We ordered their signature noodles which consisted of meat, egg & fish cake. It was warm, fresh and tasted honestly… BLAND! Maybe I had high expectations, but still it was bland and if it wasn’t for their awesome chilli sauce I wouldn’t have liked it. Having eaten ramen on numerous occasions in numerous locations, it was good but it wasn’t how everyone’s been going ga-ga for! Everything was cooked well but to me it was unstimulating and more wishy-washy! I did add my habit of making loud slurping noises but it didn’t add to the flavor! Hence we ordered another plate of those damn good chicken buns!

So how did we feel about Momofuku landing in our city? Good overall, but could be better personally. David Chang is so famous, I expected everything to be how he promises it to be! I will be dropping by again for the buns for sure but will be going to other places in T.O. for ramen!

Here are some images of the place, the chips, the ramen & you guessed it, the buns!