An Epic Sushi Dinner

The open kitchen area of Sushi Kaji.

Even though our family celebrated my parents' anniversary with dinner at Allium back in Ottawa, my sister was thinking of truly celebrating their anniversary with a nice dinner in the Toronto area.  With her foodie connections she managed to find Sushi Kaji, a Japanese restaurant located in Etobicoke.  The location was not what I'd consider to be typical for a higher-end restaurant, located in a 1950-1960's era Toronto-suburban strip mall right on a 6-lane thoroughfare.  This place, however, was definitely a diamond in the rough.

A La Kitchen for Lunch

Of all the Chinese cuisines, perhaps Shanghainese cuisine would be my favourite.  Though Shanghai is located south of the Chang Jiang/Yangtze, its cuisine is argued to be associated with the northern half of the cuisine by virtue of breads and noodles being staple foods instead of rice, as well as the comparatively heavier dishes offered in Shanghainese cuisine compared to southern Chinese styles like Cantonese.  Perhaps the prevalence of noodles and dumplings better associated with northern Chinese cuisine could explain my love for Shanghainese cuisine.  My parents knowing this, they suggested that our family go to A La Kitchen for lunch.  A La Kitchen recently expanded, virtually doubling its seating capacity, and we did not have to endure a waiting line even though it was fairly busy.

Chinese Cress with Minced Bean Curd

A Golden Court Dinner

A dinner with the maternal grandparents was in order, especially since I for one had not seen them since my last Christmas break.  Though my family and I have noticed the existence of Golden Court Abalone Restaurant several times, only my parents and sister tried it last year due to a banquet event being held there.  Having enjoyed the cuisine there, they thought it was a good place to try for just a more casual dinner.  The Chinese cuisine offered at this restaurant, along with the price tag, was definitely on the higher end, with quite a few dishes on the menus offering various Chinese delicacies like shark's fin, conpoy and swallow's nest.  Even with some of the simpler dishes, greater attention was given to presentation compared to most other Chinese restaurants.

A personal serving of Snake Soup.

Guu Revisited on New Year's Eve

Inside Guu SakaBar.

Some time after trying (Kitanoya) Guu on Church St. in Toronto last year, Guu opened another izakaya, Guu SakaBar, on Bloor St. W. near Bathurst St.  My sister had previously been to this particular Guu and preferred this location more, partly for having more seating and being less crowded.  Perhaps because it was New Year's Eve, with partygoers having gone elsewhere to celebrate, Guu SakaBar still had a few empty seats available during the entire evening we were there.

Toronto Dishcrawl to End 2011

Part of the kitchen at Bannock.

(I've unfortunately had to take a pause writing about my Christmas break culinary adventures due to my involvement in a musical production that just finished this past weekend.  So, now we return to our regularly scheduled programming....)

Knowing that she would still be on holidays from work, before my holidays my sister suggested doing a dishcrawl throughout central Toronto.  For those not familiar with what a dishcrawl is, you may have heard of a pub crawl, where people hop from one drinking establishment to another to try a feature/unique drink from each establishment.  So, a dishcrawl is where people hop from one eatery to another to try a feature/unique food dish from each establishment.  Though she had a quite a few places to choose, we originally settled to try five places and eventually only tried four as, in spite of what our tastebuds would tell us, our stomachs could only take so much.