Brooklyn NYC - Day 3

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!

fish tacos + cous cous salad

fish tacos + cous cous salad

Guess what, you should know we're just like you. We don't like to eat out that often, and at the same time we don't always have meal ideas at the tips of our tongues. What we do know, is that the more we cook, the easier it gets to be inspired. Here is a simple and healthy meal that requires very little cooking and i'm sure everyone will love. You can bring it for lunch at work, and its hearty enough for dinner. Good for roughly 5-6 servings.




We bought 2 fillets of cod (about $10) and did a light pan fry with a little butter and black pepper. The fish taco wraps consisted of chopped avocado, red peppers, arugula salad greens and topped with President's Choice salsa Verde. The red peppers and salsa verde are both regular suspects in our fridge. You could alternatively substitute ingredients like pineapple, spinach greens and red onion; or even rice paper wraps instead of tortilla. As a litle crunch treat, i asked the deli to slice a few slices of panchetta which i pan fried for a crispy topping (only about a dollar's worth)

The Cous Cous salad has a base of 1 cup israel cous cous, 1 cup of barley, 1 cup of frozen peas, 1 cob of corn, all boiled to a tender state and cooled. We chopped some red onion, peppers, and through in some leftover roasted sweet potato. The key again is the flexibility of ingredients. You could have also added/substituted with quinoa, chopped apples, carrots, fennel and it would still be tasty. Usually a good rule of thumb is to use a variety of colourful ingredients and you can't go wrong. And finally, just season with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and you're good to go!

And that's it! a simple, flexible meal, that is for the most part healthy, easy to serve since it can be eaten cold, affordable, quick to make and hopefully tasty! Don't get too hung up with specific ingredients or quantities, just taste test, be brave and have fun =]

swimming pool fishing

swimming pool fishing

what? yes you read correctly. Over the summer, May and i attended Scadding Court's Gone Fishing project. In its 9th year (yes! can you believe it?) the community centre transforms its indoor pool to house 2000 trout from a local fish farm.

Why you ask? Because we have underutilized indoor pools that are not being used in the summer, since everyone would rather be outside. The program exists because we have inner city children that have never gone fishing, and perhaps don't even know where fish come from. This is a fantastic program that gives less fortunate school groups the opportunity to experience a recreational activity that perhaps some of us luckier kids get, while also connecting them to the food they eat. Its amazing how meaningful a simple experience like this can affect a child or even an adult.









After a week of visits from local schools, the pool is open up to the public with an entrance fee of $3, including the chance to take home the fish you've caught. Lets just say, the smartest fish were left in the pool for us to catch. And when you've caught your fish, volunteers gut and clean it for you for 75cents, provide you with free recipes to take home, or you could even have the cafe upstairs cook the fish right away!

We love city programs like these, because they help engage and educate our public with the food we eat. We spoke with Kevin Lee, the community centre executive director, who was right there helping everyone with their fishing. What an amazing person making a great difference along with all the volunteers and workers.

That night we pan seared the trout, and accompanied it with a lemon butter caper sauce. It was super yummy and fresh. Guess who caught the bigger fish?!

All Seafood Everything

All Seafood Everything

Woa hello there! its been a while since we've posted. We've had a pretty busy summer so far, lots of things to share and post, so stay tuned. Today's meal post is circled around our favourite protein, the seafood. haha.


May's favourite! crab cakes, made with fresh crab meat, crackers, mayonaise, red peppers, dill and panko crust. an egg to bind


a simple cous cous salad with shrimp, that we de-shelled




who doesn't love mac n' cheese? we had a craving one night and decided to make one in a cast iron pot. A simple Bechamel sauce made with swiss cheese, added to macaroni, shrimp and cauliflower.

The One That Got Away

The One That Got Away

You gotto love the simple and playful name they chose. The overall feel of the place has subtle nautical theme to it, with minimal bar height seating and tables. Its clear they cater to the weekday King Street lunch crowd but we've only gone on the weekends and find its a very casual atmosphere. The One That Got Away is one of the newer fish and chips joint in the city.


A simple matrix menu, that gives you the different types of fish matched with the different plate options (wraps, sandwiches, grilled, fried)


Even though most people should be looking for their fish to be accompanied by fries, you have to know that the accompanying salad (or additional side salad $3.99) is huge and very good. It comes with a nice vinegrette and a mango salsa


and heres the fish! a nice and simple crispy batter, made to order. No heavy oil taste, and the perfect amount of batter



The verdict is simple too, we love this place! We are by no means fish and chips experts, but comparing to the fan favourite Chippy's, as well as Fresco's in Kensington market and Harbord fish and Chips, both May and I think The One That Got Away is the clear winner.

The prices are very reasonable, the presentation is clean and fresh, and even tho their take out serves most of the customers, the seating environment is decent. The owner greeted us the first time, asked us if we had been here before and then explained his menu. I tried the Artic Char (one of my favourites) and May had the Pickerel (which was buttery soft). There are a few fish items that are sustainable (ocean wise, i think) certified too. The owner even came to chat with us a bit, and I told him i thought the fish was a little under seasoned to my taste and he made note of it.

A worthy try, just make sure you go on the weekends if you want to avoid the crowd. And if anyone knows where in the city serves mushy peas as a side with their fish and chips (like they do in London) please let me know! Happy fishing!

Enoteca Sociale

Enoteca Sociale

Some of you may know, the better half of 4417 celebrated her birthday this weekend!  Yes, we packed the long weekend with cleaning, gardening, shopping, lobsters, brunch, and bowling; more on that later.  This post is about a birthday dinner, just the two of us at a restaurant we've been salivating over for a long time now.  We've failed to get a reservation a few times now, so this time i made no mistake an planned two weeks in advance.


we like the light hearted, homey, family feel of the space

we started with the special, suckling pig rillette with a pickled mustard seed dressing.  the arancini con stracciatella is a riceball served with arugula and carmalized onion.

house made pappardelle with ontario goat ragu

ontario rainbow trout with dandilion and pearl onions, and a N'djua & clams dish

i promise you, she's very happy and extremely full, but dessert is on its way!

i had the budino, which is a chocolate mousse/pudding with seat salt and a hazelnut merigue

may had the tiramisu.  chef rocco's version is made with blood orange zest and prosecco.

Wow wow wow, what a celebration meal, it felt like it was my birthday too.  Maybe it was because we had some truely well executed homestyle Roman food that we really connected with, but i think we both agree our server, Scott really added to our dining experience.  He took the time to carefully explain each dish, and made suggestions on why we might want to choose certain dishes in combination with each other.  He helped us pick out wines that suited our taste, and he gently convinced me that I probably couldn't finish all that i wanted to order, haha.  The warm neighbourly service and cozy down to earth dining room was definitely refreshing as it contrasts the slightly tenser environment we've experienced at pizza libretto in the past (same owner).

The dishes were all very well thought out, relying on simple ideas and quality ingredients.  There is clear presence of local ingredients in the menu, the fish dish reminded me why rainbow trout is probably one of the most forgotten and underrated proteins ontario has to offer.  The obvious high note in our meal for me was the pappardelle as the pasta had the perfect chew only roman's know about and the goat ragu is braised to an almost silky texture without any gamey flavours.  And birthday girl will now be suggesting we go to enoteca sociale every week for her favourite tiramisu, it was simply the best we've had.

Thank you for an amazing and memorable meal, and happy birthday may!

Hooked Inc.

Hooked Inc.

Yep, we literally got hooked right in with colourful fish cutouts in the storefront window. Walking around on a Saturday afternoon in Leslieville looking for a coffee shop, we didn't expect to randomly find one of Toronto's newest fish store.



"Wow, this is an awesome place, how long have you been here?".... "Actually we just opened yesterday!". Hooked Inc opened on March 11th. They call themselves the knowledgeable fish store, and pride their efforts in finding sustainable and ethnical methods of providing fresh fish to Torontonians. We met Kristin, one of the owners, who explained to us their process of sourcing fish across Canada directly from small fishing boats. Supporting small businesses not only support local industries but also ensure that the fish are caught responsibly. Large scale mass fishing has a high impact on our environment as often they will trawl the sea beds with giant netting that destroy the ecology and captures more wildlife than they are fishing for.

The owners are both professional chefs with experience in Toronto's food industry and restaurants. They are also currently working on a cooking demonstration counter at the back of the store where they will host culinary workshops offering instructions in selecting, handling and cooking seafood. You will also find cookware, various tools, cookbooks and prepared foods that compliment your seafood adventures.


a cute chalkboard displays the fish available and where the fish was caught.


the space has an east coast feel, and at the back they have a counter for future culinary classes


there were shrimp, oysters, mussels from all over Canada as well as local ontario lake fish


also larger wild fish caught in local seas, including Chinook salmon, Sablefish and B.C. Halibut.

Everything looked very fresh and reasonably priced consider the extra steps they've taken to by pass a mass supply chain. Unfortunately that weekend we already had dinner plans, but returned the following week to buy some B.C. Halibut ($24/lb) and B.C. spotted prawns ($20/lb). We cooked the following meal at a cost of about $10 a portion, for 4 portions. Higher than we would budget for our average meal, but this is no average meal and we'd spend easily a minimum of $30 if we were to have this in a restaurant. We quickly referenced this simple recipe for a simple broth for our seafood through a quick search on my iphone while buying groceries.  I also noticed that Loblaw's had Halibut too (although from Alaska), but it definitely didn't look as fresh, possibly once frozen, slightly discoloured, and it was still $21/lb.  I would much rather spend the extra $3/lb knowing where my fish came from and how it was caught.


On the left is our fresh halibut from Hooked, and on the chopping board we have two shallots, one large carrot, parsley, ground coriander and a lemon.


We created the simple broth with the shallots, carrots, and added a carton of chicken broth, a cup of white wine, lemon zest, half a lemon's juice and a knob of butter to finish. The halibut was seared on both sides, seasoned with the ground coriander, salt and pepper. The Prawns were quickly sautéed with a little bit of butter and a splash of broth. Since May wanted rice and I wanted beans, we decided to combine them together with some chopped parsley which sat nicely at the bottom of our dish soaking up the flavours of our broth.


And there you have it! everything kinda collapsed when we pour the broth over the dish, but everything tasted amazing, the flavour and texture of the fish stood out on its own, and the prawns were extremly sweet.

Although we don't cook like this that often, there is no reason why we shouldn't. It was a very special meal that was affordable and simple to make; we only had to wait for the broth to simmer for 20mins, otherwise everything else was quick. The nice thing about cooking seafood is that there usually is very little prep work involved. So there should be no excuses, go visit Hooked and have some seafood tonight!


For more information on the great things they are doing over at Hooked Inc., check out the Globe and Mail's article.  To find out some of the harsh realities of the fishing industry I recommend watching The End of the Line. If you're wondering how sustainable the fish on your dinner table is, check out Ocean Wise's seafood guide.

all seafood everything

all seafood everything

in case you were wondering, may hasn't posted in a while as she's currently in Beijing visiting her family. China's pretty tight with web access, so she hasn't been able to log in to hit up a post. i'm sure she'll post some goodies after she gets back this week!

so, we definitely love our seafood. and a few weeks before may left, we had lunch with my family. all lobster everything.


we bought canning lobsters for cheap! $4.75 each? at foodie mart and my mom steamed a giant batch of them. we chopped up the lobster meat, added chopped apples, celery, mayo, sour cream, paprika, salt, pepper.


mixed it all up together. this was a lunch collaboration, and lobster rolls was our duty.


my mom fresh clams which she steamed and used the broth to start the chowder. she added a rue (cooked butter & flour) and then added other aromatics such as carrots, onions and celery. chopped potato added more thickness and completed it as chowder. of course she topped it off with crispy bacon that may brought back from the farmers market in cambridge


and here's the final lobster roll, with a small wedge of quiche (as if we didn't have enough to eat already).