Tag Archives: Asian fusion

Chinatown meets Flavourtown at this funky Asian tapas joint!!!!

Now, we’re no strangers to R&D, this Asian fusion joint that’s been bringing some upscale funk to downtown Chinatown. But now there’s this new funky joint up the street that might be giving them a run for their renminbi — this is Bitter Melon, bro!

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We’re starting off with a glass of Lee Ho Fook, a drink named after my favourite place to get a big dish of beef chow mein, Bro-ren Zevon! This crafty cocktail contains El Gobernador, baiju, lychee and yogurt soda(!), filled with ice and topped with a lime leaf. Tart and tangy, but quite refreshing.

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You can’t actually get chow mein here, but they do stuff some beef in these potstickers, along with water chestnuts. Dude, that’s chest-nuts!!!!

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For relaxing times, they’re making this Shennong Old Fashioned with Suntory whisky, cane sugar and jasmine tea. And one big-ass ice cube, apparently. This drink can lip my stockings any time, bro!!!!

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One of the signature dishes at this place is baby octopus, which comes on a bed of bitter melon. These succulent little sea monsters taste even better with a great big dab of that yuzu donkey sauce, son!!!!

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Also sold separately is this chewy pork belly, with a nice little slaw-sa of pineapple, jalapeno and cilantro. Pig sooooooey!

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Who needs a lazy Susan when you’ve got a Lay Zi Fizz, son? This sweet young thing has rum, jackfruit, lemon and seltzer, topped with a coconut yuzu foam. Dude, that’s coco-nuts!!!!

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Of course, every good Asian fusion joint has some kind of chicken wings, and this place is no exception. These wings are tossed in Maggi sauce, with garlic powder and black pepper, and topped with sesame seeds. It’s kinda like honey garlic wings, without the honey. Good thing I saved these till the end…

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Of course, we’re not eating wings with a rum and jackfruit cocktail — this is Triple B, after all. So I’m glad they’ve got Collective Arts Life in the Clouds on tap, which is my second favourite light IPA. (Blood Light FTW!) A couple more of these and I might not need dessert…

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But you KNOW I’ve always got room for a Korean corn dog, bro! This good boy is equal parts cheese and Taiwanese sausage, smothered in honey mustard and hot sauce. Can I get like four more to go????

Curry duck that doesn’t suck @ Alma!

The other day, we had some real-deal (non spicy) Chinese food at Mimi, but now we’re switching it up just a bit. Alma, this funky little joint about three doors down from the Burdock Brewery, near Bloor and Dufferin, is definitely more Asian fusion, and their menu changes so often that they don’t even put it on their website. While you can expect some Chinese classics like char siu and shrimp fried rice, tonight we’re gonna funk it up a notch, starting with these morcilla dumplings:

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You definitely don’t see Spanish blood sausage inside a pan-fried dumpling every day, dude! Since this place is pretty small, this dish — along with everything else I ordered — was coming in too hot to touch, so I actually needed a fork to pick it up. Man, this is like Empanadas Gone Wild in Flavourtown, bro! Rich meaty texture inside that nice chewy dumpling skin — I’ll take 20 more to go!!!!

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But you know I gotta save room for (at least) a couple more courses, right? These chili chicken wings are nice ‘n crispy, with a bit of a dry heat — I wouldn’t lick that chili paste off the plate, put it that way…

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But now it’s time for the main event… and it’s all it’s quacked up to be! This duck leg rendang is super-tender, meat just falls off the bone. Served in a tangy curry with literally two potatoes and a side of white rice. The duck is definitely the star of the show here, and it doesn’t disappoint!!!!

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But you KNOW we’ve still got room for dessert, and this time we’re taking a break from your regularly scheduled chocolatey programming with this coconut peanut crepe brulee. The crepe is nice ‘n thick, and you get a lotta nutty texture from the coconuts and the peanuts. But the caramel sauce on the plate is what makes it. Dude, this is like Pancakes Gone Wild in Flavourtown!!!!!

Say hello to my Brother from Another Mother!!!!

Now, I don’t always eat sushi, so when I do, you KNOW it’s gotta be funkalicious to the max. We’re hanging out at Akira Back, this funky joint in the Bisha Hotel, where they’re serving up these crazy sushi rolls with names like Hot Mess, Pop Rockin and Show Me the Roll. But when I saw this renegade of funk called Brother from Another Mother, you know I was buying a one-way ticket straight to Downtown Flavourtown, son!!!!!!!!

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Dude, this bad boy is so outta bounds, where do I even begin, bro? You’ve got two kinds of eel — unagi AND anago, with some crunchy cucumber, and then they put foie gras on top????? However you say shut the back door in Japanese, that door is definitely shutting!!!!

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But you know we’re just getting this party started, bro! Up next, we’ve got wagyu short rib, marinated for 48 hours, so it’s nice ‘n tender, heart in a blender, watch it spin round to a beautiful oblivion… This dish has got a rendez-vous with my piehole in like 2 seconds!!!

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We’re pairing that with a side of king crab fried rice. Now, I gotta say, the rice-to-beef ratio is pretty high — I was expecting a lot more than four little chunks of beef here. But you could pair this rice with a side of flip-flop, and it would still taste good!

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But of course, we’re still got room for dessert. And now it’s time to make like Roger Waters and have a cigar. This AB Cigar is sorta like a Drumstick without a cone — you’ve got miso caramel ice cream in a chocolate shell with all kinds of cocoa nubs for that extra little kick. You KNOW ‘sticks are unbelievable, bro!!!!!!!!

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These tiny octopus tacos are packing some really big flavours…

You know me, this is body by tacos, bro! You could put pretty much anything in a taco (except maybe chapulines) and I’d eat it — so when I heard that DaiLo, this funky Asian fusion joint in Little Italy, was serving up crispy octopus tacos, I was all over that like Ringo, bro!!!!

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Now, I don’t just have big hands — these tacos were pretty tiny! I ate ’em in two bites each…but they were some of the best four bites of food I’ve had this year. Not only is there crispy octopus in here, but it’s paired with braised pork belly, for a bit of sticky sweetness. Plus there’s a couple crunchy onions, a sambal donkey sauce, and then — get this — the shell is not a tortilla, it’s made of jicama! Let’s just say I liked this dish a lot better than the time I had jicama pretending to be a fish burger…

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But four bites and 19 bucks later, you KNOW I’m still hungry like the wolf, bro!!! So it’s time for this funky cross between French and Korean — Smoked Duck Bokkeum. Now, bokkeum is like a Korean stir-fry, usually made with pork, squid or even octopus (I had to look that up). But I don’t think it normally looks like this — I mean, the only rice on this worn-out plank of wood is sprinkled on top for decoration. What you’ve got here instead is duck breast and purple potato salad, along with a few pickled veggies:

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Still, I gotta say, that duck was super-tasty, melt-in-your-mouth tender, and the purple taters added a nice touch. Hey, it’s no Pekin Duck for one… but it’s gotta be the second-best duck dish I’ve had since the pandemic started!!!!

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Now, when I’m at a funky joint like this, I gotta go with the funkiest beer on tap — which would happen to be a Blood Orange Shapeshifter sour IPA from Halo Brewery. If not for the fizzy head, I wouldn’t even know this was a beer — it tastes just like an Italian soda or orange Jarritos. Which didn’t stop me from pounding 3-4 of these…

Duck confit dumplings & Wagyu beef chow mein @ Mother Tongue

Now, downtown Toronto has no shortage of funky fusion food — I mean, we just chowed down on some Chinese/Jamaican last week. And me, I’ll try anything at least once…especially if it includes Wagyu beef, bro! So we’re hanging out at Mother Tongue, this cozy spot in the Entertainment District, where they’re serving up Filipino, Thai and Chinese food with a twist. Dude, check out these duck dumplings!!!!

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You can definitely taste the richness of the duck confit in these bad boys, and I think there’s even a little foie gras. But you KNOW that’s just a light snack in Flavourtown, bro!!!!!

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Now it’s time for the main event: Torched Wagyu Chow Mein. They actually blowtorch the beef at your table, for the nice finishing touch. Noodles are slightly crispy, but mostly chewy, taking this dish to another level. And there’s a couple of veggies hiding underneath — you can’t see ’em, but they’re there…

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At this place, they’ve only got one thing for dessert, and that’s beignets. But these ain’t yer momma’s beignets, son! They’re topped with a “Sichuan sugar,” which is actually not sweet, but very salty and spicy. The dough is not bad though, but those spices just kill it for me, bro — this might be the first time in my life that I actually didn’t finish dessert, and it’s not cuz I was full or anything…

These deep-fried lamb balls are magically delicious!!!

Back at the beginning of First Lockdown, I ordered a whole Pekin duck from R&D…and ate it all myself. Dude, that duck was delicious! So now that they’re open for indoor dining again, we decided to stop by for another funky dish — how bout some deep-fried lamb balls, bro???

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Now, I know what you’re thinking…but we’re NOT nibbling on nutsacks here. These lamb croquettes are stuffed with braised lamb shank, potatoes and onions, served in a sea of lamb curry with some donkey sauce on the side. Dude, you KNOW I love lamb bro, and these tender little flavour nuggets just melt in my mouth!!!

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But now it’s time for the main event: chicken fried karaage style with a seaweed donkey sauce and a some lemon on the side. Man, this chicken was juicy, crispy…and coming in so hot I burned the back of my mouth, bro! And for 22 dollars, you get more than enough to share — unless you’re the type of person who eats a whole Pekin duck to themself. 😉

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And since the name of this blog isn’t Chicken, Croquettes & Coca-Cola, we’re washing this down with a Fountain Green IPA from Furnace Room Brewery in downtown Georgetown. First time I’ve ever heard of this beer, or even this brewery, but it checks all the boxes than an IPA should, so it’s all good in the Flavourhood!!!!

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