Alice's Meet and Eats: Toronto

In $$, 4.5★

Bazara Asian Cuisine, Little Italy/Portugal Village

2Comments

, by Alice Phan

In $$, 3★

Bellwoods Brewery, Little Italy/Portugal Village

1Comments

, by Alice Phan

In $, 3.5★

Northern Dumpling Kitchen, Richmond Hill

3Comments

, by Alice Phan

In Bulk Eats, Chinese

Bulk Eats: Pacific Mall, Markham

PACIFIC MALL

4300 Steeles Ave East

Markham ON

L3R 0Y5 Canada

I have faint memories of this place. Five years ago, lurking through the Pacific Mall maze, white, white, white, everywhere! I certainly would need a compass (a Minecraft one, to be specific) to get to a particular shop around here. The shopping level is laid out with blocks of shops, with the pathways labeled by numbers. Since I've arrived, I've wanted to go to Pacific Mall for the longest time. I wanted to visit the Gapachon machine shop in particular, but it was brought to my disappointment that that place didn't exist anymore. That place was heaven on earth.

Well, to my discovery during my Sunday Arvo visit, Pacific Mall is also filled with a hecka' lot of other stores. Seriously. A lot of (just to name a few...) electronic, nails, phone cases, Chinese medicine, Asian lollies, collectible and ...even an over 18 store! They had a lot of various goods, with shop names which did not match at all.

Taking one escalator up will lead you to the Pacific Mall food court! No memory whatsoever of this place, I didn't even know that there was a second floor! But I was excited. Imagining all of the fish balls one could ever devour.

We walked past so many sweet stores. Definitely eating that later. Oh. That to. Oh boy, so many goodies. There were also so many of the same things from various stores. It was difficult to crack down, free-balling it and choosing which ever was slightly more appealing.

1. Sun's Kitchen

I didn't grab as many pictures of this place as I wanted to. These were hand-made, hand-pulled noodles! I was just so captivated by the menu prices. The fella creating the noodles was doing it all like a pro, no pictures, but there is some good footage over here.

The whole menu was the hand-made noodles with other goodies. There were:

Beef, Spareribs, Breaded Pork Chops, BBQ Pork, BBQ Duck, Shredded Chicken, Dumpling, Wonton, Seafood, Pork w/ Preserved Veggies, Tomato & Egg, Vegetable, Hot & Sour, Spicy Sauce, Crushed Chili & Vinegar, Chicken & Sesame Sauce, Spicy Pork and Cold Noodles!

I was trying to decide between the Pork & Preserved Veggies, BBQ Duck and the Wonton Noodle Soup. They also had many appetizers. But if this place is known for it's hand-pulled noodles, I have to try them!

Each dish came with a few leaves of Bok Choy, a big helping of noodles and, a styrofoam cup of house-made soybean milk! This is too awesome!

A) Wonton Noodle Soup ($5.89)

Oh, the glorious smell of the chicken broth. It might not seem in the picture, but there was an incredible helping of noodles! So, so much! I think it'd be easy to split between two people and go ahead and order more menu items to snack on :p.

B) Spareribs Noodle Soup ($5.75)

The sauces of the spareribs have of course been mixed into the soup, the meat pieces were absolute melt-in-your-mouth, they were cooked perfectly with not much effort to bite into the cartilage pieces.

The noodles were fantastic! What I found most entertaining was examining each strand of noodles, how some were thick and somewhere thin - the texture and chewy, perfect bite of each one. There is definitely a huge difference between hand-pulled noodles and the usual you're use to.

The Wonton pieces were small but full of flavour, I just hoped for more surprises biting into this, maybe an onion piece? perhaps? I enjoyed you nonetheless.

The gorgeous Chili Satay sauce on side!

2Comments

, by Alice Phan

In $$, 3★

Sushi Xtra, Entertainment District

2Comments

, by Alice Phan

In $, 3.5★

Davids Tea, Entertainment District

DAVIDS TEA

336 Queen St West

Toronto Ontario

M5V 2A2 Canada

Cafe - Tea shop - $3/cuppa

website

This David guy, he must get all of the ladies.

I've walked past this place times a many. A place to stock up on tea I've always thought of it, a store much like T2 in Sydney (Australia). But having a seat in this cafe two arvos ago has changed my mind completely.

It was sprinkling as we were rushing towards the door. Oh! A patio. Canadians sure do love their patios. The furnishing of the patio reminded me much of the attire of Alice in Wonderland with the colours, along with the two slightly oversized wooden chairs. I would love to chill here one day, when the weather isn't absurd!

Upon our steps towards the counter, we were immediately presented with sampler paper cups of a tea whose name slips my mind. It was very fragrant and warming. I looked to the shelves behind the chattering staff members and could only very slightly grasp of their words, nodding and amazed by the incredible amount of teas they had stocked along the walls. A few of their 'fall' teas were then pushed towards us for a sniff. They each had an amazing fragrant, well suited to their name, Mango Lassi, Pumpkin Pie, Cocoberry, Mom's Apple Pie, Sugar and Spice and Pistachio Cream my mind (or nose) was particularly fond of Cocoberry and Mango Lassi (Side note: I tried my first Mango Lassi from Harbourfront Centre the other day! Was - only $2 - and DELICIOUS).

After 10 minutes or so of chilling and waiting for our drinks, we were hollered at (hola at cho gurl) and went up to the counter to pay. I was ready to take out a fiver and unzipped my change purse "Gold Rush, $3 please.", dropping the tooney and looney into the cashier's hand, I felt like I was ripping her off. I walked back to my seat with my warm cup of tea in my right hand and sat down to finish being amazed at the low price.

I opened it up, oh boy. The heavenly scent of our teas crawled up out of the spout and gave us a nice slap in the face. This is fantastic. A cup of this for $3? And hold up, that's with whatever add-ons you please! Screw Tim Hortons (not that I've ever tried their teas... or have any go-to place for tea).