Spice Shack

Fried Fish

Naan Bread

Last night, I had a chance to try some tasty south asian food from Spice Shack, a family owned restaurant in Scarborough. The restaurant has a modern feel with ethnic touches evident in the décor and specializes in Halal food offerings . Owner Chef Lionel John eagerly gave us a nice run down of the menu and his own background as a trained Italian Cuisine chef. The direction of the food is more specifically Pakistani Fusion. He immediately brought out some Namak Paray chips with house-made hummus for us to snack on, which paired nicely with the hummus. We started our meal off with some Tandoori Chicken Wings ($5.99+tax) to share. Portions were quite generous with the wings (7-8 pieces), but the heat from the spices and flavors were what really made this dish special. Mango Lassi’s ($3.49+tax) go down nicely with the spicy foods!

Namak Paray Chips + Hummus

Tandoor Chicken Wings

Next up was the Fried Fish entrée ($8.99+tax), with marinated basa fish that has been battered, fried and served with Spice Shack fries spicy mayo! The fish was my favourite dish, and I was very pleasantly surprised as I don’t typically order seafood at south asian restaurants. The Butter Chicken ($8.99+tax) is one of the best sellers at Spice Shack, and it was one of the best butter chicken dishes I’ve had in recent memory. There was quite a bit of cream in it, making it a delicious yet deceptively heavy dish. With any saucy dishes, an order of Naan Bread is perfect to soak up the flavours, and we did this with the spicy Lamb Karahi ($8.99+tax) as well! We finished our meal with the Chicken Tikka ($8.99+tax)- chunks of dark meat chicken marinated in spices, served on a sizzling hot plate with lemon butter sauce! Yummy!

Chicken Tikka

Butter Chicken

I really enjoyed the variety of food at Spice Shack and they also offer some mean burgers and steaks. They have been open at their Scarborough location for almost 2 months and serve Brunch as well. I’m looking forward to new things Chef Lionel has planned, including American Style Smoked BBQ, using Halal meats! If you like spicy, Spice Shack lives up to its name.

Mango Lassi! Yogurt Based Drink

Chef Lionel!- The BOSS!

Spice Shack
308 Painted Post Drive 
Toronto, ON
M1G 2M3 
647-748-0786
www.spiceshack.ca

Longo's Corned Beef Sandwich

I’ve been lucky to have attended many Raptors games this year and deciding on what to eat before the game is always a struggle! Many are in a rush to make it for a 7 pm night game after work, but don’t want to get ripped off with Air Canada Centre food and beer pricing.  My friends, Hugh + Roger recommended the Signature Corned Beef sandwich from the Longo’s Supermarket at Maple Leaf Square.  For $5.99+tax, you get a huge sandwich, loaded with a very generous amount of hot freshly cut corned beef and your choice of mustard.  With tax, it comes out to less than $7, and it also comes with a big dill pickle + coleslaw!  You can also choose pastrami or turkey for the sandwich, but corned beef is always featured as a signature item and the meat was really juicy.  The Deli stops serving the sandwiches around 6:30-7 pm, so make sure you go early. This is a delicious pregame food option, close to ACC, that doesn't break your wallet.  It’s a nice surprise, especially when it costs more than $15 for 1 large beer at Leafs + Raptors games.   Definitely going to grab one of these sandwiches tonight before the Raptors take on James Harden, Dwight Howard, Jeremy Lin and the Houston Rockets tonight!

Longo's Supermarket at Maple Leaf Square

15 York Street

Toronto, ON, M5J 0A3 

(416) 366-1717

Nome Izakaya

izakaya… It’s been around 1 year since I last ate or drank at Nome Izakaya and it was definitely busier during a recent visit with some friends! People were waiting to be seated right at 6 pm when they open. It was also a tuesday, where they feature $1 oysters! These were malpeque oysters, which were fresh, light and sweet. They were all cleanly shucked with the meat completely separated from the shell and we ended up slurping down 3 dozens of them! We also ordered a few rounds of Sapporo beer, which was available on draft. Pints ($6.50+tax) and XL Mugs ($10.80+tax) also come with frozen foam on top that kind of looks like whip cream and keeps the beer extra cold. Nome Izakaya does a really good job of serving ice cold beer, with the chilled/frozen glasses used for their draft beer.
Also ordered a few more Pitchers of Sapporo ($18.80+tax) to keep the party going! The environment is quite noisy at Nome, but not as rowdy as Guu- noone will yell loud japanese greetings at you when you enter Nome. We shared a few other dishes including the Tuna Coin Roll ($16.50+tax)- a deep fried rice coin with spicy tuna and cherry tomato on top! The Japa-Burger was served as sliders with sliced ribeeye beef and some nice smokiness. We also ordered the Maguro Avocado tartare ($9.70+tax), which was a nice mix of tuna sashimi, avocado decorated to look like a cool looking dessert. We were also lucky enough to try the new Asian fusion Fish Taco with deepfried monkfish. The asian flavours with the edamame beans and seasoning really come through. Nome is a great izakaya/drinking option in North York! Gets busy for $1 oysters on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Nome Izakaya Japanese Restaurant
4848 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M2N 5N2
www.nomeizakaya.com
(647) 347-7937

Turducken!

turducken... What is a turducken? It's exactly as it sounds- a turkey stuffed with a duck and chicken! A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to try one of these beasts.  I was contacted by Echelon Foods to try a frozen store bought version of the turducken!  The one I got was 12 pounds and also had italian sausage stuffing- you could call it a TURDUCKENAGE! I was originally delayed in eating this because of the ice storm/ power outage in Toronto this year, but finally cooked it to share with some friends.  

I followed the instructions on the package, and defrosted it overnight in a bucket of water.  I've never made a turkey before myself, but these instructions were easy!  I then baked it in the oven for ~8 hours (took it out and basted it with some chicken stock a few times during the process).  It smelled great coming out of the oven and looked like a meat lovers dream.  The skin was nice and crispy, and when we cut it in half, you could see a bunch of layers of duck, chicken, sausage inside a deboned turkey!  You could taste the different meats and flavours with each bite.  I found the turkey a little drier compared to the other meats (the sausage was nice!), and the turducken goes quite well with gravy!  

This massive turducken was almost too much to handle.  There were 5 of us in total and 3 of us were passed out with food coma with 1/4 of the turducken remaining! This is a pretty cool meal that can be shared among many people or if you're up to the challenge, do it up big and tackle a whole turducken yourself!  I got mine from a Longo's supermarket in Toronto.  The frozen turduckens from Echelon Foods also comes with apple chicken stuffing, and also roast versions of the turducken, where the wings and drumsticks are removed.  The turducken we had said it was recommended for 12-16 people, so it's perfect for a big party!.... or a small 5 person meal if you're hungry like me and my friends!


Original Turducken with Italian Sausage Stuffing
http://www.echelonfoods.com/products-Original-Turducken.htm