belly.

Belly was undoubtedly my favourite restaurant we visited on our West Coast roadtrip. It may, in fact, be one of my favourite restaurants ever. 

swish by han.

Have you ever eaten somewhere so good that you want to hit the streets outside and usher passersby in because you can't stand to see complete strangers miss out that badly?

That was me this week. Straight up.

yamato sushi.

So I'm not writing about burgers, sauce or some other artery-clogging indulgence. How weird is this?

(OK, maybe a little sauce. What would a post really be without a mention of it?)

But, like, how beautiful is this sushi? Seriously, I might frame this photo on my wall. 

bin 4 burger lounge.

 

Now, you know I love me a good burger.

saigon night.

ohmygodthisislikemyfavouritemealever.

tulio ristorante.

Tulio Ristorante has been a Seattle family staple for Italian for years.

hernande'z cocina.

Burrito de Pollo with black beans, wild greens, seasoned rice, sour cream, salsa and pulled chicken at Hernande'z Cocina, Victoria, B.C.

azuma sushi.

Azuma has been a girls' lunch staple for years. In fact, whenever I'm back in my hometown Victoria, it seems my group of girlfriends and I always settle on it for our 'reunion meal.' And we did again last night. 

brasserie l'école.

I had an inkling Brasserie L'école would be good when I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while outside a bar at 2 am this past summer and all he would slur talk about was this restaurant. 

nadège.

How pretty are these?

enoteca sociale.

This past Wednesday, Lo, Gabbs and I had a hot date. 

With Lo's dad, Guy, that is. 

You see, he was visiting all the way from our hometown, Victoria, and we wanted to take him somewhere special for a meal (well really, it was him taking US out, but you catch my drift.) We'd heard great things about Enoteca Sociale, so we decided to head on down there for some Italian grub. 

the burger's priest.

Some days, all that will do is a burger. (Please disregard the fact that this post occurred only a mere 3 days ago. Told you I'm tormented.)

This past Saturday was one of those days. I'd had a light dinner of cheese and nibblies the night before, and proceeded to dance off those calories and then some at the concert I attended after said dinner. On top of that, I peered into a fridge the next morning filled with absolutely nothing that appealed to me. So I waited until 3 p.m. to eat my first meal of the day. Yep, it was a big, fat, greasy burger kind of day.

gilead café.

I've mentioned before that I don't like Sundays. But sometimes, I've discovered, with the right set of elements they can be turned around. This past Sunday was the kind of perfect, crisp, sunny fall day that I thought we'd completely skipped in Toronto this year. I was feeling far less groggy than usual. And we were going to Gilead Café for brunch.

fresh.

Fresh is an oldie, but a goodie (there we go, already breaking new years resolutions... quelle surprise!) Their Bloor Street location reminds me of the good old university days when my roommate and I would drag our hungover corpses in to order brunch and the "Liver Flush" juice... and then go out again that night and pillage our bodies with more booze. Sigh. To be young.

the county general.

 

One of my goals for the year - I start my "years" in September... who needs to be trying to embark on a new path on January 1st, a day when you're likely hungover as all hell? - was to try as many new restaurants as possible and avoid my usual trap of just re-visiting favourites because I know they're good (a seemingly easy mission, but I am a big-time creature of comfort.) When my friend Vanessa mentioned The County General, a new place that opened on Queen West serving up a cool twist on Southern food, I was excited to try it. (If you're sensing a theme here, yes, Vanessa's a very good restaurant-finder.) I looove me some fried chicken.

guu izakaya.

My friend Vanessa is pretty cool and has great taste in restaurants and just about everything else so when she recently blogged about her trip to Japanese tapas restaurant Guu Izakaya, I knew I had to copy her and go. Last week, I met with another food-fanatic friend I'd met in a faraway land this summer (and who just happened to be from Toronto!) who'd also been to Guu and gave it the thumbs-up. I was excited.

ozen.

My boyfriend recently moved to London, Ontario to start law school and one of the few things making me feel better about him being in a different city is the thought of all the new restaurants to discover. After doing some review-combing on (you guessed it!) good sushi restaurants, we discovered O"zen, an adorable little japanese-korean fusion restaurant on the main downtown strip last week.

The restaurant itself is cozy (read: packed every time we passed it) with cool decor and the menu had an impressive assortment of standard and specialty rolls, appies and korean dishes.

We weren't starving when we visited, so we each grabbed an avocado salad ($3.95) with "signature O"zen dressing" - a great sweet and tangy japanese-style vinaigrette - and a couple rolls. My spicy tuna with avocado ($5.50) - while sadly unphotographed - came with an amazing spicy mayo (yes, I always order extra on the side) that had a similar spicy-sweet essence to the salad dressing. As a proud spicy-mayo connoisseur, I have to say it was one of the best I've had (HUGE deal). 

Glav had the black dragon roll ($13), which was barbecue eel and avocado on top of a dynamite roll (not an eel fan, didn't even try it) and I ordered the rocket roll ($12, pictured above), a masterpiece of spicy salmon, cream cheese, avocado and tempura bits topped with torched salmon, sweet onion and drizzled in spicy sauce. While I'm not usually big on salmon sashimi, everything here worked perfectly and again, the sauce brought it all together in the most divine way (need to find out what's in that stuff!) The torched salmon on top gave it a slightly smokey hint and the sweet onions were sliced thinly enough to impart just a touch of their flavour. Mmm.

In summary, we may have hit the jackpot for our favourite London sushi spot on first try. In fact, I'm visiting this weekend to experience the debauchery that is Western Homecoming, and if I'm presentable enough at any point in the weekend to be eating at a restaurant, I just might hit up O"zen for round two - no promises though. 

O"zen

607 Richmond Street

London, Ontario

(519) 642-2558

www.ozenlondon.com

big fat burrito.

Sunday was a beautiful day, and by noon my best friend/housemate and I found ourselves wandering the ever-bumpin-on-weekends Kensington market. While the street performers and jewellery stalls were tempting, Big Fat Burrito was more so as we hadn't had time for breakfast before leaping out the door into the sunlight. Drawing consistent crowds since its 2005 opening, Big Fat Burrito is famous among Kensingtonians for dishing up big, fat, cheap and fresh burritos to the masses from their corner shack on Augusta. As a major 'rrito fan, it was shocking that in my years in the city I'd never been.

I immediately loved the price, and the fact that all the toppings on the right were included (hate places that try to charge you extra for the good stuff, like guac or sour cream - like it would be an option to have a burrito without guac or sour cream!) I chose the yam burrito, topped it up with everything and asked for both the burrito sauce -a garlicky mayo- and sour cream (too much sauce? I think not.)

 Gabbs' yam burrito was decidedly drier (read: she has more restraint) and prettier than mine, which was a downright sauce-y mess...

...But we do know that sometimes the messiest meals are the most delicious. The sweet yams contrasted wonderfully with the garlic mayo -much like a sauce you'd dip yam fries in- the rest of the veggies were fresh and crunchy and the size and poundage did not disappoint. When I go again, I'll up the spice factor, as I chose medium but could have definitely handled spicier. Nonetheless, I left the joint perfectly full and with a lot less spare change in my purse (yes, I was actually able to pay with spare change floating around in the bottom of my bag - the joy!) Next time you're in Kensington, grab a burrito at this place, if you haven't beat me to it - which you likely have.

mutsuki-an and my ninety-four-year-old nan.

Mutsuki-An is an adorable little sushi restaurant perfectly placed smack-dab in the middle of my 'hood that serves some of the freshest sushi I've tried on the island. While they don't get crazy with their rolls (and there's no tempura on the menu! my poor arteries!) the quality-for-price of their seafood is unmatched, as far as I'm concerned, I love the staff, and the experience feels very "authentic" to me, like sushi you'd actually find in Japan.

My nana is an adorable (and brave!) little 94-year-old who had never before tried sushi.

Let the precious photos begin... (hint: watch for a spicy california roll being cut with a knife and fork).

shizen sushi.

May as well get one thing straight right off the bat: I am a sushi FANATIC. There are few foods I could eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week - a girl needs a little variety in her life - but sushi is one of them. And yes, leftover rolls in the morning are edible and even quite enjoyable; try it. In the name of variety, though, I'm always looking for new variations on the typical spicy-tuna-and-dynamite offerings of your average sushi joint.


A friend introduced me to Shizen Sushi in downtown Victoria a few years ago. Hours before my first visit, I told my eyebrow waxer (sushi and waxing... what an obnoxiously girly post) that I was going and she tipped me off about the Highlander roll. "It's not on the menu, ask for it specifically and thank me later," was all she said. Obviously, I ordered it. And I've been thanking her almost monthly since.


Perfectly crispy tempura shrimp, avocado and spicy mayo draped with just-thin-enough slices of seared beef tataki and topped with a sweet and spicy kicker of teriyaki + tabasco (if only your typical teriyaki sauce was jacked up like this!) garlic and green onions. Flavor overload in the best way possible, and so freaking pretty to look at.


Other notable dishes: an interesting twist on your typical tempura veggie roll using asparagus (and at $3.95 a roll you can't go wrong) and another off-the-menu, "insider" favorite: a sushi pizza topped with a combination of tuna, spicy mayo and green onion. I've had sushi pizza before and hated it, usually due to the bland set-up of salmon or tuna sashimi on a bed of dry deep fried rice. Shizen's flavorful toppings and perfectly crispy base hit the spot.

Shizen Sushi
1706 Government Street
Victoria, B.C.
V8W 1Z5
(250) 381-8228
www.shizensushi.ca