Urraca Resto Lounge

Despite the fact that I live in Mississauga, everybody knows I practically live and breathe downtown the 18 hours I'm awake...especially when it comes to eating out. Having said that, I could not say no when Alex Gadoury, sous chef of Urraca Resto Lounge (@UrracaResto) in North York, emailed me and invited me to go try Urraca a month prior to its grand opening. In his email, Gadoury described Urraca as utilizing a fusion style of cuisine:

"We are a continental tapas style concept restaurant with heavy Korean influences. We want people to come relax after work, stop by and have a drink and order a small plate before they go home. The prices are very affordable so you have the option to try a variety of dishes. This gives more freshness and flexibility to the customer as well as the kitchen staff...

...We want to introduce Korean cuisine to the non-korean demographic even if the restaurant is situated in the middle of Korea Town. There aren't any competitive restaurants in the area other than Moxie's or Kelsey's that cater to the young demographic. There are restaurants that strictly cater to Koreans but we are trying to get away from strictly serving the Korean crowd. It is a gamble but one that we are willing to take to become pioneers in that aspect."

I was curious. I was intrigued. Bringing a friend with me, I made my way to Urraca a couple of weeks ago for dinner. We had the following dishes:

Complementary Wonton Chips & Onion Rings 

Rosewood Winery's All-Stars In The Vineyard

I had the pleasure of attending All-Stars In The Vineyard at Rosewood Estates Winery (@Rosewoodwine) this past Sunday, August 19. This unique winemaker's dinner featured Rosewood's top award winning wines (as well as their unreleased wines) with dishes specifically prepared by chefs from Ortolan (@0rt0lan), Torito Tapas Bar (@ToritoTapas), Nick & Nat's Uptown 21 (@NNUptown21), and Richmond Station (@richmondstn). Unlike your typical sit-down dinners, All-Stars In The Vineyard lets guests stroll, sip and savour food and wine pairings at the various stations within Rosewood's beautiful vineyard. After attending Rosewood's Bees, Mead & Cheese class last month at Le Dolci and subsequently falling in love with their honey and mead, I was really looking forward to tasting Rosewood's other wines (as well as all the chefs' creations) at this one-of-a-kind event.

Rosewood's picturesque vineyard

Guests were each given a map detailing the location of the four stations.

Chococrêpe Contest

Do you like crêpes? Are you ready to taste some of the most delicious savoury and sweet crêpes in Toronto? Here is your chance at chococrêpe!

The winner of this chococrêpe contest can bring along 3 friends, where the 4 of you can each enjoy a drink, a savoury crêpe, and a dessert crêpe...all for FREE! Thanks to chococrêpe! :D

HOW TO ENTER

1) You MUST follow me (@foodieyu) and chococrêpe (@chococrepeTO) on Twitter;

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown, nothing before or after it: 

I want to win a meal for four people @chococrepeTO! http://bit.ly/S1qWvb #chococrepefor4

*Limit one entry per person*

*Contest is tracked by the #chococrepefor4 hashtag stream*

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Friday, August 17 and ends on Friday, August 24 at 12PM.

The lucky winner will be chosen randomly from www.random.org. I will announce the winner on Monday, August 27.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^

Ride and Go Feast

On Sunday, July 29th, I joined a group of 20 or so foodies for Ride and Go Feast's (Twitter: @RideAndGoFeast, Facebook: Ride and Go Feast) very first bus tour. Hosted by The Culinary Adventure Company (@culinaryadvco) and View the Vibe (@viewthevibe), the roaming mystery bus tour for food lovers ("mystery" in that the day's theme and itinerary are both kept secret) takes place on the last Sunday of every month with a different theme each time. The tour makes various stops at restaurants around town, introducing you to some of Toronto's hottest chefs and the best places to dine as you enjoy dishes, cocktails and wines that have been specifically prepared for the tour. With so many great places to go and something new always popping up in Toronto, Ride and Go Feast helps guests discover all the amazing spots that our city has to offer. The most amazing part of Ride and Go Feast is that all proceeds from the tour go to the Daily Bread Food Bank (@DailyBreadTO)! If this is not the ultimate way to give back to the community while having fun, meeting new friends, eating delicious food, the whole time being chauffeured around town in a private bus, I honestly don't know what is.

The theme for Ride and Go Feast's first ever tour was "Hogtown". We started off at the first location for cocktails and hors d'oeurvers, then moved to the second spot for appetizers, third location for main course with the final stop for dessert. Check out View the Vibe's vlog to get an inside look of our adventure!


Ride and Go Feast: Hogtown Adventure from View the Vibe on Vimeo.

FIRST STOP: Rooftop patio of the Energy Xchange 

chococrêpe

Generally speaking, most people associate "crêpe" with "dessert". Fair, since there are numerous dessert spots that offer sweet crêpes on their menus alongside cakes, ice creams, waffles, etc.. However, the chances of one finding a savoury crêpe as an entrée at a restaurant is rather slim. Well, in comes chococrêpe (Twitter: @ChococrepeTO, Facebook: Choco Crepe), a creperie located on Queen West (620 Queen St. W). Owners Dewey Troung and wife Kim of chococrêpe are determined to change the popular perception of "crêpe = dessert" by concentrating on not just dessert crêpes but also on a variety of delicious savoury crêpes for lunch and dinner. The couple's inspiration for savoury crêpes came from vacationing in Montreal and Europe where they often indulged in crêpes as their main course.

As I mentioned previously, there are two types of crêpes at chococrêpe: 1) Savoury: currently with 12 savoury crêpes on their menu, chococrêpe uses buckwheat flour for these (which has a lighter texture and is slightly sweeter than their normal crepe batter) and 2) Sweet: 12 sweet crêpes made with regular crêpe batter (you can add a scoop of gelato or sorbet to any sweet crêpe).

My friend Audrey of Tasty Tours (@tasty_tours) and I had quite a crêpe tasting on our visit; we shared 3 savoury crêpes, a salad, and 2 sweet crêpes.

The Winner of Samba Days eGift Card Giveaway is...

@DarrinChung

Congratulations Darrin! =D Please email me at foodjunkiechronicles@gmail.com with your first name, last name, phone number, email and mailing address! I hope you will enjoy your Samba Days $50 eGift card!

I also want to say a big THANKS to the 18 contestants who participated in this giveaway! 

Here's a snapshot of the Excel spreadsheet where I tracked the #SambaDaysContest stream from day one of the contest. The tracking was done using chronological order, as in, #1 was the first person who entered right the contest. To enter, the person has to tweet "I want to win a $50 @SambaDays eGift Card! http://bit.ly/QAh5M6 #SambaDaysContest". Once the contest was over and everybody's entries were accounted for in my spreadsheet, I went to check if they actually followed me on Twitter.

After weeding out the people that did not follow me, I was left with 17 contestants. I went to "True Random Number Generator" from random.org to randomly pick a winner for me from 1 to 17.

A Sneak Preview of Ten Restaurant's New Menu

Guinea pigs! That's what my friends Alysia (@blarkness), Mike (@openmiq) and I turned into a couple of weekends ago at Ten Restaurant & Wine Bar (@tenrestaurant) where we had the opportunity to take a sneak peek (well not just a peek, we ate too :D) of chef Nic Prong's (@NicCanCook) new menu. 

Ten Restaurant's updated menu, with its official launch being this weekend (or tomorrow) is almost a complete overhaul; close to 80% of the items have been entirely replaced with what chef Prong refers to as "modern comfort" dishes. No doubt a very gutsy move on their part, this whole menu rebuild, but since the three of us had nothing but praises with our preview tasting that night, I would say it is a move in the right direction. It was hands down the best meal I've had at Ten Restaurant yet!

Seated at Ten Restaurant's patio, the three of us had refreshing summer drinks along with a tasting menu prepared especially for us. Good times!!!

Raspberry & Mango Mojito

Parmesan Dusted Fries - Truffle oil, black garlic mayo

Bay of Fundy Lobster Rolls - Steamed & grilled pullman rolls (produced daily in limited quantities) 

Lamesa Filipino Kitchen

I've never had Filipino food before my dinner at Lamesa Filipino Kitchen (Twitter: @LamesaTO, Facebook: Lamesa). I've always been interested in trying it but whenever I ask my Filipino friends (the best source!) where I should go for Filipino food in Toronto, 95% of them will say "nowhere" with the rest of the 5% "at my Mom's / Grandparent's / Aunt's house". Great! Awesome! That really helps! Evidently, the best source quickly became the most useless source to me when it came down to finding Filipino food in the city. I soon gave up asking and Filipino cuisine remained a mystery.

Based on those replies alone, it made me wonder why such a big city like Toronto lacked a Filipino restaurant that my Filipino friends can recommend to me. I mean, if someone asked me what's a good place for Chinese food, I could easily name a few. Also, with so many Asian restaurants and the different variety available for each type (i.e. izakaya / teppanyaki / sushi / sashimi for Japanese, Cantonese / Shanghainese / dim sum for Chinese, BBQ / stews for Korean, etc) in downtown Toronto, it is even more puzzling why Filipino food is not more prominent, especially in a city with over 200,000 Filipinos.  Anyway, curiosity aside, when Lamesa opened at Queen and Bathurst in May, that all changed. As in, when I asked my Filipino friends about Lamesa and whether or not they have been, they all told me yes, they have been to Lamesa, it is awesome and I need to check it out. Whoaaa :)

My friend Cindy and I went to Lamesa last week for their $35 five course tasting menu (you can order a la carte as well but Lamesa strongly recommends the tasting). 

Very clean lines with a touch of contemporary at Lamesa. The wall sconces and ceiling fans add a Spanish feel to the space.

Me.

Lobstah Palooza 2012

Rock Lobster Food Co (Twitter: @RockLobsterFood, Facebook: Rock Lobster Food Co) & 99 Sudbury (@99Sudbury) presents:

☆ LOBSTAH PALOOZA ☆

Lobstah Palooza (#LobstahPalooza), hosted by Rock Lobster's Matt Dean Pettit and Food Network Star Kevin Brauch (@drinkingrobot) is going to take place on Sunday, August 19, from 1 - 6pm at 99 Sudbury (known for having one of Toronto's best patios!) For $50 a ticket (or $45 when you use promo code "foodieyu") guests attending Lobstah Palooza will each get a 1.5 lb market lobster with summer side dishes, corn on the cob, potato salad and a fresh lobster salad!

If you are craving Rock Lobster's famous lobster rolls, don’t worry, they will have a lobster shack set up there too (sold separately) 

Also included in your ticket price is a drink passport which includes THREE sample drink tickets redeemable from anyone of the following local craft beer, wine and spirit partners:

Tromba Tequila + Sailor Jerry Rum + Kensington Ale Beer + Steam Whistle + Passion Pop Sparkling Wine + Hob Nob Chardonnay + Gibson's Rye & More

 There will be live bands playing all day on the 99 Sudbury patio while you party and win great prizes!

 ☆ LOBSTAH PALOOZA ☆

=

Lobster + Craft beer + Wine + Cocktails + Patio + Live Music + Prizes!

It's all about lobsters nowadays so don't miss out on this classic East coast party right here in Toronto! And make sure you use promo code "foodieyu" to save $5! 

☆ BUY YOUR TICKET NOW! ☆

Samba Days eGift Card Giveaway - CLOSED

I'm giving away a Samba Days $50 eGift card!

Samba Days (Twitter: @SambaDays, Facebook: Samba Days) is a "gift box experience" with over 500 experiences available across Canada. Samba Days offers lifestyle-themed gift boxes with dozen of experiences to choose from such as white water rafting, learning how to salsa, spa getaways, wine tours, and even driving an exotic sports car - the recipient gets to choose their own experience. Watch the video below to find out more about Samba Days.

One lucky winner of this contest will receive $50 credit in their Samba Days online account. If you are a foodie like me, you can use your $50 to indulge in one of Samba Day's Shared Plates Experiences. Each Shared Plates Experience is worth exactly $49 (perfect!) where you and a guest can enjoy appetizers, tapas, desserts or drinks at one of the restaurants below (there are are also restaurants in Western Canada and Quebec and East)

OR

You can use your $50 credit towards any other gift experience box that Samba Days offers online. You can basically use your $50 credit any way you want!!!

HOW TO ENTER

1) You MUST follow me (@foodieyu) on Twitter;

AND

2) Tweet the following sentence, exactly as shown, nothing before or after it: 

I want to win a $50 @SambaDays eGift Card! http://bit.ly/QAh5M6 #SambaDaysContest

*Limit one entry per person*

CONTEST DURATION

Contest starts on Thursday, August 2 and ends on Thursday, August 9 at 12PM.

The lucky winner will be chosen randomly from www.random.org. I will announce the winner on Friday, August 10.

GOOD LUCK!!! ^_^

P.S: Samba Days is currently having their own Facebook contest! They have partnered up with SCENE where THREE lucky SCENE members will become a "Samba Days Experience Tester" (which means you will get to enjoy three Samba Days Experience). Click here for more details on how to enter!