Dining Out: Marinated Raw Shrimp and Crab, Boiled Pork Belly, Stir-Fried Kimchi and Pork with Tofu, and Fish Cake Soup at Anju Korean Kitchen

As I was casually strolling through Instagram, I came by a reel of the raw marinated seafood at the newly-opened Anju Korean Kitchen and sent it to my friend Minji, who was so excited about it that she immediately suggested it for our reunion lunch with Daniel and Samuel. (I say "suggest," but there really was no choice in this. We were gonna eat some goddamn raw marinated seafood and no one was going to stop us.)

Marinated raw shrimp (spicy + soy)

Marinated raw crab (spicy + soy)

Boiled pork belly with green onion kimchi

Stir-fried kimchi and pork with tofu

Fish cake soup

Entirely worth visiting for the seafood alone. There are tons of Korean restaurants in the Toronto area, but very, very few of them offer marinated raw seafood, and Anju's is excellent. (Minji, a seafood-obsessed Korean who hasn't been able to eat raw meat or seafood in nearly a year because she was pregnant, was ecstatically satisfied.) Basically, we've already decided to come back here ASAP. But if the line-up out the door is any indication, I suspect that the wait times for a table will only get longer after their grand opening...

Anju Korean Kitchen

7333 Woodbine Ave., Unit 4

Markham, ON L3R 1C4

(905) 205-1547

Dining Out: A Belated Birthday All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Feast at Ichiban

When my friend Iris asked where I'd want to go for a belated birthday dinner, I was craving Japanese food but also just wanted to eat a lot, so what better place than Ichiban, my go-to AYCE Japanese restaurant?

Assorted sashimi: Salmon, surf clams, sweet shrimp, scallops, and white tuna

Beef tataki

Smoked duck and wagyu aburi sushi

Truffle wasabi tuna roll with jalapeño

Assorted aburi sushi: White tuna, snapper, shrimp, salmon, eel, and wagyu

Japanese-style cubed beef with garlic

Deep-fried scallops

Grilled jumbo shrimp skewer

Cream puffs

Deep-fried coconut custard

There was also steamed shrimp dumplings, pork dumplings, Japanese steamed egg, enoki beef rolls, baked mussels with uni sauce, deep-fried calamari, deep-fried tofu, and a plethora of tempura. Unfortunately, we were too full to even touch the Asian stir-fried and noodle and rice sections, but you know, I think we did pretty well overall. GLUTTONOUS BIRTHDAY DINNER, SUCCESS!

Ichiban Asian All You Can Eat

4261 Highway 7, Unit C-8

Markham, ON L3R 9W6

(905) 305-8825

Dining Out: A Gourmet Cantonese Birthday Dinner at Lobster Port

I had a great birthday. I did have to go to work, but my co-worker bought me lunch (I chose Tamago Jirou because I was in a Japanese egg sandwich kind of mood), I left at 4:00PM to get a glorious massage at Lumi Spa, and then had a delectable Chinese feast with Minji, Daniel, Samuel, and Carmen at Lobster Port:

Soy sauce free range chicken

Stir-fried lobster in Hong Kong style

Stir-fried AAA beef tenderloin with garlic, snow peas, yellow zucchini, and mushrooms

Snow pea leaves in broth with goji berries

Lobster tomalley and seafood fried rice

And after all that deliciousness, we decided to exercise our mental skills at Omventure, where we managed to complete the Dark Altar escape room with 5 minutes to spare and realized just how stellar our teamwork is. (Also, I haven't done an escape room in over a decade, and they have gotten super immersive and high tech. We're already planning our next outing.) A great evening with some of my favourite people! 

Lobster Port

7501 Woodbine Ave.

Markham, ON L3R 2W1

(905) 597-8508

Dining Out: Early Birthday Dinner Sushi Gozen at Zen Japanese Restaurant

My friend Ronsee took me out for an early birthday dinner at Zen, where we indulged in their seasonal multi-course menu, the Dinner Sushi Gozen:

Taro rice puff with chicken, snap pea, carrot, and maitake mushroom

Chawanmushi with shrimp, chicken, mushroom, and ikura

Maguro (bluefin tuna), madai (sea bream), ocean trout, and hotate (scallop) nigiri

Shrimp and vegetable tempura

Anago (conger eel) tempura

Otoro (fatty tuna), uni and ikura (sea urchin and salmon roe), kampachi (amberjack), and anago nigiri

Toro temaki (tuna hand roll)

Soy milk ice cream with mochi, anko, amd kuromitsu

Birthday dessert: Japanese citrus and strawberry sorbets

Maybe it's because it's been a while since I've had sushi, but my god, this dinner was phenomenal. Gorgeous, fresh, succulent pieces of fish, beautifully assembled and presented. Crispy, golden, perfectly battered tempura. A light, sweet, and balanced dessert to finish. They even presented me with an extra dessert for my birthday, two deliciously fruity, refreshing sorbets that I wish I could buy in pints to eat at home. What a spectacular experience. And, dare I say, the sushi here was better than any I had in Japan...

Zen Japanese Restaurant

7634 Woodbine Ave.

Markham, ON L3R 2N2

(905) 604-7211

Dining Out: An Early Birthday Dinner at NextDoor Restaurant

My mom took me out for an early birthday dinner at NextDoor, and I gotta say, it's become our go-to special occasion restaurant for a reason. We've never had a dish here that was short of incredible. Our choices this evening:

Pork Sisig Bombs: Garlic rice, crispy pork filling, salmon caviar, and fried garlic in marinated bean curd pockets

Chopped Salad: Grilled chicken satay, lettuce, purple cabbage, arrots, red onions, fried shallots, crushed cashews, and fried wonton chips with soy peanut dressing

To start, the pork sisig bombs and the chopped salad. The pork sisig bombs were truly excellent — I've never had sisig before, and I don't know who's genius idea it was to stuff it inside delightfully marinated bean curd pockets, but these are INSPIRED. (I really need to try more Filipino food.) The chopped salad, which is definitely hefty enough to be a main course, was perfectly balanced in flavours and has so many amazing crunchy textures from the cabbage, cashews, and fried wonton chips that make it incredibly addictive. 

Singaporean Chili Crab: Tempura soft shell crab, P.E.I. mussels, tiger shrimp, pickled chilis, and crushed cashews with fried baos

Steak Diane: 8 oz. USDA prime top sirloin, roasted fingerling potatoes, and roasted portobello mushrooms topped with miso mushroom sauce and beer-battered onion rings

For our mains, we got the Singaporean chili crab and the Steak Diane. The chili crab — which comes with a plethora of delicious seafood — is flavour-packed and has just the right amount of savoury spice. It's the kind of spicy that makes your mouth tingle but doesn't take away from any of the other flavours. (Though, fair warning, this one might be too much if you can't handle spice in general.) I think my only critique would have been to replace the fried baos with rice  — the buns were great, but I think rice would've soaked up the sauce really nicely. Now, maybe it's because I'm just a huge fan of steak with mushrooms, but I thought the Steak Diane was utter perfection. The miso mushroom sauce was impeccable and not a drop could be wasted so we soaked up every last bit of it with the potatoes and onion rings. 

Piña Colada Tres Leches: Triple layer vanilla sponge cake, whipped cream, and cinnamon crumble served with cinnamon and rum infused pineapple and coconut ice cream

Finally, I picked the piña colada tres leches for dessert, which sounded the most unique (the other choices were strawberry shortcake, Mexican chocolate cake, and mango gelato). What I loved was that the combination of flavours — vanilla, cinnamon, pineapple, and coconut — was simultaneously tropical and comforting at the same time. And the texture of the cake was light and airy so it didn't feel heavy after such a huge meal (we did have to take half of the chili crab home — we can eat a lot but even this was too much for us). A lovely ending to an epic feast. 

I gotta say, birthday week is off to a great start!

NextDoor Restaurant

Unionville Planing Mill

139 Main St. Unionville

Markham, ON L3R 2G6

(905) 604-6983

Dining Out: Thanksgiving Dinner at The Moon 花好月圓

As per usual, my family made plans to go out to eat for Thanksgiving. (We don't cook at home for holidays. Ever.) Except my really traditional Chinese father picked the restaurant, so we ended up going to The Moon:

Peking duck
Duck meat
Baby bok choy in pumpkin sauce
Stir-fried ginger scallion lobster
Steamed bass with scallions in soy sauce

That means Peking duck instead of turkey. Crab meat and fish maw soup instead of gravy. Stir-fried ginger scallion lobster instead of stuffing. Baby bok choy in pumpkin sauce instead of roasted Brussels sprouts. Steamed bass with scallions in soy sauce instead of mashed potatoes. Taro sago dessert soup, mango pudding, and almond cookies instead of pumpkin pie. And I can't even be mad about it. Because even though The Moon replaced Destiny — which was one of my fave dim sum spots (and before that, one of the OG bubble tea hangouts, pre-Chatime days) — the food was excellent, the service was great, and the new interior looks gorgeous. Plus, they have a few cash-only set dinners that are incredible value. So no stuffing or mashed potatoes tonight, but I had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner, nonetheless.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!

The Moon 花好月圓

165 York Blvd.

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4A7

(905) 889-7899

Dining Out: Shrimp Po' Boy with Cajun Fries, Spicy Cajun Snow Crab Legs Boil, and Good Catch Blend Mussels Boil at Good Catch Bar & Cafe

Minji was craving seafood boil after work so we decided to go to Good Catch for dinner:

Shrimp Po' Boy with Cajun fries

Spicy Cajun snow crab legs with corn

Good Catch blend mussels with sausage

Good Catch was bought out by the group behind Congee Queen several years ago so they've shifted their focus to their HK cafe side, but they do still offer their boil house menu on their "bar" side. My go-to used to be the lobster roll but as it's $38 now (it was $25 before the pandemic — INFLATION IS REAL, Y'ALL), I decided to go with the shrimp po' boy instead. It was alright — tasty, but way too small for the price and way too much "house tartar" (read: mayo with a sprinkling of paprika) on top of the sandwich — but not good enough for me to re-order. The boils and the Cajun fries are definitely the most reliable and consistent items here. But for the price, Good Catch just isn't as good as The Captain's Boil for seafood anymore (they were the OG boil house, anyway), so I guess I'll only come here for the HK cafe now.

Good Catch Bar & Cafe

179 Enterprise Blvd., Unit 109

Markham, ON L6G 0A2

(905) 940-3232

Dining Out: Grilled Calamari, Fritto Misto, Penne Ricce with Beef Tenderloin, and Tiramisu at Luna Ristorante

I haven't seen my friend Chelsea and her family in ages so they invited me out for dinner at Luna Ristorante, where we had the most incredible Italian meal:

Grilled calamari with arugula, cherry tomatoes, and lemon vinaigrette
Fritto misto with lemon and aioli
Pasta special: Penne ricce with beef tenderloin, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes in a peppercorn cream sauce
Tiramisu

Okay, every dish was truly delicious this evening, but the pasta special was SPECTACULAR. It is one of the most unique pasta dishes I've ever had, and each component worked so perfectly together that I genuinely wonder why they haven't added it to their permanent menu. It's richer than a tomato sauce-based pasta, but somehow lighter than a typical cream pasta — I could easily have eaten two portions of this. To my tastebuds, this pasta was flawless. 

Luna is Il Postino's sister restaurant, so it's no wonder why their food is so goddamn delicious (and their menus are very similar as well), but one huge difference I found here is the service. Il Postino is friendly and professional, but at Luna, the servers (including the owners themselves) treat you like family. They go above and beyond to make sure your experience is simultaneously comfortable and impeccable. I cannot rave about this place enough. It's quite far from home (about 30 minutes by highway) but TOTALLY WORTH THE DRIVE.

Luna Ristorante

Nature's Emporium Plaza

16655 Yonge St., Unit 9-10

Newmarket, ON L3X 1V6

(905) 710-7833

Osaka 2024 Travel Log: Day 4 — Rolled Unagi Omelette and Unadon at Hozenji Yamakazu

My mom wanted to get unadon for dinner so I did some researching and took us to Hozenji Yamakazu, a restaurant that specializes in unagi dishes:

Rolled unagi omelette

Unadon

This was definitely, without a doubt, hands down, the best unadon I've ever had in my life. They make the most tender, almost melt-in-your-mouth, flavourful unagi without being overly saucy or sticky sweet. It was pretty pricey — altogether, it was about $35 CAD per person — and there was about an hour wait to get a table, but it so worth it. 10/10, highly recommend, would come back in a heartbeat.

Hozenji Yamakazu

1 Chome-1-16

Namba, Chuo Ward

Osaka, Japan 〒542-0076

+81-06-6211-5800

Dining Out: Cured Hamachi, Mushroom Tartine, Smoked Salmon Tartine, The OG Loco Moco, Hokkaido Scallop Risotto, Coffee Lava Cake, and Ube Custard Cake at Glass Kitchen

Went to check out the newly-opened Glass Kitchen with my mom for some surprisingly unique, truly delectable fusion eats:

Cured hamachi with jalapeños
Mushroom tartine with housemade foccacia
Smoked salmon tartine with housemade foccacia
Hokkaido scallop risotto with butternut squash
Crazy Wavy Gravy: The OG loco moco
Coffee lava cake with salted caramel ice cream
Ube custard cake with fresh berries

Okay, so like everyone else, I found out about this restaurant on IG, but it doesn't mean it doesn't deserve the hype. Presentation, textures, and flavour combinations are excellent; service and ambience are lovely. By far the fanciest restaurant at Commerce Gate. I definitely want to re-visit for dinner, maybe when the hype dies down to see if their quality remains the same. In the meantime, the goal is to make it there for brunch. The Eggs Bennies look goddamn incredible.

Glass Kitchen

Commerce Gate

505 Highway 7, Unit 98-99

Thornhill, ON L3T 7V6

(365) 556-0257