A meatless variation with an over-easy egg, satiny avocado, sweet tomato and salty queso fresco stacked on a ­buttery egg bun. $10. Delux

Succulent porchetta, crunchy pork cracklings, smoked Gouda, a fried egg and grainy mustard on a light Caldense bun. $6.45. Porchetta and Co.

A crisp toasted English muffin with chive-spiked scrambled eggs, gooey sharp cheddar and sweet onion jam so good it should be sold by the jar. $8.The Gabardine

And my personal favourite:

A Thuet croissant cradles two perfectly poached free-range eggs, smoked coho salmon and silky Béarnaise flecked with chervil, tarragon and dill. $14.50. Mildred’s Temple Kitchen

courtesy of: torontolife.com

courtesy of sushi couture on bloor street (and jeff).

p.s. this place is by far the best one on the bloor street sushi strip…a notch above the rest

nom.

in general, i’m not a fan of chain restaurants…there are too many delicious options in this city to settle on some mediocre, cookie-cutter cuisine. 

however, there is an exception.

i adore P.F. Chang’s. i just do. crunchy, sweet, salty, coated chicken and shrimp. tasty noooooooodles and veggies and flavourful fried rices. but nothing…and i mean nothing…beats their infamous lettuce wraps. i’ve tried countless times to replicate it, researching copycat recipes, to no avail. nothing even comes close. 

when i was there a few weeks ago, i grilled our waiter on the ingredients in the lettuce wraps and he told me that 90% of their customers order them. he then started rattling off ingredients, but the only thing i remember is “vegetarian oyster sauce”, which i’ve never seen in any copy cat recipe.

anyways toronto, apparently the tasty, americanized chinese food chain is heading our way sometime later in 2012. 

click here for a very popular lettuce wrap recipe (although it won’t taste AS good as the real thing).

LaSpadas. Fort Lauderdale Florida.

you think you’ve had great sandwiches before, but nothing compares to this. it’s the king of all sandwiches. it’s the jedi grand master of the hoagie galaxy. it’s freaking phenomenal and i’m not exaggerating even a little.

the secret behind the magic is a combination of super fresh ingredients (all meats and cheeses are sliced before your eyes as you order them), delicious toppings (sweet peppers, hot peppers, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomato, oregano, oil and vinegar), the “tuck” technique (all hoagies are topped with an extra layer of meat or cheese that’s tucked in to keep the whole puppy together), and the efficient assembly line sandwich production:

this place has been around forever and there are now 4 or 5 different locations around the fort lauderdale area, but my go-to spot is the lauderdale-by-the-sea location on sea grape. don’t let the crazy, out the door lineups deter you…it moves fast. also, unless you’re a total beast, just order a small (8 in) because it’ll guaranteed be enough to fill you up. over the years, i’ve never been able to score the crab meat hoagie because they would always run out early in the day, but this time i got it (ok, fine….i got it twice). check out this beauty:

oh, and the prices are unbeatable for what you’re getting. every single time i’ve visited this place over the past 10-15 years, i wonder how the heck i can franchise it and bring it toronto. and it just can’t be done. a stand alone florida tradition.

click here for more info and be sure to stop in if you’re ever in the area!

ingredients:

directions:

cobb salad rules and it’s totally worth all the prep that goes into it. check out the recipe from smitten kitchen here.

wow! this is kind of genius. why have i never heard of this before? why i have i never eaten this before?

INGREDIENTS

½ loaf French bread
1 clove garlic
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 tomatoes, medium chopped
2 avocados, medium chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped onion
¼ cup chopped cilantro
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400ºF.

Slice the French bread on the diagonal into ½” rounds and place on a baking sheet.

Toast the sliced bread in the oven for 3 minutes, then flip each piece over and toast an additional 3 minutes.

Remove the toasted bread from the oven and immediately rub with the clove of garlic (it works best to first cut a small tip off the garlic clove so that the oils will seep out).

Brush the tops of the garlic-rubbed toasts with olive oil and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the chopped tomatoes, avocado, onion, cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix together gently making sure the avocado is well coated in the lime juice.

Spoon a portion of the mixture onto each of the garlic toasts and serve.

source: www.justataste.com

i had the BEST salad dressing this weekend. so good in fact, that i returned to same restaurant to get take out TWICE just to have it again.

now i’m going to admit something a bit shameful….

i didn’t use up all of it so i saved the remnants in the little container and…get ready for it….drank it the next day. yup.

now before we all get too excited, i have to tell you that i only have a list of the ingredients in the this dressing, but not the proportions. so maybe we can all work together to perfect it?

GREEN DRESSING OF SHEER AND UTTER AWESOMENESS

- ginger

- garlic

- cilantro

- agave nectar

- rice vinegar

- sunflower oil

i had the best dinner tonight!

here’s what you need for this EASY deliciousness:

- tortillas

- cod

- cabbage

- half a lime

- sour cream (or greek yogurt)

- cilantro

- coconut oil

- coconut sugar

- salt and pepper

- mango salsa (here’s a recipe for one….i bought a fresh and delicious container of mango salsa from Rowe Farms because i was too lazy to make it)

1. slice cabbage into thin strips and throw it in a bowl. squeeze juice of half a lime on top and add a pinch (ok, 2 pinches) of coconut sugar, some salt and some pep. let it marinate while you prepare the rest of the food.

2. season your cod pieces with salt and pepper and heat some coconut oil in a frying pan on high. cook the fish for about 2 minutes per side.

3. while the fish is cooking chop up A LOT of cilantro and add it to a couple of table spoons of sour cream…mash it all up.

4. once fish it cooked, add it to the centre of a warmed tortilla. add cabbage, mango salsa and a dollop of cilantro sour cream.

i challenge you to eat less than 3.