Kultura

I have moved to Toronto! It's exciting on all fronts especially the food front! I have a huge city at my fingertips waiting to discover new and delectable places to eat! Montreal is a wonderful city for a foodie like me but I think it's time to move on. My taste buds are ready for new experiences!! I have only been here a few weeks and have already exposed my mouth to incredible food! The first week, I went to Kultura. Kultura is a tapas style restaurant with unique food and interesting flavours!

We started off with the Ahi Tuna Cornets.The tuna tartar was stuffed inside an edible Nori (seaweed) shell with avocado, red miso flakes, shiso cress and jalapeno. It had such a great flavour, especially with the jalapeno spicy-ness. The shell added a great texture with the smooth tartar.

Then came the world's greatest naan bread! Palak Paneer Naan! Naan bread stuffed with paneer (indian cheese), truffle oil, jalapeno and peppered honey. Whoever came up with this, is a culinary genius. I know it's just naan but it tasted like so much more. It was sweet and salty and cheesy! If I could eat one starch for the rest of my life, it would be Palak Paneer Naan!

 

The next dish we had was the Soft Shell Salad. This was truly delicious. I've always liked soft shell crab (especially in my maki) but when left on it's own, I sometimes find it a bit overwhelming. These pieces were so good. They were fried and left crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The salad consisted of a pomegranate dressing, mango, frisee, plums and crispy shallots. A lovey dish that I would definitely order again!

Mmmmm.... Barley Risotto. I love barley so without reading the description, the dish already appealed to me. In the risotto was a Jerusalem artichoke puree, European smoked bacon and topped with a parmesean truffle tweel. The barley was a perfect al dente and it was full of so much flavour and creaminess. When you dip that parmesean chip inside that risotto... holy! The big pieces of smoked bacon? That just sent it over the edge!

I had to order the Pork Belly Tacos. Ever since my pork belly experience at Biarritz, I feel the need to experience as much pork belly as I possibly can. The tacos were tasty. The meat was juicy and overall I liked the dish but it was my least favourite one. It didn't shine like the rest. They were missing pazaz!

Then came our final savoury dish... Chillean Sea Bass on top of a parsnip puree, fois gras foam, beet reduction and brussel sprouts. First of all, it was a beautiful dish. The fish was cooked wonderfully. The pieces flaked off the sea bass. The dish was full of unique flavours that I had never had together. The beet reduction added a lovely sweetness and the parsnip puree was a delicious accompaniment that went so well with the bass. Great dish! 

We ended our meal with the Chocolate Lava Cake. Seems cliche but the waitress said it was unreal so we couldn't say no. It was served along side banana tempura and instead of the orange vanilla ice cream, the waitress suggested the coffee  (which was a great idea). The lava cake was perfect.... absolutely no complaints. The cake was rich and moist with the most ooey-gooey center. The banana tempura rocked! Fried banana is possibly my most favourite dessert. The perfect ending to a delicious meal!

Biarritz

Before my big move to Toronto, I made sure to leave Montreal with a delicious send-off. I went to Biarritz (named after the beautiful city in France). Biarritz is a tapas restaurant with a warm atmosphere and friendly staff (we had a wonderful and helpful waitress). The menu is divided in small, medium and large plates. The worst part about Biarritz is EVERYTHING on the menu looks incredible so it's very hard to chose. Our lovely waitress helped us pick out a delicious meal! One of my favourite things about this restaurant is they make their own cheese! I'm a cheese-o-holic so that fine detail made me very happy!

We started off with the goat cheese and tapenade tartine. It was a beautiful piece of toasted crusty baguette topped with home-made goat cheese and black olive tapenade. Could anything be better? The creamy goat cheese worked perfectly with the salty olives and crunchy bread. I loved this appetizer! 

Then came the beef tartar and homemade (kettle) chips. Wow! This was so tasty! It had middle-eastern flavours with mint and cumin. They forgot to mention in the description the homemade hummus! The hummus was unbelievable! I don't like hummus... I don't like it at all. I licked that hummus off the plate! The actual tartar was wonderful. The meat melted in your mouth and the flavours were delectable! Definitely a winning dish!

Then we had the grilled octopus, chorizo, potato and cucumber. I liked this dish, I didn't love it. The octopus was cooked well. It was tender and definitely not chewy. I didn't love the flavours and probably wouldn't order it again BUT our waitress said it was one of her favourite dishes and one of the most popular.

The next dish was the winner! It will go down as one of the best dishes I have ever had. Go to Biarritz and order the pork belly. I have never been the biggest fan of pork belly, probably because I have never had it prepared correctly. I usually find it too fatty. This pork belly was perfectly seared on all sides with the most delicious fatty, meaty and juicy center. It was served on top of the best pea soup I have ever had in my life. We were scraping the bowl with our spoons to make sure none of it went to waste. Meaty pieces of ham-hock were found throughout the soup and the entire dish was drizzled with a bit of maple syrup. Bravo Biarritz! My taste-buds are forever grateful!

The last dish we had was the lamb ribs. I was unfortunately too full to eat very much of it but they were superb. They were melt-in-your-mouth-fall-off-the-bone delicious. I have never had lamb ribs before and I will be having them again. They came with a homemade mint-yogurt sauce and grilled eggplant. When that lamb hit that sauce, fireworks went off in my mouth... mmmm! I cannot wait for my next trip to Biarritz!

Ryu Tapas

A few nights ago, I went to Ryu Tapas for dinner with a friend of mine. It was incredible! We started off with the Ryu Tartar. It was a mix of tuna, salmon and tobiko. It was topped with avocado and a lotus root chip. It was sitting in their home-made soy/spicy mayo sauce. It was DELICIOUS and beautiful! It was fresh and the flavours were great; a mix of sweet, spicy and savoury. Then came the popcorn rock shrimp... OH-MY-GOD! I'm drooling just thinking about. They were perfectly cooked, crispy and crunchy on the outside and melt-in-your mouth 'mmmm' on the inside. It came with a lemony-mayo dipping sauce which went so well with the shrimp. The third tapas we got was the orange miso duck breast on top of sauteed king oyster mushrooms and spinach in an orange citrus sauce. My only problem was, I found the duck a little under done and a bit chewy but that could have been my taste because Bonder thought it was perfect. The sauce was citrus-y and tangy and went very well with the mushrooms and greens. It was a really yummy dish. After our three incredible tapas dishes, came our two rolls of maki sushi. One was the 'Lotus' roll which had shrimp tempura, crabstick, spicy crab, tobiko and avocado on the inside and fresh salmon on the outside. It was my PERFECT piece of maki sushi. We also had the 'Tatsu' roll which was filled with lobster tail, tempura crab, oyster mushrooms, avocado and tobiko. I thought they were delicious but had a bit of a fishy after-taste but Bonder really enjoyed them so maybe I'm just sensitive to fish. The sushi came with 5 dipping sauces. Overall, Ryu was really really good!

Ryu Tartar

Popcorn Rock Shrimp

Orange Miso Duck Breast

'Lotus' Roll with the 5 dipping sauces