Pho Metro

A few days ago, a few of us realized that we hadn't had pho for quite some time.  Sometimes on a very hot summer day, it's difficult to go from the hot outdoors to the indoors to eat more hot food, but as the summer is slowly coming to an end and the nights were getting cooler, we decided having pho might not have been such a good idea.  Since I was in the Markham area which is in the north end of Toronto, we decided to venture out to Pho Metro.  It is located in a small strip mall surrounded by a residential homes and farmer's fields.

When we got in, the waitress was nice enough to reset the room so that we could have a corner seat in the back.  She said it would be better since we had a stroller and it might get in the way of other patrons if we were given a seat in the front of the room.

Scanning their massive menu, they had all the phos or rice noodles one wanted and a lot of rice dishes and appetizer dishes as well.  For yours truly, I always like some simple so I just went with their small Pho Dac Biet ($6,.45) which consisted of  rare beef, beef balls, beef flank and beef tripe.

All of our bowls arrived roughly the same time.  I had a taste of the soup base first and I can tell you it was spot on.  As I rummaged through the rice noodles, I noticed that there wasn't much rice noodles in the small bowl.  I realize that it was a small bowl that I had ordered but this was certainly smaller in terms of quantity compared to some of the other places that I have eaten.  Puzzled, I actually started counting what I actually in my bowl.  There were about 2 pieces of tripe, 2 pieces of flank, 1 tiny meatball and 4 slices of rare beef. The meatball cracked me up the most. There was only one, yes one, and it was the size of a medium size cherry.  No joke.  I showed everybody at the table and everyone had a pretty good chuckle over it. When I ordered a small noodle, they weren't kidding when it came out small.  Looking around the table, I could see that there medium size noodles were probably closer to the smaller bowls from their competitors.

Taste wise, the noodles were not bad at all.  With a little bit of hot sauce and hoisin sauce, the noodles actually tasted very good and as mentioned before, a solid soup base really helped matters.  Overall, it was bittersweet in the end.  Somewhat satisfied in that the noodles in that it tasted great however a little disappointed with the proportion size of the meal.  A snack or two was needed back home to keep the stomach happy.  At $6.45, they were also probably on the slightly higher end by about 50 cents for a small bowl of pho.  If there were just a few more noodles, more ingredients and slightly larger size meatballs, then higher marks surely would have been given.  But for now, I give it a 3 out of 5.

Pho Metro
50 Bur Oak Avenue Unit 7
Markham, Ontario

905-888-6999

Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant

Out with the old and in with the new should be the new quote of the day.  New Markham Villa which had been a Chinese dim sum restaurant in Markham for quite a number of years went out of business a few months ago and a new owner came in recently, renamed the restaurant to Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant and seems to have been striving since.

The restaurant is tucked inside a building that is located to another long-time landmark, club 300 Bowling alley.  The restaurant is located on the bottom floor while the bowling alley is located upstairs.  The new owner was actually the former part owner of Very Fair Prices Chinese Restaurant in Scarborough.

We had a recent birthday celebration and went with their ten-course meal.  For those who have been to Chinese weddings before, it's more or less the same lineup with Crispy Golden Pork for starters and ends with rice and noodles at the end.  Oddly enough, three days before we went to this restaurant, we were at the old one where the owner use to have his restaurant where we also had a ten course meal.

The Crispy Golden Pork arrived first as usual and it looked pretty good.  Mixed with some jelly fish and as always, being the first meal of the night, everyone was salivating at the juicy meat. Every piece of pork skin on the plate was nice and crispy.  The meat was soft and tender and the cold jelly fish provided a good mixture with the meat.

Crispy Golden Pork

 Scallops mixed with some Beans and Mushroom glistened beautifully as it sat in the dish waiting to be served.  The addition of some celery and garlic to add to the ever dominating flavors really helped bring this every item out.  The scallops were wonderfully cooked and have the perfect bounce in them.  They were very, very soft and had just the perfect taste to them.

Scallops with Beans and Mushroom

Next to arrive were the Deep Fried Crab Claws.  Steaming hot coming out of the oven, these crispy crab claws were also made to perfection.  There was plenty of crab meat and mixed with the traditional vinegar, it was delicious and very appetizing.  The crab claws were pretty fulsome and each one was nice and large.  There were also strips of  shrimp paste on the outside of the crispy claws which also added to the great seafood taste of this item.  This unique idea not seen in many of the other restaurant's crab claws certainly brought an element of uniqueness and taste to the crab claws which in my mind separated this top chef with some of its competitors.  Something so simple yet almost so ground breaking.

Deep Fried Crab Claw

The Shark Fin Soup came with plenty of shark fin in its bowl.  It wasn't overly salty and had plenty of ingredients embedded into the soup. The only thing I found missing that could have really made this shark fin soup to be a top notched soup was if the chef could have some shrimp to it.  It was quite possible that he had done with the crab claws already and didn't want to overdo it but certainly an addition of some extra seafood in this bowl certainly could have turned this into a super bowl. 

Shark Fin Soup

The Pea Shoots with Mushroom dish came soon afterwards and personally it was one of my favorite dishes for the evening.  Since these ten course meals usually don't have a whole lot of vegetables within them, I always look forward to this course as it is the only time that one could get a good healthy dose of vegetables. The pea shoots were completely covered with mushroom and its juices which made them even more tastier.

Pea Shoots with Mushroom

For the Fish course, we opted for the tilapia.  Since we had about 12 people per table, the manager had asked the chefs to steam 2 tilapias instead of one for each plate.  The perfectly steamed fish was delicious and all it took was a little bit of green onions, parsley and soya sauce to make it a wonderful dish.  The meat fell off the bone and the fish was very clean with no dirty tastes to it at all.

The Lobster was made in its traditional method with a mixture of garlic, ginger and green onions mixed with the lobster.  The lobster was well cooked and each piece had plenty of meat in it.  Again because there were 12 of us at the table, the manager made sure that each large plate had 2 medium to large size lobsters to serve all of us.  The lobster tasted great and again was made to perfection.

Lobster

The Kwai Fei Chicken is probably one of the most simplest types of chicken to order.  No special sauces are required and when one dips this into a mixture of ginger and garlic, it is by far one of my all time favorites.  The chicken was just the perfect size and there was plenty of meat on each piece.  Nothing spectacular but still one of the best dishes on the menu.

Kwai Fei Chicken

The Rice and Noodles arrived last and by the time it came, we were pretty much done.  Having said that, both bowls were cleaned out.  I particularly liked the noodles more as there was more flavor to the noodles than the rice.  The rice was a tad bit more drier but still had a good mixture of okra, shrimp and onions to it.

Noodles

Rice

Last to arrive of course had to be the dessert and like most Chinese traditional 10 course meals, the night ended off with a bowl of red bean soup, lotus seed buns and Longan Jello. The red bean soup was not very thick, but it wasn't watered down either.  The lotus seed buns were very sweet and every kid loved them.  The Longan Jello was also very good.

Lotus Seed Buns

Red Bean Soup and Longan Jello

I know people will say that the food is pretty much the same as that of the other restaurant where the previous owner had ownership of but I have to admit it seemed like they kicked it up a notch with some of their more unique approach with some of their dishes.  Although a ten course meal is pretty much standard, just a chef's way of transforming or finding alternative methods of presenting a classic dish is always challenging.  Not messing up tradition but at the same time introducing a new variation of a dish and still maintaining a good taste to it can be quite a task for the chefs but in this case, it seemed like they mastered the feat.  And judging by the packed house that evening, it certainly looked like the relaunch has so far been a success.  I would certainly make a return visit to this place.  The quality is certainly better than before.  Overall I give it a 4 out of 5.

Happy Time Seafood Chinese Restaurant
146 Old Kennedy Road Unit 1
Markham Ontario

905-940-6088

Galleria Supermarket Food Court

It's hard to imagine that food court food could taste very good but at this one supermarket in North York, they certainly defied the odds and presented some of the best foods one could imagine coming out of a food court. Galleria Supermarket is located in the east end of North York and predominately sells and produces some of the most popular Korean products and foods.  I have eaten at the food court numerous times and each time I would order something different.  On a very recent occasion, I went over there for lunch and tried out their Pork Neck Bone Stew with Noodles.  ($7.49)

Pork Neck Bone Stew with Noodles

Made freshly on the spot, about five large pieces of pork neck bones with meat on them were mixed with a large piece of potato, glass noodles, vegetables, green onions and what seemed like chili seeds.  All of this was cooked in a hot, spicy broth which I would say had quite the kick to it.  Even though the picture didn't do it a whole lot of justice, there was quite a lot of food in this one bowl.  The combo also came with a bowl of spicy turnips and a bowl of rice.  For the price one paid, one was certainly getting their money's worth. The pork meat was delicious although mind you there was obvious more bone than meat.  On a scale of one to ten, I would put the spicy level at a 6 for this bowl.  It had a pretty good kick to it but I was still able to stomach it pretty good. There were also about two wads of glass noodles on the bottom of the bowl just to give you an idea as to how much food was in this one bowl.  All of it was presented in a very hot ceramic black bowl which kept the food sizzling when it came out of the kitchen.

Overall, it was a great lunch meal to have.  One bowl of rice and half a bowl of glass noodles really filled one up and when I was done, I left there super satisfied and very happy with my purchase.  If one does not like noodles, they also have a 50-item display where people can pick and choose a mixture of items from that display.  They also have pre-made sushi and there is also a bakery there.  Certainly lots to choose from and all made to taste just like it was from Korea.  If you have not been there before, certainly give it a try.  It sure is quite different than some of the other supermarket food courts in terms of selection and variety.  Overall, I give it a 4.5 out of 5.

Galleria Supermarket Food Court
865 York Mills Road
North York, Ontario

647-3525-5004

Ala Shanghai

Market Village in Markham has been a place that I had not been in quite some time.  Much has changed and many stores and restaurants have changed hands in the past year.  When we strolled upstairs for the first time in ages, we noticed that there was a new restaurant in the corner of the mall.  Ala Shanghai had just opened up maybe for about a year now however it was the first time we had ventured into this restaurant.

We explored their menu and saw that there were a mixture of Asian fusion foods that dotted their entire menu.  A couple of dishes appeared appealing and looked delicious so we decided to get a little bit of everything and give it a try.  We decided to share about 5 dishes altogether and try a little bit of everything on their menu.

First up was the Drunken Chicken ($5.99)  Presentation wise it certainly did not look like much.  The chicken had plenty of skin and the appeared to have just been slopped on top of some sort of wine soya sauce.  The chicken was cold however when I took my first bite into this chicken, I found it to be quite the pleasant surprise.  The skin was very smooth and the chicken appeared to be well immersed and marinated in a sweet wine and soya sauce.  It made the chicken sweet tasting and very juicy.  I actually loved this dish and the wine was not so overwhelming that it made the chicken bitter. 

Drucken Chicken

Next to arrive were the Pork and Crab Dumplings. ($11.00)  Four dumplings arrived in a wooden carton and were steaming hot.  I could tell there was a small amount of juice inside each dumpling.  When one bit into it, one could tell that there was a good mixture of pork and crab in each bite.  The dumpling was not oily and tasted perfect.  The pork/crab combo was well seasoned and every bite was equally good.  The only thing that could be disappointing was the price to product ratio as 4 of these dumplings cost ($11).  It might be expensive but if you get a chance to try, one should go for it. 

Crab Pork Dumpling

The Fried Bread with Condensed Milk ($4.25) was made to perfection as well.  The bun on the outside was nice and toasty and the inside of the bread was very hot with steam pouring out of the inside of the bun.  This is quite a famous dish amongst Chinese Shanghai restaurants and these guys perfected it.  Absolutely no complaints at all to this dish.

Fried Bread

The Meat and Duck Egg Congee ($4.99) was also made to perfection.  There did not seem to any added ingredients to this congee as the duck egg and meat provided all the flavor needed for this congee.  If one is just looking for a simple congee to eat, this would be perfect for you. 

Meat and Egg Congee

Last to arrive was the Braised Beef Noodles ($7.99) and this was very tasty.  The beef soup base was a bit on the salty side but provided the right compliment to the beef that already present in the noodles.  The noodles themselves were all nice and thick and sprinkled with a couple of green vegetables, this bowl of noodles was well worth the price.  The braised beef were in between lean and fatty but tasted very good nonetheless.

Braised Beef Noodles

Overall, I was actually quite impress with all the food that we had ordered that afternoon.  Every dish was spot on.  I have to admit that looks could be quite deceiving as when all the food was placed on our table, it certainly didn't look that delicious but that certainly was where it ended.  None of the foods we ordered were greasy and other than a slightly more aggressive tasting soup base, everything seemed to be right on the dot.  I certainly would come back and give some of their other foods a try.  I was very surprised with their excellence in their food.  Overall I would give it a 4.25 out of 5.

Ala Shanghai
4800 Steeles Ave East Level 2 Unit F51
Markham, Ontario

905-513-7990