Lately, this song has been in my head. All day long.



我們不是公主
主唱：林欣彤
作曲：Damon Chui．舒文
填詞：周耀輝
編曲：Damon Chui
監製：舒文

珍珠要戴得到　雪花要碰得到
然而快樂　即使撒嬌　撒不到
純白睡袍能贈送　向海餐桌可操控
然而美麗　便沒法製做
為求甚麼注目
原來會扮會爭　不會放鬆
其實怕逐漸夠鐘

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得多麼惡毒
轉角沒有堡壘
路上沒有魔術
現實沒有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
唯有想你開車接送

香薰要抹得到　再美好也要見工
懷疑約會　就為了令人　能羨慕
為求活得更隆重
難道有日過得雙眼更惺忪
其實我盡用我青春

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得多麼惡毒
轉角沒有堡壘
路上沒有魔術
現實沒有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
只好吩咐你　由我盡情發夢

（青春很快會老　今天把我縱到　令我面紅）
我盡情發夢
（青春很快會老　今天把我縱到　接近滿足）

幾多片段　幾多插曲
未曾華麗便夠鐘
全部少女　全部會懂
就算溫柔和貼服
我知道　沒有用
終於只得我哭

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得必須繼續
轉角或有堡壘
路上或有魔術
現實或有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
還望一瞬間的縱
某日想成熟
奇在這日想抱
抱著我走過路

What makes Mikado different from the other (sadly only handful of) authentic Japanese restaurants in the city is that it's not just about the raw fish. Just like how Chinese food cannot be summarized by the terms "dim sum" or "fried rice", there's so much more to Japanese cuisine than just sushi.


Mikado is a hidden gem in the mid-town of industrial companies, across the street from car repair shops. Complete with an ordinary storefront sign and a middle-of-nowhere location (which seems to be the characteristics for authentic and delicious Japanese food in Toronto, e.g. Kaji, Zen, Aoyama, Cafe Michi, Mikado... anyone else noticing a pattern?), one step in and it's as if you're transported to another place of another city. The warm wood and tatami interior gives off a traditional yet homey vibe.

I had made reservations for two in advance, requesting omakase.

Omakase is a multi-course, customized meal where the chef prepares beforehand. He/she plans out the menu, the dishes he would like to serve (usually, innovative and creative dishes not on the menu), the ingredients needed for such meal, the freshest best quality ingredients available at the time (especially when it comes to sashimi) and even the order of which the dishes will be presented is thought out in advance for a balanced meal. You can also personalize your omakase by letting the chef know any allergies you may have (or like me, notify them the things you prefer not to eat haha).

Some restaurants offer a choice of omakases, some don't. For example, Zen offers a raw omakase where the entire meal is focused primarily on sashimi and sushi. Other restaurants may have omakase that is a mix of both raw and cooked foods, like this Mikado review.

Lastly, omakase is usually offered at different price points, which differ by each restaurant. It can be anywhere from $40 per person to $120 per person (in Toronto, that is). The price dictates the quality of the ingredients used and the dishes prepared. It also ensures that you will get the freshest and the best fish of that day.

In summary, the word omakase means entrust - basically, you're entrusting your meal to the chef, leaving all the choices and selection to him.

Wow, it feels like I'm writing an essay instead. I guess this is what happens when you're passionate about food!

They have these cute slippers you can wear too!


For our very first dish, this was an appetizer consisting of seaweed on the left and what I believe to be saba on the right. It was okay, not very impressive.


Fish soup with enoki and shiitake mushrooms. Very flavourful and homey, perfect for any fish lover.


Monk fish liver. A dish I love to order! As well, it's a nice substitute for foie gras. Creamy, rich, yet slightly tangy.



Fried fish head. Very crispy while not overly oily.



Omakase sashimi!
While the selection was fresh and varied, there were one or two pieces that were not perfectly cut, resulting in some having tendon still. Other than that, very fresh and good quality sashimi. The most outstanding of them all would be the hirame which is a type of flounder, rolled up with a delicious ponzu-pepper sauce in the centre.


Zoom up on the three toro's - otoro, chutoro and toro. Very fresh, yet very, very fatty. Make that EXTREMELY fatty melt-in-your-mouth-ness.
It was so fatty that it instantly gives you that itis feeling, just like when you a bite into a thick piece of pork belly/fat. I could barely finish my portion of the toro's without feeling overwhelmed by its nicely marbled fat. SOOOO FATTY YET SO GOOD!



What looks like an oyster, but was actually a baked clam with mushrooms. A little too much oil but still not bad.




Top, left to right: toro (fatty tuna belly), something I don't remember >_>, tuna, snapper, clam.
Bottom, left to right: Japanese mackerel, scallop, king crab legs (cooked), Spanish mackerel, and eel (cooked).

Omakase nigiri time!!! Gosh I love omakase. Amazing dishes, one after another.
Mikado also does the style of nigiri where the meat on top is long and slender, a dollop of rice underneath and with just enough of wasabi to balance the flavours. Very good rice to fish ratios.

One more picture of the nigiri.

By this time, we were both extremely full. We had to push ourselves to finish the last few pieces of nigiri so that they don't go to waste.
At this point, the waitress came and asked if we were still hungry, and if so they would start preparing the next dish. Both my brother and I were waving our hands rapidly, indicating please no more!, for now at least. I had to pause and hoped that my stomach would digest faster. One of those moments where your brain says YES I WANT MORE MORE MORE! and your stomach is saying YOU FATTY, I CAN'T DIGEST FAST ENOUGH! I'm 100% sure that was the dialogue between my organs.


Desperately finding space in our already full stomachs for our last dish, it was surprisingly the dish that stood out to me the most throughout the entire dinner: fried eggplants with sweet miso glaze. These were AAAMMMMMMAZING. So amazing that I'm capitalizing every letter, and making them underlined and bolded.
Small pieces that you can easily pop into your mouth, full of flavour and not soaked with oil. Although I was full, I ended up finishing most of the dish myself - truly too good to stop. Seeing how it's only $4 a la carte, I can't wait to come back for more!


Okay, so that wasn't the last dish we had after all. The eggplant was the last dish I had. This is beef tataki - slices of raw beef. My brother said it was good, but nothing outstanding. I don't think we had space to finish this dish.


So I lied again - that wasn't our last dish either, but technically this wasn't a dish by itself. The chef took the heads of the prawns we had earlier and deep-fried them, making them extremely crispy, delicious and entirely edible. I'm not a fan of fried foods, but this was not very oily, and crunchy texture of the shell makes me salivate already. But before you devour it, make sure you suck the brains out of the head - sounds disgusting, but trust me, deliciousness awaits you. I might even add that these were better than the fried prawn heads at Kaji!

What's a good meal without dessert? Looking back, I don't know how I had the room in my stomach to even eat this much but I guess it's true that all girls have an extra stomach just for dessert. And some guys too. That and the meal turned out to be 3 hours long.

Cream Caramel Pudding. It was not bad, but my mind kinda completely blocked out the memory of eating the pudding because it was occupied with eating this instead:


This is their famous Mikado Pie with mandarin orange. After one bite, I realized why it is their most popular sweet dish. Not overly sweet, creaminess in every bite with a hint of crust. My brother is not a big fan of cakes, but he also said he enjoyed this pie a lot. Besides the eggplant, we agreed that this was the other dish that stood out the most throughout the entire meal.

Overall, service was undoubtedly excellent! Both the waiter and waitress were very, very nice and expertly paced our dishes so that we wouldn't wait too long in between courses. They also regularly checked up on us to fill up tea cups, to answer our random questions on what's in this dish and what's the name of this fish, and even wrote down the name of the ponzu-pepper sauce we loved so much. It really felt like we were guests at their house and they were cooking us a host meal!


Since we did not indicate the monetary value of omakase we wanted to try and judging by the amount of food we had, I'm assuming they charged the highest amount, which I guess is $85 per person, excluding the dessert.

With the amount of food, the quality of food we had and lastly the impeccable service, both my brother and I do think the meal was worth its price. Although Mikado is small and located at a rather rural area, it is definitely worth a visit from any Japanese cuisine fanatics.

However, if you're looking for the freshest, best cuts of sashimi in town with the best selection of fish, I would recommend the sashimi omakase at Zen instead, which I also enjoyed immensely. As for everyone else, please don't come to Mikado expecting simply sushi and sashimi; open your mind and taste buds to try a more homestyle of Japanese cooking. There's more to Japanese cuisine than just raw fish and it's equally amazing in its own way. I completely recommend this place!

One last note: I had made reservations beforehand for this meal, requesting an omakase of both cooked and raw. My brother had previously walked in for omakase at Mikado before without reservations, and said that it wasn't as balanced nor delightful.

Must-try dishes:
- fried eggplant!!
- Mikado pie
- generally, their entire omakase meal :)

Mikado
114 Laird Drive
Leaside, Toronto
(416)421-6016

Hours of Operation
LUNCH
Tuesday to Friday: 11:30 PM - 2:30 PM

DINNER
Tuesday to Thursday: 5 PM - 10 PM
Friday to Saturday: 5 PM - 10:30 PM
Sunday: 5 PM - 10 PM

Back in the beginning of August, I went on a mini road trip to Buffalo.



Midway through shopping, we stopped by McD's for some of these goodies. All this for $4. Yes you read that right, FOUR DOLLARS. OK with tax, it's still less than $5. Even though I've watched that Jamie Oliver video on how chicken McNuggets are made, I can't resist them. I blame my childhood. NOM NOM NOM NOMMM.


Then we had to exit the highway to get to our destination...


... and arrived at a quiet neighbourhood, just a few minutes drive from the border.


Except this restaurant is everything but quiet.

Ivan had made reservations for the two of us a week in advance, knowing how busy this place can get. And even with a reservation on a Wednesday night at 8:30 PM, we STILL had to wait half an hour before we were seated. I was quite impressed!


The Left Bank is separated into a dining area and a bar. The lights are very dim, creating a romantic and cozy ambiance. The candle at our table barely provided enough light for me to take the following pictures >_>. Laughter surrounded us as groups of couples, family and friends exchanged conversations while enjoying their meals. It made me feel happy and warm to be here.


Cute decor!



What really got me to come to Buffalo was in fact this restaurant. I have heard Ivan raved about it so many times, I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to try it.

Unfortunately, Wednesday night is Asian night at The Left Bank, which meant no daily ravioli (which Ivan loves). Having to drive all the way across the border to eat here, we didn't feel like having anything "Asian" so we decided to order a few appetizers and a pasta to share.


Warm bread served with olive oil with roasted tomatoes to dip.


Besides swearing by their daily ravioli (which is one GIANT ravioli stuffed with something different everyday), Ivan also loves their daily brushetta ($9), whose toppings also change depending on the day of the week. That day, it was miso chicken I believe.

It looks like a pizza but never mind that, it was delicious. A good portion of melted cheese, sliced tomatoes and miso chicken on every slice of crispy bread. What I hate about the usual brushettas is soft, mushy bread. No one likes soft mushy bread! Except in bread pudding I guess. However, I can say that I would order this again next time I come.



This is fried oysters with tomato-corn and jalapeno salsa and creole remoulade ($9). This meal had me stepping out of my usual boundaries because I am not a big fan of oysters. They usually have this organ taste of which I'm not fond. But these ones here surprisingly didn't have any organ taste! On top of that, the oysters were juicy. I think I've had too many oysters at Asian restaurants where the texture is meaty and sometimes overcooked. Never had I ate oysters this juicy.


What I also liked about this dish was that these one-bite wonders are covered with a great crunchy batter. The creole remoulade had a spicy kick to it, making sure that you won't be able to stop at just one bite.



Confession: I don't like artichokes. They just taste... weird. So when Ivan ordered this portobello mushroom with artichoke stuffing and port wine green peppercorn sauce ($8), I was completely like "Really?".

But it wasn't so bad after all. The portobello mushroom was soft and meaty like usual while that weird artichoke taste was nowhere to be found. However, the port wine sauce was a bit too tangy for my personal taste; it left a lingering after taste on my tongue which I didn't enjoy. Ivan liked it though so depends on your preference!



Carrot pappardella tossed with lobster, shrimp and calamari served in a shellfish brandy cream, with julienne vegetables, arugula and tarragon ($22).

This smelled wonderful. Truth be told, I never had a truly awesome pasta that I would crave days after before but this would probably be the closest thing to that in my experience. I had initially thought there would be small bits of lobster and shellfish in the pasta as most restaurants do when they say "seafood pasta", but there was an impressive amount of seafood in every bite. The seafood cream sauce brought out the flavours of the shellfish and deliciously coated every strand of pappardelle. We couldn't finish this dish so when I microwaved it the next day, gosh I didn't think it could be even more enjoyable. I think I even licked the plate clean.

Service was friendly overall but they somehow messed up our bill, adding a fondue to it though we never ordered one. But we didn't notice it till we got home and I was looking through my pictures T_____T... Oh well.

I can't wait to go back to this place to try their other foods, both dinner and brunch!! Remember to make reservations well ahead of time before you go! :)


The Left Bank
511 Rhode Island Street
Buffalo, NY 14213
(716) 882-3509

Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 5 PM - 11 PM
Friday to Saturday: 5 PM - 12 AM
Sunday: 11AM - 2:30 PM, 4 PM - 10 PM


View Larger Map

While JT and I were driving home one day, it had suddenly come to my attention that the best meals of my life were all not from Toronto. Instead, they were all abroad during vacation periods. One might argue that it's because people might be more willing to spend money on good food while on vacation, hence better food. While there is some truth to that, not all the best meals of my life cost a fortune. Not to mention that expensive food does not always mean good food (example: the hit and (mostly) miss 'licious events in Toronto every winter and summer). What adds to this puzzling idea is that I've spent my entire life in Toronto. How is it that I still can't find some mind-blowing food in two decades compared to the limited days I spend touring a foreign city? Oh Toronto.

Hence, with inspiration from the Food Network show 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' (which I love to watch), I'd like to do a series of posts on the best meals I ever had.

I started making a mental list of said meals, counting around 7 or 8 at the moment. We'll see what else my memory racks up. The series will also allow me to fast-track reviews on meals I had during vacation, but without having to blog all the chronological events that led up to it. Yay!!!

Okay, time for some food p0rn to get you guys hooked.


Best shabu shabu/hot pot-thing I ever had. Just look at the marbled fat of that thinly-sliced piece of meat!!!
Osaka, Japan.


First time drinking plum wine and as a person that never really liked alcohol, this was SO FREAKING GOOD! I believe it was a free sample too from the above shabu shabu place. The only thing that I've had that can compare to this is the one at Kaji.
Osaka, Japan.


Best pineapple buns. Ever. EVARRRRRRRRRRRR.
Not too big, fresh out of the oven and still warm with REAL PINEAPPLE filling oozing out of the center. I think I ate 4 or 5 in the end, after an entire dim sum meal.
Zhongshan, China.


A shabby place like this is where I had one of the best meals of my life? Yup, that's right. A dirty, desserted alleyway in the middle of literally nowhere of Shanghai suburbs, a group of us gathered around a small table sitting on tiny foldable chairs for supper - dai pai dong style. I'm pretty sure we ordered at least 50 skewers that night ($2 RMB each) among other stir-fry dishes.
Shanghai, China.


Even after going to Singapore, I couldn't say that I had eaten the best hai nan chicken rice of my life. Until I went to LA that is. The most tender pieces of chicken that literally fall off the bone paired up with a secret homemade sauce. And of course, a heap of fragrant chicken oil rice on the side. Lining up outside for a half an hour while exhausted and starving was definitely well worth it.
Los Angeles, USA.


HELLOOOOOOO COCO'S CURRY! Although a chain restaurant from Japan, hands-down the best curry I ever had. A rich depth of flavour with the distinct sweetness found in Japanese curry and a spicy kick. Then matched with an amazing tonkatsu - crispy fried skin on the outside with tender, juicy meat on the inside.
Tokyo, Japan.


This is the dish that made me fell in love with Mexican food. Mouthful of succulent shredded chicken meat layered underneath a bed of flavoured beans, all that wrapped inside a flour tortilla. Topped with cheese, sauce and a generous amount of guacamole.
Los Angeles, USA.


And how can I forget sea urchin like this?
Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan.