Monday September 24, 8:50 p.m.
It was another
foodies & friends weekend for me. The weather was fine for walking....a bit overcast but comfortably cool, so I walked down
Spadina from the station and made it to
Chinatown. Unsurprisingly, the neighbourhood was crowded with tourists and citizens alike, just like old times.
Dragon City was the same as always. I don't know how long that place has been on the southwest corner of
Spadina & Dundas, but I remember back in my
U of T days when a bunch of us would head over to the basement late on a weekday night (this was when
Chinatown was still perfectly safe to walk around at that time of night), and hit the food court stalls that were there. I couldn't believe the slop and dregs we heartily ate; the vendors were more than happy to unload everything for virtually free. We all had the GI tracts of bottom-feeding loaches.
I met up with The Wild Guy, Automan and his missus, The Egg, and The Tea Lady for a round of lunch at this place you see here. It's right on
Dundas just east of
Spadina on the north side. The traffic going in and out of the place was brisk when I arrived there about half an hour before meeting time, but by the time the six of us got in, things had settled down quite a bit, as The Wild Guy had predicted. The Wild Guy set this one up since he'll be heading to
Japan tomorrow, ostensibly to pick up his wife and son in
Osaka after they enjoyed a month of holiday there.
Now,
Hot & Sour Soup is pretty much a run-of-the-mill item in any Chinese restaurant. Still, this version merits mention since even for something that often has a kick, this had an extra bootnail at the toe. There was a goodly amount of pepper....nice way to start off lunch. It was my first time at
the House of Gourmet Seafood, but The Egg and The Wild Guy are veterans and they stand by it. Yup, count me in, too.
Of course, with all of the hanging
BBQ carcasses hanging out in the front window, ordering the stuff was a foregone conclusion. The chicken and pork were very tender and went excellently with rice. Off in the back there, we had to have the vegetable family represented, so we got a dish of
Stir-Fry Garlic Bok Choy. I could taste the garlic but it wasn't a killer dose. Mild, but very nice.
Two heaping plates of
Shanghai and Cantonese Noodles, and
Yang Chow Fried Rice later, we were all quite happy to waddle out of the restaurant and head over to
Kim Moon Bakery for tea. I was tempted in the goodies there, but I think having all of the main courses in my stomach pretty much deleted that idea.
