Day & Night Angus Beef Hot Pot *.

😻 Happy 35th Anniversary to M&D!! 😻

My sis and I treated M&D to Day & Night Angus Beef Hot Pot for dinner, for their 35th anniversary!! It was all a surprise event and we even got P and V into it haha. The surprise element was worthyyy ;)

We heard a lot of good things about this place, the quality of food and service, so we decided to give it a try! 

Service was excellent. Our server was very friendly and did a great job portioning the amount of food. We came at around 6:30 pm and was very surprised to see a lot of empty tables, only one or two tables were taken. There is a sauce-bar close to the front of the restaurant for you to create your own dipping sauce. I chose a few items but I didn't really use the sauce throughout the night because the original seafood items were fresh and didn't need any additional flavour, or else it would've cover the freshness of the taste!


We ordered Combo B ($96 or $75 per person depending on if you're paying in cash or on card). 

How it works: 

It is similar to your traditional hot pot except everything is steamed. Your assigned server will cook the meal for you. Each item of your meal has a set timer. Once the food is cooked, the steamer would beep and your server would distribute the food for you. 


BROTH BASE

😻 They cook the broth and foods for you 😻

* CONGEE (5/5)

I'd highly recommend choosing "Congee / Porridge" as the broth base. This broth is an additional $10 but I thought this was the best part of the meal! The congee absorbs everything that has been cooking in your steamer throughout the night so it becomes super flavourful. I usually haaate congee and I'm giving this a 5/5..!! I associate congee as to being sick lol "childhood memories".

- COMBO B -

APPETIZERS

* Grilled U.S. Certified Angus Beef kebab (4/5)
The beef was delicious! Very tender :)

* Grilled Spain Iberico Pork kebab (5/5)
What is thisss!? SO yummy! Its texture tasted like the meat from the pork's neck area. It's chewy and delicious.

SEAFOOD

* Canadian PEI Lobster

* Vancouver Jumbo Clam 

(They weren't kidding about "jumbo" because the clam meat was actually pretty big haha).

* Canadian Fresh Oyster

* Saltspring Mussel

* Vietnamese Cuttlefish

*  Chicken

SEAFOOD HIGHLIGHTS

My favourites from the seafood choices were the lobster, clams and oysters. They were all very fresh and delicious! Steamed oysters tastes exactly like raw oysters (or maybe it's because they didn't cook it for that long, but my dad insisted they were fully cooked haha). Mussels were mediocre and the cuttlefishes were fresh, but had barely any taste. The cuttlefishes were the only seafood item that we needed to dip extra sauce for.

VEGETABLES (6 choices in total)

* Mushrooms
* Pumpkin
* Lettuce
* Enoki mushrooms
* Fungi 
* Taro

DESSERT

* Vanilla Ice cream with Pastry, Pudding

😻 P and I :D 😻 the main organizers of the event.. hahaha

Day & Night Hot Pot

$$$$  Chinese, Hot Pot

9021 Leslie Street
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 0B2

Huh Ga Ne *.

P suggested Huh Ga Ne for dinner because he mentioned whenever he passed by, there would always be a long line up for a table. Where the lines were, it should be where the good food is at haha. 
It was true! We enjoyed our dinner here! We chose to sit at the tatami area (you sit on the floor and it's heated!) Service was great, our server came back regularly to cook our kalbi meat for us.

We ordered the:

* KALBI - Table cooking for two ($40):

(It comes with 6 different side dishes, garlic, sauce and lettuce; plus a choice of seafood soup / tofu soup)

I think the whole set was really worth it. The portion was perfect for two people. I loved the kalbi meat. It was marinated nicely and full of flavour. It wasn't that oily because the shape of the cooking pot curved inwards, so the oil was drained out pretty quickly. I'd recommend adding a piece of garlic with the lettuce wrap. It makes the flavour of the meat pop! (and not just giving you garlicky breath haha!).

The tofu soup that came with the dinner set was also very delicious. Regular flavour isn't too spicy. 

I'd recommend this restaurant for those looking for something to warm their tummies on a cold winter day! The line built up pretty quickly (at around 7 pm) so either book in advance or go early for a table (We came here at around 6 pm).

Huh Ga Ne

$$  Korean

19 Finch Avenue W
Toronto, ON M2N 7K4

The Healthy Butcher *.

The Healthy Butcher gets 3.5/5 stars for our cooking class experience. P signed us up for the sausage making class where you are taught how to make a sausage! It was a lot of fun. 

The session started at 8 pm and was supposed to end at 11 pm but we went over the time slot and ended at approximately 11:45 pm. The instructor spent one and a half hours explaining meat-knowledge to us, which I thought was a little long. There were no seats available at the butcher shop, the thing that kept us going for another 3 hours was the wine and drinks haha. (But I was still sooo tired from standing though lol).

There were a lot of alcohol provided the night that we attended the cooking class! There was also charcutiere and olives to munch on throughout the night. 

COOKING CLASS RUN-DOWN:

* CHOOSING YOUR MEAT

Most of the people who attended the class were coupled up. Each of us were placed in different teams. Each teams' task was to figure out which type of sausage we would make. We were given a choice of pork or beef for the meats and we chose beef. We also chose the type of grind for the meat.

* AUCTION FOR FRESH INGREDIENTS

We were given "monopoly money" ($100) to auction for fresh ingredients. After discussing with our group members, we were determined to spend our auction money on getting fresh minced garlic! We ended up getting more than just fresh garlic :D 

One team member was keen on making a "pho" themed sausage so we let him pick and choose.

Our team's combo includes: minced garlic, mint, maple syrup and onions!

* PICK YOUR DRY INGREDIENTS

Dry ingredients were free-for-all! This includes oregano, paprika, salt, pepper, rosemary...etc. 

I remember we added nutmeg in our dry ingredients mix.

*Behold* - the sausage making machine hahaa

* MAKING THE SAUSAGE

After mixing all the ingredients together, each team gets a try at the sausage-making machine. This was the part of the night where everyone had the most fun! There is enough time and meat for each member of the team to get a try at making the sausage.

* TASTE-TESTING

After all the teams were done making their final products, the instructor will cook one sausage from each teams' batch. Everyone will get to try each other's creations and judge which one they liked the most. There was a "competition" for the best tasting sausage but the instructor didn't pick a winner for our session because apparently "everybody is a winner" LOL. I was hoping he would actually pick his favourite mix -_-'' Anyways, this was one of the best parts of the night because we were so tired and hangry from making the sausages.


* FINAL PRODUCT

Each of us were given a bag with our final product. Some couples decided to switch with others to get variety. The instructor also taught us the different ways we can cook them at home. 

Overall, this was a fun experience and I'd recommend this to my friends! :)

The Healthy Butcher

$$$  Meat Shops, Grocery

298 Eglinton Avenue W
Toronto, ON M4R 1B2

Eat BKK *.

Jess recommended Eat BKK for our double date dinner and we all loved it! It was super cold out so good thing she booked a table for us in advance.. There was a long line up near the door for seats! This place is boutique-sized so I'd recommend you book a table before heading here. Service was great. 

Appetizers:

* SHRIMP CHIPS (4/5)

I love shrimp chips!! I wonder if they make these in-house because the shrimp chips I usually eat at Thai restaurants are much thicker than these. The shrimp chips here are thin and flavourful. It comes with peanut sauce for dipping.

* MANGO SALAD (4/5)

Something healthy needed to be added to our list of items for the night! Mango salad was marinated very well - the mango were sweet and crunchy cashews were paired with it. 

Mains:

* GREEN CURRY + chicken (5/5)

I looooveeeddd my choice!! We were basically choosing the items that had a *thumbs up* on the menu, which was one of the popular / recommended items by Eat BKK. The green curry had a strong coconut flavour to it, for those who don't like coconut-flavours.. be warned! I love coconut flavoured thai dishes so this was perfect for me. This comes with a bowl of rice.

* PAD KRAPRAO KAI DAO (4/5)
(beef, fried eggs, basil, onions, pepper)

The listed items sounded very flat and plain from the menu, but P trusted the *thumbs up* icon and decided to order this. Wise choice *slow claps* haha. This was delish!! The beef was diced in tiny pieces and had soo much flavour to it. He mentioned he would order this again the next time we visit!

* KHAO SOI 
(egg noodle, bean sprouts, pickled cabbage)

Jess ordered the khao soi and I only had room to try a bit of the noodle soup - It was sooo goodd. I don't want to put a rating with this dish as I've only tried a tiny bit of her meal (too stuffed!) but my friend did mention this is her go-to dish whenever she visits (and she comes here very often).

Dessert:

* MANGO STICKY RICE (4/5)

I've always loved Thai mango sticky rice so I did make room for this dessert. We shared this dessert amongst 4 people, which I think is a good portion after a full meal. The rice portion was a lot (It was equivalent to the bowl of rice I got from the green curry)!! Loved the sauce that marinated the rice - I believe it is coconut milk (?) I highly recommend this dessert!!

EAT BKK Thai Kitchen

$$  Thai, Asian Fusion, Food Delivery Services

4704 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M2N 5M4