You know what the best part about food it? Sure, it’s tasty, it’s a basic necessity for living and existing, but it’s so much more powerful than that. Eat something bad and it can fuck up your day (in more ways than one), eat something delicious and you’re thinking about it for weeks, or in my case, years. When I was in Southeast Asia, I had some of the best food I’ve ever eaten and I reminisce about it all the time. Not being able to hop on a flight to southeast Asia as often as I would like relive some delicious food is tough, but I discovered a spot makes it a bit easier to curb those cravings. I’ve tried most places in the city in a desperate attempt to relive the experience but to no avail, until I finally hit up Mae Sri Comptoir Thai.
Spicy
There’s no denying the fact that I love Chinese food. All of it; saucy stews and crispy noodles of Cantonese cuisine, spicy numbing stir fry dishes and fiery soups of Szechuan, sweet and sour notes of Hunan. The magic of Chinese food is that China is over 9 Million square kilometres, has 23 provinces and boarders 14 countries. The fine intricacies of Chinese food change from region to region and reflect the locally available produce, ingredients and influences of neighbouring countries. It’s all “Chinese food” but all very different, but similar. I recently checked out Restaurant Delice Oriental (Huang He Lou), a spot downtown serving up classic Szechuan, Hubei and Hunan specialties.
I love Korean food. If you’ve never sat down to eat a Korean meal before, you’re missing out; hot stews, spicy soups, BBQ meats all accompanied by some awesome ban chan (side dishes) that consists of spicy kimchi and various pickles. I’m certain you’ve probably eaten elements of Korean cuisine that you weren’t even aware of. You know that kimchi poutine you had or that hot dog topped with the spicy gojujang sauce? KOREAN. How about that awesome bulgogi beef taco? KOREAN. Or that spicy packaged shin ramyun ramen you like to eat late at night and regret in the morning because it literally burned the lining of your gastro-intestinal tract so bad that your breakfast smoothie often includes a double shot of Pepto? KOREAN. I was excited when I learned about a Korean restaurant in Ville-St-Laurent – a relative wasteland devoid of anything Korean besides the snacks at the local Asian supermarket. I hit up Ave Seoul for some delicious Korean food and uncharacteristic Korean inhospitality.