OMI

Japanese food is usually associated with mediocre sushi. With the plain California roll and the super western cream cheese Philadelphia roll setting our standards, we are seldom presented with much more to this cuisine. Even without venturing into the realms of Izakaya (Japanese bar food) there are ways to elevate sushi beyond a cool slice of raw salmon over rice, cloned from one Mariko/Sakura/whoever to the next, none special, unique, memorable. At the foot of Carlton street, right where Cabbagetown begins, is a fish that leads to the way to something...different. It is a black fish, a silhouette, understated. With a pop of red, OMI makes its mark, and leaves it, too (243 Carlton St.). This is sushi done different. There are rolls, but you won't see either of the above mentioned on this menu. As well, items which are staples at any Japanese restaurant become elevated to surprising heights by the talent of the chefs at OMI...
One of the specialties of the house which you won't see enough of in Toronto is the option to have omakase. Compare omakase to the tasting menu at your favourite fine dining lounge or bistro. It's a taste of this, a bite of that. It's not like bento, which is just a medium portion of a couple things: this is a full array of delectable sushi, sashimi, and house favourites. The price is market (it's 70$ a head right now, but that will change with the season), but is only available for a party of 7 or more. Sadly I was just a lonely party of one! I will save my omakase dreams for another day.

A salt lover to the core, I've always been a great fan of miso soup. I love getting a bento box and slurping up the bowl of white miso broth, piping hot, rich with umami ( I used the word!For once it feels less snobby). OMI dishes up the classic with only a light spin, enough to make me tilt my head in amusement without being totally blown away. Miso soup is so simple that adding or modifying much means you're having a completely different appetizer very quickly. Here the broth was peppered with a few stalks of enoki mushroom, the citrus stalks playing with the very mild salt of OMI's broth. There was a curious flotilla of what I think was rice puffs, forming a layer over the soup. Served near boiling, as I like it. Simple and mellow.

Here must I profess a great and undying love, no, an ever growing love, or weeds from the sea. Sea weeds. Ever since I started perusing that massive superstore in little Ko9rea, I've been spoiled for choice. I like to nibble on salted, roasted nori, and will happily soak wakame in preference to chopping iceberg for salad. There are many, many varieties of seaweed, all with a unique taste, and generally bursting with vitamins. I love the flavor! Much for the same reason people enjoy oysters, seaweed taste wild, and like the water. It tastes fresh. This trio of salads comprised of two kinds of seaweed and one cabbage  leaf'd construction hit the spot. It's a great salad for this still-hot days. The seaweeds (one was certainly wakame, the other MAY have been arame, though it wasn't as black as I recall arame being) were moist, and slid down my throat like refreshing tentacles. Appealing, I know! They tasted basically the same, though the arame was milder tasting. Both had a hint of sesame, maybe from just the seeds, maybe from a drop of oil. The other salad was a super-fine julienne slaw of white and red cabbage, crisp as anything (daikon, also?). There was a simple and juicy dressing of lemon, and a sprig of carrot added just a tease of sweet. So finely crafted! I tried them all separate, and then messed together for a grand finale of flavor.

On to the rolls! A certain writer for the star has been posting to his blog about all this crab consumption, and I wanted in. I've been feeling the seafood lately, especially the crustacean kind. I am also growing more aware of how unfamiliar with the fast array of crabs I am! I've had tinned crab, fake crab, and disappointed, overcooked snow crab legs (they were not worth the fight to free the dry meat). Softies, come to me! This roll, with the rice on the outside and the crab snug in a wrap of nori, was delicious, but not the best dish to flex my taste buds with. Why? Bonito. LOTS of bonito! Like dandruff, but more appealing, the top of the nori was loaded in dry flakes of dehydrated tuna. And it was STRONG! The flavor of the roll wound up being mostly fishy, with a hint of green onion and mayo. It came served with zippy pickled ginger that skipped the pink dye, and surprisingly mild wasabi.

On the website, this is listed as a special for November. Is it possible OMI hasn't updated their specials in almost a year? I won't complain, so long as they keep this on when the menu does change! In a way this is not unlike a sushi inside-out roll- just substitute rice for stringy sweet potato (they must seriously love their mandoline here), flash fried around the tempura catfish until it's crispy AND chewy. That's right, both, the best of both worlds. The natural sugar of the sweet potato keeps it a little moist even after cooking. The log of four pieces sat in a little puddle of watered down tamari- let it sit long and it gets soggy. Each section was topped with something different, wasabi, roe, mayo, a mystery. I wish there had been a more substantial portion of fish under all that orange spud. I am happy that the fish was so fresh and meaty, though.

Dessert was a fun and weird delight! These fish-shaped ice creams (based on something called bungeoppang, wikipedia tells me) aren't made by OMI. They're a snack item, like a Klondike bar but from Korea (no, they aren't Japanese!). Learning that this is a cheap snack food (made by a company called binggrae) has changed my opinion of it a bit- not because I didn't like it. Actually, I enjoyed the thin wafer and soft serve, with the earthy and sweet red bean jelly layer. It wasn't fresh, didn't taste fresh, but I liked the novelty. What bothers me is knowing your can get this for $4 in a grocery store. Is a $5 surcharge a bit much, especially considering it wasn't even dressed up? For something processed and not fresh? I think so.

Matahari Grill

Funny how you can think you know a street so well, only to realize over the years there's been a gem that has gone unnoticed, shining in a dark corner. I thought I knew Baldwin street. How I love the saucy Indian food at Jodhpore, and the unique sushi offered at Konichiwa (one of only a handful of Japanese places I'll bother with now that I've realized how unimaginative sushi restaurants tend to be).
The crisp, thick white tablecloths and dim lights at the Matahari Bar & Grill always scared me away. I like to keep my dining very casual, and from the outside it seems very business class, very satin dress and high heels. I don't think I had any curiosity about what kind of food they served, either. Sadly it had never made even the slightest indentation on my gastronomical radar.
All these misplaced assumptions, these terrible mistakes!
My friend Sandy shares my love of Baldwin street, but was shocked that I had never been to Matahari (39 Baldwin St), or tried any Malaysian food at all (other that the nasi-goreng-from-a-package we eat under my Oma's rule). With embarrassment I admitted I didn't even know that cuisine is what Matahari offers. Happy to be led with ebullient suggestions and recommendations, I let him do the ordering, and tell me what he knew about Malaysian food. Because of its geographical location, there's a blend of influences from China, India, Eurasia, and the flavourful Malay flavour as well.

My first lesson came along with our appetizer. When Sandy ordered a Roti (1.25$), my eyes bulged and I worried aloud, how on earth would we eat so much? Two mains, individual rice bowls, and a roti? Impossible! Even in my self indulgent food enthusiasm, could I ever eat so much? Here my assumption was that we were to be served some massive stuffed and folded up bundle of curry sauce and potato, a-la-Ghandi's (or my personal favourite, Island Foods). This is not that Trinidadian style roti. As I learned (is so much of my eating experience learning? Do I really know so little about the world and its noshes?), the word doesn't even mean what I thought. Many breads from Asia are called roti. Chapati, paratha, roti! What we were served was a small, flaky disk about the size of a big grapefruit in diameter, it's edges flaky like puff pastry. This was very delicate and layered with the sweet taste of butter. It was not chewy like naan, but salty and tender in the center, doughy but cooked, with those wonderful layered edges like dry fall leaves.

One of the mains that we ordered to share was this incredible simmered beef rib dish, the Rendang Beef (18$). It came in a deep bowl, piled high onto a majestic and ruffled leaf of romaine. At first it didn't seem like so much, but as we kept going back to refill our plates, it seemed like the beef never ran out. Though this is rib meat, the bone is gone- I suspect it sloughed away from the soft, babyish meat after hours of careful simmering. The flavour was pure Malay (so I was told), with a dry, not hot curry flavour. It also contains coconut milk which I did not taste, but would have worked with all the natural fats to make that delightful sweetness in the deep grains of the meat. The ribs were incredibly marbled, rich and juicy, and I couldn't believe how well crafted the dish was. It was pure and simple, and incredibly satisfying. A quality cut of meat handled with a light hand can be so gratifying, and this is the dish I know I'll order when I return.

Unlike our meaty main, the Casbah Cashew Prawn (18$) was a dish with a very noticeable Chinese influence. It was coated in a thick and rather cloying sweet garlic sauce. This is my least favourite aspect of Chinese cooking, a cuisine which I am not particularly fond of to begin. I don't like warm, sweet sauces. I always find them somehow greasy, and that is also how I felt about this dish. Sandy said it wasn't as good as usual. The garlic in the sauce was smoky and pungent, dressing the flavour of all the vegetables and concealing their milder tastes. It could have been any veg in there, and had little effect on the taste. The prawns and veggies were cooked beautifully, firm enough to retain all their texture, the pink sea bugs snapping and bursting with juice. If only that sauce hadn't been so thick and sweet! I appreciated the dryness of the cashew sprinkled on top, but otherwise was not impressed.

 

 There was no way not to love this, and I'm not just saying that as a lifetime devotee of white rice. Yes it's true, there are few foods in this world that beat the simple pleasure of a bowl of well handled, moist, glutinous rice; parboiled grains, sticky japonica, dense arborio, or fluffy basmati, please. Considering one of my favourite complimentary flavours in cooking is coconut, I knew I would love the Coconut Rice (2.00$) from Matahari Bar and Grill. The bowl was packed as tight as an onigiri with the high pile of sweetish rice, that was not so sweet it that would pass for dessert (it wasn't meant to be).  The grains were small and perfectly cooked, and there was a saltiness from just enough butter to keep it on the edge of savoury. Apparently it's usually got a stronger flavour of coconut, but tonight I found it mild. I think that is better for mixing with savoury mains, like our delicious simmered short ribs.

Can you tell I got some isometric grid paper to play with? Oh yeeeeah. Things that make me happy and nerdy....

Weekly Features Roundup

It has been an extremely busy and rewarding week at Drawn and Devoured!

I'd like to say a little thank you to people linking back here in the last couple weeks. 

Hand Guide to Nothing Our server from Caplansky's finds Drawn and Devoured, and shares it on his tumblr

Until We Eat Again Mentions the blog at the end of their Toronto cafe tour article, happy to find a blog that's both food and comics

Sheryl Kirby is one of the voices behind TasteToronto, and has moved her daily features to her personal site- TasteTO has been linking to me regularly and it's been very helpful!

I've also had the experience of getting interviewed by a two very amazing websites.

OTMzine is an online publication in magazine format. Doing the interview for them was a LOT of fun, since I got to play at pretty princess and have my makeup done and do a photo shoot. I think the most fun part was getting to draw a mini-comic for them, though. See bellow! 

Drawn and Devoured is now also on Bloglovin' and Foodbuzz.

Thanks again everyone for your support. You make working on this blog a pure pleasure!

Caplansky's

Click on images to see them larger!

Ah, Caplansky's. The meat-lovers haven of kosher deliciousness, one of Toronto's few authentic deli's. Once upon a time I ventured in to try their smoked offerings at 356 College Street. The turkey was dry, but that was two years ago. Since then, Caplansky's fame has continued a steady climb, and Zane has started some exciting ventures. For those who aren't up for travelling the gruelling distance to middle-of-everything College street, Caplansky now delivers...by bike! Within reasonable  distance. There's also the intriguing deli truck, which takes Caplanky foods out on wheels, like an ice cream cart for adults. Will it play the Lambada?

Let's eat some meat!

 

This might be the thing that brings me back. how to describe the knish? It's no beauty. A wedge of pastry stuffed with meat, spices, and riced potato sits in a puddle of rather hideous, lumpy gravy. It tastes like savoury heaven.  The gravy reminds me of the ragu my not-Quebecois mother would make. It's got a rich briny taste, with the chunks of macerated beef adding a lumpiness that could almost classify it as chili. Though it doesn't have liver in, I can almost taste a rich, heady iron. I thoroughly enjoy the puff pastry, which was bready. The crust was chewy with egg-wash, the tender underside sucking up more and more gravy. I could eat this every day.

For me, this was a challenge. It's not that I'm afraid of the taste of tongue (and you can keep your lewd jokes to yourself!). I've heard unappealing accounts of the texture, though. In my commitment to eating and experiencing everything, I couldn't let that hold me back without advice. Lexie was my consultant for all things on this Jewish menu that I wanted advice for, and told me that tongue is one of her favourite things ever. With trust, I chose if over the sweet gefilte fish. 

The texture is NOT a turn off! 

Perhaps it would have been if the dense and spongy meat hasn't been sliced thin like Montreal smoked meat. The texture is thicker and less stringy than most deli meats, but the flavour is incredible. It's incredibly fatty and overflowing with richness. No risk of being dry here! Since the tongue is pickled, it's packed with tenderness, and the flavours are accentuated from the brine. Call me a convert. What was funny about the sandwich was actually the size of the bread. These poor little wedges of rye! They're under so much pressure to perform. It's a huge task for two little guys, falling apart under the weight of the butter they're drenched in (though that didn't keep me from saturating them further in hot mustard).

What I want to know, Zane, is can I take your tongue home with me? ...do you sell jars, maybe?

The sandwich combo I ordered comes with fries, salad or soup. I need to find a place with more interesting side dished to draw! I opted in for the soup du jour, since it's served cold. Nothing to say 'hello, Summer!' like cold soup to start a hot meal. In retrospect, I should have tried the borscht, something I've yet to try. This soup was very good, though! It was quite filling thanks to the rich and complex squash. With apple puree in it, it was sweeter than I had expected, and reminded me of pumpkin pie. There was a hint of herbs and ginger. It was a lovely appetizer.

Lexie went for an entree from the less deli-centric side of the menu, a vegetarian ratatouille. This was pure comfort food. The rich was fluffy, sticky and plain, the kind that sticks to your ribs. On top was a simple heap of soft grilled vegetables, a medley of citrusy zuchini, earthy eggplant, onions and a colourful array of yellow, red and green pepper. I think the pepper and citrus of the gourds stood out, giving the stew a refreshing quality that balanced with the heartiness of plain rice, and went well with the balmy evening air.

 

Now, I don't usually do this, but the staff was INCREDIBLE. So, here's a quick shout-out as a thank you for wonderful service, humor, and a smile that was massive and almost unnaturally genuine. Seriously man, how do you do it! We came in near to closing time, the hour that servers tend to turn sour, and this guy was just amazing and nice. I probably drew his hair wrong.

Rugelach isn't news to me. Having dated a Jewish boy, I've was lucky enough to get to snack on these tiny pastries semi-regularly. They're like one inch long croissants, but denser. The pastry fall somewhere between puff pastry, and flakier viennoiserie. It's sweet, with just the barest hint of the vinegar used to make puff pastry crisp. That just makes the sugars stand out more. The rugelach at Caplansky's had a chocolate twist which was great (I'm a chocoholic). I really enjoy them for their size, their simplicity. It was a nice and light dessert after a KILLER filling dinner!

 

I know I said not to make any tongue jokes, and now I am making tongue jokes, and have made tongue jokes...well.

 Zane says it himself, he's got the best tongue in town.

GUU

 

I've been thinking of this post as my 'In honour of TCAF' post. If you didn't know, TCAF is the Toronto Comic Arts Fair, and happens to be where I spent my whole weekend volunteering, and also happens to be really awesome. Everyone I worked with was a peach. One of the co-founders is the lovely Chris Butcher, who I've followed on twitter for ages...and the man LOVES the izakaya joint GUU which recently landed two locations in Toronto (we went to the 559 Bloor St. W location)! Naturally I had to go there, especially given my interest in trying Japanese food that isn't cookie-cutter dull sushi.

So here's to Chris, the other organizers, the staff of the Beguiling, my co-volunteers, and of course the amazing comic artists who brought so many people together this past weekend. Itadakimasu!

This place has so much character. It's like walking into a crowd scene from a Miyazaki film, with colourful characters yelling back and forth and literally cheering each arrival, and thanking every departure at full voice. I don't know how the staff can act so cheerful and animated, it's hilarious, it's fun, and it's catching. At one point they swarm a table to sing 'Happy Birthday' and for some reason they have maracas. No wonder the vibe inside is of boozy joy, the patrons all getting drunk on the novelty. The staff are very accommodating, giving us hot damp towels to clean our hands on, though they're very slow to serve. There's plenty of staff, but there are WAY more customers; the narrow and dark eatery is jammed. With three seating areas, we go for the speediest and eat at the bar, which is quite wide. There's also an area with large communal tables, and another area where guests must remove their shoes and sit on floor cushions. I'd like to try that next time, when it's not a 40 minute wait. I think the other location on Church street has a summer patio (just don't quote me on that).

We started with the Oshinko (house pickles) off the special menu, with a side dish of confusion. We were told the kitchen ran out of pickles, and a little bit later, were told they were making us pickles! Which doesn't quite make sense since pickles need to marinade and, well... pickle, for a while. Or else they're just vegetables. What we wound up with was a gorgeous plate of raw vegetables, mostly cucumber, daikon, carrot, radish and some crazy sushi-esque deal that I have no name for, just appreciation. The vegetables had had SOMETHING done to them, and even if it wasn't pickled, it was tasty. They were soft and salty, with a dash of sushi vinegar and ginger. A very pleasant, refreshing start to the meal, along with a few huge steins of Sapporo, and a Ramune for me (it's a Japanese soda that taste like a light cream soda... and fifty cents from each purchase goes to help Japan when you buy it at GUU).

A while ago I tried jellyfish. I don't shy away from strange foods, rather I seek to embrace them. It was a weird, mushy disappointment served on watery iceberg lettuce. Gross. I guess I should have expected as much from ordering anything other than the eponymous dumplings from Dumpling House. It was finally time for a second chance from a proper restaurant, and my friends joined me in this deep-dish salad. It was an even blend of lettuce, heaps of noodly jellyfish, chapchae (seasoned cold glass noodles), and crunchy wonton. The jellyfish was SO good! Enjoying the not-too-meaty chewiness, I was happy to be able to reverse my original opinion. The salad really was a chameleon, with the two main toppings, jellyfish and chapchae, taking on the sweet and salty flavour of Japanese dressing. The dressing was the same as at any other Japanese restaurant. There was also jicama which is a variety of turnip, that added plenty of crunch to the salad. Not too special overall.

This was a major hit with us! I would like to call it 'chicken balls for adults", where the chicken is replaced with lumps of squid tentacle, and instead of being dipped in fake, electric red sweet 'n' sour sauce, the balls are instead drowned in a creamy cheese gratin, with stringy crusty cheese melted on top and a savoury sauce throughout. It had a surprising and delightful flavour of hot mustard, which may have come from wasabi, and a sweetness from ponzu. The dough was very soft, like fresh baked bread, and just sopped up all the juice and cheese. A very rich dish for those in harmony with their arteries.

There was little to get excited about with these chicken nuggets in tempura batter. They did all seem to have a frightening appearance like small birds, which I'm sure was completely unintentional, and a great source of amusement for someone with as bizarre a mind as mine. The flavour wasn't much to write home about, since they are just boneless chicken wings in essence and flavour, and taste how you would expect. The mayo on the side had a nice zing, and the portion was generous for 5.20$

 

Again we ordered something delectable and deep fried in tempura batter, this time the fish cake called isobeage. If you can imagine a deep fried sponge that tastes like everything good to eat in the sea, you're starting to imagine the isobeage. It's really unusual, and is shamelessly bar food. I found it really interesting that it came with a heap of matcha powder on the side as seasoning. The matcha tasted bitter and strong, and was soaked up by the oil of the crust of our fish cake cones. I don't think it added much other than a wow for presentation.

With this arrived another dish of shapeless fried indulgence. This one is ika-nan, deep fried squid cartilage. I'm glad someone has found a use for that part of the cephalopod, because I always eat around it when I cook at home. Yet again the meat is battered in flaky tempura crust, this time also tossed in a spicy sauce. The cartilage has crunch and chewiness, but isn't an unpalatable texture. It tastes like squid, but also like a pork rind. It's all fat, all crust, all sauce. This also came with a side of the hot, tangy mayo.

One of the bigger experiments of the night was ordering a mixed bowl- a yukke. We got the salmon natto yukke, mainly because of my insistence on trying natto- Japanese fermented beans. Natto dish is HUMONGOUS in Japan, it's a national staple (from my understanding, anyhow). It's also notorious outside it's country of origin for being one of the more horrible foods you can order, and opinions on it differ widely. Not all fermentation tastes bad after all, or we wouldn't enjoy wine and beer. The dish was so pretty and colourful, with a raw quail egg adding a yolky dash of yellow to the heart of the bowl, which also had salmon sashimi, wonton chips, green onion, shibazuke (a mixture of cucumber and eggplant pickles), takuon (daikon pickle) and of course, natto. The dish is served with all the ingredients separate in the same bowl, meant to be mixed together and served in dollops on squares of crisp nori. I'm a huge nori advocate, but first I wanted to try the natto by itself. I just tried a couple of the little beans. Oh no! Call me uncultured, I'll accept it, but I cannot eat natto by itself. It tastes sour, and the gooey, stringy texture of fermented gloop that coats it is a turn-off. We followed through and mixed the dish all together. The natto helped it stick. In the end, the different flavours harmonized, and even though some of that fermentation came through, the nori and tender salmon saved the dish. I ended up enjoying it as a whole, though I can't say I would order a natto yukke again.

My favourite dish perhaps was the assorted kushi age (Japanese kabob made with unexpected items). This is very similar to tempura, but served on a skewer, and with a more robust batter. We ordered a skewer of quail egg (soft, fluffy yolks and the most tasty snack I never imagined), one of potato (predictable but delicious comfort food), one of ham (served as a slab, just a big chunk of meat that tasted a bit like a hot dog), mushroom (sadly it was only crimini or button- I had hoped we would have shiitake, or some less run of the mill deep fried fungus), and lotus root (this wasn't actually a skewer, and the dense slices of root were pleasantly refreshing and watery while maintaining their body. A bit sweet). All served with an out of this world ponzu sauce, and that ever-present wasabi mayo.

I insisted on desert even though we were all full after sharing all the greasy dishes. I had seen a picture of this sesame troika of a dessert called 'goma senkushi' that I needed to try- not because I'm nuts for sesame, but because I knew I could draw it beautifully. Sometimes that's what motivates me to order a dish. It arrived, and was as lovely as I had hoped. It was tasty, too. The rice cracker wafers were flaky and not overpowering. The two rice balls were warm and glutinous, one had been deep fried with a sesame seed crust. The ice cream was black, and tasted more of cream than seeds, but for the visual alone I would have loved it. Less of an overwhelming aroma than I expected, but a filling dessert that suits the menu going at GUU.

Thanks to my guests Anthony (of the band The Ethers) and Nate (design editor at large) for experimenting with me!