Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice

With over 6,000 locations around the world, Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is one of China’s biggest food chains and they’re now available in Canada! They recently opened several new locations in Ontario. Check out their website to find a location near you!

Website: http://yangschicken.ca

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice actually really reminds me of a hearty home cooked meal. My mom is a huge fan of one pot cooking so this is definitely something I’m familiar with.

The portions at Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice are humongo. I got two meals out of this one meal combo! The chicken is marinated all the way through and so tender. My favourite part is the sauce and this one pot wonder is oh so saucy. I drizzled the sauce on my rice so each bite is full of flavour. Yang’s Chinese chicken pot recipe has been around since the 1830s, passed down from generation to generation. The chicken here is braised daily at the restaurant and each order only takes five to nine minutes to prepare. It’s the perfect quick, healthy and delicious meal if you’re under a time crunch!

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice may be famous for their signature braised chicken and rice, but I was actually really impressed with their cucumber salad. It sounds simple, but it’s so refreshing and such a nice pairing to the braised chicken and rice. This is something my grandma used to make as a side dish too! There are lots of side dishes to pick from the menu so I definitely recommend trying them out too.

Yunshang Rice Noodle

Location: Unit 5 - 5285 Yonge St, North York, ON, M2N 5R3

Website:  http://www.yunshang.ca/

Grand opening: March 15, 2019

Grand opening promotion: FREE Yunshang Bridge Rice Noodle sets on March 15th and March 16th starting from 6pm for the first 100 customers!!

Full disclosure, I love my noods and I can’t get enough of it. When I heard about this “Yunshang Bridge Rice Noodle” set I simply had to try it. It was everything I ever imagined and more. Based on a popular Chinese fable, this “crossing the bridge” rice noodles symbolizes affection, endearment and admiration. This is definitely a dish made with love and care. I mean, just look at it!

This instagram worthy “Yunshang Bridge Rice Noodle” set is not only esthetically pleasing, it is equally as pleasing to the tastebuds! The amount of toppings provided here almost reminds me of hot pot (which I also love). This noodle set comes with: various seafood offerings including a Canadian Atlantic lobster tail, fresh French Kiss oyster (sourced from Diana’s Seafood), sea scallop, shrimps and crab sticks. Other accompanying ingredients, such as quail eggs, beef slices, fish cakes, ham, enokitake, Chinese lettuce, and egg tofu, are also served with this epic wooden bridge. 

The broth itself is made from scratch daily with Canadian sourced ingredients. It’s simmered for at least 12 hours with pork, chicken AND beef bones to really get the flavourful broth without the use of MSG. My personal favourite here is the tomato soup but there are a variety of soup bases to pick from if tomato is not your thing. 

Fun fact: The pots used to serve the broth is not your average pot. They are specially made in Japan and are able to retain heat to keep everything hot for at least 30 mins! That’s more than enough time for a foodtography session and still be able to enjoy a steaming hot bowl of rice noodles. 

The regular noodle set here also comes with a variety of toppings (10 small side dishes to be exact) PLUS unlimited rice noodle refills!

With various locations in Vancouver, Montreal and even New York, Yunshang Rice Noodle is the largest Chinese rice noodle chain in North America and it’s continuing to grow. Keep an eye out for more more grand opening promotions in the future! As for the “Yunshang Bridge Rice Noodle”, it’ll be available for purchase at this new North York location from March 17, 2019 - March 31, 2019 for only $19.99 (limited quantity per day). 

Sugar Rush in Ottawa

Ottawa, the city where I discovered the magic of toe warmers. Winter in Ottawa really is no joke!

Ottawa has a reputation for its brutal winters but one of my favourite moments from this trip was actually lining up with my friends in the freezing cold for beaver tails and hot chocolate at the Byward Maket. In that moment I realized the true meaning of friendship. I mean, not many people would freeze their faces off just to help me satisfy my beaver tail craving! Even Ottawa winters can’t keep me from food adventuring!

This was my 2nd time visiting Ottawa and food baby enjoyed both visits thoroughly. I was hesitant about the food scene in Ottawa at first but there are actually lots of yummy places and hidden gems!

I love discovering a city through its food scene so I ate and I ate, and then I ate some more. I wanted to share my top 3 favourite dessert places because if there’s anything I love more than actually eating, it’s to force feed people the food that I love. These places are definitely worth checking out!

3. Art-Is-In Bakery 

📍250 City Centre Ave #112, Ottawa, ON K1R 1C7

This spacious, almost warehouse like, bakery offers a wide variety of baked goods and beverages. The cronuts are a must try! I just about licked the plate when I was done. I paired it with the earl grey tea latte and it was the perfect breakfast combination in my opinion!

2. Suzy Q 

📍969 Wellington St W, Ottawa, ON K1Y 2X7

These doughnuts are as yummy as they are pretty! So light and fluffy. They look humongo but I can easily polish it off by myself because it’s so airy!

I love the large selection of flavours, including their “healthy” version of doughnuts like the carrot one in the picture. I love it when bakeries help me consume my daily recommended dose of vegetables. Suzy Q cares!

1. The Cupcake Lounge  

📍6 Byward Market Square, Ottawa, ON K1N 9B8

This is actually a place that I stumbled across from exploring the Byward Market. I’m so happy I did! The cupcake is moist and baked to perfection. The frosting itself is not overly sweet and the cupcake to frosting ratio is just right. I came in this cute little bakery with the intention of just having a cupcake for breakfast (yes, I eat cupcakes for breakfast). Let’s just say I ended up eating a lot more than just one!

The earl grey cupcake is my favourite! I actually got an extra one to eat on my way back to Toronto.

Over all I really enjoyed my time in Ottawa. How can I not when there are so many food places for me to eat at when I need to escape the freezing cold. The winter may be harsh but ice skating on the Rideau Canal is a pretty fun experience! But maybe next time I’ll visit in the summer time so I don’t freeze my face off.

Until next time Ottawa! I’ll be back for more food adventures!

Icha Tea

Name: Icha Tea

Location:  235 Spadina Ave Unit 4, Toronto, ON M5T 2E2

Website:  http://icha-tea.business.site/

A hidden tea shop located by what is quickly becoming one of my favourite places to explore, Kensington Market!

The store is divided to 2 parts. The front of the store doesn’t have much seating, it’s more of a takeout kind of situation and they offer bubble tea and other specialty drinks. Icha Tea uses fresh milk instead of powdered creamer in their milk teas. The quality ingredients really does make a difference in the taste! 

The back of the store is surprisingly spacious with lots of seating. This is where they serve the more traditional teas at the tea bar. The whole process is interesting and I always have fun here! There’s a pretty large selection of teas to choose from and the tea is brewed right in front of you at the tea bar. The teas are from China (except for the matcha which is from Japan) and they are aromatic and refreshing. The staff members are knowledgeable and helpful when it comes to selecting a tea. There’s a large selection of white teas, green teas, oolong teas, black teas and dark teas.

After the tea selection you get to pick your own tea cups! There are so many cute cups to choose from. I’m an extremely indecisive person and when given so many choices I tend to get very flustered. Needless to say, this was a very long process for me. It took me longer to pick my tea cup than it did for me to pick the actual tea. The cups are just so little and cute! 

Once you’ve selected your tea and tea cup, just sit back and enjoy the “show”. They make the tea in front of you at the tea bar. It’s almost like a little tea ceremony each time they brew a fresh pot. Instead of the tea being brewed directly in the teapot, the tea is actually brewed in a separate cup/bowl which is then transferred to your tea set. The first batch of tea is actually poured out and not served. This is because the first batch is meant to “wake” the tea leaves up.

As far as desserts go, they don’t have much in terms of selection. However, everything is made fresh and in house. I highly recommend the sesame tofu cheesecake. I was nervous about the tofu part but I couldn’t taste it at all! The cheesecake itself is not too dense (it’s light like a Japanese cheesecake) and has a really flavorful sesame taste.

The tea bar area is really peaceful and it doesn't get too noisy. It’s a perfect place to catch up on some reading and de-stress.