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 x SickKids

Sometimes I get caught up in the daily grind of things and forget just how lucky I am to be here, to be healthy and to be surrounded by some truly amazing people in my life. 

I had a lot of health issues when I was a kid. I still remember being in and out of the hospital with my mom and how scary all the wires and machines were. I was fortunate enough to have access to great medical care and I’m now able to enjoy all these food adventures and explore the world, one restaurant at a time.

SickKids is an amazing hospital that not only takes care of the kids, but they also provide comfort and support to the parents and family of the kids going through treatment. 

The founder of Yunshang Rice Noodle is a regular donor to SickKids. His son was only one year old when he was rushed to SickKids to receive treatment. He was able to make a full recovery thanks to the incredible team at SickKids. The founder is committed to giving back to this incredible organization and is passionate about bringing awareness to the important issues plaguing the health of children, and becoming educated in helping an organization that does so much for children and their families.

On July 7th 2019, the beloved Chinese rice noodle brand, Yunshang, will launch a “Pay-What-You-Can” campaign in support of SickKids to build a new hospital!

An exclusive “Support-SickKids Menu” will be available at all Yunshang locations in the GTA on July 7th. Guests are encouraged to come to any Yunshang store, order whatever they like on the menu, and pay what they can. 100% of the proceeds collected that day will go to support SickKids Foundation. Besides helping to provide children with access to high quality healthcare, this campaign will hopefully end hunger in the city even if it’s for one day. 

I’m such a fan of the rice noodles and the different broths here (the tomato soup is my favourite).

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.

Each noodle set comes with a variety of sides dishes that are served in a cute little bento style box. I love the quail eggs and the fish tofu. The noodle set really is a full meal once you add in all the side dishes.

This exclusive “Support-SickKids Menu” at Yunshang offers a cold dish/appetizer and a drink in addition to the rice noodle set. An amazing meal for an amazing cause!

Yunshang stores open at 12PM and this campaign is for dine-in only. Remember to come early on July 7th and celebrate the day for a good cause!

For more about this great causes check out: http://yunshang.ca/sickkids_en.html

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). 

Cheese Garden

Location: Unit G120, 3250 Midland Avenue, Scarborough, ON, M1V 4W9

Website:  http://www.cheesegarden.ca/

There are currently 3 locations you can go to pick up some of their amazing treats. My go-to is the Midland location in Scarborough since it’s closest to my place and the service is always great.

I love Japanese desserts and Cheese Garden never disappoints when I’m craving a good Japanese cheesecake. They use quality ingredients and it shows in their beautifully crafted treats.

Cheese Garden’s Japanese cheesecakes are baked fresh daily. They are light, airy and full of flavour. I like to describe it as a hybrid of mousse cake and sponge cake - exactly how a Japanese Cheesecake should be. 

I love my matcha so when Cheese Garden came out with this matcha tiramisu I just had to get my hands on it. You can never have too MATCHA tiramisu and trust me, I’ve had my fair share. This matcha tiramisu is made with premium Uji matcha powder. The cream is rich and fluffy. The “lady fingers” is actually a Hokkaido chiffon cake and it’s light, not overly sweet and balances out the creamy filling.

The 5 inch baked cheese tart is basically a tart filled with ooey gooey molten cheese in a perfectly baked tart shell that is buttery and flakey. This is one of my many favourite treats at the Cheese Garden, I guess you can say that it stole my tart. Okay, that was the last pun I swear! The cheese tarts are best consumed when they’re fresh out the oven. However, for the people out there with more self control than me and won’t stuff their faces with this beautiful tart in a single sitting, Cheese Garden does provide a little pamphlet with instructions on how to store and re-heat this tart.

I saved the best for last, the double fromage cheesecake! It comes in 2 flavours, original and matcha. It’s literally 2 layers of cheesecake (one frozen and one baked) sitting on a layer of sponge cake. I can’t get enough of this double fromage cheesecake! It’s the best of both worlds, a combination of a cheesecake and an ice cream cake. The size is perfect for sharing but once you get a bite of this you’re gonna want to keep it all to yourself.

Cheese Garden’s decor is simple and elegant (much like their baked goods). They also have lots of windows and natural light which makes this the perfect spot for a foodtography session.

Keep an eye on their website and social media - they release seasonal products for limited time only!

Sponsored tasting - while the cakes were complimentary, opinions are my own.