Smoked Salmon Pizza and Granola at Toast Culture

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Fish and Chips at Three Vikings: Better Than Ever!

The fish and chips has always been amazing at Three Vikings (10713 124 Street), but it is now even better than ever. The pieces of fish are larger, and the batter is crunchier. It’s a Tuborg beer batter and it is excellent. And the mountain of fries stayed super crunchy on the ride over with our Uber Eats driver. Served with house made coleslaw, tartar sauce, and ketchup.

Building my Own at Wayback Burgers

Burger and tots.

Wayback Burgers is a burger joint and bar at 10412 Jasper Avenue. For delivery, I ordered the "build your own" burger - I always appreciate that option at a burger joint, because I am very particular if not somewhat of a minimalist. My burger arrived with my specified toppings of grilled onions, pickles, mushrooms, and mayo. It tasted great, and I especially appreciated the fluffy bun. My side was tots, and they were very average. In reading reviews here, I think I should have gone for the chips instead, which I will do next time. My chocolate shake is substantial and very cold and sweet, as it should be.

Cui Hua Gui Lin Noodle House: Brisket and Chicken Lo Noodles

Cui Hua Gui Lin Noodle House (10626 97 Street) is a Chinatown restaurant specializing in - as its name suggests - noodle dishes. The menu consists of a variety of soups (which include noodles), vermicelli dishes, and house specialty noodles. The proteins in most of the dishes include beef, pork, and chicken, as well as lamb in a few of them.

Since noodles is the Gui Lin speciality, house noodle dishes are what I ordered: a Chicken Lo Noodle and a Brisket Lo Noodle, to be precise. The noodles were flat and almost clear, with a slightly chewy texture. They mixed in well with the protein, peanuts, and bamboo shoots, and parsley that adorned. Each mouthful resonated with notes of sweet, spicy and sour in different levels of intensity. The flavours were balanced, and as someone who has a low spice tolerance threshold, I was not overwhelmed with heat, but felt my taste buds tingling just enough. While the chicken mostly tasted from the hot and sour flavour soundtrack, the brisket was tender and maintained some of its meaty notes, although it also had the same flavour combination underscoring it. The person who ate the rest of the Brisket Lo Noodle raved about the dish's flavour.

I also ordered one of the restaurant's appetizers, the lemongrass chicken. What looked like the equivalent of two thighs were cut up in bite-sized pieces and cooked in the tangy and mildly spicy lemongrass, served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Definitely flavourful and satisfying.

Overall, after finishing my lunch I felt like I had taken a culinary journey, which I hope to explore again.

Brisket Lo Noodle

 

Boneless Wings at Wing Snob

I loves me some chicken wings, and really miss going out for beer and wings because of the pandemic. Wing Snob (11988 104 Avenue) brought the wings to me (via Skip the Dishes), and I am SO impressed. Wing Snob offers traditional wings, boneless wings (like nuggets), and chicken tenders with a variety of sauces and dips. You can even get fried cauliflower wings - handy if you're bringing in for your cohort and someone is vegetarian. I had ten boneless lemon pepper wings. Let me tell you, these were the best boneless wings I have EVER had. They were plump, juicy, and flavourful without being overwhelming. Usually lemon pepper is a dry rub, but there was an actual, light lemon sauce on the wings that infused a lot of flavour, and still the wings stayed crispy. I also ordered a side of plain fries. They come seasoned or salted as well. For a regular portion, two people could have shared. The fries were lightly breaded and very crispy. I also ordered a piece of cornbread for dessert. At $1.50, it was a small slab wrapped in cellophane. It was fresh and tasted great. Wing Snob packed the order brilliantly, with slits on the styrofoam containers to get the steam out and let the food stay crispy. They also provided a side plate, fork, ketchup, and hand wipes. Next time, I think I am going to skip the fries and order a larger portion of wings. I am already looking forward to it!

Lemon Pepper boneless wings.