Saturday Dinette on a Sunday and a Dried Date Tasting

An extended breakfast or brunch with one (or a number) of close friends is one of life's little pleasures.  It's definitely important once people settle down and have children.  One of my friends commented that after people start to have children, the likelihood that you'll see your closest friends may be once every 2 months.  I kinda didn't think that was true, but when I really start to think about it, it is not too far off sadly.  Of course there are times where it's once a month, but that means only 6-12 times a year! Anyway, makes getting together with close friends even more of a treasured moment.

This past Sunday, we got together for breakfast at Saturday Dinette and I was really impressed.  Got there just after they opened at 9 am and was greeted warmly.  Space is small and tables near the front are for parties of two, but there were slightly larger tables at the back.  Decor was comfortable and some might say a little retro, but I think it's like walking into a friend's kitchen who likes to cook and has a casual and cool style.  They describe themselves as a modern diner which is a very good description.

Menu is not too large, but there are enough choices and it has a very good mix of options, several jumped out at me.

I finally decided on the "Shrooms on Toast" and my friend ordered the "Herbed Poached Eggs".  They do have items that are more "meaty" and several add-on options, but we were happy with our choices.

I ordered an Apple on the Green tea and here they use Pluck Teas.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this is a local tea company and I've been seeing this brand in a lot of places I have recently gone to. Loved the little tea cup!!  I don't have tea cups like these but I'm tempted to start collecting a mismatch of these English style tea cups.  The french press idea is nice, but the only thing about that is that the tea leaves end up sitting in water still.  So in the end, I tasted green tea but not much apple.

Now onto the food.  First off, I must say presentation was great!

Herbed Poached Eggs

'Shrooms on Toast

The egg was perfectly done, whites were cooked well and egg yolk oozed out once you poked at it.  The mushrooms were aplenty and I liked the addition of ricotta cheese which was hidden under the egg.

Here's look at the inside, bar counter...

Besides having great food, the owner/chef Suzanne Barr has also established a social program called the Dinettes to train and employ young women from the YWCA which you can read about here. Definitely recommend this place not only for the food quality and service, but this initiative that gives back to the community!

After our breakfast, we still had time and lots to chat about so went for a coffee a few doors down.  It seemed like it was a new-ish coffee place to the area, called Hailed Coffee.  Decor was minimalistic and staff were friendly.

My Americano was pretty good, medium-thick mouthfeel and flavour was okay.  I can't really comment since I don't drink much coffee these days and was having decaf.  But they do offer the basics at decent prices and an interesting add-on called their "hailed syrup" which is cardamom flavoured.  But, my mind was on something else, the dried dates display.

They had a range of different types of dates (7 in total) and we decided to try them all.  It's too bad that after ordering I realized that by ordering them all, we weren't certain which one was which and had to go by picture as I took some closer pics with my phone and referred to them while we ate.

The dates paired really well with coffee! I think they would be a great alternative to a baked treat.  We liked (I think) the SAFAWI date because it was a chewier and denser date, kinda like a caramel.  The Saggie was the lightest coloured one and tasted okay but probably my least favourite since the texture of half the date was a bit like crystalized honey.

Besides coffee and dates, they offer a number of croissants, cookies, and biscottis...and Pluck Teas.  Would recommend trying this place out as it seems like it would be welcome in the neighborhood.

The inside...

A wonderful morning!!


Saturday Dinette

807 Gerrard Street E
Toronto, ON M4M 1Y6

http://www.saturdaydinette.com/

T: 416-465-5959

Hailed Coffee

801 Gerrard St. E

Toronto, ON M4M 1Y5

http://www.hailed.ca/#our-story

T: 647-352-4040

September: I'm Dreaming of...

Figs have been more readily available this September so one early morning I made a fig/honey white bean mochi.

Ahhh, September...the transitional month from summer to autumn.  Again, I'm late with this post.  I started writing on the first of September but didn't finish it until now.

For some people I know autumn is their favourite time of year, but I love the early sun of summer, the sky on warm summer evenings and everything in-between that it's hard to say "til next year' - but I know we must.  Autumn is upon us tomorrow!

So, this September I've been Dreaming of...

Getting up early to brew tea - quality me time...
the last few months I've been pretty sporatic with my tea drinking and brewing habits 

Making mochi...
I've been experimenting with different methods and hopefully I'll be able to post on what I've experienced soon

and 

Baking with chocolate...

A while ago I picked up the Mast Brothers Chocolate Cookbook but only had time to flip through it.  Most of the pictures are brown and shadow-y because, well, chocolate is brown.  Anyway, nothing really caught my eye at the time so I left it for another time to read through.  Well, earlier this month I read through the cookbook and part of it is a baking/cookbook and part of it tells their story; the story of how they started their bean-to-bar business and their ethos.  It was quite interesting.  I knew part of their story from reading the book Small Batch but there is much more detail and I'm in awe of the drive and determination.

So, I baked a chocolate cupcake.  It was good but because I was serving it to my toddler, I cut the sugar just a bit and didn't make the ganache that topped it.  So, if I did as the recipe instructed, I think it would have been an awesome cupcake.

In the past I've stayed away from baking many chocolate things because usually it doesn't go well and secondly, I actually just like eating chocolate on it's own more than in a baked good.  But chocolate baked goods are usually crowd pleasers so it's good to know a few good chocolate recipes.

After I finished reading about Mast Brothers, I came across a post about Dandelion Chocolate in Japan.  Dandelion Chocolate is another American bean-to-bar chocolate brand that had expanded to Japan.  The post mentions a flight of brownies that you can purchase, each using a specific single-origin chocolate.  Definitely would love to try these out (but, actually my partner already makes the best brownies I've ever had) or attempt making various chocolate desserts using various single origin chocolates, but the cost would be quite prohibitive!

Enjoy the rest of September!

Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea: Select vs Superior Grade

Tiny bud and leaves (My hand model did a great job!)

I haven't reviewed tea in a while, but I had this post since the start of the year and thought I'd revisit it.  In my Christmas tea gift set, I received 2 different grades of Oriental Beauty tea (also known as Dong Fang Mei Ren 東方美人or Bai Hao Oolong 白毫烏龍茶): Select and Superior grade from Taiwan Tea Crafts.  Love the taste of this tea as it has a strong natural sweetness to it!

Oriental Beauty is a high oxidized oolong tea.  They often get a section all to themselves because of the unique way in which the flavour is produced.  Jassids or little leaf hoppers bite the leaves and stems (while the plant is still in the field) starting a chemical process that results in a nice honey flavour profile.  This is something that was discovered by accident as these jassids were thought to have been a pest, ruining the crop.  But, upon one farmer harvesting and brewing the leaves, this oolong tea was conceived; and it is believed the Queen of England had a taste of it and named it "Oriental Beauty".

The Select grade is not from the original terroir in which this tea became known (Hsinchu, Taiwan), but the Superior grade is from the original terroir.

Could I tell the difference?

I wish I did a blind taste test, but my first tastings were done on individual days.  From my recollection, I think the superior grade was slightly more flavourful, but not by a huge difference; I definitely enjoyed both teas.  Most oolongs require near boiling water to brew but this one is unique in that it requires a much lower temperature, approximately 85 degrees C.  As you can see, it is very delicate and the whole experience from smelling the dry leaves, to brewing, to smelling and tasting the tea (also known as tea 'soup') and finally, admiring the open tea leaves.  I love looking at tea leaves once they have opened!  If you let the leaves cool, there is also a wonderful sweet smell to the leaves....would love to bottle that smell!

Select grade

Superior grade

Superior grade - wet leaves

This is definitely a nice drinking tea alone or with a light cake like chiffon so you can truly enjoy the natural flavour of this tea!  For those that also look for tea that doesn't use pesticides in it's farming practice, this tea can only develop where there is NO pesticide use.  Otherwise the jassids would not be able munch on the leaves so it's a good choice for those concerned with pesticide use.  I had to update this post as I just read an article that says it is possible that tea farmers may still use pesticides on tea plants that eventually will become Oriental Beauty Oolong tea.  They can still get these leaf-hoppers to munch on the leaves as some pesticides may prevent other pests but do nothing to hinder the leaf-hoppers.  Always good to be learning!  The article is very informative and provides more in-depth info on this teas production if you're interested.              

In terms of re-steeping, it doesn't re-steep all that well in that the first cup is quite the flavourful cup already and I think by the 3rd steep, it loses quite a bit of flavour.  However, both these grades are not too expensive so that's the trade off, and besides, I rarely get to the point where I'm re-steeping tea leaves 5 or 6 times these days.

Although this tea can be drunk any time of the year, I'm looking forward to drinking this more in the autumn when the weather gets colder (I know, for summer lovers like myself, hard to be reminded that summer is ending soon!).