Stockyards Smokehouse & Larder

My boyfriend, Julian, nagged me to try this new bbq joint Stockyards. After having a massive lunch at work, I wanted to stay home for dinner, but after some back and forth, I caved! I'm glad I did because it was the best fried chicken I had in a LONG time!

Stockyards reminds of those local family diners on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" but with more of a modern touch. They specialize in serving southern comfort foods like ribs, fried chicken, burgers, and sandwiches. The actual diner is TINY, it fits less than 15 peeps. We were lucky enough to get a seat at the bar facing the kitchen before the dinner rush. It beats eating dinner in the car that's for sure!

Since Julian was starving, he clearly didn't want to share any of his meal. I wasn't in the mood for a burger or sandwich, so I decided to get the fried chicken as well. As warned on the menu, the fried chicken takes 15-20 minutes to prepare. We patiently waited while sipping on cream soda and watched the chefs worked their magic. We wanted to try their limeade, but they were out :(

As we were waiting for our food, the front part of the store was packed with takeout orders.

Meals are served on cast iron skillets with VERY generous portions (4 pieces of chicken, fries and coleslaw - $13). The chicken is marinated in buttermilk, leaving the meat to be super moist and the skin to be crispy and well-seasoned. The fries were a little too overdone and the coleslaw was a little bland, but I didn't mind. 

Julian inhaled his in seconds, and I doggy-bagged half of mine. I microwaved the leftovers the next day and the chicken was still super moist! I will definitely being making a trip back to Stockyards to try their grilled cheese sandwich next!



Stockyards
699 St. Clair Ave. West
Toronto, ON
(416) 658-9666

Year of the Rabbit

This month is flying by, it still feels like January, but it's already mid-February! The last couple of weekends have been busy with lunar new year festivities. I thought I would share some delicious treats my mom and I (mainly my mom) had made over the past weekends. My mom pretty much hates buying these cakes from restaurants or stores. She complains that they skimp out on ingredients and often tastes like cardboard *gag*.

Neen goa (年糕) also known as Chinese New Years' cake is made with glutinous rice sweetened with brown sugar. We love to slice them into strips and pan-fry this baby until it is sticky on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside.

guangdong style neen goa

Now this dish is very hard to describe, zong (粽) is basically sticky rice with mung bean and pork belly filling densely wrapped in banana leaves, then boiled. My mom made the vietnamese version, also known as bánh tét/chung. My favourite of all is the turnip cake (lo bak goa 蘿蔔糕), not really made with turnip, more like radish. Anyway, it's combined with dried shrimp, scallops, sausage, and shittake mushrooms. This sounds strange, but this "cake" is savoury and delicious pan-fried on its own or with (srircha) hot sauce! Don't knock it till you try it ;)  Although these "cakes" are available all year round, they're mostly eaten during new year celebrations.

pan-fried zong & turnip cake

Of course my mother never fails to deliver a traditional Lieu-style CNY dinner.

clockwise: chicken with green onion-ginger sauce, stir-fried veggies w/albalone, suckling pig with jelly fish, viet style crabs, gailan choy, shittake mushroom dish

steamed oysters in black bean sauce. so. good.

Oh yeah this is how some chinese parents dress their kiddies during the new year :)