Tidbits
Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…
Photos
Food in Waterloo: Part 1
October 29, 2007, 3:41 am
So with Mandarin and calligraphy classes at Renison twice a week, we’ve been eating out a lot. Specially at University Plaza. Ironic that I really didn’t eat there much when I was in school. So here are the places we like:
Just n’Pita
Located at the back of Al Madina, it’s the best place for shawarma. They are very generous with their toppings and sauces, and have a nice selection of tasty hummus. I always end up with garlic breath after this place, but oh so good.
Kismet
Not really the best judge of Indian food, but I think at least the place is somewhat healthy, in that I’m always in danger of running into my manager eating there with his nutritionist wife. I like their keema naan in particular, which is naan filled with meat. Their dishes can also be fairly spicy, so I usually stick with the butter chicken. I believe I tried their mango lassi once, and never had it again. I think it was salty or something.
Shandiz
Newly discovered, it’s a Persian place located by Harvey’s. I’ve been avoiding it because I have no idea what Persian food is like, but it ended up a lot like Greek food. Couldn’t make sense of the names of the dishes nor make out what they are from the pictures, but they turned out to be pretty much: lamb and rice, chicken and rice, beef, chicken and lamb, etc… Liked the lamb and chicken, beef was too tried. Good rice. Next time, will try and venture into the other dishes. Not cheap though, for plaza food.
Home Garden: Taste of Taiwan
I’m not sure why this Taiwanese place has two names, people either call it Home Garden, or Taste of Taiwan. Or at least I call it Taste of Taiwan. Could be that I’m just calling it by it’s subtitle. I’ll say the quality of the place has not changed since it first opened, when Jerry wanted to check it out. I still always order the same thing from it, the pork chops. I think Aaron has a meal plan for this place.
The Grill
Formerly known as Chill and Grill, it serves more quality burger meat, at a cost. Their fries and onion rings will probably give you a heart attack some day. Decent milkshakes too.
Phat Cat
The gyros place. I’ve been growing less impressed with them, as they’ve gotten rather stingy. They used to not care how many toppings you want, and will give you extra fries if you are sharing. No more. I’ve also heard the owner tell a customer, “If you don’t know what it is, don’t order it.” Sure, they are asking what “falafel” was, but like, I would want the menu explained to me if I don’t know what it is!
Mr Panino
Yes, so every once in a while, I am in the mood for junk food. Go chicken with rice. I really should try their dumpling noodles some time.
Places I’m afraid to try / will not go back again
That place between the Grill and Kismet, that serves seafood hotpot or something? Dunno what that one’s about, and don’t really want to find out unless someone recommends.
Charlie’s Lunchbox / Mikey’s Eatery. I dunno, too cafeteria-like for me?
Golden Mango, ever since they ran out of beef during the first week of opening, I’ve never gone back. Ditto for that other pho place that got caught storing food in the washroom.
Sunshine: Urgh, why?
Mirage: Japanese/Korean place that’s not particularly memorable. Prefer Miju, across from WLU for my Korean food.
Eastsides: Never. Again.
Campus Pizza: My company would order pizza from this place whenever there’s “lunch n’learn“‘s, or special interest meeting. I’ve grown to really hate their pizza. It’s quite bad to serve pizza at an info session from the Hearts and Strokes foundation…
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever went to Seoul Soul…
Wildcraft: Take Two
And lastly, while cleaning my desk, I came upon another gift card from Mike’s company. So we decided to give Wildcraft a second try. This time, we went for the seafood, as recommended by.. um, my CEO. We tried the scallops appetizer. It came with six, fairly sizable scallops. They were pretty melt-in-your-mouth, but still lacks taste without the sauce. At $16, a tad expensive for what you get. For mains, we tried the cod and the ahi tuna. The tuna is an attempt at asian fusion that’s fairly tasty (though I dunno about getting my dish served with a side of soy sauce!). I didn’t think the tuna was particularly fresh either. The cod was soggy and rather tasteless. Mike ended up dipping it into the soy sauce for taste. (Sigh, the best cod we’ve had is the black bean one at Cameron’s, surprise.) At least the meal ended on a high note: The double-baked white chocolate cheesecake was incredible. It was wrapped in phyllo pastry, with some strawberries and raspberries on the side. A great blend of cheese and chocolate, not too sweet, not too cheesy, and so fluffy. Definitely the best cheesecake I’ve ever had. (Though I suppose it wasn’t that cake-like). Seems like I’ll have to go back just for the dessert.
Comments (3)
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What’s so bad about East Side’s? I mean, it’s fairly generic stuff that’s a bit expensive, but it’s generally not bad. Has your palate become that refined? 
Sick of East Side’s cause we always go there, and the quality of the ones close to the University sucks. And even though I’m not there, I’m not going to forget the gravy cake incident!
And learning for fun, thanks.
© Maggie Tam 2007-2009 www.onechopstick.ca
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