Welcome to 2012!!

Wow, 2012 has arrived!!
In my very expert opinion (not!), I have decided to announce a food trend for 2012!


One word...


CHIPOTLE.


It's everywhere this year!! I think it will be big all year!
Embrace the smokey taste of chipotle for a little kick in your step ;)


Have a great year everyone!
xoxox.

Odyssia's in Sidney

Odyssia's (Steak House)
Sidney : 9785 5th Street
250.656.5596


We don't make it out to Sidney too much, but when we do it is customary to make a trip to Odyssia's for Greek food. I was a little shocked to see that it was called Odyssia's Steak House because I have never seen anyone order steak here. The Greek food is by far the BEST I have ever had in Victoria.


Every time we go, we get three basic Greek food items: the Calamari, Houmous and Pita, and the Spanakopita. (The Greek Salad is also delish... but I have no picture.)


Let's start with the Calamari.

You know how Calamari always seems to be chewy in Victoria? Well, a small venture out to Sidney will have you eating the most tender calamari ever. After eating it, you will find it extremely hard to eat calamari anywhere else again, so beware! It is perfectly fried, drizzled with freshly chopped red onion and paired with a refreshing tzatziki.

Next up, the Houmous and Pita.

I am personally not a BIG fan of Odyssia's houmous and pita, mostly because I find the houmous a bit bland. I like a really flavourful, garlic-y houmous. The pita paired with it is quite delicious though, nice and thick, lightly buttered.


Next, and probably my favourite, is the Spanakopita.

After craving this, I have tried the Spanakopita in many downtown cafes and absolutely nothing compares. The flavours are perfectly mingled, and the crust perfectly crisp. The spinach and feta in this are so fresh, you can taste that it was made that day.


I mentioned the greek salad, but having no picture, I will try my best to explain. I guess greek salad generally looks the same. Cucumbers, red onion, green peppers and tomatoes (that are so fresh they have changed my opinion about them) combine deliciously with their vinaigrette.


I'm pretty hungry now, and all I want to do is drive out to Sidney for some Greek food. I highly recommend you do the same. Treat your stomach to the best!

Ayo Eat

Ayo Eat
Market Square
250.590.4231


This little gem has been around for a year and a half now, tucked away in a busy corner of Victoria's historic Market Square. I happen to work nearby, so I have been frequenting this little eatery ever since it opened. Eating my way through the menu I have become friends with the awesome owner of Ayo Eat, Ali Syahbana, best known as Bana, who is from the area of Medan, North Sumatra. He is a one-man wonder at the one and only Indonesian eatery in Victoria.


His menu is posted on the door to his one-room operation. Tucked away inside this door is everything Bana needs to prepare some delicious Indonesian food. I have tried the green curry dish with chicken many times, and while it is absolutely delicious (SM loves it) my favourite dish is a variation of the Nasi Goreng Ayam (chicken fried rice) and the Sate Ayam (chicken satay with peanut sauce). Bana is great and makes the 3 skewers of chicken satay over the chicken fried rice, topped off with his delicious peanut sauce, pickled veggies, and prawn crackers.

The peanut sauce and the pickled veggies give this dish the perfect amount of kick, which I love to cool down with the prawn crackers. The chicken skewers are so tender, and always perfectly cooked.

I recommend Ayo Eat to everyone I know that's looking for quick, delicious, healthy eats. It's like nothing else you've ever tried in Victoria.

Ayo Eat Bana! (Let's Eat Bana!)

Keep it up! Bana's optimism every day I see him is inspiring. Please visit him and try his delicious food. I guarantee you'll keep coming back for more!

*He recently added a vegetarian spring roll to his menu, so you vegetarians have no excuse not to try it out!

http://www.ayoeat.com/AyoEat/Welcome_to_Ayo_Eat.html

Dynasty Restaurant

546 Fisgard St.

250.388.6818

Dynasty is a Chinese food restaurant that doubles as an all-day dim sum restaurant! I can't remember how we came across it, possibly wanting dim sum at a non-dim-sum-time, but ever since the first time we've been hooked. This last visit was so satisfying that I knew I had to post about it, mostly because hardly anyone has voted for it on Urbanspoon. We also went on a Friday night and we were their only customers. We were a little thrown off by this because, while the restaurant hasn't ever been super busy when we've come by, there have at least been other customers.

Their dim sum menu is pretty thorough except it is missing vegetables! I like that we can order off a dim sum menu rather than it coming around on carts like at Don Mee's. Because of the lack of vegetables we ordered the green beans in black bean sauce off the regular menu. The male owner came out and told us that they unfortunately did not have enough green beans for the full order and asked if it was ok to add snap peas, which it more than definitely was! The veggies were absolutely delicious!! Crisp, fresh and yummy yummy sauce!!

Next up were our dim sum orders. We ordered the pot stickers (not pictured because they were gobbled up before I remembered to take a picture!!), pork dumplings and the chinese sausage sticky rice.

The pot stickers came with a weird pink sauce that SM said tasted like a wine reduction, so we stuck our pot stickers in the green beans for the black bean sauce! Yum! They were very crisp on the outside and deliciously seasoned on the inside.

The pork dumplings were.. like any other dumpling I think. If you try to explain a dumpling to yourself you'll understand the complexity of putting it into words!

The sticky rice is probably my favourite item of the dinner. Pan fried with chinese sausage, green onions and egg, it is full of flavour and satisfies different taste levels with the slight sweetness of the sausage and the punch of the green onion.

We were glad to see that the food was still delicious despite the quiet Friday night for them. The owners are sweethearts and were consistently checking in on us, clearing plates and topping up our waters. Even with other customers in the restaurant previous times they have been attentive.

I highly recommend checking out Dynasty if you're craving dim sum, or even check out their full Chinese/Cantonese menu.

Shine Cafe

1548 Fort St.

250.595.2133

shinecafe.ca

I mentioned Shine Cafe in my review of Avalon because I have yet to find a breakfast place that is better than Shine!

It is BY FAR our favourite place to go for breakfast. YUM YUM YUM!

Having made my way through the menu over the last 3 years I have been going, I always go for the Nemo Benny. Smoked salmon, avocado, red onion and their house hollandaise sauce. It is super delicious. Bennies elsewhere have not compared because of the hollandaise mostly. I find their hollandaise nicely balanced, not too salty, lemony or buttery.

Shine gives you options as a side: roasted hashbrowns, grilled tomato, or Scottish potato scones. I have tried the hashbrowns, which were the cubed variety often found in breakfast places now but I find them a bit too heavily seasoned with rosemary. But whatever floats your boat! I have also tried the Scottish potato scones and I found those to be very plain, and too heavy to have alongside a benny. You can upgrade to fruit salad for $1.50, but I usually just ask for toast on the side.

The coffee is also EXTREMELY delicious at Shine.

The wait to get in, depending on time and day, can be a bit much but usually never more than 25 minutes. They give you a cup of coffee while you wait though, so we never really feel extremely anxious to get in!

The staff at Shine is the topper for us. They are so helpful and friendly. Always checking in and you can really see that they enjoy working there.

I will be going to Shine for many more years :)

Pluto's

1150 Cook St.

250.385.4747

We stopped by Pluto's one morning/afternoon looking for somewhere to eat brunch. We were pleased to see that they serve breakfast until 2!

Given the time of day, we both felt like having breakfast, but also felt like having lunch. So, we ordered one breakfast item and one lunch item!

For breakfast, we ordered the chorizo scramble. Eggs scrambled with chorizo, topped with cheese, with a side of sour cream and salsa, served with toast and hashbrowns. It was delicious! The eggs were perfectly done, nice and fluffy but not anywhere near dry. The chorizo was spicy! Such a good kick to it! The toast options were sour dough or multi-grain. We asked for multi but unfortunately got sour dough, was fine though. The hashbrowns were cubed potatoes, nicely pan-fried so they were soft inside but crunchy outside!

For lunch, we both thought the shrimp and avocado sandwich sounded interesting. It was not. Served on multi-grain (we thought that was where the mishap with the toast might have come in), with baby shrimp and fairly fresh avocado, it was seriously lacking in flavour. We were pretty disappointed with it, but it came with yummy onion rings.

Given the location, I'm sure we will go back to Pluto's for breakfast and to try some of the many other menu items!

Shima Sushi

250.590.7370

1218 Wharf St.

http://www.shimasushivictoria.ca/

After MUCH persistence from NL, my family and I finally made it to Shima Sushi! There were a few of us so I will focus mostly on my food, and note on whatever else I nibbled on from others' plates!

As always, started with green tea and goma-ae!! Green tea was nice, a sencha. Goma-ae was similar to Kaz Sushi on Store St. with a sweeter sesame sauce than I prefer. Very beautifully prepared though!

I was also able to sample the tuna sashimi which was heavenly! From the one piece I tried, it was very .. I don't even have the words. It tops my views on Ebizo's tuna sashimi, so that's saying a lot. It deliciously melted in my mouth.

I also ordered the teriyaki beef a la carte, which was served with a miso soup (nothing special) and a side of steak sauce (yum!). It also came with some veggies: broccoli, carrots and bok choy. The veggies looked very plain, and I hesitantly ate a small piece of broccoli and it was absolutely delicious! They had some very delicate seasoning on them and I ate every piece of broccoli I could find on my hotplate! (I love broccoli)

Finally, I had a roll. Mostly because I couldn't resist. I absolutely love sushi, but I was really feeling something warm and comforting, hence the beef teriyaki. I ordered the Victoria roll: smoked salmon, crab, cream cheese, red onion, lettuce and cucumber. With those ingredients I was expecting this roll to be a flavour melting pot! I was sadly disappointed. It really didn't have a lot of flavour to it, but was obviously VERY fresh.

I was also able to try:

tempura prawns (crispy and fresh),

edamame (perfect temperature and salty),

rice with steak sauce (yum. similar to previous versions of azuma's. more similar to Japanese village)

I would definitely go back to Shima to try more things, and I would definitely give their rolls another try.

I definitely think you should try it out!!