Restaurant of the Day: Spice and Aroma

It was a cold, snowy Friday night. And all we were craving was something warm.

The perfect solution to our problem was to have hot pot (or malatang) in Chinatown, and Spice and Aroma certainly delivered.

At a glance, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to this place. The restaurant is small, and the tables are cramped together. If it were a busy day, you’d probably have to wait quite a bit to get a seat. Luckily for me, I arrived just in time to grab two seats.

The way this place works is like any frozen yogurt place. You pick up a bowl and grab whatever you want. Diners can choose from fish balls, crab meat, tofu, lettuce, mushrooms, veggies, rice noodles, vermicelli and egg noodles. You can also adjust your spice level and add in beef, chicken or pork to your bowl at the counter. Once you’re all finished, the cashier will weigh it and charge you accordingly.

I was extra hungry that day so my meal ended up costing about $13.00. This is what I ended up with.

Because I have trust issues when it comes to spice, I also asked to have it on the side. I’m so glad I did that because I could enjoy my meal without having tears falling down my eyes!!!

I also really enjoyed the broth. It had such a delightful, savoury garlic flavour. I know most of it is just MSG that makes it so delicious. But oh my goodness, I couldn’t stop slurping it up!

All in all, I would come here again. I’m a fan of the pay as much as you eat model…but I wish this place wasn’t so small and cramped!

Restaurant of the day: The Dumpling King

I used to hate living up in Scarborough. Downtown was far away, my parents would rarely let me take the bus and hang out with friends on weekdays and there was barely anything to do! (To be fair, I was only in high school and everyone feels bored then)

But having lived in smaller cities like Regina and Sudbury, I’ve come to appreciate my roots so much more. But most of all, I started to realize just how delicious and cheap the food is up here in Scarborough. And good news for me…it’s only going to get better! 

Midland and Finch has particularly grown so much in the past five years. Now I can eat dumplings, get Taiwanese desserts, Chinese buns and bubble tea all within distance from me. I’m SO excited to try it all! 

The first place I recently went to was this Northern Chinese restaurant called The Dumpling King. It’s a super simple place with a wide selection of dumplings but also a variety of rice and noodles. 

We first tried pork stir-fry noodles with mixed vegetables. Unlike a lot of other dumpling restaurants, this dish had just the right amount of garlic flavour and was not too oily. In many of of the places I go, MSG is super apparent in the noodles and I would always have to tip the plate over to drain some of the oil. 

Next up, we had some steamed pork and fennel dumplings. I’ve only had fennel once before, and I found the taste quite strong. The taste was pleasant, but I have to say I much prefer having leek in my dumplings. 

(I have no pics of the steamed dumplings so here is a pic of me giving my approval)

The last thing we had were some pork pot stickers. Personally, I prefer steamed dumplings because you can soak up more red vinegar in the dumpling. But considering the fact that I hadn’t had fried dumplings in a while, it was nice to have it. 

I think our total at the end of it came up to $28 dollars.

All in all, I would definitely go back to The Dumpling King, but it isn’t my favourite place. The dumplings were delicious, but I did find the price a bit more expensive than my usual go-to called New Northern Dumplings. But hey, you gotta try new things sometimes, right?