Chalau - Dim Sum

I have to admit, I have been somewhat remise in blogging this past month. With my heavy travel schedule and everything happening in my life, I have not had much time to sit down and write about what is going on so I must back track a bit and start at the beginning of May.

At the end of April, beginning of May, my wife and I went to Alexandria, Virginia to visit with our oldest daughter and her husband. Our vacation actually began by staying in Toronto at the Chelsea Inn Hotel on Friday night which was convenient because we were going to fly to Washington D.C. Dulles airport on the following Saturday. The most memorable thing about Friday was that we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant called Chalau. My wife saw a tiny article about Chalau in the Metro newspaper that is distributed on the GO trains going to and from Toronto. It sounded good so we decided to give it a try.

Chalau is located at 476 Yonge St. which was only a few blocks north of the Delta Chelsea hotel where we were staying. The restaurant is relatively small but the decor is very nice, very stylish and trendy. We ordered six items; bean Curd Sheet and Shanghai vegetable dumplings(3 pcs), Pork Siu Mau (4 pcs.), Soup dumpling with Shrimp Scallop and sea cucumber (1 pc.), Crispy fried eggplant and lotus root (4 pcs), Fried chicken taro dumpling - Wu Kook (4 pcs.), and Baked egg tart (2 pcs.).

The food was beautifully and imaginatively presented and interesting dishes. Taken altogether it was a great dining experience. The cost is about twice as much as the usual dim sum restaurant but the quality of the experience is well worth the expense. I would highly recommend a visit to Chalau when you are in Toronto.

Wu Kook

XiaoLeung Bao (soup dumpling)

THE FOURTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS - DECEMBER 28TH

On the fourth day of Christmas we did some really unique things. My son who is on vacation from teaching in Northern Labrador spent the night with us on December 27th, as well, our oldest daughter and her husband are with us for the balance of the Christmas holidays.

Since we were all together we had an early breakfast of cooked barley cereal with dried cranberries then we headed out to visit the Distillery District in Toronto. You don't want to arrive too early in the Distillery district because most of the shops do not open until 11:00AM or later. We arrived just as most of the shops and galleries were opening. to start with we stopped in at Balzac's Coffee for something hot to drink.

Afterward, we visited some of the shops and galleries. Cubeworks was especially interesting, it is all about the medium. The Thompson Landry Gallery was also interesting. We had a full day ahead of us so we decided that we would return to the Distillery District later in the day.

At 2:00PM we had theater tickets for the five of us at Second City on Mercer Street. We drove close to Second City and walked the few blocks to Mercer Street. It was bitterly cold outside so we were all looking forward to getting inside. Originally, we had decided to go to Gretsky's which is just past Second City on Mercer Street. As we rounded the corner on Mercer Street we spotted a Mexican restaurant called Milagro. It looked inviting and the wind was cold so we decided on the spot that this was where we were going to have lunch.

It turned out that Milagro was an excellent choice. The food was well priced and the quality and quantity of the food was excellent. I had Pollo con Mole which is chicken with a thick chocolate sauce and about 16 different types of chili. it was great!

Pollo con Mole

Everyone else in our party also enjoyed their lunches as well.

After lunch we took a short walk down the street to Second City. We were seated immediately near the back of the theater which was fine for us. Second City is a comedy troupe which puts on high quality shows. This particular show was called "A Dysfunctional Christmas". We spent the next two hours being entertained. I have to say that I had not laughed so much for some time. It was great. I can only say that if you have time go and see this show. You will not regret it.

After the show we returned to the Distillery district to see more of the shops that had not been opened when we were there earlier in the day. Since it was later in the day when we returned to the Distillery District we saw the Christmas lights that were still installed. It was colorful and festive to look at.

We left about 5:30PM to return home for dinner.

It is somewhat of a tradition for us to eat at Swiss Chalet during the Christmas season. Our son was tired so he decided that he would just go home so my wife and I had dinner with my daughter and her husband at Swizz Chalet. I know that this is not high dining but there is a certain comfort in eating some place that is familiar and traditional. It was all that we had expected it to be.

On the fourth day of Christmas we had fourth excellent entertainments; the Distillery District, the Second City Revue, lunch at Milagro and dinner at Swiss Chalet.