Things You Must Try: London, ON

Time has just whizzed by, and I am now back in Edmonton! To sum up my foodtastic life over the past year, I am going to recommend things that you should eat for happy tastebuds in Londontown!

In no particular order, let me begin...

Bag Daddy's Big Stack from The Bag Lady:

This beautiful work of art is only made available at The Bag Lady Deli and Variety, and you need to have it. It's offered as long as The Bag Lady is open, so that die-hards can have it first thing in the morning, or it can be enjoyed in the early afternoon for the less-than-early risers. For $11.95, this glorious sandwich made of sourdough french toast, maple bacon, honey ham, fried egg, spinach, avocado, and tomato, topped with Hollandaise sauce can be yours! Dooo it! (I've also written about The Bag Lady on my blog before! For a refresher, you can read it here!)

Burek from Hot Oven at the Covent Garden Market:

The Hot Oven's bureks are made constantly throughout the day, everyday. I have yet to find anything like these in terms of the combined taste and texture. For $3.99, you can get a savoury burek like the one pictured above with spinach and cheese, cheese, or meat filling, or 2 dessert bureks with apple and cinnamon filling inside freshly-baked phyllo pastry. The savoury pastries come with a side of sour cream, and any other fixings you need are offered at the counter! It's an easy lunch/snack to pick up while you browse the Covent Garden Market, which you should be visiting anyways. (Thank you to Doris for checking the prices for me!)

Pierogi Lunch from Cafe Bourgeois at the Western Fair District Farmer's Market:

The pierogi lunch from Cafe Bourgeois at the Western Fair District Farmer's Market is a must! For $7, you get to choose 3 freshly made pierogi with some very unique fillings. For instance, when I went with my friend, Doris, we had pulled pork, jalapeno and cheese, and bacon and onion. My photo really doesn't do them justice, because they are actually massive! You can have them heated or fried up, but either way, they are pretty well guaranteed to be delicious! The drink pictured was a Cranberry Compote - cranberries simmered in strawberry tea and rose buds. I feel like it's different every week :) Find out more about Cafe Bourgeois and other vendors of the Western Fair District Farmer's Market here!

Vegetable Tempura from Zen Gardens:

I maintain that the Vegetable Tempura from Zen Gardens is the best tempura I've had. It isn't made with traditional panko, but there is something about their batter that is so wonderfully magical. I haven't enjoyed tempura as much as I've enjoyed theirs. It's a good mix of vegetables that they have on hand - enoki mushrooms being one of the unique additions. For $9.99, you, too can enjoy this fantasmical plate of deepfried veggie goodness! Read more about my love affair with Zen Gardens' Vegetable Tempura here!

Surely, there are other amazing eats in London, Ontario that I just have yet to discover, but my tastebuds were most definitely sent to heavenly places when I had the above food items.

Unfortunately, not all things can be peachy, and I feel the need to advise you on some less than wonderful experiences. That being said, I'm also going to sheepishly list things that aren't really worth it (sorry ._.):

2 for 1 Cake Slices at Symposium Cafe:

As magical as it sounds, the 2 for 1 cake deal on Sundays at Symposium Cafe is not actually that great. While the selection and portions of cake are impressive, both the service and product are subpar. It took more than 15 minutes for the servers/hosts to acknowledge my friends and I, and a server had to be flagged down in order to tend to our table. I can appreciate that only 1 server was assigned to our large group, however, the job wasn't taken very seriously at all. There were 12 varieties of cake to choose from, but of the 3 that I sampled, none had more flavour than sweet, and this was a tooth-aching, sugary sort of sweet. Perhaps it may appeal to some, but not to me. On the bright side, the half price bottles of Owner Cellar wine also offered on Sundays are quite good according to my friends, Cat and Laura.

Bibimbap at Gangnam Style BBQ Restaurant:

I completely visited this place out of novelty for its name, Gangnam Style. I am sad to report that mediocre was the word to describe the food I tried at Gangnam Style when I went with my dad including the Bibimbap, which is one of the most basic Korean dishes. Something was off about the seasoning of...well, everything. The saddest part for me was that I was craving beansprouts, and theirs just didn't give me the refreshing taste and crunch I was looking for. While its menu featured very entertaining names including the "Hey Sexy Lady Combo", the product just didn't measure up. I have to say that I have not tried the Korean BBQ here, so I'm not sure what that is like, but the disappointment with 4 dishes makes me reluctant enough to avoid giving it a try when I can go elsewhere instead.

Bubble Tea and Crepes at Cafe Sentral:

It was my first birthday in London, so I decided to celebrate by going for bubble tea and crepes with friends at Cafe Sentral. While impressive that the entire place was operated by one person, the products did not seem to make the wait particularly worthwhile. I opted for Strawberry Bubble Tea with tapioca pearls. The bubble tea tasted like a mix of artificially-flavoured juice and syrup, while the tapioca pearls were overcooked and a bit on the soggy side. The crepe was acceptable, but the fillings were quite average and overcooked as well. A couple of my friends had spoiled fruits in their sweet crepes, which tells me that this one fellow running the place doesn't check the condition of his produce. I regretfully beg to differ with their 82% rating on Urbanspoon.

I'd like to leave this post with more good things rather than bad, so there you have it - some must-try items and the minimal extent of my negative reviews :)

Look forward to my next write-up on delicious eateries from my recent re-location back to Edmonton!

-M