On The Road

On Friday, I headed down to Chinatown to load up on provisions for a trip. Some of the items were gifts: tropical fruits that may be of lower quality in a smaller city. As I was making my choices, I was struck by the fact that despite the cosmopolitan cuisine found in Toronto restaurants, Asian ingredients including the wide variety of vegetables and fruits are not incorporated into dishes outside of ostensibly Asian dishes such as curry. I would love to see new and innovative menu items.

Other items were provender to be consumed along the way. After grabbing some bite-sized snacks, I decided that my go-to meal shall be the giant Chinese burritos I found at Qian He (the price has gone up to $3.99). The counter was occupied by a woman this time, though she was equally non-proficient at English. We could not even communicate well enough for me to learn the Mandarin names of these wraps. She was also less adept at the hot plate, so the dough did not rise as prodigiously. But the burrito was just as tasty and satisfyingly greasy. I do think this is a fool-proof dish: simple ingredients like onions and bean sprouts; store-bought sauces: sriracha, hoisin; the only tricky bits may be the salty BBQ pork and making the wrap. Why won't somebody open a franchise? And yes, it was just as delicious eaten cold the next day.