Pearl Diver has delightful seafood

Restaurant:      Pearl Diver
Location:        100 Adelaide St. East, TorontoT
What:              Lunch
When visited: October 30, 2015
Social             @pearldiverTO

I was invited to check out the quaint little restaurant Pearl Diver for lunch and I brought a friend with me who loves seafood.  Unbelievably I have lots of friends who don't like fish or seafood and especially not things that are raw.  I know I kind of get it.  It sounds gross but I suppose because my mom had a love of seafood from her memories of getting shrimp that was just out of the sea and eaten fresh on the seaside in Europe it was always something she loved and she would make shrimp stuffed tomatoes when she wanted to make something fancy for guests.  It was always kind of more of a special occasion food in my house.  The odd time my dad would get mussels from St. Lawrence market or they would send me to pick up some fish and chips for dinner.  Maybe once or twice a year we might have king crab claws.   To me fresh seafood isn't an everyday thing and I enjoy it when I have it and more so when it's made well.

On an an extremely sunny and unusually warm Friday afternoon in October we headed over to Pearl Diver for lunch.  The place is a bit out of the way tucked across the street from St. James park.  It's maybe a bit out of the usual restaurant locations but you can't miss the brightly painted yellow exterior with the black canopy.

The inside as you can see looks very warm and cozy with dark wood bar and light wood tables and a large menu board with all of their types of oysters.

I think this restaurant is more of an evening bar restaurant type of place so it wasn't busy when I visited but I was there at 1pm and a lot of people go for business lunches between 12-1pm.

The lunch menu varies slightly from the dinner menu but of course there are mussels and oysters and calamari that are on both menus.  Of course we couldn't pass up a plate of Oysters.  A dozen for $15.  Served on ice with ginger and lemon wedges and side sauces of hot sauce and wine vinegar.

My friend said she could eat about 6 of the oyster towers in one sitting.  I like my oysters with a bit of hot sauce, some lemon and the red wine vinegar for a nice spicy briney flavour.  They oysters we had were from New Brunswick but I didn't catch the name of them. I am not familiar with all of the kinds of oysters so I don't want to guess even.  But I really enjoyed them.

Then we had the Deep fried panko crusted calamari served with a sweet chili sauce.   They had black sesame seeds in the coating and were nicely seasoned.

We wanted to order the Shrimp Po Boy sandwich but weren't sure how big it was going to be even though we planned on sharing it.  It is meant for one person but we shared it to try it.  It is 2 or 3 large shrimps served on a brioche bun with lettuce, onion and a remoulade sauce and pickles.  My friend got the side with the pickles and she wasn't a fan but I enjoyed my half a lot.  It can with a huge amount of fries but they got cold pretty quickly so I didn't finish them all.  We really didn't need fries with all of the seafood we ordered.

The dish that had the best flavour was the Mussels in a lemongrass coconut broth.  It was served with the lightest grilled focaccia bread but I think the bread was just good on it's own because the smokey char kind of covered up the taste of the broth.  Order this but don't dunk the bread, just eat it and enjoy it.  We ordered another order of the bread it was so good.

After we had all the great seafood the waitress said they had some sticky toffee pudding for dessert.  Well that is one of my friends favourite desserts and I like it to so a no brainer we said yes and didn't even need to look at a dessert menu.

This sticky toffee pudding was probably the lightest one I have ever had.  With a bourbon maple sauce on top it just melted in my mouth.  It was a great sweet finish to the seafood lunch.

We really enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch in this cosy spot and I hope we get a chance to go back and try some of their dinner menu sometime again soon.

What we ate:

CRISPY CALAMARI - sesame and panko crust, sweet chilli, ginger and lime dip - 8

MUSSELS AND FOCACCIA – coconut cream, ginger, chili, garlic, lemongrass & cilantro - 13

SHRIMP PO-BOY - Battered and spiced Argentine shrimp, tartar sauce, pickle, red onion & lettuce - served with side salad or fries - 13

Dozen Oysters for $15

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING, dessert special 

*Disclaimer:  The meal was complimentary but all of the opinions and the photos are my own.

MMMM MUSSELS Parisienne style

Paris seems to be haunting me to come and visit soon as everywhere I go I see something that says Paris but I can't afford to go there right now but what I can afford to do is get a taste of Paris at home with some Parisienne inspired Mussels.

I was in the St. Lawrence Market area downtown in Toronto yesterday and decided to pop into the market and pick up some fish that is hard to find fresh in my area. I picked up some Fresh Sushi Tuna that I made tartare style last night and inhaled that so fast I didn't even take a photo of it. I also picked up some wild salmon which I haven't decided what to do with yet.. That's for dinner but Lunch today was a visit to Paris with Fresh Mussels.

Making Mussels is a great way to clear out your fridge. You can put whatever flavourings you like into the broth.

This is what I put into it:

Shallots
Red and Green Onion
Garlic
Parsley
Tarragon
Red Chili Pepper
Leek
Celery
Salt
Pepper
Cherry Tomatoes
White Wine
Pernod
Splash of Heavy Cream

The Tarragon, celery, leek, white wine, Parsley and Pernod really give it that fresh flavour and give it a French Style Flair. Add the quantities you like.. just a bit of each thing.. basically toss all the ingredients into a big pot and when you smell the flavours coming out toss in the Mussels and cover the pot with a lid and steam for a minute.

The cooking time is nothing.. but may take a few minutes of prep time just to get your ingredients together but depending on what you put in it could take anywhere from 2 min to about 15 min. Really that's nothing for a fresh bowl of Mussels.

People are scared to make them at home but really the tricks are to clean them and make sure there aren't any beards, little fibers hanging out of them and make sure they are closed before you cook them and all open after you cook them. That's the whole trick. The rest is just what you flavour them with. Thai, Italian, French whatever you think will give you a flavourful broth that you can dip a fresh baguette into to sop up all the flavour in the broth.

Save the waiter tips and try and make it at home. You can make as much as you want and have them whenever you want and you won't have to wait for a slow waiter to bring them to you.

Only downside that I can see is that you actually have to throw out more than you eat because the shells and the veggies that you don't eat are more than those tiny little mussels.

So the only real downside is the prep and cleanup so I would suggest finding an OCD friend that likes to clean to come over and help you clean up.

If I can't go to PARIS at least I can bring a taste of Paris home.

It's easy...try it and ENJOY!