Khao San Road reopens with a Bang Sue Bar

Media Event - Opening of the new Bang Sue Bar
Where: at Khao San Road
Date:  February 23, 2017
Location:  11 Charlotte Street, Toronto
Website: Bang Sue Bar/Khao San Road
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bangsuebar/

I got an invitation to check out the new Bang Sue Bar that just opened at the new Khao San Road location on Charlotte Street near King and Spadina.  Khao San Road just had a free opening preview the week before so I knew all about it and wanted to check it out.

I have been to the former Khao San Road in it's previous location not far from the Bell Tiff lightbox.  It was a very small space and it always had a lineup out the door.

This new space is 2 levels.  The main level is the Khao San Road restaurant with a lot more space than the previous location and on the upper level is the new Bang Sue Bar which is meant to be a space to go to late night or when you are waiting for a table at the restaurant.  The bar has a different smaller menu of Thai Street Foods which are meant to be simple small bites of food.

I sampled a number of items off the menu starting with their Morning Glory Daiquiri which has kaffir lime in it.

Some of the other items I sampled included:

Tom Yum Nuts, flavoured like the soup
4 Flavour Caramel Corn to represent the spicy, salty, sweet and savoury flavours of Thai food
Shrimp Chips and Dip of Roasted peppers
KSR Potato Salad, not what you would think.. it's more like a hickory stick looking salad.
Pickled vegetables - I really liked this option, it's nice to see something healthy and light
Vegan Spring rolls with tamarind in them for a nice surprise
Steak Tartare on shrimp chips which was my favourite bite of the night.  I asked for seconds of this.
Chicken Satay and peanut sauce, fairly mild compared to others I have had before but good.
Pandan Chicken- Chicken wrapped in Pandan leaves.  A bit messy to eat because the leaves are not edible so you have to unwrap the leaves from the chicken inside.
Pork Jowl - this one tasted like fatty bacon.
Fried Chicken - This was really great chicken that comes with a remoulade and sriracha sauce.

Dessert:
Khanom Krok a coconut custard in a donut like pasty with green onions inside.  This is a very strange concoction that is kind of weird when you first take a bit and then you kind of love it after a few minutes when you realize what it is.
Gelato from Millies- It comes in 3 flavours, I tried the coconut and a taste of the Pandan one which tasted a bit like the tea you get in Japanese restaurants, the other flavour was Thai tea which my table mates said tasted like nesquick.

The bar is really cool looking with great wall art from a local artist.  The wooden seats are a bit hard if you are planning on sipping cocktails for a long time so be prepared for that but overall it's a cozy space.

The staff were super nice and informative and explained the dishes and the concepts.  I could see some products come out of their bar food menu that could be sold as packaged snack foods so will see what happens there.

I still need to revisit Khao San Road downstairs and maybe the next time I go to see a movie at the Lightbox I can pop over for dinner beforehand.

There seems to be a lot of Thai places downtown but this one was extremely popular before and it was full by the time I left so I expect it to be very busy in the spring months when people are out and about again.

Twitter;  https://twitter.com/KhaoSanRoadTO


*Disclaimer - Food and drinks were provided by Bang Sue Bar but the opinions and photos in the blog post are my own.

New Sustainable Dim Sum Festival

LOVE DIM SUM?

LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT?

Toronto welcomes it's first Sustainable Dim Sum Festival.

Wednesday, March 8th, 2017
6:30pm-9:30pm
Rotunda - City Hall
Tickets $55 - includes all dim sum items and all beverage

In partnership with Live Green Toronto!

Make a delicious difference and support Environmental Defence!

Save your appetite and feel good about over-eating at this event! Some of the city's and province's best chefs will put their spin on delicious dim sum items using only fresh, local and sustainable ingredients from our environmentally conscious partners.

Overfishing is the biggest issue our oceans face today so all of our seafood options are Ocean Wise recommended. You can get more information about Ocean Wise at www.oceanwise.ca.

Meat, poultry and eggs are provided by Rowe Farms and Yorkshire Valley Farms.

All guests will receive a passport to try each Dim Sum item from each of our vendors!

Cafe Belong
DaiLo
Daniel et Daniel
Kana Snack Bar
Lake Inez
Hawthorne Food + Drink
Bruce Wine Bar
Saturday Dinette
Pork Ninjas
C-fu Foods
Centennial College
Meat, poultry and eggs are provided by Rowe Farms and Yorkshire Valley Farms.

Pair your dim sum items with local and independent wines, beers and ciders, all in support of Environmental Defence; defending clean water, a safe climate, and healthy communities. 

Some of our alcohol partners include:
401 Cidery
Beau’s All Natural Brewing Co.
Brickworks Ciderhouse
Mill St. Brewery
Muskoka Brewery
Walter Caesar
George Brown College (Mocktails)
And more!

Local artists will feature their "Environment-themed" works of art for auction, in order to raise money and awareness for Environmental Defence. PLUS a LIVE art installation onsite with artist Mark Grice. You don't want to miss it!

BRING YOUR OWN PLATE or use our biodegradable options! Each guest will receive a pair of reusable bamboo chopsticks as a take home.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! 
Please note tickets will go off sale March 7th at 10pm or when they sell out (whichever happens sooner). There will NOT be tickets available at the door. Get your tickets now!

Click here for tickets: Ticketfly

BECK TAXIS WILL BE ON HAND TO GET YOU HOME SAFE. 

Rotunda - City Hall ( 100 Queen St W, Toronto ON M5H 2N2)

Hosting an Afternoon Tea Party

Here's how this Tea Party happened and a few tips that you can try to host your own Tea Party.

It started as an idea from a gift that I received from a gift that I received from my blogger friend Mary (Maryshappybelly) at a pre Christmas Gift Exchange dinner with my other blogger friend Natalie (cooking quidnunc).  It was supposed to be a bigger group but because of a snow storm we were down to just the 3 of us.   We had a great time anyway and in between dishes we exchanged gifts.  I got a gift of Pepperidge Farms jams and shortbread from Mary and I said that would be great for a tea party and they both thought it was a great idea.  I like having tea parties because it can be a relaxing Saturday or Sunday afternoon thing and simple or elaborate.  That began the idea and Mary said she wasn't available until the beginning of February so that's when I decided to do it but I decided to wait a bit to invite everyone else to see how the weather would be this time.   I decided to have it at my place because I am on the subway line and if everyone cancelled I didn't have to go anywhere for nothing.  I also had so many food gifts from Christmas that I couldn't possibly finish that I knew I already had the makings for a great tea party, plus I have lot's of teas because I like different teas.

As is turns out Mary wasn't able to make it because she fell the week before and her family plans got pushed to the weekend of the Party but I decided to go ahead because a lot of other people were available and the weather was going to be not too bad.

(Nimu, Sue, Martina, Amanda, Natalie, Loren, Cliff, Domenica, Denise, Adam & Jenny)

It started as an idea to get some of the bloggers together but I decided to invite the ones that I know pretty well and some that were close to where I live.  It was also Superbowl Sunday so a few weren't available so I opened it up to other people.  I decided to include a couple of friends other than food bloggers but ones that would really enjoy the party.  One of my friends works with one of my blogger friends and one of my other friends' daughter works with them.  One of my Tiff friends works in a hospital and one of my Gastropost friends is a radiologist.  There were all sorts of connections I didn't even think of.  I invited a couple of my Tiff Entourage friends and a couple of my best friends, some who have met each other and some who had some sort of connection in one way or another.   One of my friends lives in the same area as one of my blogger friends and as it was pointed out many of my friends at the party were Gastropost contributors who I met through Gastropost or otherwise.  It was kind of ironic that there were so many as days later Gastropost announced that they were ending.  It was almost like a farewell party.

TEA PARTY TIPS

TIP 1.
What made it work was that they were all friendly people who love food and can chat without me having to make the connections.  I was the connection but some knew of each other already.
The other thing that worked was that there wasn't anyone who dominated the party.  Everyone just jelled really well.

TIP 2.

Because I live in an apartment I had to buzz people in and then open the door to greet them so I was constantly answering my phone and busy so I tried to set up as many things that could be self serve as possible.

I opened the closet door so that people could hang their coats if I got distracted by other things.

TIP 3.
I set up stations for different things so that people could help themselves to the Hot water and Tea in the kitchen and the table with the plates and utensils.

TIP 4.
I placed white linens on 3 tables where the food was being placed.  I also had 2 3 tier stands to elevate the food vertically to save space. It's good to have things at different levels to present better.

TIP 5.
I tried to have all sorts of platters and utensils at the ready for anything that people would bring to the party.

TIP 6.
Prepare as much as you can in advance but know that there will always be something that happens to throw off your timing.
One of my friends decided he wanted to bake his frozen appetizers at my place earlier but of course I had to set him up with trays for it.
Another friend offered to pick up any last minute things I needed but he arrived as people were coming in so I had to stop and cut the ends of flowers to put in a waiting vase and transfer milk and orange juice into other containers.  I also tried to set up water and I had a Hot water thermos beside the kettle to keep the hot water flowing.

TIP 7.
The Tea Cups.  I asked everyone to bring their own tea cups for a couple of reasons.  I thought it would cut down on the amount of dishes that would accumulate in my kitchen along with all of the serving platters after the party but also I thought it would be a good ice breaker hoping that everyone would bring interesting cups or mugs that would get conversations started and it did.  Of course there were a few people that didn't bring cups so I had to provide them with one and I wish I had the time to set a few up around the tea area but time got away from me as usual.

TIP 8.
Don't do what I always end up doing.  I try and do too much.  Make too many things, plan to make too many things and then run out of time and energy to do them.
Case in point.  I wanted to make finger sandwiches but I didn't want to make them too far in advance because they become stale quickly and I didn't end up making them until most of the people actually left because I didn't have the time and there wasn't any room to put them.
I also made Tea Pot shaped cookies that I would have liked to decorate but that takes a lot of time to do so I skipped the decorating part.

TIP 9.
Prepare things that you know might be safe for people with restricted diets.  I made mini quiches using prepared tart bases but had some extra filling mixture so I made fritattas using the mix in a muffin tin so they were single servings without crusts which would be great for people that can't eat gluten products.

TIP 10.
I never seem to have enough time to sit and chat with everyone because my friends stagger in and out at various times even though I try to get them all to come at relatively the same time.  This is why I try and prepare as much as I can in advance so that I can have some time to enjoy the food and the people.

And not so much a TIP but an FYI... know that there will be people that might be offended because you didn't invite them to the party.  My place only holds about a dozen people comfortably and although I would love to invite all of my blogger friends, film fest friends and other friends there is only so many people that can fit in a small space so try and choose people that will bring something to the party and make it fun for everyone.