If you told me that the dim sum in Toronto is better than San Francisco’s, I wouldn’t have believed you unless I tried it for myself. And that’s exactly what I did and it turns out Toronto wins (insert Drake joke here). Nishan and I headed over to Lai Wah Heen for a decadent dim sum brunch on our fifth day in the city and even though it’s been nine months since we visited, I can’t get these luxurious morsels out of my head.
We started with a soft bean curd sheet dim sum with mushrooms and truffle. This was perfect but amazingly the broth was the best thing about this dish. I want to drink this truffle-laden broth for breakfast every morning. And lunch. And dinner.
We also had the beef mousse and mandarin peel rice roll. Ethereal, savory, and ever-so-slightly citrusy. Delicious.
Next we had the minced chicken and truffle dumplings. My only regret is that this didn’t taste more like truffles.
We finished our meal with a plate of crystal jelly with wolfberries. I love these types of textures and the cool, clean flavor was a perfect ending to our dim sum. Oh, Lai Wah Heen. I can’t wait until we meet again.
After brunch we took a break and headed over to St. Lawrence Market, one of the best food markets in North America and also where I tried my first pecan butter tart. Butter tarts are quintessentially Canadian and this one was like pecan pie. Except more butter. Mmm, buttery pecan pie.
Next up was the historical Distillery District, where we walked off all that dim sum and pastry. The district is the site of the former Gooderham and Worts Distillery and is the largest collection of Victorian-era industrial architecture in North America. These days, it houses loads of trendy cafes and fashionable shops selling local wares.
For dinner, we headed back towards the downtown core for reservations at Momofuku. David Chang opened up a multi-restaurant building in Toronto a couple of years ago and the hyper-industrial glass building is hard to miss. Inside, we had a distinctly Momofuku experience: falafel buns, brussels sprouts with fish sauce and puffed rice, corn with nori butter, hangar steak with kimchi, and the most Momofuku finish of them all: fried apple pie.
Momofuku pulled off being playful without playing around, if that makes sense. Next time I’m picking up a few compost cookies to take home.