Day 47: Macaroni and Cheese - Homemade

Mac and Cheese is one of my all-time favourite dishes. And the best way to do it (as you can probably anticipate), is to do it yourself. A bit of bechamel sauce, some bacon, freshly grated cheese, ground pepper and some hot chillies. If you're feeling good about yourself, add a breadcrumb mixture on top and brown it in the oven.

You get the creaminess of the bechamel, the smoky bacon taste, and the texture of it also. The macaroni are just the perfect vehicle to cling onto the sauce,and hold clumps of it inside it. Total comfort food.

Day 22: Shrimp Won Ton at House of Gourmet

Undoubtedly, one of the best wonton you'll find in Toronto is at House of Gourmet at Spadina and Dundas. Their secret (or not so secret, as they make them right in front of the street through a window) is that the wonton is fresh, not frozen. They make them right there in massive batches, by hand, and cook them, which means the prawns are fresher, they cook more evenly (vs. if they are cooked from frozen), the wonton wrapper skin is lighter in texture, and of the course, the flavour is more intense. Of course, you can only do this if you have enough volume and this place is always packed. The price is great too. The bowl in the picture has fish balls and egg noodles and is a little over $5-$6 (before tax).

Day 13: Palabok from Casa Manila Restaurant

One of my favourite Filipino foods is palabok. It uses a round rice noodle, and topped with fish flakes, shrimp, squid, egg, fish sauce. At Casa Manila (near Don Mills and York Mills), they do an awesome palabok. The flavours are dark and smoky, the seafood flavour is present but not overwhelming, the texture of the noodles is somewhere between soft and al dente (unlike Italian noodles, you don't want al dente for this recipe), and the colours are bright and inviting.