Out & About: Asian Legend

I always enjoy eating out, whether with family or friends. It's always nice to catch up and relax with a nice meal. My parents decided to go out to eat one night because nobody really wanted to cook. Asian Legend was the obvious choice because we go for brunch there often, and it's relatively close by. First off, we made a reservation for 6 pm, and it was lucky that we did too. When we got there the place was PACKED. All the servers were running around and there were people waiting too. Fortunately we were seated quite quickly.

 Smoked Duck (Half) 

The duck had a nice smoky flavour and I'm a sucker for duck. It was a bit dry but still relatively tender. This makes me think of an experience I had at a food demo at Harbourfront Centre. The audience was able to sample the duck the chef made. It looked really good with the skin all shiny and crispy but I could not bite through that for the life of me. 

Home Style Fried Tofu with BBQ Pork on sizzling hot plate 

This dish had fried tofu, red and green peppers, snow peas, BBQ pork, onions, and shitake mushrooms. The BBQ pork was super tough so I stayed away from that. I prefer vegetables and tofu to meat anyways. Everything else was really good.

I didn't write down the name.

Some run of the mill Cantonese style fried noodles with assorted vegetables and seafood. 

Fish Maw Soup with Fresh Crab Meat

What is fish maw? It's the swim bladder of the fish! Basically, it is a gas filled internal organ that helps the fish float. This soup is a popular part of Asian cuisine, but not my favourite. It had a...slimy, blubbery texture.

Banana in Hot Toffee

The concept of bananas in hot toffee sounds great, no? Except this is awfully misleading in my opinion. The bananas here are deep fried in this thick, cake-like coating. The toffee however, is more like melted   rock sugar. What happens is that somebody brings the hot plate of bananas over along with a bowl of ice water. They then proceed to dunk the bananas in the water, hardening the toffee and cooling it. THIS IS BAD. The banana gets all soggy and the toffee cools to the point where it is simply not edible unless you want to chip a tooth.

Red Bean Porridge (Dessert)

Now, on to my absolute favourite Asian dessert - red bean porridge. This dish is very comforting to me because my mom has been making this since I was young. The one served at the restaurant was very mild in sweetness so that made for a good ending to the meal. Personally, I prefer it thick, with a lot of red beans, and sweet, with orange peels, which gives a citrus undertone. 

All in all, it was alright. I can't be impartial here because I've been here many times and am very familiar with the food. I don't recommend it for dinner because it isn't as good as brunch (and it's more expensive). That being said, I HIGHLY recommend it for brunch because the dim sum and the green onion pancakes are delicious fare. 

All of these pictures were taken on my camera phone (HTC Desire), hence the less than sub-par quality. I've painstakingly edited them on Windows Live Picture Editor because Pixlr-o-Matic wouldn't let me filter them with nice vintage washes. 

Enjoy your dinner folks.