Restaurants
Kim Moon Bakery
I go to Kim Moon Bakery for breakfast when Toronto's feeling like Hong Kong - polluted, muggy, and crowded. I guess it's the weather that gives me a craving for congee and racing papers. And while there is probably better congee in the GTA, there are few options so convenient and reassuring as Kim Moon.
Walking along Dundas, I stop by the newspaper vendor on the insurance building's stoop. Half-hidden by a concrete post, he's easy to miss--he's usually in earnest conversation and mostly sells the Chinese papers. But he always has one or two copies of the Star or the Globe, so I get a paper--it's not Hong Kong horse racing, but that's OK, I don't know anyone who bets on the horses in Toronto, it's not politically correct. Then I walk the rest of the block to Kim Moon Bakery.
As the sign suggests, there's a bakery here--the winter melon pastries are the nicest I've found in Chinatown--but Kim Moon is really a restaurant, and its windows are currently obscured by bubble tea advertisements. I've never actually seen anyone inside drinking such a thing; you want bubble tea? Go somewhere else.
Past the bakery display cases, there's a plainly-decorated restaurant. Where, when I arrived the other day at 8:30am, the best round tables were already occupied by elderly men reading the papers and drinking iced milky tea and watery coffee, a few little plates at their elbows.
This is breakfast without the dim sum trolley performance; customers just order a few basic things from the waitress. There's reassuring sticky rice in lotus leaf, a variety of buns and pastries (including the essential little custard tarts), and a brief menu. I order the sticky rice and tarts, along with an iced tea and my favourite winter melon pastry. But the key for this kind of breakfast, for me, is congee. Plain, ordinary, white congee.
Technically, congee is rice soup, thickened with dry shredded scallops and yuba skin; these days, most places use instant starch. Congee is a bit like chicken noodle soup: it's not about glamour, it's not very photogenic, and everyone has their own favourite recipe. It's straight-forward stuff, the kind of food that grandmothers foist on anyone who dares to complain about a cold or upset stomach. Before adding hot sauce, congee tastes vaguely like porridge, without that regretful leaden oatmeal feeling afterwards.
Within forty minutes, instead of feeling muggy and irritable and wishing myself absolutely anywhere else but Toronto, I've polished off my congee and the Kim Moon pastries, I've drunk enough iced tea with condensed milk to sweeten an army, and I actually feel ready to confront the day.
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Prices?
I think I need some "congee for dummies" instructions. anyone?
Thanks for your explanation of congee. Can you tell us how the food tasted? You say that congee is sometimes made with instant starch. Is Kim Moon's made this way?
What are the pastries like? Are there many to choose from? What did the winter melon taste like? How to the custard tarts compare to those of other ethnic groups? (Personally, I had a custard tart the other day from Yung Sing bakery that was vile. Too watery and eggy when compared to Portuguese custard tarts.).
You don't mention service, pricing, or taste... Why should we go here and not some other place?
By the way, it would be very bizarre to compare Chinese custard tarts to Portuguese tarts in this type of review. A Chinese tart should be evaluated in consideration of other Chinese tarts, not a completely different style of the same type of pastry. We don't review Italian pasta in consideration of Asian noodles.
Dim Sum is good here, I'm also a fan of the curried beef buns they bake also.
Great... So right away we are told that their is probably someplace better. How is it better? Where can we find that place?
I don't know - I just find this review lacking important information.
But yes, I definitely agree more information would be helpful; I myself asked for pricing, which is always good to know. The author writes with really good colour, but it's pretty short on the quality of the food itself.
However, I may have a crappy place next door to me, but I might think it's worth it to check this place out if it were great (like sushi restaurants on Bloor).
I don't expect a review to mention other places that are better (unless they are reviewed as well), but I'd like to know a little about the place supposedly being written about.
I'm only a 30-minute streetcar ride from downtown ... and I work and go to school there, so I guess I forget about that :P
Nothing better than eating fried crispy dough for breakfast.
The milk shake was horrible (tasted like sweet water).
The only things good about this place were the pastries.
Otherwise, dont waste your money.
"only the smart ones can appreciate it."
hahaha that is the most idiotic statement I have ever heard. who knew there are snobby Asian food lovers out there too lol.
I love Asian food, I lived in China/korea/Japan for 2 years I love Asian food but that doesn't mean that I have to like EVERY Asian food. Even people who were born there dont all have the same taste. lol dont be an idiot lol.
haha your comment is still making me chuckle lol thanx for making me laugh loool.
Congee equals :
1) day old hardened rice
2) water
3) boil till gooey soup forms
not that complicated.
I HIGHLY RECOMEND KIM MOON BAKERY :)
I happen to love dim sum for breakfast. I don't do it everyday or even really every month. But I'm tired of people saying that Chinese food is TOO greasy -- esp. dim sum. What do they think of greasy hash brown potatoes, greasy bacon, greasy sausages, greasy fried eggs, all with buttered toast on both sides??? Luckily it all can get washed down with hot, hot coffee and cream/milk???
Dim sum is a wonderful, slow or fast tradition for many people. It can be treated like a quick breakfast or a slow, relaxed morning 'tea' ritual for the older, retired set with their Chinese tea and a few favourite dim sum dishes. Dim sum isn't always deep fried -- there's actually more steamed dishes -- many, many steamed dumplings. My personal favourite is the preserved duck egg congee. If you can get past the blackened color of the duck egg pieces in the congee -- it's a very delicious congee. This place doesn't serve the best I've had of course, but it's OK. And if your waisteline can take the extra grease, a treat for congee is the Chinese donuts -- a kind of deep fried breadstick-- on top of the congee!
chiu-chow congee is rice soup (runny).
Once in TO, I needed to find a bakery for my daughters birthday and other occasions. We orderd frm Kim Moon and at first, when I walked in, I was kind of scared as it's not that "cool" or even very nice looking. However, the cakes looked good and the price was unbeatable.
We picked up our cake on birthday day and it was delicious? One of the best I have had. Now, my only question is will they do character cakes since my daughter now wants a princess style cake and no longer is satisfied with flowers.
Maybe I will they Furama, my favorite for buns and other pastries.