One of Toronto's top Chinese restaurants is all-in on barbecue this summer
One of Toronto's best-regarded Chinese restaurants is joining forces with some of the city's favourite barbecue businesses for a one-of-a-kind dinner series this summer.
If you ask me, it's not summer until the smell of meat (or vegetarian alternatives) sizzling on the grill hits you from all directions the second you step outside. The aroma of a charcoal grill is to summer as catching snowflakes on one's tongue is to winter.
If you don't have the privilege of owning a barbecue of your own — or simply can't be bothered to refill your propane tank — restaurants around the city similarly hop on to the seasonal bandwagon, firing up their own grills for the benefit of char-adoring patrons.
A new, albeit somewhat unexpected, entry to the city's restaurant barbecue game is Kensington Market star Sunnys Chinese, which launched a summer-long barbecue series wherein some of the city's top chefs take over the restaurant patio on select Sundays from June to September to serve up sizzling, seared goodness.
The first installment, which took place on June 28, featured Andrew Golden and Kris Hansen of Golden Horseshoe BBQ, who served up a menu of Texas-inspired barbecue dancing with Chinese flavours: Sichuan-spiced sausage, cumin-spiced lamb, mapo tofu, baked beans and cornbread with oolong condensed milk.
I'm sorry to be telling you about it after it already happened and you can no longer try it for yourself, but believe me when I say that the best may very well be yet to come.
The next installment of Sunnys Sunday BBQ, set to take place on Sunday, July 19, will be headed up by Top Chef Canada winner and Culinary Director at Our House H.C. (Prime Seafood Palace, Iron Cow Public House), Coulson Armstrong.
On August 23, Barbode Soudi, the chef and owner behind Mozy's Charcoal, one of the biggest breakout restaurants of the year in Toronto, will fire up the grill and, to close the series out, on Sept. 27, Mizunara's Alyssa Figueira will take on the final act.
The team at Sunnys says it best: "Expect smoke, seasonal ingredients, cold drinks, and a few surprises along the way." What could possibly say summer more?
Reservations for all three remaining installments of Sunnys Sunday BBQ are available for booking through OpenTable.
