Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice

With over 6,000 locations around the world, Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice is one of China’s biggest food chains and they’re now available in Canada! They recently opened several new locations in Ontario. Check out their website to find a location near you!

Website: http://yangschicken.ca

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice actually really reminds me of a hearty home cooked meal. My mom is a huge fan of one pot cooking so this is definitely something I’m familiar with.

The portions at Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice are humongo. I got two meals out of this one meal combo! The chicken is marinated all the way through and so tender. My favourite part is the sauce and this one pot wonder is oh so saucy. I drizzled the sauce on my rice so each bite is full of flavour. Yang’s Chinese chicken pot recipe has been around since the 1830s, passed down from generation to generation. The chicken here is braised daily at the restaurant and each order only takes five to nine minutes to prepare. It’s the perfect quick, healthy and delicious meal if you’re under a time crunch!

Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice may be famous for their signature braised chicken and rice, but I was actually really impressed with their cucumber salad. It sounds simple, but it’s so refreshing and such a nice pairing to the braised chicken and rice. This is something my grandma used to make as a side dish too! There are lots of side dishes to pick from the menu so I definitely recommend trying them out too.

Cheese Garden

Location: Unit G120, 3250 Midland Avenue, Scarborough, ON, M1V 4W9

Website:  http://www.cheesegarden.ca/

There are currently 3 locations you can go to pick up some of their amazing treats. My go-to is the Midland location in Scarborough since it’s closest to my place and the service is always great.

I love Japanese desserts and Cheese Garden never disappoints when I’m craving a good Japanese cheesecake. They use quality ingredients and it shows in their beautifully crafted treats.

Cheese Garden’s Japanese cheesecakes are baked fresh daily. They are light, airy and full of flavour. I like to describe it as a hybrid of mousse cake and sponge cake - exactly how a Japanese Cheesecake should be. 

I love my matcha so when Cheese Garden came out with this matcha tiramisu I just had to get my hands on it. You can never have too MATCHA tiramisu and trust me, I’ve had my fair share. This matcha tiramisu is made with premium Uji matcha powder. The cream is rich and fluffy. The “lady fingers” is actually a Hokkaido chiffon cake and it’s light, not overly sweet and balances out the creamy filling.

The 5 inch baked cheese tart is basically a tart filled with ooey gooey molten cheese in a perfectly baked tart shell that is buttery and flakey. This is one of my many favourite treats at the Cheese Garden, I guess you can say that it stole my tart. Okay, that was the last pun I swear! The cheese tarts are best consumed when they’re fresh out the oven. However, for the people out there with more self control than me and won’t stuff their faces with this beautiful tart in a single sitting, Cheese Garden does provide a little pamphlet with instructions on how to store and re-heat this tart.

I saved the best for last, the double fromage cheesecake! It comes in 2 flavours, original and matcha. It’s literally 2 layers of cheesecake (one frozen and one baked) sitting on a layer of sponge cake. I can’t get enough of this double fromage cheesecake! It’s the best of both worlds, a combination of a cheesecake and an ice cream cake. The size is perfect for sharing but once you get a bite of this you’re gonna want to keep it all to yourself.

Cheese Garden’s decor is simple and elegant (much like their baked goods). They also have lots of windows and natural light which makes this the perfect spot for a foodtography session.

Keep an eye on their website and social media - they release seasonal products for limited time only!

Sponsored tasting - while the cakes were complimentary, opinions are my own.