Fire + Ice = Tasty Stir Fry

A while ago I found myself in Markham, Ontario, for a workshop. Having expertly chosen the hotel furthest from almost everything in the town, I asked the receptionist to point me in the direction of nearby restaurants. The answer I received was a bit disappointing: there is only one restaurant within miles other than the one in the hotel. He informed me that their fare was a bit “different”, but “some people like it”. Upon further prompting, the only description he could provide for their food was “stir-fry”. Now a stir-fry to me is something I make for dinner when I’m feeling unimaginative and have a lot of veggies lying around that need to be eaten. Add some pasta or rice, some shrimp, spices, and some sauce, and you have something that’s pretty tasty, which will feed you for about a week. Don’t get me wrong, I like stir-fry, but I generally don’t go out of my way to eat at restaurants that specialize solely in something I can easily make at home. But I thought “beats starving”, and headed over anyway.

The restaurant ended up being Fire & Ice, which on the outside appears to be an oversized Burger King with plastic veggies and utensils glued to it. The fire/ice trim on the top of the roof didn’t help either. Once inside, my fears that it would contain a giant PlayPlace abated as I was promptly lead to my table and given a menu. The inside decor resembled the inside of a cave, but it gave the odd impression of being a Cave of Good Food. That, or I was becoming delusional from hunger. Feeling famished, I ordered the Ultimate Seafood platter. Now how it works at this place is you order your “protein” and type of rice, your server gives you a ticket, and you go to the ingredients bar. This resembles a large buffet of pasta, veg, and anything else you might ever want in a stir fry. You then give your plate full of noodles and veg to the “Volcano Chef”, along with your ticket and sauce choice, and go visit the salad bar. About the time you are done eating your bread and salads your server comes back with your stir-fry, which by this time weighs about 10 lbs.

Still a bit skeptical of the concept, I dug in, only to find that it was absolutely delicious. The seafood contained about five large shrimp, a bunch of big juicy P.E.I. scallops, four entire squid (small ones, luckily), a fillet of Atlantic salmon, and a fillet of spicy blackened snapper, and everything was cooked perfectly. Yes, I added way too many veggies, but from my table I had a clear view of the buffet, and I was not alone in this blunder. In retrospect, I guess this would be the reason they give you a small plate to fill with veg. After all of this, when I finally finish as much as I can and am on the verge of bursting, my server informs me that dessert is included in the meal. Luckily it turned out to only be a small palate-cleansing scoop of sorbet.

Moral of the story: if you’re ever in Markham and are looking for some pretty good eats for relatively cheap, give Fire & Ice a try; it’s a lot better than it looks. Just make sure to bring an appetite – you’ll need it.