Month: November 2017

First Day in Toronto

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Some of you know that the first few posts are already up for Toronto! So yes, this is a late post, but it’s the long weekend and I was reminiscing back on the warm summer months~

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We arrived by train right to the heart of Toronto, and it was so exciting to see the big tall buildings everywhere, the infrastructure, the people… it was like being in Japan again for me!

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We loved how the layout of the buildings were put together, and everything was just something begging to be photographed. Love the city hall!

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I’m kind of glad we don’t have late night food stands outside back at home, or else I’d be a balloon by now. (Yes, I eventually gave in one night in Toronto).

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I’m a sucker for flowers. The other day I bought some to give to a friend’s grand opening event and my heart just stopped because $50 still got me a small vase of mixed arrangements.

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First stop to eat before checking in was light cafe. Definitely went up on my favourites list and if I had the chance to go again I would! A post will be made soon on this place!

 

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I was sad that I lost my lens cap for my camera before we went down to the subway to head to Casa Loma.

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As much as we tried to cram as much into our itinerary we were just a bit short time in getting to go into casa loma :(. There was a wedding going on and was slightly tempted to crash it haha.

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We headed to the museum next and tried to be as strategic as possible (basically powerwalking through areas that were lower priority on the list to see).

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We met up with an old time friend, Joyce! Had some good ramen that was worth the wait!

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Like all tourists, we needed to end the night in taking pictures in front of the sign! And yes, like all tourists we waited for certain colours to appear to take the shot.

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We lined up for Uncle Tetsu’s and went around trying to find a place to eat it (it was super late). We thought maybe a bar would let us. We went to Drake One Fifty! And in case you’re wondering, no, they didn’t let outside food :(.

Quickread is done! Next post would be my attempt at making a Japanese Cheesecake similar to Uncle Tetsu’s! 

Let me know if you had questions about our itinerary! We jam packed everything in two and a half days!

-Weeeee

Mish

Beautiful Guilty Pleasures. Ah. Chocolate.

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So during our Toronto trip we were walking around kensington market in the morning to see what cool stuff (especially food) there was. Note.. do not go early in the morning because many places weren’t even open yet.

We walked around and found a shady looking TD atm machine place. This space could only really fit one person. It was perfect, because I really needed to withdraw some money out. AND BOY AM I GLAD I DID.

BECAUSE. Low and behold do you know what we stumbled upon?! CXBO (Chocolates x Brandon Olsen). I heard of them first through instagram a while back and I saw they made these beautiful disco eggs. You’ll see as you scroll down how beautifully-made the chocolates are. Truly, little tiny works of art in each one!

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CXBO is owned by chef and chocolatier, Brandon Olsen, and artist Sarah Keenlyside! I would love to be able to see the process in how they make these one day!

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So… I kind of waited around a week or so for our girl’s night to eat the chocolates. Clearly truffles don’t last very long (it started crumbling). But it was very soft and it’s still bit more on the sweeter side for me but creamy and yummy!

I’m sad I forgot to bring my camera to take these, but thanks Nana for letting me use your camera!

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This is just beautiful! And arguably one of the most expensive chocolate I ever bought for the quantity I was getting (around $3-4 a piece?). But it’s about quality (amirite??). Though, I’m not a chocolate expert or anything so this is just based on pure personal preference (well all 4 of us tried it and we pretty much had similar, if not the same, kind of conclusion.

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First of all I must point out it comes in the cutest box. I wonder if they hand make each printed design on it?

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From this list, can you already tell which ones would be a hit or miss for you?

From this I was really interested in the:

  1. Raspberry, rose, fennel
  2. Yuzu, sake
  3. orange blossom, honey
  4. pistachio, orange, bergamot

Though I think we were all interested in the same ones. Thank you to Nancy though because she particularly likes salted caramel, so that helped in the choosing of who eats which one (that’s the biggest dilemma). Though we kinda tried to split LOL.

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I can’t even remember who tried which. But Lisa, Kelly, Nana and I think the orange blossom was the best one. It’s like biting into flowers!!! Okay, let me redo that. It didn’t sound as appetizing. Um… it’s just such a light and fragrant scent, I’m not too sure how to describe it. A light floral sweetness? I think that sounds better.

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The yuzu one was kind of disappointing. We were hoping for something more citrusy like the yuzu itself.

I always wondered what kind of palate you’d need to distinguish the “better” chocolate from the “okay”?

It’s a very special and meaningful day/evening/night for me and I was really glad to have these girls meet each other as they are my absolute favourites ❤

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My fashionable ladies~ Even on a chill day haha. Oh and yes it was kind of chilly that day too.

Do you know where we’re walking to.. CAN YOU GUESS?!

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I clearly didn’t get the memo haha.

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You’ve probably guessed it by now. We went to explore the Edmonton “beach!”

 

Making meaningful memories~

Love-Mish

 

What’s your comfort food?

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The weather’s getting colder and it made me think back to when we went out searching for something warm to fill up our bellies. WE ORDERED TOO MUCHHHH.

Let’s learn some chinese! 眼阔肚窄 yan3kuo4du4zhai3. In cantonese we say it a bit differently, but direct translation turns into big eyes, small stomach. Does that give a hint?! Basically feasting with your eyes and forgetting how much the stomach can actually hold :p. We usually say the phrase after we’ve ordered wayyy too much and can’t finish.

I guess the problem is that we always seem to have these cravings later in the night. Luckily Hong Kong 852 (used to be Cafe de Tropika) is open late!

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Simple but yummy dish. Sliced beef balls with udon noodles! For some reason, I absolutely love the texture of udon… I can eat packs and packs of it with only soy sauce (not good ahaha). This dish was slightly saltier than I like though.

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Hot sweet and sour soup!! Our absolute favourite, but out of all places we tried we still think the best one is at Shanghai 456 haha.

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I first tried this on my second time to Hong Kong 852. A really kind family took me here and soon after I fell in love with it! Anyone who has ever came here with me knows I always liked to order this. A beautiful puff pastry sealing a fragrant lobster bisque inside!!! SO YUMMY!

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Ah! Thousand year old egg and salted pork congee. I still have yet a chance to try and make it! You usually use duck or chicken eggs to preserve it and then it takes a combination of lime, ash, clay, and rice hulls to make it. It should take around 4-5 weeks. It has a creamy texture on the inside and on some eggs you can see beautiful snowflake-like patterns on it!

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The Hong Kong style curry beef brisket is a common dish I’d get. Though I wish it was more piping hot when it came out! Mom often scolds me because it’s not necessarily the healthiest dish to always eat.

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This borsch soup came with the curry beef brisket. It’s just a nice vegetable soup. The price is really good though ($14) for soup and a dish.

 

That’s it for today!!!

-Love Mish.