The Charcoal Ice Cream Cone: iHalo Krunch

Nana and I went to a trip to Toronto and one of the must-go places on our list was iHaloKrunch. While we admit it may be a bit overhyped, we still think it was definitely worth the trip there!

iHaloKrunch makes their waffle cones in-store, so it smells amazing when you walk in. The special part is that the waffle cones are BLACK. The secret ingredient? Activated charcoal.

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We think we lined up for almost 45 minutes? It wasn’t too bad. The store is actually really small, and can only fit around 12 people at a time, and therefore the line-up spilt all the way outside. We thought it was really nice that they put out signs to let their customers know not to block the entrances of the other stores next to them (not the one shown above).

While we were bored, we entertained ourselves with the cute pug sitting on the bench!

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WE FINALLY MADE IT IN! See what I mean by how small it is??

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They have other ice cream and sorbet options too. Though the flavours were quite standard and we came to Toronto to try more adventurous stuff hehe. E.g. They had mint chocolate chip, strawberry, chocolate etc. (Looked really yummy though).

While standing in line I had the hardest time deciding what flavour to get (I wanted to try everythinggggg). We were debating: matcha with charcoal, ube (taro) with charcoal, matcha with vanilla? Luckily more and more people left the shop with this 3 flavour combo which we couldn’t resist getting ourselves. Ube, charcoal and matcha!

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Now, the matcha isn’t really the usual matcha that has its depth and bit of bitterness to it. It’s more of a sweet green tea flavour. As for the ube (taro), it reminds me of the artificial taro powder used in bubble teas. Though that’s understandable as it’s really hard to get that nice purple along with a strong taste from the taro alone. As for the charcoal flavour… hm can’t quite put a finger on it to describe the taste! Like.. roasted black sesame? But it’s not as fragrant. They did infuse some coconut flavour in it though!

Our favourite part of the soft serve has to be the cone. It is very addicting! We love how the cones are made in-store. However the soft serve melted REALLY fast and although they did try to put in some marshmallow fluff at the bottom of the cone, the ice cream still dripped through :'(. We had to devour the ice cream as fast as possible at a nearby park across the street!!

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Anyways, if you’re in Toronto, this is a must-try! Yummy yummy in my tummy. Though don’t be like us in trying to take a minute to snap some photos of it as it melts extremely fast!

-Love

MishNa

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Day Before Cruise Trip!

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale prior to the Royal Caribbean Cruise! It’s very common for many people to stay one night here before heading out to the port in the early morning!

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It was our first red-eye flight and we discovered it is probably not for us. We barely got any sleep and were super exhausted when we arrived. Which contributed to us not really wanting to explore around as much by the time we arrived.

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We hailed a cab and asked them to drop us off at E Las Olas Bvld. It was somewhat close to our accommodation and it had tonnes of restaurants to choose from. I can’t quite remember which restaurant I had set my sights on from prior research… but we eventually settled for a place called Gran Forno Pronto.

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The service was friendly, and because we still had our luggage with us they found a spot just outside for us to sit with our belongings.

Here’s a look at the menu if you wanted to see what they have! Just click on it to enlarge.

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We were all thinking we probably should’ve tried the pizza here because it seemed like it was their specialty, but we really weren’t up for it, especially in the morning.

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This is the lasagna alla bolognese dish. As you can see, they were generous with the meat! The tomato sauce tasted fresh and a bit tangy.

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I got the sausage and peppers wood-baked sandwich. It was yummy, but I have to admit it was hard to eat and I ended up dismantling it into smaller pieces to eat. The sausages are really packed with flavour and a bit of spice. The peppers were sweet to compliment that spice!

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We were finally able to check into our airbnb, and after a few territorial agreements (;p), lying around and absorbing as much A/C as possible–We decided to set on a mini adventure to see what was around us.

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Along our mini-adventure, all by foot, we found a Macdonald!! I was craving the filet-o-filet so badly. (There’s just something about the ones made in the states that make it so yummy!)

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Okay back to the more important matters, we decided to find real food before it got darker. Thanks to Brenton for being able to search up something and found some place that had good ratings nearby.

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If you are really big on atmosphere and an overall look of a restaurant you wouldn’t really be impressed with this place. But we’re more about the food and would definitely consider this place as a hidden gem!

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There’s some nice variety in selection in the menus! The service is super friendly, a very homely feeling.

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I got a green apple soda to refresh myself. The green apple flavour is subtle, but if you were looking for something really carbonated (it makes me feel better for some reason) then I’d suggest this.

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To start us off, they gave us free appetizers. Chips and Salsa!

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This is the moment we were waiting for. TACOS. I think we ordered the Al Pastor (marinated pork) and Asada (steak). The service paid a lot of attention to us, because right before we started eating they asked if we wanted gloves too!

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Nancy ordered the Al Pastor and I would hands down recommend it. So juicy and flavourful. As for the steak, it was good too, but a bit tougher and drier to my liking. And not as big of a fan of the tortillas. It was bit too soggy and tough.

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I think Brenton was super hungry and got the chicken burrito 🙂 . It came with a side of beans and rice.

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When it arrived we could tell that the burrito was going to be super filling haha.

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I decided to try a tamale as it looked cute (yes, I am one of those people who fall victim to cute things and emotional marketing). We all agreed on that this is probably not something we’d order again. The meat was dry and we didn’t find it to have much flavour. That and we were probably so full on carbs that having more masa harina (corn flour)- based dishes was more than we could handle.

There you have it! The last meal before we set off early in the morning, with our kind airbnb host downstairs that helped us call a cab.

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Arriving at Port Everglades!

 

-Love Mish

 

 

Day 7 Harmony of the Seas Cruise Trip

I’m so excited to show you the food on this last day on the cruise ship! Definitely scroll down to see our first experience when gastronomy meets food!

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Started the day off at windjammer again! This time they had some employees playing music using kitchen appliances! And singing too!

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The Grease musical hands down was amazing! The singing, the acting, the liveliness. The blend of jokes that are relevant today and back then… oh it’s beautiful.

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This time we had an earlier dinner. We wanted to be there in time to see the sun setting (we sat right at the big window looking out to the back of the ship). Wala, I present to you Wonderland~

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The Friendship Turtle crew. It was an amazing trip with you guys.

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We were the first ones there and we didn’t leave till… very late haha.

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The video of this is on my instagram! But basically you use water to paint over this blank canvas and the menu shows up! How this works is that our server will choose some dishes he thinks we would like best and serve it to us in a random order. The element of surprise!

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First up, shrimp kataifi. I don’t really know what to say, the shrimp was nicely fried, and the liquid scotch bonnet foam had a hint of spice that just made this dish perfect. So light :3.

We ordered more of this too ahaha.

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Okay, the photos don’t do this justice at all. The buffalo cheese eggs. Strangely we don’t taste too much of the blue cheese. The videos on Brenton’s instagram was just beautiful. This would come trapped under a dome of smoke that they would lift up and wave around over the eggs. This had an amazing smokey flavour that made us get seconds of this!

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The crispy crab cones with a nice avocado mousse. I’m a crazy person on texture and this satisfied the hard and softness that I wanted.

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This was also another favourite of ours. The Oceanic Citrus. A burst of flavours from this dish! The yuzu is contained in the shaved ice which complemented the tuna so well! The tobiko added some fun texture too! SO yummy. You would scoop out the contents and eat it with the rice cracker. We also got seconds of this haha.

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Baby vegetables in the Garden. Yup, that’s its name! I don’t even know where to begin on this. Basically the tomato on the top left is not an actual tomato. They extracted the flavours of the tomato and mashed it up and added some other things in it and reconstructed it to look like a tomato again. (sorry, I can’t find the video where they explained it in full detail T^T). The gelatin olive was smooth and not overpowering at all! To the bottom left was what I think is like freeze dried cheese? (I’m not sure if you tried those freeze dried cheese ball snacks before). The top black powder on the top right tasted like huamei (salty dried plum). Okay… I tried to describe it, it was not very elegant at all sorry.

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Liquid lobster. This one bite was a punch of lobster flavour… we just wish there was more of it! And wished it was hotter. It contained some bone marrow and black caviar to finish the top.

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By now the room was getting filled up, it was getting darker and they turned on the lights!

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The Slow Roasted chicken. We must say we were not as impressed with the main dishes as we were with the appetizers. The chicken was bit dry and not very flavourful.

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The presentation is beautiful, that colour! The Terrior Beef. As you’re all probably wondering, the black thing on the bottom is a fingerling potato dipped in squid ink! The sauce tastes like a demi-glace sauce but with more stuff added to it. Bordelaise sauce usually has a dry red wine, bone marrow and more added to it along with demi-glace. The beef didn’t taste like anything special, just like the Chinese beef brisket dishes(牛腩). mom makes Mmmm.

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Bershire Pork Belly. To be honest, this just tastes like Chinese pork belly dishes we make at home. The top is supposed to be an apple foam, but I felt there was so little of it that you wouldn’t even taste it among with all the other flavours going on in the dish. In the coleslaw at the bottom, they used celery instead of cabbage. I believe they added some mustard seeds in there as well. Not bad.

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This is the Branzino in Crispy Bread. The rice had coconut milk mixed with it. and the tamarind emulsion sauce worked well with the coconut flavour. The breading was ver even and it just sliced down very nicely when you cut into it.

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Nearing the end of our main courses, our wonderful server asked if there was anything he missed on the menu that we would’ve liked to try. We decided to do a Sashimi of Red and White Tuna. The outer part was charred scallion to add more depth with the flavour. There were mustard seeds, Mashi tuna and yellowfin tuna at the bottom. This is probably the most disappointing dish we had.

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Can you believe it?! We finally made it onto our dessert courses. AND looking at the quality of the photos, you can probably guess we stayed long enough where the sun was setting already.

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This is… I do not have a name for this, because there was no dessert menu… surprise! We wish the chocolate was bit more hotter. This dessert was SO rich, we really wouldn’t finish this. It was way too sweet for us. It had dark chocolate, peanut butter with salted caramel, dulce ice cream, rice krispie cereal at the bottom, some raspberries on the side. And right in the centre was a chocolate cake.

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This was some kind of raspberry dessert with a coconut bottom (when you split it open it’s like layers of pink and yellow).

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To finish it off we had a meringue dessert. the red candy tasted like that filling from that peek freans cookie.

I think we got really tired and full in the end for me to write anymore notes haha.


We ended the night off with game of charades and masks and listening to some guy play the guitar outside the guys’ balcony.


This cruise was honestly just perfect. Not a single rude person, the service was impeccable. Things were fast and efficient and so well thought out in detail. Later on we discovered that they chose only the best of all employees from their other lines to work on the Harmony of the Seas ship. Which made us worry, because if we already experienced the best of the best first… will we be disappointed in the other cruises we go on in the future?

Overall, we feel that cruises aren’t quite our cup of tea when it comes to traveling. We’re used to a go-go-go! pace. So maybe in the far future we’ll try out cruises again :).


Let me know if you have questions about this cruise! There’s just so many details that I left out hehe.

 

YAYYYYYYY cruise trip posts done! Back to working on the restaurants ;P.

 

Love,

Mish