Happy Happy Fall!

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GUYS GUYS GUYS!!! It’s autumn! This year might just be one of the warmest autumns yet! Can’t wait to take the kiddies out for trick or treating. Let’s all admit it, we like to go with them to get in on that free candy :’D. Thank you to all the people who continue to decorate their homes and hand out candy and contributing to the festive spirit!

This year we had a small get-together with friends to celebrate fall! Keep scrolling to see what yummy food we had in-store and fun activities!

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Polly and Henry working at those water chestnuts! (going to be a filling inside dumplings)

I actually had to force myself to wake up early after a night of karaoke and hot pot the day before ahaha. Henry helped me run around the West side in grabbing groceries. Later on Polly, Alex and Nana arrived to help with more prepping of the foods!

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Helping on making that tiramisu!

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We even had our meat master show us how to make some nice steaks :p. And thanks to Organic Box we had a ton of fresh thyme to use!! Key: Let it rest before cutting!

(p.s. I’m way too hyper to be doing a blog post. Hopefully you guys understand what I’m trying to say)

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Ooo, who made the appetizer?!

I did a little decorating to make it feel more Halloweenish. I love Popeyes but it seems like a lot fewer people like it than I thought :'(.

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Why, none other than our Ben! Look at that :3 Healthy and yummy!

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The moment you’ve been waiting for! FOOD! Um… believe me when I say we did have veggies…

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I started everyone off with some Thai coconut soup! I always wanted to learn how to make this! I added a bit more lime juice, less coconut milk and cooked the shrimp in a Moroccan-spiced broth. I do have to say that I really liked how it turned out. Though, as usual, lots more experimenting to do to make the recipe mine!

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Alex brought over the wings! It took a while to finish. We had 10 people too! (Actually it’s not finished, and I’ve tried using it in many different dishes to try to finish it off. I don’t think my sister noticed yet! Shh :’D)

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We made 200 dumplings! Two different fillings and 3 different folding styles (I… didn’t get the chance to take the other styles.) I was also too lazy to take the time to pan fry it nicer.

Filling number 1: pork, chinese lettuce, chives, white wine, pepper, salt, sugar, soy sauce

Filling number 2: pork, shiitake mushrooms, water chestnut, white pepper, salt

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Makes me super happy to see everyone eating and having a good time ^^

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Yes Ben! Grab that dumpling!

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Sorry my hand was shaky and totally didn’t do the steak any justice. Also… who grabbed different coloured chopsticks?!

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Nancy’s Budae Jigae stole the spotlight though ;P. Always love the colour of it. Have you guys tried Steel Wheel’s budae jigae?! It’s the BEST.

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The rest of the night was dedicated to games, movies and carving!!!

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We watched rush hour 3 while carving pumpkins! I think Ben’s making an ig story and Lisa’s showing off her luscious hair hehe :3.

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Mochi got to play with so many people today! He’s so tuckered out, dreaming~

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Voila! Some beautiful pumpkins carved by: Ben, Lisa, Polly and Nana!

Happy Fall everyone! Hope you all are enjoying it!

 

-LOVE MISH.

 

 

The Charcoal Ice Cream Cone: iHalo Krunch

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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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Moxie’s at WEM

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I had a quick meet-up with someone to discuss about some plans on future volunteer opportunities and they treated me to dinner. Now, meeting at WEM (West Edmonton Mall) and then deciding a dinner spot is always quite difficult. To me anyways.

We finally settled down on Moxie’s. Fun fact: Moxie’s is a Canadian restaurant chain and uses Ocean-Wise seafood for their dishes!

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Pretty sure this is the prawn linguine: half baby lobster tail, prawns, rustic tomato sauce ($23 ¾). I must say how smart it is to put fractions instead of the .75 on the menu. Looks more fancier. But if you’re like me, it also makes me panic when I see fractions. (Thank goodness for the Berenstein bears episode that helped me :p ).

I’m not sure if it’s the location that makes the food but I didn’t really like the sauce or the texture of the noodles. It seemed to lack some flavour. To be honest this seems like a nice dish you quickly throw together at home.

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Sorry for the horrible angle of the pictures haha! I was so hungry I just quickly snapped it.

This is the red thai curry: stir-fried veggies, jasmine rice, curry-buttered naan ($15). It actually costs another $5.50 to add chicken or prawns. The flavour is not bad but it is the naan that I didn’t really like. Just a bit disappointed that the curry didn’t come out hot, it was more room temperature.

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Why is it that I always remember to take a picture of the dessert menu but not the main one haha.

What I do like about Moxie’s is that is sets a nice atmosphere for dates and other get-togethers. Plus the service is usually pretty informative and friendly. But the lighting :(. Didn’t work well for my phone camera.

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Salted caramel and pecan cheesecake. I think sometimes I’m more excited about the toppings than the actual main star of the show. Blackberries was first introduced to me by a friend and somehow it just stuck with me.

The mandarins could’ve been peeled a lot better for not only presentation purposes, but also so the guest isn’t busy trying to pick out the hard central core left behind.

Overall, it wasn’t bad, a little bit on the sweeter side than I’m comfortable with, but I can see many of my friends liking it :p.

 

Oh look at that, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

-Mishy