Sunday 17 April 2011

Friday night delight at La Bettola


Since I didn't get a chance to go to Bar Centrale last week, we decided to hit up another one of Terroni's spots called La Bettola.  This location is right at Queen and Victoria.  I think this is the perfect after work hang out place if you want a few drinks and a nice dinner, no pub food for me thank you very much. 
 We got the grilled octopus to start.  Two big tentacles perfect for sharing.  It wasn't as tender as I would have liked, but no where near being tough and was quite tasty.
For mains, we got the gnocchi with eggplant and tomato sauce and the halibut fish special.  Both were done very well and the portion sizes were just right.







With the good results we got from our main meals, we decided that it was safe to order dessert and coffee.  The dessert special was a brioche with a hazelnut gelato.  Needless to say, we will be coming back to this place.
La Bettola di Terroni on Urbanspoon

Life is good when you have oysters and lobsters!

Last Saturday, my bf and I went into Guelph to visit his friends.  Before we went in, we dropped by Diana's Seafood to pick up some yummy seafood.  We got five dozen Kusshi oysters for about $70 and some mussels.  If you are planning to get seafood from Diana's, remember their scallops are quite a bit more expensive than what you can get at the supermarket, so you might want to only pick up what you absolutely need from Diana's.  Somebody else was responsible for picking up the lobsters and they were only $5.99/lb at the Chinese supermarket.  Nice juicy lobsters for everyone!  And Honey, thanks for doing all the oyster shucking!



Friendly service, but what happened to the food at Capocaccia?

Last Friday was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny even around 6-7pm.  My bf and I walked up Bloor St. to the Rosedale/Summerhill area because I really wanted to try out one of the restaurants in the Terroni group of restaurants and Bar Centrale was right in the area.  Unfortunately, there was a long wait even though we arrived around 6:30pm, so we decided to move on and pick another restaurant up Yonge St. (Rosedale/Summerhill is a snobby area even for the likes of the Blinger).

We came across this restaurant called Capocaccia and decided to give it a try.  The atmosphere was good, nice and casual setting.  We ordered an appetizer, pasta and wine.  Our waitress was very friendly and helpful. 

The appetizer was grilled calamari with an arugula salad.  It was fresh and enjoyable, but then came the disappointment of the main course.  The Risotto Funghi was horrible and completely tasteless.  White button mushrooms were used and there was no sign of any seasoning like not even a little salt!  Maybe the chef fell asleep while cooking this dish.  The wild mushroom risotto that I made at home a few months ago tasted much better than this.
Luckily that was not my dish.  I ordered the Ravioli di Funghi, which is essentially the same thing, but with ravioli.  Mine tasted much better and I could taste the truffle oil.  I guess the chef was awake while making my dish.
After the main course, we decided to skip dessert and have made the decision never to return to Capocaccia!
Capocaccia Cafe on Urbanspoon

Seeing the world through a new set of eyes

It has been two weeks since I underwent Lasik surgery on April 1 at the Yorkville Laser Eye Centre.  My surgery was performed by Dr. John Lloyd and I'm very happy that I re-booked my surgery so that I could have him as my surgeon.  I have been seeing 20/20 after my first week.  I had originally scheduled my surgery back in February, but Dr. Lloyd was not available at that time, so the clinic staff had booked me in with Dr. Keon Nia.  I went online to check out some of the reviews on him and there were a lot of negative reviews, so I re-booked my surgery date just so that I could have the surgeon that I originally wanted.

The procedure itself did not last long, maybe around 20min.  There were two lasers that were used: one to cut the corneal flap and one to perform the actual correction.  The part when the corneal flap was cut wasn't scary at all.  It took maybe one second for the laser to actually work on your eye, but they had to hold your eye in place with a suction cup which felt kind of weird because it felt like something was pushing your eye down.  The part where they use the laser to correct your vision was a little nerve wracking.  You see a bunch of lights but you are not able to see clearly, then they tell you to hold still while they count down to shooting the laser at you.  It took 26sec on my right eye and 29sec on my left eye.  Meanwhile, you'll hear the laser zapping away and smell the stench of burnt hair.  I really need the nerve balls they gave me to hold onto during those 55sec of my life, but it all worked out in the end!

My recovery was fairly fast and painless.  I was out and about on a sunny day the day following the surgery with my Prada sunglasses, not the ugly ones they gave me.  I even went to my gym classes two days after while wearing my sunglasses.  The $1500 voucher that I purchased on TeamBuy for $99 was definitely worth every penny.