Sunday 4 November 2012

BDay Celebration at Cafe Boulud

We celebrated our friend Henrick's birthday at Cafe Boulud inside the Four Seasons Hotel today.  Considering this is Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud's first restaurant in Canada, we had high hopes, perhaps a little too high.  Our server was great, knowledgeable and attentive, and we were off to a great start with great appetizers.  I ordered the crispy duck egg with wild mushrooms.  The duck egg was crispy on the outside and runny on the inside.
Our meal broke down a bit during the main course.  Our friend had ordered the veal but then she was brought the lamb.  The waiter let us keep the lamb while she waited for her veal dish.  The veal dish came within 5min, but it turned out to be a little under-cooked, so she had to send it back.  By the time they brought back the veal loin, it was a bit over-cooked.  The waiter and manager were very apologetic by this time.  Meanwhile, I dug into my halibut and it's not as moist as I would've liked and it wasn't seared to the crispiness that I would've liked.  2hung got the beef duo of strip loin and short rib.  The short rib was a little dry.  We were kind of disappointed with how the main courses turned out and the manager made sure that we didn't get charged for the lamb and veal.

Dessert turned out to be much better. We ordered the caramelized gala apple and chocolate mousse cake.  The waiter also made sure that we weren't charged for the dessert either.  It was a shame because we really liked the appetizers and the service was great at this restaurant, but the main courses were just ok.

Cafe Boulud on Urbanspoon

Monday 29 October 2012

Working lunch at Canoe

Had a working lunch with a coworker at Canoe the other day. Hadn't been to Canoe in years and the food was great! We shared a buffalo mozzarella that was so refreshing and autumn flavoured.
Then, I had the lobster club sandwich with a cucumber salad. I wish the lobster were in bigger chunks!
Canoe is a great Canadian restaurant.  We need more of these around.

Canoe Restaurant & Bar on Urbanspoon

Wednesday 24 October 2012

Vancouver Style

This year we missed Thanksgiving at home because 2hung and I took a weekend trip to Vancouver.  The main objective of the trip was to get our engagement photos taken by our wedding photographer Sandy Tam because she happened to be in Vancouver that weekend.  We had the perfect weather those four days and besides the photo shoot, we were able to fit in lots of outdoor activities and of course, lots of food!

Sunday 14 October 2012

Satisfying my sweet tooth at The Cupcake Shoppe

I was driving by the plaza at Bathurst and Rutherford on my way back from Vaughan Mills when I saw that The Cupcake Shoppe has opened a new location there.  I decided to pull in and grab myself a couple of cupcakes.  I got the Pretty N' Pink which was a raspberry buttercream on a raspberry cupcake and a Red Velvet.  They were pretty yummy.  The cake was very spongey and frosty was quite smooth.  I do think that their red velvet is a little too chocolatey though.  Nonetheless, I like the idea of having a yummy cupcake place relatively nearby without having to drive too far when I need a cupcake fix!


The Cupcake Shoppe on Urbanspoon

Saturday 13 October 2012

Stella and Dot Jewelry!

My Stella and Dot jewelry order came in the mail yesterday.  The pieces are so lovely and the prices are quite affordable.  I can't wait to wear them!  If you are interested in Stella and Dot jewelry too, you can buy it through my friend Ellen's link.


Thursday 20 September 2012

OMG! Starbucks Hong Kong has Moon Cakes!

My friend from Hong Kong came back to visit and brought us these moon cakes from Starbucks!  They look quite good.  The flavours are salted caramel with almond and espresso with hazelnut. Can't wait to try it next weekend during Mid Autumn Festival.

Sunday 16 September 2012

Weekend Gourmet at Scaramouche and Hammersmith's

Last weekend was 2hung's bday and we celebrated over dinner at Scaramouche.  Scaramouche has a Restaurant area and a Pasta Bar and Grill.  We dined in the Restaurant.  Their service was great and it was obvious that they have a lot of returning customers.  The food was delicious.  We started with an amuse bouche and a half a dozen oysters as appetizer.
For mains, we ordered the halibut and the pasta special which was a gnocchi with wild mushrooms.  The halibut was cooked to perfection!  The gnocchi dish was pretty small, and I later realized that it was probably considered an appetizer, but it was very yummy.
 Look at the happy bday boy.
We finished off with a blueberry mille-feuille for dessert.
We continued our gourmet weekend with brunch at Hammersmith's in Riverdale.  Hammersmith's is a cute little spot and they specialize in duck which is kind of interesting for brunch.  We tried one of their scones and it was yummy but small enough not to feel guilty about eating all on your own.
We ordered the duck plate and a bacon, tomato and arugula sandwich.  The sandwich was packed with bacon.  The duck meat was tender and the plate came with a duck egg!  The egg yolk was very thick.  I think that's where all the extra cholesterol lies.  We also ordered a side of bacon hash.  Definitely a good place to return to for brunch.
Scaramouche on Urbanspoon Hammersmith's on Urbanspoon

Friday 7 September 2012

Diddybeats by Monster - Stereo in my Ears

Finally got my pink Diddybeats in the mail today! They sound awesome and they are so cute! Must have for every girly girl. Got them on TeamBuy for only $89! Thanks Dr. Dre and Diddy.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Enjoying coffee at Balzac's but can't stay long - no wifi!

Ever since I saw the Balzac pitch on Dragon's Den, I've always wanted to try it. After visiting the CNE today, we stopped by the Liberty Village location. The iced coffee is pretty good and they have organic milk/cream, but no free wifi!!
They also need to cater better pastries if they want to be French. The selection is not that impressive.

Sunday 19 August 2012

California Love Part 2: SoCal

The next morning, we drove out of Napa and made our way south towards Southern California.  We drove along the Golden Gate Bridge back to San Francisco and headed for the I-1, which is the highway that runs along the beautiful Pacific coast.
 We stopped by the Lands End Lookout point for a amazing view of the ocean.
 
 

Monday 6 August 2012

California Love Part 1: NorCal

Spent about 9 days in California this July.  I've been to California before but never spent this much time exploring the Golden State.  This time we flew into San Francisco, drove to Napa and Sonoma, then drove south along the coast to LA, Newport Beach and San Diego, making a stop first in Paso Robles.  First stop was Northern California.
We arrived in San Francisco and spent the day exploring the city.  We took the cable car over to Fisherman's Wharf.  It was a lot fun to stand on the edge of the cable car going up and down the hilly streets of San Fran.
 
 

Saturday 9 June 2012

Kinton Ramen didn't measure up to my ramen standards

I've been hearing about this new ramen place called Kinton Ramen which has recently opened by the owners of Guu.   I also heard about the 40min line up, so today we went there around 5pm to avoid the wait, hoping for a yummy bowl of ramen.
I ordered the Kinton Pork Ramen which came with extra pieces of pork.  You have a choice of the regular soup base or light soup base.  I chose the regular soup base and pork belly and I got three pieces of thick, fatty pork belly.  Typically, you would expect to get some chashu with your ramen, but this was no chashu.  Personally, I like pork belly, but this pork belly was fatty but not very tender...not my favourite.  Their ramen noodles were the cheap quality, translucent kind that you would expect to get at a Japanese restaurant that doesn't specialize in ramen.  The soup base was ok.  I didn't think it was too salty as some people have been commenting.  Overall, I was not impressed with this $12.8 bowl of ramen and I expected more from Guu.
2hung ordered the Spicy Garlic Ramen which only came with one piece of pork belly, so I gave him some of mine which I wasn't very fond of anyway, hehe, sorry.
 The gyozas were mediocre.
If I had to summarize my review of Kinton Ramen in one sentence, I would use the Japanese phrase "juunen hayain da yo!" (You are 10 years too early!).

Kinton Ramen  on Urbanspoon

Monday 21 May 2012

Jiro Dreams of Sushi - a must see for all foodies

I had been eyeing this movie for the longest time.  Jiro Dreams of Sushi is playing now at the TIFF Bell Lightbox until Thursday, May 24.  Good thing, my friend told me that it was playing, or else I would've missed it.  You can check the showtimes here.
85 year old Jiro Ono is the only Michelin three-star sushi chef in the world.  I hope I will have the honour of eating at his restaurant one day.  Make sure you go into the movie with a full stomach because you will leave the theatre feeling hungry after.

Fun in Vegas 2012

The girls and I were in Vegas a couple of weekends ago to celebrate a friend's bachelorette party.  We ended up doing mostly shopping and walking around the strip, nothing crazy that you would expect on a regular Vegas trip :P  I'm surprised that there are so many new hotels since my last trip there two years ago.  We stayed at the Luxor this time.  I've been inside the hotel before but never stayed there.  The rooms were alright for the price that we paid, pretty standard rooms, nothing luxurious.