Friday 26 December 2014

Eating all around Town

I haven't written a post in a long time, so I'll take this opportunity to talk about all the different restaurants I've been to lately.

The Ace
I learned about The Ace in Roncesvalles from You Gotta Eat Here on the Food Network and have been wanting to try it out since.  It's a pretty small diner and we went in for some Sunday brunch.  We ordered the Ace Benedict and the Huevos Rancheros.  They were delicious.




Sunday 5 October 2014

Summer in Boston and Cape Cod

This summer, I made a short trip to Boston and Cape Cod with my mom.  It was a nice little break from work and we had very nice weather to go along with it.  We stayed right by Copley Square.  On our first day, we walked along the Public Garden, through Boston Common, along the Freedom Trail and visited some of the historic sites.


Sunday 14 September 2014

Omakase Birthday Celebration at Yasu

This year for 2hung's birthday, I took him to Yasu for the ultimate omakase sushi experience.  There aren't that many places that do sushi well in Toronto, so when we read about this place, we thought that it would be a great place to go for special occasions.  The restaurant has 2 seatings and the sushi bar only seats 10, so you're going to have to make a reservation at least a few weeks in advance.  We are happy to report that everything tasted so good.  The fish and other seafood was all very fresh, dressed perfectly so that you do not need wasabi or soy sauce.  Even the dessert was delightful.  Each piece of sushi may seem small at first, but after 18 pieces, I was very full and satisfied.
Here's the list of the pieces we ate plus dessert:
  1. Shima aji
  2. Fluke
  3. Scallop with yuzu kosho
  4. Maguro
  5. Sardine
  6. Sea bass
  7. Cuttlefish
  8. Chu toro
  9. Uni
  10. Ikura
  11. Seabream
  12. Monkfish liver
  13. Greater amberjack
  14. Snow crab
  15. Mackerel
  16. O toro
  17. Anago
  18. Tamago
  19. Black sesame ice-cream
  20. Green tea panna cotta

Thursday 11 September 2014

A Night of Chocolate Socializing at The Wine Bar

Recently, I was invited once again by Cocoa Kelly of Chocolate Tales to attend a Chocolate Social at The Wine Bar.  I was very excited about this event because we had a great time at the Chocolate Making Workshop that we were invited to the last year.  This time the event was hosted by Diana.  The whole concept of the chocolate social is to bring together the fun of chocolate-making with the social aspect which involves an evening of relaxation and a few drinks.  This is definitely a session that I would recommend for a birthday party or a shower/bachelorette party.

Unfortunately, my husband bailed on me because he had to work late that night, so I attended the event on my own!  Luckily, there was a group of three in that day's session and I was able to join their table.  Thanks to Mike, Lizzy and Matty!

We started out with three chocolate tastings including a real white chocolate, a 32% milk chocolate and a 80% dark chocolate.  Their chocolates are couverture (high quality containing at least 32% cocoa butter), so of course they tasted great and melted quickly and smoothly in our mouths.

Then, we went on to some chocolate truffle making as you can see in my picture below.  There weren't that many truffles left because I ate some along the way.  :)


Lastly, we made some chocolate art with some coloured white chocolate squeeze bottles.  I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

One of the perks of the chocolate social is that you will get to order drinks at a discounted price.  If you are interested in the event, you can get 55% off with this Groupon deal.
The Wine Bar on Urbanspoon

Sunday 31 August 2014

Maritime Meal with Great Friends at Hopgood's Foodliner

Last night, we met up with a couple of friends for a nice dinner in the Roncesvalles area.  We made reservations at Hopgood's Foodliner, which is a maritime inspired restaurant.  We ordered a whole bunch of dishes to share, and everything was very tasty.  They also have a great selection of cocktails, although they are not cheap!

We started off with some steamers.  These were actually a little big gritty which the staff warned us about.
Then, we had the crispy pig ears and green beans salad.  I really liked this salad.  The beans were nice and thin and didn't have that nasty raw taste.
We also got the lobster spaghetti which tasted like a lobster mac and cheese.  Plenty of lobster in there.
The fried cauliflower and clams was very good too.  This was slightly on the spicy side and we found these clams to be better than the one in the steamers dish.
I really liked the brioche bread they used for the lobster sammy.  It was crispy, sweet and buttery.
The Halifax donairs were great too and went well with the sweet sauce.
I think the only thing to pay attention to is that the waiter will always try to up-sell you.  We actually ordered less dishes than was recommended, but we left the restaurant feeling very full.  Despite this, the service was quick and friendly.
Hopgood's Foodliner on Urbanspoon

Friday 25 July 2014

Short Trip to Victoria, BC, 2014

In the beginning of June, my mom came over to visit me in Vancouver, so I thought it would be nice to take a short trip and ride the ferry over to Victoria.  Victoria really is a very small city.  We arrived around supper time, and checked into the Fairmont Empress Hotel.





Pigging out in Vancouver - Part 2

After spending five months in Vancouver, I had a lot of time to try out a ton of awesome restaurants.  Here are the noteworthy:

Homer Street Cafe and Bar
I went to this relatively new restaurant a couple of times because it was located in Yaletown, walking distance from the hotel I stayed at.  They specialize in rotisserie chicken and other rotisserie meats.  I also ordered fish dishes from here when I wanted a healthier options and the meals were always enjoyable.






Saturday 5 July 2014

Victoria Day Weekend 2014 in San Francisco

San Francisco is one of those cities that we don't mid visiting every couple of years.  With Napa just an hour away and lots of great places to eat, what's there not to like?  2hung has a few friends that have recently moved out to San Francisco, so we took this opportunity to visit them along the way.

We started off the weekend with a nice breakfast at Craftsman and Wolves.  This is a beautiful cafe with delicious pastries in the Mission District.  They make a savoury muffin called the Rebel Within which contains a soft boiled egg in the centre.  It costs $7 but worth every penny.

Sunday 8 June 2014

Anniversary Dinner 2014 at The Chase

May 11, 2014 marked the first anniversary of our wedding, but seeing as it was Mother's Day, we decided to celebrate one day early with dinner at The Chase.  We dined in the upstairs restaurant and enjoyed some fresh oysters, the Artic char and the sea bream.  We ordered a side of fiddleheads but when the side arrived, there were no fiddleheads in sight.  We notified our waiter and he brought us a new side on the house.  Our waiter knew it was our anniversary, so he gave us a little surprise in our dessert which was a lime curd cake.  The dessert also ended up being on the house, so needless to say, we were very happy with the service we received at The Chase.  The restaurant had great ambiance and the food was very tasty.  I would definitely return to The Chase, but I'd like to try out the downstairs which is more of a casual setting.






The Chase on Urbanspoon

Sunday 25 May 2014

Pigging out in Vancouver - Part 1

Ever since I started my project in Vancouver in February, I've definitely been pigging out and eating a lot of good food.  Here are some of my new finds and an old place revisited.

Ramen Jinya
I was trying to find a ramen place that was a closer walk from my downtown hotel, but most of them are situated on the West End except this one which is located in Yaletown on the other end of Robson St.  Still about a 15min walk from my hotel but slightly closer than the other choices.  I had the tonkotsu ramen with black garlic oil and the gyozas.  The soup was very tasty and I liked their noodles.  The gyozas were good too.  I go there often.


Tuesday 15 April 2014

Snowboarding in Whistler 2014

In late March, 2hung, my brother and I made a trip to Whistler for some snowboarding fun before the season was over.  This was our first time in Whistler and the mountains were awesome!  The peak 2 peak gondola was so high and so scenic.  I'm not good at snowboarding at all.  Originally, I was going to snowboard for two days, but it ended up that one day was quite enough for me.  Here are some fun pictures that we took on and off the mountains.

Honeymoon #3 Part 2 - Venice, Florence, Rome

After our stay in Monte Carlo, we flew over to Venice to continue the Italian portion of our honeymoon.  We had only allocated one day/night in Venice, and with our hectic transportation schedule, it really wasn't enough.  Especially with the little accident that 2hung had in the canal (kekeke), we had even less time.  It was also why we had to start taking pictures with my cell phone during the time we spent in Venice and Florence.  Nonetheless, we still had a great time!

Monday 14 April 2014

Family Day Weekend 2014 in Seattle

Now that I'm on an assignment out in the West Coast, we took the opportunity to pay a visit to Seattle over the Family Day weekend.  The only reason I was excited about visiting Seattle was because I really wanted to go to the first Starbucks store in Seattle and buy some memorabilia.  Yes, I am a Starbucks snob.

Thursday 13 March 2014

BDay Dinners 2014 at Biff's Bistro and Bar Isabel

A few weeks ago, I celebrated my birthday with some friends at Biff's Bistro and Bar Isabel.

We went to Biff's Bistro for Winterlicious and Biff's always has a good Winterlicious menu.  Between the four of us, we tried the pork terrine in a spring roll, kale salad, steak frites, buckwheat crepes, almond panna cotta and chocolate cake.  I find that you always get consistent food at a reasonable price at Biff's, so I don't mind going there every once in a while.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Honeymoon #3 Part 1 - Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo

I finally had the time to sit myself down and write a post about our real honeymoon to Europe in late October of 2013.  It was 2hung's first time in Europe and we visited Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo, Venice, Florence and Rome.  First, let's talk about what we did in France and Monaco.

We stayed at The Westin Vendome which was located steps from the Tuileries Metro station and maybe a 5-10 min walk to the Louvre.  I still remember stepping out of the Metro station and the feeling of awe at the sight of Paris.

Day 1:
We spent the first day in the Jardin des Tuileries, taking pictures by the pyramids at the Louvre and sightseeing on the Ile de la Cite.  Strolling through the garden was so relaxing and the surrounding buildings were so beautiful.  We enjoyed walking by or through it almost everyday that we were there.

Friday 7 February 2014

Really good duck in Newmarket!

Our friends Yvonne and Henry brought us some smoked duck breast that they bought at a farmers market a few weeks ago.  The duck was already prepared and vacuum sealed.  All we had to do was pan sear the skin side of the duck breast and then serve.  We were surprised at how good the meat tasted and even more surprised to find out that King Cole raises and prepares their ducks locally in Newmarket!  We enjoyed ours with a side of orzo pasta and broccoli.  We will definitely be going there when we have a craving for some duck breast.


Glimpses of Baltimore

Since I had been in Baltimore for over 6 months, I wanted to put together a photo collage of all the places I've been to, food that I've eaten and shopping that I've done.  Baltimore is a nice city especially around the harbour where my team stayed.


Lots of Japanese options popping up in Toronto

I've had a lot of Japanese food over the past month.  There are a couple of new options that I've only got around to trying this year and we made a visit back to an uptown joint that we haven't been to in a while.

Touhenboku Ramen specializes in white pai tan (chicken broth) based ramen.  I enjoyed their ramen noodles made in-house.  We opted for the miso soup base (daily special), but I found the soup to be a little too oily and not entirely flavourful.  Maybe I still prefer tonkotsu soup base better.  If you follow them on twitter, you can get a free topping to your ramen.  We also tried their dessert mille crepes, but I found it to be flatter than pictured.  I think I would only return if I happened to be in the area.

Friday 3 January 2014

Holiday Brunch at Rose & Sons

I didn't realize there are so many cool places to have brunch downtown.  Over the holidays I really wanted to go for brunch, so I looked up a few places on blogTO's list of top 50 brunch places.  We decided to try out Roses & Sons.  It's a nice little diner type restaurant.  They seem to be able to make a mean cocktail judging by their bar, but we didn't try any during brunch.  I really enjoyed my 3 eggs with sausage and 2hung's pastrami lox eggs schmaltz.  I would definitely go back!



Rose and Sons on Urbanspoon