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!

My Three New Restaurant Finds - Khao San Road, The Grove and Patria

I recently discovered three nice restaurants that are worth mentioning here on my blog.

First is Khao San Road, which is a  fusion Thai restaurant located in the Entertainment District.  They don't take reservations, but turnaround is pretty fast.  We ordered the squash fritters, Penang curry with beef, Bangkok-style pad thai and khao soi (egg noodles in a curry soup).  Everything was very good, but the dishes are small, so you need to order pretty much one dish per person plus appies.

Exploring the US Capital - Weekend in Washington DC

I finally found myself some time to write a blog post today.  Ever since we returned from our honeymoon, I've been busy studying for the PMP exam.  Luckily that's all over and I passed, so I'm now officially PMP certified!

2hung and I went on a trip to Washington DC back in September literally the weekend before the government shutdown, so we were able to visit the many Smithsonian museums and enjoy the city.  DC was a pretty fun weekend visit for us.  There were lots of places to see and lots of great restaurants.  The weather was quite nice so at first we set out on foot and thought we could just walk or take the transit everywhere, but soon we realized that the city was way too big and even getting from museum to museum was quite tiring, so we made use of their bike rental system called Capital Bikeshare.  It was quite convenient and wasn't very expensive.

Chocolate Making Workshop at Chocolate Tales

I was recently invited to a free chocolate making workshop run by Chocolate Tales Inc., which is a company that provides entertaining chocolate making events for all kinds of occasions whether it be personal or corporate related.  I was pretty excited about the event and the host Cocoa Kelly did not disappoint.  She was very knowledgeable about the history of chocolate, how to temper the chocolate, and showed us a few different ways to decorate with chocolate.  The workshop involved a lot of hands-on work and of course some tastings and chocolates to bring home as well.  The event took place at the Miele showroom in Vaughan, so it gave me an opportunity to check out the showroom as well.

July 4th Long Weekend 2013 in NYC

I don't think there's a better place to spend July 4th long weekend than in NYC.  I can never get bored of a weekend filled with eating and shopping with good friends.  We started the day off on the wrong foot by forgetting my laptop at home, so we had to drive all the way back home to get it after we had reached the airport.  This caused us to miss our flight by minutes.  I can't believe they didn't wait for me even though I'm Super Elite!  Good thing there are many flights from Toronto to La Guardia so we were put onto the next flight out.

We had missed our reservation for Minetta Tavern (I have been wanting to try their black label burger for so long!), so we went to have pizza at Joe's instead.  After pizza, we headed to Soho to try our luck at scoring a cronut at Dominique Ansel's bakery.  Of course, we were out of luck, but I did get to try a few other things: DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann), chocolate eclair and freshly baked madeleines.

Birthday Celebration at Buca

This was our first time celebrating 2hung's bday as husband and wife.  It was hard to think of a restaurant to go to and we finally picked Buca.  Our friend Letty had been raving about this restaurant, so we had pretty high expectations.  We were late for our reservation by more than 15 minutes, so they had given our table away.  The restaurant wasn't super busy considering it was only 6pm, so they let us sit out in the patio area.  Despite the little mishap with the reservation, our waiter was quite good and very knowledgeable about the menu.  We ordered two starters, some bread knots and two pastas for our main along with dessert.  The food was amazing.  The pasta was al dente.  We were very impressed with the gnudi pasta which was made with pureed scallops and ricotta.  The dessert was divine as well.  The bread knots were definitely a good recommendation from the waiter.  We will definitely be back to this restaurant.  I find it a little difficult to get a reservation though, so remember to book ahead and don't mind the snobby host.

Wine and Dine at Niagara-On-The-Lake

Over the summer I took my parents to Niagara-On-The-Lake for a sparkling wine brunch at Peller Estates and a short wine tour at the Chateaux des Charmes winery because there was a coupon available on Living Social.
I don't think I've ever been disappointed by the restaurant at Peller Estates.  They always serve up a nice meal.  We were really full after our three course meals along with amuse bouche and pallet cleansers.