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

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.