It’s been a long journey to here, the final meal in Toronto before heading to the next destination. We were originally going to Fring’s, but we got tired of waiting, and went to Bar Hop instead:

With their wide selection of beers, we were all able to choose one that we liked, or get a cocktail (G&T up top!). I had a flight of beers, all stouts that I wanted to try, none that I really remember, and again, not as good as the beer from Iceland, but they were good, Ontario beers. We also had the cheese platter as an appetizer, and I had the salmon salad as my main:

I liked that it was vinegary, and ate all of it, even though I didn’t have much of an appetite (we had just had ice cream before heading out for dinner at Sweet Jesus… maybe more on this place later). H had a chicken burger, which was alright, nothing special.

It was nice to be able to see K and T+D. Last time I had met up with K was when I went to Hong Kong, back in 2009. Some things don’t change, and K seemed to be the same pleasant person. I'm lucky enough to have a supportive family as a constant around me. 

I did end up doing most of what I said I would do today. A bit obsessed with the whole aloe vera thing lately… ALOEisa is a thing.  I'm going to post again tomorrow, to give an update on this weekend before jumping into the next part of the trip, because I feel like it's going to take a couple of days at least. It's fabulous, to always have so much going on.

Click here to start Toronto from Day 1.

It was 3PM… I picked up P to go to Kings Cafe on Kingsway (ha. what a great name.), which I had been curious about since their renovations from a few weeks (months?) ago.

It’s pretty quiet inside, filled with Macbooks and small groups of students. I had a latte and P had the mocha (see above), and we shared the chocolate oat bar (above). The coffee is subtly strong, because at the cafe, I couldn’t taste it, but here I am at 3AM, writing this post. The oat bar was alright, looked and tasted like the ones at Starbucks, which are acceptable. Apparently, they get all their baked goods from a wholesale Italian baker, located in Vancouver. I think they do try to keep their store as local as possible.



IT’S 3AM AND I CANNOT SLEEP. Planned out Toronto instead (9 days left!). Paid my credit card bill. Trying to distract myself from a gnawing hairstyling obsession that is growing since trying to style J’s hair. Hopefully, I get to go outdoors this weekend.

One day, after dinner, PJS and I came to Passion8:

This shaved ice bowl was amazing. Matcha, redbean, cheesecake, and mochi toppings. The ice is sweetened with syrup or some type of sugar (condensed milk maybe?), and goes really well with the matcha. The garnish was a piece of dried orange that looked pretty cute, but we didn’t eat it (were we supposed to?).

Next up was the Multigrain (Injulmi) toast! Topped with a mountain of whipped cream and walnuts, and this..rice flour flakey thing that had the texture of a less buttery croissant. The inside had more mochi/rice cake filling and red bean:

This was OK, not my favourite. I am drooling though, just thinking about that shaved ice in the summer…

Too bad I’m sick right now.

Pragmatic – dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.

Dogmatic - inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.

if i were pragmatic, i would know that we cannot possibly eat all this because we will feel sick afterwards. however, i am not pragmatic. if i were dogmatic, i would not eat all of this because it goes against principles of healthy eating. however, i am also not dogmatic. so we ate it all

Did I do this right?

It was a choice between Dalina, Au Bade, and Propanda. Dalina was too busy, Au Bade was on the wrong side of the street, and we ended up at Propaganda:



I had the macchiato, and it was weak compared to Pallet. The sandwich was packed with meat, and I must’ve been starving, I polished it off. The others had a ham and cheese croissant, which they seemed to enjoy. I think I would come back again because it’s less crowded than Matchstick, but the coffee could be stronger.

For those of you who are into Munchkins the Marvel edition, this place has a metal table.



This weekend, I tried hiking (walking in the park) at night for the first time. It was the annual NiteHike, and H really wanted me to participate, so there I was… in the middle of the woods… We started walking around 8PM, and it was just before 6AM by the time we finished the event. It was nice to get lost in the woods. It was also nice to feel so physically drained that once my head hit the pillow, nothing in the whole world mattered anymore.

Ended up sick again. Late 20s has not been good for health so far.