This week, I feel like I’ve done a lot, but accomplished nothing. Maybe more coffee will get me through to the next week:



During my last visit to Toronto, D suggested that we walk over to Neo Coffee Bar for a quick breakfast. They make beautiful Asian inspired delicacies, including mochi and cake rolls, with Asian inspired flavours, like matcha and sesame. We had the matcha red bean roll, sesame roll, and the seasonal peach flavor, which were all very good. Really good, filled with cream and paired so well with the latte.



The sesame red bean mochi was the real winner here. It’s a huge ball of soft mochi stuffed to the edges and bursting with sesame and red bean cream filling. So next time, I’m going to get a dozen of these for the plane ride home:



I haven’t found a spot like this in Vancouver yet, with a cozy industrial feel and the same desserts. Maybe La Foret, because they also have roll cake? Let me know if you find any others.

Back to this week… I really haven’t been able to focus very well, my mind keeps drifting. I’ve always been pretty good at prioritizing, but I’m at a point where nothing seems to matter anymore, because everything seems like a big life change. Life changing decisions were made and even more need to be made soon. New apartment, travelling, getting married, career… Where do I put my energy and what’s the next step?

Imagine 3 of these in a pile, one on top of another:

We had brunch at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, right after we got off the plane on a Friday morning, a few weeks back with D & B in Toronto. Do people in Toronto actually work? I was amazed at the fact that we arrived right at the time the restaurant opened, and there was already a line up. It wasn’t a long line up, and we were seated outside on the patio area fairly quickly. This gave us a chance to observe all the other people who came after us that had to line up as well. Try to make a reservation!



The food itself was amazing. Mrs. Biederhof’s blueberry buttermilk pancakes were probably the best blueberry pancakes we’ve ever had (see photo above). Definitely listen to the servers’ recommendations too, because I did not regret following their advice of getting the Huevos Monty (refried beans baked in flour tortillas with sunnyside up eggs and all the regular toppings for tacos, like salsa, sour cream, avocado).

I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to explore Toronto’s food scene a bit, but I’m still hoping that one day, I’ll be able to get out to see the rest of the surrounding land. I’m sure the nature is gorgeous too, but does it compare to the West coast?

Continuing on our Toronto foodventure, we ate bags of popcorn while watching home runs at the Blue Jay’s game. We then wanted real food, so ended up visiting Big Trouble in Chinatown:

The food was greasy, great for soaking up all the cocktails and special drinks we tried:

We had the dumplings, the kimchi brussel sprouts, and the fried shrimp. I can’t wait to start making my own kimchi brussel sprouts, what a brilliant combination.

On the drinks menu, they had “Asian” beers and this cocktail made with baijiu, house made and bottled (bottle on left in image below):

There were 2 flavors of the baijiu, one that was made with a Chinese herbal tea, jiaduobao, and another with mangosteen. We tried both, and I gotta say, both were very bitter and neither of them tasted very good. Alcohol content was very high though, and I’m sure some people would like this type of buzz. They have some sweeter cocktails too, which went down a bit easier.

It was a fun night of loud conversation in an even louder bar, and we got home way past bed time, with our ears ringing. I’m looking forward to more nights like this, in 1 week, at D’s wedding!

Visited D&T in Toronto a couple weeks ago (thanks for hosting!), with B, and I’m still recovering from all the food we ate. My favourite meal was at Kiin, which we stumbled upon while looking for a good dinner spot:

To start, we had the shrimp and pomelo salad (on the right in the image below), and the chor lada (the beautiful purple flower shaped dumpling on the left):

The pomelo was super fresh, not sour at all, and all the flavours of the shrimp were enhanced so well by the dressing (I’m sure there was fish sauce). The dumplings were an interesting texture – chewy exterior with bits of peanut inside. It wasn’t my favourite, because I don’t like that texture usually, but I didn’t hate it.

Next, we had the Khao Yum, which comes in a shiny brass bowl filled with the colours of the rainbow:

The server helped us mix all the different ingredients together (jasmine rice, lemongrass, turmeric, edible flowers, sunflower shoots, and more) with a tamarind and soy bean sauce. Although, I wanted to inhale this whole giant bowl of freshness, the best way to taste all the flavours was to really savor each bite. I’m a big fan of lemongrass, and I could keep eating this forever.

The last of the main courses was the sea bream, called Mieng Pla, which came wrapped up in a leaf of sorts:

I don’t have a photo of the little leaf wraps that we were supposed to eat the fish with, but the idea of this dish was to pick up a portion of fish, put it on top of a little piece of lettuce that was already topped off with herbs and vermicelli (at least that’s what I think it was), and eat it all in one bite.

We couldn’t say no to dessert. Our neighbors at the table behind us ordered it first, and who can resist ice cream? We chose the pandan ice cream (instead of the thai iced tea flavor), which was accompanied by 9 different toppings, including the green and red water chestnuts soaked in syrup, grass jelly, jack fruit, coconut shreds, toasted mung bean:

Thai food brings to mind red, green, and yellow curries, and meat grilled on satay sticks, but this place opened my eyes to a different side of this cuisine. If anybody else knows of a good place for khao yum in Vancouver, please tell me about it so that I don’t have to take a plane across the country to eat it again!

I’m trying to find more time to post, but it’s the  end of summer soon. This means that I’m trying to spend as much time as possible outdoors to soak in more vitamin D. It's good for bone density. Be back soon with another post!

One of the meals we had with D&T were at Lamesa Filipino Kitchen:



Lamesa means table, so the full name means… table filipino kitchen? Anyways. They served some pretty tasty food with romantic lighting, moody ambiance. We had this coconut fried polenta as a garnish for their fish (above, the polenta is that rectangular prism supporting the fish), and I fell in love with the restaurant then. I wish we could’ve just ordered that on its own.



We also had this pork (above), and it was just OK. Chinese pork siu yok is better, just because it’s oiler and juicier. We ended the meal with the ube dessert at the top of the page, which was quite refreshing.

I miss traveling, and it’s only been a week and a half since Sunshine Coast. November will be Hong Kong and Taiwan! If only I had more time and money to travel. I’m already maximizing as much as possible on my measly 15 vacation days, and buying only the essentials to keep me presentable in public. I’ve cut down on the alcohol, the eating out… Can’t cut down on coffee though. How do I travel more, like this guy says we should:

The air in the office makes us dizzy.

Throw back to this snack we had at Poke Guy after our Greyhound ride from the Niagara Falls back to D’s house:

It’s slightly overpriced for what it is… Rice, fish, vegetables, and sauce, with not much in terms of service. I do like watching them compile my food in this very plastic disposable bowl (maybe one day we’ll see the end of all disposable takeout containers and utensils? I’m still guilty of using them, but I did bring my own Tupperware to a restaurant tonight for leftovers). Anyways, this was split between H and I, before we headed to a real dinner with D and T. The hunger made it taste much better than it really was, but I felt like I'd come back or at least try other poké places.



Grandma’s back in the hospital, and I’m again wondering the meaning of all her obsessions… She’s afraid of taking Tylenols because she’s worried she’ll get addicted to them. She doesn’t want to eat any fatty foods because of high cholesterol. She doesn’t want to go out in the sun because she might get skin cancer. At what age should you stop worrying about the consequences of indulging?

I had some greasy pizza today for lunch. Guess I'm lucky to be able to have all these experiences.

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.

H was craving Asian food, so for lunch, we trotted over to Chinatown to see what we could find. D was able to take a break from work, and met us at Asian Legend for a quick bite of Shanghai. We were not disappointed, despite the outside of the restaurant looking dingy and the inside looking dimly lit. The washrooms were quite nasty. Typical Chinese restaurant smell and atmosphere, we felt right at home.



We had the hot soy soup (?) with a Chinese donut, the drunken chicken (bottom), XLB (top left), and the dan dan noodle (top right). I think this was probably my favourite drunken chicken EVER, it was so tender and soaked with flavour. I still think about this chicken, even 2 weeks later. The prices were what we were used to, I think for the 3 of us for lunch, it came to about $30 – $40.



Weekend! Some things I want to do this weekend…
-replant my father’s aloe plants
-try some new macarons from Monplaisir
-watch Master of None Season 2
-start a scrapbook of all the wedding invitations I’ve received so far (cliché, I know)
-use the YYoga class that I haven't touched in 3 weeks

Back in the city, last day to explore before we were jumping on another plane. I had a list of coffee shops to visit, but they were all so spread apart and far away that without a car, it would be really hard to hit all of the places. So, instead of going to any of the places I wanted to go to, we went to one that H found… and I was disappointed. It was nestled inside a building, and I think it was basically meant to just serve the offices/galleries within that building. Coffee came from one of those thermos that you press on top to dispense…

Luckily, there was another coffee shop/bakery on Spadina that we walked past while on the way to the TD, where H had to get some banking done. Le Gourmand:

The bank teller there told him that the cookies were supposed to be the best in the city. I had the macchiato, and it was pretty good. We also had a little custard tart that we both quite liked. They were also giving out cookie samples, and the thing was darn good. There were quite a few other good looking pastries, which I wouldn’t mind going back to try. It’s also a general store, similar to Le Marché St George in Vancouver, selling pasta, sauces, jams, etc.

We then went thrift shopping, and I bought a new pair of sparkly earrings for $10 from Tribal. This tiny little vintage store was really impressive, just the sheer selection and good value was enough for me to spend a precious half an hour combing through their racks.

Wednesday Wisdom #1: All that sparkles is not gold. It could be stainless steel.

Hornblower Niagara Cruises

Journey Behind the Falls

We greatly enjoyed getting wet and exploring the waterfalls area, but let’s talk about the food. The Groupon previously mentioned includes $15 off for breakfast at IHOP at the Best Western. Perfectly poached egg, with teeny tiny pieces of bacon and sausage. I always get the blueberry pancakes at IHOP, and these did not disappoint. The perfectly poached eggs did take a bit longer to make and we had to wait for maybe 5 minutes more, but they were poached to a perfect medium. I still wouldn’t come back, not for the life of me, not for how much they charge at this location.

Back to the present – I planted my first aloe plant baby, separated from a huge plant that my father has been growing for 4 years. Let’s see how long it survives!

We arrived at the Greyhound station close by Niagara Falls, and walked straight to the closest attraction from the Niagara Falls Adventure Pass package:

It was a chilly day, and the White Water Walk that we wanted to do first didn’t seem that busy. After taking an elevator down to the wooden boardwalk, we could explore the path along the Class 6 rapids. It was frustrating waiting for some of our fellow tourists to take their photos. How many different poses and angles of yourself do you really need? This was a nice 30 minute walk, with lots of breaks for photos and waiting for our turn to take photos.

We then went to the Aero Car that goes over the whirlpool at the end of the rapids: 

Usually, the Adventure Pass Classic that we got wouldn’t include the Aero Car, but because one of the other ones on the list were closed, they added this one for us instead. Score. Pretty sweet views.

We were pretty pooped by then, and thank goodness the pass includes bus fares for the WEGO bus. 

Hopped on the bus to the stop closes to the Best Western that we had purchased Groupons for to check in and rest before dinner. The Groupon included discount coupons for a few different restaurants in the neighborhood, and we ended up picking TGI Friday’s to use the $20 off coupon, because we thought there would be potential for a good plate of wings. Here, you can see the bone remnants of the 6 wings we ordered, and the alfredo chicken fettuccini + side of house salad:

Would you believe that this all came to $40 after the $20 coupon?! It wasn't even good, and the cup for the hot water I wanted was very dirty:

Tourist attractions bring together a lot of people of different cultures.

I try to stay open minded, but sometimes, people really confuse me. We saw a group of tourists of middle to elderly age, possibly doing a self-guided tour, because they had their own Toyota Sienna. Their hazard lights were blinking, while pulled over by the side of the main road, overlooking the White Water Walk. I don’t remember if it was a no parking or no stopping zone, but no other cars were stopped and there were almost no other vehicles driving along the road. The 6-7 tourists got out of their car, and were walking briskly to a clearing where they could see the rapids. They originally caught my attention because they were the only other people there, and they were talking loudly and seemed so excited, but then, they left a deeper impression as I walked by their van, and noticed that they had the car still running, with AC, doors wide open. It did not seem like they would be there for just a few seconds or even minutes.

Is it really that difficult to turn off the car and start it back up again, rather than spewing out unnecessary carbon dioxide and wasting fuel? Somebody explain this mindset to me please.