April 2013 – Tiana Feng

Lunch @ Northwood

April 30, 2013May 2, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Yesterday I was at the Exclaim! office helping out and for lunch I was looking for something sandwich-y. I remembered Northwood opened up close-by. I went in and asked if they served food. Although they didn’t have a formal menu yet, they gave some sandwich suggestions.

I had a turkey sandwich with a mini edamame salad. It was only around $5 ish. I enjoyed the light seasoning on the beans. The sandwich had an interesting dijon mustard, cheese and lettuce.

It’s a cafe, so I had to buy some coffee. I had a mocha.

I heard Northwood is also a great night-time hangout with cocktails and draft beer. It’s hard to believe this cozy little new place used to be a dingy Chinese restaurant.

Crochet Dog Bone

April 27, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting, Pets, TeddyLeave a Comment

My practise ball of white yarn never seems to disappear so I made Teddy this crochet bone with a pattern I found on Pinterest. I didn’t make it quite as long because of my dog’s small size.

I added a ribbon made out of an old T-shirt to hide the seams.

I think he approves.

Crochet Short Sweater

April 26, 2013April 26, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting1 Comment

For my first major crochet project, I made this short crop sweater sweater. The pattern came from The Happy Hooker book I mentioned earlier.

Understanding how to read the pattern was a confusing at first, so the sweater is a tiny bit disfigured, but still wearable.

It pairs well with a bright coloured tank top underneath.

It was a little thicker than I wanted. I used black wool I had but I threw out the label was unsure about the needle gauge. However, I’m proud that it actually looks like a sweater (and not a blob of yarn).

Fried Chicken @ The White Brick Kitchen

April 25, 2013April 25, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The White Brick Kitchen is nestled in the middle of Koreatown. It’s the perfect place to go to if you’re in the area and looking for something that is not bibimbap or pork bone soup. They serve American comfort food. The menu includes things like burgers, salads, fried chicken, mac n cheese, chilli and more.

On Foursquare their Buttermilk Fried Chicken ($17) was highly recommended so that’s what I went for. For my side I chose the mixed greens in a lemon vinaigrette. It also came with two scallion biscuits which were nice and moist. Nash loves green onions, so he was a huge fan.

The fried chicken, was probably the best fried chicken I have ever had. It was also literally half a chicken, so quite worth the hefty price tag. There was a honey mustard dipping sauce with it but I accidentally thought that was salad dressing. Silly me, but it still worked in the salad. It didn’t matter because the chicken batter was so delicious (and strangely creamy) that it didn’t need any dipping.

Nash ordered the Brisket Burger ($13) with a side of BBQ kettle chips. They reminded me a lot of my home-made potato chips. The brisket burger had some lovely pickles (which they brine in house). The burger itself was very light. Additional toppings were a bit expensive, but I had enough chicken to feed the both of us.

We’ll definitely be back soon for brunch where they have housemade beef bacon and deep fried eggs!

Frankie’s Burgers

April 24, 2013April 24, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I saw Frankie’s on Restaurant Makeover but I didn’t know it was right at Queen and Ossington (an intersection I frequent). The new signage bravely deems it “World’s Best Burgers” and as a burger lover, I had to try it.

I had the Smokin’ Hot Honey with a side of fries. It had jalapenos, crunchy onions jalapehno havarti, bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, and smoke mayo. It was pretty much the meat lovers type of burger. My favourite part of it was probably the sweet BBQ sauce. The fries were homemade with sea salt. The portion sizes were very generous

Nash had the Aristotle burger which was a lot like a Greek salad on a burger. His sweet potato fries came with BBQ sauce.

While the burgers were pretty good I don’t know if I’d consider them the “World’s Best”. They’re not particularly unique or special but they definitely don’t disappoint.

The Curse Of The Spermagotchi

April 22, 2013April 22, 2013iOS, Technology, Video GamesLeave a Comment

As a kid growing up in the 90s, I was really excited when the Tamagotchi L.i.f.e app came out. I had a million virtual pets when I was little including the nano sumo fighters, babies, pikachu pet and of course the original Tamagotchi.

When I first got the app, I had all the notifications turned on and took care of the virtual pet’s every need. I even played games instead of feeding it candy to increase its happiness. I ended up with this guy:

The infamous Spermagotchi. My least favourite one of the pets. So I killed him.

This time I opted for a more neglectful approach. I fed him candy instead of played games and did not heed to it right away.

I GOT THIS GUY IN ANOTHER COLOUR. I killed it again.

The third time I had no strategy, but I switched it over to classic mode.

I deleted the app.

Tacos and Nachos @ La Burrita

April 20, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

La Burrita took over the spot near Christie station that used to house an Ethiopian restaurant. While it is only a block a way from our beloved Tacos El Asador, La Burrita does a more Mexican style of taco. There is even a huger variety of meat fillings you can choose from and at $2.90 the price is low enough to keep coming back to try them all.
I had a Shrimp Taco and a Fish Taco. Both were battered really nicely with avocado and salsa fresca. It was moist and full of flavour that you didn’t need to ask for any additional salsa or hot sauce. Unlike some other places, there wasn’t any offered.

Nash had the Chorizo and Chipotle Pork tacos. Both had rice, cheese, green sauce, sour cream and salsa. The chorizo was better than Al Asador’s because it was really moist.
For some reason we couldn’t resist trying the nachos. They were a lot lighter than the usual nachos, mostly because we didn’t expect to finish them but we did. I enjoyed the freshness of the salsa verde with the fresca.

Klout Perk: The Red Bull Editions

April 18, 2013April 18, 2013Design, Drinks, Food, PhotographyLeave a Comment

Klout sent me an e-mail a few days ago saying my Red Bull Editions perk was finally on its way. I didn’t expect it to show up expedited at my door yesterday. Who knew free samples would be so damn efficient. They even came in a cute little box with a tag.

I have too much expendable energy to drink them right now but I thought they came in nice bright colours. I like this design much better than the regular Red Bull. It’s streamlined and simple. I played around with some manual focus photography with my f1.8 lens.

Maybe I’ll save these for when music festival season comes along.

Crochet Ball

April 17, 2013Art, Crafts/DIY, Crochet/Knitting, Pets, TeddyLeave a Comment

I learnt how to crochet a ball for Teddy from this Youtube Video via Crochet Geek. It wasn’t too round because I didn’t have stuffing so I used a plastic bag. It added a little extra noise for Teddy to enjoy.

Balls are the basis for a lot of Amigurumi projects so I hope to make him so cuter toys in the future.

My First Purchase on Etsy! Rocky The Zombie Cupcake T-shirt

April 16, 2013Fashion, Shopping2 Comments

As you may or may not know, I wear cupcake t-shirts to concerts. It is something I started a few years ago with Johnny Cupcakes T-shirts but I’ve been trying to add other kinds of cupcake attire to the collection. I hope to support more independent designers.
My latest edition is this adorable Rocky the Zombie T-shirt from Etsy made by Ranon. It is pretty difficult to find cupcake clothing that aren’t made to fit children. This adorable t-shirt has a slash neck so I could do an off-the-shoulder look if I wanted.
The T-shirt came in only a week and was wrapped in a cute silver ribbon with a random piece of candy! Ranon who is from Southsea, UK is the original creator of the adorable Rocky the Zombie character. You can read more about her on her blog.