March 2014 – Tiana Feng

iPad Ordering @ Heart Sushi

March 31, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Mississauga’s sushi landscape is quite competitive. In fact, I’ve noticed that on Urbanspoon, competitors even leave negative comments on each others pages. Heart Sushi only opened a few months ago in Heartland and has already gained buzz and popularity. We decided to try the buffet dinner recently for Dad’s birthday.

The restaurant was big and spacious. Compared to 168 Sushi’s iPad ordering system this one was quick and efficient. We didn’t need to call someone over to confirm the order on the iPad. In fact, at Heart Sushi the system worked so fast that in minutes after hitting send we would see new food on the table.

The sashimi was very fresh and served beautifully on ice. There was a wide selection of items on the menu that had Korean and Thai items in addition to Japanese. The portions were a bit smaller than other places but this allowed us to try more menu items, so I was happy with that! Here are photos of some of the food:

Heart Sushi is definitely one of the best AYCE sushi places I’ve tried so far in Mississauga.

Burgers & Fries @ This End Up

March 29, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

We were in the Dundas West area for a party so we stopped by This End Up for dinner. A reservation is recommended. We didn’t have one and walked in randomly but luckily there was space at the bar. The space is relatively small and everywhere else was already reserved (Note: It was a Saturday).

I ordered the Chutney Burger ($14 pictured above) which had pork belly, cheddar, tomato and apple chutney, umami mayo and arugala. It was definitely one of the messier burgers I’ve eaten but it was totally worth the sticky hands. The chutney was flavourful and the burger cooked to a tender medium. The fries were so addictive that I finished them regardless of feeling full after the burger.

Nash went for the simpler Better Mac ($14) which was 2 ground patties, lettuce, cheddar cheese, pickles, onions and a special sauce. He ate it in minutes so I assume it was delicious.

We will definitely be back again when we’re in less of a rush to try some of their cocktails and other menu items.

Lunch @ Duke’s Refresher + Bar

March 28, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

Lunch with Nash’s parents landed us randomly in Duke’s Refresher + Bar, across from the Eaton Chelsea hotel where they were staying. It’s a sports bar that looks like it would have been perfect (and probably was) for the big olympic hockey game. It had a very homey vibe. There was even a thing on the menu where you could have your own personalized beer mug up on the shelf to be used every time you returned. What an adorable idea!

I had The Woody Burger ($12.95 pictured above) which was a BBQ brushed patty with American Cheese, “really special sauce”, carmelized onion on a bacon-infused foccacia. I loved the sweetness of the sauce and bread, which was not only bacon infused, but had a visible piece of bacon in it.The sandwich was also not heavy, a great choice for lunch.

Nash had the Hopped Up Fish & Chips ($14.50), craft beer-battered fish with a slaw, fries and of course tartar sauce. He also said it wasn’t heavy and light considering it was fried.

The bar also has it’s own house-made hot sauce which to me wasn’t that spicy but more of a nice flavour combination. We loved it on our fries.

There are also over 40 beers on tap and I had a lovely Coffee porter. If you’re looking for a casual pub to hang out in near Eaton’s Centre, this is a good one with decent food too!

Dear Kids That Egged My House

March 27, 2014March 27, 2014LifeLeave a Comment

I cannot think of any reason why you would’ve chose our house out of all the ones on the block. We do not know you and have never provoked you in anyway. I’m sorry for whatever reason you think that we deserved to spend a few hours cleaning our window.

I’m sorry you have nothing better to do on a Wednesday night but get into mischief in the freezing cold. I thought that in age of video game systems, social media, computers, awesome toys, there would be hundreds of other things to do. Sorry your life lacks those things and had to spend all your money on eggs instead.

I’m sorry that the eggs didn’t stain my house. They took mom an hour to clean, but it eventually got removed.

I’m sorry your mother has never told you not to waste food. Think of all the starving people all over the world who would have loved to eat those eggs.

I’m sorry you like Justin Bieber because that’s the only way you’d think egging is cool. Justin Bieber is not cool. I’m sorry that you have been brainwashed.

I’m sorry that I didn’t catch your face or your name but next time I’ll make it up to you and post it on all my social feeds so the world can know cool you think you are.

Static Zine #9- Food

March 25, 2014Art, Crafts/DIY, DesignLeave a Comment

Static Zine is a DIY (maga)zine from Toronto, edited by a few of my blogger friends. I’ve been contributing since the previous issue on mental health. The topic for Issue 9 was food, so of course I couldn’t resist contributing again!

Here’s my page, a comic that expresses the importance of sharing similar dining preferences in a relationship. The zine publishes 3x a year: March, June & October and features a different topic every issue. Contributors can design and write whatever on their page so it leads to some very delightful and creative pages! Issues can be found throughout Toronto but if you’re from out of town they are also available on Etsy for $2.

Miniature Burger Kit by Happy Kitchen

March 24, 2014Candy, Food1 Comment

I couldn’t resist when I saw this miniature burger kit by Kracie’s Happy Kitchen when I was at Pacific Mall.

As always, the instructions were entirely in Japanese so I colour matched all the packages.

There were many packages of powders and I actually did it wrong at first because there were many orange ones. I ended up having to compare the text on the packaging with the instructions instead. The set needed the microwave to form the fries, bun and patties.

The result was a set that resembled a miniature McDonalds meal and strangely tasted like it too! The fries were salted, burgers meaty and soft drink fizzy. It was strange yet fascinating at the same time.

You can watch me make the burgers in my vlog.

Finding the Time to Blog When You Have a Full-Time Job

March 22, 2014Inspiration, Life, Thinking1 Comment

For a while, I was just living the freelance life and underemployed. That meant hours were flexible and I had a lot of free time to do whatever I wanted when I was between projects. My blogs and sites were active and fruitful.

Recently, I have obtained work that is more time consuming and has unpredictable office hours. This made it more difficult to schedule time in advance to blog, because time seemed like a scarce luxury. Obviously since there are still posts churning out on all my content streams, I have found ways to adjust to this new transition. Here are some tips:

Find out what your internet policy is at work. This is an important first step if you want to blog at work (during downtimes/breaks of course). Some companies don’t allow you to use internet services outside of work purposes and you must abide by those rules. Personally, I don’t blog at work because I have way too many other things to be doing so the next few steps are more useful.

Schedule Content in Advance. To keep my music blog alive and active, I schedule a lot of content in advance. There’s always a period of time where I’m like OKAY LET’S SIT DOWN AND BLOG on weekends or evenings and I churn out a bunch of content and schedule them over the next few days. This works better for posts that aren’t particularly time sensitive.

Carry a notebook. I always have a notebook in the vicinity to brainstorm things I want to write about the moment they come up.

Find inspiration everywhere. This applies most when it’s a personal blog and therefore you can post whatever you want – food, photos, projects, inspiration, thoughts. The blog is about YOU after all. Life changes constantly, and there are tons of exciting and thought-provoking things to write about at every corner.

Take advantage of your Smartphone. By now, most people have a smartphone. Whether, it’s an Android or an iPhone, there is a wealth of apps that sync to the cloud. There’s even a WordPress app on both platforms. These can be great for long commutes. Personally, I use OneNote on my iPhone because it syncs with the version on my laptop. I draft a lot of posts while on the train. In fact, this one was partially written on a commute.

Don’t stop. The moment you stop actively blogging for a while, it becomes tough to start again as each day passes. It’s all about finding new ways to fit writing into a new schedule. Sometimes when you have a free half hour, you just have to make yourself sit down and write. It’s totally possible, you just have to stop giving yourself excuses and do it.

I originally published this post on Medium.

Tony Moly Appletox Honey Cream

March 18, 2014Beauty, ShoppingLeave a Comment

As you know, I’ve been obsessed with the Tony Moly store recently because of their adorable packaging and affordable prices. I recently picked up this moisturiser which came in a container shaped as an apple. It doesn’t have much branding on the outside or much information other than a sticker in Korean at the bottom.

Inside, the cover of the cream did say Tony Moly. It also came with a tiny spatula to prevent contamination of the product by dirty fingers.

The cream itself was yellow, and had a fresh apple smell, which I really enjoy. Upon doing some research, I found out it’s an AHA moisturiser, meaning it also exfoliates the skin. At the time of purchase, I had a giant pimple, but now it is gone and no new ones have appeared since using this product. It does a lovely job of keeping my skin smooth and minimalising wrinkles. A little goes a long way with this cream. I usually just dip the spatula (without scooping) and use what it catches for my face. It will probably last me for a couple of months even if I use it every day.

What other cute cosmetic products do you guys have in your collection? I’d love to know!

Skewers Galore @ Yakitori Kintori

March 10, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews4 Comments

When we visited Kinton Ramen last time, we were left with a mystery. What was behind the chicken door? At the time, it was locked but through Kinton’s social media, found out it was a sister restaurant Yakitori Kintori that celebrated a soft-open last week.

The menu diagrammed skewers you could order from different parts of the chicken. There were also beef, pork and vegetarian options as well as various other cold and hot dishes. Skewers were $2-4, so it was reasonably priced and nothing else was over $9. Since it was our first time here we decided to sample a variety of things.

To wash things down, I ordered a Lemon Shoju, Japanese Lemon vodka. I was surprised to find out that we had to squeeze the lemon ourselves! It was a funny way to pass the time as we waited for our food to arrive.

My first skewer was the Buta Bara ($2). Most skewers you could choose a simple salted option or in bbq’d with Teriyaki sauce. I chose the salt option for the pork belly. It was fatty and delicious.

The Toro Sobori Poutine ($7) was the most Asian poutine I have ever tasted (moreso than the Kimchi Fries poutine from Bahn Mi Boys). It had soy-sauce, ginger, ground chicken with the curds and fries. We gobbled it all up because it wasn’t heavy like poutine can be sometimes.

My favourite of all the skewers was the Cheese Tsukune ($2), a meatball that exploded with cheese in the middle. A close second was the Jalapeno Nikuzume ($3.5), a jalapno stuffed with ground chicken.

Another hot dish we ordered was the Tako Ajillo, octopus sizzling in garlic olive oil. For only $7, we got a big portion of octopus that was the most tender I have ever eaten. It was served with bread.

The Tebasaki($2) was ordered with Teriyaki sauce. This was our final item in our initial order, but everything was so good and we weren’t entirely stuffed yet so we opted for more.

Nash loves mushroom and I love bacon so this Enoki Bacon ($3.5) felt like a match made in heaven and it was.

We also ordered the Shiitake Nikuzume ($3.5) which were adorable and reminded me of boys with bowl cuts.

I have no idea how I had room for dessert, but I couldn’t resist when I saw a Green Tea Creme Brulee ($5) on the menu! It was nice and creamy, but the top wasn’t as hard as normal creme brulee. The sweetness reminded me a lot of green tea iced cream.

I went to the washroom out of curiosity to see if they had a matching one to Kinton and indeed they did!

We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and pleasant staff at Yakitori. They welcomed us with the same enthusiasm as their downstairs neighbours. We will be back soon!