July 2014 – Tiana Feng

Barkbox – July 2014 Edition

July 29, 2014Pets, Shopping, TeddyLeave a Comment

It’s Barkbox time again! This might be our last for a little while (mostly because Teddy still needs to eat all his snacks from Woofstock).
This month’s theme was “Surf’s Up”.

Fitting perfectly with the them was this shark toy from Harry Barker. The toy had two squeakers but were no match for our little dog.

These Bixbi Daily Essentials Chicken Jerky Treats make the dog go crazy. All of Barkbox’s treat selections have been some of Teddy’s favourite. They tend to be organic and have no filler ingredients such as corn and soy.

There was even a pina colada smoothie! Unfortunately Teddy is allergic to banana so we’ll be giving it to a doggy friend.

A beef pizzle from Superior Farms Pet Provisions will entertain him for hours.

Lastly, these Petsafe dog chews clean teeth and are good for doggy bodies at the same time.

If you’re interested in signing up for Barkbox use our link below for 10% off!
http://ruv.barkbox.com/x/xvmYXQ.

Bird’s Nests and Things @ Farmhouse Tavern

July 27, 2014July 27, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

It’s rare that we have time to have brunch, so when we do we go all out. After a lovely meal at Farmer’s Daughter, we thought visiting the parent restaurant Farmhouse Tavern was a must.

Like their name would imply, the restaurant serves up farm fresh food. I ordered their take on a Bird’s Nest, which was a poached egg over squash than the traditional bread. It was served with fresh vegetables such as asparagus and greens. I can’t remember entirely but I can remember that it was the best brunch I had ever eaten.

Nash had the Eggs Benedict with Gravlax and kale. Gravlax sounds like it could be a gross laxative, but it’s actually a Nordic cured salmon. The hollandaise sauce was seriously to die for. It was the perfect texture and flavour.

To wash it all down we had their Farmhouse Smoked Caesar which was topped with an oyster and asparagus. It had a unique flavour from caper berries. Their glasses informed us of different Canadian cities and I almost considered taking the Fredericton mug for my best friend.

If you’re ever in the mood to go on an indulgent brunch, Farmhouse Tavern is seriously the place to be!

Allow Yourself To Do Nothing

July 22, 2014Health, LifeLeave a Comment

I’ve always been the type of person to keep busy. Even when I was watching a TV, I needed to be reading articles on the internet, drawing, learning how to code, blogging or whatever. I couldn’t justify simply doing the recreational thing without being busy with something I deemed “productive”. In my head I felt like I was wasting my life if I took that extra hour of sleep, nap, caught up on Youtube or even hang out with friends.

Ever since I got a full-time job these priorities changed. I still struggled with the need to “keep productive”, this time with more of a focus on reading a book or writing the blog posts that keep all my sites updated. I now have less time than ever to do any of those things and being able to prioritize has been a challenge.

However, I let myself turn-off the brain when I’m exhausted. An extra hour of sleep, hanging out with friends or letting myself relax and play video games does wonders for the amount of things I can get done the next day (including write this blog post). We live in an age where “being busy” is addictive and seems trendy but it’s important to know when to just kick back once in a while.

The Few Delicious Things at TIME Fest

July 20, 2014July 20, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews, StreetLeave a Comment

TIME Festival took place yesterday and compared to the last few music festivals at Fort York, there was a severe lack of food choices. This led to long lines during meal times but I did manage to eat a few things.

The only literal food truck was Rancho Relaxo’s serving up tacos and Mexican food. I had the fish tacos. The fried fish was nice and crunchy and it wasn’t too heavy.

Small Town Food Co. ran a food stand with skewers for $6. The first of which I had was a watermelon and pork belly. I loved the sweetness of both the sauce and the watermelon together. Unfortunately, I only got one skewer at the time of my order but my friends ended up receiving two with theirs.

I returned to try the yakitori chicken and corn dog skewers later. The chicken was nicely seasoned and the corn dog had a lovely banana-like breading.

Next up was a corn dog with everything on it at Kungfu Dawg. It was messy but totally worth it.

Also from Kungfu Dawg were these home made ketchup chips. They were sweet, crunchy and very addictive.

Ice Lyte served up electrolyte freezies. They had a apple-pineapple flavour. The vendors explained that it was a special type of Ethiopian fruit.

TIME Festival banned water bottles (opened or not) and there was a lack of water-refilling station. Thankfully instead of buying the $4 water, people could also get free iced-tea from Nestea. They were testing out new flavours which included honey ginseng, mango and a half and half lemon tea.

There was only one other stand there that sold food but none of the options seemed intriguing enough. To future food festivals: make sure there are enough food choices for everyone’s needs!

A Food Tour of the Toronto Urban Roots Festival 2014

July 12, 2014July 13, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews, StreetLeave a Comment

Last year, I made an effort to highlight the food at Toronto Urban Roots Festival so I thought I’d do it again. The vendors were a bit different from last year’s but again featured mom and pop restaurants. Regrettably, I didn’t take not of the first vendor I went to, and they are not on the list of vendors on TURF’s website. I did get these delicious Kalbi-style ribs with grilled pineapple.

I also had this mushroom, spinach and cheese tapioca pancake from somewhere I don’t remember the name of (sorry for the total fail). I enjoyed the filling, but I wasn’t really a fan of the pancake itself. It was a little bit dry and I wasn’t a fan of the texture. I did have a friend with celiac, and she was very appreciative that there was this food option at a music festival though.

Steel Cut Coffee

Last year, Manual Labour coffee made me the best iced coffee I had ever tasted. However, the duo that originally ran it are off in Australia and sold the truck to Detour. Anyways, my caffeine cravings TURF weekend were satisfied by another mobile coffee truck Steel Cut Coffee. What was more amazing is that they had cookies and DONUTS. I had the Cookies and Cream and Captain Crunch donut and I haven’t stopped thinking about them ever since.

Greek On Wheels
All the way from Ottawa, Greek on Wheels was present to provide a variety of greek items including this shwarma. Warning: You might drip tzatziki on nearby audience members.

Bunz

Themes of “messy” and “delicious” were on the signage of Bunz. Nash and I shared the beef tacos and pulled pork buns. Both were flavourful and not as messy as we thought. The dough of the “buns” were soft and sweet like the asian ones.

Flying Chestnut Kitchen
By far my favourite discovery of the weekend was Eugenia, ON’s Flying Chestnut Kitchen. They served Indian Tacos which were chili beans, corn, lettuce, sour cream and more on top of fried dough. It’s definitely not what I thought a taco would be, but it was amazing. I washed it down with a sweet and refreshing strawberry lemonade.

Two Bite Saloon
I’ve been to the Two Bite Saloon restaurant before but at TURF they offered sliders that I didn’t originally have. My favourite was the spicy bacon wrapped sausage.