December 2014 – Tiana Feng

Thai @ Pai Toronto

December 31, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

By the owners of Khao San Road, Pai specializes in Northern Thai food. I ordered the Shrimp Gian Kiaw Wan which was green curry served in a literal coconut. The presentation was wonderful and it was one of the most flavourful green curries I have ever had. You really got the sense that everything from the paste was made fresh and in house.

I was with some friends and one of them ordered the Braised Beef Khao Soi which was a golden curry with crispy noodles.

While we were waiting to be seated, we also tried the Grabong (squash fritters) and Mao Ping (pork skewers).

I also had a Lychee drink.

We actually ordered way too much food but everything was totally worth trying. The atmosphere had an islandy feel. Expect to wait a bit because it’s very busy and the time we went seemed understaffed. However, the flavours and aromas were worth every penny and our patience.

Pizza Socks

December 30, 2014Fashion, Food, Shopping1 Comment

I’d say I pretty much won Yankee Swap this year because I ended up with these fabulous Pizza socks from Living Royal.

Don’t they look delicious enough to eat?

Crazy Poutines @ Poutineville

December 29, 2014December 30, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

We were super excited to see Poutineville in Toronto. We’ve already visited a bunch of times, so I decided to hold on posting this until we tried a variety of things off their menu. The first one I tried was the Pizza Poutine (pictured above). Melted cheese and pepperoni were baked on top of fries, gravy, curds, green onions and bacon. It was a pizza and poutine lover’s heaven. The portion was obviously large enough to feed two. The owner even joked around and said he wouldn’t charge us if I could finish it.

Nash’s first poutine was The Dragon which had spicy chicken wings and peppers.

The most indulgent poutine was the Lamb & Feta poutine with brie. It was heavenly.

Nash also had this Nacho Cheese poutine. Not the most appetizing presentation but we can assure you that if you are a nacho lover you’d enjoy this!

These fried pickles aren’t poutine but paired well with the tangy sauce it was served with.

What we found interesting is that the gravy tasted slightly different in each poutine. We also didn’t find it as heavy as other places like Smokes or Poutinis and did not get sick of eating after a few bites (which tends to happen a lot for poutines).

Figgy Pudding

Citrus Perplexity

Poutina Margarita

Long Island Iced Tea

The Toronto menu is a lot different than what is posted on their website (which is based on their Montreal location. We’re also lucky to have mixologist Nishantha Nepulangoda create a crazy cocktail menu. Their twist on a margarita has: Vazadores Tequila, Cointreau, Amaretto, Orgeat syrup, lime juice, Angostura and fig juice. I can’t remember what was in some of the other ones, they are just so complex!

We’ll definitely be back soon to eat the rest of the poutines and make our way through more cocktails!

The Great Instagram Purge of 2014

December 28, 2014Social Media, TechnologyLeave a Comment

Last week, Instagram went through a giant purge of bots. That meant a great deal of users lost followers in some way. Some lost thousands. I only lost 40, but it still felt like a lot.

I’ve never ever bought followers nor am I a huge user of hashtags, because I know they contribute to a lot of the bot numbers. But I guess they still managed to find me in some way. Instagram’s not like Twitter and there’s not so many tools out there for moderating your contact list (nor do I trust most that exist). I’ve never really used any strange “marketing techniques” to garner any of my current followers (on any social networks). I am a very big advocate on the attitude of “if they want to follow you they will”.

I’m a very big believer of influencer marketing, a topic that is now of heavy debate in Singapore. I think that’s what prompted me to write a post on the matter. This Instagram purge was very necessary for the network to know it’s real users and to reveal who their true influencers are. While Instagram still has yet to be infiltrated with ads, it has a lot of potential to be very valuable to advertisers. Hell, the other day I saw my first “sponsored ad”, one by Ferrero Rocher, my favourite chocolate in the world. How they knew that, I don’t really know. All I know is, Instagram’s ad network will be very targeted.

I’m not freaked out about social media and advertising. I’ve kind of always dove nose-first into it. We make unconscious decisions about everything we purchase and are surrounded by ads and marketing almost everywhere we look. I will just remain being myself everywhere online.

If you’d like to connect with me on Instagram you can find me here: http://instagram.com/tianafeng!

Bits & Pieces from PEI

December 27, 2014Life, VlogsLeave a Comment

I haven’t vlogged in a while but here are some bits and pieces from my trip to PEI. I ended up taking more photos than video.

Hello Zomato

December 26, 2014Food, Social Media, Technology1 Comment

There’s no doubt that the food scene here in Toronto is huge. There are plenty of restaurants, events, bloggers, apps etc that cater to all kinds of food lovers.

Recently, I became a blog partner on Zomato, a new restaurant discovery service that is impressive enough to take out Yelp and Urbanspoon. What makes Zomato different is that all the information collected on restaurants is done by actual people (working for Zomato). This results in accurate and up-to-date menus, phone numbers and existence. So many restaurants come and go on a weekly basis that this information is vital.

A unique feature to Zomato are it’s Collections, a series of curated lists with a common theme. Current ones include “Christmas Events”, “Great Breakfasts” and “Terrific Thai”. They also have an app as beautiful as the website. Users can bookmark restaurants, upload photos, call restaurants and more. Refined searches are available where users can circle (or heart) part of a map and discover the type of cuisine they are looking for in the area.

For those looking for something to cure that Foursquare itch (because Swarm sucks), Zomato also has a check-in option! It has it’s own social network where users can follow others and “heart” and comment on photos and more. I’m a newer user to Zomato but I’m enjoying it so far and already have so many restaurants bookmarked.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with some of the Zomato team, and they are awesome people but more on that later!

If you’d like to follow me on Zomato you can find me here:

https://www.zomato.com/tianafeng

Now to go back to bookmarking a million delicious places on the app!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

December 25, 2014Art, Life, Pets, Photography, Teddy2 Comments

I’ve got some crazy catching up to do on blog posts but thank goodness for the holidays! Since it’s Christmas I thought I’d share some photos of my day with you.

Teddy waits for his turn to open presents:

However, he’s actually afraid of the bag:

And a few random shots of the fresh turkey we cooked:

Hope you had a lovely day and rest of the holidays!

Desserts Baked in Apples

December 7, 2014Food, Recipes3 Comments

The winter holidays means a lot of potlucks and dinner parties. If you need ideas for interesting twists on traditional desserts how about cheesecake or apple crumble baked inside apples?

I tried the Cheesecake Stuffed Baked Apples recipe from Creme de la Crumb. They are best eaten the day of and have a nice creamy texture.

Apple crisp inside apples is simple if you know how to make apple crisp already. Sautee apples with brown butter and cinnamon, stuff the apples, sprinkle with oats and voila!