July 2015 – Page 2

My First Atomic Lollipop

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015EntertainmentLeave a Comment

Nash and I attended our first ever Atomic Lollipop this past Friday and Saturday. It’s a unique convention that was a mixture of Comicon, Anime North with the 90s mixed in.

There were many stores and shops with cute things to buy.

A game room with video game consoles from all eras including duck hunt (which we were super terrible at). I still can’t understand how to aim.

Friday night, they brought to life the Much Video Dance parties of my high school days. Later in the night, it filled up with the people dancing to the music of their childhood. I saw videos from the Venga Boys, Eiffel 65 and Chumbawamba.

Areas of the science centre were open to us so we played around with this age testing machine.

Nash checking out a hologram heart.

There was a nerd circus where the performers all cosplayed!

We participated in a POG tournament. Do you remember pogs? The real game was harder than I remembered! We got crushed by a girl who could flip the entire stack at once.

The hilariously costumed Tupperware Remix Party provided soundtracked a glittery dance party.

Ghetto Mario Kart was the best. It was literally RC cars with knives and balloons taped together. Let’s try this at home.

There were so many adorable things to buy! I picked up this adorable food bracelet. How could I not??

There was free retro arcade games and pinball machines. That Star Wars pinball was super hard.

This guy truly gave crap advice.

Cold brew coffee paired well with the hot weather.

We played archery tag. It was my first time trying archery and I wasn’t very good at aiming but it was so much fun! They provided us with 10 minutes of training before we were headed off for a game of tag with 10 people.

Nash sat on a panel where he was a Pokemon master and described how to draw a Pokemon to someone who has no idea what they looked like.

Can you guess what Pokemon these guys are?

There was a nerf gun battle on Saturday night. Unfortunately we didn’t bring any guns but we observed people shooting each other for a bit.

Saturday’s evening entertainment included Elijah Wood DJing with his duo Wooden Wisdom.

Then one of my 90s dreams came true and I saw Prozzak reunite! REMEMBER PROZZAK?!

Before heading out we saw the fire circus performance which thankfully waited for all the Prozzak fans to be done!

Atomic Lollipop was truly a magical experience and I’m looking forward to what adventures they’ll bring next year.

Ginger For My Tummy Aches

July 20, 2015Food, RecipesLeave a Comment

I don’t believe in a lot of “natural remedies” but ginger has worked for me whenever I have belly aches and cramps. When my stomach is feeling unwell I usually make a drink that my mom has taught me.

Take a large chunk of ginger and cut it into slightly smaller chunks (but not slices). Then with the flat end of your knife, squish the pieces a bit so you squish some of it’s juices. Then you simmer it in boiling water for 15-20 minutes so the ginger is infused in the water. Brown sugar is added for taste. It can be too spicy at first, but I find it really works for me in curing stomach ailments!

Since it’s way too hot to drink warm drinks, I’ve been trying out something new. I snuck a green tea bag with the simmering ginger and then chill it for an hour and voila fancy ice tea! The only green tea I have happens to be blueberry flavour so that adds a tropical twist.

Now off to watch Netflix with my blueberry ice tea so I can relax away this tummy ache!

Luckyrice’s First Toronto Cocktail Party

July 19, 2015July 20, 2015Drinks, FoodLeave a Comment

On Wednesday, Nash and I hit up the inaugural Luckyrice cocktail event at Berkeley Church in Toronto. Luckyrice is an organization that loves to share Asian culture through food and drink. They have events in LA, San Francisco, New York and Miami and decided to test out Toronto. I find our city is a little unique and the exploration of Asian culture is so common here that I’m not sure we need another event for it.

The event was sponsored by Bombay Sapphire, so all the drinks were gin based. We arrived around the VIP door opening at around 7pm and it was already rammed with people. There was at least a 10 minute line for most drinks. We also arrived with an empty stomach (which probably wasn’t the best decision). There were appetizers being served but the servers were swarmed by people as soon as they came out. We tried a few drinks before we left to go fill our empty stomachs:

The Rivoli’s “His Eminence”: Bombay Sapphire East gin, Marini & Rossi Rosso, Lemon spiced chinkiang & rice wine reduction, honey syrup.

The Rivoli’s “Delicate Warrior”: ST. Germain liquer, Bombay Sapphire East gin, Gekkeikan Plum wine.

Rebel & Demon’s “Mao’s Punch”: Bombay Sapphire East gin, strawberry thai basil white peppercorn syrup, lemon juice, rhubarb bitters.

Brassaii’s “6 shooter”: Bombay Sapphire East gin, aperol, watermelon and jalapeno shrub, dillon’s bitter lime, lime juice, fresh basil.

Out of all of them our favourite was the Mao’s Punch from R&D. It fit the summery weather and contained a perfect amount of sweetness that made it easy to go down.

Off to Fuchsia City

July 18, 2015Fashion1 Comment

I learnt about Very Cool Shirtz through Ryan Hemsworth. When they released this Fuchsia City tee from Pokemon I thought I had to have it! I’m at Atomic Lollipop this weekend and it’s totally appropriate wear.

Burgers @ The Rude Boy

July 17, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Nash and I hadn’t had a gourmet burger in a while so we took a walk to Roncesvalles to The Rude Boy. The place has a casual vibe, a bar and cool posters like this one:

I ordered the Greek Spot (top photo of post) which had cucumber and tomato salad, oregano vinaigrette, feta cheese, pickled red onion and tzaziki. I added a piece of their home-cured double smoked bacon for fun. I thought it had a good combination of flavours and perfect amount of juiciness to the burger.

Nash had the signature Rude Boy burger containing home cured pemeal bacon, their double smoked bacon, smoked cheddar, fried egg, pickled red onion, garlic aioli, blanche de chambly mustard.

We shared some fries and of course we took the option to add feta! There was a hint of herb and the ketchup had a kick from jalapenos.

I also had a sour summery cocktail to accompany my meal (the name and ingredients currently elude me).

Despite the name of the restaurant, the service was friendly and we loved our burgers! We’ll definitely be back.

Front Street Foods

July 16, 2015Food, StreetLeave a Comment

Earlier in the week I hit up Front Street Foods, a little marketplace that is temporarily set up near Union Station. I had a few little snacks.

There were all sorts of places, corn, ice cream, seafood, burgers, even a flower shop! My first destination was Cava Sur.

I tried a trio of pintos which are small bites on bagette. I chose the avocado & avruga; jammon serano & fig and the sardine escabeche. All were very favourable little bites! I particularly liked the handmade serano that paired beautifully with the sweetness of the fig.

I then hit up Mad Mexican for some nachos. They asked me if I wanted guacomole or salsa and I said a little bit of everything!

I decided to wash it down with a Kamboucha, which is some kind of fermented tea drink. It was sort of fizzy, sour and fruity at the same time. It is meant to have healing powers of some sort. I’m not entirely sure if I liked it, but I didn’t hate it.

Anyways, if you’re looking for a quick snack and happen to be in the area the Front Street Market is a cool stop. I went around dinner time and it didn’t seem too packed!

Happy National Ice Cream Month

July 15, 2015July 19, 2015FoodLeave a Comment

View this post on Instagram

Ice cream day at work 🍦🍦🍦(I ate some of it before I took a photo)

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Jul 15, 2015 at 12:18pm PDT

July is National Ice Cream month! Have you been celebrating? It’s a great excuse to go eat some ice cream. The official National Ice Cream Day is July 19th but our work decided to celebrate it earlier. Any excuse to eat ice cream is good enough for me.

Panamania

July 14, 2015EntertainmentLeave a Comment

Out experiencing what Panamania has to offer! The games has brought to the cities a ton of free entertainment and activities. Will catch up with you guys soon <3

My Sister Turned 25

July 13, 2015Family, Food, Life2 Comments

My little sister just turned 25. I can’t believe it! It makes me feel ancient. We celebrated over the weekend with a Caramel Crunch cake. Here are some random photos of us posing at it:

Blowing out the candles:

We also had dinner at a random Chinese restaurant we’ve never been to and tried their Xiao Long Baos and something called “Sweet and Sour Fried Fish In a Squirrel Shape”. I’m not entirely sure where they get the “squirrel” from, but it does make for some great photos!

All the Freezies are red

July 12, 2015July 12, 2015Food, Snacks2 Comments

The other day while grocery shopping I bought some Freezies. When I opened the package, I noticed something. There were a lot of red ones (and red are usually my least favorite). I even instantly tweeted at Kisko the above photo to explain my situation.

As it turns out there are actually two different types of red Freezies. I just wasn’t being observant enough. One was a tropical fruit punch and the other very berry. They turned out to be better than I thought.

Sometimes we need to take a second and not make snap judgements. It took a pack of red Freezies to teach me his lesson.