I bought another one of those weird Japanese candy kit things! This time I made a miniature cake.
Inside there were a bunch of coloured powders and candy to decorate the cake with.
Watch me make it here:
So I ended up with this…..
Does it look exactly like the one on the box? To be fair, it is all the same once it is eaten. It did indeed taste like cake and icing.
Not too long ago I tried my first halo-halo. My sister’s boyfriend is Filipino and I’m always open to food from other cultures! Halo-halo literally means “mixed together” and that’s kind of the basic concept of this dessert drink. This particular one had taro ice cream, shaved ice, evaporated milk, cereal, jello, coconut and more.
I’m interested to know what other interesting drinks there are out there in other cultures. I’ve had mango lassis, Persian doogh’s but I’d love to drink/eat my way through other eclectic drinks. What do you recommend?
My friend had heard of Home of the Brave because of their ridiculous soft-serve and so we decided to hit it up for dinner! We didn’t have a reservation so we had to wait around 30 minutes for a table on a Thursday night. The restaurant does a twist on classic American cuisine.
I ordered the Chicken and Waffles which had crispy sourdough waffles, a spiced maple syrup drizzle of sour cream. Before going here, someone told us that they thought there was too much syrup but I actually thought the amount of syrup was perfect! I dipped everything in it and the chicken still remained crunchy.
My friend ordered the Home of the Brave Burger with house ground ribeye, HOTB pickle mayo, house American cheese, tomato and lettuce.
Another had the 76er Philly Cheesesteak with shaved ribeye, caramelized onion, red chilli, melted cheddar, chives.
We ordered a few cocktails which were totally better than the ones at the Luckyrice event I attended.
And finally soft serve! I had the Presidential Pretzel with vanilla, caramel, granny apple, pretzel and Skor crumble. I also shared the Chocolate Peanut Butter EpiPen with my friend. It was so full of peanuts!
Here is us enjoying our soft serve:
We enjoyed all our food (the chicken & waffles and soft serve especially) and we’ll definitely come again to eat more ice cream!
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Tiana Feng 