Tiana Feng

Sandwiches That Are Fresh Off The Boat

January 7, 2015January 11, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Fresh Off The Boat on Queen West has a menu full of seafood sandwiches that are made fresh to order. I had the Lobster Roll that was served with fries and a broccoli slaw. The roll had a generous portion of juicy lobster and chives. The slaw was nice and refreshing and it totally didn’t taste like I was eating broccoli.

My friend ordered the Soft Shell Crab Sandwich, which is literally a fried whole crab in a sandwich. It looked glorious. I think she was supposed to get a slaw too along with the fries but they forgot to put it in.

The place is tiny so I suggest doing take-out when it’s a little warmer out! The food was good but we found that after the whole meal (around $15/per person) we weren’t completely full yet. Maybe it’s more of a lunch food than a dinner!

Vlog Round-up: Rich Aucoin, Christmas, Apartment Tour

January 6, 2015January 7, 2015Life, VlogsLeave a Comment

I started Vlogging again and I will be continuing (just not daily). My life isn’t interesting enough for me to have adventures everyday. I’ll try my hardest to make them somewhat regular and do a round-up after every three. So here are 3 for now!

See my clusterphobic Christmas tree and what’s in the first Birchbox Canada!

Tour my new apartment!

Relive Rich Aucoin’s NYE show and we also try the chocolate beer.

Chocolate Beer Made by Flying Monkeys

January 5, 2015Drinks, Food1 Comment

Perhaps this post title is misleading because monkeys don’t actually fly so no actual monkeys were involved in making this beer (at least for all I now). The Flying Monkeys is a craft brewery located in Guelph, Ontario. When I stumbled on this beer, in such eye-catching packaging I could not resist. Hell, they probably could have just put CHOCOLATE BEER on the label and I would’ve bought it. This was more obvious. This beer was more than the normal “chocolate” stout. It sounded epic. It was a Manifesto. It had an alcohol rating of 10%.

We saved the one bottle we snagged for New Years Eve. When we opened it the aromas were splendid. It truly did live up to it’s name. It did not smell like beer, but like a comforting chocolate milk. The strange part is, that’s what it tasted like to! The fact it was a beer, only hit you after every sip. It was delightful. Also, I could totally feel it right away after a mug full (I don’t have anything besides mugs at the moment).

I went back to the LCBO the next day to realize that it is no longer stocked in shelves. I guess I will have to wait until next Christmas to buy the entire aisle.

DIY Watercolour Birthday Card

January 4, 2015Art, Crafts/DIY3 Comments

This year, I also promised myself that I would set a bit of time to be creative without being in front of a computer. On Boxing Day, I scored this beautiful set of watercolour paints at Michaels for 50% off!

To be honest, I haven’t painted anything in years but I used to love to when I was younger. Grandpa also enjoyed painting when he was alive and there’s something special about making (analog) art. The rawness and the fact there’s no undo buttons with mistakes is a unique experience in 2015.

I started with something easy and made this birthday card for Mom.

Dollarama actually sells blank cards (for the printer) for $1 a pack. I think I’ll be making homemade cards for all occasions for now on to practise painting!

Reliving My Teens

January 3, 2015LifeLeave a Comment

In the past few years, we’ve seen an increase of boy-band reunions and the 12-year old inside me was giddy with joy. Most recently, I saw O-Town, what I thought was a 1-2 hit wonder but I knew all their older songs.

As soon as they started, I was lit up with excitement and laughter.

My friends and I belted their encore “All or Nothing” together.

We reacted the same last year when we saw Aaron Carter. Both these concerts are super lame if you view it from an outsider perspective but the fact that we were kids when these artists were famous made it all the more magical.

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This is for you @kawaiiathy

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Sep 22, 2013 at 8:04pm PDT

What is it about our childhood memories that makes reliving them so much more special? I still love the things I loved when I was a child and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

Life on the A List

January 2, 2015iOS, Technology, Video Games1 Comment

A few months ago as a social experiment (fine I sort of wanted to play it), I downloaded Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. The beginning of the game was fast moving. There were tons of things to tap on. I worked in a clothing store, bought a house, bought furniture, dated boys and then Kim Kardashian started invited me to parties in different cities. After a few hours of play, it started to get a lot slower and my energy bar needed to be refilled. Obviously, I didn’t play to pay the game. But I wanted to know if it was possible to get on the A-list without spending money.

Energy refilled every few minutes. However, without premium money I couldn’t do things like make connections with people at bars or pursue a serious relationship. People didn’t seem to want to talk to you very much unless you had money. This resulted in the A-list being a bit harder to reach. Some fancy clothes also cost premium dollars. I decided to pursue the game wearing things that I would actually wear in real life. After a few weeks, I did make the A-list and quit shortly after.

I don’t know what lessons were to be gained from all this. Be yourself? Or probably, don’t waste money on pretend things in a superficial game.

This Year I Want To Blog More

January 1, 2015Inspiration, Life1 Comment

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Actually dressed up for a show #selfie #nye

A post shared by Tiana Feng (@tianafeng) on Dec 31, 2014 at 3:48pm PST

Happy New Year!

Every year, I seem to have a new opinion on the whole idea of New Years Resolutions. Last year, my new year resolution was to have none. And it was awesome. I wasn’t disappointed for breaking promises to myself. In fact, I had a pretty great year and finally achieved a few milestones that I’ve been struggling to reach for a few years.

I was finally employed (twice) and for the first time ever, moved out of my parent’s house. I travelled and attended my best friend’s wedding in PEI. I took on more collaborative projects and forced myself to leave the house and make new friends. I was truly really busy for the first time. This led to putting a lot of blog posts on the backburner. I have plenty of content in the queue that is my mind, but I just haven’t put the pen to paper (or I guess the fingers to the keyboard). My excuses were plenty. I’m too tired after work. I don’t have time. I could be watching more movies on Netflix. The problem is they were all stupid excuses. The more I pushed writing, the harder it was to get back into it.

That’s why for 2015. I want to blog more. Blog more here. Blog more on Ride the Tempo. I’ve already pushed myself to start over the holidays. As much as I can, I will blog everyday. Whether it is a photo blog , a drawing, or a piece of longform writing, I will hit the blue publish button and send something into the interwebs. It will encourage me to find time for a bit of time everyday to be creative. Afterall, to improve at something is to do it every day and here on my personal blog, there are no boundaries.

Hi, people of 2015, you will be seeing much more of me.

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!