Tiana Feng

Static Zine #9- Food

March 25, 2014Art, Crafts/DIY, DesignLeave a Comment

Static Zine is a DIY (maga)zine from Toronto, edited by a few of my blogger friends. I’ve been contributing since the previous issue on mental health. The topic for Issue 9 was food, so of course I couldn’t resist contributing again!

Here’s my page, a comic that expresses the importance of sharing similar dining preferences in a relationship. The zine publishes 3x a year: March, June & October and features a different topic every issue. Contributors can design and write whatever on their page so it leads to some very delightful and creative pages! Issues can be found throughout Toronto but if you’re from out of town they are also available on Etsy for $2.

Miniature Burger Kit by Happy Kitchen

March 24, 2014Candy, Food1 Comment

I couldn’t resist when I saw this miniature burger kit by Kracie’s Happy Kitchen when I was at Pacific Mall.

As always, the instructions were entirely in Japanese so I colour matched all the packages.

There were many packages of powders and I actually did it wrong at first because there were many orange ones. I ended up having to compare the text on the packaging with the instructions instead. The set needed the microwave to form the fries, bun and patties.

The result was a set that resembled a miniature McDonalds meal and strangely tasted like it too! The fries were salted, burgers meaty and soft drink fizzy. It was strange yet fascinating at the same time.

You can watch me make the burgers in my vlog.

Finding the Time to Blog When You Have a Full-Time Job

March 22, 2014Inspiration, Life, Thinking1 Comment

For a while, I was just living the freelance life and underemployed. That meant hours were flexible and I had a lot of free time to do whatever I wanted when I was between projects. My blogs and sites were active and fruitful.

Recently, I have obtained work that is more time consuming and has unpredictable office hours. This made it more difficult to schedule time in advance to blog, because time seemed like a scarce luxury. Obviously since there are still posts churning out on all my content streams, I have found ways to adjust to this new transition. Here are some tips:

Find out what your internet policy is at work. This is an important first step if you want to blog at work (during downtimes/breaks of course). Some companies don’t allow you to use internet services outside of work purposes and you must abide by those rules. Personally, I don’t blog at work because I have way too many other things to be doing so the next few steps are more useful.

Schedule Content in Advance. To keep my music blog alive and active, I schedule a lot of content in advance. There’s always a period of time where I’m like OKAY LET’S SIT DOWN AND BLOG on weekends or evenings and I churn out a bunch of content and schedule them over the next few days. This works better for posts that aren’t particularly time sensitive.

Carry a notebook. I always have a notebook in the vicinity to brainstorm things I want to write about the moment they come up.

Find inspiration everywhere. This applies most when it’s a personal blog and therefore you can post whatever you want – food, photos, projects, inspiration, thoughts. The blog is about YOU after all. Life changes constantly, and there are tons of exciting and thought-provoking things to write about at every corner.

Take advantage of your Smartphone. By now, most people have a smartphone. Whether, it’s an Android or an iPhone, there is a wealth of apps that sync to the cloud. There’s even a WordPress app on both platforms. These can be great for long commutes. Personally, I use OneNote on my iPhone because it syncs with the version on my laptop. I draft a lot of posts while on the train. In fact, this one was partially written on a commute.

Don’t stop. The moment you stop actively blogging for a while, it becomes tough to start again as each day passes. It’s all about finding new ways to fit writing into a new schedule. Sometimes when you have a free half hour, you just have to make yourself sit down and write. It’s totally possible, you just have to stop giving yourself excuses and do it.

I originally published this post on Medium.

Tony Moly Appletox Honey Cream

March 18, 2014Beauty, ShoppingLeave a Comment

As you know, I’ve been obsessed with the Tony Moly store recently because of their adorable packaging and affordable prices. I recently picked up this moisturiser which came in a container shaped as an apple. It doesn’t have much branding on the outside or much information other than a sticker in Korean at the bottom.

Inside, the cover of the cream did say Tony Moly. It also came with a tiny spatula to prevent contamination of the product by dirty fingers.

The cream itself was yellow, and had a fresh apple smell, which I really enjoy. Upon doing some research, I found out it’s an AHA moisturiser, meaning it also exfoliates the skin. At the time of purchase, I had a giant pimple, but now it is gone and no new ones have appeared since using this product. It does a lovely job of keeping my skin smooth and minimalising wrinkles. A little goes a long way with this cream. I usually just dip the spatula (without scooping) and use what it catches for my face. It will probably last me for a couple of months even if I use it every day.

What other cute cosmetic products do you guys have in your collection? I’d love to know!

Skewers Galore @ Yakitori Kintori

March 10, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews4 Comments

When we visited Kinton Ramen last time, we were left with a mystery. What was behind the chicken door? At the time, it was locked but through Kinton’s social media, found out it was a sister restaurant Yakitori Kintori that celebrated a soft-open last week.

The menu diagrammed skewers you could order from different parts of the chicken. There were also beef, pork and vegetarian options as well as various other cold and hot dishes. Skewers were $2-4, so it was reasonably priced and nothing else was over $9. Since it was our first time here we decided to sample a variety of things.

To wash things down, I ordered a Lemon Shoju, Japanese Lemon vodka. I was surprised to find out that we had to squeeze the lemon ourselves! It was a funny way to pass the time as we waited for our food to arrive.

My first skewer was the Buta Bara ($2). Most skewers you could choose a simple salted option or in bbq’d with Teriyaki sauce. I chose the salt option for the pork belly. It was fatty and delicious.

The Toro Sobori Poutine ($7) was the most Asian poutine I have ever tasted (moreso than the Kimchi Fries poutine from Bahn Mi Boys). It had soy-sauce, ginger, ground chicken with the curds and fries. We gobbled it all up because it wasn’t heavy like poutine can be sometimes.

My favourite of all the skewers was the Cheese Tsukune ($2), a meatball that exploded with cheese in the middle. A close second was the Jalapeno Nikuzume ($3.5), a jalapno stuffed with ground chicken.

Another hot dish we ordered was the Tako Ajillo, octopus sizzling in garlic olive oil. For only $7, we got a big portion of octopus that was the most tender I have ever eaten. It was served with bread.

The Tebasaki($2) was ordered with Teriyaki sauce. This was our final item in our initial order, but everything was so good and we weren’t entirely stuffed yet so we opted for more.

Nash loves mushroom and I love bacon so this Enoki Bacon ($3.5) felt like a match made in heaven and it was.

We also ordered the Shiitake Nikuzume ($3.5) which were adorable and reminded me of boys with bowl cuts.

I have no idea how I had room for dessert, but I couldn’t resist when I saw a Green Tea Creme Brulee ($5) on the menu! It was nice and creamy, but the top wasn’t as hard as normal creme brulee. The sweetness reminded me a lot of green tea iced cream.

I went to the washroom out of curiosity to see if they had a matching one to Kinton and indeed they did!

We both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and pleasant staff at Yakitori. They welcomed us with the same enthusiasm as their downstairs neighbours. We will be back soon!

Random Flowers

March 8, 2014Art, PhotographyLeave a Comment

Here are some random photos of flowers mom bought. For some reason they remind me of ketchup chips.

Ride the Tempo on CBC Music!

March 7, 2014Inspiration, Life, Music, Social MediaLeave a Comment

Today my music blog Ride the Tempo was featured in CBC’s list of “Canadian Music Blogs You Need to be Reading”. Normally I don’t care for lists but CBC was one of the early outlets that got me caring about Canadian music and influenced me to change the blog’s format to focus entirely on it. It was actually a difficult decision to make. Canadian music is not as popular or hit-generating as some of the bigger indie artists out there. Blogs that write about everything get a lot more hits, and return generate more ad-revenue.

I don’t blog because I think I’ll one day get rich off of it. I love exploring the Canadian music landscape. I care about it and will continue to do so.

Gluten Free Pizza @ Strada 241

March 4, 2014Food, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

A lunch date with my boss landed us at Strada 241, a fancy looking place close to China Town. The menu was very Italian and I had to Google a few things to make sure I knew what it was. We ordered the Gianpolo Pizza which was supposed to have a wild boar, but the person I was with didn’t eat pork so we asked if they could leave it off. Substitutions were not allowed but we were allowed to leave ingredients off. The result of our order was a gluten free pizza with spinach and mushroom. I’m not a health conscious person, but I actually enjoyed the gluten free pizza. It did not break apart or taste weird.

We also shared this cured salmon salad with fennel, onions, peppers and more. It was very fresh tasting and I think I may have enjoyed this more than the pizza.

I think I may come back later with Nash so we can order the more meaty (and less healthy) looking items on the menu! I’ll be back with an update later.

Birthday Dinner @ Union Social Eatery

March 3, 2014March 3, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

For my birthday, I hit up Union Social Eatery at their Mississauga location with my family and Nash. We ordered a little bit of everything from the menu.

As a starter Nash had the Killer Soup ($4.95). The type of soup varies every day and his was a Potato Bacon. He said it was okay, but it had corn which was unexpected and less creamy than he thought it would be.

These Parmesan Truffle Fries ($7.84) were very flavourful and addictive. The truffle flavour was only from the oil but that didn’t stop me from eating them all.

The Korean Short Rib Tacos ($9.96) melted in my mouth.

The House Braised Short Rib Firecracker was crunchy and served with a sweet chilli sauce.

Since it was my birthday I thought I’d try the Social Punch which was made with Amaretto, Southern Comfort, orange, cranberry and pineapple juice. It was so delicious I drank it before our food came.

My sister’s main was the Thai Red Curry Bowl ($13.96).

A few people ordered the Steak and Sushi which was a cute take on surf and turf. The steak was cooked in a Korean beef sauce and sliced and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The shrimp in the sushi was fried and it had a nice crunch.

Nash had the Korean Swordfish Steak ($18.98) served with veggies. I’ve never had swordfish before and I enjoyed that it wasn’t fishy tasting.

I ordered the Steak Frites ($19.73) but since I ordered truffle fries as an appetizer, I replaced it with a Candy House Salad. The steak was very juicy and flavourful. The Candy House salad was sweet and there were mini surprises of figs, mango, walnuts and more in every bite.

All the food was beautiful and delightful and I would definitely recommend it for a nice night out.

Toronto Grilled Cheese Festival

March 2, 2014March 2, 2014FoodLeave a Comment

On Friday, I attended Joylister’s Grilled Cheese Festival. The premise was that we paid $39.99 ($45 with tax) for an all-you-can-eat grilled cheese and soup experience that included 4 drink tickets. We did a similar non-Joylister event, Burger Day, during the summer and loved it so we thought Grilled Cheese Festival would be something like it. I didn’t take any photos of Grilled Cheese Festival because we were in a frantic mood to try everything. I did however, have this vlog of our first hour:

I didn’t capture the chaos that ensued afterwards. Joylister had totally oversold the event and by 7pm the Roy Thompson Hall lobby was so full of people you could hardly move. My friends arrived during this time and were stuck outside for half an hour before being let in. Me and Nash felt really bad for them so we lined up in separate lines to help our friends get their share of food and drinks. The two of us were lucky because we lined up before doors and were able to sample the majority of things within an hour. There were only 12 vendors and it was ultimately underwhelming, especially for $45. I was surprised when I found out that only half the lobby had vendors. My favourite picks from the night included the Tandoori Chicken sandwich from Market Fresh, that most people ignored. A stand-out soup included the Tomato Feta & Basil from Soup N’ Such.

Personally, the overselling of tickets didn’t affect me because I came early but I felt like what I got for $45 wasn’t worth that price point. Burger Day was $30 and I was completely satisfied with my experience. I don’t know what Joylister did with our money, especially since it was beyond sold out and there wasn’t enough food to feed all.

The vendors themselves were friendly, and worked as hard as they could, despite not expecting the chaos that would ensue. The guy running the bakery stand even offered those that stayed till the end some full-sized pretzels to take home. Cheesewerks is giving out free sandwiches this weekend for those with tickets. I felt bad for sponsors that had to tie themselves to a disastrous festival. Look at this adorable ketchup bottle I won from the Indie88 booth!