Tiana Feng

Who Should Blog?

January 7, 2013February 12, 2013Social Media, Technology3 Comments

A couple weeks ago, I wrote one of my many restaurant experiences on this blog. I hit publish and then proceeded to paste the link on my Facebook wall. Most of my friends enjoy reading of local eats, so I do the occasional share on social networks. A minute later somebody posted this rather passive aggressive Facebook status:

“Unless you know what a mirepoix, paysanne or bain-marie is you shouldn’t write about food. Eating out with a camera doesn’t make you a writer.”

Technically, it wasn’t personally directed at me, but the timing was just too perfect. For the record, I do know what all those things are without looking them up on Wikipedia. I do my fine share of making fried rice, cutting vegetables for stir fry and watching the food network. Anyways, all those things are irrelevant to what makes a blogger.

If you’re reading a food blog, unless it’s a recipe blog, nobody cares if the carrots were julienned. In the Yelp and Foursquare era, people just want to know that things taste good. That is what the food (books and other) posts are for, to give an opinion on something. If you don’t care about my opinion than kindly hit the x at the top right corner (or left if you’re on a Mac). Also, what are you doing here in the first place? I have a modest following of people who do care.

In the internet age, everyone has the right to blog. All food critics probably started out paying for meals themselves and evaluating them. Just like all music bloggers started out paying for concerts and practising their camera shots and reviews. Blogging is not a god-given right to somebody with a pretentious degree in a subject area. In fact I don’t think people would even want to read something with a lot of condescending jargon. Would anybody care if I told you some song had too many parallel 5ths? If you are passionate about a subject, or if you just like sharing things regularly then go ahead and blog.

I lulled on this subject for the past few weeks and then realized. Who cares what one dude thinks? As long as you can maintain readership and a following on your blog (even if it is a few really dedicated fans), then keep writing. You have every right to.

Ps. I love all my followers. Thank you for continuously following my life adventures and nerdism. I promise to bring you a lot more in 2013.

I Don’t Have A Cat But…

January 4, 2013March 10, 2013Books, Entertainment, PetsLeave a Comment

I have a new found appreciation for cats. As you know, I am a proud dog owner. Previously, I was not very fond of cats. I always thought they were rather frightening, unkind and boring.

By some strange coincidence yesterday, I read I Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano and The Oatmeal’s How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You.

I read How To Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You first. To be honest I wasn’t a big fan of The Bobcats mini-series that focused on these cat characters being jerks in the workplace. The majority of the book was devoted to this “mini-series”. For something by The Oatmeal creator, it was somewhat of a let-down.

My favourite illustrations were the other sections such as if humans and cats changed roles and the comic strips illustrating the much more realistic behaviour of cats. Of course there was also classics like Cats vs. The Internet and How to Pet a Kitty.

i could pee on that

Marciuliano’s book explored the mind of a cat through a series of hilarious free verse poems. There are four categories of poems: family, work, play and existence.

If I had to buy a book for a cat lover it would be this one. The poems illustrate why cats do certain devious things and that perhaps we are misunderstanding them as human beings. Most of the poems start off in a vague manner and it is not until the end that you understand what the cat is doing; whether it be knocking down a vase or scratching itself in the mirror. In between poems there are also adorable cat photos related to the writing.

I don’t plan on getting a cat any time soon (or ever), but in reading these books I definitely don’t think they are boring anymore. On a random note, if you do like cats I found this random site called Catmoji which is like a Pinterest for cats.

Zombie Spaceship Wasteland

January 3, 2013Books, EntertainmentLeave a Comment

Did you know Patton Oswalt was the voice of Remy from Ratatouille? Also he wrote this book called Zombie Spaceship Wasteland. What is this book about? That is a question that is very difficult to answer. The book is about many things, and at the same time nothing at all. Each chapter there is a new theme, a new story, idea, joke. However it is guaranteed that you will end up laughing your ass off at some point or another.

Without revealing too much, there are parts of the book that deal with Oswalt’s earlier experiences as a comedian, which are rather dark. He also takes lessons from REM lyrics. However the rest includes everything from hobo songs to my favourite section of horrible screenplays written by Erik Blevins. Someone PLEASE make a Slade Ripfire movie.

If you are into Patton Oswalt’s comedy, you’ll love this book. Here’s a really random Patton Oswalt video that has nothing to do with the book:

Brunch @ Hogtown Vegan

January 2, 2013March 27, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews4 Comments

If you are a regular reader of this blog, than you know that I am a huge meat eater, and don’t plan on giving it up anytime soon. However I’m always up to trying new things. We passed by Hogtown Vegan a bunch of times and in my research I learnt that they did southern comfort food vegan style so we decided to hit it up for New Years brunch. Normally, brunch is only served Saturdays and Sundays but I guess they wanted to serve those hung over from the night before.
I ordered the Unchicken and Waffles ($13) with a side of Chefs Salad. The “chicken” was nicely fried and actually tasted like chicken fingers! Also the waffle was so fluffy and delicious that I didn’t realize vegan waffles can’t have eggs and milk until my friend Karol asked me about them. Hey, if I can make waffles without eggs and milk I’d love the recipe!

I washed my food down with a refreshing homemade iced tea ($3).

My friend Karol ordered the Tortilla Salad ($10), which was gluten and nut free. Romaine lettuce was topped with tortilla chips, beans, salsa, guacomole, scallions and sour cream made from sunflower!

She also had a vegan ceasar, which I assume doesn’t have any clams.

Nash ordered the Tofu Rancheros($12) which was kind of like a non-salad version of Karol’s dish with an added “egg”. The tofu egg looked like an omelette, but didn’t really taste like egg. It was delicious regardless of the fact, and well seasoned.

For dessert, Karol and I split Chocolate Mousse ($6.50) made with almond milk. It was very rich for something without any cream.

As non-vegans we were quite impressed with our selections and very excited to come back and try their intriguing dinner menu.

A Year Without Limitations

January 1, 2013Inspiration, Life1 Comment

Happy New Year! Last year was a blast, and I learnt a lot from it. This year, I decided that I will not make any resolutions or set any strange time-sensitive challenges. Last year on my birthday I wrote a list of 25 Things to Do Before I’m 25 but they were completely unrealistic goals in a year that has proven to be one of my busiest. Most of those things individually would have probably taken a year to do so and being completely unemployed in the process. Attempting to plow through them made things seem like a must-do task, a chore, rather than something meant to be enjoyable.

This year will be focused on just exploring new adventures as they come. Books are meant to be read and absorbed in their own time. New food experiences stumbled upon sometimes accidentally. Life should not be rushed and that will be the theme for this year. I do promise to share all these things with you and write more posts here!

[Photoset] Teddy In The Snow

December 28, 2012December 28, 2012Art, Pets, Photography, TeddyLeave a Comment

We finally had some snow fall this week in Mississauga. We let Teddy out in the backyard to play in the snow. Here are some photos!

[Photoset] Teddy And Mia

December 27, 2012Art, Pets, Photography, TeddyLeave a Comment

Holidays are busy times, so sorry for the lack of posts. For now here are some photos of Teddy and his new friend Mia!

Buk Chang Dong Soon Tofu

December 8, 2012March 27, 2013Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The place may sound like a caucasian’s attempt to speak Chinese but it is a pretty decent Korean restaurant at the heart of Koreatown in Toronto. The restaurant is known for its tofu soup and there are only 9 items on the menu with most of them just being variations of the soup. None of the items are over $9.

I ordered the Seafood Soon Tofu + Dolsotbab in medium heat. It had chunks of oyster, mussels, shrimp and of course tofu. There was a raw egg for me to crack into the soup while it was hot. The tofu was pretty melt in your mouth and even my tofu-hating boyfriend liked it. It was served with purple rice which was scooped out of a stone pot for me. The stone pot was then filled with water. I originally thought this was a way for the restaurant to keep the pots clean but I discovered its actually Koreans call Noo roong ji, where dried rice is purposely mixed with water to become some kind of “burnt rice snack”. I guess I’ll have to try that next time.

Nash dug into it before I took a picture

Nash ordered Stone Pot Bibimbop which was the standard beef stone pot with veggies and an egg on top.

We had four sides on the table to go along with the dishes. Kimchi, pickled vegetables, beans and beans sprouts. For meals under $10 a person this was flavourful and definitely filling!

I Swallowed A Chicken Bone

December 6, 2012December 6, 2012Food, Life4 Comments

Yesterday night I was eating chicken wings. I love chicken wings. While I was eating, Mom was rambling on about something and distracting me. Then I somehow swallowed a chicken bone.

I’m not sure how much bone I ingested, but it felt like at least half of one of the wing tip bones. The situation was probably not that big of a deal. However, during my ordeal Dad told me a frightening story.

He once had a friend who was very intelligent but swallowed a small rib bone. He proceeded to flush it down with rice and water. He thought nothing of it except for small pain he would have once in a while. Few days later he was dead. The bone had pierced his esophagus and arteries which lead to some complicated internal bleeding.

I started to over-think. I took to Google to self-diagnose myself and of course on the internet you can find the worst results of any case. Through this anxious over-thinking, I started to feel my own throat hurt and felt it every time I thought about swallowing a chicken bone.

However, I concluded that the condition is psychological. After some researching (in my old psychology books, not Wikipedia), I found out that this is called globus hystericus otherwise known as globus sensation, the feeling of having a lump in the throat. It can be caused by actual inflammation, but often by anxiety. Strangely after writing this post, the feeling is completely gone, so I guess I’m not going to die of chicken both death. Thanks blog.