kat can rawr.

Music of the Week - Mag Lam 林欣彤

2012-01-21T14:24:00.004-05:00

Lately, this song has been in my head. All day long.

我們不是公主
主唱：林欣彤
作曲：Damon Chui．舒文
填詞：周耀輝
編曲：Damon Chui
監製：舒文

珍珠要戴得到　雪花要碰得到
然而快樂　即使撒嬌　撒不到
純白睡袍能贈送　向海餐桌可操控
然而美麗　便沒法製做
為求甚麼注目
原來會扮會爭　不會放鬆
其實怕逐漸夠鐘

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得多麼惡毒
轉角沒有堡壘
路上沒有魔術
現實沒有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
唯有想你開車接送

香薰要抹得到　再美好也要見工
懷疑約會　就為了令人　能羨慕
為求活得更隆重
難道有日過得雙眼更惺忪
其實我盡用我青春

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得多麼惡毒
轉角沒有堡壘
路上沒有魔術
現實沒有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
只好吩咐你　由我盡情發夢

（青春很快會老　今天把我縱到　令我面紅）
我盡情發夢
（青春很快會老　今天把我縱到　接近滿足）

幾多片段　幾多插曲
未曾華麗便夠鐘
全部少女　全部會懂
就算溫柔和貼服
我知道　沒有用
終於只得我哭

期待你愛　期待你寵
歲月在流逝得必須繼續
轉角或有堡壘
路上或有魔術
現實或有公主
仍舊要愛　仍舊要寵
伴我走完美的路
我知道　沒有用
還望一瞬間的縱
某日想成熟
奇在這日想抱
抱著我走過路

Omakase at Mikado - excellent service and delicious homestyle food

2011-12-28T23:57:00.005-05:00

What makes Mikado different from the other (sadly only handful of) authentic Japanese restaurants in the city is that it's not just about the raw fish. Just like how Chinese food cannot be summarized by the terms "dim sum" or "fried rice", there's so much more to Japanese cuisine than just sushi.

Mikado is a hidden gem in the mid-town of industrial companies, across the street from car repair shops. Complete with an ordinary storefront sign and a middle-of-nowhere location (which seems to be the characteristics for authentic and delicious Japanese food in Toronto, e.g. Kaji, Zen, Aoyama, Cafe Michi, Mikado... anyone else noticing a pattern?), one step in and it's as if you're transported to another place of another city. The warm wood and tatami interior gives off a traditional yet homey vibe.

I had made reservations for two in advance, requesting omakase.

Omakase is a multi-course, customized meal where the chef prepares beforehand. He/she plans out the menu, the dishes he would like to serve (usually, innovative and creative dishes not on the menu), the ingredients needed for such meal, the freshest best quality ingredients available at the time (especially when it comes to sashimi) and even the order of which the dishes will be presented is thought out in advance for a balanced meal. You can also personalize your omakase by letting the chef know any allergies you may have (or like me, notify them the things you prefer not to eat haha).

Some restaurants offer a choice of omakases, some don't. For example, Zen offers a raw omakase where the entire meal is focused primarily on sashimi and sushi. Other restaurants may have omakase that is a mix of both raw and cooked foods, like this Mikado review.

Lastly, omakase is usually offered at different price points, which differ by each restaurant. It can be anywhere from $40 per person to $120 per person (in Toronto, that is). The price dictates the quality of the ingredients used and the dishes prepared. It also ensures that you will get the freshest and the best fish of that day.

In summary, the word omakase means entrust - basically, you're entrusting your meal to the chef, leaving all the choices and selection to him.

Wow, it feels like I'm writing an essay instead. I guess this is what happens when you're passionate about food!

They have these cute slippers you can wear too!

For our very first dish, this was an appetizer consisting of seaweed on the left and what I believe to be saba on the right. It was okay, not very impressive.

Fish soup with enoki and shiitake mushrooms. Very flavourful and homey, perfect for any fish lover.

Monk fish liver. A dish I love to order! As well, it's a nice substitute for foie gras. Creamy, rich, yet slightly tangy.

Fried fish head. Very crispy while not overly oily.

Omakase sashimi!
While the selection was fresh and varied, there were one or two pieces that were not perfectly cut, resulting in some having tendon still. Other than that, very fresh and good quality sashimi. The most outstanding of them all would be the hirame which is a type of flounder, rolled up with a delicious ponzu-pepper sauce in the centre.

Zoom up on the three toro's - otoro, chutoro and toro. Very fresh, yet very, very fatty. Make that EXTREMELY fatty melt-in-your-mouth-ness.
It was so fatty that it instantly gives you that itis feeling, just like when you a bite into a thick piece of pork belly/fat. I could barely finish my portion of the toro's without feeling overwhelmed by its nicely marbled fat. SOOOO FATTY YET SO GOOD!

What looks like an oyster, but was actually a baked clam with mushrooms. A little too much oil but still not bad.

Top, left to right: toro (fatty tuna belly), something I don't remember >_>, tuna, snapper, clam.
Bottom, left to right: Japanese mackerel, scallop, king crab legs (cooked), Spanish mackerel, and eel (cooked).

Omakase nigiri time!!! Gosh I love omakase. Amazing dishes, one after another.
Mikado also does the style of nigiri where the meat on top is long and slender, a dollop of rice underneath and with just enough of wasabi to balance the flavours. Very good rice to fish ratios.

One more picture of the nigiri.

By this time, we were both extremely full. We had to push ourselves to finish the last few pieces of nigiri so that they don't go to waste.
At this point, the waitress came and asked if we were still hungry, and if so they would start preparing the next dish. Both my brother and I were waving our hands rapidly, indicating please no more!, for now at least. I had to pause and hoped that my stomach would digest faster. One of those moments where your brain says YES I WANT MORE MORE MORE! and your stomach is saying YOU FATTY, I CAN'T DIGEST FAST ENOUGH! I'm 100% sure that was the dialogue between my organs.

Desperately finding space in our already full stomachs for our last dish, it was surprisingly the dish that stood out to me the most throughout the entire dinner: fried eggplants with sweet miso glaze. These were AAAMMMMMMAZING. So amazing that I'm capitalizing every letter, and making them underlined and bolded.
Small pieces that you can easily pop into your mouth, full of flavour and not soaked with oil. Although I was full, I ended up finishing most of the dish myself - truly too good to stop. Seeing how it's only $4 a la carte, I can't wait to come back for more!

Okay, so that wasn't the last dish we had after all. The eggplant was the last dish I had. This is beef tataki - slices of raw beef. My brother said it was good, but nothing outstanding. I don't think we had space to finish this dish.

So I lied again - that wasn't our last dish either, but technically this wasn't a dish by itself. The chef took the heads of the prawns we had earlier and deep-fried them, making them extremely crispy, delicious and entirely edible. I'm not a fan of fried foods, but this was not very oily, and crunchy texture of the shell makes me salivate already. But before you devour it, make sure you suck the brains out of the head - sounds disgusting, but trust me, deliciousness awaits you. I might even add that these were better than the fried prawn heads at Kaji!

What's a good meal without dessert? Looking back, I don't know how I had the room in my stomach to even eat this much but I guess it's true that all girls have an extra stomach just for dessert. And some guys too. That and the meal turned out to be 3 hours long.

Cream Caramel Pudding. It was not bad, but my mind kinda completely blocked out the memory of eating the pudding because it was occupied with eating this instead:

This is their famous Mikado Pie with mandarin orange. After one bite, I realized why it is their most popular sweet dish. Not overly sweet, creaminess in every bite with a hint of crust. My brother is not a big fan of cakes, but he also said he enjoyed this pie a lot. Besides the eggplant, we agreed that this was the other dish that stood out the most throughout the entire meal.

Overall, service was undoubtedly excellent! Both the waiter and waitress were very, very nice and expertly paced our dishes so that we wouldn't wait too long in between courses. They also regularly checked up on us to fill up tea cups, to answer our random questions on what's in this dish and what's the name of this fish, and even wrote down the name of the ponzu-pepper sauce we loved so much. It really felt like we were guests at their house and they were cooking us a host meal!

Since we did not indicate the monetary value of omakase we wanted to try and judging by the amount of food we had, I'm assuming they charged the highest amount, which I guess is $85 per person, excluding the dessert.

With the amount of food, the quality of food we had and lastly the impeccable service, both my brother and I do think the meal was worth its price. Although Mikado is small and located at a rather rural area, it is definitely worth a visit from any Japanese cuisine fanatics.

However, if you're looking for the freshest, best cuts of sashimi in town with the best selection of fish, I would recommend the sashimi omakase at Zen instead, which I also enjoyed immensely. As for everyone else, please don't come to Mikado expecting simply sushi and sashimi; open your mind and taste buds to try a more homestyle of Japanese cooking. There's more to Japanese cuisine than just raw fish and it's equally amazing in its own way. I completely recommend this place!

One last note: I had made reservations beforehand for this meal, requesting an omakase of both cooked and raw. My brother had previously walked in for omakase at Mikado before without reservations, and said that it wasn't as balanced nor delightful.

Must-try dishes:
- fried eggplant!!
- Mikado pie
- generally, their entire omakase meal :)

Mikado
114 Laird Drive
Leaside, Toronto
(416)421-6016

Hours of Operation
LUNCH
Tuesday to Friday: 11:30 PM - 2:30 PM

DINNER
Tuesday to Thursday: 5 PM - 10 PM
Friday to Saturday: 5 PM - 10:30 PM
Sunday: 5 PM - 10 PM

The Left Bank, Buffalo - A must-stop when nearby.

2011-12-01T23:17:00.001-05:00

Back in the beginning of August, I went on a mini road trip to Buffalo.

Midway through shopping, we stopped by McD's for some of these goodies. All this for $4. Yes you read that right, FOUR DOLLARS. OK with tax, it's still less than $5. Even though I've watched that Jamie Oliver video on how chicken McNuggets are made, I can't resist them. I blame my childhood. NOM NOM NOM NOMMM.

Then we had to exit the highway to get to our destination...

... and arrived at a quiet neighbourhood, just a few minutes drive from the border.

Except this restaurant is everything but quiet.

Ivan had made reservations for the two of us a week in advance, knowing how busy this place can get. And even with a reservation on a Wednesday night at 8:30 PM, we STILL had to wait half an hour before we were seated. I was quite impressed!

The Left Bank is separated into a dining area and a bar. The lights are very dim, creating a romantic and cozy ambiance. The candle at our table barely provided enough light for me to take the following pictures >_>. Laughter surrounded us as groups of couples, family and friends exchanged conversations while enjoying their meals. It made me feel happy and warm to be here.

Cute decor!

What really got me to come to Buffalo was in fact this restaurant. I have heard Ivan raved about it so many times, I just couldn't pass up this opportunity to try it.

Unfortunately, Wednesday night is Asian night at The Left Bank, which meant no daily ravioli (which Ivan loves). Having to drive all the way across the border to eat here, we didn't feel like having anything "Asian" so we decided to order a few appetizers and a pasta to share.

Warm bread served with olive oil with roasted tomatoes to dip.

Besides swearing by their daily ravioli (which is one GIANT ravioli stuffed with something different everyday), Ivan also loves their daily brushetta ($9), whose toppings also change depending on the day of the week. That day, it was miso chicken I believe.

It looks like a pizza but never mind that, it was delicious. A good portion of melted cheese, sliced tomatoes and miso chicken on every slice of crispy bread. What I hate about the usual brushettas is soft, mushy bread. No one likes soft mushy bread! Except in bread pudding I guess. However, I can say that I would order this again next time I come.

This is fried oysters with tomato-corn and jalapeno salsa and creole remoulade ($9). This meal had me stepping out of my usual boundaries because I am not a big fan of oysters. They usually have this organ taste of which I'm not fond. But these ones here surprisingly didn't have any organ taste! On top of that, the oysters were juicy. I think I've had too many oysters at Asian restaurants where the texture is meaty and sometimes overcooked. Never had I ate oysters this juicy.

What I also liked about this dish was that these one-bite wonders are covered with a great crunchy batter. The creole remoulade had a spicy kick to it, making sure that you won't be able to stop at just one bite.

Confession: I don't like artichokes. They just taste... weird. So when Ivan ordered this portobello mushroom with artichoke stuffing and port wine green peppercorn sauce ($8), I was completely like "Really?".

But it wasn't so bad after all. The portobello mushroom was soft and meaty like usual while that weird artichoke taste was nowhere to be found. However, the port wine sauce was a bit too tangy for my personal taste; it left a lingering after taste on my tongue which I didn't enjoy. Ivan liked it though so depends on your preference!

Carrot pappardella tossed with lobster, shrimp and calamari served in a shellfish brandy cream, with julienne vegetables, arugula and tarragon ($22).

This smelled wonderful. Truth be told, I never had a truly awesome pasta that I would crave days after before but this would probably be the closest thing to that in my experience. I had initially thought there would be small bits of lobster and shellfish in the pasta as most restaurants do when they say "seafood pasta", but there was an impressive amount of seafood in every bite. The seafood cream sauce brought out the flavours of the shellfish and deliciously coated every strand of pappardelle. We couldn't finish this dish so when I microwaved it the next day, gosh I didn't think it could be even more enjoyable. I think I even licked the plate clean.

Service was friendly overall but they somehow messed up our bill, adding a fondue to it though we never ordered one. But we didn't notice it till we got home and I was looking through my pictures T_____T... Oh well.

I can't wait to go back to this place to try their other foods, both dinner and brunch!! Remember to make reservations well ahead of time before you go! :)

The Left Bank
511 Rhode Island Street
Buffalo, NY 14213
(716) 882-3509

Hours:
Monday to Thursday: 5 PM - 11 PM
Friday to Saturday: 5 PM - 12 AM
Sunday: 11AM - 2:30 PM, 4 PM - 10 PM

View Larger Map

The best meals I ever had.

2011-11-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

While JT and I were driving home one day, it had suddenly come to my attention that the best meals of my life were all not from Toronto. Instead, they were all abroad during vacation periods. One might argue that it's because people might be more willing to spend money on good food while on vacation, hence better food. While there is some truth to that, not all the best meals of my life cost a fortune. Not to mention that expensive food does not always mean good food (example: the hit and (mostly) miss 'licious events in Toronto every winter and summer). What adds to this puzzling idea is that I've spent my entire life in Toronto. How is it that I still can't find some mind-blowing food in two decades compared to the limited days I spend touring a foreign city? Oh Toronto.

Hence, with inspiration from the Food Network show 'The Best Thing I Ever Ate' (which I love to watch), I'd like to do a series of posts on the best meals I ever had.

I started making a mental list of said meals, counting around 7 or 8 at the moment. We'll see what else my memory racks up. The series will also allow me to fast-track reviews on meals I had during vacation, but without having to blog all the chronological events that led up to it. Yay!!!

Okay, time for some food p0rn to get you guys hooked.

Best shabu shabu/hot pot-thing I ever had. Just look at the marbled fat of that thinly-sliced piece of meat!!!
Osaka, Japan.

First time drinking plum wine and as a person that never really liked alcohol, this was SO FREAKING GOOD! I believe it was a free sample too from the above shabu shabu place. The only thing that I've had that can compare to this is the one at Kaji.
Osaka, Japan.

Best pineapple buns. Ever. EVARRRRRRRRRRRR.
Not too big, fresh out of the oven and still warm with REAL PINEAPPLE filling oozing out of the center. I think I ate 4 or 5 in the end, after an entire dim sum meal.
Zhongshan, China.

A shabby place like this is where I had one of the best meals of my life? Yup, that's right. A dirty, desserted alleyway in the middle of literally nowhere of Shanghai suburbs, a group of us gathered around a small table sitting on tiny foldable chairs for supper - dai pai dong style. I'm pretty sure we ordered at least 50 skewers that night ($2 RMB each) among other stir-fry dishes.
Shanghai, China.

Even after going to Singapore, I couldn't say that I had eaten the best hai nan chicken rice of my life. Until I went to LA that is. The most tender pieces of chicken that literally fall off the bone paired up with a secret homemade sauce. And of course, a heap of fragrant chicken oil rice on the side. Lining up outside for a half an hour while exhausted and starving was definitely well worth it.
Los Angeles, USA.

HELLOOOOOOO COCO'S CURRY! Although a chain restaurant from Japan, hands-down the best curry I ever had. A rich depth of flavour with the distinct sweetness found in Japanese curry and a spicy kick. Then matched with an amazing tonkatsu - crispy fried skin on the outside with tender, juicy meat on the inside.
Tokyo, Japan.

This is the dish that made me fell in love with Mexican food. Mouthful of succulent shredded chicken meat layered underneath a bed of flavoured beans, all that wrapped inside a flour tortilla. Topped with cheese, sauce and a generous amount of guacamole.
Los Angeles, USA.

And how can I forget sea urchin like this?
Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan.

I refuse to eat instant ramen everyday. Maybe udon though.

2011-11-14T15:23:00.001-05:00

For the past two months when my parents were away, I spent most of my time at home, which forced me to cook my own meals. And because I doubt I will ever do a step-by-step, photo-heavy blog post on each of the following dishes, I compiled the recipes and links here. Next time your parents leave for vacation, if you're feeling extra culinarily adventurous or just tired of instant noodles, try these out!

COOKING:

Savoury Steamed Eggs 蒸蛋
Although I admit I love to eat, I don't go to fancy dinners very often. Maybe a few times a year (as seen from the type of restaurants I tend to review). I love foie gras, truffle oil and all that expensive jazz, but what I really love and prefer is simple homecooked meals. Steamed eggs is on my top three list of things I love to eat. This stuff is freaking awesome. Simple ingredients (eggs + water + seasoning + minced pork/duck yolk/crabmeat/whatever you like) and easy to assemble. Just not the timing part - that takes practise. But SO GOOD!

Claypot Rice with Chinese Sausage 煲仔臘腸飯
This is one of my favourite winter meals - it's super easy to make, fragrant and reminds you of home. Simply wash and rinse rice as usual and place into rice cooker with water. Slice up the preserved chinese pork sausages, the duck sausage and pork belly and add them on top of the rice. Then add some chopped leaves of your favourite leafy vegetable and sprinkle them on top. Push down the cook button and just wait!! Feel free to add other mushrooms, onions etc. that you like.

Pioneer Woman's Pasta with Tomato Cream Sauce
A creamy, tangy pasta which may take a bit of time to simmer for flavour but still very easy to make. This is hard for even me to mess up.

Other dishes you may like to try: scrambled eggs with tomatoes 番茄炒蛋 (though personally, I like the two separated), Japanese instant curry + rice/spaghetti/udon and if you're super lazy, just do hot pot.

BAKING:

During this period of time, I've also been baking at least once a week. There was a terrible cycle of trying to be resourceful: Hmm I have leftover egg whites, OK I'll make poof-arons (an attempt on macarons and failed, hence poof!). That resulted in leftover ganache. So I made chocolate truffles. But seeing how I made 3 crack pies in 4 days, I still had more than half a dozen egg whites leftover. ARGH this never-ending cycle!!

AllRecipe's Best Ever Banana Bread
Just like the name says, nothing beats this amazing home-baked banana bread!
Some notes: I used 4 frozen black bananas, 1 1/2 cups is waayy too sweet so try 1/2 cup white sugar + 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and add a little less than 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. Pre-greasing the pan is not necessary either.

AllRecipe's Soft Oatmeal Honey Cookies
I didn't have brown sugar when I made them so I substitute the amount with white sugar + a tablespoon of honey. Resulted in a hint of honey in every bite!

Salty Tart's Chewy Chocolate Meringues
A soft, airy shell with a very, very chocolatey and sweet center.

David Chang's Momofuku's Crack Pie
Makes 2 servings. Expect intense caramel-ness for a much lower cost!

SmittenKitchen's favourite chocolate chip cookies
Also David Lebovitz's recipe from his book The Great Book of Chocolate. Be warned that it's quite chocolatey and sweet.

David Lebovitz's French Chocolate Macarons with prune or chocolate ganache filling
He also published Pierre Herme's recipe for his ketchup macarons here.

Joy of Baking's Chocolate Truffles
I had leftover chocolate ganache from making chocolate macarons so this is a good (and easy) way to use them efficiently! Or you can just eat all the leftover I suppose.

David Lebovitz's Perfect Panna Cotta
Incredibly easy 5 minute recipe to Italian dessert! I paired it up with fresh, delicious raspberry coulis.

Music of the Week - 盧廣仲 Crowd Lu - 藍寶 rainbow

2011-10-18T16:24:00.002-04:00

So I am at this awkward transitional phase of life where I am finished with university and awaiting for the first real job of my career. Coincidentally, mom and dad have left for vacation during this period of time, leaving me alone at home. Many, many friends have been asking me the same question over and over again: what do I do alone at home everyday?!

Well besides the daily job search, my life in the past few weeks consisted of the following routine: prancing (and a bit of moping) around in my pj's, cooking, looking through flyers like a true housewife, house chores and... baking. I recently bought a KitchenAid stand mixer from The Bay at 50% off (and the last one by the way; I walked away feeling like a warrior from a battlefield) and haven't quite gotten over that 'new appliance' obsession yet. Yup, the life of the unemployed.

I've also developed a habit of listening to a HK radio station everyday, 903 早霸王. Although they seem to play the same damn songs every single day, today was different - they played this song. And from just hearing it once, I loved it. It does a fantastic job of perking you up on these chilly, gloomy autumn days.

盧廣仲 Crowd Lu - 藍寶 which means "blue treasure" if translated literally. But if you pronounce it in Mandarin, it sounds like "rainbow" which is what the song is about :)

藍寶

作曲：盧廣仲
填詞：盧廣仲

你喜不喜歡紅色呢
黃色會讓我想起一些小時候的玩樂
綠色他們說最自然對眼睛有幫助
藍色才是我的最愛

突然眼前出現一條rainbow在空中像是提醒著
不要放棄去追求擁有我的夢
Come on sing with me sing with me
I oh I
I see the rainbow in the sky
so high so beautiful

I wonder you can you
can you draw me a rainbow just for me
and rescue me

I promise I will take you fly away away from here

不是我的金色斧頭
黑色在我閉上眼的時候靜靜守護我
爸爸的眼珠是咖啡咖啡的顏色
善良的麵包可能是白色的

突然眼前出現一條rainbow在空中像是提醒著
不要放棄去追求擁有我的夢

Come on sing with me sing with me
I oh I
I see the rainbow in the sky
so high so beautiful

I wonder you can you
can you draw me a rainbow just for me
and rescue me

I promise I will take you fly away away from here

等到哪一天你看不到彩虹
拿出蓮蓬頭對準這顆星球
逆著時針轉開水龍頭

I oh I
I see the rainbow in the sky
so high so beautiful

I wonder you can you
can you draw me a rainbow just for me
and rescue me

I promise I will take you fly away away
fly away away from here

oh summer, how fast you past us by...

2011-09-30T18:07:00.000-04:00

If there are still any readers of this blog, I applaud you. Even I, have lost faith in myself for continuing to write restaurant reviews and to post about my travel experiences. Truth is, I've fallen into a slump. Instead of looking forward to share my dining experiences, this has turned into a nagging chore that I've constantly pushed to the back of my mind. And it doesn't help where there are so many food blogs out there, so many amazing ones that I personally follow and so many more that are at least regularly updated.

But then... I decided to come back and hope to re-spark that little flame. I still adore food, yearn to travel and have lots of pictures to prove both.

I've realized that no one really seems to blog about the Asian eateries on this side of town. I guess this is where katcanrawr specializes in: HK-style cafes and Chinese restaurants in Markham/Richmond Hill. This is what happens when you're born into a frugal family that has developed an acquired and exclusive taste of Asian cuisines and nothing else.

I have also created a tab above called Best of Toronto. It's really just a list of common cravings I get and the restaurants I'd go to curb it; whether it's xiaolongbao 小籠包, a nice, cool glass of HK iced tea or the best sashimi in town. Hopefully this will help some hungry readers out there who think the same way as I do.

No worries, I will update this Best of Toronto list as I have with The Index of Reviews. And don't forget the map that I've conveniently organized to see which restaurants I've reviewed are in your geographic area.

And because a post wouldn't be interesting unless there's a picture, here's a photo I took of the Grand Canyon (or a side of it) from my trip last month (it's huuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggeeeee):

Music of the Week - Alfred Hui 許廷鏗

2011-09-16T00:55:00.003-04:00

There are only two things that Ivan and I have in common: interest in good food and good music. This is how I discovered Alfred Hui and have been playing his CD non-stop ever since.

A contestant in the first season of 超級巨聲 in Hong Kong (another music competition show), although he never won, this CD will prove to you otherwise. I've never watched the show, never heard of this guy and yet I like his ~~songs~~ entire CD. He also does a cover of 小豬's 愛不單行 in Cantonese, not bad.

I guess it's back to cantopop.

許廷鏗 - 他不好

許廷鏗 - 螞蟻

許廷鏗 - 出走. If you want to listen to just one song to see if you like him, it's this one. PICK THIS ONE.

For some reason, I hear a bit of 蕭敬騰 Jam Hsiao in him at certain times. Anyone?

Next stop, California. Then Vegas, baby!

2011-08-16T18:57:00.006-04:00

As I am typing up this entry, I am packing my luggage. In fact, I've just started and my flight is departing in umm.. 9 hours. Minus one minute.

Started to rummage through my closet for clothes to bring and found some shirts I haven't touched in a few years, waiting to be donated. And a light green and white striped shirt that was given to me as a gift. The only reason I kept it for so long is because it looks like the one Chihiro has in Spirited Away. Mega nerd moment.

What started out as a plan to go on a road trip in California to visit friends, then changed to an impromptu (much desired) Europe trip, and is now back to a partial road trip within California plus Las Vegas trip. Whew. Surprised it all worked out in the end. And in time - I just finished booking our last hotel last night. First time to all of these places, so I'm pretty excited! :)

What I've learned so far:
- (the average price of) American hotels are more expensive than Tokyo. True story.
- Vegas hotels are cheaper than San Francisco hotels.
- You can get much cheaper prices on the same hotel through bidding on Priceline - look up bidding strategies/forums
- Always search for promo codes. Always. Google is your best friend.
- There's a road in San Francisco named 'Van Ness Avenue'. Har har!

What I'll be doing on this trip:
- couch-surfing for the first time! No, I refuse to listen to your horror stories about couch-surfing and choose to remain ignorant instead.
- renting a car in Los Angeles to explore the whole county - Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Orange County, beach!
- watching Cirque du Soleil's 'O' show, which is only available in Vegas!!
- stuffing my face with real Mexican food
- making a visit to the Grand Canyon
- and what JT will be doing is attempting the $20 front desk tip at Vegas.

What I'll need to do after this trip:
- join a gym
- get a job
- actually, get a job first so I can pay for the gym membership.

See you soon, SF, LA and Vegas!

The elements of travel.

2011-08-07T21:28:00.005-04:00

Through Facebook, I recently found these amazing short films by Rick Mereki. Why do people travel? Why do people go to a different country when they are perfectly content with routine? It's not about making your friends jealous of where you went and what you ate. And it's certainly not because people have pools of cash lying around, waiting to be spent. It's all about you and what you experience. Besides the fantastic visual, I believe the videos capture the essence of traveling very well.

MOVE

LEARN

And my favourite, EAT

It's all a part of life. Now back to studying for my last undergraduate exam. Hurrah.

It's that time of the year again.

2011-07-06T22:24:00.009-04:00

So... I've been absent on blogging. Again. >_>

For those that know me, they will certainly know the reason behind my blogging absence.

I've switched from food blogging on katcanrawr.com to doing a mini food blog series on www.nightitup.com, among many other things for Night It Up! and Paint-A-Thon.

For a little background info, Night It Up! is the first night market in Toronto & GTA. We've gone through the names of Asian Night Market, Toronto Night Market, and now Night It Up! for branding purposes. But it's still the same people behind it all - the same non-profit youth group. And for the past 3 years before the last, this is what I've been working on every spring and summer.

While the event is now only a day away, watching it all come together feels so surreal. I remember how everyone was worried that we would lose patrons since we are moving to Markham this year. A new location after 9 solid years at Metro Square, where we had over 60 000 people coming every year for our two-day event. But now seeing how our Facebook event has over 10 000 confirmed attendees, I don't know what to say. 10 k people has said YES I'M COMING TO NIGHT IT UP!. As an organizer for Night It Up! for so many years, I don't know the words to describe how this makes me feel. A mix of overwhelmed and happy? But mostly awe.

To be honest, I don't remember the last time I worked so hard on a project. It's a love-hate relationship, that's for sure. Especially with my inbox. But in the end, I know it's all worth it.

Night It Up! & Paint-A-Thon - Friday, July 15th & Saturday, July 16th. Please come and support our philanthropic event.
Street eats - check out my food guide to see a preview of what to eat besides your usual meat skewers, stinky tofu and bubble tea!
Movie - Watch the awesome Donnie Yen in Ip Man 2 << 葉問 2 >> on a giant screen outdoors and under the sky full of stars! For free.
Sportszone - CCYAA hosts their famous volleyball and basketball night tournament at Night It Up! every year. This year, they're expanding their SportsZone to include lots more, including an autograph session with MMA fighters and an X-box gaming zone.
Paint-A-Thon - You've ran, you've climbed and now you can paint for a cause. This is what it's all about. Support Free The Children and our art community with your presence!
Parking & Bussing - 8000+ FREE parking spaces near the venue. No car? We're providing a free shuttle bus service from Steeles Ave. & Warden Ave. to our event for our lovely patrons. Really, no other excuse not to come now.

Craziest festival of the summer, hands down. You won't want to miss it.

Taiwan - the perfect meal for summer.

2011-05-31T22:12:00.010-04:00

It's days like today that I reminsce about the time I spent in Taipei.

I remember the first week I arrived alone in Taipei was during mid-September. The tropical island was still in summer mode, the air heavy with moisture. I sat in my dorm room, the thirteenth and highest floor of the girl's building, next to the open window. Within a few minutes, I felt myself sweating - from just seating there checking my email. No joke. Days like these, there was only one option for food: cold noodles 台式涼麵!
Like any homey Asian eatery, it comes with hawker seats, small tables and cans of chopsticks.

My favourite order: shredded chicken cold noodles with peanut and sesame dressing and slices of cucumbers. Fragrant and delicious! The dressing coats every strand of the cold noodles while the fresh cucumber slices lightens the meal with its soft crunch. I seriously can't get enough of that dressing.

The chicken-less version. Look at that delicious nutty sesame dressing...

The take-out version. When you want to eat the same delicious meal (complete with that little bag of goodness), but in front of your computer in your dorm room. That's 21st century people for you.

They also serve hot noodles but it's nothing impressive. Watered down soups with noodles, sprinkled with sesame.

Oh how I miss these cold noodles. Perhaps I shall attempt to make my own this summer, since sadly I can't find this dish in Toronto.

我家涼麵
Intersection of SiYuan St. 思源街 and TingZhou Road 汀州路三段, near Gongguan station
- across from the police station next to Shuiyuan dorm of National Taiwan University

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Music of the Week - Tay Kewei 鄭可為

2011-05-23T23:59:00.002-04:00

Some may recognize her as "the Khalil Fong girl", where she was discovered on YouTube for her covers of 方大同's songs back in 2007. Or you may recognize her voice as the backing vocalist at the tour concerts of David Tao, A-Mei and Wang Lee Hom. The Singaporean artist/創作歌手, Tay Kewei, has finally released her own album: Come Closer With... Kewei. It's so hard not to like such a sweet and talented voice like her's.

Tay Kewei 鄭可為 - So in Love. A feel-good song, perfect accompaniment to the recent sunny weather.

Tay Kewei 鄭可為 - 可不可以

You can hear more of her album here: http://www.taykewei.com/music-lyrics/

Win's Seafood Restauran 嚼通天 - 鯊魚骨湯魚蛋粉 Fish ball noodles in shark-bone soup

2011-05-20T14:11:00.002-04:00

Despite the numerous complaints I've heard about this restaurant, especially regarding dinner (where my little cousins complained about the food) and the service (that involved unsanitary fly-swatting), some people have went back simply for their 魚蛋粉. So I decided to give it a try. Back when there was still snow.

Shark bone soup! Complete with a typo. I've heard reviews saying their 鯊魚骨湯魚蛋粉 fish ball in rice noodles in shark bone soup is quite good, especially the soup base.

So we had one order of it.

The noodles were very average, so were the fish balls/fish cakes. The soup was indeed more flavourful than most places, but I didn't really love it. Personally, I prefer 金風 Phoenix's Yunnan Vermicelli with Deep Fried Tofu Fish Cake in Shark Fin and Pork Bone Broth 魚翅骨豬骨湯魚腐米線.

滑蛋魚柳炒河粉 scrambled egg with fish slices with rice noodles.

We also ordered a bowl of congee, turns out to be a Chiu Chow style congee.

If you like 魚蛋粉 in a flavourful soup, then check out this place, though it didn't suit my tastes. Otherwise, can't find any reason to come back.

Win's Seafood Restaurant 嚼通天
50 Lockridge Ave, Unit #1
Markham, ON L3R 8X4
(905) 305-6634

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Fred's Not Here - Winterlicious/Valentine's Day dinner

2011-05-17T01:07:00.002-04:00

This year for Valentine's, JT and I went to Fred's Not Here on King St. West (we went to Maxim's the year before for their all-you-can-eat dessert).

Although we were prepared for sky-rocketed prices because of the celebrated day, fortunately Fred's Not Here was still serving their Winterlicious menu for the Valentine's Day weekend.

A casual atmosphere yet a little romantic at the same time.

For starters, I decided to go with their famous baked lobster and crab soup. It didn't disappoint, I was yearning for more soup even after my bowl was done. However, the pastry was very buttery, making the entire dish a bit too heavy for my preference.

JT ordered Wood Grilled Cumin Chipotle BBQ Lamb Ribs with Black Bean Sweet Corn Salsa as appetizer. He said it wasn't that great, the meat was a little stringy, perhaps due to the meat being cooked for a bit too long.

While allergic to shrimp and too lazy to de-shell crabs, I've always been a fan of lobster. This is their Roasted East Coast “Hard Shell” Canadian Lobster with Linguine Mussels & Clams Marinara. The lobster was cooked nicely, not a bit raw yet not overcooked. Pasta was a bit softer than al dente, which I didn't mind. But what surprised me the most was the mussels - they were soft and delicious! First time I had mussels like this. Often times they're way overcooked, making them chewy, in addition to this unpleasant taste that usually accompanies it. The ones in this pasta were nothing like that.

Surf & Turf – Wood Grilled “Certified Angus” N.Y. Strip Steak & Roasted Cuban Lobster Tail in Garlic Butter, Duck Fat Frites & Vegetables. JT's portions were much smaller than my lobster and seafood pasta. Nothing very memorable about his dish. Except that we thought the huge bok choi was a bit random.

Just noting the difference in knives we got. The steak knife was much bigger and sturdier.

We both decided to have the Vanilla bean Cheesecake for dessert. It was very soft, very delicious. There was the fragrance of vanilla bean in every bite. My only complaint was that I didn't like the bottom crust that much. Don't really remember why (what 3 months can do to my memory).
The dinner set was $35 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Not bad for the price.

Currently, they are also having a "Special Lion King Dinner/Railway Children Dinner/Mirvish Theatre" 2-course meal for $25 in co-promotion with the famous production in Toronto. Only available to Mirvish/Lion King ticket holders. View more details here.

Fred's Not Here
321 King Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1J5
(416) 971-9155

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What I have been doing lately.

2011-05-14T00:12:00.001-04:00

Let's see...

I've been eating out a lot. Spending money without having a job. And not blogging.

Yeah that pretty much sums it up. Oh and being done with full-time undergrad. And immediately became full-time volunteer member. And still jobless.

Which means... more time to finally update katcanrawr.com!

Upcoming posts with alternating topics:

Restaurant reviews (in a somewhat chronological order)
- Fred's Not Here
- Win's Seafood Restaurant 嚼通天
- Royal Teahouse 輝煌閣 (previously called 君皇茶坊)
- Dickens Cafe
- Mercatto
- Guu Sakabar
- Insomnia Cafe
- Snakes & Lattes
- Burrito Boyz
- Smoke's Poutinerie
- Restoran Malaysia
- Shiso Cafe
- Ten Ichi 天一
- Li Ya Restaurant 麗雅餐廳
- Thai Princess
- Milestones
- Scotland Yard
- Big Fat Burrito
- Beard Papa's
- Fancy Chinese Cuisine 利嘉盛
- Golden Horse Restaurant 澳門街

Travel posts
- Japan part 1 (which was a year ago...)
- more on Taiwan exchange
- the rest of my Asia trip
- Japan part 2

And as always, random music posts.

Will end this post with my purchase from Ghibli Studio last Christmas.

Just when you think it couldn't get any cuter, the Totoro hood comes off! I'm dying from its adorableness.

歡迎光臨，謝謝，再見！- 10 reasons why you'll love Taiwan

2011-04-22T18:45:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine is leaving indefinitely for Taiwan in a few days. I decided to write him a farewell card but instead of the usual goodbyes and take care's, I wrote him a list of things he should look forward to in Taiwan, aka the things I love and miss about the little island. On panda-themed stationary.

It's not that I'm happy he's leaving, it's putting the same situation in a positive light and looking at it in another perspective. If you can't change it, then change your attitude towards it, right?

With his permission, I'm posting my own top 10 reasons why he/you/anyone will love Taiwan:

1. Of course the food. I would describe it as... OMGWTFBBQ. 青蛙撞奶，割包，玉米燙，魯肉飯，（小的，也有吃到飽的）火鍋，一之生的麵包跟芋頭酥，很常見的台灣式意大利麵，連他們的珍珠奶茶都特別好喝. All sorts of cuisines, all sorts of flavours.

2. 24 hour Eslite Bookstore. x2. Enough said.

3. Easy, affordable and fun trips around the island. With so many little towns and cities, it's literally an adventure every weekend.

4. Celebrity promotional events and concerts that seem to occur every weekend or so. With that many famous/indie artists and bands in Taipei, meeting/seeing your favourite artist is no longer a far-fetched dream.

5. Night markets. The food, the shopping, and most importantly, the atmosphere is unlike anything I've experienced. My personal favourite is 師大夜市 but I have yet to go to all of Taiwan's night markets. Always remember to haggle. Oh and the vendors are very pretty girls too.

6. 7-11. The way the workers at 7 say 歡迎光臨！, it really can't be found anywhere else in Asia or around the world. And somehow, it's comforting. When you enter a 7, no matter how far away the employee is, you'll hear a Taiwanese accented "歡迎光臨" welcoming you. And it's always nice to be welcomed.

7. The people. 很熱情，很會幫你。

8. Board game cafes. My friend is an avid Taboo lover, so I knew he'll be happy to know there are many board game cafes in Asia (not to mention cat cafes!). Perfect for weekend nights with friends.

9. The prices. CAD => TWD, you win!

10. I know he'll be back someday so have fun and enjoy it while you can!

Goodbye Alan, have a safe flight and hope you meet your dream girl at the Eslite Bookstore soon ;) 再見！

Music of the Week - 當你

2011-03-29T16:12:00.001-04:00

This is one of those timeless, classic songs for me. One that I fell in love with years ago and still love just as much today. Written by JJ Lin 林俊杰 for Cyndi Wang 王心凌.

王心凌 - 當你

林俊杰 - 記得+心牆+當你

如果有一天我回到從前
回到最原始的我你是否會覺得我不錯
如果有一天我離你遙遠
不能再和你相約你是否會發覺我已經說再見

當你的眼睛瞇著笑當你喝可樂當你吵
我想對你好你從來不知道想你想你也能成為嗜好
當你說今天的煩惱當你說夜深你睡不著
我想對你說卻害怕都說錯好喜歡你知不知道

如果有一天夢想都實現
回憶都成了永遠你是否還會記得今天
如果有一天我們都發覺 ( 我們都要發覺 )
原來什麼都可以我們是否還會停留在這裡

當你的眼睛瞇著笑當你喝可樂當你吵
我想對你好你從來不知道想你想你也能成為嗜好
當你說今天的煩惱當你說夜深你睡不著
我想對你說卻害怕都說錯好喜歡你知不知道

也許空虛讓我想得太多也許該回到被窩
夢裡會相遇就毫不猶豫大聲的說我要說
當你的眼睛瞇著笑當你喝可樂當你吵
我想對你好你從來不知道想你想你也能成為嗜好

啦 ~ ~ ~ 啦 ~ ~ ~
我想對你說卻害怕都說錯好喜歡你知不知道
啦 ~ ~ ~ 啦 ~ ~ ~

the new Ah Yuen Steakhouse 阿遠茶餐廳 - nothing like its old counterpart.

2011-03-23T17:36:00.001-04:00

My plane from HK to Toronto landed on the night of January 17th. Not even 48 hours later, 阿媽 drove me to Apple Creek Blvd to try out the new Ah Yuen Steakhouse 阿遠茶餐廳, insisting we must try it because it claims it's the same owner as the one we reminisce about. And the only reason she waited two days is because I had a full morning-to-night class schedule the day after my arrival. Sometimes, I think my mom is even more of a hardcore foodie than I am.

I apologize for the lack of visuals on the storefront. It's the restaurant next to Royal Teahouse 君皇茶房, in the plaza at Apple Creek Blvd. and Woodbine Ave.

Because we were reminscing their old restaurant's flavourful and filling 車仔麵 HK-style bowl noodles, 阿媽 ordered their special 車仔麵. It contained beef brisket, fish balls, beef balls, radish, slices of Chinese red sausages. She said there wasn't enough flavour in the soup base, nothing like what we remembered Ah Yuen's 車仔麵 to be.

I ordered their Japanese style chicken with vermicelli, ham, egg and steamed veggies. The chicken was very oily and everything else was quite bland.

阿爸 ordered chicken and dumpling noodles. This was the most bland of all our dishes, almost no taste at all.

Each dish cost $6-7.50, not the cheapest yet not the most expensive HK style cafe.

Fast-forward a month and a half later.

阿媽 and I came back for dinner a few weeks ago, in hopes that their dinner chefs are better than their lunch ones. Or perhaps we just went on a bad day the first time. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. That night, when we were waiting for our orders to be taken, a loud argument erupted from the kitchen. Every word of the shouting match could be heard from every single seat in the restaurant. And these are not pretty words either. There were swear words and very rough terms, vocabulary that kids should not be hearing. Like 阿媽 said, if it weren't for the fact we already sat down and had a sip of their tea, we would've walked out of there in a heartbeat. How good can their food be with such an intense argument going on? Lack of organization, and lack of manners. There's no door between the kitchen and the dining area, so they clearly knew the patrons were unwilling audience members. We all waited in silence for a solid 10 minutes or so, with no apology from any of the employees for the disruption.

Anyway, 阿媽 ordered 苦瓜排骨飯 bitter melon and spareribs with rice and I ordered 茄汁烤豬扒飯 porkchops baked in tomato sauce over fried rice. Both were below average. Instead of serving spareribs like we ordered, they gave us (tough) 豬扒 porkchops. I've never seen bitter melon and porkchops together like this, and they did not complement each other at all. Furthermore, I didn't enjoy the tomato sauce of my dish, making the dish a flop. Very disappointed, again.

Altogether, nothing like the old cafe and steakhouse we remembered it to be. Will probably never come back here either. Advice: there's plenty of other HK style cafes around that is better, both in quality of the food and service, for the same price.

Ah Yuen Steakhouse 阿遠茶餐廳
10 Apple Creek Blvd, Markham, ON L3R 5Z1
(905) 474-1228

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Point G macarons - imported from Quebec

2011-03-16T22:09:00.003-04:00

I recently met another foodie friend who mentioned that he knew this place that sells macarons imported from Québec. Yes, Québec. It's no Paris (origin of macarons) but a happy substitute nonetheless. Seeing my stunned excitement followed by my disappointment to how far the store is (Mississauga), he brought me a box shortly after our conversation.

~~They come pre-packaged; flavours are pre-chosen.~~
You can choose the flavours at the store.

Here's choco-hazelnut, roasted pistachio, orange blossom, Madagascar vanilla, caramel fleur de sel and choco-madirofolo.

Because they were imported from Quebec, then stayed at the Mississauga bakery for x amount of time, and then delivered to me, this could've caused the outside shell to soften. Hence, the shell could've been more crispy still but the filling was undeniably good. Especially the choco-madirofolo. The chocolate ganache was amazing. Caramel fleur de sel was a bit too sweet.

The possible flavours:

Did you know that March 20th is MACARON DAY/Le Jour du Macaron? Alas, I am not near any La Durée nor am I near any of the participating bakeries, so I cannot stuff myself silly with their free macarons on that day. Boutique Point G is also doing a buy 1 get 1 free macaron special at their store in Montréal. For (originally) $2 a piece, this is a ~~awesome~~ ~~fantastic~~ freaking amazing deal! For sure, I'm going to buy myself some macarons either way and celebrate that day in my own way.

To know more about Point G and where else they distribute to, their website (which is in French) is http://www.boutiquepointg.com/

If you'd like to know where in Toronto you can get your hands on some of these macarons, there's only one place and it's in Mississauga:
Sweets Pastry Shop and Café
5955 Latimer Drive, suite 10, Mississauga, Ontario, L5V 0B7
(905) 567 7765

If you're in Ottawa, then you're also in luck:
Delice Royal
900 Watters Road, Unit #7, Ottawa, ON
(613) 830-2388

Southern Accent - Winterlicious dinner

2011-03-09T20:44:00.000-05:00

My second and last Winterlicious meal this year was at Southern Accent, Cajun Creole Soul. A small restaurant near Bloor St West and Bathurst St. The first and second floor are decorated differently, giving off a complete different feel and ambiance. It was rather dark on the second floor so the pictures below aren't that great.

While we were waiting for our third companion to arrive, the friendly waitress asked several times if we wanted to start without him (turned out he was 45 minutes late).

We started munching on their bread and hummus as we waited. The bread was average (a bit musty), but the hummus was not bad.

For appetizer, Kevin ordered their soup of the day, which was both vegetarian and gluten free - red lentil with a bit of curry, cumin and a dollop of sour cream.

Ivan and I both ordered the 'Scallops with squash and herbed orzo; Orzo pasta tossed with pumpkin, shallot, parsley, fresh thyme in a white wine cream sauce topped with lightly seasoned scallops'. The scallops were cooked just right but a bit too salty. The orzo pasta was okay.

Then the dish we all came here for arrived: Cajun Turducken - a turkey stuffed with duck, which is stuffed with chicken. It's a dish that I always wanted to try, yet it's too hard to make. It came with 3 stuffings: oyster, cornbread/andouille, and sage/onion with pecans served with Bourbon yam gravy, Cranberry citrus compote, garlic mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. To be honest, I'm not really a stuffing person, so I didn't find them to be particularly good.

I had high hopes for this dish, but it turned out too dry and bland for my preference. I knew I was eating meat but that's just what it tasted like - just meat. The Bourbon in the sauce wasn't strong at all but the mashed potatoes saved the dish - they were creamy and tasty.

We decided to share our desserts. We had one serving of Maple Apple Pandowdy, with dried cranberries served with homemade ice cream. It's essentially a fruit pie, with a thick top layer and crust. Too bad it was a bit too heavy after such a meaty meal.

We also ordered two servings of their (gluten free) pavlova, Aussie style meringue served with fresh fruit and fresh cream. I saw many other patrons also ordering this dessert, basically a giant meringue. If I weren't so full, I would've eaten both servings; it was really good.

Southern Accent
595 Markham Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6G 2L7
(416) 536 - 3211

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Bb33 Bistro + Brasserie - Winterlicious lunch

2011-03-05T22:23:00.004-05:00

Last month, I went to two Winterlicious meals in one day. This is the first one - lunch at Bb33 bistro + brasserie.

Located a few minutes away from College Station, Bb33 is a small bistro who I hear also serves a pretty good breakfast/brunch buffet.

The bread and butter were cold. Nothing very memorable.

Shirley and I ordered two appetizers to share. First was the Charred Sweet Ontario Corn Chowder; Double Apple Smoked Bacon Slivers & Garlic Chive Oil. Warm, thick and chunky. Not bad, but a bit too heavy.

The second was the Tapenade and Chevre Goat Cheese Bruschetta; Grilled Flatbread with Aged Balsamic Reduction & Basil Oil. We were both really disappointed with this dish. The flatbread was not crispy at all, to the point that it was almost soggy. There were uneven clumps of goat cheese, some had a lot while others didn't have any at all. Unimpressed.

For main, Shirley ordered the Old Fashioned Savoury Steak Pie Braised in Port Wine with Field and Forest Mushrooms, Baby Pearl onions, Whipped Sweet Potato, Steamed Green Asparagus. The pie crust was very buttery, but I don't recall it being very flaky. The mashed sweet potato was alright. Shirley said she didn't like the braised beef and had higher expectations for her dish.

I order the Candied Pecan Crusted Bay of Fundy Salmon; Served with a Piedmont Truffled Yukon Gold Spun Potato, Fresh Asparagus Spears and Blistered Grape Tomatoes, Zinfandel Wine Gastrique. Surprisingly, the salmon was warm and very tender, not dry at all. The skin was slightly crispy, creating a nice contrast between the salmon's skin and meat. The mashed potatoes were average, not creamy enough for my taste.

For dessert, we both ordered the Frangelico Scented Crème Brûlée; In a Coconut Brandy Snap Basket with Fresh Berries. The 'basket' was crispy and quite unique. However, both Shirley and I didn't like the actual crème brûlée part. As you can see, it was barely torched and the texture wasn't the kind to which I'm accustomed. The plated berry jam was also way too sweet and tasted a bit like artificial flavouring. In the end, we both regretted not ordering the other dessert option.

Service wasn't as attentive as I would like, perhaps because it was Winterlicious season. $20 + tax&tips per person. Overall, the meal was alright but only the salmon was noteworthy.

Bb33 Bistro & Brasserie
33 Gerrard Street West, Toronto
(416) 585-4319

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A purple yam & congee day.

2011-03-02T01:01:00.003-05:00

A simple lunch, consisting of a Japanese yam and a super large bowl of homemade 皮蛋瘦肉粥. What made it so special was the colour on that yam, so vibrant, so violet. I am amazed at how mother nature can produce such colours, you know the natural way.

Music of the Week - m-flo loves Dragon Ash

2011-02-25T19:13:00.004-05:00

I wanted to wait until I wrote about m-flo to post up this song, but oh well.

m-flo loves Dragon Ash - way u move. The type of song where the more you listen to it, the more you like it. And the beats and melody soothes my soul. I really need something like this lately.

Music of the Week - The Shanghai Restoration Project

2011-02-06T15:25:00.000-05:00

It was back in freshman year of university, when I accidentally found The Shanghai Restoration Project. I was on DC++, they showed up randomly on the results page, and just like that, I was suddenly connected to this amazing group.

I remember thinking to myself that my brother would like this type of music, so I saved him a copy and gave it to him. And guess what, he did like them. A lot. Still.

I can't quite put my finger on what genre their music is, but it's somewhere between the East meets West fusion, electronica, along with some hip-hop here and there. The good music genre.

Babylon of the Orient

Miss Shanghai

Last Night of the Dynasty

Sushi Couture - Best sushi joint on Bloor

2011-02-04T18:25:00.005-05:00

It's been about 8 months since I last ate and reviewed in Toronto. So when I came back, I was really eager to try out some new restaurants that have suddenly sprung up around the city while I was away. One of which is Sushi Couture.

As most people know, Bloor St. already has a fair share of sushi restaurants: Big Sushi, New Generation, Sushi on Bloor, J Time, and Mariko just to name a few. Unfortunately, most of these are terrible.

So when Charles informed me that there has been word on the block that the new Sushi Couture is actually good, I made it my top priority to try out this restaurant as soon as possible.

Sushi Couture is located in between Spadina and Bathurst Station (but slightly closer to Bathurst Station), a few doors down from New Generation and right across the street from Sushi on Bloor. Talk about tough competition.

I did some research on Chowhound before coming, and had the impression that it would be a rather pricey meal since the chef is from Japango after all. But surprisingly, the lunch special menu had prices in the usual range. And all the lunch sets include miso soup and a small salad.

Super large cups for hot green tea. I like.

Miso soup and tangy salad, pretty good.

Charles and I both ordered the chirashi set for $10.99. And it was good, not okay but actually good! The fish were fresh and the quality of the fish were also noticeably better than the nearby restaurants. I loved how they were thickly sliced, making each time your teeth dugged into the fish, it left you satisfied with this meaty bite. The sushi rice was OK, I'd prefer if it had more vinegar taste.

Salmon, BC tuna, red tuna, butterfish, shrimp and egg/tamago on a bed of sushi rice.

Best part was that the tuna and butterfish were seared on the outside, but only a little bit, leaving the center still raw. Both Charles and I really enjoyed the seared butterfish, it was really good. The seared outside made the usually really fatty fish (very "lau") less fishy and less of that fatty feeling.

Our waiter (manager maybe?) was very nice and even initiated a small chat about my camera. He was also very attentive and made sure our tea cups were filled all the time.

I've read many reviews on both Chowhound and Yelp regarding this restaurant; there seems to be a mix of positive and negative reviews. However, the general consensus seems to be that you should only order sushi/sashimi here, and not udon or their other hot dishes.

My own experience was that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal here. I believe this is a wonderful addition to the Annex neighbourhood, and hope their quality won't deteriorate any time soon. Although the fish selection on the chirashi wasn't that varied, but $10.99 for fresh, good quality chirashi? Yes please, I'll be coming back!

Sushi Couture
456 Bloor St. W, Toronto, ON M5R
(416) 538-8618

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Music of the Week - Yelle

2011-01-31T17:23:00.001-05:00

Before I get back into reviewing Toronto restaurants (though I already started taking pictures when I go out to eat -_- 職業病...) and continue to post about my summer travel, I wanted to blog about Yelle. I keep writing to myself a mental note to post about her, but my memory is getting worse and worse. Aging does this to you.

During my last year of high school, I went through a phase of listening to mainstream music from France. That's when I discovered Yelle. It's a French band with 2 of its members producing the music and a main singer called Yelle, who you see in the music videos. And she's basically the French version of Lady Gaga but long before Lady Gaga was even known. With their catchy tunes, derogatory language, and unconventional (sometimes borderline bizarre) music videos, it's a group that leaves an impression on you, whether you like them or not.

Yelle - Je Veux Te Voir, where she basically makes fun of a particular French male rapper.

Fatal Bazooka feat. Yelle - Parle à ma main

Yelle - A Cause des Garçons TEPR Remix. I prefer the remix version over the original. It's so euro.

back to home.

2011-01-29T17:49:00.001-05:00

Four and a half months later in Taiwan, I...

- went to 5 concerts, 2 promo autograph sessions and 1 music gig
- took 4300+ pictures
- made 100+ new friends
- bought 5 pairs of new shoes
- consumed way too much food for my (waist's) own good
- left with 2 large maxed-out luggages, 1 large duffel bag, 1 purse, 1 over-stuffed shopping bag, 1 rolled up poster and 1 transparent umbrella, aka looking like a refugee running away from home

I admittedly entered this Fall semester with hesitance - I wasn't sure at all what I was doing. I just signed up for exchange, I passed the interview and academic checks, and then before I know it, I was given the green signal to go. So I went.

The first month passed by the slowest. It started off very rocky, crawling by excruciating slowly with uncertainty at every corner. It was first time I was left by myself, without knowing a single soul in the entire country. And I didn't know how to react to that. Because I'm not exactly the outgoing, bubbly girl that can make friends with every person she meets on the street. Nor will I ever be. But I forced myself to adapt, then the road got smoother and time past by faster. Before I know it, the last 1.5 months just shot by, too fast for me to acknowledge it and to plan out my remaining days. It's too bad that there is still a long, long list of things I want to do in Taiwan (rent a scooter and ride it by the beach, hot springs), places I want to go (台中，台南，高雄，墾丁，宜蘭，花蓮 ...) and foods to eat (it's an never-ending list) but there is just no time left.

But this just means one thing - I'll be back, Taiwan. Soon.

A YouTube name-less music group that I follow.

2011-01-10T10:53:00.001-05:00

I think almost everyone knows I'm obsessed with many singers, like Jay Chou for example. Heck, even my Chinese class classmates and teacher teases me about this.

But something that less people know about is that besides mainstream idols, I love finding and listening to underground artists. Those that are talented but have not yet had the right timing nor opportunity to advance in the music world.

Today, I would like to share one of my favourite groups of this category. With only 1700 subscribers, they are a small, down-to-Earth, earnest group based in Singapore. In fact, this group of three don't even have a group name. Occasionally, they simply meet and for fun, create 房間版 covers of their favourite songs and upload them to their YouTube account. Although they are no Susan Boyle and 林育群, jaw-dropping, talented singers that have yet been discovered, nor do their videos have super-amazing video effects and professional sound equipment, the thing about them that appeals the most to me is that they genuinely have fun while recording and that's the main motivation of why they make these videos. Not for money, not for some hope to get signed by a record company, but simply because it's fun to them. It's the type of video that makes you smile because it's so cute, so home-made, and their own smiles are just so contagious. I have this personal policy where I don't subscribe to YouTube channels (I don't know why), but somehow, they made me break this rule. And now it's the only channel I subscribe to.

Of course, this type of video might not appeal to everyone. In fact, it might appeal only to me. But I think why I wanted to share it on this blog today is that they remind me no matter what you do, don't forget to smile. 他們也說過：只要我们能够自己enjoy这舞台其实就够了。就算是１０个人，２０个人，我们也要用我们的１００分的能量唱给来看我们的人！

A video with snippets of their first and recent gig.

Cover of 方大同－玩樂

Cover of 盧廣仲－七天

EDIT: They were on Taiwan's 超級偶像!!!

Just another rainy Sunday in Taipei.

2011-01-09T03:13:00.003-05:00

One of the numerous things I've grown to love about Taiwan is the generous amount of cozy cafés around the corner.

Equipped with fast wi-fi, your favourite cup of tea and coffee, and some even with filling meals (perfect for those like me, that are too lazy to walk to another place for a quick bite) and most importantly, a heater, which your dorm inconveniently lacks. I love spending mornings, afternoons, evenings and sometimes, a whole day in these cafes. Simply sitting in a corner with my laptop, YouTube opened and music blasting through my earphones, and then kicking back and just relaxing the day away. Is there seriously any better way to spend a rainy Sunday like today?

Just now, I had the urge to listen to the song "Way Back into Love" from the movie Music & Lyrics and thought why not share it. The original had copyright issues on YouTube so here's a version sung by two Taiwanese singers: Fish Ieong 梁静茹 and 品冠.

PS. Joe Hisaishi concert was awesome. Same goes with shopping in Tokyo during Christmas sales :D

This year in reflection.

2010-12-31T04:54:00.002-05:00

I know Christmas isn't Thanksgiving. But since it's the end of the year, I like to reflect back on what I did this year and I realize there are a lot of things I'm thankful for.

family. It's one of those things that you take for granted when you're young, and as you get older, you come to appreciate what the word truly means. I sometimes wonder how it's like to be my parents, having someone like me as their child. Hearing your overly-protected child who grew up in the same city for her whole life to announce she is going to tour around half of Asia for a few months, followed by a summer exchange and then another exchange after that in a country where she has absolutely no relatives nor friends. And then not freaking out about all this. Growing up with such traditional and conservative parents, in the past year I've witnessed them become increasingly open, which is a grand start in my eyes. In fact, they now know how to use my mac mini to go on the Internet. And my dad can scan documents, change them into pdf files and send them to me via email. I can't help but feel proud of them.

friends. Exchange was always something I daydreamed about doing. Never something I really wrote down in my agenda as an impending action item. I guess that's why everyday I still think to myself I can't believe I really am on exchange in Taipei. But here I am on the other side of the world, going to school, following my own routine, and meeting great people from all over the world. New friends, new memories. But at the same time, I came to realize nothing can replace the friends back at home. And I'm so thankful for all the letters, parcels and cards I received from them, every single one of them. So this year, I'm thankful for the new friendships I've made and the older ones that have been proven strong.

JT. Finding someone that loves food, music and traveling as much as I do and never getting tired of any of those items (and me) is rare in my eyes. And one that is 6 ft tall nonetheless. Thank you for dealing with my craziness and my "dumdum moments" all this time, for not laughing at my random, strange thoughts and for taking care of me.

Glee. This is what I look forward to every week. Yup. Laugh all you want.

Having summoned enough guts to go on exchange. Enough said.

Traveling. Been to so many countries, cities and towns this year. Love, love, love traveling. Even though sometimes things don't go very smoothly (we're talking about me here after all, too many stories...), but the experience is unforgettable. Even if it's visiting the same city more than once in the same year, it's still not the same. And first time traveling business class (wonderful airport lounges).

Good health. If you have 2 legs, 2 arms, can breathe, walk, talk, smell, taste, hear and run around like a crazy person, you should be thankful. And I am.

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year! See you in 2011.

A snow-less December.

2010-12-19T10:35:00.004-05:00

Although there's no snow in Taipei, the December chill can still be felt - especially in my dorm room. I'm constantly pondering why my room is colder than outside. And why heaters are still not conventional appliances here.

Missing those Christmas lights and the Christmas atmosphere back at home. But I can still create my own Christmas spirit with the Glee Christmas album :)

Baby, it's cold outside.

Summer Asia Trip: Tokyo, Japan - Day 2

2010-12-14T10:12:00.001-05:00

May 19th, 2010. Day 2 of Japan, Tokyo. Shibuya, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro.

In the first entry, I forgot to mention the hotel we stayed at in Tokyo: Asuka Hotel in Shinjuku East (see it on Rakuten Travel or Trip Advisor). Fortunately, when JT and I were looking online for hotels in Tokyo, JT's mom was in Hong Kong and snagged us a great deal at a local travel agency. It was 4080 HKD for a semi-double bed for 6 nights, which is ~$537 CAD in total. $89.50 CAD per night for the room, $44.75 CAD per night per person. It is located at Shinjuku East (central Tokyo), very conveniently located to travel around Tokyo, and just a 12 minute walk from the subway station, 20 minutes away from the JR Shinjuku Station.

The hotel room itself was small but clean. Not to mention that the staff were at the basement office 24/7 and really did put forth the effort to help you with questions and requests. For example, when we were confused at how to get to Disneyland, they printed out maps and directions for us. When we couldn't communicate well enough using English and hand language, they found a worker to speak in Mandarin to communicate instead.

JT and I were looking for a hotel room that was primarily...
1) cheap (we're student backpackers after all)
2) clean (I seriously think I have OCD)
3) convenient (we want to explore Central Tokyo specifically)

This place fit all 3 requirements pretty well. When we we were there, it seemed like everyone in the hotel purchased the same deal because all you can hear is Cantonese =_="

The view from the hotel room.

I forgot to take pictures of the room itself, but JT took one of the bathroom. Smalllllllll.

Tokyo weather in mid-May was still chilly and filled with cloudy skies and random, short showers.

Random shots of Shinjuku East.

So what do we do first when we've finally arrived in Tokyo for the first time? Breakfast of course!

Instead of a cashier who takes your orders and gives you change, you will see this machine inside many small restaurants in Tokyo. As you can see, they have little pictures of the food selection along with the price on each button. Sometimes they don't have such helpful pictures, but they at least have a number on the button that refers to the meal number on the menu. Great for people like us who can't read Japanese at all.

I ordered a simple salmon breakfast, with rice, miso soup, a small salad and natto. Even the rice is better in Tokyo. Seriously.
It's just too bad that there were some small bones in the salmon.

After watching so many Japanese dramas with natto as a staple for breakfast, this was definitely on my to-try list for Japan. First time having natto. Also most likely the last. Conclusion: it's definitely an acquired taste.

JT's breakfast consisted of beef steak with egg, rice, miso soup, and a large salad.

Time to explore the city!

So we head to the subway station. Rush hour time. Complicated maps.

Unlike the subway experience in many other cities, it is extremely quiet inside Tokyo's metro. There are rules to not talk on the phone and to avoid loud conversations with your companions. And people really do follow the rules.

Next stop, Shibuya. Well-dressed people, tall commercial buildings, advertisement billboards and flashing signs.

The famous Shibuya 109, a shopping building mainly for girls.

0101 department store.

The even more famous Shibuya crossing. A shame that I didn't get to see it at night. I hear it's much more crowded and beautiful.

So I have this habit of taking photos of things that reminds me of friends. In my last post, I took a picture of a Korean movie on my Air Canada flight to Tokyo for Derek.
This one is for you, dumdum Lilian :)

au, for Donald. (It's actually a wireless services provider).

Giant toast with delicious fresh fruits, oreos, cream and an edible happy birthday sign? Priceless.

Macarons!! Didn't end up purchasing them, too expensive. But lovely to look at still.

One of the things I love about eating in Japan is that there are food models at the front of almost every single restaurant. And the best thing is, the food that arrives on your plate actually do look like the models! Unlike the ones in Taiwan ahem. I, for one, think we should introduce this food model thing in every country.

For lunch, we ended going to this sushi restaurant at the top floor of one of the buildings in Shibuya. We flew halfway around the world for some real sushi!

The menu.

Yeah, I'm crazy. I even take pictures of cups of green tea. Awesome hot green tea by the way.

JT and I both ordered the omakase nigiri for 1395 yen (~ $17 CAD), with special order for no shrimp. Came with 12 pieces of nigiri and 1 handroll. MMM. Good. Sushi back in Toronto really pales in comparison even with sushi from a small, random shop like this.

And the meal included a small bowl of udon. The udon also tasted a lot better than the packaged ones I had back in Toronto.

After some good food, what's there better to do than to take a leisure stroll in Harajuku.

I just picked a random alleyway and ended up finding this clothing store. It was also featured in the aforementioned Tokyo travel guide/bible. Nothing in it really caught my eye though.

Then we stumbled across this store.

And I can't seem to forget the wonderful colours they had.

And the cutest, little, patterned cardigans. I can't imagine hand-knitting something like that.

More walking, now onto the main roads. Where we saw JT's favourite brand store of that season - agnès b. (FYI from our experience, it seems Tokyo is the cheapest place to buy agnès b. bags in Asia.)

Harajuku subway station. Because it is next to...

... the Meiji Shrine. This is the front gate, also the entrance/exit.

I love the greenness of the tall, surrounding trees.

To get to the temple, you take this route by foot. It is a bit of walk, lasting around 15 minutes I would say. But you have all this beautiful, green scenery to enjoy along the way. The trees block all the city noises, making it so peaceful and serene.

You will be sure to notice this while you pass by.

Some more walking, some conversations, and some droplets of rain, and then you've arrived.

I love big, green trees with branches that protrude outwards like this. So robust!

This is the place where you buy a wooden block and write your wish on it. And read others' too if you're nosy.

Along the way out, we (almost) ran into this caterpillar hanging from a tall branch. Then JT and I had a contest to capture the best picture of it. I won, of course. It was just hanging too high for my height, so that's why my photo is a bit fuzzy. I still won.

Some peculiar mannequin models in Harajuku. Reminded me of Eric. I don't know why. So here you go Eric! :)

Following the travel guide, we arrived at JT's dream store: The Tintin Shop. He grew up reading the comics, and loving each of them. And demanded that we pay this store a visit.

My turn for demands: I demanded that we go to one of the crêpe shops in Harajuku that was featured in the travel guide: Cafe Crêpe. I believe they have 3 shops in Harajuku alone. And I remember seeing this familiar pink shop on a Malaysian ex-model blog that I follow (Cheeserland). I have this built-in memory drive in my mind simply for food-related things. It's really my one and only memory drive.

The plastic food models looked so good, I could devour all of them. The special thing about this crêpe shop was that not only are their crêpes soft and thin, they also place a whole slice of cheesecake in them. CHEESECAKE. IN A CRÊPE. Whoever thought of that is a genius.

The lady getting ready to make the crêpe part. Me getting ready to inhale it.

Strawberry jam on my crêpe.

Strawberries with whipped cream and cheesecake crêpe. How would I describe how it tastes? Like deliciousness dancing in your mouth. And then there's an encore. With flashing lights and Lady Gaga playing in the background. Okay, you get the idea.

MMM cheesecake. Just forget the calories in that one moment.

Although there's another crêpe chain in Asia called Marion crêpes (I've seen them in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei), they don't have the cheesecake option :( Moreover, when my friend had it at Ximen in Taipei, the filling was very little compared to the above picture.

Then JT got hungry and we turned to McDonalds: Chicken Tatsuta. I'll be honest, I don't remember how it tasted. Therefore, it wasn't very memorable.

We then traveled to Ikebukuro.
After spending the entire morning and afternoon walking around Shibuya and Harajuku, in addition to the jetlag, we were already getting tired when night fell. But I really wanted to visit the Sunshine City Mall at Ikebukuro. I remember Renée talking about it so I was adamant that we went there, that night. So I dragged poor JT around Ikebukuro, getting very lost on the way, and having our stomachs constantly growling at us. It wasn't until almost an hour later that we found the mall. Thank you for all the nice people that gave us directions along the way. >_>

When we finally arrived at the mall, I was ready to give it a big hug and swear to never leave. I was grumpy, grouchy, crabby, cold, hungry, tired. But we carried on exploring the mall since we were there.

This is the center of the giant Sunshine City Mall. Clean. Bright. Fountains.

I liked the pattern on the floor, it's like cubes stacked on top of each other.

There are clothing stores, bakeries, restaurants, stationary stores, candy shops and beauty shops. Basically everything.

Namjatown on the second floor of Sunshine City. I'll come back to this later.

Among the many restaurants inside the mall, we chose this omurice (omelette rice) one. Because I love omurice and it's basically non-existent in Toronto.

Omurice with your choice of sauce and sides.

Salad and soup.

Omurice in tomato sauce and bacon. It was so. good. The omelette was thin and the egg part was like... How do I describe it. It was like the moment it became un-raw, the chef wrapped it up and placed it on my plate. It was just the way I like it.

JT's omurice in cream and gravy sauce. Very good as well.

This is a restaurant chain, so you can rest assured you've found the right one if you spot this little guy: the omurice man!

3 areas in 1 day. One word: exhausting.

Teaser.

2010-12-03T11:18:00.005-05:00

I am packing my bags as I type up this entry. Going to Sun Moon Lake for the weekend :)

I feel terrible that I haven't updated the blog with anything besides music lately. But after looking at the pictures that my friend took on her trip to Tokyo last week, I feel excited again to blog about my own. Soo here are some pictures of the upcoming post for you to nomnomnom at this weekend.

Will update the blog with Day 2 of Tokyo once I come back!

My first time eating natto. At breakfast nonetheless.

The famous Shibuya crossing. Only with less people during the day. And because we went on a weekday.

Meiji Temple at Harajuku.

Omelette rice at the famous omelette rice restaurant chain inside of Sunshine City Mall at Ikebukuro. MMM...

I will end with this picture: THE BEST FLIPPING CRÊPE EVERRRRRRRRRR! I couldn't find anything coming close to this after traveling half of Asia and most of Taipei. Seriously. I can't wait till I go back to Harajuku this month and order a bijillion of them and hide them in my luggage.

A note to myself.

2010-12-01T10:58:00.004-05:00

Tonight I am reminded of something important that I sometimes forget: A good person is not one that doesn't make any mistakes at all.

Instead, it's a person that makes mistakes and is able to admit them. And then he stands back up, corrects them and continues on.

曹格 - 世界唯一的你

Music of the Week - 嚴爵 Yen-j

2010-11-29T00:46:00.002-05:00

I have never heard of Yen-j before my Taiwan exchange (the j is lowercase). So when my Chinese teacher (who is still in her 20's mind you) says she really likes him, I brushed it off thinking he's probably one of the many Taiwanese guys trying to succeed in the competitive music world. And there's just too many of them to figure who this one is.

And then somehow, in some way, I started listening to his songs and liking them. All the while without knowing it's the same person she was talking about. So imagine how surprised I was when I found out.

And then I find out he's also the lyricist and person who arranged 梁靜茹 Fish Leong's 沒有如果, you know just the song I'm obsessed with and have blogged twice about.

And he's the music producer and arranger of Taiwanese idol dramas 敗犬女王, 下一站，幸福 and 倪亞達. That's all.

Oh and he's just 22 years old too.

Some people just seem to have all the talent and luck.

謝謝你的美好

我喜歡 (不，我愛)

As usual, the best for last: 愛就是咖哩 (love is curry). It's actually sung in Taiwanese 台語.
While I listen to a large variety genre of music, I have to say that jazz usually isn't my cup of tea. But this jazzy song got so catchy after a while, I had to reopen YouTube just to hear it again. Not to mention the ending is just adorable! I just have this unexplainable love with airports. And an unusual habit of starring at people at the airport - the tight embraces, the surprise flowers, the tears of joy. Gives you this warm, fuzzy feeling in your stomach and heart.

PS. I just realised I've been to all the airports shown in the music video except New York. Damn, I need to go there next to complete the list.

Aoi Miyazaki & Solanin

2010-11-22T12:10:00.000-05:00

One of my favourite movie genres is slice of life. A simple film that demonstrates a moment or an incident of someone's life.

I recently watched "Solanin", which is a manga-based Japanese movie of such kind. It was one of those movies where after you watch it, you think "Ehh.. I guess it was alright." And then a few days later, you find yourself still thinking about it and replaying certain scenes in your mind. For this reason, I would recommend it.

Here's the trailer. Sorry, I couldn't find one with English subtitles.

The reason I watched this movie was because the main actress is Aoi Miyazaki. She's my favourite Japanese actress because she's so cute and talented. And maybe it's because I often find myself wanting to be like the characters she portrays.

There is this one scene that I can't get out of my head. The scene where she stood on stage, in the faint yellow light. Sweat visible on her brow and neck, and her straight bangs clumped together awkwardly, stuck to her forehead. She paused, recollecting the moments her boyfriend and her had shared. And then she started singing, singing what the song meant to her, singing because she remembered why she was doing this.

It's not that she's a particularly good singer, but it's one of those strange snapshots I can't get out of my head. Maybe because I can relate to that moment; I can feel what she's trying to express. You can get a glimpse of the scene at 1:35 of the trailer.

I wish I had half the courage she had to stand up and face the world on that stage, at that moment. Despite not being the best at playing the guitar, nor looking very glamorous with sweat all over, but for that one moment, you know she'd given it her absolute all, all 100% of her and every single cell in her body. And that's all that counts.

On a side note, I'd also recommend Aoi Miyazaki's "Heavenly Forest"; it's one of my all-time favourites. Please don't search for the movies on wikipedia and spoil the plot. Just watch.

One last recommendation: I watched "Au Revoir Taipei 一頁台北" this weekend and thought it was a cute movie. It won quite a few awards this year at different film festivals around the world. And you can get a glimpse of what Taipei is like - the night markets, the convenience stores, the alleyways, the small street eateries, Eslite bookstore, and mopeds. I love mopeds.

Music of the Week - 林俊傑 - 她說

2010-11-20T11:59:00.004-05:00

林俊傑 JJ Lin - 她說.

Although the MV has Family Mart sponsorship stamped all over it, it really shows how often I go to 7-11/Family Mart here in Taipei. Before class, during class break, after school, evening break, after dinner, and sometimes even middle of the night. Any time. For food, for drinks, for printing homework, for fresh fruits, for the time I ran out of detergent to wash clothes, and for the times I just didn't want to go back to dorm yet. Any reason. 可惜，人不可以跟便利店那麼方便，不可以一直在你身邊。

作詞：孫燕姿
作曲：林俊傑

她靜悄悄地來過她慢慢帶走沉默
只是最後的承諾還是沒有帶走了寂寞
我們愛的沒有錯只是美麗的獨守太折磨
她說無所謂只要能在夜裡翻來覆去的時候有寄託
等不到天黑煙火不會太完美
回憶燒成灰還是等不到結尾
她曾說的無所謂我怕一天一天被摧毀
等不到天黑不敢凋謝的花蕾
綠葉在跟隨放開刺痛的滋味
今後不再怕天明我想只是害怕清醒

她靜悄悄地來過她慢慢帶走沉默
只是最後的承諾還是沒有帶走了寂寞
我們愛的沒有錯只是美麗的獨守太折磨
她說無所謂只要能在夜裡翻來覆去的時候有寄託
等不到天黑煙火不會太完美
回憶燒成灰還是等不到結尾
她曾說的無所謂我怕一天一天被摧毀
等不到天黑不敢凋謝的花蕾
綠葉在跟隨放開刺痛的滋味
今後不再怕天明我想只是害怕清醒

等不到天黑煙火不會太完美
回憶燒成灰還是等不到結尾
她曾說的無所謂我怕一天一天被摧毀
等不到天黑不敢凋謝的花蕾
綠葉在跟隨放開刺痛的滋味
今後不再怕天明我想只是害怕清醒

等不到天黑煙火不會太完美
回憶燒成灰還是等不到結尾
她曾說的無所謂我怕一天一天被摧毀
等不到天黑不敢凋謝的花蕾
綠葉在跟隨放開刺痛的滋味
今後不再怕天明我想只是害怕清醒

不怕天明我想只是害怕清醒

The most impulsive thing I've ever done, was done today.

2010-11-19T00:35:00.002-05:00

So I recently I did something really impulsive. I order tickets to go to Tokyo. Again. During Christmas season.

Christmas this year in Tokyo! Well, technically I'll be spending Christmas at 3 different airports by myself but I'll be arriving at Tokyo on Christmas night and spending a week there. The good news doesn't stop here. Two days after that, I'll be attending Joe Hisaishi's concert at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space Hall.

CRAZYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is pretty much the most impulsive thing I have ever done. Heck, I'm not even the impulsive type.

It all started when I was on Facebook one day, reading the usual home feed. And this one status update caught my eye - "still cannot believe ill be seeing 久石譲 perform today *0*~!!!! super excited!!!!!" and then I see comments with the name JOE HISAISHI in it. And then the world turned slow-mo.

Joe Hisaishi had a concert in Taipei today and I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT? NO. FLIPPING. WAY.

I was so shocked at this news, I even emailed JT about it, stating how devastated I was and how close I was in fulfilling this life-long dream of mine (attending his concert). And how my life was over from that moment on. You know, the usual dramatic stuff. The entire time he was performing his songs in Taipei, I was probably watching YouTube videos in my pajamas, trying to dry my hair with my too-small hairdryer, immersed in total oblivion. Total fail.

So I started mad googling for hours and hours on end, trying to find out his concert dates and venues (apparently he's having a Asia tour until Dec. 31st). All that was going through my head was I am buying the ticket to his next concert, even if it's not held in this country. There was absolutely no website that had piled together all the information on his Asia tour, not even his personal website had it. But I still somehow held onto a sliver of hope.

I think by then, Bernise had already lost all hope. It was all one long emotional ride.

me: OMG Joe Hisaishi just had his concert in Taipei! I'm so sad I missed it :(
B: I KNOW! I just saw it on Facebook!
me: Okay, I just found out he's having an Asia tour. !!!
B: :O Where else is he going?
me: OMG I just found out he's going to have a concert in HK! LET'S GO! [thanks to Arthur's awesome googling skills]
B: OMG okay, I'm down with going to HK!!! [we're both Cantonese]
me: Me too, okay I'll try to book the tickets and you start looking for the flights
B: Okay! [we're both intensely excited]
me: oh crap, the website says it's a full house :(
B: oh... [we're both cresttfallen]

a few minutes later...
me: But I want to go! Noooooo...
B: I guess it wasn't meant to be. There's always next time, kat. [tries to comfort]
me: [unaffected] OK, I just asked my Japanese friends to see if there's any tickets left for the Japan concerts. [in my will-not-give-up-mode]
B: O_O okay
me: OMG she said there's still tickets for the Tokyo and Osaka concert. It's his last concert for the tour! WANT TO GO?
B: OKAY, let's go.
me: :D [by this time, I was dancing in the shower]

Then Justine and Michelle wanted in on the super impromptu trip to Japan. So with the help of some Japanese exchange friends and their boyfriend's Tokyo address, we were able to purchase 4 tickets to Joe Hisaishi's Tokyo concert this December 27th.

I guess from this, you can kind-of see what kind of person I am. For certain things, I don't lose hope that easily. I just can't.

Remember I said in my Japan Day 1 post, I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat?

I wasn't kidding. :)

Music of the Week - Joe Hisaishi 久石譲

2010-11-08T10:23:00.000-05:00

One of the worse things to ever happen to anyone would be to live life meaninglessly.

I really believe in that. If you think about it, everyone has only one chance at life. No resets, no restart this level from this checkpoint, no play again. To waste that one chance at the most precious thing we all possess is beyond sad.

So I think it's considered lucky that I've discovered certain things in my life that I am passionate about. The things that ignite that fire in you. The ones that give your eyes a special twinkle. The ones that make your heart not beat but thump rapidly. The ones that make you jump out of your seat and talk louder and louder and you don't even notice a thing.

If you ever met me in person, you've probably experienced a moment of seeing this live. Maybe not the twinkle in the eye nor the incoming heart attack, but definitely the katherine shouting across the table because she's too excited to talk about the topic raised. And the things that gets me into this crazy-mode includes a whole range of things. Most of which can perhaps be broadly categorized into the following: food, music, and Studio Ghibli.

Studio Ghibli is so unbelievably incredible, it righteously deserves its own category. And part of what makes Studio Ghibli movies so phenomenal, is the soundtracks - which are all composed by no other than Joe Hisaishi. Then putting 1 and 1 together, it's not hard to deduce the fact that I love this man to Totoro-heaven. I'm sorry future husband, but Joe Hisaishi and Hayao Miyazaki have already taken my heart long before I met you, but you can still try giving them a call to see if you can get it back. Perhaps throw in a front-row seat concert? And a surprise proposal at the concert? Maybe, maybe then.

Being able to watch and listen to their works changed my life. When I was a kid, I didn't like watching Sesame Street nor Teletubbies, nor most of what was on TV. I was a picky TV kid. But I could never reject a Studio Ghibli film, no matter how many times I've already watched it. And even now.

It might sound like some kind of cult and I've became a mindless believer in it, but this is the type of stuff I spew out when it's a topic I'm obsessed about. Obsessed might even be an understatement in this case. But this is one of those things that makes my life meaningful. I feel that a lot of people these days get so caught up in their daily routine and responsibilities, they forget what exactly they're living for. What used to make them happy? What shaped their childhood dreams? What are the things that when you look back, you were glad you had the opportunity to do?

Here are some of my favourites - to refresh the memories of fellow Studio Ghibli lovers, and to inspire those that have not yet had the chance to be enlightened.

My Neighbour Totoro's Theme Song となりのトトロ (tonari no totoro).

Summer 菊次郎の夏.

Laputa: Castle In the Sky Main Theme Song 天空の城ラピュタ.

A Wish to the Moon 風のとおり道, from My Neighbour Totoro.

And my favourite of favourites: Howl's Moving Castle Main Theme Song.

I can't believe it's November already.

2010-11-02T08:48:00.000-04:00

Phew. I feel better already from blogging that out.

Thank you for the comments, the emails and all the other encouraging responses. Thank you.

Sometimes you just need to be pummeled to the ground in order to learn how to stand back up. Be thankful for the people that love you and the ones you love, the roof over your head, and the food in your stomach. And remember that there is always someone worse off than you, no matter what you're going through.

Random music time.自由發揮－死定了. Indie Taiwanese music sent. 很可愛的MV！

Why the music blares from my headphones.

2010-10-26T01:53:00.005-04:00

It might be the sudden change of tropical summer days to gloomy rainy ones, or the fact that I've been sick long and bad enough to have classmates come up to me and say they feel sorry for me, or the pounding stress of the increasing amount of problems I have to deal with. Trying to meet expectations and failing. Failing to reach my own goals. Then you have the 12 hour time difference that really makes it difficult to have an actual conversation with anyone on the other side of the world. Add on the little incidents like dropping your $500 cellphone for the thousandth time and it finally broke. And how the new rainboots you've been eyeing on and excitedly bought is actually a torture weapon for your feet. Pile it all on and you got me. Right here, right now.

I'm trying, I'm really trying here. And I'm trying so fucking hard but there's no results and things get worse instead.

There are always those days where you want to drop everything and run away. Then I realised I already did that. So I make plans to run away again. Not back home, but somewhere better.

You're on exchange Katherine, you must be having the time of your life everyday, partying away! In case you didn't know, Taiwan is not heaven. Don't get me wrong, Taiwan's awesome but it's not that fucking easy you know.

So I send out letters and postcards to close those gaps. Sit here and listen to the music. And pray that it'll all get better.

Music of the Week - 張震嶽 - 愛我別走

2010-10-24T12:41:00.002-04:00

Here is a Taiwanese song that I simply love for you guys, while I try to battle the HTML coding monster. GRR!!

Classic song of 1998. 張震嶽 - 愛我別走

Cover by Jay Chou.

我到了這個時候還是一樣
夜裡的寂寞容易叫人悲傷
我不敢想的太多　因為我一個人

迎面而來的月光拉長身影
漫無目的地走在冷冷的街
我沒有妳的消息　因為我在想妳

愛我別走　如果妳說　妳不愛我
不要聽見妳真的說出口
再給我一點溫柔

愛我別走　如果妳說　妳不愛我
不要聽見妳真的說出口
再給我一點溫柔

Summer Asia Trip: Tokyo, Japan - Day 1

2010-10-08T13:26:00.020-04:00

Tokyo, Japan was the first destination of our Asia trip. Two 20-year-olds backpacking in a foreign country where they did little-next-to-none research and they don't speak a word of the native language either. How did it go? It. was. amazing. By far the best trip JT and I had in the entire summer.

The people were very polite and nice, everywhere was spotless clean, there was absolutely nothing that tasted "bad", and there was so much to do all the time! It was a very fun and relaxing trip. I would go back in a heartbeat if I had the money.

And I feel I owe it all to this book (okay not all but at least half):

JT's cousin helped us purchase this Tokyo travel guide in Hong Kong and we super recommend it. We had also purchase the Lonely Planet but if you ever picked up a Lonely Planet travel guide at a bookstore, you'll know that it's all B&W and composed of nothing but text. No pictures. This one on the other hand, is entirely in colour, has pictures and addresses of all the places it recommends, and even maps to guide you to restaurants, shopping areas and other fun places to visit. It's written in traditional Chinese but JT and I still got by fine with our limited Chinese comprehension. Moreover, it cost around only $10 CAD - completely worth it! We called it our "Tokyo bible". Seriously. Get it if you're going backpacking in Tokyo and it'll take away at least half the pressure of backpacking.

On with the trip.

May 17th, 2010. Day 1 of Japan. Toronto -> Tokyo. Shinjuku. 自由行/backpacking.

Waiting for the plane to arrive at Pearson Airport. Luckily, we had an early afternoon plane; didn't need to wake up super early.

First time riding on Air Canada with my own personal screen. Air Canada never had this before! But then again, I haven't been flying to Asia for 3 years before this.

This one is for Derek - they even had Korean movies for you! haha

Snack time! Maized and confused corn chips. No idea what that means. Only confused corn were used?

This is what you get on an Air Canada flight to Asia - chicken with vegetable mixed rice or beef with white rice + corn/lima beans/carrots salad + tasteless chocolate brownie + very bad bread + water. You can tell by the pictures as to how good they were.

Midnight snack - ham sandwich & bran crunch biscuits.

The best meal of the entire flight - Nissin cup noodles!

For some reason, the only time I enjoy cup noodles is on an airplane as a midnight snack.

After a few movies + restless sleep, breakfast was served: congee or omelette with potatoes + the same tasteless bread + fruit salad.

Then finally arrived at Narita Airport!

First time in Japan :D Took this picture while JT was buying hotel bus tickets from the counter.

May 18th in Tokyo = blue skies, sun is out, but the wind is a bit chilly.
Waiting for our bus to arrive to bring us to the heart of Tokyo.

Waited a few minutes and then our bus came.

It's like a coach bus but they even have cup holders and a hook! For an airport bus, I was amazed. I'm obviously easily impressed.

Blue, blue skies. I miss this kind of summer.

Asian countries like to print words on the ground to indicate the destination of each lane. I took this picture because I was amused at how they printed the curved parts of Chinese characters.

After we got off at our stop at Shinjuku, tried to follow a horrible not-drawn-to-scale map, dragged around 2 suitcases and 2 heavy bags for half an hour, and when we were on the verge of crumbling down and submitting to forever being hopelessly lost, we were saved by wonderful local lady that led us to our hotel. Arigatou gozaimasu wonderful local lady!

By the time we settle into the hotel, the sun had already set and night had arrived. Which meant time for dinner!

JT and I walked around Shinjuku, not knowing what to eat for our first dinner in Japan. We ended up at this ramen place off the street.

This is the menu: prices varied from 600 yen to 750 yen. Compared to what we heard from everyone that "Japan is so expensive!", it was not bad at all.

Especially for a casual ramen restaurant like this, where mostly business men dropped by for a quick meal.

JT and I both ordered the pork ramen.

The ramen was pretty good but too bad the egg was not an "onsen" egg (hot spring egg).

The ramen spoon was so cute - it can stand on its own!

The soup was very very milky and rich - I have never tasted such milky ramen soup before. JT loved it. I, not so much. But this was probably our cheapest dinner in Japan and for its price, not bad. Although JT and I had randomly selected it, it was actually featured in the aforementioned Tokyo travel guide! I guess it was fate :)

We then walked around Shinjuku. Bustling with people and city lights. Something I think I can really get used to.

Many people, many stores, many lights.

And so many delicious food to try.

Soon after, we headed back to the hotel to sleep. And that was the end of Day 1 in Japan. :)

Kevin helped me edit this photo I previously had. It looks too nice not to upload it on here :)

Lonely girls in Taipei.

2010-09-28T12:31:00.009-04:00

I haven't been posting as much as I meant to this week, since school started and I've been stuffing myself silly with all these amazing, cheap food.

BUT... I've haven't been completely lazy.

I've been working on a new project with another exchange friend I met here. It's a new blog that follows our everyday exchange experiences. Expect many photos from our day-trips to the outskirts of Taipei, learn about Taiwanese street food you've never seen before, salivate to wonderful pictures of upscale restaurant meals, and laugh with us as we tell our random life stories. It'll be like you're living our adventures with us, right here in Taipei.

Follow us at http://lonelygirlsintaipei.blogspot.com. Feel free to comment on it, add it to your RSS feeds/Google Reader or show it to your friends.

FYI, katcanrawr will remain as my personal blog. I will still be updating it with more personal posts, starting with my Asia summer trip! Finally.

Hope you enjoy both blogs!

Music of the Week - 郭采潔 Amber Kuo

2010-09-23T00:09:00.001-04:00

Have you ever fell in love with a song, after hearing it just once? I found myself in this situation just two days ago. It was the first time I heard 郭采潔 Amber Kuo sing and she was singing live. And this song just wouldn't get out of my head until I returned to dorm and YouTubed it.

郭采潔 - 又圓了的月亮

作詞：姚若龍作曲：李偉菘

他走了我的燈一直亮著
門關緊了但眼淚不會鎖
該好了可是心還是痛的
說過了幾千次算了
又想像可能會復合
我表面似乎痊癒了
某部分卻像殘廢了

又圓了的月亮照亮我僅藏的倔強
提醒我去化妝把以後活得更漂亮
又圓了的月亮說改變會帶來成長
旋轉的地球上沒有人能孤單站在一個地方

我醒了像旅行都結束了
紀念品呢誰粗心弄掉了
到哪了做什麼是否記得
相機里兩個人鬧著
讓微笑美過了夜色

沒有他以為該寂寞
但世界一樣在唱歌

又圓了的月亮照亮我僅藏的倔強
提醒我去化妝把以後活得更漂亮
又圓了的月亮說改變會帶來成長
旋轉的地球上肯轉身總有新故事值得盼望

沒有他以為該寂寞
但世界一樣在唱歌

又圓了的月亮照亮我僅藏的倔強
提醒我去化妝把以後活得更漂亮
又圓了的月亮說改變會帶來成長
旋轉的地球上肯轉身總有新故事值得盼望

用原諒去遺忘

Taipei, Taiwan: Stationary.

2010-09-19T08:48:00.007-04:00

I know what you're thinking - who the heck writes about stationary?

Well, I do.

Because it's awesome! Well it can be sometimes at least.

I'm not talking about the standard stuff at Staples/Grand & Toy. There's no giant retail store here that sells the same stationary items that everyone uses, from students to executives. Instead, there are many tiny stationary stores in Asia that are filled with all sorts of cutesy and non-cutesy pencils, erasers, notebooks, envelopes, and folders than you can ever imagine.

For example, there's MUJI, which would be a category on its own: simplicity.

As you can see from above, I am a huge MUJI fan. But it can get quite pricey for what it is.

For these smaller stationary stores, each item is priced at usually less than $1 CAD. I could seriously stay in one of these stores for hours. Which is how I picked up the following items:

THE CRAYON HIGHLIGHTER

Meet the yellow highlighter that does not bleed and ruin your papers. It doesn't need a cap - simply twist its body when you're done using it.

It's made out of the same material as crayons.

Yet has the same effectiveness as a usual liquid highlighter.

THE ERASABLE PEN

Then there's this Pilot pen.

Looks like a regular pen.

And works like a regular pen too.

But the end of the pen ERASES the ink! (I switched hands because I'm actually left-handed -_-).

You don't need to push really hard, nor are there any eraser bits that form on the end of the pen.

And the eraser is attached to the end of the pen - not the cap. So in case you lose the cap, you can still erase.

The end result. No more ink at all! The only thing it leaves is a slight physical imprint.

Both the crayon highlighter and Pilot pen come in numerous colours. Furthermore, Pilot also has a erasable highlighter line that works the same way.

I was pretty amazed at this. Yeah, I'm pretty easy to impress. Don't hate.

PS. I was not paid to do this post and I bought all the items with my own money. I just love stationary.

My superpower.

2010-09-18T14:59:00.000-04:00

I recently met this girl here on exchange. When we were waiting for the elevator to come down, she asked me if I could have any superpower in the world, what would it be?

During the summer, JT, his cousin Vicky and I have actually discussed the exact same question. In fact, this was also the topic of discussion with some other friends not long ago as well. What's with people and asking this?

Guys usually answer "invisibility". For obvious reasons.

Girls, while more creative, usually respond with an answer regarding beauty, something along the lines of being young forever, no wrinkles, etc.

Mine is quite simple: being able to eat all I want without getting fat. This friend added one more line - and all the foods I eat will become a method in keeping me young and beautiful.

Yes, that would definitely be the best superpower in the world. Hands down.

Taipei, Taiwan: On the other side of the world from home...

2010-09-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

... to wake up everyday with this sunny view.

... or a rainy one.

... then the sun will set.

... but at the end of the day, the night always ends like this.

And this is what I see.

Music of the Week - 韋禮安 William Wei

2010-09-12T23:24:00.009-04:00

Thanks to a friend's recent tweet, I've finally discovered the name of the singer of these awesome, random Mandarin songs I've had in my music folder for a while now (did that even make sense?): 韋禮安 William Wei.

After winning a singing competition in 2007, William Wei proceeded to finish his undergrad studies at the National Taiwan University before pursuing his interest in music. A singer and a songwriter of pop and easy-listening music (for other singers too including Christine Fan, Rene Liu and Claire Kuo), he has released a few songs that you can't forget after hearing them once.

韋禮安 - 好天氣

韋禮安 - 因為愛

And as always, the best for last: 韋禮安 - 慢慢等

Still not that popular yet, but he'll be sure to rise to fame if he keeps releasing music like this.

Music of the Week - 宇宙人樂團 Cosmos people

2010-09-11T03:46:00.006-04:00

Many Music of the Week posts this week. Because music is what keeps me going.

This time it's a unique style of music that combines indie and catchy melodies, with a bit of funkiness. They are a Taiwanese band called Cosmo people 宇宙人樂團. They're not mainstream (at least not yet) and honestly, they're a bit weird (I mean, look at their mv's). I was talking to some university students here in Taipei about music and they were surprised I knew so many mainstream Taiwanese artists, and even more bewildered how I knew 宇宙人樂團 because most of Taipei have never heard of them. You know you're fob when you know more Taiwanese artists/bands than local Taiwanese students themselves.

宇宙人樂團 - 要去高雄. The song is extremely catchy after a while. To the point sometimes I would YouTube just to hear it. 八八八八八八八八八～

宇宙人樂團 - 花花. Cute and funny.

Enjoy!

Music of the Week - 梁靜茹 - 沒有如果

2010-09-08T21:21:00.005-04:00

My favourite song from 梁靜茹 Fish Leong. I probably posted it up before but it's a song I really can't get tired of: the MV, the lyrics, and most importantly, the message.

梁靜茹 - 沒有如果

如果我說愛我沒有如果
錯過就過你是不是會難過
若如果拿來當藉口
那是不是有一點弱

如果我說愛我沒有如果
真的愛我就放手一搏
還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手
有人說
世界上最遙遠的距離不是
生與死
而是
我就站在你面前
你卻不知道我愛你
我常說
如果人類連愛一個人都被自己綁住
那世界末日已來到
不需要等到地球毀滅掉
的那天
如果我說愛我沒有如果
錯過就過你是不是會難過
若如果拿來當藉口那是不是有一點弱

如果我說愛我沒有如果
真的愛我就放手一搏
還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手

如果如果沒有如果
如果如果最後變成路過
我也不能接受
錯過錯過不能錯過
錯過錯過我比你更難過
我不會一錯再錯

唉這次不要再隨便錯過

我常說
如果人類連愛一個人都被自己綁住
那世界末日已來到
不需要等到地球毀滅掉
的那天
別怕太快樂
別怕失去我
如果我說愛我沒有如過
錯過就過你是不是會難過
若如果拿來當藉口那是不是有一點弱
如果我說愛我沒有如果
真的愛我就放手一博
還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手

搭啦搭啦……
快牽起我的手

如果我說愛我沒有沒有如果
錯過就過你是不是會難過
若如果拿來當藉口那是不是有一點弱
如果我說愛我沒有如果
真的愛我就放手一博
還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手

阿…..

若如果拿來藉口那是不是有一點弱

沒有如果

還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手

還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手

若如果拿來當藉口那是不是有一點弱
如果我說愛我沒有如果
真的愛我就放手一博
還想什麼還怕什麼
快牽起我的手
如果我說愛我沒有如果

Music of the Week - Gary Cao 曹格

2010-08-21T17:24:00.001-04:00

I cannot believe I haven't blogged about him yet. One of my all-time favourite singers that I completely do not regret forking over $50 CAD to see his Toronto concert last year. This is him: Gary Cao 曹格.

A very shy Malaysian singer & song-writer, he's been gaining popularity in mostly Taiwan (also thanks to Aska Yang 楊宗緯 and Jam Xiao 蕭敬騰's epic singing battle on the Taiwanese One Million Star show 超級星光大道) and HK for the past few years. Still, many people that listen to Asian pop have not heard of him. I guess that contributes to why I like him even more - he's a small, shiny gem found in a large, dark mine. I recently met a Malaysian classmate at CUHK and we instantly became friends while raving about Gary Cao's wide vocal range and deep chest voice. She also revealed that when she lived in Malaysia, no one had ever heard of him. However, when she moved to London, England for studies, she had caught the Gary Cao-fever from her Hong Kong friends. But where he is acknowledged and where he is not does not matter. What matters are his self-composed songs and the way he carries meaning through his singing. Yes he's also the same guy that made HK headlines when he punched HK artist Justin Lo.

Really not the best music video ever, but this is his most well-known song: 背叛.

The very first song and MV I heard/saw of him. And then I was hooked: Superwoman.

And my favourite: 寂寞先生.

All of the above 3 songs are quite... emotional/sad songs. Don't let that mislead you; he has several songs that are happy and upbeat and they're good too (Supermarket for instance). It's just that I love how he sings sad, emo songs.

Other goodies: 世界唯一的你, 梁山伯與茱麗葉 (duet with 卓文萱 Genie Zhou), PK (duet with 梁靜茹 Fish Ieong), 少年 (duet with 光良 ) and this cantonese song he never released officially: 左右無緣. Yup, he's fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Oh did I mention he can sing amazingly in both high and low voice?

Traveling and Blogging

2010-08-11T09:16:00.006-04:00

Today's topic is traveling and blogging.

As I was going through my travel pictures, I noticed that I tend to take many many photos. Photos of scenic views from different angles, various objects that remind me of friends and family, the usual food porn and lastly, moments I capture because I know I will want to remember them. These pictures accumulate to thousands within two weeks.

But what I wanted to say about these pictures is that almost every time I take a picture, I can already imagine the caption underneath of it. And this is how I know I am taking a "good" worthy photo. Not just a photo to represent "I was here and I did this, this and this, so go ahead and be jealous of me". But the type of photo that captures the visual representation at that time and the feelings, the atmosphere and the thoughts in your head in that one moment, that one instance of time. There will be certainly many experiences in each of our lives that are similar to our previous experiences, moments where you think of "oh this reminds me of that time when..." but I really don't think there are such things as 'identical experiences'. Every moment is different in some way or another; every moment gives you a certain feeling and sense of living. And the best pictures are always the ones where when you look back at them, you are transported back in time and it feels like you are living in that one moment, again.

Central Ferry Pier, Hong Kong. 中環碼頭, 香港. Blue skies, fluffy clouds, and a magnificent view.

And sometimes there are obstacles in capturing that moment. You just can't get the settings right on your camera, you brought the wrong lens, the camera won't auto-focus on the right object (grr! I hate it when that happens), you're on a moving mode of transportation, or the restaurant staff won't let you take pictures of the food/restaurant decor/anything. I'm actually the type of person that gets intimidated by these people, because after all, I am in a foreign country doing my own business, so I comply. Usually. So that's why traveling and blogging can be pretty difficult. No good shots? Then you shouldn't even bother posting them up. This is what I think to myself.

Believe it or not, the blogging part itself is actually not that easy, especially when you know that your friends read it, or any person in the world with an Internet connection in fact. I mean, it's great feeling when you know your friends care enough to want to know what's on your mind, but it's a double-sided knife because you're not entirely sure if you'd want them to know certain things. There's this haunting feeling I get whenever I type a post that's rather personal instead of simply reviewing a restaurant. Will this allow them to know too much about me? Will they think my writing style is dead boring? Will they now change their opinion of me? Seriously. These are the thoughts that go through a blogger's mind. Ask any blogger. It's like that feeling you get when you have this urge to say something on Twitter or on your Facebook status, but as you type it, this dreaded feeling overcomes you and says "but I don't really want people I know to know this, I just want to publish it and say it aloud to the public".

So what I do to calm myself is read other people's blogs for inspiration. Life blogs, travel blogs, baking blogs. Just trying to get a hang of how and why they write the things they do. And you'll notice that some people like to write in third person, others rely on humour, and some simply publish pictures that say it all.

I don't blog often anymore not only because I no longer have that readily available fast Internet connection at home, and the fact that looking through literally thousands of travel pictures is a big pain in the butt, but also because I always find myself choosing quality over quantity. Quality of my posts is more important than its quantity. I can't make myself publish a meaningless post without any personal significance. I guess this kind of self-quality check lags the blogging process quite a bit. And the fact that I am not sure how to blog sometimes. It's true.

So with that, I have made you read a long post of meaningless words strung together to make up a long, belated post with a single random picture.

And as my summer Asia travels are coming to an end, I really can't help but hope to visit Europe soon. Really soon. But soon is never soon enough and when it does arrive, the end is always too soon.

Recap.

2010-07-20T00:51:00.006-04:00

Time for a little recap on what's going on + random thoughts.

For the past 60 days, I've been traveling around Asia for as long as my schedule permitted me. Visited 4 countries and 11 cities so far.

I'm currently taking a summer exchange course at CUHK (Chinese University of Hong Kong). Now half-way through the course and I haven't even read one chapter of the textbook yet.

It takes me an hour to get to CUHK from my home - one way. It takes much less time to get to CUHK from Shenzhen, China. Fml.

I realized that it's a lot easier to spend money when you're abroad. Every purchase is deemed justified, even if you know it isn't deep-down inside.

Speaking of shopping, I recently bought my first designer handbag from Agnes B.

I missed Night It Up! night market, in both senses of the word.

My typical breakfast is a cup of yogurt + Yakult. Because there is no food at home, literally.

Now speaking of yogurt, how I miss Activia Vanilla Yogurt! Compared to Toronto, Yogurt is insanely expensive here. We're talking about $16 HKD for a cup of yogurt that's around 100 ml. You know how yogurt usually comes in a pack of 6? Yeah, just ONE of those cups is more than $2 CAD.

I watched Shrek 4 in 3D in theatres last, last week.

Yesterday, I finally purchased a pair of white Birkenstocks. Betulas to be exact because I am flat-footed.

JT and I smuggled some yogurt from Guangzhou last time we went back. And in smuggling, I mean right before boarding the train, we purchased 10 cups of yogurt from 7-11 because it was only $2 RMB per cup versus the $8 HKD per cup in HK for the exact same brand and size.

I watched Toy Story 3 in 3D last weekend. TOTORO cameo <3

I ran out of space to upload pictures for the blog. So I was debating whether to upgrade my PicasaWeb account or Flickr. Picasa won with it's $5 USD for 20 GBs.

Going on a 2 day backpacking trip to Macau this weekend. Hope the typhoon clears up in the mean time.

Backpacking >>> paid tour any day. Except for developing/dangerous countries where I can only use body language to communicate.

I need to edit & upload my trip pictures soon.

Side note
During this time of intensive traveling, I have discovered how important this one item has become to me: Tempo tissue.

Once you have tried Tempo, tissue will never feel the same again. 4 ply, Jasmine-scented Tempo is my must-have when I go out. Because you never know when that sketchy restaurant runs out of toilet paper (and rarely in China do they ever supply toilet paper to begin with). And it's always just coincidentally when you most need to go that there's no more toilet paper. Because for the first time, you realized the amount of sweat you produce within a few minutes of going outside in China is comparable to hot yoga. And the new allergies you developed when traveling to places that have possess much more pollution than your hometown in Canada. Or when you are forced to stand on a half-hour bus ride with someone that so happened to be standing under the A/C and so happened to have horrible body odour, making the stench circulate around the bus the entire ride (true story, although I wished it didn't happen) - this is where the Jasmine-scented tissue comes in handy.

I am grateful for the invention of Tempo tissue.

How to make ice cream with just one ingredient

2010-07-13T10:22:00.001-04:00

Photo credit to Faith Durand of the kitchn.

That's right, ice cream with just one ingredient. Know what it is? Not cream nor vanilla, but... bananas!

Back when I had my part-time job in Toronto, I spent a lot of my work time visiting various baking and cooking sites. Not that I'm a baker nor a cook (I almost typed cooker), but I simply enjoyed marvelling at other people's gastronomic creations. And there was one site in particular that had like a gazillion updates per day: the kitchn.

Unlike recipe sites, the kitchn is about food in general, keeping your kitchen organized and everything in between. They answer questions like "Do alcohol expire?", "How do I cut up a whole chicken?" and "I want to bake but I don't have an oven". Questions I frequently think to myself, I think they're too stupid to ask and people will laugh at me so I google them. A really informative and interesting site, perfect for those who love food and want to know more about the topic through other ways besides eating. Basically, a good way to waste time.

SO... it was on this site that I came across this "make ice cream with just one ingredient" post. And it was intriguing and easy enough to motivate me to actually make it. Here it is!

How to make Banana Ice Cream

Preparations

Step 0: freeze the bananas.

Every now and then, I'd see a single, lonely, almost completely bruised and black banana lying in the dining room. It was sad to see because it just sat underneath the banana holder but you can't hang just one banana. So then I would place the banana in the freezer. Repeat this at least 3 times. I ended up having a banana frozen for almost half a year in preparation to make this ice cream. No worries, it was still good!

Step 1: Take out frozen bananas from the freezer and thaw for a few minutes.

Step 2: Peel off the skin.

Since my bananas were frozen for a good solid 3 months or so, I needed a knife to facilitate this step.

Step 3: Slice the peeled bananas into smaller pieces like above.

And... it will look like this.

Alternatively, you can reverse the above steps: buy ripe bananas, peel them, slice them and then freeze them until you're ready to make the ice cream. Either way works.

Step 4: Place the pieces of bananas into a food processor and blend!

I don't have a food processor so I went over to Arthur's and borrowed his. Good strategy to avoid buying one.

Now blend it up! After 30 seconds (depending on how strong your food processor is), it will look like this. Keep processing the bananas until it reaches your preferred ice cream consistency.

At this step, you can also add in a scoop of peanut butter, blueberries, etc.

Step 5: Scoop it out and here you have soft-serve banana ice cream.

To make normal banana ice cream, simply place the soft ice cream in an airtight container and place it in the freezer for an hour or two.

DONE!

I hear that Toronto's getting quite hot lately so this is a good, low-cost treat. AND bananas help with digestion too. So double thumbs up!

Saigon Star Fine Vietnamese Restaurant - Small, expensive portions with hit-and-miss quality

2010-07-12T23:00:00.002-04:00

Before I left Toronto for 8 months, I had the chance to eat one last dinner with the crew. I chose to have it at Saigon Star Fine Vietnamese Restaurant, located within the Chalmers Gate plaza of Richmond Hill. Simply because I have passed by this restaurant countless times and have yet to try their famous curry crab.

I have to apologize beforehand for the horrendous photography below. I was stretching across a giant table sitting 14 people, taking rapid food shots with one hand while attempting to get myself some food with the other before there were none left. And I was hungry too.

Stir-fried clams in black bean sauce.

Clams in beer sauce. In my opinion, the clams didn't soak up much of the beer sauce, rendering a bit bland.

This is one of the expensive curry crabs we ordered that night without knowing the price (my fault, sorry -_-). The waitress pressured us/me in ordering bigger crabs than usual since we had so many people.

In fact, we ordered 2 plates of crabs and bread to soak up the curry. From this picture, you can get a sense of how big these "bigger" crabs were. However, taste-wise, they completely did not live up to my expectations. There are many reviews on the net that rave how tasty their curry crab is but the night I went, it was just alright. Not horrible for sure, but not amazing either. Just okay. By the way, bread is not included so you have to order it on the side.

I don't remember the exact name of this dish but I think it was something grilled chicken. One of the few dishes that I enjoyed that night. It was tender and flavourful.

Pineapple fried rice. First thing we noticed: small portions. Second thing: the taste was reported to be fairly average.

Curry chicken. Very, very oily and the pieces of chicken had a lot of skin/fat attached to it rather than meat.

Pad thai. I heard it was average/not that great. And once again, small portions.

An extra large plate of their signature grilled tender pork (neck meat). Each piece was very tender and had a lot of honey flavour. Although I truly did enjoy this dish, it was quite pricey for such thin slices and small portions. Like around $20 if my memory is correct.

Stir-fried vegetables.

Vegetable in shrimp paste sauce (the one that kind-of stinks). The shrimp paste flavour was definitely there, not bad.

Grilled salmon x 2. Not bad but it's pretty standard stuff that you can't mess up on.

Finally, the dessert: 椰汁紫米露 glutinous rice with coconut milk. This was complimentary.

Unfortunately, I couldn't try all the dishes (there were just too many of us and very limited amount of food) but some of the ones I tried were not bad, while some weren't that great at all. In all honesty, I arrived at the restaurant without doing my usual research (google, chowhound etc.) to order the dishes with the best reviews. And... I also ordered the curry crab without knowing the price (it says "seasonal price" and don't ask me why but seasonal price in my mind at that moment was around $20 per crab which in kat's world, affordable. Each plate ended up to be $40). Hence, the bill ended up to be almost $300 including tax and tips, ~$23 per person + everyone was just barely-full. As I was depending on the carbohydrate dishes to fill everyone up (pineapple fried rice, pad thai and bread), despite so many dishes, the portions were definitely not enough to do so. However, the worst part of the dining experience was the service. The name says "Fine Dining" but the waiters/waitresses kept on pressuring us/me to order more dishes, to order more expensive dishes, to supersize the dishes. And when I said no thank you, we'll stick with the regular size, they wouldn't accept it as an answer. This was extremely irritating as it went on the entire night. Overall, it seems many/most of my barely-full companions weren't impressed. Maybe it was the price? Nevermind, it definitely was the value we received from the food and service.

Saigon Star Fine Vietnamese Restaurant
330 Highway 7 East
Richmond Hill, ON L4B 1A6, Canada
(905) 731-7221

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Music of the Week - B.o.B - Airplanes ft. Hayley Williams of Paramore

2010-07-06T12:01:00.002-04:00

I couldn't resist not posting up this song. No words to describe it.

Just listen.

Mariko Japanese Restuarant - One bad sushi experience on Bloor

2010-06-27T06:41:00.006-04:00

At the end of April, I promised Lilian I'd go to Hyde Park with her to look at the sakura blossoms that bloom for a week every year. After a lot of phone calls, a lot of waiting for people to arrive and then a lot of photos, a group of us left Hyde Park for Bloor Street to grab some dinner. Coming out of Bathurst Station, we saw this sign:

All you can eat for $10.99! (it was windy so the banner folded on the last 9) WOW. We were starving so we couldn't resist.

Then we realized there was a catch: $10.99 for 70+ items which NONE included any seafood. Not even fake crab or grilled salmon. The 70+ items were essentially all the other cooked dishes at Japanese buffet without seafood. The $14.99 was the real deal with sashimi and cooked dishes. We came in the restaurant hungry for some raw fish, so we had no choice but to choose the second option. Besides, $15.99 wasn't so bad (it was a friday).

The 105+ items menu (click for larger pic). As you can see, they didn't offer much variety of raw fish.

Stir-fried chicken udon. Very peppery.

I think this was supposed to be grilled teriyaki chicken.

Shrimp tempura; looked quite oily and didn't look that crispy.

Urban ordered fried chicken at a Japanese buffet for some reason.

Finally the seafood that we wanted came! Salmon sushi pizza, eel nigiri, I think that's fried egg nigiri?, inari, and artificial crab nigiri.

Dragon roll (avocado on top and tempura shrimp inside), avocado & eel roll, california roll, butterfish nigiri, some more inari, salmon sushi and avocado sushi. Clearly, avocado was in season.

I forgot to take a picture of the sashimi before we inhaled it but here's the butterfish sashimi and 1 piece of salmon sashimi left.

JT ordered a spicy salmon handroll at the very end and it was the first time he spit back out one. The salmon was mushy like it was pounded by those meat pounders people use on thick slices of beef. He said it didn't taste like salmon anymore.

In the end, we all agreed that it was one of the worst Japanese buffets we ever had and it was completely not worth the $20 we paid ($15.99 + tax + tips). What's strange is that JT and I have actually been here around a year ago and I remember it wasn't as bad as now. If it was, I knew my mind would've made a note to avoid this place at all costs (including starving). Oh well, there's plenty of Japanese sushi restaurants on Bloor for the same price, much better quality and larger variety. This place had only a handful of sashimi items.

Mariko Japanese Restaurant
551 Bloor St. West, Toronto, ON M5S 1Y6
(416) 516-3030

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Music of the Week - Stephanie Cheng, Ben and MC Jin

2010-06-25T23:38:00.009-04:00

Since I'm in HK right now, I figure I should post up a HK song. I'm not a big fan of any of the 3 singers of this song, but this song is really catchy. To the point that you'll find yourself memorizing MC Jin's lyrics and singing along each time.

鄭融 Stephanie Cheng feat. 莊冬昕 Ben & 歐陽靖 MC Jin - 無謂情歌

Casa Imperial Fine Chinese Cuisine 名門金宴 - alright dim sum but at a high cost

2010-06-16T05:03:00.014-04:00

I know I know, I need to update more often. I've noticed that since the inception of this blog, the number of entries posted each month have been steadily decreasing. To think, I actually wrote 24 entries within the 30 days of September last year! But as if right now, I'm still getting used to this "experience all you can each day and try to blog in whatever remaining time you have left" type of lifestyle. Otherwise, I'd have no content to blog about. I just came back from Singapore last night and am going off to China and World Expo on Saturday. Rest assured that I took a lot of photos so lots to share soon!

Sometime in April, I went to eat dim sum with grandma and relatives. My aunt, a restaurant manager, wanted to test Casa Imperial's quality since Casa Imperial 名門金宴 is supposedly the best among the company's 3 Chinese restaurants. It is located at the Southeast corner of Steeles Ave. East and Warden Ave. Note that parking is a hassle unless you generally have great luck at getting parking spaces in Asian parking lots during busy hours. I, who has a record of horrendous luck at most things, ended up driving over to the T&T plaza across the street and walked over.

It's one of those classy, elegantly decorated Chinese restaurants. Quite nice. I couldn't take a picture of inside the restaurant without feeling awkward, knowing that the numerous rich housewives who were there with their BMW's, Lexus and Mercedes in the parking lot would be starring at me.

Their dim sum menu. Besides the usual Cantonese dim sum items, they do have a few innovative dishes.

Deep fried dough with pine seed 崧子炸兩腸. Average, the 腸粉 part was too thick and the deep fried dough part wasn't freshly fried, hence it was chewy instead of crispy. And such small portions! Only 8 pieces...

Deep fried slices of squash and oyster mushroom with spicy salt. I personally didn't like this dish; there was nothing special about it at all. Just thin slices of squash and mushroom fried (no amazing batter either) with some spicy salt sprinkled on top.

Milk tart with swallow's nest 燕窩奶撻皇. The milk custard filling was not bad but the crust was way too thick. Every bite was a mouthful of crust.

Deep fried meat dumpling 金珠咸水角. To be honest, I don't remember the verdict on this; no harsh criticisms nor happy faces come to mind so I'll assume it was average.

Scallop & spinach dumpling 鮮帶子菠菜餃. Average.

Crispy red bean & lotus root stick in coconut flavour 黃金椰汁紅豆蓮藕條. I've never seen this dish before at other restaurants. I thought it was not bad, just too sweet for my taste. However, my family didn't think it was that good. Not much red bean flavour (which I prefer so maybe that's why I thought it was alright).

Seafood dumpling in Guava shape 海鮮石榴餃. It looked cute, but the dumpling skin was too thick and had no taste. Average filling.

Chicken feet with gluten in Chu-Hou sauce 醬汁生根蒸鳳爪. Not bad, but 阿媽 liked the ones ata La Chine Cuisine 粵式生香 better.

Papaya & custard cake 木瓜千層馬拉糕. The sponge cake actually consisted of multiple layers which was nice. I didn't think the papaya added much to the cake though.

BBQ pork bun with abalone sauce 鮑汁蠔皇叉燒飽. The bread part was quite nicely done, very fluffy. The sauce was good too, but more sauce to balance the bread would be better. Still, not bad at all.

Milk and papaya puff 木瓜鮮奶酥. I forgot to take a picture of this dessert before eating it but it was pretty tasty.

This meal was a funny experience. When there's a Chinese meal with an aunt that's a Chinese restaurant manager, her husband who's a chef at another Chinese restaurant, a grandma who still cooks for her family, a mother who loves to criticize food, and a blogger who loves to eat, it's funny. We all have an opinion on every single dish on the table. The result is a non-stop loud chatter about food, food, food.

Since Casa Imperial, after all, is a "Fine Chinese Cuisine", it was a relatively expensive meal. The meal itself was alright, but I don't think it's worth the money we spent on it. I rather go to Grand Chinese Cuisine for the same cost.

Casa Imperial Fine Chinese Cuisine 名門金宴
4125 Steeles Avenue East, Scarborough, ON
(416) 756 - 2788

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Yup, it's almost that time of the year again: Toronto's best annual Asian night market, Night It Up! 2010 is back on Friday July 9th and Saturday, July 10th. Mark your calendars now!

Ka Chi - Cheap Korean restaurant in downtown

2010-06-07T09:53:00.000-04:00

Time to post up the rest of my Toronto reviews! And then vacation pictures. Promise.

Right after my last exam, I went to Ka Chi with some friends from EAS101 to celebrate the finale of the school year. There are 2 locations of Ka Chi, both in downtown Toronto. The one we went to is located on St Andrew St, a small road branching off from Spadina Ave. Chinatown, in between College St and Dundas St West.

The menu consists of many types of tofu stew, hot stone pot bibimbaps etc. All affordable prices of around $6.99 - $9.99.

And of course, complimentary side dishes! From left to right: bean sprouts, potatoes, spicy cucumber, kimchi, sweet potato vermicelli (japchae), and thick sea weed. Too bad I much prefer the potatoes from Joon's or Nak Won.

Gamjatang (pork bone soup). You get around 3 bones of tender meat and lots of bean sprouts on top.

I think this was Kara's fish stew. Spicy.

And I think this was Connie's beef stew.

Lastly, my soon tofu stew, mild spicy. Which to me was regular spicy because it left a stinging spicy feeling on my mouth just after one sip of the soup. Renee ended up helping me ask the waiter to add water to the stew to dilute the taste. So spicy!!

If you're feeling for Korean while walking down Chinatown (like we were), Ka Chi is a good choice. Cheap and filling food. I always feel bloated after Korean cuisine.

Ka Chi
2 locations:
612 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON M6G 1K7
(416) 533-9306

8 St Andrews St, Toronto, ON M5T 2G4 (near Kensington Market)
(416) 597-1999

檢視較大的地圖

Japan at a glance

2010-05-31T00:20:00.000-04:00

Random photos time. Tokyo & Osaka trip in 10 pictures.

Tokyo Subway Map. Completely overwhelming at first sight.

One of the best things about Japan: almost all the restaurants have food models outside the restaurant so you can see what they sell and for what price before entering. And the real meal actually does look like it!

The famous Shibuya crossing.

Entrance to the Meiji Shrine at Harajuku station.

Strawberry cheesecake crepe. The cold cheesecake and filling wrapped up in the warm crepe is omg good.

Uni (sea urchin) at Tsukiji Fish Market at 6:30 AM. The best I ever had. So good that I ordered another one. At 6:45 AM.

Easter parade at Disneyland in Tokyo. My first Disney theme park. Obviously, I had a sad childhood.

The reason why we went to DisneySea the day after going to Disneyland: Duffy!!!

No whale-humping sign at Osaka Aquarium.

Where my dreams are shaped, mold and made: Ghibli Museum at Mitaka.

Details later. :)

Music of the Week - David Choi

2010-05-23T19:33:00.006-04:00

Music of the Week or whatever time period it has already been since the last post. David Choi! I just can't stop playing this video whenever I have access to Internet.

David Choi - That Girl. Video made by Wong Fu Productions.

And if you haven't seen their previous project together, it was David Choi - Won't Even Start.

lalala

2010-05-19T20:55:00.002-04:00

I am stealing some neighbouring password-free wifi network as I type this. Luckily, I use a Macbook so no viruses.

Tokyo is awesome.

This is not a food blog.

2010-05-15T19:30:00.001-04:00

When my friends talk to me about this blog, they often refer to it as "your food blog", and mistakenly, I started doing that too.

But this was never meant to be a food blog. Nor a music blog. It's simply a blog about things I wanted to share with others. And it just so happens that the only things in my life I find interesting enough to share is about food or music. Go figure.

However, for the following months, there will be a slight change to this because... I will be traveling this summer! :D And I'd like to share about my travel experiences. With lots and lots of pictures.

Here's a tentative travel schedule for the upcoming few months:

EDIT: made changes to Summer 2010 Schedule
May 17th - May 28th: Tokyo & Osaka, Japan
May 28th - June 2nd: Taipei & surrounding towns, Taiwan
June 2nd - June 11th: Hong Kong
June 11th - June 15th: Singapore
June 15th - June 19th: Hong Kong
June 19th - June 24th: Nanjing; Hanzhou; Shouzhou; Shanghai, China

June 24th - July 1st: Hong Kong

July 1st - July 1st - July 4th: Guangzhou, China
July 4th - September: Hong Kong
September - January: Taiwan ??? (not confirmed yet)

And some time among these dates will be Guangzhou, Macau and Shenzhen.

So yeah. I'm leaving in 2 days. And I have yet to start packing. Instead, I've been saying goodbyes to friends, catching up with the new Glee episodes, YouTubing, blogging etc. Clearly, I have problems with time management.

I actually wanted to blog all the backlog Toronto restaurants reviews first then surprise everyone by blogging about this trip, but it looks like I won't have enough time to do that. Instead, what I'll do is blog all the remaining Toronto restaurant reviews now and set their post date and time every few days, so there will still be reviews for you guys to read while I'm gone backpacking in a foreign country with very little research done.

Sounds good? I think so.

Skyland de Shanghai Restaurant 上海新天地 - Shanghainese restaurant on Steeles Ave. East

2010-05-12T21:52:00.007-04:00

Photo from www.tummypoints.com because I completely forgot to take a picture of the restaurant.

Skyland de Shanghai Restaurant 上海新天地 is located at Steeles Ave East and Silver Star Blvd, in the same plaza as Kyu Shou Japanese Noodle House 九州生拉麵. I've been to this restaurant a few times since its inception but not recently. 阿媽's last visit (which was really really long ago) was not the greatest, but she thought maybe their quality has changed so we went and gave it a try. All I remembered from this is that there's a mini pearl tower and they serve Northern Chinese dim sum during lunchtime.

First dish that came was the drunken chicken 醉雞. It comes in a small 盅 (does anyone know what's the English equivalent of this? Google Translate says 'cup' which is totally incorrect) filled with the wine sauce. But what's not clearly shown in this picture are the pieces of the chicken we were given. They were mostly just bones, with barely any meat. We were given broken pieces of bone or the pointy part of a wingette. The wine sauce was fine but it was hard to enjoy when there was no meat to enjoy it with.

Next dish was another cold dish/appetizer: salt cured duck 鹽水鴨. It was not bad.

We also ordered garlic-flavoured sliced tender pork 蒜泥白肉 and it was not like the one we've been eating at Northern China restaurants. Instead of the finely sliced pork with marbled fat, we were given thick slices of pork with a lot of fat alright, but the meat part was tough and chewy. The sauce was even worse than the meat selection. I think we only ate a few slices of this dish in the end because no one could stomach it in the end.

We went with a vegetable dish we don't usually see on a menu: garlic stir-fried asparagus. It was alright.

Since we were dining at a Shanghainese restaurant, of course we had to order xiao long bao 小籠包.

Not bad but definitely no where near Ding Tai Fung's quality.

Ordered 2 plates of dumplings.

One was 白菜鮮肉餃, vegetable and pork dumplings.

The other was 韭菜鮮肉餃, leek and pork dumplings. Both types of dumplings were average; didn't have much juice nor taste.

My favourite Shanghainese soup: "yim duk sin" cured ham, bok choi and bean curd bow things. The soup was more salty than I preferred but still not bad.

For 4 people, the bill came up to ~$70 before tips. The portions were pretty small and ranged from not good at all to average tasting. Hence, I don't think we'll be coming back anytime soon. Funny, when I called my friend (who used to work here) for any recommendations, he just told me to leave. I wonder if he was just joking or giving sound advice.

Skyland de Shanghai Restaurant 上海新天地
680 Silver Star Boulevard Scarborough, ON M1V 5N1
(416) 321-6822

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Silver Carriage Restaurant 銀馬車餐廳 - new HK cafe in Richmond Hill, great for congee

2010-05-11T11:19:00.009-04:00

Some time ago, I read on Chowhound that there was a new HK cafe in Richmond Hill and according to a few reviewers, it was actually worth trying. It's called Silver Carriage Restaurant 銀馬車餐廳. And because I'm a big fan of HK cafes for their cheap, tasty and extremely filling meals, of course I had to try it out.

It's located within the plaza on Bayview Ave and Blackmore Ave (south of 16th Ave). But the cafe itself is a bit hidden. You have to walk inside this U-shaped part of the plaza and you'll find it on your left.

Found it!

The daily lunch special menu (11 AM - 6 PM). Strictly speaking, it's not really a lunch menu then if it's available until 6 PM but oh well.

Each of the lunch special comes with a complimentary soup, dinner roll with butter and a drink. I chose the Russian Borscht 羅宋湯, as there were reviews exclaiming it was more true to the real Russian Borscht found in HK. In fact, it was different from the other "red soups" I usually had in Toronto; it was thicker with much more tomato paste than usual. Moreover, the vegetables (celery, carrot, onions) were still a bit crunchy instead of soft, as if they just added them in a few minutes ago.

We ordered the salty fish & chicken/BBQ pork fried rice 咸魚雞粒/叉燒炒飯 from the daily lunch special menu. The portions definitely met the HK cafe standards but I didn't think it was anything special. Only complaint: it was merely warm when it arrived, instead of hot.

阿媽 ordered the satay beef soup vermicelli 沙爹牛肉米線 from the regular menu. She actually ordered thick noodles 米粉 but the waitress misheard and so we just brushed off the mistake. What was weird was that the "satay 沙爹 sauce" was simply sa cha 沙茶 sauce, the ones packaged in cans at the supermarket. I think it was the 牛頭牌 brand too. Last time I checked, satay and sa cha were not the same thing.

Charles Yu, the famous Chowhounder, gave a really good review on their congee. So we ordered the chicken congee 雞粥. From the first bite, you'll know that they didn't make their congee the ordinary way. I think Charles Yu describes it best: "unlike other places who use only rice and may be a bit of yuba skin, this place go full out in cooking the congee base using shredded dried scallops, yuba skin, ginko nuts and dried tangarine skin". Very flavourful. I really liked it.

If you look at their regular menu, you'll notice in the background, there's a giant picture of a cream seafood soup baked with crust 酥皮焗海鮮湯 for ~$5-6. Since not many places offer this soup, I had to try it. After 20 - 30 minutes of waiting, it arrived near the end of our meal when I was almost full. The crust was extremely buttery. You can SMELL the butter (which I don't really like). But butter is the key ingredient that gives these types of crusts their flaky texture. However, the crust wasn't crispy at all; it was soft and had way too much butter in my opinion. The soup itself was piping hot and tasted like the regular cream seafood soups. If we're talking about baked crust, I'd much prefer Phoenix Restaurant 金鳳's baked cheese with clam on spaghetti in white sauce with puff pastry on top 酥皮白汁芝士蜆肉焗意粉; their puff pastry was light, crispy with evident layers.

Normally, I don't take a picture of the complimentary drinks since it's just milk tea/lemon tea/coffee. But at Silver Carriage, the complimentary beverages are not restricted to these 3; they also offer citron lemon tea 金桔檸檬茶 and salty lemon tea 咸檸檬茶. I tried their citron lemon tea 金桔檸檬茶 and regretted it. It tasted like a powdered drink flavoured with artificial flavourings + hot water. The bottled citron lemon tea purchased from T&T supermarket are 100x better. I guess this is what happens sometimes when you try new things instead of sticking with the familiar choices.

The other reviews I've read ended with positive feedback on their baked dish items. Thus I would only come back to eat their congee and try their baked dishes. The baked cream seafood soup was definitely not worth $5-6 and avoid the citron lemon tea at all costs.

Silver Carriage Restaurant 銀馬車餐廳
9019 Bayview Ave., Unit 14-15, Richmond Hill, ON
(905) 882-8988

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Wonderful Seafood Restaurant 德褔海鮮酒家 - Cantonese restaurant at Silver Star

2010-05-05T22:05:00.008-04:00

Okay, I completely failed at updating "everyday". But I'm going to try to update with the very few precious hours I have when I'm not working or speeding with one hand on the Hwy 401 and changing songs on my Ipod with the other.

A while ago, my family and I went to Wonderful Seafood Restaurant 德褔海鮮酒家 at Silverstar, same plaza as Destiny and Amigo. 阿媽 had recently seen their advertisement in the Ming Pao magazine and wanted to give it a try. They were promoting their "flowing duck egg" bun 流沙包.

Complimentary soup. Chicken feet, lotus, pork bone, MSG; the usual.

Baked salty duck 鹽焗鴨. Not much taste if I remembered correctly.

阿媽 ordered a plate of duck tongues. It was too exotic for me.

Best dish of the night: pork neck meat stir fried with yau choi 豬爽肉炒油菜. The meat was flavourful and tasty.

I remember ordering a tofu pot-thing, and it turned out to be almost like a soup + tofu + lettuce + clumps of shrimp. It was very 清 (bland).

Complimentary dessert was red bean pudding.

It was a pretty average meal, a bit on the bland side though. Maybe because of the dishes we chose.

Wonderful Seafood Restaurant 德褔海鮮酒家
633 Silver Star Blvd, Unit 102, Scarborough, ON - Steeles Ave. & Silver Star Blvd.
(416) 293-2979

Yes, I'm still alive.

2010-04-27T23:08:00.005-04:00

Unless you're reading this from Google Reader, then you've probably noticed that a couple of new things have been added to the site lately, i.e. a search function and this box on the right that displays instantly my random twitter updates (follow me!). And if you've been reading my tweets, then you'll probably know the reason behind my lack of blog updates, i.e. exams and now (temporary) full-time work standing around 68 hours/week.

But I know you don't really care what's going on and you just want some new entries to read to procrastinate on whatever you're procrastinating on. So to make up for the lack of updates this month (and last month and... whenever), for a period of time, I'm going to try and blog once a day or every other day. We'll see what happens.

Besides, I have like a whole backlog of reviews to write. So bare with me. :)

Sapporo Sushi - a not bad sushi joint in Richmond Hill

2010-04-19T11:47:00.003-04:00

Sapporo Sushi is located in the Chalmer's Gate plaza (next to Xelua train), the same building where Saigon Star is but facing outwards onto Chalmers Road. JT has been here previously and thought that the food was not bad for its price so I gave it a try. The pictures were taken with a Blackberry so they're not that clear, sorry :( It was one of those random "hey let's go to ____ for dinner, NOW".

I love to look at these mats every time I go to a sushi place.

We both ordered the Super Bento $14.95. I ordered it because it seemed like a pretty good deal for what we're getting. JT ordered it for the sea urchin.

Complimentary miso soup.

Spicy salmon handroll. Not that much salmon in it.

Complimentary chap-jae noodles (because the owners are Korean).

Our dinner sets. I didn't know that the bento was cut-off when I was taking the picture, so that's why it looks like this -_-".
California maki and spicy maki at the two corners.

Uni(!!) on a bed of salmon, white tuna, red snapper and yellowtail sashimi. The uni was okay (of course not as good as Le Café Michi), and the rest of the sashimi was of your usually sushi joint quality.

Salmon, eel and yellowtail nigiri.

Complimentary mango peach ice cream.

Overall, all the fish were fresh but quality was average for everything (sashimi, nigiri, maki). But for $14.95, we were both really full. What I liked most from the meal turned out to be the mango peach ice cream rather than the raw fish. It's one of those places you would go to satisfy a sashimi craving without paying the AYCE price. But not if you're trying to look for the best sushi place in Toronto.

They also have this deal on one of the weekdays where a large amount of salmon sashimi (like 20 pieces or so) for around $10. But I forgot which day >_> It's not on the menu but it's written on a piece of paper taped onto the fish refrigerator glass.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I think Sapporo Sushi is not bad at all. Fresh and filling for the price. I've had countless restaurants that were worse and more expensive.

Sapporo Sushi
330 Highway 7 East, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3P8
(905) 882-7877

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Music of the Week - Charice

2010-04-16T16:38:00.007-04:00

Her full name is Charice Pempengco but most people know her as just Charice. First noticed by the public on the Korean variety show "Star King", then the Ellen DeGeneres show, and not long after she was noticed by Oprah. Since then, she had the opportunity to sing with her idols, Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli. If you want to know more about her, you can read about it here. But what I wanted to show everyone is her talent.

Charice - Note to God, performed on The Oprah Winfrey Show. The first song I heard from her that made her unforgettable. And to think she was just 16 years old at the time.

Her newest song featuring Iyaz (the guy that sang Replay) - Pyramid. Warning: it's very catchy.

When you're down on life

2010-04-14T13:14:00.003-04:00

Recently, a lot of people around me have been going through a tough stage in life. Whether it's stress about school/work, not knowing what to do after graduation, relationships problems or a combination of all of the above. And I get hit by these things too. Although I admit, I tend to dwell in these unfortunate situations, after a while of some self-pitying and some self-comforting, I do certain things that I know will speed up the process of getting over the issue and start being content with life again. So I created a list of things I do when I'm down, because sometimes we just get stuck thinking in one way and we need a reminder of what else we can do instead of sulking. Hopefully it'll make someone's day better, even if just by a tiny bit. Or just serve as a reminder to myself.

1. Listen to songs that fits the mood. When I'm happy, I listen to happy, upbeat songs. When I'm sad, I listen to sad, sappy songs so I can dwell in my unhappy feelings for a while and self-pity a bit. And then slowly I switch to different types of music and in no time, I'm happy again. Music soothes the soul.

2. Drive around at night on roads with high speed limit in your favourite car and blast the music mentioned in #1. I love driving the mini around when I'm sad. Or happy. Or any feeling in fact; makes me feel better automatically. Of course, do not drink and drive, cause that's just plain stupidity.

3. Indulge yourself in your favourite foods. Love sashimi, butter chicken or 小籠包? Eat until you're happy! For a limited period of time only, unless you're a stick in which case, keep eating.

4. This should probably be one of the first things you should do actually: talk to someone about it. Obviously if it's bothering you enough that you're genuinely upset, talk to someone. I believe ranting is one of the most effective methods out there. And then sometimes people can even tell you how reasonable/unreasonable your points are, some good advice or a tale of their own past experience and then you can re-evaluate your point of view.

5. Sing karaoke. This doesn't really apply to me but I know a lot of people that love to relieve stress or unhappy feelings through belting out songs on and off-key, with and without drinking.

6. Write it out. When I was younger, I used to write out the reasons why I'm unhappy onto a piece of paper. Then when I'm finished writing out all the possible reasons that contributed to how I'm feeling, big or small, reasonable or unreasonable, I shred the paper by hand into tiny pieces, the size of my pinky finger's nail. The shredding part is very, very relieving for me. Remember to recycle.

7. Traveling. It doesn't have to involve getting on the next plane, but go somewhere a little further than down the street and experience something different. It can mean going to Downsview Park for go-karting, biking at Centre Island or a mini road trip to the States. Take your mind off of the current issues, and who knows, maybe you'll think through the problem during this time.

8. Go out with friends. Similar to the point above, clear your mind by going out and having fun with friends on an activity that you enjoy but rarely have the time for, such as bowling, laser quest or even a board game night.

Picture credit to Charmaine Yip. Cindy, don't kill me for putting up a picture of you, but it just looks so nice!

9. Confrontations. If it's a problem with another person, you probably need to confront them about it sooner or later. I'm not good (at all) with confrontations but sometimes they're inevitable. Just remember to confront it with a positive attitude and to make them realize that the objective is not to anger each other but to solve the issue for a grander goal, ie. to improve productivity and efficiency at work instead of "my method is the best way to do it and yours suck". Stand and think in their shoes for a bit, then tell them that you understand where they're coming from. This will make you sound more understanding, your argument more convincing and hence, more likely to lead to happier outcomes.

10. Remember that life is short. If it's not an issue that can be solved, then accept it as it is and focus on more important things in life. Stop dwelling like a baby and just move on. Whenever I get reminded of the fact that life is short, I know that whatever problems I have now is just a small hiccup in my life in the end. And I can't stop here because of this hiccup; I need to get it solved and move on because there are too many other things I want to do still.

Picture credit to Tiffany Yam.

So this is my list. It's spring now, so #11 would be going outside on a sunny day with blue sky, which would cheer me up instantly. Have a good day!

Blushberry - frozen yogurt in downtown Toronto

2010-04-10T12:56:00.012-04:00

A while ago, JT purchased 2 super-amazing Blushberry froyo deals from Teambuy. It wasn't just amazing but super amazing because for $3 (tax included), you get 2 medium sized frozen yogurt with 3 toppings of your choice. Original price for this deal: $12. At Yogen Fruz or Yutopia, one frozen yogurt of that size and with that many toppings, would easily be $6/$7 each. Now it's just $1.50. I was so happy that day.

The problem was that we had to go to Blushberry three times before we received our pre-purchased froyo. The first two times we went during the regular business hours, the store was closed with no notice of anything kind to explain why. I called the business number, no one answered. We went next door to Starbucks to see if they knew what was going on, but the barista just said they're usually open. Finally, the third time which was on the expiry date of the deal, it was open and we got our promised froyo!

Medium sized containers. There are 4 flavours of frozen yogurt available: original, green tea, blush (which is pomegranate), and chocolate.

2 types of toppings: dry and fresh fruits.

Here are their usual toppings. There are also some seasonal ones at the store not shown in the picture. Click on it for a better view & for the regular prices.

Since we purchased 2 of these deals, we each ate 2 froyo's that day. This is JT's first one: chocolate frozen yogurt + blueberries + raspberries + blackberries. Pretending to be healthy pshtt. The chocolate froyo tasted really good, a much better option than eating chocolate ice cream in my opinion. However, after a whole cup of it, JT thought it was too sweet.

Although the frozen yogurt looks white (it's a Blackberry phone camera, forgot to bring the S90), it's actually tinted light green because it's green tea frozen yogurt + strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. I really liked the green tea froyo! Not so tangy like Yogoberri's yet a subtle green tea flavour.

After eating most of my green tea frozen yogurt and realizing how good it is, his second one comprised of green tea frozen yogurt + toffee bits (apparently a big hit for toppings) + shaved coconut + Captain Crunch cereal.

Blush frozen yogurt + toffee bits + kashi go-lean crunch + Ferrero Rocher (they only had dark chocolate kind, not the usual hazelnut one though). Personally, I didn't like the pomegranate froyo that much, it was so tangy that it was almost sour. I also didn't really like the toffee bits since I didn't think it went well with the blush froyo.

They also make smoothies if you feel like drinking instead of eating.

And if you're concerned about how nutritious the frozen yogurt is, here's the stats. More details can be found on their site: www.blushberry.ca. I love the song that plays on the site.

Their froyo is all-natural, gluten-free, Kosher certified, and meets the standards of National Yogurt Association. Yogurt itself have many benefits such as probiotics, helps with digestion, increases metabolism, reduces risk of high blood pressure and contains many nutrients that we need everyday. Need more reasons to come here? 2% of all sales go to local charities and all their utensils and cups are 100% recyclable.

With just ~30 calories per ounce, anyone that loves froyo should definitely give this place a try. I recommend the green tea frozen yogurt!

Blushberry
One location at the moment
155 John Street, Toronto, ON M5T 1X3 - East of Queen St. & Spadina

(905) 407-5331
Opened: Monday - Sunday 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM

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They're fairly new so there's no Google Streetview on it.

Red Room - decent lunch in a pub

2010-04-07T15:08:00.000-04:00

I haven't seen David for a long time now so we had lunch together here one day, near campus. Red Room is on the South-West corner of College St. & Spadina Rd. It's actually a pub, but they're open during lunch hours too. It's one of those places I'd easily walk by without a glance. Truth be told, if it wasn't for David I'd probably never take a step inside.

The inside is actually a bit dim, with wooden tables and a decor that gives off a run-down vibe. The menu consisted of the usual pub food and eclectic variety.

Simple tangy salad. Complimentary.

David's favourite dish here is the pad thai (in fact, I think it's the only thing he tried here) so we both ordered the chicken pad thai ~$6.95. It's spicy, so I asked for mine to be mild. The little tin bucket beside the noodles is filled with spicy soya sauce. I admit, I thought it's kind-of weird to eat pad thai in a Western place, and a pub nonetheless. But it wasn't bad at all. No ketchup taste for those who don't like pad-thai with ketchup, the pieces of chicken weren't too dry, and if anything, the portions would fill you up until dinner for sure. I don't think I even ate dinner that night afterwards, but then again my stomach is a bit smaller than the average guy (just a bit). The martiniboys described the portions as "colossal" which I think is exaggerating. However, I think they can go a bit easier on the oil; the noodles were practically glistening in it.

Decent food and relatively big portions for the price. Having said that, it's not really the type of place I'd go for lunch. Not sure how it is for drinks at night either. Green Room which is the sister restaurant near by on Brunswick Street serves similar dishes at a higher price. Consequently, Red Room seems to be a good place for many university students.

Red Room
444 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON
(416) 929-9964

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