with her forever

In Taiwan, they had these little wooden tubes(?) where people would write wishes and such on them. They were hung everywhere in certain places of town. I guess these are the equivalent of the little wooden plaques in Japan.

I hope this person's wish comes true. So cute..

terroni

I was really craving Italian food after that past week of all japanese food (sushi like 3-4 times that week?!). I've been to Terroni before however, knowing that their menu was fairly large.. I decided I should go again to try something else!


Terroni on Adelaide St. is the only location I've been to so far, however there are 3 locations in total in Toronto. This location is actually kind of unique. The restaurant is located inside a former York County Courthouse so the inside is unlike any restaurant.

Last time I came here I was with a large crowd but this time I only went with the two of us.. and boy was it crowded! We were seated in between a large group and another pair but... honestly, our tables were so close together that all I could listen to all night was the conversations next to me. The tables were so crowded that the waiters/waitresses had to squeeze in between the tables...

Anyway.. on to the food..
They had so much to choose from in their menu. All the dishes are in Italian though; there is a little english caption right under it however, the food vocabulary used is probably not very common to most people. We had to google a few words but there is always the waitress/waiter you can ask! With so much on the menu, I had such a hard time choosing what to get but what I realized was.. there wasn't a lot of chicken choices on the menu, if any at all - which I found was very strange...

For appetizer..


Fried Calamari - strange I can't find it on the online menu.. they had a grilled calamari also but after a bad experience with grilled calamari at Oliver & Bonnaci.. we've learned to stay away from the grilled.

When this arrived at our table, we were a little confused. There was only the calamari and lemon slices. No sauce in sight.. At first we thought maybe the waitress forgot to give it to us but .. we came to a conclusion that the dish probably doesn't come with the sauces (other tables didn't seem to have them either!). So the calamari was .. a little weird but not as bad as the one we tried at.. Joe Badali. That was the worst calamari yet :( This dish probably would have been really good if there had been a really good sauce too!

This time I ordered a pizza:


Li Pecuri: Tomato, Mozzarella, Goat Cheese, Sundried
Tomatoes, Arugola, Parmigiano

To be honest, I really didn't like this at all.. I realized I really hate Arugola. It's all that green herb that you see in the picture. To me, it has such a bitter taste and.. it's just really strange overall. I couldn't stomach much of the greens but together with the pizza, the strong taste was definitely toned down. The Arugola really just ruined the pizza for me. I was sad!!

He ordered a pasta:


Tagliolini in Canna a Mare: Homemade Tagliolini with Fresh Clams, Fresh Mussels, Calamari,
Scallops and Tiger Shrimp in a Light Tomato Sauce ( This pasta
is not served with Parmigiano to highlight the delicate flavours
of the shellfish; following ancient Italian tradition )

His pasta was okay.. I think he liked it. All the pasta at Terroni are freshly handmade so it was nice to have a taste. It was a nice al dente texture. Not a favourite of mine as cheese is a definite must have... and I prefer white sauces over tomato sauces!

I couldn't finish the pizza so didn't order dessert.. I much prefer the first visit I had to this location:


Al Salmone: White Pizza with Smoked Salmon, Italian Cream,
Mozzarella, Capers, Red Onions, Fresh Tomatoes

Smoked salmon is always really good!! Italian cream and mozzarella really went well with each other. This is definitely something I would order again.. too bad I was daring this visit and decided to go with something else!


Panna Cotta:

This was the first time I tried Panna Cotta. I liked the actual cream part itself however, they drizzled some kind of vinaigrette on it, which ruined it for me, but otherwise it was very tasty!

P.S. As I mentioned earlier, the interior design of the restaurant is very unique! The washrooms are in the basement and it's kinda really creepy actually! There are jail cells down there that are used as wine cellars now..
The washroom sinks!

Terroni
57 Adelaide Street East, Toronto.

university college

The University College Review of 2009.
It's been so long since I submitted those pictures (the three pictures on the left pages), I didn't even realize which ones were published until I got my hands on a copy. Pleasant surprise I guess.. funny how the last two pictures were taken before I even owned a dslr.

Clocks

I have this thing with taking pictures of clocks. I don't know how it started and I don't know what it is, but I think they make for such pretty and interesting subjects.

Cupcakes!

So since it's summer and I've still been procrastinating on my summer school work..I decided to bake today!

I decided I want to make cupcakes.. but I couldn't find any cupcake liners! Good thing I found some silicon cupcake trays lying around in the basement from last summer. These are environmentally friendly and easy to wash!

I like chocolate cake a lot more than vanilla cake.. so I decided on just plain chocolate cupcakes. The frosting I have is also vanilla frosting so I thought the contrast would work nicely :)


Ingredients

* 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons butter, softened
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 eggs
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup milk
Makes 12 medium sized cupcakes (~8 regular size cupcakes)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.

*recipe copied from: allrecipes - chocolate cupcakes

Obviously, using silicon cupcake trays, all I needed to do was grease them a little bit so that taking the cupcakes out would be easier. Also, instead of butter, I used margarine because that's all my house has. I baked mine for abour 22 minutes, not sure why it took so long but it was perfect! I poked each and every cupcake to make sure it was baked well enough! haha.








For the frosting, I used Betty Crocker's whipped frosting. For the light brown frosting, I mixed in a bit of chocolate condensed milk.

YUM :D

Guu Izakaya

My friends and I decided to drive up to Alliston, Ontario to explore and pick up a friend. The town is .. really tiny. There’s one main street that stretches like a 5 mins car ride. Too bad the weather was really bad and rainy.. we couldn’t walk around anywhere.
We all drove back to Toronto and went for late night KBBQ. The late night special at Korean Grill House (Miland & Finch) is only around $8.99, and a dollar extra each for all you can drink! It was our friend’s birthday so we got him a soju bottle and we all took shots. I never knew soju tastes so disgusting.. I didn’t get to take any pictures because the seating was really crowded and so I left my bag + camera in the car…


This isn’t Alliston… it was just from the drive back to Toronto. The weather was looking a little bit better ..

We took our friend around downtown the next day.. we were able to use a group day pass. $10 for all the traveling we did! It was such a rainy day again so not many pictures at all, so sad.


We stopped by Yorkville, just to show her the area and the nice cars… Of course, we went to Summer’s again. Toronto Pothole I think by far is the best flavour..

I was stupid and.. thought Chinatown was at Spadina/Bloor area. Haha, so I took the excuse to try out Fresh. I ordered a wrap:

Grilled Vegetable and Pesto Burrito
grilled red pepper, zucchini & sweet potato with pesto, vegan mayo, tomato, lettuce, cucumber, red onion & alfalfa sprouts.
The wrap was delicious! Although it probably would’ve been amazing with cheese however, to add any kind of cheese, it was $2 extra.. not very worth it to be honest. I will come back to this restaurant for sure! There are so many things I want to try on the menu..

We walked around Chinatown + Kensington Market.. Due to the weather, we weren’t able to show her around UT campus but.. we did get to our dinner destination, Guu on time! We got there right at 5pm (their opening time) and stood in line for 5 minutes! We got seated at the Bar seats.. and we got to see the bar lady make different kinds of drinks! The place was a lot smaller than I anticipated but still interesting.. our bar seats had no backs! Lol








Their menu reminded me of a little coupon book.. Although they had a lot of choices in the menu, no one suggested dishes except for me and I felt bad!! Poor girl, there was actually a lot of pork and beef in the menu.


"ABURI SALMON" Lightly seared atlantic salmon sashimi
with ponzu sauce and wasabi mayo
This dish was soo good, the salmon was lightly seasoned on the edges and the sauce was perfect! I normally don’t eat wasabi as it’s too spicy and strong tasting but the wasabi mayo used here was just perfect.


"SALMON NATTO YUKKE" Chopped salmon sashimi with seven friends(Natto, shibazuke, takuan, wonton chips, garlic chips, green onion and raw egg yolk). Mix them up and wrap it in NORI seaweed.
There was salmon in this, so I decided why not just try it?! Little did I know.. I’m honestly not very keen on eggs, let alone raw egg… The waiter mixed all the ingredients together for us and you wrap it in the nori to eat it. It was a very interesting dish with its gooey, weird textures. I didn’t enjoy it very much but I think my friends enjoyed it more than I did.


"TAKOYAKI" Deep fried puffed octopus balls served
with TONKATSU sauce and mustard mayo
This is surprisingly the first time I’ve tried takoyaki.. I really should’ve tried some street vendor ones in Japan but.. I don’t know if we ever came across one. This takoyaki dish was just perfect, the right amount of dough and octopus. The sauce was so yummy too!


"ODEN UDON" 2 kinds ODEN and boiled UDON noodle in ODEN soup
I honestly had no idea what I was ordering here but we ended up with this and it was pretty good! Nothing spectacular.. In our udon, we had taro jelly, bamboo shoot and radish. We had the hardest time and laughed about what the frig that brown thing was. We originally thought it was some kind of animal… as we didn’t get to choose the oden for our noodles. The taro jelly was .. not the greatest but my silly bf liked it, I think just because he likes jello…… lol. It was bouncy and squishy. I think I prefer normal taro better!


"YAKIUDON" Pan fried udon NOODLE with beef and vegetables
After reading countless reviews, this dish seems to be one that many have been satisfied with.. so despite the fact that there was beef in it, we ordered it anyway! The sauce and noodles were really really good! I love udon!


"HOTATE BUTTER" Pan fried scallop with soy sauce and garlic butter
The scallops were nicely seared and once again, the sauce was amazing. The green onions and sauce put together with the scallops.. yumm..

Overall, the experience was great.. not sure if I’d go back again unless I was feeling rich. I mean it’s hard to get a decently priced dinner and be completely full from it! I think this begins my search for the perfect Japanese restaurant.. in Toronto. The food I ate in Japan has spoiled my taste buds and I’m honestly so determined to find, in Toronto, that amazing ramen, curry dish, tonkatsu (their pork tasted amazing.. I had to eat it), tempura, etc…

I can’t wait till I get older so I can go back to Japan again !

sometimes

Sometimes I'm still paranoid that people will steal my pictures.

rural

We decided to drop by ACI for a short trip. It was nice to see all the teachers again, though I had already seen them a month or two prior. It’s weird that some have really terrible memories… as if I didn’t tell them about my whole life the other time..

Anyway, afterward we planned to go to either dynasty or rural.. just for the sake of it. Although the food at rural isn’t the best tasting or even anything special, it’ll always have special meaning – as I’m sure it’s the same for some of you girls.

They still had their little lunch menus out. I didn’t pay much attention to what it was.. because that’s when I realized how much my diet has changed within these past years. I remember always just ordering from one of the two lunches choices, really just out of convenience and price! However, this time, all they had was a beef dish and a pork dish. Maybe it was just bad luck that none of the choices were chicken.. which resulted in a long and difficult decision on what to eat.

After what seemed like forever, I decided on some shredded chicken noodles and he picked chicken with black bean sauce.


(stupid me, I forgot camera was still in manual.. and I’m too lazy to upload an edited version.)


My noodles were okay. I don’t know if it was because there was a lot of chicken in mine or.. I’m not sure what it was but I really just got tired of the meat and he helped me finish the chicken. It’s sad how I’m so wasteful all the time..

The pictures above and below were taken with the Tamron macro lens I hardly ever use.. so I figured if I just stuck it on my camera.. I’d be forced to use it!
Honestly, it’s rather inconvenient since it takes things so close up but when macro shots are needed, it’s lovely!





We were bored at the bus stop.. he takes pictures quite well, don’t you think? :D