doors open

I’m way behind on blog posts, probably going to miss documenting about some things that’ve happened but this one was hard to pass! May 29-30(?) was Doors Open Toronto.. different historic and architectual buildings were open to the public for free. I was able to visit Le Royal Meridian King Edward, Toronto’s First Post Office and the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre.

Ah, it’s been so long but I had to find the time to edit photos and stuff. First stop was the King Edward hotel, we were bought up to the Crystal Ballroom which was apparently really famous up until 1950s. Now its just a very nice open room, they should really renovate it and reuse it, it would make such a nice ballroom. I swear I could have my wedding there!! The windows surrounding the whole ballroom was just amazing,





The view from one of the windows..



The hotel was so pretty, there were other ballrooms that we toured.



The Beatles stayed here for their visit in Toronto in 1964. :D

Next stop, we went to Toronto’s First Post Office. I came here when I was young for Doors Open and so I wanted to come again to see if I remembered anything. Obivously everything seemed so much smaller. But they still had a chance for visitors to write letters with a real quill and seal their letters with wax just like how they did it, back in the day.



The last place we had time to go to was the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre..

We climbed into this train to check out the engine part of it. It was so crowded but the guy explained how it would get extremely hot in there too cause it was a steam engine (which they obviously don’t use anymore..).





Look a GO train!

A little stop motion I made of the whole area. This semi circle thing was the train station, and the thing in the middle swivles and turns so that it can be matched up to one of the entrances into the station. Pretty impressive for taking the pictures handheld :D I was so stuck pivoting my feet though.

The place was right next to the Steam Whistle Brewery. We got free beer! I didn’t like it :(

That day I also had the chance to try macarons for the first time:



For dinner, O’Noir experience was alright. I mean I quite enjoyed eating in the dark. I don’t know why but to me, darkness always kinda relates to silence. I like how silence didn’t have to be awkward at all! I felt really quite at peace eating in the dark, although I did freak out over slippery butter. My shrimp was a bit burnt but the tomato risotto was really good! Somehow, argula always finds its way into my dishes though (it was in my appetizer)…

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.

the soles of your shoes, all worn out

Had quite the day today.. I got my long awaited haircut, brought a textbook, met up with friends, had frozen yogurt at Cefiore, then thai at some thai place.. forgot the name, sold a textbook then home!
Too much walking... went from yonge + bloor to university + college to spadina + bloor. Wow that makes it sound like not much but I had to lug around 4 textbooks for most of that journey :(


yayy


green tea yogurt with pineapple, mango and kiwi toppings :) soo good.


finally!


Then we walked across the street to this thai place.. it was so dark and squishy inside!


I ordered pad thai (chicken) because.. what else is there to order at a thai place? haha. I like pad thai anyway! :P

Tiring day, first day of school tomorrow at 8am! :( ughh.

do you know what's worth fighting for

I haven't updated in so long.. last two weeks of work ended. I guess I was just lazy and nothing's been going on esp. since now the boyfriend is gone. haha. loser :(
Work's been tiring, this last week - we went to centreville at centre island. It was pretty fun, who knew a little kid ferris wheel would be scary? The 6 year olds weren't even as scared as I was, I swear :(
I was also able to finish my roll of fisheye, finally!

like an apple in a tree, hidden behind the leaves

Went down to Harbourfront the other day, uhh.. yesterday. It was too hot to sit down to enjoy..



Went to cool off at the Power Plant Gallery. Contemporary Art.... very interesting. Some of it is super scary and confusing though.




The Simcoe Wave Deck? Bridge? Newly built this year. It's so damn steep I almost died with flats that have no grip. It's pretty cool though!

Went into Bounty, the store at the actual Harbourfront centre. I picked up a Paper DIY Pinhole Camera kit.
Pictures later when I'm done. It's taken me a few hours and I'm stuck. :( Not very easy :( But the cool thing is .. is that it uses 35mm film! Perfect :)

Dinner at Montana's. Had the Penne with Goat cheese. It was pretty good!! Oh we also ordered Calamari again and it sucked so much. The portion was super small and the sauce was like.. sweet and sour sauce. They weren't even crispy at all.
Dessert and games night at his home :)

where everybody knows your name

one day late :(
this week i..:
- finished gg season 2
- had food poisoning? :(
- so I puked
- made a dinner+dessert with ready-made food
- had a nice dinner with the girls!
- went out three days/nights in a row :O
- had mashed potatoes x2!
- had baton rouge/o&b for the first time
- had spring rolls for lunch

Went to Katsura restaurant today for Japanese food! So expensive but pretty good cept for hidden wasabi in the sushi :( I ordered Medley of Sushi with Anmitsu for dessert. :) Love the grandparents!

I didn't take pictures.. felt too formal.