22 posts tagged “restaurant”

and what we shared at nyood this past friday:

Warm Smoked Calamari Salad
Chorizo, Arbequina Olive, Date, Frisee

Tuna Nicoise Tartar
Olive Tapanade, Plantain, Quail Egg

Purple Potato Flatbread
Artichoke Puree, Mizuna, Truffle Creme Fraiche

Grilled Sea Bass
Charred Lemon, Shallot-Chili Oil, Micro Greens

Butcher's Tenderloin
House Marinade, Swiss Chard, Potato, Aioli

Panko Crusted Chicken
Grain Fed, Radicchio, Pear, Key Lime

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle Tart
Anglaise, Tuille, Creme Fraiche Ice Cream

Brulee Lemon Bombe
Blueberry Lavander Ice Cream, Almond Dacquiose, Berries

it's difficult in pinning down a favourite. but if i had to, i would choose the purple potato flatbread, the sea bass and the panko crusted chicken.

well, i shouldn't call it the 'last wedding' but it will be the last wedding for a long time. i still can't believe arvie finally tied the knot! my boy's all grown up! *sniff*

it was a great wedding, though. very simple but memoriable.

as usual, i forget to bring tissue for myself. how very unprepared of me. and i knew i would cry. it was arvie, after all... i balled at tai's and trish's wedding like a little baby - of course i would be tearing up for arvie's!

but the fact remains that out of the original posse members, arvie was the last to get married. it sort of marks the end of an era for us. and while i'm sure we'll all be attending various weddings in years to come, the next wave of weddngs with be our children's. it's hard to imagine but it's true.

the night before, doug and i were feeling adventurous. so we made reservations at roger mooking's (foodtv chef) restaurant, nyood. it was basically a menu of smaller-portioned items meant for sharing. but the portions, while smaller then an entree, were still pretty generous so i wouldn't call them a tasting menu. we were told three items per person and i have to say that i probably could have done one less and still could have been satisfied.

we'll definitely return again, especially to try their brunch menu.

sunday, we had to go up north to my parents' place and pick up chaeli. i didn't want to rush our grocery shopping sunday morning before heading up, so we decided to hit the 24-hour grocery store on our way home from the wedding reception.

there we were, at 1:30am, all dressed up fancy like, and doing our shopping. shopping in heels is challenging as it is. shopping in heels while dead-beat tired is a whole level of challenge.

but... we got it done, got home, and crashed.

and the nice thing was that on sunday, our shopping was done.

it was by far a very good, long civic holiday weekend.

friday night, i came home and cleaned the house almost right away. i should remember to get into the habit of doing this much often because it is so much easier to get it done before my parents come home with chaeli, rather then being interrupted and then picking up where i left off at 10pm (or later) after they leave.

they stayed for three hours first to play jr. scrabble with chaeli, and then just to sit and chat with us.

i was asking them all sorts of questions about our vacation trips we took as a child - most of them being road trips.

it's amazing how much i've forgotten. or... how little i remember. but still, it was fun listening to them tell us what we did and where we went.

saturday morning, we woke up and headed off to rattlesnake point (as seen in the photos of my previous post). what a great two hour hike! i tried to pick a trail that wasn't too difficult. not only did i want to make it easy on chaeli but i haven't gone hiking along the bruce trail for quite some time. as i recalled, there were trails that required a bit of climbing through rocky and steep areas. while this trail did have a few spots of rocky areas, for the most part, it wasn't too difficult for a five year old, so long as one of us helped her.

saturday evening started off with a beverage at my aunt's patio, while we visited with then, my doctor and my doctor's wife. then about an hour later, we headed off to diane and rick's place for a bbq with the rest of the highschool gang. di had marinated some chicken and short ribs (kalbi). yum!

after dinner, the men suspiciously wanted to go to starbucks for a coffee run. we offered to go, instead, so we could leave the kids with them and get in an evening stroll but they bypassed our offer and immediately starting taking our orders. while they were gone, us wives discussed our shared suspicions. i even had to ask diane, "there isn't a golf store by the starbucks, is there?"

after all, the men were gone for a very long time.

when they finally returned, we learned that they also went to get fudge and then... the real reason why they wanted to go instead of letting us... they all came back with cigars.

which didn't bother us. in fact, it was quite entertaining to witness their logic - they bought one $26 cigar and five $5 cigar. the expensive one was passed around. which as ada pointed out, was one of the saddest things we heard.

there they were... five grown men all with good jobs (mostly professional jobs including a project manager and a VP) passing around a cigar instead of just buying one each.

anyway - it was a fun night. and we discovered how much easier it is now that all the kids are old enough to go downstairs and play on their own.

sunday morning, i woke up just after 8am with a mad craving for dim sum. i called my aunt and uncle, asking them if they were interested. and it just so happened that my aunt was also craving for dim sum as of lately so they definitely did want to join us. which is great. because unless we find a place that pushes the carts around, i'm horrible at knowing what to order from a menu. i need the visuals so i can say, "what do you got there? oh yes - that one. two of them please." we're finding that less and less restaurants are still pushing the carts around. which is too bad because part of the appeal are the carts.

for the rest of the day, we didn't do much. chaeli took a much needed three hours nap since she only slept several hours the night before (too short for a kid who needs at least 10 hours of sleep at night). doug prepared a jamie oliver pasta dish which is sort of like a spaghetti entree with some twists, including red wine and chunks of pancetta. it was definitely good, though. probably the best spaghetti i've ever had. and it was very complete with the antipasto we had before hand and the red wine during.

monday was a day of both work and relaxation. i had arranged for chaeli to spend the morning at my aunt's house while i went to the gym for a couple of hours. i called over after lunch and my aunt asked to keep chaeli there until dinner time, in which i would join them for some home-cooked chinese food. doug was at arvie's stag (a home-based stag giving some of the people a chance to join in on the fun, whom couldn't make it to vegas). the boys had some of tai's spicy, korean kalbi and i assume, beer, and then watched a movie in the backyard where tai set up a big screen.

i have to admit that i was a bit jealous that i couldn't go - it sounded like so much fun!

anyway, for monday afternoon, i did laundry but also just chilled out in bed while watching my will & grace dvd's.

vegas dialogue:

me: dude, you paid behind our backs?

rv: yes - this one's on me.

me: but it's your stag! we're suppose to treat you!

rv: you guys have been treating me for this whole trip - it's the least i can do!

me: well, alright.

doug: shy's parents and family friends do the same thing - they fight like crazy over the bill. it's an asian thing.

tai: it's true. whenever i go out with my family, we take forever to pay. it's like we go into battle over the bill!

me: our generation isn't like that.

doug: well, we don't care about making a status or losing face.

me: it's not even that. we're just too lazy to bother.

dave: what do you mean?

me: well, with our parents' generation, they go all out:

hey! don't you even think of picking up the bill.
what are you talking about? you never let us pay!
don't be stubborn - waiter! give us the bill, not them!
oh no you don't. we're paying - that's it.
no way - we're paying!

me: but with us, it's more like...

you sure you want to pay for the whole bill?
yes.
alright.

dave: lol!

me: wait... is that why you were standing outside the restroom?

rv: yup.

me: how did i not catch on? i passed by him on the way from the washroom and even said, "hey arvie" while thinking to myself, hmm... why is arvie just standing there?

this weekend was suppose to be a relaxing, do-nothing, type weekend.

when will i ever learn that in my world, that rarely exisits?

it started off with my mom and dad coming back with chaeli way earlier then expected friday night. by the time they left and we got chaeli off to bed, it was almost 11pm! i was just too tired to start cleaning the house then.

saturday morning arrived and after a slow start where we eased ourself in, doug and i started the house-cleaning process after brunch. it only took us an hour and a half. i must admit that having doug help is definitely easier - it just gets the process done that much faster.

when we finished, i still had an hour to shower, get myself and chaeli dressed, before heading out to the movie theatre.

then on sunday morning, we ended up getting together with my friend and her two kids whom were visiting from washington d.c. they were only in town until tuesday so sunday morning was the only chance we had to see them. chaeli had a blast playing with the two kids. and we had a great lunch together at a near-by chinese restaurant that opened a year ago - doug and i haven't had a chance to give it a go up until then. afterwards, we took the kids to a place similar to chuckie cheese for them to run around in the indoor playground for half an hour.

good times.

anyway, as for the movie...

chaeli had been bugging us for weeks to take her to see transformers - revenge of the fallen. when the movie came out on wednesday, she was quite anxious that we were going to miss our change in seeing it in the theatres. i tried to explain to her that it would take awhile before this movie, a sure-box office hit, to leave the theaters. she didn't quite understand and since both doug and i were excited to see this movie, it didn't take much convincing to take her to see it.

sometimes, my own kid amazes me. it was a 2.5 hours movie and because it was the first weekend, we went in to grab our seats early. she was pretty much sitting in that seat for a good three hours. granted, she was starting to get a little tired and restless by the last 30-35 minutes but she hung on until the end.

and, there were a few scarier scenes compared to the first movie but the girl didn't even flinch. she just sat there, totally engrossed with her favourite robots.

[note the below does not give away the storyline at all - but does critique on the style of the movie]

as for me, i loved it but i think the first is my fave. this one was a bit too long and while i had no issues with the more complex plot, others seemed to be critisized the movie for it. i do, however, have a problem with the introduction of too many new characters at once, which is what they did with the robots (only one new human character was introduced). with the additional robots, there were the twin autobots whom reminded me of jar jar of star wars.

the intention was for comic relief which just didn't seem to work for me. plus, i counted seven comic relief type characters and for me, that's just way too many.

in addition, the introduction of these new robot characters took away from the overall, character development that i would have liked to have seen - not just with the humans but with the autobots.

one critique from the last movie was that not enough emphasis was placed on the robots and too much was placed on the humans.

it was obvious that to compensate for this, they just decided to add more robots - both on the autobots and the decepticons side. but... what happened was far less interactions between robots. while some of the main autobots were still there like ratchett and ironhide, we rarely got a chance to hear them speak. they were there more just for the fighting. only optimus prime and bumblebee had most of the dialogue, as did some of the decepticons.

the focus was still mainly on the humans. so i don't know why they thought that just by adding more robots would help. it didn't. it so did not make it any better. i would have rather had them stick to the way they had it in the first movie.

having said that, i still really enjoyed the movie but more as an action type movie only. and the special effects had me mesmerized.

• this past friday night, we had last minute, unexpected babysitting. so, with the freedom to have a date night, doug and i both worked out (me at the gym, him outdoors for a run), meeting up at home afterwards. we felt like steak and lobster. and though i know we could have had a hundred different choices of where to dine, i suggested the keg mansion. our meal had us quite full so we decided to stroll through the village since it was just a block away from where we were. the festivities was gearing up towards pride week. there were a lot of people walking up and down the street... and better yet, so many people were sitting on benches and chairs outside various stores/cafes, just lounging, talking and people watching. some of the clubs were have drag queen competitions or just great music pumping out and into the streets. i saw one blond drag queen that looked so smart that i was tempted in taking a photo of her. i didn't though - didn't want to look like a tourist.

• on saturday, doug and i went to the gym for another workout and then headed over to an all-u-can-eat japanese restaurant to meet my parents, aunt and uncle. i'm pretty much content with the amount of sushi i injested though i feel like i didn't get my fix on spicy salmon sushi. afterwards, doug hitched a ride with my aunt and uncle because he had to go back into the city to do a recert for his first aid and cpr. chaeli and i went north to my parents' place and spent our afternoon plus dinner there.
  

• today, sunday, is probably my favourtie day this weekend. i woke up earlier then doug to fix him a father's day brunch (though he came down shortly to do the bacon - i'm a multitasker except while cooking). afterwards, we sat in the living room to finish our coffee while listening to some tunes. my aunt came over and joined us. then, we washed up, changed and headed out to get some flowers for our potted, patio garden. i just came in from potting five large pots. i pray this year, that we have more success then last year, when most of our flowers died by mid-summer. i should take some photos of them while they are still alive - just in case!

as for doug's father's day gifts, i bought him a travel set of shaving cream and after shave lotion, a large tub of shaving cream (that kind you use with a brush to lather up on your face) and the godfather trilogy.

he's quite happy considering last weekend, we celebrated his 40th birthday. i bought him a horrible histories book about scotland, the 13th warrior dvd and the mini-series dvd, lonesome dove. and, i bought tickets to see cirque due soliel KA at the mgm grand while we're in vegas. can't wait!

Scotland (Horrible Histories Special)

Terry Deary

The 13th Warrior

Lonesome Dove

Lg-ShaveCream-HR

Pd-Mens-Skin-Care-Kit-2

2 comments

i do believe the key theme this weekend has been all about food.

saturday a.m.
doug left early in the morning to head out east. he was volunteering as a first aider. there was a slight amount of guilt for not volunteering with him. but that guilt passed quickly when i realized i get some me-time since chaeli was sleeping over at my parents' place.

i got out of bed around 9am and did 40 minutes of pilates. ahh... pilates. it's been a few weeks since i did it last and i have to say that i really missed it. i felt incredibly good to get back into. surprisingly, it wasn't as tough as i thought it would be especially as i did an advanced program.

after a shower, i got ready and headed over to cathy's place. from there, we headed to butler's pantry. i had been dying to get cathy to butler's for so long that i was so happy that she not only ordered the one dish i had been raving about - the spinach nut casserole, but that she seemed to really enjoy it.

i, myself, had the chicken bastilla pie.

have to admit, i don't know what 'bastilla' means so i looked it up - apparently, it's a traditional moroccan fare which usually includes pigeon meat, egg, moroccan spices in sort of a pie encrustment.

butler's uses chicken but i do admit that i wish they offered the traditional pigeon variety.

mmm... pigeon!

saturday p.m.
there were seven of us (plus two kids) that met up at a korean family's japanese restaurant out in our neck of the woods. the place is called Niji's. it's not a very big place but i have to say that i'm very happy to see how busy they are. everytime i'm there, the place is packed!

the group consisted of doug and i, hoa (ada was in a conference in calgary), diane, rick and their kids, plus tai and trish.

we orded what was called 'the loveboat' special, asking them to create it for seven adults.

i'm not exactly sure what was suppose to originally come with the loveboat. the one thing i like about going to a japanese restaurant run by koreans is that they also give some extra 'snacks' or 'side dishes' you don't expect to get. and the more alcohol you order, or simply if you're with a large party, the more variety of such snacks is given to you.

anyway, we had chowder soup, miso soup, salad, grilled fish, spicy seaweed, shrimp and vegetable tempura, gyoza, a variety of maki rolls, a variety of sashimi, a variety of nigiri sushi and bulgogi over rice. plus green tea ice cream to finish it off.

we were completely stuffed.

diane took the kids home and the rest of us went to see terminator salvation. we had two hours to kill after buying the tickets - luckily, the new theatre we went to had a lounge that served coffee and tea. we were able to go into a private room with two flat lcd screens and one large wall screen to watch saturday night hockey.

the coffee helped. partly to help us digest our very large dinner but also partly just to give us that extra perk we needed to stay awake for a two hour movie.

the movie itself was okay. i was actually more impressed with sam worthington's performance over christian bale (though bale did a pretty decent job as john connor. it's just interesting because the media seemed to talk more about bale and i felt that worthington stole the spotlight.

sunday a.m.
we got a chance to sleep in and then meet up with my parents (and chaeli) for dim sum.

it's been such a long time since we've had dim sum. doug and i had a mad craving for it. but as usual, once i've had my dim sum fix, i'm pretty good to not have it for a few months. maybe even longer.

unlike sushi, the food is just very heavy.

and i always need to wash my face when i first get home.

all that oil and grease from the food.

sunday p.m.
not much excitement to report.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and

i spent the majority of my afternoon doing laundry and finishing up the bok, New Rules of Marketing and PR. i started this book awhile ago but due to being distracted with other work-related projects and issues, i had to put it aside. recently, i decided to pick it up and just finish it off. and in good timing too. i meat up with my manager for a review tomorrow. he wants to read this book after me so it's a perfect time to pass it off to him.

great book. while it was first written in 2007, i believe this 2009 edition added some new information. especially with the rise of twitter.

as annoying as twitter and facebook might be to some, the reality is that all these online, social media is now the very much a part of the new world of marketing and public relations.

lets just hope it comes in handy.

the plans for tomorrow night's dinner and a movie...

sushi at a small very busy sushi restaurant then terminator salvation.

i called ahead to make reservations but the woman said, "i don't know... we're very busy. we won't be able to accomodate you for that time period."

so... i emailed the posse and told them that i wasn't able to get reservations.

tai then calls the next day and instantly gets a warm and cheerful, "okay! see you tomorrow!"

what the hell?

how the hell did he get reservations at the exact same time (6 pm) when i completely got dissed?

i mean shit.

my god was i ever looking forward for the work week to end. not that it was a horribly bad week, to be honest. at the least, it ended off on a high note - i had been given a priority-1 assignment and was able to do a turn-around just shy of two business days.

i handed in two design versions. i was a little nervous because what i had seen in my mind was very different from the layout suggestion put forth. having said that, i have an excellent manager who trusts my skills and gives me a liberally creative environment to work in.

most importantly, the man does not hover. he leaves me be and trusts that i will hand in quality work. for me, that is so important and very appreciated.

anyway, he loved my final result.

so, thursday night, i came home on a bit of an adrenaline rush, as i always get whenever i'm happy with my work. and especially, when there's team effort involved where we just feel like we're on the right track together. i can't express how great that feels - to be part of working and effective team.

but i digress... getting to friday's events... i was looking forward to the weekend mainly because we had a lot of plans to look forward to.

it started off with coffee and just breakfast for chaeli as i rather workout on an empty stomach (a little hunger always drives me a solid and intense workout). i dropped chaeli off at my aunt's place. then doug and i headed to the gym for an hour and a half workout. i was happy with my blood pressure results because it's been a long time sinve i've monitored myself. after a five minute cool down of stretches, i took my blood pressure and it registered at 121 over 79. that's the best i've been since before pregnancy.

we went for a japanese place for lunch which was very quick serve but man did they ever take forever to give us the bill. and then, i realized that people around us had ordered food not from the lunch menu that we were given. i marched over to the hostess podium and found a fuller menu which had exactly what doug and i had hoped for. i wasn't impressed. i'm usually a generous tipper but for the first time in a very long time, i short-tipped them by probably half the tip that should have been the norm.

it's unfortunate - the food was good but hte service fell just so flat. not just in speed and attention but friendliness as well.

after a quick nap for chaeli (and doug), we went to the subway station and headed downtown to the museum.

i took chaeli on my own last year and she's been bugging us to go again, but this time, with daddy (she was very proud of taking daddy to see the dinosaurs).

it was a good idea to go - we had a great time. they've done so much good work on the museum and while they still have a couple of areas to complete, it's just changed for the better - drastically better! for one thing, there are two large areas for kids to get hands-on experience. chaeli's favourite is the dinosaur dig with realistic replica's of dinosaur bones hidden in the sand. each child gets goggles and a brush. volunteers there guide them through how to gently brush the sand away, just like they are on an expidetion dig. while the bones are being uncovered, they cue the kids to try and figure out which part of the dinosaur the bone is from. there's a large picture of the whole dinosaur skeleton on the wall for them to help them out on. it was fun watching chaeli engage in conversation with the volunteer (who was fabulous with the kids).

chaeli's second favourite area is the bat cave - something she never would have wanted go in a year before but asked to go in repeatedly.

pinning down my favourite sections is a tougie. i always go to the buddha section as the sculptures of both buddha and the bodhisattva always puts me at peace. there is also a part of egype where you sit in these semi-closed off booths with speakers on both sides of your ears. while you listen to the story of queen hatshepsut (1503 - 1482 BC, you follow the narrative as you gaze upon life-size wall sculptures depicting the voyage to punt. after the queen's death, her cousin, who was extremely jealous of her status, tried to erase all evidence of her existence. you can see hte silouette of her left but her name an image has been scratched out.

finally, my new favourite section is the gem and precious rock section - mainy the very back end that displays some of the gems set in priceless jewellery.

i can't help it. i'm a girl, after all. :)

we stayed in the museum four nearly four and a half hours, leaving just 10 minutes before closing time.