30DC18: Something I Crave A Lot

Yeah, baby.

I love my sweets, but every so often, nothing can satisfy me better than a savoury, meaty, roast beef sandwich.  I'm not talking about the slimy, slippery, nitrate-saturated crap you buy at regular supermarkets, but slices of heaven that actually come out of an actual, filler-free, hunk-of-cow roast that was perfectly-seasoned and blasted in the oven. Yuuum!!!

I first experienced what I call "real roast beef slices"

30DC16: A Recipe

If you need a recipe for a simple, delicious, and adequately impressive dessert, I highly recommend this! I recently made it for breakfast – it was meant for dessert the night before, but we were too full and had to save this for the next day. Sweetheart was impressed, I was delighted, and it was all-around happiness! Best thing is that it takes only about 5 minutes, if that. Without further ado, here’s how you make my peach flambé:

30DC11: Something I Ate Today

One of my favourite lunches when I'm at work!

From my beloved Chipotle Mexican Grill!  Barely a two minute walk away from my office, I need to exercise real strong will to not have it too often.  My favourite order is:

Tasty Tuesday: Hide-Chan Ramen Food Porn

Pork buns

I've done a full review of Hide-Chan Ramen before, which can be found here.  On my recent trip to New York, I tried a few other things from their menu, so I thought I'd do a follow up post to tell you about them.

Pictured above are their pork buns - a slice of grilled pork belly with crisp, sliced lettuce and Japanese mayo sandwiched in cloud-fluffy white buns that reminded me of mantou.  These buns!  These buns were so soft, so light, and so fluffy.  The pork belly was torched to perfection.  The lettuce was very fresh and the mayo tied it all together beautifully.  These were so good we asked for another order right after the first was finished!

Chicken karaage

The chicken karaage was good but not amazing.  I've had better in Toronto - more about that later - but the dipping sauce was quite good.  The chicken was adequately crisp and juicy.

Gyoza

My little cousins were big fans of these gyoza but I thought they were just okay.  They were teeny-tiny though, so don't count on these being filling!

Tasty Tuesday: Veniero's

Beautiful ceiling inside Veniero's

On my recent holiday jaunt to New York, I was taken to this charming little Italian café near Union Square called

Tasty Tuesday: Mars Diner

Grand Slam from Mars Diner - OMG SO YUMMY!

After yesterday's post, I've been asked what kinds of food I eat for my cheat meals, so I thought I'd show instead of telling!

I have a bit of a confession to make:

Tasty Tuesday: Shiso Tree Café

Shrimp Okonomiyaki Pasta from Shiso Tree Café

Is there any emotional issue in the world that pasta can't fix?  I don't think so.

Broken heart? 

Tasty Tuesday: La Bamboche

Left: Cassis & Earl Grey Cake  Right: Matcha (Green Tea) & Sesame Cake

I've been known to go bakery-hopping once in a while, and the most number of bakeries I've hit in a go was four.  For a city as large as Toronto, where things are so spread out, it was no easy feat!  Sometimes, I'm on a hunt for something specific -

Tasty Tuesday/Cupcake Chronicles: Bobbette & Belle

$2.95 each - Top L-R: red velvet, raspberry, mango | Bottom L-R: cookies & cream, chocolate, (and I think) apple spice

The Cupcake Chronicles have become something of a life mission.  I’m still looking for the best cupcake in Toronto, only it’s expanded – I’m also looking for the best cupcake in every city that I visit, if they’re available.

On this edition of the CC, I try the offerings from Bobette & Belle, a pretty well-known bakery down at the Beaches.  A lot of my fellow foodists have been wanting to make the trip down there

What I Ate/Eat to Lose 35lbs.

shrimp, avocado, blueberry, cherry tomato, herb & mixed greens salad w/ Japanese dressing

Since I posted that I've lost 30 pounds (I've actually reached the -35lbs. mark now), I've been getting lots of questions about my fitness and nutrition habits.  Earlier, I posted about my fitness routine, so I thought I'd follow up with a post on what I eat.

And the truth is

Tasty Tuesday: The One (Part 2: The Food!)

Lobster Spoons

Before you read this, please click here to read my review on the very, erm, colourful ambience of this posh restaurant!

Okay, let’s finally talk about what I was looking forward to most during this outing: the food! (Cue the harps!)

Tasty Tuesday: The One (Part 1: The Ambience)

Interior of the restaurant

I love pretension.  To be exact, I have a penchant for pretentious places and things but not so much for pretentious people, which admittedly, I can sometimes be.  So of course I was delighted and excited when I learned that one of my work Christmas parties was to be at The One (also known as the One Hazelton to some people), a very posh and expensive restaurant located below the Metropolitan Hotel in Yorkville (a posh and pretentious neighbourhood in downtown Toronto). 

It’s a popular celebrity hangout.  I know someone who was seated beside Gerard Butler on the well-known patio when she was there during the film festival, and I’d read that Bono was just there in September – and of course, as I’ve already established, what’s good enough for Bono is good enough for me. 

But most importantly, I’d heard that the food was amazing.  And of course, that was my primary motivation; I’m always there mainly for the food.  I’d do very much for good food.  If I were to ever write an autobiography, I’d call it “I’m Here for the Food.”  Dead serious.

The One is run by star chef & restaurateur, Mark McEwan, who also runs the gourmet joints, North 44 and Bymark, which another friend has been to and loved.  He's a celebrity on Food Network Canada and he has a big reputation to uphold.  They charge $56 for a steak at The One and $18 for a cocktail.  There must be a reason for all of this, and I was really pumped to experience it all firsthand.

Tasty Tuesday: Bar Central (La Boquería)

Bar Central at La Boqueria, Barcelona

A few weeks ago I alluded to a food-induced out-of-body experience that I had in La Boquería.  You know that feeling, when you

Tasty Tuesday: Pret A Manger Chocolate Chip Cookie

Famous chocolate chip cookie from Pret-A-Manger

Doesn't that look sinfully delicious?  But first, some housekeeping.

From the messages I keep getting from everyone, it's clear that a lot of people have not caught onto the new posting schedule yet!  So to explain it once and for all, on Sundays I post essays about all kinds of things and issues that matter to me, on Tuesdays I post about food, and on Thursdays I post about beauty products, although so far I've focused only on nail polish.  And then occasionally there will be a non-scheduled post here or there.

Back to that beautiful chocolate chip cookie.  Now that I'm

Tasty Tuesday: The Burgers Priest

The Priest at The Burgers Priest

AAA-MEN!

When I am feeling particularly carnivorous (probably due to Hot-Blooded Canadian Girl Cravings), nothing can satisfy me more than a big, juicy burger, seasoned and grilled to perfection, on a lightly toasted bun, garnished with my favourite sweet, tangy, spicy, and crispy condiments.  *Homer Simpson drool*

So when I heard through the grapevine a while back that

Nirvana

28 wheels of parmiggiano-reggiano on display at Bayview Village Pusateri - my idea of heaven!  I spent a good 10 minutes standing there admiring the cheese, fantasizing about how it'd taste alone and in other things...so many possibilities!

Tasty Tuesday: La Boquería

Colourful spice stand with sundried tomatoes!

Do you guys know how many times you’ve saved me?

Tasty Tuesday/Cupcake Chronicles: Magnolia Bakery

excited to taste my purchases! :D

1.) Happy Back to School to all of you who are still in school!  Here's to a year of good grades, lots of fun extracurrics, minimal stress and sufficient sleep! :D

2.) I love cupcakes and I love Sex & the City (the TV show, not the movie).  Thus, it was only logical and right for me to visit Magnolia Bakery, the cupcake shop in SATC.  I thought that there was only one shop in Manhattan in Chelsea (or was it the West Village?), but one day on our way to 30 Rock, we saw a line wrapped around the corner of a building under the sign, Magnolia Bakery!  Naturally,

Tasty Tuesday: Hae/Hwe Dup Bap at H-Mart

Hae dup bap at H-Mart

Hi, guys!

Summer’s winding to an end now and while most people would be bummed, I’m really enjoying the cooler weather (no more 40 degree temperature! yay!). And as always, I’m really looking forward to getting to rock some fall steeze – fall has always been the most exciting time of the year for fashion.

What does make me sad, however, is

Food Fail: Ciao Wine Bar

Pizza Capricciosa @ Ciao Wine Bar

I try to avoid writing negative reviews for things I don't like because, as they say, if you have nothing nice to say, you shouldn't say anything.  And goodness knows there are plenty of kickass things out there I can rave about.

But occasionally, it's so bad that I think the word needs to get out there, especially if the products are on the pricey side.  As I've written before,