windsor arms hotel

i had the passion & envy, tastes a mix of sencha and passion fruit, fruity and lightly fragranted, i loved it

the caramelized shallot tart was my favourite out of everything, the sandwiches are good too, although the petits fours were kind of disappointing.. macaron was hard (!) and overly sweet

玉楼东

white pepper & chicken gizzard

smelly fried tofu

mashed pepper fish head

im a big fan of xiang cuisine, everything was great, only wish is that the smelly tofu was smelly-er, haha

babalúu

kind of average, not as great as we anticipated.. but i think it’s just not authentic enough, still want to try a more authentic version

guu izakaya

i could write a lot about this place but i have to sleep soon, so to sum it up: lined up for 2 hours, sat by the bar (which was pretty nice), lively loud/noisy atmosphere which i loved, interesting dishes that are worth trying, although food was mostly average at very tiny portions, overall great experience

destiny

i didn’t even order either of these but they’re kinda pretty =p

izakaya ju

I LOOOOVE THIS

forgot the name of this.. its chicken that tastes like tuna on rice

chicken ball & chicken skin

chicken wings

chicken cartilage & gizzard

chicken leg meat

these were from two visits, the gyu tongue is amazingg, i love how they grill over charcoal, really changes the taste. all the yakitoris taste pretty good, the momo & teba were particularly filling though did i mention that i loved the gyu tongue?

so i think i will be fine, everything will be alright, the world is not going to end, and when the sun comes up i’ll be ready to face the world with a smile again.

happy march 14th

long time no blog. there were so many things i wanted to talk about, but no time to write them down.. school has been pretty hectic as usual, but thanks to reading week there’s finally some time to relax (though its almost over )

it’s amazing how much of a difference roses can make. there’s something about them that is kind of magical, especially on the 14th of february =p

happy belated valentine’s
& chinese new year

took a 2-days trip to niagara falls on tuesday, there weren’t a lot of people visiting in the winter. but the view is still quite impressive in a different way.

was expecting rainbow coloured lights to light up the fall in the evening, but for some reason that didn’t show up

with peter, can hardly see the falls in this photo, haha

we visited the butterflies conservatory while we were at niagara falls. never seen so many butterflies all at once

i thought this photo looked pretty cool, haha

on to the foods..

la maquette

sauteed mushrooms wrapped in fluffy pastry, with avocado & balsamic vinegar sauce. i loved this appetizer, tasted so good.

i think this was grilled quail in a raspberry based sauce. the quail tastes a lot like chicken, but much much more tender and flavourful.

the portion for this looks ridiculously small, but its actually not too bad.. the hole in the middle is pretty deep, haha

the creme brulee was soooo yummmy, but for some reason the cream on the very top was as hard as stone.. lol!

i think the actual name for this is coffee tartufle or fartutle… something like that. basically coffee icecream, its a little more bitter than normal coffee icecream, but still pretty good

antica

i was looking for some good restaurants in niagara falls, and this one came across with a bunch of good reviews. its a pizza & pasta house, and the pizzas are baked in a wood oven. its pretty good, but doesn’t really stand out too much from the others

before & after shots of the calamari, lol

brasa brazilian steak house

my first time at a brazilian steak house, the atmosphere was amazing, food is pretty good as well.

my favourite was probably the grilled pineapple with brown sugar coating. i really like cooked pineapples

鼎泰丰

we were really craving chinese food after all the western meals. nothing beats a bowl of beef noodles and some meat buns.

i think i just packed way too much stuff into one single entry, haha its gonna be crazy again after going back to waterloo on sunday, too much work coming up

on the other hand, olympics has started for almost a week now. something i’ve been hoping for so long finally fulfilled - shen xue & zhao hongbo with pairs figure skating gold. they’ve been skating together for as long as i can remember, improving year after year, they’re really just amazing & im so happy for them

back in waterloo for the second weekend now, workload’s fine so far, hasn’t gotten to the stressful part yet, thank god. living a little far from campus this term, but the room’s a lot bigger and nicer than i’ve had before

so.. before leaving toronto, after many unsuccessful attempts (3 to be exact), josie and i were finally able to make it into wolfie’s for a bite on the montreal smoked meat sandwich that we talk about like every week. lol.

it’s incomparable to the one at schwartz’s, but good enough to satisfy my craving, im actually craving for one right now, haha

stella made me a birthday cake the other day completely from scratch. it’s 2 months late, but that doesn’t make it any less yummy.

there were 2 layers with chocolate and vanilla, strawberry flavoured pink cream, strawberries, peach, honeydew, and pineapples. it was the best cake i’ve ever had

i’ve been watching -jin- the dorama. had to cover my eyes for all the operations, but it’s still really really good. i haven’t watched anything with such a great plot for so long on the other hand, bandage came out today, so did olympos a while ago. genki is such a beautiful song, i can’t wait to see the movie