Enjoying afternoon tea is one of my favourite things to do in life, and it is especially enjoyable if you are taking  a break from a long day of shopping.  That’s what I would typically do when I’m in Hong Kong.  Some of my university roommates were visiting Toronto from Hong Kong and Scotland earlier last week, so we went to have English-style afternoon tea at this place called The Old Curiosity Tea Shop at the Main Street in Markham.

This tea house is very old English style indeed.  I actually think they should update their decor so that it is more classy than old looking.  We started off with a huge menu with over 80 different types of teas to choose from.  They have many different types of black, white and green teas, as well as some African and Asian teas.  I chose my go-to tea English Breakfast.  They served the ladies and gents with different styles of tea cups.  The ladies got floral-patterned tea cups and the gents got a more masculine design.

First came the finger sandwiches.  They tasted ok, but I was expecting some smoked salmon sandwiches but they didn’t have any…

After a long wait, we finally got the scones.  These tasted pretty good, but they were a lot flakier than normal scones which are usually more dense in texture.

Overall, it was a fun experience, but next time we’ll have to try the King Edward Hotel’s afternoon tea!

I love getting gel nails.  I think it is a great invention and a great alternative to the conventional manicure because it lasts so long and does not chip for up to 3 weeks.  There is a nail spa that opened up about a year ago at the plaza by Woodbine Ave. and Major Mackenzie Dr.  I’ve always walked by there but never had a chance to go give it a try until last Friday.  Kathy’s Nails and Spa has great equipment and a nice setting.  There are also 3 locations for you to choose from in the Markham and Stouffville area, which are not all displayed on their website, but are listed on their store brochure.  This location has 6 pedicure massage and spa chairs along one wall and 6 manicure stations along the other side of the wall.  I was pretty excited when I saw the place.  Unfortunately, the manicurist did not have the skills to go with the tools.

I wonder how long they have been in the business of gel nails because not only did the manicurist not have any pre-made designs for me to choose from, she didn’t have a big selection of colour gel or sparkles available either.  I decided to pick a darker purple colour with gold sparkles, very simple design, and just wanted her to get it over with so I could get out of there.  It took her several tries to get the colour gel the way I wanted it.  All the different colours that I tried on were very transparent and didn’t turn out opaque even after 2 coats. When I thought that hurdle was out of the way, the manicurist surprises me with another amazing act of trying to apply sparkles to my nails by using the same paint brush that she used for the gel!  Obviously this didn’t work as the sparkles wouldn’t stay on my nails, so I asked her if she had another type of brush, and when that didn’t work, she decided to just dip my whole nail into the jar of sparkles!!  I couldn’t believe how bad this experience was and how this store could possibly provide gel nail services to customers when they are so amateur.

The finished product turned out to be alright, but as you can see there are sparkles spread all over the nails instead of just at the tips.

On Tuesday night, we went out for a celebratory team dinner.  Our manager wanted a place that was “cool & casual” so one of our Montreal coworkers suggested BBQ, which is a cheaper, more casual version of the high-rent Bar & Boeuf, both in the Old Montreal area.

This is such a cool new restaurant for enjoying a night out with friends and great food.  They have an extensive beer and cocktail menu and the food prices were quire affordable.

I loved my coriander and cucumber gin and tonic very much.

We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share.  BBQed octopus, charcuterie plate, foie gras terrine, and escargots with gnocchi, which I didn’t get a picture of, but they were all delicious.

For my main, I decided to give the BBQ carbonara a try.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the nice crispy piece of pork belly!  The dish also came with tuna, which I thought was kind of weird, but still tasted great overall.

For dessert, we went with the BBQ carrot cake, which came with yummy cream cheese icing, carrot confit and carrot jelly.  Dessert is always the greatest part of the meal!

Over the Victoria Day long weekend, a group of girls and I went to Las Vegas for my friend’s bachelorette bash.  Well, you know the saying, “Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”  So, I’m not allowed to disclose any details in this post, but I will share with you some of the things that I loved…food and shopping! Read the rest of this entry »

Since I fly Air Canada every week, I get excited whenever there is a new enRoute magazine in the back pocket of the seat in-front of me.  This month’s issue had an article on Montreal.  A lot of times, this is where I get my food sources from.

When I saw that Le Chien Fumant (The Smoking Dog – not the cigarette kind of smoke, the flaming kind of smoke!) was mentioned in the magazine article, I decided to look it up for some reviews.  The reviews, the chalkboard menu, and the whole look of the restaurant looked promising.  Even the house cocktail of brandy, sugar water, sparkling wine and lemon juice boosted our expectations for a great meal.

I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed by the food, but more so by the long wait time for my food.  We ordered Cajun-style crab cakes to start, followed by baby-back ribs.  They also served dishes such as deep fried Cornish hen cooked Southern style, lamb filet, lamb shank with pasta, and clams in black bean sauce.  With our appetizer, we got a free order of Chinatown calamari.  Both tasted very good, but I didn’t get to snap a picture of the calamari.  The food doesn’t sound like conventional bistro food at all which gives this restaurant a distinctive twist in the menu.

While we waited impatiently for our mains to show up, they served us another free appetizer, the beef carpaccio cut thick.

Here’s my ribs served with tamali and corn.

The food was pretty good.  We had to wait but at least we got free food and enough food to pack lunch the next day!

It’s been so many years since I’ve last visited Quebec City, and this was my first visit ever since I started working out of Montreal a year ago!

Based on reviews from Trip Advisor, I decided to book a room at Auberge Le Vincent.  This is a very comfy boutique hotel with 10 rooms for you to choose from.  We stayed in room 10 for a reasonable price and free breakfast.  The hotel owner was super friendly.  He showed us exactly where we should walk in the old city and recommended a great local restaurant for dinner. Read the rest of this entry »

After reading about the Gold Medal Plates Canadian Culinary Championships win by the chefs at Kitchen Galerie, our team has been meaning to try out this restaurant for months, and finally found the time last night to pay the tiny restaurant a visit.

We were served by owner/chef/waiter Mathieu Cloutier who explained their menu consisting of a three-course meal created fresh daily with whatever ingredients are available at the close-by Jean-Talon Market.  Given choices of several different types of foie gras, oysters, pork belly, scallops, and short ribs, the team had high and hungry expectations for an unforgettable meal.

My foie-gras-loving coworker jumped on the dishwasher foie gras bandwagon as soon as the chef introduced it to us.  I was a little skeptical myself because I couldn’t get around the idea of a piece of foie gras being literally poached in a jar inside a dishwasher…I much prefer pan seared foie gras myself, so I opted for the porsciutto bits, melon and arugula salad as my appetizer.  It turned out that the dishwasher foie gras tasted much like a foie gras pate, but my arugula salad tasted awesome.

The chef recommended that I “super-size” my scallop main dish with black truffle shavings, so you could smell the wonderful scent of truffles from a mile away.  The vegetables were cooked with big chunks of bacon, so needless to say, they tasted amazing.

We were disappointed by the dessert though.  It pretty much eliminated Kitchen Galerie’s chances of becoming one of the restaurants in our top-3 list.  The desserts were simple and unintriguing.  I had the creme brulee and I’ve had better.

Recently, I made a short trip to Hong Kong to visit my dad and brother because they underwent surgery.  Besides visiting the hospital during my short stay, the rest of the time I spent on eating, drinking and shopping!

Here are some of the places that I tried out:

Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a while since I blogged about restaurants in Montreal.  That’s because our team hasn’t really been actively going out for dinner lately.  Last night we tried a new French restaurant in the Plateau area called Monsieu B.  The restaurant is a cozy little spot and you can bring your own wine.  For the price of the food, it is definitely worth a try, but make sure you make reservations as the place is quite tiny.

With your meal you will get a free cup of soup.  The one we had was a curry carrot soup.  It tastes better than it looks.  I’ll take it if it’s free!

For my appetizer, I ordered the tomatoes done three ways ($9): bloody caesar shot with oyster (it was a small oyster so it didn’t show up in the picture), polenta with sundried tomatoes, and yellow tomato with mozzarella.  I really liked the presentation of the dish and it tasted great!

For my main I went with the good-old beef tartare ($20).  It was a huge meal so I barely finished half of it.

For dessert, we tried the cheese cake which came in a glass.  It was very rich and creamy.

After many failed attempts at visiting the Hoof Cafe due to Chinese New Year and other conflicting priorities, I finally completed the mission to try out the new brunch hot-spot downtown this weekend.  And the food turned out to be phenominal!  Since it was our first time there, we tried out the must have dishes:

Brioche French Toast with a slab of Foie Gras ($9 + $14):

The seared foie gras tastes so good with sweet syrup, and it adds a creamy texture on top of the fluffy French toast.

Suckling Pig Benny ($13):

 This is definitely recommended for somone who prefers something salty for breakfast.  The pulled suckling pig is very tender and I like the added touch of the arugula salad.

Bone Marrow & Strawberry Jam Beignet ($5):

These were sweet and salty and chewy all packed into one bite.  I wish they would make them a little bigger like a timbit though.

Large French Press Coffee ($7):

This pours about 4 cups of coffee, so it’s perfect for sharing.

Overall, it was a great brunching experience.  The food was great and the wait staff was very friendly.  However, I would only recommend this place for small groups of 2 or 3 because the restaurant is really small!

Can’t wait to try the Black Hoof across the street for dinner next time!