What I Ate: Laduree, Toronto

Laduree's store at Yorkdale Mall opened last December. The line was too long then for me to come to the store. My Mom and I met up at Yorkdale Mall to celebrate my birthday early. When we passed by the store, there was no line so we took advantage of it. 

I love interior of the store. It's a pastel heaven! Everything was cute!

Hard to choose what flavour to get. I had tons of choices!

I got a box of 6 macarons for $27. Love the boxed packaging!

My cute Turquoise box.

I picked 2 pistachios (my Mom ate want already), salted caramel, chocolate, passion fruit, and rose petal. 

You can also dine inside the store. They have a selection of sandwiches, soups, cakes, and of course macarons. And also gourmet tea's and coffee. 

What I Ate: Soos Resturant

I keep forgetting to post photos and write blog posts about restaurants that I try in Toronto. I usually post it on instagram but this dinner was really good so I want to immortalize it here on my blog. And I really want to write more restaurant recommendations for tourists coming to Toronto. 

We celebrated my eldest sister's birthday here at Soos Restaurant (Malaysian fusion). It was a girl's weekend! We opted for an early reservation so that we can enjoy each other's company longer. And we knew the restaurant will be busy later on the night. 

We all ordered the "feed me" for $38 pp. We wanted to all taste their favourite dishes. 

Pulled kapitan tacos - house made tacos with nappa carrot slaw with tzatziki

Pork belly pancakes - nyonya sticky soy pork bellly on a crispy taro root pancake. I really loved the crispy taro root pancake! I could eat it all all day.

Light Cafe

After the big CNY feast, we walked over to Baldwin Street to search for dessert. We found Light Cafe because we wanted pastries (well the girls did).

The first thing that you notice is the plant wall! And the first thing I said was, "this place is so instagrammable!". We all went crazy taking photos of that wall before we sat down to get our order.

This is a new cafe that opened up on Baldwin. I've been coming to this street for years now since I used to work close to it and I have seen this street go through different changes. Restaurants opening and closing all the time. I hope this one sticks around. I used to go to Margarita's all the time for Mexican food and now I also go to Kinton ramen. Lovely street to explore if you love food!

My boyfriend ordered this flowering jasmine tea. I shared it with him because it was really too much for one person to finish. It's really good and quite strong. I guess you can add more hot water if you want to dilute it a bit.

Shared this with one of the girls- seasonal mille fille. Super pretty and quite yummy too! I don't think I could have finished this alone too.

And they have this really hipster cotton candy coffee. I'm not a coffee person but our friend enjoyed it.

Overall, it was a fun experience. Lovely decor, good food, and drinks. Will definitely come back here to try the fresh waffles next time! 

**not sponsored post.

Chinese New Year Feast

I never say no to any celebration so it was no different that I celebrated the Lunar New Year with friends. We went to King Crab Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown. The restaurant was full and everyone was in a jolly mood and drinking Maria Christina wine. I'm not sure why almost every table there had the exact brand of wine (it was not being served by the restaurant).

As you can see, we ordered so much food but it was for 6 people. We ordered a combo and added more dishes to it. It was still a lot but we managed to finish everything off.

I'm not a veggie person but this dish made me a convert. Snow peas with king mushrooms.

 Fried fish with blackpepper sauce.

Sweet and sour pork.

Before the table became too full.

This is one of my favourite dishes and I actually cook it at home. Eggplant with minced pork.

Since I'm allergic to crab we ordered the Hong Kong style lobster.

 Lobster with E-Fu noodles.

8 Things about Food & Me

Thank you Christienne for the tag. She knows me well already! I do love food so here goes my 8 Things about Food and Me.

Q: What is your favorite cuisine? & How often do you eat it?

I have lots since I always have a rotation of cravings. I try not to eat the same type of cuisine all the time. I love mixing it up! 

But if I can pick a couple, I would say Japanese and Vietnamese.  I've been trying to control my sushi intake lately so when I go out to eat Japanese food, I try to order other items. I never get sick of eating Japanese food. There's always something new to try.

And Vietnamese food because my boyfriend loves it and we have pho at least once a week. Although lately, I'm more obsessed with ordering vermicelli bowls.

Q: Home cooking or Dining out?

Definitely home cooking. I love going to the grocery store (my happy place) and picking out fresh ingredients and cooking at home. I especially love doing this on weekends when I have more free time to cook more complicated and time consuming dishes. A is a good cook so I usually help him in the kitchen but when it comes to seafood and other Asian dishes, I cook it myself. 

Q: Do you have any family recipes?

No, my family doesn't have any guarded recipes :( I think one of my sister's is compiling her own though. She's a very good cook! 

Q: What is your favourite restaurant?

Mine are scattered all over the world and most of the time, I don't know the names anymore. For me what stands out more are the dishes, not necessarily the restaurant. I barely go to restaurants because of the decor or ambiance. I'm only there for food ;)

Q: What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten?

Bulls penis! I kid you not...my friend actually ordered it at Kenka bar in NYC. He passed it around for us to sample too. It was gross. 

Q: Coffee or Tea?

Tea all the way! I love all kinds of tea...ginger, chamomile, green tea, oolong tea. You name it! 

Q: Name one food you really dislike?

mmm..celery!

Q: What's dream food experience?

Well, I would love to go to San Sebastian and do a tapas crawl!! or have all my favourite dishes in one room so I can stuff myself silly (without gaining weight of course).


Please feel free to answer the questions above so I can read your answers too. 

Christmas Market 2016

I never pass up the opportunity to visit the Distillery District Christmas Market. It's a tradition now with A to visit every year. We usually go during the week to avoid the crowds and the entrance fee (haha!). 

It was freezing cold this time and I actually almost cancelled our date but changed my mind after having tacos for dinner!

It's always fun to walk around and find installations where you can take photos because it changes every year. I love the light up words they have dotted around the whole Distillery District.

And I love popping in and out of shops to look for gifts as well. Some of the shops go all out in decorations.

But everyone's favourite is always the giant tree outside! It's the best!

And I'm so glad I went because it powered up my Christmas spirit. Now, I'm very excited about Christmas and I can't wait to spend it with family and friends.