Food Review: Golden Pineapple Viet Thai Cuisine

Another day and another meal at Golden Pineapple Viet Thai Cuisine. This restaurant is sister-restaurant to Xe Lua on top.

Today I ordered one of their rice dishes. B.B.Q Pork Chop and Chicken. From the looks of it, it may not tell but it was mighty delicious and filling.

I love that Golden Pineapple has extra large booth seats. They are big enough to fill 3 per side cozily.

This is my go-to whenever I'm dying of hunger (big portions) but want a good deal/price.

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The service here never lacks, but it's not to say they are over the top great service. I've come enough times to know that they do good and that's good for me. 

And if you ever need food like this at their prices (cheap) at any hour, then you can go up to their sister-restaurant Xe Lua because they are open 24/7.

Film Review: Take This Waltz

(photo manipulated by theccgirl)

A film by Sarah Polley, Take This Waltz is a depiction of the truth of a version of reality. It stars Michelle Williams as Margo married to Seth Rogen's character, Lou.

They are happily married for almost 5 years. The story starts from there. By fate Margo meets a mystery man on one of her work trips to Halifax and soon finds that the mystery man lives right across the street from her (don't worry, it's not creepy or horror-like). They find themselves drawn together, and from the get-go, she tells him that she's happily married. So, is there still a story to tell?

(photo manipulated by theccgirl)

Of course, I'm all about satisfied endings, but after watching this film, I sort of shrugged off that feeling to see, in particular with this film, stories can be told in a most selfish but honest way. Sarah Polley shows her audience a reality that isn't so pretty but is very bold. 

After giving it a sleep, over, I think I.......... liked the film. The story she told was different and nothing by-the-book. I know that there are sooo many films unlike the traditional happy endings, but this film really hit the nail with what it wanted to present, because for me, it presented itself in the most naked and truthful manner.

Rating this film: 4/5

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TAKE THIS WALTZ comes out in theatres today!

P.S. Seth Rogen does not lose any of his sweet humour, it's just a little shy. =0)

New show on CTV

I just happen to surf the channels a couple weeks ago and I ended up at a show called BENT. It caught my eye when I read that it was a comedy. Bam, you got me!

It stars Amanda Peet as a divorcee and with a young teenage daughter who moves to Venice, CA. She moves into a fixer-uper house and gets her co-star, actor David Walton, as her contractor. Like most love stories go, they hate each other and deny any feeling for one another... oh wait! actually, in this story, Pete shows her that there's something between them even though she denies denies denies.

The theme of this TV show is very obvious. Good girl meets bad boy. Will they or won't they get together!?

David's character is pretty addictive. He's funny and not the "insanely good-looking" that his charm comes out even more making him that much more interesting to watch. The chemistry with actress Amanda Peet is perfect. They are hilarious together!

You gotta watch it. 

It's on Tuesdays @ 8:30pm on CTV (channel 8)

The contractor crew

Food Review: Tutti Matti

When it's a beautiful day in Toronto, sometimes you can't deny eating out somewhere just as beautiful with a great atmosphere and quality taste.

The style in today's Food Review is classy, authentic and and down right good.

A trip to Italy without the trip and we land in TUTTI MATTI (west of Peter St. on Adelaide). While this restaurant is ranked $$$ in price, they currently have on the menu a Prix Fixe, very affordable -maybe even better than summerlicious. My antipasto was the Carpaccio di manzo (photo above and below).

They were very generous with the grated parmesan, fresh veggies and a perfect thickness of beef carpaccio.

For the main, I ordered del giorno (special pasta of the day). Fettuccine with a mix of veggies. The fettuccine was very fresh and thick. Loved it!

And lastly, we have the dolce, lemon sorbet. It........ was...... divine. The best lemon sorbet I've ever had. It had a very big creaminess to it that it almost felt like cheesecake texture but not quite rich. And the lemon flavour added a very cool freshness in my mouth. My only complaint is there needs to be more on my plate. =0)

And when it's yummy, you'll know! (photo below)

Overall rating: 4.8/5

This is a perfect place for fine dining. It's also best to make reservations ahead of time. We had a party of 3 and when we got there for 1:30pm, the place was already jam packed. It seems like it's very well known to those who frequent the place.. and I'm not surprised why.

Weather Watch with Miss Eve

Guys, today's gonna be a super great blog! You know why? Cuz its weather watch with Miss Eve again and she's got a lot to picture-pose about today.

She was very excited to be out and about to give you guys the latest weather report in blog form.

"As you can see from my hair today's weather is......."

WINDY! VERY STRONG WINDS WITH A COOL FRONT OF 20 DEGREES!

So, like Miss Eve, a light jacket is necessary if you're gonna be out today!

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And that's it for today! Happy Monday Everyone!

Dessert Review: Yogurty on Bloor

With the weather as hot as it is, ice cream parlors and such are considered to be heaven-like. It was no different when my friends and I, after having a nice walk after dinner, when we went to the newly franchise Yogurty on Bloor (east of Bathurst St.).

Similar to other frozen yogurt places such as Menchie's (just one street down), they do it "serve-yourself" style and gives you the chance to try what you like in mini cup and then when you are ready, grab a big cup and filler up.

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I will say that they had a very unique variety of flavors. They had a few fruit flavours, some cake flavors (Red velvet) and others were just wild like Greek Yogurt and Salted Caramel. 

With the cup already so large, I had to restrain myself and just get enough to enjoy. I ended up trying the Rasberry and Greek Yogurt. The Rasberry had a great big fruity punch to it while the Green yogurt was more creamy than anything. Overall, it was 2 great flavours, if I say so myself.

I really liked the look and feel of the place. Aside from the great location (The Annex), the big garage doors makes the frozen yogurt place even more inviting. I had a look at their website and it was also very pleasant to navigate through; it had a lot of visual aid. The only thing it seems to lack is a bit of information such as cost. As well the flavors it shows don't seem to be at every location as I did not see at least half of the flavours at the Bloor location.

For your knowledge, they are a lot cheaper than Menchie's (just east from this location). They cost 55 cents per 28g. I opted not to top anything on my yogurt because I'd rather just enjoy the cool ice treat as it was meant to. For this amount, it came to $2.45. Not too bad. I believe I had roughly the same portion when I went to Menchies and it costed me around $4 and change. And while my friends and I sat and caught up with our yogurts in hand, one of the waiters came by and handed out a $1 off coupon for our next visit. That was a nice treat and marketing technique.

Overall, this is a great and affordable place to go out for an ice cream substitution after dinner. Go with your friends, after date treat or just by yourself. The selection is great, the locations are convenient and best of all its not so expensive. 

Happy Thursday Everyone!

Food Review: Kenzo

In this small and narrow spaced restaurant, just west of Bay on Dundas street, my friends and I had a noodle craving. For good ramen noodles in Toronto, this is the place to be. It's nothing like Mr. Noodles or any other waxed-pouch ramen noodles, this is the real deal. 

 I ordered the special ramen, Tonkotsu Ramen, and when I finished there was not a drop left in the bowl. I added a little spice to my ramen and my meal was a made perfect in taste.

My ramen bowl was a pork bone soup with ramen, egg and pork. I loved that my soup was creamy with a hint of spice, had tender pork slices (with just the right amount of fat) and a salty hard boiled egg with the yolk not over-cooked. 

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This is a great place to just eat. Not a great place to socialize or to have big gatherings. This is all about the food and nothing else. 

Visual Weather Report with Ms. Eve

By the lovely Miss Eve, her weather predictions for the next 3 days will be.....

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HOT HOT HOT HOT...... HOT!! So just like Miss. Eve, don't forget to have your water bottle handy if you're going to be out for long periods of time. Keep hydrated like her.

And now, you've got the weather from me, Miss Eve. I wish you all a very good and hot week.

Farewell my friends... until next time! Kisses to all my fans!

-Miss Eve & theccgirl

Thanks for visiting!

Food Innovation: Chik Mul Naeng Myeon

A cute little korean restaurant uptown that has a lot of buzz.

CHO SUN OK Korean Restaurant is located on Yonge street, north of Steeles. Recommended by some of my friends, the dish called Chik Mul Naeng Myeon ($8.95), a.k.a the thin arrowroot noodles in special icy broth was a specialty. But why?

Part of its description gave it away: ICY BROTH! I have never ever heard nor have I tried anything like it.

Arrowroot noodles were very tasty. It was thin and a little chewy. All in all, very good!

In all honesty, it is a perfect dish to enjoy on a hot summer day like last Sunday, however, the innovation of creating something hot into cold is still so new to me that I cannot get past icy broth concept. Broth to me has always been hot or warm, not cold or icy. 

Another dish that I loved and ordered was a sausage-like dish (photo below); sorry forgot the name.

It reminded me of the Chinese sticky-rice but with much more flavour. This dish was also very big, great for sharing.

We got there around 5:30pm on a weekend thinking that there will be less of a line up, but everyone thought the same. The restaurant wasn't extremely small, but the amount of people waiting in line had us waiting for around thirty minutes for a seat. This was a great 'korean food' experience. 

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Happy Monday Everyone! 

FREE Tea @ David's Tea

(photo manipulated by theccgirl)

David's Tea would like to help celebrate all fathers on Father's Day with a FREE CUP OF TEA.

When: Sunday June 17, 2012

(photo manipulated by theccgirl)

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HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DADDIES!

Dinner Review: Bier Markt

Classy style restaurant on one of Toronto's hot spots (on Esplanade), Bier Markt.

Who frequents here? Suits. Ha ha... well it is on the edge of Toronto's financial district, so most customers are either from there or out-of-towners as Novotel Hotel is across the street.

Customer service: I must say, very impressed. I noticed many tasty items on the menu but I couldn't decide; so I did my thing and asked the nice waitress what she thought would be a good choice. It took me a while to choose between three items, and all the while, she did not made any sign of impatience. Throughout our time there, her attitude and professionalism were just as great as the design of the restaurant -classy.

So what did I end up getting?

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My favorite food: Sliders... or more specifically Brasserie Burger Bites ($14).

It was under "appetizers", but it was pretty filling and enough to be an entree. And the verdict was... pretty good. I enjoyed their cream sauce that oozed out onto the plate. 

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Atmosphere

Bier Markt  has sectioned its large space for many great moments. Bier Markt restaurant is a great place for special occasions and intimate private dinners with closed off rooms. Bier Markt's large outside patio is great for big groups to hang out and enjoy a wide variety of beers and then there's the bar section that also has live music at night. 

It's a great social scene if you've got the dough!

Party at ROM: Friday Night Live

Have you heard? This year, for the first time, ROM hosts FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE @ ROM since early May. But you gotta check it out soon because it ends June 22. This is a new and experimental event.

Who's there: Everyone. I saw freshman students to more mature seniors, handicaps and the skilled dancers. It was the most diverse group I've ever seen in one room having so much fun. Some had dressed up with gown while others came in t-shirt and jeans.

When is it: Fridays until June 22. This Fridays' theme is FUTALONGNKO -WHAT?

Time to arrive: 6:00 - 11:00pm

Age limit: 19+

Cost: $9 adult, $8 students  (unless you have ROM membership, then it's free)

Drinks & Food: Food starts at $5 and is only provided near the beginning of the event (6pm). Drinks start from $2 and there's non-alcohol and alcholic drinks.

They've got many Pop-Up Bars surrounding the main area/dance floor.

Line up for one of the pop-up bars (photo right above) 

My friends and I got there around 8:00pm (they start around 6pm) and the band started up. This past fridays' theme was "O Canada". It was interesting. I was merely awed by the diverse group that came to hang out and just how beautiful and fun it felt to be dancing it up in Toronto's great museum.

So.... What is this Friday Night Live @ Rom all about?

Food

Drinks

Fun

Dance

Live Bands

Meet new and fun people

Honestly, it was really fun. The atmosphere was alive and great. It's a perfect Friday night thing to do with a group of friends that want to hang out but do something new in the city. Here is a cool social destination in the city for Torontonians and for out-of-towners coming this weekend and the next.

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My one photo that night!