The Girl Who Ate Everything

Ashley Ross created these step-by-step instructions of making pie crusts on parchment paper to promote classes at the Pastry Training Center of Vancouver, B.C. This is really good if you hate getting your recipe books dirty.

Having always passing by Chipotle around the Yonge and Dundas area, I've never actually gone it so I figured it'd be nice to finally check it out. 

Chipotle's interior has a very industrial feel to it as most of the decor is made out of metal. As you walk in you can smell the waft of the marinaded meat cooking on the grill. The restaurant was fairly busy, the dine-in area was near capacity and the line up was fairly long. 

They had a wide selection of things you can put in your burrito, burrito bowl, tacos (crispy or soft). Everything on the menu was made to order, and I decided to try the burrito.

This one was a little simplistic and it had cilantro-lime rice, pinto beans, barbacoa and sour cream. 

While this second burrito was stuffed a bit more, and it included cilantro-lime rice, pinto beans, grilled chicken, salsa, lettuce and some hot sauce to add some heat. I found both of them to be very flavourful and fresh tasting, not to mention the portions are quite large so it should fill you up. So if you're in a pinch and are craving for some Mexican food, you should consider making a pit stop at Chipotle.

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Today was very exciting seeing my cousin finally walking across the stage after 4 years of hard work. Like most graduation ceremonies it's a very long process since there's at least 100 names to be called. 

The fun part was probably when the ceremony ended and all the graduates and their family flowed into the gym to eat the snacks provided. There were cupcakes (chocolate, vanilla, marble), fresh fruit, and fudgsicles to choose from. 

A fresh bouquet of flowers nicely arranged for the special occasion! 

Going to IKEA is always so much fun, whether you're there to be silly in the showrooms like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in 500 Days of Summer or waking up early to have their extremely affordable breakfasts there's never a dull moment in that store. 

I unlike most of the customers who go to IKEA actually am not the biggest fan of their breakfast, so instead I opted for the cinnamon bun and Princess cake. I chose the Princess cake because of how vibrant the colour was and it immediately popped out for me. This pastry was quite light and not too sweet, inside was a sponge cake layered with raspberry jam and whipped cream and it was coated with marzipan with chocolate drizzled on top. 

On the other hand, my friend got the IKEA breakfast deal, and as you can see the eggs were overcooked. 

I was so surprised to see food plushies being sold here, the strawberries looked a little weird though. 

Pho always hits the spot no matter what time of year it is. They renovated at Vietnamese Star Noodles so you won't be seeing any palm trees any time soon. As usual, I get the house pho which has a mish-mash of ingredients in the soup such as tripe, beef balls, beef slices and they'll always come with a dish of bean sprouts, sprigs of mint and lime wedges that complements the soup. 

We headed over to Richmond Hill to try out this Korean bbq restaurant and we were definitely not disappointed. As always at any Korean restaurant you'll be served with some side dishes, I especially enjoyed the potatoes here.

The selection is similar to Chako in which you'll get a tray of vegetables along with all the meat and seafood trays. 

One of the unique items on their all you can eat menu was the pork bone soup which is probably why they'll be seeing me fairly often for Korean bbq. 

Like any meal, there's always room for dessert. We were quite curious to find out what the crispy ice cream was. It turned out to be ice cream topped with cereal and sprinkles to give it that crunch. 

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Ikea North York 15 Provost Drive North York, ON M2K 2X9   1-(866) 866-4532

Vietnamese Star Noodles 4188 Finch Ave E Scarborough, ON M1S 4T6 (416) 609-9796

Photo: Stewart, Tabori & Chang

Bruton Stroube Studios put together this video with a twist at breakfast. Isn't this a breakfast you wish you could've had pre-disaster? 

What better way to start the summer off than a lighting up the grill and making a mean burger? The Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board has made a website, cleverly called The Cheese and Burger Society dedicated to the combination of cheeses and burgers to market their cheeses. 

As an annual tradition my friends and I usually get together in May when school is out to catch up with each other. And of course it'd be centered around food. Having been to CNE for the most part of our lives, we loved the mini donuts that were sold there and was glad to know that their permanent location was fairly closeby so we had to buy some!

The store itself wasn't too big, although I guess that shouldn't be too surprising considering how large the product is. As you walk in you're greeted by the sweet scent of apple and cinnamon and freshly fried donuts. In a corner they had a display of a mock catering station with a dummy, which I found to be a little creepy. 

And this was the piece de resistance, the production of Tiny Toms! 

They had four different flavours to choose from, personally my favourite was the apple n' cinnamon.

Cinnamon

Icing sugar

Apple n' cinnamon

Chocolate

We took a quick lunch break and made some instant noodles.

We were going to attempt making macarons today with our fancy baking machine.

We all took turns mixing the batter with this machine.

This baking kit even came with fun patterns to pipe our batter into!

Tick tock, tick tock.

The macarons were a complete failure, I guess we shouldn't have made all those substitutions afterall. 

GUU

In the hustle and bustle of downtown Toronto, you will find a Japanese fusion restaurant like no other. The chain of Guu restaurants have expanded from Vancouver, adding their own footprint in Toronto. Guu SakaBar opened earlier this year in the Annex (Bloor and Bathurst), adding a second Guu to the city, the first one being Guu Izakaya located just steps away from Ryerson University. It's hard to imagine that this used to be a Burger King. For those who want to try Japanese fusion be aware that these restaurants are infamous for their no reservation policy, and where two-hour wait times for a table is the norm.

This definitely isn’t like your usual Japanese restaurant because the atmosphere here will lift your mood instantly. The staff’s enthusiasm is contagious! As you walk into the restaurant, you will immediately receive a warm greeting, “Irasshaimase!” (welcome) by all the staff in unison. 

The interior is something to note, the restaurant is very modern as it is surrounded by charcoal slate, accented by the wooden furniture and floors. One of the focal points in the restaurant is definitely the tiny boxed windows, often you'll catch curious passersby peering into the restaurant. 

The restaurant is divided into two sections, one being the main dining area with communal seating and a bar area infront of the open kitchen where guests are able to watch the chefs cook up a storm! On the other side is the zashiki room, where the customer can experience a much more authentic feel. In this room, the floor is raised with a lower seating area. Guests are kindly asked to take their shoes off and are offered slippers to wear so they can sit on the mats provided. 

Similarly to their sister restaurant, they have a special menu that changes weekly. It's also suggested you go with a couple of friends to be able to try all the items on the menu. 

Guu Sakabar's drink menu is quite extensive, they offer many varieties of sake, shochu, cocktails, plum wine, and you definitely won't miss Sapparo at this Izakaya (Japanese pub). 

Once seated, everyone gets a hot towel to clean their hands with.

We start off with drinks!

Akafuji:(red mountain Fuji): sweet potato, shocha, lemon, 7UP, grenadine

Yous time: Japanese yuzu, citrus quality of Ginjo

Sake Mojito: sake, lime, mint, Guu original ramune

Athough I'm not a huge fan of carbonated drinks, ramune is probably one exception I would make. This drink is also known as a marble drink due to the mechanism used to open it. First you have to pull the plastic tab off, leaving you a cap as seen in the picture above. With the cap you would place it over the hole and push down. This forces the marble in the bottle to drop down to the neck, causing it to rattle around when you drink it. 

Salmon natto yukke: chopped salmon sashimi with five friends (natto (fermented soybeans), shibazuke (pickled eggplant and cucumber in plum vinegar seasoned with ginger), takuan (pickled daikon), wonton chips, green onion and quail egg) wrapped in nori seaweed

Our first dish arrived, it was quite the spectacle with the array of colours. At first glance, most people wouldn't even think of eating a raw egg yolk, often due to the sliminess. However, the egg and the other ingredients need to be mixed together before consumption. Once mixed, you would wrap it in the nori provided. This dish was definitely something new for me, when everything was wrapped in the seaweed, the slimy, gooeyness of everything didn't bother me at all, infact it was very delectable!

Uni:fresh sea urchin sashimi

This dish was probably my favourite one of the evening. The sea urchin was plated on a bed of thinly sliced cucumber, along with some soy sauce to dip in. With every bite you could taste the freshness and sweetness of raw sea urchin, it was also very creamy. I would recommend this dish in the summer, as the cucumber would be very refreshing to have.

Takoyaki gratin:gratin with creamy octopus balls

If you've ever had takoyaki, this is something you should try! Takoyaki is a popular Japanese street food, where a small piece of octopus is enveloped by a flavoured batter which is then fried. This is a moderation of that, here they put the takoyaki in a ceramic bowl to be baked with cheese. I found the tako (octopus) to be very tender and by the time you reach the end of the bowl, you'll find yourself wanting more!

Kakimayo: baked B.C. oyster with mushroom, spinach, and garlic mayo topped with cheese

I love oysters prepared raw or cooked, so this was a definite must!

Temari zushi: torched salmon cream cheese sushi balls

When we first read the name of this dish, we were all very curious as to how they would incorporate the cream cheese to it. Once it arrive to our table, we were presented with a lovely plate of sushi balls all in straight line. Not only did this look nice, it was very delicious as well. And it wasn't heavy at all.

Pudding: Guuu'd vanilla creme brulee

Creme brulee is one of my favourite desserts. This rich custard is covered with a caramelized sugar coat. The best part is cracking it open with your spoon to reveal the creamy center. 

Brie cheese: deep fried brie cheese with mango and blueberry sauce

Intrigued by what the table beside us ordered, we decided to try this deep-fried dish ourselves. Surprisingly, the dish wasn't as oily as we thought it was. The brie was covered in a light batter of breaded panko and was fried perfectly. Within the first bite you could feel the melted cheese oozing out and sauce gave it a good balance of flavours.

Overall the food did not disappoint with the quality selection on their menu. This place would be great for groups or dates, if you don't mind the noise. And as we left the staff warmly shouted "SAYONARA!" to bid us adieu.

Next we headed off to Greg's Ice Cream along Bloor, 

Next off we headed to Greg's Ice Cream for some dessert.

A few of us were still a little hungry after our meal at Guu, luckily for us there was a sharwama place next door. 

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Tiny Tom Donuts 7323 Woodbine Avenue Markham, ON (905) 604-3094 

Guu Sakabar 559 Bloor St. West Toronto, ON M5S 1Y6 (647) 343-1101

Greg's Ice Cream 750 Spadina Avenue Toronto, ON M5S 2J2 (416) 962-4734 

Keung's Delight is known to have good inexpensive food, so we decided to grab a late dinner here. The wait wasn't too bad considering it was already 8pm. Since I don't have much of a sweet tooth, Chinese desserts tend to hit the spot since they're not too sweet, and the almond jello with mango sauce definitely satisfied my craving for the night.

I didn't want a heavy dinner considering what time it was, so I opted for a bowl of preserved egg and pork congee. My favourite part of eating congee is dipping the you tiao, or fried dough fritters if you will. This pairing complements each other with the different textures and flavours. 

We headed over to the local Chinese supermarket just to window shop and found these cute packaged Coke cans!

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Keung's Delight 7030 Warden Ave, Unit 1 Markham, ON L3R 5Y2 (905) 948-9000