Catch Up Time

Where do I start? I'm so behind on blogging it's not even funny. Been pretty busy at work and what can I say, laziness plays a big role too.

On July 10th, Karen, 細V, Gootoe and I finally made an attempt to go to Niagara on the Lake and complete that wine tour Karen and I've been talking about for months. It was a whole day trip, starting with breakfast at On the Twenty, then Cave Spring in Jordan, then Southbrook, 大山行, some lavender farm, Pilliteri, Stratus, then Tim Hortons (LOL), some little shops in Niagara on the Lake, then Peller and finally Inniskillin. We left Inniskillin just as they closed, at 6:00pm, and went to have dinner at The Keg overlooking the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. That was neat! After a short walk after dinner, we headed home. Good thing it was Karen that drove, otherwise I would have fallen asleep behind the wheel (like I did a few times when driving Gootoe home). Finally got home at 2:00am and passed out.

Ice and dessert wines were mainly the highlight of the tour, probably because no one really cared which wineries we visited and so I picked the ones I wanted to see. Southbrook is one I really like and ever since they've moved from their Major Mac and Bathurst location, I wasn't able to get the wines that the LCBO didn't carry. Their new vineyard and winery at NOTL is very modern but unfortunately, the front of their building looks like it's under construction with the blue "hoarding" around it. So much for design that I don't know how to appreciate, LOL.

I really liked the ultra modern look of Stratus, a smaller winery next to Jackson Triggs (we didn't even bother with JT). Nicole and Nathan had lots of fun chasing butterflies and running around in their vineyard.

Apparently, Pilliteri and Inniskillin both renovated so they don't really look like old fashioned cellars anymore. My favourite cabernet franc from Inniskillin was on sale so I just had to pick up a bottle!! Otherwise, I made sure I bought wines that weren't available at the LCBO/Wine Rack.

My 戰利品's:

1. 2008 Southbrook Triomphe Cabernet Sauvignon (organic)
   
2. Sonoma Smoked Olive Oil
3. 2006 Inniskillin Cabernet Franc ice wine
4. 2008 Stratus Riesling ice wine
5. Southbrook Cassis
6. Southbrook Blueberry
7. Southbrook Blackberry
8. 2005 Southbrook Vidal ice wine
9. 2004 Pilliteri Cabernet Franc ice wine
10. Vineyard Pantry Blue Cheese Dijon Mustard (front)
    

AC Style Kaiseki

Jul.25.10 - 4:52p
I am now on the plane enroute Calgary and guess where I'm sitting?? J class of course! Yes, that means I'm in executive first again!! Kwaakakkakka! Although the J Tour of Tokyo had to be cut short, I must say I'm not really disappointed to go home a day earlier. The weather is so hot and humid there that you really don't want to do anything but stay indoors. Anyhoo, we're going home baby! and in J class!!

This morning, I woke up at about 7:45a but stayed in bed until about 8:30a when I got up and started packing my stuff away. Tinlop and I wanted to grab some breakfast before heading to the airport so we went to Isetan again to see if we can grab something quick to bring to the airport. After some sampling again (haha, I like sampling) we decided to go to Family Mart for easy eats. I bought my first onigiri of this trip and ate it on the limousine bus ride to the airport. Taking the 11:40a bus, we arrived at the airport at 1:00p and shopped for a bit. Oh my, the airport is more like a mall than anything! 5 levels of shopping even before you get into the gates! I ended up buying some mochi that mui and I had in Kyoto, kanimiso for 文生 and some okashi for the office. Somehow, I don't really feel like buying anything for myself? Sigh...

I just ordered the in flight kaiseki dinner. Tinlop's been talking about it ever since he went to Tokyo with Cindy last year. Haahahah, I certainly do not believe it would even compare to the one we had last night but it'd be interesting to see what AC's interpretation of it is. (5:07p)

Jul.25.10 - 7:37p
Wow, I'm really sleepy....probably thanks to the Gravol I had to take. Funny how the air seem to be very turbulent today! The kaiseki dinner was actually very impressive! For an on flight meal, it's actually not bad at all! Too bad I couldn't finish all of it. With the 5 item appetizers I was getting pretty full already and was kinda glad they started clearing away the dishes when suddenly one of the FA's brought over another tray full of food! waaaahhh, I was getting nauseated from the turbulence and the smell of the beef actually made me kinda sick. So I had to take a Gravol just to be safe so now I'm super sleepy! I thought I'd finish the episode of 搜下留情 and take a nap and the FA brought over more food! aiya! The beef from the kaiseki was surprisingly tender and not at all dry. Cooked to a medium, it was definitely palettable. It's just too bad I only had room for one piece. I already skipped the cheese with crackers and the chocolate lava cake with ice cream so I think I'll have my fresh fruit bowl and then take a nappy. :) (7:45p)

Jul.25.10 - 12:03p Toronto time (Jul.26.10 - 1:03a Tokyo time)
I can see why one (the one in question is of course, me) can be so spoiled in first class. As soon as I dropped the seat down to its horizontal sleeping position, I passed out immediately and slept for 5 hours! How nice! I woke up about 40 minutes ago and seeing the FA's have started serving breakfast, decided to wake up and eat. Otherwise I would have just fallen asleep again! kekeke~ Having food means we're almost at our destination of Calgary. Breakfast was congee with an assortment of Japanese cold dishes, fruit, yogurt and a really nice flaky croissant. I actually finished everything except the two slices of grapefruit. Now I feel like a pig and want to nap again, hahahaha~~ Looks like we're going to land soon because the flight in charge just made an announcement. So much for napping... (12:10p)

後記: Of course the flight from Calgary back to Toronto was uneventful... and that concludes my Tokyo trip 2010!

懐石料理 FTW!!

Jul.25.10 - 1:01a
Dinner was sooo great that it deserves a total post by itself!!

So we left shortly after 6:00p to Sensoji temple again because tucked away in some side alley is a quaint Japanese style farmhouse that serves kaiseki ryouri 懐石料理!! OMG, ever since I started watching the 點解日本咁好玩's, I've always wanted to try kaiseki. Last time when I was in Osaka, I didn't get a chance to go but this time, I told myself I must! Thanks to the handy Frommer's guidebook, we easily found the really really nice place to have my absolute first kaiseki experience.

We wouldn't have been able to locate this restaurant if it wasn't for the recommendation from the guidebook since we'd not think to head into some back alley after visiting such a big tourist attraction. After the hour-long subway ride, we came up to Waentei-Kikko 和えん亭　吉幸 and peered at the sign that had two tags that read 18:30 and 20:00. We thought: darn, did we miss the seating? Not wanting to wait around doing nothing for 1.5 hours, we decided to open up the traditional Japanese sliding door to let the owner know to expect us later, only to find out the place was deserted except for 2 tables (yes this place has no glass windows)! Great, that means we can eat! The cute (and really really polite) hostess, who spoke very little English, came up to us and welcomed us warmly. She pointed out that the restaurant was set menu only and made sure we knew what we were up against. I was getting so excited already! We sat down on a traditional tatami たたみ mat and ordered the 9 course kaiseki meal. They have a 7 course and 9 course regular set and the same with fugu. Since I've already had fugu before, Tinlop didn't care for it and most importantly, since we didn't have reservations, we ordered the simple set instead. Waaaaah, service was so impressive and impeccable! Food was presented very very nicely, as expected, and the taste was absolutely phenomenal!! The highlight of the night was definitely the mini concert the host gave playing the shamisen 三味線, a 3-stringed instrument which (if I understood correctly) he had 40 years experience playing. Waaaaahhhh, that was a real bonus lor! What an awesome awesome experience! Just before the performance, the host came by and asked us where we're from and during his performance, he mentioned having guests from Canada and played us a "Canadian" tune, lol... it was "Happy Birthday", LOL!! We finished dinner (I was all smiles), took some pics with the host and hostess and left just shortly before 9:30p. I was really happy I had my chance to carry a couple of very broken J conversations during dinner and that's exactly why I like speaking to people who speak very little English so I am forced to spit out what I can in Japanese.

We went back to the hotel and after Tinlop had taken his 3rd shower for the day, we went out again at 10:45p to check out Shinjuku Nichome again. This time, there were way more people but after a drink (I didn't even finish mine), Tinlop suggested we leave and we did. We spent a total of 40 minutes there, including the travel time to and from the hotel, LOL!

I am now trying desperately to finish the plum wine that I opened yesterday. Somehow, I can't seem to see that bottom of that thing! Literally too, since the bottle is completely black and opaque. I think I'm going to go take a quick shower, finish the wine and then hit the sack, concluding my final night of my shortened stay in the monstropolis of Tokyo. (1:44a)

Harajuku et al.

Jul.24.10 - 4:59p
This morning Tinlop and I were wide awake by 7:30a but didn't leave the hotel until 10:00a since nothing would be open before then. After a bit of persuasion, Tinlop finally agreed to go to the Meiji Jingu Shrine 明治神宮 again. So off we go into the steamy Tokyo sauna toward Harajuku 原宿. Halfway during the walk into the shrine, I was already dripping wet from the sweat and good thing the walk was tree-lined! We saw a Japanese marriage ceremony take place so I snapped some photos along with the other busloads of nosy tourists. The Shrine was in the middle of a lot of green stuff so after we were done there, we had no where to go but to retrace our steps back out the way we came in. In a nutshell, that just means grumpy Tinlop, LOL.

We stayed in Harajuku for some window shopping and decided to have ramen for lunch! We stumbled across a ramen chain called Kyuusyu Jangara 九州じゃんがら and I had a really savoury pork bone soup based ramen with egg, chasiu, pork belly and mentaiko! Yum! All the while they were playing 女子十二樂坊, haha, 好好 feel wor!

After lunch saw more window shopping at hippy teeny bopper type clothing stores, Adidas, Topman, Burberry, Dior, Emporio Armani, Louis Vuitton Men and my absolute first time in an adult store, Condomania! LOL, nothing special in there except the Okamoto 0.02 (I've only seen 0.03 so this must be new) which is pathetically overpriced. We left Harajuku at around 11:30a and headed toward Shimbashi 新橋 in search for a shopping mall called Caretta Shiodome　カレッタ汐留 but was rather disappointed to find that it's not really a shopping mall, but a very tall building with too many restaurants over 8 of the 47 storeys. The "mall" is the home of the first commercial museum so we walked briefly through the exhibits. While trying to find the damn mall, we passed by the Nippon TV building 日テレビル and walked through the 2010 Shiodome Expo, consisting a bunch of kids playing games at a bunch of booths. I was so dehydrated I decided to stop by a Starbucks (knew I should have brought my loaded SB card) and downed quite the expensive venti sized cup of Yuzu Green Tea Frappucino. Oh, it was soooo refreshing! Somehow JP venti doesn't look like our venti... somewhat smaller in my opinion!

After the morning of walking, both Tinlop and I were so tired we decided to go back to the hotel to rest up (and stay out of the heat) before heading out again for dinner. Just when we got off the subway, Tinlop was hungry so we decided to head to the higher end department store Isetan to check out their food level. WOW and OMG!! Larger than any other I've seen so far, the place was PACKED with numerous 師奶's buying prepared foods and desserts. Amongst the hundreds of booths, I managed to see a Pierre Hermé counter!! OMG, I told myself if I saw one in Tokyo, I'd go in and buy ONE macaron to see what the hype is about with his renowned French creation. Of course I couldn't resist and bought three (couldn't buy any more, they were expensive!!) and it came with a cute little Pierre Herme ice pack that when defrosted, is actually an antiseptic! How ingenious is that? I picked Citron, Envie (cassis) and Rose. After snapping a kazillion photos of them back at the hotel, I finally bit into two of them and is saving the third one for later. O-M-G, they ARE yummy! The shells tastes just like the ones I make but the buttercream is sooo good!! Now I wanna make macarons again!

Now that it's almost 6:00p, I think I should get ready to head out for dinner! (5:51p)

お楽しみ旅行!

Jul.23.10 - 4:48p
What an eventful day so far! This morning started off at 4:15a when I just could not sleep any longer so I got up to finish blogging the previous day's events and tried to figure out where Tinlop and I would be headed for the day. We left at about 5:45a to head over to Tsukiji Market 築地市場. Since we didn't get there to line up at 4:30a, we couldn't go watch the great tuna auctions so we just wandered around the market looking for fresh fish for breakfast. I was disappointed to not find a single live fish at the market, but rather a lot of dried and pickled stuffs instead. Not to mention I was looking forward to eating live squid! Poo! We wanted to try out this recommended sushi place inside the market called Sushi Dai 寿司大 but the line up was out the door and then some! Plus breakfast at 3,600Y (over $48CAD) is just a teeny bit harsh for us frugal vacationers. Although I would have loved to try eating at a place where you don't have plates (eat off the bar) and the fish looked soooooo fresh! We opted for uni chirashi instead and it only cost 1,600Y. By the time we left the fish market, it was just after 8:00a.

We took the subway to a very deserted Ginza 銀座, walked up and down 2 blocks, decided we were not going to be able to stand the nasty heat (yes, at 8am!!) until 10am when the stores open, so we left and went to Asakusa 浅草 to do some massive touristy things like gawk at the big lantern at Sensoji Temple 浅草寺. There are small little booths selling souvenirs, yukatas, shaved ice etc. leading up the path to the temple along which we overheard very many free walking tourists speaking our very familiar dialect of Chinese. After melting a bit in the 9:30a sun, we left for the 鴨記 of Tokyo: Akihabara 秋葉原. This is the area to be if you want the newest and greatest in J-technology. Mind you, I didn't go see the innovations at Sony or Honda, but ended up in several electronic department stores just browsing. Did I mention it's hot here? After a quick kaiten sushi lunch near the JR Akihabara station, Tinlop and I decided to head back to the hotel and stay out of the sun for a bit. (5:58p)

Jul.23.10 - 10:37p
Left again at 7:30p to go see what it's all about to be gay in Tokyo by heading to Shinjuku Nichome 新宿二丁目, the hood to be if you're interested to see gay men of all ages... uh, ya. We saw a very old couple, like I mean OLD. Kinda weird. 四仔冇格仔 on posters of doors and sex shops... of men... hmm weird... the area wasnt' exactly bustling yet at the time so Tinlop got really bored so we left for the other place in town to be: Kabukicho 歌舞伎町. Now contrary to its homosexual counterpart, this hood was REALLY bustling with activity, BUT Tinlop got tired and hungry so we ended up walking to the nearest department store to get some last minute deals on cooked foods. I ended up with 6 slices of a really good snapper for 330Y and that was pretty much my dinner. Had some of the Choya 黑糖 plum wine I bought last night (super sweet) and Tinlop passed out. (10:49p)

東京に行きましょう!

Jul.21.10 - 1:46p
1:30pm take off time. 都算 on time bor! Thanks once again Tinlop for bringing me on yet another trip la! 都唔知幾開心!

This morning I got up at 7:50am-ish and finished my packing, took a shower and left with 文生 to hitch a ride with him down to Bayview Station. After so many years not having to take TTC, I felt like a free walker! Sigh... Got down to mommy's at 10:30am (!!) and left for the airport with Tinlop after a quick McD's cheeseburger takeout.

There are soo many open seats on this flight we couldn't get first class but hopefully we'll get on the direct flight back to TO where we are SURE we'd be in first! Kwaakakakaka!! Talk about being spoiled rotten! KWAH! Can't wait to see what the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun has in store for us for the next few days. Only thing I'm not looking forward to is the 33C+ weather that will be waiting for us when we land. Hope I don't melt like I did in Rome!

The FA's are now coming around with the first round of beverages and pretzels. (1:54p)

Jul.21.10 - 2:00p
The pretzels are actually Maized and Confused Corn Chips. What the hell does maized mean? and how confused can corn chips be? Probably not as confused as I am now. (2:02p)

Jul.21.10 - 2:50p
Just finished lunch of a really crappy (why am I even surprised?) beef teriyaki with soggy pet pet rice and a tomato cucumber salad. OMG, I'm really spoiled... food in first class is so much better! Learned something new today: alcohol is free in economy class on international flights. Didn't know that!

Jul.21.10 - 6:31p
Napped for a bit, but not really able to sleep lor. It's kinda chilly in the cabin and now I'm kinda hungry and extremely bored. (6:34p)

Jul.23.10 (4:32a local)
Dozed on and off in between watching episodes of 搜下留情 and snacked on my first ever Cup Noodle. "Breakfast" of congee and fruit was served about an hour and a half before landing at 1:00p Tokyo time which is 13 hours ahead of TO. So by the time we landed at Narita International Airport 成田国際空港 at 2:30p, we've already lost half a day!

Upon landing, Tinlop and I were greeted with a very clean airport and really nice people. Ahhh, such a polite and civilized country JP is! We passed through immigration quickly, having our fingerprints and photo taken and off we went to take the bus out into Tokyo! Local weather is hazy, humid and a whopping 33C but luckily (unlike our Roman Sweatbox Extravaganza of last year) our bus was VERY well air conditioned.

1 hour 45 minutes later, we arrived at Shinjuku Station 新宿駅 and quickly found our way to our lovely "cozy" hotel! If I recall correctly, the room is even smaller than the one in the love hotel mui and I stayed at in Osaka, LOL! We thought about switching to a now available twin room, but after one night decided against the hassle. After a quick shower and settling in, we headed out on our first rendezvous with Tokyo!

Our official first night in Tokyo saw us wandering around the Shinjuku Station area checking out the department store food levels, LOL, and eventually having some really yummy cold soba noodles for dinner. Afterward, we decided to head to Shibuya 渋谷 to check out the "Times Square" of Tokyo and wandered the surrounding area a bit before heading back to the hotel because both Tinlop and I had gone over 24 hours without much sleep (only a few hours on the plane).

Jasmine Ice Cream

I have so much to catch up on blog wise...sigh... not to mention I still have the journaling left to do for my last 2 scrapbook pages of my 2008 HK trip (gotta remind 細V about that 序). One blogger took 2 years to finally finish her 114-page book of her 2008 JP trip and I can't even get 39 pages done. Talk about procrastination. Sheesh.

文生's been having a lot of late nights at work this week (earliest he came home was 10:30pm) so while waiting for him for dinner tonight (he's still not home yet), I decided to make ice cream. So random eh? Well, I did want to make earl grey ice cream a few days ago. Not wanting to waste any of my loose leaf earl grey in case I screwed up (I haven't made ice cream in years), I decided to make jasmine flavoured ice cream. The mixture is cooling right now as I type so I'll just have to haul my arse downstairs to bring up the ice cream maker. It smells really good, but knowing what's in it makes me kinda sick. 1 cup milk, 2 cups heavy cream, 10 tablespoons of sugar, 6 egg yolks. That, translates to lots of fat, muchos cholesterol and too many calories. Eeek!

While stirring my mixture vigorously (as the recipe instructed), I remembered the ice cream 細V, 文生 and I had in Taiwan. Now I wanna add 當歸 to the list of flavours to make!

Where did July go?

I had to do a few double takes today while looking at the calendar at work. Something in the back of my mind told me what I'm seeing can't be right: it's July 12th today?!?!

Where the hell did the first two weeks of July go?

On another note, I'm super excited to try and make earl grey ice cream. Maybe while I have the ice cream maker out, I'll do HK tea ice cream and green tea ice cream too. OMG, the calories and the fat...

Random Facts

I received my Summer 2010 copy of the U of T Magazine in the mail yesterday and while I almost never flip through them, the small hamster print that read "Beijing Diary" caught my eye so I brought it to work. This is probably the reason why I still subscribe to the magazine that seems like a scientific journal more than a casual read to most people: I do read some of it... in a blue moon...

I flipped through the magazine scanning the pages and pages of print just barely big enough for hamsters to read (I guess you can probably read it unaided before the age of 40, I suppose) and came across an interesting science article (which happen to be the feature of this issue, not Beijing Diary LOL) and came across these somewhat intriguing facts about human infertility:

• Toronto has one of the country's highest concentrations of infertility experts (ya mun, we are the 權威!)
  
• Approximately one in six couples are affected by infertility
• Cancer treatments (chemotherapy, radiation and surgery) can compromise fertility
  
• Almost half of all pregnancies miscarry before six weeks (wah, that's a high number)
• Researchers identified more than 2,000 different proteins in semen, some of which may be markers for everything from prostate cancer to infertility
• Freezing sperm can leave it viable for at least 20 years but freezing eggs is more of a challenge
• Pierre Trudeau fathered a daughter at 71
  
• Oldest lady had twins at 66, who then died of cancer before her twins turned 3
• Studies show a higher rate of schizophrenia, autism, Down syndrome and other birth defects in children of older men, independent of mother's age
• Cost of each IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatment cycle is about $10,000 (so if it doesn't work this month, fork over another 10 big ones next month!)
  
• Quebec will fund up to three IVF cycles per patient (why just Quebec?!? While the rest of the country has to pitch it over)
• Women over the age of 41 has less than a 10 percent chance per IVF cycle of having a baby
  

- source: Parents - At Last!, Summer 2010 feature article, U of T Magazine

Flipping along, this book caught my eye:

ngap! What are you looking at?!? ngap!!