Food Savvy Sapien: A Cornucopia of Escapades

Lately, I've been occupied with a writing project, so this poor blog has been quite neglected. I will try my best to update it though.

This post is a compilation of adventures I've been on near Toronto, but not enough material for a full blown entry.

One Hour bubble teashop near College and Spadina. I think this is a major hangout spot near the area, with an interesting mixture of customers. The shop is largely composed of Asians and the Kensington Market folks. Its minimalist design unique in the class of bubble teashops. This is definitely not your mainstream bubble tea place which of course is appealing to the many hipsters in the area.

Hibiscus crushed ice bubble tea with tapioca and clear jelly. I mean, you don't get drinks like these in normal teashops, and it definitely doesn't get any more 'exotic' than this. ;)

Random photos from a Chinese New Year gathering at home. Apples carved with lucky sayings in Chinese.

A Chinese delicacy. I'm not an expert in Chinese food, but I'll try my best to describe this. It has shiitake mushrooms, sea cucumber, chicken broth, fish stomach, a while chicken and eggs. People usually eat variations of this dish in all kinds of big celebrations like marriage receptions, big milestones like the 60th birthday etc.

Stir fry mixed veggies. It has celery, corn, BBQ pork, carrot etc. So much yummy goodness in one dish!

Steamed chicken. Apparently, the yellower the chicken, the better it tastes. Well at least that's what my grandma told me.

Stir fry vermicelli with celery, veggies, and dried shrimp. Another traditional Chinese New Year dish.

Don't panic! The black hair-like object is not hair. It's another Chinese delicacy apparently. It is a type of rare wild seaweed. This dish contains shiitake mushrooms, dried oysters, abalone, the seaweed and Chinese cabbage at the boom (which you can't see in this photo). This is one of the 'must haves' for Chinese New Year celebrations. It has a special meaning behind the dish. The seaweed rhymes with wealth and prosperity while dried oysters rhyme with 'all good things'.

The same stir fry as before with nuts cashews. It's very simple to make, just dice up all the veggies you want in the dish, stir fry with soy sauce and add cashew afterwards. Mix well and voila!

No worries, the black stuff is a type of Asian mushrooms. Mmm.. more stir fry veggies. What can I say? I have a healthy family. :P

Something I made. Cheese tortellini, with cherry tomatoes, shiitake mushroom and asparagus in Alfredo sauce topped with Camembert cheese I believe. I still prefer my Italian cuisine.

The maple syrup festival at Brontë Creek in Burlington. These are maple taffy. They pour the maple syrup into the ice wedges, leave it in for a while, pop it out, and cool it some more on the ice blocks and voila!