Things are really ramping up at work and although I have not been told explicitly, I’m treating the months between March and June completely off-limits for vacation. So that rules out going anywhere with Lil Sis in April.

“Busy season” has started and it’s exhilerating. Previously, my “busy season” with a research group was before major grant deadlines which for my role was just a couple of weeks a couple times a year. In this role, we’re all nose-to-the-grind and hunkering down. I’m thrilled to gain the experience.

Here’s today’s text messages [somewhat edited] for today….

2012-02-03 12:30 PM
me: Goooooooooo morning TOE*

2012-02-03 3:45 PM
me: TOE?

2012-02-03 4:00 PM
NPY: Hi TOE how are you?
me: Are you busy?? I just got a pile of work

2012-02-03 4:24 PM
NPY: Yeah I have been busy. How are you!?

2012-02-03 5:17 PM
me: I’m getting OT today!!
me: And maybe the girls will get together tomorrow. It’s kinda mess up though
me: I get to check [coworker's] work yay it’s fun
me: Just an hour of OT or less I think
NPY: Who wants OT on a Friday anyway???
me: No life TOE

*TOD = term of endearment

******** This is a blog series complementing my regular blog posts with the original idea was to share our parallel lives, NPY’s and mine, while I’m in Toronto and he’s in Vancouver, 3,400 km away. For me, it’s been pretty fun because I’m this long-time blogger and enjoy repackaging parts of my life in “blog bites”. It’s been more difficult for NPY who hasn’t experienced a change in scenery (although I do not think it is necessary) so I’ll be continuing this with just my photos. I might have something every day. I might not.

Previous >

In terms of drug store brands, I’m a bit of a beauty product junkie. Just like the next woman. I love to try new products with no particular loyalty in any category. It’s so embarrassing how my drawer of “back-up” beauty products will not open easily, it’s so stuffed with impulse purchases at Shoppers Drug Mart such that I swore off buying those items I have too many of including body wash, shampoo, facial wash, moisturizer, and soap!

In the spirit of trying to strike a balance, I’m conceding to my novelty-seeking side while hopefully not inviting clutter by subscribing to Glossy Box. I had vaguely heard about beauty samples programs but with the recent arrival of Glossy Box in Canada, there was a big push through social media and I missed the February box but made it in for March! My birthday month!

It is a monthly subscription of $15 and that covers the delivery fee of the box every month containing five high-end samples. I’ve indicated my preference for more practical products like skin- and haircare but otherwise eagerly wait to see what I will receive. Isn’t receiving a parcel always so nice? :) Further, if I blog about the products–which I will in my fumbling, tomboy way–I can collect Glossy Dots (reward points) and translate them into free Glossy Boxes down the line.

Image from glossybox.ca

I’m resigned that in the future, I have to live in the “‘burbs” and drive or (shudder) take transit to get to work. One day, I will have a live-in partner and we decide together where to live. Until then, I continue to be loathed to have more than a 10-minute walk to work, hah!

At first, I thought I’d get a Concord CityPlace apartment, perhaps even in LV’s building. But Lil Sis and I noticed the Pinnacle development and particularly their amenities. During a whirlwind tour of apartments available for rent, we saw older (2-5yo) units and new units (a few months old), the latter with an address the same street as my workplace.

Living so close to work in Vancouver was something of a coincidence. I did chose my apartment on the west side because I thought I might (and did) end up at the cancer research facility 490 meters away. But it was not for forever and I spent a year commuting to North Vancouver and did not know that I would really luck out and get an offsite UBC job located just 253 meters away from my doorstep. This time around in Toronto, I got the job first, then looked for a place to stay. Work is a whole 651 meters away and it works out I can say that I work and live on Bay Street.

Others: “Who wants to see their office from their apartment?! What if you have a bad day at work?”

Me: “If I have a bad day at work, or if I’m quite loathed to go in (because I’m tired or cranky), I’d rather just get home or get into work after an 8-minute walk instead of dragging it out!”

My little apartment hit all that I wanted (and I pay dearly for it): new one-bedroom, first tenant in, high-30s floor (of 52 floors in total), good view (mostly north and east facing), undermounted sinks, ensuite laundry, laminate floors, 24-hour concierge, the “Club” amenities that include a state-of-the-art gym, pool, hot tubs, saunas, tennis court, squash courts, outdoor running track , and basketball court.

But… aside from being right next to the Air Canada Centre (ACC) with an event or game very second night on average, it’s super-quiet and dead after business hours thanks to the nearby Financial District and all the businesses existing to serve it shutting down at 6 p.m. My daily commute takes me through the grubbiest of grubby Toronto, under some overpasses that is the Gardiner and Union Station train platforms, and through the god-awful messy headache that is Front Street so-called revitalization. A view of the CN Tower would be the cherry on top but I don’t have it and only see corroded train station roof, a maze of train tracks and industrial Port Lands. My building is so fancy and new there’s no visitor parking, event rates apply nearly every evening at the public lots, and it took two weeks at gouging rates to get to know some parking attendants and get down to $10/day parking at a public lot.

My favourite Canadian/Toronto series from 1999 was the short-lived show The City and I remember one line in particular said about city Councillor Katharine Strachan by her lover, played by chiseled James Gallanders, “She gets a nosebleed if she goes north of Rosedale.” Heh. Rosedale is darned close compared Richmond Hill and Scarborough where I have to go every now and then!

When I do have to leave the core and foot power will not take me there, being just 400 meters from Union Station is a boon. The Union stations house the subway to get elsewhere in the city, GO trains to get around GTA, and VIA rail should I really need to bust this joint. The Gardiner Expressway is at my doorstep which means arriving and leaving by car is efficient, more so than living deeper in the core. All this access and I’m happy as a clam just spending time at home. I haven’t even visited LV yet who is a mere 20-minute walk towards the Entertainment District but we’ll blame it on the weather and not my laziness. ;)

Right now, I’m totally satisfied tripping down to the condo gym that with Life Fitness treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes equipped with television screens, I’ve been timing my workout with the televisions shows I want to catch since I’ve cut the cord and don’t have a television. At some point, I will need to train outdoors (booo…) and the Running Room is 800 meters away and we will probably often connect with the Waterfront Trail and head out to Humber Park and The Beaches ad nauseum.

Finally, supermarkets are more important to me right now than restaurants in the vicinity and I thought I couldn’t have it better than before with four to chose from within a 10-minute walk. It’s close. Going to to Longo’s (300 meters away) involves stepping into the shiny and bright ACC/Maple Leaf Square area and Longo’s has a great high-end market feel like Whole Foods. It’s a bit like an Urban Fare, actually, in that it also carries the the Western Family house brand. The 24-hour Loblaws where Top Chef candidates are taken to to shop is 800 meters away but a bit of a sketchy trek past the Redpath refinery. I would never have to visit the Sobey’s 600 meters away–they are so expensive–except it houses a Wine Rack and Wine Racks carry the Inniskillin East West series wine that I’ve adopted as “my” wine (more on that later).

There, that’s my world outside of my apartment. It’s pretty complete with the large and glaring exception of NPY’s absence. :( Next up, an apartment tour!

if i ate in the caf, which i don't usually,i can look at my apartment.

******** This is a blog series complementing my regular blog posts with the original idea was to share our parallel lives, NPY’s and mine, while I’m in Toronto and he’s in Vancouver, 3,400 km away. For me, it’s been pretty fun because I’m this long-time blogger and enjoy repackaging parts of my life in “blog bites”. It’s been more difficult for NPY who hasn’t experienced a change in scenery (although I do not think it is necessary) so I’ll be continuing this with just my photos. I might have something every day. I might not.

< Next | Previous >

On a particularly lazy day when we did not deserve to dine out, Lil Sis and I went to Shoppers Drug Mart near her place and the old-looking Il Fornello looked appetizing. There are several locations around town and with seven locations around GTA, we were going to try it sometime so why not that evening? We went in almost resolved to order just one dish to sate our appetite for Italian food but the prices were not too bad and who wants to cook the other half of dinner when we get back anyways??

We ordered the linguini salmone with smoked salmon, peas, and lemon tarragon sauce. I had recently had a taste of smoked salmon and wanted more. The cream sauce was good but a touch too thick. Lil Sis ordered the fichi pizza with marscapone, proscuitto, figs, shaved grana padano, honey, and arugula. She was trying to decide between two pizzas, wary that this one might miss the mark but it was “her risk” so I pushed for the “weirder” one. And it turned out really fantastic! It was a divine pizza with the tastiest combination of toppings. Who would have thought that?

Downtown Toronto location at 214 King Street West (at University)

Alice Fazooli’s (Markham)

One evening, Lil Sis was jonesing for a big box restaurant meal. It’s not often she requests that at all and I was excited for what we might get to try! There is a “plaza” at 404 and Highway 7 with an embarrassment of big box restaurants including The Keg, Jack Astors, Destiny Teahouse, Marlowe’s, Caffe Demettre, and some Malaysian place to name the ones I can remember. The Keg was too much of a treat, Destiny didn’t offer what she wanted, and Marlowe’s has scary signage so we tried out Alice Fazooli’s which has four other locations around GTA.

There was something about the description that Lil Sis and I both ended up getting the Salsiccia dishes (one pizza and one past). Salsiccia is Niagara Berkshire pork sausage so perhaps we wanted to have a taste of the wine country. The Pizza Salsiccia was topped with the sausage, fresh Niagara artisanal mozzarella, chili oil, basil, arugula, and lemon. The pasta was very pedestrian, a ragu with the sausage, spinach, and roasted tomatoes. Instead, both entrees were underwhelming (the pizza just a little less so) and overly salty. Sausage’s fault or kitchen’s fault?

Downtown Toronto location at 294 Adelaide Street West (at John)

Me Va Me (Vaughan)

When we were up at Bathurst and 16th, Lil Sis pointed out Me Va Me as a restaurant she went to with Big Uncle and our cousin Warner. They went to an older location and I salivated at the sight of the shiny new location serving up Arabic cuisine.

What should two little girls order to maximize what they try yet also be budget conscious? We decided on ordering a trio of dipping sauces, selecting green eggplant salad, matbuha, and a marinated mushroom salad. Of course the button mushrooms were tasty and we ate all those up with the pita bread provided. Mathuba consists of cooked tomatoes and roasted red bell peppers. It was nice, but I found I didn’t like it so much in such quantities. To be different, we ordered the green eggplant instead of the more popular baba ganoush and that was our downfall. Cilantro was not listed as an ingredient but it was definitely there and we couldn’t eat it.

We also ordered the grill delight with a skewer each of lamb, tenderloin, chicken thigh, and chicken breast. While the lamb was chewy, the tenderloin was really delicious, tender, and juicy. It’s a good bet if you had to pick just one type of meat!

Panera Bread (Richmond Hill)

I have loved Panera Bread since learning about it in 2005 ahead of my trip to L.A with Lil Sis. It’s so pedestrian for Americans but “exotic” for me such that I was excited to introduce NPY to Panera at Northgate near Seattle. The only way to kick it out of my system was to have easy access to it, in Canada! There are four locations in GTA, one of them in Toronto at 322 Yonge Street, but I was visiting the Richmond Hill one.

Besides their great bakery (like breakfast souffles), I love their Pick 2 combos and just before I would not longer have telecommuting days to spend at Panera, they advertised a great sounding combo: roasted turkey artichoke panini with mac ‘n’ cheese as a deluxe side. I almost balked at the $12 price tag for “soup ‘n’ sandwich” but softened a little when I was reminded that their own label of kettle chips is included. I found the panini to be overwhelmed by the other roasted vegetables and not the artichoke. The mac ‘n’ cheese was a nice sized portion and had a bold taste and fancy tasting ingredients.

Downtown Toronto location at 322 Yonge Street (at Edward, north of Dundas)

Druxy’s (in the PATH)

I remember Druxy’s from when it was the closest place to go eat when I was working at Ericsson in Mississauga… over fifteen years ago. It has changed a lot since then, a sandwich and smoked meat shop where I would get bagels and seen better times and toughed out the leaner times. I’m still impressed by their presence around downtown Toronto these days and love their reliable offering.

At Druxy’s they challenge you to try as many of their 40 salad toppings as you can when you get a design your own salad and I like how, unlike the sandwich shops nearby, they don’t charge extra for “fancy” toppings like avocado and tofu. Their smallest salad is $6 and they really pack in the toppings and toss the salad evenly with your dressing of choice. For me, it’s a meal with ample leftovers.

Vina alerted me to their design your own grilled cheese where you can get a basic grilled cheese for around $2 but you can changed the bread or cheese and add ingredients like vegetables and meats for extra. I love getting their eggy challah bread and you can have breakfast-for-lunch with a slice of sausage in your grilled cheese!

Red Lobster (Richmond Hill)

In early November, Lil Sis and I had cause to celebrate and we eschewed a celebratory dinner at The Keg for one at Red Lobster. We had been curious about the kind of reputation RL has north of the border and had been seeing the surf ‘n’ turf advertisements on television. Lil Sis already knew she was going for surf ‘n’ turf was was I going to, too?

We were in on a Monday evening which was very quite at the Richmond Hill location (among 7 in GTA). After we ordered, we were presented with crunchy cheese and scallion scones. They were warm and fluffy and I loved them, hoping dinner would be just as good.

Lil Sis ordered the surf ‘n’ turf consisting of a grilled Maritime lobster and peppercorn sirloin. She thought the steal was somewhat low in quality and the lobster was undercooked. But then there was the matter of my lobster…. Trying to keep things “light”, I ordered the Harbourside Lobster and Shrimp meal with shrimp both on a skewer and in garlic butter, rice pilaf and baked lobster tail. The shrimp were good enough but my lobster was so tough and dry, entirely like nothing I’d ever had before–lobster tail that had sadly been ruined.

Downtown Toronto location 20 Dundas Street West (at Yonge)

Baton Rouge (Toronto)

Oh, I remember my first encounter with Baton Rouge. It was back in 2007 when I visited Ottawa and Mona and I went there for a late night bite. It was before I rigorously photographed everything (new) I ate so I can’t remember what I ordered! With two locations in the heart of the city (and at least six more in GTA, I guess Baton Rouge is Toronto’s Earls, Milestones, and Cactus Club (Earlstone Club?) and you know I’ve eaten at those chain restaurants countless times. And while I personally rank the food at Cactus, then Earls, then Milestones, I just might rate Baton Rouge even worse. Ouch, huh?

We went to Baton Rouge after a night out, ahead of a day at CNE (Vina and Rita, not me) and I went for lunch fare in the form of a pulled pork sandwich with cinnamon apple slices as a side. It just tasted sweet to me and I was disappointed since this is Baton Rouge. The plating was careless and the apple slices were mushy. The best item we ordered, I think, was the Mississippi calamari with Cajun spice.

The chicken tender salad has all the ingredients that please me: fried chicken tenders, mixed greens, croutons, chopped egg, bacon bits, sliced avocado, and marinated hearts of palm and artichokes. I ordered it with honey mustard dressing. The whole thing was embarrassingly massive (I couldn’t finish) and the nutrition content is appalling (970 calories). The chicken tenders were not battered in bread crumbs or the like but a thick batter like you would find on fish & chips. A little too thick, I think. Otherwise it was quite tasty, because it had to be.

Downtown Toronto locations at 277 Front Street West (at CN Tower) and 216 Yonge Street (at Eaton Centre)

********

Unbearable Lightness is Porta de Rossi’s 2010 memoir of the dark and difficult events of 1998 and 1999 when she joined the cast of Ally McBeal. It has been sitting on my e-reader (i.e., iPhone) for a while and I cracked into it in the fall as a stimulating activity to stave off falling asleep during my commuter train ride to and from work.

I watched my fair share of Ally McBeal because my sister watched it but I did not really enjoy it. As one who takes things way too literally, I did not enjoy the fantasy sequences that dominated the narrative and I only paid more attention when Lucy Liu became a regular and this brilliant man-eating ice queen character with beautiful blonde hair also joined the cast. I paid more attention to the tabloids wherein Calista Flockhart was regularly flogged in the press for her ultra-slight figure and then we heard that other people on set (Courtney Thorne-Smith and Portia) were getting really thin, speculated because they had to “keep up”. Next thing I knew, Portia de Rossi came out and stepped out with Ellen DeGeneres and that brings us to today! Apparently Portia had really great gigs on Arrested Development and Better Off Ted.

Unbearable Lightness starts with the end of Portia’s marriage and the beginning of her time on Ally McBeal. An Australian model-turned-actress with a slim acting reel at that time, she’s insecure about joining a hot show and constantly questions why they would want her. Years of being in the modeling world resulted in her self-worth being tied to standing out, being considered special, and that always seemed to include being thin. She goes back to her days in high school and modeling days when her glamorous modeling did the job of setting her apart but also instilled in her the habits of eating, purging, and crash dieting. When she joined Ally McBeal, she was not yet ready to come out, partly because she was joining as a hot sex symbol. Meanwhile, Ellen was out, Portia read Betty DeGeneres’ memoir Love, Ellen, and Portia sees Ellen a role model. Her publicist and marketing people spin a different story, projecting Portia as naive-come-icon who had it all together. For example, the press made it out as if Portia gave up a career in law to act (which fit well with her role on a legal dramedy) while in reality she wasn’t that directional in her life choices. While the novel is about her long journey to self-acceptance, you also get a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the hit show and the beginning of Portia and Ellen’s relationship. For someone who doesn’t devour tabloids, it was a refreshing point of view into things otherwise so public.

Apparently I didn’t watch Ally much and did not know that Portia de Rossia stands at the height of 5’7″ (170 cm); rather I thought she was around 5’3″. So when she moaned about hitting 130 lbs, I naively nodded in agreement that she needed to shed some weight to be in line with her industry perhaps; afterall, aren’t those 6-foot tall models who look like sticks just 110 lbs? At first, Portia’s obsession about food was cute and quirky and someone who sticks so steadfast to discipline and deprivation is admirable as a “perfectionist” with the ultimate self-control. It is, for a moment, more comfortable for her deprive herself than hear about what she at during a binge. As the obsession grew, her writing voice changed to one irrational and sounding very much like petulant adolescent. Ultimately, in the final chapter, it was really sad because she had reach a goal weight of under 100 lbs (as low as 82 lbs) and she was still miserable and, by then, very sick. The road to recovery is slow and painful because the ego needs to be mended and it can make you do funny things to protect itself until you fully trust in the recovery, i.e., binging again. I was a little disappointed with her dissection about being a recovered anorexic, how she broke through, but happy in all that there was no lasting physical damage.

All the while I was reading the memoir, I was thinking about how a multimedia supplement would have been interesting (and sensational, which did not jive with the book)–that is, when she was really nervous and feeling unworthy on her first day on the Ally set and delivering her first lines, how did it actually look to the rest of us? When she was upset about her Rolling Stone and Shape covers, feeling like an imposter and/or having crash dieted and not felt adequate, how did she really look? How did she look at 130 lbs, really? At which weight did she look healthiest and strike the balance with her industry’s demands? How does she look today?

Like every other woman in this country, I’m constantly “watching what I eat” and have resigned myself, as if it was some lofty goal, that I could never be anorexic. It is really ugly in there and, bottom line, the issues at the root do not disappear with the weight.

At some points, I really wonder if I did the right thing. Sometimes I use precedent as “logic” to justify an alternative I’ve already  decided to pursue.

When I got a job on Bay Street, the “life” was completed by also getting an apartment downtown. I’m the first occupant of a new high-rise completed just a few months ago. On a high, high floor because I wasn’t going to compromise after living on the 1.5st floor of a 30-year-old building for six years.

I pay about $100/month more in rent than I’d like to. When NPY came to visit in October, we learned that (1) there are no reasonable parking options and (2) the financial district where famed Royal York Hotel is located really shuts down on the weekend. My apartment isn’t so close to Dundas Square (Toronto’s attempt at Times Square) and Eaton Centre and it’s not like Concord CityPlace at Spadina and close to Entertainment District with restaurants, lounges, life in general after 9 p.m. Aside from having an eight-minute walk to work, did I make a colossal mistake renting this apartment?

After some initial disappointment last week, my first full week in the apartment, things started to look up. LV came over for a visit after work and they showed me a five-minute shortcut to Longo’s which has a really nice market feel. A trip to the market takes me into the ACC (Air Canada Centre) complex where there are shining spotlights and there is event night nearly every night.

Lil Sis came to visit me for a “weekend in the city” and we walked north and east to see what the ‘hood offers. St. Lawrence Market is under a 15-minute walk and we were completely delighted by Kozlik’s mustard shop and the vegetable stand (Phil’s) on the lower level. The walk east on Front Street takes us past a Winners which answers the question of, “Where the heck does one get useful household stuff?” We had brunch on King Street East which is more down-to-earth than the more hip and trendy west side. It was also bitterly cold this weekend so we ducked into the PATH at King to get to Eaton Centre. Turns out when you know your way, it’s a really fast walk to the mall! While the PATH stores shut down every night after work and on the weekend, the walkway itself remains open as a warm route that is traffic light-free and I can start walking in it after just a four-minute walk from my apartment! Instant feeling of connection.

Over the weekend, I also checked out the condo gym for the first time. While I was wary after my first peek inside, actually entering and using the equipment was a joy. The gym is in a big space with plenty of treadmills and the Lifefitness cardio machines have the built-in television screens taking off nearly all the painful edge of the task–I could more than make my fitness goals with access to this kind of equipment!

The only thing missing–and it’s a big one–is NPY to continue exploring with. :(

******** This is a blog series complementing my regular blog posts with the original idea was to share our parallel lives, NPY’s and mine, while I’m in Toronto and he’s in Vancouver, 3,400 km away. For me, it’s been pretty fun because I’m this long-time blogger and enjoy repackaging parts of my life in “blog bites”. It’s been more difficult for NPY who hasn’t experienced a change in scenery (although I do not think it is necessary) so I’ll be continuing this with just my photos. I might have something every day. I might not.

< Next | Previous >

January I went to Toronto twice, once on the way back to Vancouver from spending Christmas in Halifax and once for Lil Sis’ graduation ceremony. I was in month 3 of being really restless about my future and over breakfast that Leo cooked and at the dining table in his condo overlooking Toronto’s financial district and CN Tower, he encouraged me and told me that “when you come to Toronto, things will happen.” In 2011, I was able to DineOut Vancouver and Winterlicious.

February We went on a small three “couples” road trip to Seattle. It doesn’t happen often so it was really nice because we were out of town and the three of us girls could go out for a drink while the guys stayed in the hotel playing video games and watching TV of course. I also discovered Zumba and the updated dance-inspired fitness classes work very well for me.

April We did not train well at all but since I paid for it, we were doing the Sun Run, damnit! We slid in just a little bit over an hour and I completely tanked half way through. NPY beat me by less than a minute and completed his longest race to date, a 10K. We started learning how to play guitar and that expanded my horizons. I also made my third trip to Toronto of the year over an extended Easter holiday.

May After 26 months working at UBC, my contract ended without further renewal and change was inevitable. Unemployment was nice for two weeks only. BiNK’s wedding was at the end of the month and I can safely say it was the party of the year–it has the funny effect of forever ingraining in my memory the association of 2011 songs (like Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”, “No Speak Americano”, and DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”) with that evening and summer.

June NPY and I started looking for somewhere to live together. NPY not being a proponent of renting, we looked at condos for sale and figured out quickly after one big condo-touring day what we wanted (none of what we saw). NPY and I celebrated five years together. In one particularly “cultured” week, we saw the traveling Broadway production of Wicked and a Rihanna concert. ;)

July We went on a “double date” roadtrip to Bellevue. Shopping was not the focus but eating still was! It was really blissful although I didn’t have that much stress to run away from.

August After a whole summer of deliberation and discussion, I/we decided that I would go to Toronto for a while. Reason: I really miss my sister and it doesn’t make a difference where I am if I’m just studying. We went back to Victoria to visit for the first time in five years. At the end of the month, I brought Daddy to visit his family in Vancouver for the first time in 11 years and I had packed up, given up my apartment (my first apartment) of six years, and relocated to Toronto.

September I made sure to stay busy during my first month hanging out with Vanna, checking out The Ex at CNE and TIFF. Lil Sis and I did a wine region tour of Niagara-on-the-Lake but according to my cousin Alan, we missed all the good (small) wineries.

October In a “birthday trip”, Lil Sis and I went to Detroit… and Ann Arbor. I can now cross Detroit off my list.

November NPY’s Toronto visit at the end of October rolled right into our NYC trip, second time in three years and now we have to move on to somewhere else! I started doing NaNoWriMo, a romance, but then I couldn’t face it any longer. I got a job at a really good company and started my new job at the end of the month. It was a stressful month of getting everything together after six months of under-employment!

December Settling into working downtown and a routine which was really welcome after so long. I leased my first grown-up apartment and jumped through all the hoops of a real, fancy downtown apartment. I went was back in Vancouver at the beginning of the month for a whirlwind trip and back again for an extended long weekend to celebrate Christmas. I’ve never spent Christmas away from my family but isn’t NPY my family by now? Then back to Toronto for a couple of days and Halifax for New Years!

I don’t go seeking my horoscope forecast for the year but sometimes it comes through to me anyhow. I think Lil Sis found my Chinese Zodiac for the lunar year that started 3 February 2011 and it was just an awful year for me in the work realm. I don’t have the link because you just don’t think about documenting that, you know? It may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy (e.g., not getting a new job so I was working without a break) but my contract not being renewed wasn’t my doing. And after the prophesized bad time for half the year, things seemed to fall in place again after some effort of my own. After this year, I really don’t want to hear next year’s forecast!

NYR

1. knock off some of those races: Toronto Yonge Street 10K (April 22), WWF CN Tower Climb (April ~14), Ottawa Marathon (May 27), Manitoba Marathon (June 27), Quebec City Staircase Challenge (June ~26), Marathon de Montreal (September 23), Detroit Free Press Marathon (October 21)
2. complete four courses and the second Level towards my designation
3. work work work (but that’s a given)
4. travel with MY in April (Europe)
5. be a super-duper long-distance girlfriend
6. travel with NPY in the fall (Asia, or Hawaii)

Some of this is really (really) ambitious, but — however inaccurate it is — you know what they say about setting your sights on the moon….

Faubourg Paris

As we admired the beautiful bistro area behind the cafe of of Faubourg Paris in Kerrisdale, I was asked how I learned of the place. Well, I don’t recall. When NPY and I couldn’t go to L’Abattoir (new-ish French restaurant in Gastown) and I was in the mood for holiday high tea, it kind of came together. I do believe it was Urbanspoon afterall.

I got a little worried because in the bistro so far at 12:30 were ordering lunch while we were set on trying out their Pink Tea–three girls and NPY because NPY and I like our tea tradition, matching everything we eat. As we got deeper into the afternoon, more of the new tables were also ordering the tea set. I urged NPY to get something warm and so he ordered a lovely, rich cream of mushroom soup.

Here are my thoughts on the Pink Tea items, listed in the order that I ate them!
* passionfruit soufflé we were urged to eat this first or early as it would deflate, so we ate it first. The passionfruit was strong throughout and the texture was really light, porous. A really nice start.
* smoked salmon and wasabi cream I don’t like the idea of flattened bread and wanted to get into this item for which we had two each first. It was okay, not brilliant.
* chicken, apple, country ranch dressing I loved the look of the mini herb-dusted focaccia and enjoyed the bread as much as the creamy chicken salad in between the slices.
* cucumber, roast beef, coriander cream Another beautiful mini loaf but I don’t like roast beef (which almost tasted funny to me) or cucumbers. The coriander cream was barely palpable.
* cranberry scone Nice scone that was dry enough and fluffy enough with tart cranberry bits. I learned I don’t like orange marmalade.
* apple-cinnamon cake We ate this first of the desserts (aside from the soufflé) because it looks so boring and healthy! It was just a couple of bites, rich, moist apple-cinnamon-nutmeg cake or muffin.
* mini passionfruit opera This was a beautiful piece with such delicate layers and passionfruit top layer.
* lemon tart The tart shell was crisp rather than dense and buttery and the lemon custard was not so sweet yet delicious. My measure is whether or not it made my tooth ache! Lovely sugar crystals ringed around the tart provided a sweet crunch.
* chocolate mousse Just scrumptious, rich, dense chocolate mousse topped with light whipped cream.
* parfait A nice tart and refreshing end to our tea!

Thierry Chocolaterie Patisserie Cafe

Continuing on the French theme, I wanted to try Thierry Patisserie. I heard of it first at Follow Me Foodie and when Lynn Chen visited Vancouver for VAFF, she tried to go but it was too busy. Sometimes I wonder how NPY gets away not knowing about the hottest new places in his own city but he surely won’t forget this one as he commented on how it’s a nice turn for the city with the arrival of places like Thierry and Faubourg, bringing culture, elegance, something truly nice. That means he likes it.

The menu is designed by the executive chef of CinCin so I could console myself that it was like eating there (because I don’t know when I will!). The Quiche Lorraine was packed with mushrooms and bacon but also still creamy. NPY who doesn’t usually like quiche liked it. I think it was the mushrooms and bacon taste!

Then came the difficult choice of what to have for dessert! There are so many choices and a slice of cake runs at least $6. They have a beautiful passionfruit cake but we were at Faubourg (above) just the day before and had two passionfruit desserts. I considered having an opera slice (just like the day before) but it looked the least popular based on there being many slices left. What would both NPY and I like? I heard that people were ordering a chestnut slice (Chinese people!) and I made up my mind to order it but it was sold out! So I settled on macarons–one cranberry and one lime. Why haven’t I seen a pistachio one in a while? The crazy thing about the macarons is that in addition to the sweet jelly layer between the biscuits, there was buttercream! Lime flavoured buttercream in the green one and regular buttercream with a fresh crushed cranberry in the red one. We were smacking our lips and it was a nice size to finish off our meal (which also included an apple turnover, not pictured, and some small madeleine samples).

Kintaro Ramen

Not having found a good ramen place in Toronto (I don’t think they exist), I was adamant about getting ramen in Vancouver. Kintaro (where I have never before been) or Ramen Santouka, the new darling restaurant. When we reached downtown on Friday night at 11 p.m. after I got in, all the ramen shops were closed. It frustrated me. So we tried again three days later on a rainy Boxing Day.

NPY looked worried as I kept putting Kintaro ahead of any of the other shops and Ed and Olive were really great sports. We queued at Kintaro for just about twenty minutes during which time NPY and I wandered around the corner to check out Ramen Santouka. It looked like Santouka wasn’t yet open as there were about 25 people standing outside. Oh, that was the queue for the restaurant. So NPY was resigned to Kintaro. Our orders were taken as we neared the front of the queue and when they could arrange for us to separate but neighbouring two-tops along the wall, we took the offer. It’s not like it was the kind of meal where you linger and have conversation. When we got our seats, the queue for Kintaro was much longer.

NPY seems to have developed an affection for vegetable ramen and orders it where we go. At Kintaro, he got to chose his broth and he went with a milder shio and in medium weight broth. To get the full experience, I ordered the miso ramen in rich broth with fatty (versus lean) barbecued pork slices. To be fair, I did not eat all of the really marbled meat alone, giving NPY half of the pork portion to fatty up his vegetable ramen dish! The rich miso ramen was crazy cloudy and the noodles were just perfect.

Would we go back again? It’s definitely good enough but a little hard to justify the line-up when there are many other stellar ramen shops in the immediate vicinity.

Fatty Cow Seafood Hot Pot

NPY and I laugh about that time back in ’07 or something when we went to hot pot with Andy and Lil Sis right before Lil Sis and I got onto a red eye flight to Halifax where I really wanted to sleep. But wearing constrictive jeans and feeling so full as if I was continuing to expand was very uncomfortable and I moaned about that flight ever since. These days, I fly wearing more comfortable garb and tentatively have hot pot. During the first December Vancouver trip, we had hot pot with our friends in Burnaby at Top Gun. This time, it was NPY’s mother’s birthday and we went to Fatty Cow, a great hot pot addition to Vancouver proper.

There isn’t a great deal to say about their hot pot except it was good, we’d be back. The restaurant is renovated and nice and modern in the dark wood and chrome kind of way. We were a party of eight and they connected two four-tops with a stainless steel connector which I think they often use to accommodate parties more than four. That mean each four-top had their own hot pot pot and they wrote different table numbers on the order sheets but they brought all the food to the other table and we didn’t ever see our vegetables. It was frustrating. We ordered the double soup with clear tofu and nappa cabbage in one half and spicy broth on the other. The spicy was super spicy and we cooked most of our food in the clear broth. Some items I thought were just fine in the spicy broth, like basa fillets, tofu, and vegetables. At the other table, they were not boring at all with tom yum in one half and satay in the other!

Peaceful Restaurant

Now that I’m not in Vancouver for a while, where do I want to go when I go back? Actually, I wanted to try Lin’s on West Broadway which is supposed to have some of the best XLB in town and I also wanted to try their chicken “fen pi” salad. But we were disgruntled and tired after moving all afternoon and Peaceful was a welcome choice. We walked several blocks in my old ‘hood but did not stroll because we wanted to be in and out in an hour… and it started to drizzle a little.

If I had my way, our order would be two of my favourite dishes: potato roll and Shandong noodles. But I didn’t feel like interfering and NPY ordered the tomato and egg noodle that his mother once chided him about (it’s easy for her to make it at home) and in order to make it somewhat novel, I ordered the chicken clear noodle salad.

“Oh,” NPY said, “my mom makes that.” With moist pieces of chicken and perfectly chewy sheets of noodles? With a well-balanced sesame paste, tender spinach, and a sprinkle of chili oil? “Well, no, not the noodles… or the sauce.” I happily chewed on the noodles. Craving satisfied.

Suika Japanese Izakaya

Ack, I should have written my review of this meal earlier, like immediately after the early December trip. Of all the short trips and weekends I was in town, both Kitty and Cari were free and I first suggested Joey’s on Broadway. But it’s loud and generic and I’ve been there countless times. At the last minute, I change the venue to Suika, just a block away and we didn’t look back.

We all agreed upon the deluxe “suika” box which was a lot of fun to pick at. I didn’t like any of the nine dishes overly so it was good it was not too much per portion. Asian kakiage was like the Korean and Japanese omelettes, a little chewy, with pieces of seafood and a lot of cilantro laced in. Fortunately the cilantro did not infuse too much flavour. I felt like this dish desperately needed the dipping sauce because it was quite plain.

When looking over the menu, we decided on the mackerel salad of the salads but I bungled it up and pointed to the mackerel pressed sushi just below it, aburi “shimi-saba” sushi. I was really apologetic because Cari doesn’t really eat sushi but cured mackerel was as good as cooked for her and it turned out to be one of my favourite dishes of the evening. The mackerel was brilliantly marinated and cured and it was a truly flavourful sushi. In the Tokyo oxtail ramen, I wasn’t a big fan of the noodles (just okay) but the broth and meat were delicious!

Cari advocated ordering Chinese poutine and I wasn’t going to argue! Busy talking, we didn’t really get to it until the cheese had hardened again. Spicy ground pork is a nice topping and they had the good taste to use good shoestring fries. Chicken karaage sounded like a good idea but I really have to be wary when they are talked up so much. I wouldn’t normally order it except at all-you-can-eat Japanese and at those places, “chicken karaage” is a chicken wing. And when it is a piece of chicken and battered, it’s supposed to be better? I don’t see the thrill of it.

Egg pudding, asparagus chawan-mushi, is a lovely idea but when I have it, I wonder why I don’t just make it myself (granted, mine is a little grayer and less appetizing loking). It was a smooth, light dish. Finally, we got the matcha brulee to share. People have been blogging and raving and was I going to be disappointed?? No! The frozen matcha custard was like ice cream and I loved the caramelized sugar. With a dollop of whipped cream and red bean sauce, it had all the right essences of Asian dessert tastes and oh-so elegant.

Red Wagon Cafe

Everyone’s talking about this Red Wagon place for brunch that has the pulled pork pancakes so that’s where I arranged for us to have brunch with Franked. They arrived before we did and put their name down. Silly host said it would just be an hour and offered them a mug of hot coffee. We waited for an hour outside on a chilly December morning. At least it wasn’t raining.

I had to order the pulled pork pancakes with sweet barbecued pulled pork layered between thick pancakes. Jack Daniels maple syrup was drizzled over the pancakes and I ran out of the sweet, strong nectar with over a whole pancake left. They would charge me for more JD syrup so I got much less fabulous plain maple syrup. I found the pancakes a little too thick and not fluffy enough. NPY ordered the much more balanced smoked salmon scramble which was made with house smoked salmon.

I thought I would save time writing out this blog entry in my notebook in the odd downtime but–what do you know?–on a bleary red-eye flight on Tuesday-Wednesday, I left it on the airplane! Oh well, I needed to move on and start using a new notebook anyway.

My mini-holiday to Vancouver over Christmas could be described as perfectly splendid. I want to do it all over again but in fairness, I think next year will be in Halifax and it will be 180^o different. Sniff, sad already.

Friday. As I last blogged, I made it to the airport in the nick of time despite having a departure time very close to when I got off work. Traffic not being crazy and a last-minute half-hour delay of my flight gave me time to queue in the longest YYZ Tim Hortons line ever and get dinner for the flight. We were further delayed another hour for take-off with having to remove checked baggage of passengers who failed to show up at the gate (I don’t know how that happens) and let on stand-by passengers. Knowing that flying west takes longer than flying east, and having gotten myself onto the flight, I was rather impatient and for once flying wasn’t a pure joy. Perhaps I was also not accustomed to sitting on the right side of the plane which is where I had to sit based on checking in “late”. My flight was so late NPY got to watch his entire Canucks game before picking me up and we did a little shopping on the way downtown. I was adamant about having Japanese ramen this trip but nothing was open in Coal Harbour on a Friday after 11 p.m. We ended up at our old stand-by, Congee Noodle House, which was acceptable to me on the grounds that we were ordering different dishes from “the usual.” Using FourSquare, I checked in which was fortunate because Ed and Olive saw the notification and joined us and it is super fun and energetic whenever they are around!

Saturday/Christmas Eve. Since I passed out so hard the night before, we successfully managed to meet up with my paternal grandmother and uncle at 12 for lunch. I selected Duotian where you design your own noodles and design your own claypot rice. It’s a bit new-fangled for my relatives but then I don’t mind taking the reins because I get what I want! Then I met up with Kitty for coffee and a short turn around the mall. When I saw her last in the beginning of December, we also met up with Cari and Cari and I really dominated with our fresh and exciting news (all about jobs) so it was nice to just get caught up with Kitty. Then we were scheduled to join NPY’s parents and his paternal grandmother for a gut-busting four-entree Chinese dinner at Congee Noodle King, another favourite of ours. I was too full of food somehow already and ate only vegetables and egg tofu. And two shrimp and a few bites of rice forced upon me. I cannot pass up the fried egg tofu in the Buddha’s Feast dish there.

Sunday/Christmas Day. I wondered if I would dread Christmas Day and opening presents at NPY’s as I do at home with my family. Although Christmas Day usually turns out alright, there’s a fragility to the merriment in my household that comes from the family dynamics, the overbearing sense of broken dreams, and whatever else. I’ve griped to NPY about how he couldn’t understand where I come from, his family being so normal… but is it his fault? With three “kids” and parents who are young and young at heart, there is a lot of levity in his house on Christmas Day. They bought presents in pairs like the same Bench jacket for me and his sister, the same North Face jacket for brothers, and magenta Hunter boots for mother and daughter. Of course we took pictures wearing our matching gear! Then we had to scatter and hustle to prepare for being out the rest of the day. NPY and I stopped by my aunt’s house in Point Grey. We were there before dinner to spend time with the family before their rush. I enjoyed getting caught up with cousin Meg who was studying abroad for a year and when her sister Karin speaks up, we pepper her with questions because she often takes part in some really unique activities… like recently being a wine fairy through her circus school…. We stayed long enough for my Toronto cousin Alan to come by for dinner and NPY could meet one more of my cousins to get the complete(ish) picture of my family. Then we were off to NPY’s Uncle Andy’s for their buffet-style meal in their house that’s kind of like a playhouse with Fußball, table tennis, movies, gaming devices, and poker and mahjong table set up! The house was full to the seams with each of four siblings on this mother’s side having two or three children apiece amounting to a large number of cousins and significant others. NPY and I are the oldest cousins but we don’t really notice with the parents’ generation being so active.

Monday/Boxing Day. I wasn’t sure I could last much longer with the abundance of food and waking up “early”. We met up with Ed and Olive (again) and Bonny for afternoon tea. Thankfully where I had chosen for us to have proper French afternoon tea on Boxing Day was a winner. Faubourg is a bit of Paris (they say, I haven’t been) in Kerrisdale and we had Pink Tea sets augmented with some bowls of cream of mushroom soup. We might have been feeling burned out and went over to Andy’s where rules and propriety don’t really exist and just hung out. I love when he gives a tour of his PH and friends are just floored by his new digs on the west side. I still hadn’t gotten my Japanese ramen and my craving was strong so we brought Ed and Olive along to Kintaro for the most unfabulous dinner with the 20-minute wait, not sitting together, and very hole-in-the-wall venue. Still, I got my ramen and finally got to try out Kintaro! Then we were back to Andy’s and fatigue just overtook me. Alas!

Tuesday. Originally, we had plans to meet up with Frank and I had selected Yagger’s where one could get from a light to real meal. But, like us all, the holiday burn out caught up with him and we’ll have to catch him the next time. Eventually, NPY and I made it out the door and to Thierry where I originally wanted to meet Kitty. Another new patisserie, this time in the heart of downtown. We couldn’t try nearly as much as I wanted to which just means there’s a reason to return next time! We hit a couple of malls to get out of the soggy outdoors–it rained every day I was there prompting NPY to say I brought the rain with me, ha!–before joining his family for a birthday dinner at Fatty Cow for hot pot. Hot pot is a fun way to get together for an informal good-value group dinner and seems to be a “traditional” ever since it was so funny (not) that time Lil Sis and I had hot pot before a flight and I was just miserable in discomfort. These days, I’ve learned to wear leggings for the dinner and going into the flight! NPY saw me off to the airport and… we’ll just skip ahead to the part where I got onto my flight! ;)

96 hours in Vancouver. 37 hours in Toronto. 60 hours in Halifax. Then back in Toronto. That was the last week and the week to come!

******** This is a blog series complementing my regular blog posts with the original idea was to share our parallel lives, NPY’s and mine, while I’m in Toronto and he’s in Vancouver, 3,400 km away. For me, it’s been pretty fun because I’m this long-time blogger and enjoy repackaging parts of my life in “blog bites”. It’s been more difficult for NPY who hasn’t experienced a change in scenery (although I do not think it is necessary) so I’ll be continuing this with just my photos. I might have something every day. I might not.

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When NPY booked my ticket to leave Toronto on December 23, the busiest day of the year at airports, we wanted the 7:00 p.m. flight but the last sale-priced seat sold and we crossed our fingers and got the 6:30 p.m. flight although I get off work at 5:30 with little leeway as I am in a support division.

Things could happen like the director closes shop down early. Or I would learn during the day that my flight had been delayed. Or I book leaving work a little early and pray the other factor of getting through traffic is ultra-smooth.

When I left work my flight was still on time and I needed my 5:00 coach to the airport to get to the airport in 45 minutes. It circled and got caught in traffic downtown for 15 minutes getting to the last hotel for pick-up and my New York-bound seatmate who also migrated from Vancouver to seek better opportunities, freaked out.

Once we hit the highway it was smooth sailing and I checked my Air Canada app once again and saw my flight was delayed half an hour! It provided the perfect cushion for me not have to sprint across the airport, get through a light security line, freshen up ahead of sitting for 5 hours and stand in the longest line to pick up grub from Tim Hortons. Always get YYZ Tims. (And YVR Starbucks.)

My flight was further delayed because of some flakey passengers (sigh) and while I love to fly and spend time on airplanes, I got impatient! They also turned the lights out at 10:00 p.m. EST although we were flying “back in time” so I didn’t feel right studying.

All this to bring me safely to my first Vancouver Christmas. Have a good one!

******** This is a blog series complementing my regular blog posts with the original idea was to share our parallel lives, NPY’s and mine, while I’m in Toronto and he’s in Vancouver, 3,400 km away. For me, it’s been pretty fun because I’m this long-time blogger and enjoy repackaging parts of my life in “blog bites”. It’s been more difficult for NPY who hasn’t experienced a change in scenery (although I do not think it is necessary) so I’ll be continuing this with just my photos. I might have something every day. I might not.

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