Hotel Heaven

It hurts to look at my bank account. I’ve been indulging a little too much.

Last week, I decided to be spontaneous so I booked a one-night stay at a luxury hotel. I needed a getaway from work, my family, my dog, my town and drama.

My friend and I had been talking about a fun day/night in the city on a day we both had off. Lucky for us, we had last Monday off.

The night before, I got home from work after 11pm and I was searching for hotels. I used hotwire.com to find some incredible bargains. But I was stuck in a dilemma. I had a choice between a 2-star hotel with free wifi and free continental breakfast; or a 4-star luxury hotel with great service, a great location and great comfort. Not to mention the fact that there was a $50 difference in price.

Ultimately, I decided to live a little and choose the 4-star hotel. I’ve never stayed at a 4-star hotel before [and all good things in moderation].

Because I used Hotwire, their policy is not to show the name of the hotel until booking is complete so I was slightly worried. As soon as I booked it [at nearly 2am] I found out that the hotel was better than I expected—The Westin Harbour Castle. It was right beside the harbour, it was walking distance from major tourist attractions like the CN Tower, it was close to the train station so I could easily get home, and it offered things like an indoor pool, fitness area, tennis courts, etc. I was super-duper excited!

I checked into the hotel without my friend who was coming from west of Toronto. As I approached the doors, it felt like a Vegas hotel with bright lights and valet parking. Inside was so classy I felt underdressed in semi-casual attire. There were guests at the bar and lounge, and everything was modern inside. The workers were so polite and friendly, apologizing for me having to wait 5 minutes in line and even offering maps of the city while I was waiting in line. I was asked where I wanted my room and I asked for something high with a nice view. Boy did she deliver by giving me the highest floor possible [just below the Penthouse suite floor].

I could feel my ears pop as the elevator escalated to the 34th floor. I walked in and immediately looked out the giant windows to see the incredible view of Lake Ontario, the Toronto islands and the Toronto Island Airport. I was amazed. I took advantage of jumping on the king-size “Heavenly” bed and checking out their “Heavenly” bath [registered trademarks of the hotel]. The bathroom lights were coming from the frame of the mirror so I felt like a movie star. While waiting for my friend to head downtown, I laid in bed watching The Doctors on the flat-screen TV before exploring downtown.

The whole night was relaxing. We spent some time enjoying harbourfront and the lake view, we took a nice walk to Dundas Square to have a classy dinner at Milestone’s, shopped for a bit at the Eaton Centre, then we took a stroll back to the hotel to sleep in 10 layers of comfy sheets and pillows.

It was so hard to get up and leave by noon, especially after just a one-night stay. It was nice walking up to Starbucks coffee/tea and The Globe and Mail sitting outside the door.

I am glad for the luxury experience I had and hope to have again when I’m older and have more money to blow.

 

 

Hook[ah] me up with some Sheesha

I recently had my first experience with sheesha.

This past year, I’ve had my first experiences smoking. During my trip to Europe in June, I [LEGALLY] tried smoking weed and eating weed-baked goods. I also tried cigarettes for the first time while drunk and curious in Germany.

This past weekend, I was over at a guy’s house. The night before, he had his friends over for pizza and Sheesha so I suggested that he show me.

He guided me through cleaning the pipe—his was cleverly named “The Hulk” for its green colour—and setting it all up. He taught me whatever there was to know and even told me some handy tips. After nearly an hour of getting it ready, we began smoking up some flavoured tobacco. He had a bunch of flavours to choose from, but grape appealed to me the most. He suggested adding just a tad of mint to it to add a refreshing coolness while smoking. What a great suggestion that was as it was very nice.

I thought I would cough my first time but I didn’t. It almost felt natural, except for the fact that I exhale the smoke like an amateur. He showed me some cool tricks, like exhaling into a glass cup where the smoke does not fade away unless you pour it out.

I was quite pleased with my experience! I would definitely do it again to try more flavours, maybe with a group of friends at a sheesha lounge once in a while. However, it’s not something I would do regularly as I do not approve of smoking for all the damages it does to your health. One upside is that there is a non-tobacco option! 🙂

I’m not a hipster. I’m not a professional photographer. I’m just an instagrammer.

Ever heard the joke “How much does a hipster weigh?” The answer: an instagram.

I saw this silly joke on my hipster friend’s Facebok status a month ago.

A picture I took while in NYC that I instagrammed

If you’ve never heard of it, think of it as an app to share personal photos, or just another social networking app.

I downloaded Instagram on my iPhone several months ago just to check it out as it appeared in the TOP 10 free apps in my App Store. I always like to check out what’s new and follow the hype. So I made an account, posted a couple photos and that was it. I didn’t really know what to do and it seemed stupid because I can just edit photos and post them on my Facebook.

Over the past month, my hipster friends had been posting pretty nice photos on Facebook through Instagram and I got inspired.

So a few days ago, I decided to find my Instagram account and start from scratch. Why? Well, I like to think I can take nice photographs. And after my travels these past few months, I thought what better way to edit them and show them off in their best light than through Instagram for the world to see and judge my photo skills.

Judge them for yourself by adding me at madtos.

By no means do I consider myself a hipster. I can’t pull off that type of fashion sense or lifestyle. But you don’t have to be a hipster to use Instagram. You just have to love photos!

 

Small bite. Big flavour.

On my first night in London—after wandering around aimlessly, hungry and lost for hours—I finally made it to familiar territory in this nice plaza with restaurants, just a short walk from my hotel. I would have loved to go to a restaurant, but I was alone and it’s weird eating at a nice restaurant by yourself. I saw an interesting menu from Gourmet Burger Kitchen so I decided to order takeout [or as the Brits say it: “takeaway”].

I’ve never had a burger worthy enough to be called gourmet. I’ve had a lamb burger and a bison burger; burgers with toppings like avocado, gorgonzola cheese, crispy onions, smoked cheese, and spread with special mayos and sauces. But for me, something that is ‘gourmet’ needs to really step out of the bounds of a classic. I’ve been to a burger joint that considers themselves to be gourmet, but the meat is all the same, the buns are the same for each burger, and there aren’t many unique toppings or combinations.

I wouldn’t say Gourmet Burger Kitchen is that ‘gourmet’ or original as other burger joints I’ve seen on Triple D [Diners, Drive-ins and Dives] but there are special toppings like the onion jam and cajun relish, and unique combinations.

One thing that definitely attracted me was the names of their burgers such as Kiwiburger [beetroot, egg, pineapple, aged Cheddar, salad, mayo & relish], Pesterella [mozzarella, basil mayo, salad & relish] and Jolly Cow [brioche bun, grilled mushroom, gorgonzola, crispy onion ring, garlic mayo, salad & relish]

I ordered rosemary fries and 3 beef sliders:

The Frenchie – brioche bun, gorgonzola cheese, crispy bacon, onion jam, salad and relish

Habanero – fiery tomato & habanero jam, mozzarella, lettuce and mayo

Taxidriver – brioche bun, American cheese, crispy onion ring, cajun relish, dill pickle, lettuce and smoked chilli mayo

If I had to rank them, Taxidriver was the clear winner because of it hit all taste buds of sweet, sour, spicy and savoury and the different textures from the crisp pickle and lettuce, crunchy onion ring, creamy cheese and chunky relish. However, the Frenchie was a close second. The gorgonzola cheese killed it for me because I’m not that big of a fan of gorgonzola. Habanero was good but way too spicy for me to handle, even with the bit of mayo to cool it down. I particularly liked the mini bun for it, which had toasted fennel seeds on top.

As for the skinny fries with rosemary—a perfect pairing. I love rosemary and potatoes. Usually when I roast potatoes with rosemary, the rosemary is not too edible, often hard. But when it’s fried, it is crisp and delicious even on its own.

I was so full afterwards [and in desperate need of milk]. These sliders may have been small, but they packed a ton of flavour, heat and probably calories. Totally worth it.

London taps drive me crazy

With the London Olympics just beginning, it makes me miss England so much. To think that I was there just last month. Seeing Big Ben, Buckingham Palace or the London Eye on television is so surreal because I’ve seen them in person. Although, part of me feels like I never even went on a Eurotrip, or that it was so long ago. It feels like an eternity.

As much as I miss the accents, the atmosphere, the sights, the food, etc., there is one thing I do not miss at all—using two taps [or faucets as many North Americans pronounce it]. In most bathrooms [or washrooms/restrooms/loos/toilets] there were two separate taps—one for cold water and one for hot water, thus making it impossible to get warm water! How frustrating! It drove me nuts every time. I remember looking so confused when I walked into the bathroom at my godfather’s house when I first arrived, unsure as to why there were two taps. Wouldn’t it have saved so much plumbing to just install one? I would turn both taps on to use both hands and pour water over each other to get that warm water feel or I’d use one or the other. In the hotel in London, there was something beside the toilet that looked like a urinal and that also had two taps. I don’t know how the Brits deal with this. Thankfully, the other countries I visited [except for Amsterdam] had one faucet. *phew*

 

We have a Winner!

Rarely do I get to call myself a true winner. I’m talking about a prize winner, not winning at a game. Last Thursday, I became a winner. I won tickets to see a tennis game. The prize was something small but sweet. It was something I could cherish for more than a minute; something more than pride and satisfaction; something that required no skill or effort; something I could physically keep and remember forever.

I know, it doesn’t seem like a big deal but it means a lot to me. That Thursday was my only day off that week and I had to spend it cooped up at home because my older brother and his girlfriend broke up and he needed comforting. I had plans to see a friend for lunch and then see the new Spiderman film with another friend–which all went down the drain as soon as I got the phone call from my brother in complete misery. My younger brother and I had called his friends to distract him, so I had been lounging around all day bored out of my mind until I got an email saying my entry had been drawn for the first place prize of the Rogers Cup sweepstakes.

Initially, I was ecstatic I even won something. Then I thought to check to make sure everything was legitimate and not someone trying to trying to steal my information or hack my account. My family and I looked into it and everything seemed right so I was excited again! I signed the declaration to allow them to publish my name; I sent in my photo ID so they knew I was not lying about my information in the entry; I answered a skill-testing question and that was it.

Here’s the funny part, I had no idea what I won. And the email didn’t say what I won either. As soon as I got the email saying I won, I tried googling it but the web page had been taken down since the contest was over. Not to mention the fact that I had entered TWO Rogers Cup contests earlier that week so I wasn’t sure of the prizes.

It took nearly a week [once all the documents had been passed and the question had been answered] for them to tell me. Platinum tickets to see the first-round game! I wish it was the championship game, but this is still very awesome! Expensive tickets for free! Amazing seats where I can see everything so closely… and maybe even touch a player! Unfortunately, I don’t know who is playing yet but I’m quite excited to see my very first tennis game. No more having to watch it on TV! I love watching tennis but I’ve never actually played it. I hope to do that soon!

All I need to worry about now is who to take to the game with me.

Triple Decker Delight

The other day, I made myself my first triple decker sandwich. It had layers upon layers of flavour.

I used white sandwich bread [with added fibre and nutrients], like your typical club sandwich, toasted to perfection.

To crank up the flavour to traditional mayonnaise, I added lemon, paprika, salt, pepper and fresh-roasted garlic. Then I slathered it onto each slice of bread [the middle layer of bread had it on both sides].

I heated through turkey deli meat to build a bit of crust on them and to add some specialty dijon mustard I bought in France. The mustard was flavoured with Herbes de Provence to give the turkey a nice bite.

On top of that, I melted some cheese and topped it with caramelized onions.

The top layer of the sandwich had more turkey, half an avocado, two slices of beefsteak tomato and organic greens. Almost like a California-style sandwich.

Semi-nutritious, completely delicious!

Summer Shenanigans

Last night was one of the most random summer nights I have ever had. It was the most spontaneous 6 hours of my life. I was out late with a couple of friends from work. We originally had a set plan to go bowling or see a movie, but that turned into late-night fast food, over-priced dessert and a whole bunch of random ideas. Since the three of us slept in that day, we weren’t tired and we didn’t have a curfew. We ended up staying out until 3am on a Wednesday—completely sober yet totally reckless.

We played around with shopping carts in an empty parking lot. We called up coworkers to get their asses out of bed and come hang with us [it only worked with one out of the four we tried]. We drove all over my town saying “heeeeyyyyy” to guys and we were screaming from the car window to scare the shit out of random people walking on the sidewalks or biking [it totally freaked out these 3 girls… priceless]. We drove to the lake in the dark to see if people were having sex or smoking in the parking lots [my one friend made our other friend who was driving think we might get killed or raped so we didn’t stay too long].

We went to our workplace to pull a harmless prank [nothing illegal] that no one even mentioned the next day. We bought a pack of pads at the grocery store at 2am to make the male cashier feel uncomfortable as my friend kept telling him how heavy her flow is. We pulled some more harmless pranks at people we knew or randoms. We went to the Mcdonalds drive-thru just to order a small fries and reason with the employee to give us a ton of ketchup packets by saying we put a packet on each one. And we drove in circles and made several U-turns, random stops and had child-lock on our windows.

What a night.

Ribfesting until our hearts stop

This past weekend was my town’s first ever Ribfest! Quite exciting to be part of the first one so I can look back when they hold the 20th Ribfest and say I was there 20 years ago at the very first one.

I don’t recall ever going to a Ribfest in my life, possibly when I was too young to know that you shouldn’t stuff yourself with meat, carbs and sugar all day.

I was expecting it to be all about BBQ and beer. Instead, it was like a fair with some children’s rides, shopping tents, sweets, funnel cake, advertisers, etc. As soon as we got in, we had some trouble finding the food because of all of these other things.

We followed the smoke and ended up in one of the long lines waiting for BBQ. For the 30 minutes we waited in line, [we went to the fastest-moving line of all the BBQ vendors] we kept changing our minds on what to order. There were several BBQ huts all lined up, but each one had the same meats and same prices, just different sauces, cooking techniques and sides. It was difficult to tell which one was the best since they all flashed their trophies and awards to grab attention.

At one BBQ vendor called Camp 31, I ordered “The Grand Slam” which is essentially ‘one of everything we got’—their world famous beef brisket, pulled pork, BBQ chicken and of course, the pork ribs. All of that artery-clogging meat for $25. Not bad!

I couldn’t have BBQ without enjoying the sides, so I ended up waiting alone at Hawg’s Gone Wild since they offered the most side selections [I really just wanted to try their cornbread]. The line was so slow! I waited over an hour. As I got closer to ordering, I decided to order their ribs because I figured they must be good since people were willing to wait so long.

All of the food was finger-licking good! It was a good thing I didn’t have lunch so I could stuff myself silly. The pulled pork was saucy and tender. I have never had fresh pulled pork so this was quite a treat! The only beef brisket I’ve ever had was the Chinese-style beef brisket cooked in star anise and other Chinese herbs and spices, so this was totally different. There was a some fat on the meat, but it was juicy and melting in my mouth. The BBQ chicken was falling off the bone and just the way I like it. Whose ribs did I like better? I have to admit, Hawg’s Gone Wild was definitely worth the wait. Their ribs were meatier and the two different sauces you got to try were fantastic. Sweet, spicy goodness! Camp 31‘s ribs were good, but they gave me the end of the ribs so some of the meat was quite dry and tough.

The sides were decent. Nothing special about the Hawg hash. It was just smashed potatoes with little seasoning and flavour. The beans were a nice accompaniment to the ribs, slow cooked with peppers and onions. Oh, but the cornbread was scrumptious! I wish I got a few more! It was exactly what I would expect to find at a southwest BBQ joint. It was moist and you can taste the corn and cornmeal. Yum! And of course, I washed it all down with a glass of cold beer.

After a couple hours of digestion, my friends decided to get some deep-fried desserts. I was very tempted, but I controlled myself since I had ice cream before the festival. One friend got the classic funnel cake with all the fixings [they also had red velvet funnel cake!] and another friend got deep-fried cheesecake—a first for me seeing that! The truck also had other interesting deep-fried goodies like a pretzel dog, pizza on deep-fried dough and jumbo ears.

I wish I went back on Sunday to get a corn dog, but I’m glad I didn’t because something terrible happened that day. While my town’s first Ribfest will go down in history as being successful for food and fun, it will also be remembered for 17 people getting injured after being struck by lightning that final afternoon of the festival. How unfortunate.

 

Canadian Staple

While shopping for my trip to England and Europe, I bought a small jug of maple syrup and a tin of maple flavoured tea for a friend in England. Unfortunately, my luggage was overweight so I had to take out the maple syrup and a bunch of other heavy things like conditioner, mouthwash, body spray, etc. [which I bought my second day in England].

I had sent my friend a box of things a few years ago with maple syrup that lasted in no time so I wanted to get her some more. I was really bummed about not being able to give her the maple syrup because you can’t get this Canadian staple over there.

When I came home, I decided to keep it to myself. Why? Because I have never had pure maple syrup. It’s a little sad considering I am in a country known for it. I made pancakes and instead of using my mom’s sugar-free maple-flavoured syrup, I had the real thing poured over my buttery pancakes. So sweet and so delicious! Although, I must admit, I did feel like I was going to get diabetes afterwards.

Now that I opened the maple syrup, it’s sitting in my fridge waiting to be used again. I want to use it in unique recipes. In fact, I was talking to a Facebook friend who left me to make maple salmon. I thought that was quite interesting so I think that may be my next maple syrup recipe. Does that sound yummy or what?