Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Watch, Eat, and Mingle
Saturday was one of the most eventful, longest days I’ve had this year – events started around 12 noon and ended a bit past midnight. Not as long as the 17-hour moving day, and certainly not as busy, but still long. The main point from this post is the Summerlicious event, but first I’d like to mention a few things.
At 12 noon on Saturday, Ricky, Duy, and myself went to see Pirates 2 (Ambrose, Geoff, and Ray saw it a few hours later). I won’t say much about it, except that it’s good. It’s never boring, and pretty much lots of action at all times… plus, it’s Johnny Depp! How could you not like Captain Jack Sparrow?
So I ate breakfast at about 9:30, so we decided to have lunch at the movie theatre, when we decided we couldn’t tank 2.5 hours without eating. Surprisingly, food at movie theatres isn’t so expensive! For example, a taco is maybe $1.19, instead of $1.09 from a regular store. So Duy bought a few tacos. I bought a Hawaiian personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for $4.26, then topped it off with lots of parmesan cheese and peppers.
So why is it that people think “expensive” when they think of movie theatre food? Let me put it this way: A personal pan pizza is $4.26. A combo, which is the pizza and a drink, is $7.49. You do the math.
(If you suck at math, that’s $3.23 for a drink.)
So that was the first event. As I said, movie good.
After that, I went to Lachlan’s birthday party. At first it was just he and I, and we watched some of the World Cup (Germany vs Portugal, vying for 3rd place). During half time, we play some gamecube (Mario Kart Double Dash) and we found out, after much time without practice, that we sucked horribly. Then there was some mingling, saw Laura and Navin and Mike again, and Lachlan’s parents and Laura’s parents (since Lachlan and Laura were engaged now), and it was all in all a good time.
So it was worth coming to the party, just to have a coke and some nachos, and to see old friends whom I haven’t seen for a while. Stayed for almost 2 hours, so it wasn’t too long but it was still worthwhile to see them.
Lachlan and Laura look exactly the same as I remember them from highschool and university.
Summerlicious – Outing 1 of 2 - EPIC
Next comes Summerlicious. The wait and the trip to Toronto was uneventful, so we’ll skip forward toward dinner. (For the pictures, I put the picture(s) first, then the caption)
So we got to the Fairmont Royal York hotel, and Raymond and I started taking pictures of the place.
Here’s a picture of Ray taking a picture. If Ray still updated his blog, he’ll probably show you what’s on the other side.
Here’s us, minus me. Ricky is blocking Geoff’s head, but Geoff has a picture all to himself later.
Another shot of the Fairmont Royal York from upstairs.
So, this is our table. TRIVIA: 5 points if you spot something wrong with this picture.
Okay, so the meal is a fixed price, but the drinks are not included. I’m not sure if you could get any drink, like iced tea or a virgin sprite, but the summerlicious menu had 5 drinks you could choose from, if you pay extra. We were first discussing how it’s not worth $7-8 for a drink, but then eventually Geoff and I started to implement a philosophy similar to “you only live once”, so we (except Ricky) all decided to get drinks.
Here you see Duy’s getting a frozen tropical smoothie, Ambrose and Ray are having some wine, and Geoff and I had “Cherry Lychee Mango Juice.” Geoff was right – it’s an explosion of flavour. And yes, you can taste the 3 distinct flavours, and they mix nicely.
When you take a sip, I think you first taste the lychee. And then, the cherry is a strong flavour so you notice that – it’s like the underlying flavour. Then, you kinda wonder where the mango is and then it kicks in – the mango is such a mellow flavour, so it sorta floats over the whole sip, so it’s there. I dunno, I’m just trying to explain it in an interesting way. That’s what it felt like when I drank it.
I’d like more cherry lychee mango juice. Although not for $7.
Appetizer:
Chilled Sweet Pea Soup, Mint Crème Fraîche
or
Pickled Beets and Goat Cheese Salad, Toasted Macadamia Nut, Pommery Mustard-Tarragon Vinaigrette
Ricky got the Chilled Pea Soup, we all had the other thing. At first I wanted the Chilled Pea soup, but the other thing sounded much more exotic and odd. I must admit, I didn’t expect the salad to have lettuce, but that’s okay.
So you can see it – the Picked Beets, the Goat Cheese – the salad is there, and see that stuff on the top? That’s the toasted Macadamia nut, and the vinaigrette is there. I don’t usually eat beets, but this was pretty awesome. I had a sip of the Pea Soup though, and wow, that was unique. I really liked that.
Seared Mahi-Mahi Filet – check. It’s the thing in the middle.
Sautéed Provençal Vegetables – check. It’s the layer of stuff below the fish.
Garlic Roasted Roma Tomato – check. That red slice of tomato on the left.
Balsamic Essence – check. I think it’s the brown sauce.
How descriptive – so many words of so many items, delicately placed on my plate. Just wait for the description on the dessert, heh.
Citrus Glazed Duck Breast – check. The main thing.
Roasted Yam-Coconut Purée – check. That orange thing.
Baby Bok Choy – check. The green stuff.
Szechuan Pepper Jus – check. The sauce.
There was a 3rd option: Grilled 8 oz. Striploin, Fingerling Potatoes, Jerusalem Artichoke-Portobello Mushroom Fricassee, Red Wine-Sage Sauce
Nobody got that, because I guess the other stuff’s more… special sounding. I did see another table have the striploin though, it looks like the biggest of the three, and looked similar to the duck breast.
In case you’re wondering how it looks inside the fish.
Here we go! For dessert, I had:
Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse, Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit
Okay, so I see the mousse, and it looks pretty good. I expected it to be in a cup rather than in a square, but this is specialer. Then there’s the rest – I expected a cup of berry compote, whatever that is, and maybe another cup with a mixture of fresh fruit.
So what is “Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit” ? It’s two blueberries, a raspberry, a blackberry, and ¼ strawberry.
(additionally, the other desserts had these berries too, but their descriptions didn’t.)
Here’s a shot with the 3 desserts, with the 3 descriptions:
Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse, Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit
or
Passionfruit Brulée Tart, Coconut Lemongrass Anglaise
or
Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Confit, Port Reduction
I gave Geoff a quarter of my mousse and he a quarter of his tart. I quite liked his tart. The brulee in the middle, the passionfruit brulee was amazing. I quite liked it – the tart was good too, but took away from the brulee. Ray didn’t like his cheesecake too much, but he tried the mousse and he awarded it “best food of the night.” The mousse was rich and very good. And even though I feel the “berry compote & julienne of fresh fruit” was misleading, the berries complemented the rich mousse very nicely, which, in the end, was something I was looking for.
So that was the summerlicious outing. $35, plus $7 drink, is $42 – plus 14% tax and tip, works out to about $54. Quite an expensive experience, yes. My top picks go to the mousse, brulee tart, and cherry lychee mango juice, and my bottom picks are the seared mahi mahi filet (well prepared, just small and sorta plain), and Duy’s frozen tropical smoothie. I found it rather plain, when I sipped it. It probably wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t feel so special, especially sitting beside the cherry lychee mango :P
Here’s Geoff in his lone pic. He’s pointing at a girl’s butt.
So that was Summerlicious. Ray wanted to check out the Symphony of Fire, but we underestimated the time it would take for dinner. We sat down around 8:15, but we didn’t order until… 9? So the main entrée came at 9:40, finished those at 9:45, and then there was dessert and all that other jazz afterwards. After that, then was the walk back to the go station.
After spending $35+tax+tip, you’d think you’d be full, eh? But, if you’re not, you can spend another $3 and fill yourself up completely. And that’s what Ricky did.
I don’t usually go to Toronto, so I took a few more pictures. Unfortunately, I don’t think my camera is so good with low-light NOR indoor-light settings… which is quite super unfortunate. Or maybe I don’t know how to use it.
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Saturday was one of the most eventful, longest days I’ve had this year – events started around 12 noon and ended a bit past midnight. Not as long as the 17-hour moving day, and certainly not as busy, but still long. The main point from this post is the Summerlicious event, but first I’d like to mention a few things. At 12 noon on Saturday, Ricky, Duy, and myself went to see Pirates 2 (Ambrose, Geoff, and Ray saw it a few hours later). I won’t say much about it, except that it’s good. It’s never boring, and pretty much lots of action at all times… plus, it’s Johnny Depp! How could you not like Captain Jack Sparrow? So I ate breakfast at about 9:30, so we decided to have lunch at the movie theatre, when we decided we couldn’t tank 2.5 hours without eating. Surprisingly, food at movie theatres isn’t so expensive! For example, a taco is maybe $1.19, instead of $1.09 from a regular store. So Duy bought a few tacos. I bought a Hawaiian personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for $4.26, then topped it off with lots of parmesan cheese and peppers. So why is it that people think “expensive” when they think of movie theatre food? Let me put it this way: A personal pan pizza is $4.26. A combo, which is the pizza and a drink, is $7.49. You do the math. (If you suck at math, that’s $3.23 for a drink.) So that was the first event. As I said, movie good. After that, I went to Lachlan’s birthday party. At first it was just he and I, and we watched some of the World Cup (Germany vs Portugal, vying for 3rd place). During half time, we play some gamecube (Mario Kart Double Dash) and we found out, after much time without practice, that we sucked horribly. Then there was some mingling, saw Laura and Navin and Mike again, and Lachlan’s parents and Laura’s parents (since Lachlan and Laura were engaged now), and it was all in all a good time. So it was worth coming to the party, just to have a coke and some nachos, and to see old friends whom I haven’t seen for a while. Stayed for almost 2 hours, so it wasn’t too long but it was still worthwhile to see them. Lachlan and Laura look exactly the same as I remember them from highschool and university. Summerlicious – Outing 1 of 2 - EPIC Next comes Summerlicious. The wait and the trip to Toronto was uneventful, so we’ll skip forward toward dinner. (For the pictures, I put the picture(s) first, then the caption) So we got to the Fairmont Royal York hotel, and Raymond and I started taking pictures of the place. Here’s a picture of Ray taking a picture. If Ray still updated his blog, he’ll probably show you what’s on the other side. Here’s us, minus me. Ricky is blocking Geoff’s head, but Geoff has a picture all to himself later. Another shot of the Fairmont Royal York from upstairs. So, this is our table. TRIVIA: 5 points if you spot something wrong with this picture. Okay, so the meal is a fixed price, but the drinks are not included. I’m not sure if you could get any drink, like iced tea or a virgin sprite, but the summerlicious menu had 5 drinks you could choose from, if you pay extra. We were first discussing how it’s not worth $7-8 for a drink, but then eventually Geoff and I started to implement a philosophy similar to “you only live once”, so we (except Ricky) all decided to get drinks. Here you see Duy’s getting a frozen tropical smoothie, Ambrose and Ray are having some wine, and Geoff and I had “Cherry Lychee Mango Juice.” Geoff was right – it’s an explosion of flavour. And yes, you can taste the 3 distinct flavours, and they mix nicely. When you take a sip, I think you first taste the lychee. And then, the cherry is a strong flavour so you notice that – it’s like the underlying flavour. Then, you kinda wonder where the mango is and then it kicks in – the mango is such a mellow flavour, so it sorta floats over the whole sip, so it’s there. I dunno, I’m just trying to explain it in an interesting way. That’s what it felt like when I drank it. I’d like more cherry lychee mango juice. Although not for $7. Appetizer: Chilled Sweet Pea Soup, Mint Crème Fraîche or Pickled Beets and Goat Cheese Salad, Toasted Macadamia Nut, Pommery Mustard-Tarragon Vinaigrette Ricky got the Chilled Pea Soup, we all had the other thing. At first I wanted the Chilled Pea soup, but the other thing sounded much more exotic and odd. I must admit, I didn’t expect the salad to have lettuce, but that’s okay. So you can see it – the Picked Beets, the Goat Cheese – the salad is there, and see that stuff on the top? That’s the toasted Macadamia nut, and the vinaigrette is there. I don’t usually eat beets, but this was pretty awesome. I had a sip of the Pea Soup though, and wow, that was unique. I really liked that. Seared Mahi-Mahi Filet – check. It’s the thing in the middle. Sautéed Provençal Vegetables – check. It’s the layer of stuff below the fish. Garlic Roasted Roma Tomato – check. That red slice of tomato on the left. Balsamic Essence – check. I think it’s the brown sauce. How descriptive – so many words of so many items, delicately placed on my plate. Just wait for the description on the dessert, heh. Citrus Glazed Duck Breast – check. The main thing. Roasted Yam-Coconut Purée – check. That orange thing. Baby Bok Choy – check. The green stuff. Szechuan Pepper Jus – check. The sauce. There was a 3rd option: Grilled 8 oz. Striploin, Fingerling Potatoes, Jerusalem Artichoke-Portobello Mushroom Fricassee, Red Wine-Sage Sauce Nobody got that, because I guess the other stuff’s more… special sounding. I did see another table have the striploin though, it looks like the biggest of the three, and looked similar to the duck breast. In case you’re wondering how it looks inside the fish. Here we go! For dessert, I had: Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse, Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit Okay, so I see the mousse, and it looks pretty good. I expected it to be in a cup rather than in a square, but this is specialer. Then there’s the rest – I expected a cup of berry compote, whatever that is, and maybe another cup with a mixture of fresh fruit. So what is “Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit” ? It’s two blueberries, a raspberry, a blackberry, and ¼ strawberry. (additionally, the other desserts had these berries too, but their descriptions didn’t.) Here’s a shot with the 3 desserts, with the 3 descriptions: Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse, Berry Compote with Julienne of Fresh Fruit or Passionfruit Brulée Tart, Coconut Lemongrass Anglaise or Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Confit, Port Reduction I gave Geoff a quarter of my mousse and he a quarter of his tart. I quite liked his tart. The brulee in the middle, the passionfruit brulee was amazing. I quite liked it – the tart was good too, but took away from the brulee. Ray didn’t like his cheesecake too much, but he tried the mousse and he awarded it “best food of the night.” The mousse was rich and very good. And even though I feel the “berry compote & julienne of fresh fruit” was misleading, the berries complemented the rich mousse very nicely, which, in the end, was something I was looking for. So that was the summerlicious outing. $35, plus $7 drink, is $42 – plus 14% tax and tip, works out to about $54. Quite an expensive experience, yes. My top picks go to the mousse, brulee tart, and cherry lychee mango juice, and my bottom picks are the seared mahi mahi filet (well prepared, just small and sorta plain), and Duy’s frozen tropical smoothie. I found it rather plain, when I sipped it. It probably wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t feel so special, especially sitting beside the cherry lychee mango :P Here’s Geoff in his lone pic. He’s pointing at a girl’s butt. So that was Summerlicious. Ray wanted to check out the Symphony of Fire, but we underestimated the time it would take for dinner. We sat down around 8:15, but we didn’t order until… 9? So the main entrée came at 9:40, finished those at 9:45, and then there was dessert and all that other jazz afterwards. After that, then was the walk back to the go station. After spending $35+tax+tip, you’d think you’d be full, eh? But, if you’re not, you can spend another $3 and fill yourself up completely. And that’s what Ricky did. I don’t usually go to Toronto, so I took a few more pictures. Unfortunately, I don’t think my camera is so good with low-light NOR indoor-light settings… which is quite super unfortunate. Or maybe I don’t know how to use it. |