Jamie Oliver's Ted Talk

Please take a look and support what he is doing. He is a truly great man who is passionate about what he does and wants to make a difference in the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go_QOzc79Uc

Bin Wine Cafe @ Chicago

On my last day in Chicago, I decided to bus to Wicker Park and check out the hip area of Chicago. The area looks subdued and low-key compared to downtown Chicago but has couple gems worth checking out after a brief walk-around. Weather that day was absolutely gorgeous and just when I was pondering where would be a good place to take in all of this, I stumbled upon the Bin Wine Cafe. Drawn by a desire to sample some wine and cheese and the awards displayed on the door, I happily walked in and sat down by the window to the view to the right. They rolled up the entire window during lunch/tea time so that you can feel connected to the sun and breeze yet remain distant for the love of observing.

Impressed by the organization of their menu. Very Impressed. The wine/cheese menu is organized by flights which makes it so easy for any novice to just pick a flight and sample. After all, isn't this the whole purpose of having flights? You can also order any individual ones by glass and best of all, by bottle! as they carry nearly all the wines featured for retail. I happily picked up couple bottles after my lunch session. Great way to do business. The cheese menu can be paired with the wine menu in front. Even though I had a hard time  figuring out how the pairing works, the friendly waitress didn't mind helping me out with suggestions.

Here comes the wine and cheese! I ordered the Italian Treasure flight and Essex Comte cheese from France


Just look at the beautiful layout and the appetizing dark, delicious red color of the wine
The cheese came with their toasted crackers
which is quite
amazing and adds a wonderful
 neutral palate to the balance. I am not the biggest cheese expert but the cheese tasted like a good

chunk of Parmagiano without so much the saltiness and has more softness and texture.









I definitely wish I could have stayed for couple more days in Chicago to try out their dinner menu and their other location. However, I guess a wonderfully satisfying meal that stimulated all your senses is a perfectly fine memory and I have no regret to leave it at that for now.

Check out their website for more information
http://www.binwinecafe.com/

Chicago

Chicago, Chicago, the city where sins once rummaged and fire rampaged, is also the city where hope flourished and history established. I have heard so much about the city before my visit but actually seeing and experiencing the city made me truly realize where all the hype about the city came from. Maybe it was the fire 130 years ago that made the city reborn, maybe it was the genius of the planner from the beginning, Chicago offers an eccentric yet immensely satisfying blend of modernity that you would associate with any metropolises and comfort that you would associate with any quaint towns. To me, Chicago seems to have found the perfect potion to keep you feel engaged and active yet chill and comfortable. Despite being the inventor of skyscrapers, the streets are so wide that there is no heavy congestion that is usually a big eyesore and noise contributor in other major cities. The sidewalks off the major pass-ways through the city are so wide that trees and gardens can be planned on them in gigantic urns.  Probably due to some city planning regulation, the first floors of nearly all buildings are probably 10-story high ( I guess in which case you can call them gigantic halls) and therefore contributes to that highly desired vision-expanding, fluid and translucent feel in their architecture design.

The architecture establishment of the city has long been praised and cited all over the world. The city has a great mix of old and modern structures that wandering around puts you in different time periods. I would constantly be in this game where I would try to envision what the old buildings were once used for that they needed to be so grand and magnificent. The modern structures, at the mean time, seem to have built off well around the old churches and structures that the city seem so quaint, delicate and reminiscent of time and history. The architecture highlights, coupled with the city planning, makes Chicago unique artistically. It is different from New York because the city is more fluid, brighter, less crowded, more quaint. It is different from European towns because it is built on skyscrapers, more modern, less culturally dense yet more open and grand.

The amount of emphasis on arts and culture further distinguishes Chicago. Not only does the city really care about architecture design and city planning, cultural events are hosted in the city year-round. On my short visit, I was able to listen to a free performance by the Chicago symphony orchestra, one of the top in the world, in the Cultural Center; I was able to see paintings by Picasso, Monet, Dali etc, in the Art Institute; I was able to just drop into a jazz bar on a whim at night and listened to some of best local jazz bands in an intimate environment.

But those are not the only things Chicago can offer. I walked for more than an hour on the amazingly built lake shore trail that runs all the way from Navy Pier to Lincoln Park. The lake view was fantastic and the beach was perfect. Yet, the trail was right in the city center and was easily accessible and completely bike-friendly. I loved going to the beach at night and just relax and talk over couple of beers. You really can't ask for more when you are drinking on the beach off Lake Michigan in the heart of the city.

Chicago was truly unique. It offers exciting opportunities yet retains its calming attributes. It is a city that makes you feel good about yourself, good about the world, and good about the future.

Calgary

Always feel nice to be home. The sprawling land, the clear sky, the mountains and the fresh air makes me calm and slow down. This time back it happened to be my birthday and I went to Catch in the Hyatt downtown Calgary. It is a seafood restaurant featuring fresh catches of the day and oysters from the West and East Coast.  It is a lively, happening place, although the service might need a bit of more friendliness that suits the open concept bar/dine area on the first floor. You can literally watch the chefs making food in the kitchen which is located in front of the seating area separated only by a waist-high wall. This makes the place all the more open, fiery, and inviting. We sat in a booth area and were served with surprisingly delicious bread and ordered two fresh catches and one steak and obviously, oysters. Their oysters were absolutely fresh and fantastic. When oysters are fresh, you shouldn't taste any sea fishiness but only the freshness and the smooth texture of the oysters themselves. For main, I had their sable fish which tasted like a warm piece of butter, smooth, delicate and melts in your mouth without the greasy taste. It was a fantastic fish. One thing I was genuinely surprised by was how nicely their baked potatoes were made. They are crispy on the outside but soft and gooey inside. I am generally not the biggest fan of baked potatoes but I swept those away in a hurry while at the same time, admiring their perfect texture and taste. The wine list is also quite impressive. We had their Malbec, a bubbly from Italy and Muscadet from France. All were quite wonderful ; the Malbec was especially full bodied and smooth. Overall, it was a fantastic experience and everyone walked away happy and content.

To find out more information on Catch The Oyster Bar http://hyatt.com/gallery/catch/index.html

Feb Fest

Here comes Kingston Feb Fest, the winter festival that serves as a tourist attraction during the drab winter months and if there is one type of crowd it attracts, that is certainly kids and families with kids. The market square area is brimmed with people who are there either to watch the kids playing hockey games with the seriousness of real hockey players, or to listen to concerts (which don't really come up until late afternoon), or simply to walk around amidst wafts of smoke coming from the hotdog stands and melting ice sculptures scattered here and there.

I was attracted not just to be in a place of communal festivity, but I have my eyes set on some of the finest restaurants that participated in the feb fest through their own way: tapas with a choice of beer or wine for 10 bucks. This is probably one of the cheapest way to experience different flavors offered around the town without depleting your wallet. Because I had a relatively busy schedule this weekend, I was only able to try out 3 restaurants: Casa, Chez Piggy and Aquaterra. All of them were fantastic. In Casa, we had slow-braised beef served with risotto-like rice in a wine and tomato mixture sauce with shaved Parmasean on top which tasted like heaven. The texture and the temperature were quite perfect and when the cheese melted slowly on top as you were eating, it became another layer of gooeyness made even better by the slight saltiness that comes with the cheeze. In Chez Piggy, we had their oxtail pot pie which is more like a oxtail soup / stew with a layer of dough baked on top. It was probably the most uninteresting of all three but the oxtail meat were delicious and appropriately fat. The dough itself had interesting chocolaty taste which I assumed they used dark chocolate bits in making the dough. I have always loved bread with dark chocolate baked inside, the epitome of my experience being in the Wildfire in Sydney with their signature dark chocolate bread, and Chez Piggy's dough was no exception. The wine was decent (Sandbanks Merlot from what I remember) which was mild and fruity. Last but not least, we went to Aquaterra and their tapas was slow-roasted shredded beef on top of little pan fried pan cakes made of potatoes, cabbages and buckwheat (the buckwheat part borrowed from the waitress). They are quite amazing as the beef is tender yet moist and the little cakes are very well made and are not floury at all. The red wine they served was quite interesting, It was Sandbanks Boco Noir  which is not only fruity, but has a very nice tanginess / spicyness at the end which was quite nice and worth trying again in my opinion. It is also available from LCBO.

Overall, I was more than satisfied with my restaurant choices and their quality tapas. Wish I have the opportunity to come back every year and be in a state of food happiness every year.

Blutsgeschwister

Stumbled upon a pair of ultra-cool glasses over the Christmas break back in Calgary. Fell in love and bought them on a whim and have loved them ever since. I have always wanted to write something about them but because I don't know too much about the brand, never proceeded to do so. Today, I decided to search up this company - Blutsgeschwister ( I am assuming it's German) and found out they are a designing house that carries very unique lines - a baby line ( very cute and adorable), an underwear line, a home wear line and an accessories line, and of course, their glasses line called Wonderglasses! They definitely have some of the nicest, funkiest, most stylish glasses I have seen in a long time. I know the Japanese produce very funky and stylish glasses but some of them are exceedingly expensive. The glasses by B are relatively reasonably priced (mine are 339 CAD)  but I think equally stylish!

Here are the links to the firm and to their glasses line. Check out their accessories line as well, some of them are truly unique and if I could get my hands on them, I totally would!

Blutsgeschwister online shop: http://shop.blutsgeschwister.de/Wonderglasses-oxid/

Wonderglasses : http://www.wonderglasses.com/blutsgeschwister-wonderglasses/prescription_metal.htm

Society6

I read about a cool site couple days ago. The website is called Soceity6. The website sells prints designed mostly by independent artists who need the money for production and design. It is a great way to support up and coming artists and at the same time, purchase something unique at a very reasonable price. The art prints sell from 20 bucks to about 50 for framed ones. They are also iPhone cases and Mac skins available for the same prints. Some prints are absolutely amazing and there are simply a great variety of styles and colors. Check it out! Everyone needs a bit of color and style!

Best Sushi Place in Kingston

Hands down Izumo Sushi. The owners Kevin and Amy are very friendly and have set up their shop west of Princess and University in a superbly cozy and calming way. I used to love going in during lunch hours when the place is quiet and order a sashimi lunch (for about $13) and enjoy the moment of peace to myself until Kevin started having back problems and no longer operates the restaurant during lunch hours. Yet, I still try my best to eat out and visit whenever I felt like quality food and spending quality moments with friends. From my conversation with Kevin, he used to work in a sushi place in Toronto and decided to come here to spread his own wings. I have seen him making sushi behind the bar and the way he does it looks very professional ( at least to me). He is not as fast as the sushi chef in Kaji in Toronto in making sushi but his techniques look similar. Kaji is by far the best sushi place I have been to. It is a place that embraces traditions, creativity and quality all together and every dish looks like the prettiest pictures you can ever dream of. I am excited to go to Japan one day and check out real, traditional, local sushi places so that I can become more familiar with the techniques of making sushi. Sushi is one of my favorite food of all time. It is so simple, yet so delicate and subtle. I believe sushi is an art and eating cheap sushi is simply not the way to go.

January 9, 2012

Finally, finally, found a decent cup of espresso in Kingston. Oddly, it is from Olivea by a really nice waitress (forgot to ask her name). The crema was nice and smooth with a bit of tightness and bitterness. The espresso is light and a bit fruity. It has been a mission of mine to find a cup of decent cappuccino or espresso in Kingston and after having tried most of the coffee shops, we've found that the Sleepless Goat has decent cappuccinos (though they really should improve on their coffee beans used in making the espressos for the cappuccinos); Coffee & Co sometimes churn out decent cappuccinos or lattes depending on who your barista is. Today, Olivea was a surprise find for their decent espresso as we stumbled in for a quick salad for lunch only.

On the note of talking about good coffee places, I want to recommend Phil & Sebestian Coffee in Calgary. The store located in Chinook center is one of the coolest coffee shops I have ever seen, featuring state-of-the-art Italian espresso makers shaped like a spaceship (or a pair of ultra cool sunglasses in my opinion) from the side. The store also puts great efforts into making great coffee with their highly innovative french press machines that controls water that flow in by weight and temperature and their cone-pour-over equipment (which I have yet to try). The baristas are well trained, highly skilled in latte arts, and very friendly when I kept pestering them with questions. I went back to the store almost everyday hereafter during my short stay in Calgary and it will be a place I will dearly miss when I am back in Kingston finishing up school.