Spring Changes...

It's a beautiful spring Sunday and EVERYONE is out! I've never really lived in a country with seasons so it's interesting for me to see the changes that come when the weather really begins to warm up. Aside from the sudden foot traffic on the sidewalks cause veryone wants to be out in the sun, here are some things I've noticed.
1. The restaurants re-open their patios. And a lot of the restaurants or coffee shops actually remove/open the glass walls.. I've never seen that feature before in Asia!
2. People are already pretty nice in Canada but everyone just gets nicer and more cheerful. People actually talk to you when you're stopped at a traffic light!
3. Speaking of traffic, all the convertibles suddenly come out! In Manila, thought he weather is good, you'd die of pollution if you kept your car top down when driving in the city or on the highways.
4. I see legs! I realize that I haven't seen people's legs except in the hot tub at the condo. =) Now, it just gets a little warmer and the shorts and skirts are out with a vengeance. (It's still a bit too cold for me to do that though).
I see the point though... after many months of trying to stay warm indoors, it is a pleasant change. So we tried to enjoy it too! Here's a picture Vineet took of Joey and me when we went for lunch and a walk by the lake.

Cakes, mini-cakes and cookies!

I'm exhausted! I attended an Introduction to Cake Decorating Course at Bonnie Gordon's Cakes. It was the "intensive" version which meant that classes were conducted over 3 full days. It was extremely tiring cause:
1. I'm not used to waking up at 8am.. and not having my afternoon nap =)
2. You only get a 20-min break for a quick lunch.
3. You spend a huge part of the class on your feet.
4. You spend more time on your feet since you have to bake a cake, layer and mask it as part of "homework".

It was really fun though and am looking forward to the next occasion I'll make a cake again... currently planned for my puppy Joey's first birthday in July! Hope I've moved to a house with a big kitchen by then!!!

Here are the things made from the 3 days of class! If I can't fit into my wedding dress, you'll all know the reason for it! =)

Raptors win Game 2!

... YAY! Raptors win vs. New Jersey Nets in Game 2. Their last playoff win was in April 2002!

Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Vineet's always wanted to go away to Niagara for the weekend. And this weekend he convinced me cause:
1. We were going to Terry and Carla's housewarming at Burlington anyway. From there it's just 45 mins more to Niagara.
2. The weather was gorgeous! It was just going to be sun, sun, sun and going to a high of 26 degrees!


On Saturday night, we played Black Jack at the Casino for a couple of hours. Then on Sunday we went to a wine tour at Peller Estates. We went through about 6 different wines at wine tasting (2 in the tour and got 4 complimentary at the wine bar) and found out we had cheap taste in wines! Without knowing the price, the one we liked best was their Heritage series Muscat at just $11.95 a bottle. =)

After the wine tour and wine tasting, we ditched our reservations for lunch at Peller Estates and decided to go back into the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. First stop, I bought a hat cause the sun was beating down hard... I got a straw cowboy hat in preparation for summer at the lake / beach =D. We asked the shop girl for a recommendation on an outdoor patio restaurant and were directed to Zee's on the other end of the strip. It was just so so peaceful sitting there on the patio. The sun was bright but the breeze was so cool (since the wind cools over the Lake which is still very, very, cold). Then we headed off for some dessert... Vineet got a mint chocolate chip ice cream (his usual) at Cow's.. and I tried my first candy apple from Rocky Mountain. Candy apples are yum! Super sweet candy coating and crunchy apple underneath =) Then we bought a gift for Joey, a cute red harness that would be easier on his tiny neck & body. (Took him on a walk yesterday and he got lots of props on the harness!).
Then it was time to go... We passed by Mississauga to meet up with Pasz & Mel at Pasz' parent's house to pick up Joey. They had been so nice to take care of Joey for the weekend. All in all, it was a great relaxing weekend which I felt was just a preview of summer here in Canada!

Raptor Red.

Vineet and I have enjoyed watching the Raptors regularly this season since we had purchased an Eastern Conference game pack. But going into the stadium for the playoffs, the atmosphere was crazy. Each person had been given free red Raptors t-shirts, so the stadium was completely red! We got in and the game was already underway and noticed something unusual though... Raptors were in white jerseys and it was the Nets that were in red. The media, care of long sarcastic quotes from the Nets' Richard Jefferson saying they had never had that much support on their away games, picked up on it in the coverage after. (arrrgh) That basically rubbed salt to the wound because yes.... the Raptors lost.

They just weren't playing the same. They're usually a quick team that moves the ball a lot. But this time, they were completely off. Shooting was bad, hardly any assists... I guess they were nervous being such an inexperienced playoffs team? the game was still fun though as they had spurts where they seemed to put up a fight... like in the 4th quarter when from a 14-point deficit, they eventually got the Nets lead down to 1-pt so the entire stadium was on it's feet cheering their hearts out. And of course, you can't help but enjoy the "BOOS" and chants of "Carter sucks" whenever the ball touches Carter's fingers. There was even a blow-up doll wearing a Carter jersey that people were passing around and beating up. It was eventually confiscated by security though. All this must have had some effect on Carter (as it usually does) cause he got 4-fouls quite early in the second half and had to sit it out for a while. Unfortunately, it didn't help the end result.

On a brighter note, we got really good seats for the playoffs! And these seats are the seats we will regularly have for next season. We shared season tickets with our friend Thad and got better seats than we had this year. The seats have a great view and we finally have cup holders! Also, waitresses come around with PDAs to take your orders so you don't have to bear with the uber-long lines at the concession stands.

Oh and before I forget... the Raptor is the cutest NBA mascot. Here is the newly launched CHOMPER RAPTOR version. He basically "argued" with a NJ Nets fan and chomped him down in his big mouth! Hehehe.

Playoffs...

... YAY! We got seats for the NBA playoffs, Toronto Raptors vs. New Jersey Nets. The last time we watched them go against each other Jason Kidd wasn't there so I'm really looking forward to seeing him! Also, it's fun when Vince Carter is at the dome cause the Canadians love booing him cause of how he was when he used to be with the Raptors!

WEDDING UPDATE: Church Change!

For the past few weeks I've been trying to sort out a minor hiccup in the wedding planning. Our church is getting renovated! So we've been on a hunt to find another available Church that was downtown, available on June 2nd and that we liked. We actually spent one day just driving around churches that I had Googled to see if they looked nice. And with the help of Fr. Mick we are now all set to be married at St. Paul's Basilica (instead of St. Patrick's Church). For details on our new Church, please go to our site: www.mehra-castaneda.com!

Singapore Lah!

It started with hawker-like Chinese food yesterday and now the weekend is turning into a Singapore-like weekend. To be honest though, it's mostly about the food than any other experience.
After the dinner at Pacific Mall yesterday, Vineet was craving dimsum. I had saved an article about the top 10 dimsum places in Ontario so we decided to visit the top-rated place. Lai Wah Heen is supposedly the best dimsum in North America. We had been to the restaurant before and loved it (you should try the moo shu... to die for!) - but we had gone at dinner time so dimsum was not available. We decided to go to their sister restaurant Lai Toh Heen since it was in the Mt. Pleasant area, where there were other nice shops to visit.
The dimsum was amazing!!!!!!!!! They had the "typical" hakaw and siew mai which was really good quality but it was their specials which you order by the piece which made it really unforgettable. Two that we particularly liked: Stuffed Tofu Brick fried in Spicy Sea Salt and Bacon-wrapped Shrimp in Strawberry Wasabi sauce.
The food was so good that I'd definitely come back even though the service wasn't all that great. In fact we joked that it completed the "Singapore experience"! ;-)

The Real Chinatown!

What is recognized as Chinatown is actually just 10 minutes away from where I live. Today though, I found the real Chinatown -- MARKHAM!Looking at the people in the cars in Markham, about 70% of the passengers were Chinese (and the remaining 30% were mostly other Asians - Indians, Filipinos, etc.). And as you gradually kept on going on the road, there was an increasing number of signs in Chinese.

We went inside Pacific Mall - which was less of a mall and more like a giant building with row after row of stall-like stores typical of those in Asia. Upstairs there was a section selling Chinese cheongsams, trinkets, decor, it remineded me of our shopping adventures at the Silk Market in Beijing!

Then we hit the foodcourt. YUMMY and very affordable Chinese food to satisfy Vineet. He ordered food enough for 4 people even though it was just the two of us. I took a picture of the foodcourt cause it reminded us of Newton Circus or the other hawkers centre in Singapore.

Looking around me it was pretty hard to remember I was actually still in Canada.

YUM!

Buttery Apple Tort...

...is in the oven, let's see how it turns out! =) Got the recipe from my sister Del's blog which is full of yummy recipes. Showed the recipes to Vineet and he already wants to try the pork chops with black currant jelly and dijon mustard!
On a related topic (it's related to food!), my refrigerator looks like it needs to get repaired... and the guy can only come in next Tuesday! So much food will go to waste.. maybe we should just have people over for lunch tom and cook everything?

Happy Birthday Pat!

Happy Birthday Mr. James Patrick Santos! =) Wish I could've been there for your "surprise" 12am greeting with the Family. Instead, I'll just reminisce and remember last year when we almost surprised you while you were in the.... never mind! =)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! - From me, Vineet and Joey.

Boubker Ait El Caid

Just finished Babel. Really interesting movie (and significantly better than my last 2 movies this week - Marie Antoinette and Rocky Balboa). But what impressed me a lot was the casting of Boubker Ait El Caid as Yussef - the Moroccan kid who accidentally shot the American tourist, played by Cate Blanchett. Among the characters, he was one of those that really stood out for me.
I just look back at the Oscars and all the acclaim given to Abigail and just feel that some of that should been thrown the way of Boubker Ait El Caid. I mean I do think that Abigail is a great little actress and she was great in Little Miss Sunshine (a movie I enjoyed immensely) but I think that Boubker's performance was so much more deeper and was still as a very critical supporting role in the story. And it's just a shame that you can hardly find pictures of him on the site, and I don't think he was even mentioned in the Ensemble cast winners (where the Japanese cop and dad were included - if you ask me, he played a much more important role than they did!).
Oh well. Just thought I'd write about him.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday brunches are one of my favorite things. It's always laid-back, relaxed and for some reason, EVERYTHING seems to taste great at Sunday brunch places.
Today though I started off with higher expectations than normal because the restaurant we were going to was tauted as one of the best brunch places in Toronto. True enough, the food was fantastic! It's a place on King West called Bistro & Bakery Thuet. It's a French restaurant (with a bakery) owned and operated by Chef Mark Thuet. The place was packed and we were happy to have only a 5-minute wait for a table for two.
I ordered the "Seared smoked pork loin, Quebec maple syrup, Thuet brioche French toast", which was heavenly. I haven't ordered French toast for myself in over 2 years now (although I have been known to occasionally pick off other people's plates) because the quality is so erratic. There are some places it turns out too rubbery or too soggy or too something. But this one was heavenly! It was so light and fluffy (probably cause bread was always freshly made since they were a bakery), the maple syrup was just right (not too sweet, not too maple-y), and the smoked porkloin made it all filling enough for brunch. Vineet ordered "Omelette au jambon, fromage et fines herbs". An omellete with ham, cheese and fine herbs is relatively simple right? But this one just had the right balance of taste and was nice and moist inside.
To make this a fair review though, I do have to say that the service was so-so. The hostess was very nice and acommodating but the waitstaff seemed so harrassed and left much to be desired. But the food was definitely good enough to make us come back and give it another go!

Conehead.

Poor little 5-lb Joey! Had not been fed for 21 consecutive hours, had blood work done, was under general anesthesia, was neutered (ouch!), was micro-chipped in between the shoulder blades, had 2 baby teeth pulled which required 2 stitches on his gums... and on top of that he has to be a conehead for 5 days so he doesn't lick and infect his wounds.

It's not the same...

Joey is at the vet for the whole day for surgery. He is getting "fixed" The house is really not the same without him =(

Spring is here!

March 21. Spring officially starts today!! And the high and low forecasts for the next ten days are all above zero! =)

Kuya Cheech!

While Vineet and I were in Alberta, Payal and her dog Cheech kindly took on the task of pampering Joey for 6 days. This was the week that Joey realized he was a dog. He came back home a changed man... I swear, he looks bored to be with me now and just looks forward to his walks when he can play with other doggies. Here he is pictured with Cheech, who I think he sees as a kuya (older brother) cause he just kept following whatever he did (including learning to pee with one leg up!)

Alberta Mini-Vacation

A friend had told us that if we were going to Alberta, we just HAD to stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. I'm definitely glad we did!

The lake was perfectly positioned against a backdrop of 2 mountains, meeting in the middle of the lake. And from the opposite side, the Fairmont was perfectly perched on the edge of the lake. The lake was frozen over and the effect of the snow on the frozen lake, mountains and trees was amazing -- and we enjoyed it even more with a sleigh ride around the lake! I am definitely looking forward to seeing it again in a different light in summer... maybe next year =)

The next day we went to Banff, which is a nice, relatively quiet ski town. It was amazing though how much variety of cuisines was available in such a small strip! The highlight of that stay though was a trip to Banff Upper Hot Springs! It was cool to be out while there was snow all around, but it appears that hot springs and/or hot tub outdoors is a very critical part of the skiing lifestyle =)

V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! =)

Got a call from the concierge that there were flowers waiting at the front desk so I just put on jeans and a jacket over my PJs and went right away.

These roses look so elegant! I have to go look for a vase that will do these flowers justice now. Unfortunately, I don't think I have anything long enough for these roses... and I don't want to cut their stems too much cause they're so nice and long!