I have a tendency to talk to random strangers all the time. I think part of it is because I am naturally chatty (I know, I am stating the obvious here) and part of it is because I am a small town girl at heart. I grew up just knowing the people in my neighbourhood and local shops. I think people who live in big cities tend to be afraid of striking up random conversations with strangers as we tend to be insular. I think part of it is being protective of oneself.
I've never really gotten into that habit. Another thing about me is that I tend to remember details about people so when I re-meet them, I'll ask them about school/family/life event. It just makes this big city seem like a small neighbourhood to me - a la Cheers.
Stefan, who is normally shy always finds it bewildering when I wave to people on the street; like the linen guy who did all the linens at the restaurants I worked at, or the UPS guy from my first job. He'll always exclaim after a brief interchange of words with said people, " Sweetie! You really gotta stop being so friendly! It's ridiculous already."
Yesterday, I called for sushi at the nearby sushi restaurant. The voice on the phone sounded vaguely familiar but I wasn't sure. When I went to pick up my food the person on the other line turned out to be this rather ornery waitress, who hadn't been at the restaurant for the past year and a half. She had gone to work somewhere else. Now, this woman is generally quite brusque in manner so I never really know whether she found my friendly chatter annoying or not. As I started to leave, she suddenly blurted," You know, I've missed you." Incredulous at finally hearing a somewhat friendly tone from her, I looked back and there was a smile; ever so brief and then it was gone.
It made my day.
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Posted in Me-ness
There seems to be a conspiracy brewing in the upper ranks of the Kang household. I have always been the apple of my parents' eye. Mind you, my brothers are apples of my parents' eye as well; I just like to think that my apple is shinier and prettier. Since I am the youngest and only girl, I've always been a little more spoiled than the others.
As you all know, things have begun to slightly shift ever since I started dating Stefan. For some reason, it was pretty instantaneous love between my parents and Stef. Not that I minded, as it's always lovely when your family accepts the one you love. My parents, especially my mum tend to convey love through food. I think that is where I got my passion for cooking and why I love doing it for friends and family.
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Posted in Family Shenanigans, Stefan
I've been reading my cousin's blog in Asia and she's been talking a lot about food that she likes or is craving. Which has made me start to think that what my Kong Kong (Grandpa) used to call me (Banana - Yellow on the outside, White on the inside) might not be so far off. Mind you, I think he just called me that because I could never master the different dialects of Chinese that he would speak and not because of my food preferences. These are some reasons why I think I might not be 100% Asian.
I can eat cheese until the cows come home.
Most Asians I know tend to be lactose intollerant. Ken, my oldest brother, happens to be one of them. The man loves the cheese but giving him any in a small enclosed space, (like his apartment in NY) is like asking for a slow, painful toxic death. I usually toss it into his apartment and run away. I, on the other hand, can eat all types of cheese and it never affects me.
I don't like chicken feet.
I know many food bloggers have extolled on this delicacy and how if people could get over the fact that they were feet, they would come to understand how tasty the morsel really was. I think that there is a special way on how to eat them and I've never mastered it. Now, I'm just way too old to be bothered. After all, there are many other weird things in the world to eat, what's one less in my repertoire? Unfortunately, for my Asian friends and family who have to sit next to me during dim sum, I am the person that everyone in the room will give me the googly eye because I always pass on the stupid chicken feet.
Durian is not my king.
The Durian has long been called the king of fruit due to it's thorny shell. This fruit is mainly prevalent in South East Asia and Malaysians worship it. I have to admit that I love the taste; the fruit is a little like rich sweet custard, there is nothing like it in the world. The smell? Imagine wet hockey equipment left in bag, sitting in sunny spot all week and the stench that emanates when you finally deem to open it. Disgusting! As a little girl, as soon as I found out that the family had gone out to buy the fruit, would run around and lock all the doors and windows and make everyone eat the fruit outside. I am sure I'll eat it again at some point, I'll just have to make sure that my nose is plugged.
You can take my rice but don't take my pasta.
A lot of Asians I know can't live without having rice every day. My dad freaks out if there is anything less than 20 pounds of rice in the pantry. I don't really care if I never eat rice again for the rest of my life but you really can't take anything noodle-ish away from me. I blame this on living in an Italian neighbourhood when we first moved here. I just love my pasta!
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Posted in Homage to Hunger, Me-ness
Marriage seems to be the thought du jour lately. This has been the record high year for the number of acquaintances and friends getting married.
Yesterday, Stefan and I went out with the footy lads and ladies after a disappointing defeat with our rival team. At some point we ended up meeting A (can't remember his name) who was thinking of proposing to his girlfriend and was nervous about it. He had planned some grand gesture and was worried about it not going completely to plan. I told him that she would be so happy that she most likely won't even remember what he said in the proposal. I'm still trying to get Stefan to re-propose to me so that I can have memories of him saying it.
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Posted in Stefan
I had such an amazing food day today! Everyone in blogland seemed to be talking about going to the local market lately so I decided it was time to visit my own. Briana wrote a really funny piece about surviving her local market and Mav posted a great picture of what was fresh at hers. Stefan and I usually (usually just me) go to Kensington Market on Sundays to do our grocery shopping. It's such a great mix of interesting stores where you can buy pretty much anything your tummy desires. On hot summer days, an impromptu street festival seems to take place with the local Jamaican music store providing the soulful Raggae beats. The best part about going to Kensington is also that it's right next to one of our Chinatowns where I can buy "random weeds" (as Stefan who is notoriously suspicious of any food likes to call it).
This Saturday however, we decided to go out of our neighbourhood and further to the St. Lawrence Market. St Lawrence Market is located at Front and Jarvis and it's a great bustling spot to visit on weekends. There are usually craft and vintage vendors on the sidewalk and the large complex holds huge stores specializing in seafood, meats, cheeses; pretty much anything you can think of. The building across the street usually hosts a Saturday only farmer's market. I simply love shopping for vegetables and fruits that are in season and are grown just hours away.
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Posted in Homage to Hunger
Oh man! So, super lucky me....I totally scored on this marketing campaign. They hooked me up with a phone, an extra memory card (to take videos on my phone!), a bluetooth headset (good for my road trips) and earphones for the phone (because it also plays mp3 and videos!) It's very exciting.
Note to everyone out there, don't just read the five pages of the manual to set it up. Because basically that's what I did. There are supposed to be tons of functions but I haven't really tested them all out yet because I usually just like to press random buttons to figure stuff out. You'd probably figure it out way faster if you read the manual, unlike myself.
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Posted in Reviewing
Years ago, I had this ridiculous key ring. It was on a long chain and on the actual key ring, there were something like 20 keys. All various miscellaneous keys from our former homes and some friends' homes keys. Back in the day, we used each other's homes like hotel rooms.
People always made fun of my key ring since I only ever used 2 actual keys on it. I liked it because there was some weight to it and I never lost it because that thing jingled so much. I finally decided this year to switch my keys to a dainty Tiffany's ring; a present from my mother in law. Everyone agreed it was time that I had an adult ring. I didn't want to say anything but I actually wanted this key ring because it was larger but I just got one of the basic ones.
Wouldn't you know it? I lost that dainty key ring in 2 weeks. And now, I've also managed to lose our two spare keys because they were on these nothing keychains. I really need to buy a janitor's ring and put lots of miscellaneous rings on it.
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Posted in Me-ness
So, I got an email sometime last week from a local Toronto marketing company called Matchstick, who had somehow found my blog and wanted to give me a free Nokia 6682 to test. They're a "word of mouth" marketing company who is doing a "buzz marketing" campaign. It's being offered to bloggers in the Vancouver and Toronto area who meet the following criteria -
- Hosts a popular blog with 400+ hits a day
- A current Rogers cell phone subscriber (phone only supported with the Rogers network)
- Between the ages of 22-35
- Keeps his/ her blog updated on a regular basis with pictures and video
- Very socially active
How "tipping point" of them!
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Posted in This is Why
I went to see this movie yesterday with Lia and Jenny. If you are planning to watch it and want to be completely surprised, then don't read this review as I will talk about some scenes in the movie.
I'd been eagerly anticipating it since it is about an industry that I work in. I had initially read the book; which was hilarious and I enjoyed it but in many ways it was over the top and obviously had exagerrated details about the industry to create drama. The movie, in my opinion, happens to be slightly better than the book, in that it is less vicious and more realistic and it gives the "devil" a bit of humanity. Albeit, the "humanity" part is very slight.
I don't care how many "devil" bosses you may have had (and trust me, every one has had them) when you look at the situation after the fact, those people were inevitably human. Evil, yes, but everyone has a backstory to why they treat people a certain way. It may not be right but it's the way it is. You can either learn from the experience or not, and you move on.
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Posted in Reviewing
I absolutely love Virginia Johnson's work. I was first introduced to her gorgeous designs by Ra, who is the purveyor of all things beautiful and cool. Virginia is a textile/fashion/homeware designer and illustrator. Her works have just the right combination of whimsy, colour and clean lines to tickle my senses.
I recently got to go to her studio to take some pictures and my hands were just itching to touch and browse through every piece. I wanted her bikinis, all her pillows, her pieces of clothing etc. (Stef! Are you paying attention? Good potential presents in case you run out of ideas) She even had her sketchbook out of inspirations and I always love being able to see into a designer's head. Her sundresses just made me think of lounging in sun drenched beaches at Ibiza or Santorini.
I was over at her studio because I was writing a designer profile piece for BlogTO. I managed to also find a recent video interview of her work process on Toronto Life. It was a really great interview and it was just amazing to hear how she went from one inspiration to create her own version of it.
I am completely inspired to re-design my site in the same clean look. I'd better confer with my other collaborators first.
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Posted in Delectable Design
You know how I just hate it when technology dies on me. I have quite outrageously, large technology rages. Anyway, it looks that our stereo seems to have finally kicked the bucket, or maybe it hasn't. I don't know. I just know that it's not playing my ipod without a zzzzt! zzzzt! zzzzt! sound. My ipod is practically a part of my body and to have it not work, (even though it technically is working, the stereo that it's hooked to is not) is making want to cry or yell or be generally ill tempered.
I could technically listen to music through my laptop (and that's what I've been doing) but it's just not the same experience. It also doesn't help that my husband (aka technical help for life) has been so busy that he hasn't had time to look into it for me.
I'm grumpy.
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Posted in What's Buggin' Me
Now, how often does someone say that?
Probably not at all. Stefan and I had a busier weekend than expected. I am not sure why, but for some reason I thought I was going to have a very chilled out weekend. It's one of the few weekends where Stefan doesn't have a footy (Aussie rules, not American) game.
However, my dream of a lazy weekend was not to be due to unexpected invites to go to have "a drink" at a patio, Lia's birthday party at the Biermarket and the World Cup Final celebrations. Here are some thoughts -
Why is "one drink at the patio" never just one?
I am no longer a spring chicken and cannot go out drinking (albeit moderately) for four nights in a row. I didn't get a single hangover but I now feel generally unhealthy and will have to wander over to Juice For Life, and get a Liver Flush.
I really need to figure out how to fix my ridiculous tan lines.
I love that Toronto is so multicultural. There is never avoiding the World/Euro cup.
I am glad that we were in the "French" area rather than in the two "Little Italy" neighbourhoods. The insanity would have been too much for me to take after such a hectic weekend and intense game. You can see how mad those areas got, by clicking here.
There are most likely a lot of Italians who have called in sick today because of all the reveling.
In my heart of hearts, I knew Italy was going to win. I just wasn't allowed to say it out loud since Stefan had a double or nothing bet with an Italian friend of his.
I've been asking several Italians why their uniforms are blue even though there is no blue in their flag. So far, no one has been able to give me an answer that has made any sense. Anyone out there know the answer to this?
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Posted in Joy-Friends
Stefan is an onion, or so he likes to tell me. He has many layers. I often tell him that likening himself to an onion is a terrible analogy because after you peel the layers, you simply get more onion.
Anyway, it's true that Stefan has many layers. One of his "layers" that everyone finds so surprising is that he's very design oriented. They just think, because of what he does, that he's just this computer geek. Little do they know that he actually had plans to be an architect with his best friends but numbers and solving theoretical problems won that debate.
Almost everything that he ever picks, whether it be clothing or furniture has to have an element of interesting design. I tend to lean towards whimsical and vintage. Often, when you see his choices, you'll think, "God, how simple. Such clean lines and so boring." and then at a closer look, you'll notice some cool detail, ever so slight.
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Posted in Stefan
My God!
If I ever find the spam-bot that has been jamming up my comments section for the past month, I am going to ram my pointy shoe in its motherfucking ass.
Fists shaking in the air. Deep breathe.
I feel better now.
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Posted in What's Buggin' Me
I had the nicest surprise yesterday. The very lovely Lisa S sent me a very unexpected gift - a tote with a birdie (how did she know that I adore totes and birds?), two mixed CD's (that I am groovin' to right now) and two magnets! Even Mindy got to enjoy in some of the pressies, as you can see here. She just loves tissue paper! There is nothing nicer than coming home to an unexpected package.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Posted in Joy-Friends, Much To Do About Nothing
I always forget that Canada Day falls so closely to Independence Day in the U.S. Our friends Paul and Maureen were nice enough to invite us to their family cottage. It was so nice to be out of the city and to enjoy nature.
Maureen's father is a really tremendously active guy who learnt how to snowboard five years ago and has since gotten his instructor's license. He took Stef out to wake board for the first time and was so patient about the whole process. Stef, being the natural athlete figured it out pretty quickly. I didn't try because it takes me longer to figure stuff like that out and I would have been frustrated. That, and I still haven't gotten used to cold lake water.
Milo, their pup was also subjected to "water sports" as all the kids and adults tried to entice him to swim. We just couldn't figure out why he just wasn't into it since all dogs usually love playing with water. He did finally go out the last day to the delight of everyone. All in all, a really fabulous weekend well spent.
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Posted in Joy-Friends
Boutsy was home on the weekend. Even though Vancouver has really incredible food, she was craving what all ex-Ryersonians crave, Salad King. This was the local university haunt that we would go to when we didn't want to eat crap. I like to think that I was the first one among us who frequented the joint, but I can't be really sure. I am sure that I was one of the most constant, waiting at the doors when it first opened in the morning, after pulling an all nighter.
It used to be a real hole in the wall, all dark and no service. It's definitely changed since but the food is still incredible and inexpensive. Boutsy and I love the food because it reminds us of our mamas' home cooked South East Asian fare. In fact, I think the only time I ever see the ridiculously beautiful Sayavong sisters is at this restaurant. We all don't go as often, so we tend to order the same thing every time. This is much to the despair of the owners, who still recognize us and always ask us to try something "new" even though we've all had everything on the menu at least twice.
It was great to see the girls. Even though we're all still friendly, Boutsy is our common link. It's funny but I feel like we all still somewhat look the same despite the fact that we've aged 10 years since we first met. Except now, we're either married or cohabitating, we own property, we have jobs, we pay taxes and Hannah is going to have a baby!
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Posted in Joy-Friends