While my parents are off in Hong Kong enjoying their time away from our cold city, my grandparents called and requested my sister, Vince, and myself to go out for dinner. It's really funny, because even though I'm all grown up and fully capable of taking care of myself and my sister, they're so worried about us! They call all the time, asking if we're okay, if they need to come over, etc. Best part is when they tell me not to drive because it's super dangerous, haha. I know they mean well, but it's just so funny. They made sure Vince was coming so that he would drive instead of me!

As always, grandparents love Chinese food, so off to 98 C&S Seafood Restaurant we went. I remember going there with them about a year ago after they reopened, and it tasted pretty good! I was looking forward to the meal since I was starting to miss eating Chinese food (so rare!)

CRAZY grandparents insisted on ordering the 6 person meal despite there being only 5 of us, and my grandparents' appetite combined equates to one person.. meaning we were ordering a 6 person meal for 4 people.. yikes. Needless to say, it was all in their plan to send the leftovers home with us to eat, so we would "survive" for a couple extra days. And the worst part? The food really didn't taste all that great. It's not that the food quality wasn't good, it was just extremely salty. It felt like there was double the amount of salt required to cook a dish! I don't think I have ever eaten so much rice or drank so much water in one sitting at a Chinese restaurant.

I need to find out what peaches they use. They were SO GOOD. I know that they were canned, but they had a firm texture, compared to the soft mushy ones usually used in this dish at other restaurants





Can you guess what this dish is? Its fish! It was deep fried fish, to the point that you had no idea what the heck it was. Doused in salty sauce.. it was like eating salty batter. So weird.





I can't say that this restaurant is really bad based on this visit - the food quality was decent, just that it was really salty. Maybe they had a new chef in for the night? I tend to give places the benefit of the doubt, unless they wrong me so terribly that I never want to return again *cough*LAZIA*cough* If the food pictures tempt you in any way whatsoever, go try it out! If you have blood pressure problems, I might stay away due to the high levels of sodium, unless you like to play it risky. Your choice :) For now, I'll be staying away from there for a while, there's plenty of other decent (not good) Chinese restaurants here in town that won't cause me to request for water refills every five minutes!

98 C&S Seafood Restaurant
10725 98 Street
Edmonton AB

A couple weeks back, I had spotted that a new Japanese restaurant was bound to open by Dream Tea House, to replace the spot previously home to Ling Wok. Since Andrew was back in town, we decided to go check out the place for lunch.

We arrived right when it opened, and it seemed that there were other people interested in the restaurant as well, as we all arrived right at 11:30 in the morning. Everyone was seated promptly, and the waitress tended to each table right away.

Looking through the menu, I felt that the prices were definitely a little more expensive around lunchtime than other Japanese restaurants in Edmonton. Their only lunch specials were Bento Boxes, and they were priced at $10.95. I'm a big udon fan, and they didn't have tempura udon as an item on their menu. I ended up going with a plain udon (~$8), and ordering tempura prawns (~$7), which is probably more than I should be eating at lunchtime, haha. Andrew ordered a bento box, and we had beef tataki to share.

The items arrived to our table in a peculiar order. We first received the tempura prawns, followed by my udon, then the beef tataki, and finally the bento box. It was a little strange, but we hadn't really specified if we wanted certain items to come out first.



Andrew's bento box included miso soup & a little bean sprout salad. The bean sprout salad is tossed with a soy ginger vinaigrette, similar to the one served at kyoto. However, this dressing was a little cloudy in colour, leading us to believe there was a hint of miso in it.



My makeshift tempura udon lunch. The prawns were massive, and cooked in very clean oil - they looked so appetizing! The udon soup was a little disappointing for me though, because it tasted kind of plain prior to adding the special five-spice udon blend I had to request for.



Andrew's teriyaki chicken & sushi bento box - we weren't too impressed with this one. The chicken was overcooked, and the sushi pieces had way too much mayo in them (california rolls). Also, has anyone ever had huge celery pieces in their salad when going out for Japanese? We found it to be so odd, cause the strong taste threw off the dressing and presence of the other vegetables.


beautiful tataki :)

The beef tataki is what impressed us the most. Look at that plate! The presenation is beautiful. With ten pieces of meat, each portion on the plate averages about $1.05. The ponzu sauce was perfect - great flavour, and not overly salty like so many of the restaurants here in Edmonton!

All in all, this restaurant is pretty good.. no big complaints. They get big points for beautiful food presentation, but I just wish there wasn't a variability between taste and presentation. They are still starting out, and working on fixing their minor errors here and there. The service was good, but our visit can't guage what their service will be like during dinner hours, when restaurants tend to be pretty busy. Although their dishes are at a higher price point, I feel that you're getting higher quality food in comparison to other Japanese establishments.

Sakana
7908 104 Street
Edmonton AB

Andrew is back in town! And I found out that his dad bought an entire family of Pleo's - one for each member in the family. What is a pleo you ask?

A pleo is basically a smart pet. But not just any type of pet - it's a dinosaur! It's robotic and battery operated, but the technology to this dinosaur is so advanced, it's able to function autonomously. It will eat, sleep, cuddle and perform many other functions depending on what you try to teach it. Once a pleo is born, it cannot walk, and must wait for a period of time before it can begin to take it's first steps. The growth and development is dependent upon the amount of time you put into raising it - so it's not like it will age when you do not interact with it.

I think it's so cool that there's technology like this out there. Lazers and sensory integration systems help this little robot to move around, ensuring (for the most part) that it will keep itself safe (for example from falling off a ledge), and learn how to function with respect to the surrounding environment. I can't even begin to imagine being able to integrate this type of system into robots to facilitate care programs for individuals that cannot take care of themselves properly. It would be so cool if a robot were to take care of you!

These babies run for around $500 a piece. Would you consider buying one? Find out more information from the developers website, pleoworld.com As for me, I think I'm gonna just go over to Andrew's to play with pleo, haha. It's not as soft as I wish it would be!

Today while I was browsing on Nitrolicious, Wendy posted about an upcoming line of clothing H&M would release on April 14. It's called the Concious Collection, and everything made in the line is constructed using environmentally adapted materials, such as organic cotton and recycled polyester.

It's nice to see that a big fashion company such as H&M is taking the initiative towards creating a more sustainable future, using materials that reduce the harm we cause to our environment.

Here's a couple pieces I'm looking forward to!

They're adorable, and will be perfect for special occasions in the summer!

Although I have a lot of love for the Sephora moisturizer (post here), I've still been having some trouble with dry skin around my eyes *darn Canadian winter*

I seeked out the Kiehl's Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado, since it had so many rave reviews on the Kiehl's website and on Makeup Alley.



The cream inside is a very beautiful green colour, exactly like what you find inside an avocado. It is quite thick, but it stays put, and does not migrate around your face, allowing for intensive moisture treatment. I don't have any need for anti-wrinkle eye creams or anything at my young age, so I like using this eye cream because it's main purpose is to moisturize around the eye. I am currently in love with this product, and apply it every night before I go to sleep. Goodbye dry skin!

My parents are heading out for Hong Kong tomorrow, so we wanted to have dinner as a family before they head out of town. Knowing my family, it's always going to be Chinese food, and good Chinese food doesn't really exist here in Edmonton.

Back in the day, my parents would take my sister and I out for late night Chinese food (aka 'siew yeh') at a place called Chin Kee. The food was decent, and my sister & I loooved eating deep fried stuff there - fish skin, little fishies, you name it! But they have changed ownership and cooks, so we haven't been there for quite a number of years.

My parents wanted to check out the status of the restaurant, so off we went on our dinner adventure.

When we got there, the restaurant was full of Chinese people.. that's a good sign when it comes to finding a decent restaurant! We were seated right away at our reserved table, and my parents chose one of their preset dinners for 6 people.

watercress soup


chili garlic crab


sweet mayo ribs


garlic & chili deep fried fishies


shrimp paste sauce chicken


steamed egg tofu

Overall, the food was actually very good. Nothing was overly salty, and the oil they used was very clean. It was an enjoyable meal, and I definitely would say this is one of the better Chinese restaurants in Edmonton right now!

Chin Kee Restaurant
15545 Stony Plain Road NW

Edmonton AB

The MAC Jeanius collection launched on Thursday, and I was only really interested in the blushes. I went and picked up just one, overdyed, which is a deep purple-fuschia.

The blush is very, very pigmented, so a very light touch to the blush with your brush is enough to colour your cheeks. I didn't really process this in my head at first, and my first application to my cheeks made me look like I was Grimace - the purple monster from McDonalds kids meals, HAHA. Love this blush! :)



Also, I picked up this ring in a Forever 21 order I did this week. Love it! Reminds me a bit of the YSL arty ring cause of the colour!

Yesterday a bunch of us went out to Mikado for my best friends birthday! :) It was her 21st, which is a pretty important birthday!

Vince & I ordered the usual Dragon Eyes, Tobiko sushi & beef tataki. Everything was good, until the beef tataki arrived. It was really odd looking.. grey in colour, and somewhat overcooked. But the waitress was happy to take it back & give us a fresher plate.




weird looking tataki


this plate looks MUCH better!


Me with Janet. Haven't seen this girl in soo long! (approx. 5 years??)


with the birthday girl! love you lots, xox

A while back, I was at Sobeys and saw something interesting sitting on the shelf. Instant scalloped potatoes! I never even knew things like this existed!

It comes in a package just like the Knorr Sidekicks, where everything is inside. All you do is add some milk and butter, and pop it into the oven for baking! Super easy and convenient, compared to actually making this dish from scratch. I was really curious as to how this would turn out, and if it would actually taste good. At $2.50per package, I really didn't have much to lose!


before heading into the oven


finished product!

The dish itself turned out great! The potatoes were tender and cheesy, but definitely not as good as a dish from scratch. But when you're low on time and need a dish quick, this isn't a bad option!