1am - Just got home from the movie theatre. The two free movie tickets that I got from Oatmeal Crisp cereal were going to expire on June 30. So, we decided to go for movie tonight. Originally I was thinking of The Lake House, but when we went to the theatre, we saw the SUPERMAN RETURNS was playing!!! It was supposed to start on Friday and the ticket guy told us that this is a “sneak preview” (lol). So, we went for the Superman instead. (It was packed!) If it wasn’t because of my bf, I guess I would have gone for the Lake House or the OMEN. The Superman turned out to be not bad. I quite liked it although there was no surprise at all. Maybe this movie is supposed to please the ladies - apparently, the guys were not very satisfied with this movie. Yet, at the theatre, we saw a hardcore Superman fans, dressed up like a Superman - I’m sure he would be thrilled.

So many things have happened lately - Some are unfortunate, some are hilarious, some are ridiculous. The highlight, of course, would be me burning up the microwave with a bag of popcorn and smoked the office on Monday 5pm. My God! It was like one of those office sitcom - and I was the main cast. We had to change a microwave and now I know I should never ever underestimate how quickly 3 min can fly. My whole body just smelt like charcoal BBQ that evening. That was really ”memorable”.

I know I’ve been blogging a lot about my HK trip. Some of you may think - Where’s the Toronto restaurants? You know, I’ve been eating out for 3 weeks straight in HK. I love to dine out, but not to do that 3 meals per day, 7 days per week. I’m tired of eating out or thinking of places to eat!

Nevertheless, just to keep a record of my re-visits… During the period of April 28 - June 26, top of my mind, here are the places that I’ve eaten at: (Gotta give these restaurants pop quiz once in a while ;p)

* Le Cafe Michi - went there for a Friday lunch with 2 other colleagues. The quality and service was consistent. We had a Unagi Don, Premium sushi combo, a spicy tuna roll and another maki.

* Kenny’s Noodle (First Markam store) - went there for a Friday lunch with 5 other colleagues. Compared to my last visit, the experience was quite disappointing. The food was okay. There were some residues on the tea cups.

* Yang’s Sushi Bar (4261 Hwy 7 E., C10, Markham; Tel: 905-944-0818) - heard from a friend about this AYCE sushi place. Operated by Chinese. Went there on a Sunday night for a friend’s birthday. The food may not be authentic, but the taste and quality were better than average AYCE places.

* Quizno’s Sub (Apple Creek store) - Haven’t had Quizno’s Sub for such a long time. I remember the first time I had it was at the monthly meeting at TD. They ordered Quizno’s Sub for everyone. At that time, there were only a few Quizno’s stores in Toronto and the price was higher. This revisit was good. The place was run by Chinese, but the quality was standard and the server was polite and friendly.

* Rex Saigon - Again, Friday lunch. Unexpectedly, the restaurant was all packed. It wasn’t like that last time I went. The food was consistent.

* Montana’s (Yonge & Hwy 7 location) - Went there Friday night during NBA playoff. The food was as usual. Their waiting cards are cute - they gave us a card instead of a number. When the table was ready, they called us by what’s written on the card, e.g. polar bear.

* Ginger & Onion Cuisine (Market Village) - Same old. Price and quality were consistent.

* Takara Bune - We actually revisited them several times. Every time the service was good and we were satisfied. Apparently they have consolidated the menu to a few combos on a separate sheet. I find that really helpful as compared to having an overwhelming huge menu and don’t know what to order.

* Dun Huang Chinese Cuisine - The new Chinese restaurant/banquet hall on 2/F of Time Square. Eight of us, including a couple who are going to get married next year, went there to try out the food. The taste of the food was not bad. However, I found the service not satisfactory. The waitresses paid a lot of attention to the table beside us because they know the manager there. The servers of our table were not coordinating very well. They changed half of our plates half way and did not change the other half. We ordered a group combo. The portion was good - we ordered a 6-person combo for 8 persons since we were not that hungry and half of us were girls. i.e. if you order it for 6 persons, it should be good. The price was relatively high. If you happen to go there by any chance, you will see they have very nice deco, elaborated utensils and huge dishes, which I found quite useless. The dishes just took up a lot of space and it was stupid.

* Lone Star - Went there again with colleagues for a fairwell dinner. The food was also very consistent. Juicy steaks that comes with their Fajitas and this time we also tried their samplers…

* Casey’s - Went to the Yorkdale location twice in one month. Just happened to be there… Tried their Fajitas and it was so-so. Ordered their chicken wings both visits and it was quite good. Also had the Butcher Block/Classic burger … it was okay… but my friend said the Philly Cheesesteak sandwich wasn’t that good.

I guess that’s about it… Can’t remember where else I’ve revisited. There are actually a few new restaurants that I’ve been to during the past 2 months and I will write about those later…

Cheers

特入空門問苦空,敢將禪事問禪翁,

為當夢是浮生事?為復浮生是夢中?

唐.白居易

曲:周博賢 詞:周博賢 編:周博賢

星洲炒米古法蒸青斑 西冷扒叉雞飯
齋啡檸水鮮奶滾水蛋 款式相當廣泛
令我驚嘆 實太璀璨
若怕分散 亦有套餐

相差咫尺都有好幾間 想搵位真好辦
不需超額消費可一餐 兼且水準不爛
實要稱讚 絕無偷懶
做夠七晚 夜半也未閂

我愛你個性樸素平民化
會教顧客暢快滿意如歸家
牛油餐包再配以百年濃茶
令倦透的身軀也昇華
你最可嘉 再世爸媽

英超西甲轉播深宵間 餐廳一一包辦
聽聽師傅講社會險奸 都可得益千萬
實太抵讚 絕對不懶
未見不散 夜半也落單

我愛你個性樸素平民化
會教顧客暢快滿意如歸家
牛油餐包再配以百年濃茶
令倦透的身軀也昇華
你最可嘉 用兩蚊做到
換凍飲太好 彈性高有著數

我愛你個性樸素平民化
會教顧客暢快滿意如歸家
牛油餐包再配以百年濃茶
令倦透的身軀也昇華

港式餐廳流傳成為文化
陪同人群見證繁榮和低漥
豪情瀟洒氣慨似少年劉華
外貌帶點草根卻高雅
你最好打 鬥志可嘉

Lunck @ KFC 2Towards the end of my trip, I went to KFC once. Coming to this KFC at Telford reminded me of the time when I took an UT summer course in Hong Kong. We did a report on KFC and how it entered the China market. I took some pictures of this store and one of my group members took some pictures of the KFC on his Shanghai trip.

Life’s full of surprises. In school, I never thought that I would be working in this field - of course I couldn’t have imagined I would be handling some of the KFC-related research. Most of the courses that I took were related to either Finance or Economics. I think how a person thinks and acts has a lot to do with what s/he studies. I would say… I always unconsciously make decisions based on the marginal cost vs. benefit/utility.

Cost of maintaining this blog = the time that I devote to writing these posts + cost of website hosting

Obviously there is no materialized benefit, but I do get high utility from (1) Expressing my feeling (2) Sharing with others (3) Meeting new friends like some of you who have been reading my blog (4) Keeping my friends updated on my life - if they ever care to know, and finally (5) Revitalizing my mind - I try to treat every post as a little project for myself (although many of them have been expression of my feeling).

* * *
I know I’m going off-topic again. ;p We ordered a chicken rice with cream sauce and a teriyaki chicken sandwich, which tasted ok. I found it tasted like BBQ pork for some reason.

This middle-class fusion food wasn’t bad at all. At least, I would go for this one instead of a McDonald’s burger, which I doubt what the meat was made of. I remember there were several times when I played with Chinese food and western ingredients e.g. putting 2 slices of cheese on top of my fried rice and microwave for dinner @ office (ya… there was nothing to eat except that.) Also, making a sandwich with pieces of “zhenjiang vinegar”-marinated pork (鎮江肉). That was actually quite yummy. :)

Lunch @ KFC 1