Monday, August 31, 2015

Review: Drinks @ Chatime, North York



This is one of the better Chatimes in Toronto.  I always go for the #2 special - roasted milk tea with grass jelly, 30% sugar, with less ice.  Chatime is able to stand out from the rest of the bubble tea shops around town because, like Starbucks, you can "customize" your experience by choosing the amount of sugar and ice.  I wouldn't recommend going more than 50% sugar, as I generally find their drinks already pretty sweet. 

 I've noticed that for the past few months, they have been slowing increasing their cream to tea ratio, to the point where sometimes I couldn't taste the tea anymore.  Unfortunately there is no option to select a less cream, if not I would come back more often.

Summary

  • The Bottom Line: I only like the #2 roasted milk tea with grass jelly. 
  • Score: 4.5/5
  • Address: 5494 Yonge Street, North York (Yonge & Finch)


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Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 7 - Saturday - Boston


Disembarked from the Maasdam, and rented a minivan for the day.   A very expensive minivan, didn't realize car rentals in Boston are so expensive!

Drove to Wrenham Premium Outlet and shopped for a few hours, then off to lunch at Uno's Chicago Bar and Grill.
Then pretty much to the airport where we wait for our evening flight back to Toronto.  Kinda wished we spent a little bit more time exploring Boston, guess we'll just have to come back next time!


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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Lunch @ Uno Chicago Bar & Grill, Bellingham

After we disembark from the Maasdam in Boston, we drove to Wrenham Premium Outlet and had lunch at Uno Chicago Bar & Grill.  The restaurant is very busy, and although we were able to get a seat without waiting, we had to wait a very very long time for our food.

 Now, Uno is famous for their "deep dish pizza", which according to Wikipedia, did originate from Boston, and is characterized by a deep crust - more resembling a pie than a pizza.

 The pizza is then baked in a round steel pan, with the outside crust tasting like it's been deep fried, probably due to oiling the pan before baking.

 As you can imagine, and probably contributing to our longer than usual wait time, the deep crust requires a long baking time.  In order to prevent the cheese from burning, deep dish pizza follows an "upside down" approach.  The cheese forms a lining against the crust, followed by the stuffings, and finally the sauce.  The reverse order from a regular pizza.
The result? D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.  Must more satisfying that my typical regular crust pizza.

 Other things in the menu that we tried include a lobster roll (not that good), and appetizer wings (also nothing too special).

What we ordered

  • 5/5 delicious
    • Deep dish pizza
  • 3/5 average
    • lobster roll
    • appetizer wings

Summary

  • Bottom Line: Deep dish pizza is worth trying.
  • Score: 6.7/10
    • 3.5/5 for food
    • 3/5 for value
    • 2/2 for seating environment
    • 1/2 for service
    • 0.5/1 for hitting the spot
  • Address: 205 Hartford Ave, Bellingham, MA.

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Saturday, August 29, 2015

Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 6 - Friday - Bar Harbour

8 random facts on Bar Harbor:
  1. Most restaurants are only open from spring to fall, and closed for the winter.
  2. They had a catastrophic fire in 1947, that lasted for 10 days and burned down 5 hotels and 170 homes (nearly half of the eastern side of mount dessert island).
  3. Prior to the fire, the town is a famous summer playground for the super elites, including the Rockefeller family and the Vanderbilts.
  4. No need to rent a car- free shuttle buses are available with a variety of routes to choose from.
  5. There are no Starbucks or MacDonalds near the port.
  6. The mascot for Maine is… a lobster!!!  You can see lobster signs and souvenirs everywhere.  Yes, the are a bit obsessed. You can see lobster traps everywhere when you're tendering to the shore.  Not surprising, given that more than 90% of US's lobster supply is caught off the coast of Maine.
  7. Lobster used to be cheap food.  Settlers could gather them at low tide along the rocky shores.  They used them as fertilizers, or food for prisoners.  Prisoners actually got sick of them and complained about having too much lobsters!
  8. It takes 7 years for lobsters to reach their legal catch size.
8:00am
Everyone on board had to go through customs.  Luckily, the customs officers come to the ship and are stationed in the library.  You are assigned a time (based on your stateroom level), and when  you hear your deck number called, go to the library.  The whole process is simple and smooth.

9:00am
After going through customs, we had breakfast at Rotterdam dining room.  Not bad!  I ordered the "Japanese breakfast", which is rice & salmon with egg and miso soup.  Didn't realize Japanese people have salmon and rice for breakfast?  In any case, I enjoyed this meal over room service breakfast or the *shudder* Lido buffet.

10:00am
Unlike the other ports, tendering is required for Bar Harbor. What this means is that the ship is not docked at the pier, you have to take a tendering boat (in this case, the motorized life boat) to the shore.  There is a long 40 minutes wait.  We just sat in the musical hall and waited for our number to be called.

11:00am
Walked along Main Street.  Not much to do.  Family went on the free island express shuttle while I had a drink at Hound Coffee.  $10 for both drinks.  After drinks went to Gladyn's for lunch.
3:00pm
Back on board.

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Thursday, August 27, 2015

Lunch @ Me-Va-Me, Vaughan


Me-Va-Me is a popular mediterranean restaurant that has recently expanded to several other locations.  Their babaganoush dip with laffa is excellent, and their side salads are fresh.  We came on a Wednesday afternoon, and was surprised to find that the restaurant is almost full.  They have a strong customer base.  I ordered the chicken schwarma pita, and although it was good, personally prefer the ones from Me-Va-Me Express (oddly enough, a 5 minutes drive east of the sit down restaurant).

What we ordered

  • 5/5 excellent
    • baba ganoush with laffa 
  • 3/5 decent
    • Falaffel
    • Chicken schwarma pita with fries

Summary

  • The Bottom Line: Decent place for lunch with co-workers, although I prefer the schwarma at Me-Va-Me Express.
  • Score: 3.5/5
  • Address: 7000 Bathurst Street (Steeles & Bathurst)



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York Region - Vaughan


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    Wednesday, August 26, 2015

    Lunch @ Galyn's, Bar Harbor

    Had lunch at Gladyn's on our Bar Harbor port day.  

    There is some strange policy that you're not allowed to sit in the main dining area if you're to use their wifi. Instead, we were hustled to the back of the restaurant, where there are no windows and minimal light.  It's dark and dingy.  

    The server came, and apologized, saying that they have had bad experiences in the past where cruise passengers would sit there all day in the "nice area" and take up their table to use free internet.  I wasn't overly thrilled, but I suppose I understand why they would impose this rule.  And to their credit, the wifi connection was strong and stable.

    For food, we ordered the large lobster bisque, the lobster enchilada, and a traditional lobster roll.  Dessert was their homemade blueberry apple crisp.  The meal was ok, although overpriced (i.e., tourist trap).  The blueberry apple crisp was delicious, and that I would recommend.

    What we ordered:

    • Homemade blueberry apple crisp (5/5) - recommended
    • Lobster bisque (4/5) - overpriced but tasty
    • Traditional Lobster Roll (3/5) 
    • Lobster enchilada (2/5)

    Summary:

    • The Bottom Line: overpriced tourist trap, but the food is decent and their blueberry crisp is delightful.
    • Score: 6.6/10
      • 3.5/5 for food quality
      • 3/5 for value
      • 2/3 for ambience
      • 2/3 for service
    • Address: 17 Main Street, Bar Harbor, Maine
    Traditional Lobster Roll

    Lobster Enchilada

    Blueberry apple crisp - recommended

    Lobster Bisque - Large



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    Tuesday, August 25, 2015

    Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 5 - Thursday - Halifax

    8 Fun Facts about Halifax:
    1. Capital of Nova Scotia
    2. Home to Dalhousie University
    3. First European settlement was in Halifax
    4. Named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax
    5. Nearby Peggy's Cove is the ideal place to capture the quintessential East Coast landscape
    6. Home to the Halifax Citadel, built between 1828 and 1856, a star shaped naval station
    7. Home to Alexander Keith's Brewery!
    8. There are a lot of one way streets downtown, so drivers beware!
    9:30am
    My sister slipped out early to meet with her friend for coffee.  The rest of the gang took a rental car and drove up to the Citadel.  We were too cheap to pay for admission (I mean, $12 x 6 = $72!  Not to mention it looked kinda sunny), so we end up looping around and coming back down. 

    10:00am
    Visited Province House, which is free admission.  Also had a free tour a very helpful guide (hahaa, noticed the "cheap" theme?).
    Drove to Peggy's Cove.  It was almost noon by the time we got there, and we were hungry, so the group decided to grab a bite first.  We headed to this place called Ryers Lobster Retail and EACH ordered a ~1lb lobster.  The mussels were great, but the lobster was slightly overcooked.  :(

    1:30pm
    Back to Peggy's Point Cove/ Lighthouse.  Took some gorgeous pictures.  There is a musician dressed in traditional scottish garment playing the pipes, really added to the mood of the place.  Bet he makes a lot of tips too!

    2:30pm
    Drove back to the ship.  Would have liked to visit the Maritime Museum but we were out of time (next time!  Although we don't need a rental car to see Maritime Museum).

    5:15pm
    Usual BLAH dinner.

    8:00pm
    Classique dance show - dancers are dressed in Mozart era costumes.  Not really impressed.  

    9:00pm
    Hung out at the top floor (Crow's Nest) for some dancing.  The place is empty except for the DJ and one of the musicians.  They end up dancing on the dance floor.  There is ZERO night life on this ship!


    Provence House







    Disturbing looking sculpture on the ship


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    Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 4 - Wednesday - Sydney

    8:00am
    Ship docked at Sydney.

     10:00am
    Saw the giant fiddle!  Then walked to Doktor Luke's House Cafe and had a coffee.  After coffee, visited Crossit House and Jost House.  Nothing much to see afterwards, so headed back to the ship.



     3:00pm
    As the crew was primarily Indonesian, today they had a special high tea featuring Indonesian dessert.  They are actually pretty good!  There is this particular one with coconut that I really loved.









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    Sunday, August 23, 2015

    Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 3 - Tuesday - Charlottetown

    9:00am
    Had a bit of a hiccup - the minivan that we reserved from Discount was "unavailable", even though we received a confirmation email an hour before pick-up.  That's terrible customer service and we vowed to never rent from Discount again.  End up taking a cab to the airport to get the rental from Hertz (yay Hertz to the rescue!).

    11am
    Drove to the Montgomery House.  Didn't end up paying the $5 admission fee since the house was demolished and there is nothing there other than a patch of grass.

    11:30am
    Visited the Green Gables Heritage Place, the house that inspired the Anne of Green Gables novel.

    1:00pm
    Lunch at the fantastic Blue Mussels in North Rustico, a 10minutes drive from Green Gables.  Still has the best lobster roll I've tasted.  Soooo good.  Every bite if full of lobster meat.  Total bill was $170 for the 7 of us.

    2:30pm
    Drove back to the cruise and returned car.









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    Holland Canada/ New England Trip Review - Day 2 - Monday - At Sea

    9:15am
    Good morning!  There is a 1 hour time change, so really it should be 8:15am. 

    10:30am
    Breakfast at Lido - smoked salmon and yogurt.  Just like yesterday, it wasn't very good.

    11:00am
    Attended the culinary cooking show, featuring on how to make lobsters.  It wasn't very good… the hollandaise sauce broke, butter was too watery, and the chef couldn't get the claw meat out of the shell.

    noon
    Lunch at Lido (why do I keep going back?).  Indian themed food.  Bad!!

    1:30pm
    Played majong with parents.

    3:00pm
    High tea at the Rotterdam.  It wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.  Went back to the poolside dive-in burger bar afterwards and ordered the fries with dive-in sauce.  It was delicious!  The "secret" dive-in sauce was creamy and cheesy and spicy at the same time.

    5:15pm
    Dinner at the Rotterdam.  Formal night.  We brought a bottle of '83 Chateau Margeaux in celebration of my graduation from grad school.  Escargot was good, but the beef wellington and chocolate soufflé was another let down.

    8:00pm
    Bought a piece of artwork from Park West.  It is a piece called "deeply in love" by Romero Britto.  I love it and can't wait for it to be shipped!




    Beef Wellington 

    Chocolate Souffle










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    Review: Escape Room @ Omescape - Joker's Asylum


    There are no spoilers in this review.  However, if you prefer to know absolutely nothing about this room, just know that I highly recommend Joker's Asylum.  Now stop reading and make the reservation!
    Updated (Nov 2015)

    I have now played all the room at Omescape Markham, and here's how I would rank them (based on my personal experience).

    From Best to Worst (but honestly, there are no "bad" rooms at Omescape):

    1. Mysterious Study
    2. Penitentiary
    3. Joker's Asylum
    4. Kingdom of Cats
    5. Dark Altar

    Click here for a list of other escape rooms I have tried.

     Original Review

     Joker's Asylum is my 5th escape adventure, and my second one at Omescape.  Joker's is also one of the more difficult escape room at Omescape.

    Without giving much away, our group of 5 was subdivided into 2 smaller groups.  I was in the smaller group (group of 2), and was led to a different room than the larger group.  The 2 groups will then have to work together to solve the puzzles.

    Personally, I'm don't enjoy split games as much.  I feel that I'm missing out on some of the experience, but that's just my personal preference.  Anyways, the game itself is very well designed, with multiple rooms.  It wasn't that scary, but the storyline was a bit disturbing and creepy, probably attributed to the creepy insane music playing in the background.

    Did we manage to escape?  Yes!  In the nick of time, but we did ask for multiple clues, so really, not.


    Summary
    • The Bottom Line: I recommend 6 players for Joker's.  This is somewhat of a more advanced room, so try out Kingdom of Cats, Mysterious Study, or Dark Altar before attempting this.
    • Score: 4.5/5
    • Address: 7501 Woodbine Avenue, Markham (Woodbine & Esna Park)


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