Good Mornin'

Was looking through some pictures and stumbled upon this. I thought it was quite funny how the egg broke and decided to form. Since I am trying to post more often and get more into the habit of it, expect more pictures and random things.

The Last (and best) Brunch

The start to our last day in New York was great. We looked up a great brunch place on Yelp, and decided to go to Petite Abeille in Chelsea. Judging from the mascot on the window, I'm sure you can decipher the name is Little Bee in English. Really glad we did. It's now a chain of restaurants in New York that first opened in 1996 with the idea of serving traditional Belgian food in a comfortable atmosphere. I think they definitely succeeded. They now have four locations all over Manhattan, and have gotten rave reviews ranging from "Best Burger" to "Best Brunch". 

Soho & Arepas

All of Saturday was a bit of a blur. We woke up pretty early and decided to not waste the gorgeous day at the Museum of Natural History as we had planned originally. So we decided to go shopping, as one must of course do when in New York. So we decided to head to Soho and then the East Village, as we were closest to those two areas.

FIT, FAO Schwarz, MOMA

The second day started off bright and early. I made an appointment to have a tour around the Fashion Institute of Technology at noon. It was conveniently only a block away from our apartment. I have wanted to study here probably for the last 7 years or so. It's always something I've come back to after crossing off another possible career path of my list. There have been many. I figured I should see the place I've been thinking about for so long in person. Poor Stephen endured the two hour session with me, which I was very grateful for. Overall, it was very informative. It seems like a great place and somewhere I would love to be. Financially though, I'm not sure if it's the smartest path to pursue. Kinda wish my mom and I never left New York, that way I could attend as a state resident. :P Ah well.

Time off

At the end of July I took a week off work to enjoy some down time. The time just flew by though. One of the days was spent with my mom on her birthday, which was quite nice. The rest was mostly a blur. At the end of the week Stephen and I ventured to his aunt's cottage and spent some time there. Unlike most of this summer, those two days were a lot colder than usual so we didn't get to enjoy the beach all that much. We did go to a nearby where the water was very similar the Caribbean; it was quite odd.

Plevna

Wow, time flies. So sometime in the middle of July, Stephen and I ventured to his friend J.J.'s girlfriend's cottage. It was located in Plevna, ON which was about a four hours drive from Toronto. After figuring out how to get there, we left Stephen's early on a Saturday morning. We stopped at the famous Big Apple on the way there, to get an apple pie to bring to the cottage. Using Stephen's handy Iphone, we navigated our way to in the middle of nowhere land, only to discover that we no longer had service and had to idea where we were actually going. In addition, Stephen realized he forgot to pack swimming trunks ... which during cottage weekend away, is one of the most important articles of clothing one needs. He was not happy. Hilarity ensued as we tried to figure out what to do. We ended up driving back for about a half hour to where we did have service, amazingly finding a place that sold some swimming attire in a convenience store, writing down where we had to go and how to get there, and proceeding on our way. We ended up getting there right as everyone was just waking up, so it turned out perfectly.

So many pies. Sadly, the apple one was apparently not as tasty as we thought.

May Two-Four

Gotta catch up on posting stuff. And be more motivated to do if more often. It seems like that's the case with most things unfortunately.

Anywho, May 24 weekend began with Stephen coming over to my house and me making dinner. I made a mushroom asparagus risotto with a balsamic reduced chicken with spinach, which turned out quite well. It was a nice evening. The next morning I made a super yummy marscapone stuffed french toast with a blueberry jam that started off our morning right.

On Saturday we went to see a rendition of The Little Prince. It's one of my favourite books. For not any particular reason really. The play turned out to be a children's play ... literally, the first four rows were comprised only of three to six year olds. It was quite amusing. After Stephen and I seperated for the evening, I met up with Kim to go shopping for her Euro trip. We went to Wall-mart and got most of her basics. On Sunday, Kim and I came over to Stephen's house in the morning and I made the yummy french toast again. Then we headed to the beaches since it was such a nice day. We attempted to rollerblade, which was a lot of fun. Definetely got the hang of it again. Then we had a nice little picnic on the rocks by the lake complete with numerous cheeses, grapes, and rose. Perfect way to spend a sunny day outside :)

After coming back to Stephen's, we chilled before figuring out where to head out for the night. Originally we were supposed to go out on College, and then on Queen. Once we got to the area though, we wandered around for a bit and ended up at this club called Atelier. Even though we had to pay cover after being told we didn't, which was annoying, I had a blast. The place played a really good mix of music, and even though it was just the three of us, I had one of the best nights out in a while. :)

We had Monday off since it was a long weekend. Ended up going to the Distillery to walk around. They had a craft fair, which I think happens every weekend in the summer if I'm not mistaken. It was interesting to see all of the different things for sale. I bought a silver ring that I quite like. Nastasha texted me on our way there and I invited her to join us. We ended up going for dinner and having quite a few drinks on a patio. It was great to catch up and talk. Unknowingly, I became quite drunk. It was a great end to an even greater weekend.

AGIO!

So last Wednesday Stephen and I decided to walk around his neighbourhood since it was quite nice out. We stumbled upon a restaurant by the name of AGIO close by. A friend of his recommended it, and I have always been intrigued by the colourful sign, so we decided to try it out. While still standing outside looking at the menu, the chef and owner came out to tell us about his great place. Being somewhat swooned by his Korean mixed with Italian accent, we went in. We were the only people there. For the whole duration of our meal. Maybe even the day.

He began telling us about his stint in Italy and how he worked in Tokyo for several years as well. The stories were quite detailed. Even though it was a bit difficult to understand him at times, his enthusiasm for food and for everything he made was very evident and overall fairly charming (even if a bit too much). The prices outside the restaurant did not exactly match what was inside. Regardless, we decided to stay and enjoy our meal.

Yes, this is indeed a lobster chef doll. Slightly creepy.

We ordered wine (which was too expensive at $10 a glass) and waited. We did not have to wait long at all. We began with fried calamari with a side of tartar sauce. Very tasty. I then ordered gnocchi with chicken, bacon, Italian sausage, and mushrooms and Stephen ordered pasta shells stuffed with chicken and mushrooms in a rose sauce I believe. I really liked my main dish as well.

Crispy little squid.

Gnocchi with chicken, bacon, Italian sausage and mushrooms.

Stuffed pasta shells with chicken and mushrooms.

For dessert, we ordered sambuca creme brulee which was very tasty. As we were about to pay our bill and leave, the chef (Marino) kept telling us more stories and the history behind his dishes. The word "agio" means to take it easy I believe. Apparently fresh fish comes into Kensington Market on Tuesdays and Thursdays, who knew? He then decided to bring us his acclaimed tiramisu to try on the house. Despite being stuffed, we felt we should not refuse. It was interesting as it was quite different from the other tiramisus I've had; not in cake form, quite light and not sweet. After many thank yous all around, we finally left. Definitely a memorable dining experience.

Creme brulee. Delicious.

Tiramisu.

Marino. Definitely a character.