stenoodie

Autumn in Europe 2014 ~ Day 1: Barcelona, Spain

Posted on January 7, 2015 by stenoodie

me in Park Güell

Yay! Travel series! I haven’t done one of these in a while, so this post will recount the activities that stood out to me when I was travelling in October 2014 to Spain and Portugal. First stop: Barcelona!

We departed from the airport gates from Hong Kong as a group of 11 on October. We were touring with a Chinese tour group which meant that all of our itinerary for the 10-day tip was planned meticulously from where we visited, stayed, and ate. It’s not a bad deal at all and very affordable and you don’t have to worry about any of the travel details. Continue reading →

Posted in Travel | Tagged Barcelona, Bread with Tomato, crème brûlée, FC Barcelona, FCB, fun, Futbol Club Barcelona, jamon, Jamon Y Vino, Park Güell, photos, Portico of the Washerwoman, Sagrada Familia, Seafood Paella, Spain, tour, tourist, travel, UNESCO | 2 Comments

Donburi Japanese Restaurant

Posted on January 6, 2015 by stenoodie

Located at 505 Highway 7 in Richmond Hill

Helen and I tried out Donburi. It’s a Japanese chain that has restaurants all over the world. It resembles another chain that is very prevalent in Hong Kong called Yoshinoya. Its Chinese name is very similar to the one of Donburi (吉野家). Perhaps it is a copycat restaurant (or vice versa)? The food that they serve is the same. Donburi specializes in servings of Japanese curry, cutlets, japas (Japanese tapas), chicken rice bowls, and they also have polar beer which I find fascinating! Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged 505 Highway 7, @Donburi_CAN, BBQ Miso Onigiri, Chicken heart and beef tongue skewers, chicken karaage, Chicken Omurice, Commerce Gate, dinner, Donburi, Donburi menu and prices, food blog, foodie, green tea crème brûlée, Highway 7, Japanese, Japas, okonomiyaki sauce, Oyako Don, polar beer, restaurant review, Richmond Hill, Teppanyaki Chicken Don, Wings, Zaru Saba | 3 Comments

Dim Sum at Casa Deluz Banquet Hall

Posted on January 5, 2015 by stenoodie

Located at 1571 Sandhurst Circle in Toronto

Walking into this restaurant brings back so many memories. This Chinese restaurant is now renovated and newly christened as Casa Deluz. Previously, it was famously known as Red Ruby Chinese Restaurant. Ah, does that ring a bell with some of you local Canadian Chinese residents? It was one of the biggest and most popular restaurants to go for Chinese dim sum. Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged 1571 Sandhurst Circle, Casa Deluz Banquet Hall, Chinese, Dim sum, food blog, food blog foodie, free wifi, Red Ruby Restaurant, restaurant review, Scarborough, Toronto | 4 Comments

Hong Kong Delights (Hong Kong International Airport)

Posted on January 4, 2015 by stenoodie

Located at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), 1 Sky Plaza Road in Hong Kong

Oh, dear! It turns out that I forgot to post one last Hong Kong restaurant that I had blogged about. Whoops! Here it is: (!)

One last meal before we fly out of Hong Kong! We had our lunch at Hong Kong Delights inside Terminal 2 at the HK airport. Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged Braised e-fu noodles with prawns in cheese & butter sauce, Chinese, food blog, foodie, free wifi, HK-style, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Delights, Hong Kong International Airport, lunch, Ox tongue with rice noodle, restaurant review, traditional | Leave a comment

Escape Game: LockQuest

Posted on January 3, 2015 by stenoodie

Located at 1204a Yonge St in Toronto

Earlier this week, nine of us played another escape room called LockQuest. By now, most people know about room escape games and how they’re currently a top pasttime since they’re fun, challenging, and involve lots of teamwork. LockQuest is located directly across from the Summerhill subway station on Yonge Street in Toronto which makes it very convenient to get to by public transit. Continue reading →

Posted in Escape Room Reviews | Tagged 1204a Yonge St, @lockquestinc, book club, clues, escape, escape game, Escape the Book Club Killer, fun, game, killer, LockQuest, LockQuest Inc., puzzle, puzzles, review, strategy, Summerhill subway station, teamwork, Toronto | 4 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: New

Posted on January 2, 2015 by stenoodie

Markham. January 2015

It is definitely cliché that the first Weekly Photo Challenge of the year has the theme of “new”. No matter, I’m up for it. As always! I got a good one for this week. At first, I wanted to see what was the first picture that I took of 2015 but when I looked in my photos, I realized it wasn’t so much a picture as an informational one, so that option was scrapped. Instead, I chose something that is still a rather good idea. 😀 Continue reading →

Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge | Tagged 2015, books, bookworm, fun, library, library card, new, pleasure reading, reading, Weeky Photo Challenge | 3 Comments

Dinner at Yang’s Chinese Cuisine

Posted on January 1, 2015 by stenoodie

Located at 8432 Leslie St Unit 110 in Markham

Happy first day of 2015! Since today marks the first day of the calendar, it also marks the first day being back from being backlogged from completing all my restaurant reviews from my HK trip — I’m back to blogging about Canadian restaurants again! 😀

I really didn’t expect to blog about this restaurant again. I previously went to Yang’s Chinese Cuisine to have dim sum with my family. The food was average and the place was nice. I expected dinner service to be about the same. Oh boy was I wrong! Continue reading →

Posted in Food | Tagged chicken, Chinese, Dessert, dinner, fish, food blog, foodie, free wifi, Highway 7, lobster, Markham, no cake cutting fee, pineapple, restaurant review, rice, sweet and sour pork, vegetables, Yang's Chinese Cuisine | 2 Comments

2014 Reflection

Posted on December 31, 2014 by stenoodie

2014 — many firsts and memories!

So, today’s the very last day of 2014 — December 31, 2014. We’ll never see this day again and never feel the same way we did on this day. Before I get too far into how every day actually passes us just like this (a *snap*), let me recount the amazing things that happened this year: Continue reading →

Posted in Learning, Life, New Experiences | Tagged adventures, end of year, reflection, summary, thoughts | 8 Comments

stenoodie’s 2014 in review (WordPress version)

Posted on December 30, 2014 by stenoodie

Wow! It’s the second-last day of the year already!!! Do you know what that means? For me, that means recounting what happened in the past 357 days and posting it here for me to reflect on. But before that happens, WordPress provided a neat little prezzie for us this year by accumulating all our stats for the year and summarizing it for us. Continue reading →

Posted in Learning | Tagged 2014, blog, blogger, end of year, fun facts, history, stats, stenoodie, views, Wordpress | 4 Comments

Room Escape Adventures — Trapped in a Room with a Zombie

Posted on December 29, 2014 by stenoodie

Located at 37 Bulwer Street in Toronto

A week ago, eleven friends and I went to play this newer room escape adventure called “Trapped in a Room with a Zombie” courtesy of Room Escape Adventures. I first heard about this from my friend after we played the “Inception” room at Xscaper Arts about how there was an escape room that had a real live person dressed up as a zombie that was chained up while you tried to solve the clues in order to get out of the room. Continue reading →