PLANET DAL CS

This is the third in a three-part series on frugal maternity fashion. I meant to publish this back in December but life got in the way! Anyhow, better late than never…

The majority of my maternity wardrobe came from regular shops.  It was easier than I thought to find non-maternity clothes that fit my growing belly! I bought long tank tops and empire waist dresses at inexpensive “junior” type shops (Forever 21, Dynamite, etc.) to get me through my summer third trimester.

I also invested in a couple more expensive pieces that I knew I could wear post-pregnancy. This included a super-comfy Lululemon cool racerback tank that fit me well at 9 months pregnant without getting permanently stretched out, so I can still wear it today now that I am more or less back to my pre-pregnancy size.

I also had good luck at The Bay, where I purchased several wrap sweaters and an empire-waisted Tahari dress on super-clearance. I was able to wear that dress and many other non-maternity frocks through my entire pregnancy, though I did add leggings towards the end as the front hemlines crept higher thanks to my expanding tummy!

March 03, 2011 11:51 PM

I was reading the latest Leverage post-game Q&A post and was thinking about split seasons.

Now, I HATE split seasons, particularly if I know the episodes for the back half have already been recorded, and they are just sitting on them for one reason or another.

From the article:

“All the networks are struggling with ways to retain viewers in a very crowded marketplace. The theory that by spiking winter episodes you create a kind of, ah, “enthusiasm bridge” between seasons is a popular one, and actually makes a fair bit of sense. I’ll be interested to see if Walking Dead holds its audience after a ten month break, for example.”

In some cases, it might sort of make sense, like when your season airs during the summer and you have a Christmas episode. Is it possible to bridge enthusiasm and/or deal with seasonal episodes in another manner than still creating month long gaps between season halves? Discussing with my good friend Jon, we came up with the following.

What if instead of splitting a season and having to worry about fans coasting for a few months, networks  instead slowed down the updates in general. So instead of on for 3 months, off for 4, you instead aired a new episode every 2 weeks, using the extra week to generate more buzz for the next episode.

There are multiple ways you could use the off week to generate buzz. Ones we came up with:

• Reruns! A second showing of the latest episode, preferably in a different time slot to maximize the number of people who can watch your show. Sure, lots of shows let you view episodes online, and DVRs make recording easier, but TV still has the advantage of larger resolution and zero setup. Even with internet episodes, spacing out episodes still lets you build buzz.
• Teasers.
• Interviews. With the actors, or the writers. On the show in general, or in a Q&A format to interact with the fans.
• Alternate Reality Games. Like what Lost did between seasons.

Really, none of these haven’t been done before. Doing them while the show is ongoing (as opposed to on break), would possibly have more impact and generate more buzz, and drive an audience to your show WHILE it is airing. Spreading out the airing schedule potentially gives people more time to do the above (prominent example being John Rodger’s Q&A above, on which he fell behind at some point, due to being busy writing and shooting Leverage).

There are, of course, other advantages:

• If you plan properly, you can probably time your off weeks to coincide with major holidays (like Thanksgiving and the Superbowl) when the show won’t normally be aired ANYWAY.
• Shooting schedules wouldn’t have to change, but if you wanted to, you could space those out a little more as well, which would let a show react to fan feedback (without having to go on break).

Downsides? I suppose this would alter the way Nielsen ratings work, but the internet is making that more and more meaningless. Being less competitive over time slots? Internet making the time slot largely irrelevant (seriously, when was the last time you stayed up to watch a late night talk show as opposed to catching the highlights on the site’s page or YouTube?).

As the internet makes the time slot largely irrelevant, this might seem like breaking out lawn chairs on the deck of the Titanic as she ends her voyage, but there is nothing stopping the above from being applied to shows online.  Especially for independent shows, where obtaining viewers is done solely by buzz over the internet, rather than via traditional advertising.

Thoughts?

December 14, 2010 11:22 PM

This is part two of my three-part post series on frugal maternity shopping. You can read the first post here.

While I did manage to score quite a bit of my wardrobe at thrift stores, I did also pick up some things new. However, rather than visiting the usual suspects (Motherhood and Thyme) I looked for other options…

H&M

The H&M in downtown Vancouver carries a limited line of maternity items. Apparently not all H&M locations carry these things so your mileage may vary. While I had absolutely no luck with their maternity pants (I don’t know what kind of pregnant lady would have thighs small enough to fit into them!) I LOVED the basic t-shirts and tank tops I bought there. They cost about half the price of similar items from the specialty maternity stores. They were also longer than any other tops I found, and were still covering my whole belly right up to my 41st week – a feat not accomplished by the couple shirts I had from Motherhood and Thyme.

Online shopping

There are any number of online stores selling cute designer maternity clothes, but when I wanted some inexpensive basics I went with JC Penney. They ship to Canada for a reasonable price and always have lots of sale and clearance maternity items. You can also usually find a discount code over at RetailMeNot that will knock a percentage off your purchase cost. My favourite purchases from JC Penney were a comfy pair of leggings and a robe. I was afraid to order jeans or other pants without trying them on but I did get several shirts that held up well throughout my pregnancy.

Now, while it was handy to be able to pick up inexpensive maternity-specific basics like tanks and leggings , you don’t necessarily have to shop maternity styles just because you’re pregnant. Stay tuned later this week for my final post on this topic…

December 07, 2010 03:00 PM

I meant to write about this back when I was still pregnant but never got around to it! Then, last weekend one of the vendors at the Royal Bison Craft Fair got to chatting with me about baby and maternity stuff, and I remembered my post idea!

When my belly started expanding back at the end of my first trimester I was at first able to get by with the rubber band trick, but eventually that was no longer cutting it. I checked out some of the mainstream maternity shops (Motherhood, Thyme, etc.) and was thoroughly unimpressed with the quality and pricing of most of their offerings. Apparently all you have to do is slap the label “maternity” on a piece of clothing and you are entitled to charge at least twice as much as a similar non-maternity item would cost!

Ever the cheapskate, I decided to explore other options for maternity fashion. And now I’m sharing those options on my blog! I’ve broken my recommendations up into three posts.

Today I’m going to start with…

Almost 8 months pregnant, in my thrifted polka-dot dress

Thrift stores

I think it was Airdrie who first recommended I check out Value Village for maternity clothes, and boy am I glad that I did! It took some persistence but by visiting a few different locations I was able to find some great items, including several awesome pairs of pants from the Gap Maternity line (not available in Canadian Gap stores). I also picked up some run-of-the-mill maternity clothes from places like Thyme for uber-cheap prices.

My mom and sister are also avid thrift store shoppers and kept an eye out for items for me. They were both able to find some awesome maternity shirts at their local Salvation Army and Value Village stores. One of my favourite clothing items during my pregnancy was a super-soft Gap Maternity t-shirt that my sister Jen found for me at Salvation Army.

But my biggest two Value Village scores were items I could use post-pregnancy: nursing tank tops from Bravado and Glamourmom, which usually run upwards of $50 a piece, for less than $5 each!

You’d also be surprised at what you might find when you venture outside the maternity section at second-hand stores. While on vacation in Hilton Head I was eyeing a beautiful retro-style blue and white polka dot dress at a fancy consignment shop. It was only a size larger than I normally wear and I decided to try it on in the hopes of at least seeing whether I could wear it post-pregnancy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that, with the dress being slightly high waisted, belted, and having a very full skirt, it actually fit me at 7 months pregnant! I haven’t worn it post-pregnancy yet but I suspect it will be a staple of my summer wardrobe next year as I can just tie the belt tighter.

Stay tuned to my blog later this week for more tips on frugal maternity fashion…

December 05, 2010 11:00 PM

It’s not a very exciting way to end several months of not-blogging, but I wanted to share one of my favourite cold weather comfort food recipes. I made this on the weekend to share with Judy before we headed out for an afternoon of craft show hopping.

This recipe is based on one I found on the ‘net a few years back (I’ve long since lost the URL). I sent it to my sister, who greatly improved upon it and sent me her awesome version:

Servings

• 8 (this recipe freezes well and is great as leftovers)

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash (approx 4 cups)
• 450 grams whole wheat elbow macaroni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup flour
• 2 cups skim milk
• 2 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 450 grams shredded medium cheddar (about 4 cups)
• 1¾ cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cup bread crumbs

Directions

• preheat oven to 325°F
• slice squash in half and discard seeds; place, cut side down, in a pan with some water and roast for 1 hour until very tender
• when squash has cooled, peel skin off and discard; puree squash in food processor until it has a smooth consistency; set aside
• bring a large pot of water to boil; boil pasta to al dente – about 6 minutes; drain pasta and set aside
• in a very large pot, melt 4 tablespoons butter and slowly stir in ½ cup flour to form a paste
• off heat, SLOWLY whisk in 2 cups of milk; return to medium low heat until sauce fully blends and thickens
• add pureed squash to the thickened sauce
• add mustard, salt, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper
• stir in 3 cups of cheese (set aside 1 cup for the topping) and 1¾ cups of stock, alternating cheese and stock by cupfuls
• taste sauce, adjust seasonings if needed
• add pasta to cheese/squash sauce and toss to coat evenly
• transfer mixture to an oven-safe dish (9”x13” glass pan)
• cover the pasta with the remaining shredded cheese, and sprinkle on the bread crumbs
• bake in the oven at 325°F for 25 minutes
• let stand 10 minutes before serving

November 30, 2010 06:37 AM

Our little man turned four weeks old yesterday. It’s been a pretty fun ride so far, and I am glad I am blessed with the ability to fall back asleep at the drop of a hat because it has made the middle-of-the-night changings and feedings a lot more bearable.

Another thing I’m happy for is the wonderful neighbourhood we live in: Garneau. When we moved to Edmonton we knew we’d never be able to find a Vancouver level of walkability, but Garneau comes pretty darn close. It has been so great to be walking distance from things like the pharmacy, grocery store, and the impressive shopping on Whyte Avenue.

When Robert was just one day old we were able to pop him in his stroller and walk the couple blocks over to the pharmacy for supplies, and since then he has been on a ton of outings. We’ve been up and down Whyte more times than I can count, and we’ve stopped in several times at some favourite 109 Street haunts such as Transcend, Redbike, and Sugarbowl. He’s also been on transit a bunch already: We’ve taken the LRT downtown several times, and the bus to newborn checkups.

This past Saturday I changed it up a bit and took him for a walk in Old Strathcona with the ergo baby carrier. This meant we were able to stop and check out Handmade Mafia in Orange Hall. We would never have been able to navigate the stroller in such tight quarters!

September 13, 2010 05:00 PM

When I heard about Timeraiser Vancouver last week on Miss604′s blog I thought it sounded like an awesome idea. It’s an art auction but instead of bidding in dollars you bid your time (volunteer hours) for local charities and non-profits.

I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to participate since I no longer live in Vancouver. But then I went to the Timeraiser website and found out that there is also a Timeraiser Edmonton, and it’s happening next month, on October 16th. Yay! You can even view the artwork that is up for auction in advance on their website. I look forward to attending the event and hopefully having a successful bid while there.

September 12, 2010 07:00 PM

So we have our “Millionaire’s Family” now. Funny thing is that I’d never heard that term until last Wednesday, at which point I heard it from roughly everyone. For Emilia, I’d written a bunch of blog entries about the delivery and the big mess it caused. I will do the same here, but [...]

September 10, 2010 03:33 AM

Unfortunately this year’s Edmonton Fringe overlapped with the arrival of our new baby so I didn’t get a chance to check out any of the ticketed shows. However, since we live in the neighbourhood, we took the opportunity to walk over and visit the festival grounds on the last day of Fringe. Robert slept in his stroller pretty much the whole time. How many kids can say they attended their first Fringe Festival at one week old?!

While we missed the paid shows we did see some buskers during our perusal of the festival grounds. My favourite was this hula-hooper and her rather elaborate underwater-themed routine:

As with all the other summer festivals I’ve experienced since moving to Edmonton, there was plenty of opportunity for “festival food”, however I was strong and did not succumb to the siren call of the mini-donuts this time around. Instead we checked out the non-food vendors. My former Vancouver Synchro teammate, Cheryl, was there with her local jewelry business – Cloud and Lolly – and I picked up a couple of her funky pendants made from Scrabble tiles. My other favourite vendor was Geekware, which makes gift items from reclaimed computer hardware. Their Macbook power button earrings are definitely on my wish list now.

September 02, 2010 04:55 PM

Our son, Robert Matthew Sameoto, arrived at 10:39am on Sunday morning.

Posting here will be light while we get used to our new “roommate.” In the meantime check our Flickr album for more photos of our little man.

August 18, 2010 04:49 AM

Yesterday I checked out the Edmonton Public Library book sale. I showed up in the mid-afternoon so the selection was a bit picked over, but I still managed to find a few things and spend a whopping $4:

Generation X – I can’t believe this book is almost 20 years old! And I can’t believe I didn’t already own a copy. A steal at $1.

Riding with Rilke – There were a zillion copies of this book at the sale. I gather it was part of some sort of “Edmonton Reads” promotion sponsored by the library? Anyhow, given that it was selected for such a thing I figured it probably couldn’t be too bad. We’ll see…

What Not To Name Your Baby – We’ve already got a short list of names picked out, but this seemed like a fun read and will hopefully provide some validation for our choices.

Fit To Deliver - I borrowed this book from a friend in Vancouver but returned it to her before I moved away, so I was thrilled to find a copy to have for my very own. It’s an excellent reference for any active woman who wants some guidance on how to keep fit both during and after pregnancy.

I had been looking forward to enjoying an Eva Sweet Waffle while I perused the sale, but the waffle truck must have packed up and left before I got there. Boohoo. I settled for mini-donuts instead. I have to say Edmonton in the summertime offers far too many opportunities for mini-donut consumption. I think I’ve had them at least once a week since the beginning of July!

August 14, 2010 02:30 PM

With the impending arrival of our bundle of joy (any day now, I hope!) I’ve been checking out parenting blogs, message boards, and other websites. A lot of what I have found out there is fairly conservative, traditional, and doesn’t really speak to me.

However, I have come across two favourites that I now check daily:

Offbeat Mama

This website is run by Ariel Meadow Stallings, who had a blog that I read for about a decade (until she took is offline a couple years ago). She also runs Offbeat Bride, and is a wonderful writer and curator of content.

“Offbeat Mama seeks to celebrate and empower women as they navigate the realities of parenting. We believe that while having a child changes your life forever, it doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning your identity.”

Some of my favourite Offbeat Mama articles deal with making good use of smaller living spaces (for us city dwellers who don’t want to move to the suburbs just because we had a baby) and tips on how to best take your baby with you on non-traditional family outings such as backpacking trips.

Free-Range Kids

It’ll be a while yet before our child is old enough that we have to worry about things like letting him walk to school, but it’s good to start thinking about it early, right?

“Do you ever…let your kid ride a bike to the library? Walk to school? Make dinner? Or are you thinking about it? If so, you are raising a Free-Range Kid! Free-Rangers believe in helmets, car seats, seat belts — safety! We just do NOT believe that every time school age kids go outside, they need a security detail.”

This blog is great to read for the postings sharing views of other “free-range” parents, but also for the absolutely ridiculous stories that illustrate just how overprotective a society we live in. Like the one about the 10-year-old boy whose mother was questioned by the police after she let him walk 1/3 of a mile to soccer practice on his own.

August 13, 2010 02:00 PM

Another favourite thing about my new home city: Gravity Pope walking distance from my house! Although I am definitely a shoe fiend I am also very frugal so usually stores like Gravity Pope just provide a fun place to browse. This week, though, they were having a two-for-one sale on their already discounted sneakers. Given the low low prices, and being that I won’t be needing my fancy work heels much while I am on maternity leave, I could certainly justify this purchase!

I spent $39.99 (plus GST) and got two cute sets of sneakers that should be perfect for all the walking I plan to do with my new baby, at least until I have to switch to snow boots…

August 12, 2010 02:00 PM

Since moving into our new place here in Edmonton I’ve had a few occasions to get out on my bike for short trips. Our neighbourhood library, for example, is a 25 minute walk but a much quicker bike ride so I’ll often hop on my bike if I’m headed there. I endeavour to take quieter streets whenever possible and I am extra-vigilant about hand signals and watching for traffic. At 40+ weeks pregnant I’m appreciating the comfort of my dutch bicycle and the flatness of our neighbourhood and am certainly not tackling big hills or anything.

Overall, I’ve had surprisingly few negative comments from people here about my riding while pregnant – I think I actually had more in Vancouver! However, this blog post was spurred by a comment from a patron in Redbike yesterday. I was picking up my bicycle, which had been in for a repair to the chainguard, and an older gentleman was paying for his purchase of a shiny new bike, helmet, etc. Now I may be wrong, but he didn’t exactly look like a seasoned cyclist but rather someone investing in a new weekend hobby. As I was leaving with my bike he warned me, “Be careful you don’t fall!”

Really? Be careful I don’t fall? I know that Sarah received similar comments when she was pregnant, and I think the people who make them are really out to lunch. Not once in my many years of cycling as an adult have I ever fallen off my bike, and I think falling off my dutch bike would be particularly impossible given the comfy upright riding posture! If you want to worry about something, worry about a careless driver hitting me (not that it’s any more likely now than when I am not pregnant!). Of course, unless you are my doctor or my partner it’s none of your business anyhow.

Okay, rant over, but here are some great links that cover the topic of cycling while pregnant:

• Pedaling Pregnant
• Biking with a bump: Should you ride while pregnant?
• I’m still riding…
• Baby on board: Pregnancy and bicycle commuting
• With child: cycling whilst pregnant

August 11, 2010 07:06 AM

I’ve been living in Edmonton for just over a month now and, being on mat leave, have had plenty of time to explore the city while I wait for baby to arrive. Here are a few of my favourite things so far…

Bakery: Duchess Bake Shop
After one unsuccessful attempt to visit this much-talked-about pastry shop (turns out they’re closed on Tuesdays!) I finally got to try some yummy goodies here during a tweet-up organized by ZoomJer. I had the lime tart (highly recommended!) and one of their famous macarons (I opted for the lavender flavour). Their location is perfect for a morning or afternoon snack while window-shopping at the boutiques along 124th street. I’ve been meaning to get back there and pick up a sampler box of all their different macaron flavours for an at-home taste-test with Dan.

“Fancy” Breakfast/Brunch: Culina Mill Creek
We actually visited this place several times before I moved here permanently, on recommendation from a couple different friends. It is hands-down my favourite brunch spot in the city. Their “bacon and eggs” is to die for (the “bacon” is actually pulled pork) and according to Dan they also make a mean bloody mary. I haven’t been for lunch or dinner yet but the menus for both look fantastic.

Cheap Breakfast/Brunch: Cafe Mosaics
We stopped in here for breakfast randomly one day because it was close to home and they had a 2-for-1 coupon in the Entertainment Book. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that they serve what I have now deemed the world’s best pancakes. And at under $8 they’re also really affordable. I’ve already been back once sans-coupon to enjoy the pancakes again, and I suspect this will become a regular weekend breakfast spot for us.

Coffee: Leva Cappucino Bar
Leva is only a few blocks from our house. Mere geography – combined with the fact that they serve gelato made onsite and are open until 11pm – edges them out over Transcend, which is my other favourite local coffee shop so far. I haven’t been drinking strictly decaf but I have been watching my caffeine intake during this pregnancy. I’m looking forward to soon being able to enjoy a Leva cappucino whenever I want.

Vegetarian Restaurant: Padmanadi
If I’m eating vegetarian I usually tend to shy away from fake meat products, as I usually don’t find them to measure up to their non-fake counterparts. However, I had heard such good things about Padmanadi’s vegetarian chicken curry that I was willing to give it a try. Judy and I visited the restaurant for lunch a couple weeks ago and I am happy to report that it lived up to all the hype. I think I actually liked the taste of the fake chicken better than real chicken! I’ll definitely be making a return visit sometime soon to try out the vegetarian ginger beef.

Edmonton Public Library
Breaking from the rather unintentional food theme of this list, I wanted to give a shout out to the Edmonton Public Library. Any library that will let me rent (and renew!) Katamari Damacy for the PS3 is pretty awesome in my opinion. The user experience on their website is absolutely fantastic, and they have the best library card designs ever. I am also continually amazed at how quickly my holds show up. I need to stop reserving so many things as I will never have time to read them all at the rate they are arriving!

August 09, 2010 10:38 PM

When I joined Dan in Edmonton this July we signed up for a bi-weekly delivery of produce from The Organic Box, a relatively new service. We’ve been impressed with the quantity and quality of the food we receive every two weeks for our $50 with the only real issue so far being a couple moldy lemons.

Anyhow, while awaiting the delivery of this past week’s box I realized we still had a clamshell of blueberries from our previous delivery that needed to be used up. After a quick inventory of what we had on hand in the kitchen, I decided to make blueberry scones.

Karen’s Blueberry Scones
(adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Blueberry-Scones)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup butter, chilled
• 1 small clamshell fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Cut butter into mixture of flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. (I used a mixer for this part)
3. Add blueberries to dry ingredient/butter mixture and toss to mix.
4. In separate bowl beat together milk and egg, and slowly pour into dry ingredients, stirring with rubber scraper until dough forms. Knead (with floured hands) just until it comes together, 3 or 4 times. Don’t overhandle.
5. Divide dough in half. On lightly floured board, shape each half into a 6-inch round. Cut into 6 wedges.
6. Bake on greased cookie sheet about 20 minutes at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

August 09, 2010 12:19 AM

To say I’ve been neglecting my blog would be a bit of an understatement. When I last checked in I was enjoying life as one half of a double-income-no-kids couple in lovely downtown Vancouver. Well, since then I have:

1. Gotten pregnant
2. Moved to Edmonton (my partner got a faculty position at the university here)

I’m currently on mat leave from my IT consulting gig in Vancouver, but haven’t had my baby yet. I had to take my leave fairly early in order to get in under the 36-week airline cutoff to be able to “move” to Edmonton by plane before the baby arrived. So I’ve been an Edmontonian since the beginning of July.

I’m 40 weeks +1 day right now, and ready for this baby to show himself!

August 08, 2010 07:25 AM

It is no secret that I enjoy beer. Lots of good stuff locally, and when I travel I like to sample what the local microbrews are like. For the last year or so, I have also been contemplating getting into homebrewing. In October last year, I met the local homebrew club and started hanging out with them. A few of them have offered to brew with me to show me the ropes and whatnot, and last month I finally managed to do so.

My friend Kyle had mentioned a Hefeweizen he had done earlier this year, which he had divided up into several flavors (regular, lemon, orange, blackberry). Of those, only the blackberry had been really good, but I loved hefeweizens and he was willing to give it another go, so we began brainstorming. We wanted to try out several flavors again, and we agreed on raspberry (I love raspberries) and blackberry (he loves blackberries), plus a regular one as a control. During a friday drinking session, where the IPA had some pineapple flavors, Kyle also decided we should do a pineapple version as well (more on this in a bit). On the day of, we also decided to try out blueberries.

The Recipe

We added all the wheat extract at the beginning and did a 90 minute boil, rather than a regular 60 minute boil.

After primary fermentation, we split the batch into 5 carboys. We added roughly of berries for all the berry batches. For the pineapple, we skinned and boiled a whole pineapple for ~30 minutes, and then added it to the secondary.

Gravity readings were only taken of the plain hefeweizen. Original gravity was 1.070. Final gravity was 1.014. That puts it at about 7.5% Abv. Original gravity was supposed to be 1.050, which would have put at a much mellower 4.8%

The Results

I am pretty glad with the initial results. The hefeweizen is a little strong, but has that banana flavor I enjoy. Color is a little dark, which is possibly due to the length of the boil and us putting all the extract in at the beginning.

Blueberry is a bit disappointing. Color is there, so is flavor, but the later is somewhat weak.

Blackberry is one of the better blackberry brews I have had. Unfortunately, not the greatest fan. Kyle really enjoys it though, so I traded mine for the..

Raspberry! I enjoy this one quite a bit. Not exactly what I was hoping for (more sweetness, less bitter), but it is a nice balance between the sweetness and the tart flavor. One of the better raspberry wheat beers I have had (the best being from Rogue’s Roost).

The pineapple ended up a bit of a surprise. The initial tasting almost had no pineapple flavoring, unless you really looked for it. After two weeks though, it has mellowed out a bit and the flavor has become clearer. Noticeable in the middle, fades out for a bit, and then returns in the end.

July 17, 2010 11:14 PM

I don’t write much anymore (given that this is the second thing I’ve posted this year), but I’ve been immersed in the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo for the last month. The show wrapped up yesterday, and keeping with the tradition of writing at least a few words about the show, here are my [...]

July 10, 2010 03:15 AM

There’s a lot of copyright changes on the go right now. In Canada, there’s bill C-32 which ended up better than expected in some areas and much, much worse in others. ACTA is also out there being negotiated behind closed doors. An access to information request was put forth on this one and the response was a document with the title of the agreement with everything else blacked out. There’s been no transparency and there’s a good reason for that.

All of the changes being pushed for are being funded by publishing organizations and the recording industry. What we are going to end up with is legislation that is completely one-sided. It will favour industry at the expense of the public. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision what this secret agreement will contain. It will make criminals of the entire population with the publishers able to extract as much money from the offenders as possible.

The reason publishers need to do this is that their traditional business model no longer stands on its own. Therefore the only way they can make money is by making the behaviour of the average citizen illegal and therefore “taxable”. The fines and levies will amount to a tax on the population meant only to help the publishers limp along, contributing nothing to society, but extracting a great deal. At least when the government taxes us, we get services in return.

Read up on these initiatives at Michael Geist’s blog. It’s a great source of information. Once you get a better idea of what’s going on. Contact your federal representative. It’s really important as our future is being shaped as we speak, behind closed doors, in blacked out documents. We deserve to have a say in our future.

July 06, 2010 09:49 PM

I don't know which website has the most comprehensive Toronto restaurants listings+reviews (like I believe dinehere.ca in Vancouver to be), so I've uniformly linked every restaurant to their Urbanspoon page.

Asian Legend. Sweet Gallery. Il Gelatiere. dozo sushi. Gui Hua Tang. Restoran Malaysia. Chili Secrets. New Choice. Oh Geul Boh Geul. Simple Bistro.

Asian Legend

We met up with family (two uncles and one married cousin with his wife) and I was sooo relieved that we did not dine at our stand-by regular restaurant, Scarborough Grand, although had we dined at a traditional Cantonese restaurant, we may have had a deluxe king crab dinner.... Our eldest cao-foo (uncle) characterizes Asian Legend as a place that appeals to "younger people" and although he is beyond retirement age, I think he likes the energy of the place. So, Asian Legend restaurants have popped up all over the place and I wanted it to be good despite the uber-slick decor and "chain" business--Toronto's Chinese diners and my uncle have exacting standards so I really had no need to fear.

I was a bit shy to take pictures, but being a slick chain restaurant, you can see a picture of every dish at their website... and order online, too! We ordered Steamed Soup-Filled Juicy Pork Dumplings, Steamed Chinese Silver Bun (served with dishes of condensed milk for dipping), Sauteed Lamb with Green Onion on Sizzling Hot Plate, Fish Fillet with Wine Essence, Sauteed Snowpea Shoots with Garlic, Braised Eggplant & Tofu in Casserole, Fried Rice Cake with Twice-Cooked Pork, Red Bean Pancake, and Glutinous Rice Ball with Black Sesame Filling!

I really liked the braised fish fillet in a rich wine flavour and the sauteed snowpeas. It was only recently where I was properly introduce to rice cake/sticks cooked the Chinese way (cf. the Korean way) and I'm now a fan and was pleased to see a spicy version with our Asian Legend dinner. It all came to about $80 which is part of the reason why the restaurant was a winner--they have a VIP card and, of course, my uncle is a cardholder.

Oh Geul Boh Geul

My cousin, WC, is the best, and he and his wife, Sarah, are perfect together. They graciously let Lil' Sis live with them for nearly a month when she didn't have a place to stay and she reports how they have impeccable taste exemplified in their home decor that includes unique, stylish, and functional Japanese designs. So, we could certainly trust their recommendations for which Korean restaurants to try. Of the three Sarah listed, two were in Koreatown (Bloor & Christie area) and we didn't want to head further down when it was already 10 p.m. so we went to another hub of Korean businesses in North York, and we were not disappointed.

I have a feeling Lil' Sis will know her Korean cuisine quite well but for now, it was quite adorable how she read the description of bibimbap stone bowl and thought it sounded quite nice. (Of course! It's a great dish!) We were first presented with a chewy onion Korean-style pancake and devoured it, especially enjoying the more crispy regions. Then we clapped our hands in delight when we were presented with ten banchan (what I call the complimentary "appetizers" when I forget the Korean word). We hardly get more than five of the most boring varieties at our favourite Vancouver Korean restaurants so I was happy to see zucchini, a herby mashed potato salad, chilled tofu with green onions and chili, and potato noodles!

Since Lil' Sis does not like tofu, I manoeuvered the tofu banchan close to me to have the chilled dish next to the hot bowl of tofu soup I ordered. I have had tofu soup three times within the past month and never tired of it.


dozo sushi + sake bar

I was so bashful when my restaurant recommendation was a bust (review further below) that I bit my tongue when Mum mentioned a Japanese restaurant she had seen on the dining segment of  Trendy Zone, a magazine format show airing on OMNI Ontario, a free multicultural channel. Sometimes I wish Vancouver had a Trendy Zone show, but most times, I am quite ambivalent about not having one. I was worried, of course, the TV spot had been misrepresentative, hyping the style of the restaurant over taste or value.

The restaurant, located in a small high-tech industrial park along the "Chinese stretch" of Highway 7, is very coooool looking in its decor. Fortunately it was a quiet Monday evening so there weren't youngsters milling around, drinking lots, and music thumping my mother's eardrums. We could concentrate on the menu that overwhelmed us for a good half an hour before we could figure out what to try. It was our "big dinner" of the weekend so we went all out.

Half the menu shows pictures of every drink available from Chinese/Taiwanese milk teas with the option for adding bubbles/tapioca pearls to the Japanese soda, Calpis, and what I'll call "cinos", which seem to me like the fruity Taiwanese milk teas topped with foam... like mangocinos and tarocinos. None of us ordered those hot drinks but I did enjoy one a couple years ago at a different tea restaurant.

I wanted Mum to try an izakaya but we couldn't figure out which one was good amongst all our choices but we were still able to enjoy izakaya-like atmosphere and dining at dozo. While we mulled over the menu, they gave us complimentary edamame--what my friends here dub the most rip-off dish--and we proceeded to order Kobe beef sushi (Mum wanted to try this Kobe she heard of), grilled squid skewers, roasted uni (sea cucumber) on eggplant, a fancy scallop makimono roll, a deluxe sushi platter with lobster sashimi, a teppanaki sirloin and miso black cod platter, and a pork cutlet and egg rice in stone bowl! We were a little nervous about how much food would arrive....

Everything was great. Mum characterizes uni as tasting a bit like the green goo you find in the head of lobsters. That made me more inclined to try it for the first time and it fleetingly did taste just as she described. Lil' Sis' scallop roll was a great injection of "traditional" sushi and it was tasty with scallop, mayo, tempura shrimp, and avocado. The Kobe sushi was nice... buttery. We really enjoyed the lobster sashimi (squishy, crunchy, just as it should taste) and the citrus-y yellow-hued roe that topped it. Lil' Sis wouldn't touch my cod because it is more infamous for having worms in the flesh... but I enjoyed it!



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June 21, 2010 01:07 AM

On Wednesday, I gave a talk about RESTful based web services for the local Maritimes JUG. This was the first Halifax meeting and also my first public talk since my disastrous Ruby on Rails presentation a few years back. Thankfully, I had learned from my previous experience, and while I was doing a semi-live coding demo, I also had a completed copy of my demo to fall back on, in the event of typos.

My presentation was an introduction to  JAX-RS, the Java API for RESTful web services as well as an intro to JAXB, since the JAX-RS frameworks all seem to use it for XML serialization. The frameworks for JAX-RS use simple annotations to define the web services, and if you aren’t trying to do something complicated,  it is really easy to get going.

Overall, I think things went fairly well. I had a few stumbling blocks in my demo, but made my way through. There were about a dozen developers there, who seemed to get what I was saying, and there were a few good questions, all of which I was thankfully able to answer. After my presentation, I  had a few good talks with various people, including web development, hosting challenges, and some of the limitations of JAXB. Overall, for a ‘first’ meeting, I think it went pretty well. Thanks to Sheep Dog Inc for providing a venue.

For those interested, here are the slides and demo project.

June 13, 2010 05:30 PM

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June 09, 2010 04:01 PM

Had a few friends over today for dinner. I’ve been experimenting with marinades a lot lately. Unlike some of my recent experiments, this one actually turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/8 cup soy sauce

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients (except chicken) into a bowl. Marinade the chicken in the mixture for 3-5 hours. Bake for half an hour. And voila!

June 06, 2010 11:55 PM

I paused for a long time outside the T&T Supermarket entrance taking in the super-cute kawaii poster of something resembling a mushroom soldier with a big green cap surrounded by mini soldiers in different national dress.

To celebrate Dragon Boat Festival 2010 (June 16), T&T created 12 flavours of 糭子(simplified: 粽子; English/Pinyin: zhong zi), glutinous rice bundles wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. Aside from regular Chinese varieties with fine differences to represent China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, more exotic creations represent Asian countries like Korea(kimchi and seafood), India (curry and beancurd), and Indonesia (satay and beancurd). A truly wacky flavour is that representing Belgium: "With chocolate and nuts (Macademia nuts, cashews and almonds) as the main ingredients mixed with glutinous rice, this dumpling is something innovative and delicious!"

My girly wonderment caused Kit to remark (something like), "That kind of marketing works on you, does it?" Oh, it sure does! Just like when you dress Hello Kitty up in the costumes of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals and you want to collect them all!



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May 25, 2010 02:41 AM

To celebrate a special occasion, my wife and I bought a package at The Haliburton in Halifax. It’s a lovely boutique hotel in downtown Halifax with one of the better restaurants in the city. Our package included a night stay, supper, parking and a continental breakfast.

It’s a very different type of hotel since it’s housed inside 3 different heritage properties. The end result is a lovely old Halifax feel, especially from the outside with pretty reasonable amenities on the inside. The bed was comfortable which is a tough thing for me to find. The highlight of the night though was the supper.

It was absolutely amazing. I had a starter that was a salad with absolutely stunning lamb. I’ve never had any lamb that was that delicious. For my main, I had been back and forth between the steak and the bison. I’d never had bison and the waitress recommended it so I decided to go wild (I don’t usually try new things) and order the bison. It was magnificent. The flavour was rather unique, almost seeming like a mix between a nice steak and liver. It may sound a little strange, but it ended up being very delicious, especially with the rest of the dish. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a nice restaurant, but even still this was clearly one of the best ones I’ve been to in Halifax.

We had a lovely evening and would recommend it to others. It’s not a cheap place to stay, but it’s actually affordable when you compare it to other nice hotels downtown. Being downtown, you’ll have options for supper if you’re not interested in the supper package. That can make it way cheaper. If you’re looking for a nice night away that’s not your average Hotel, this is a nice option.

May 24, 2010 12:54 PM

Following a moment of inspiration, I laid out my marathon/race bibs on my coffee table and mulled over how they will fit on a poster board in a way that information was not lost. But pasting it onto a board seemed too permanent, and the idea to scrapbook my marathons was the next idea to float by me. I have a sketchbook with hundreds of heavy stock pages that I never used since purchasing it quite a few years ago. And I finally had something worthwhile to scrapbook, something that did not occur to me several years ago when my girlfriends were on a bender scrapbooking their trips (way after the fact).

As an artistic endeavour, it was a great activity. I clipped some logos but also drew logos for the hand-made effect, copied graphics that caught my whimsical eye, and trimmed photos in jagged ways to add visual interest.



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May 18, 2010 08:47 AM

I suppose I had vaguely noticed that a book had been published in May last year with the catchy title, "I Love Yous are for White People" from promotion on the Angry Asian Man blog but I dismissed it as a cheeky humourous book not worthy of my further attention.

I even downloaded the VisualizAsian podcast interview with Lac Su--author of what I thought was a funny novel, but a published author, nonetheless--and it took 6 months for me to find the podcast again and listen to it! And while I listened to the hour-long interview, it took me on a journey while I conducted a long run around the city.

Native Vietnamese speakers have a great accent when they speak English. I liken it to a light twangy drawl and when I hear it, my ears perk up and I'm transported back to my Halifax uni days. When I was kind of a mature student in a small city, the goody-two-shoes Chinese community was cold and I wanted to avoid them anyhow for who knows what small thing could get spread by gossip back to my parents; the Vietnamese community, on the other hand, was so fun and friendly and they took me in as kind of one of their own.

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May 13, 2010 02:19 AM

Alan Skorkin has written a wonderful piece entitled What Every Developer Should Know About URLs. It’s a very long, detailed post, but if you have to work with URLs you should give it a read.

To most of us, a URL is a pretty straightforward thing. They usually look like http://www.something.com, but you’ll likely have noticed that there is a great deal of additional complexity that is added into URLs depending where you are on the web. The real structure of a URL, as Alan points out, looks like this:

<scheme>://<username>:<password>@<host>:<port>/<path>;<parameters>?<query>#<fragment>

That’s just the tip of iceberg though. If you go and read his article, you’ll find that he’s covered this topic in depth and you’ll come out of it with a much better understanding or the makeup of a URL and what mistaken assumptions you may have.

May 06, 2010 02:51 AM

So, I only managed to go to three Dineout Vancouver 2010 dinners and I can't really imagine a fourth one topping the dinners so far, if only because I'm so Dined Out.

hidden tasting bar + lounge

I was so excited to try hidden, a new restaurant in the centrally located Westin Grand hotel, within a week of it opening, and I knew another couple would be along for the ride. Plus, if it was a real bust, it was only an $18 Dineout (3-course) menu. We joked (not that I tend to find it really funny) about going to Cafe Gloucester after the dinner to fill up--word of mouth had it that you only get one mouthful of food and we were preparing for the worst.

The restaurant/lounge is located on the second (feels like third) floor of the hotel and from our curved booth, we were looking up and out at the majestically curving Vancouver Library - Central Branch building. (Aside: I'm so glad there was adequate natural light at my dinners to not need to use flash, something that cannot be said when Dineout takes place in January.) For the dinner, I think the appetizer and dessert were the tastiest. We all ordered poutine, making the easy decision to forgo the other option: beet salad with blue cheese. It was a good portion uniquely topped with Hollandaise sauce in place of gravy and with a little bite (or, in Frank's case, a mini steak) of halibut. I thought my seared and smoked tuna was a good light second course but hold to not particularly enjoying smoked meats and it was seared too long for my liking. Dessert was a joy. I love Beavertails (aka whale tail, elephant ears) so it was a delight to have a gourmet one with generous cinnamon sugar topping and a small scoop of tangy ice cream. The rootbeer parfait was a natural choice for NPY but we all thought jelly rootbeer tasted weird.



Abigail's Party

I would say that Abigail's Party sticks out in my head because I believe Lydia of Fizz Eats had mentioned it more than once very favourably, amongst alphabetically listed restaurants, you didn't have to scroll down the combo list box to see the restaurant name, and the restaurant name is also listed in all capital letters compared to the sensible title case used by all the other restaurants! Carina and I set out from her house which was still a 30 minute walk--45 minutes from mine--to the Yew/York area of Kitsilano that is a crossroad heavy with unique restaurants. (I didn't know that play on words for the area until yesterday.) It was unbelievable windy but great built-in exercise before and after dinner.

The restaurant feels like a cozy bar and we felt comfortable right away. I don't know what possessed me, but I agreed to sharing an order of poutine in addition to our 3-course meal. I suppose it was because the hidden poutine was not made with gravy and my stupid appetite wanted gravy, too. We both ordered the "bruschetta" which was the least colourful bruschetta ever. In any case, it was very generously topped with brie and with three slices of bread, three times more plentiful than it needed to be since it was so rich. I polished it off anyhow and started to feel self-conscious when we were also digging into the poutine (meh, but there was gravy) and the waiter--with no snarkiness, mind you--remarked that we were hungry girls. A waitstaff should never say that!! I'll show you how hungry I am... Carina ordered steak frites and anyone who knows her wouldn't be surprised and her dinner looked just great with a layer of green peppercorn sauce. She really loved the creamy shallot vinagrette that came with her salad. I ordered cod and that is not surprising for me either, fooling myself that it is "light"; mostly, NPY took my cod dish from a previous dinner so I was "making up" for it. I like my cod a little less baked but enjoyed the roasted kale and the risotto croquette.

Dessert was definitely the highlight even though I had indulged in three Dineouts in four days by then. I ordered, truly typical of me, the chili-chocolate tart because I'm a nut for spicy chocolate. It was wonderfully creamy and spicy and the dense tart shell gave it substance. Carina ordered a unique house special dessert called "Coffee & Smoke" because espresso panna cotta caught her eye. Now I know what panna cotta is and how divine it is when it is espresso-flavoured and tastes like chilled cappuccino on your tongue. The "smoke" was the most delicate chocolate roll with brandied marscapone cream in the middle.



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May 05, 2010 10:35 AM