Sakura

This past weekend we, along with what seemed like the whole population of Toronto, visited High Park to see the blossoming cherry trees in High Park. I try to avoid crowds when I can, but the blossoms only last about a week so as long as you look up and not forward, all you will see are white fluffy clouds. 

The trees were actually gifted to the High Park by Japan in 1959 (countries give each other flowers too :)). In Japanese tradition, cherry blossoms (or 'sakura') symbolize mortality, because of their exceptional beauty but quick death. No wonder the cherry blossoms symbols were used during WWII to motivate Japanese soldiers on the front - "live free or die hard". And indeed, beauty feeds the soul and the spirit. Without beauty in our daily lives, we are prisoners to our routines and have-to's. 

Another interesting fact is that cherry blossoms are edible! in Japan they are added to traditional desserts (one dessert on earth I have not dug my teeth into yet tehe) and even served instead of green tea on special occasions! Now, I've drank all kinds of tea but have not tried sakura tea before. A trip to Japan is in order!

416 Snack Bar

Every time I would wait for the 511 streetcar on Queen and Bathurst this bar opposite the streetcar stop, which seemed dark and small from the outside, always overflowed with people, especially in the summer. My boyfriend and I always wondered what these crowds were all about, but we never entered, maybe because it's too close to home. 

So this time we were planning to go to our favourite thai place on a warm Sunday afternoon, but instead of food they were serving water balloons! The restaurant was having a water fight Sunday, which sounded fun and we would have stayed if not for the hungry monsters inside us that demanded food (otherwise someone(s) would have suffered injuries in that water fight). 

So we thought, what the heck, lets give the too-close-to-home snack bar a try. 

I was surprised by the cozy and not so dark atmosphere inside. I think I understand why this bar is always so full of people. It has a very unique atmosphere - it's filled with the most beautiful light, especially as the sun starts to set. 

Now the food. Because it's snack bar, its best not to go there when you're super hungry...or so I thought. We were, so the two of us ordered the jerk grilled fish platter, indian pancakes with tomato salsa type thing (not on the menu) and two Caesars . The fish platter was Ah-mazing! It consisted of whole grilled sea bass, mango salad, coleslaw, fried plantains, sea salt and lettuce leafs. The idea is to assemble all the ingredients together into lettuce wraps. I was blown away, it was so delicious. The best part is the fish, which was well seasoned and not over-grilled/dry. The  fried plantains added a nice crunch. 

Trench Season

It is finally SPRING!!!! *jumping from joy* 
I am so happy to finally bring out all the spring coats and jackets and not have to layer and look like a giant bear anymore. I had the most fabulous sunny weekend and was so happy to finally wear one of my staples - the trench coat that I got from Coach store in California. I had been looking for a classy timeless trench for about a year and nothing was good enough, until I saw this beautiful coat that brought the store mannequin to life. It's garnished with clean subtle lines and has everything it should have in place - storm flap, straps, lapels, leather inserts. Its simply perfect. I was originally planning to get the original khaki trench, but couldn't resist the clean look of this one. 

First of Many - Furlough

My blog is getting a new addition and I am so excited to share this first post with everyone!

I have been hiding in the closet for long enough and its time to come out - I am a serial brunchoholic! Every weekend my partner in crime Anthony (who is also a brunchoholic) and I go out hunting for treasure spots around the city, followed by a brunch feast and more often than not a tummy ache from overeating (but who cares...). We then hunt for the perfect cup of coffee, because usually brunch for us is really a breakfast (waking up on weekends before 11am is not allowed in our home :)). 

I love the city I live in, despite the never-ending winters, it has so much to offer. So if its cold out, we drown our winter blues in good food and coffee. 

So I thought why not share these amazing brunch adventures around the city as part of my new Sunday's Best series. This series is all about non-mass produced unique finger licking delicious brunch food with a twist. Food Art, I call it.

We stumbled upon Furlough by accident. We decided to take a walk along Queen Street West, one of the most brunch-infested places in the city, on a Sunday afternoon and find a random place to have brunch. By 3 pm the restaurant had two couples and a small group at the bar and they had interesting looking pots of food in front of them that intrigued us. The ambiance is mad men inspired, with dark cherry wood furniture and eerie looking but interesting vintage wall art. Water was served in a Bourbon bottle set and the food came in classy English country house -inspired dishes. 

I ordered the good old eggs benny with lobster (for some reason not shown in their online menu) and potato rosti. This dish was great, the hollandaise sauce was just perfect but rosti was not the Swedish rosti I'm used to but more of fried potatoes, which were nevertheless tasty. Anthony had croque madame, which i tasted and it was incredibly delicious (I highly recommend this dish). See the full brunch menu at Furlough's here.