LEFTBANKED.

8.31.2014

405. CNE

CNE (which we also refer to as "The Ex") happens here in Toronto every year, over the last 2 weeks of August. I go literally every year and I love it. I used to go all the time with my family. My sister and I love the Polar Express ride the most. Well, we went on a lot of rides. Then in recent years I started going with friends as well..including several trips to the casino in the middle of the night. Lots of fun memories..!! Most of the photos on this post were actually taken last year. Since I procrastinate on my blog a lot..by the time I was ready to make a new post, CNE had ended already and I felt it was pointless to make the post. So THIS year, with one more day left..here is my CNE post - finally.

My BF was in Toronto for a few days this week so I decided to take him there on Thursday night. We were pretty lucky to get in on time actually. The rides end at midnight, but most of the buildings close at 10pm. They also close the ticket booths at around 10pm. We got there just in time to park the car (literally a few minutes before they shut the parking lot!!), then speed walked to the ticket booths..as soon as we got our tickets, they put up the sign that it was closed. We only spent about an hour and a half there but it was a lot of fun.

I usually don't like the food here but this poutine was surprisingly really good.

The rest of these photos were taken last year:

My favourite ride..the Polar Express!

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This post archived in: Toronto

404. Birthday Dinner at Canoe

It was my sister's birthday several days ago. Last week, I decided to take her out to dinner at Canoe to try their vegetarian tasting menu. Canoe has a new tasting menu every season, with a vegetarian one available on request. I've been to Canoe so many times yet I never had a tasting menu there before. It was a great experience. Definitely would want to do it again. The servers were so attentive, friendly and knowledgeable in everything on the menu. Next time I go I want to try their current tasting menu - "Taste 60th Parallel". I think it was just released this week. Last week our server was telling us about a fish on there that has never been served outside of Northern Canada/the Territories.

I LOVE the bread here. They make it in-house, and the spread that comes with it is always delicious. I don't remember what this one was..I know there's chickpea in there and something else. So good. I ate too much of it though..I ended up getting quite bloated halfway through our meal.

I always look forward to the amuse bouche at any restaurant. I love how it's presented. This is ricotta cheese, honey, edible flowers, and I forgot what else..it was delicious!

Next was the "Northern Woods Mushroom Soup" with morel mushrooms, balsam fir creme fraiche, and toasted carmelina seeds. First you get the bowl with mushrooms in it, then they pour in the soup. It tasted like they used a LOT of mushrooms to make this. Very good but the portion was a bit too large.

BBQ Tofu with pickled 100km vegetables and tapioca crisps.

The Intermezzo (I totally forgot what this was)

Cauliflower Risotto with roasted, raw and pureed cauliflower, sweet peas and favas. This was our favourite. It was most likely the best risotto I've ever had.

Classic Canoe Butter Tart with smoked vanilla cream, flax seed nougatine, rye and ginger ice cream. The butter tart was very sweet and so filling. Our server has been working at Canoe for 14 years so far, and said this is one of his favourite butter tarts they ever made. Apparently the butter tart is always on the menu (while the other desserts change every few months or so), but every new pastry chef changes it up and makes their own variation of it.

Lastly - the petit fours..chocolate-dipped chips

Open kitchen

Ending the meal with a green tea

The view

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This post archived in: Toronto

403. Fendi Petite 2jours

Here it is! My new Fendi (Mini/Petit) 2Jours bag! I never used to like Fendi..I always saw it as a brand for "older" people but in recent years it seems they're targeting a more younger crowd. Or maybe it's just me getting older with different tastes lol.
I think this colour I have is called "Lake Blue" (it says "Lago" on the tags). Originally I wanted the Nebula Blue which is a beautiful pastel light blue..but of course, our Holt Renfrew location has such a limited selection and never received it. I think I put my name down on the waiting list for this bag back in May. I wanted either a black one (gold hardware), coral/orange/red or the Nebula blue. My SA emailed me every time there were new bags in..which was a total of about 1 or 2 new Petit 2Jours every month and a half or so. None in the colours I wanted.

Eventually the new Fall/Winter colours came out, and eventually I gave up on Holt Renfrew and called the boutiques in New York (I considered a trip there if they had my colour in stock) and Hong Kong (I might be going there sometime this year) to see if they still had the Nebula Blue in stock. I found out they didn't have it in any of the stores across the US, and Hong Kong's boutiques only had the new colours. Plus it would be quite a bit more expensive if I purchase it in the other cities. I realized I was out of luck so ended up getting this one instead. It is newly released and part of their Fall/Winter 2015 collection!

I kind of want one of those bag bug keychains to hook on the bag..they're so cute but ridiculously expensive. This Karl Lagerfeld "Karlito" one is like $1700. I think the others are about $500-$700 or so.

Anyway here's more photos of my bag. Too bad they didn't have a Fendi box :(

The interior matches the Holt Renfrew wrapping!

A few days ago I brought in the tag to get my initials heatstamped..should be getting it back sometime this week!

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402. Recent Life

Picked up a brand new bag last week! If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook, etc I'm sure you'll have already seen it. I will post some photos of it in my next post. It's a Fendi Petite 2jours. The colour I got isn't on the website though for some reason..

As much as I love this bag, I realized in the past couple years that I no longer get as excited as I used to about material items (which is a good thing). These days I am more into spending on experiences (mainly travel) rather than things, or saving/investing. I'm going to head out to Holt Renfrew again after I finish this post to get my initials heatstamped on the bag. Hopefully it won't take too long (I've heard it can take anywhere from 1-3 weeks?!). I also have a gift card from them that I picked up at the private shopping event last week. Now I need to force myself to buy something else hahah. This probably relates to my previous point but I'm having the hardest time buying clothes these days. I usually only buy something when I REALLY love it. In the past, I always find 3-5 things I REALLY love whenever I go to Holt Renfrew, but my past few times there I found nothing. I don't know if it's just me or their selection of clothes is getting worse now. The only brands I like these days are Clover Canyon, AQ/AQ & Smythe. Hopefully their new collections came in.