Quick Quick Stir Fry Fix

As I sit here in my hot room, waiting for the thunderstorm to pass and ultimately avoiding studying for the MCAT, I thought I'd at least put some wasted time to use and post!

This past Saturday after a long scheduled meeting from 9am - 330pm, Vince and I needed a quick fix before I headed to my next work responsibility at 6pm. With the outdoor temperature being so hot, pho was out of the question even though I was CRAVING it.. so I suggested heading over to Mongolie Grill on Calgary Trail, since I enjoyed having it for lunch with the girls and Vince had yet to try their cooking concept.

I had never tried this restaurant up until about a month ago, when Cassie suggested going there for lunch. I guess it was likely because of my parents, saying that the restaurant was extremely overpriced for eating just a simple stir fry - what can I say, they're Asian ;)

Upon arriving at 430, the restaurant was pretty empty, with maybe two or three tables occupied at most. We were greeted by the friendly hostess, and our server was very polite! The thing I like most about this stir fry restaurant is that you have the option to choose what you want to eat, and how much you want to eat. It is the perfect option for those trying to watch what they eat - you control portion size, flavouring, etc. For starters, both of us decided to try their Hot & Sour Soup.

Hot & Sour Soup

The soup itself looks interesting, very different from the traditional hot and sour soup that my parents have been feeding me my entire life. While the type I have at home is usually jam packed with asian ingredients like bamboo, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear fungus, this bare version at Mongolie grill mostly consisted of a broth with some egg, flaked bean curd and chewy pieces here & there (I say chewy pieces because I had no idea what I was eating!) Despite this vast difference, the soup itself wasn't bad. The flavouring to the soup made me want it more & more - it was a very unique mix between salty, sweet, sour and spicy. All in all I would recommend it, but I hope overtime they will reduce the amount of sodium in this one!

My vegetarian stir fry

For my stir fry, I opted for the vegetarian, choosing my favourite stir fry stars: baby corn, broccoli, onions/green onion, white and portabello muchrooms,and of course Shanghai noodles! I think the funnest part of the meal is choosing the sauces for the stir fry, and crossing your fingers hoping the resulting plate will taste decent! For me I chose house blend, spicy thai, pureed garlic, teriyaki, oyster sauce, and black bean sauce. The result? Delicious. Combined with the complimentary wraps & rice and you've got yourself a substantial meal!

Oh, and on a side note, I bought myself the Coach Alexandra bag this past weekend in Champagne.. isn't she a beauty? She's gorgeous and I can't wait to use her!

meet alexandra :)

Mongolie Grill
3345 Calgary Trail
Edmonton AB

We Love Lucy

As I write this post, one of my best friends has already left for Vancouver - LUCY!

For her last day in Edmonton, the girls [Crystal & Belinda] and I spent a good portion of the afternoon and evening with her, doing whatever it was she wanted. To kick off our day, we decided we would do a quick photoshoot with just the four of us to capture the memories in our last hours with Lucy. At first, we were sitting in Lucy's room getting ready for our photo session, when a GIANT wasp decided to fly in and torture us as it flew aroud the room. Crystal & I left it to Lucy to capture the monster and put it back outside, which took around 20 minutes :P

The big nasty wasp - it was approx an inch long!

Lucy our hero

We originally wanted to head to a park somewhere to take pictures, but the looming grey clouds in the sky decided to rain on our parade so we did some quick pictures inside Belinda's house with her brother as our photographer (by the way, he's AWESOME :)).

For the evening, we headed to Rose Bowl Rouge Lounge for dinner, and also met up with Youngeun. Despite being a Friday night, the lounge wasn't too busy and it was a nice atmosphere to celebrate and have a last meal with our girl. The service was great and all the staff were very accomodating. One of the guys even hooked us up with a round of shots!

Drink up!

Together, we ordered the appetizer sampler, consisting of calamari, dry ribs, bruschetta, cajun shrimp and an Italian bread with dip. We also ordered one of their pizzas called 'the godfather' which was topped with proscuitto and a variety of other fine Italian meats. All in all, the food was VERY good, and I definitely wasn't expecting it to come from this lounge!

Appy sampler

After dinner, the festivities weren't over yet, so we headed to Moxies South Common to finish the night with dessert. Once again, I was very surprised to see that Moxies' lounge was quite empty for a Friday night! But hey, that means better service for us, right? For the table we ordered two servings of the white chocolate brownie. I had never tried it before, and was definitely in for a treat. The brownie was topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a generous drizzle of chocolate sauce. It was a little sweet for my liking, but a great, rich dessert to share.

White Chocolate Brownie from Moxies

Back at Lucy's house, we had prepared some presents for her to open: a picture frame & scrapbook from a couple of us. We all stayed over for the night just to talk and remember the good times together, not to mention help Lucy PACK cause she hadn't yet! I knew I had a full day ahead of me on Saturday, but losing sleep wasn't too much of a problem because it was worth it!

So many memories

Front cover of the scrapbook

Lucyyyy, I'm really going to miss spending time with you :( I'll make sure to come down to Vancouver and visit you whenever I can. Good luck with your schooling & don't miss us too much! Us girls will be together again soon :)

We'll miss you bb

Rose Bowl Rouge Lounge
10111 117 Street
Edmonton AB

Moxie's Classic Grill
1739 102 Street
Edmonton AB

Coach: Alexandra Collection

As the company's fiscal year comes to a close, Coach Leatherware will be officially introducing a new collection on July 1st, the Alexandra Collection. I am aware that some of these bags are currently in the store, but the full display will be layed out on July 1st.



The Alexandra bag is very versatile & functional everyday bag. It is marketed as a bag that can be worn in three ways: a satchel, and crossbody bag, and a shoulder bag. This bag has a great silhouette, and since it's available in multiple colours and materials (sateen, fabric, leather, patent leather, metallic leather & embossed leather), it's perfect for fall. My favourite material in this collection would have to be the leather, as it is soft, pebbled and thick. Despite being soft, it is durable and able to keep it's shape, and I love that it is available in rich fall colours. In addition, the zipper runs very well considering it is on a slouch! It actually reminds me a bit of the Miu Miu bow satchel..

My picks? The leather Alexandra in Champagne, Berry, and Black Embossed Croc.

Champagne
Berry
Embossed Croc

Party Party !

Wow, I've been so busy running around the city in the past couple of days I don't even know where to begin this post. . .

The other day while running errands with Vince, we figured we'd be too busy and too tired to make any food when we went home, so we stopped at Pho Hoa on Parsons Road to have some yummy pho in the afternoon, despite the outdoor temperature being 24 degrees celcius. I went for my usual, the pho tai sach #7 (rare beef & tripe, yum!) and jackfruit shake, while Vince went for some random bowl of pho that he's never tried before (he always does that and almost always is disappointed hahaha!!).

Pho Tai Sach & Jackfuit Shake

I found the pho to be as it usually is at Pho Hoa, consistent in flavour and terrible service. Vince didn't find his bowl as enjoyable, but I don't know if that should be atrributed to his adventurous side in trying something new every time. The only thing different I found though, was that the bowl seemed to be much smaller than usual. With this Vietnamese chain restaurant, you would think the bowl and serving sizes would be quite consistent considering the numerous locations in Edmonton, but I was able to finish the bowl of noodles with no problem, and even having room in my stomach to spare. Weird, right?

On Wednesday, after yet another long and exhausting day, Vince & I headed out to the Bank Ultra Lounge around 11pm for one of my best friends' going away party. Lucy, whom I've known for 7 years thus far, is leaving to go to film school in Vancouver. I'm definitely going to miss her, but I guess it gives me all the reason to go down and visit more often, right? And of course eat tons of delicious food in the process! Here's just a couple pics from the night, I'll be posting the rest on facebook :)

Me & Lucy

myself, Chris & Lisa on the dance floor

besties forever & ever

Pho Hoa
2963 Ellwood Drive SW
Edmonton AB

Cooking Adventures: Jap Chae & Kimchi Jigae

mmMmm Korean cuisine definitely sits at the top of the list when I think of my favourite food! Although yesterday was Fathers Day, my father was out of town, leaving Alyssa, Vince, and myself in a bit of a pickle regarding dinner plans. Thinking to myself, I thought, why not? Let's try cooking some Korean food!

Jap Chae is a Korean stir fried noodle dish with vegetables, made using starch noodles. They have a very unique, rubbery texture to them which I love - they keep their elasticity which is great, because I hate, hate, hate soggy noodles! For our stir fry, we chose to add red peppers, carrots, bok choy (long story short, we were going to use spinach which my sister informed me we had, but I guess she can't tell the difference between her vegetables!), shiitake mushrooms, onion, garlic, green onions and chicken.

Kimchi jigae on the other hand - 'jigae' meaning soup in Korean - requires much less work to prepare. It was great to use up the cabbage and radish kimchi that was in my fridge, so that I can make more soon! Yay! :) The kimchi soup was spicy and a little sour (from the fermented kimchi) and great with rice.

My Fathers Day dinner... mm yum yum in my tum tum :)

Tasty Choice!

After an extremely long and tiring day of work (trust me, it was tough being stuck inside while there was AMAZING weather outside, not to mention I have not been this tired after work in a long long time with sore feet and I cannot keep my eyes open as I type this!!) I got a text from one of my best friends Andrew, who just came back from his trip to Japan! Despite being tired, I was so excited to see him, so I went to pick him up and we went to try the new bubble tea & snacks place called Tasty Choice.

Once we arrived, we were quite lucky to run into some of our other close friends. We bumped into Ronald, Carson, Calvin, Matt, and Jian (you music lovers can find Calvin & Matt's blogs here & here) just to chill and catch up!

Of course, this wouldn't all happen without the help of some yummy snacks and bubble tea :) Since I had some fresh watermelon slush earlier in the afternoon, I opted out of having bubble tea and settled for some of their snacks instead. Andrew & I chose to try out their green onion cakes (an Asian staple for sure!), and something they had called "Crispy Twists"

Crispy Twists

Now, not to say these didn't taste good, I just had no idea what they were! I was thinking maybe they were made of potatoes at first, but since they were so thin and awkwardly curled, it would be impossible for potato shavings to keep their shape like that. The outside was crisp, with the inside being soft & a little chewy, so I'm just going to guess that they were deep fried dough or noodles of some sort! Served with ranch dip and a house special sauce (it resembled southwest sauce...), it wasn't bad, minus the extremely generous amount of seasoning salt on top!

Green Onion Cake

Now, onto the green onion cakes served with a sweet chili sauce. These were pretty standard green onion cakes, likely the kind we see everyday in the shape of a saucer. What I liked about these is that they were not very salty, and I didn't feel they were soaked with oil.

All in all, the experience at Tasty Choice wasn't bad, but considering they are a new bubble tea place in Edmonton, I would give them a bit of time to improve on their dishes. I visited them a week earlier and their satay beef noodles in soup were quite delicious - hopefully they can touch up on all their other dishes and make them equally as tasty. Also, I can't wait to try their mango dessert! Definitely the thing I look forward to most.

Tasty Choice
107 2920 Calgary Trail
Edmonton AB

I Love My Job :)

I find that some of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my life pertain to my job - working with special needs kids. During the school year, I usually take part in running a Teen Night program with clients at my job on Friday nights. Its such a unique experience working with kids in this manner, and seeing the types of things they really can accomplish - participating in activities their parents/guardians otherwise would not engage in with them.

Although there are obviously the ups and downs of the job - the kids really do surprise me and I take pride in facilitating their pathway to achievements, and celebrating with them every step of the way. Of course, I love when they show their appreciation for the work that the staff puts into planning each and every activity :)

For example, tonight, one of my youngest clients surprised me by bringing me some ice cream. He said to me "here you go!" Wondering what it was all about, he said that he remembered me wanting ice cream the week before, and he promised himself he would bring some to me. Isn't that just adorable? He got me his favourite flavours - I believe it's a caramel mint Aero Mcflurry? Despite it not looking too appetizing, or not being my favourite ice cream, this is probably the best Mcflurry I've ever had JUST BECAUSE he put in all the time and effort in bringing it to me. I told his mom that she could have it, but her only response? "He insisted that he really wanted you to have it!"


For those of you that are wondering - this client is only 10 years old and one of the toughest I've ever had to deal with. I've hardly seen this soft side of him and it was very touching for him to bring it to me.


A picture that one of the boys drew of me - apparently what I look like in the summer.. sporting a bikini and a hat, I'm sucha G!

All in all, I love my job (L) !

Good Morning Sunshine :)

Sunny days, warm weather.. it truly feels like the REAL Edmonton summer is coming around! And to kick off the nice weather this morning, I headed out for a brunch date with one of my besties Lisa at Cora Breakfast & Lunch.

We were lucky that when we got there, it wasn't too, too busy! Considering that it was a Wednesday morning, we didn't think it would be busy at all, but many of the tables inside the restaurant were filled! It was my first experience at Cora, and I must say it was a pleasant experience! Its such a joy to see a nice breakfast place, hustlin' and bustlin' with energy, and tons of colour on the walls. It was such a cute restaurant, with the cute decor and the face of Cora herself on the front of the menus. With all the appetizing pictures to choose from, Lisa and I settled on starting with the daily fruit cocktail (aka smoothie), buying us some time to think about our food choice. I was quite surprised to hear our waitress recommending a cocktail in the morning.. until I realized she wasn't talking about alcohol!

Cocktail of the day, filled with Strawberries, pineapple, mango, banana.. among other things!

The so-called cocktail tasted awesome, thick and packed full of fruit without the addition of any sugar, making it a very filling drink in itself. However, Lisa and I ended up choosing Cora's signature "Oeufs Ben et dictine" (Eggs Benedict), hers the asparagus and swiss cheese version, while I had mushrooms and brie cheese.

Eggs Benedict a la mushrooms & Brie, served with sauteed potatoes & a mountain of fruit

The eggs benedict was very satisfying, not to mention so filling to the point that I couldn't finish my fruit! After lunch, off to the library I went to study for my MCAT with Belinda <3 Now for dinner, Vince & I just had to satisfy our craving for salty, msg laden foods.. so we settled for a nice meal at none other than.. Lee House! Today we were a little tight on time, so we each settled for a noodle dish. Jjam Pong for myself, and Ull Myun for him. Super delicious as always! Jjam Pong. . always my favourite! It's basically a spicy noodle soup with vegetables & seafood

Ull Myun. . first time we tried this one but it was very good! Noodles in a thickened egg soup broth, with vegetables and seafood

He's just so cute.. I love him :)

Cora Breakfast & Lunch
2920 Calgary Trail NW Suite 111
Edmonton, AB

Lee House Restaurant
7904 104 Street NW
Edmonton, AB

Back into the World of Blogging

hey guys !

so here I am again, back into the world of blogging.. this is going to be a little different this time though. It's no longer about every single little detail of my holidays and vacations around the world, but instead this is going to be about my life. The ins & outs, my crazy family, loves of my life, food adventures, shopping sprees.. you name it. So.. here goes nothing!

xx ac.