tourist in my own town... dinner in chinatown

Last night I was having a drink at my friend's local watering hole (St. Liz) and the topic of good Chinese came up. I had just driven through Chinatown and had wondered why we don't eat there more often since my friend B lives close by. Feeling inspired, and hungry, we decided to walk down and dine at one of his recommendations, Keung Kee Restaurant, on Rue de la Gauchetière.

Walking up and into the restaurant it already checked so many of the boxes that our group (all originally from Vancouver and convinced we know true Chinese) wanted to see:

1. It's in an alley.
2. It's on the second floor and the carpet covered stairs have seen better days.
3. The tables are covered in disposable plastic table clothes.
4. The hot tea kettle hits the table before you can even sit down.

Even though we were filled with anticipation that we were sure couldn't be met on this side of Canada, it was. Our servers were fantastic.... they cracked jokes, mocked us for our love of Vietnamese hot sauce, brought us their own freshly mixed concoctions to try, recommended new dishes, and happily boxed up our soup before our second course even came because we had clearly over-ordered.

The food though was legitimately the best part. We ordered 5 dishes and 3 appies for the four of us (did I mention we had been drinking?) and all were good... But the Spicy and Salted Shrimp, the Kung Pao Chicken (typical white people order! I know!) and the duck were my fave.

I used to think you couldn't get good Chinese in Montreal... and while this may not be quite the same as Vancouver... it's legit.

So thanks B!

shoes...shoes...shoes... new hummel hightops

I'm a sucker for shoes and here is one of my neest pairs! (Yes, just ONE of my newest pairs... there are more.)

Despite the snow and cold which will prevent me from wearing these for a few months, I just had to have a new pair of high tops for 2014 and these hummel's are perfect. They are totally classic in style and the black/grey will go with so many casual outfits. I might even try to wear them to work on a Friday with my leather leggings. That will dress them up right?

I picked them up still on sale (from 129.99 to 99.99) following "Boxing Week" at NEON on Mont Royal. The same store where I bought my Fjallraven Kanken backpack before the supermodels started wearing them. (See below it being used as a picnic basket on my roadtrip with VDB to Ottawa last Canada Day.)

More shoes to follow I'm sure!

tourist in my own town... brunch at l'avenue

3 years ago my parents came to visit me in Montreal. My Dad didn't travel much later in life but he fell in love with my neighborhood, the Plateau. And he fell even harder when I took him to breakfast at L'Avenue. He loved the fresh blended fruit smoothies, the humongous omelettes and other brunch entrees, and the atmosphere (which was really mainly due to the fact we got the table in the window which allowed him to people watch). Every time we met in Vancouver afterwards he asked me if I had recently been to L'Avenue.

Today with my Mom and brothers in town for the holidays I took them to enjoy what my Dad had so often fussed about. My Mom and older brother had the classic eggs benedict which they are famous for. They enjoyed it very much, and almost even managed to finish, though we were perplexed as to why they have changed the recipe from a traditional ham to one slow roasted in beer and maple syrup and then pulled like pork. They agreed it was good, but almost too rich.

My younger brother and I had the Idaho omelette. This is my favorite as it comes not only with the BEST hashbrowns on the side but also with mashed potatoes folded into the omelette. I love poatoes of every variety. It also has bacon, red onions, and sour cream of course

I wholeheartedly recommend L'Avenue to anyone visiting Montreal for breakfast. But take note, i said breakfast and not brunch. If you get there after 10am you will be waiting in line.

an introduction

So here goes 2014…. With so much promise for a new year, new challenges and new opportunities… I’m going to seize today and start this, my very first blog. I have a few goals in doing so:

1. To work towards my resolution this year (carried over from failing last year) to do a better job staying in touch with my family and friends. I hope this blog helps encourage us to share our lives with each other.
2. To work towards a new life long resolution to appreciate all I have around me and am given. I’ve got a pretty damn good life so I may as well recognize that here and be able to reflect often back on it rather than only look enviously at what others are doing on FB.
3. To work towards an item on my bucket list, which is writing a book. This idea seems far too daunting right now but hopefully this blog helps me develop my writing skills and maybe even inspires a direction for my future tall tale.

To my poor readers, whom I expect to mainly be my mother and BFF’s, I should warn I’m establishing a few rules for my blog:

• This will be a home of primarily positive reflection, not a place where I share stories of crappy days or sh*tty experiences. These would do nothing to serve my listed objectives.
• Work is work… I don’t plan to talk about it much here except for when it takes me to cool places or introduces me to cool people, which I am very grateful for and will share as appropriate.
• The BF is to remain anonymous at his own request and will from here forward only be referred to as VDB. You know who he is anyway but this makes him feel better. It’s like he thinks I might become famous or something….

Last but not least, what do I actually plan to write about?? Well mainly all the things that bring me joy and that I hope might bring you some too: Fashion, food, travel, and time with my family and friends. Probably a few bits on books and art too.

More to follow!