Asia Day 13: Macau

October 5

After feeling horrendous from the bus ride at the Peak, I semi-recovered to make it on the boat ride to Macau. The sickness from the evening before was unfortunately timing, because we had already pre-planned the day in Macau and had 3 tickets for a Franco Dragone show.

Ergo... I had to grin and bear it for our day in Macau.

After docking in Macau, my dad thought he'd be super clever and sneak a free shuttle ride to a random hotel near the touristic district. Unluckily, my dad isn't quite as clever as he would like and led us to a hotel shuttle that wasn't very close by at all. Aka. The Grand Lisboa.

Nevertheless, I was glad to just be off things that moved and happily made the walk from the hotel to the tourist district.

The architecture is old and grande and beautiful, heavy on the Portuguese influence. The big colourful flower decorations on the ground behind the fountain are decorations for National Day (October 1). The week long celebration had run through and the decorations were being taken down.

I don't remember what street it was that the fountain was at, but we were on our way to the Ruins of St. Paul. We eventually made it there (amidst the throngs of people) and also headed up behind it to the Fortaleza do Monte. There, I got to sit on a cannon. Seriously.

It looks like fun and games, but this was initially a centre for protecting Jesuit property. Eventually it was seized by the government for Macau defense (aka. the Portugese colony). It's seriously old (1600s) and is in pretty darn good shape. A museum like thing has even been built in the centre of the fort.

The reason we went to Macau though (as alluded to), was for a performance. Franco Dragone used to direct nearly all large Cirque du Soleil shows but left some time before 2000. One of his latest shows was playing at the City of Dreams in Macau, billed as a $2 billion HKD production. It is the largest permanent water based show and was quite spectacular to see. It wasn't as large a production as some Cirque shows I've seen before, but the sheer volume of water that the stage holds and the impressive stage changes that occur underwater and reveal themselves, was magnificent. I truly enjoyed the show and was very glad that we were just a few rows up enough that we didn't get wet.

I have photos, but will not be posting them because I don't want to be getting in any trouble. The internet is a scary place, y'know...

Ginger shrimp

At the food show we went to a while back, I picked up a little bookmark recipe from Chatelaine for some ginger shrimp. It looked delicious and I certainly need more ways of using avocado.

I gave it a shot to great results!

As good as it looks!

Avocado, feta cheese and shrimp cooked up in a delicious asian sauce. I served it over a bed of rice and nearly died it was so delicious!

United Way baked goodness

Every year, my university has a campus wide Fall semester campaign to raise money for United Way. It's sort of a competition between departments/colleges on campus where we each have campaigning goals to reach. I always partake in the events that involve food and prizes. This one had both.

Jeremy and Greta came over to make some delicious treats to have at our International Coffee Break.

Greta wasn't going to make anything but Jeremy was stoked about these oreo chocolate truffle things. Whatevs, I can help him make stuff but am not in charge of what he wanted to make. I, however, wanted to make a Linzer torte.

blackberry Linzer torte bars

There were some mistakes made but I'd say they turned out great! My tortes were a little denser than I think they're supposed to be, but I used all whole wheat flour to make it a little bit healthier. The oreo truffles turned into white chocolate oreo truffles, but they worked fantastic.

We also raised over $300 for United Way with our coffee break! Go us!

FoodNetwork Delicious! Food Show

I know I've been totally behind on my posts, but I will be getting them all up soon! As of right now, I have completed my thesis for a total of 90 minutes. I haven't sent it out because I am waiting to get to school tomorrow so I can print the massive bugger (230 pages!!). So in the meantime, I am catching up on everything else in my life (aka. cleaning my room and calling my mom. yikes!)

Next on the docket, updating my blog. So here goes!

After the Kate Voegele concert that I wrote about a while back but that really happened like 3 weeks ago... we got a good night's rest before heading back down to the same general area (DT Toronto) for the Food Show.

I was super excited for both the concert and the food show, so now onto part 2 of my wonderful weekend.

I think we got to the Food Show just after 11, so plenty of time to walk around before heading to see the sustainability speaker from Stratford's Simple Fish Company. The talk was at 1230 and not 12 like I expected, so we had an extra 30 minutes to walk around, where I pretty much saw everything and ate it all with my eyes.

The talk was pretty good, he talked about other types of fish that are great for sustainability in this area, and did a lot of up talk about his business too (can't say I blame him). He cured some salmon for us to eat and shucked an oyster for everyone in the crowd. Delicious! Adam had his first fresh raw oyster and let's just say he didn't dislike it (that's still a hurray in my books!).

We did a good chunk of wandering around and eating and I definitely have my favs.

• St. Phillips - their cakes make me want to die and go to bakery heaven
• Marcys - their sea salt and pepper calabrese crisps... TO DIE FOR!
• Bobette & Belle - such creative girls and I love their passion for bakery treats!

There are so many stores I could name that were just delicious but I won't to save the internet from my droolings over delicious food.

I was saddened I missed Lynn Crawford. I'll just have to attend another food outing and try to catch her again. I'm obviously way too poor to eat at any of her restaurants, so I think running into her and getting autographs/photos would be my best bet.

But for now, here's some food porn for you all.

Entirely chocolate!

Oh, St. Phillips Bakery, I envy you.

Delicious!

After the Food Show, we were meeting my cousins for dinner at Epicure (Queen St W). We walked most of the way there, and with some extra time, I got to head into the Winners that is directly across the street. Hurray! I love Winners!

Also, I love delicious food. Although I got a seriously spicy dish for dinner, it was still very yummy (or at least, from what I could tell after my tastebuds had been singed off). We had interesting conversations, in fact multiple ones at the same time (as we always do), and I'm sure Adam's head was reeling after that. My cousins and I are quite good at having multiple conversations simultaneously. I can't say that it's the Bach genes though, because my maternal side cousins and I do the same thing. Hrm, perhaps it's the asianness in us...

Dinner at Epicure was great, I certainly do like that little restaurant, but it was time for us to head home because we had to get back to Ildiko's little engagement party shindig. Albeit an informal one (and we will be arranging a formal one), it was nice to have a little get-together where (for once!) Greta was there! Hurray for only going home every other weekend.

Certainly it was a busy busy weekend =)

Kate Voegele!

So I was super excited for this concert since I knew she was coming (months ago!) and the date had finally arrived!

I had planned it out with my aunt that we would drive to the concert Friday night, but stop in after it was over for a good night's rest. The next day, I had tickets to the FoodNetwork's Delicious! Food Show and was super hyped about that too! What a great weekend in Toronto!

The concert was listed to start at 730 but it began at 7. There were 2 opening bands, Grady *something* and Michou. I had heard Michou before and really liked them live, so I bought their CD after the show and got it signed too! The guys from the band are laid back and great and it definitely showed on stage.

After the openers, Kate Voegele was up! I knew she was thin, but couldn't believe how much more than I thought. Anyways, she was great and it was an awesome show.

Here are some photos of the night.

More on my trip to the FoodNetwork Show in a later post!