Izakaya is never enough!!

 

Ever since Kinton Ramen’s success last year, Japanese restaurants have been opening massively. Here is another Izakaya, Japanese beer house, that is worthy to be introduced.

Izakaya Nejibee is located very close to Yonge and Wellesley. In fact, if you live at 1001 Bay, you will see its shining lights through its windows. It is about 3 minutes walk from the Wellesley subway station. The close distance provides a great opportunity for those who live far from downtown and want to try out Izakaya.

Nejibee, according to the general manager, means “going my way.” Although I still need to verify on that, Izakaya Nejibee is a franchise restaurant originated from Japan.

Their beautiful host greets at the door in Japanese traditional clothing. Their wooden tables and chairs, under the soft yellow lighting, provide warm and welcome feelings. This restaurant has opened for a month only. Everything is fresh and new.

 

For it is my first time here, the waitress recommended their house special – okonomi yaki to me. It is Japanese pancake mixed with some pork and vegetables. Unlike to the okonomi yaki I had elsewhere in Toronto, this one puts noodle above the pancake and egg at the very top. The manager suggests to mix everything together and eat. Along with their special sauce, the dish is delicious!

 

Surprisingly, they have skewers in the store as well. I tried their pork belly. It is greasy. Eating the pork and onion together is a perfect match with beer!

Speaking of beer, they only have two choices at this time; Asahi and Sapporo. I personally hope they will have Kirin beer in the future. Nonetheless, it is a great place to chill out with friends.
Their coquette is another must try in the store. It is deep fried mashed potato mixed with pork and vegetables. Try it with their sauce, the taste of crunchy, sweet and sour mix together pleasantly.

Perhaps because of its hidden location, not many people are in the restaurant. However, this provides a great privacy for secret meetings. Check it out yourselves, you may find yourself loving this authentic restaurant, Izakaya Nejibee.

 

 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/nejibee?fref=ts

Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday 11:30 am – 2:00 pm; 5:00 pm – 12:00 am

Phone:  647-748-2882

Let’s turn the time back a bit. How’s our old friend doing?

When was the last time you saw a 3.5” floppy disk? If this image triggers your memories, that means you are over twenty for sure! Welcome to the reality of responsibilities. Sadly, Uncle Ben is a fiction character and no we don’t have great power.

Why discussing about 3.5” floppy disk all the sudden?

I saw this.

 

That is right! It’s a wall full of 3.5” floppy disks! Look carefully and you can see how much effort the companies put into designing the outfit of the disks!

I was amazed and astonished when I saw the wall. It was fairly impressive. So, I asked the owner if I could have an interview. The owner kindly rejected. Nonetheless, I just thought of it as an interesting wall to flash some memories back.

For those who do not know much about the floppy disks, they are disk storage media used to as portable storage. Floppy disks were commonly used from 1970s until 2003. As USB flash drives were invented in 1999, the purposes of floppy disks were replaced by USB. Until now, it is very rare to see anyone using floppy disks. Not even mentioning none of the modern computer models include floppy disk drives anymore.

With my 2GB USB key, I have forgotten how important the floppy disks were about ten years ago. I could save my Pokemon games on a floppy disk and carry it around everywhere. Man, that 1.44MB was an enormous size for us. I could never really use up all the memories on the disks. Pictures had lower resolutions and thus smaller sizes. It was fairly easy to store almost a hundred pictures on 1.44 MB. That was until high definition pictures came out. Every disk could only carry two pictures max. Guess that’s one of the main reasons for the floppy disks replaced by the flash drive.

Even the computer games were carried with multiple floppy disks. It depended on how big the game was, but normally, it came in with at least 4 floppy disks for a complete game. We had to switch disks after achieving certain stages. So, theoretically, it was possible for four friends playing the same game with different stages of the game. Guess that will not happen as often now, perhaps never again!

Another interesting fact, if you pay close attention to some software, such as Microsoft Word, their “save” icon is actually a floppy disk. Although the disks may not be physically presence, they are still with us in the electronic world!

Now, what are your interesting stories about floppy disks?

Bubble Tea Revolution in Toronto

After trying out bubble tea for so many times, are you seeking for a brand new revolutionary taste of bubble tea?
Here is a great news for those who are looking for such change in Toronto.
Latte Mei (奶蓋咩) is the name.
This store is recently opened on Sept 25, 2012. As I saw friends posting pictures on Facebook, I thought of coming here to check it out myself.
Latte Mei, like Chatime, is a worldwide Taiwanese bubble tea franchise. Although the franchise has just recently started, I am still more than happy to see Taiwanese culture to be shared worldwide.
To name the most distinctive drinks, they will be the Savory Cream series. Normally, milk bubble tea is made by mixing cream powder with the black/green tea. It has been sweet for so many years.
Latte Mei certainly twisted that stereotype around.
The Savory Cream Green Tea I had is salty!
How can a bubble tea be salty? I wondered.
The savory cream is made by blending salty and sweet cheese together. The cream is separated and floating on top of the tea.
The drinking process is kind of interesting. You need to drink the cream and the tea at the same time, but be careful. Of mixing them together before you drink. You will have this delicious taste of salty and sweet merging together in your mouth. The green tea itself is quite decent. It’s an interesting mix and match for those who want to try something new.
The entire store is quite small.
There are 5 tables with the maximum capacity of 12 customers in the store. The owner may be aiming for those who want to order take outs. The store is located about 4 stores east of St. Patrick Station. Quite convenient for those who take the public transit.
If you happened to be around St. Patrick Station, feel free to drop by and give the Savory Cream series a try!!!

P.S. I am curious about how will the local bubble stores react to the international franchises coming from Taiwan. Just a tip of thought there…

LatteMei’s official site:

http://www.lattemei.com.tw/

 

 

Chatime is my home

Chatime is my home.

This statement is a semi-joke. I actually spent at least 6 hours EVERYDAY (excluding occasional few days) to study at Chatime last year. Out of all bubble tea stores, its decent products attracted me at my first try. I might be one of the very few customers being able to name all the current employees. For that, I am very proud.

I can never forget the first night I stepped into Chatime. It was during its opening week in August, 2011. I received at least five calls talking about Chatime in week. Everyone’s responses were “must try”! So, during that weekend, I was going to Montreal for a short trip. While waiting for my bus, I thought of passing by the store and see how good it is. I had not tried a bubble tea store that would please me. Hence, with negative bias, I tried Chatime.

When I tasted the drink, I was astonished.

“Am I in Taiwan?” I thought.

I never expected I could find such familiar flavor on the other side of the world. After I finished my two drinks (Chatime was having buy one get one free promotion), I immediately bought two more. Guess I loved Chatime at first try.

I do not want to emphasize on how great the products are. Try them and you will know.

While being a super loyal customer, I met numerous interesting people as well as unspeakable gossips. Since I went to Chatime to study every day, I tasted all the drinks on the menu. One day, I did not know what I should get. So, I ordered “a special drink that’s not on the menu.” The cashier was shocked and started laughing. She told one of the baristas about my order. When he heard that, he started making “a special drink that’s not on the menu.”

When the drink was in front of me, we were betting if I could guess what ingredients were added to the drink. Although I was confident with my taste bunds, they did not work so well that time. I spent two hours struggling and guessing what was added to the drink. Seeing the barista’s pranking face, I lost my bet! The special drink was one of my favorites. After that once, Chatime does not make special drinks anymore. That was the only time I ever had that special milk tea. I cherish it in my memory.

Another memorable time was when my manager walked into the store with her daughter. I was shocked. I tempt to keep my difference social circles apart from each other. When my manager stepped in, I was working on my assignment. She is a welcoming person. She had her warm greeting and sat with me. As nice as she kindly asked me to explain my assignment to them, my assignment was not interesting from all points-The history of Robarts library. They had awkward expressions as I continued my topic. As people may have guessed, the conversation did not maintain long…

I have seen Chatime’s growth from very quiet to very crowded. Until now, they have more than double their sales on their drinks. Also, they are looking for expanding franchise partners. (A small leak, the owners have a huge pile for application already. If you already have a great location in mind and business portfolio planned, contact the owner ASAP!) Now, Chatime Toronto has been introduced on Yelp and TripAdvisor. As a longtime customer, I am happy for its achievement as well. That is not Chatime’s limit though. The owners are aiming for a goal greater than its current achievement. After a short chat with the owner, I am looking forward be the witness for that!

 

Chatime on Yelp:

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/chatime-toronto

Chatime on TripAdvisor:

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Restaurant_Review-g155019-d2328100-Reviews-Chatime_Toronto-Toronto_Ontario.html

Forever Long Line

If you have lived in Toronto more than half a year, you probably have heard of Kinton Ramen on Baldwin Street. This Ramen store is a legend ever since it first opened in May 2012. They literally sold out every day before closing hour. Before I went back to Taiwan, my friend took me to there at 7 pm when their closing hour was 10:30 pm that day. By the time we arrived at Kinton Ramen at around 7:15 pm, they were sold out.

That is right! They sold out everything hours before they closed. My friend and I ended up having dinner at the restaurant next to KR.

I wanted to try out their noodle.

What is so special about this ramen that drives everyone crazy?

Even when I was back to Toronto in July, KR still had really long line up. I would have to wait for 20 minutes in the line when they were “not busy.” Compare to some people waited for an hour for a soup of noodle, I am pretty lucky.

When I first tried KR’s ramen, it was indeed one of the best noodle soups I had in Toronto. Their soups are very rich. Their pork is soft and tasty. The meat and the soup make a perfect combination with each other. I really liked the ramen there.

Cheese ramen is the most unique ramen you must try if you go KR. They put a lot of Swiss cheese on top of the ramen when they served the dishes. Make sure you mix the cheese with the noodle and eat them together. It is an interesting taste that you must try.

However, cheese ramen was not the one I tried today. Here is the story for today at Kinton Ramen.

I went to KR with a good friend of mine, let’s call him BT.

“I should try the Spicy Garlic Ramen one day.”

He said.

“Why not today?”

“….”

“Fine, I’ll go!”

He did not quite believe I was going to order the Spicy Garlic Ramen.

For those who do not know me, I am really afraid of spices. When I was young, I could not even take the pepper salt. Even the tiniest drop of hot sauce would burn my tongue.

As you probably guessed, I was in semi-hell when the ramen arrived. It was a sunny afternoon outside of the store, but for me, my sweat was pouring like a hurricane landing. However, with the awesome manner my parents taught me for finishing up the food every meal, I FINISHED the noodle including the soup!

That cup of Sapporo I drank along with the ramen saved my life for sure.

Normally, the waitress would clean up the dishes and wait for us to pay the bill. KR’s waitresses are different. They asked me if they could take a picture of me for finishing up everything in the bowl!

I could never be gladder for my eating habit. Thus, they took a picture of me with an empty bowl and uploaded to Facebook. It was an interesting experience for this achievement.

If you are interested to be on Kinton Ramen’s Facebook page, feel free to step into the store and finish up the ramen.

Worth it?

At least you will be full after you walk out, right?

 

Our Great Ramen

By the way, here is a trick for eating at Kinton Ramen without crazy line up. Go to the store when it just opened. There are not that many people in the line yet. Anytime in between 12:00 to 1:00 has short or no waiting time. The result varies after 1:00. So, keep that in mind when you want to try out some good ramen next time.