Ajisen Ramen

Ajisen Ramen is a franchise based in Japan. They are so successful that they are present in more than 10 countries. Unfortunately, none of the yummy restaurants has come to Montreal yet... In my opinion, it is the best ramen franchise restaurant. Every time I go to Toronto, Ajisen Ramen is a must on my restaurant list.

These are the appetizers. I forgot the name but it is basically fish cake rolled in seaweed and stuffed with cheese. The whole is enveloped by a batter and deep fried. You can dip the mayonnaise.
If I remember correctly, this is korokke. This is also deep fried and served with mayonnaise. It is mashed potatoes and other vegetables. Simple but delicious.
This is volcano ramen. It looks normal but as you eat, it gets spicier and spicier. In the bowl, you find corn, seaweed, the famous Japanese pork, half of an egg. It is my boyfriend's favourite.
Most of the other ramen come plain like this, and the steak or pork chop come separately.

There is not much with only corn and green onions, yet the broth and the ramen that resembles enormously to spaghetti are succulent! The noodles are never too cooked or too mushy. Just like pasta, noodles should be not too cooked in the centre to have a slightly chewiness. Ajisen Ramen has the best ramen!
Yummmmmmy!
My favourite is steak ramen. The steak is served on a hot plate. You hear the tzzzzzzz as the waitress brings it. As you can see in the picture, the meat is very raw, but the plate is so hot that by the time you eat it, you will have the perfect medium cooking =) It smells amazing!
This is deep fried pork chop. I find this one not too special..but my brother usually likes deep fried food hehehhe

http://www.ajisen.ca/

Winter food @Chez Hwang

Yesterday, I went out to have a supper with my boyfriend at Chez Hwang. Last time we went there, we saw some people have hot pot and it looked delicious! So this time, instead of ordering the Korean BBQ, we opted for the hot pot.

This is the appetizer we had. It is Korean sausage with vegetables.

I believe they used some chili paste, as it is a very common ingredient employed in Korean cuisine, and I could taste a slight spiciness. The sausage, surprisingly, had a not very firm texture. There was jap chae, the potato noodle, and some vegetables inside. I couldn't tell what meat they put, but overall, you taste and see mainly the transparent noodles. I am not sure if I really liked it, but it was still a good new try.

Both my boyfriend and I found the vegetables succulent. The green vegetables you see were my favourite! Very tasty and crunchy!

Very colourful dish, isn't it?
The hot pot we chose was Bulgogi (very tasty marinated beef) and Octopus hot pot. It is a pot for 2, priced 29.99$. It came like this, with all the food put in already.
As I mentioned in my previous posts, Chez Hwang really is no.1 in Korean BBQ in Montreal. Their bulgogi is the b-e-s-t! Even when the beef is cooked in a soup, it is delicious! The octopus, on the other hand, was a little chewy, but it was acceptable.
You find all this in the hot pot: beef, octopus, cabbage, green onions, cucumber, the green vegetable I like, firm tofu, and my favourite udon =)

A drawback is that since all the food are put in the pot at once, some veggies will be overcooked and I don't like to eat mushy veggies..Overall, it was still a great experience having hot pot at Chez Hwang. Will I order it a second time? The bulgogi in the soup really reminded me of their wonderful BBQ.....so I think I will still go for their Korean BBQ next time I go =)

Chez Hwang

5545 Upper Lachine,

Montreal, Quebec,

H4A 2A5

514-484-5263

My Beauty Diary

Hi everyone!

I hope all of you are having a great time enjoying the holidays. As for me, I have been relaxing a lot! My daily activities include shopping, eating, playing, and having fun doing everything to forget about school! heheheh What a lovely holidays =)

Today, I went to Ottawa for one day with my family and my boyfriend. Although the trip was very short, I was very satisfied with the travelling schedule. My ultimate goal was to buy a lot of My Beauty Diary masks from the very big supermarket T&T. =)

Here is what I have gotten for my face d=
Since my skin is usually not bad, I have been asked by a few people what is the best moisturizer for the face, especially during winter time. I do not really know which cream moisturizes the best, but what I love to do during the dry season is to wear a facial mask very often. One of the best masks I have tried and the I find worth recommending is the taiwanese brand My Beauty Diary.

Each box is very nicely packed with 10 individual masks. It is not a cream that u apply on the face, but a sheet mask. My Beauty Diary offers more than 20 different masks, each of them focuses on a particular characteristic. These masks are very convenient. All you have to do is to put the sheet on your face and leave it for 20-30 minutes. After you pull off the mask, gently massage your face until the liquid is absorbed. There is no need to wash your face after. You will notice that, unlike many other masks, the Beauty Diary masks are really not too oily and sticky. You will feel that your face is just amazingly smooth. The next morning when you wake up, your face won't be dry at all even though the heat keeps dehydrating you d= The price is also very affordable. Each box of 10 masks is priced 18.99$ +tax (very often, you can get it for 15$ +tax).

This time, I bought Japanese Cherry Blossom, Sake, Bulgarian White Rose, Apple, Pearl Powder and Earl Grey Tea & Macaron. Many of them are new and I can't wait to try all of them! As you can see, My Beauty Diary masks are very unique. I rarely see sake or cherry blossom masks. If you don't like to try new things, they also have the "classic" ones such as Aloe and Lavender.The one that I have been using this past month is Pearl Powder and I find it really does a good job making my skin perfect. Many of my friends compliment my skin, so trust me, these masks really work!

For more information:
http://www.beautydiary.com.tw/en/allmask.htm

A little tip: there is usually some extra mask extract in the bag that contains the sheet mask, what I recommend is to use the liquid like a hand cream and apply on the hands. It's like a hand mask =)

Happy Holidays!

Miss K

For your information, the big bottle on the left is a Shiseido hair conditioner that I love and the blue Naive one is a facial cleanser that is new to me. I will review it if I like it. ; )

My latest konadicure

Hi readers,

This is my latest konadicure =) I will probably do another one tonight. Now, I'm just trying to get more inspiration for a Christmas design!

This konadicure is inspired by x'mas gifts d= It is time to go shopping!! So I made my nails look like gifts. Do the bow and yellow stars remind you of wrapping paper?

OPI Sparrow me the Drama
Plate m3
Konad special silver top coat

Fuyu, Combo for 4 @Hyang Jin

Hi all!

This is a Hyang Jin post again! It is really a cozy place. Since this semester has officially ended for my friends and me, we couldn't wait to go out and finally enjoy our well-deserved happy time and a good feast! The food I present today is nothing very new, but I am just excited to blog about it because I had a lot of fun just talking and eating with my beloved friends =)

We decided to go to Hyang Jin because my friends found my pictures in the blog very attractive d= Since we were 4, we opted for Fuyu (winter), a combo for 4. The combo is very similar to Aki, the combo for 2, but this one is of course, in bigger portion.

We started with some very delicious side dish. It was soooo good we asked the waitress to refill them 3 times!
A gigantic and colourful sashimi platter. My favorite! =)
8 pieces of nigiry, 8 pieces of small salmon maki, and 6 pieces of bigger maki. I really liked the big maki, especially with a piece of salmon sashimi on top! yummmmmmy... and how can you resist to the nigiri? Presentation is so wonderful =)
A very big plate of tempura.
Up to now, everything is the same as the Aki combo for 2. Now, a little big of difference d=

In addition to the sashimi, sushi, tempura, you get to choose a soup. There were 3 choices: spicy fish soup, spicy tofu soup or a soup udon. All of us 4 chose the soup udon. It was very simple, udon noodles were served in a dashi stock, with some fish cakes, some tempura flakes and green onion. It is not very fancy but enough to say that it was delicious. I love soup noodles, especially udon. More precisely, this type of udon. The "square" one, with a gelatinous texture, is what I call the "real udon"! heheheh
We also had beef teriyaki served on a hot plate, but I forgot to take a picture.. For this Fuyu combo, you have the choice to change it for an eel teriyaki for 16$.

In the end, we also had green tea ice cream.

Hyang Jin

5332 Chemin Queen Mary,

Montreal, Qc,

(514) 482-0645

Let's buy!!!!! Espace Nomad

Hi readers!

It is time to get a treat!

Amazing Juara facial + foot/back exfoliation for 50$

https://share.livingsocial.com/deals/68559?ref=conf-jp&rpi=40957164

Espace Nomad is a spa that I highly recommend to all of you! Enjoy =)

Miss K

Very cute food @Moosoo Sushi

Today's post will be "a lot a lot of pictures and not so many words" =) Moosoo Sushi is a tiny little japanese fusion restaurant. The restaurant has a great variety of creative maki rolls. I went there with my boyfriend someday this summer. There was a poster on the window about their happy hour special: every plate on the happy hour menu for 3$ and for every 7 plates you order, you get 1 for free. Notice that the plates are of small small portions, but overall they are very cute. The concept is similar to an izakaya but the size and environment remind me more of a Sushi Shop.

You can also buy some little snacks, bubble tea powder, tea, and little decorations as well in the restaurant.
It was at Moosoo Sushi that I had Ramune, a japanese carbonated drink, for the first time! My boyfriend chose honeydew for me. I would say that it was more fun learning to open it than to drink it hahahah
Push the ball!
See the ball?

We also had tea. Cute little teapots and tea cups.
Here start all the little plates we had! I can't remember all the names and what we exactly ordered.. so enjoy the pictures =)

This salmon ball sushi must be the cutest sushi I've had!
Some maki.
I find Moosoo Sushi put a lot of sauce in all their maki.

Dumplings were deep fried which I am not a big fan
but the sauce that comes with the dumplings looks delicious d=
Mango goberge salad. It was not as tasty and refreshing as I thought.
Perhaps sushi pizza. A lot of sauce again.
Very bad takoyaki.
Some creative roll. Reading the ingredients made me believe it would be good, but I think the combination was not very..successful! From what I remember, the special ingredients (in sushi) include sriracha spicy sauce and cheese.
Spicy rice cake. This was simple, yet delicious. The owner told me that all the sauces they use are homemade. I really loved the sauce, but overall it was still a little toooo spicy.
Unagi (eel) rice. Very small bowl. So cute.
I was uploading the pictures from my camera to my computer this morning and I found out that I put Moosoo Sushi in my "never again" folder. I looked at the pictures. Although the food was not as good as I think they should be, the overall experience was still very fun. It is true that some plates were better to look at than to actually eat heheheh The presentation of the plates was very very cute! If you want to go to try it out, I highly recommend their Happy Hour Special. The menu offers a relatively big variety of dish and since the food comes in small cute portions, you get to try more different dishes. So finally, I decided that Moosoo Sushi still deserved to be posted here d=

http://www.moosoosushi.com/

Juara facial scrub

At Spa Espace Nomad, I discovered the most amazing facial scrub! As I mentioned in my previous spa post, my skin was as soft as a baby after my half facial at Espace Nomad. The one they used (the one my friend and I could not resist buying) is this wonderful Juara rice facial scrub.
This facial scrub has a pleasant spa scent, and you can smell it as soon as you open the box. =) Juara uses traditional Indonesian herbal recipes to formulate their skin care products. The use of only botanicals like rice, turmeric, and teas makes them an 100% vegetarian brand. I've heard that rice had some secret magic that makes your skin better, but I never imagined it would be thaaaat good! heheheh

About this amount is sufficient for the face and neck area.
Although it is a scrub, this one is very gentle. As you massage it on your skin with water, it becomes like foam, but you still see and feel the scrub, small like sugar. It looks like many other cleanser scrub, but Juara's facial scrub really works. I can feel my face getting exfoliated with such meticulous care! Even my "rough" blackheads regions are soo smooth after using this marvellous exfoliator. It cleanses and softens your skin to make it incredibly smoother. It is truly truly amazing!

I brought it home, and even my mom fell in love with it after her first use. If you are looking for a gentle facial exfoliator that works, I believe this is one of the best products in the market.

Juara facial scrub is priced 37$ but since you will be using a small amount every time (and you should not exfoliate your face every single day), the product will last for a good few months. I think it is worth the price because I really feel the difference. This is no doubt the #1 facial product I recommend. =)

I tried to take a clear picture of the scrub, but did not succeed... I will try to take a better one next time =)

Favorites@ Hyang Jin

Hi everyone!

I am right now studying for my finals, and I am s-t-r-e-s-s-i-n-g OUT! To try to calm down myself, I want to write a short post, about my favourite food at Hyang Jin, a restaurant I presented to all of you a few days ago.

This is my favourite dish, called Hwe Dup Bap. It is a common Korean dish, and the concept is very similar to Kazu's Salmon & Tuna Bowl. The biggest difference to me is that Salmon & Tuna Bowl tastes a lot milder. If I really have to pick between the 2, I think I will go for the Hwe Dup Bap. The presentation of the dish makes u salivate does it?
The sauce used for Hwe Dup Bap is a spicy and a little sweet red chili paste. It looks very much like the sauce for Bibimbap, but I believe there is a difference as Hyang Jin always has one bottle for Bibimbap and another one for Hwe Dup Bap.

The rice in the bottom is garnished with a lot of salad lettuce, and then you find a mountain of sashimi cut into cubes. Hyang Jin uses salmon, tuna, red snapper, tamago ( I love the sweet taste of tamago), and caviar. With the thinly cut cabbage and seaweed, this Hwe Dup Bap is wonderfully colourful!

I also love the lettuce and cucumber's "crunchiness", the tamago's sweetness, the sauce's spiciness. And the rice makes you really full. The price is reasonable. For 15$, you get this beautiful bowl. Compared to a plate of sashimi that is double this price if you want to be full, I believe Hwe Dup Bap is an excellent alternative for sashimi lovers like me!

Final step is simply mix everything and enjoy! =)
Another of my must-have at Hyang Jin is their uni sushi. Since it is a small restaurant, I would think that not many people will order expensive sushi like sea urchin, so most probably their sea urchin might not be as delicious as Raku's or other big restaurants. This was my guess, and I am glad I still took a chance to try it, because this was SUCCULENT! yummmmmy

This is it for tonight. I will go back to study mode....but after reminding myself of these yummies, I am happier d= and looking forward to go have more of these yummies with my friends....after the finals!

Good luck for your exams everyone!

Cake Beauty

Dear readers,

Winter is definitely here. We must take i-n-t-e-n-s-e care of our beautiful hands. This is probably the philosophy I remember the most from Ji's "Rescue Your Nails" book d=

So a few days ago, I was shopping at Sephora, was not looking specifically for anything, and wow! I discovered my new love: Cake Beauty.

Cake Beauty may sound new to some of you, but the company is actually quite big. Their distributors are everywhere, from Canada to US, Europe to Asia, and even in Australia.

What I ended up getting from the store was a set of 3 hand creams, which are awfully expensive if you buy them separately! Each of them is 100ml and it costs 18$ each (tax excluded). This set is 36$ +tax. But the fragrance..oh! The cream smells heavenly mild and sweet. As the name suggests, the products are very "cake-related". You see sugar, vanilla, raspberry in most of them. I usually dislike my hands to smell like food, but Cake Beauty's hand cream is very mild and even I fell in love with it.

Here is the box with the 3 cute bottles of cream. Cute isn't it? Very clearly, the company targets mainly the young girls population who look for cute packaging. This is a special set for the Christmas holidays. I checked on their website and it is sadly out of stock already! I am hoping to go back to Sephora some time soon to get another box d=

Cake Beauty does not only offer lovely packaging, but the cream is also of high quality. I love the softness and moisture the cream feeds to my hands. The one I am currently using is the Un-sweet cream (the first one from the right in the picture). This Un-sweet line promotes no scent and no colour. Although it says un-scented, a very mild scent is still there. I just can't stop using it! The velveteen hand cream is "vitamin packed and blended with milk, marshmallow extract, mango and shea butters". Amazing! What I love the most is that after putting the cream, my hands feel pleasantly nourished, moisturized, ultra soft and NON-greasy! Totally love it!!

I cannot wait to use the other 2 bottles, with other fragrance! I just hope I get another box very soon......... d= The #1 cream I recommend!

http://cakebeauty.com/home.asp

Hyang Jin

Today's post is about a small restaurant called Hyang Jin. It serves mainly japanese food but you can also find a few korean dishes in the menu. Because it is a small family-owned business, service can be slow sometimes, but the waitresses are very friendly and polite. It is a nice cozy place.

The restaurant has gone through some changes, when the Korean owner got married. The girl is very nice and friendly. Because I used to go there so often, we kinda became friends. I was so happy for them when I learned the happy news =) She included many new dishes and combos in the menu and added many little decorations in the restaurant to make Hyang Jin even better than before.

This is how the place looks inside. The white papers on the wall are written some appetizers. It is like a mini menu on the wall.

What I present today is one of the combos for 2. This one is called Aki; it means autumn in japanese. Aki is a very good deal. Only 50$, tax included and you get all the "common" japanese food people would order when they crave for a yummy japanese meal.

This is the sashimi platter. Hyang Jin is a small restaurant. I am guessing this is why they do not offer a too big variety of seafood. You do not find the freshest fish, but the quality is decent for the price you pay. As you see, you get a lot of salmon, which I like d=

We also got more sashimi than the regular size since I cancelled one of the dish in the combo which was grilled saba or grilled salmon bones.

Nice presentation?
Side dishes are offered. They are seaweed, kimchi and beans sprouts. Hyang Jin's kimchi is homemade and they serve the best kimchi I have tasted. I do not really like kimchi that tastes sour and Hyang Jin's kimchi has not a tiny sour taste. I somehow taste the japanese rice wine sake, but I don't know if I'm wrong. You can also buy it from the restaurant =)

Sushi includes some maki and some sushi. I noticed that Hyang Jin's nigiri has "longer" fish on top of the rice, making more unique and more Japanese authentic.


This one is beef teriyaki. It is served on a hot plate, making it smell sooo delicious!
The tempura platter has shrimps and a great variety of veggies.
Tempura sauce with green onions.
Yummy isn't it? Believe me, at the end of the night, both you and your dinner partner will be very full! If this is too much, they also have other smaller combos cheaper, but also very tasty. Next time I will blog about Hyang Jin's lunch menu which I highly recommend also. I just need to go again and take better pictures...hopefully soon, perhaps with my U1 friends. They are having such a hard time trying to get used to McGill hahahah I believe after all the suffering, we deserve a yummy treat =)

Hyang Jin

5332, chemin Queen-Mary (corner Decarie)

Montreal, Qc

H3X 1T7

(514) 482-0645