Japon Sushi Bar

Hi readers!

Anyone needs ideas for a romantic dinner for the coming-soon Valentine's Day? Tonight, I want to share with you the wonderful meal my boyfriend and I had at a Japanese restaurant two years ago. It was our first Valentine's Day, and I remember we had a quiz the next day...To make things easier, we simply chose a restaurant that was not too far from where we live. And surprise! What a delicious dinner!

The name of the restaurant is Japon. It is not a place that I particularly love, but their Valentine's menu was sooo good. This was the menu placed on the table and inside was a candle. Of course, candles are a must to make a romantic dinner heheheh It was an omakase 5 courses dinner, priced 48$ per person. I found every course very special, they were all dishes that you cannot find in the menu in regular time.
Unfortunately, I took only 2 pictures...but overall, I enjoyed everything I ate. This one was the main course, a mixed of traditional and creative sushi platter. Yummmmy!! My favourite ones were no doubt the grilled beef sushi and the crab sushi. It was 2 years ago, but I still remember the smokiness I smelled and tasted in every bite. Succulent!
I have always found that desserts were never very emphasized in the Asian cuisine, but voila my surprise =) Japon Sushi Bar is more like a fusion restaurant, especially this Valentine's menu had a lot of non-asian elements in it, such as gazpacho, etc. I personally find this "Indecent Proposal" came in a very simple but elegant presentation. It looks like the type of plate you would get in those Iron Chef show. I completely fell in love with it. Every part in the plat was not too sweet, refreshing and delightful. It was an unexpected and unforgettable surprise!

Any of you has tried Japon Sushi Bar before? I am usually not a big fan of the restaurant, it is rather an ok place to me, but this Valentine's menu, I am willing to give it a 4.5 stars! d=

Japon Sushi Bar

1320 Boul. Marcel-Laurin

Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec,

H4R 1J9

Hi my dearest readers!

School has started, and i have a very very early schedule this semester.. Only 2 days, and I feel I am exhausted..but in 2012, I will try my best to blog as regularly and often as i can! =)

Today's post is another one about lunch. This time, it's at my favourite Raku Izakaya. The pictures are really not that nice and probably won't make you drool..However, my other Raku pictures from my previous posts should assure you about the restaurant's quality ; )

Since Brossard is so far, I usually don't go to Raku for lunch. The only time I enjoyed a lunch there was during summer. Recently, I noticed that there has been some changes in their menu.. Take a look! Prices vary from 7.50$ to 15$. You can get a decent lunch for around 12$.

This was the salad that was included. It was a plain green salad. Now, if you want to have a salad with your lunch, you have to pay 1$, so maybe the salad you get will be a little fancier.
Curry Katsu Pork Rice. It is a cutlet of pork, deep fried, served with rice and curry sauce. The Japanese curry is not very spicy. The same is thicker and has a light sweetness. A good Pork Katsu should have the deep fried "batter skin" stick to the pork, and this is an example of a successful one.
This was a yummy sushi platter, with maki and nigiri. You see that Raku is not a restaurant that tries to give you cheap avocado or cucumber maki. Instead, a delicious spicy salmon maki was served on the plate. Otherwise, the big roll was a California roll, and the 4 pieces of nigiri were mainly classic sushi. On that day, we had tuna, shrimp, saba, and slightly "grilled" salmon sushi.
This one is my favourite chirashi. It does not include as much seafood as the dinner chirashi. If I remember correctly, the price for lunch is about 10$ lower. Yet, I could still enjoy my succulent sea urchin.
In the end, a scoop of green tea or red bean ice cream to perfect the lunch.
For more updated information, please check:

http://www.rakusushi.ca/menu-midi.pdf

Lunch specials @Hyang Jin

Hyang Jin's lunch bentos are all $9.95 +tax. Other choices include Hwe Dup Bap, soup udon, etc. These prices range from $6.95 to $12.95 +tax. All lunch specials come with a miso soup or a salad, a side dish of seaweed or kimchi, an ice cream.

This is the miso soup. I love it when it comes super boiling hot, with a lot of green onions and seaweed.
This is the sashimi bento. The bento comes with rice, salad, and a lot of vegetable and shrimp tempura. There are other bentos such as beef teriyaki bento, california roll bento, sushi bento. They are all delicious! If you like tempura, this Hyang Jin bento is definitely the lunch for you. For only about 10$, you get to eat your tempura with choice of another Japanese dish.
I like to have a light lunch. And since I love sashimi so much, I almost always get the sashimi set. It comes like this, beautiful and colourful. This day, the portion was slightly smaller...but I still love it!
Bibimbap is the famous Korean rice on a hot stone bowl. It is part of Hyang Jin's lunch menu, and it is priced for only $9.99 +tax. Inside are beef and many traditional marinated veggies. It is yummy too, and it's the one that my boyfriend usually gets. For hot dish lovers, this might be a good choice.
A scoop of ice cream comes in the end. Usually, you get to choose between green tea ice cream and red bean ice cream, and occasionally, Hyang Jin serves mango ice cream as well.

Has any of you tried Hyang Jin during lunch time? What do you think?

Lunch specials @Ottavio

Hi everyone!

The coming posts will be all about lunch specials at various restaurants. The first one I present to you is Ottavio.

Ottavio is an Italian restaurant specialized in pasta, pizza and mussels & fries. I have tried all of them and they all taste delicious. I personally find that Ottavio makes the best pasta. The spaghetti or penne is never never too cooked, it's something that many restaurants fail to do. You can find Ottavio at 2 locations: Saint-Laurent and Laval. The first Ottavio was open in ville St-Laurent. After about a year, the owner could open another one in Laval because of the great success of the first restaurant.

The place itself is very big and the personnel is always very friendly. Prices are very affordable and all the main dishes usually come in more than enough proportion. Today's post will be about Ottavio's lunch specials.

The basic pasta is 9$, with tea or coffee included. You get to make your own pasta, meaning that you choose the pasta, the sauce and anything you want in it. For meat, you have to add 2$-3$, but you don't have to add meat if you want to go with a simple cheap lunch. You get to choose up to 3 vegetables with the basic 9$. If you want a more complete lunch, you can get a soup for 2$, or a salad for 2$, and even unlimited soft drinks for 2$.

Here are 3 examples of pasta I or my friend created d=


Take a look at their menu. I find the basic 9$ or even 11$ with a soup or salad is a very good deal.

http://www.ottavio.ca/aboutus.htm

Skin Food nail polish

Have you heard of Skin Food nail lacquers? I was first introduced to Skin Food by a friend who uses this brand's BB cream. Later, when my mother went back to Hong Kong this summer, she also bought me a Skin Food BB cream. As far as I know, this is a Korean cosmetic brand...and it stops here! hahahha Until today, I went to my friend's house for a relaxing princess day, and guess what I have discovered? A bottle of Skin Food pink nail polish!

This must be the cutest nail polish in the market!! The bottle is totally like a baby milk bottle. I find it marvellously unique. It is printed "Milk Creamy Nails". I think the company really had in mind to create a lovely milk bottle to attract all us girls. d= Many nail polishes, especially from those big expensive brands, tend to have a square shape, which I find a bit boring now, for the mature look. Skin Food, on the other hand, has not only a more round shape, but also transforms the simple look into an amusing baby bottle with so many little details. If I see one in a boutique, I will definitely buy it!!

Do you see the ruler and the "ml"? How can you resist to the cuteness of the bottle? The nail polish colour of my friend's is a light creme pink with a hint of orange. I opened the bottle, but the nail lacquer looked a little old because it was a little too thick. I have a feeling that painting on the nails will not be a pleasant experience. I would still like to try it next time though..at least to see the cute nail polish bottle heheheh

Fairies

This is a simple nail art. I added some black fairies and some purple flowers on my pink nails. The bubbles that come with the fairy design on the Konad plate are so lovely and add a hint of fairy tale. I really like to "cut" the image when I do my konadicures; I don't stamp the entire image to make each nail unique. I thought that it might not work as well when it comes to fairies..but the result isn't bad, isn't it? d= The colours and design remind me of spring. What do you think?

Until next time,

Miss K

OPI Sparrow Me the Drama

m20, m39

Raku Izakaya

Hello everyone!

One of my 2012's resolutions is to try to blog more often and more regularly =)

Tonight, I want to share with you guys some delights from Raku Izakaya again! Towards the end of the year is the anniversary with my sweet boyfriend. It did not take long before we decided to have our meaningful day at Raku.

For appetizer, we had something light and simple: korokke. It is deep fried mashed potato, served with a slightly spicy mayonnaise. I have had korokke with corn at Raku before. I like the latter better because the corn brings a sweetness to it.
If you have been following my blog for a long time, you know that I had raku lobster once for Valentine's day at Raku Izakaya. For some reason, the owner removed this succulent dish from the menu. Nevertheless, he is very nice and would try his best to satisfy all the customers. We are welcome to call them in advance and pre-order anything we want to eat. He tries to get the freshest ingredient to prepare the delight we want. This is how my boyfriend and I could enjoy the wonderful Raku lobster =)
To prepare the baked Raku lobster, it was not necessary to get the fresh alive lobster. The owner said that even the frozen one would do. So last night's meal included only the lobster tail (if you order lobster sashimi for example, the owner will buy a whole lobster and prepare delights with different parts of the lobster).

The first time, my palate was not as developed..hahhaha I couldn't really tell what exactly was used to make this yummy dish. But this time, my sense of tasting has improved hehehhe In the Raku Lobster, I could taste egg, miso, mayonnaise, a little bit of cheese. All this baked and finally topped with some red caviar that pops in your mouth. I found it was so delicious!
Sushi is definitely a must at a japanese restaurant. These are what we ordered:
Carnivore maki includes beef filet mignon sashimi, ginger, tempura flakes. It is 13.50$ and comes with only 5 pieces but it is amazingly delicious!! If you find this maki too pricey, a great alternative would be Raku's beef sashimi.
666 is a maki from Raku that for the first time, I did not really enjoy. It is a spicy roll, with spicy fish, spicy sauce..mixed with avocado and tempura flakes are a combination that I usually like. However, the cajun powder on the rice was too strong for me, and this was what I disliked.
Gozilla was a nice maki roll, but it is not the best from Raku Izakaya. Inside were grilled eel, caviar, cucumber, tempura flakes. On top of the maki were bonito flakes, seaweed flakes and spicy mayonnaise. I would say that when I put the maki in the mouth, it was as though I was eating a takoyaki.
We can never forget about my favourite uni, sea urchin sushi at Raku. We ordered 4 nigiri and again, my boyfriend was sweet enough to eat only 1 and leave the rest of the sushi for me. Sometimes, I wonder if it is truly because he is this lovely or is it simply because he does not love uni as much as I do.. d=
Lastly, we also pre-ordered the milk pudding that was no longer in the menu for a while.
Again, it was very soft, but this time a little sweeter for my taste. The presentation was so cute! I remember that the first time we had it, the pudding had a layer of green tea milk on top, this time it was just plain...I think green tea milk would have made the dessert perfect!

Raku Izakaya
8080 boulevard Taschereau
Brossard, Quebec
J4X 1C2
450-671-7386

Winter Christmas nails

Happy New Year to you all! May this year bring success and luck to all =)

I know I am a little late, but I would like to share with you my Winter Christmas nails tonight!

These nails are from last year....I loved them so much that I keep comparing all my konadicures to this one. From the colours to the design, I find this is no doubt my best creation! I also find that the pictures taken last year are nicer and clearer.......

China Glaze Sexy Lady

m12, m57, m59

This year, I am not as satisfied........I wanted to have a change, so instead of having my design in white, I used green and yellow. I thought red and green would give a nice Christmas feel. I think this konadicure is also beautiful, but last year's is more lovely d=

OPI Red My Fortune Cookie

m3, m12, m51

And you, which one do you prefer?