Can YOUR kids sit through a 75 minute, three course dinner at age four? I don’t think I would have made it back in the day…hahaha…

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But in the 10 minutes I’ve seen, I can tell you there are some feels, especially when Mei wasn’t able to hang out with her friends. Except in my case, it was my fear of Poh Poh getting mad at me and thinking I was a bad kid (listen to my podcast on fitness addiction to get a bit of an understanding). It was always about that. I think I missed out on a lot of middle and high school fun because of that fear. I probably should have talked to my parents at that time, but I was also too nervous, worried that they’d be on her side. Anyway, more on the movie itself and how I felt about the media’s focus, the BIGGER focus on the lead character’s ethnic background in my podcast. In the mean time, I’m just going to finish the movie and enjoy the fact that it’s set in my city!! That said, I’m left wondering where exactly in the city Mei is supposed to be from. I realize it’s a fictionalized version – if she lives near Chinatown, then her school would be called “Senior Public” rather than Middle – schools called “middle schools” are mostly in North York. Of course, people outside of Toronto might not know what a “Senior Public” school is. I think we were are the only ones who use that term. And what temple is the one the family works at supposed to be based on, if there IS one at all? The only big one I can think of is in Thornhill (I think). To be honest, I’m not familiar with downtown Chinatown at all. We did most of our shopping and dining in Markham and Scarborough. Closer and better parking!

Also, I might want to be a bit picky about accuracy of pop culture. Tamagochis weren’t really a thing anymore in 2002 (I was well out of high school by then. 2002 was the year I graduated from university), were they? I’m about a decade older than Mei and only remember the in high school where they often went off during chapel or class. And the girls (for those who are new to this blog, I went to a girls-only school) got theirs confiscated, leading to their virtual pets’ untimely deaths. Anyway, enough of my ranting. I should probably get back to the movie.

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Is Toronto’s mainstream media (such as 680News, the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, etc…) are too 416 (Toronto proper) focused. And this is especially the case during the pandemic.  Vaccination rates, especially among some ethno-cultural groups, focus only on those in the 416 and not often the 905/suburbs (and 905 area code regions NOT part of the Greater Toronto Area such as Hamilton and the Niagara region).  Even if residents in that particular suburb are dominated by those from that cultural group.  Why is this the case?  Suburbs too boring?   

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Baby Mintz is two weeks old and is slowly learning how to be a baby (technically, he’s 37 weeks gestation, don’t forget – his actual due date is November 18).  He was having a lot of trouble with the bottle for several days and the hospital wouldn’t let him go home until he could be on full time for 48 hours.  It took him until Wednesday to start grasping the idea of taking a bottle for food (rather than a feeding tube) and we were able to go home on Friday.  Thank goodness!  I just can’t deal with hospitals anymore.  At least we didn’t stopped having to commute to St. Catharines after the third day AND the Toronto hospital was subway accessible (though not our first choice).  We are, however, very glad to have him home and look forward to spending much more time with him.  Meanwhile, there’s MUCH MORE TO DO (e.g. making doctor’s appointments, looking for parent/baby programs – especially ones WELCOMING to parents who were never pregnant).  I’ve also contacted two preschools (yes, I’m thinking that far in advance).

We’re glad we can spend much, much more time with him and caring for him in an environment which we find much more comfortable.  My parents have been in daily to visit their grandson (and still getting used to being known as Poh Poh (my mom) and Gung Gung (my dad)).  Adam’s parents will be coming in a few weeks.  We’re going to be at this for the rest of our lives!

My husband and I would like to thank the staff at both St. Catharines General and Toronto East Hospital for their kindness and effort in caring for Baby Mintz and for showing us what to do!  We were completely clueless (okay, maybe not CLUELESS – I’ve cared for children before – just not newborns) at the beginning and we’re slowly getting the hang of it now.

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WRONG!  First, our drinks came.  My husband ordered orange juice and I asked for a cappuccino (so he didn’t remember who ordered what?  I thought servers were supposed to have a good memory.  That’s why some don’t even write things down).  Sure, the drinks were correct, but he was about to hand ME the juice when we corrected him.  Okay, that doesn’t REALLY count as a mistake.  Then, the food arrived.  I asked for a meatless version of the breakfast, with salad as the side.  Guess what they gave me?  Both the salad AND potatoes.  I’m not a fan of potatoes – especially hash browns/breakfast potatoes (roasted is okay in small amounts.  And I’ll have latkes at Chanukah just for the spirit of it.  Otherwise, please give me sweet potatoes.  YES, that’s how I take my poutine).  *EYEROLL*  I mean, the guy DID write it down.  Or did he?  He then said the kitchen put both.  Well, when you actually TELL the server that you wanted salad and NO potatoes, then it’s something the kitchen SHOULD know.  I mean, it was on the slip, right?  They shouldn’t automatically ASSUME, just because you didn’t want meat.

Maybe I’m just being a little too spoiled.  I mean, the food was more than okay (even if they skimped a bit on toast.  I got one slice, split into half triangles).  But really, you really don’t need to ask twice, do you?  It would have been better if he repeated what he wrote down to make sure the order was correct.  Of course, I was in a bad mood at the time – I was already starving, thanks to our original plan not working out (this was our second restaurant.  The first place no longer serves weekend brunch – something I didn’t find out until I arrived.  The place is dreadful with social media, so I wouldn’t have known unless I actually went to their website and scrolled down to see that their brunch menu was no longer live).  At least the server wasn’t rude (although he didn’t seem too happy when I asked for jam.  He was like “I’ll see if we have any”)?

NOTE:  I wrote a review of the place on Yelp, so (hopefully), the restaurant knows about this experience.

Image by: Jennik/Shutterstock

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Punch made with rum from Barbados

Seal tartare

While I didn’t get a chance to speak with Muskoka Wineries this year, I did try fruit wines from Newfoundland, including cloudberry (it’s white, so you serve it like white wine – chilled.  It was a bit on the sweet side for me, however) and strawberry, which I liked.  The wines are supposedly available at the LCBO, but I did not see them online.  Other regions represented this year included Spain, California, South Africa, and of course, Ontario.  Beer and spirits were also available and I tried a punch made with rum from Barbados.

Boring samosa from Magic Oven

Tacos!

The food was kind of boring.  As mentioned, Magic Oven was back, and once again took up a large area, serving food from their catering menu.  I FINALLY tried their samosas.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find it to be all that good – it was a little too…supermarket freezer and mostly pastry rather.  A good samosa should be about the filling!  I realize that they want to promote their catering, but at least serve SOMETHING from their regular pizza menu – it’s what they do best!  Maybe a Margherita pizza with a spelt crust or something like that.  Fontaine Santé, a supermarket brand of hummus and other Mediterranean spreads was also there.  Now THEY had something a bit more interesting – hummus tacos (basically hummus and beans (for example) in a tortilla).  They also featured their new vegan frozen desserts.  A new Indigenous Canadian restaurant was there, serving seal tartare on bannock (which I tried for the first time.  I’m really unsure how to describe it as there was a lot of sauce, making it hard to distinguish the taste.  One other interesting item I tried was a dessert arancini – a rice ball stuffed with ricotta and an organic chocolate hazelnut spread!

Dessert arancini

I had a good time this year but spent $80 on sample tickets.  Since samples are getting more expensive, I think they need to start at $30 or even $40 rather than $20 per package!

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My Yelp review

The store was fairly empty, and there were signs indicating things were 50% off all over.  Yes, it’s sales season, but the store ALWAYS seems to have huge discounts (we are talking around 40%).  It isn’t an outlet (or at least there’s no indication that it is) and yes, the store is ALWAYS mostly empty.  Perhaps the woman’s rudeness is the reason why.  She’s a turn-off to customers.  In fact, the woman’s attitude reminds me of that scene in Pretty Woman where Vivian (Julia Roberts) was told that there wasn’t anything for her in the store.  She wasn’t THAT rude to me, but her attitude definitely made me feel like I was five years old and in trouble.  For what?  Browsing?  I stared at her right in the eye and told her she was being extremely rude to me and walked out.

The Google review

Since the incident earlier, I have taken to social media, writing not only an account on my personal Facebook page, but also Instagrammed a screenshot of my post, tagging the store and the mall.  The image was Tweeted out and I posted an account on the company’s Facebook page as well.  Finally, I gave the place negative reviews both on Yelp and Google.  I don’t know if the woman will receive any warning or discipline, but let this be a note to anyone who considers shopping there.

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