Where to Eat - sparkleshinylove

Roxymandy August 12, 2015

Kasa Moto Review

My husband must love it when I decide to blog about a restaurant. Just as the food arrives I say wait, don’t touch anything – I need to take a picture!

By the end of the meal he usually gets the hang of waiting before taking the the first bite, but it’s pretty funny to slap away his hand when the food arrives.

A couple weeks ago we found ourselves at Kasa Moto in Yorkville. It’s part of the Chase Hospitality Group which includes a couple other favourites of mine – Colette Grand Café, The Chase, and Little Fin (which I haven’t made it to yet).

The menu at Kasa Moto is described as contemporary Japanese cuisine, and the restaurant itself is beautiful – and huge! It has large rooftop patio, and there are many different seating areas inside.

We started with the Smoked Salmon ($14) with smoked cream cheese, salmon caviar & yuzu butter. We were given quite an explanation of the bread used in this dish (it looked like a piece of black bread, and the cream cheese was inside), but I am not sure I can give the explanation justice. The bread was brittle but tasted surprisingly good considering it was black which was throwing me off a bit! It was an interesting start to dinner.

We also started with the Lobster Tempura with wasabi sour cream, sansho salt & sesame chimichurri. Hands down one of my favourite dishes in the city. I LOVE lobster. You can practically put lobster on anything and I would be a happy girl, but this dish was in its own league. The Lobster Tempura is listed as market price on the menu, and for us it ended up being $55. A very pricy appetizer, but I have to say it was totally worth it. There were three sauces to choose from, and all were absolutely delicious. I’m getting hungry just writing about it!

Next up we tried Kamameshi ($18) which was a rice dish with wild mushrooms, burdock root, yam cake & truffle soy butter. The photo for this one is not very clear since it was prepared at our table and I couldn’t very well ask the server to pause and pose so I could take a photo (although I am sure he would have loved that as much as my husband does).

This rice dish was like a risotto, and it seemed very rich because of the truffle soy butter. It stayed warm at our table so we could eat it with our maki sushi to come. I really liked it, but it was very filling because it was so rich.

Finally we finished the meal with Kasa Moto’s version of a California Roll ($12). The crab in these California rolls was unbelievable. This was not imitation crab, this was real flaked snow crab, and it was an incredibly fresh roll.

We saved no room for dessert, although we wish we did because I am sure it would have been as spectacular as our dinner. Kasa Moto offered some of the best Japanese food I have had, paired with excellent service.

They had a varied wine list (with one of my favourite Riesling’s from Cave Springs!), and they offered valet parking or there was an easy to use nearby parking garage within steps.

Kasa Moto is located at 115 Yorkville Ave in Toronto, and for more information you can visit their website at www.KasaMoto.ca.

Roxymandy August 1, 2015

14 Days with the Purgo Teatox System

I had never done a cleanse or detox before, so this was a totally new experience for me!

When I had the chance to try a detox with Purgo Tea, I thought I would jump at the chance and see how it went.

The Purgo Teatox System is a cleanse that boosts your metabolism and reduces bloating.

A girl like me who loves her Taco Bell and McDonalds could probably use a good detox.

What I liked about the Purgo 14 Day Teatox was that there were no harsh laxatives or fasting. The last thing I wanted to do was be in the bathroom all day.

Each morning I would have a tea, and every other evening I would have a tea at night. It just sort of became part of my routine for two weeks, amd it was easy to work into my day.

The Morning Detox Tea helps to boost your metabolism. It helps burn calories and gives you sustained energy through the day while the Evening Cleanse Tea works with your digestive tract to help remove toxins and purge impurities leaving you in a more balanced state.

This detox really wasn’t a big change to my life for two weeks which was great, and I actually liked the tea! I definitely had less bloating (and I am pretty much always bloated or feel like I am), and the morning tea seemed to give me more energy! I really liked it, amd I would absolutely try it again. It was a very gentle way to detox.

You can buy the system online here!

For more details visit www.PurgoTea.com.

Disclaimer: This item was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.

Roxymandy July 27, 2015

Toronto Food and Wine Festival September 18th – 20th + Enter to Win Two Tickets!

The first annual Toronto Food and Wine Festival is happening September 18th to 20th at Evergreen Brick Works! It pairs two of the things I love the most – food and wine!

I love this venue. I have been to a few festivals and parties at Evergreen Brick Works, and I love visiting the farmers market there as well. It’s a great space to mix and mingle, and to enjoy some great gourmet food and wine.

Why should you attend the festival? Here are five great reasons you need to go!

1. Curtis Stone, Tyler Florence, Gail Simmons, Chuck Hughes, Roger Mooking, Mark McEwan, Antonio Park and many more will be taking to the stages for demos, talks and workshops throughout the three-day event.

2. You’ll be able to sample, sip and savour all the flavours from 130 purveyors of premium products, fine foods and beverages from Ontario, Canada and around the world in the Grand Tasting Pavilion – presented by PC Black Label.

3. For the first time ever, Cochon 555 is bringing its flavour-packed marquee events series to Canada allowing guests to sink their teeth into over 1400 pounds of expertly prepared pork dishes by the hottest chefs including Chuck Hughes, Matty Matheson and more.

4. Expert-level educational workshops welcome legendary masters like Kevin Kent (Knifewear), Tetsuya “Ted” Iizuka (Soba Canada), and Antonio Park (Park Restaurant) to share their knowledge regarding time-held traditions like knife skills and soba noodle making.

5. Canada’s Best New Student Chef will be crowned after an exciting and unique cooking competition called Taste Canada Cooks the Books. Some of the brightest up-and-coming culinary talents from schools across Canada will gather in front of a live audience in the Miele Kitchen to make a dish from a well-known Canadian cookbook, with the author on stage!

How would you like to win two tickets to the Toronto Food and Wine Festival?

Enter via the Rafflecopter App below to win! The tickets will provide you and a guest general admission to the festival, and will give you access to the Grand Tasting Paviliion and some celebrity chef events.

The contest ends on Tuesday, August 4th, 2015, and is open to Canadian residents only. There are multiple ways to enter, with one randomly selected winner announced on August 4th.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

For more on the Toronto Food and Wine Festival, visit them at www.torontofoodandwine.com, and on social media here:

Facebook: /Toronto FOOD & WINE
Twitter: @TOfoodandwine
Instagram: @tofoodandwine

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Roxymandy June 3, 2015

Chipotle’s Grow Book + A Simple Guacamole Recipe!

My toddler is getting to the age when just playing is not enough – now he is interested in doing little projects and activities. I find myself scanning Pinterest and looking for online resources to find fun activities to keep him busy!

Last week I received a great activity in the mail from Chipotle Mexican Grill, which was a saviour because I had a crazy week with hardly a moment to spare. When I get things in the mail, it pretty much always makes me happy (unless it’s my credit card bill because I have to hide it ASAP from the husband!).

My son and I received a Grow Book – it was loaded with all kinds of puzzles, recipes and activities. The main focus was learning about sustainable ingredients.

My son coloured all over the book, used all of the stickers inside, and I read to him about vegetables. He had no idea that vegetables were grown in the ground so there were probably about 30 “why?” questions which stemmed from that, but at least he learned a lot along the way.

The book came with some tomato seeds that he planted all by himself which he loved! He has been watering his tomato seeds every day since.

A few recipe cards came as well, so I tried the guacamole recipe for dinner. It was simple, and very good!

Ingredients:
2 Haas Avocados
2 TSP of Fresh Lime Juice
2 TBSP of Fresh Cilantro (chopped)
1/4 Red Onion (finely chopped)
1/2 Jalapeno (finely chopped) – I skipped this ingredient because my son was going to eat it!
1?4 TSP of Salt

Instructions:
Cut the avocado in half. Separate and scoop out the pulp with a spoon. Add in lime juice and salt. Mash with a fork. Fold in the remaining ingredients.

We received some lovely vouchers for Chipotle in the mail as well! My love for Chipotle is pretty huge. I LOVE Mexican food. I could eat it pretty much every day. My picky eater husband (did you notice I didn’t say “my picky eater toddler” but my husband instead?!) is not a cilantro lover, so when I force him to eat Mexican with me it’s near impossible to please him because cilantro is pretty much in everything. So when I am heading to Yorkdale, or to the Shops at Don Mills on my own, I love stopping in for food at one of those Chipotle locations.

This weekend we made the trip to the Shops at Don Mills for some shopping, and since I did have those vouchers, and since I do love Chipotle, we all went there for lunch. I hadn’t taken my son before, and I actually had no idea they had kids meals! My son had a quesadilla, nachos (he could have had fruit if he wanted), an apple juice and rice. My husband and I each got the Steak Burrito Bowl, which is one of my favourite things on the menu. Cilantro was obviously in the bowl so I asked him what he thought, and he said it was really good, so he wasn’t overwhelmed by the cilantro. Overall the meal was a success! I got to shop, and eat at one of my favourite places – lucky girl.

Overall the Grow Book from Chipotle Mexican Grill worked out great and we enjoyed the fun activities it had to offer!

Disclaimer: This product was provided for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.

Roxymandy May 23, 2015

Sweetpea Organic Cookie Review

Sometimes it’s fun to pick up the mail at my house, especially when it ends up being a treat for my son. He usually tries opening up all of my packages anyway, but this time it was something for both of us.

Sweetpea Organic Cookies are a much healthier option to regular cookies – they are organic, vegan, made with 100% whole grain, and have no preservatives. They are also produced in a nut-free bakery. They have no dairy, eggs, salt, and are certified kosher.

I am always travelling with snacks. I rarely leave the house without one when I have my son or we will likely have a meltdown on our hands.

I love that these Sweetpea Organic Cookies have a re-sealable bag – it’s so much easier to grab and go that way! Normally things that are this easy to pack are usually processed or are really not a healthy option, but luckily these organic cookies are a pretty healthy treat.

There are three flavours – Pumpkin Spice, Banana Pear and Sweet Apple. My son tried them all, amd liked them all! It was nice to have a snack for him that I liked as well. I really liked the Pumpkin Spice cookies!

The packaging is cute as well, and claims the cookies are for kids 1 – 101. The re-sealable packaged realy seemed to keep the cookies fresh after the bag was opened for a few days which was great.

To try out these cookies yourself, you can purchase them online from Beretta Farms at www.berettafarms.com or you can check out their website for in-store retailers such as Whole Foods and Pusateri’s.

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review, but my opinions are fabulously my own.