OH MAN, so much food. The latest Tasting Plates event was the most generous one yet. So much deliciousness.

The evening started at A.G.R.O. Roasters for registration and coffee but I didn’t take any pictures there because I don’t care for coffee. We basically just took the coffee samples and ran back to the car to get to the next restaurant anyway.

La Mezcaleria

My plan was to have a margarita at each restaurant, semi-serious. It started off well, I had margaritas at the first two restaurants, but then the rest of the places didn’t have them, so my crazy margarita crawl ended up being pretty responsible. Haha.

La Mezcaleria drinks are really really good. I love lime.

Red snapper ceviche, guacamole, and a chicken tinga tostada.

Everything was awesome. Very fresh and nicely put together. This plate of food was almost enough for a whole meal on its own! We started to realize we were in trouble.

The combination of the tasty food, the live band, and being able to watch the chefs cook made this our favourite stop of the whole evening. I’ve been there before and I definitely will be returning again.

La Mezcaleria Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

El Azteca

Margarita #2. Half the price, but too sweet.

Ceviche, guacamole, and cochinita pibil.

This plate was fairly similar to what we had at La Mezcaleria. So much food! The ceviche wasn’t as nice (the strange sweet red sauce ruined it) but we thought the pork tostada was really good. And the chips were nice and extra crunchy.

Las Tortas

Cochinita pibil torta (sandwich), chips and salsa, and a churro.

The sandwich was pretty good, but I think we were already so full we didn’t enjoy it as much as we might have on an empty stomach. My sandwich was ULTRA spicy, but the rest of the group didn’t seem to be. My lips were tingling!! The salsas had great flavour. The churro was kind of dense and not great. I’m sure they would be better if they were prepared fresh.

Las Tortas Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Chicha

Quinoa salad with mango, cheese and chili croquette, calamari and chorizo skewer, basil mashed potatoes.

I had been wanting to try Chicha for a very long time. It’s right across the street from where I change buses on the way to work and I think their restaurant sign is very visually appealing, plus I knew they had great reviews on Urbanspoon. It did not disappoint, this was a great plate of food.

Chicha is a Peruvian restaurant so the flavours were different than everywhere we had been so far. The salad was refreshing, the croquette was indulgent, the skewer was intriguing, and the mashed potatoes were comforting.

Chicha Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Guanaco Food Truck

Horchata while waiting for our food. Sweet but not tooooo sweet.

Pork and chicken pupasas and fried cassava.

Cheesy corny goodness. These were nice but I was basically exploding at this point so I didn’t have that much.

Guanaco Truck Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sal Y Limon

Last stop. Shrimp ceviche, and chicken tinga tostada.

The ceviche was actually not very nice. But the chicken tostada was pretty decent. Again, I was pretty much in a food coma so I just had a bit of each and gave the rest to Lauren.

Lauren basically thought it was the best night ever because he got to eat all his food plus all the food Rosemarie and I couldn’t finish, hahaha.

Their horchata was very sweet.

Sal Y Limon Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

SERIOUS FOOD COMA. A great night of eating. It was the best Tasting Plates event yet, I think.

I haven’t blogged in 5ever again. I really don’t have a lot to talk about though. All I’ve been doing is going to appointments, working, and sleeping. In one week I got my hair cut, donated blood, and had three different doctors appointments. And I have been working A LOT! <– this is good though

This weekend is Rosemarie’s and my trip to Listowel. I am looking forward to it, but I also know it is going to be very tiring. I’ve done that overnight flight to Toronto too many times already and every time I tell myself that I will never do it again. A 4 HOUR FLIGHT IS A TERRIBLE OVERNIGHT FLIGHT!! But….. that Sunwing deal was just too good to pass up. Pass me 1,000 melatonin please.

Our aunt and uncle came to visit last week. So Rosemarie and Lauren came over too and we played games on the patio and ate vegetables (to counteract our future dinner). We had asked MEP to bring her 5-6 player expansion for Settlers so everyone could play, and she let us keep it. Thank you!! It was an intense game of Settlers. We also played a mildly awkward game of Cards Against Humanity, haha. A good catch up session overall!

Then we all headed to the Richmond Night Market. Even though it was Sunday it was sooooooo busy!! I was worried that the n00bs would feel overwhelmed by the crowds, but luckily they are all really tall people… so maybe it wasn’t so claustrophobic? It was also really easy to find them in the crowd. :D

Started with some traditional takoyaki. Very tasty, after you get over the lava hot aspect.

Paul bought a sweet chilli “fish stick”. None of us really knew what it was, but it was delicious!! Crispy fried sweet spicy salty on a stick. The vendor said it was white fish, but the texture was unlike any fish I have seen before. But if you don’t think too much about what it is made out of you can focus on how good it was. Would eat again.

We all split a jumbo serve of chicken karaage. Also sweet and spicy. Really good.

Rotato!! The line for this was sooooo long. Also the price has gone up to SIX BUCKS!! So expensive. They are good but that wait and price is getting out of hand.

Richmond Night Market = EVERYTHING FRIED. But it’s ok cuz they deep fry all the bad stuff away. ;)

Even the desserts are fried.

Rosemarie had been waiting for YEARS to try a deep fried cheesecake. She was very very excited.

And it did not disappoint. Her and Lauren chose the nutella banana option. It seems like they use the same deep fried cheesecake base for everything, and then just put different toppings on top of it. That cheesecake pocket might not look that special but once you cut it open and the warm gooey liquid cheesecake starts running out… you see why it is amazing. I think this is one of the better value items at the night market.

Finally Scott grabbed a corn ice cream snorkel for dessert. They use some kind of injection tubing system to fill the tubes with soft serve. The novelty was better than the taste though.

We had some other stuff too… bubble tea, a sundae, fish waffles, ha gao… probably more that I forget. It is awesome going to the night market with a big group because you get to try so many things!

Richmond Night Market Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

I bought some pretty light pink peonies at the farmers market last week. They were pretty tightly packed when I bought them but opened up by the time we got home. They look nice, but I don’t like the smell. They smell like sesame oil to me!!

PS how many geometric things can I fit in one picture?

We also bought a few plants. A little kale plant, two types of cherry tomato, and a unidentified tree. I repotted the kale already but I still need to get a much bigger pot for my tomatoes and a pretty one for the tree.

We got two sets of the cherry tomatoes so that Scott and I can have a tomato-off. Whoever grows the most/best tomatoes wins!

I moved the kale into the shady part of the patio because apparently too much sun makes the kale more bitter. I left my tomatoes and the tree in the full sun and have been giving each a lot of water.

I hope everything stays alive!

Biggest blanket ever. I only have two more colours to add before I start repeating the rainbow. And I’m thinking I will probably end up repeating the rainbow three times. So I am NEARLY 33% done, I think. The final decision will come much much later.

It worries me how uneven the last few rows look, but hopefully adding more rows fixes it. It seems that way since the reds and yellows and green rows look good. This blanket probably won’t come out perfect but that’s fine by me for a first ever crochet project.

Harry Potter alphabet cross stitch. While it is infuriating having to switch colours just to do a couple stitches, this has still been a fun project. I love doing the lettering the most. Lots more to go on this project. Can you guess who is going to be after Snape?

Geometric cross stitch. I haven’t done much on this lately as blanket and HP > geometric, but eventually I will come back to this one too. I had to learn how to do half stitches for this project, which are a pain in the butt, but it’s worth it for how crisp and pointy everything looks.