week in review

Ok, another new post, still not about Noodle Bar. I will get around to it :P it's just that there's always something new to talk about!

I'll start with last Monday morning. Let me start off by saying, my boss is awesome - boss-some, if you will. He is super smart, creative and just the best boss I'll probably ever have. And to top that off, he bakes! Last Christmas, he gave me and his 2 other immediate underlings a bottle of wine and a loaf of savoury home-made bread each as presents. My co-worker's was made with spinach, pine nut and chevre, and mine was made with bacon, olive and gruyere (SO good - wish I had a loaf right now).

This is his photo, not mine!


What did we get him for Christmas? A cupcake recipe book! LOL. Once in awhile he makes something from it and brings it in for us. Once in awhile, we find a completely different recipe online, and ask him to make that, too. So the other week, my co-worker requested this recipe. And of course, because my boss is awesome, he obliged and brought them in last Monday.

Again, this photo was taken by him and belongs to him.


Amazing right?! First he made the tiny pumpkin pies (tartlets, I guess), then baked them into the centre of cream cheese (!) vanilla cupcakes, then topped them with an AMAZING cinnamon cream cheese (again!) buttercream (no, not cream cheese frosting - buttercream flavoured with cream cheese!)

It was so, so delightful. I'm not very big on frosting, but this frosting was amazing, it tasted like Cinnabon! Having been warned of the ridiculous cream cheese content, I only had half of one, but oh what a half.

More food at work on Tuesday, though this story is sans photo. Once in awhile, maybe every month or two, someone on our floor will order butter chicken roti for anyone who's in. On Tuesday, we had a fairly significant shuffle of desks which left a few people disgruntled. To appease this, we were told that we'd be ordering roti that day, and that it would be on the agency's bill. Sweetness! When our designated roti-order guy called out, "Which place, Island Foods or Gandhi?" I said "Gandhi!" because I think it's so much tastier. I find Islands Foods' roti kind of dry and the flavour is more West Indian, but Gandhi's is so tender, rich and definitely East Indian in flavour, with HUGE portions. I always eat half and then have the second half for lunch the next day. If you're ever in Toronto and want roti, I personally think Gandhi is the place to go.

On Thursday, my co-worker notified me of the all-important news that Blushberry had introduced a new flavour - NUTELLA! I think it's safe to say that her and I are known in the office for our frequent frozen yogurt trips. Ever since Blushberry opened across the street, we've been regulars, and we always find deals on teambuy (like getting a $25 gift card for just $5 - hellz yeah). Anyway, I announced the news to the rest of the agency and at 3 pm led a troupe of about 10 of us across the street to sample the new flavour. I have to say, it's pretty good, but not really worth the hype, haha. It still tastes like frozen yogurt, but it does have that strong hint of Nutella. I had one bite and the chocolatey-hazelnut flavour totally came through, but after adding chocolate chips as my topping, it just ended up tasting like regular chocolate frozen yogurt. I still liked it a lot, but I guess others were expecting something else. One of my co-workers who'd never been to Blushberry before said, "It's sour!" and I had to remind him that even though it's "Nutella", it's not ice cream, it's still frozen yogurt -and yogurt is sour! :P

Again, not my photo - taken from Blushberry's facebook page


Now to switch gears from food to bellydance. On Friday, I danced at a bellydance gala in Burlington with the proceeds of the show going to Women's Education and Literacy in Nepal (WELNepal). It was actually a gala featuring American Tribal Style bellydance (a fusion style that blends flamenco, Indian, African and other dance styles with elements of traditional Oriental bellydance). The special guest was the creator of this modern style of dance, Carolena Nericcio, who also taught workshops at the studio over the weekend. Our troupe performed one number as a short Oriental interlude between all the ATS performers. It was fun and sort of a quick in-and-out for me as I didn't stick around to watch the whole show. But I really love the fact that so many of the dance opportunities I get (like the breast cancer fundraiser last week) help raise funds for important causes. I love that somehow, in whatever small way, my dancing contributes to making the world a better place!

Ok, this post has gotten a lot longer than I thought it would, and I still didn't get to the food I had this weekend. Perhaps I should blog more often :P I'll have to play catch-up again. More later.