gastro everywhere

Since the Throwdown, I've been busy with teaching classes at the studio. It's been running pretty smoothly but attendance has been low. I find that I like teaching choreographies rather than drilling Level 1 moves or teaching random combinations... cuz that stuff requires making lesson plans, and choreos (that I've been performing for months now) do not!

Anyway, some eats I've gotten up to in the last little while:

Jack Astor's This would usually just get an "honourable mention" in here, but I promised I'd post about it for my picky-eating friend Diana-Marie :D Diana-Marie and I studied math together at McMaster (well, she kinda did the studying for the both of us), she is my "everything buddy", and the pickiest eater I know. Her favourite foods are pizza, chicken fingers, fries, and ketchup. She does not eat vegetables. The first time we went out together after an exam, we went to the bar with some fellow mathemagicians, and we dared her to eat one of the baby carrots that came with someone's wings. When daring didn't work, we forced her (can't remember how exactly, but beer just seems to make things happen). She took the tiniest bite possible and you should have seen the disgusted look on her face... hahaha. Also, when she gets onion rings, she pulls the onion out and eats just the fried batter. I sometimes wonder how her body stays alive, LOL.

These are a few of her favourite things!

As we dined at Jack Astor's, we discussed a theory I'd heard about picky eaters: that their tongues and taste buds are hyper sensitive to food. It made sense considering everything she eats needs to be fairly crispy in texture and sort of bland in flavour. Something that seems tender to us, seems downright mushy to her. A piece of juicy, luscious fruit is, for her, a slimy horror. A hint of spice? Sets her mouth on fire.

This theory also explains why kids can be picky eaters, then grow out of it. Just as our other senses, like sight and hearing, get dull as we grow older, so too do our tongues and taste buds. For grown-up picky eaters like Diana-Marie, it's like their taste buds never grow out of that, but stay super sensitive.

My turkey burger on a potato & chive bun, with sweet potato fries.

Despite our completely opposite views on food, there is at least one food that we both love with the same passion:

Little Caesar's Crazy Bread!

Julia's Ristorante This restaurant in Downtown Oakville serves Italian and Latin American food. Will took me there this past Valentine's Day and we had a really lovely dinner: he had the Duck Escabeche, and I had the tender and flavourful Pollo di Mole Poblano followed by the Tres Leches di Chocolata cake for dessert. If you can believe it, the meal I had there the other day was even BETTER than that!

Mole chicken on black bean coconut rice, with double smoked bacon and crisply plantain.

This time, he had the Mole but none of the entrees were really jumping out at me. So I decided to get 2 appetizers as my meal: the Tres Cangrejos (Three Crabs) and the Pulled Pork Empanadas.

The Tres Cangrejos consisted of a crab cake dabbed with chimichurri rojo mayo on a bed of mixed greens, a dip of crab meat with white asparagus and roasted red pepper puree (with grilled flour tortillas), and a Dungeness crab claw. All three "cangrejos" were perfectly prepared, especially the crab cake which was not too heavy (this of course was helped by the mixed greens). The dip was satisfyingly luscious with good chunks of crab. And the crab claw was buttery and tender.

The Pulled Pork Empanadas were even more to die for! Pulled pork, sofrito vegetables and marinated provolone cheese in the most delicately fried puff pastry. Served with the same chimichurri rojo mayonnaise from the crab cakes, which was very good, but also with a simply foodgasmic tomato ginger chili jam! This jam was SERIOUSLY sexy! Sweet and a little spicy, and also lightly chilled, it was a perfect complement to the light puff pastry that melted in your mouth to give way for the hot, gooey, rich filling inside. I'm drooling just thinking about it!!


It was the perfect meal to dust off a bottle of wine to (we got a half litre to split between us, but I'm pretty sure I could have had that all to myself LOL). Go to Julia's, and if nothing else, please get the Pulled Pork Empanadas!!

My house It was my brother's birthday a few weeks ago, but because he's Hollywood, my mom wasn't able to throw a fam jam for him until this past Saturday. For food, my mom ordered the usual suspects from various venues: sushi, chicken wings, breaded fish, spicy shrimp, etc. And my Ninang Marion (who has her own baking business called Sweet Relief) of course made the birthday cake. What I wasn't expecting, was that she also made a second cake! A few days ago I'd sent her the recipe for Baked's Sweet & Salty Cake. I wasn't asking her to make it, I just wanted to share the food fantasy I'd been drooling over for more than a long time. In fact, the main purpose of the email was to find out what kind of cake she wanted me to make for her birthday! (Answer: Martha Stewart's lemon meringue cupcakes.) But even though she had replied to that email saying it seemed like a challenging recipe, she rose to that challenge and made me a Sweet & Salty Cake!

Layers of dense chocolate cake soaked in salted caramel. Frosted with caramel chocolate ganache and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Mmmmm! Best. Godmother. Ever! (Please do not tell my other godmothers I said that.)

Harbord House After celebrating my brother's birthday for most of the afternoon, myself and Sari, Will, Mike & Melissa headed downtown to get drinks for my cousin Jaleel's bday. Having just stuffed my face at the fam jam, I was less concerned with the food menu and more concerned with the menu of locally-brewed beers. Sari, however, was all about finding out just how this place put "gastro" in "gastro pub". She'd read great things about their Mac & Cheese and put in her order.

Now, you may scoff at paying $13 for Mac & Cheese, but this stuff was ridic. She kept offering me bites while she was eating, and while she was met initially with "no, it's ok I'm not hungry," that soon turned into "oh god yes it's so good!" Cheddar, jack, parmesan, and ermite cheeses that clung well to the short, ridged rigatoni noodles. Topped with garlic bread crumbs and served with a mixed green salad to balance out the richness. It was so unbelievably creamy and comfortingly good. I wouldn't normally pick a seemingly boring old Mac & Cheese from a menu of other more interesting-sounding dishes, but I have seen the light. I'd gladly make the trek up to Bloor/Spadina just for this stuff.

Anyway, I've now made myself thoroughly hungry and craving rich food. Good thing I'm meeting new friend Ken for lunch tomorrow at Buca. I've read some good buzz and am looking forward to some delicious "artisanal Italian soul food"!

throwdown!

Hey hey heyyyy, bad blogger in the hizzooouse. I'm obviously overdue for a post but I will use the excuse that I didn't want to cover anything Blondie Throwdown-related until Robyn did ;)

So continuing right where my previous post left off, about a week and a half ago I was invited to judge a Blondie Bake-off (a.k.a. THROWDOWN!) at Robyn's. On the drive over, I was briefed by my cousin Kristine that this Throwdown was a matter of principle against Kraft Kitchens and their (obviously) Kraft-product heavy recipes. Now, I'm not gonna hate on Kraft because getting their "What's Cooking" magazines in the mail while growing up definitely encouraged my love of baking, despite the gratuitous additions of Cool Whip and Peanut Butter. I used to make some pretty decent peanut butter cookie bars and no-bake cheesecakes, ok! Of course, now that I know a little better, my recipe and ingredient selection is also a little more sophisticated. But I do have a soft spot for Kraft and their easy, kid-friendly recipes. (Side note: yes, Cool Whip is an "edible oil product", hahaha. This was something I didn't realize until I accidentally stored a container in my fridge instead of the freezer for an extended period of time, and when I pulled it out I wondered why the heck there was a pool of what looked like canola oil at the bottom... then I actually read the label and ingredients and subsequently gagged, LOL!)

Anyway, Robyn had sent me a message earlier that day to say she'd ended up baking 3 kinds of blondies to compete against her friend Erin's batch à la Kraft. So needless to say I was excited as we arrived at her place. When she opened the door and greeted us, the warm smell of delicious baked goods was overwhelming. She had already plated 2 of her batches and was in the middle of slicing a particularly decadent-looking chocolate-covered batch. As Robyn discussed the variables she played with for each recipe (check out Planet Byn for the details) I patiently sipped my cup of tea with admirable decorum, considering all my instincts were telling me to start gobbling down the tempting treats laid before me. Finally, Erin arrived and revealed a cute batch of chocolate-drizzled blondies.

The competitors!

We loaded our plates, refilled our teas, and began the task at hand. Now to reveal the results!

3rd runner-up: Pretzel M&M Blondies

I had high hopes for this batch, especially after hearing such great things about Pretzel M&Ms. While there was indeed a nice sweet/salty flavour to these, and although they certainly looked cute, they unfortunately lacked the moist chewiness so crucial to blondies and brownies. Don't know if this was a one-time thing though cuz I think Robyn mentioned making them previously to rave reviews, and also over at Bake at 350, they look fairly moist in the picture.

2nd runner-up: Chocolate Chip Blondies with Dark Chocolate Ganache

While I did like this batch, the ganache overwhelmed its "blondie-ness", especially considering there were already chocolate chips in the batter. And yes, because the batter was so thick in the pan, it was extra gooey in the middle. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely pushing the borders of blondie towards pudding or lava cake. The edges were more blondie-like. Great for a rich chocolate fix though!

1st runner-up: Milk Chocolate Blondies

Ok, ok. Over at Planet Byn, Erin's batch actually tied with my winner. It certainly had its merits, with its moist chewy texture and spot-on blondie flavour further boosted with the addition of Toblerone bits in the batter. I shouldn't have been surprised that ol' Kraft turned out a satisfying product, but I was, I was surprised that it beat out the other, fancier competitors that featured fleur de sel and dark chocolate ganache!

All in all, a strong entry, but I'm going to be honest (my opinion of course). While it was a fairly close margin between this batch and my choice for the winner, it was a margin nonetheless. And in the car, Ate Kristine admitted that she didn't think it was a tie either. Sorry Erin!

WINNER: Vanilla Bean Caramel Swirl Blondies

Perfectly chewy texture. Warm caramel and brown sugar flavours that complemented each other wonderfully. I have a soft spot for caramel/toffee (mmm Skor) so maybe I was a little biased. But in my books, these were the definite winner. And I think they were still pretty despite their lack of height!

All in all, there are really no losers in a Throwdown. Good chats, fun experimentation, a little learning, and lots of yummy in the tummy made everyone a winner. Head over to Planet Byn for complete blondie musings and observations, as well as Robyn's perfected blondie recipe.

To cap off our blondie adventure, and perhaps as a segue into a new throwdown, Robyn made Baked's sweet and salty brownies and dropped them off at my house a few days later. Special delivery indeed! She gave me quite a generous portion and I was planning to take pictures of them but I ended up eating them all before I got around to it, LOL! ("I'll just have one right now... there'll be enough for a photo op later" "Ok, don't feel like fiddling with my camera at the moment, but I only want one brownie anyway" "Only 2 left?? That's a pathetic photo op, might as well eat these last ones!") They were delicious and fudgy and definitely not made with Baker's chocolate! LOL. Can't wait for the brownie throwdown, and this time I think I'll actually compete! Thanks for everything, Byn!!

grindin'

Another long-winded catch-up post, no pictures really, and a little more dance-focused. As I mentioned before, I taught a class at the studio last Thursday because our instructor was in Montreal for a few days. It went well, there were actually only 2 people in the class so I just focused on whatever moves they wanted to drill. One of the girls had never tried zills before (zills = finger cymbals) so I showed her the very basics and then Shelina, one of the ATS girls, gave us all some more pointers. Zills are used a lot in tribal bellydance so it was great to have Shelina give us some tips (zilling is not my strong point).

On Friday, I did a solo performance at a banquet hall in Vaughan, which was a celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Philippine Heritage Band. I did it as a favour to Ninang Marion, whose parents have been involved with the band for just about all of those 30 years if I'm not mistaken. So Meagan, her cousin Vanessa and I provided some entertainment during dinner. Meagan did a jazz routine and Vanessa did a lyrical dance. I did my bellydance thang with a veil routine followed by a drum solo. It went well, and though we did get a free dinner that night, it was so NOT worth talking about here. Banquet hall food is always pretty bland and boring but this was terrible. I will say that it was dry, overcooked, and not even warm despite having the appearance of sitting under a heat lamp for the past 2 hours. The only highlight was dessert, which was a bar of vanilla ice cream wrapped in a crepe and drizzled with strawberry and chocolate sauce.

Anyway, I wasn't in it for the food. That was a bonus (if you could call it that). Another bonus was the thank you card I got with $100 in it! Nice! I wasn't expecting that at all, especially since, when booking the event, they asked how much I would charge and I said I would do it for free. So that was great. I have yet to see any pictures from the event but I hope to get my hands on some, I saw a lot of fancy SLRs flashing away while I was dancing. Apparently the local Filipino newspaper was there too so maybe I'll be in it, LOL. (Side note: another highlight of the night was when the band actually played - they did one song to showcase just the drumline and it was AWESOME! Reminiscent of Clipse's "Grindin'", hot ish yo.)

On Saturday, I had the private party at the studio. It was my first experience at the studio completely by myself, so I had to open and lock up, set the thermostat, run the cash, file the waiver forms, etc. It was a good warm-up for the next few weeks with our instructor in Cairo, and me and 3 other girls will be holding down the fort. There were 9 women at the party and I taught them basic moves, a short combo and a veil intro - same stuff I did with Mark (the Guy at Home). They seemed to enjoy it, and then I took some photos of them posing around the studio, they loved the atmosphere.

That evening I went for dinner with Kim and Jenn. We went to Spoon & Fork in Clarkson. They had been there before, and so had my parents, and they'd said it was good so I was down to try it out. We ordered the wontons as an appetizer, and each ordered our own dishes. Kim had a green chicken curry, Jenn had orange cashew chicken, and I had peanut sauce chicken. Legit Thai food served here, folks. Solid preparation and fairly sexy atmosphere.

On Sunday, thankfully troupe rehearsal was cancelled because I needed a bit of a break. I didn't get up to much, went to Fogo (new-ish tapas bar at the edge of the Heights) with Ryan after watching the soccer team he coaches play at Pine Glen. The kitchen had closed by the time we got there so I have no foodie things to report, but I've been there before and it's good - a deep fried cheese thingy comes to mind, and how can you go wrong with that? Fogo has so much potential as a place to relax with a drink and some eats, and as a place to party on weekends. And it's WALKING DISTANCE FROM MY HOUSE! That's such a recipe for awesome! But every time I've gone, it's been just about empty. I hope it gains some popularity, because the only thing their atmosphere is missing is the buzz of people. Anyway, that night I just had a bottle of Kronenbourg and was pretty satisfied.

On Tuesday, a few of us went to Chaps in Burlington for Ben's bday. Had some yummy wings and a bit too much Keith's Harvest Ale (also yummy). Then went back to Andrew's for Rock Band 3 and more beer (Amsterdam Nut Brown Ale = mmm). Woke up with a slight headache and dreading the workday ahead :P I really miss the days at Mac where Tuesday night wings and beer at West End meant skipping class the next day... le sigh.

Last night, I went to the studio for class but traffic out of downtown was worse than usual and I ended up being a half hour late... so I just chatted with our teacher (someone else was teaching - she was prepping stuff for their departure) and she had me try on some bellydance clothes (not costumes, practice wear like flared pants and crop tops) just "for fun". I really didn't want anything because, well, I'm not really a flared pants/crop top kinda girl when I'm not performing :P but she got me to try on this pair of pants that she liked so much on me, she wanted to give them to me for free:

"OMG! That looks so good on you!"

LOL! Yes, that's black velvet, flared mesh legs, and lace thigh cut-outs. "You could even wear these out! They're so sexy!" Haha... it was really nice of her but unfortunately not for me. I opted for another pair of pants that I also would never wear "out" but I'll probably wear when I'm teaching:

No velvet, and no scandalous lace cut-outs!

Hey! Free pants is free! Anyhoo, that's all I've got for long-windedness today.

Tonight I'm judging a Blondie Bake-Off at Robyn's. THROWDOWN baby! I love this idea so much :D I'll report back soon with results :)

national sandwich day

Wow, did not realize how appropriately-timed my previous post was. Just wanted to share this article - yesterday was apparently National Sandwich Day! A relative of mine posted the article on Facebook with the following caption: "When I was a kid, I dreamed of a never ending sandwich that changed to suit my mood." A beautiful dream, n'est-ce pas?

Coincidentally enough, I did have a sandwich yesterday, because my own post made me crave a Keep Fit creation :P I got my usual with a side of the lentil soup. So perfect for a chilly day.

That article just made me crave sandwiches AGAIN, so I may have to hit Keep Fit today too, LOL. It also gave me more ideas for spots to eat on future trips to NYC.

I'm glad I inadvertently celebrated National Sandwich Day yesterday with a perfect sandwich :)

sammies!

Whoa, another post so soon! Maybe I'll get better at this. Sadly this post will be sans photo though. Anyway, I just got back to the office after overseeing a voiceover record for this promotional video I'm working on for AZ. The production house was in the east end of Toronto, Leslieville, and when our team finished up around noon we decided we'd take advantage of all the nearby lunch options before heading back to the office. We contemplated different burger joints (including Dangerous Dan's, which I posted about before) and some patisseries before deciding on the Leslieville Cheese Market for gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

We walked about a block from where we were and into the small shop, where there were tons of lovely cheeses, deli meats (including head cheese), fancy salts (Maldon, anyone?), fresh breads, dips, jams and spreads (I saw at least 3 kinds of dulce de leche), and different kinds of fudge. Heaven! I really wish I'd had my camera! It made me feel I should have bought a place in Leslieville instead of the opposite end of Toronto :( Then again, I think I'd end up broke and with some extra poundage if I lived near this shop.

Anyway, they had 4 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwiches on offer, and I chose the provolone with smoked summer sausage. While it was being grilled, the girl at the counter set up some goodies for us to sample. There were chunks of bread and spelt crisps (I think) with roasted red pepper dip and spinach dip, some diced up Genoa salami, and 2 kinds of fudge: chocolate marshmallow and maple walnut. All amazing! It made the anticipation for my sandwich even stronger!

When the sandwiches were ready, she asked us what kind of dipping sauce we wanted with them. I chose piri-piri (roasted chili pepper) over spicy ketchup, although apparently they usually also have a sweet chili sauce that's really good. I couldn't wait to dig in as we rode in the cab back to the office.

Anyway, I just had it, and as you can probably guess, it was yummy! If I'm ever in the area again, I'll drop by and get the cheddar and bacon sammie.

I must say though, I do have a predisposition for gourmet sammiches, so maybe I'm biased. One of my favourite places to go for lunch is Keep Fit Sandwich in The Grange food court across from OCAD. They are essentially a just-as-good-maybe-better, less expensive knockoff of Sandwich Box (which used to have a location near my office at St. Patrick's Market before it got forced out by high rent). Anyway, Keep Fit Sandwich has an awesome build-your-own sandwich bar featuring gourmet ingredients and breads from ACE Bakery. They also have a build-your-own salad bar, soups (one is always lentil, the other varies) and they have a few Indian dishes on offer as well. Even though there are tons of yummy options for sandwiches, I never really stray from my usual creation: roasted chicken, portobello mushrooms, brie and pesto spread on olive boule, grilled on the panini press. Once in awhile I'll switch out the mushrooms for Cajun marinated eggplant or sundried tomatoes. The sandwich also comes with a mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, for only $7-8 (can't remember off the top of my head right now). I love that place!

Anyway, I'm just gonna wrap this one up by saying sandwiches are pretty much the perfect food. You can get all your food groups in there and they're fun to make and eat. For some reason, a sandwich always taste better when someone else makes it for you. And I'll go one step further and say that I think sandwiches also taste better when they're cut in half along a diagonal. NOM!

jamaica, thailand, and egypt

Catch-up time again! So last Saturday, the day after the WELNepal gala, my mission was to find a last-minute Halloween costume. Before this mission of course, I needed sustenance. When in my neck of the woods, Will and I usually gravitate towards picking up sushi from this place nearby called Dai Ichi. In the same plaza, we'd always see this place called Allspice Bakery Cafe, whose main offering seemed to be Blue Mountain Coffee (from Jamaica) and apparently some Caribbean pastries. The more we passed by on our way to sushi however, the more apparent it became that the place actually offered Caribbean food, not just coffee and pastries, making "Bakery Cafe" a bit of a misnomer. So last Saturday, we finally walked in to see if Carribbean food was indeed on the menu (and of course, if it wasn't, sushi was the back-up).

Well, we walked in and the delicious smell of food said it all: this place had jerk chicken, curry of all kinds, rice & peas, saltfish, and all sorts of other Caribbean delights! We were pumped! I'd been looking for a good, nearby place to get jerk chicken and rice & peas ever since we came back from Jamaica last year, and it seemed I had found the one!

We ordered take-out and waited in a booth. It isn't a fancy place - the counter and seating set-up looks a lot like it used to be a Tim Horton's. But that made it all the more promising, as per A.Bourdain's theory: if a restaurant can stay open and has customers despite being sort of a dump, then the food has got to be good. And like I said, it sure smelled promising. Also, the heat was cranked like crazy, we joked that it was done on purpose to make you feel like you were somewhere in the islands and therefore make the food taste better!

We took it home and opened the styrofoam containers - oh baby it smelled good. We dished it out onto our plates and poured ourselves some beer. One forkful each into our mouths, one swig of beer. Perfect! It was legit. It brought us back to Jamaica for sure. I could only take so much of the heat from the jerk and focused more on my curry chicken, but Will finished off the jerk with no problem.

Jerk chicken! Not the greatest picture because of the blackened spices, but that just means it was done right!

Curry chicken with rice and peas! (Had the patience to actually dish it out for this pic)

I'm sooo friggin happy we walked into Allspice Bakery Cafe. Favourite new go-to!

The following evening, my dad was in the mood to go out for dinner. He'd gotten into a car accident the previous Thursday that scared the crap out of all of us, but somehow he made it out with barely a scratch. To celebrate this, he kinda wanted to have a "fuck yeah I'm alive!" dinner. Just around the corner from Allspice and Dai Ichi, is a place called Ben Thanh (it's where a Mexicali Rosa's briefly stood, then shut down before I had a chance to go). It's a Thai/Vietnamese place that my parents had been to before and they wanted me to try it.

We walked in and initially I was impressed with the upscale-ish, lounge-y looking decor, it sort of looked like a nightclub. Then we were led around the corner to a huge additional dining room with the most ridiculous wall coverings of shiny black fibreglass panels interspersed with fibreoptic lights and mirrors. I wouldn't usually comment on decor but I just had to in this case because I almost laughed out loud when I saw it. I felt like I was eating on the set of Tron :P Anyway, doesn't really matter. My parents ordered the specials (our reason for coming) which was giant crab and lobster in the shell. I also ordered a yellow shrimp curry.

I should have put something next to the dishes as a scale comparison for the crab and lobster. They were huge! And they were fun to eat too. I haven't eaten crab in the shell in a long time, and it's a fun experience, even though it's messy. This crab (and lobster) was made even messier as it was doused in some sort of thick ginger sauce that really didn't add to anything except for when I was licking my fingers. The curry was yummy too. We ended up with a fair amount of leftovers.

The before/during.

The aftermath - CARNAGE!

The menu is really extensive (as it usually is with Thai/Vietnamese places) and I didn't get to try any of their other typical Thai dishes, so I can't really judge whether or not Ben Thanh does Thai or Vietnamese well. I usually judge Thai restaurants based on how well they do their Orange Cashew Chicken or Basil Beef. I like Thai Senses in Bronte best for those things, so if I have a Thai craving that's where I would go, but for lobster and crab in the shell, I'd feel good about coming back to Ben Thanh.

Alright, well with all that food out of the way, it's time for a bellydance update! This story starts at work. The creative team that works on Stanfield's (men's underwear) put together this amazing promotional campaign where a guy named Mark, a testicular cancer survivor, would live in a loft for 25 days wearing nothing but Stanfield's underwear, while being streamed on live webcam 24/7. If he could last the 25 days, and get 25,000 Facebook fans, Stanfield's would donate $25,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society. The campaign was hugely successful, and got 25,000 Facebook fans in just 7 days, causing Stanfield's to up the ante to $50,000 for 50,000 Facebook fans.

Well, to keep things interesting with Mark "trapped" in the loft for 25 days, the creative team arranged for him to have different visitors. When still in the planning stage, they sent out an email throughout the agency asking if anyone knew fitness instructors, celebrities, chefs, etc. that could come and visit. So I emailed back saying I knew a bellydancer if they were interested, intending for my instructor to come in and teach Mark a short lesson.

After all the arrangements had been made, my instructor called me about a week later telling me that she was getting cold feet! She told me she could still do it, but that she thought I would be a much better fit for this appearance. So reluctantly, and with some mischievious encouragement from my boss, I agreed.

My visit with Mark was scheduled for the Friday that has just passed, and let me just say how stressed I was about it all last week. I got even more nervous when I came to the studio on Tuesday for class, and I ended up having to teach the class cuz my instructor had unexpectedly been forced to put her dog down the day before. The class didn't go as smoothly as I wanted it to (which is fair, I mean, I was totally unprepared and it was my first time teaching in the studio) so I was pretty freaked for having to give a lesson to a guy in his underwear while a potential 50,000 people watched me live.

I ended up putting together a lesson plan on the Wednesday evening and running through it with Will on the Thursday, so by the time Friday rolled around, I was feeling much better. So when I got to the loft, it was smooth sailing, especially with how easygoing and friendly Mark was. It went as well as it could have and I was told it was entertaining, so that was a sigh of relief for me! Mark's last day was the following day and he succeeded in reaching the $50,000 goal for the Canadian Cancer Society.



So again, I'm glad to say that my bellydancing helped contribute to a good cause somehow. And it was tons of fun. It's also really building my bellydance repertoire and expanding the responsibilities that my instructor is entrusting me with. Just today, she emailed me asking to take over her Thursday class this week because she'll be in Montreal, and also to teach a lesson at the studio on Saturday for a private party. Should be a good warm-up for the next couple of weeks when she's in Cairo and I'll be teaching classes at the studio on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. It's crazy to think that I'm at this point when I only started at the studio less than a year and a half ago. But I love it!

Anyway, nothing else to report for the weekend that just passed. Halloween parties meant I was eating hangover food - pizza and McDonald's :P nothing special. Oh, and the costume I ended up finding after jerk and curry chicken was... a Ninja Turtle! Raphael to be exact. It was pretty effing sweet if I do say so myself.

Til next time!