This past weekend, Jimmy and I attended a good friend’s wedding in Sarnia. It was the first non-Chinese wedding I’ve ever been to, and Jimmy’s first wedding, so we were both pumped.
Here’s a photo of the table setting. I loved the colours she chose—teal and white. It was so pretty and summery.
For dessert, we had a choice of pies: cherry, apple, or lemon meringue. I chose the lemon meringue because I ADORE the contrast between the sweetness and tartness. I was a little sad that I didn’t get a chance to finish eating it. I was too busy weeping at the speeches. Oops!
On our way back to Kingston, Jimmy and I stopped in Toronto for some ramen. Unfortunately, the place that Jimmy had heard about, Double Happiness, had closed down. We went across the street to Ka Chi Korean Restaurant instead.
It turned out to be a good choice. Within 15 minutes of our arrival, the place filled up. There was a nice buzz in the restaurant.
Jimmy ordered the gamja tang. This is a pork back bone stew with potatoes. Here, it’s pictured with chapchae in the foreground.
He really liked this dish, but couldn’t finish the entire bowl. The soup is quite rich and heavy, so it really weighs down on your stomach. The pork fell apart as we poked at it… delicious!
These were all of our banchan. Starting top right, going clockwise: chili soy dipping sauce for pajeon, seaweed salad, rice, kimchi, and chapchae. The seaweed salad struck a nice balance between the sharp vinegar and sweetness of something else. This helped cleanse our palates. The kimchi was actually a super angry red kimchi. It was spicier than I like it, but I still had a few bites. I was sad that the chapchae was a little bland. I guess it was to be expected, since it was meant to be a side dish.
I ordered the bean paste stew with tofu as my main dish. Oh man, I loved this stuff! I am a fermented bean paste/sauce fanatic! I love fermented soy beans in my mixed congee, fermented tofu in my plain congee, and red miso on practically everything! This stuff actually gets me excited to eat.
The stew was fantastic! I loved that it was served piping hot in a stone bowl. I had to let it cool for a few minutes before attacking it, for fear of burning my tongue. I ended up burning my tongue anyways, but it was worth it.
It’s hard to describe the flavour of bean paste. It’s salty, stinky, and sweet all at the same time. It also has a large amount of natural umami in it, so it really makes an impact on your taste buds.
I wasn’t able to finish this either. I packed up almost half of it.
Unsure of what to order as an appetizer, we ordered something new: seafood pajeon. It’s a chewy, starchy pancake fried with lots of mysterious bits and dotted with QQ seafood chunks. I was excited to get so many pieces of squid and octopus! It was well worth the money. I practically wolfed this down. I accidentally got more pieces with octopus than Jimmy did. I felt bad, so I gave him a piece that I was sure contained a lot of octopus. Well, it turned out that it didn’t have ANY seafood. Good deed fail.
After that ridiculously cheap lunch (only $27 with tax and tip!), we drove out east to Scarborough/Markham area for some bubble tea. I finally got a picture of the plaza. It’s called Metro Square, and it’s off Steeles, between Victoria Park and Kennedy somewhere.
This is Jimmy’s standard order: jumbo original black milk tea with pearls. Delicious as always.
Before heading to Metro Square, we had stopped by a Second Cup. I ordered a medium London Fog, which is essentially an Earl Grey tea latte. The sweetened steamed milk and the bright Earl Grey meld together into a supremely satisfying drink. I really wanted bubble tea, but had already filled up on the tea latte before we arrived at Ten Ren.
So all of the food pictures are done at this point. Feel free to skip the rest of the post, if you like.
The next day, Jimmy and I walked down to Confederation Park, in front of Kingston City Hall. It was a bright, breezy Monday, perfect for sighting baby ducklings. These guys were settling in for an afternoon nap after a morning of swimming.
This is one of the cruise boats for the Thousand Island cruises, the Island Queen. Since moving to Kingston for school years ago, I have yet to take a proper Thousand Island cruise. I went on a boat cruise semi-formal party in first-year, but it didn’t count. When you go on those drinking cruises, it’s clearly not about the scenery.
Finally, this is my favourite corner in Kingston. You can’t really tell from this picture, but the walls are all joined together at weird angles. There aren’t any right angles! I’ll have to take another picture of this corner during the winter, when the ivy dies off. The foliage is covering up the strange angles. You can find this little corner in one of the alleyways joining Brock Street to Princess Street, just north of King Street. If you ever get a chance, check it out and you’ll understand what I mean about the angles. It’s just so unusual!
And that’s the quick and dirty about our hectic weekend trip!
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I’ll put the addresses up later. Too lazy now.
