My first ever encounter with Cannoli was on a most recent trip to New York City. I recall going to D.U.M.B.O. Pizza Haven Grimaldi's and my friend Tommy forcing me to try Cannoli, as we sat in the restaurant he yelled at me in his thick New York accent "You can't come to Brooklyn and not try a Cannoli!!!". True indeed I was struck with wonder and as embarrassing as this is I wasn’t quite sure what a Cannoli was. Of course as the cannoli was delivered to the table it all unraveled to me and I realized that it was an Italian pastry with a hard shell, stuffed with icing inside. Fast forward about 4 months ahead where I had an opportunity to visit my friend Nep at his workplace, myself alongside Tastebud Kev had the pleasure of enjoying some local Cannoli's via our pal. Our good friend Nep assured us that we would be far from disappointment and also treated us to a bitter drink called Crodino which comes in a mini glass bottle and balances out sweet taste. Thus far has been one of my most delightful encounters with Cannoli and new experiences trying a beverage such as Crodino nothing quite like aperitifs to give you fine balance between sweet and bitter. Thanks to Nep for allowing us to encounter such a wonderful Cannoli experience, truly delicious with over whelming taste.

Bitter balancer.

Satisfied. Nice hat Nep!
-Avi Gold Continue Reading

French Chocolate Company Laduree proudly offer an array of different colored chocolate style mice. Although I hate these creatures these look quite delicious and pretty sure they were put out for Easter. Via Andrew Bunney Honeyee Blog.


Colors and style for all.
-Avi Gold Continue Reading

Looking through Chinese cusine, you're met with some hella delicious foods, save when you get to the end. Dessert is by far the most glaring weakness of a countries culinary delights which span numerous provincial and territorial styles. Go to dim sum and you're met with a weak ass assortment of packaged mango gelatin, brown sugar sponge cake (not really considered dessert coincidentally), cocktail buns (decent), egg tarts and well the shining star but barely redeemable, the egg custard bun. Most often desserts after dinner at proper Chinese restaurants are either orange/melon platters or hot soups called “tong shui” translated literally as sugar water. Once again, nothing really savory, lots of bean soups like red bean “tong shui”, green bean, boiled papaya. Not all that flattering. So on to a recent dessert place I hit up. It was around 11:30 pm and the place was hella packed despite calling itself Honeymoon Dessert. Now that I think of it, my disdain of Chinese dessert is probably how so much of it focuses on fruit, f**k that gimme some ice cream, chocolate SOMETHING like that. The menu consists of various “tong shuis” in hot or cold styles. Hot dessert soups... sound appetizing? My friend elected for the Snow White Shit Mix (I added the shit mix part), its a bowl of weird ass seeds + some sort of milk crap with once again the fruit which includes mango, banana and preserved longan (Chinese fruit). Buddy swears by it. I elected for the sesame + sago and bucking up for the dumplings. The sesame soup is made by stir frying sesame till its black or something to that effect hence the black color. The sago is similar to that FOB favorite bubble tea, while the dumplings are actually good, with a peanut/sesame filling.

That pretty much concludes my Chinese dessert rant.

menu

also menu

Sesame soup and sago with dumplings

Snow White Shit Mix
-Eugene (Hong Kong Contributor) Continue Reading

That's Keri she’s one of my good friends and ultimate teenage heartthrob also sister to Tastebuds member Lexi!!! I love her to death. It was recently her birthday and so I decided to stop by the house and drop off a cake for her. She just turned 21 and I wanted Keks (nickname) to celebrate in style. You ask yourself, how does one celebrate in style? Well I’ll tell you how you celebrate in style; Baskin Robins ice cream cake! That stuff is the BOMB DIGGY YO!!! Purchased a Cookies n Cream Ice Cream cake because if you know Keri she is very sweet so it only made sense to reiterate that via a birthday cake. From what I hear Keks had the most amazing 21st birthday ever, so glad I was able to see her on this special day. Happy 21st Birthday and all the best for the future years…

A special cake for a special girl. Cake is not subject to size it was actually kinda small....

Jaclyn Klein enjoying cake. She is also Steve Aoki's number one fan...

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A good way to relax on a friday night after a week of hard work, school and exhaustion before kicking off the weekend is smoking a little flavoured tobacco with a hookah, a "water pipe device for smoking...which operates using water filtration and indirect heat." Point being, you can enjoy your tobacco without all the chemicals and additives that are basically deadly to your body that are found in cigarettes, and have a great taste and aroma accompanying it.



Today, my down-ass-chick and I decided to break in our new hookah, courtesy of my good friend Viktor Topic. We had some mango molasses and chocolate flavoured tobacco (shisha) to enjoy, and the scent was amazing.




Basically you have the bong, consisting of the water jar, gasket and valve, fill it with some water, a bowl to put the shisha in, cover it with some foil, throw the charcoal up on top and let the heat burn the tobacco, then you smoke throw the hose with a mouthpiece. Upon inhalation the smoke goes through the bong into the water, then the smoke bubbles up through the water and is inhaled via the hose into your lungs. Clean and smooth.


Smokin' a little shisha on the fire escape on a friday night...ultimate relaxation.



We got our shisha from a pretty good company who can supply you with everything else you need to setup your own sessions, Hookah-Hookah. The tobacco is fresh, burns well and tastes amazing, they've got almost every single flavour covered and at a pretty amazing price if you buy multiple packs. A session should last you about 30-45 minutes, depending on the quality of the shisha, how much you use and how many homies you have kickin' it with you.

If you've never tried it out, I highly suggest you do, even if you don't smoke tobacco regularly it's quite enjoyable, and for those that want to kick the bad habit of cigarettes this is a great alternative.

If you don't want your own setup or can't find a place to smoke with your friends indoors, you can also hit up your local Aladdin's for some good shawarma and falafel and smoke a bowl there as well for $10 a head.


Get your setup and shisha here:
Hookah-Hookah
1-866-208-1399
http://www.hookahhookah.com/

Aladdin's Palace

3560 Victoria Park Avenue
North York, ON M2H 3S3
(416) 498-9899
http://www.aladdins-palace.ca

Peace,

dp


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These chocolates have been circulating multiple blogs for quite some time now. No other way to pay homage to graffiti legends then with these snacks. You can pay respect to the likes of Blade, Crash, Iz the Wiz, Lady Pink, Spar One, Dondi White and Stay High 149 to name a few; all which are New York City legends. If you wish feel free to purchase chocolates here. Always good to see that the money raised from this venture will go to charity.

Crash

Dondi White (RIP)

Iz The Wiz

Stay High 149

-Avi Gold

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If you’re looking for a good reason to break open a bottle of Champagne then Wild Hibiscus is the first excuse to do so. Feel free to use this flower as garnish when serving Moet, Dom P etc.. just drop the flower in the cup and give it a shower with the expensive beverage. Upon soaking the flower with champagne you will notice that the flower will slowly open up, once you’ve completed your glass feel free to eat the Wild Hibiscus as it is edible and will most likely have a raspberry taste. You can purchase this "flower in syrup" over here.

-Avi Gold Continue Reading

My good friend Jun is currently in San Francisco skateboarding and trying to find Japanese girls (preferably tourists) at the Golden State Bridge. While on his trip he recently stopped at Center Stage Deli which is known for offering a unique and inspired movement of love; whatever that means. As you can tell by the photo Jun settled for a sandwich but not any sandwich a Spicy Turkey Sandwich with Cheese. It's apparent that this sandwich looks "Hella" fresh as they would say on the west coast and appreciate his selection of whole wheat bread as apposed to white. Always good to keep it healthy! Centre Stage seems like a nice little place to eat and they serve Boars Head Meat.. Incase you were interested. Thanks for the photos Jun! BAAAYYY ARRREAAAAAA...

Hella Hyphy with it..

Jun could'nt believe that they had skate publications in the joint..

No left overs..
- Avi Gold Continue Reading

But it is her 21st Bday today and so we are spoiling her just a lil bit...



Here is what I made for her for her day today....

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Demolished!!!!

My Post-dinner "Zizi shot"!

Labels: birthday, Caprese, cheesecake, dinner, Fish, Italian, Pizza, Spaghetti, Tiramisu, Woodbridge, zizi

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...yoshoku was in full force manifesting itself in the everyday of Japanese cuisine. Yoshoku in Japanese, simply means “Western Food” and has now become as sought after as ever in Japan. The concept in itself of integrating foreign culinary influences with traditional Japanese cooking is perhaps indicative of Japanese society as a whole. Most are aware of how Japanese culture on the heels of numerous years of American/colonial-like influences have created many subcultures and chosen to mash-up Japanese culture with foreign touches here and there. On a culinary level, tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets with demi-glaze) has made a jump on many North American restaurant menus which are largely considered more traditional cuisine rather then simple yoshoku fare. Marquee dishes on the yoshoku menu include “Napolitan”, a spaghetti dish created by cooling cooked spaghetti and adding it to stir fried vegetables and the bun-less “hambagoo”, not that hard to figure it out. Having said that, ironically Japanese curry is a distant cousin of Indian influences on British sailors. The lineage is definitely long and not without its share of bumps along the way. I look at it as a game of telephone relaying a message (in this case a recipe) albeit with food.

The popularity of yoshoku cuisine goes as far Japanese emperors claiming the small statured Japanese had their diets to blame as he instituted a largely Western inspired diet. I had a chance to check out Tokyo earlier this year, and to me yoshoku (something off my radar during my trip) is just an interesting perception of culture on the whole. The Japanese have always been a fascinating societal development and one I find has a great ability of assimilating concepts while still maintaining a strict adherence to traditional roots. A quick look at many of Japan's Asian counterparts and they've largely rejected foreign influences on their cuisine.

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One of our Hong Kong contributors Eugene recently ate at a restaurant called "Modern Toilet"; a bathroom themed restaurant. As he stated "Only in Hong Kong" this is incredibly weird but a restaurant i'd love to eat at possibly one day if I ever get out to HK. It just seems like such a funny themed place to visit with urinals on the wall and food being served on potty trays. I'd have to say one of the most amazing things that I heard about Modern Toilet was that the desert looks like human waste wow that is absolutely genius! The name of the joint is so happy go lucky too. Photo's via Eugene's blog.
Welcome to Modern Toilet - best shit in town!
A wall full of urinals.. convience is that ever.Wow such cool art work!!!!
gold poop = good food
bathroom anyone?
Healthy stuff..Meat, rice all things nice..

potty training..on how to eat noodles.

-Avi Gold

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My brother spent his Saturday having lunch at Zoe Restaurant in Soho. He wanted to eat light so he went for the Steak Salad. The Salad comes with a layer of thin bread on top filled with steak and lettuce. Apparently it's pretty good salad, a little bit small but all in all Zoe had unbelievable looking Pizza’s and burgers.

For more on Zoe visit http://www.zoerestaurant.com/

-Avi Gold

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So the other day Kevin and I made our way over to Pacific Mall (which was one of the only places that was open on Good Friday) for a quick snack grab at "Qooo Snack". If you've ever been here and love Asian snack foods, then you know what I mean when I say this place is AMAZING. This tiny shop literally has snacks lining the walls from top to bottom on basically every wall left and right, snacks in the middle isle and busting out of the front entrance, to the point of fire hazard status. You can find snacks here that you can't find at your regular grimey Asian supermarket, but beware -some tastes are aquired. This is what we left with:

L-R: Aloe Drink, Tao Kae Noi (Japanese Crispy Seaweed), (brand unknown) rice squid cracker, (brand unknown) chewy fruit candys

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In the above photo you see spiritual advisor Jessie. Now if one thing is for certain it's that Jessie stays eating healthy food. He always mentions to me that I should try healthier choices and he is definitely right about that. A favorite for this ginger kid is "The Buddha" available from Fresh which is next door to the sneaker shop (Goodfoot) that he works at. This salad has very basic ingredients i.e. rice, tomatoes, cucumber- basically healthy selects. I think the name of this salad makes it even more intriguing and definitely a choice i'd consider getting if and when I go to Fresh. Fast eater..

Fresh
416-599-4442
147 Spadina Avenue
1/2 block South of Queen St. West

- Avi Gold

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Wasabi is hot.
-Avi Gold Continue Reading

The good folks at Odwalla mailed out some promo coupons. Can't stress how thankful I actually am that I received this letter. Over the past little while I’ve become a big advocate of the product at hand and continuously gone out of my way to purchase it exclusively at Pusiteri's. At the moment it's kind of annoying that only one store has the product available but after speaking to Verna I was notified that all that is about to change and expansion is set to happen. I'm excited to see Odwalla expand into Canada because it's about time a health drink had an opportunity to shine, hopefully though upon expansion a bigger variety will come into play. Only the future will tell! Odwalla is still one of my favorites and it's been a while since I’ve had one. All in due time. If you still have not had the chance to try this beverage get on it right a way. Double thumbs up.
logo..
a letter enclosed.
Coupons too.
the best things in life are _____.
Life Food is delicious..

Max fun & pleasure.

Thanks again Odwalla.

- Avi Gold

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Recently my older brother took a trip to New York with his girlfriend Sari. The night of Sari’s Birthday they visited a brand new Lebanese restaurant called Llili. Sari decided to go all out and have them make a chocolate bar in front of her from the base up. They came to the table melted the chocolate on top of the nuts and what appeared to be similar ingredients to baklava on the side. This was an unbelievable desert, a little bit on the rich side but all in all convincing. This upscale Middle Eastern concept restaurant was packed with over 150 people in it and was over 3000 square feet with an upstairs too. The menu had your typical Shwarma, Kebabs with tons of different tachinia and hummous sides but the most surprising of all was Duck Shwarma!!!!!
Rich, Rich, Rich, Rich...

Sari approved.

-Avi Gold

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Today on my pointless trip downtown I happened to see my friend Andrew who notified me that he was running over to Ackee Tree to get a "Patty and Cocoa bread". I decided to follow suit and so I did however I don’t often regulate Ackee Tree but once in a while I’ll stop by for some goods. I seemed to put myself in a position of impulse where I wasn’t eager to really eat but because I saw how good the food looked it was hard to fight the temptation and ended up purchasing myself a mid day treat. Ackee Tree staff is knowledgeable and friendly, the atmosphere is a some what fine dine type vibe, and judging by what you already read you know the food has got to be good. Ackee Tree is a convenient go to place for quick and easy West Indian cuisine.

Candle in the Ackee Tree.
Beverage selection.
Stylist/West Indian food champ
A wide selection..
Ackee Tree is Tastebuds approved. Even the staff says so.
White paper bags. Patty is hiding..
Grilled always taste better.
Close up.. Patty was made so well and got a kick because I ask for "spicy"

Andrew is impressed.

170 Spadina Avenue at Queen
Open 11:00AM – 12:00 PM : Sunday – Thursday
&
Friday & Saturday : 11:00 AM - 4:00AM

Ackee Tree is located beside The Bombshelter.

-Avi Gold

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Expect to see these all over town. Word. Thanks Adiel.
Consumption.
-Avi Gold
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It's not common to come across a box of Trinidad cigars and those that do are in the realm of understand of what good cigars are. I've been drawn to Trinidad's because it carries an aura that intrigues me you know; the name, the size, the blend etc.. This particular box that I’ve decided to review is a very special one. If you take a closer look at the cigar's you will notice it has a band that reads "Edicion Limitada 2007" this up's the cigar a few notches but we cant forget the size and the pig tail end. These cigars look victorious and sort of like they would be worth what you pay however as they say never judge a book by its cover. At a second hand look the cigar looks “oily” and much like it carries a rich flavor, recommended to smoke after eating a steak or big meal. Available at select stores around the globe just minus the United States and ranging between 26.99-32.99 (can't remember).
12 In a box... Continue Reading

So I was browsing through photos earlier today when I noticed my friend Nat (who I met years back through my other friend Hazey) had some cool shots of a dinner party she attended. I was taken by how amazing the food looked and then went out of my way to reach out to Nat and see if she'd be willing to elaborate on some of the dishes that were enjoyed on this marvelous evening. She then replied "Sure no prob :) !!!!!" and sent me a list of what was endured at this festive shindig. Before I carry on a few things readers should know: these photos are courtesy of Nat, this was at Wildfire Steakhouse and Wine Bar, Nat might be single and the food looks absolutely amazing! I’m not quite familiar with Wildfire but I’m going to have a make an effort to eat at this place just based on the well thought out presentation of the food. Thanks Nasty Nat.. You’re awesome….A wine cocktail.. good way to get a party started...
Damn son look at those mushrooms...Churrasco Grilled Portobellini Mushroom Salad, vine-ripened tomatoes.. mmm...



Wildfire Steakhouse & Wine Bar
3438 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M4N 2N2
416-483-4800

- Avi Gold

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5 Boroughs Ice Cream is based out of Astoria, Queens NYC and has flavours inspired by different neighbourhoods in the city. The ice cream is homemade with locally manufactured ingredients, 16% butterfat premium ice cream to ensure intense flavour. I have yet to try this but it looks quite interesting, especially with such flavours as: Continue Reading

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I would just like to share my appreciation for Maggi seasoning. It definitely holds a spot up there along with my favourite condiments. Maggi seasoning is excellent on noodles (wet or dry) and I even like to sprinkle several drops over white rice. In fact, Maggi has a whole line of great products including broth, boullion cube, 2 minute noodles and in some countries a Maggi McCheeseburger ( I have yet to see/taste it in person). Let this be a pre-cursor to a full appreciation post for the Maggi brand. Continue Reading

Been a little while since a cigar update however today we present the Partagas Series D No 4. Let me get started and inform you on just how sought after these cigars actually are. For that matter at a semi affordable price range these are fan favorites for many experienced and un-experienced smokers and that’s most likely because of the cult like following and fair price range they offer. Size wise this cigar is a Robusto and a comfortable smoke, however if you're not an experienced smoker I don’t recommend you take an attempt. A nice draw with a rich flavor that follows you can expect close to an hours worth of smoke. Partagas always seemed to be more of an underdog or hidden talent but once you get interested in this product you have no where to go and nothing to turn to. Birth place is Cuba which means it's not available in The United States. General price range $23.59, wherever fine cigars are sold world wide minus US.Nothing like a wooden box filled with Patagas Series D No.4
Beauty rest with-in the box...

Red labels...

-Avi Gold

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Israel's leading chocolate manufacturer/distributor Elite have been notorious for years. Always capable of presenting innovative and delicious chocolates and products to millions of people they coined one of my favorites; Chocolate crackle. Basically this is a chocolate bar that crackles in your mouth while you eat it. To put it in perspective for the readers i'd say this is just top notch chocolate with pop rocks inside of it. I remember almost 3 years ago visiting Israel and going nuts on purchasing this chocolate to bring home for friends to try.
If you can notice those white speckles on the chocolate that's basically the pop rocks. Funny how an inovative idea such as this recently got used by Pop Rocks themselves. It took them long enough...
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A few weeks back we showed you these Japanese puddings that came to surface via Kaws Blog on Honeyee. Well I contacted my friend Jun from Japan and he had no idea what these where all about until yesterday when he sent me a link to this site that features a wide variety of these puddings. He said that quite a few of these where from his parent’s home town of Nigata. I hate to give into that website "What white people like" but these are way to funny not to like and just more living proof that the Japanese are always steps ahead from the rest... I mean come on they took pudding and turned it into porn. Just great...Thanks Jun!! my favorite is the tanned blonde.. Shes a model forsure..

What a milf...

-Avi Gold

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