This Ad has the MOST Gorgeous Food Shots Ever

If you enjoy watching Food Network or YouTube recipe videos or if you just like to eat and look at pretty things, then you will enjoy this amazingly hypnotic piece of food porn from the French coffee brand, Carte Noire.

ROSE by Carte Noire from ))) datafone on Vimeo.

The two minute video titled, ROSE, is about baking delicious quaint little pastries filled with coffee-flavoured cream to pair with your coffee. Sounds simple enough but using a creative way of shooting it, a basic baking recipe turns into an artistic and mesmerizing work of art. Oh mon dieu!

Carte Noire also has various other videos shot with the same delicious and tantalizing views. You can view the videos HERE

Google's Nutrition Tool

I thought I'd switch it up and feature a service rather than a product today. Leave it to the folks on Reddit to stumble upon this tool. Now this is not a new tool, Google quietly launched it back in 2013, but I hadn't heard of it until now.

By typing "compare ____ and ____" or "____ vs ____"in Google will give you a nutrition comparison tool. Using the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Nutrient Database and Google's own algorithms, you will be hit with nutritional information as well as a bunch of tempting-looking recipes. As always, Google tries to give you "what might be useful to you when you ask it a question. Thanks, Google!

JaBistro for our 4th Anniversary :)!

We love going to upscale Japanese restaurants, but as university students... visiting them frequently is not financially practical. Thus, we like to save them for special days so we can hit two birds with one stone. Since it was our four year anniversary, we finally got the chance to hit up JaBistro, a restaurant we have been yearning to visit. Before you scroll down, get nice and comfortable and enjoy the tour of our favorite Japanese restaurant to date.

Opened by James Hyunsoo Kim, who brought the popular Guu chain from Vancouver to Toronto, it offers traditional sushi and sashimi as well as aburi (blow-torched sushi) and oshizushi (box-press sushi) which are hard to come by in Toronto. It truly lives up to all the hype and James can add another notch into his belt of successful restaurants. Heading up the kitchen is Koji Tashiro (you can spot him in the kitchen wearing his signature golf-like hat) who has had 12 years of sushi experience in the famous Tsukiji Fish Market (where Jiro gets his fish!) and Vancouver's Miku restaurant. He also worked briefly at Guu Sakabar to gain insight and experience with the Toronto clientele.

JaBistro
Where: 222 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON
Price: $$$$ (Our meal was $225, including tax and tip)

In the Kitchen: Oven Baked Fries

All blogs have their own rendition of oven baked fries so I thought I would jump in too. Read further for tips on how to make the crispiest fries.. without frying them!

Tips from the Kitchen: How to Choose Fresh Fish!

Photo via Cravedfw

As a university student who has to do a lot of grocery shopping, I often find myself at a loss when it comes to the seafood aisle. Am I getting ripped off because they know I'm a student? Is the sale worth it? 

I stumbled upon this great article on Food52 on how to choose the freshest fish and thought it'd be great to share it with all of you!

Not Hydrated Enough? Try Eating More Water

 As a student and a young professional (YP), I understand when people say they don't get enough water in their day. Simply put, it is a daunting task! A busy lifestyle makes it hard for us to keep our body properly hydrated - and all those after work drinks and coffee to keep you awake through the day doesn't help either! Did you know that for every cup of coffee you drink, you need 2 cups of water in order to prevent dehydration. But you don't necessarily have to drink all your water (Tevlin, Adele). Roughly 20% of your natural intake of water is actually through solid foods - especially fruits and vegetables

Skotidakis Greek Yogurt Review

I absolutely love Greek Yogurt.. it's such a thick and decadent alternative to the regular watery yogurt. Before Greek yogurt, yogurt was either runny and very sweet or contained 20 calories. So when Greek yogurt blew up in Toronto, I searched high and low to find my favourite - which I can now confidently say is Skotidakis Yogurt.

Foods Disguised as Other Foods

Amazingly talented Japanese artist, Hikaru Cho, created a fun series of paintings titled "It's Not What It Seems" where common foods are transformed into other foods - all with the use of common acrylic paint. Amazing as they are, these are actually some of Cho's more tame works of arts. Her portfolio includes the alteration of human faces using paints to make them look like they have zippers or extra eyes!

See if you can guess each of the following vegetables and/or fruits!!

What is this? A cucumber? Or is it..

In the Kitchen: Spaghetti Puttanesca

Spaghetti alla puttanesca is a tangy, salty pasta dish that consists of 5 main ingredients typically found in Italian cuisine: tomatoes, olive oil, olives, capers and garlic. This pasta dish is considered a classic, although it has only surfaced recently.

Fun (and somewhat vulgar) fact: puttana literally translates to w***e which makes this dish, spaghetti of the w***e. People have come up with interesting theories about the origin of the name: luring customers in with the smell; the dish can be assembled quickly; can be shared between two clients and so on. There is also the possibility that the name simply comes from another Italian word, puttanata which translates to rubbish. I prefer to think it's from the first root word..makes it more fun :)

Sushi Chef Makes Sushi From a Single Grain of Rice

Sushi is the most delicious when it is simple. Nothing can beat a fresh piece of salmon sashimi. But can it get any simpler?

Apparently it can - or can't. I have mixed feelings about how "simple" this sushi really is but a chef in Tokyo, Japan has started serving sushi on one singular grain of rice. It started out as a joke with a customer but gained popularity with other customers.

Aka Teppan

If you've ever visited Hong Kong, then you've been to Pepper Lunch, a popular establishment. They specialize in hot sizzling plates! Similar to Pepper Lunch is Markham's Aka Teppan which features the same sizzling plate type of meal.

Aka Teppan

Where: 3235 Highway 7 East (First Markham Place), Markham

Price: $$ (Dinner for 2 with appetizer: $31, tax and tip included)

Pancakes From Around The World

[via Dinner with Julie]

When I think of pancakes, I think of a flattened sweet or savory cake with various fillings and toppings, combined with batter that is cooked in a pan and then smothered in maple syrup. That was until I bumped into this article by Buzzfeed displaying a variation of pancakes from... around the world! A simple flat cake can be incorporated into many different cultures and they look incredibly tasty.

Here are my top 5 pancakes from this list:

Teacup Cake Molds

I was watching Giada at Home and noticed she was using these adorable teacup cupcake silicone molds:

Look how dainty they look!

I did some digging on the Internet and haphazardly stumbled upon the exact molds from Fred & Friends. I was a little surprised because, honestly, I didn't think I'd find them (usually I find that TV-show items are limited edition, expensive or made specifically for the show). But I'm so happy to share that these adorable molds are available for purchase off Amazon!

In the Kitchen: Infallible Waffles!

I absolutely love homemade waffles. Something about using the waffle machine and getting to dress the waffle to your liking makes me really satisfied (don't judge me!). The fact that you're only paying a fraction of the price is pretty sweet too ;)

As for the batter.... have you found that sometimes the batter is good, sometimes its bad? This recipe is perfect (and has never failed me once)! Trust me, you will never buy boxed waffle batter again.

In The Kitchen: Mushroom Ragout and Creamy Polenta

I love beef ragout but always felt that it was a bit too heavy for a weeknight dinner so I gravitated towards a vegetarian spin off using mushrooms in place of the meat. Great hearty and meat-free dinner!

In the Kitchen: Wild Mushroom Soup

Mushrooms are seriously the most underrated kitchen ingredient. They are filled with umami flavour and when time is taken to really coax these flavours out, you are left with a luxurious soup base.

Ordinary Food Makes for Fun Doodling!

Sometimes when I'm eating, I will look at my dish and randomly see a face or other familiar images. Now this happens about.. once in a blue moon but artist Victor Nunes has managed to find art and beauty in the simplest of food as well as various other household items.

Your Favourite Celebrity Could be Tasted at Your Local Deli....

Our Future: Kanye West Salami?
Photo via

Picture this: you are walking down your local grocery store and stop by the deli to get some cold cuts. Your eyes browse over all the choices: Black Forest Ham, Turkey Ham, Genoa Salami, Ellen Degeneres Salami, Pepperoni, Julia Roberts Soppressata -- wait, what?

Lindt Dark Chocolate Strawberry Review

Okay, so this is not by any means a new product but I recently decided to stray from my typical Lindt 70% Cocoa Dark Chocolate and get something more adventurous. So I picked up the Lindt Dark Chocolate Strawberry and the Lindt White Chocolate Strawberry bars and o-m-g they are heavenly.

The best part about this particular chocolate is you can really taste the strawberry. It is NOT a strawberry flavoured chocolate but chocolate with strawberry pieces IN it.

Smooth and creamy chocolate combined with dehydrated strawberry pieces. The white chocolate is perfect for those who crave a sweet and creamy strawberry fix. The dark chocolate on the other hand is more decadent (expected) and the perfect after-lunch dessert. Both are dangerously addicting and I highly recommend you try them!

Lindt White Strawberry EXCELLENCE Bar ($3.95)
Lindt Dark Strawberry EXCELLENCE Bar ($3.95)

Sogong-Dong Tofu House

Exterior

Nothing better than a bubbling hot bowl of tofu stew to whisk away the -30 weather that Toronto is having!

Sogong-Dong Tofu House
Where: 3229 Highway 7 (First Markham Place, beside VIP Vietnamese Cuisine)
Price: $ (Dinner was $11.18, tax and tips included )

Move Over, Kale... Cauliflower is the New Super Food!

As I was going through my daily blog feeds recently, I noticed a general trend in recipe posts. They all shared one common ingredient: cauliflower!

Roasted Cauliflower Soup with Cumin
via

As much as I love and appreciate the benefits that kale brings, I for one am getting sick of the kale-is-the-holy-grail mentality that people have had. Yes, its health benefits are never ending and yes, it makes for a great salad and smoothie addition but there are so many under appreciated vegetables out there that do just the same!

Tips from the Kitchen: Umami - the lost fifth flavour?

Photo via Sabine Dowek

I'm sure many of us grew up learning the four different tastes: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. But in the recent couple of years, a new flavour is being recognized: umami. But what is it exactly?

The Amazing Latte Art of Kasuki Yamamoto

I'm already amazed when I see a latte with a pretty clover at the front so I was completely floored when I stumbled upon to Kasuki Yamamoto's Twitter page. Kasuki Yamamoto is a Japanese artist who has found his calling for art in a rather unusual medium - latte!

Using only a simple toothpick, Yamamoto creates delightful art for his customers at Cafe10g in Osaka, Japan. He posts his art onto his Twitter page where he has gained nearly 125K followers fascinated by his art.