adventures in the people's republic of china and beyond

Friday, December 01, 2006

 

More Canadian adventures


The Queen's University campus has a lot of impressive old buildings. I felt like I was on the set of one of those movies set in a cold North American place.


Every college town needs its own bubble tea house. I drank watermelon milk tea with lychee jellies, while Rebecca got passion fruit tea with tapioca bubbles. Pretty fruity, huh?


Cambodiana restaurant serves up some of the best Thai/Camodian food I've had in North America. It was so good we went three times. Pictured: on the left, green curry chicken, on the right, pad thai.


My German teacher once told me Canada has lots of donut shops. He was right. Tim Hortons are everywhere in Canada, way more popular than McDonalds. Don't know if fried dough rings are any healthier than Big Macs, though...


Pictured here is Tim Horton's hot chocolate and Timbits(donut holes). Shortly after taking this photo, I was interviewed by a Queen's University journalism team about my opinions on the "culture of whiteness" on campus.


Queen's University is right next to Lake Ontario. Do I smell a photo op?


Mr. Dumpling, a nice little Korean restaurant that specializes in dumplings and kamjatang(pork bone soup). Kamjatang seemed to be very popular in the Korean restaurants I visited; perhaps it's an Ontario Korean specialty.


The lovely Rebecca enjoying tea and dim sum in Toronto Chinatown's Forestview restaurant. This was a real dim sum place with pushcarts and everything. Really cheap, too! The place is just east of the Spadina and Dundas with stone lions in the front if anyone is ever up in Toronto, though I've heard all the best Chinese restaurants are in the suburbs now. We Asians are just too upwardly mobile for our own good, I guess...


My first time in a N American Chinatown! The Toronto Chinatown is one of the biggest in N America, though I've heard it has become increasingly Vietnamese over the years as the Chinese move out to the suburbs. Still a cool place, though, complete with fresh fruit markets, dim sum restaurants, and people selling pirated DVDs on the sidewalk. Just like the real China!


I thought it was so cool that all of the banks and street signs in Chinatown were bilingual.


The Toronto subway is fairly convenient for getting around downtown, but it costs $2.75 Canadian each trip, which is an exorbitant price for someone who used China's public transportation extensively(where subway tickets are $0.35). The tickets do allow you to connect freely between subway, trolley(which I got to ride for the first time!) and bus, though.


Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba. You take pieces of injera bread(like thin spongy pancakes) and pick up food with it. We also saw kitfo on the menu, an Ethiopian specialty featuring minced raw beef, but Rebecca preferred to eat cooked meat. Someday...


As we walked back to our hotel, I knew we were safe once we had reached Koreatown, its borders marked by light-up Korean peninsulas on the streetlights. Inside Koreatown: happy couples eating ice cream and little children pointing at toys in shop windows.


Dak kalbi(Korean marinated chicken) at Joon's in Koreatown. One great thing about the Korean restaurants I visited in Canada was the attentiveness of the wait staff about the side dishes; as soon as one of them was empty they were ready to bring us some more.


Know what's cool about Koreatown? In addition to light-up Korean peninsulas, they also get their own street signs! BTW, on this street we passed by "New Generation", a restaurant featured in Pure Pwnage. Kind of weird to see something in an internet show and then happen to stumble across it in real life.


Patbingsu in a Koreatown cafe. It's a treat made with crushed ice, red bean, fruits, and ice cream. A delicious treat for any time of year!


Koreatown rocks!


Rebecca with the CN tower. We didn't bother going up(something like 30bucks).


Toronto financial district. Shiny! Lots of people walking around in business suits and overcoats, just like one of those movies set in a big city.


Dundas Square, in front of Eaton Center.


Great Indian food at downtown Toronto's Dhaba restaurant. Pictured: Saffron rice, daal, butter chicken, and naan bread.


That's all for now, but don't worry, Rebecca will be making her own trip down to New Mexico in just a few weeks!

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