I travel a lot. This time I went to Canada.

And so it goes:


Niagara Falls

Our funny blue ponchos: grandma and mom

Celebrating sister's bday w/ a moose head

Amazing steamed dumplings at Mother's Dumplings in Toronto's Chinatown

Green onion pancake!

Boiled pork and chive dumplings.

Kid portrait artist on Kensington. He drew like a little kid. It made it more endearing.

Homeless stuffed cat. Sad. :(

Amazing amazing amazing art gallery in Montreal.

Mommy outside of Yves Laroche.

Love this photo of naked mannis. Have a couple more on the Flickr.

Part of Parliament in Ottawa.

Lobster Bisque at Aux Anciens Canadiens in Quebec City. No I did not eat this... I don't eat lobsters!

Golden shot of an Asian tourist doing his best Asian tourist pose.

Poutine! We need one here in Austin! I hereby announce that any food stand in Austin that starts selling poutine has stolen my idea. Because I thought of it! It's the only thing that's left! Besides dim sum and dumplings. Oh wait, those are my ideas too. He he.

My collection of candy bars. This is a tradition for me when I go to Canada ... especially Aero, my favorite.

Grandma eating a hot dog ha ha. So cute... her feet can barely touch the ground.

Also, I have started a new blog called The Nom Nom ... nothing's on it now, but I will tell you more as it develops. Can you guess what it's about? ... I will be transferring my food posts to that blog and from here on, all my food posts will be on that. :)

x,

Franny

Gumbo's

So my new internship comes with certain perks, including going to these fun food blogger events such as this one hosted by Gumbo's.

This martini that I can't remember the name of was way too strong for my taste. In addition, the sugar encrusted rim was distracting and annoying. I think this is a good example of presentation overkill.

This crab cake was great! The sauce reminded me of the spicy mayo that many sushi places use. I'm wondering if it is the same thing ... generally, they use Japanese mayo mixed with Sriracha. It looked and tasted the same. I thought it was great with the crab cake.

I generally don't like mussels or oysters but this was really good. The oyster was barely noticeable, which is the way I like it.

It seemed that the grand consensus on this dish was the excellence of the sauce. It was excellent, haha. The redfish itself was rather bland and forgettable. Not to mention, I just feel like blackened foods is probably the worst thing you can do to food (sorry, I'm at a Cajun restaurant... obviously this should be expected, but whatever)... why would you want to slightly burn food? I would only do that to a smore.

This slice of steak was really good, except for the fact that I only had a fork that couldn't cut this large slice of meat... so I had to stuff it in my mouth and look like a complete pig in front of a bunch of other elite foodists ... great for them, bad for me!

Great bread pudding, but how can you really make bad bread pudding. I mean, if you make bread pudding and keep it warm and put some ice cream on top, I think anyone will like it unless they're retarded.

Those are my thoughts. If you want Cajun, definitely go check this place out because I'm not sure where else to go in Austin! I've heard of the opening of Shuck Shack on E. Cesar Chavez, but have yet to hear much else about it! I'm excited to try it out when I get back from maple leaf land.

x,

Franny

Boots, Studs, and Denim on the Etsy

More updates to the Etsy: charlievintage.etsy.com.
Does anyone want to help be my model or help me take pictures? I'm really bad with self-timer. Meh.






x,

Franny

We Fuse is Le Fresh!

I went with my friend Karinne to WeFuse last Friday before going to the Drafthouse to catch Julie & Julia, which was adorable by the way ... and we caught them before they closed! Turns out Jon, the owner, is Karinne's friend and he treated us to some pleasingly fresh dishes. I forget how good fresh fruit and veggies are. Why?!

Karinne ordered this Pear, Walnut, and Blue Cheese salad ... I had a few nibbles and wow. First of all, all the salad is definitely a bang for your buck. Second of all, the pairing of all the flavors topped with balsalmic vinaigrette (probably my favorite salad dressing) was awesome. I don't think of salads as healthy options. I think of them as real deal meals cuz they are darn good!

I ordered the Tuna Tataki with Avocado, Cucumber, and Seaweed Salad. Wow! Do you see that red sliver of sauce? Yeah, that's right ... it's Sriracha. And as all humans should know, Sriracha is an ingredient that should be integrated into everyone's diet. Why? Because it makes everything taste that much better, seriously. But anyway, the seaweed salad was just right. The cucumbers added a nice crunch to the softness of the fresh tuna. And the avocado was a nice textural balance as well ... kind of like sushi without the rice and seaweed paper ... and much bigger. Ha.


And finally, a non grape sangria! It's watermelon grapefruit sangria! Yeah, dude. This is gold. I think they make different fresh fruit juices/sangrias/concoctions every now and then ... and I'm not sure if they are on the menu or if they are free or if they are just ... secret? But yeah, definitely ask and see if they have this when you go!

Anyway, We Fuse is open generally for lunch. He said it gets packed in there, so I'd go early and snag a seat as the place isn't that big. It's located downtown at 2nd and Brazos. Get it.

--

PLEASE listen to this. It's amazing. This band is.
King Tuff - Sun Medallion

x,

Franny

Update to the Etsy page

Hello world ... the Etsy page is being updated:

Here are some items ...







You can visit the store here: charlievintage.etsy.com

More to come in the near future (when i have another day off...): lace-up booties, fur vests, denim jackets, floral dresses

Yay!

x,

Franny

Where is the spiciest salsa in Austin?

The English translation for this dim sum dish doesn't sound very appetizing (turnip cake).
But it is the best! This one is from Get Sum Dim Sum on N. Lamar.

Tacos Selene on 7th & Chicon has THE spiciest salsa. it is the green creamy salsa.
Tacodeli has nothing on this salsa... nothing. Not to mention, this place is extra close to all those
hip new bars on the East side, especially Liberty. It's open until like 3 am and it is amazing. Love. Cash only, obviously.

Thinking of putting my cat on the South Beach Diet.

I get bored when I go home to Plano. This is my old room I had in high school. Yeah, wow. But I am in LOVE with these amazing Samantha Pleet shorts I got from Buy Definition. They are amazing. And the creme crop top is also my favorite new article of clothing from AA.

Pretty flowers, yay. :)

x,

Franny

(this blog is slowly dying from no love ... sorry. maybe i'll fix that situation soon.)