Great dinner!

My brother took me out for dinner tonight as a belated birthday present. We went to Hiro Sushi, which is on King, near Jarvis. We had the omakase meal, and the food was really great. We started with a sardine and veggie appetizer. Then came two soups - the first was a pumpkin miso soup, and the other was a sort of mushroom soup that came in a very cute teapot. The soup was poured into this little sake cup with a slice of yuzu in it. Very light and refreshing. then came a chilled duck and eggplant dish, and a quail and tofu roll. The duck was amazing. The quail tasted really good, but all the little bones in it were annoying. Then there was a boiled fish in sauce (very tasty), and this persimmon + black miso + seafood dish that was really amazing. Lastly was a big plate of sushi. At first, my brother asked me how come there wasn't any wasabi on the plate, and the reason is that you're supposed to trust that the chef will always put the right amount of wasabi on there for you. Needless to say, there were a few times when we got hit with wasabi bombs and felt like crying. But wow, did my sinuses feel better after that!!

All in all, I have to say that the meal was amazing, but the service was a bit slow at the start. Things got better, but it was a bit annoying to have to keep asking them to refill our teacups.

Mini update

Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes! I really appreciated it.

Things I did recently:

• went to Kim's bachelorette
• spent some quality time catching up with Katty and Mita in the car to and from Ottawa
• met Ernest's daughter Claire
• met Jensen's daughter Alyssa
  
• hung out with Nolan and Mike while they were in town from New Jersey

Things coming up:

• Kim's wedding (duh)
• Joe and Patty's wedding in Vancouver
• Lantern Festival performance

I'll write a more comprehensive post about some of the stuff I did later. This was probably more for me to figure out what I can actually write about! :D

Happy Birthday, Nahawna!!

Just wanted to send out happy birthday wishes to my dear friend, Nahawna Afooa. Here's wishing you health and happiness, and ice cream and cake! (Green tea ice cream with hot fudge sauce, anyone?)