Hoo. How long was it been since I blogged about Toronto? I guess I should continue on with my trip. Hahaha. So after the amazing dinner at Richmond Station, W and I packed up, said our goodbyes to our friend and left for Montreal the next morning. We rode the VIA Rail, which took us about five hours to get to Montreal from Toronto. We thought that it would be less of a hassle than taking a plane. We could sit anywhere we wanted so we took up all four seats since there was not a lot of people in our car. The bad thing was that though the car had WIFI, there was no place to plug in my devices to charge! Sigh.

I am glad we took the train. We wouldn't have been able to see all the scenery we passed by otherwise!

For lunch, we purchased food from the cart that came by. Chicken Noodle Soup was on the menu for $2 and Hummus & Flatbread for $3. I thought that it was actually soup but it was really Campbell's instant noodles! Not bad for only $2.


 We passed by a lot of farmland and the weather was just gorgeous!







We arrived in Montreal Central Station in the afternoon. We had to walk all the way to our hotel. It looked closer on the map. lol


 Beautiful colours everywhere in the city.



 We stayed at the Ville-Marie Best Western Hotel. It was quite a walk with our luggage in tow.

After checking in, we spent the rest of the day Simons, a clothing department store found only in the province of Quebec. The stuff found in there is a bit pricey in my opinion. But they do have their own brand, which costs less.

After that we left to find some dinner.

YEW restaurant + bar has been on my list of restaurants to try for some time. Earlier last year, I had won a prize at the BC Home and Garden Show that consisted of a five course dinner for six in their private dining room. I don't know why but somehow I never got around to making a reservation until December! So last Saturday, I invited my family and my aunt and uncle to dine with me, in what I knew would be a special dinner! Sadly, I chose a day where Executive Chef Ned Bell was out of town but Chef Sean Murray took good care of us.


The dining area is very spacious with high ceilings. Our "private" room was actually a glass room surrounded by wine in the back of the restaurant. You can see it to the left in the background in the photo above and on the right below.


A funky chandler hung above our table.



Some warm biscuits were brought out for us to start. The round one is made with rosemary while the square one is made with salmon! Both had some sea salt sprinkled on top. I liked the salmon one the best. I could have eaten a plateful of them but I refrained since there was so much more to come!

Our first dish consisted of three appetizers on a rectangular plate.  I was salivating already when I saw what was on the place. All my favourites - Dungeness crab taco, smoked Albacore tuna and two Kusshi oysters.

Moet & Chandon Rose Imperial Champagne

The appetizers were paired with a sparkling rosé champagne.

DUNGENESS $17      Crab Taco, Miso Honey, Radishes, Sprouts, Crushed Avocado

The crab taco is on the regular menu and it is wonton shell stuffed full of dungeness crab. My aunt didn't like the raw stuff so she passed them on to me and my sister. Her loss! Our server, Lance was very nice and brought her an extra crab taco just so she wouldn't feel left out. SO NICE.

House smoked Albacore tuna on foam tofu, Avocado, Honey, Spiced Seeds & Nuts

Kusshi Oysters on sea salt, served with lemon

How did they know Kusshi's are my favourite? The oysters were very fresh and so delicious.

Scallop & pork belly

A little bigger appetizer came out after consisting of a scallop and a cube of pork belly on some celery and some kind of slightly sweet sauce. The skin of the pork was crispy and the meat was so tender. It had a lot of fat but it tasted so good. The scallop was done perfectly! This dish was paired with a white wine - Napa Valley Darioush Signature Viognier.

The dishes got better and better. The next plate was LOBSTER! I heard my mom and aunt squeal in delight. (They are super super seafood fans) Lobster claw, potato gnocchi on creme fraiche and lobster bisque. Delicious.

Ok, I must confess, my family aren't big drinkers and have very little alcohol tolerance. lol After the second glass, we were already feeling a little tipsy. The lobster was going to be paired with the Louis Jadot but we decided to just take the rest of the alcohol home instead of drinking it.

My sis and I didn't really want to drink and opted for some non-alcoholic drinks instead. To the left is what my sis had a strawberry, basil lemonade drink and to the right is mine - a ginger, coconut and pineapple soda. K said that the basil was a bit strong but otherwise it was good drink. I liked mine. It tasted a little bit like a pina colada but with a kick from the ginger. Quite refreshing!

This was my favourite dish out of the mains. Seared duck breast, on duck confit and brussel sprouts, sprinkled with black truffle, shaved chilled foie gras, surrounded by a truffle sauce and red wine reduction. It was a work of art and tasted heavenly. The duck was so tender and flavourful, I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Our last main was beef tenderloin and king crab leg with crab sauce, mixed mushrooms, pesto and cherry tomatoes. This dish was only ok. Everyone liked the king crab (did I mention big seafood fans?) but the beef was good but the sauce was a slightly too salty for our taste. Loved the mixed mushrooms though.

Either the duck or the beef was suppose to be paired with Duckhorn Goldeneye Pinot Noir, which we also didn't try.

It's actually five courses PLUS DESSERT! Woohoo!

 Moving from left to right, we started off with cheesecake,

 raspberry sorbet with chocolate crunchies to cleanse the palette,

and finished off with a chocolate ganache. Mmmm.

Dessert needs dessert wine so out comes the Mission Hill SLC Icewine. I will drink icewine. I love how sweet it is. And it was amazing. Very very sweet.

To end off our dinner, our server brought out some chocolates and Ned Bell's breakfast cookies for us to take home! I ate it the next day and it was very filling, delicious and chock full of healthy stuff!

 Here's a pic of all the wines that were paired with our dishes.

As we were leaving, they were also kind enough to give each family a can of YEW's canned wild Pacific Albacore tuna!


Notice that LOVE is one of the ingredients! I'll let you know how it tastes when I get around to eating it.

The dinner was amazing and impressed me a lot. The food was so delicious and the service was impeccable. The servers and kitchen staff went above and beyond what was required of them for this dinner. The Four Seasons even comped the extra dishes that were added when my cousin joined us toward the end of our meal. Of course after tax and tip it still ended up being probably the most expensive meal I've ever had in my life but really when will I ever experience this again? This dinner left a very good impression on me and my family and I'd highly recommend YEW to everyone.

Thank you Four Seasons Hotel, 650am Radio and BC Home + Garden Show for the prize! And thank you to the staff of YEW Restaurant for such a memorable dinner! It was YEWlicious!

Not too much going on this weekend but several notable things starting this weekend. Dine Out Vancouver starts Friday and who can forget that the Vancouver Canucks are back this Saturday vs the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Arena AND also Sunday vs the Edmonton Oilers. I bet a lot of people are happy about that. Why not combine Dine Out with Canucks?

Friday, January 18, 2013

lululemon athletica (Ware)house party
Friday, January 18 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Saturday, January 19 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Sunday, January 20 8am-2pm (Inventory dependent)
BC Place - 777 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver BC
Get ready to shop, practice and set goals at the lululemon athletica (Ware)house party. In addition to shopping, join us for complimentary events on Friday & Saturday evening at BC Place. All Sales are final. Debit and Credit (Visa, Mastercard & AMEX) only

The Überdrop Blue Drop Demo
11:30am - 1:00pm
Meet at Burrard and Nelson, the site of where the JRP hearings are taking place, at 11:30am
What happens when you combine one artist, one organizer, 1,500 square feet of cardboard, two cans of paint, four paint rollers, a few box cutters, an ARMY of volunteers, and one BIG idea?  The Überdrop. You get...the Überdrop.  Inspired by umbrella demonstrations in recent news, blue droppers in Vancouver are going to turn 200 umbrella-sized drops, which we'll hold over our heads, into one, gigantic ÜBERDROP!  Meet us at Burrard and Nelson, the site of where the JRP hearings are taking place, at 11:30 on Friday. We'll get you all set up with a drop and settled in with one of four teams, which will stream around the plaza until we all form one massive drop from our hundreds of smaller ones.  The streams and the Überdrop itself will not only be photographed by our eye in the sky, but a time-lapse video will be made as well!! http://bluedrops.ca/

Saturday, January 19, 2013

lululemon athletica (Ware)house party
Friday, January 18 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Saturday, January 19 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Sunday, January 20 8am-2pm (Inventory dependent)
BC Place - 777 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver BC
Get ready to shop, practice and set goals at the lululemon athletica (Ware)house party. In addition to shopping, join us for complimentary events on Friday & Saturday evening at BC Place. All Sales are final. Debit and Credit (Visa, Mastercard & AMEX) only

Fresh, local, organic foods & crafts. 60+ vendors, hot food, music! Rain or Shine!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

lululemon athletica (Ware)house party
Friday, January 18 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Saturday, January 19 8am-8pm (Last entry at 6pm) 
Sunday, January 20 8am-2pm (Inventory dependent)
BC Place - 777 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver BC
Get ready to shop, practice and set goals at the lululemon athletica (Ware)house party. In addition to shopping, join us for complimentary events on Friday & Saturday evening at BC Place. All Sales are final. Debit and Credit (Visa, Mastercard & AMEX) only

Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
Sunday, January 20 at 8:30am - January 21 at 6:00pm
Vancouver Convention Centre West 1055 Canada Place Vancouver
The Vancouver Resource Investment Conference is the world's largest investor focused resource exploration conference and the largest of all annual trade shows held in Vancouver, Canada. At the 2012 conference, over 500 companies, upwards of 60 expert analysts and 11,000 delegates gathered to network and share ideas. Companies covering every corner of mineral exploration sector are represented along with metals dealers, oil & gas, renewable energy, media and financial services companies. The annual event is a must attend for investors and participants in the global mining industry.

21st Century Flea Market - $5
10:00am - 3:00pm
Croatian Cultural Centre, 3250 Commercial Drive at 16th Avenue, Vancouver
With 175 different vendors offering everything from shabby chic to 50's kitsch, collectibles and memorabilia to vintage kitchenalia, this popular European-style collectors market is a must-see…185 tables jam-packed full of bargains on deluxe 20th century junque makes each date an absolutely-do-not-miss treasure-hunting adventure! General Admission $5 at Door 10am-3pm • Special Early-Bird Admission $20 at Door 7am-10am • Children Under 13 Free with Adult Admission

My friend E is SUPER NICE and invited me to join her at the Lady Gaga Born This Way Ball last Friday. Eeee! I was super excited and Gaga puts on quite a show. She has gotten a little weirder than usual for my taste, but to each their own. I still like her music.

We were sitting high up in the balcony and I only brought my tiny camera so the photos are not very good. Also we opted to skip the opening acts to have some food and drinks at Pivo so there are no pics of them. My sis said they weren't very good anyways. I was surprised that she started on time!

Lady Gaga came out on a black unicorn.

 Freaky floating disembodied "alien" head.


More weirdness. LOL She's giving birth to a new race or something. Is it just me or does that prop look like a big turkey?



We speculate that she's on a Segway.

Gaga came out of that egg and sang Bad Romance. My favourite!





 




 


Like last time, Lady Gaga called a lucky fan in the audience. Virgin Mobile donated $5000 to a charity because Nicole picked up her phone.

"I have something special for you...wait how old are you?"
"16"
"Oh never mind. We'll have some lovely tea...though I might put some whiskey in mine"

HAHAHHA!


Gaga came out in her meat dress!

 Ha I love these meat grinders.

This is something you don't see everyday - Lady Gaga lounging on a meat couch wearing a machine gun bra.



Towards the end of the show Gaga even invited some lucky fans up to join her from the Monster Pit! They were ecstatic! 

I didn't think her costumes were as crazy as last time she was here. But the concert was as good despite some awkward moments (for me) when Gaga sort of condoned stripping...There was a little girl behind us!!! Sigh. Why are their parents even letting them go to these sorts of concerts?! Anyways, I had a great time and loved dancing to all of her songs. Thanks E for inviting me!