Summer Ramen

Lunch today -> Summer Ramen.
I went home for lunch today.  I made some Korean ramen called "Chal Bibim Myum".  It's a ramen that you eat cold.  After cooking the noodles, you cool the ramen in cold water and drain.  Then the sauce is mixed into the noodles. 

Savoury-Sweet Cold Ramen.

This ramen is perfect for the summer as it's cool to eat, while the sauce gives it a slight heat and a savoury-sweet taste.  It tastes very refreshing.  I'm going to get more packs of this ramen from T&T.

Useless Food News:
My parents got a cheese bun from Ichiban bakery on Bank Street and gave me a slice. 

Cheese Bun.

I hear the pastries are on the expensive side, but after tasting this cheese bun, I think it might be worth it.  This cheese bun was very soft and had lots of cheese cake flavour. but was also light and not dense.  Lots of cheese filling too.

Transformers 5

Lunch today -> Taco Bag.
Food Truck Wednesday today.  Only Peter and I went.  He got Big D's and I got something new from a Taco Truck.  It's a "Taco Bag".  A Taco Bag is where they take a small Doritos bag, crush some of the dorito chips, and then top it with meat sauce, lettuce, salsa and sour cream.  It was $7, but it was pretty good.  There was a good amount of meat sauce in it.  I might do this myself.

Cool Ranch Taco Bag.

Useless Movie News:
Went over to Julie's place tonight and we had Rideau take-out for dinner (beef chow mein, singapore vermicelli, schezwan beef, and salt & pepper squid) while watching the last 2 episodes of iZombie Season 3.  Good and funny episodes.  I wonder which way the writers will go for Ravi's character in Season 4?
Around 9pm Julie, Roger, and I went to Coliseum to watch Transformers 5.  They renovated the theatre by replacing all the seats with electronic leather reclining seats.  I like the change alot.  It was very comfortable seating for watching a bad movie.  Yes, Transformers 5 was bad (and as expected).  It was a Micheal Bay style movie with lots of explosions and action, but it seemed like they didn't continue (or ignored) some of the plot from Transformers 4 (ie Megatron is now Galvatron).  Other stupid parts involving Prime & Bumblebee's fight, ignoring scientific logic (especially with a new character talking science and math all the time), and what was the point of the little girl in the whole movie?!?

Transformers 5 with Recliner Seats.

Recap of Transformers 5 = Transformers S2ep22 (A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court ) + Transformers S1ep08 (The Ultimate Doom Part 1).  If you watch all 3 parts of the Ultimate Doom, it is how the movie should have ended.
The new Decepticons were neat, but they weren't used enough.  We guessed a scene was cut to explain Megatron too.
The ending hints for a Transformers 6, but I hope not.  Just reboot it correctly with fan input and use less humans.  Then cross-over with MASK and G.I.Joe if humans are needed.

Chinotto Drinks

Useless Softball News:
Strike Fighters lost to Rockwell tonight 18-13.  We were able to play between rain showers.  A certain player surprised us on their team as we thought we wouldn't see that player again :)
I hit 2-for-3 with a ground out, single, and a double.
MVP: Dave.  He hit a bases load grand slam, but since we max out at 6 runs an inning, it only counted as a single.  LOL!

Useless Food News:
My cousins Kevin and Michelle, and I went to Nicastros on Saturday before dinner.  We picked up some new drinks to try.  Kevin got a Brio.  We all sampled it and it's not to our tastes.  To me it tastes like watered-down coke with a bitter after taste.  Not a drink I would get again. 

Brio.

I picked up this black can of Sanpellegrino Chino.  We tried this drink too.  It's similar to Brio but with a stronger bitterness taste.  Kind of like Chinese medicine.  Another drink I won't be getting again.

Sanpellegrino Chino.

Salmon Fish Bones

Food today -> Fish Bones, Seaweed Rolls, and Franks.
Picked up some salmon fish bones from T&T on the weekend.  They make a pretty good snack.  Still alot of meat on it and the meat was marinated in a sweet soy sauce.  These would be a perfect snack for watching a movie.

Fish Bones, Seaweed Rolls, and Frank's #1.

Tried out this seaweed roll snack from Thailand.  It was spicy squid flavour.  It's not bad.  Something different to try.
Ed went to Frank's Deli on Sunday for the charity $2 Sandwiches.  He and his wife waited hours in line and endured the soaking rain to get the sandwiches; and they got me a #1 too!  Thanks Ed.  There was lots of meat but the bread was dry.

Useless Food News:
Went to Loblaws tonight and I found alot of steak on sale for 50% off!  I picked up 5 steaks.  Dropped a couple off at my parent's house, going to freeze 2 of them, and will eat 1 on Tuesday after softball.  You can't beat 50% off steak.

Discount Steak.

Weekend Report -> Clank!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

Food this weekend ->
In addition to James's birthday, it was also CMC Kanata's Birthday on Friday.  I picked up 5 cakes from Costco for our little celebration: 2 Tuxedo, 1 Limoncello, 1 strawberry cheesecake, and 1 Tiramisu.  My lunch was 4 slices of cake :)

Downstair's Cakes.

Upstair's Cakes.

On Saturday my relatives from Toronto were visiting to celebrate my grandma's birthday.  We met at Beijing Legend for Dim Sum.  It was very good there.  Better than Chu Shing in Chinatown.  I wanted to eat the long noodle wraps for awhile now and was satisfied then.  I ate some beef, shrimp, and fried dough noodle wraps.

Fried Dough Noodle Wrap.

Had a short break for cake.

Birthday Cake.

It was a Japanese style cheese cake from Toronto my aunt brought.

Japanese Style Cheese Cake.

Dinner was at Sea King on Merivale.  The meal was very good, but most of us were still full from lunch.  Started with Fish Maw Soup.  The scallop bits in it had a really good roasted flavour.

Fish Maw Soup.

Peeking Duck wraps were next.

Duck Wrap.

Followed by the duck meat.  It was a very meaty duck.

Duck Meat.

Then came the regular dishes:  Hollow stem greens with egg white sauce.  Never had it this way.  Not bad, but the greens might need to have been cooked a minute longer to be more tender.

Greens with Egg White Sauce.

When the fish arrived, the waitress cut it open, de-boned it, and then put the meat back on top.  Neat way to serve it.  Never seen that before either.

Whole Fish.

Abalone and shitake mushrooms on baby bak choi.

Abalone and Shitake Mushrooms on Bak Choi.

Crunchy shrimp balls.  The crunchiness came from the deep fried bits of rice noodle, but the one I ate had bits that were really rock hard.

Shrimp Balls.

Whole steamed chicken was next.  It was a really meaty bird and juicy.

Chicken.

Garlic fried rice.  They forgot to add salt.

Garlic Fried Rice.

Last dishes were the noodles (behind the lobster) and the 2 lobsters cooked in green onion, ginger, and rice wine?  Very good lobster with lots of meat.

Lobster.

Dessert was sweet taro soup.  OK.  Not a fan of the chunks of taro in it.

Sweet Taro Soup.

Sunday for lunch we went to the Chinese buffet on Merivale.  It was OK.  Something felt missing or off during the meal.  Also there were 0 egg tarts the whole time we were there.

Buffet Plate #1

Congee Bowl.

Useless Gaming News:
Kevin, Michelle, and I played my new "Clank!" board game.  It's really fun.  It's a deck building game mixed with a dungeon crawl.  Michelle and I got killed by the dragon and Kevin ran away with the win.  Clank! totally deserves to be in the top 10 games of 2017.  I need to play this 4 players now.

Clank!

Team AABDJ

Lunch today -> Rideau Restaurant.
Ran an errand at lunch time and I went to Rideau for some take out.  I got beef chow mein and salt & pepper squid.

Beef Chow Mein and Salt & Pepper Squid.

I ate the squid first with the free bowl of rice.  It was very good and was still crispy.  Then around 3:30pm I slowly ate the beef chow mein while working in between bites until 5pm. 

Useless Gaming News:
Jeff, Anthony, David, Ben, and I went to Hideaway Adventure House to do their hi-tech escape room.  Before we started, Jeff, Ben, and I went early to play some games in their lounge.  We played "Hey, That's my Fish!", "Cover your A$$ests", and "Red7".
I like "Hey, That's my Fish" alot.  Simple game, that is almost similar play style as Inner Circle.  I'll probably get this game.

Hey, That's My Fish!

We didn't like "Cover Your A$$ets"  It's stupid that you have to keep track of how much money you have when it changes constantly and quickly.
We tried "Red7".  I was iffy about it until we played it.  I think it would be a good game and I'm probably going get this game too.  Short quick game that has luck and strategy.

We escaped Hideaway's "The Heist" room.  We were given 45mins on Hard Level (1 clue allowed) and had additional rules we didn't know about.  The room has many hi-tech puzzles, but sometimes you don't know what you trigger open.  We completed the room in 30minutes.  We got a score of 190/1500 because we triggered the "traps" too many times and each time a trap was triggered we lost points.  We didn't know this was how the scoring was done until after we got out.

Afterwards we decided to go do an escape at Escape Manor.  We did "The Magician's Studio".  Very good escape room with hard but solvable puzzles.  We escaped with 5:24 left from a 45 minute escape and we used our 1 free clue.  We will need to do the 2 other rooms there, as this room was 1 part of a 3 part room puzzle.

Saw the OTTAWA sign on the way home.  I think the KANATA sign looks nicer... :)

OTTAWA.

Broke out of my Slump

Useless Softball News:
Strike Fighters played a make-up game vs Brew Jays tonight.  It was a long and close game.  We played a full game and won 24-23.  We had exactly 10 players and all our bats were hot.  Our team styles were different: we kept hitting base hit, while the other team were hitting home runs or pop flys.
I hit 4-for-5 tonight with a triple, fielders choice, single, single, and a triple.  Finally broke my 0-for-12 slump.

Useless Gaming News:
Picked up a few board games from Comic Book Shoppe a couple days ago.  I picked up "Clank!" first.  It's a game I wanted and was rated in the top 10 of 2016 by a bunch of sites including Dice Tower.  I also grabbed "Oh Captain!" for a short bluffing game, and "Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot" because it was 20% off.

Latest Board Games.

0-for-12

Dinner today -> Hamburgers.
Made some hamburgers after my softball game today.  Bought the burgers from Farmboy and picked up some salad greens, onions, and tomatoes for the burgers from the salad bar.  I also added Big Mac sauce :)

Add caption

Useless Softball News:
Strike Fighters lost tonight against Dunwith Dusters.  I think we lost 15-5.  We all played horribly on defense and offense.  Another game tomorrow night.  Hopefully we will do alot better.
I hit 0-for-2 tonight: ground out and pop out.  I'm now 0-for-12 since the tournament.

8000 Scovilles Korean Hot Chicken Ramen

Snack today -> Limited Edition Hot Chicken Ramen 2x
Susanna and I got some Limited Edition Korean Hot Chicken Ramen on Sunday from Kowloon Market.  The regular one is 4000 Scovilles (left) and the limited edition one is 8000 Scovilles.

Regular and Limited Edition Hot Chicken Ramen.

I made a pack at lunchtime and tried a couple bites.  I started hiccuping right away!  I had to run and get milk.  This stuff was hot! 

8000 Scoville Ramen.

I brought the rest into work for some people to try.  I tried it again when the noodles were cold and it wasn't as hot as it was fresh out of the pot.  Still has a punch though.

Dinner today -> Steak.
More steak from Sobey's.  Pan fried it.  Too hot to out and BBQ.  I cooked french beans and microwaved rice to go with it.

Steak Dinner.

Weekend Report -> Very Disappointed with EVOO Greek Kitchen.

Food this weekend ->
Made mussels for lunch on Friday.  They were OK.  Nothing special.  Just steamed in garlic and black bean sauce.

Made steak for dinner on Friday.  The steak was on sale at Sobey's.  Seasoned with only salt and pepper.  I then cooked some green beans in the steak drippings.  Finally added some microwave instant rice.  Very satisfying :)

Went out for a belated Birthday dinner on Saturday with Gen, Julie and Roger.  We went to a place that none of us has been to: EVOO Greek Kitchen.  It looked good on their website and had good reviews.  We ordered a bunch of dishes for the table.  We got the House Spanakopita, Fried Calamari, Avocado and Halloumi salad, Patates Lemonates, and a $80 plank of spit roasted lamb and spit roasted pork.

Dissappointing and Expensive Food.

The meal was not good for the prices we paid.  The spanakopita was OK  Not amazing and not bad.  The fried calamari was very good (not shown in pic).  Cooked just right and very tender.  Best thing we ate.  The avocado and halloumi salad was dripping with olive oil.  It was more greasy than the meat and the oil just pooled on the plates.  It would have been good if they had used less oil.  The lemon potatoes were good, but very strong on the lemon side.  The worst was the plank of meat.  The lamb was mostly fat and bone, not alot of meat.  The roast pork was very over cooked and dry.   I ate alot of the burnt/charred pieces too.  I was expecting a spit roast to be juicy with crispy skin.  None of that was there or even close to being good.  We are 100% sure we are never going back.  
I expected to be full after the meal but we weren't.  So we went to Menchie's and got some good frozen yogurt for dessert.  FYI: if you show your Costco membership card at Menchie's on Merivale, you get 15% off!

Useless Gaming News:
Got the last 5 packs of Mighty Meeples at Comic Book Shoppe.  I had forgotten that these came out a little while ago.  The Might Meeples are printed with DC characters on them.  I think I want to get the set of 30.  I'll need to get more packs.  Not sure how I'll store them yet.

Mighty Meeples.

Yakuza Shirt and Lobster Shorts

Lunch today -> Burger Builder.
Julie and I spent the day shopping, but before we did, we started with lunch at Burger Builder.  I got a single patty sandwiched together with grill cheese sandwiches.  I also got the burger "built-to-code" for toppings and added a slice of marble goat cheese.

Grill Cheese Sandwich Burger and Fries.

Useless Shopping News:
We went clothes mainly and Julie helped pick clothes out for me.  I got a few shirts including lobster shorts!

New Shirts.

Lobster Shorts!

But my favourite new shirt is this "yakuza" style shirt.  For some reason it just reminds me of what a gangster would wear :)

Yakuza Shirt.

Useless Transformers News:
Found "Roadburn" at Walmart today.  Also picked up "Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon" for $5.  "Transformers 4: Age of Extinction" was also available for $5, but I think that movie was horrid.  Also got a bag of garlic pork rinds.

Pork Rinds and Transformers Stuff.

Birthday Lunch at Rideau

Lunch today -> Rideau Restaurant
Went for my birthday lunch with the work boyz and 1 girlz :)  We went to Rideau Restaurant and ordered 9 dishes for the 8 of us.  The order went in quickly and the food came flying out of the kitchen.  We destroyed all the plates.  To bad Marc and Steve got stuck in a meeting that went long and couldn't make it out.  They missed a good meal.

Took a Pic Before the First 6 Dishes Disappeared.

We had ordered: 2x Schezwan Beef, General Tao Chicken, Lemon Chicken, Sweet & Sour Pork, spicy long beans, beef chow mein, sizzling black pepper steak, and salt & pepper squid.  We almost didn't finish all the plates but Ed and I gobbled up the last of the long beans and chow mein.

Happy Birthday Fongpay!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FONGPAY!!!

Happy birthday to me :) 
First time in years I didn't take my birthday off from work, but I took Thursday and Friday off instead :)

Microwave Monkey Bread

Snack today -> Microwave Monkey Bread.
Microwaved the frozen monkey bread I got from Ogdensburg Walmart a couple months ago.

It's not bad.  Taste mostly like a cinnamon bun.  It's good for a quick snack, but it's no where near as good as the one I make as it doesn't have any raisins or nuts in it.  It also doesn't come with a plate to flip-out the monkey bread.  Thanks Becky for the plate.
I'll probably buy more of these as they are quick and cheap to have in the freezer.

Useless Softball News:
CMC Strike Fighters won tonight 18-13.  I missed tonight's game.  My upper legs were still sore from the weekend's tournament and we had a full lineup.
For Jeno's notes, I hit 0-for-0 tonight :)

Hot Water Tank Inspection

Left early from work today because I had a hot water tank inspection appointment.  It was already included as part of my rental fee, so I accepted it.  The operator told me the guy could show up anytime between 3-5pm.  He showed up just before 4pm, looked at the tank for less than 30 seconds and said nothing was wrong.  Then he asked why I made the appointment and what was he checking for?  I told him he was supposed to do an inspection!?!?  He then just said everything was fine and he was done.  Man, what a waste of my time!  FYI people:  Don't get the free hot water tank inspection!

Useless Gaming News:
Went to Jeff's place to play JeJu Island with Jeff, Anthony, and Linda.  I re-read all the instructions before heading over, and found that Brian had explained 1 major rule wrong.  When traveling around the island, you can move any direction you want, not just clockwise!  This changes the game tactics.

4-Player JeJu Island.

The first 2 games I couldn't pick up any Diver Tiles (wild card piece) at all.  There would never be any on my turn or when I got the statue.  I finally got some in the 3rd game.

Weekend Report -> CHEO BBQ

Food this weekend ->
Volunteered to organize the CHEO BBQ at CMC on Friday.  It was good turn out and we made over $300.

CMC CHEO BBQ.

We kept it simple as we only served hamburgers and pop.  I brought in McDonald's Big Mac sauce for everyone to use, and almost the whole bottle was used up!  It's excellent on BBQ hamburgers.  I bought 2 burgers myself.

BBQ Burgers.

I got a large Dragon Boat pizza from Gabriel's on Saturday night, after spending all day playing softball.  I was starving and ate half the pizza in a few minutes!

Dragon Boat Pizza.

Sunday dinner was at the Mandarin Buffet on Hunt Club with family.  We celebrated Father's Day and my birthday early.  I only got 1 picture off before my phone battery died, but most of my plates were the similar to this one.  I ate mostly seafood.  I probably ate atleast $20 worth of snow crab legs :).  I ate 4 big plates + 2 small dessert plates, but I probably could have eaten more if I didn't eat so much sushi.  The rice filled me up.

Mandarin Buffet Plate #1.

Ben said his bowl of clam chowder was made better by topping it with wontons from the wonton soup.  I might have tried it, but I was already too full by the time he made it.  Everything I ate was good, but I found the dessert items lacking something.  Not as good as the Orleans Mandarin where I felt the urge to eat alot of the desserts.

Useless Softball News:
The June softball tournament was on Saturday.  The CMC Strike Fighters lost our first game at 9am.  We made alot of errors (I made 3 errors myself at the plate) and lost 12-4, so we got assigned to the "D" division. 
We then lost the noon game, 9-7.  We blew a 7-5 lead in the very last inning.  With the loss, we got relegated to the Consolation bracket.
We won the 3pm game (14-4).  The team we face were mostly power hitters, but they kept popping up easy fly balls.  Advanced to the Finals with the win.
The Finals game at 6pm was an easy win, because the other team never showed up; so we won by default :)  Not a way I would like to win, but a win is a win; and we get a trophy.
I played horrible all day.  I only had 1 hit in the 1st inning of the 1st game: a single.  I didn't make it on base the rest of the day.  I think I was 1-for-11 all day with 3 errors.