Eating Live Octopus at Gonoe!

Gonoe Japanese Sushi

Location: 5 Glen Cameron Road, Thornhill

Access: Along YRT, Viva and TTC bus route, public parking available

Price: $15-$30

Blogsters' Rating: 4/5

Gonoe is located in a plaza among many other Asian restaurants and marketplace. Owned and Operated by Korean, Gonoe serves Japanese cuisine along with several Korean dishes.

As this restaurant is so popular, it is always packed. We went on a weekend and could not make a reservation and waited around 45 minutes for a table for 5.  

Tempura Appetizer

The assorted tempura appetizer includes your typical shrimps and vegetables like cucumber, sweet potato. It is deep fried to perfection with a very well done crispy breaded coating. The only complain would be that the shrimp was not fresh. 

Side Dishes

Like your typical Korean restaurant, Gonoe serves a few side dishes. We got kimchi, japchae (glass noodles), broccoli and pickled radish. Something to clear the palette between different dishes. We also each got a salad as a starter.  

Grilled Black Cod

One of our favorite hot dishes of the night. Accompanied by a lot of vegetables and a bowl of rice. The black cod was flavored perfectly with a very smooth and soft texture by the well preserved oil from the fish itself. The natural oil of the fish makes it very moist.

 

Flounder Sashimi (Small)

Served beautifully on a bed of shaved radish with an assorted variety of leafy vegetables, the flounder sashimi is one of the most popular dishes at Gonoe. There are a few different ways to eat the flounder sashimi, you can either eat it dipped in your typical soy sauce and wasabi or wrapped in lettuce with miso paste, garlic slices and jalapeno. We found the flounder sashimi to be a little chewy because of its tendons so it was rather difficult to eat as a wrap. Although we only ordered a small platter, it was quite a large portion and we got bored of eating it after a while. So it's best if you order it with more people. It was nonetheless very fresh and tender but not our favorite dish and probably won't order it again. 

 

Live Octopus Sashimi

The highlight of our night of course was the octopus sashimi. This has got to be the freshest yet most challenging way to eat an octopus - while it's "alive" and moving. With this dish, we are mainly eating the tentacles, it is served diced up on a small plate with dipping sauce that contains sea salt and sesame oil. While the octopus itself doesn't have much taste to it, the dipping sauce gave it a light salty flavor that brought out the sweetness of the fresh octopus. It also has a very unique chewy texture that is softer than its cooked version. It might seem slimy and disgusting to some people but it doesn't actually feel that way once it's inside your mouth. Do be careful though to chew thoroughly or the tentacles might get stuck in your throat with their suction cups!  

 

Assorted Sushi and Sashimi Boat (Medium)

Filled with freshness from the sea, this boat consists of a good mix of sashimi, sushi and rolls including Salmon, Tuna, Snapper, Surf Clam, Octopus, Hiring, BC Tuna and Hamachi, Eel, Shrimp, California Roll, Dynamite Roll . The sashimi is very fresh to taste and have beautiful colors and evenly distributed fat.     

We had quite a lot of fun eating at Gonoe. Although the wait was a bit long, we enjoyed the food very much, which made the wait worthwhile. We highly recommend you to go try out this restaurant if you happen to be in Toronto! It's one of the few places that serve quality live octopus and fresh sashimi. We hope you enjoy your time at Gonoe as much as we did!

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.Gelato Simply Italian

.Gelato Simply Italian

Location: 146 Cumberland Street ( Cumberland St. & Avenue Rd)

Access: Along TTC subway line, street parking available

Price: Avg. $5 - $8 per person

Blogsters' Rating: 5/5

Literally tucked away in a parking garage in Yorkville, .Gelato Simply Italian offers the most amazing authentic Italian gelato in the area.  Their very first store (opened in 2010) is located at Yonge and Eglinton, and the Yorkville location is their second store which opened in 2011.  The owner of .Gelato creates his very own gelato recipes, making sure each recipe is unique and brings out the best flavours in them.

Their menu outside gives customers a sneak peek of what .Gelato has to offer.

Their decor is very clean and simple.  As we can see their colourful gelato is the main decor of the whole store.  Small tables are available for those who wants to finish enjoying their gelato before leaving.

.Gelato offers at least 24 different flavours at a time.  Customers are welcome to ask for a taste of the gelato before purchasing.  .Gelato also do not repeat their flavours consecutively once it is sold out.  They always bring out new flavours of gelato, so frequent customers will have different flavours to choose from.

Another look at the gelato in the second fridge.

.Gelato has a huge art display on the wall, which shows you all the flavours that they offer.  I have notice some flavours are very unique and can't be found easily - such as Variegato Nutella, Macedonia, Marron Glace, and Biscotto.

And here are the flavours that we got. =)  All the flavours were beyond delicious.  They were very creamy, smooth, and milky.  Each flavour has their very unique taste and the recipes were well adjusted such that no one flavour is over powering the other and they all compliment each other very well.

.Gelato is definitely a very good place to stop by if you want to give yourself a treat.  Oh did I mention sometimes they have cute Italian guys working? ;)

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Etude House Play 101 Pencil

Etude House Play 101 Pencil
Price: $6 USD
Blogsters' Rating: 5/5

Youtube was the place where I initially heard about Etude House Play 101 Pencil.  They come in more than 50 colours and five different textures (Creamy, Glitter, Shimmering, Matte & Glossy).  Since, they come in with many different colours and textures, some can also be used on the lips and cheeks.  They are waterproof and smudge proof, absolutely perfect for the summer.

I was really excited because they are one of the very first automatic gel eyeliner presented in the form of a pen.  As we all know, gel liners work the best for most girls in the summer but having to carry the little tub of gel liner along with an eye liner brush for touch ups during the day is just too hectic sometimes.  So, I went ahead and purchased myself three of these pencils in #48 (Brown with hints of Green Glitters), #20 (Creamy Hot Pink), and #6 (Shimmers Champagne).

Each of the pencil comes with a little sharpener at the end, which really does come in handy.  By sharpening the tip of the pencil, it gives you more accurate and precise application.  Since these pencils are very creamy, they do get dull very easily. 

How I use them?

#48: Upper Inner & Outter Eyeline

#21: Upper Outter Eyeline, Lip Liner & Cheeks

#6: Inner Tear Duct as Highlight

Application?

The Application is really smooth.  The pencils are very creamy, they do not tuck on your eyelids at all.  Colours are very vibrant and pigmented, as you can see in the below picture.  This product is very waterproof and sweat proof.  I can easily wear these eyeliners for 12 hours without any smudging.

Etude House Play 101 Pencil has became one of my must have items.  The price is very affordable, and it is available to purchase on their website, Etude House. I will definitely purchase more in the future to add to my collection. 

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Cho Sun Ok - Blogsters' Go To Korean Restaurant

Location: 7353 Yonge Street (Yonge St. & Clark Ave.)
Access: Along YRT and VIVA bus route, parking available
Price: Avg. $10 - $15
Blogsters' Rating: 5/5

Blogsters finally had a chance to visit Cho Sun Ok!  They served home-style quality comfort foods, which make customers coming back for more.  Every time we passed by this place, it is always packed and you can see the line outside the restaurant, but it is definitely worth the wait.  Cho Sun Ok has their very own philosophy QRST: Quality, Reliability, Service, and Taste - making sure every customer is satisfied with their meal.

Unlike any other Korean restaurant where they serve you numerous of side dishes, Cho Sun Ok will only serve you side dishes that compliment to what you ordered for your main course.  And that night we have kimchi and pickled radishes as our sides.  =)  Their kimchi is very tasteful and well fermented.  It's not like any other that we have tried, it is very well seasoned, a little too spicy for us but the flavour just makes you keep wanting to have more.   

Cho Sun Ok is very famous for their naengmyun (arrowroot noddles with icy broth), especially in the summer.  Even though Toronto's weather is not that hot right now, we still decided to give it a try.  Without a doubt, it is the best naengmyun we had so far. AWESOME!  The noodles were cooked perfectly, chewy yet not too tough or too mushy.  I guess you will call it AL DENTE, as if it is a pasta.

We also ordered steamed dumplings with the naengmyun.  The pork and veggie inside are well seasoned,  However, the wrap is a little bit too dry.

Don Katsu is another famous dish that they have.  The pork chops are slightly on the thin side but they are very crispy, and there were just enough sauce to give you the flavour.  Of course we weren't able to finish two huge pieces of pork chops, and ended up taking it home.

We had a great time at Cho Sun Ok, and plan to go back as often as we could.  The only down side to have dinner here is we would have to have an early dinner or late dinner, as this place is always packed with customers.

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