Blogsters in Korea | Beesket D.I.Y Juice

Beesket 

[Naturally.Expressive.Juice]

Location: 281, Eulji-ro, Jung-gu, Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park, Seoul 

(3 other locations in Seoul) 

Access : Dongdaemun History and Culture Park Station Exit 1 

Price : 5400 - 6500 WON ( ~ 6 CAD) 

Blogsters' Rating : 4/5

Hello Everyone! Today Blogsters bring you to Seoul Korea for a unique DIY juice experience. Located inside DDP's market section, beesket is part of a food court along with other bakery and tea shops. The vibrant colors and bee hive motifs in this juice shop are hard to miss!

  At beesket you get to create your own juice flavor. First off, there are 2 types of juice to choose from- Regular (pink plastic beesket) which is a juice with all the pulp blended in and Squeezed (green plastic beesket) which is pure juice and has no pulp. With around 30 fruits and veggies to choose from, choosing only 3 is definitely not easy. [According to beesket's website they have 92!] To make your decision easier, calorie and nutritional information is provided for each flavor at the capsule station. 

Beesket's instructions to create your own 100% natural juice.

And voila! ice cold drinks on a hot summer day.  The regular juice with pulp was ice cold with a thick texture and came in cups while the pulp free one was room temperature and came in a bottle. The drinks were not overly sweet or diluted so we know that there weren't any additives. The sweetness of each drink really depended on the fruits you pick. The banana + dragon fruit + oriental melon was the sweetest drink we created given that the fruits all have a high sugar content. It was also the thickest and most filling juice of the 3 thus has a higher calorie count.  

If you're like me and have decidophobia, you can go for 'Today's Beesket' which is the daily special. After all, nothing can go wrong with an official recommendation right? 

Each drink comes with a little slip that contains nutritional information and all the goodies in the juice. It's also a score card where you can rate and comment on your creation. Most people fill them out and post them on the D.I.Y station of the juice bar to help out future customers . 

The customized juice experience at beesket was fun and I will for sure return to beesket the next time I visit Seoul! Stay tuned for more Korean adventures! 

- Joyce 

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Carleton's Annual Butterfly Show

Carleton's Butterfly Show in Ottawa

October 3-14, 2015

Location:  209 Nesbitt Biology Building, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa 

Admission: FREE for public =]

Hey guys! It's been a while since we posted something unrelated to food or make up. So for a change, I will share with you some of the activities we do besides eating. First off, I have recently relocated to Ottawa for my post-graduate studies and there is so much to see and explore in this beautiful city! I will try my best to share these moments with you! 

Carleton is a wonderful campus that is always full of life and buzz but it gets even busier with the annual butterfly show at the beginning of the fall season. As the show only runs for such a short time,  everybody wants to catch a glimpse of the beautiful butterflies. I went on a Thursday afternoon and lined up for an hour to get in. 

The show featured 1300 butterflies of over 40 species from all over the world. They were shipped here as chrysalis and hatched in the greenhouse of Carleton's biology building. Under strict quarantine restrictions, the butterflies spend their entire lives (around 100 days) in the greenhouse. 

The Greenhouse is very small and quite humid and warm since that is the natural habitat of the butterflies. Take a look at all the colorful flowers and plants in here. 

I managed to snap some shots of them taking a break from flying. Some of them have gorgeous bright colored wings. 

Before entering the greenhouse, we were encouraged to take a piece of orange or pineapple to attract the butterflies as we were told that they are very friendly and love interacting with visitors! It seems that they especially love little kids! 

This is the blue morpho peleides- one of my favorites from the show. Look at that wonderful blue color with its wings spread open.   The underside of its wings is actually a completely different color and pattern that resembles a tree trunk with several pairs of eyes. 

Please excuse my shaky video, there were butterflies flying around my head and I wanted to capture that but kinda failed lol. If you happen to be in Ottawa during October, I recommend you all to go check out the butterfly show! It is fun and educational at the same time =p If you missed it this year, be sure to keep an eye out for the 2016 one. Click here for the deets. Good luck and have fun!

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Toronto's 16th Annual Ribfest 2015

Toronto's Summer Rib Festival

Location: Richmond Green Sports Center and Park

Price: $23 per rack (avg, depending on which vendor) 

It's that time of the year again in Toronto! For those who are unfamiliar with Ribfest, it is one of Toronto's favorite events where a group of mobile food vendors come together to throw a large festival.  

Aside from food, there are also free kidzone games and paid booth games where you can win prizes. And of course, we have giant minions as prizes this year.

Decisions, decisions, decisions, every year I run into the same problem of not knowing which rib vendor to buy from. The way we go about solving this problem is to go for the one with the longest line up! This year, we decided to get ribs from 2 different vendors and we chose Hawgs gone Wild and Camp 31 which both displayed awards and trophies in front of their booth.

And it so happens that the longest lines were at Hawgs gone wild this time around. Look at all the 1st place and trophies they got from previous ribfests! I can't wait to get my hands on some juicy ribs!!!

How can you not salivate simply by looking at these smoking goodness on the grill?! Half Rack, full rack and even whole grilled chickens look and smell SO delicious! We ended up getting 3 racks from HGW and 3 racks from Camp 31 to go as we had a huge party to feed that night!

Texture of the ribs from Hawgs gone wild is slightly stiff and dry but the marinate is very good. We realized that every rack seems to be different so it eventually turned into a game of luck for us =p They also have huge tubs of BBQ sauce and hot sauce for customers to pump onto the ribs themselves which is a plus.

Camp 31 on the other hand was my personal favorite of the night simply because of the flakey and soft texture of the meat. Unlike the slightly chewy HGW ribs, Camp 31's ribs just fall apart in your mouth as soon as you take a bite. The marinate is slightly too sweet for my liking but I guess for me texture matters more =]

So which was your favorite ribs this year?  

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Summer Carnival at Times Square Richmond Hill

Richmond Hill Times Square Summer Carnival

Location: Times Square (Hwy 7 & Leslie)

Access: Along YRT & VIVA bus routes, parking available

Price: Free Admission

Rating: 3.5/5

Stinky Tofu Hong Kong Style

The very first booth that we stopped by because we are in need of some stinkiness XD These stinky tofu is made the moment you put in an order, such that all customers will have the best of the stinky tofu.  Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

After three minutes, the deep fried stinky tofu is ready!

We added lots of sweet sauce, spicy sauce, pickled cabbage and it's ready to eat! When you're actually eating it, it doesn't smell stinky at all. I think the essence of HK style stinky tofu is in the sweet sauce so make sure you add lots of it!

A variety of seafood available at HK Seafood Station. We wanted to try everything!

Here it is! We got Grilled Whelk in Shell and Stuffed Clams.  The Grilled Whelk in Shell is very good and perfectly seasoned.  They did not taste fishy at all.  On the other hand, we felt like we were scammed by the Stuffed Clams, as there was very little clams in it.  The clams did not taste bad, but it's not worth the money for it.

Taro Tornado Fries! We were told to add EVERYTHING to the crispy goodness and so we did.  powdered ranch, ketchup, ceasar, garlic powder, chilli powder etc. it was super fresh and crunchy not to mention fun to eat!

Here's  a video of the making of tornado fries!

Notice how it's night time already. Although this was a relatively small event, we managed to spend a few hours there and ate all the food items we missed at Night It Up as it was less crowded and not as stuffy. And so here's a close for this year's night market events, until next year!

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It's Strawberry Season - Applewood Farm & Winery.

Applewood Farm & Winery
Location: 12416 McCowan Rd. Stouffville, Ontario.
Access: Public Parking available
Price : $7 / person

On a beautiful Friday afternoon, we made an impulsive decision to go strawberry picking at a local farm. Since we're right in the middle of strawberry season, there are many farms that open to public offering strawberry picking activities.  We decided to go to Applewood farm because they have a variety of fruits, activities and a winery as well.

While we were waiting for the tractor, we had some fun at the petting zoo feeding these adorable sheeps.  

Our ride to the strawberry patch is here! This tractor transits the farm non-stop, picking up and dropping off visitors throughout the pastures.

After a few minutes ride through the apple orchard and pumpkin patch, we arrived at the strawberry patch! Although it's a weekday afternoon, there was a small crowd of people there. 

 The strawberries were mostly tiny in size and not ripe but occasionally you will find larger ripe ones hiding underneath the leaves. Who would have guessed that strawberry picking would be such a workout! We were exhausted after filling up half of the basket. 

This little guy jumped into the patch and startled me. Apparently toads and frogs are frequent visitors to the strawberry patch as well. 

Success! After over an hour of hard work, we managed to fill up 4 baskets full of strawberries! It was a good workout too. The strawberries weren't all extremely sweet but the darker ripe ones were definitely sweet. A good way to eat slightly sour strawberries is to dip them in sugar. Try it! You won't regret it.  

Applewood also has a winery and of course we have to pay a visit. There are also a variety of products made from their own fruits including apple jam, apple cider and juice etc. We had a little taste-test of the wine and we purchased the blackcurrant wine, the apple cider and also the Ella's Ice. You can learn about the different types of wine here.

We definitely recommend you to come visit while the strawberries are still in season. If not, you can wait for apples and pumpkins in the fall. 

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Toronto in PINK! Sakura Blooming at High Park

Toronto High Park
Location: 1873 Bloor St. West, Toronto.
Access: Along TTC subway line, streetcar and bus route, public parking available on park grounds

Hey Everyone! It's that time of the year again! On a beautiful Thursday evening after work, Joyce and her friends went to High Park for the first time to witness the beauty of Blooming Cherry Blossoms. 

Ohanami is a traditional Japanese flower viewing activity. Every spring as cherry blossoms bloom, friends and families would gather together at the park for a picnic to celebrate the beauty of sakura flowers and the arrival of Spring. Toronto is privileged to have our own sakura trees which allow us to have an opportunity to experience Ohanami as well. It feels so unreal as we're walking through the pink blossoms.

Under the impression that Sakura is pink, the blossoms here seem to be more pale in color, closer to white. The blossoms gave off a very light flowery scent but was not very apparent.

There are many newly planted sakura trees in the park. Although they may seem small and fragile, they are in full bloom  and getting a lot of attention from photographers as well!

This magnolia tree is in full bloom too! I love the pink to white gradation on these flowers! 

Everybody in Toronto wants to catch a glimpse of Sakura's short lived beauty. Because of its short blooming period, crowds and line up of cars are inevitable. Blooming period lasts from a week to a week and a half so this weekend is the best time to pay a visit to High Park. It is recommended that you take public transportation to avoid being stuck in traffic in and around the park. If you are planning a visit, here are some details including some tips you should know, a blossom locator and also additional activities to do at the park. 

If you haven't seen sakura bloom before, you don't need to fly all the way to Japan! Now is a good chance to go check them out at Toronto's High Park! Good luck and have fun!

   

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