The sleepy polar bear emerged on my boulevard with a six-pack of mochi donuts - on his own accord, of course. Donuts have never been an item of fondness for me, and even those bearing limited knowledge of my preferences expressed surprise at the selection: "Not Gong Cha?" No, I would be served sugar instead of coffee jelly and luscious Oolong milk tea.
I had explicitly expressed no intentions of leaving my humble abode until all physical and digital content materializing as a result of the trip had been sorted thoroughly. Perhaps I ought to have vocalized that donuts weren't my style either, though it wasn't too difficult a deduction should critical observations been made.
Obnoxiously sugary on the first day, I experienced an instantaneous headache. I wanted nothing more than to strip them of their colourful dip and solely munch of its base - the Old-Fashioned Plain Timbits are my go-to for a reason. They were acceptable the next day, with the Sea Salt Honeycomb proving the best overall. Hong Kong Milk Tea bore no resemblance whatsoever to the its name, while Ube was vaguely similar, albeit masked within sugariness.
Nevertheless, I wouldn't hesitate to pass them up next time around. It was an interesting taste, but not a comprehensibly enjoyable one.
With a penchant for curbing cravings from the evening prior, I proceeded to realize my true item of affection, starting from the base utilized in Sunday Baking's Rich Chocolate Mousse Cake.
Whipped cream and melted Surfin formed the middle layer of chocolate mousse, with a small portion of melted chocolate reserved for ganache. Alas, in my haste, I had omitted the heavy cream entirely, yielding a firm block of chocolate on the surface. It weighed down on the components underneath, causing the mousse to ooze and the fragile cake to crumble even further: Chaos.
The reservation at Yuzuki has made just three days before, and actually as a backup to Shinobu at Yonge and Lawrence. The York Mills sushi spot was discovered to operate a total of 13 hours over a seven-day span, making calling the establishment quite a challenge while still on a time difference. I opted for the cozy Yonge-Bloor destination instead, for it was responsive to calls and a receiver of consistently positive feedback.