Out & About #367 | Collective July Visuals

​Officially the turning point of both summer vacation and yearly quarters, July is the month I tend to enjoy the most. Dissimilar to past years, it's been a rather lax period of minimal driving and extended project planning. A restricted budget is synonymous with heavier amounts of home-cooked meals, though is by no means an indication of reduced culinary creativity.

Summerlicious hasn't really ever been my cup of tea, and neither have psychotic lineups in thirty plus humidity. In response to the preposterous prices of trendy food items, I've opted to stay within the ventilated indoors to formulate my own recipes, or grab quick bites throughout the city between errand-running.

1) Sufficiently satisfying sushi from Mac's
The portion size could have been larger for the price point, the rolls a little less dry, and the salmon sashimi a tad fleshier, though the quality of service and pickled ginger were above average for a food court stall.

​2) Love Me Sweet/Squish/Eva's collaboration shop is finally heading to Square One! Chimneys are definitely the more preferable choice over Sweet Jesus, from my perspective as a local anyway.

3) The rare Costco run means hot dogs and towering swirled Soft Serve cones

4) Homemade Houijcha Latte - brewed from none other than Tsujiri's own roasted tea satchels, of course.
5) Utilizing leftovers to scrape together a ham- and cauliflower-enhanced Japchae
6) Bringing packed food is the obvious method of enjoying Wonderland economically

​7) The Wanna One hype doesn't seem like it's dying down anytime soon, especially not when Kang Daniel makes an appearance on my feeds at least once every hour.

​8) Peanut Butter S'Mores Toast for breakfast (Remember that S'Mores Pie?)

9) Naan and Kabob
The Silk Road event at STC provided exposure to the various styles of Middle Eastern food and successfully introduced my palette to Afghan street food that woould have otherwise never entered the equation. Having just secured a duo of 2 Ladies and Lemon King from CoCo and in desperate need of sustenance following a strenuous Heartland run, Naan and Kabob's location at Bristol/Hurontario seemed a fitting choice.

I took to placing my request of a Classic Chicken Kabob Wrap with the girl at the cashier before inching my way westward along Hurontario. The plaza was easy to locate, though the interior pathways - complete with randomly situated Drive Thru lanes - were quite the struggle to safely maneuver. A call to the kitchen and a medium-sized roll of aluminum foil was slid into a paper bag, sans utensils. The same girl who had handled my phone order handed the item to me with a bright, bubble gum-pink smile.

​Immediately peeling away the contents of the greasy foil paper revealed vivid red chunks of protein. The Tandoori Chicken had been provided to me in place of the milder variation I had wanted. Nonetheless, I devoured half of the wrap within minutes. The flavour profile was identical to the one had at Taste Mrkt - fiery but flavourful.

​Ultimately, I succumbed to the flames and resorted to nullifying the pain with gulps of milk tea. For a mere $6.49 before tax, the wrap was adequate in providing 1.5 meals' worth of sustenance for me. My one wish was for it to be less spicy for my sanity.

10) Starbucks Chocolate Coconut Cold Brew
Cold Brew is soothing summer beverage that is usually heavily marked up at independent coffee shops in the downtown core, despite being one of the easiest to recreate at home. To shave off the associated cost of indulging in this delectable drink, I took to purchasing a box of their Chocolate Coconut-flavoured Cold Brew within days of its release.

​The kit included two sealed packets of coffee grinds and one flavour satchel, enabling one to produce cold brew without a designated mesh filter. Instructions on the exterior demanded four cups of water in a pitcher with a minimal volume of 4.5 L. I took to submerging the trio entirely by adding at least two cups more liquid than specified.

​Blandness hadn't emerged from this addition, however the removal of the sachets following the twenty four-hour brewing period left the pitcher at half-capacity. This was not deterred by whatever measures were taken to drain the remaining caffeinated liquid.

​In summary, the ten-dollar investment fell short of expectations even though it delivered the same consistency and boldness as the Coconut Brew served in store. The sealed sachets ensured effortless disposal of grinds and eliminated settlement from the coarsely ground beans placed in a mesh compartment, however, the yield was outrageously low and ineffective in saving costs.

​11) Cinnamon Orange French Toast with Citron Tea-soaked Strawberries - a sweet eggy batter containing orange zest was undeniably fabulous!

Can you believe August is already here?! We are three-quarters through 2017 - yikes!