LUXOMME

Roller coasters. Yes

When it comes to who's the biggest adrenaline junkie, this girl probably wins. Her claim to fame is not screaming on the Leviathan, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada. Of course, I had to take her up on that challenge.


Again with the last minute decisions, we literally woke up the morning of at 8 am, debated between spending the day downtown or heading to Wonderland, and chose the latter. She bought the tickets online and then drove over to pick me up.

Being the good passenger that I am, I took pictures of her driving knowing she couldn't take her hands off the wheel to grab swipe my camera away.


Neither of us had been sleeping well for days leading up to our little adventure, so we decided that for a little pick me up, we would start with the biggest, baddest ride of all.







We didn't take many pictures after that because we were both too dazed.


Because both of us had evening activities planned, we only stayed for 5 hours, meaning that most of the time was spent waiting in lines. Thank goodness for the amazing breezy weather.

I headed over to Diana's Seafood again, a little gem for those of you in Toronto. They have a lovely restaurant beside the store where you can get your seafood craving satisfied without having to do the dirty work. In my opinion though, the work is half the fun.


It starts off with picking your oysters from the oyster selection. They sit there piled up in the case practically begging you to take them home. I'm going to admit, I'm much better at eating them than choosing them so I usually ask the ladies behind the counter what they recommend and which ones are the freshest. This time we decided to go for an assortment of oysters rather than 5 dozen of one kind.


On our way to the checkout counter, my cousin gasped and pointed at these spiky little balls, half in horror and half in bewilderment. I haven't talked about this obsession as much but I have an equal addiction to these balls which actually aren't as horrifying on the inside as they are on the outside, and definitely taste better than they look.


Handling them is a bit tricky because it will cause you pain if you grip them too hard. Gloves are recommended if you want to clean these yourselves.


Most people don't bother trying to open sea urchins at home because they are either perplexed by how to get the roe out or think it's too hard to pry these open. But all it really takes is a small butter knife and spoon. The easiest way is to dig the knife into the middle and pull out the center. Then slowly break down the surrounding shell until the roe is exposed.


Once you see the yellow begin to peek out from within the shell, you use the small spoon to scoop it out and rinse the black digested gunk out of the urchin.

Then, after an hour of work prying open oysters and cleaning urchins, you're left with this smorgasbord of tastiness. The oysters are simple; a dash of tabasco and mignonette goes a long way and can bring out the saltiness of the sea. The urchins can be eaten as is or tossed in sea salt, olive oil and lemon juice.



I definitely downed most of this that evening along with a dozen cherrystone clams which were a massive pain to open. We bought 100 of them and ended up only opening 60 because they really did not want to be eaten. It got to the point where I became so desperate that I took the clams out onto the balcony to smash them against the cement floor just so I could slip my knife in. Super professional right? I can't believe I'm admitting this.

Cleanliness level probably 0, but innovativeness and creativity +10.

Don't worry, I washed everything thoroughly afterwards.

Not going to lie, I haven't been posting much lately because I have been sitting in my room hermitting. This Summer has been hectic and with everyone going back and forth for vacation and whatnot, I haven't really had a chance to see my friends. There's this understanding between us that we don't need to see each other all the time to maintain this friendship, but really it's because we're either too jetlagged to leave the house or we'd simply rather be in pajamas. #lazy

We took forever deciding what we wanted for dinner since we were both too excited catching each other up with our Summer adventures. I didn't really realize it until we started listing things out, but a lot has happened in these last few months.


We only paused long enough to make our order; bossam naeng myun and a few random rolls because it was half off sushi night. Pretty much why we decided to go in the first place.




I have a really big soft spot for Korean and Japanese food and despite trying to lower my intake of rice, this stuff is my weakness. Thank goodness I have someone to indulge in this addiction with.






Chatting away, we only paused long enough to devour all this deliciousness. Thankful that we didn't go for all you can eat, we still weren't able to finish everything here since the portions were so massive.






Completely stuffed and barely able to walk, we ended off our night with a good round of selfies as onlookers stared. We go through this dilemma every time of whether it is actually socially acceptable for us to be acting like middle school children, but we end up doing it anyways. I'm not sure when this selfie tradition between us started. Perhaps it was in Grade 11 when I first started this blog and needed pictures to put up. Regardless, we're way past the point of comfort with each other that hey, no judgement yo.
ps. isn't that Paris shirt gorg ;)

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I've had a relatively productive day, my room is sparkling clean, my clothes smells like fresh lavender, and I went grocery shopping at four different places so my fridge is officially stocked with everything from prosciutto to greek yo. Today's post is also going to be about food, but something a little different.

Those of you who know me will know that I try to bring oysters into every conversation, or at least most. If you ask me what we should grab for food, the answer is probably oysters. I don't care if it's breakfast, lunch, dinner or even midnight snack. Oysters are always a good idea.


I don't eat oysters a lot in Winnipeg simply because it's difficult to find a good supplier. Toronto is another story though and Diana's Seafood is the place to go to fulfill all your seafood cravings.

All of them.


Most people are wary about eating raw oysters because they dislike the texture and flavor. Others think that eating filter feeders are probably not the greatest idea. I slurped down my first raw oyster at the age of 6, completely ignorant of these concerns, and I've never really looked back since.


When I'm in Toronto, I try to round up a group of unsuspecting family and friends into having a rawbar party with me. The deal is that I will go shopping for oysters and other raw foods (scallop, tuna, clams), I will lug the heavy bags into the car myself, and best of all, I will shuck every little tasty bivalve and all they have to do is sit there and slurp. I find some kind of personal satisfaction each time I hear them pop open. It's really quite exhilarating.




Oysters are sold here by the dozen, or by the case which usually involves 60 or so oysters. I brought my sister along for the ride and after deliberating for 20 minutes between malpeques or XXL Beach, we decided to go with the both. Too tempting to not.


We decided because the XXL Beach oysters were so large, it'd be difficult to consume them raw. So, a couple swipes of garlic butter and on the grill they went. They were a pain to shuck though. Absolute nightmare.

The malpeques however can't be cooked, unless you are satisfied consuming oysters the size of a dime, but a squeeze of lemon and tabasco makes them go down so smoothly! I can almost taste them as I write this post.





Oysters are a fun, but shucking can be a pain. It's not difficult though, even though I'm nowhere near a professional.  The first time I shucked an oyster was when I was 10, and I had no idea that a shucking knife existed. Don't be like me and use a butter knife. Had I known at that time, it would have saved me a lot of arm ache.

I'm not a pro shucker so I have to use three different knives. These three in combination are what I use depending on the size and profile of the oyster.


There's this debate over whether oysters should be consumed in month that don't have an 'R' in the name. Personally, I've never paid much attention to this rule, but as you can see, the oysters in the Summer months are translucent due to it being spawning season. It does affect the taste, but not enough for me to stop eating them entirely.




And of course, there is no better way to end a night of oyster shucking than with a good book, a smooth green tea latte, and long conversations with friends.


This post is literally making me hungry and speaking of Toronto, I'm in the middle of trying to find tickets to head back. Hopefully something opens up. More oyster posts super soon.



xx

naomi