Pan Am Games – Table Tennis finals

Time to watch more Pan Am competition. I had to be Asian and cheer on for the table tennis finals. And as expected, majority of the spectators were Asians. Even the finalists were Asians, out of the 8 medal winners, 6 of them were Asians. The women & men’s finals, they were not as exciting as I anticipated. Not many back to back rallies from the serve. The men’s had a little more excitement to it. The finals were all Brazil and USA. I wanted to watch Canadian played but we ended up with a bronze. We stayed for the medal ceremony and was surprised to find out that we won a bronze so we did get to see a Canadian on the podium. After the game, I was able meet the Canadian bronze medallist Eugene Wang and get a photo with him.

New Spectre Trailer

Oh man, each time a new trailer is out, just gets me excited and can’t wait to watch it. 4 more months!!! The anticipation is killing me. Re-watching and re-watching the trailer ….. what will this new Bond movie be about?? Doesn’t look like the ordinary Bond movie.

Pan Am Park

Got to check out the Pan Am Park before watching the Gymnastics finals. It was a hot day and it was the first day of competition so there were a lot of freebies! From sample ice cream, free water, Share a coke etc. It was still early so not too much of a line up for things. The ice cream bar was perfect as it was crazy hot. Pachii was there in and out of different places posing. There were a lot of big Muskoka chairs and in front of a big screen where you can catch the games. Also the big stage for the PANAMANIA concerts.

Pan Am Opening Ceremony

Finally, the wait is over, the Pan Am games opening ceremony is here. We walked around the Rogers Centre area first and it was crazy packed with people. And it was like we were all wearing uniforms, everyone was wearing their CANADA shirts and hats. It’s like you don’t have to tell us but we all pulled out the shirts. Roads were close for pedestrians to walk around.

The place was starting to fill up, as usually, the cheaper seats filled up quickly. Haha, probably because they took transit vs the expensive seats people must drive and can’t find parking with all the road closures. First, it was a pre-show where Pachi came out and did some dancing, there was different comedians as fillers. Finally, the main event was starting. There was 4 big screens showing different background graphics. It started off with Donovan Bailey jumping down from the CN Tower into the stadium. Start off with many international countries of dancers with their costumes, showing how Canada is multi-cultural country.

Then comes the parade of Nations, my favourite part where all the different representing countries walked into the stadium. Canada of course as the host country, comes in last. When the Canada walked into the stadium, every one was standing and cheering. Mark Oldershaw was our flag bearer. Once all the nations are seated, the big show begin. With our famous Cirque du Soleil performing different circus style dancing. The mountain bike portion was really cool, jumping up and down the hill. There were too many things happening at the same time that a pair of eyes was not enough to watch it all.

Then it was the lighting of the flame, there was a few different athletics passing the torch around before it finally relay outside to the big colourful acorn to light the flame. Then there was fireworks on CN Tower. Too bad they didn’t open the dome so we can see it above us. We were only able to watch it on the big screen but it looks amazing. Fun night.

Levetto

Ok, I have tried many Italian restaurants of different price range and I got to say, this is by far the best pizza I have ever had. And I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg for it. My friend suggested this place, it was kind of out of the way, out in Liberty Village but now after trying it, I want them to bring it to my neighbourhood! The set up is, there are seatings to eat, you order up in the front and they will bring the food out to your table. Their portions are quite generous. Between the 3 of us, we ordered a small pizza and 2 pastas and we couldn’t finish it.

Funghi pizza – Portobello, oyster & cremini mushrooms with mascarpone, roasted garlic crema. It smell so good and tastes so good. The crust was crispy, it wasn’t super thin but it was baked perfectly, not too dry and crispy. The toppings was filled with pieces of variety mushrooms. The mascarpone merged in perfectly with the mushrooms and the roasted garlic was so delicious. It really bring out the mushrooms and made the difference between the other pizzas I have had. We regret not ordering a bigger one so that we can have more.

Carbonara pasta – Smoked bacon, cracked black pepper, egg, scallion, grana padano. Another delicious dish, freshly made pasta, chewy and not soggy. Not too creamy, crispy bacon mixed with egg and scallion. It was so good, the only comment would be that it got cold pretty quick.

Trecce – Garlic infused olive oil, chili flake, sundried tomato, goat’s cheese, arugula. I am not a fan of goat cheese but the dish was still delicious mixed in with the sundried tomato and olive oil. Having fresh pasta really makes the difference. We were so full and satisfied with our meal. When the bill came, I was actually shocked at how inexpensive it was. Didn’t have to pay the high end price yet the food was much better. The service was great as well. I’m still craving more of that pizza right now. Need to make another visit soon. 🙂

Levetto
68 Sudbury Street
Toronto, ON M6J 3S7

Uncle Tetsu’s Matcha Café

Uncle Tetsu opened another store right beside the original store. There was a long line up as usually at the original Uncle Tetsu. We were not going to wait in line, seriously, it’s been 3 months and the line has not died down. Well, instead, we went next door to Matcha Cafe as there were no line to see what they are selling. It is still a soft opening as they don’t have everything on the menu ready. Currently, only selling soft served ice cream and matcha madeleine. The matcha cheesecake won’t be available until August.

I got the matcha soft served ice cream in a cup ($3.99). Honestly, didn’t really have much matcha taste at all. I have had better matcha ice cream elsewhere. Not worth the $4. My friend got the mixed matcha & vanilla ice cream and she said the vanilla is overpowering the matcha. On the other hand, I also grabbed a matcha red bean madeleine ($2.22) to try. That was actually much better, it was still a bit warm, cake was fresh, a little crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. I got it with red bean in the middle so there was something to chew with. I would come back for more madeleines but it is not cheap.

At least now I have tried a Uncle Tetsu, didn’t wait in line for now but I can imagine when they start selling the matcha cheesecake, there will be a secondary line for cheesecake.

Uncle Tetsu Matcha Cafe
596 Bay Street
Toronto, ON

Happy Canada Day!

It’s been raining this couple of days, scattered shower all day but finally cleared up a bit at night for the fireworks. It was still overcast and foggy so maybe that is why the fireworks were delayed. We got there about 1/2 hour earlier, surprised that there were so many people already grabbing seats and waiting. But still, we were able to get a good spot, a little later, we were already in the front of the crowd and lots of people were behind us.

New annoying thing tonight was people were trying to find their friends up in the front and because it was dark, they were using the flash light on their phones to flash around so the people can find them. DO you know how freaking annoying it is to have a bright light in your face. I wasn’t the only one, people around me were complaining as well telling the woman to turn it off.

Finally, around 11pm, the first fireworks were blasted and everyone was cheering. There was speakers around as well so their was music to go along with the fireworks. The fireworks lasted about 20 minutes, it wasn’t some cheap 5 minutes show. It was a well crafted fireworks extravaganza. We were standing right at the center stage of it all and it was loud. Bang after bang of fireworks over the lake, beautiful. And I was not jammed packed into the crowd, didn’t have to wait that long and still saw some spectacular fireworks.

Happy Canada Day!