curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

Cafe Medina

November 15, 2015

I finally, finally, FINALLY, went to Cafe Medina. I know that I say this for many restaurants I visit, but Cafe Medina has been one of my top picks in terms of restaurants that I have been wanting to try. But waiting in line for a hour or more didn’t really entice me, which is why it took me so long to try this place out.

Originally, I had made plans to go to Yolk‘s for a weekend brunch with my cousin. However, since she lives in downtown, I asked if she would want to have a sleepover and we could walk over to Cafe Medina afterwards. She agreed but said we would have to go right when they open at 9am or else the line up would be crazy.

We arrived right at 9am, and there was already a line forming. This restaurant is crazy busy at all times, but the worst would probably have to be between 11-1pm.

But I did hear that they allow you to put your name down and walk around for a hour or so to kill time, then go back to the restaurant.
I have been told that their waffles are a must-try when coming here. I was actually able to try some of their waffles at an event last month. Since it was outdoor and in the evening, the waffles were cold but still really good. I couldn’t imagine how delicious they would be if it was fresh and warm, and finally got that chance!

Liege-style waffle with passionfruit, $4.15: I actually didn’t know that the toppings were an extra $1, I was obviously too blinded by all the delicious flavours and missed that part. I was torn between the white chocolate or passionfruit, but am a huge fan of passionfruit desserts and thought it was more unique so I ended up going with it.

The waffle was warm, fluffy, and incredibly soft. Additionally, the passionfruit topping was slightly more on the tart side, which I preferred because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. 10/10 would recommend the waffle. I was thinking of packing one home for the boyfriend, but decided that it’s a lot better trying it fresh in the store and this also gives me an excuse to come back here 🙂
Cyoni organic freshly squeezed apple juice, $5: This was unlike any apple juice that I’ve had before, but I enjoyed it as well. I don’t think I’ve had freshly squeezed apple juice before, the flavour was definitely a lot softer and purer than the bottled apple juice I’m used to. There was also a bit of pulp in it too.

Paella, $15: This is one of their most popular dishes, and comes with a fried egg, avocado, spicy chorizo sausage, and spicy tomato salsa. Everything in this dish balanced perfectly to a top-notch, hearty goodness dish.

I had a few bites and I really loved the spicy chorizo sausage mixed with the spicy tomato salsa. Very well done dish, I was in love at first bite!
Cassoulet, $17: I had a hard time picking what to eat, but my cousin assured me that everything on the menu is delicious as she’s been here a couple times before. I finally decided to try this dish because of the smoked bacon and andouille sausage.

My goodness, did I ever enjoy this dish. Everything was bursting with flavour, I don’t even know where to begin. I loved the andouille sauce and smoked bacon.
Here is a beautiful closeup of the cassoulet. I sent this picture to my boyfriend to show him what their bacon looked like but it turned out to be a really nice and crisp photo!

I was just expecting regular bacon strips, but obviously Cafe Medina took it to a whole ‘nother level. It was pretty thick and full of smoky and amazing flavour. The meat was extremely tender and flaked off perfectly.
Liege-style waffle with chocolate, $4.15: Both of us were really full and suffering from food coma after the meal as the dishes were really comforting, hearty, and filling. But since it was so good, we didn’t want to stop eating. After much consideration, my cousin decided to order a chocolate waffle for dessert but had much difficulty finishing it. I was too full to even attempt to have a bite, but she said the chocolate tasted like nutella!

There has been so much hype around Cafe Medina, and is it worth the hype? Yes, I definitely think so! Now, I understand why the lines are so long and why this place is popular. I’m already looking forward to my next visit, although I’m not sure when that would be!

As a side note, this place also reminded me of Toulouse in Seattle, which my boyfriend and I wandered across last year. Toulouse is one of Trip Advisor’s top 5 restaurants in America. We use Toulouse as a standard of rating because the food there was also top notch (and a 45 minute wait, haha). When asking me if the food was as good as Toulouse, I agreed that it was definitely on par, which shocked the boyfriend because Toulouse was probably one of the best brunch places we’ve been to thus far!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Momo Sushi

November 9, 2015

Ah, how I miss working in downtown and having effortless access to a plethora of mouthwatering food. Fortunately, there are occasional days where I get to work in downtown so I take advantage of those days! This time around, I wanted to try something new for the sake of my blog yet close to our building.

Casual Japanese restaurants in downtown doesn’t really catch my eye since I find it a bit overpriced in that area, but we drove by Momo Sushi in the morning and my coworker heard good things about it. Plus, I really wanted a warm bowl of udon as it was really chilly that day. After a busy day of work, it was pretty much early evening and we decided to stop searching for places and go there as we were both hungry.
Momo Sushi is located right on the border of downtown and Gastown. Walking in, I actually had no idea how big the restaurant was because they have an entire lower level that you can’t see from the outside of the restaurant. The steps are pretty wide, with a booth on either side of the stairs, which was where we were seated.

The neon signage looked like a throwback to the 80s, but I thought that the 3D installation they had was pretty cute. The carpet, booths, and supplies looked pretty worn out and have probably seen better years, but they still served their purpose. The restaurant also had an old musky wooden building smell to it, but that’s because it is located in a historic building.
Salad, miso soup, complimentary rice bowl: Since my coworker ordered a bento box, it came with the standard salad and miso soup. The miso soup was your average miso soup, but didn’t have much seaweed in it. It was also served nice and warm.

I didn’t know that our order came with a complimentary rice bowl, topped with seaweed and tobiko. Since I was already having a bowl of carbs, I didn’t eat much of the rice but I enjoyed the seaweed and tobiko. It was a nice & small snack to munch on while waiting for the main dishes. Both seaweed and tobiko tasted fresh and had a good crunch to it.Beef udon, $7.50: I was craving a nice bowl of warm noodles since it was cold and my throat was a bit sore. The beef udon satisfied my craving but I found it to be very salty! I poured some hot water to dilute the soup and also found myself asking for multiple refills of water to quench my thirst.

The udon was cooked perfectly, while the beef was thinly sliced and there was an average amount. It also came with a couple pieces of fish ball. Can’t complain for the price, especially in the downtown area!

Bento box C, $10.25: When my coworker’s bento box arrived, we both admitted that the presentation didn’t look too appetizing. The box was too big for the food, making the portion look smaller than it actually is – the wasabi in the middle of an empty section just looks awkward.

Presentation aside, the tempura was fried in old oil judging from the colour of the batter. My coworker thought her dish was a bit disappointing but still ended up finishing it anyways.

Negitoro roll, $2.95: Again, the presentation of this was not the best but the taste itself was not bad! The tuna and onions tasted pretty fresh.

Dynamite roll, $4.50: Clearly, presentation is not their strong suit LOL, that uneven cutting doe. Although the prawn looked very fat at the end piece, there was none in the last two pieces.

While my coworker was eating this, I told her that I thought she ordered a dynamite roll instead of a california roll? She said she did order a dynamite roll, but the prawn was just very small. It ended up looking just like a california roll without the tempura.

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Their prices are pretty decent for the downtown area, I find that a lot of Japanese places in downtown are overpriced. The service was also very attentive and friendly. It’s not the best here, but it’s not the worst either. It’s a good place for a quick bite to eat, and I would come back if I was craving some quick Japanese food.

Estée Lauder Brightening Serum + Concealer

November 6, 2015

I stumbled on the Estee Lauder brightening serum + concealer by accident, when I swapped it in for my regular (and misplaced) concealer. Little did I know that I actually the brightening serum side instead of the concealer stick side, oops!

During that evening, I noticed my skin looked significantly brighter, my skin more translucent, and generally better than usual! Since this was the only product that I had changed, I decided to wear it a few more times to test it out.

The Estee Lauder brightening serum and concealer comes in a double ended duo stick. The brightening serum is on the left, while the concealer is on the right. Since I received this as a sample after an event, I was unable to choose the shade (which is why I didn’t test out the concealer as it was a bit darker than the serum). I would definitely have to buy a lighter shade for myself!

The product itself is very durable and sturdy. However, due to the reflective gold tube, it is very easy to get fingerprints on it, especially if you already have foundation on your fingers. This is why you might see some fingerprints in my pictures, sorry about that!

Although the serum looks a bit too dark for my skin on the left, there actually isn’t that much of a shade difference once you blend it in, as seen on the right.

Based on this swatch, you can definitely see how it brightened up my wrist – imagine how well it would brighten up your face!

I put the highlighting serum under my eyes, on the side of my nose/inner cheek, and Cupid’s bow. You could definitely see the highlight on my inner cheek near my nose and Cupid’s bow, but unfortunately my under eye circles are so bad these days that even this serum couldn’t completely erase it.

I love the brightening effect it has, and would make for an excellent highlighter for contouring as well.

This is currently being sold for $38 CAD, so I would recommend using this on special occasions only since the tub is somewhat small. I only wear foundation on special events or when I dress up, so this is perfect to incorporate into my regular foundation routine.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Yay!

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.

Current Lip Colours – Fall 2015

October 31, 2015

Seeing that my last few posts were product reviews, I thought I would switch things up and share with you which lip colours I’m currently using or that I keep in my purse. I’m not sure why, but for the past while, my makeup bag (in my purse) has been full of only lip colours, Vaseline, bandages, and a rollerball perfume. What type of makeup bag is that? I need to re-organize my makeup bag and replace the lip products with other things!

I keep telling myself that I should only keep a minimum of 2 lipsticks while I’m on the go, but somehow it ends up being more. But if I wear a smaller bag, I only carry one with me. So maybe I should start carrying only small bags?? Nah, I can’t wear small bags on a regular basis =P
Starting from top, going clockwise

Courreges Estee Lauder cheek + lip ball in ultra pink: I reviewed this on my previous post, and it is definitely one of my favourite lip colours. It’s super easy to dab on your lip when you’re in a rush, but want to add some colour to your face. Also, don’t let the name fool you – it’s not actually that bright of a pink.

Covergirl lip perfection in 360 euphoria: Honestly, I’m not sure why this is in my makeup bag and I should probably take it out. Nothing too special about this lipstick, I think I found it in my room one day and wanted to give it some use. Although it doesn’t look super bright, I find this shade a bit too bright for me on a daily basis.

Weird, because I know that the lip ball looks brighter but the lip ball is actually more sheer.

NARS satin lip pencil in rikugien: I love this lip pencil because it looks really natural, and glides on really well!

Chanel in 80 etole: This is probably my favourite out of the bunch, sentimentally speaking. It was a birthday present from the boyfriend and he sneakily took one of my other lipsticks to the Chanel counter when I was at work. Then, he asked them which shade would match the most and gave me this one!

Not only is the shade very versatile and great for almost any occasion or just everyday wear, it has a nice floral scent to it and is pretty long lasting too.

Well, there you have the lip colours that I currently keep in my makeup bag! I should do a de-cluttering of my makeup bag and select only two lip colours, four seems a bit too much to me and it adds a tiny bit of weight to my purse for no reason. I’m curious to look back on this post a year later and see what I end up with then.

Thank for reading!

-Carmen

Courrèges Estée Lauder Lip + Cheek Ball

October 28, 2015

Estee Lauder has paired up with French designer, Andre Courrèges on a line called Courrèges Estee Lauder. A few products were created combining his modern, futuristic, and geometric style, one of which I will review today. But first, here are some pictures to give you an idea of his style from the 60s.

(L) Ina Balke in Courrèges, 1965. (R) Courrèges, 1965. Credit: ShrimptonCouture.com — (L) Ina Balke in Courrèges, 1965. (R) Courrèges, 1965.
Credit: ShrimptonCouture.com

His style is very geometric, and after doing some research on him before writing this post, found out that was very popular in the 60s. I’ve never heard of him before attending the Estee Lauder media preview event, as with a few other attendees as well! See what type of things you can learn when you start beauty blogging? =P

His design incorporates many simple shapes such as triangles, trapezoids, squares, and rectangles.
Staying true to his geometric and futuristic style, the lip & cheek ball features a chrome metal design in a sphere. I could totally paint this into a Pokeball. Nah jk, knowing me and art, I would probably still find a way to mess that up.
The surface of the ball is reflective, and it took me a long time to get a ‘decent’ shot that hid my phone’s reflection before giving up. It just wasn’t meant to be.

But now we can play a game – can you spot me trying to hide in the reflection of the ball? LOL.

Here is a swatch of the product. The product goes on pretty sheer, this is two swatches of the lip & cheek ball. As you can tell, the colour is a soft, rosy pink that would go with a plethora of makeup looks! The official shade name is ‘ultra pink’.

Although this is suitable for both lips and cheeks, I’ve only used this on my lips. I know that many people use lipstick on their cheeks as a blush hack, but I try to stay away from that. From a young age, my mom and her friends have warned me about putting lipstick on skin as they did that when they were younger, and thought that the lipstick did some damage to her skin. Hence, I grew up with the mindset that lipstick on cheeks = no bueno!

Of course, we all have our different opinions and some people may not see the harm in doing so. It probably is fine, but I just chose not to do it – to each their own, right?
I try to take advantage of the sun whenever possible, here is a picture wearing the lip & cheek ball on my lunch break. I love wearing this colour when I’m at work because it is not too striking or dramatic. I feel that sometimes my lips look sickly pale, even though I’m not sick so this shade adds a bit of healthy colour to my face.

Living in Vancouver, we have many days consumed by depressing cloud and rain which not only affects my mood sometimes, but also prevents the amount of pictures I can take for my blog! Whenever I see a glint of sunshine in the fall and winter months, you bet I am outside taking advantage of natural lighting 😉

The lip & cheek ball retails for approximately $28 CAD. I’ve also included the full line above, although I’m not certain if all products are carried in Canada.

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.