Look ma! We won a bronze!

Back in March, my co-worker Valerie and I participated in Globe & Mail's Young Lions competition. The challenge was to create a media plan in 24 hours for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, a charity that addresses the challenges of AIDS/HIV in Africa. The gold medalist of each category represents Canada at the Cannes Young Lions Competition at the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.


Challenging? Yes. I haven't been this challenged since my university days. It brought memories of sleepless fourth year marketing projects. We started our Saturday at 9 am and finished in the wee hours of the morning, 3 am to be exact. The key objective was to increase donations amongst women ages 25-45. It was very important to us to not deviate from our core idea, the vulnerability of women. After brainstorming a million ideas on scrap pieces of paper, and going back and forth with countless media executions, we tried the best we could given the circumstances, 24 hours to complete a media plan was brutal! At the time, I felt defeated, tired and dazed. Now looking back, it was a great experience and truly puts one's determination to the test.


We honestly didn't expect to place. The chances of us making the top 3 were slim for our first attempt. The funny story was Val and I didn't even bother checking the results after the CEO announced that no one from the company placed in the top 3. It wasn't until another co-worker let us know our names were listed on a website. I immediately flew to Val's desk and told her the "news". Our names were on the list alright, but the media plan linked wasn't ours!

After much investigation, it turns out the Globe & Mail screwed up and we did in fact win the bronze! *WOOT!* Val is a talented graphic artist who also really knows her media shizz. Her amazing graphic skills really brought the whole plan together nicely. It was a pleasure to work with her.

{ click to check out our media plan! }

Year of the Rabbit

This month is flying by, it still feels like January, but it's already mid-February! The last couple of weekends have been busy with lunar new year festivities. I thought I would share some delicious treats my mom and I (mainly my mom) had made over the past weekends. My mom pretty much hates buying these cakes from restaurants or stores. She complains that they skimp out on ingredients and often tastes like cardboard *gag*.

Neen goa (年糕) also known as Chinese New Years' cake is made with glutinous rice sweetened with brown sugar. We love to slice them into strips and pan-fry this baby until it is sticky on the inside and lightly crispy on the outside.

guangdong style neen goa

Now this dish is very hard to describe, zong (粽) is basically sticky rice with mung bean and pork belly filling densely wrapped in banana leaves, then boiled. My mom made the vietnamese version, also known as bánh tét/chung. My favourite of all is the turnip cake (lo bak goa 蘿蔔糕), not really made with turnip, more like radish. Anyway, it's combined with dried shrimp, scallops, sausage, and shittake mushrooms. This sounds strange, but this "cake" is savoury and delicious pan-fried on its own or with (srircha) hot sauce! Don't knock it till you try it ;)  Although these "cakes" are available all year round, they're mostly eaten during new year celebrations.

pan-fried zong & turnip cake

Of course my mother never fails to deliver a traditional Lieu-style CNY dinner.

clockwise: chicken with green onion-ginger sauce, stir-fried veggies w/albalone, suckling pig with jelly fish, viet style crabs, gailan choy, shittake mushroom dish

steamed oysters in black bean sauce. so. good.

Oh yeah this is how some chinese parents dress their kiddies during the new year :)

Babies and Birthdays

I had a mini photoshoot with my little cousin, Arianna, back in the fall, which I've been meaning to share over facebook. The afternoon was gorgeous for a fall day, it was over 12 degrees and the sunshine was beaming. I hate to admit this as global warming is getting worse and worse, I enjoyed every minute of it! Beautiful coloured leaves and warm weather in the middle of November? Amazing.

Yesterday she celebrated her third birthday, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she whispered "Thomas", as in "Thomas the Train". I love how kids are still watching with this classic which has been around for more than 20 years...but just on their iPads.

It's hard for me to believe she's getting bigger every day. I secretly don't want her to grow up, but we all know that's not going to happen!

Cheers to a New Year!

Hello everyone, my first post! I've been thinking about starting a blog for some quite time, but knowing my lazy self, it dragged out for months. I thought this would be a great way to share (more like force myself) my photography, my crazy obsession with food, and random stuff I like.

My holiday felt nice and long. I had 11 days off work (more like 12 if you count food poisoning on the first day back)! I caught up with friends and attended quite a few famjams. I made green tea and toasted black sesame maracons over the break. Still mastering this high maintenance french cookie. Next on my list: chai tea, strawberry, and gingerbread!

{ green tea and toasted black sesame macarons }