PaiGu

After an exhausting shopping marathon, my friend and I decided to visit the Milestones in Masonville Mall. The decor was very elegant and modern, just what you’d expect from Milestones. The lighting was dim but not dark, the atmosphere was intimate but not quite romantic (probably due to the straight edges and black furniture of the modern decor), and the service was impeccable.

As soon as we sat down, we were introduced to the “wish list,” which was filled with imaginative cocktails and mouth-watering desserts. My friend and I immediately knew what we wanted for dessert, and decided to order our entree with that in mind. I had the recommended Milestones Original Bellini, which was a colourful mix of premium white rum, peach liqueur and sparkling white wine, topped with Boone’s sangria. The peach liqueur with sparkling white wine was what drew me to this drink, but the sangria was the real topping on the cake.

I ordered Thai chicken tacos, which were a huge platter of three Indian flatbreads with slaw, three skewers of chicken, and two dipping sauces. One dipping sauce was a mango vinaigrette, which was refreshing and only slightly sour. The other was a peanut satay sauce, which was not very peanut-y at all and not viscous enough. The satays were grilled to perfection, but were not marinaded in the traditional Asian style. The slaw was filled with coriander, which I detest, so I could not have very much, but what I did have was crunchy and fresh. The Indian flatbreads were warm and fluffy, but quite tasteless. I had very little of my entree because everything was covered in coriander, so the platter was still as full when it left as when it arrived.

My friend and I each ordered a dessert and split it (though I’ve now forgotten the names and it’s not on their website). One was a chocolate cake with vanilla gelato and whipped cream on top (I think it was called Ibana), covered in caramel. The caramel tasted in-house, in a good sort of way, and the vanilla gelato tasted amazing with the rich chocolate cake. The other was a dark chocolate pie with a pecan crust. The dark chocolate was an interesting experience, since it was still rather creamy and milky, but it was less sweet with subtle bitter undertones. The pecan crust was the real masterpiece. I’m not a huge fan of pecan but this was quite a treat. Unfortunately, the dessert is not made in-house, so I can’t give Milestones credit for that.

Overall, the experience was relaxing and enjoyable. The entree was memorable only because I could not eat most of it due to the coriander, but the dessert and the bellini more than made up for it.

Rating:

I still consider myself to be an amateur when it comes to baked goods, but they are quite handy for bringing into work and meetings and whatnot. After all, I am not about to pull out a dish of coconut curry jumbo shrimp as finger food for my coworkers.

So the other day, I was to make something to show off my culinary skills to these professors that I was having a meeting with. I immediately thought of the unused muffin mix in my pantry, and volunteered to bring muffins to the meeting. But I’d never actually made muffins before (tiny little secret), so I was a little bit anxious as to how they’d turn out.
The mix was for a standard muffin with blueberry filling. The filling was the tricky part, since it was heavier than the muffin mix and would start to sink when I put it in the half-filled muffin cup. In the end, they turned out rather perfectly, worthy of being presented by the SassyChef.