Posts Tagged ‘mini review’

Mink Chocolate


I miss the excitement of US Thanksgiving.

I miss the rush of preparation and the travel leading up to the day, the food, festivities, gathering and cheerful gratitude of the day, and the retail madness that follows the next day.

The Canadian version somehow doesn’t quite manage to evoke all that, but I’m grateful for a holiday in October.

For our Thanksgiving last month we got some Mink chocolate bars.

Mink is a chocolate café here in Vancouver; their chocolates are handcrafted here using the finest Belgian chocolate.

The bars come in beautiful arty packages with fun catchy names.

Mink

I tried two; The Girls’ Favourite and Mermaid’s Choice.

Mink Chocolates

The Mermaid’s Choice is a dark chocolate with ganache filling of burnt caramel and fleur de sel with a hint of rosemary.

The taste is amazing! The sweetness of the caramel and the salt makes for a very flavourful combination.

The dark chocolate shell is smooth and creamy and has a nice crunch.

The Girls' Favourite Mink

The Girls’ Favourite is a 30% cacao milk chocolate with French hazelnut and almond praline.

It’s smooth and nutty with just the right amount sweetness to it. It’s rich and decadent.

Chocolates

Since today was a normal working day for us, I went by Mink Café on my way from work and got the Dream and …By Any Other Name bars.

We had them for dessert after our lovely dinner while pondering the things we’re thankful for again.

Posted November 26th, 2009 in Food, Reviews. Tagged: , , .

On Pictures and dSLRs


els with new camera

Guy sent me a text saying “Congratulations! I see you’ve turned your love of being photographed into a hobby of photography” he’d just seen my photos on Flickr.

Of course he’s being sarcastic, but he’s right about one thing; my newest hobby is photography. It’s not an entirely new hobby but I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately.

And, I finally got a DSLR camera! A long time ago when I started noticing non-professional DSLRs, I promised myself that my next camera was going to be a digital SLR camera.

Canon Rebel t1i

Even though I loved taking pictures, I’d never really considered my cameras before. My last camera was a Samsung NV7 OPS; and I got it solely for its looks. I fell in love with it while on vacation in the UK, it didn’t have great reviews so I resisted buying it, but the price dropped and I relented.

Samsung NV7 OPS NV7 OPS
Samsung NV7 OPS Samsung NV7

I loved it! It took amazing pictures, was a great conversation starter and turned me into a bit of a shutterbug. I loved it so much I put aside my dream of owning a DSLR and happily used my NV7 for two years.

I started researching DSLRs again after I joined a photography forum. I researched, read reviews and walked into camera shops and just talked to the staff. I found out that most of them are professional photographers in their other lives. I had very simple requirements for my first DSLR; I was looking for a budget friendly and good entry level DSLR that takes great pictures.

Rebel T1i Ad

After much research I finally settled on the Canon EOS Rebel T1i (Canon EOS 500D). I went with Canon because P. has the 450D, we can share lenses and the 500D because it shoots HD videos.

I’ve been going out a lot since I got it; I’ve taken almost two thousand pictures and it hasn’t even been a month yet. I’m walking more, and getting better. I took one of those Intro to DSLR photography classes to familiarise myself with the controls, settings and jargons. I learn something new every time I take a shot as a digital SLR newbie.

House in the West End Lighthouse & Seawall

I’m still using the kit lens, I’ll hold off getting a second lens for now, I’m researching. This weekend I’m going to rent a couple of lenses from a camera shop that has rentals and take it with me on my trip to Bowen Island.

Posted June 23rd, 2009 in Reviews, Tech Toys. Tagged: , .

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