Dining Out: Mixed Mango Shaved Ice and The Wizard of Oz Shaved Ice at Miss Lin Cafe

Minji, Daniel, and I actually wanted to get bingsu for some after-work dessert, but there just aren't any good places around Markham that serve it, so Minji suggested Miss Lin Cafe for their Taiwanese-style shaved ice instead:

Mixed Mango Shaved Ice: Mango shaved ice, mango, mochi balls, milky crunch, coconut crisp, green grapes, and coconut milk
The Wizard of Oz: Matcha shaved ice, strawberries, water chestnut pearls, milky crunch, and ice cream

We decided to share the Mixed Mango and The Wizard of Oz. They were both great but we all liked the Mixed Mango more — mostly because we just like mango more than strawberry as a fruit, but partly because the combination of flavours and textures just seemed to work better together. While the shaved ice here isn't as smooth or creamy as bingsu, it does hit the spot. (It must be noted, however, that the shaved ice here is significantly better than the version at Honeymoon Dessert.) And they definitely win for the most aesthetic shaved ice I've ever had.

Miss Lin Cafe

Liberty Square

3601 Highway 7, Unit 119

Markham, ON L3R 0M3

(905) 604-5513

Dining Out: Downtown Markham Food Fest 2025

Since we didn't make it out to the CNE this year (which, aside from the hour-long commute from the GTA and the most anxiety-inducing parking space hunt, has become way too expensive — with a $25 admission fee this year, an all-time high — and way too crowded), I asked Minji and Daniel if they'd be interested in going to the Downtown Markham Food Fest after work yesterday, which has free admission and is way less stressful than going to downtown Toronto. 

Korean beef bulgogi tater tots from Crunch Alley
Beef, lamb, and sausage skewers from Chinese Northern BBQ
Tornado potato with garlic parmesan from Happy Twist
Taiwanese sweet potato balls from Sweet Potato Ball

Along with live music and performances, they have 40 local vendors this year. Since we got there right when they opened, it wasn't crowded yet and we could take the time to peruse all the food options. There were some vendors that we vetoed off the bat — mostly the Korean food ones that Minji insisted were way too overpriced (e.g. $13 for a Korean corn dog, $8 for a small cup of tteokbokki), but also the multiple vendors that are selling the exact same things (mostly the Chinese BBQ skewers), as well as the higher end local restaurants (like Pears and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse) because their price points were too high for what they were offering. (Also because they're quite literally across the street, so we could easily go to the actual restaurants if we wanted to.)

We ended up with Korean beef bulgogi tater tots (wish there was more kimchi and cucumbers, but the tots were super crunchy and the beef was well-seasoned — 4/5); a variety of Chinese BBQ skewers (9 skewers for $20 is a steal, but the vendor we ended up going to used pre-grilled skewers, so re-heating them on the grill made the beef and lamb a little too chewy, though the sausage was excellent — 3/5); a tornado potato that Minji added copious amounts of delicious garlic parmesan seasoning to (the potato was perfectly fried resulting in really nice crispy edges with the inside still giving a nice chew — 5/5); and Taiwanese sweet potato balls that are basically sweet potato-based donuts that have the most spectacular mochi-like chew (they were also dusted with this sweet-tart purple powder that made them taste like apple fritters and were INSANELY GOOD — 5/5). It was about $17 per person for everything, and we were surprisingly full. (I say "surprisingly," because I usually get way more than this at food festivals. But then again, there were no line-ups, so I guess there was no time to digest in between orders...)

It's not marketed as an Asian food fest which is why it was far less crowded than we expected (at least when we got there around 5:30PM which, admittedly, is a little earlier than most people's dinner times) and there's no stinky tofu (still not sure why people are so obsessed with it — it honestly tastes like regular fried tofu but just smells like sewer), but the majority of their offerings is exactly like an Asian night market, anyway. (It is in Markham, after all.) All of us wished there were more dessert options, but overall, I thought it was worth stopping by. And unlike the CNE or Ribfest, it's free to go in. Not sure why I had never bothered going before, but I will absolutely come back next year!

Downtown Markham Food Fest 2025

Downtown Markham

179 Enterprise Blvd.

Markham, ON L6G 0A2

Dining Out: Taiwanese Style Popcorn Chicken and Stewed Beef Noodle Soup at Mabu Generation

Went for a casual Lunar New Year dinner with Carmen at Mabu Generation:

Taiwanese-style popcorn chicken
Taiwanese-style stewed beef noodle soup

Everything was... mediocre. I'd been to Mabu Generation a couple times before a few years ago and now I remember why I never bothered to go back. It's not that the food was bad, it's just that there's so many better iterations of both Taiwanese popcorn chicken and stewed beef noodle soup out there that they're just not worth the price here. I'm not going to write Mabu off entirely yet because they do have an extensive menu that might be worth checking out, but this visit didn't leave me any more impressed than it did before. I'm just determined to find out why it still gets so busy here.

Mabu Generation

First Markham Place

3235 Highway 7, Unit 23-26

Markham, ON L3R 3P3

Dining Out: Asian Street Foods at Night It Up! Night Market

Went to check out Night It Up! this evening with my co-worker, Carmen, and her cousin, Jenny. If you've never been before, Night It Up! is a three-day outdoor Asian street food festival where dozens of vendors from around the city sell a variety of food and drink in stalls, and you practice the art of eating and walking. We'd been talking about it all week since we haven't been to an Asian night market in so long (for me, it's been over a decade). Over the course of two hours, we had:

Grilled lamb skewers from Zao Men Kan
Stinky tofu from Zhanan Stinky Tofu
Taiwanese spicy fried chicken cutlet from Top Fried Chicken
Pork and chicken skewers from Lert Thai Skewer
Homemade Wuhan sui mai
BBQ pork skewers from Juicy Meat Skewers
Chashu Japadog from Japas
Deep-fried mochi balls (black sesame, mango, and red bean) from One Dog Toronto
Fresh passion fruit lime tea with coconut jelly from TasteT House
Strawberry milk mochi kakigōri from Japas
We probably had room for one more dessert, but then it got insanely busy and the line-ups were getting way too ridiculous, so we decided that that was our cue to leave. Still, we had a pretty good variety of Asian street food tonight. Despite having to immediately shower and put your clothing in the washing machine the moment you get home, it was still worth checking out this year. If you're in the downtown Markham area and want to make a visit, Night It Up! is open until Sunday night.

Night It Up! Night Market

179 Enterprise Boulevard

East Parking Lot

Markham, ON L6G 1B3

Snack Haul: August 2022 Edition

So while I was doing some grocery shopping at T&T yesterday, I may have gotten even more snacks since I was already on a snack high (e.g. I'm PMS-ing). I know I was talking shit about subscription boxes that only offered junk food, but that's only because I couldn't pick my own junk food and therefore was left with junk food that was quite literally junk. That having been said, my (stellar) choices this month are:

Japanese Mini KitKat Bars in Peach and Melon
Pocky in Choco Banana and Mango + Sakura Yuzu Oreo Cookies 
HBAF Honey Butter Almonds and HHC Corn Chips
T&T was having a huge sale on Japanese KitKats, so each bag ended up being $3.99 (!!!) instead of $10+, which is definitely the cheapest I've ever seen them. Frankly, it would've been churlish not to get any. And the Honey Butter Almonds were on sale for $7.99 instead of $14! You know, picking my own junk food is incredibly satisfying, but getting my own junk food on sale is a whole different kind of joy.