O Canada....

When Mitch emailed us to see if we could come out for his restaurant opening, I though there would be no way. The flights from the SLC were in the 700$, and I always stress about finding somebody to watch Q. But the more I thought about, I knew I just had to get out there. Kim, Jared, and I were lucky enough to score some discounted stand-by tickets from Alysha (and Tom), which turned out to be an even bigger blessing, when Mitch didn't know when the opening date was until a few days before! So Stressful. I am super blessed to have some awesome family members around that heard my cries of help, and offered to watch Q for me while I was gone.
The traveling to and from was super stressful, stand-by flying is just not for me, but the couple days we had together in Toronto, and the time at his restaurant, made the trip totally worth it!! So thank you to everyone who made it possible! Plus we got a little star sighting in with Jeff VanVonduren from Intervention at the SLC airport.

After flying for most of the day Thursday, taking a bus to the subway station, riding the subway, then trolley to Mitch's part of downtown, Kim and I found ourselves schlupping our bags down the "clubbing" section of downtown at 12:30 in the morning, in the midst of drunk girls with high heels and guys with some buttons missing on their shirts. Kim and looked haggard, and even without the luggage, we DID NOT fit in.  Mitch is the worst at directions, and although Jared (who arrived first) had the worst time finding Mitch's apt, it wasn't much easier for us, which was just comical at this point so late in the night.
After saying hi and goodnight to Mitch(who was working 17 hr days in preparation)

 Jared, Kim and I headed to nearby pizza place that was open late to grab something to eat....we were starving!!

The next day was raining, so we spent the day doing some shopping at the mall. Mitch had NOTHING at his apartment, except for a bed and one chair, so Jared had gone to the store the night before to buy some pillows, blankets, and a blow up mattress. Mitch ended up borrowing one from a friend, so we got to return the bought one, and pick up some other random things.

We hit up the food court in the mall and had to get our hands on the Canadian Poutine. We chose the BBQ pulled pork Poutine with cheese curds....Um delicious!!!

That night we headed over to Momofuku for our reservation at the Noodle Bar. First off, the restaurant itself is gorgeous, and full of wood elements for tables, chairs, even wall art.

There was strict instructions through email to not take pictures or post stuff on social media outlets, so I have no pictures of our food, or the decor...but trust me, it was awesome! For dinner we had the pork buns, chicken buns, momofuku noodles, kimchi stew, and chicken and rice with egg, it wasn't until later that night that we remembered that we had ordered the chicken wings and never got them...but after 2 hours of eating, our stomachs were so full, and we didn't need anything else. We were on our way out, when a girl that works for the restaurant asked if we were Mitchie's family...we said yes, and she offered to show us around, and bring us up to see his restaurant and him working. We were on our way up the stairs when she stopped to introduce to the David Chang, the Momofuku guy!!  He was super nice, and had so many good things to say about Mitch...I may or may not have gotten a little teary eyed. We then got a sneak peak of Mitch's restaurant (Shoto), and got to see him work. What a cool sight!!

Saturday, we got up and did little on/off tour of Toronto. Those bus tours are always a great way to see the city, and it's super fun when you have great people to ride with, and good tour guide that makes you laugh!

That night was our turn at Shoto. It was almost 3 hours of awesome food! We had about 10-11 courses, and each one was so interesting and flavorful. Plus, we got to hang out with Vanessa, and watch and talk to Mitch as he worked. It was my favorite part of the whole trip. I tried fish I hadn't tried before, corn soup that I could bathe in, duck that fell off the bone it was so delicious, and desserts that would blow your mind (including one that consisted of an individual German pancake, with orange concentrate, maple ice cream, and sausage drippings....it was like Sunday breakfast in a dessert) Although we were all huge fans of the banana ice cream that came with the other dessert, and Mitch (when the restaurant was closed, gave us each a spoon, and let us finish off the batch they had made!!!...super classy I know...but it was THAT GOOD).  The water at the table came in these cool bottles with the letter Q on them, and Mitch snagged one for me to take home to Qiana as a souvenir. She was so happy, especially since it came from her uncle, who is a chef, restaurant.

Here are some pictures of the restaurant that I found online.

the 3 story restaurant. Mitch's is the 3rd floor

Mitch's place (Shoto) with him at work

cool wood wall of the noodle bar. Stairs leading up to bar and other restaurants. 

Noodle bar on bottom, bar on second floor. Shoto (Mitch's place) and another restaurant 3rd floor

the view of restaurant at night. 

And if you were wondering about Qiana...she was in heaven the whole time I was gone. Cali (and family), Kylie, and Linh (and Isaac) took such good care of her....in fact the whole way back home after I picked her up she kept repeating that she missed her babysitters.  She still talks about them to this day, and loves them all.