Hello, I’m Amy! Amy’s Food Adventures is a place for me to share both my dining/baking adventures + misadventures with fellow food lovers like you. I don’t consider myself a foodie, but some say that I am – it really doesn’t matter to me :) This blog was initially used to upload food-related photos & blurbs, sort of like a food diary, with me being the only one who had access to it. It was not until March 2011 when I decided to write “restaurant reviews” that I opened it up to the public. My palate has definitely matured over the years and my preferences have also changed, so my older posts may not reflect my current opinions. I’m letting them stay only because they show the growth I’ve gone through – I’ve come a long way for sure. I still have a lot to learn about food so I hope that you’ll continue following my food adventures.
I’ve received quite a number of comments and e-mails regarding the following questions, so I’m going to post my answers here just to make things easier :)
1. Which pastry school did you attend? If not, which courses did you take?
— I’ve actually never received any formal training or taken any classes; all it takes is a lot of passion & determination ;)
2. Where can I get matcha or green tea powder in Toronto?
— Please refer to my posts here & here.
3. Which camera do you use and do you have food photography training?
— I use Canon EOS Rebel T2i and sometimes with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens (aka Nifty-Fifty). Nothing fancy and pretty affordable. Again, I’m very flattered that many of you find my photos gorgeous, but I still have a very long way to go when it comes to foodtography :)
4. Do you use Photoshop to edit your photos?
— No I don’t, because Photoshop is way too advanced and complicated for me (lol). I do use the software that came with my camera though. It’s mostly to adjust the colours so they’re more vibrant, brighten the photos and sharpen them as well. I can tell you that the majority of bloggers do use Photoshop to touch up their photos, so it’s very common.
5. Have you stopped writing restaurant reviews?
— Yes and no. Writing reviews take a very long time and I’ve sort of lost my passion for it. I’ll still be posting short ones from time to time, so no worries.
If you want to know more about me outside of my food adventures, visit the Everyday Life section of my blog.
Thanks for reading Amy’s Food Adventures and have a lovely day :)
Contact me
e-mail | amysfoodadv@gmail.com
facebook | Amy’s Food Adventures
twitter | @lu_amy7
instagram | @amylu7
First time to visit your blog here… I really liked it! Will definitely try out one of your recommended lists soon.
I’ve been to a few of the restaurants on your to-go list. I also love food and love baking. Sounds like we have similar tastes. :)
Keep up with your good work!
Hi Joyce!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment :)! I’m glad to meet another fellow food lover and baking enthusiast! Hope to go on a food adventure with you soon! :)
I can tell I am going to really like your blog : )
Thanks! You have a very lovely blog yourself :)
I Love your blog!! I’ll try to make the hk style milk tea cupcakes!! very professional recipe u got there! thanks!
Aw, thanks Sai! Good luck with the cupcakes!
You have no idea what you are talking about….
and are also very bias.
Nothing but a wannabe.
I appreciate you taking the time to read my blog and expressing your opinions, especially since we’re all entitled to our own opinions. I just don’t understand why you feel the need to read my posts when my biased posts anger you so much. If it seems to you that I have no idea what I’m talking about and you think you know more than I do, then good for you. I’m no professional food critic and never saw myself as someone who’s as knowledgeable as them; no way. My reviews are based solely on what I think, and if you don’t like my blog, there’s no reason why you should read it. I’m aware that not everyone will agree with what I have to say, some will think I’m biased, and others might even despise my blog, but I respect all of that. The existence of this food blog isn’t for people to just agree with everything I have to say; they have their own judgement and preferences as well. I just hope that people will find my reviews helpful, and if they don’t, then that’s totally fine. They can always find another blog that’s more objective in their opinion.
And sure, some of my baked goods were definitely inspired by what I’ve seen in Toronto bakeries, but I’m not really sure what you meant by “knock offs”.
Again, I don’t expect everyone to agree with my reviews. Even if no one does, that’s okay with me. This is my blog and it’s a place for me to document my own dining experiences. If people find it helpful, then great. If not, then there’s no need to continue reading it. Thanks.
It takes a true professional to open a restaurant/cafe etc. and work hard to make it a success.
It takes a true “bimbo” to start a blog and trash it because you don’t think it’s good enough.
Open up a business and run it for 5, 10 – 20 years and then, “maybe” only then you will get it.
You are nothing compared to every owner of every business you trash talk on your bias site.
People such as you are a complete joke and a waste of life.
As mentioned in a previous comment, everyone is entitled to their opinion so I’m not going to just delete and ignore this comment of yours. I should mention that there was no need for you to leave 5 comments under different names and e-mail addresses though, since I have access to information such as IP addresses, page views, visit time, etc. I know you’re the same person.
I didn’t start this blog just to trash any specific establishment because I don’t find any meaning in that. Whether my reviews are biased or not, it’s really subjective. There is a mix of positive and negative reviews on my blog, and my reviews reflect my dining experience at the time.
I don’t know whether you’re the owner of a particular cafe/restaurant that I’ve written a negative review for, or a friend/family member/regular of that restaurant, but you don’t even know me enough to judge me like that. I’m aware that some business owners may be enraged to discover a negative review on their business, but it’s important to be able to take constructive criticism. I clearly describe what I’m happy about, and what I’m unhappy about in every review. I don’t “trash talk” a restaurant for no reason. I don’t say things like, “This place sucks, don’t go there! Their food is awful so stay away!” I provide explanations in my reviews.
Food blogs and sites like Yelp exist so that businesses can read their customers’ feedback and see how they’re doing. Business owners may decide to improve in areas where they fall short, remedy a certain negative experience, or simply ignore the negative reviews. It’s not like I don’t understand how difficult it is to operate a business, but not everyone out there will like or appreciate every single business in existence. Welcome to the real world.
Let’s repeat this.
It takes a true professional to start and operate a business for 5-20 years. Any child can start a bias blog and trash any business she wants.
Start a business Amy, put your entire life into it, every nickel and dime you ever saved. Then tell everyone how you feel when someone starts a blog for next to nothing and trash talks it.
I should repeat this too. No one business can ever please everyone out there, and that’s a fact. You keep leaving comments like “grow up”, “you don’t know anything about the real world”, etc. when you know nothing about me. Sure, I’d feel angry or upset if someone were to talk negatively about my business, but as harsh as it is, that’s reality. I would focus on what I’m doing right and pay more attention to those who like my business, instead of spending so much time and energy spamming every food blogger or restaurant reviewer out there. Since it seems that nothing will ever come out of this, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
Randomly happened upon your blog while searching for a review of Terroni…gotta say, I am impressed. Am also a macaron lover…yum!
Thanks Annie! Yes, macarons are very addictive :)
Having eaten many times at most of the restaurants in the Toronto Dish Duel myself, and having read your uninformed blatherous crappola you call reviews (which are pretty horribly written and clearly not arrived at through any understanding of flavours, cooking techniques or nuance) I would have to agree that any idiot with an iPhone and some Federal business grant money for a small business start-up can go eat “for a living” and without any formal culinary training play online critic to the other cell phone junkies who don’t necessarily care about what’s really good, but are more into what some moron with a blog told them to do.
That said.. kudos to taking zero culinary training, zero professional work experience in fine dining, zero University based literary training, zero College based Hospitality Industry training and successfully parlaying all that nothingness into a city-wide judging gig where your complete lack of skill sets, or real knowledge contribute to the twits and twats (oops… I meant tweets… really) that sit glued to their iPhones waiting for others to tell them what’s worthy of experiencing.
On behalf of the rest of us who would rather interact with, you know… real people; and by the way – real food too; rather than mindlessly agree with and follow some e-page drivel from a hack who is wholly unskilled in the topic she wishes to spew on about… thank you. Thank – YOU!
Thank you for handing me the sense of taking 10 minutes out of my busy day to address as a moral imperative, the mistaken impression that as a food blogger and (I am still mortified to find out) food judge in Dish Duel Toronto; that you are somehow a professional in the food service or culinary industry. You are not.
Julie and Julia… well at least she turned her skill-less and education-less food-love into a movie; otherwise it too would have simply been a gargantuan waste of bandwidth and hard disk space.
To those who eat out in Toronto… I dare say you are likely just as if not more qualified than this person to decide what’s good and what’s less outstanding. Put the iPad down, shut off your computer, take your spouse/better half/roommate by the hand and leave your house electronics-free. Go out and be Free-Range Foodies. Live e-free and eat the natural way…with no added hormones or demented advice from the uninformed. Be natural. be sustainable. it’s good enough for the expensive organic meats you’ll be eating when you go to a quality restaurant, so why not for you too?
Wow, as a complete stranger to you, I must say that I’m quite flattered. To have written such a long essay on how I have no formal culinary training, have terrible writing skills, and not a professional, I’m clearly worth your time. And you’re right, anyone can just start their own food blog, so I don’t see anything wrong with mine. Though I’ve already emphasized this enough, let me say it one more time: I’m not a professional food critic or writer, so my reviews can’t be found in newspapers or magazines. This is merely a place for me to share my dining experiences with others. I don’t use elaborate terms and I don’t expect everyone to agree with my reviews. If people are looking for critic reviews, then they wouldn’t be here since they already know where to look. Thanks for your comment nonetheless!
I’ve heard Amy makes a really mean humble pie. I don’t suppose you’ve tried it.
LOL ;D
If your biggest moral dilemma in a day is how someone writes a personal food blog, you should consider yourself lucky.
There is nothing wrong with constructive criticism, but there is no need to be so hateful. Only children use name calling to solve problems.
No one is holding a gun to your head, if you don’t enjoy a blog you can easily X out.
Agreed.
Don’t be afraid of stating the negative. We deserve to know good and the bad.
Thanks for your comment. I’ve only been receiving the same old offensive comments from the same person that whenever I see an e-mail asking me to moderate a comment on my “about me” page, I automatically think: “Oh man.. not again.” So this was a surprise to me :)
You only started baking last year? Wow, but your baked goods look incredible! Very professional looking… can you include a video or photos with instructions on how you pipe the frosting on? I’m clueless on which of the gazillion nozzles out there to use and how to use them properly. Thanks!
Thanks! I’ll work on the videos :)
Following! Great blog :)
Thank you so much!
I just stumbled upon your blog and am thoroughly enjoying going through your posts and photographs. It’s obvious you are passionate about food and especially desserts, even if you aren’t a “professional”.
I also read some of the negative commentary you’ve received. For those who are passionate about food, eating is about evoking an emotion and creating an experience. Sometimes those experiences are wonderful for one person and horrible for the next. It doesn’t diminish person A’s enjoyment of the meal just because person B did not enjoy it. It also doesn’t mean that they have bad taste, it means they enjoy what they enjoy. There is no shame in that and it saddens me to see such negativity over such a subjective topic.
If anything, reading those sorts of comments makes me wonder if the people writing them have problems coming to their own conclusions. Critics/reviewers/etc simply tell their own experiences, it is up to the reader to explore further and see if their opinion agrees or not.
I look forward to your future posts :)
Thanks Aria! I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog :)
Hi Amy!
I just discovered your blog recently, but I had to leave a comment. Your baking is SO gorgeous and your photography is so beautiful. I just started my own food blog this year and if I even come close to your photography, I’ll be happy.
Also, I just wanted to say that I think it’s wonderful how you respond politely to all the negative comments. You are truly a kind person. I wish you all the success in the world!
I’m off to read more of your lovely recipes and can’t wait to try some for myself! :)
Hi Stephanie, you’re too kind! I’m still working on my baking skills and foodtography, but thank you. Good luck with your blog and I’ll check it out shortly! Again, I really appreciate your feedback :)
Hi Amy,
I, too, recently discovered your blog. I love baking as well and I find your posts very inspiring. Keep up the great work and don’t let those haters bring you down :)
Thanks Rebecca :)
Hi Amy,
I discovered your blog this morning and it is absolutely fabulous! Your recipes are unique and the creations are just mouth watering! I’m definitely going to try to make every single one of them, thanks for sharing! I’m also from Toronto so I’ll keep an eye out for your events and look forward to attending them! Keep up the great work :)
Cindy.
Hi Cindy! I hope to meet you at one of the events in the future and let me know how the recipes turn out :)
Hi Amy,
I just found your blog a few days ago and absolutely love it. Your recipes are lovely and very creative. I will definitely keep coming back for more ideas and inspiration. Great job and keep up the fantastic work!:)))
Kelly
Thanks Kelly! I’m happy that you find inspiration in my blog :) Means a lot!
Hi Amy!
I also just came across your blog and Facebook page. I just have to say that I love your posts, recipes and food photos. Please keep posting and I’ll keep following :)!
Victoria
Thanks Victoria! :)