My Second Brunch in the City

Yesterday I went to Female Department’s Brunch in the City for the second time. This year I was sans Carolyne, but I did still manage to have an amazing time, and hang out with some pretty cool people 🙂

I got there a little before 12, when it was supposed to start, so I figured I would get one of the free manicures from Trippy Nails before the lines got too long. I chose Pearl for my color, and chatted a bit with the owner, but I messed it up by grabbing things before it dried, so I won’t post pictures. But still, it was nice to be pampered for a bit 😉 While there, I got to talk with the girls waiting in line behind me, as well as sample a lot of delicious food.

And a drink. I don’t generally do alcohol, but it was a raspberry puree with Disaronno and it was pretty good. And I got to keep the mason jar, which I love 🙂 I will need to find a way to make a virgin version…

As for the food, there were cookies from Yes Please! which were soft, sugary and perfect.

As well as catering from Forketta: French crusty bread with ricotta cheese and a roasted grape/balsamic compote. The flavors went incredibly well together…

Tiny shooters of blueberry maple sauce with french toast sticks to dip inside. The toast was slightly dry, but the taste of everything was amazing, with the cinnamon and the maple and…I poured what was left of my sauce into the raspberry puree drink and it was wonderful!

The waiter introduced this as salmon gravlax when I asked him what it was. Basically, it was like a smoked salmon with creme fraiche on top of a tiny pancake. It was topped with dill and had a slight citrus taste to it as well.

This one was exciting because I feel like I could figure out how to make it at home. It was the whole wheat tostitos scoops that we usually make nachos with, but instead of being covered in cheese, there was avocado mousse, mango, cucumber and shrimp. It was…refreshing? I guess might be the word for it. I liked it a lot 🙂 Also, I somehow didn’t realize the tray was a mirror when I took the picture…

My favorite was the tart. I didn’t ask what it was before trying it, but the waiter warned me that it had Pancetta in it, probably in case I was vegetarian. I couldn’t recognize anything in it at first, except for the honey drizzle, I only knew that it was amazing. It was when discussing it with a friend (and later looking at the menu) that we discovered it was pear gorgonzola. As in the fruit and the cheese. Kind of heavenly.

There were a bunch of booths selling jewelry, purses and clothes, even one with roses in boxes. Some were new, some were there last year, and others were at the Christmas event.

One new and awesome vendor was Miyuki Crochet. She brought her summer collection, which includes bathing suits, awesome tops as well as chokers, hats and cacti. Her website also has more winter stuff, like scarves, sweaters and headbands. Definitely worth a look 🙂

“In our society, the women who break down barriers are those who ignore limits.”

-Arnold Schwarzenegger

All I *Need For Christmas

On Friday Night, I attended my second Female Department Sponsored Event. To celebrate the holidays, they rented out a loft, with a different vendor in every room, treats and drinks to go around, and some Christmas spirit 🙂 The tickets were free, we just had to bring a donation, which I think was an incredible idea.

I got there super early because I clearly don’t know how long it takes to walk places. This was slightly awkward, because I just meandered while they finished setting up, but it was also awesome, because I got to actually talk to some of the vendors, had first dibs on everything, and got pictures before all the food was eaten 😉 There were sugar cookies, as well as bacon chocolate chip cookies (which were surprisingly delicious) and tiny shooters of milk from Yes Please! I am not sure who made the other treats, but there were brownies, a cinnamony caramel cake, and salted caramel and chocolate popcorn. Be warned that I am guessing at these flavors, but they were scrumptious.

As soon as you walk in, the first thing you see is this winter accessories line. Although I am sure they are super awesome, I didn’t spend that much time there, because if I am in need of a hat, a scarf or anything of the sort, I would head over to Miyuki Crochet 😉

The first bedroom held clothes from Female Department, set out like any girl’s bedroom, especially when trying to figure out what to wear for a night out!

Next came Philo purses, designed here in Montreal, made in China, with a part of the sales going to charities. The girls were super nice and helpful. #BagsThatGiveBack

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a lingerie room, a super nice and friendly girl selling emoji shirts and beanies, as well as some cool jewelry with things like ‘namaste’, ‘hope’ and ‘strength’ written on it, but my purchases were made at BKind, the natural, vegan bath products/skin care line by the Christmas tree.

Everything is made here in Montreal, with natural products, no water, and she uses them all herself. I wondered what kind of school you go to in order to make that kind of stuff, and it turns out she studied microbiology. Which is not a requirement, but I’m sure it helps. She let me try almost everything, told me the awesome properties of all the ingredients, and I had full intentions of posting pictures of what I bought, but it ended up being a gift, so I let the experts at DakorMtl wrap it instead.

Also, not sure if it was Female Department that put these up, since they usually have awesome quotes strewn around, but there was some pretty inspirational writing on the walls 🙂