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Pink dragonfruit?!

Other people might say chicken or rooster, but phoenix just sounds so much more magical. This year is supposed to be a good one for Dragons, and I tried to start it off busy, just the way I like it.

Friday night, had what could be considered a small Lunar New Year party in my Basement, and we didn’t split until way past midnight.

Next morning was all for family time. Breakfast with mother at Duo Tian, then went to my aunt’s for lunch with about half the relatives, including two 3 year old boys and a 1.5 month old baby. We were just pulling out the mah jong table when H reminded me that we had agreed to go to this Fresh St. Market lions dance organized in conjunction with Taione, who imports fruits directly from Taiwan (get it? Taione… Taiwan… ha).

Two different types of wax apples above. Black pearl on the left, which is absolutely delicious. Crisp, sweet, juiciness in each bite. Almost like a Japanese pear, with a different flavor. I think I might be addicted to these now.

There’s still a lot to learn about these weirdly shaped fruits..  Abe, one of the directors at Taione, had actually spent about a week with the farmers in Taiwan, to fully immerse himself in their culture and learn how these fruits are grown. He had grown up in Vancouver, along with Lawrence, the CEO of Taione, and upon returning to Vancouver, he was inspired to team up with a group of his friends to start this Taiwanese fruit trading business. After almost 5 years, they’ve been able to introduce these exotic fruits into the daily lives of Canadians.

H and I also met with one of the managers of Fresh St. Market, Kent, who chooses the produce for the stores. He supported the diversity that these exotic fruits brought to his stores, and it was interesting to learn from him that a lot more local produce was being produced these days, with a spike in younger farmers. It brought me back to just last summer, working at the VFM. Anyways, these fruits might look weird (the wax apple looks a bit like a suction cup from a tentacle, and the dragonfruit looks like something from a scifi movie), but they’re sweet, juicy, absolutely gorgeous in photos. Looking forward to seeing more from Taione and Fresh St. Market!

After spending time with my family, it was time for us to spend time with H’s family. We had dinner at Sun Bo Kong, and celebrated with a fancy schmany cake from Fauborg:

Words cannot describe how perfect this cake was… Strawberry flavored jelly and just the right level of sweetness. I think I liked this better than the chocolate one I had on my birthday, mainly because it tasted more tart and not so sweet. 



Sometimes, when things seem to finally be going smoothly, another pothole forms and we crash right into it. Just gotta be more flexible.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change - Stephen Hawking

For example, I forgot to turn on my wifi at home for a day, watched Youtube, and now, I have only 0.87GB left of data for the next 3 weeks. Help.

Happy lunar new year.

And the rest of the weekend was skiing and eating.

Sunday morning, we just chilled around the village, because we stayed up late playing Machi Koro the night before. We originally wanted to brunch at Araxi, but it was no longer open for the breakfast hours and we were hangry.Ended up here, at Stonesedge:

I was impressed by the décor, and the presentation was very appetizing. The Mexican mocha hit the spot, I could imagine hitting up this spot for a drink après ski (wow so much French today). The food was not the best though… Everything seemed a bit overcooked on my plate of Breakfast Poutine, while S’s steak was a bit undercooked. Drinks, good; food, meh.


I feel like we missed the whole Women’s March, and now, looking at the news is just depressing. Hoping for the best, still…

Read the previous post for Part 1: http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2017/01/55104-inauguration-weekend.html

As the 45th US president was being sworn in, some Canadians were watching closely. Others, like me, decided to hit the slopes at Whistler. There was quite a crowd, even though the snow wasn’t the freshest and the sky wasn’t the clearest. A mountain day is always a good day… 

We drove up to Whistler on Friday night, right after work (9-5 office life for all 4 of us in my car), stopping by Squamish to grab a late dinner at Mag’s 99:

 

Top: Fried chicken, fries. Bottom: Chimichanga

This must’ve been the best chimichanga I’ve ever had. It was packed with rice, and the pool of mysterious orange sauce it was sitting in really complimented the flavors of the rice and meat inside. I’m hungry just thinking about it. This was enough to put all of us into a food coma.

It was not easy to finish it off, because LOOK AT ALL THE RICE, from just a quarter of the chimichanga!

The chicken was OK, slightly dry. I’d give this a 3/5 for the chicken and 4/5 for the chimichanga. 

We got to the hotel, started playing Machi koro, and didn’t get to bed till 1:30AM… Staying up late and struggling to wake up the next morning seems to bring us together.

Met up with some pals for brunch at 33 Acres and had some coffee…

…and some beer batter waffles topped with ham infused butter…

…and I think I really liked it. Strong coffee, perfectly poached eggs (the others had this), and just a great atmosphere. It’s such a busy place at around 11AM though, I’m not sure if I’d go back on a Sunday Brunchday.

Being busy is being lucky, says my mother. Being busy is a disease, says the Internet. I personally like to keep busy, I have plans to make plans… The coming year should be a busy one, with lots of plans to travel, explore, and develop those skills I already got. I recently (yesterday) purchased Your Chinese Horoscope 2017 by Neil Somerville, and I’m so excited to read it. The rest of this darn Monkey year is just dragging on and on! 10 more days till we reach the end of this torturous year…

I thought I’d put in the effort to plan a party, but ended up getting way too busy with things that life throw at you. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Here’s how I’ve been celebrating so far:

Price Smart Dark Forest cake at work. Their cakes have always been surprisingly good, and this one did not disappoint. Thanks guys.

Fauborg!!!! Rich and full of flavors, aroma, texture, gold flakes. This was their espresso chocolate one I think… Not sure as H ordered it for me. It’s a little too rich for everyday, but such a treat for my birthday. Thanks H and family.

Donuts from Cartem’s instead of cake. Had a bit of the earl grey (pretty good), london fog (B’s favorite, cream filled and pretty good), coconut cream (cream filled again, and average), honey parmesan (I didn’t taste any parmesan, but apparently everybody else did), and the walnut (average).  The light in this Main Street location is fabulous though, and it smelled so good that I started salivating once I stepped inside. I still prefer Lucky’s though. Sorry B!

Much gratitude to everybody for starting this year with me. Birthdays are sure different from what they used to be. I’m starting to prefer the smaller groups, partly because it’s so hard to get everybody together. It’s usually worth the effort, but it’s also impossible to plan. I guess once the babies start coming, we’ll be even busier. We’re not even past January, and there’s been a lot of baby talk this year already. I’m not ready for this. I still have so many places to go!

Battle of the donuts continues…

Went to Boiling Point for what must be the 7th time. Every time I go, I try something new. They only have 10 different flavors, and the only ones I haven’t had are the Beef, Veggie Tomato, and the Curry Fishball, so I must’ve been there 7 times. Today was the 7th, and I had their Taiwanese Spicy Hot Soup:

It’s bright, flaming red.

Noodles included. Milk tea sold separately, but highly recommended to put out the flames.

Lucky number seven. This was so spicy, it’s been 3 hours since I had it, and my stomach is still burning. My body feels like it’s on fire. I probably have an ulcer now. It did clear up the sinuses and wake me up, after another long day. I’m just twirling around in life right now.

Source

I just wanted to be at home tonight, go do some yoga, and chill out, because class is starting tomorrow. I guess things don’t always go according to plan, but it sucks when it’s because of other people. I mean, H’s problems are my problems, and I’ll be there if he really needs me, but I guess I just didn’t see the dire need for me to be there right now when I can barely take care of myself. WHAT ABOUT ME?! Well, I guess I have this blog to vent and be emo, so that I can be my usual self in real life. Thanks for reading.

More about my Boiling Point experiences here:

http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/11/food-diary-hot-pot-essential.html

http://luwesa.blogspot.ca/2016/12/merry-5152.html

First week of 2017 is over. It’s been a busy one, life doesn’t seem to want to slow down, even after the holidays have ended.

I tried to chase the sunrise at the Richmond Dyke on New Year’s Day too, but never got around to posting about it, likely because the photos didn’t turn out as I’d hoped (clouds in the way):

We might be so busy because we’re still house hunting! I say “we”, but it’s mostly fallen onto H’s plate, because he’s the one who will be living there with his ‘rents, but I’m just going along for support. I hope we get this resolved by the end of this month, because it’s really quite stressful. Life is too short for this.

Went to Shang Noodle House in Richmond after one particularly stressful afternoon of it. I had their Special B, which consists of Japanese BBQ pork miso ramen, 3 takoyaki balls, and a drink (I had the hot lemon water). CHECK OUT THAT PERFECTLY COOKED MARINATED EGG. Cheese tart was just OK, probably wouldn’t order again because I didn’t like the watery consistency of the cheese custard, and the tart was possibly store bought. The soup for the noodles wasn’t too salty, as I wasn’t chugging water all night. Total cost for 2 people was about $30, which is relatively cheap for dinner. The one thing that really stops me from going back more frequently is the lack of service. What can you expect from a busy Chinese restaurant?

That’s all for tonight folks. Maybe I’ll find time to post more tomorrow about the Lions Club charity concert I attended tonight… Most likely not though.

Hoping to find that balance of enough stress to drive me towards pursuing my goals, and enough rest to make sure I’m alive to see my dreams fulfilled. 

Met up with A, who was back from the far away lands of northern (middle?) BC, at Le Marche St. George. The soup was a bit too sour, but tasted really organic and super healthy. It was balanced quite well with the crispy, cheese croissant toast. Coffee very strong. Forgot to ask A how her London Fog tasted, but it looked really pretty with the latte art on top. This little corner shop cafe is just bumpin’. I’m sure I’ll be back with other friends too.



We talked about life – work, family, house, boys, cats, food… A’s sister apparently thinks I’m always in a sunny place, from following my Instagram. That made me laugh a little. Thanks, young A!

Trying to clear out some junk in my life to make space for new projects…