H had a craving for ramen. I had a craving for adventure. We went to a new place, called Jiro Sushi and Ramen:

Fatty pork, perfect eggs, and fresh fish. There could have been more broth in the tonkotsu ramen, but the noodles didn’t get soggy, and toppings were plentiful. There were snow peas included, something I haven’t seen before! The unagi in the bento box could have been thicker, but the flavors worked for me.

We also had the agadeshi tofu, which the server was confused about. He had no idea what we were talking about, and to him, it was just fried tofu. I should’ve asked where he’s from, because he didn’t look or sound Japanese. Overall, good, but could be better, and I would go back. $30 or so including tax and tip, cash and debit only.





I hope to stay healthy for the rest of summer, but it might be difficult with all the germs around me. Some people lead more difficult lives, but let’s all try to be considerate and conscientious citizens.

Went to the Sunshine Coast this past weekend for some R&R with H and his coworkers. They’re all fairly Type A (and they know it). Are they good at their jobs because they’ve been molded by the nature of their occupation, or is it because of their existing personalities? Chicken and egg questions. I’m not laid back, but compared to them, I’m a total sloth. We went kayaking with Pedals and Paddles, hiked (walked) to Burnett Falls Park, and did a bit of offroading:



Found a hidden lake in the middle of nowhere:



And the final touch of the weekend, great coffee at the Basted Baker:



I was satisfied with just a flat white (bottom) and H had the cappuccino. I’ll have to come back for the food. It looked amazing, the poached eggs were so jiggly.



I feel like I traveled with both A and B personalities this month, so I must be balanced now.

Our schedules worked out just so that D and I had time to meet up for coffee in between our travels. We were originally going to hang out at Continental Coffee, but it was packed, and Prado had a small table that was perfect for us. I had the cappuccino, and D had the mocha. We shared the cookie, and if I remember correctly, it was bomb. Peanut butter and cookie match made in heaven.



There are actually 5 other Prado's in Vancouver, including one in Surrey. Expect a couple more Prado posts after visits to these other locations. Sometimes, things just fall into place, and the timing is perfect. You meet who you’re meant to meet, and experience what’s supposed to be. I might not make it to Surrey.

Here's my experience at the Prado in Gastown.

For the Victoria Day long weekend, I didn’t do very much, unlike most other weekends. Sunday was probably the most exciting, because we went hiking at Tunnel Bluffs. I had only 1 shot of Nespresso that morning, after waking up at 6AM, and thus, the coffee cravings were really kicking in. The caffeine craving and dehydration called for a cold beverage of some sort, and so M suggested JJ Bean’s Shiver. I can’t believe I have never tried this before, I am a true fan. The JJ Bean at Main Street looked like a nice place to hangout too, with all the pretty plants.

Views and good coffee make a perfect day.

More info on this hike:

https://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/tunnel-bluffs/
https://www.outdoorvancouver.ca/tunnel-bluffs-hike-lions-bay/
http://www.trailpeak.com/trail-Tunnel-Bluff-near-Lions-Bay-BC-11320

Finally it was VinJu’s special day. It all turned out beautiful, as it usually does at weddings, despite forgetting things and losing track of time. Everything is ultimately perfect.

Let's backtrack. Started the day off with a nice coffee and croissant combo at Kaibo Espresso:

I was up at 6AM pretty much every day of this trip, and we arrived at Kaibo before the rush at around 7AM. Thank goodness, because the lineup really accumulated by around 830AM. Good coffee, not roasted (Miami) or grown on the island (Columbia). Not much space for any type of industry other than tourism on the island… Then, P, V, Ju, H and I went to the grocery to pick up some last minute things, as well as Sam’s one more time. The other dudes were just waking up when we got back, at around 1130AM. Ju had to start getting ready around 1230PM, so we got back in time for her to have lunch. The other dudes went to see the starfish, but luckily got back in time to sneak in a nap before getting ready. So much easier to be a guy, just throw on a shirt and go. I was busy enjoying the wedding and all the vegetables at the buffet, which we were deprived of during the Jerk Chicken Tour, so that's it. We went home the next day.

Back to the beginning of the GCM trip: GCM DAY ONE // JERK CHICKEN TOUR – Chicken!Chicken!

Back to GCM Day 2: GCM DAY 2 // IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTERALL

Back to GCM Day3: GCM DAY 3 // STINGRAYS ARE TIRING

We also went to see the Blow Holes (teehee):

Magnificent. Powerful. We were impressed for about a minute, took pictures and left so that we could continue the Jerk Chicken Tours.

We ended up going to Di Kit-Chin, where we had the fried snapper fish and of course, jerk chicken. The fish looked really dead. P really enjoyed it, because she loves eating all the fish with bones. As a lazy person, I did not care too much for all the little bones in the fish, but it was not unpalatable. The chicken was great, but I would have to say that it isn’t quite as good or fresh as Sam’s. Not sure if it’s because it was a Sunday and they weren’t expecting much traffic (so thankful they were open on Sunday!).

Interesting conversation there too:

Man we met at Di Kit-Chin (DKC): Where you guys from?
Me: Canada! Have you been?
DKC: No, I haven’t. Have you been to Jamaica?
Me: No, should I?
DKC: Yes! Good weed there, you can walk around with it!

Is this what people usually talk to Canadians about?

In conclusion of the tours, Sam’s really won. There might be other places. Recommendations welcome, in case I ever go back (fat chance).

CLICK HERE FOR JERK CHICKEN TOURS PART ONE.

Not sure why I’m so sleepy today, maybe it’s the cumulative stress of city life or the island life withdrawal. Or Mercury in retrograde. Here’s another delicious meal we had, post Stingray tours, at Over The Edge on the Grand Cayman Island:

H and I shared some fried conch fritters and the shrimp (Calypso Grill still wins best shrimp).

Pina coladas were refreshing.

Their local fruit, ackee, fried up with cod, served with rice and beans, plantains, and vegetables. And an extra side of nice views:

This was a very slow meal, following a long morning of boat riding, getting soaked in sudden rain storms, swimming in the Caribbean sea with the fish and stingrays. The service was slow, possibly because we had almost 20 people, and the food was just OK. Price was again overpriced. The other guys all wanted to go home and nap. If you know me though, you’ll already know that I don’t love the idea of napping, and I dragged H, P, and V to find more views…

Continue the Jerk Chicken Tour...

According to Google, Sam’s Quality Jerk & More! is the place to get the very best jerk chicken on the island. H found this, and after our little foray around Cabana Bay, we were ready for food. Maybe we weren’t quite ready to be greeted by the piles of meat at the entrance of the shop:







Piles of very fresh meat, and extremely spicy jerk sauce (be careful with this sauce). I was very excited for an affordable meal that would actually be filling. We also came back again on the morning of Day 4, simply because it was so irresistible. They open in the morning at 7AM for breakfast usually, except Sunday, when they’re closed all day on. Why, you might wonder? 

H asked one of the cooks, “Are you guys open tomorrow?” (GCM Day 2 for us was on a Saturday).

The man chopping the meat chuckled, “No man, CHURCH!”

Imagine a Jamaican accent.

CLICK HERE FOR JERK CHICKEN TOURS PART ONE.

We started off the day at the Turtle Farm, spent all morning there snorkeling in the little pond with the turtles and fishes. I could tell that H was absolutely loving it, floating there with the turtles, because he ignored me when I asked him whether we should leave (I was getting hungry). We had plans for lunch at Calypso Grill to try their huge shrimp, and I was super excited. We took K and E with us. It turns out that K and E know JCC, who we play dodgeball with! It's strange how we meet these people and never make the time to really know them... 

Also turns out that they only have that specific shrimp dish during dinner, but they had the “small” shrimp for appetizers:

It was super creamery and flavorful, maybe the freshest and most delicious shrimp I’ve ever had in my life.

H had the Wahoo Fish Burger, which really did taste like chicken (sorry! it’s the best way to describe it!), mostly because of the texture:

I had the alfredo with clams, al dente pasta and amaaaazing clams:

Then, the four of us shared their famous sticky toffee pudding:

This was irresistible. I was stuffed already, but I couldn’t say no to the perfect balance of melted toffee and cake and ice cream. There’s a very good reason that they’re famous for this.

We then visited the Observation Tower at Camana Bay, which really is not much of a tower, and offered this view:


Camana Bay was very touristy, and I found a nicer version of the Pineapple Cup that I had wanted to get from Indigo a few weeks ago:

Can you see how much this costs?

Island life is expensive.

Back to GCM Day One: GCM DAY ONE // JERK CHICKEN TOUR - Chicken! Chicken!

Continue on the Jerk Chicken Tour...

This was a once in a lifetime trip to the Grand Cayman Islands, with about 20 of my friends to attend VinJu’s Grand Celebration of Marriage (GCM haha). Ju had 20 of her family members there too, so to make all of our lives easier, they rented out 5 beach front houses on the north side of the island at a property called Ocean Paradise. Beautiful, isn’t it? 

Right after getting off the plane and after getting used to the fact that we’d be drenched in sweat for the entire trip in the humid climate of the island, we decided to get a quick lunch. The groomsmen had arrived a day earlier, so they knew a great spot for chicken, called Chicken!Chicken!:

It’s not hot inside the cramped restaurant, despite the open oven roasting all the chickens, probably because the AC was blaring.

We had the lunch menu. Left side contained the 1/2 chicken with rice, and on the right side, you can see the vegetable side option with a bit of the cornbread. The chicken was absolutely melt off the bone perfect, but I didn’t find the sides all that spectacular.

Off to 7 Mile Beach to chill:

Everybody was exploring the clear green water, and sinking into the sand. After half an hour more of sun, I was exhausted, and just wanted to head back to the house. Some people just have more energy in them for this type of frolicking by the water.

I’m not one of those people.

This was just the start of the jerk chicken tour at GCM.

Another busy weekend.

Went to the Monplaisir macaron sampling event with B on Saturday. Bumped into J from work with her kids and husband there (still amazes me that she can bring her 2 kids around everywhere and be as cool as a cuke!). We spent a few minutes learning about their all natural macarons. No preservatives! No artificial flavoring! They’re mainly available in Calgary, where they have their headquarters, but I am ready to buy more when they come to Vancouver.  I tried the margarita one, and actually tasted the shot of tequila. There were a bunch of flavors that I’d be really curious to try (champagne?). We also had a few to take home. Perks. Woot.

So we took the macarons to Prado in Gastown, for coffee to balance out the sweetness and to grab a quick bite:

This was the cappuccino (with Monplaisir’s honey lavendar macaron, we couldn’t wait to take a bite of it…). We also shared their feature sandwich (ham, cheese, pesto, cranberry bread). B was surprised that a cappuccino could be so smooth, and I was impressed by the stringy cheese in their sandwich. I had the macchiato. Did I really need the extra caffeine? Yes, because H woke me up at 5:30AM.

I left the extras in the fridge, and ate them today with a regular Nespresso shot:

I need a kick in the butt to hurry up and post about the trip to the Cayman Islands before the rest of life kicks in. Weekend 69 and 70 are currently missing because a lot of wedding stuff happened. Pretty sure it would’ve been helpful if I had a laptop to document on the spot, so I’m now on the hunt for a good one. Recommendations welcome.

It’s been a long journey to here, the final meal in Toronto before heading to the next destination. We were originally going to Fring’s, but we got tired of waiting, and went to Bar Hop instead:

With their wide selection of beers, we were all able to choose one that we liked, or get a cocktail (G&T up top!). I had a flight of beers, all stouts that I wanted to try, none that I really remember, and again, not as good as the beer from Iceland, but they were good, Ontario beers. We also had the cheese platter as an appetizer, and I had the salmon salad as my main:

I liked that it was vinegary, and ate all of it, even though I didn’t have much of an appetite (we had just had ice cream before heading out for dinner at Sweet Jesus… maybe more on this place later). H had a chicken burger, which was alright, nothing special.

It was nice to be able to see K and T+D. Last time I had met up with K was when I went to Hong Kong, back in 2009. Some things don’t change, and K seemed to be the same pleasant person. I'm lucky enough to have a supportive family as a constant around me. 

I did end up doing most of what I said I would do today. A bit obsessed with the whole aloe vera thing lately… ALOEisa is a thing.  I'm going to post again tomorrow, to give an update on this weekend before jumping into the next part of the trip, because I feel like it's going to take a couple of days at least. It's fabulous, to always have so much going on.

Click here to start Toronto from Day 1.

H was craving Asian food, so for lunch, we trotted over to Chinatown to see what we could find. D was able to take a break from work, and met us at Asian Legend for a quick bite of Shanghai. We were not disappointed, despite the outside of the restaurant looking dingy and the inside looking dimly lit. The washrooms were quite nasty. Typical Chinese restaurant smell and atmosphere, we felt right at home.



We had the hot soy soup (?) with a Chinese donut, the drunken chicken (bottom), XLB (top left), and the dan dan noodle (top right). I think this was probably my favourite drunken chicken EVER, it was so tender and soaked with flavour. I still think about this chicken, even 2 weeks later. The prices were what we were used to, I think for the 3 of us for lunch, it came to about $30 – $40.



Weekend! Some things I want to do this weekend…
-replant my father’s aloe plants
-try some new macarons from Monplaisir
-watch Master of None Season 2
-start a scrapbook of all the wedding invitations I’ve received so far (cliché, I know)
-use the YYoga class that I haven't touched in 3 weeks

Back in the city, last day to explore before we were jumping on another plane. I had a list of coffee shops to visit, but they were all so spread apart and far away that without a car, it would be really hard to hit all of the places. So, instead of going to any of the places I wanted to go to, we went to one that H found… and I was disappointed. It was nestled inside a building, and I think it was basically meant to just serve the offices/galleries within that building. Coffee came from one of those thermos that you press on top to dispense…

Luckily, there was another coffee shop/bakery on Spadina that we walked past while on the way to the TD, where H had to get some banking done. Le Gourmand:

The bank teller there told him that the cookies were supposed to be the best in the city. I had the macchiato, and it was pretty good. We also had a little custard tart that we both quite liked. They were also giving out cookie samples, and the thing was darn good. There were quite a few other good looking pastries, which I wouldn’t mind going back to try. It’s also a general store, similar to Le Marché St George in Vancouver, selling pasta, sauces, jams, etc.

We then went thrift shopping, and I bought a new pair of sparkly earrings for $10 from Tribal. This tiny little vintage store was really impressive, just the sheer selection and good value was enough for me to spend a precious half an hour combing through their racks.

Wednesday Wisdom #1: All that sparkles is not gold. It could be stainless steel.