Showed up late for a brunch date with D&M. We were going to Fraser Park Restaurant, which was located by the river in the industrial park by Marine Drive. Definitely a hole in the wall gem for brunch:


I had the English breakfast, which came with a pile of bacon, a sausage, and a deceivingly small bowl of beans (there were a lot). I wonder where they get their beans from… Not sure if they’re Heinz, but anyways, they were perfect for mixing with the egg yolk. I asked for overeasy eggs – these could’ve been “easier” because the yolk wasn’t quite runny enough. Oh well, what can  you expect for $12?


I don't even like bacon, and I ate it all.





I’m glad I had a chance to meet up with D&M, because we never really get to catch up. We all have stuff going on in our lives, for sure.

The other day, I woke up at 5:35AM to go to yoga, and arrived with 5 minutes to spare. Turns out that my pass had expired, by just one day… I did feel like giving up at that point – I put in all the effort to wake up, pack, get over to the studio, and now, it was like the universe was giving me a sign that I should go home and crawl back into bed instead of working out – but I was there already and there really was only 1 solution: pay for another pass and go to class.

It feels like I’ve been running into roadblocks with everything this week. The jacket tore in the wash. My faucet is explosively leaking in the kitchen and still has to be fixed. I have so much to do at work!
I can either give up, or just keep going, and I’ll choose to keep going. Everything is going to be OK… Just need more breakfast.

Imagine 3 of these in a pile, one on top of another:

We had brunch at Mildred’s Temple Kitchen, right after we got off the plane on a Friday morning, a few weeks back with D & B in Toronto. Do people in Toronto actually work? I was amazed at the fact that we arrived right at the time the restaurant opened, and there was already a line up. It wasn’t a long line up, and we were seated outside on the patio area fairly quickly. This gave us a chance to observe all the other people who came after us that had to line up as well. Try to make a reservation!



The food itself was amazing. Mrs. Biederhof’s blueberry buttermilk pancakes were probably the best blueberry pancakes we’ve ever had (see photo above). Definitely listen to the servers’ recommendations too, because I did not regret following their advice of getting the Huevos Monty (refried beans baked in flour tortillas with sunnyside up eggs and all the regular toppings for tacos, like salsa, sour cream, avocado).

I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to explore Toronto’s food scene a bit, but I’m still hoping that one day, I’ll be able to get out to see the rest of the surrounding land. I’m sure the nature is gorgeous too, but does it compare to the West coast?

I went back to the office for work on Friday, to try to catch up with everything, which was really a good idea. One day of working hard, and then back to relaxing! Since I’ve been out exploring new ground all week, and I missed all my plant babies so much, I spent most of the weekend taking care of them. I did just have some stroopwafels purchased from Costco a while ago, and that reminded me of Johnny Can’t Surf:



I had been following their Instagram account for a while, and loved their laid back tone, as well as their dedication to coffee. Since I work in Richmond, and they mostly travel around Vancouver, it had been difficult to find a time to go visit. When H and I biked to MEC a few weeks ago and the truck was parked right outside the entrance on Broadway, I could not miss this chance to try out their coffee and waffle.



Stroopwafels are made with two thin waffles held together by a caramel syrup filling, and it is always (sickly) sweet. It balanced well with the latte that I had, and which I think might have been made with Phil and Sebastian beans. In conclusion, their Instagram shows them in Railtown now, and I think it will be another while before I can visit again. Unless… I can convince them to come to Richmond… It would be great to have more coffee options than Starbucks and Tim Hortons in the area.

Other than eating stroopwafels and drinking Nespresso today, here’s what I’ve been up to:

• watching Archer on Netflix
• looking up Bullet Journal ideas
• browsing the web for sweaters to wear on my outdoor patio (when I get it) this fall:

Sweater on the left from Everlane. 

Sweater on the right, image from Pinterest. 

Patio on the left from Livabl.

Patio on the right from Pinterest.

The food is not the point of visiting the Lake Agnes Tea House.



The chocolate chip cookie was $3.50, and it was just a hard sugary biscuit with chocolate chips. I probably could have made a better cookie. There was tea that cost $7.00 for a small teapot that served 2 cups. The tomato lentil soup came with a few slices of home made bread, and it was quite hearty and filling for a vegetable soup, but it was still $9.







The reasons to stop here for a bite and visit again and again:

• to warm up after the hour of hiking up from Lake Louise
• to enjoy the feeling of dining in the middle of nowhere
• to experience living in the 1900s (this was approximately when the tea house started, and they don’t have electricity at all)
• for the adventure
• for the views!!!

It was bustling when we arrived around 1PM, and the crowds continued to come up, despite the icy trail. If the trail was clear, it would have been a very easy hike. The weather had suddenly turned cold this week, and snow already covered the ground, even though it’s only September. I think the snow actually makes the lake look even more magical, but it does get slippery. I would plan ahead for at least 4 to 5 hours round trip from the trail head, just to make sure there’s enough time to explore and enjoy the whole lake.

Back to the desk job today. Where did summer go?

D and T got hitched!



The day started off at our AirBNB, in Canmore, where the wedding party nibbled on sandwiches from Safeway while getting ready for the day. I was one of the two bridesmaids, B was the other (as the sister, she pretty automatically became the maid of honor). Nicol did our make up beautifully (it actually did not melt off throughout the day, even after traipsing around Lake Minnewanka for photos), and Christine pulled our look together by putting up our hair into messy buns. H and S went along with us everywhere, as did Joel, our photographer, who had the important task of documenting the day. After a beautiful ceremony, which the elk party crashed and where B and I both had to blink back tears, we went over to the Park Distillery, in downtown Banff for the reception:



I was busy stressing out about the wedding game that I was supposed to host, trying all the cocktails, and actually enjoying the reception, and when I looked back on my phone, I only had this one photo of the food from the evening. The prime rib was amazing! H had the salmon, which was just as delicious, and I had the chicken, which was a tad dry, maybe because I was comparing it to THE BEST CHICKEN I'VE EVER HAD.



Let’s take one step back to the appetizers. H had the pork skewers, which I would recommend over the calamari. I mean, nothing wrong with calamari, pretty standard, but it wasn’t memorable. The servers were all very pleasant and patient with us drunken guests, and it was not hard to get a good warm buzz from all their creative alcoholic concoctions (H had about half a dozen different cocktails, and there were still many on the menu that he wanted to try). The food and drink could really make or break the wedding! I think D & T did a great job of choosing this spot, and definitely made sure it was worth our time to travel out to Alberta for their wedding.

Congrats again, you two, and thanks for giving us this adventure!

Now that I’m back at home, I already feel travel, wedding, and vacation withdrawal… There will be a 2nd part about this extra long weekend, so I can continue reliving it!

The rain’s back, so here we are today, exploring the city instead. There’s a new coffee shop in Vancouver, called The Garden Strathcona:

The interiors were beautiful, and there was actually a garden wall with lots of beauitul plants. Hopefully, those plants are still thriving in a year. Seating was limited though, so if you’re not too enthused about sitting bum to bum with a stranger, then I suggest getting your coffee and pastries go.



I like the aesthetic, and it’s a nice beautiful place to visit. I wish they had more seating, and less retail (there’s a corner with shelves of skincare/beauty products and a table of hand made pottery). I also wish the latte was stronger.



This place reminds me of La Foret in Burnaby. Probably not revisiting this spot in the near future though, because it’s slightly out of the way, but it is exciting to see this beautiful addition to this strip of East Hastings. I’m sure the locals are stoked.

Next weekend, I will be in Banff! Gonna be winging this trip mostly, with car camping and not a lot of research.

Continuing on our Toronto foodventure, we ate bags of popcorn while watching home runs at the Blue Jay’s game. We then wanted real food, so ended up visiting Big Trouble in Chinatown:

The food was greasy, great for soaking up all the cocktails and special drinks we tried:

We had the dumplings, the kimchi brussel sprouts, and the fried shrimp. I can’t wait to start making my own kimchi brussel sprouts, what a brilliant combination.

On the drinks menu, they had “Asian” beers and this cocktail made with baijiu, house made and bottled (bottle on left in image below):

There were 2 flavors of the baijiu, one that was made with a Chinese herbal tea, jiaduobao, and another with mangosteen. We tried both, and I gotta say, both were very bitter and neither of them tasted very good. Alcohol content was very high though, and I’m sure some people would like this type of buzz. They have some sweeter cocktails too, which went down a bit easier.

It was a fun night of loud conversation in an even louder bar, and we got home way past bed time, with our ears ringing. I’m looking forward to more nights like this, in 1 week, at D’s wedding!

Visited D&T in Toronto a couple weeks ago (thanks for hosting!), with B, and I’m still recovering from all the food we ate. My favourite meal was at Kiin, which we stumbled upon while looking for a good dinner spot:

To start, we had the shrimp and pomelo salad (on the right in the image below), and the chor lada (the beautiful purple flower shaped dumpling on the left):

The pomelo was super fresh, not sour at all, and all the flavours of the shrimp were enhanced so well by the dressing (I’m sure there was fish sauce). The dumplings were an interesting texture – chewy exterior with bits of peanut inside. It wasn’t my favourite, because I don’t like that texture usually, but I didn’t hate it.

Next, we had the Khao Yum, which comes in a shiny brass bowl filled with the colours of the rainbow:

The server helped us mix all the different ingredients together (jasmine rice, lemongrass, turmeric, edible flowers, sunflower shoots, and more) with a tamarind and soy bean sauce. Although, I wanted to inhale this whole giant bowl of freshness, the best way to taste all the flavours was to really savor each bite. I’m a big fan of lemongrass, and I could keep eating this forever.

The last of the main courses was the sea bream, called Mieng Pla, which came wrapped up in a leaf of sorts:

I don’t have a photo of the little leaf wraps that we were supposed to eat the fish with, but the idea of this dish was to pick up a portion of fish, put it on top of a little piece of lettuce that was already topped off with herbs and vermicelli (at least that’s what I think it was), and eat it all in one bite.

We couldn’t say no to dessert. Our neighbors at the table behind us ordered it first, and who can resist ice cream? We chose the pandan ice cream (instead of the thai iced tea flavor), which was accompanied by 9 different toppings, including the green and red water chestnuts soaked in syrup, grass jelly, jack fruit, coconut shreds, toasted mung bean:

Thai food brings to mind red, green, and yellow curries, and meat grilled on satay sticks, but this place opened my eyes to a different side of this cuisine. If anybody else knows of a good place for khao yum in Vancouver, please tell me about it so that I don’t have to take a plane across the country to eat it again!

I’m trying to find more time to post, but it’s the  end of summer soon. This means that I’m trying to spend as much time as possible outdoors to soak in more vitamin D. It's good for bone density. Be back soon with another post!