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The next few days before travelling to Europe will be busy, and we wanted to meet up at least once before I fly. Being busy productive adults, it’s difficult to make time, but we did it. We ended up going to Hou Cai Lei for bubbletea:

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This is the brown sugar jelly milk tea, and boy, is it full of brown sugar. The jelly itself is where most of the sweetness comes from, and even at 50% sugar, I think I ordered wrong. If you’re not ready for diabetes, make sure you order it with 0% sugar. Other than that, the milky team is smooth and creamy, and I would definitely come back. It felt like I had just been transported back to Taiwan, from the moment that we saw the sandwich board with the shop's name, all in Chinese.

Hou Cai Lei Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato



We got out drinks to go, and didn't stay for too long because there isn't a lot of space inside. The front sitting area had a low coffee table with a few chairs around it, and while it looked like an attractive spot to hang out, the area was a bit messy. This was possibly due to the previous patrons who had just walked outside for a smoke. I do wish people could clean up after themselves.



How do you read the name of this bubble tea shop anyways?

Things are moving fast! The biggest change of the year is in the works, and hopefully, I’ll be able to write about it here in less than a month.

Define a productive day.

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Originally, we were going to adventure around the Delta area, but the fog was too thick to fly my drone, so we redirected the GPS to a coffee shop that’s been on my list for a while - Kahve Coffee. They have really pretty latte art. C had a flat white, and I had a latte. I was actually really hungry from only have two little dumplings 3 hours ago at 7AM that morning, but their pastry and sandwich options did not appeal to me, especially for the quantity versus price point (sorry, I’m on a budget now, can only afford expensive coffees).

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The walls of the cafe are stocked with coffee accessories that can be purchased, including a wide selction of mugs. They even had a display case for Secrid wallets, which I still want to get. Because there was so much stuff inside, it felt like all the tables were jammed together and counters were packed in close. Luckily, there was plenty of space at the bar by the window, where C and I sat for about an hour, just catching up. He got a new wallet, which I take a s a sign that he’s doing well in his career.

Kahve Cafe Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

The coffee itself was decent. If it was more convenient to visit, I would probably drop by, if not just for a good photo opp!

I went home after that, had a quick bite, and went back out for a bike ride to visit R&B. Then, dinner with H’s folks. Nice to see all these people and catch up in one day. Even with the setbacks from the fog in the morning and not being able to go out to fly my drone, I think it was still a productive day of seeing the people that I enjoy being around. Not to mention the beautiful autumn colours all around the city, really makes me feel like life is worth living.

What do you do to feel fulfilled?

H and I went to Crackle Crème over the weekend as a break during our walk from Revolver back to where our vehicle was parked, by Main and Broadway. Their selection of flavours has more than tripled since the first time I went, when they opened about 4 years ago. Here are the sesame (on the left, darker colored) and the Grand Marnier (on the right, more orange):


crackle creme, decorated for Halloween


The sesame is one of the original, and still as good as I remembered it to be. It’s creamy and smooth, not too sweet, but full of sesame flavor. The Grand Marnier was a more adventurous flavor for us, and it was interesting, but not something I’d go back for. I can’t wait to revisit and try out all the other ones on the list.

Crackle Crème Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Best of all, the place was completely empty when we got there, around 5PM on a Saturday. It’s so peaceful along Union Street around that time. Actually, when is Union Street really crowded, except with bikers during rush hour?

Even though I’m really enjoying myself this month, it still feels like time is crawling, slower than a snail. Right now, life feels like it’s on pause, while I’m waiting for Audien, for the completion of the apartment, for vacation, for luck to arrive (this phrase makes sense when translated to Cantonese).

My solution to drown out any anxiety and impatience is to watch lots of movies. We went to see Venom last night, great job Tom Hardy, a good mix of laughs and action. I saw Snowden on Netflix tonight, which I thought was very eye opening as it’s based on the true story of the hacker and ex-CIA agent, Edward Snowden. Please send movie recommendations to me so I can distract myself from real life. I’m thinking Ocean’s 8 next.

I was really hungry by the time we met up for dinner, at around 8:15PM on Friday. There were 8 of us celebrating F’s birthday at Jun Yuan:

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Sometimes, you pay for what you get. That doesn’t necessarily mean quality, because at a Chinese hot pot place, it usually means quantity. For about $40 each, we had unlimited slices of pork, lamb, beef, meat balls… Basically, whatever was on their menu.

While all the food was very fresh, it was difficult to tell the cleanliness of the restaurant. Our cutlery felt grimy and a few of the bowls appeared unwashed so we asked for exchanges. Then, the soy sauce looked mysteriously oily and had bits in it… That didn’t stop us from just dumping all the food into the communal pot in the middle, to boil away whatever bacteria existed.

Jun Yuan Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Something funny did happen while we were there. We also asked for extra fried chicken wings, which were actually quite juicy and crispy. These were also supposed to be unlimited, but when we asked for 16 wings so that we could each get 2, they came back with a much lower count of only 3 wings. Apparently, these were the last ones and they had run out, but after we paid the bill and were getting ready to leave, we saw them serve more chicken wings to another table that started after us.

Not only are they liars, they’re DIRTY liars. Be aware that their bathroom is pretty intimidating to use, and it takes some navigation to get to the toilet. The floors are slippery and marked with black foot prints, there’s a weird fishy smell, and the walls have strange brown spots and markings…

It was an experience that I don’t think I would choose to try out again.

If you do plan on visiting, make a reservation, because there was a small line up to get in. Why? I don’t quite understand.

This was the start of my food filled weekend. More posts to come! Some people are lucky that they can keep eating and not gain too much weight. I’m not one of those people, so I’m going to go to bed now and wake up early to bike.
This week, I feel like I’ve done a lot, but accomplished nothing. Maybe more coffee will get me through to the next week:

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During my last visit to Toronto, D suggested that we walk over to Neo Coffee Bar for a quick breakfast. They make beautiful Asian inspired delicacies, including mochi and cake rolls, with Asian inspired flavours, like matcha and sesame. We had the matcha red bean roll, sesame roll, and the seasonal peach flavor, which were all very good. Really good, filled with cream and paired so well with the latte.

NEO COFFEE BAR Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

The sesame red bean mochi was the real winner here. It’s a huge ball of soft mochi stuffed to the edges and bursting with sesame and red bean cream filling. So next time, I’m going to get a dozen of these for the plane ride home:

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I haven’t found a spot like this in Vancouver yet, with a cozy industrial feel and the same desserts. Maybe La Foret, because they also have roll cake? Let me know if you find any others.

Back to this week… I really haven’t been able to focus very well, my mind keeps drifting. I’ve always been pretty good at prioritizing, but I’m at a point where nothing seems to matter anymore, because everything seems like a big life change. Life changing decisions were made and even more need to be made soon. New apartment, travelling, getting married, career… Where do I put my energy and what’s the next step?