I've been craving Duffin's Donuts since last week, but with the snow storm and traveling, it was difficult to get out that way. So, when we heard that there were amazing donuts at the Reading Terminal Market right next to our hotel, D and I jumped on it. We picked up a couple on the way to the airport from Beiler's Doughnuts:

Their selection of donuts was overwhelming - they had 2 of the above display cases, filled with beautiful donuts, including some of my favourite flavours, like strawberry jelly, maple walnut, Boston creme. There were some outrageous looking ones too, with purple sprinkles, and a blueberry fritter, which I haven't seen around before. How many donuts could we possibly eat before a flight?



I ended up choosing the Boston creme, the strawberry, and an apple fritter (safe choices overall):

Here are photos of the donuts with filling. Left side is the strawberry (obviously, since it's red), and the right side is the Boston cream: 

I would have to say that they were good, but not as amazing as I thought they were hyped up to be. The strawberry jelly could have used some work, and I thought they could have chosen a jam with a different consistency. It was too thick, and did not have that melty, gooey texture, like the ones from Duffin's.

The cream in the Boston cream was perfect, and I did not leave any leftovers, but the chocolate coating on top was quite a mess that melted off a tad too easily. Remember to grab napkins for this one.

Apple fritter was a plain old fritter.

Perhaps, this selection was too safe, and we should have branched out to try the more gimmicky flavors, but as with most things in life, the basics are important. I have no doubts that if I'm ever in the area again, I'll revisit this donut stand at the market. The Reading Terminal Market brought back strong vibes of the Borough Market in London, and I can't wait to revisit this place and explore the rest of the stalls.

This week's theme is falling, starting with the snow. We had a few snow days in Vancouver, at the beginning of the week, but it's pretty much cleared up now. I safely drove my little car over the highway to hang out with my buddies in Richmond, at Enjoy Cafe:

The restaurant looks dingy and dark, but there were no indications of that it would be a health concern to consume the food served here. I had one of the red dishes in the photo above, which was a baked pork chop on rice. J had the dish with the yellow sauce, which was their baked seafood and pineapple with portuguese sauce on rice. I tried a bite of her choice, and I will have to say it is safe to order. 

The baked pork chop on rice was also safe, but I've definitely had crispier fried pork chops. Other Hong Kong style cafes use pork chops with more meat as well. The slice of pork chop covers the whole plate of rice, but a third of it is a large bone! The sauce to rice ratio is perfect, but I would've liked more cheese on top. The best part of the meal was the ice cold milk tea, but for those of you who do not enjoy sweet beverages, ask for less sugar.



In conclusion, this place is not worth coming to Richmond for.

This spot at Burnaby Lake  is worth waking up early for:

Other than snow, I had a minor fall this week as well, and while I'm not physically injured, I am traumatized (luckily H was here and I could be a baby about it). My grandmother is also back in the hospital, and she says she might not come back out, but I can see that she's trying her best to recover. I think being tough might be in my blood.

This upcoming week will be busy. I'm going to list out some goals to accomplish, and I'll report back in next week's blog:

• Travel to the Northeast US
• Research and finalize 3 caterers for the wedding
• Finish Homo Sapiens

H and I met up with D and A for dinner in Coquitlam. They tempted us to travel out into the Tri-Cities with promises of Korean fried chicken, paired with grape flavored soju at OZ:

The seafood pancake and seafood soondobu soup came out first. Well, the soju came out first (side note - apparently, grape soju tastes like communion). The seafood pancake was impressively crispy, but lacking a bit in flavour, sort of boring without the dipping sauce. The spices in the soup were sneaky; they'd creep up on you a few seconds after finishing a spoonful, and it would be pretty spicy. 

Then, came the platter of chicken... 

This was the platter with 4 flavors of chicken, the padak (ie, spring onion and sweet soy sauce), the "snowing" (ie, a really sweet powdered parmesan cheese), sweet chili, and regular fried chicken with the mustard dipping sauce in the bowl. Perhaps the spices from the tofu soup numbed my tongue, but I didn't think the chicken itself was very flavorful without the flavoring and dipping sauces. The variety was very interesting though. General consensus was that the padak was the best flavour, but the chicken needed to be drenched in more of the sauce. The "snowing" and sweet chilli flavors had a strange artificial sweetness about them.



Overall, not a bad place to hang out. Check out the funky wall paper:

We went to fly our drones before getting food, and missed the true sunset by about 15 minutes. I scrambled to get the drone in the air, the propellers were bent from the mini crashes in Iceland. Eventually, I did get 3 shots, and caught the end tail of the light:

Sometimes, it's difficult to rise above the chaos. For the rest of the year, I'm making a conscious effort to stay organized and not let the the schmucks at work get to me. :)

As a mid week motivator, C and C took me to Joe Fortes for my belated birthday celebration! I was hesitant to go out, because, again, it was the middle of the week and I was pooped from work and wedding planning and just... life stuff. They convinced me pretty easily though, because Joe Fortes is one of my favourite places for fresh raw oysters. The ambiance and the service is always on point. They also have some of the best happy hour options, but we were here for Dine Out 2019.

I've visited during dinner hours as well, but this was for their Dine Out menu, which is an event I'm not too enthusiastic about in general. The food either is either sub par or insufficient. In this case, there was plenty of food and the quality was just average. From the Dine Out options, here is the chowder (very hearty and chock full of potatoes, with maybe a few scraps of clams):

At the top of the photo, you'll see a few of the raw oysters that we also ordered as appetizers. We had the Saw Mill Bay and the Joe's Gold. Note to self - the smaller oysters taste better, just because they're a better fit for my mouht. 

I didn't take a photo of the mains, which for me, was the prawn and clam linguine. It was quite a basic plate of noodles with a fair amount of clams and shrimps. To their credit, the seafood portions were done just right. The noodles were a bit too overcooked. C and C both ordered the steak, which was topped with chimichurri sauce. Really though, why is Joe Fortes, a restaurant specializing in seafood, including red meats on their Dine Out, instead of another seafood dish to wow their customers? (Funny thing is, C ordered salmon at the Victor the next day...)

Finally, here's the creme brulee, which all 3 of us chose. I was stuffed full of pasta by this point, and could only savor a few spoonfuls: 

It just was not the smoothest creme brulee I've ever had, or maybe I was too full to even enjoy dessert. (Is that possible?)

Overall, Joe Fortes is still near the top of my list of restaurants in Vancouver. Just stay away during Dine Out... 

The rest of this weekend was cold, but beautiful: 

What motivates us to brave the cold, to go outside into the "unknown" (ie, Downtown Eastside), to search for rewards, like loud music and social experiences? Sure, most of us have to go out for work to buy food and pay bills and survive, but where did I find the energy to wait for the bus in the snow, to get downtown for a concert, and then wait after the concert ended outside in the cold to get home?

I guess I paid $80 for the tickets, so it would've been a waste.

Clearly, food is a strong motivator for me, and eating with friends and family is even stronger.

Now, on to the topic of incentives as a motivator... Do I feel incentivized to work harder yet?