DISCLAIMER - this has nothing to do with the well loved anime about pocket monsters. 

Recently, I came across an article that reminded me of the benefits of omega 3 for baby's brain development, and that I should be including more fish in my diet. H doesn't like cooked fish, so I went in search of good raw fish nearby. Googling "poke near me" gave two results - Island Poke and Poke Fresh. 

The first contestant, Island Poke!

Their set menu didn't look very appealing to me, because we wanted salmon only. H doesn't like tuna (he doesn't like a lot of things okay!?), and I didn't want to risk the chance of ingesting mercury because I'm still breastfeeding. Luckily, creating our own bowls was not too difficult, and with a few simple clicks, we could do it all from their website.

Pros include large chunks of fresh fish, and a good balance of sauce to toppings ratio. 

My only criticism is that the large portion is not quite enough, and our bowls left us with a craving for more poke. Wish there could be an XXXL size, because it was just so good. 

After that great experience, we were excited to dig into the bowls from Fresh Poke:

The portions here were much larger, and they actually use compostable paper bowls, while their competition uses full plastic bowls. However, they're $3 more expensive than Island Poke. The website for ordering was also unfriendly for creating our own bowls, although they did have more appealing set menu options.

Too bad the fish wasn't fresh and tasted like it was recently defrosted. The rice was not flavorful, and the insufficient amount of sauces couldn't save it.  Definitely do not choose the brown rice option, because it was undercooked and seasoned strangely. 

Clearly, Island Poke is the winner in this poke battle. I'm not sure how Poke Fresh even has a 4.4/5 rating on Google, and why Island Poke only has 4.6/5. We're going to go back to Island Poke tonight, so that we can get the mushy texture of the fish from Poke Fresh out of our mouths. 

Not much else has been happening. We're still enjoying the hotel life. 

I'm not huge on Thai food, and out of the all the Asian cuisines, I would normally go for something else. Not sure why, maybe a bad experience previously.  We felt adventurous and wanted to try out something new though, because how many times can we visit Pho Vy in a week? H suggested we expand outside of our comfort zone and give Baan Thai a try. 

 

They have great "wok air". The medium spicy is almost too much for me to handle, but doesn't overpower all the spices and flavors. If you're sensitive to spicy food like me, go for the mild. 

We ordered the lunch specials - red curry with chicken (gaeng pak), pad thai, stiry fry (phad khing), because those seem to be a better deal. Lunch specials come with a crispy freshly fried spring roll, as well, and I can eat these everyday. 

We also ordered one of the fried rice options to try out something off the lunch special menu, and it was pretty good too. Lunch specials are the way to go though (better deal).

I'm extremely happy we tried something new.  

It might be easiest to stick with the same old restaurants, the tried and true routines, walking the same route to the same places, where we can order without even looking at the menu, but it might not yield the best result. Sometimes, you need to dig yourself out of your deep deep rut, just climb out of that ditch, and move all your luggage with you to a new place to for fresh experiences. 

I also think sometimes that it would have been so much easier if we didn't have a baby yet, and if we had waited just a little bit longer to figure out a more ideal living situation. Travelling and moving would be so much easier. Would we have been happier though? 

I imagine not. It's delightful to watch her try to flip over and get stuck.

Splurged on the Lovevery play gym recently. So far, she likes it, but still gets bored after maybe 30 minutes. 

  

Travel pace has really slowed down with a 2.5 month old baby in tow. Before, we might wake up at sunrise and go go go, returning only after sunset. Now, we'll try to time it so that we're ready to go as soon as baby S has her mid morning milk, right after her first nap. Then, we'll try to time the arrival to our first destination, so that we're feeding her again before departing for the next. Bedtime is around 7:30PM, which means we have to be home by 6PM in order to properly feed her and get her ready to sleep. 

There's also extra equipment to lug around - car seat, stroller, carrier for rougher terrain that the stroller can't go over, diapers, change of clothes in case of accidents...  

Is all the effort in planning even worth it? 

We decided to see for ourselves by taking baby S out to explore the Southwestern region of Vancouver Island. From the moment we got into the car, baby S started screaming because we made the mistake of leaving her alone for 10 seconds in her car seat while folding up her stroller.  She stopped the moment the car started moving, but both H and I were drained from trying to calm her down. 

In search of caffeine and sugar to recover from this episode, we made our first stop at The Stick in the Mud.

This seems to be a popular spot, as there were a few others in line to order. A group of road bikers were just parking their bikes, and were loudly declaring that they needed sugar and caffeine. This reminded me of my good old days of road biking... 

I was already over my caffeine quota for the day (1 very large cup of black coffee for breakfast), as I'm still breastfeeding, so I had an iced London fog.  I do not regret this choice as it was a very tasty beverage. They use bamboo straws, which were a bit flimsy and made it slightly more difficult to drink out of, but these are strange times. Usually, I would've brought my own container. I do wish I could've tried their coffee, or had unlimited budget to buy coffee beans, because they roast in house and a small bag of their beans was $20. Guess I'll have to return to this cozy cafe one day!

Baby S does not look amused in the photo, because it was hot and windy in the little town, so we escaped to the forested trails leading to China Beach and the Sooke potholes. This was actually the day before all the smoke from the US blew over to us, so looking back now, I feel grateful for the chance to have this mini daytrip before being trapped indoors.

Was it worth it? I'd say yes, because baby S looked so amazed and awe struck by majestic trees along the hike. I'd like to give her more of these types of experiences. 

Since day 1 of this trip on Vancouver Island, we've been on a mission to find food that would keep our cravings at bay. In other words, we wanted Asian food of the same quality or better than what we can find in Vancouver! 

 

I wouldn't say Victoria BBQ House and Bakery is quite the same quality as some of the best Chinese bakeries back on the Mainland, but they had pineapple buns and BBQ pork buns, fresh out of the oven when we stopped by the other day, before the smoke (BTS? ha.). 

We devoured them right in front of their shop, on the street, so that they would still be warm and fluffy. The BBQ pork bun (on the left) was really stuffed with meat. Please ignore the angle of the photo, which makes it look smaller than the pineapple bun. I'd come back more often if they had a hybrid pineapple BBQ pork bun and served HK milk tea. 

Side note - if you look closely at the photo above, you'll see a sliver of baby S's stroller, where we abandoned her she was napping. 

"You know it's like, I dunno you... you float out... float out at sea then one day you find a port, say, 'I'm gonna stay here a few days'. A few days becomes a few years. Then you forgot where you were going in the first place. Then you realize you don't really give a shit about where you was going, cause you like where you at." - George "Noodles" Stone (Dave Chapelle), A Star is Born

Still watching a lot of HGTV these days, and they talk about "forever homes" a lot. This hotel sure isn't a forever home, but I would have to say it's been a pretty comfortable port for the past few days.  

It's been smokey around the West coast lately, because of all the forest fires in the Northwestern region of the US (really not a good year for our neighbors down South...). Makes it a bit difficult to get outside, but we're good at finding those gaps of fresh air and seizing the moment when the wind blows in the right direction. 

Also, I would starve if I could not get out of the hotel and pick up food.

One of my favourite ways to discover new restaurants to try is from the foodies on Instagram, because sometimes, it's easy to miss a suggestion from Google or Yelp. While browsing through my feed the other day, Foodgressing's pastry post really caught my attention. She was in Victoria recently, and had picked up some delicious looking baked goods from a cafe called Fol Epi. I packed up Baby S in her stroller immediately for a walk to the closest location.   

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Another walk with Starla! This time we visited @fol.epi on Yates. I was glad the smokey air had cleared up so we could enjoy the sunshine with her new shades from @babiators, and I could get my pastry fix. . . #walkswithstarla #babyfashion #baby #momlife #3months #cartersbaby #babyclothes #pegperego #instababy #instababygirl #foodielife #babiators #canadiangirl #tourismvictoria @tourismvictoriabc

A post shared by louisa (@luwesa) on Sep 10, 2020 at 5:33pm PDT

We had to wait in line for a few minutes before ordering, but it was worth it to stand around in the sun! I picked up a nectarine danish, a blueberry danish, and a pain au chocolat, and the total came to just under $16. A tad expensive, but no regrets, because the blueberry danish was delicious. Crispy and buttery, with just enough tartness in the berry jam to cut through the sugar. Will go back for sure to get more berry danishes.

Nectarines were too sour. Pain au chocolat was not flaky. 

Smokey air, smokey future. Will we really be happier when we own more property? Will the solution to our problems be a more costly renovation? Or would we enjoy each other's company more while on the road, exploring new paths? I'm trying to not let the smoke dictate how much I enjoy this trip, because we're only here for a few more days, but please, help me be patient during this Mars retrograde.  

We're still in Victoria, and after the first coffee adventure to Habit and too many days staying indoors watching television, I've ventured outside of my bubble to try to find more interesting coffee joints.  The coffee scene is actually flourishing here in Victoria!  

Discovery Coffee, one of the local coffee chains, appears to be more popular than Starbucks. The one close to our hotel has had line ups every single time that we walk past. Is this because they are that popular, or their service has slowed down due to extra COVID-19 precautions? 

I've had the oat milk latte three times now. The first time, I did not like the burnt taste of their espresso. I also felt that their oat milk was missing something (not enough oats? how is oat milk made anyways?)   

The second time, it still tasted burnt, and the oat milk was still not flavorful.

The third time... Well, they're consistent if nothing else. 

Why do I keep going back? It's just so convenient for a short walk, and the quality is not horrendous. It's just not the same as the more flavorful oat milks and coffees in Vancouver... 

I do like that they've partnered with Yonni's Donuts, offering fresh baked goods that are large, dense, and photogenic (straight up my alley!). Their selection changes fairly frequently, so we won't be bored on our frequent visits. Baby S loved the blueberry twist that they had a few weeks ago: 

Today's apricot donut could have used more apricot flavor, because it basically tasted like a regular donut with a thick coat of frosting on top: 

Expect more posts about my Vancouver Island coffee experiences in the future, because we'll be here for a couple more weeks. After 3 weeks of island life, and no progress on the home front, I'm starting to feel the monotony of the same daily routine.  H has been more patient than I have been with all of this, especially as he also has to put up with my postpartum moods. I do appreciate when he brings home the bacon, cooks the bacon, and then washes away the bacon grease from the pan afterwards.