With the latest mortgage rate increase and skyrocketing inflation, my family has continued to reduce grocery bills by using Too Good To Go. One of my latest finds on the app has been Cafe Kitsune: 

Three fluffy, flaky croissants for $4.99! Two of them had pork inside, and they tasted perfect after reheating in the airfryer the next morning. Very juicy pork:

Will we have to decide between groceries and accommodation in the near future? Fingers crossed, hoping that mortgage rates stay the same or decrease now. When it jumped up by 1% last Wednesday, I think the stress that this news caused accelerated my post partum hair loss. Clumps of hair are covering my floors, and I basically vacuum every day.

On the same day, I decided that we would start seriously focusing on potty training with S. Since we were already stressed, why not experience all the stress at once? 

We went cold turkey, removed all diapers and pants (except when going out... don't need that much stress). Accidents were horrible the first day, with lots of excrement everywhere. Now, with Cocomelon as the reward for a successful pee or poop, S has not had another accident yet while we are at home. At the same time, her diapers continue to be filled when we use a diaper away from home. We also haven't pulled the trigger for removing the diapers at bedtime...

Breathe in, breathe out. 

Today's haul consists of:

 

Royal City brown butter toffee and pumpkin cream cheese donuts, a cup of medium roast coffee from Heights Coffee Co., and The Bench Bakehouse cheese and onion twist.

Glenburn frequently hosts Royal City on Sunday mornings, and has now added in a new local coffee roaster from the Burnaby area to their line up. I've had Royal City donuts before, and really enjoyed them. The pumpkin cream cheese has a hint of saltiness from the cream cheese, and is delicious with the powdered sugar dusted over the donut. They've figured out a way to inject just the perfect amount of filling into their donuts, so that they don't explode and make a mess everywhere, but every bite has some filling. 

Good luck to the new coffee roaster. There's so much competition in town now, they'll really have to work hard to stand out. 

After Glenburn, we visited the Vancouver Farmer's Market, as we figured with COVID, it'll be better to shop outdoors. Very glad we did not miss out on this onion cheese bread, which we had with EVOO, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar: 

 

We also got one of their apple pie double baked croissants -  no photos as it has been devoured before I remembered my camera. Very flakey, with many crispy bits on top, as a croissant should be. 

The aftermath: 

So far, being back in Vancouver has been a mix of anxieties about the pandemic and meeting up with our loved ones. The grandparents were able to come visit and helped us babysit once or twice before gatherings with individuals outside of our household were discouraged by our lovely Dr. Bonnie Henry. 

It had been a while since the grandparents were left alone with baby S, and what an experience it was this time around. The use of white noise to help infants fall asleep is quite common nowadays, but both sets of grandparents were very confused when we instructed them to ask our Google Nest to play this loud annoying sound when putting baby S down for a nap. 

One set of grandparents asked Google to play "white music", and instead of noise, somebody (presumably a person of Caucasian decent) started singing. 

Both sets of grandparents had a tough time enticing baby S to take the bottle, now that she could recognize mom as the source of food and comfort. H and I received many calls to "come back home NOW," but every time we would tell them we're on the way, when really, we were still finishing up whatever we were doing.  

Baby S eventually calmed down with them, and by the time we arrived home, she was an angel again. 

I can't wait for our curve to start flattening again, so that our babysitters can return.

Rainy weekend, what better thing to do than hang out a coffee shop?


M and I had been talking about visiting Caffe di Beppe for about a month. The photos I had seen on the Internet showed such an aesthetically pleasing spot for coffee, complete with beautiful floor tiles, I could not resist coming to try out the cappuccino and croissant. I chose the fig jam with my croissant, which was very flakey on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. M had the appolini, and after taking a bite to try, I immediately wished that I had ordered that pastry instead, filled with light, fluffy cream. The coffee was a good match, no regrets there.





We were there around 1030AM on Sunday, and there were plenty of seats. However, it started filling up just after we arrived, and the noise level was rising, so I think it scared a couple of guests, who actually picked up their laptops and left. They also have their main restaurant, which opens up later in the day. That would be another interesting spot to check out.

Maybe I’ll come back next weekend to plan wedding stuff. I don’t even know where to begin! What do we do first – pick a date, pick a venue, set the budget, find my dress/his suit? Does it really matter, as long as we’re happy?

Finally, we had a sunny Saturday in Vancouver, where I was free to go for a bike ride and explore coffee shops. C and I met up at The Narcissus at Powell and Commercial:



I had the cortado, and a chocolate croissant (they didn’t have the almond ones available). The pastries obviously were not baked in house, so I asked the barista where they were actually from. The Korean barista took a few seconds to undestand my question, and replied in broken English, “Cadeaux, downtown.”



The coffee shop was fairly empty at 1030AM, very quiet, with music playing unobtrusively in the background. The coffee was made from beans roasted by Agro, and it was very flavourful. The croissant was fresh, and I’ll be back to check out their sandwiches (there was a prosciutto one). They even serve beers from 33 Acres! This would be a great place to work and be inspired to work.



I really appreciated the peace and quiet today, after all hell broke loose this week in the office. It's just another rock that we'll jump over though. Will Smith said it best:

“It don’t matter whose fault it is that something is broken if it’s your responsibility to fix it.”

When there’s a problem, there’s no point in pointing fingers, laying blame, but at what point does it become a liability to keep throwing bandaids at the cut? Let’s just fix the problem. Let’s nip it in the bud, get rid of the root cause. Let’s MacGyver the shit out of this.

Quantum was recommended by T, and it’s only 5 minutes away from their home. We walked over in the pouring rain, before going for breakfast, because I had the biggest craving for good coffee. This pretty strong, but I don’t think I like milky coffees anymore. I’d come back for the drip coffee or Americano. We also had banana bread (tasted like all a regular banana bread), and the cheese and ham croissant, which we packed for the ride to Niagara Falls. The croissant was pretty good, even though it was cold and slightly squished in my bag.



I thought the cashier could use another coffee, because she seemed slightly grumps, but other than that, great atmosphere. There’s a huge room next to the actual coffee shop, which was part of the BrainStation, and a lot of Quantum customers were hanging out there. There was also a cute dude reading there.

Hard to imagine a world without coffee now. Don’t bother me before I have coffee in the morning.

H and I sat at Pallet Coffee, while waiting to meet up with his parents for dim sum at Sun Bo Kong on Saturday. We were at the café from around 1030AM to 1130AM, and the line up just would not stop. Luckily we came in early enough to grab 2 comfy chairs by the back and watched the place bustling and hustling. All the tables filled up, and it was not surprising either, because their coffee was on point. I had the macchiato, and learned that the real traditional way to do it is with 2 shots, and just a dollop of foam on one of the shots. Sparkling water on the side to go with it, because the coffee was stronger than Gregor Clegane. Chocolate croissant was good and flakey (I should do a series on croissants... hmmm...). Drip coffee was not bad, but the espresso shots had already ruined it for me.

Then, just did some basic shopping, played Munchkins Marvel Edition with M+P. We need the expansion packs.

I had quite a bit of free time today to do whatever I want, and so I wasted about half of that time thinking about things I want to do. Then, I started reading This Changes Everything, and realized that I still haven’t finished this book even though I started it half a year ago, because it gets a bit depressing. I did learn a lot about the state of our world. Really though, what can I do as an individual consumer to try to lower that carbon footprint?

I think another reason I felt off this weekend was because of the offensive jokes at the Yuk Yuk Comedy Club by Jason Rouse this friday. To each their own, but some warning would be nice. The other acts before his were fantastic. 

This weekend was a slow one… Is this what retired life will be like? I hope not. 

The past 2 weeks, I’ve been visiting Matchstick for a chocolate croissant and a coffee. It’s the perfect combination for studying and reading, as well as catching up with friends. On the way to Bellingham, H and I stopped by Steveston Bakery, to satisfy my coffee and baked good craving, and we picked up this piece of bread:

Where are the flakes? This was supposed to be a chocolate almond croissant… but it was just a hunk of bread with a bit of chocolate and coconut filling. Disappointed.

Maybe their other options are tastier, but I wouldn’t come back for the croissants.

Don’t settle. 

I can’t wait to move into the new condo… in 2018. Time will just fly by though, so I’m going to try to enjoy living at home while it lasts. My grandmother at home and my grandmother in a home are slowly reaching their “winter years”. H’s aunt passed away yesterday. Don’t forget to live life to it’s fullest.

“The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering” – Bruce Lee

What can I do to become immortal?

Every question has an answer:

At Le Marché St. George, one of my favourite nooks in Vancouver, with a good friend, enjoying the sunshine this weekend before heading off to the Eastside Flea Market. I got a Rose Mocha and a French onion soup, and the croissant is C’s. I can’t wait to come back, every single time. They pay attention to all the details! The only thing we didn’t do was bike; it would’ve been a complete Vancouver-style weekend.



Looked back on some old photographs, which brought back some good and bad memories. I’ve been thinking about what I’ve learned since (love, work, family), and when the switch was flipped from “child” to “adult”. The past was fun, but I’m more excited to keep moving forward.

Met up with A, who was back from the far away lands of northern (middle?) BC, at Le Marche St. George. The soup was a bit too sour, but tasted really organic and super healthy. It was balanced quite well with the crispy, cheese croissant toast. Coffee very strong. Forgot to ask A how her London Fog tasted, but it looked really pretty with the latte art on top. This little corner shop cafe is just bumpin’. I’m sure I’ll be back with other friends too.



We talked about life – work, family, house, boys, cats, food… A’s sister apparently thinks I’m always in a sunny place, from following my Instagram. That made me laugh a little. Thanks, young A!

Trying to clear out some junk in my life to make space for new projects…

Which do you think would win in a physical fight?

Croissant from A Bread Affair, picked up at the Trout Lake Farmers Market on Saturday.

Coffee from my Nespresso. Black, just the way I like it. 


I stocked up on Nespresso capsules the other day. They have a new one called the Envivo Lungo that is just amazing. Level 9 intensity, and gives that extra KICK to start the day. I had one yesterday and today, before hitting up the VFM.

Back to back shifts this weekend… Add that to all the Pokemon hunting and biking, and I think I can honestly say that I deserve this buttery croissant. It goes quite well with the coffee. The almond chocolate croissants are amazing too, just the perfect balance of sweet almond and salty butter, but they ran out, so I took this guy home instead.




PS: Somebody said my Instagram feed was “aesthetic as fuck”. Have you followed me yet?