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Pink dragonfruit?!

Other people might say chicken or rooster, but phoenix just sounds so much more magical. This year is supposed to be a good one for Dragons, and I tried to start it off busy, just the way I like it.

Friday night, had what could be considered a small Lunar New Year party in my Basement, and we didn’t split until way past midnight.

Next morning was all for family time. Breakfast with mother at Duo Tian, then went to my aunt’s for lunch with about half the relatives, including two 3 year old boys and a 1.5 month old baby. We were just pulling out the mah jong table when H reminded me that we had agreed to go to this Fresh St. Market lions dance organized in conjunction with Taione, who imports fruits directly from Taiwan (get it? Taione… Taiwan… ha).

Two different types of wax apples above. Black pearl on the left, which is absolutely delicious. Crisp, sweet, juiciness in each bite. Almost like a Japanese pear, with a different flavor. I think I might be addicted to these now.

There’s still a lot to learn about these weirdly shaped fruits..  Abe, one of the directors at Taione, had actually spent about a week with the farmers in Taiwan, to fully immerse himself in their culture and learn how these fruits are grown. He had grown up in Vancouver, along with Lawrence, the CEO of Taione, and upon returning to Vancouver, he was inspired to team up with a group of his friends to start this Taiwanese fruit trading business. After almost 5 years, they’ve been able to introduce these exotic fruits into the daily lives of Canadians.

H and I also met with one of the managers of Fresh St. Market, Kent, who chooses the produce for the stores. He supported the diversity that these exotic fruits brought to his stores, and it was interesting to learn from him that a lot more local produce was being produced these days, with a spike in younger farmers. It brought me back to just last summer, working at the VFM. Anyways, these fruits might look weird (the wax apple looks a bit like a suction cup from a tentacle, and the dragonfruit looks like something from a scifi movie), but they’re sweet, juicy, absolutely gorgeous in photos. Looking forward to seeing more from Taione and Fresh St. Market!

After spending time with my family, it was time for us to spend time with H’s family. We had dinner at Sun Bo Kong, and celebrated with a fancy schmany cake from Fauborg:

Words cannot describe how perfect this cake was… Strawberry flavored jelly and just the right level of sweetness. I think I liked this better than the chocolate one I had on my birthday, mainly because it tasted more tart and not so sweet. 



Sometimes, when things seem to finally be going smoothly, another pothole forms and we crash right into it. Just gotta be more flexible.

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change - Stephen Hawking

For example, I forgot to turn on my wifi at home for a day, watched Youtube, and now, I have only 0.87GB left of data for the next 3 weeks. Help.

Happy lunar new year.

I thought I’d put in the effort to plan a party, but ended up getting way too busy with things that life throw at you. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel though. Here’s how I’ve been celebrating so far:

Price Smart Dark Forest cake at work. Their cakes have always been surprisingly good, and this one did not disappoint. Thanks guys.

Fauborg!!!! Rich and full of flavors, aroma, texture, gold flakes. This was their espresso chocolate one I think… Not sure as H ordered it for me. It’s a little too rich for everyday, but such a treat for my birthday. Thanks H and family.

Donuts from Cartem’s instead of cake. Had a bit of the earl grey (pretty good), london fog (B’s favorite, cream filled and pretty good), coconut cream (cream filled again, and average), honey parmesan (I didn’t taste any parmesan, but apparently everybody else did), and the walnut (average).  The light in this Main Street location is fabulous though, and it smelled so good that I started salivating once I stepped inside. I still prefer Lucky’s though. Sorry B!

Much gratitude to everybody for starting this year with me. Birthdays are sure different from what they used to be. I’m starting to prefer the smaller groups, partly because it’s so hard to get everybody together. It’s usually worth the effort, but it’s also impossible to plan. I guess once the babies start coming, we’ll be even busier. We’re not even past January, and there’s been a lot of baby talk this year already. I’m not ready for this. I still have so many places to go!

Battle of the donuts continues…