Did the holiday season completely take up all my energy and focus, so that I forgot to blog about my very normal life? 

Well I'm back again! You could never get rid of my "coffee cup and pastry flat lay with hand" photos.   

I've been holed up at my desk all day, and needed a quick mental health hot chocolate at L'Atelier because it is Hot Chocolate Festival in Vancouver, from now until Feb. 14th. Chocolate and something sweet to celebrate Valentine's Day, in case you didn't notice the trend of this festival always occurring around this time of the year.... 

We wanted to try both of their very delicious and Asian inspired flavors: 

#107 - Miso and lavendar honey hot chocolate, served with matcha roll cake

#108 - Sesame hot chocolate with milk chocolate foam, served with a pressed croissant with passion fruit coating

Dip the pressed croissant into the hot chocolate, no regrets. 

Both were delicious. L'atelier never disappoints.

Will I have time to try more from this hot chocolate festival? Hope so, especially if the snow sticks around and I'm stuck inside with the kids on more snow days.   

 

Also, I do not like to be treated like chopped liver, and I have really tried very hard to set my boundaries with all the people that I must  interact with on the daily. It's difficult with kids, and especially difficult as a remote worker. Hence, I need a mental health hot chocolate. 

Ended up going to three places this year for Vancouver's Hot Chocolate Festival 2022:  

1. BETA5 -

This was their second hot chocolate flavour for the festival, and it was inspired by their green curry chocolate. They tried too hard with this one - the green curry was innovative, and as I waited in line for my drink, I was extremely curious to see how they could make this taste good. When I finally took a sip, I realized they really couldn't pull this one off. I really did not like it. We devoured our cream puffs (passionfruit mango, I believe?), which lived up fully to BETA5's reputation, and dumped half of the drink. Perhaps I should've had it for dinner with a side of rice? 

Moral of the story is stick to the basics, keep it simple, and don't try too hard. 

2. Fife Bakery 

Not in the photograph is the teeny tiny chewy hojicha cookie that is paired with this jasmine infused hot chocolate. When we ordered, the barista didn't seem to know that it was jasmine flavoured, and was confused when we asked... Communication is hard. The glob of salted cream topping off the drink was a nice touch, the tea flavour was strong, but I still thought this was over priced for the quantity. 

3. Kafka's Coffee

We tried to visit Coho Coffee for hot chocolate, but the timing wasn't going to work out, so we ended up going somewhere more conveniently located - the new Kafka's Coffee on Great Northern Way.

The pistachio shortbread was very fluffy, melt in your mouth, and it went very well, dipped into the ruby hot chocolate. 

This was my favourite stop, look how happy I look as I dip. 

Maybe it was the sunshine this weekend, or perhaps a change in the chemical composition of my pregnancy hormones, but I am feeling more energetic this week! Capitalizing on this surge of energy to push harder at work last week, and get more things done:  

1. Finish Tales from the Cafe, Before the Coffee Gets Cold   
2. Fix the broken drawer on baby S's changing table
3. Go for hot chocolate at Coho Coffee (this might still be possible! One last day for hot chocolate festival tomorrow!!!!)

Did everything on the list get checked off?!?! Wow, pat on the back, L. For the upcoming week:                                                      

1. Figure out how much RRSP I should purchase to avoid being taxed 
2. Don't eat out on weekdays, so that I can accumulate more funds to buy RRSP's
3. Make gochujang soup 
4. Reorganize the dining area so that my chair isn't always backing into the IKEA LACK shelf that's behind my usual seat at the tables
5. Wake up at 6AM every day

Got bored, went out for a drive and ended up at Choco Coo for some late night dessert. Getting fat will plump out my wrinkles.

From Left: Chocolate Cake, Hazelnut Cake, Tiramisu (in the cup), Matcha Mousse, (the tassel on my bucket bag made a cameo)

  

From left to right, top to bottom: Mint Dark Hot Chocolate; Tiramisu, Hazelnut Cake, Matcha Mousse

The matcha mousse had a waffle layer and was by far the best choice. Don’t bother with the Hazelnut or Chocolate Cakes, they’re not bad but also not that special. I’d come back to get the matcha mousse again if I'm in the hood, and try their other desserts, if I felt like going for a long drive again some day.

Sun Run today and I finished the 10km in 1hr8min. I blame my runners that gave me a HUGE blister for not being able to finish it in under 1 hour. Also, not enough cardio in the past few months. I think I’ll start training or at least doing more cardio.

Bonus picture: cat wants to go out.