On Thursday, I had a weak instant coffee, because I "slept in" until 6:30AM, and did not have time to make a real coffee. This was a mistake. Waking up earlier for coffee and a few minutes alone helps so much with my mindset and mood. 

Instead of coffee, I tried to brighten up the day with some fresh banh mi's from Kim Chau. These are their #1 menu item, the special:

One of these was spicy, and had a few peppers in them, but they didn't actually taste spicy, which was a little disappointing. I'm not complaining though - check out all the meat and veggies packed in between the freshest bread: 

I haven't had these in a while, so maybe my memory is off, but I feel their prices have increased recently... Didn't these cost about $3 just a few months ago in 2021?! Now, the special costs $5.50 each. Everything is more expensive these days, and it's adding to my sadness. I have to remind myself that I'm far from poor. Unlimited hot water comes out of my tap on demand, and I can afford it! 

After the banh mi, the day dragged on, and all I wanted to do was eat chocolate chip cookies. I had no patience for S, and snapped at my dad when he told her not to yell because speaking loudly isn't pretty. This really irritated me. I want her to express herself however she wants, yell if she needs to, and not be suppressed by something as superficial as being pretty. He comes over to help with the kids almost every day, which I am so grateful for, but he doesn't always have the most modern take on raising children.

Looking back, the day wasn't so awful, and it was mostly me feeling sluggish and unmotivated. I didn't end up in tears, unlike the first few days post-partum when I was so tired, and it took massive efforts to force myself out of bed even at 10AM.  It's only been a month and a half with baby P, I shouldn't try to be too productive.

Baby S is at the age where we can leave her for longer than an hour, so we dropped her off at the grandparents' place, and went hunting for food. The Instagram foodies have influenced me to try out the rice noodles at Harmony Bakery: 

Just another hole in the wall with cheap food. It was about $5 for each take out container, comes with a separate small container of just enough soy sauce to add extra flavour to the rice noodles. It's flavourful, but don't let it sit too long. Once it gets cold, the texture becomes too gooey, and it's no longer as delicious as it could be. I also did not add the egg option, which costed another $1. Go for the egg. Overall, not bad, but didn't really hit the spot. 

Speaking of harmony, it's so difficult to find that balance of peace and harmony at a workplace. There's always something irks me, and I don't think it's just my work either. There is no perfect workplace. Recently, I was in a Zoom meeting, and started to wonder if there was a mute button I could hit, even though I wasn't the host. 

"WOOPS, muted you by accident!" 

"WOOPS, can't figure out how to unmute!"

Being in sales, you hear a lot of people talk. I won't say I'm a sales leader and I won't take credit for being a great sales person, but I think I have noticed that there are a few different types of sales people. There are the sales people who are successful because they're actually good and convincing, and then there are those sales people whose customers will buy something just to make them shut up and stop bothering them. 

Can't hit the mute button in a face to face conversation. 

Pizza during the COVID-19 pandemic: 

We were close to Papa John's, and picked this up for lunch at home. There's an online ordering system to create your own pizza, which seems pretty standard these days for most pizza joints. Choose your toppings, and here's a large pizza for $15! 

There's a fair selection of toppings, crusts, and sauces to go through, and all of them are pretty standard, like the ham and sausage that we added to our pizza. It's not deep dish pizza from Chicago, but add on the extra sauce, and it'll do for now. Also, I didn't expect too much, and it was easy for them to go above and beyond. 

For future reference, they carry Pepsi products, so if you've got a hankering for a diet Coke, it's not happening.

I was going to call it a "quick" lunch, but there's more time now to slow down since there aren't as many places to go to, appointments to keep, people to see. Just removing commute time (e.g. 45 minutes to get to work, and another same chunk of time to get back) has saved so many hours for all the things I've wanted to do for so long. Also, social distancing has released my inner introvert that I've tried to bury for so long. Really having the time of my life right now.

Also also, I'M HAVING A BABY SOON. Construction in progress...

This weekend, I made plans for next weekend, while sharing a few meals with a couple friends. One of those meals was at Sawasdee Thai:

I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. We had the pad thai, deep fried tofu that came with a delicious honey sauce, red curry with chicken, some more chicken and basil stir fry of sorts, and a seafood stir fry of sorts with squid. I didn’t really help out with ordering, left the others do all the work. Can’t forget to mention the coconut rice. Always get the coconut rice, because it’s just the perfect combo with the curry sauce.

The whole meal came to about $80 only for all 6 of us. Afterwards at home, I chugged a whole 2L of water, probably because of all the MSG and salt, but hey, it was delicious at the moment and I have on regrets.

Also spent the weekend reading all of Startup by Doree Shafrir instead of going out. I borrowed an eBook from the library and zoomed right through it, pretty easy read. It’s like Gossip Girl for the Tech world. I’ve never been part of a Startup, but I can totally relate to the themes of the book (ie, females in the Tech workforce, information in the Internet age, office life, etc…) Would recommend.

So about those plans for next weekend... I'm excited, and you should be too. 

We visited Hakkaku Ramen for some authentic, affordable noodles in soup:



I had regular Miso soup, with the fattier meat, and H had the rich Shio with the fatty pork. It was marvelous. One of the best bowls of ramen I’d had, the soup was full of flavour, even without ordering the rich version. Can’t go wrong with the pork belly! Reminder to add an egg next time because the Miso doesn’t come with one. I’ll try the leaner cut of meat next time too, just to see the difference.

 

Sometimes, I have to remind myself that I’m really lucky to be able to live this way – eating ramen, going for dessert after dinner, driving from one destination to the next. It’s taken for granted by some people, the conveniences we have in this city (in this life). The other day, I finally gathered up all the plastic bags I had been hoarding and brought them to London Drugs to recycle. Doing things for the environment.

After day of work and a few hours of shopping at Ikea, we were faced with finding a spot to dine at 9PM on a weekday in the Victoria Drive area. Everything closes early there, like around 9, and we were starving. Mui Garden was the only option for “good” food past 9:30PM:



I had the curry beef brisket with rice noodle in soup (left), P had the same with vermicelli, and J had the curry beef brisket with rice. Clearly, the curry is a good choice here. Mui Garden has renovated in the past few years, since I was last here in my high school days, and now it looks much cleaner! They still have the same servers that I grew up with, and although there are slight changes in the menu, it still feels like home. Looking at that photo makes me hungry…



I’m looking forward to some colourful leaves, and sweaters.



Here I am worrying about what to wear tomorrow, while there was another earthquake in Mexico today. 7.1 magnitude, and buildings were rumbling down in a cloud of dust. Disasters everywhere, but I’m determined to enjoy what I can without worrying about the world too much. Although rumors of the next Instagram updates are sort of worrisome.

We’re living in an era of technology and communication. It’s so much easier to access the news and reports of disasters in the world (YouTube has Live videos now and the news reports can get pretty dramatic). It’s not even just natural disasters, like hurricanes and wildfires (although some might argue that those are actually man made because of climate change). Look at the missiles being launched like fireworks. Just another day to day thing to worry about... 

Still gotta eat though. Visited Honolulu Cafe for a quick and cheap bite. Here’s the House Special Spaghetti:

Here’s a more Chinese dish, fish in corn cream sauce:

This place is so cheap, I don’t feel right to complain about the quality, but the quality is really quite horrendous. We found a hair in one of the drinks, and they offered to give us a new one, but the damage was done. In the end, they also gave us a 10% discount on the meal, which sorta helped. I used to visit this place multiple times a month, back 10 years ago, but I really wouldn’t go back any time soon. It’s just not worth it anymore, now that I’m older (and making money to eat a proper meal that doesn’t include another human being’s hair).



I also want to comment on how hard it is to meet up with friends sometimes, and it's great when everybody actually makes an effort, even if it's just for an hour in the evening. Another thing that stresses me out is how rarely I see certain people sometimes. H and I hopped over to G's place with J, and we had a good catch up earlier this weekend. I'm going to try to bring more people together again soon!

Went shopping with H and his mother at Tsawassen Mills this weekend, and by the time we were done, it was already 8:30. Hou Lok is open for late night, so we took our hungry tummies here:

The honey garlic pork is one of my favourite Chinese dishes. They have a good one here, a good balance of meat and bone and lots of sauce.

We needed some greens for a balanced diet, so we ordered the spinach with the fu yu, and this was pretty flavorful as well. Another good choice. There’s also a corner of the marinated tofu here, because H’s mum is a vegetarian and she needed some protein. This was also a good choice.

The bitter melon fried egg is also one of my favourites, but it was a bit bland here tonight. We did ask for less salt, less oil, so maybe that was why it wasn’t as flavorful as usual.

Then, we had the beans, and I saved this for last because I didn’t like this at all. It wasn’t crisp and didn’t taste fresh. One off, I hope, because it’s usually pretty good.

Practiced with Sparkle the drone, but the battery doesn’t last long enough and I haven’t had a good chance to shoot anything worth posting. The quality is absolutely perfect though for what I want to do. Busy practicing - photos and videos to come!

H and I were conveniently located near Steveston one day, after work, so we explored the little shops around this area of the city. H got hangry, and the smell of the mini donuts at Outpost Mini Donuts lured us in:

I absolutely fell in love with the blueberry donut. It was still a bit too sweet to eat on its own without a drink, so we had the lemonade too. A coffee would’ve been nice, but it was late afternoon, and I didn’t want to spend too much time lying awake in bed because of too much caffeine. There were a few other flavours, including boston cream, salted caramel, chocolate, etc. 1/2 a dozen for $4.75! I will be back for more.

Sometimes, I have to remind myself to keep asking questions, and that if I know the answers, I should ask bigger questions.

Oh right, I forgot to mention one more thing about the donuts. They cater for special events. I'd like some blueberry donuts scattered around my reception table if I ever get married.

H had a craving for ramen. I had a craving for adventure. We went to a new place, called Jiro Sushi and Ramen:

Fatty pork, perfect eggs, and fresh fish. There could have been more broth in the tonkotsu ramen, but the noodles didn’t get soggy, and toppings were plentiful. There were snow peas included, something I haven’t seen before! The unagi in the bento box could have been thicker, but the flavors worked for me.

We also had the agadeshi tofu, which the server was confused about. He had no idea what we were talking about, and to him, it was just fried tofu. I should’ve asked where he’s from, because he didn’t look or sound Japanese. Overall, good, but could be better, and I would go back. $30 or so including tax and tip, cash and debit only.





I hope to stay healthy for the rest of summer, but it might be difficult with all the germs around me. Some people lead more difficult lives, but let’s all try to be considerate and conscientious citizens.

First week of 2017 is over. It’s been a busy one, life doesn’t seem to want to slow down, even after the holidays have ended.

I tried to chase the sunrise at the Richmond Dyke on New Year’s Day too, but never got around to posting about it, likely because the photos didn’t turn out as I’d hoped (clouds in the way):

We might be so busy because we’re still house hunting! I say “we”, but it’s mostly fallen onto H’s plate, because he’s the one who will be living there with his ‘rents, but I’m just going along for support. I hope we get this resolved by the end of this month, because it’s really quite stressful. Life is too short for this.

Went to Shang Noodle House in Richmond after one particularly stressful afternoon of it. I had their Special B, which consists of Japanese BBQ pork miso ramen, 3 takoyaki balls, and a drink (I had the hot lemon water). CHECK OUT THAT PERFECTLY COOKED MARINATED EGG. Cheese tart was just OK, probably wouldn’t order again because I didn’t like the watery consistency of the cheese custard, and the tart was possibly store bought. The soup for the noodles wasn’t too salty, as I wasn’t chugging water all night. Total cost for 2 people was about $30, which is relatively cheap for dinner. The one thing that really stops me from going back more frequently is the lack of service. What can you expect from a busy Chinese restaurant?

That’s all for tonight folks. Maybe I’ll find time to post more tomorrow about the Lions Club charity concert I attended tonight… Most likely not though.

Hoping to find that balance of enough stress to drive me towards pursuing my goals, and enough rest to make sure I’m alive to see my dreams fulfilled. 

Met up with M to do some last minute Christmas shopping and catch up since she’d just come back from Ireland. She’s staying in Surrey right now, and I really would not venture out for very many people, but she’s a special one and brings much joy to my life so I agreed to pick her up to go to Guildford Mall.  The hunger hit us after having only a Nespresso shot earlier on. I mentioned pho to her, and she knew immediately which place to bring me to. It was the same that J, another Surrey native, had recommended earlier on that week. Is it because Pho Tam might be the only safe place for pho in Surrey? I had to find out if it lived up to the hype.

I had the Special A – any large beef noodle with a spring roll for TEN DOLLARS. How can you go wrong?! Look at all the beef. It was steaming hot, and the spring roll was fresh and crispy. Stomach’s growling now, just thinking about it. I’m sort of curious about the rest of Surrey now… What else is in this supposedly dark, dangerous land?

Parking lot in front of the place is teeny tiny. Be careful! (Always be careful in Surrey.)

Steamworks for A and G’s going away dinner afterwards. Breakfast and extremely last minute Christmas shopping/Boxing Day shopping (the sales have started already…) this morning. The schedule for the rest of this week is packed with eating. I’m planning for January to be a recovery month.

The final day of this trip was intended for the drive home. We went straight from Hood River to Feast, which we’d heard about from P, who’d heard about it from V. 

This place is amazing. The photos don’t do it justice, and there was so much food, I couldn’t try everything.

The food wasn’t perfect, as you can tell from the rib that had all the extra gunk left on it. Still, I’d definitely come back for the sheer volume and variety. You can make your own soup noodle! There’s a stir fry station! There are delicious mussels, clams, crab, cray fish, LOTS Of cocktail shrimp… And we were only there for lunch ($14)! Dinner would be a whole new ball game!

H didn’t want to leave, but everything good or bad must come to an end. Back to good old Vancouver…

CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO DAY 1

H was having a tough day. I was dealing with some work. We were both grumpy, but I wasn’t ready to let the day end on a sour note, so I forced H to come out to eat with me. We tried to go to Ramengers, but it was shut down (permanently?). We considered Chosun, but there was a 30 minute wait. What else is there along the Kingsway corridor that is worth putting into our mouths?!

It had to be somewhere new because all the other restaurants in the area were not going to satisfy us. I recall Pat had mentioned a new Shanghai restaurant in the area…

Dan Dan Noodles

Xiao Long Bao

She runs this place.

Done.

$16.50 for 2 people.

Wang’s xiao long bao was filled with soup, dan dan noodles were just the right amount of flavour. We also had the pan fried pork buns, which were OK, won’t be ordering these again. Good food lifted our moods. I’ll be back soon.

I don’t feel motivated to do anything this week. Performance review is coming up, and I have goals and dreams, but really, nothing will inspire me more than Claire Marshall uploading a new video and going to yoga. Let’s just eat, OK?

PIZZERIA BARBARELLA was so amazing. H and I went during happy hour (3PM to 5PM everyday) for a quick snack before dinner. 20% off small pizzas, $4 beers, the total came to about $17. YAY. We had the salsiccia, chosen for the sausage:

Couple beers to go with it:

The server was pretty good, gave us samples of the beers before pouring full glasses, just because she KNEW we wouldn’t like the Elderflower beer that they had on special. The stout was more to my taste.

Then I got a parking ticket while parked for dinner outside Ebisu.
Then I realized how chubs I'm getting.
Then I realized it all doesn't matter anyways because I'll just hike it off!Can't wait.

OK, back to changing the world, one camera at a time.