There were a few visitors to the office from out of town this week, and to celebrate our successes this year, the company organized an awards dinner at Brix & Mortar, on Tuesday. It was beautifully organized with plenty of wine, a fun ice breaker at the beginning, and lots of mingling before and after the delicious 3 course meal.

Starting off with the most balanced tomato and cheese salad!

Then, I had the perfect sirloin, asparagus and mashed potatoes on the side!

I'm using "!" because I'm getting excited just remembering how delicious everything looked and tasted.  It's really an ultimate dining experience, with the perfect level of service. The servers kept walking by to top off my glass, every time my glass looked half full (or half empty?). I can see why lots of weddings are hosted here.

In between, the main and the dessert, the awards were handed out, but I think the real reward was the milk cereal panna cotta:

What a funny looking plaque to commemorate the hard work of my colleagues who deserved the recognition...

When I look back at these dinners, it reminds me that really, life is good.  I have so many complaints all the time, and it feels like a struggle, but overall, living in this society is pretty convenient. Cars, fridges, grocery stores, and the Internet for all the information sharing you could ever desire! 

Also, we don't have white walkers lurking behind our gates... 

OK, back to catching up with all the episodes of Game of Thrones, before Season 8 comes out next month.

H’s 30th birthday is coming up, and it’s an important age, so I wanted to make sure he would remember it. Behind his back, I had planned for about 20 of our friends to meet at Speeder’s to hang out last weekend, before his actual birthday to catch him off guard. As part of the deception, I had also booked him for a nice dinner prior to his surprise birthday party. It was a way to book off his evening and get him out of the house. We went to West Oak in Yaletown:

They’re known for serving sustainable, West Coast style dishes. I’m still not too sure what “West Coast” food means, other than certain seafoods, but we had some good mussels. There was also a delicious side of brussel sprouts bacon dish, which was made with apricots and a sprinkle of parmesan:

You’ll ntoice the lobster tail linguine in the background of the photo above. It’s in the background because neither of us preferred it, and we would not spend our hard earned money on that again. The service was quick, and they managed to seat us on the packed patio after just a few minutes of waiting. Overall, a good experience, but I would not go back. The restaurant scene in Vancouver is very competitive, and there are plenty of other places to go for more affordable West Coast, sustainable dishes.



I think H had a good time at his party. He was thoroughly surprised, and did not expect me to plan such a successful event. I almost want to plan another one, just because it was so satisfying to bring everybody together for a purpose. After doing this though, I think I realize the significance of making time and energy to participate in these types of events, and really try to connect with everybody. Parties are difficult to coordinate, because everybody is busy now being adults and making a living, and how many 30th birthdays, 1st birthdays, weddings, graduations, Fridays, Mondays – DAYS in general - are left for us to actually celebrate together?

Once in a lifetime events – birthdays, weddings, bridal showers… Reasons to splurge and have a good time!

Last night, we were at the Homer St. Café for J’s staggette:


The meal was family style, just like at Nightingale for B’s birthday. We started with the appetizers – olives and cheese, salad, a dip of some… fish, hummus:



Gnudi, with oozy stringy cheese:


Beef cheeks, super tender:



A pile of potatos and coleslaw, pitcher of gravy:



We also had the lingcod and chicken, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. The portions look small on the plates, but we were more than stuffed!

I forgot about saving room for dessert – chocolate pudding, peanut butter cookies with nutella cream, and in the photo at the very top, a cheesecake with apple compote. I could eat that nutella cream all day.


The food was good, and I hear the happy hour and brunch meals are delicious too. I don’t think I’ll come back too soon on my own for no reason, just because it was quite pricey (about $100 with drinks and tips). Food was good enough, so find me another excuse to visit again soon and I'll be there.



Great time with some great girls, J has good taste in friends. I think I’m too old now for a “wild night” out though. Sometimes, I just want to stay home, watch Netflix (Kim's Convenience, as recommended by M), and watch my houseplants grow:



Got rid of most if not all of the spider mites on the plant, and after 2 weeks, I see signs of growth! See the little leaves sprouting from the old leaves?

Yes, I'm a real homebody at heart.

After all our hard work this week, H and I thought we deserved a treat. H has been working 12 hour days for about 5 or 6 days a week. I’ve been working probably a bit less than that, but hey, who’s counting? We ended up at Dazzling Cafe:



We arrived right at 6PM, which is the end of their Happy Hour menu (starts at 3PM, I believe), but the server was nice enough to let us order from there. Each dish was under $10, with a drink that could be customized with an increase in cost. I had a milk tea with pearls (+$0.50) and H had an iced longan tea (+2.00), which he said was pretty good. The pearls were decent, but not Gongcha level. We ended up ordering the pesto chicken spaghetti and a mussel risotto. Note that the dish with the mussels in the photo is not risotto.



The nice server punched in the spaghetti by accident, but oh well, no point wasting it. He gave us $2 off our bill instead. The mussels were actually cooked perfectly and very delicious. I will go back to get the mussels with the risotto, during the happy hour, and hang out at this faux French style restaurant.

Did you know that China has a replica Eiffel Tower?

PS - Good luck tomorrow, friends. Another Monday...

We went to cozy, old school Gotham Steakhouse on a rainy Thursday... 

Almost everyone had rib eye, but I wasn’t feeling a 20oz slab of meat, so I had a manageable 10oz filet:

I had my steak rare, and it was perfectly rare. I wouldn't consider myself a connoisseur of beef, but take my word for it that this perfection is not easy to find. We had a selection of sides, including Gotham’s hash browns, onion rings, brussel sprouts with chorizo, creamed spinach, spicy beans (SUPER spicy), and the bread. Honestly thought I would prefer the mashed potatoes, but the hash browns were pretty gourmet. 

Top it off with a good Old Fashioned. No complaints here.

Rare, and perfectly done. There has been lots of talk about equality lately and I keep seeing this theme. It’s rare to be seated at a the table with half men and half women in this industry. The genders at the table was perfectly 50-50. The nationalities were Canadian, but it was the most Canadian it could get, with some Asian genes, some French, some Australian, and some just a random mix. Not that it mattered, because I just realized all of the above, as I’m writing this post, and the conversation and mutual understanding was made it perfect.

For B’s birthday, her husband flew her sister from Toronto back home, planned a surprise dinner for her, and treated about 20 of us to dinner at Nightingale:



Dinner was served family style, starting with 3 different salads – a watercress (almost all eaten in the photo above), a kale, and an apple salad. The apple salad topped with a bit of cheese was probably my favourite, followed closely by the very crispy watercress salad. We had salmon (also in photo above), and beef (see photos below) as the mains.



The pizzas were for the few people who didn’t eat fish or beef – super thin crust!


LA PIECE DE RESISTANCE… (excuse my poor French):



The entire meal, everybody patiently waited for me to snap some quick photos of the food, but once desserts were laid out on the table, it was all “yo, the ice cream is melting” and “hurry up” and “come on, are you done?”… Interesting what fresh apple crumble with vanilla ice cream, panna cotta, and brownie topped with peanut butter and a side of perfectly scooped espresso ice cream can do to “friends and family”. I guess it was pretty delicious though.



The service was also 5/5. Reasons:
-server picked up the napkin and refolded it
-didn’t reach in to refill waters but always knew when to step in
-super friendly
-well dressed and groomed (this really affects the whole impression of the restaurant, I don’t want somebody who looked like they needed a shower serving me food)

Happy birthday, B. Family is so important. I’m so glad I have a good one.

After our late lunch of tacos at Lilly’s Tacos, we went to Hollister Brewing:



We had a cheese pizza, and some nachos. Of course, we had beer too, since we’re at a brewery! Food was good, maybe better than they would’ve been, if I had not finished my flight of beers already. The beer in the flight was warm… We asked the server, and she said that nothing could be done, because their taps are at that temperature. Gross, warm beer. I had a pint after, and it was in a chilled glass, which really helped. Beers are just OK... I would like to try other micro breweries in the area first.



Another case of food tasting better because of good company. It’s interesting that even though we had never had a full converesation before this trip, it felt so easy to connect with this group of women. Perhaps, it’s the mutual understanding that we’re all going through lots of change?