Seemingly out of nowhere, H wanted to pick up Japanese pastries from Yama Cafe. Was he craving their mochi bites, or was he hoping to satisfy my sugar craving? Either way, I was happy with the selection:

Tea flavored mochi bites in addition to the white mochi ball and a Sakura red bean... thing. My vocabulary is proportionate to my sleep, and I've been averaging less than 5 hours. 

Lots of red bean filling in the mochi:

Salty sweet ume and red bean in the Sakura... thing:

H also brought home a slice of their strawberry cake that got squished in transit, so I didn't take photos and originally wasn't  going to mention it. Their cake and the whipped cream on top were so light and delicious though, it deserves a mention and more recognition around Vancouver.

H and I savored every bite of that ugly cake.

We were reminded this week to treasure the things that don't last forever. Nearing the end of bath time with baby S on Wednesday, she started crying because the bubbles in her bubble bath were disappearing. She wanted to add more bubbles, but we couldn't do that since it was nearing time to get out of the tub. We weren't about to ruin the timing of her night time routine just because she was throwing a tantrum. H reminded her to enjoy the bubbles more, the next time that they're around.

Like the bubbles and the time that S has in the bath, I'm reminding myself here that time is limited and it is such a waste to spend even a second not enjoying it. J also reminded me that while work and finances are important, this is the only time I'll have with the kids. It's tough with two under two, but I am sure I will miss it.

I'm currently going through a phase where my body does not want to literally roll out of bed in the mornings, and I am numbing my brain with endless episodes of Grey's Anatomy where they're either performing a laparotomy or removing a hernia and/or a brain tumor. Then, a pregnant woman comes along, and there's a complication with the fetus, usually with her water breaking during a critical moment during an environmental crisis, so that the trauma center is also overloaded with patients... I have also acquired a new habit of staying in bed or lying on the sofa until the middle of the day, either playing Animal Crossing or scrolling through what appears to be endless Instagram posts of the gourmet meals people have been whipping up while restaurants are shut down, the screenshots of Zoom parties, and socially distant lounge at home inspired OOTD's. 

That's when I came across Elephant Garden Creamery's post about their new R&B Remix flavor, a red bean and black sesame combo, two of my favourite dessert ingredients. This flavor was actually released in March, but I guess I've been so in my own world of baby preparations and Netflix that I haven't been paying much attention to anything else. 

Since the COVID-19 restrictions have slightly loosened up, H and I felt like we could do a quick stop by Commercial Drive to visit Elephant Garden Creamery.  While the pints of the R&B Remix flavor weren't available, we did get a pint of their vegan mango coconut sticky rice ice cream, which is another one of my all time favourites from their shop. Who would've thought that I could enjoy vegan ice cream? 

This is a scoop of the R&B Remix, which was smooth, creamy, and full of large red bean pieces. By using the larger whole red beans, I could actually taste a more authentic red bean flavor and have that extra texture to chew on. 

For one pint and one scoop of ice cream, the total came to $16. A bit out of our budget now, but sometimes, you just have to treat yourself to get out of a funky mood. Also, it feels like we're doing our part in supporting a local small business. Does our $16 contribution actually help? 

Elephant Garden often has other delicious Asian inspired flavors, like Hong Kong milk tea, and Vietnamese coffee. There are other great ice cream shops to explore around Vancouver for a different variety of flavor profiles, and I'm excited to try out a few new ones once my child arrives this summer.

Meanwhile, I am still trying to gather the motivation to figure out this thing: 

I'm sure I can learn it out on the job, without reading the manual... These things are meant for groggy parents who haven't slept through the night, right? No point in spending time trying it out now, who knows if I'll even have milk right? This is pretty typical of me though. I hate being over prepared.

Back to Netflix.

One day, after dinner, PJS and I came to Passion8:

This shaved ice bowl was amazing. Matcha, redbean, cheesecake, and mochi toppings. The ice is sweetened with syrup or some type of sugar (condensed milk maybe?), and goes really well with the matcha. The garnish was a piece of dried orange that looked pretty cute, but we didn’t eat it (were we supposed to?).

Next up was the Multigrain (Injulmi) toast! Topped with a mountain of whipped cream and walnuts, and this..rice flour flakey thing that had the texture of a less buttery croissant. The inside had more mochi/rice cake filling and red bean:

This was OK, not my favourite. I am drooling though, just thinking about that shaved ice in the summer…

Too bad I’m sick right now.

Pragmatic – dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations.

Dogmatic - inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.

if i were pragmatic, i would know that we cannot possibly eat all this because we will feel sick afterwards. however, i am not pragmatic. if i were dogmatic, i would not eat all of this because it goes against principles of healthy eating. however, i am also not dogmatic. so we ate it all

Did I do this right?