Breakfast - Paul's Place Omelettery Restaurant

EGGS!! My friend took me here a while back and ever since we've been back again and again for omelettes. We usually always come right before their closing time and the place would be pretty empty. We would get the same spot every time. It only opens from 7AM to 3PM by the way. So this time when I saw our spot was taken, I was surprised, then I remembered we were early. We got there around ten-thirty this time, so I guess that's sort of breakfast time and it was pretty busy. I thought I'd switch it up a little this time and try something else other than their yummy omelette. I picked the Veggie Hash and my friend sticked with her usual, the Spanish Omelette with marble rye bread and home made signature jam. Their own hot sauce is great too. My friend also ordered a latte. I really like this place although this time they didn't get my order right. I asked to have the onions taken out (I did ask nicely too :P) but they forgot to, so I had to pick them out as I go. All I can say is good food and good service here. Oh one thing about parking. There's only meter parking around the area. If you want free parking, you'll have to park a few blocks away and walk there, which works for us. It is always good to take a walk after meals. You can always walk on Granville for some gallery viewing and window shopping too :) We walked around and my friend got some pretty flowers to take home~

No.1 Beef Noodle House

It was a Saturday evening date with two girls, one very pregnant lady and one high school friend who I haven't seen in a couple of years. Pregnant lady picked our meet up place, No.1 Beef Noodle House, because she felt like beef noodles(without the beef :P). It's a little busy place but we didn't have to wait. We got the last empty table when we walked in. I have to say I really don't like how I smelled like beef afterwards... but otherwise the place was alright, service was pretty good and the meal was decent too. As for the pudding bubble tea I had, it was not good... it was made with pudding powder, no real pudding inside :( I think they have about three or four vegetarian dishes on their menu, the standard fried rice, fried noodle and such. The one I got was Enoki with Bean Curd Skin with Rice. I probably only took two bites of the meal and packed the rest home, but not because it was terrible, it was because I ate right before. Oh, just want to share an interesting fact I learned from my high school friend that night. She went to Iraq for nine months to teach English there and she said the people there are friendly to Korean people because they watch Korean TV drama on TV all the time. True story!

Pictures~







No.1 Beef Noodle House (Urban Spoon)

3G - Vegetarian Restaurant

We have been wanting to go back to 3G for dim sum for a long time but the thing with dim sum is that you need to go with more than two people, the more people the better, so you can order more varieties of dishes. We ordered about 14 items and we had 5 people, 4 guys and 1 gal and everyone was pretty full after. I like 3G a lot, they emphasize heavily on how they don't use MSG. A lot of my friends don't take MSG well so this is a good place for them. Just want to mention one more thing about them, they also have the best fried rice ever! I will write about it next time I get it :)

Green Basil - Revisit

Monday night was a dinner date with an old high school friend that works at the airport who has helped me out so many times at the counter. Originally we were going to go for Sushi Garden on Kingsway but we found out it was a busy place even for a Monday night. We didn't want to wait for a table plus it was so noisy inside, we thought we should just go next door to Green Basil. Last time we had the more traditional rice noodle vegetarian phat thai with tamarind sauce, this time we switched it up with the egg noodle phat thai with tomato sauce. It's funny if u look a the picture, it really didn't look so much like phat thai anymore, but it tasted pretty good. We also got the mixed vegetables(I can't recall the name) and some rice to go with. The waitress asked if spicy was okay and I told her it's fine and expected it to be spicy but it was not at all :O Oh well.




Green Basil

The One Restaurant - Revisit

Another visit back to The One Restaurant after badminton, it is like our new food place after badminton now. We always had trouble finding a place that opens late and offers more than a couple vegetarian dishes. So The One is a pretty good option for us. This time I wanted to try what my friend ordered last time, the Seasonal Vegetable With Noodle In Soup and we also wanted to try The One Egg Roll With Vegetable. Then we saw our friend's Pina Colada Slush that looked so good, so we ordered one ourselves too... Pictures :P

Squamish Big Chief Hike - A&W

We have always heard about how beautiful it is up on the Big Chief but we have not had the chance to go up there until last Saturday. It was about a 2 hour hike each way, and it was like what the warning on the sign says on the way there, 'This is not a walk in the park'. It's not terrible either though. But it is a bit hard on the knees coming down and my legs are still sore. It is however, a very rewarding hike. The view up on the peak is just amazing. There're actually three peaks but we only went to the first one this time, but we're sure we'll be back again for the other two. Here are some pics from hiking :D

Girls Night Out - Sawasdee and Thomas Haas

Last Friday night was girl's night out for me and some of my girl friends. The plan was simple, to have Thai for dinner, then do nails at a friend's place and enjoy the desserts from Thomas Haas.

Thomas Haas closes at 5:30PM so we had to go pick up some sweets early since our dinner reservation was not until 7:00PM. It was my third time there and finally I got some pics of the store this time, AND also finally saw the store owner himself, Thomas Haas :) We didn't get a chance to talk to him but he seemed really nice and really cute too. He actually looks a bit like Hugh Jackman but a size smaller. When we got there around 4, most of the cakes were gone already. We didn't really see any cake we wanted to eat so we settled on getting their famous Double Baked Almond Croissants, some Macarons and Fresh Fruit Galette(I'm actually not sure if that's the name of what we got) I would say the best is the croissant. It is soooo good :D I would recommend it. I've always wanted to have one of those expensive macarons and when I finally did, it was good but not really a wow for me. I guess I will have to try some from other stores to compare.

Flo Tea Room

When I found out there's another bubble tea/food place close to where I live, I was excited to try it out. The other ones I've tried so far I can't say I'm too impressed with their veggie food :( Hopefully I will go back to those again and write about them later on. But yeah, Flo Tea Room is my latest discovery... and I'm sorry to say, I was quite disappointed. But please don't stop reading, lol. After we were seated, the waitress brought us two cups of tea right away and I thought that was nice because a lot of times they don't give you water or tea at bbtea places. We then looked over the menu and ordered the Stir Fried Dual Mushroom And Fungi On Rice from the set lunch menu. You have the option of adding 2 dollars for a bubble tea with items from the set lunch menu, so we got the Matcha Milk Tea. From the regular menu, there is a page of vegetarian dishes and we ordered the Mixed Vegetable Fried Rice With Pine Nut. I can only say the drink was alright and the food was just... hmm... one was too salty and the other was just not very good. Oh and I think our set meal was supposed to come with a soup, which they did give it to us but I guess the waitress was having a bad day that she just put it down and walked away that we weren't able to catch her in time and ask if it was vegetarian, so we had to ask another waitress and it turned out it had seafood or something in there. I actually wasn't sure why I kept apologizing for being a vegetarian but I did and they just took the soup away without asking if we wanted anything else instead... Anyways, I like how they have a list of vegetarian dishes but I hope their food will improve in time so I would go back again.

The One Restaurant

After Thai, my friends suggested moving over to another place for drinks and desserts. They told us about this bubble tea place called The One. When we got there it was full of young people, well, just like any other bubble tea place I guess :P It was a really hot day that day and we wanted something COLD. So we all ordered shaved ice. We got the Deluxe Shaved Ice with added pudding, my friends got Pudding & Milk Shaved Ice, Fresh Mango Shaved Ice and Fresh Strawberry Shaved Ice. I think we pretty much covered every shaved ice on the menu. The bowl was big, only one of my friends who ate by himself managed to finish the whole bowl, all others had to stop because they got too cold after eating so much ice. I haven't had shaved ice for a long long time and I enjoyed it even though I got cold too :P

Green Basil

A high school friend was back in town visiting last week from Edmonton that a few of us met up for dinner. We picked Green Basil as a midpoint. I would say Green Basil is pretty vegetarian friendly that they take your vegetarian requests politely. I like Thai food a lot and I can't say their vegetarian Phat Thai is too good, but their veggie version of Lettuce Wrap is pretty good. For the Phat Thai (Pad Thai), they asked if I wanted the tamarind sauce or the tomato sauce (I guess that means ketchup?) I'm not sure why I would want tomato sauce on my Phat Thai so I told them the tamarind sauce. The noodles came out a bit too soft. I like the spiciness of the lettuce wrap fillings and the crispy noodles :P I have not yet tried any of their curries though. I think I will try that out next time I'm there. My other vegetarian friend ordered the Fried Tofu with Peanut Sauce. I didn't think it was too good either. The peanut sauce wasn't very peanuty but maybe because I only had a little bit... Oh, their Thai Iced Tea is not too bad, not too sweet like some of the other places, but it also lacks that strong Thai iced tea flavour too :O

Chill Restaurant and Lounge

We have been to Chill a few times after our weekly badminton play. They really only have two main vegetarian meals, one is the Spicy Tofu Hot Pot and the other, Vegetarian Donburi. I have only ordered the donburi once and it tasted pretty bland and it had a lot of onions. All other times I've had the spicy tofu hot pot, it is good but it is pretty spicy. Ordering it as a set meal it would come with a soup, salad and rice. Ordering it alone as a hot pot, you will need to order rice separately. It is a bit tricky for vegetarians because the soup might not be vegetarian nor the salad. If you want to order it as a set, you should ask the waitress to make sure they make everything vegetarian for you. I think ordering the hot pot by itself and add a bowl of rice is a better option and value. Last time we ordered it as a set, we got Iceberg Lettuce Salad because they ran out of the Mixed Greens and they didn't even offer us a vegetarian soup substitute. I like the spicy hot pot but I wish they would have more vegetarian dishes on the menu. I'm sure we will be back more often if they did. We also ordered the Cill Tofu(deep fried tofu) that time.

Leaving Vancouver, Washington and Going Home - Well Tea

Last day of our long weekend trip, it was time to go home. The first thing we wanted to do as soon as we got back was to have some real asian food. It's funny I think this is the first time I've had such bad cravings for asian food on a trip. We needed to make a detour to Richmond, so we went to Well Tea. Well Tea has a good selection of vegetarian dishes and their food is decent, that's why we go there often with non-vegetarian friends. Aside from their one page long vegetarian section, they also have a couple omurice dishes that contain no meat. We picked one of them, the Curry Omurice and Veggie Chicken in Three Spices from the veggie menu section. One of my friends also ordered a veggie dish, the Teppanyaki Tofu with Shredded Bean Curd.

Trip to Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon - Part IV - Driftwood Restaurant & Lounge, Tillamook Cheese

Trip to the beach on Day Four - Cannon Beach. The weather wasn't the greatest that day but it was prefect for the beach. It was cloudy, no scorching sun, just some nice gentle breeze and warm sand. We walked around, took pictures and played with sand. There's no soft sandy beaches in Vancouver so it was really nice to walk on the beach :D

Trip to Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon - Part III - Subway

Trip Day Three. Plan for the day was Mount St. Helens in the morning and shopping at Woodburn Outlet Mall in the afternoon. Just so you know, this is going to be a very short entry because I forgot to take pictures again ~.~ On our way from Mount St. Helens to Woodburn we agreed on having subway. We needed something lighter and perhaps a little healthier as we had been eating too much the previous day. Subway offers two vegetarian option, the Veggie Delight and the Veggie Patty. I always go for the veggie patty because it is more filling. We really like eating at Subway on our trips in the states. It's good when we don't know where to go or just want something quick to eat that's not greasy. Oh and sometimes you won't see Veggie Patty on their menu so just ask for it, most of the time they should have it.

I'm sorry but I only have a picture of my food half way through eating and since it doesn't look too gross, I thought I'd have it up anyways... I have some pictures from Mt St Helens too.

Trip to Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon - Part II - The Cheesecake Factory

For the rest of the second day we visited two malls before we had dinner. We went to Lloyd Center Mall which was pretty uneventful. From there, We were going to take public transportation into downtown but the weather was getting worse so we decided not to. We were looking for camera stores that sell Canon stuff. For some reasons, the camera stores we visited did not carry any Canon and we were told to try Shutterbug. So with our GPS set to the nearest Shutterbug, our adventure began. We had no idea where we were going to end up. We all thought we would end up at a tiny ghetto Shutterbug store and it would all be a waste of time because they wouldn't have what we want either. About thirty or so minutes later, we arrived at this bigger and newer mall that looked ten times better than Lloyd Center Mall. Not only we found what we came for, we also found the place where we wanted to have dinner at. This mall we end up at was Washington Square and The Cheesecake Factory was where we ate.

Their menu is HUGE, check out their website and you'll know what I mean. We ordered Evelyn's Favorite Pasta and Thai Noodle Salad. That morning I had a little bit too much of IHOP so I was craving for some asian food. The closest thing I could find on the menu was Thai Noodle Salad and it turned out to be pretty good, but not too much noodle, which was really what I wanted. The pasta was good too, lots of different yummy veggies and pine nuts. Their bread was wonderful too. The dark one was sweet, think it was chocolate flavour. We had two baskets of breads before our meal :P We were so full so we all just ate my friend's cake. She ordered Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet. It was a huge slice, a lot bigger than other cakes and very tasty... Picture time...

Trip to Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon - Part I - IHOP

To celebrate Canada Day, we decided to take a five day trip down to the states shopping and sight seeing with friends. We were grateful to be able to tag along and stay with our friends at their sister's place. They are just so great. Very fun and caring people ^^.

We drove down on Wednesday evening and on our way there we grabbed a bite from Burger King but I forgot to take pics again >.< I am sure I will have BK again soon though, so I am not too worried about that.

The second day we went to IHOP for breakfast and guess what, I forgot again... But... luckily, IHOP was just steps away from where they live and we had breakfast again there another day. It's not that IHOP in the states is that different from the ones in Canada, but I don't go there often so it's good to be able to write about it while I have the chance. We found out that IHOP is currently promoting the movie Despicable ME. They were all wearing cute yellow t-shirts with minions on them. We ordered the CinniMinion from the special menu and a Mushroom and Spinach Omelette from the regular menu with another side order of Hash Browns. The omelette also comes with three pancakes. The first time there, we ordered the omelette and the Garden Stuffed Crepes and we had trouble finishing it, but we still managed it at the end. (yes... I eat a lot) For the same price or cheaper, I find that food portion is always bigger in The states. We have never had problems finishing our plates back at home, and like I said, we eat a lot ~.~ Anyways, I enjoyed everything we ordered, here are some pics. The last picture is what my friend ordered. I think it was the Danish Fruit Crepes with Blueberry.

Thomas Haas - Fine Hand Made Chocolates

I've seen Thomas Haas' stuff around but never thought too much of it before. I actually discovered it when I was reading Chow Times. So I paid a visit and picked up some gifts as well as a pack of their famous Chocolate Sparkle Cookies. They can be stored in fridge or freezer for up to 3 months and when you want to eat them, just put them into the oven and bake for 8 to 10 mins. For some reasons mine didn't turn out too cookie like >.<... But they still tasted pretty good. I like the Matcha Chocolate Bar. It is white chocolate mixed with matcha green tea. Doesn't that sound so good! It tastes really good too :D <3 Chocolates~~~~~




Thomas Haas