CHAU Veggie Express

We have been recently told by a friend that there is a new Vietnamese vegetarian restaurant called Chau VeggiExpress opened up in Vancouver.I was very excited to hear about it and wanted to try it out asap. It's just pretty much impossible for vegetarians to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant in my opinion. I've tried going with my coworkers before and always order this one veggie item on the menu and later I found out the sauce on the side is fish sauce... So I just stopped going :( There is actually another vegetarian Vietnamese place I know of, which is located in Burnaby/New Wesminster area, that has been around for a long time, Paradise Vegetarian Noodle House. The thing is it's so far away for me and it seems like every time I'm in the area and wants to eat there, it's always closed for vacation. If you would like to try it out, make sure to check on their website to see if they're open.

Outside.

Commune Cafe

Another one of the coupon deals I got for Commne Cafe.

Grounds For Appeal

Had been going to the same old places for a while, so we started looking up new ones again. A friend suggested a bunch, one of them was Grounds For Appeal. It looked like a nice day for a walk, so we went :)

Spero Spera

On one of those great sunny days in June, enjoying the sun and following it through random streets, we somehow ended up in yaletown. I can't remember what was the other place we were trying to pick between with anymore, but I'm sure glad we decided to stay and try out Sepro Sepra.

Bob Likes Thai

This is from a Friday night a while back. We were craving for some Thai food and my friend that lives on Main Street, just a few blocks away from then still a relatively new restaurant, kept mentioning to me about how she's been having it like five days a week. It made me wanted Thai food even more. So a few of us met up there one friday night after work.

Inside

It was pretty full already when we got there. They had to put some smaller tables together for our group to sit.

Miura Waffle Milk Bar

Usually once a week we would go for a lunch at Yaletown and it would somehow always end up being Thai food :P This time, there were only three of us and we thought we should go for something different. Even though it wasn't the nicest day for a walk, we decided to venture our way up Davie Street to Miura Waffle Milk Bar for some waffle 'sandos', which is derived from the japanese word ンドイッチ sandoicchi, which means Sandwich. (from their website)

Inside of Miura Waffle Milk Bar. (I have been forgetting to take pictures of outside the restaurants I've been to >_<)

Shizen Ya

I was looking through my food pictures and realized I've missed quite a bit of things from a while back :( Probably about time to have them posted up. A while ago, I think it was one of those rare winter sunny days, I took a nice walk and visited a cute little restaurant on Hornby Street.

Bonchaz Bakery Cafe

Group deals are getting more and more popular lately. As a big online shopper, I've joined a few of the group coupon sites myself. A while ago I got a voucher from Living Social for Bonchaz Bakery Cafe. It is only a few blocks away from my work, so I thought it would be nice to try it out at lunch :)

Inside Bonchaz Bakery Cafe

Beautiful Island

Another badminton night, we weren't exactly sure where to go for dinner afterwards. We wanted to change from our usual spot but not too far away either. Beautiful Island ended up to be our pick. We have been there a few times before.

Where to buy vegetarian products Part II

So sorry this took me a while to get to, finally here this is, where to buy vegetarian products Part II. There are quite a few Chinese vegetarian product stores in the greater Vancouver area, most of the ones I know are in Richmond. Whole Vegetarian Food is probably the one I go most often. They have four different locations if you look at their website. I usually go to the one inside crystal mall in Burnaby, but that store is pretty small. If you want a bigger selection of things, I would recommend going to the one in Richmond on Cambie Road. Unfortunately I haven't been to the other two locations, so I can't comment on how they are.

It has been a while since I last visited the stores. The pictures I have taken are from a few months ago last year. They're from the Cambie Road Store.

It's located right across from Aberdeen Centre, next to President Plaza, and there's limited parking right in the store plaza.

Ezogiku Noodle Cafe

It's March already, so why is it still friggin' cold?! I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one asking this question. But yeah, when it's cold, you would want something hot and noodle soup is always a good option. My co-workers have been going to one of the closest ramen places to our company, Ezogiku Noodle Cafe, by Vancouver downtown library.

Taiwan Trip - Part VI

I don't really remember what I did this day. I assume nothing particularly interesting happened that's why I can't recall. I do have pictures of what I ate that day though ;)

Lunch or Brunch -

I wanted to have noodles from a close by vegetarian restaurant.

Taiwan Trip - Part V

First day of 2011, it didn't particularly feel like new years day. It was just business as usual, all the stores were open and people were doing their regular everyday stuff.

Started the morning out at 85°C. They are known for their baked goodies at affordable prices. They also have this Sea Salt Coffee. It's quite interesting because you expect it to be salty, and well, it is, but when you order it, they ask you how sweet you would like it to be. So it is actually sweet with a bit of saltiness.

Yummy Cakes...


Seats outside.

Taiwan Trip - Part IV

December 31, last day of 2010, I was busy trying out some outfits all afternoon for a photo shoot in a couple days. My friend from Vancouver just happened to be in Taiwan for her Christmas break as well. This was the first time we met up in Taiwan, it was pretty cool. Before the nights ended, dinner was a must before she headed home that night. It was windy and cold outside that we didn't want to spend time picking places to eat, so we just went into a random restaurant close by. We looked through the menu and they had a couple vegetarian dishes on there and that was good enough for us.

Taiwan Trip - Part III continued

After a nice long break at Starbucks, it was time to get ready to visit the Pavilion of Dreams. To visit this exhibition, you have to first line up for tickets and then go at the given time shown on your ticket.

Inside - giant mechanical flower

Taiwan Trip - Part III

Got up super early again this day, but not to exercise, but to catch the high speed rail heading north to Taipei. We were meeting up with relatives/friends who we haven't seen in a while that were also back in Taiwan visiting. We decided to meet up at the Taipei International Flora Expo.

High Speed Rail

Taiwan Trip - Part II

Second day in Taiwan, we got up bright and early. Since we knew we would be jet lagged and up early, we thought we should go run off some of the extra calories we took in yesterday. It turned out to be the first and only day we worked out.

I live close by the National Museum of Natural Science(NMNS). There is a large road leading to the museum with nice pedestrian walk space and trees along the way. Even though it's busy with lots of traffic on both sides of the islands, it's always filled with people exercising in the mornings and evenings. We decided to jog along it to the NMNS and back.

Pedestrian Walk


Park and Green House by NMNS






Path towards NMNS

Taiwan Trip - Part I

I have been in Taiwan for a week now but have not had time until now to really sit down and organize pictures and start writing my first trip post. I've been eating pretty much non-stop since I landed :P I can't help it, there's just too much good vegetarian food in Taiwan.

There's going to be quite a few blurry pictures from my trip since cellphone is still the easiest way for me to take pictures without drawing too much attention. I'm pretty shy :P I just want to apologize for them in advance and also some of the translations on food names. Translated names are always confusing and more than one way to say it. Let me know if you would like to know where a restaurant is or what the name of the food is in Chinese.

YVR - left van at midnight on EVA airways




TPE - arrived in Taipei at five in the morning