Day 250: Granville Island / SD Galleria

We decided to talk a walk around Granville Island. There are so many unique stores to look at. At the Kids Only Market there were lots of neat toys for kids. There are some house boats that we admired. They are located behind the Crane (between Granville Island Hotel and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design). I wish I can afford a house boat there. It is so neat. It is kinda away from everything but still so close to everything. After drooling over the house boats, we went to the Public Market.




There is a 101 List of Foods to Try (2009 list). One item to try was the honey dipped donut from Lee's Donuts. While we were there we picked up a honey dipped donut and a mango filled donut. I don't think the honey dipped donut was anything special. It tasted like a regular donut. Maybe I am a donut connoisseur enough to taste the difference? But the mango donut was yummy. The mango filling wasn't too sweet.

After Granville Island, we headed to dinner at SD Galleria. Full review: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/sd-galleria.html

Day 249: BBQ / Greek Day / Italian Kitchen

Another busy Sunday for us. Our first stop was the Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ. Our second stop was the Greek Day on West Broadway St. Our last stop was dinner at Italian Kitchen.


Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ
I found out about this even on Thursday or Friday morning on the morning news. It seemed like a good event to go to. On the news the mentioned that it was only $5 for a wristband and you can taste all you want. I wanted to know more about it. I went to their website to try to find more information. There wasn't much information. I had to dig a but further. I checked out the vendor information and there was some information. I found the organizer's name and number. I decided to call him to find out more. He told me what I needed to know. It was held at Riverrock Casino's parking lot. You pay $5 for a wristband. The money is a donation to the BC Firefighters Burn Fund. It is a competition. Each hour the vendors cook a type of food and what ever is left over they give them away as samples. It is a two day event. We went on the last day. We got there at 12 and they were cooking beef brisket. At 1 pm they cooked chicken. At 2 pm, was what we were waiting for, RIBS! There were about 20 vendors. Almost all the vendors offered the beef brisket. Only a handful offered the chicken. Only about 6 or so offered the ribs. I had 3 ribs and I was so full.


Greek Day
Every year there is Greek Day on West Broadway from Macdonald to Blenheim. It is only a few block stretch but it is super busy. There were food vendors and long lineups at each one. They mostly sold the same items at a very reasonable price. We were full from the BBQ competition so didn't eat more food. There were performers on the main stage. There were also vendors that sold various items. We were only there for about an hour.

Italian Kitchen

Full review: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/

Day 248: Hamilton St Grill / Moxies

Hamilton Street Grill

Hamilton Street Grill is having their 13 year anniversary in the month of June. To celebrate their anniversary, they are having a $13 steak sale. For $13 you get an 8 oz steak (done the way you like it), mashed potatoes and vegetables. I haven't had a $13 steak for a long time. I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring more people to my dining club. There were 20 of us. Everyone had a $13 steak. Some had appies and some had drinks with their steaks. I have been to Hamilton Street Grill for a Christmas dinner last year (only 7 months ago). The decor is warm and inviting. It reminds me of Tuscan colors (shades of brown ranging from beige to deep reddish brown). There is a small patio but we didn't sit on the patio because our group was so large. For a Wednesday night it was quite busy. There were mostly groups of 4 people. The food was good. The steak was covered by a peppery spice.
I did eat it with A1 sauce, but it was good by itself. I didn't have any appy or desserts at Hamilton St Grill. After we finished our steak, some of us went for dessert at Moxie's.

Moxie's

We wanted to find a place that opened late and was easy to get to and had easy parking. My friend suggested Moxie's because she likes the desserts there. It was a good choice! There were six of us. Because we just finished dinner, we only ordered 5 desserts:

blackberry apple crisp on puff pastry -a warm flaky pastry filled with west coast blackberries and apple slices, served with french vanilla ice cream, this fabulous dessert is baked to order

sticky toffee pudding -a dense, moist cake, served warm with toasted almonds, buttery caramel sauce and french vanilla ice cream

banana caramel xango (chan’go) -creamy, light banana cheesecake wrapped in a pastry tortilla, dusted with cinnamon-sugar and served with warm caramel, ribbons of chocolate and french vanilla ice cream

chocolate espresso mousse -callebaut chocolate with the unique and intense flavour of criollo cocoa beans, crowned with real whipped cream and house-baked chocolate biscotti

white chocolate brownie -the ultimate dessert encounter, white and dark chocolate folded into a white chocolate brownie, finished with french vanilla ice cream, real whipped cream and warm chocolate sauce

I was in dessert heaven. We shared all 5 dishes and it was a good variety. It was almost every dessert they carry. I liked some better than others. My first bite was the espresso mousse. It was so heavenly. It just melted in my mouth. The fruit desserts (blackberry apple crisp on puff pastry and banana caramel xango (chan’go)) made the dessert night more refreshing. The presentation was beautiful. They took some time to make the desserts look more tantalizing. It was nice to just relax with some friends and enjoy some delicious desserts.

Day 247: Nagano Restaurant

A Japanese restaurant in Port Moody.

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/nagano-japanese-restaurant.html




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 246: Wish Upon a Star / Congee Noodle House

We actually went to the Wish Upon a Star: An Evening of Hope on Saturday night. We headed to Congee Noodle House after we left the event.

My friend is one of the organizers of Wish Upon a Star: An Evening of Hope on Saturday, June 19. It was a fundraiser that was close to her heart. She had oral cancer many years ago and the BC Cancer Foundation helped with her recovery. She felt that it was important to give back to an organization that helped her. I went with a few friends to support the cause. We didn't know what to expect because it was our first time going to this event. From their write up on www.aayproductions.com, it seemed like an interesting event. The event was super affordable at $25 a ticket. There were lots of entertainment and silent auction items. The money was going to a good cause. They also had a bit of finger foods. They had a limited amount of food. We stayed till the end because we bought 50/50 tickets and the draw was at the end of the night. We were a little bit hungry so we headed out to eat.

We went to Congee Noodle House on Main and Broadway. They have a late night snack menu. These are small dishes, kinda like tapas. The late night menu started at 9:30pm. We arrived at the restaurant about 10ish. We ordered a big bowl of plain congee. There was 5 of us and we each picked a dish. The dishes we ordered; spicy fried tofu, deep fried spicy fish (pictured), short ribs, black bean clams and gai lan with Chinese sausage. We ordered a good variety of food. Every dish we ordered was tasty because they each had a unique taste. They were all good with the plain congee.

The restaurant was quite busy at that time of the night. I think it is a popular late night restaurant. Most people look like they just came from a prior engagement. This restaurant is relatively clean compared to other older Chinese restaurants.

The service is mediocre. Most Chinese restaurants are not known for their service. The servers take our order, drop off our bowls and utensils and deliver the food to us. Sometimes another server droops off the food to us. We only gave them approximately 10% gratuities.

It is really reasonably priced. For a large bowl of plain congee and 5 small plates, each of us only paid $10, including gratuities.

I would come back again. I like the quality of food. The service only deserves 10% gratuities. It is easy to get to and there is lots of parking at the back on the side streets. It is open late with a cheap late night menu.

Day 245: Canucks / Dragon Boat / Cupcakes / Main St Car Free Day

Today was a busy day for us. There were so many events happening around town that we had to prioritize what we wanted to do and what would work logistically. We decided to go shopping at the Canucks store, go to the Dragon Boat Festival, go to Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge then to the Main St Car Free Day.

Canucks Sale
It's an event where they sell used Canucks equipment and there is a discount on Canucks merchandise. Because I am on the Canucks mailing list, we get to go in at 10am. It started at 11 am for the general public. My friend got there a bit early and we joined them in line. There was so much stuff for sale. I bought a black jacket for myself and some other items for other people.

Dragon Boat Festival
Across the street from GM Place at Concord Pacific was the Dragon Boat Festival. After an hour of shopping at GM Place, we walked over to check out the festival. It was neat. There was a stage with different performers, informational booths and, most importantly, food booths. The food booths were a bit pricey. We had some bubble tea, a Mexican hot dog and some Korean noodles. We stayed there for about an hour. We also watched a few of the boat races.

Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge
From the Dragon Boat Festival, we walked over to the Roundhouse Community Center where Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge was taking place. We didn't really know what to expect because it is the first year. We heard there was free cupcake sampling and we were all over that. At times there was a huge lineup to get in. You get a ballot to vote for the best cupcake upon entering the exhibit room. The room where it was held was quite small. There was 6 companies in the challenge and giving out samples. By the time my friends and I entered the room, half of the companies had run out of samples. We sampled what we could and gathered some information about their companies and left. We were there for only about 20 minutes. Maybe next year it will be more organized and everyone will know what to expect.


Main St Car Free Day
It was car free day at various neighbourhoods. We wanted to go to the car free day on Main St. Main St was closed from 16th to 33rd. There were some restaurants that expanded to the street. There were stores that brought their goods onto the streets to sell. It was a nice day to be walking outside and on the streets. We also walked into some shops to explore what they have. We spent two hours walking up and down Main St exploring and eating.

It was a jam packed day for us. We chose these events because it worked for us logistically. We wanted to check out the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival this (http://scandinaviancentre.org/) weekend in Burnaby but we didn't have time. So many things to do so little time!

Day 243: Mongolie Grill

You pick your own items for a stir fry!

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/mongolie-grill.html

Day 242: Graduation

Tonight I went to my friend's graduation dinner party. It was at a pub in downtown. Ooo..I ate so much. But this write up isn't about the food I ate it was about the socializing. I am so proud of her that she graduated SFU with a degree. She took 15 years to complete it part time. She took one course a semester and finally did it. That is one step ahead of me.

Graduation is an important step. You graduate elementary school to move on to secondary school. You graduate secondary school to move on to post secondary school. There are graduation ceremonies to signify that you have completed this stage of your life and it's time to move on. This degree / diploma (piece of paper) shows all the sweat and tears (and time and money) you have put in towards it. Sometimes it is used to get a better job. Sometimes it is just for the sake of finishing it. Hopefully, I will complete my degree one day and receive that important piece of paper.

Day 241: So You Think You Can Dance

This is the second season that I'm following. There was one season that I followed but I don't even remember what season that was. I followed the auditions and it is nice to watch how far they go. I am following the American one not the Canadian one.

This season is a bit different then the previous seasons. They used to have a top 20 then they get eliminated. This year they have a top 11 and they dance with an 'all star'. The 'all stars' are dancers from previous years. They are paired up with a dancer from the top 11. They are paired with someone different each week while doing a different dance.

The most memorable dancers to me this season are guys. I am rooting for the lone Canadian and the underdogs. The lone Canadian is Alex Wong, originally from Vancouver (http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Vancouver+dancer+Think+Dance/3162456/story.html). The underdogs I am rooting for are Adechike, Jose and Kent. Adechike almost didn't make it past Vegas week. The judges gave him another chance and got him to dance for his life. This got him in the top 11. I like Jose because he is the only beat boy to make it in the top 11. He has no formal dance training and he has been dancing awesome so far. My last favourite is Kent. A young cute blondie from an unknown town in Ohio. At the auditions Nigel couldn't even pronounce the town. It's called Wapakoneta in Ohio. He's 18 and just graduated high school. He has such an innocence to him that it's so cute. He dances pretty well too! He got really nervous because he danced in the same set as Alex Wong in Vegas and he didn't think he would pass the set.

I really hope Alex wins. He had such a great review from the judges tonight with his first performance. His contemporary performance was fantastic. I think Nigel was even tearing up before he gave his thoughts. Nigel said he raised the bar for everyone in this competition.

Day 240: Man on Wire

http://www.manonwire.com/

I first heard of this movie after my boss watched it. He said it was his favourite movie. I was kinda doubting how this one movie can be his favourite movie. I'm sure he watched lots of movies, how can this movie be that good to be his favourite?

There was a sale at Blockbuster. Man on Wire was on sale and I bought it. Because my boss spoke highly of it, I thought it would be worth a shot watching to see how it can be his favourite movie.

It is about a French man doing the impossible and unthinkable: walking across the World Trade Centers on a tightrope. He is a tightrope artist and has been a tight rope artist for many years. He had put a tightrope across Notre Dame Cathedral and a bridge in Paris because he is based in Paris. One day in 1971 he read the newspaper about the World Trade Centers being built in New York. His mission was to put a tightrope across the two trade centers and walk across it. All his friends and family thought he was crazy. How is it possible to put a tightrope across the World Trade Centers that is over 100 floors tall?

Because everyone was questioning his idea, he decided to pursue it further. He befriended someone who works in one of the towers. This friend gave him the knowledge of the structure of the buildings. He learned where and when the security guards patrolled. He got a team together and devised a plan. The team was made out of 6 of his friends. They all dressed up as maintenance people to get access inside the building. He had two teams: one in each building. In 1973, by the time the World Trade Center was built, technology wasn't that great. They had walkie talkies but the connection wasn't good. It was a challenge for them to time when they should put the tightrope across the roofs. Finally they put the tightrope across and he walked across. Of course it caused a commotion and the policed were called because it was also illegal. The police couldn't get to him to get him off the tightrope. Finally after 45 minutes of hanging out on the tightrope, one of his teammates convinced him to get off. Once off, the police arrested him and took him to the psychiatric hospital to check his mental state. Of
course, he passed because there wasn't anything wrong with him and he was released.

I watched this movie twice. I concluded that this movie is one of my favourite movies also. It is about a man doing something that no one would ever think of. He only had one chance to succeed in his mission. He believed in himself and trusted his teammates to make this mission work. Since then, no one has tried nor can they ever try it. Because there is no more World Trade Center, no one can ever defeat him.

Day 239: Girls Nite Out

Milestones has a special Girls Nite Out deal. You get a group of 4 girls together and you get four appies and 4 bellinis for $40. There was 6 of us. We did order the 4 appies and 4 bellinis. The bellini was so delicious. It's an alcoholic slushy. We had the hot spinach and artichoke dip, yam fries, baked goat cheese and slow roasted garlic flatbread plate and crispy honey phyllo shrimp. The hot spinach and artichoke dip was served with warm red tortilla chips. It is a tried and true classic appy. It's great like always. The yam fries was good. It wasn't too salty or soggy or overcooked. The flatbread plate had the most interesting presentation. The flatbread was served with spiced cranberry relish, roasted corn and onion salsa, fresh papaya and roasted red pepper salsa. The roasted garlic was presented in its clove. The papaya is orange, the cranberry relish is red and the corn and onion salsa is yellow. It made for a really colorful presentation. It was delicious too! The fourth appy we had was the crispy honey phyllo shrimp. It is a crispy coated shrimp lightly fried and served with honey glaze for dipping. It had a nice crispness to it. It was good. We shared some dessert. There's always room for dessert. We shared the caramel gingered apple crisp and the Ibarra chocolate cake. The apple crisp wasn't too sweet. It was served with a scoop of vanilla gelato. The Ibarra chocolate cake was like a lava chocolate cake. The cake was nice and soft and warm. On top of the cake was vanilla gelato and on top of that was some whipped cream. The presentation was very nice. It was so pretty that we didn't want to dig into it. We ate all the desserts.

It was a great night with some gals. We had some drinks, some eats and some good conversation including some good laughs. It was a true 'no boys allowed' night!!

Day 238: Richmond Night Market

We all know it as the Richmond Night Market but it's official name is Summer Night Market. It's at the same location, behind Home Depot in Richmond. There are many new booths this year. They relocated the main stage. They had more people selling stuff. One stand I liked very much was the one selling iphone covers. There was many selling them for $5 each. I found one stand which was selling them for $10 for 3. Of course I got 3. The main focus of night market for me is the food.

There was many food stands. Lots of stands with the usual suspects: bubble tea, egg ball waffles, dim sum, fish balls, octopus balls and skewers. We walked around to see what else was new. There was a new stand and it is called Sumo Bites Rice Burgers. We looked at the menu to see what they were selling. It looked interesting. There were 7 people working the stand. From that we concluded that it was busy and the food must be worth trying. We tried the Kurobuta Pork Sausage Rice Burger. The 'bun' was made from rice patties instead of bread. The burger had lettuce, the pork sausage and fried onions. It was good to try it once to see what it was about. It tasted to me like sausage with rice. Instead of eating the sausage on top of rice it was holding it all in one hand. After trying someone new, we reverted back to the tried and true. We had some bubble tea. We had some really spicey fish balls, some fried squid, some skewers, some octopus balls and some tapioca dessert. The octopus balls were the first items on our list. We knew the stand would be busy later on the night. The spicey fish balls was way too spicey for me. I had half of one and I already had a spiced covered tongue. The fried squid wasn't anything too special but it had the crunchy texture. The skewers we had were pork, chicken, lamb and shrimp. It was 7 skewers for $10. But we were waiting a long time so the cook gave us an extra chicken skewer. They were delicious. It had a sweet sauce (may have been teriyaki) on them. Eating a few skewers totally hit the spot because it was filling. The tapioca dessert was small tapioca balls with milk and mixed fruit. It was good. But it was kinda a pain in the ass to eat something liquidy in a such an overcrowded space. We had to stop at the end of the aisle, where there wasn't much traffic, to finish up the tapioca dessert. We finished the night with another bubble tea.



Health and wellness Blog - Semperviva Yoga - Sea http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2010/06/day-25-semperviva-yoga-sea-granville.html

Day 237: Sfinaki

Today was our adventure with Greek food. We went to Sfinaki in North Burnaby.

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/sfinaki.html

Day 236: Cafe Barcelona

It used to be V Restaurant. It is now Cafe Barcelona. A nice little new restaurant on the Granville Strip. Ummmm tapas and sangria!

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/cafe-barcelona.html

Day 235: Q4

Tonight we went to Q4, which was formerly known as Quattro. We went because they have a $10 pasta menu.

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/q4.html

Day 234: Italian Day

We headed to Italian Day on Commercial Drive this afternoon. We met some friends in front of Marcello's at 1:30pm. I knew it would be a zoo if we drove close to Commercial Drive. We ended up parking on Victoria and 1st Ave. Italian Day was held today from 11 am to 8pm on Commercial Drive from Venables to about E 6th Ave. Commercial Drive was blocked off to cars and buses. We walked towards 6th ave to see what was going on. There were some restaurants that extended their patio onto the sidewalk. There were many booths selling Italian sausage on a bun. There were some restaurants playing music and even had DJ's. We stopped at a Thai restaurant. They sold some of their items for a discounted rate because it was smaller portions. While we were sitting having a snack, we felt some rain drops. It started to sprinkle then as we walked further it started to pour.

The rain didn't stop us. We continued to walk to see the entertainment and all the people. There were three stages where there were various performances. We partially saw some dancers and some opera singers. It was Italian Day and we should've had some kinda of Italian food. There was also pasta for $5 a plate and spaghetti and meatballs for $10 a plate. We ended up having some Thai food and some Japanese food. My cousin and another friend had donairs. Another friend wanted to get her Italian coffee. We were going to get some Italian sausage on a bun but every stand had a line up. We didn't want to stand in line in the rain. But we did stand in line for some free cake. Because it was pouring rain by about 2:30ish, most stands packed up and outdoor patios were taken in. There was this one stand with a really long line and we didn't know what it was for. We walked to the front to see what they were serving. They had two large bbq's running; one for fish and the other for chicken. The fish was a small whole fish. I'm not sure if they were serving on a bun or served with pasta or rice. The pieces of chicken was chicken thighs. The food looked really delicious but we didn't want to stand in line in the rain for it.

Overall I enjoyed Italian Day today. It was a good excuse to get out to enjoy Commercial Drive. There were so many people. It was a good day to be people watching. Even Bill Vanderzalm was there. He was there to get people signing the Fight HST petition.

Day 233: Network Marketing

I met a friend for lunch today. She texted me a few days ago saying she would like to meet me because she has an idea that she wanted to run by me. It got me curious. I'm open to ideas. The idea she ran by me was about joining FHTM (http://www.fhtm.net/ca/default.aspx). It is a MLM (multi level marketing) 'idea'.

I don't like MLM and I won't be joining them. Some people think because of my network with my dining club, I would be able to 'sell' their product easily or get people to join my 'network'. I have been approached to join Melaleuca, Usana, Quickstar (includes Amway products) and now FHTM. I do not want to be selling anything to my dining club members. I can see myself dropping out quickly in those programs. I don't think I can passionate enough to be selling those products. Of course they try to motivate you all the time with their videos, CD.s, online support and their upline. I think also it's the startup cost and the monthly costs that I don't want to be paying. I do know that you are able to get it back by recruiting members and getting them to purchase the products. It's a lot of hard work to get people to join your network. It's more work then I'm willing to put in.

I have yet to know someone who is successful in any MLM. I know a few people who are in the Quickstar program for months and they weren't making enough money to sustain their living expenses. The person who tried to get me in Melaleauca a few years ago is not in the program anymore. I told the Usana guy I won't be joining Usana and he stopped talking to me.

Day 232: Jury Duty

Is it an honour to serve on the jury? I have never been called for jury duty before. My sister got called in for jury duty one time. She was going to school full time at that time. She had to write a letter stating that she couldn't miss any classes. She got out of jury duty.

How do you get selected for jury duty? Is it random? Do you have to be a certain age? Do you have to work in a certain occupation? Do you have to work a certain amount of hours? Should I feel left out that I was never called to jury duty? Do I have to live here for a certain amount of time? Maybe it's a political thing? Maybe I have to know someone?

Maybe its not all that it's cracked up to be. I don't know anyone who has been on jury duty. Maybe they have but haven't told me about it. Maybe you are not allowed to talk about it unless the case is over. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't been called because then I can concentrate on work and my routine in my life.

Day 231: Creativity

Where does your creativity stem from? Some start when they are young. I watched America's Got Talent tonight. There was a contestant who is 11 years old. He's so cute. He went on stage and he rapped and danced. He was like a mini Eminem. He said he has been singing and dancing for 8 years. He dressed like Eminem too. He wore the baggy jeans, the bling hat and the bling necklace. He rapped a song that he wrote.

Some people are extremely creative. They express it thru singing or dancing. Some people use photography or painting or designing to express their creativity. They use the way that is most comfortable for them and makes them happy. Maybe there is so much joy in them that they need to let it out? Maybe it's the opposite, it's about all the anger in them that they need to vent out. Either way something is fueling the creativity. I really envy people who are super creative. Some people are better at things then others. Can you encourage creativity or is it in the genes?

Day 230: Revenge

Revenge - sweet revenge? Someone does something evil to you. Whether they betrayed you or physically harmed you, you feel like harming them. It is in the heat of the moment when you want to harm them.

There are a few ways to handle the situation; you can ignore the person and the situation or you can seek revenge and harm them back. I know it is hard for me to ignore the person and the situation. They have done something so hurtful to me that it is hard to ignore. I can ignore it for awhile. It will get bottled up and be released somehow. I think of the consequences if I was to harm them. I watched enough of American Justice to know if I was to physically harm the person, I would end up in jail. Then my life will spiral down just because of the one incident. It's not worth going to jail because of that one incident.

I guess there are different degrees of revenge. Maybe there is a one time revenge or a long term revenge? I am not a pro on revenge. I don't seek revenge so I don't know the different things that can be done.