Food Cart Festival

I've long heard about the Food Cart Festival from my friends as well as online sources, and I finally made my way there this year after hearing so much upsides about this event for foodies. Food Cart Festival is an annual summer event in which most of the popular food trucks will gather together in 1 location to serve everybody, so it's very similar to a summer food market to me. I've only known about the Olympic Village location in the past, but this year the organizer sets up another new location in Holland Park, Surrey on every Saturday for the entire August.

Oh well, you wouldn't believe what I saw when I arrived, I my self didn't want to believe it.. For almost 40 minutes of driving, we saw 4-5 food trucks, small crowd and a few Vancity game stalls. The pictures on the website capturing huge crowd and many different food stalls were deceiving,  I expected similar size as the Olympic Village for the Surrey location. Also, they claimed to have 'more than 15 trucks every week from Vancouver' on their official website which was not happening at all.

Albeit a little disappointed with the actual scene, the food was a boom! We tried the all-time-favourite Kaboom box's Venison burger, the meat was so lean and juicy! Felt like this burger suited my liking because the meat was so tender and contained less fat, giving it a tasty mouthfeel. Our friend had the Jalepeno&Cheese Dog by Dougie Dog. Delicious but overpriced, a hot dog for almost $9, you must be kidding me.

Vancity was also giving out some little perks to the attendees, they had free lollipops and game stalls to win free goodies this year.

After filling our stomach with a salty treat, we decided to satisfy our sweet tooth now. Baby and I visited the local handmade ice-cream called Rocky Point Ice Cream. They had some unique flavours available, including Espresso flakes, Chai Spice as well as their Signature Rocky Point Road. I was quite curious about the Espresso flakes, so we had that with Rocky Point Road on a cone. The ice-cream had a heavy Espresso scent and taste, but just too sweet for my palate. Rocky Point Road on the other hand, was nothing too special but a sweet-chocolate-flavoured-ice cream with nuts.

Fried vegetables topped with very unique spices which tasted like Indian Curry.

Thumbs up to the organizer for picking a nice spot to hold the event. Holland Park was a beautifully-renovated park flourishing in the centre of the town. Unfortunately, it seemed like not many people made full use of this huge park as it was so quiet on the day we went there.

The event was meh but we managed to enjoy ourselves out of the good weather and awesome companies. :) Not too bad after all!

Basho cafe: A gem in town

Thanks to my good friend Xin, I found a new gem in town. :) What's even better is that it's located pretty close to my work place!

Basho is a lovely cafe run by a Japanese family. It's a small shop sitting on East Hasting st, with around 4 table seats and 2 more window seats in total.

 The menu is very simple, which I think is good considering that it's a small cafe. Sometimes less means more ( in terms of food quality).

The cafe is a mixture of contemporary and retro setting. It gives me a homely feel, with a lot of D.I.Y decorations in place, and of course, a friendly obasan serving me in front of the counter. All these contribute to a cozy place to chill on a weekend.

The crowd was manageable when we went there. Although there were grab-and-go customers hassling in and out every couple of minutes, it did not create an intense feeling to the customers sitting in the cafe.

 The pastry is pretty unique too! It infuses the Japanese flavours into Western pastry.  We tried the Nut mochi, Kabocha muffin, Chocolate matcha cookie, Matcha white chocolate brownie, and Sesame brownie. Prices are quite reasonable, ranging from $0.5-2.00 per piece.

I guess the Japanese style pastry really suit my palate. Similar to Japanese pastry, they have lighter texture and sweetness. Except for the nut mochi, the others are not too sweet, just nice for my liking. Sizes are just nice for the 2 of us, not too big and we managed to try on various types.


I personally like the Matcha brownie a lot because the texture is light but every bite of it feels like I'm immersing myself in a Matcha sea.

We ordered the Matcha latte and it came in a huge cup. The latte is lightly scented with Matcha, it has more milky taste instead.

I really like this cafe a lot because it's not too crowded, providing the right atmosphere for chatting with a friend I've not seen in a while. The eats taste really good and reasonably priced, I would love to go back next time!

Short business hours would be the only disappointing part of this lovely cafe, as it runs from 9-4pm from Sat-Sun and 9-5pm from Wednesday and Thursday (Yes it's closed on Mon and Tues). Hopefully they would extend the hours in future so that I could grab some cookies home after work!

* Special thanks to Xin for most of the great pictures :) *

Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival 2014

I did not know about the annual VCBF sakura festival until my friend told me about it this year and invited us to go together. It is a Japanese festival combining the beautiful floral scenery with Japanese food and culture, :) definitely sounds like my thing eh.

That's just the perfect time and setting to shoot some floral pictures as well!

The festival was held on the first weekend of April this year at Van Dusen Botanical Garden. We bought tickets online at a discounted price of $10.50, regular ticket costs $12. Downside about the online purchase is, tickets are strictly non-refundable, so you'll save at the expense of risking for a bad weather. 

Lol, challenge accepted! 

Thank God our group pray was heard and granted. The pouring rain on Saturday almost made me give up on praying but tada, sun just came out of nowhere on Sunday and it was the warmest day ever! Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

I will let my pictures do the rest of the talking since photography walk was the whole purpose of my trip.

Haiku section

One of our goals (I shall say, my friend's main goal) was food hunting. We immediately rushed to the food stalls after entering the garden just to avoid the huge crowd since it was almost lunch time when we arrived.

Hehe, the 4 of us lined up at different food stalls just to save time.

Otonomiyaki

 Takoyaki

 Osaka ball: Slightly smaller than the takoyaki but the coating was crunchier. It was filled with prawns and some carrots with teriyaki sauce (3 choices available) as topping. I like this much better than the takoyaki, it was bite sized and so rich in seafood flavour!

 Zakkushi: I was told that the meat sticks were cheaper in this festival. 3 for $5 as compared to the average $2 per stick in the restaurant, what's your say? I personally dined out in the restaurant before so I knew it was not a cheap eat and the portion was relatively small. Food wise, the taste was great but not impressive enough for me to splurge on another meal again. Good Izakaya place but definitely not the place to fill your hungry stomach.

The surprise eat of the day came down to this sushi mochi. I thought it was Salmon nigiri at first glance but my friend revealed that it was mochi made in the shape of sushi! Even the 'wasabi' was specially made of green bean paste. That was just... impressive work! Or food art I shall say.

This festival also acts like a mini cosplay event as it gathers some anime lovers to dress up in their favourite anime costumes. They were so professionally dressed up from head to toes and photogenic!

Despite I feel cold for them~~~

 Busy capturing sakura pictures

We met a new girl friend who taught us professional posing for pictures. Hence the successful heart shape. You know that.... I can't do it alone without our friend's professional guidance, seriously!

I also saw this funny Totoro who looks very reluctant most of the time. I know... it was not his fault but just the way the costume was made. But seeing his slanting mouth really cracked me up, wondering if it was Edison Chen hiding in the costume.

What's more really funny.. this Totoro wears slippers!

How often can I catch a moment like this eh? You really made my day, Totoro!

I had a good day exploring this festival, thanks to the good buddies and sunny weather. It is an annual event so I hope I can be there again next year. :) And pray for another sunny weather, of course.

Love is.....

I can't agree more that love requires efforts, and unrequited love will barely work in a long-term relationship. No matter how long couples have been dating each other, there's still a need to scratch head for surprises occasionally, be it big or small. That keeps relationship fresh and fun, while motivating both parties to continuously work on their relationship.

My baby is not a romantic person, nor is he good at lying, but I really appreciate his effort for trying to be mystery (in a good way) once in a while.

It all happened last week, when he kept telling me to dress up nicely for our dinner date on Friday without telling me any details about the venue. It was not a usual thing he would do, so I was extremely curious about it, and even tried to pledge for some hints about the plan. But he managed his plan as an absolute secret, so I just went with the flow and stayed anticipated throughout the day. It was so difficult to control my anticipation for the night and go through the entire work day feeling so excited.

Baby being the usual gentleman, waited for me outside of my company and brought me to the secretive place he planned earlier. I still couldn't get a clue on our way there, but I was sure it couldn't be any worse than my expectation since the restaurant is located at Waterfront, a place where most high-end restaurants are placed in.

And I was right. He brought me to a place where I had never set foot on but always wanted to!

I was stunned by the fabulous view and romantic ambience of the restaurant. It was just a perfect place for dating!

Ok, enough about the view, I'll move on to the food

Baby ordered the Stuffed Mushroom Caps for appetizer. I can't really take mushroom due to its strong flavour, but the mushroom stem was really tender and cheesy! The strong cheesy taste successfully overpowered the mushroom flavour I hate. That just brought mushroom down to an acceptable taste for me, so people who dislike mushrooms as much as I do shall consider going for this dish.

Our main dish came shortly after finishing the appetizers. I got the Chicken Cordon Bleu with a mixed mushroom cream sauce. The portion was bigger than I expected, but the presentation could be more thoughtful. Despite I understand that this is Cordon Bleu, I still think that it would be more thoughtful to slice the chicken into half and then stuff the filling. That way I can enjoy every bite of the chicken with its filling, not just half with solely chicken meat, while the other half with cheese and ham filling.

The mashed potato was rather disappointing as well. It was not fully cooked, hence the strong raw potato smell on the inside. And there was insufficient sauce to dip it, so I tried to mash it with the chicken meat and ate both together to cover the smell. Wow, that was not very thoughtful when customer had to find a way to get rid of the dish.

We finished up with the desserts. Baby had the New York Style cheesecake. The presentation was exquisite, cake's texture was rich, and the strawberry sauce gave a nice touch to the original cheesy flavour.

I had the Peach Panna Cotta with Mango glaze. It was okay, not impressively good because it reminded me of the Mango dessert from T&T. The presentation was rather disappointing because frankly speaking, it came with no decoration. I think good food presentation should contribute to a huge part of fine dining, and this was definitely not a visually pleasant dish to see.

Again, this was more of a dating place with its spectacular view as selling point, so I shouldn't expect too much from the food. Another downside of the restaurant was the server's unprofessional behavior. In my opinion, he provided his service based on customer's tips-giving potential. For family, he showed his friendliness by chit-chatting with them and explained the recommended dishes patiently. Obviously, we did not get the same treatment because he seemed like he only approached us or interviewed about our dining experience when he was on the way to another table. Oh well, we took revenge by not giving a good tip.

Despite the flaws, the dining experience was still considered pleasant, as Baby and I both had a good time while enjoying the night view of Downtown together.  The amazing night view in Vancouver Downtown was beyond my expectation and that made our date wonderful. I was so grateful for the man in front of me, it's just not the thought that counts, but the effort to realize it makes me feel appreciated. He always tries to make me happy, and that makes me want to give more and try harder for our relationship. 

 Lastly, I have to apologize for the blurish photos as they all came out of a phone. >.< Hehe, it's the sharing that counts eh?

Spaghetei

http://spaghetei.com/

I bumped into this new restaurant few months ago, after having dinner at another restaurant on Robson street. I was quite captured by the theme of this restaurant, the white exterior design gave a strong calming feeling  and made it look like a good place for chit-chatting with friends while enjoying the relaxing ambience. J Of course, the Japanese fusion spaghetti was what interests me the most, so much that I decided to give it a full blog post for a detailed introduction.

And I…. finally had the chance to step into this place last week for a quick lunch with my girlfriends.

J Credit to blackangel`s photography.

It didn`t look quite like a spaghetti house to me, it looked more like a café and dessert place instead.

I like how they inject the Japanese creativity by `comictizing` the menu and paper dining mat to make them look more interesting. Honestly, I wouldn`t have looked at the dining mat if it wasn`t because of the cute Ojiisan, as he reminded me so much of Beard Papa, just without the yellow hat.

I ordered the signature dish-meat sauce spaghetti wondering how different would it be from the regular Bolognese spaghetti I use to have. All spaghettis come with a piece of complimentary garlic bread, lol a green one! I think the topping was spinach-garlic spread because it had more vegetable taste to it. Not sure if I was influenced by the colour or my taste bud was just sensitively accurate.

Food-waiting time was decent and all orders came at the same time to avoid the embarrassment of having to wait for each other`s food. My meat sauce spaghetti was quite similar to that of the display picture on the menu, but I was just surprised with the fact that it was served in a mini serving pan. Spaghetti being served on a pan undoubtedly added some yaki soba feel to it.

Despite the great food display, I was not too surprised by the taste of the food. Hmm don`t get me wrong, the food tasted decent but it was just not too significantly different than any other Bolognese spaghetti out there till it could be a signature dish of the restaurant. Meat sauce tasted fine and blended well with the spaghetti, but eating the meat sauce alone was salty.

                       J Credit to blackangel`s photography.

I like my friend`s Barayaki instead, the display successfully created the home dish feeling and I really like the strong onion fragrance of this dish.  J I swear I`m going to replicate this at home with a Korean meat marinade and pan fry the spaghetti with lots of onions.

My dining experience was pleasant as I`m not the type who likes to chit-chat with waiters/waitresses only when necessary and this restaurant was just a place for me. The waiter made sure we were fully informed about the current events and promotions of the restaurant and the waitress who served us smiled all the time , she only approached us once to ask about the dining experience.

The restaurant is still not too busy now but I believe it will definitely be more popular in future. :) Oh you'll get a free trial salad for completing the satisfactory survey, and a free soft drink for sharing pictures about this place on any social-networking website.  Freebies always good eh!