Kirin Seafood Restaurant (I don't even like seafood)

Sorry for the infrequent updates; I think I'll start posting weekly from now on since I've been occupied with other things.

I personally don't like dim sum that much because I'm not a huge fan of seafood. However, I have to say that Kirin is definitely a good place for dim sum. Sometimes dim sum isn't fresh especially after sitting in the cart. At Kirin, the food is ordered (like any other restaurant) which is better than the dim sum carts (in my opinion). The dim sum here was hot and not too mushy.

Dim sum places usually never offer vegetarian options (like many Korean places), so I was surprised to see any vegetarian dish. These are stuffed Chinese donuts. It was too oily for my taste, but the sauce was savory and flavorful. It kept the food from being too bland.

I love the tofu desserts (dofufa) at dim sum. It's really hard to mess this up because it's just tofu with sweetened ginger syrup.

East is East: Finally Tried the Vegan Pudding

Even though there was a 35 minute wait, they served us complimentary drinks and snacks. :D They were good. I didn't take pictures of them, but they was a mango lassi, iced chai, and roti with different dipping sauces. The mango lassi was very different; it wasn't too rich, and there were chunky bits of something that had a nutty taste. The iced chai was made with vanilla ice cream. Their chai, which is in the picture below (hot chai with almond milk, not the iced chai) was very strong, especially the ginger.

My mom and I shared two vegetarian roti rolls: Ghandara Blues and Spice Caravan. Both are super flavorful; the first has eggplant, which soaks up all the flavors (garlic, onions, herbs, etc.). The second was less complex. It had chickpeas, cauliflower, and rice with different spices.

The chocolate vegan pudding tasted a lot of semisweet chocolate, but it's not. They used dark chocolate and mixed it with coconut milk. It was very rich and thick, but the organic cherries and blueberries balanced out the taste with their sourness.

Won Jo Korean Restaurant

According to Zomato, this is in the vicinity of Coquitlam even though it's so close to my grandparents'.

Vegetarians and vegans, this is NOT the place for you, hahah. However, they're very willing to cater to any dietary restrictions; the waitress was very kind about it.

That being said, pretty much every item on the menu had meat or seafood. I thought this tofu and kimchi dish didn't have any, but it was served with pork. It was also quite different from the kimchi served as a side dish; they added more oil and spices that I couldn't identify. I'm glad that they tried to mix it up.

Some side dishes~~

I requested the seafood pancake to be half vegetarian. What I really like about this is that they put a layer of egg on top <3 That is a beautiful signature. 

Overall, the prices are pretty high for the portions, but they deserve a 10/10 for originality.

Kukai (again, I know, I'm sorry), and CANADA!!: Grandparents' Garden, The Naam

There was a salad at Kukai that I've always wanted to try at least once...it's not super special, and it's not worth it in comparison to the ramen. BUT...I just wanted to try it. The salad has seaweed, soft tofu, miso gravy (?), romaine lettuce, and some mushrooms.

My grandparents have a backyard garden with a bunch of stuff...there's blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, figs, tomatoes, swiss chard, kale, beets, etc. etc. etc. There's just...too much.

Here's a cucumber :D they usually grow curved because my grandparents keep them in a bag to prevent them from stemming off too soon. Most of these kinds of vegetables (squashes and such) are hanging.

Here's spaghetti squash and pumpkins. I started cooking the pumpkin at my dorm, and it took me a week to finish half of it...

I also brought my mom to the Naam (hi mom). It's super hipster, and they always have different art on their walls (I think they sell them). Below is a chai latte; it's actually made with soy milk and tofulati.

I loooove their dragon bowls; they're also quite big, so I shared it with my mom. We got the Thai bowl. The curry sauce was perfect; it's definitely Thai styled. It's has some coconut taste, and the spices were on point (not too spicy either). They also use brown rice instead of white. I actually like brown rice, especially when it's with sauces like curry. The fibers in brown rice have a nice texture to balance the smoothness of any sauce.

Microsoft: Vegan Breakfast Burrito

I'm surprised Microsoft offers vegan burritos. In fact, I'm really impressed with the food at Microsoft. It's unfortunate that a lot of colleges don't offer such good food like this, lol. 

The vegan burrito had chorizo, beans, corn, lettuce, and bell peppers. It was slightly spicy, but none of the ingredients were too overpowering. I liked that balance.

On another day, I had an omelet with my mom. Apparently omelet can be spelled two ways: omelet and omelette. I like to use "omelet" because there's less letters.

Anyways, my only concern with the meal was the fruit. Some of it was kind of bad...parts of the strawberries were mushy. However, the omelet was pretty nice; there was a good layer of egg, and the ingredients I ordered stuffed the omelet quite well. I had only tofu and kale, since it costed more to order more ingredients.

Animal Mooncakes (so morbid) and Bellevue Square (pre-karaoke)

I can't believe Costco sells animal-shaped moon cakes. They're too adorable to eat.

Taking a bite out of them feels so...horrible :'( Who would want to eat a smiling panda??

I also went to Drive Thru Boba and Tap House Grill to get my pre-karaoke energy :D It's still quite new, so the interior is very simplistic and modern. Check out that giant clock. Sophisticated.

Like Chatime in Canada, you can customized the amount of sugar in your drink. I asked for matcha bubble tea with pudding, in addition to 50% sugar. The cashier warned me that the drink was going to be slightly bitter...I'm pretty sure I'll be okay, lol. Coffee is even worse.

Since it was happy hour at Tap House Grill, we got three filling appetizers. The original prices were definitely too much...I would not advise coming here during regular hours. We had a hummus plate and two different flat breads. All I know is that the top one has chicken, hahaha. Mine, which is the one on the bottom, is a Mexican-styled flat bread. It came with spiced cauliflower, tomatoes, corn, green onions, and sour cream.

Stone: Craving Korean

One day, my friend was craving Korean food... So she picked up two friends to have a wonderful meal, complete with dessert.

I love spicy food, but my tolerance is horrible :( Even the ddukbokki was too hot for me...

To combat the spicy stuff, we went to Red Mango afterwards. We also wanted to satisfy our sweet tooth.

But anyways, here is my vegetarian dumpling tofu soup (soondubu). Usually, Koreans put meat in everything, including the dumplings. I'm surprised their dumplings were vegetarian.

Here is a comparison between my mild soondubu, and my Korean friend's "as-as-you-can-make-it" soondubu. Her soup is RED. She's too hardcore for me...

I'm back in Canada: Dorm Adventures

I've actually been back for a while (about a week or so), but I've been super late with my posts x__x

Sankiupo's in-law showed me how to make this :D It's basically tomatoes on mozzarella cheese with olive oil, basil, rosemary, and oregano. It's basically caprese, but I think caprese has vinaigrette with it. The spices make up for the vinaigrette.

Fatmine came over and showed me this adorable tea bag :DD It's a FISH!! The tea isn't anything special though; it's just oolong tea. But look at the little goldfish, swimming in the water :3 D'aawww, so cute.

Mariners: Baseball is not my thing, but food is

So, a loooong time ago...I went to my first baseball game, even though I don't really like baseball. Friends > baseball, lol. Go Mariners...?

First, we wanted to load up with food from H-Mart, so we went to Tous Le Jours. The croquettes are adorable :D I was expecting them to be potato croquettes, but they're actually bread with different types of potato filling. I think I got curry.

Haven't had Dippin' Dots since...forever, haha. I got birthday cake (bottom) and my other friends got chocolate mint and strawberry banana. It's basically ice cream that's been curled up into little dots.

We also got these nachos :P We were taking so long to finish them that they got soggy in the end...The cheese was a bit weird to me. It was the really artificial kind, like American cheese.

These are some garlic fries :D They were so crispy and fresh. I only have one question: where did those apples come from...

The lemonade is also nice and refreshing. It's totally not worth your money either; $15 -__- Plus, they put in a giant lemon to take away some volume...but it looks nice, and it tasted sweeter than I expected.

Pro Club: $$$

The only reason why Sankiupo and I ate here was because he had an old Pro Club card. On a normal basis, we would never come here to eat because it's so expensive.

We got a strawberry banana smoothie, which was super fruity :) I like to have a perfect balance between strawberry and banana, and this smoothie was on point.

Sankiupo got a pulled pork burger that comes with a pretzel bun. I actually wanted a pretzel bun :( He and I chose sweet potato fries.

Mine was a classic garden burger. I've had better garden burgers; this one was a bit plain in comparison.