Redmond Derby Days, Birthdays, and Other Reunions

July was the month for birthdays and stuff sooo let's get to it. 

Mandarin Buffet allows a free meal for the birthday person, sooo for my dad's birthday, we went there. 

No dish is complete without pizza so yeah, I went to a "Chinese" buffet for pizza. 

We stumbled upon Redmond Derby Days, which is basically this gathering of Redmond people to celebrate Redmond's developments and whatnot. There's food here, so I ain't complaining.

My dad and Sankiupo got some shaved ice, nomnomnom

I was basically ripped off, this was $4 and the picture shows two sweet potatoes...and instead I get half a sweet potato. Man, I could just make this myself.

For Fatmine's birthday, we went to food trucks and went Pokemon Go hunting :DDDD This Rainbow Hash was from Oro, and it was amazing. There was a good amount of avocado, lots of lime, and the potatoes were conveniently cubed to perfection. 

Later, we visited Blank Space because I asked if we could :D Haven't tried their egg waffles yet, but I'll get there. I was surprised that the tea wasn't sweetened. I ordered a ginger tea with grass jelly, and it was just plain ginger tea. So spiccaaayyyyy.

Oh yes, I was still hungry so I got an overpriced ice cream sandwich from the food trucks. Oh dear me.

This is Fatmine's mommy's grilled cheese sandwich, which actually looks really good.

Fatmine got some Chinese bao from Choptix, and watermelon slush.

Fatmine's sister got a Japanese hot dogggiiieee

Here's some yummy food at Fatmine's house: mini churros, cheese quesadillas, and avocados.

While Pokemon hunting, we found plums, crab apples, and blackberries. All were unripe. I still picked all of them for fun. Excuse the bad photos...I've been taking them in a hurry D:

Seattle Adventures

More adventures with Fatmine + company :)

I haven't been to U:Don in a while, and Fatmine + Vancouver company have never been at all, so time for cheap udon.

I love this place because it's simple, there are different sizes, and there are reasonably priced side dishes. Honestly, I already get full from a medium. I got a small because we ate too many things that day.

This is a kitsune udon with a side item...

I got the dipping noodles. What I like about this place is that it's simple. It's not the best udon you'll ever have, but it's tasty and cheap. The tempura on the left is complimentary, so I went ham.

This is Fatmine's :P

I also stumbled upon Hotcakes, which is a $$ hipster cafe, famous for their molten cakes. I am so fat.
I got to vegan chocolate decadent molten cake. The ice cream was coconut based, and I believe the sauce was butterscotch. I liked the contrast between the hot and cold, and the textures of the soft ice cream and molten center of the cake, compared to the crispy edges of the cake. Unfortunately, this holy dessert is $10 and will make you feel guilty. I suggest sharing with a friend D:

I also ordered a virgin butter beer that was super tiny. It has apple cider, ginger soda, ginger, and butterscotch. It tasted like a warm orange creamsicle :P It was also $8, and my wallet was sad Dx

They had samples of smoked chocolate chips :D When I say smoked, they were really smoked. Just think of the smoky taste of salmon x 10. The smoky flavor comes after the chocolate taste; I actually really liked it.

We also visited Bruce Lee's grave. So well kept :)

For brunch (I guess it's brunch), we went to Piroshky Piroshky, which is a bakery of Russian-styled pastries. They have sweet and savory items. This was the cream cheese and chocolate pinwheel.

I got a potato pastry :P I think this place isn't that over-hyped. It's pretty cheap, and satisfying.

My family and I tried a new Chinese noodle place called Xi'an, which is along the Ave. This place was actually quite nice, except...I wish the tables could be cleaned better. According to Sankiupo, the noodles were good. I didn't get any because I was too full.

Instead, I got the pickled cucumbers, which weren't extremely tangy and salty like other pickled vegetables. It was more sweet, which I liked.

We also went to Quincy's Seafood bar, which was vegetarian friendly. What I didn't like was how pricey it was for such a small portion, and the veggie patty costed extra...? That like...never happens.

These are the fish and chips,

and the fried clams. They look like worms xD

At one point in time, we had to stop by a music shop in Ballard, so we decided to eat lunch there as well. We went to Pestle Rock, which was a vegan and vegetarian friendly place.
Sankiupo got some veggies with fish...

My dad got curry. The curry was really good, I actually wish I ordered this instead.

I got marinated vegetables and mango, which weren't that bad. It was quite spicy though D: The sauce was a bit tangy for me too, but I didn't hate it.

Whistler Part 3 + Post Whistler

After completing the Treetop Adventures, which is basically a really tough obstacle course, my friends + families and I searched for a gluten-free place to restore all the calories we burned ;) We found this Indian Masala restaurant which had really good mango lassi. 

Sankiupo and Kales ate mostly meat, while the third member of the trio and I mostly ate the vegetarian dishes. Below is one of the meat options that were ordered.

Here are some of the dishes, where the bottom two are vegetarian (spinach, and chickpea. They were both quite spicy). According to Sankiupo, he said the butter chicken was really good here.

Theeeen we went to Hanok, which was a Korean restaurant that basically had no vegetarian options for me except their soup and side dishes....unlike other Korean places I've been to, this place didn't serve as many side dishes :( The food was still really authentic.

One of the top cafes in Lougheed is the Choco Coo Cafe. They serve cute lattes, many matcha delicacies, and it's air conditioned :3 Below is the matcha mousse and the matcha creme brulee. Their desserts are great, and the drinks (especially the lattes) are sooooo good.

This is the matcha latte, which was amazing. It's smooth and rich. :P

This is the Belgian white hot chocolate, which was equally as rich and smooth. Sooooo goood.

Before we left for good, we visited Penang Delight in Marpole. The curry sauce with the roti canai was amazing. I was pretty much pouring this sauce on everything.

This was one of the tofu appetizers, which was pretty incomplete without the lime. Adding the lime really gives it a different depth of flavor, but doesn't overwhelm anything; without it, it's a bit plain.

This was basically omurice, but it wasn't labeled omurice on the menu. It's presented so nicely :D

Whistler Part 2

I'm actually quite impressed with the drink menu at BG Urban Grill; there was a Rooibos tea milkshake that we really wanted to get, but they ran out of Rooibos tea :( So we got this berry lemonade slushie thing instead. 

Sankiupo's fish and chips....

My veggie, which came with a lot of salad. The burger was pretty okay, not too impressed with it but not disappointed. The buns tasted pretty fresh, and the patty tasted okay but I thought it could use a little more flavor.

Whistler has a farmer's market on Sunday, and Sankiupo and another friend decided to look around. There was a Korean stand selling bibimbap :P It looks so colorful, yumyum.

There was also an okonomiyaki stand, and it was pretty delicious too :P The market was awesome and not overly expensive.

My family stopped by Mongolie Grill for some dinner. I really enjoy and type of Mongolian Grill because it's so simple, and there are so many possibilities. Vegetarian get 20% off :)

Aaand Whistler's Cow's is duh best. I couldn't decide, so I got the cookie monster (blue vanilla ice cream with cookie dough and oreo pieces), and matcha ice cream.

We also stopped by Caramba, which was honestly pretty overpriced. The food was still pretty good, and they have a huge selection of wine if you're into that (not really a wine person).

The next day, for brunch my family and I ate at Crepe Montagne, which has really nice crepes :P The breakfast is filling, and I like the ratio of vegetables and fruits with everything else. Sometimes, breakfasts can get a bit too heavy because of the fat, carbs, and protein.

My stomach was still not doing so well, so I stopped by David's Tea to soothe my stomach pains. All I did was ask for a tea that helps with any stomach issues, and they gave me some digestive tea...I forgot what was in it though, but it was a jumbled taste of many different spices. It smelled nice :)