Peaceful Restaurant in Downtown Vancouver, The Naam

Just for funzo, my family went to the Peaceful Restaurant downtown, even though we already tried the one of Broadway. Honestly, there's no too much of a difference in my opinion. I did get to try the pan-fried version of the vegetable dumplings, which I honestly prefer over the steamed version. I just like fried stuff <3

These are just some simple stir fried vegetables and noodles.

The classic xiao long bao, which I heard was pretty decent here.

Chinese chive pancakes, which I like because they're pan-fried <3

Sankiupo ordered a pork noodle soup dish, which he wish he didn't get. He really likes fried pork, especially the Taiwanese pork, but for some reason this just didn't do it for him. I think it was a little too soggy and a bit under-cooked in some areas? Kinda sad :/

Sankiupo is literally the opposite of me; raw vegetables, especially squashes will make his throat itchy, and really bitter vegetables like alfalfa sprouts and raw beansprouts will make him gag. Also, he's dangerously allergic to papaya and many nuts and seeds. Basically, he's consumes well-cooked veggies and lots of meat, and yet I brought him to a vegetarian restaurant :D 

The Naam is honestly one of my favorite places to go. It's just kind of a wait, and the place is really small. In my opinion, I think the wait is worth it.
The type of food they serve here is like, guilty pleasures but less guilt. Things are saucy, can be fried, and usually doused in melted cheese (which you can get vegan). This place just makes me happy.

This is Sankiupo's tomato and cheese sandwich, which you can't really see well, ahah. The vegetables covered up the bread.

I got an enchilada, which was douuuuuuuuused in cheese. I love it.

Moire cheeeeese. This is like the fries that almost became poutine, but isn't. The gravy is miso gravy, and it comes with ketchup and thinly sliced carrots and beets for a fresh taste that contrasts the fatty goodness of the fries. Oh yeeesss.

Mr. Pickle got the special, which was some kind of egg and potato omelet served with beet soup. So delicious.

I ordered a chai latte, but then got my order wrong...but I kept the regular latte and the chai anyways :P I kind of feel bad when I call them out on their mistake, but Sankiupo and Mr. Pickle urged me to tell them, since it was the right thing to do even though they're super busy. Is it really the right thing, I don't know. I just wanted a chai latte.

This is the regular latte with a questionable topping...looks like a kidney according to Mr. Pickle, lmao.

Hime Sushi, Midam

To be honest, I didn't expect much when I came to Hime Sushi, but the quality of food was better than I expected. The flavors were rich, the food was filling, and the environment was pretty cozy.

I ordered the Kimchi Yakiudon, which was really flavorful. There's not a lot of places where I can find Kimchi Yakiudon, so I was delighted and satisfied. The flavors are super rich, and it was slightly creamy. 

My family also ordered salmon rolls to share, though I didn't have any.

Some shrimp and vegetable tempura.

I believe this was one of their featured specials at the time, which my dad enjoyed. It was some sort of hot rice bowl.

This is tempura udon.

At Midam, Sankiupo got a featured special bento box, which came with purple rice upon request :) the meat was really good, according to him.

This was soooo yummy; this was basically pasta, but with ddukbokki instead. This is one of the best ideas ever, and it has inspired me to make my own.

We also ordered a bunch of Japchae. Nothing too strikingly unique about this, but it tastes great.

As usual, we ordered a hot tofu soup (soodubu). I love Korean tofu soups; their distinct, and they warm you up.

Peaceful Restaurant, Suika, Sura, and Chicco

Finally, I went to Peaceful Restaurant. Their dumplings are apparently really good, so this was on my list for a long time. Unfortunately, we ordered all of our dumplings steamed because it took faster to cook, and we were on a time crunch. They do have the option of frying the dumplings, which I really want to try next time.

This was the zha jiang mien, which I didn't eat except for the cucumbers because Sankiupo doesn't like them. Can't really compare it to other places, sorrryyy.

Ah the xiao long bao. According to my family, they thought it was pretty okay. This place actually served spoons with them :D Usually other places already have the utensils laid out, so not many people understand the correct way of eating xiao long bao. What you do is scoop the bao, poke a hole, drink the soup, and consume the rest.

They ran out of green vegetarian dough, so they inserted a vegetarian bun with my dumplings.

My family really over-ordered; this was some beef patty covered in dough (I think it's just rice flour and water, it wasn't porous like bread) and sesame seeds. I had to help my family finish the food, so I only ate the outside, which was covered in a bit of the sauce. The sauce tasted like Mexican fajitas...I was really confused for a second, lol.

My phone committed suicide, so I couldn't take pictures when we ate at Suika :( I decided to screenshot my dad's photos of our food instead.
Suika is one of those places where it's pricier, but the quality is worth it. I think below is just some fish that they ordered...

...and here are the avocado rolls :D They're covered in seaweed sauce. The ingredients were fresh, and the avocados weren't too soft. This was really yummy.

Another fish dish...I don't know what my family ordered lol.

Oh yes, for Fatshrewm's birthday (at least I think that was the reason for this dinner), we went to eat at Sura! The Korean food here is really good, one of the best that I've had. Everything was fresh and flavorful, and well-balanced.

For dessert, we went to Chicco, which was a Japanese parfait place, but they serve other cute Japanese desserts.

Here is the Sakura parfait, which was so gorgeous. Some of the ingredients they include were a macaron, strawberries, strawberry and vanilla ice cream, cantaloupe, and cereal. I definitely can't eat this by myself, I recommend sharing with someone.

Oto Sushi

There was a Japanese restaurant called Kikuya that I visited once for a Japanese culture project...that was waaay back when I was in high school x__x It has now become Oto Sushi, which is still just as great as a I remember. 

These were the vegetarian mango rolls, which looked so good *__* It tasted sweet and tangy :P

I thought the bowls for the miso soup were really cute.

This is Sankiupo's katsu curry, which had a lot of pepper. I didn't expect it to be so spicy, but I kind of like it that way. I like Japanese curry, and this one was one of the best ones I've tried.

This is just some chicken fried udon (yaki udon).

My dad ordered a tempura udon, which came in a metal bowl. I don't remember how it tasted, or if I even tried it, but it looked nice.

Eating with Family Friends (A LOT of Family Friends)

A lot of my dad's old badminton buddies from Boston came, so we ate out with them quite often.

We visited Penang Delight because we're all culturally Malaysian..at least I think we are >__> Uhh, well at least my family is.

Roti canai!! The curry here is so good. I always take the leftover and use it with other food...or I just drink it straight up. It's that good.

Some fish dish, again. What's with the fish dad.

One of the few vegetarian dishes, although this one had baby shrimp in it...eh. It was alright.

The vegetarian curry! Oh yes, this reminded me of really good Thai curry, except with more types of vegetables like okra and tomatoes. So good.

We went to visit other family friends in East Richmond at a place called Tandoori Kona Restaurant. The portions seem really shallow at first, but trust me...you get full really fast. They also serve naan, which tends to fill you up quickly as well. I was surprised at how full I became after eating this.

With the same badminton friends, we went to Ginger Chili for lunch. I thought this place was okay; not the most amazing Chinese food I've had, but cheap food is cheap. They serve an appetizer with whatever dish you order; you either get hot & sour soup, wonton soup, or spring rolls.

I got spring rolls with my tomatoes and egg :D There was a lot of sugar in this sauce, it was really obvious. I had trouble finishing this because there was so much...

My dad's food...

Sankiupo's curry, which was barely spicy at all. He and I agreed that it needed more curry flavor, and much more spice...either pepper or chili powder.

FIRST DAY AT OUR PLACE, we made omelet. Thank you Chef Sankiupo, for this messy mess.

There were also BBQ's going on at certain dorms...soooooo uh, Sankiupo and I live everywhere. :D Yeah. Let me tell you the story of how I got 3 hot dogs. Yeah, it's story time (you can skip this if you want)

Usually vegetarians get their food first because there's not much of us, and it takes equally as long to cook as other dogs...so I got one before my friends and stood in line with them.
Then, they started handing out plates, and another person simply put buns on the plates...so I had an empty plate from my last hot dog and then she just placed another bun :|

Theeeen, when I came to the front of the line, I tried to explain myself, but the music was too loud..and he just gave me a vegetarian dog. :| I just gave it to Sankiupo.

BUT THEN, another dorm was having a BBQ, and we just so happened to stop by...and so we got more hot dogs. So that is the story of how I obtained 3 free hot dogs. I'm so sick of them now.