UBC food: Mercante, The Boulevard, and The Delly

I apologize again for the infrequent updates! Sorry x10

At Mercante, the first three pizzas are vegetarian. I never tried the Bianca, so I finally gave it a chance. Honestly, it's not much...it's literally cheeses with herbs. The Ortanlana has more toppings for the same price; that's my go to pizza :P 

Fatmine needed food because she was starving to death, so we went to one her favorite places: The Boulevard. I'm not really a coffee person, but she is. I'm surprised she didn't buy coffee with her scone.

I have yet to give the food a proper try. I've only taken a bite of her cranberry brie sandwich, which was pretty good. I need to go back and try more food in order to make a more legitimate review.

I also went to the Delly, which moved from the Old SUB to the Nest. I've been to the Delly a few times last year, and it's pretty convenient if you're in a hurry. Also, I think they still have discounts on Fridays, when they're trying to get rid of all the food? That's when the line gets crazy, lol.

I've been seeing these juices on my Instagram feed from other foodies, so I decided to give it a try. If you guys like bitter juice, be my guest. I don't hate it, but in my opinion I don't think it's the most wonderful thing on Earth. I probably would not spend $8 for another one (yes, $8. I could've bought 1.5 meals). I honestly recommend eating fruit and vegetables on their own, because sometimes the flavors in these juices don't really complement each other.

Cheese-Filled Ddukbokki, Featuring Fatmine's Super Dark Ddukbokki Sauce.

Fatmine bought cheese filled ddukbokki! By the way, the packaging is a lie. The cheese doesn't ooze out...it's pretty tiny. I'm not surprised at all, hahaha.

For those who don't know what ddukkbokki is, they're Korean rice cakes that are cooked with sweet chili pepper sauce. They're usually made with green onions, garlic, regular onions, and fish cakes. Fatmine was experimenting with the sauce a lot, lolol. The chili pepper paste is really spicy, so she was trying to balance it out by adding water, soy sauce, and sugar. The sauce is usually not this dark, but it tasted pretty legitimate.

I've bought my own batch, and a pumpkin flavored version :D There was a two for one deal at H-Mart, so why not. I'll probably be eating ddukkbokki for a while :P

Liquid Nutrition: New Place at the New SUB

The line for this place was outrageous. I waited 15 minutes before ordering, and then another 15 minutes for my food. Moreover, that small cup costs $13. That's ridiculous.

That being said, I can't say it tastes bad. I got the Rio de Choco bowl, which has a bunch of protein and calories. I think it rounds up to approximately 575 calories. I didn't think I was going to get full, but I did. And it was delicious.

The Rio de Choco has some kind of chocolate pudding at the bottom, topped with bananas, chia seeds, granola, and dark chocolate chips/chunks.

I think next time, I'll go for a smoothie instead of these expensive bowls.

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.