Category: Blog

The End of Sleeping In

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It’s that time of year again. School is going to start real soon and I have found myself filling all my remaining days with some sort of activity to squeeze whatever I can out of my summer.

I am very excited to be going camping today! It will be my first time camping outdoors– ever! (Unless if you count that time we camped in my friend’s backyard…but we definitely were not roughing it out at all.) Four friends and I will be going to Sasquatch Provincial Park. In a matter of hours, we will be setting up our tent!

Now that we are preparing (basically done at this point) for our trip, I realized how much work this all is. I have also been reading up on some camping tips and honestly, I find some of them quite terrifying. I will update when I get back so I will remember what it was like when I look back on my first camping trip!

In other news, my friends and I went to Society down at Yaletown for a goodbye get-together for my friend who is going off to Toronto for university. I really did not have high hopes for this place as I had googled it before going and they had pretty bad reviews. However, I thought that the pizza I ordered was decent, and my friend’s truffle mac n’ cheese was pretty good. My friends who got the Chicken Gnocchi said it tasted mediocre… so I guess our group had mixed reviews. We ended it all off with a Junk Food Platter! What really caught my eye was how pretty it looked! It tasted pretty good, though the macaron was not soft enough.

My pizza– the Ultimate Meat pizza 😛

The Junk Food Platter

On the other hand, the restaurant itself was annoying. The music was on very loud, so it is definitely not the ideal place to sit and chat, or catch up with friends. I felt like we were shouting most of the time. But then, there were pink chandeliers  inside so it looked really nice. It was the perfect lounge for a girl’s night out, but not so much for chilling and talking.

That is it for now! I will update after my camping trip! Hope you guys are enjoying the sun!

-Karen

 

My Journey to America’s Final Frontier

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Yes, you would be right if you thought I meant Alaska. Amazing how Russia sold 586,412 square miles of land for only 2 cents an acre! But then again, Russia probably thought they were getting a good deal for this vast wasteland. Little did they know oil and natural gas would be found there.

My family and I went on a cruise to Alaska. My dad loves cruises, so for our family vacation this year we decided to go to Alaska. Cruises to Alaska departs from Vancouver, which is perfect for us. It also is one of the longer cruises, as it lasts for 8 days, 7 nights. Most of the cruises we went on in Asia lasted a maximum of 5 days since all the Asian countries were so close together.

I must say, I enjoy cruises here a lot more than I did in Asia. Everyone is more polite (and I am mostly referring to the passengers on it), and the vibe is just better.

We chose to go on the Celebrity Century. And by we, I mean my dad, since he plans all the family vacations. I liked the ship enough, but nothing made it stand out particularly from other cruise ships.

A view of the Vancouver Skyline from our cruise ship

We left on Sunday, the 24th of June. When we boarded, they told us our rooms were not ready yet. So everyone headed to the Islands Cafe for brunch. I do not know how many times I visited the Islands Cafe during the whole cruise, since it was the food joint that was opened latest and was a buffet area. For dinners, there was a more formal venue– The Grand Restaurant. Every family had their own waiters and assistant waiters, and ours came from Singapore and Croatia respectively. I always find it really interesting how the crew on a cruise ship always came from all corners of the world. In my cruise to Vietnam several years ago, the staff/crew had little flags of their home country right next to their name on their name tags. It never failed to amaze me how many different flags I saw.

Aboard the ship, there were performances at night. I particularly liked the night when they did a show they called “A Touch of Broadway”. Everything was so colourful! I also enjoyed Jay Mattioli’s magic performances. He incorporated a lot of dancing and jokes, keeping the audience entertained throughout his whole performance!

A Touch of Broadway

Jay doing his thing

They also had a theatre, playing different movies everyday. I was so happy they showed War Horse (obsessed with Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch), the latest Mission Impossible (Jeremy Renner!) and then In Time (Cillian Murphy!) during my cruise. I really liked War Horse (though I have seen it before), and thought that Mission Impossible and In time was okay, but it was like a never-ending fangirling theatre. Well, for me anyway.

My dad alone in the fangirl theatre 😛

For this cruise to Alaska, we stopped at three ports. At one port, Juneau, I was surprised they had a little tribute to their beloved governor. And by tribute, I mean they make fun of her. 😛

For souvenirs, I really did not know what to bring back to my friends. I thought their dream catchers were pretty cool, until I turned the tag around and saw that it was proudly made in British Columbia. Now why would I go all the way to Alaska to bring back something I could have gotten at home? Plus, are not most of the people who visit these souvenir shops from B.C. anyway? Hmm. Anyway, I ended up getting a couple of ulu knives. Nothing says I had a good trip than bringing back knives for my friends.

Along the way, our ship also steered close to some glaciers so that everyone could take pictures and whatnot. I thought it was really beautiful how the glaciers actually looked blue like they do in paintings. It was also a bit traumatizing when you hear the ships’ pick clawing its way through the ice drifts in order to get closer to the glacier. The whirring and scraping noise made me think of the Titanic again and again. However, all turned out well and we did not end up having to evacuate the ship.

Nearing the glaciers. Here I was wearing flip flops and trying not to let the cold get to me.

Yeah, I know it is summer and we chose to go to icy mountains. Not my idea of a summer event, but hey, it was fun! However, when going out on the deck to take pictures of the glaciers and snow capped mountains, I had to wipe my eyes quite several times. Not because I was being dramatic and emotions were overwhelming, but because the winds were so cold it actually hurt. I was also the fool who decided to wear sandals out on the deck (being too lazy to go back to my cabin to change). Ahh, summer.

So overall, it was a very relaxing trip. I finally felt I could unwind after my hectic first year at university. I also gained quite a bit of weight seeing as how I was eating five (or more) meals a day, all being all-you-can-eats. Here you can have some pictures of my food aboard the ship:


I will now stop with the food spam.

So here are my tips for cruises!
– learn the ships’ layout after you get on. Take your time discovering where the restaurants are, where their lounges are, etc. It will help when you read your ships’ daily itinerary, or else you will panic and run around looking for their “Fiesta Deck”. Well, maybe not. You would probably ask a staff, but it is so much easier knowing your surroundings.
– always book your dinner reservations (they usually ask you during registration for your cruise). If you think you will figure it out after you get on the ship, good luck. I saw this huge line of people trying to do their booking after the ship set sail and they did not look happy.
– when you get your ships’ activity schedule of the day, look through it and circle things you want to attend then plan out when you will eat and how your day will look. Otherwise, you end up missing a show that you really wanted to watch, or a class that you intended to try out!
– always get off when you arrive at a port. It feels good to stand on solid ground after days of being on swaying ground. It took me several days after I came back home to adjust. I still felt like the floor was moving below me.
– watch your food intake. Haha, just kidding. It is a cruise. The chocolate fountains and dessert buffets are irresistible.
– pack formal wear along with your casual wear. And if you want, throw in a little smart casual in there too. Some restaurants and times of the day call for different attire. They may even not let you in to a restaurant if you are not in the proper attire.
– if you know you will get sea sick, get pills or those motion sickness arm bands ahead of time. You do not want to feel horrible during your amazing trip. I was seasick for the first two days until I gave in and bought pills. It sucked missing their awesome breakfasts during those days.
-go out on the deck. Enjoy the view. When else can you catch a glimpse of nothing but sea, stretching out to as far as the eye can see! It is as if nothing else exists and it is just you and the body of water you are on. The sunsets are also amazing. It is undisturbed and unobstructed by buildings one usually finds in the city.

Seriously, go out and enjoy the deck!

So that is all from me today! This post definitely came late, but I wanted to document my trip all the same!
Until next time!

-Karen

Outdoor Movies – A Vancouver Tradition?

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Hey all!

After three years since I moved back to Vancouver, I finally went to my first summer outdoor movie event!

My friend Connie asked if I wanted to go to their Lion King showing. It was a Disney movie, so how could I say no? 😛

Those gaps you see between groups of people and blankets? Yeah, they disappear as it gets later.

We arrived at Stanley Park at around eight o’clock, and the designated field used for movie watching was already more than half full! We laid out our blankets and tried to take up more space around us as our friend were running late. Of course, with these events, it was really hard to actually reserve a spot, so we soon found people cutting into our space. However, we did manage to squeeze in our three other friends who later arrived. I went and bought an overpriced burger from one of the food trucks nearby (Triple O’s), and got back to our blanket-claimed territory just as the movie started.

The two food trucks. I am surprised there are not more… Triple O’s were so overwhelmed you had to wait in line for 20 minutes

The Lion King!

The great thing about these movies is that they wait for the sun to set before they play it– or else no one would really be able to see the movie, which was projected onto a huge inflatable screen. So you get total silence from this crowd of several hundred, sitting under the stars on a cool summer night, all enjoying as the movie unraveled itself. It was a different experience.

I loved that whenever an amazing scene ended (e.g Simba running back to Pride Rock to claim his destiny), the audience would cheer and clap. It just really added to the atmosphere. What was even cooler was that it would always start with a small group of people cheering, then you hear the cheer ripple outwards until the whole field was cheering.

Tips for outdoor movie watching?:
-bring your own food
-if you are saving spots for a friend, bring a big towel/blanket, or else no one will take you seriously
-before you sit down, make sure there isn’t a speaker in your line of sight, or you will have to live with that throughout the movie
-bring a flashlight if you are leaving early/a lot later than the crowd (if you go to the Stanley Park venue) because it gets really dark
-get there early if you want good seats. However, we went pretty late (approximately 1 hour before it started) and we got a seat two-thirds of the field away from the screen and it was still a pretty decent seat since the screen is quite large and there are a quite a lot of speakers surrounding the field.
-do not sit in the middle of the field if you have to leave early. It really sucks when Timon and Pumbaa are in the middle of their Hakuna Matata song and you see this huge blanket/pillow-ladended person trying to carefully (and very slowly) make their way out of the field.
-cheer and clap 🙂 Help make some noise!–When appropriate of course…but we did hear someone shout the following when the scene played

I had a really positive experience altogether, and I would really encourage you go out and watch one of the many movies that they still have yet to show! I mean not only is it fun, but it is also free! What are you waiting for?!

More info here.

-Karen

Strawberry Picking– It’s a lot harder than it looks

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Hey there!

Yes, it has been a very long time since I last visited WordPress. It seems like the longer I was away, the more I was hesitant to come back. But then I realized how much I miss this, so here I am again! 🙂

So last week, my friends and I went to Abbotsford to go strawberry picking. I remember hearing stories about when my parents were still dating, they’d go strawberry picking in Toronto. They always said how much fun it was, and how cool it was to pick your own fresh strawberries. My friends and I then decided that since we were not doing much anyway, we will go on a small roadtrip out to Abbotsford and go strawberry picking. We bought a pass for the farm, which included their petting zoo, wagon ride and mazes.

After waking up bright and early (and an hour or so drive), we got to the Maan Farms.

I loved the fact that the first thing I saw was a red barn-like structure that everyone associates with farms. I think I have been to farms before, but that was when I was still in elementary school and we went for pumpkin picking with our class. Anyway, we explored around a bit as we did not want to pick strawberries yet, or else they will just get gross when we leave them for long periods of time in the car. We first went to the playground. They had a wooden slide. Yeah, wooden. At first we were thinking you would have to be crazy to  slide down a wooden slide, but then we saw the burlap potato sacks they left around the base of the slide which you are supposed to sit on while sliding down.

William on the wooden slide!

Afterwards, we decided to look for the mazes. It said on our tickets that we were allowed to use both their mazes. In my head, i was ready for crazy labyrinths of tall green hedges. You can guess I was disappointed when it turns out it was just a ‘rock maze’. What is a rock maze? Well to me, it seems like they just placed rocks on the ground, tracing out a path, ultimately making a ‘maze’. I do not think I have ever been in a satisfying maze. I remember when I was living at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel and they also had a maze behind their hotel. I, again, had my hopes up, seeing the brochure depicting a Mickey Mouse-shaped maze, formed out of green trees/plants of some sort. When my sister and I got there, I realized this maze was made for small children, so the height of the bushes reached my  knees. Fun.

The wagon ride was enjoyable. It was short, consisting of ten minutes or so of driving up to the haystacks on the farm, offering a view of the whole of Abbotsford, as it seems this farm was on some sort of hill. It was a beautiful day of 25 degrees, so the view was spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, and you could see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Us on the wagon, after the ride 🙂

Finally, it was time for strawberry picking. I imagined it would be very relaxing, digging for perfect little strawberries, enjoying the nice weather. Boy was I wrong. The first several berries I picked, I was very particular about. They had to be the perfect shape, size and colour. Eventually, after another twenty minutes in the blazing hot sun, I just dumped whatever looked edible into my  basket. Plus, since strawberry plants were so short, you had to bend down or squat down in order to pick them. Believe me, after a while of kneeling and standing up repetitiously, you start seeing dark spots everywhere. Also, finding strawberries were no fun either. Old strawberries were left on the plants to rot, since it will fertilize the soil again. So you end up touching some pretty gross, mouldy strawberries. Some strawberries were so old that if you moved them, you realized they were dust and they kind of just float away as grey ash. That is when I came up with the conclusion that strawberry picking is hard work.

Strawberry patch @ Maan Farms

The strawberries!

After what seemed like forever, we were all done with our baskets and we went back to the car, finally leaving Maan Farms. We went several more places after that, driving across Langley, Surrey, stopping near White Rock to watch the sunset, visiting the Peach Arch just to stand between the Canadian and American border. You can guess that I was exhausted at the end of the day. We ended off our adventure by visiting the Richmond night market. We got there just as all the food was going on sale since they had to close for the day. I did not even know they did that. So we ate a bunch of unhealthy, but delicious and cheap food!

Under the Peach Arch on the Canadian side 🙂

And for the past week, I have had an endless supply of strawberries sitting in my fridge. They were delicious! I guess it is true– if you work for something, the fruits of your labour always tastes better.

Ah, this has been nice. 🙂 I missed this blog! Hopefully, I will see you again soon!

Karen

Various Vancouver food reviews

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Hey everyone 🙂

So I am officially done first year (as in all my final marks are out for my classes at UBC). I probably will sit down properly and write a post about reflections, just so I can look back and remember how/what I felt, as well as it being able to serve the purpose of being a possible reference to future first years!

It saddens me to say “YAY! I am currently on my summer vacation”– yet there’s only two more days left till I have to start school again. Sucks does it not? Oh well, I hope my summer courses go fine and will help lessen my workload next school year!

Moving on to what I have been doing for my week and a half of break.
What I basically did was eat out with different groups of friends, and caught up with them. I thought I was going to get some exercise in this break, but I just ended up eating a lot. Woe is me.

There is not much to do in Vancouver except eat. Even if you happen to have a day of sunshine, there really is not much you can do when you are under 19. I cannot wait to turn 19 and explore whatever parts of Vancouver I previously could not! Sadly, my birthday is in September, so the exploration cannot happen this summer :(. What many of my friends and I usually do is meet up somewhere to eat and chat. Below is my reviews on the various places I chowed at around Vancouver!

 

1. Milestones
This was the first time I have ever been to a Milestones, despite it being a relatively common chain restaurant in Vancouver. The occasion? My friend’s birthday! The staff was tolerant of us moving around their tables, getting it so that the birthday girl could see and interact with everyone. The food was good, not amazing, but still a good meal. Of course, prices are slightly higher at Milestones, as they offer a nice environment for you to enjoy your food. What was pretty cool was that we got a view of the ocean, since we were at the Milestones at English Bay.

I got the Chicken Californian Burger, as well as a Miami Ice for a drink. Burger was good, but too big for me. I ended up not finishing my fries. The drink was gross, mostly because of the mint leaves. I loved the mango ice tea side of it, but the mint leaves eventually became too overpowering. I was pretty jealous of one of my friend’s seafood salad because it looked delicious! There was a variety of seafood scattered on top of the salad, and just looked really yummy.

Overall rating for this place: 3/5
The rating is mostly due to the price, since their quality of food is decent, but again, not amazing. Hey, I am a poor university student. But since it was my friend’s birthday, I will go with the flow 🙂

Chicken Californian Burger with curly fries

Miami Ice…could have done without the mint leaves

 

2. George
This place is a little win bar situated in Yaletown. The Real Housewives of Vancouver had a brief shot of two of the housewives having a drink there. Do not ask me why I watch that show. It makes me want to claw my face out. But again, it is pretty cool to see a show set in the city you live in.

My friend chose this bar as the venue of his small birthday get together. The menu consisted of a very small selection of food. There was two pages of food, each page listing around a dozen dishes or so. This included appetizers, entrees, main courses and desserts combined. Their wine and alcohol list was very extensive, having two menus full of names I have never heard of. I cannot rate their wines/alcohol since I am not legal yet and cannot try anything, so this review will mainly be on their food.

The selection, as I mentioned before, was very narrow. I got their Albacore Tuna Nicoise. I hate beans, so I asked the waitress if they could substitute some leafy greens for me instead, which they promptly did so. I really liked my salad, and I fell in love with the tuna. I have always had a thing for smoked salmon, and the tuna had the same great smoky flavour to it! Yum! I mostly went for the salad because nothing on the menu really appealed to me. I do not think this is a place one would choose to go to for food, but since I am not yet legal, I did not have that great an experience there.

Overall rating: 3/5
I like the ambience of the place, but I may have to return when I am legal so that I can try out their drinks!  I would also prefer to sit outside next time, since they have a nice heated patio!

Their albacore tuna nicoise

 

3. Pho Tan (Kerrisdale)

My mom and I love vietnamese pho, so on one of our walks around Kerrisdale, we decided to go to this place for lunch. It was full when we got there (it was around 1pm), so we had to wait a bit for a table. Luckily, the wait did not take too long and before we knew it, we had our hot bowls of pho. I got beef balls and rare beef, while my mom got beef brisket. I do not think I could ever hated pho, so I quite enjoyed my lunch here. It is relatively cheap (you can choose whether you want a regular or a large bowl of pho and you can even choose to add extra things in it– all priced accordingly of course), and once lunch rush was over, a nice place to just sit and enjoy your lunch. I was really full by the time I left, and I had an overall good time.

Overall rating: 4/5
Not much to justify except that I am biased towards pho! 😛

 

4. Oyster Rawbar
My friend and I decided to satisfy our oyster cravings, and after I did a little researching, we decided to reserve a table at Oyster. This place is easy to miss, as it is hidden inside the old stock exchange building. It is also super small, having only two tables for small groups, one longer table with high stools, and seating in front of their bar. To get a sense of how small this place is, I will quote my friend: “I am pretty sure my room was the same size or even bigger than the restaurant.” And no, she does not live in a gazillion dollar mansion.

What attracted us was their Buck a Shuck deal. We would be able to satisfy our cravings without destroying our wallets! Again, we are poor university students.  We ended up ordering loads of oysters, flagging down the waitress whenever she walked by. They gave us a small tray of condiments and toppings for us to customize our own oysters, and with that we shovelled them down our stomachs. The oysters were a little small, but we both agreed that it was a place we would return to. What you will have to watch out for is the fact that it is a small, yet semi-popular joint. Their small staff can only shuck so many oysters at once. My friend and I would have to wait around 20 minutes for them to serve us our orders. Keep this in mind before you go and as you are ordering.

Overall rating: 4/5
Loved the cosy atmosphere and cheap oysters. Again, they had a more extensive alcohol menu, but I could not sample it. I will most definitely be returning though!

Inside the small little restaurant

I can feel my oyster cravings working up again..

 

5. Toyama
Two friends and I wanted to catch up, so we decided to look for a place where we could sit down, eat and talk. We googled a bunch of places, but in the end we decided to try out this late night all-you-can-eat japanese restaurant. Late night ayce places are common in Vancouver, but since the one at Toyama started at 9pm instead of 9:30, we decided to give this place a try.

We were not expecting quality japanese food– who really does when going to ayce? However, the food was not bad. They had interesting dishes in there, such as Octopus in garlic butter and fish balls on skewers. I really liked their fried salmon belly! They had the usual nigiris and rolls, and barbecued meat. Drinks and sashimi costed extra, as did their ice cream.

One thing I did not like was the fact that despite arriving at 9:15pm, they were ushering us out of the place pretty soon. It was not due to the fact that they lacked seats, but it was obviously because they wanted to get off work. We ended up feeling like they kicked us out in the end.

Overall rating: 3/5
I have had more relaxed ayce experiences, but the food was still decent and they had a wide range of food.

Could not find a non-instagramed picture, so this one is oddly sized…

 

6. Gyudonya
This was not the first time I have been to Gyudonya, but I must say, it was the first time I had such bad service. That aside, this place is still a good place to eat. They have a variety of japanese type toppings they put on rice. It is very similar to Yoshinoya in Hong Kong, where they give you beef on rice. It is a good price for a bowl that will definitely fill you up. You can choose what bowl size you want. However, this is not a place I would recommend if you wanted to sit down with your friends. It is the epitome of fast food, where your food arrives within three minutes of ordering, and everyone sits in slightly uncomfortable stools aimed at getting you out of there once you are done with your food. Also, if you were done shopping, or it was just a rainy day so you are ladened with various bags or coats, it probably would not be the best choice. There really is no place to put your stuff.

Overall rating: 3.5/5
Good and fast food, but not the best place to settle down for a nice meal.

The chicken and beef rice bowl

 

7. Japadog
I had my first Japadog today. Yeah yeah, I know you just gasped if you are a Vancouverite. Instead of going for their other wacky flavours/toppings, I went for their original Terimayo, where a sausage is placed on a toasted bun, topped with teriyaki sauce, japanese mayonnaise and seaweed. I thought it was really good taste-wise, but highly overrated. Maybe it is because I am asian and these sauces are not new to me, but I expected something more. All Vancouverites have tasted Japadogs, and I was told it was one of a kind and super delicious. Guess my hopes were too high?

What is a Japadog? Well, it does not take a genius to realize the word is just a combination of the word “japanese” and “hot dog”. And that is basically what it is– Japanese style hot dogs. They are more expensive than the ones you would find from your regular street vendors, but they have a huge wacky variety of toppings. To name a few, they have kimchi, dried shrimp and noodles (yakisoba). Definitely not your regular hot dog, where the craziest dogs would just be cheesy or spicy in flavour.

Overall rating: 3/5
I hope I will one day pass by again and be able to try out their other hot dogs, but I still feel this place is overrated. However, if you are not asian, it is a must try, and I can understand why it is so attractive 🙂

The Terimayo Japadog, also known as their original one

So that is all folks! After a good several pounds gained, and my wallet significantly lighter, I would say I put my break to semi-good use. My stomach had a good time anyway 🙂

-Karen