Charcoal

My uncle came over from Hong Kong with his wife and my twin cousins and my mom wanted to treat them out for Japanese food so I decided to look up some recommended Japanese places in the lower mainland and I happen to find Charcoal in Richmond. On Urbanspoon it rated the place 87% out of 136 people who voted so we decided to try this restaurant out. I found the place limited in the variety it offered and it definitely not authentic cause it was chinese owned. The food prices were higher then average. My mom liked the place because it offered sushi plus BBQ we didn't have BBQ that day we just ordered a couple of dishes to try. Overall, I think this place is over rated I've tried many Japanese places that are better then here. But, I'm glad I tried it out cause I know what the reputation for this restaurant is now.

miso soup

left: smoked salmon topped on a california roll and tuna rolls on the right

tuna cone, unagi sushi, salmon sashimi, shrimp & tuna 

deep fried california rolls

Location: 250-7997 Westminster Highway, Richmond
Rating: ☆☆/5

Shark Fin Soup

I've always had shark fin soup on special occasions for example: birthdays, mother's day, etc. I've always enjoyed eating it cause it is delicious but I never realized what takes part in making shark fin soup and how much consequence comes out of it. This video is truly inspiring...I'm glad I won't be partaking anymore of this shark fin soup dish. Check it out:

Greater Vancouver Zoo

Last week me and bf went to the zoo in Aldergrove. It was my first time going there I believe. I don't know if I went when I was younger but, I definitely don't remember if I did or did not go. We got there later in the day so we weren't able to see any shows like live feeding or petting of the animals. I thought there wasn't much to see but to my surprised there were more animals then I thought there would be. I enjoyed the nice walk and looking around to see different animals from different parts of the world. My favourite was the donkey, monkeys, giraffes and the lions. Overall, it was a nice and sunny day to spend my time at the zoo.

the ostrich were enjoying our company while we stared at the them with awe

our new friend donkey

it's a rhino!

Golden Ears Bridge

Last saturday, me, bf, Hanz and Rachel ran the Golden Ears Bridge (the bridge that connects from Pitt Meadows to Langley). It was about a 10K run from the edge of Maple Ridge to the end of the bridge and back. At first I thought it wasn't going to be that bad but the after effects was unexpected...my legs are sore, when I cough my abs hurt. But, it was worth it to run across it cause it felt like I achieved something...my goal is to run all the bridges around the lower mainland and maybe next year do the Sun Run. Afterwards, we had a bbq at bf's house we marinated some pork ribs and we made some meat sticks and kabobs. Not bad for less then half day to marinate the food since it was an impulse "let's do a bbq" idea. Afterwards, watched a funny zombie movie and then passed out. Whew! the sun totally drained me that day.

The Vancouver Graphic & Communication Design Meetup

Today I volunteered for the retirement party (for crappy design-summer BBQ) It was held at Trout Lake, I got to meet a lot of people and mingle and chat and ask them what they do (career wise) and of course extracurricular activities/interests. It was a lot of fun! The theme of today's meet was to bring and share with everyone something you've created that is 'less than great, something you've found and kept as an example of what never to do, something that is terrible and should just case to exist.' And at the end we burned it into a BBQ pit. It was quite the ritual. There was examples of bad typography ie. comic sans being used, stretched type, bad cropping jobs, bad color choices etc. I enjoyed my time there and I can't wait till the next meet about typography treatment in tatoos. That should definitely be something interesting to learn and talk about.

My free Meetup t-shirt!

NKOTBSB

I've been waiting for a long time for this concert since I got my tickets back in February. I finally got to see Backstreet Boys in concert. I realized how much they have aged since I was a little girl listening to their songs. I was quite impressed with New Kids On The Block. They are amazing as a boy band especially Joe who has an incredible high pitch voice with incredible volume and lungs to hold notes for an incredibly long time. I was excited to see Matthew Morrison from Glee as well and he is really talented. My favourite songs from him were Sway and Gold Digger. Overall, I enjoyed the concert very much and I'm glad I got to listen to all my favourite songs from both boy bands.

Harrison Hot Springs

Last Thursday, my distant cousins flew from New York to Vancouver to visit us for a one week trip. I haven't seen them before except their mom who is my "biu yee" and my "biu yee's" mom which is my "gu paul." At first when I met them I bumped into them on Denman renting bikes to ride on the Stanley Park seawall. Yesterday, we went together to Harrison Hot Springs to soak in the mineral public pool. Afterwards we walked around had some gelato and enjoyed the gorgeous view there. We decided to go eat at the Lakeside Cafe for their Italian buffet which I think is pretty good for what you get for $25. There was salmon, lamb, roasted chicken, fish and chips, a salad bar, dessert bar, customized pasta bar, etc. Overall, it was a great experience. It was a long drive though from my cousin Kat's house to harrison it took us about an hour and 45 mins to get there. Afterwards, we went back to my cousin Kat's house to play some cards, play a new game a learned called Settlers which I really enjoyed and Banana, which is very similar to rapid Scrabble. Overall, a long night and tonight I'm excited to watch the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block concert featuring guest Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester) from Glee!

Max Interval Plyo

I'm so sore...due to the fact that I decided to go for it and do an insane workout. Insanity is a workout that will push past your limits with jam packed cardio drills and non stop action using intervals of strength, power, resistance and ab core training moves. I would say it definitely makes you feel better everyday. I enjoy doing the workout. By the way if you haven't tried P90X abs you should definitely try it out. For such a short amount of time for the workout you really feel it burn in your abdominal.

Ajisen Ramen

Ajisen is a Japanese Ramen chain from Japan that opened up in Parker Place. It's Chinese owned and operated. Ajisen isn't your authentic Japanese ramen store the noodles are quite different compared to restaurants such as G-Men or Kintaro. When I first tried this place it was quite good now I think the quality has gone down after being opened for some time now. I had the Teppanyaki Ramen. Overall the place wasn't as good as it was before.

Location: 1190-4380 No. 3 Road, Richmond. BC
Website: http://www.ajisen.ca/index.html
Rating: ☆☆/5

Players Chophouse

Last Christmas I got a groupon from my aunt for $50 worth of food to Players Chophouse. So recently, I went for a visit there with bf and later on met up with my mom and younger sister there cause my sister also got a groupon for that restaurant. I was quite disappointed because the waiter said that all there seafood wasn't fresh and they didn't have any to serve that day so half of the menu items wasn't available that day. That was a huge disappointment so we had to settle for meat dishes or vegetarian dishes. This is what we order that day:

Roasted Pear and Walnut Anjou pear, mixed greens, blue cheese and sherry vinaigrette

Mushroom Ravioli white wine, sage cream sauce

Pulled Pork Sandwich: BBQ sauce, coleslaw and steak frites

New York Striploin with veggies and mashed potatoes

Overall the food was alright I wouldn't pay for full price here though cause it is quite expensive.

Location: 808 Beatty Street
Rating: ☆☆☆/5

June 19, 2011-Father's Day

On my bf's side we cooked a special dinner for his dad while I was upstairs cooking I cooked a vegetable medley consisting of mushrooms, asparagus and zucchini, chinese steamed salmon, oven baked dill salmon, and bf outside on the grill was frying tempura oysters and barbecuing steak. Auntie made a salad so we had plenty of food that day plus for dessert bf bought a strawberry mousse which I found to be quite good especially coming from Superstore...I usually find the desserts to be a little bit on the heavier and sweeter side. The mousse was quite balanced on both ends so I enjoyed the dessert very much. Take a look at our beautiful cooking creation:

Auntie's Egg Salad

oven baked dill salmon

BBQ Sirloin Steak 

Chinese Steamed Fish

Deep Fried Oysters

Jade Seafood Restaurant

Today, gf decided to go and grab some dim sum cause she was craving for it so we headed to Jade which is her preferred choice for dim sum. Jade is located in Richmond on Alexandra Road and it won the 2011 CRA Signature Dish Award as well as the HSBC Dinner's Choice Awards. I was up for the idea cause I've never tried Jade before and I wanted to see what it was all about...this is what we had:

Fried Shrimp Salad Roll

Fried Bun with Condense Milk

Vegetable in Fish Soup

Steam Crab Meat Dumplings

Steam Shrimp Dumplings 

Pumpkin filled with Red Bean Paste

We were a little disappointed because we wanted the black egg with oyster and pork congee but they didn't have any congee that day but, overall the food was alright. My gf loves there dumplings there because of the texture of the wrap not being too thick or too sticky. Overall it was a mediocre experience.

Rating: ☆☆☆/5
Location: 8511 Alexandra Rd, Richmond

highlight of this past Sunday...

summed up in a couple of words....2 hr bus adventure with 2 inch heels, grocery shopping, prepping dinner, insanity workout, cleaning house, cooking dinner...final result: epic tiredness!

Magazine Publication

I'm so excited I recently got asked to submit my work to Choi's Gallery, which showcases cutting-edge creativity in global packaging design. They are interested in my Elixer drink packaging and I'm just sending my files to them at this moment. Can't wait to see my work get published!

A little bit about Choi's Gallery:

Based in CA and Shanghai, Choi’s Gallery started its journey with Gallery-the world’s best graphics magazines. Over the past years, Choi’s Gallery has fully committed itself to publishing design books and magazines, focusing on architecture, fashion, graphic design, interior design, product design, etc… In the years to come, Choi’s Gallery will evolve itself into establishing a platform for global designers to share their wisdom and innovations, such ‘SHARING PLAN’ provides perfect atmosphere for collision of cultures and inspirations.

The books of Choi’s Gallery emphasize on quality of design and production more than quality.

Within innovative design and stylish presentation, it aims to create the best professional and authorities books to exploring the design ideas and execution in an accessible and striking way.

Check them out: Choi's Gallery

Vancouver Hockey Riot

It's sad to see our beautiful city get destroyed yesterday night after the game. Being a new hockey fan I'm truly devastated to see people who live in Vancouver destroy what we have here. Like every fan I was disappointed that we lost but we were all hopeful for the next upcoming series in September. The Canucks played well but, Boston to me deserved the cup. Tim Thomas was a excellent goalie and I was happy for them. We cannot give up hope in the Canucks I believe they will get the cup soon. Patience and perseverance is key.

The hockey games really brought friends together, eating, cheering, watching, having good times together. It was a great time to get together to watch every game progress. The very last game me and bf went over to our friends house downtown to watch the game. We did think about watching it downtown in front of the CBC station but we decided that it would be too packed since there was going to be an estimated of 100,000 people watching. So, we decided to go watch it at our friends place. Thankfully we were further away from where the riot happened and we got out of downtown Vancouver safely. Here is a photo I took standing in Chinatown. You could smell the smoke in the air. It was devastating I hope that the people who caused the damage in Vancouver would one day see and learn how idiotic their actions were.

traffic before the game 

Rogers Arena 

signage banners

the smoke seen from Chinatown

Graduated and Proud!

Yay! finally the big day has come and gone and the feeling was amazing. It's been so long since I've looked forward to graduating...walking across the stage and receiving my BA degree in design. Now, afterwards I feel as if I should be looking for a job and moving forward with my career. It was a great day and I'm glad I've finally made it!

By the way, Canucks won 1-0 GO CANUCKS GO! one more game and if they win they will bring home the cup!