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!