Minami

I decided to take my little sister for some authentic japanese cuisine and since I've visited Miku before I wanted to try their sister company, Minami in Yaletown. The menu is pretty much the same, a few other selections here and there. I decided to let her try the Premium Aburi and the Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi: pressed rice. She loved it and the taste and the flavours were the same as Miku. We had green tea on the side and we also ordered the new dessert: Matcha souffle with Jasmine tea oozing out of it and we also had the Strawberry Chiboust with mascarpone lime chiboust, strawberry compote, pate brise, strawberry juniper sauce, postachio foam, balsami and strawberry marble ice cream. Apologies for the photos the place was very dim and the photos were taken on a phone and the place was very loud. Miku is quieter/ If you want a relaxed romantic atmosphere this is not the place to go to. Mostly for business men, a younger crowd for loud chit chat. Not the place to take someone to on a first date.

Alburi Premium Sampler

Green Tea Souffle with Jasmine Tea

Strawberry Chiboust

Overall Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

Minami

Location: 1118 Mainland St. Vancouver BC

Everbuying

Usually I have no problems with purchasing items online whether it is for clothing, or makeup or even shoes. But, I came into a big dilemma when I decided to purchase a anime costume for a music performance in town for April. Everbuying.com has been the worse at keeping promises. I had put an order for a anime costume for around $80 including costume and wig on March 18, 2013 and today's date is April 17, 2013 and I haven't recieved anything yet.

In the shipping and handling section it reads:

"For Flat Rate Shipping, we ship your package by HK post service which takes about 7 to 25 business days to most countries in the world.
(1). for USA, Canada, Australia customers, it takes about 7 to 14 business days."

When I inquired about my items through email they tell me a different delivery time wait. 25-35 days.

Here is a warning about purchasing from them. They say they will ship at a certain time but promises are not met. And I'm even worried about the quality of the items I"ll be receiving hopefully soon before the date of my concert.

Please be aware of where you go to purchase items because things can be misleading.

Great West Graphics

It's been a month since I've been hired here at Great West Graphics. Great West Graphics is a wholesale t-shirt company that provides custom screenprinting and embroidery. They were opened since 1980. The two great guys who started this all was Steve and Peter. They started out touring with bands such as Trooper and they realized they weren't making much money on tours and they were always away from loved ones. So, Steve who knew how to print t-shirts decided to start a business. Hence, Great West Graphics was born. The business is built on 4 key values: they offer a great selection of custom garments and promotional products as well as great prices. We always get the job done right and on time. We are more than happy to assist anyone with their needs and provide customer satisfaction everytime!

We are having an awesome t-shirt sale that has started from now till the end of April. Take the opportunity to purchase custom made t-shirts for a cheap price!

Come check us out! We are located at #105-342 East Kent Avenue South, Vancouver BC or feel free to check out our website at www.greatwestgraphics.com

Good Friends

Went for lunch with my family for some korean food in Coquitlam. Good friends is pretty decent with their food, selections and pricing. If I'm in the Coquitlam area I would choose to come here. So, first arrives the side dishes. The side dishes here all taste very similar using different ingredients. It was the same flavour and the same level of spiciness. It was tasty but I prefer my side dishes to taste different and unique on its own. The overall meal tended to be a little too spicy for all of us. Everything we ordered was spicy. But I really love the individual flavours of each dish. My favourite was the spicy kimchi soup which I usually choose to eat when eating at a korean restaurant.

Side Dishes: (left top: radish, potatoes, tofu and peas, bottom left: radish, fish tofu and kimchi)

Korean spicy cold noodles

Spicy Kimchi Soup

Kimbap with Calamari 

Pork Belly Wrap (the leafy green was already soaked in salt so it made the dish a little too salty)

Good Friends
Location: 535 Clarke Road, Coquitlam
Rating: ☆☆☆☆/5

Pearl Castle

Me and my sisters plus kevin and devo all went to get together at Pearl Castle in Richmond. We had Chicken Knee and Taiwanese sausages for appetizers. Then I order my usual which is the honey milk tea without pearls. All the main dishes come with grass jelly for dessert. 

Chicken Teriyaki Fried Rice

House Special shredded pork fried rice

Shredded beef w/black pepper plus 3 vegetable sides with rice and grass jelly

Coconut Seafood Hot Pot with sliced pork and rice and vermicelli on the side plus grass jelly

Kimchi Seafood Hot Pot with Sliced Pork

Pearl Castle

Overall Rating: ☆☆☆1/2 /5

Location: 3779 Sexsmith Rd. Richmond

Deer Garden Signatures

Before I went to dodgeball, I went to have dinner at Deer Garden Signatures on Fraser. I've never been to any of the Deer Gardens before so I decided to try it out. I had the noodle soup combo for $8.50. This included the soup broth of your choice, noodles, 2 toppings and a drink. Extra costs for a cold drink and extra toppings. I order the Tom Yum Goong soup base, "haw fun" flat rice noodles, choy and mushrooms. The bowl was huge...I barely touched it when I was getting full so I had to pack it to go. I had a coffee milk tea that was way to bitter and not enough sugar...it definitely kept me up all night even after dodgeball.

Deer Lake Signatures
Overall Rating: ☆☆☆1/2 /5
Location: 6270 Fraser St. Vancouver

Octopus Garden

Today, I finally tried my first ever Omakase Japanese experience. This is basically a Japanese tasting menu where you leave the menu up to the chef and you just experience the best of the best the restaurant has to offer. We went for the $100 per person option. Octopus Garden is a small restaurant in Kitsilano. The Omakase option isn't in their menus so all you had to do is mention that you want to try the Omakase and they offer two choices a $65 or a $100 experience. We started off with choosing a tea. We had the pear green tea. It was light in flavour but it complemented the whole dinner. We then had our first dish of the day we had the Bluefin Tuna Salad. This dish consisted of greens with a few pieces of tuna dressed with a ponzu vinaigrette. It was light and the sourness opened my appetite for more. The next item up was the Uni Shooter which I found out just now that it is Sado-san's signature item. Sado-san is the sushi chef at Octopus Garden. I had bad experiences eating uni and I wasn't a big fan of uni after eating it at restaurants such as Guu and other tapa places but I had to try the one here. The shooter consisted of yam, rice, quail's egg and uni, you mix it all together and you just down it all in one shot. I started off tasting the uni by itself first and it wasn't that bad. Then I mixed it all together and attempted to shoot it in one shot but I ended up eating morsels of it one at a time. My bf didn't end up eating his so I took his. We also had a sashimi course consisting of Albacore Tuna, Amberjack, Tako. We had lobster sashimi which was on top of a still moving lobster body which we grew very sad when eating so we tried to demolish the sashimi asap. The Lobster had edible gold flakes on top with fish eggs and more uni.We had lobster tempura which was light in flavour but the tempura batter did not stick to the lobster pieces so it was still very wet. Not as crispy as I would have liked it. We also had nigiri, we had geoduck, albacore toro etc. We had a Wagyu beef which is slow cooked, tender and melt in your mouth textures with veggies as well. For dessert we had green tea ice cream with red bean and blueberries on top of a matcha green tea brownie. This dessert was unique I never thought green tea brownies existed till this day. Overall a unforgettable experience with great service, quality food and a combination of different flavours dancing in your mouth.

Octopus Garden
Location: 1995 Cornwall Ave, Vancouver
Rating: ☆☆☆☆1/2 /5

Father and Brother Birthday Dinner

What a coincidence my brother's birthday is the same as my dad's birthday that is why my mom always told my dad that the best gift he ever received is the birth of his one and only son. So we decided to celebrate their birthdays at Kingsway Sushi in Vancouver. Kingsway Sushi is under the Top Gun Group so  you can purchase a 10% discount card and you would be able to receive 10% off your entire bill at the selected Top Gun Group restaurants. So we went with the regular all you can eat dinner menu which is $24.95 for each adult and Children 5-10 is $12.95. There all you can eat selection is pretty good here lots of variety and all you can eat sashimi such as wild salmon, tuna, hokkigai, tai, beef etc. I usually order a miso soup to start of my meal then I go for the farmed salmon sashimi over the wild. I'm not a big fan of tuna sashimi but toro is an exception (tuna belly). The beef sashimi and beef tataki are very similar in size they just differ in flavour. Then I will go for a chopped scallop cone, california roll which is my classic favourite and dynamite roll...then I will fill myself up with the rest such as the agedashi tofu, oyster motoyaki, tempura and the yakisoba.

Snails

Oyster Motoyaki in egg tart tin molds

Sashimi

Happy Birthday Dad!

Shrimp Tempura

My brother and my dad

Yummy chestnut cake

Overall rating: ☆☆☆/5

Kingsway Sushi

Location: 3665 Kingsway Unit #110 Vancouver

Thankfulness

Before I head to bed a thought I had needed to be jot down. Some say 'nice guys finish last' and vice versa for girls but I believe there isn't enough nice people to appreciate these 'nice' guys and girls. An example I have is a friend a recently met who now plays dodgeball with me. I remember all the nice things he has done for me such things as sharing the chocolates he had bought from his trip to Japan with the whole dodgeball team with people he knew and people he had first met that day and another simple act of kindness was when he openly offered me a ride home after a dodgeball game. Just these simple acts of kindness makes me remember how much good there is in the world and I appreciate my friend for being an inspiration to do the same for others.

Housewarming

Recently, my friend got her own place on the west end and she decided to have a housewarming party. Since it was a potluck event I decided to make a chicken pot pie. I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com. I usually go there first for dishes I want to try making. Here are a few pictures from the get together.

 The beautiful crust

 The homemade chicken pot pie sauce

 The ingredients in it: chicken breast, carrots, peas and celery

 Baked it halfway, and baked the rest at friends house to keep it nice and hot while eating

My friend: Chin's first attempt at making Lasagna...it was a success! Delicious!

The range of food that was present at the potluck

Samosas...too spicy for me but it looks good