My Mom

The greatest person who I admire is my mom. Lately she's been doing everything right. From cooking my favourite meals to being as awesome as she always has been. Here's the story:

During dinner out for my brother's birthday I made a quick comment that I was craving Pho that day. I guess she heard me because the next day for dinner she brought pho noodles and beef balls and cooked me chinese style pho with chicken broth. Most of the time she usually cooks what I crave for without me telling her. I think me and my mom have similar cravings that is how she knows. Lately, I've realized the older I get the more like my mom I am. Its not a bad thing but I just do a lot of comparisons. I hope I bring out the best traits in her all the time. And I just realized what an amazing person she is in my life for raising 4 beautiful children by herself and every moment of her time is dedicated to us and for that I love her! Thank you mommy dearest!

Valentine's Day

I decided to take charge over Valentine’s Day this year. I had planned a trip to go to Cypress with my bf, and my 2 good friends and their boyfriends to but things didn’t work out because it was forecasted for heavy rains on the mountain so we decided to go indoor rock climbing instead. Afterwards, we headed over to Long’s Noodle House on Main for lunch. It was my first time there and the food was very clean and light. Which I prefer when it comes to Chinese food.

Afterwards we headed to Espot in Richmond to play some arcade games. After that we went over to Aberdeen for some shaved ice at Frapp Bliss. Me and bf shared the Thai Sensation which included colorful mocha balls, green tea shaved ice, mango ice cream, coconut cream and black rice. We usually go here for shaved ice because it is our favourite place to go but this combination we chose didn’t go very well together. Next time I’ll probably go a simpler route.

After that we headed home to change to get ready for our fancy dinner at La Pentola. The restaurant had called me 2 days before my reservation to remind me of my dinner plans at 8pm. They also mentioned over the phone that there was a valentine’s set menu for the night so that is what they will be serving. I didn’t know about this because it wasn’t on the website so I already had plans to go with the alla famiglia which means that you give the chef the rights to create what he thinks is the freshest and best ingredients for the night and he will cook you a seven course menu or a ten. I was thinking of going with the seven but since they mentioned only the v-day menu was available for the night I told them to send me the menu just to make sure I was ok with it. They sent me the menu and it was alright since if I didn’t go with the menu I would be charged $75 per person for cancellation. The policy is to cancel two days ahead before your reservation. So that means I would have had to call them back the day they called me to cancel.

We started off with the olive oil poached scallop, pea puree, radish, pea tips dish. One piece of scallop was a little fishy but the rest was alright. I enjoyed the pea puree. Afterwards, we had the pearl barley risotto, snails, parsley, black garlic foam. This was a very textured dish. The pearl barley was very chewy and you had to keep biting and biting. I didn’t really enjoy this dish as much. It was pretty much a filler for me. I usually don’t like snails because it has a manure flavor to it. But the snails in this dish was alright. I had one with a lot of sand in it though.

3^rd dish was the uova da ravioli, braised pork, ricotta, hedge-hog mushrooms confit tomato which was basically a single pasta with egg yolk inside. I am allergic to eggs but I didn’t think that a small portion of it would hurt which it didn’t. The pasta had a lot of flavor and it was well cooked.

4rth dish was the chocolate porter braised short rib, celeriac puree, morel mushrooms, charred asparagus. This was the weakest of all the dishes. The short rib was extremely dry. I had to soak the pieces in the sauce to make it less dry in my mouth. I didn’t finish this dish because I didn’t like it but over all the rest was fine. I’m glad I didn’t taste the porter in this dish because I usually don’t like the alcohol favour in my food.

The last dish was our dessert of the night. Which turned out to be the best dish presented to us. It was the Dolce chocolate panna cotta, caramelized banana ice-cream with peanut sponge toffee. I really liked the toffee it gives the dessert great texture and crunch. It really reminded me of the Crunchie chocolate bar.

Overall the meal was alright. I had a much better experienced at Dine Out Vancouver for my birthday. We ended the night of monopoly deal and each others company.

Wishing you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Main Nail Studio

I booked my appointment a month in advance for photoshoot in feb to get my pedicure and gel nail set (fake nails with French tip) and I booked for 5pm on Thursday after work. I got to my appointment on time but they didn’t take me in till 20 mins later. So it was 5:20pm when I got my pedicure done.

During that time, they put on a movie for me to watch: Valentine’s Day. Sylvia did my pedicure which she did amazingly. With much care and patience. But, I had to wait for another 20 mins for someone to become available to get my gel nails done. So at this time it was about 6pm. This lady was new she spoke Cantonese. She did a good job but she took way too long. It took her about an hour and a half to get it done and I had a movie scheduled at 7:30 downtown that I missed.

I won a pair of tickets to the prescreening of Deadpool. Which I was super sad to miss. My bf even drove all the way from Maple Ridge after work to come see it with me. I was super disappointed how behind I was and how late everything was to get done. This wasn’t my first time for not getting in right away. I’ve been here about 5-7 times already. They do a really good job but their time management and over booking has me thinking if it’s all about the money. Overall, they need to step up on their game to be more efficient. I really like going there and I like the staff there but I can’t expect them to always be on time.

Shangri La Body Care

I’ve decided to do a facial last minute before my photoshoot on Saturday so I called around to see who was available. I usually go see Jenny who works from home and is very close to where I live but she was off Tuesday and Wednesday. So I had no choice but to see someone else. I looked around Groupon and they had a deal for $75.00 from Shangri-La Body Care that includes a facial, massage, body wrap. 

I decided since it wasn’t that far away that I would try it out. Reviews on Groupon were quite good so there wasn’t much convincing for me to go. I called the day of, to book for an appointment after work. They said they could take me in which I was happy about because yesterday was the only day I had time to go. It was a little bit hard to find the location because it was behind a hair salon. I asked the hair dresser where the spa was and she called in the lady, Anna to come grab me. 

The layout wasn’t very professional and there was a dog who stayed there. I’m guessing the owner brings her dog to work. I got undressed and we started off with the massage. She told me I can upgrade to a deep tissue massage for $10.00 which I did. OMG the massage was intense. I felt every ache and pain in my body. She massaged me in ways I’ve never been massaged before. And she was a tiny Asian lady with great strength. Overall don’t expect a relaxation massage it was definitely painful and I was very much awake for the whole massage which was about an hour. 

Afterwards, it was the body wrap. It was two blow up buoys one underneath me and one above me and I was sandwiched in between. It was heated. I was fine in the beginning but towards the middle I was sweating balls! I was overheating, my mouth was parched. I was struggling to get out but I couldn’t because I was wrapped up so tightly. It was definitely uncomfortable but I did my best to go through the pain without letting her know I was. She was doing my facial at that time I believe there was 3-4 applications of cream, lotion, masque you name it. 

Overall the facial wasn’t up to my standards. The massage was great, I felt loose and I felt like I have bruises all over my body. The heat wrap was definitely toning, and I lost a lot of water weight from that service. Overall, for that price it was ok. I loved the massage even though it hurt but the rest of the services I wasn’t very pleased. 

Would I ever go back again? Probably just for another massage.

Bikram Yoga Vancouver

My month trial ends this coming Feb 6 and my overall impression of the facility, employees, current yogi's:

-because of the small area for doing the activity, when the place is busy its hard to find a space to put your mat that isn't blocking others or facing the mirror
-the bathroom is spacious but the lockers have a fee and the bathroom sometimes run out of paper towel most of the time and some shower heads only sprinkle water which isn't enough to shower in.
-there is always a towel around the toilet bottom area: I'm guessing the moisture is coming out of the toilet and causes flooding
-the employees are super friendly, always remembers who you are.
-Some teachers are mono tone, have no impression or enthusiasm in their faces, just want the class to finish. One teacher in particular needs a watch timer to time each position and the watch beeps every single time. Which is very annoying and disturbing in the class
-the mat rental fee, towel, bath towel is quite expensive compared to other yoga facilities
-there isn't really any "me time" to relax before the class. Too much hustle and bustle
-To much walking in and out of the room to grab water for students (instructors) and the door is noisy when opening and closing for fresh air into the room
-provides two higher core yoga classes (attended one and I really like the change from the standard yoga classes)

Overall, I love yoga and every time I go I like it even more. I plan to attend other facilities to compare the differences. My next stop is Yyoga!