¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Fausto!

My friend's boyfriend had a small gathering for his birthday last weekend. Nothing fancy, just a fun gathering with some barbecue. Also, a delicious strawberry shortcake birthday cake! Not only that, I got to wear a sombrero!

Potter's House Korean Barbecue

That's it, I'm going to reduce the number of times I eat out. I have been eating out way too much recently and haven't even tried out any new recipes for a while! Anyway, I couldn't pass on the chance to see my godson, Elijah, and to learn some German from him! Plus, I love Korean food, especially their barbecue.

Everything was great; barbecued beef, pork, japchae, pajang, seaweed, tofu soup......I have to say, that was the best pajang I've ever had!

Happy Divali!

I do not celebrate Divali but I do love Indian sweets and will always find an excuse to buy some! I got some barfi and gulab jamun from my friend, Ravi. The pink sweet is flavoured with rosewater and is by far my favourite.

Mink Chocolate Cafe

I haven't been here since my birthday a few years ago. I really like their chocolate fondue. Not only do they give everyone their personal hibaki, the chocolate actually tastes like chocolate, not some nesquik powder with added sugar. I also learned they make pretty good hot chocolate there too!

Liquid goodness!

Water Street Cafe - Gastown

A long overdue reunion with Sheila, Farrah and I! What a fun day! We went to a great restaurant in Gastown and felt like tourists for the rest of the day. Farrah and I had a grilled panini with goat cheese and portobello mushrooms and Sheila had the linguine chicken with pesto.

Aww!

What an angel!

"Mamas" and baby

Sheila and I

Chicken Linguine

Panini

Avocado and Eggs

I had this dish in Whistler and thought I'd try it out back home with a secret ingredient : cheese! It was pretty easy to make and tasted delicious.

First, I broke two eggs and beat them.
Secondly, I mashed a whole avocado and set it aside.
Thirdly, I grated some aged cheddar.
Then, I fried the egg while beating. To this, I added the avocado and cooked for a while longer. Then I added the cheese, black pepper and hot sauce. I didn't add any salt because I figured the cheese and hot sauce were salty enough. 

I just love green food! I had never really thought of cooking avocadoes but it's such a great idea. I must admit, I became quite addicted to this dish and ended up making it for 3 mornings in a row. It was only when I realized I'd consumed 6 eggs in 3 days that I decided to take a break!

Whistler 2011

Thank you Farrah for the invitation to your father's "cottage" in Whistler! The word cottage is an understatement! This has got to be one of the most beautiful mansions I've ever seen! The garden was absolutely gorgeous too!

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was cold but the sky was blue and the sun was out.

I actually hadn't been to Whistler since 2002 so The Village had changed quite a bit. It was pretty cool to see all the sites the 2010 Winter Olympics were held at. Coincidentally, Leia wasn't even born yet at that time but she sure did keep us on our toes that weekend!

Poor baby was scared to walk over the metal grating!

We ate at a nice Indian restauran for lunch. The man asked us how spicy we wanted our chicken koorma, from 1 to 5. We asked for a 4, which he assured us was very spicy. No sir, it was not! Anyway, it was delicious.

It was definitely nice to be out of the city for a couple of days.

BC Place Grand Re-Opening! - September 30,2011

The last day of the month and another birthday present! My friend, Kelvin, bought me a ticket to watch the first BC Lions game at the new BC Place. For the last several months they'd been working on the retractable roof and now the stadium resembles a spaceship but looks cool nonetheless.

I wore an orange dress to show my Lions pride and I even painted my nails orange! We were given orange pom-poms before the game.

Watching the retractable roof open up was pretty cool. I really felt like I was part of Vancouver history!

So it was the BC Lions versus the Edmonton Eskimoes. It always amazes me to see some of the players pray before the game. Such a show of faith, especially among 'famous people' is rare. I , for one, applaud it!

The game was pretty entertaining. The half-time performance was not. Seven fireworks does not constitute a fireworks display. I was busy eating mango-flavoured Japanese candy so I wasn't too bothered anyway :) It was nice to see the beautiful Sarah MacClachlan sing the Canadian national anthem before the game started though.

BC won by about 10. Fun evening:)

Salt Tasting Room

I've been craving a grilled cheese sandwich for ages! My friend, Deb, inroduced me to SALT Tasting Room in Gastown a few years ago and I've been a couple of times since. Everytime I go there I feel this sense of apprehension seeing as this restaurant is in the ominously-named Blood Alley in a dodgy part of Gastown. It's quite difficult to get to and it's imperaive to hold your breath so you don't breathe in the urine stench but as soon as you get into the restaurant, it's a totally different atmosphere.

The grilled cheese sandwich, buttersquash soup and arugula salad did not disappoint Farrah, "Baba" and I. The foie gras was just okay.