Shaughnessy

This was the restaurant right outside the entrance of the Vandusen Garden. Its seems like a place you would want to try out right when you walk into the door.

www.shaughnessyrestaurant.com

The menu was very limited, probably 5-6 entrées to chose from. We had the bacon wrapped scallop and prawn sausages garnished with tomatoes, onions and capers. It was very strange but so good! And it grew our expectations for our meal...

I had the salmon. Totally forgot what it was called on the menu but it had a Thai twist to it. It came with diced pineapples, papaya salad, potatoes and garnished with cilantro. The salmon was not exactly dry, but the dish as a whole is missing a sauce. Everything was very plain. The potatoes tasted like they were just boiled and thrown on the plate. I didn't have much of the salad cause I never really liked papaya salad in the first place.

T ordered a scallop and prawn linguine. Of course I was going to order this cause seafood linguine is what I ALWAYS order if the menu has it. However, hoisin sauce, carrots and cashews were in the description. I'm so glad I didn't cause this tasted like chow mien. A 27 dollar chow mien dish is a no no for me. It was also way too sweet. We both ended up finishing only half our meals and moved on to dessert.

Of course I had to order ice cream.. And this one was cinnamon walnut! I couldn't pass it up. Obviously it was good cause you can really mess up on this... T had the chocolate pyramid with pistachio mouse. I did NOT see ANY pistachio. Even our waiter told us there was pistachio inside the pyramid but it was just a plain dark chocolate mouse. I only had one bite. Yuck.

Our bill came to $133 which was for the appetizer, 2 meals, 2 desserts and a bottle of wine. I wouldn't come back here if everything was half off. (or maybe just for the appy).. Our server was not really all there but I think we just had bad luck this time. The ambiance was okay.. Nice and warm with a view of the light decorations outside. Overall rating 5/10

True Confections

I have been on a mission to find a restaurant that serves strawberry cheesecake in the winter. Its been 3 months and tons of restaurants, no luck. What's a girl gotta do to be able to eat a damn strawberry shortcake around here! Yes I know I could just bake one but its not the same.. My favourite dessert at joey's has been discontinued and so has wing's. Hopefully they return in the summer... =( Getting back on track!!.. I was hoping True Confections would have a strawberry shortcake or a red velvet which I was also craving for that night. So we ventured our way down to West Broadway..
http://www.trueconfections.ca/

To my disappointment, they had neither. I had the Toasted Almond Cake with buttercream and T had the Blueberry Cheesecake. Also to our disappointment, my almond cake was way too sweet and had too many layers of buttercream which made it even sweeter. I guess that's the way white people like it but us Asians cannot handle that much sugar! The cheesecake on the other hand was SOOOO cheesy, but the good kind. It tasted like a real homemade cheesecake from grandma! Ill be getting that next time!

I probably wouldn't come all the way down here just for the cheesecake unless I'm already in the area. I think the bill came to about 20 something dollars which is the normal price for 2 desserts and a glass of wine. Ambience: Very small and starbucks-like except a little darker lighting and very crowded. There were only 2 empty tables when we came. Overall rating 6/10. Nothing too special and not really worth the drive.

Carrot muffins: family's new favorite

This makes 6 delicious muffins (: I've made them 3 times and they always turn out really good and moist! You can leave them out on the counter for 2 days and they'll taste the same! I got this recipe from allrecipes.com but changed it up a bit to taste since it was a cake recipe. Instead of the grated carrots, I used leftover carrot pulp from the juicer after juicing 1 full sized carrot. This will make the carrot less noticeable in your muffins. You can leave the pecans out if you like too. I tried putting in some sliced almonds I had laying around and it worked out nicely too!

• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup grated carrots
• 1/4 cup and 1 teaspoon chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans.

I used an electric beater but a hand beater should be fine. Make sure all the dry ingredients are all mixed before you mix it in the wet ingredients.

3. Scoop mixture into cupcake pan and make sure its even or they wont all be done at the same time! I like to sprinkle a layer of brown sugar on the top for garnishing and it tastes really good when it melts in the oven!

4. Bake for 18-20 mins. Let cool before stuffing these in your faces!