Granville Island Fun!

It was pretty sunny out this one day so we ventured out to Granville Island. We both couldn't remember the last time we were here. Its such a nice place to go with your loved one for a stroll.

 This is what we came here for. Edible Canada's Lobster Oil. Yep, lobster oil for $25! It's so worth it. What do we use this for, you ask? WELL, during our visit to Joe Fortes for Dine Out Vancouver, we were served with complimentary bread before our meal. But this was no ordinary bread.. They served it with lobster oil and balsamic vinegar instead of plain butter. My boyfriend was hooked after that night and searched everywhere online to find that this is one of the only places that sell lobster oil. So, here we were.

 They had a huge selection of balsamic vinegars and reductions of all different colors and ages. We grabbed the Wine and Dine one that was aged for 6 years for $10

 And a whole shelf of hot sauces..

 You cannot go to Granville Island and not visit the Market. Yeah its just a market but it is huge and they offer so many different varieties of everything you can think of, food related. This is not even their whole collection of cheese.

 Still not the whole collection.

 HMMM don't those look good?

 They even have a bunch of stands, selling home made crafts, photos and paintings. Can you tell the lady is looking at me? She was telling me to not take pictures, but my Iphone was too fast for her.

 HMMM ... buckets and buckets of olives.

 And sweets!

 This was taken in a wine shop across the street.

 The Lobster Man, a little seafood shop in walking distance sold lobsters, crabs, scallops, mussels and oysters really cheap! Ill be going here next time I need me some lobsters!

Gelarmony Gelato

Did this place really change owners!? I honestly thought they were doing good.. When it used to be called Mondo Gelato, my family would always take me here every time we went downtown. AHH, childhood memories are the best to come back to.. I was so glad when the flavors were still all the same, made with the same recipes.

The thing I remembered most was the cute decorations that represent what flavor it is.

I'm not sure if they had this previous to the change of management but this is the lava cake. We got really annoyed when ordering this because the lady refused to put ice cream on the plate and basically forced us to order it separately in a cup. How hard is it to put the ice cream on the plate instead of in the cup!? It was frustrating too, because she barely spoke English. Anyway, this was okay, a little dense and very chocolatey. I prefer my lava cake to be lighter but it wasn't bad. 

White Chocolate and Hazelnut. If you're ever here, you have got to order the hazelnut. Its always been my favorite flavor and will always be my favorite. SO CREAMY!  

Address:

1222 Robson St

Vancouver, BC

Website:

gelarmony.ca/ 

Tropika: Malaysian and Thai Cuisine

My boyfriend and I took a drive down to Richmond to have dinner with my parents. They wanted Thai food so we ended up here, Tropika.

So under this sign, which is at the entrance of the restaurant, they have this little tiny boxes behind glass..

How cute is this!? It looks much better in person.

Yep, there was a total of 3 and yep, I had to post them all.

The interior of this place is very modern, most of you have probably been here before.

First up, we had a Melon King Prawn Soup $24. This was a soup with cucumber and prawns, and so not worth $24..

The soup was very very well seasoned. It was so good that it made the cucumber taste like a different vegetable! I liked this soup but I wouldn't order it again.

Satay Skewers! My favourite part. These are $1.30 each. We ordered 4 chicken and 4 lamb. The peanut sauce is perfection.

Pineapple Fried Rice 15. Its a must to order this every visit, simply because it comes out in a pineapple. Aside from that, nothing special.

Sambal Kang-Kong $14. To me, this was a little overcooked. The seasoning might be too much to handle for first-time triers but its pretty tasty one you get used to it.

Daun Pisang Ikan Pedas $16. Golden Pampano in sambal sauce. This one is my least favorite, but do not trust my opinion because my family loved it! The sauce over that fish just had a very strong and garlicy taste to it that I couldn't stand, thats all I can say.

Goreng Pisang 6.75. The famous deep fried banana. I can eat this everyday, honestly. A must try.

Address:
4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC
Website:
tropika-canada.com

Ebisu: Dirt Cheap Fresh Oysters!

We are harsh in an oyster phase. Ebisu has the cheapest oysters as far as I know. Its also a good place for a quick lunch at happy hour or late night drinks and sushi.

The interior is pretty modern and spacious.

Mango California Roll. the sauce on this is so good! Its just japanese mayo but with the mango, its seems like much more!

We had ordered 20  Royal Miyagi Oysters at 99 cents a piece during happy hour which is 4:30-6:30pm daily.

Address:
827 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC
Website:
ebisu.ca

Akasaka: The Best Sushi Restaurant in Surrey!

I have lived in Surrey since 5 years old. Japanese is my favourite type of cuisine. You can believe me when I say this is the go-to sushi place in Surrey. It's a little pricy but almost everything on their menu is exceptional. They have the best oyster motoyaki I've had (and trust me, I've had a lot). This visit was just a early dinner with a girlfriend so we didn't order much. I also wanted to try some new things so I strayed away from what I regularly order. I was very pleased.

Ebi Mayo. I've never had this before but I loved it and will be ordering this again. It came in a cute glass too! The ebi was a little on the tough side but it was deep-fried so who's to blame?

Jazz Roll. A great alternative when you cant eat sashimi. The smoked salmon added a very nice kick to this roll.

Popcorn Scallop Roll. This one was a little greasy from the deep fried scallops and tempura prawn inside the roll. We didn't finish this one but I was sure to gobble the rest of it up later that night, so it wasn't that bad.

I would highly recommend this restaurant for someone wanting to go on a nice date with their significant other or friend. They have many booths which are super private and all the servers have very cute personalities.

Address:
15110 101 Ave
Surrey, BC
Website:
akasakasushi.ca

Gotham Steakhouse

My boyfriend and I hadn't had a nice meal in a while. I was feeling steak that night so we ended up at Gotham. The first thing that caught my eye was the ipad wine menu. How cool is that!?

I only like to drink white wines so we ordered a couple glasses, even though we both we eating steak. Oh well.

This was my biggest regret of the night. The complimentary bread. And you'll see why later. We were starved by the time this came. It got to our table less than a minute after ordering but we were so hungry! We shared almost all of it between the 2 of us. And it was delish.

Fresh Oysters $18.50. The most I have ever paid for oysters. You can probably tell this place is over priced due to the name "Gotham". It wasn't anything special. Fresh oysters are always good.

Steak and Lobster $56. Sorry, I didn't realize how blurry it was till I got home. This is what my boyfriend ordered. The lobster was huge and the filet was nicely cooked and tender.

I had a whole Porterhouse Steak to myself $54. What this is, is a T-bone steak which contains 2 types of meat. On the right you get the filet, and the left is the new york. I did NOT realize it would come out this big. Aside from that, I loved how you get to have both sides and really taste the difference. I liked the filet side better. It tasted very buttery and was so easy to cut. The New York was almost there, but a little dryer. Now don't get me wrong, if I was eating just the New York, I would say it was delicious. I'm just comparing  the 2. The meat was very well-seasoned and makes me excited just to take the next bite.

We ordered 2 sides: Sautéed Mushrooms and Onions $10 and Garlic Mashed Potatoes $5.50. They were both very good and came in a large portion. I think it is a little strange how you have to order your own side, which comes in 2 servings. What if you're eating alone? What if you just want a spoonful of 3 different sides? And if you don't want any sides, you just get a steak with nothing? I would much rather have the sides picked out for me or have the option of choosing small portions of sides. We barely ate half of these ones.

AAND this is why I regretted eating all that bread. This is all I finished in the end! I probably would've eaten the whole filet and half the new york if it wasn't for all that bread! Anyway, I took this home, left it in the fridge for a whole night and ate it the next evening. All I did was fry it up as it was and basically continued my meal. It tasted almost the same as it did at the restaurant. The meat was still very tender and I gobbled all of it up in minutes. My parents had a bite and they couldn't help but ask for more. I didn't tell them it was a $54 steak. They'd probably kill me.

New York Cheese Cake $10. All the desserts on the menu were equally $10. Nothing really seemed to catch our eyes so we went the safe route. We didn't like it. The textures were nice and so was the crust but it had a very strong lemon flavor. We both are no fans of lemon in our desserts.

Overall, I think it was an exceptional experience. Our server was very kind, informative and on his game. The atmosphere was very nice and I would come here again. Probably not for a very long time though cause this place is damn expensive! \

Address:
615 Seymour St
Vancouver BC
Website:
http://www.gothamsteakhouse.com/

Healthy Habits: Do YOU Juice?

Juicing has gotten very trendy and well known within the last year. And there is a reason: its freaking awesomely heathy for you and pleases your tastes buds at the same time!

My favourite things to juice: apples, oranges, pears, beets, carrots, spinach, lime, celery, cucumber, bell peppers. I find that just juicing the sweet fruits make the juice turn out very tangy and too sweet. Thats why I like to calm it down with something sour or bland like limes or vegetables!

A good tip is to refrigerate all your fruits and veggies so your juice comes out cold and there is no need for ice which dilutes your drink! Also, when cutting your fruits, cut and peel large amounts at a time and just leave them in the fridge. This will motivate you to juice more since everything is all ready and waiting for you in the fridge, yenno for those lazy days.

This is the juicer I use. I purchased this at Wal-mart for $98 on sale. The only complaint I have about it is that it doesn't come with a pitcher attached to the spout so you can only juice a glass at a time. Also, you can only use short glasses. If you want a whole pitcher of juice, you would need to juice multiple short glasses and pour them into your larger pitcher, one at a time. I don't really mind though.. Other than that, I do not have any problems with this and would definitely recommend this product.

This is what I made that night. The short one, which is mine contains one beet, one orange, half a pear and one apple. The taller one is 2 carrots, half an apple, half an orange and half a pear. Beets is my favourite thing to juice because it adds such a nice colour. If you're juice turns out brown, which is when you mix fruits and veggies, just add a beet to turn it into a beautiful red colour! You don't need much and we all know how good they are for you! Plus, how often do we really eat beets in our daily meals?