Late night snacks at Mimibuloveme

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Our Sunday passed by just like a wink. I got up so late and spent the whole afternoon to do my assignment while  Jeanette was attending a honey wine making class with her family. It's nothing much to say except our new place to go for late night snacks since I'm kinda fed up with bubble tea or hot chocolate.

Jeanette versus Food

Mimibuloveme is a small cafe on Cambie at 41st Avenue. It serves Japanese parfaits, crepes, pastas and drinks. The food is pretty fine. We got a Tiramisu parfait, a Chicken Okonomiyahki Crépe, and a Mango Yogurtne. I like the parfait with lady fingers and coffee ice creams in the top. The chicken crepe is OK since the crepe skin is kinda thick and looks burnt. Jeanette loves her mango yougurtne with the soy milk added.

Mango Yogurtne

Tiramisu Parfait

Chicken Crépe

The design of the cafe is pretty cool with the wall decorated by some paintings and some cat items. The chef is actually an artist who draws all the paintings on the wall. The white naked guy in those paintings looks funny and creepy at the same time. The service is pretty good.



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Harrison Hot Spring - Black Forest Steak & Schnitzel House

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Since both David and I were so busy this week, we were dying for a little getaway. Since the weather was not that cooperative, we did not know where to go until the last minute :P Finally, we decided to head to Harrison Hot Spring for relaxation :))
Oh boy, but the traffic to Harrison Hot Spring was just so BAD,,,! We were stuck on one section of the highway for about 1 hour and when we arrived at the resort, it was too dark :( On top of that, I was dead hungry...to the point I cannot even talk. So, as soon as we checked in, we ran out to have good old German food at Black Forest Restaurant.

Can't say no to German beer :)


Very warm & yummy bread


*Picture time* 


Hausegemachte Bratwurst
in-house made Bratwurst + fried onion & peppercorn sauce 
* There was nothing to complain about this dish. Perfectly juicy sausages in generous portion with the sauce & sauerkraut was.....mmm mmm mmm so good!



 Pork Hock 
*Oven Roasted Pork hock was amazing. The skin was crispy and the meat & fat inside was so juicy. I am used to korean-style braised pork hock with lots of spices. It seems like this dish did not have so much spice in it but there was no unpleasant smell of pork. I guess that is the sign of a good pork hock roast. :)



Cozy interior. 
There were vintage skis and snowshoe on the wall. 


Overall, we enjoyed our meal in Black Forest Steak & Schnitzel House. I do not know how objective we could be at the time as people say that Hunger is the best sauce in the world :) hehe




As soon as we came back to hotel, we headed to pools. It was quite nice to have quiet, relaxing time outside of the city :) 
We bought some beer and had them with Bento that i brought from home (spicy dried squid snack from Thailand) I had Thirsty Beaver Amber Ale & it was great for my taste - refreshing and not too hoppy :)


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Crystal Mall

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 I've never been to China, but for me, Crystal mall (especially food court and market downstairs) feels like a little China.:D  On Remembrance day, we went to Crystal mall to have some Chinese food & buy some papaya!

First off, we ordered Guiyang Style Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup from Huaxi noodle Specialist :) Of course, I have asked them to make it "extra-spicy" and it was just about right for me. Its heat comes mostly from chili  oil and peppercorn. The soup had surprisingly plenty of chicken pieces (bone-in) and it was well marinated. I don't know exactly how this noodle soup should be prepared but I think they use pre-braised chicken since the chicken marinade was saltier than the actual broth.  I wish that the soup was hotter (in temp.) but maybe that's too much to expect from food court vendor.
Guiyang Style Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup 


We also ordered some Xiao Long Bao (XLB) from Xu's Wonton House. We have not tried enough XLB to judge the taste but we both liked it. They were very hot and juicy inside but felt like the skin was a bit too thick on the top. 

 Xiao Long Bao 


 After having noodle and XLB, we decided to exercise(?) and walk around the mall to prep our stomach for some icy dessert. :)

Veggie & Fruit market. There were a huge line up! 
I bought papayas and grape here and both were just so tasty!! 


We always come to Crystal mall just to have this...ICY! Today, we decided to go for 4 Mixed Icy from Cherry's Tea & Icy Bar since it was just two of us. So, for 4 mixed icy, you will choose 4 ingredients to put on your shaved ice. We chose red bean sauce, lychee, mochi and almond tofu. After carefully putting the toppings on top of the ice, they will put little more ice and condensed milk + Syrup combo - YUM!

4 mixed icy

 look at that lychee and mochi....I'm drooling now.



Huaxi Noodle Stall (Crystal Mall) on Urbanspoon

Xu's Wonton House 白玉蘭麵家 on Urbanspoon

Cherry Fruit Juice & Icy Bar (Crystal Mall) on Urbanspoon

Guu Otokomae

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I think we are becoming food bloggers now :D. We love food way too much - We talk about other food item while having a meal or share recipe and drool while eating other things. lolzz
Okay, so this time we finally got to visit my favorite Guu in Vancouver: Guu Otokomae in Gastown.

Always start with David's pre-meal pic :P


Blanche de Chambly (pale ale from Quebec) & Kirin (it was clearly marked that this Kirin was brewed in Germany - does that make some difference about the Japanese beer???) 

Grilled Black Cod - THE BEST

If I have to choose the type of fish that I love the most "grilled", it would be no doubt Black Cod. It has delicate white meat with natural sweetness to it. 

Fried Brie Cheese w/ Mango & Blueberry sauce

Too Cheesy for Puggy ;p but I loved it!

BBQ EEL Bibimbap

Ok, I really have problem with Japanese restaurant putting Korean menu name without acknowledging that it's Korean... :P Anywho~ yes, Bibimbap is korean word for "mixed rice". we have different variety of it and basically the ways you can make it is limitless :)  This kind was made in hot stone bowl, keeping all ingredients hot and also it can create crispy bits of rice on the bottom. Both David & I loved the crispy parts ;)  


Maguro with 5 sauces

This dish is visually pleasing and tasted as good as well. They mixed chopped tuna sashimi with crispy wonton bits, avocado and other veggie with 5 different sauces - Teriyaki/ cucumber/ Mango/ Wasabi/ Yuzu

Keep in mind that this is not the dish which you can taste the fresh, natural taste of sashimi itself. This is more of modern/fusion take on things like negitoro (tuna belly + green onion mix) You cannot taste all sauces individually but it is really good! We were both thinking that we could have a bowl of rice with this one on top with some bonito flakes + toasted garlic flakes + nori and it would taste heavenly.

We were so stuffed after meal and could not go for the hot stone bowl dessert at Guu. I gotta pace myself next time and try that for sure! :) 

Guu Otokomae on Urbanspoon

Ramen Jinya - Best choice for cold, rainy day

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I can really feel the winter creeping in Vancouver these days. I have been in Vancouver more than 13 years but annual denial and short term memory loss of what Vancouver winter is like is something I cannot get over  :p  Well, this weather can be miserable but it is definitely a perfect one to try different soup-y dish around town. Today, we went to Ramen Jinya for good old Japanese Ramen. 

I usually have their shoyu ramen, but this time, they had a new addition to their menu. RED LABEL SPICY RAMEN. (There is one thing you have to understand about me. I LOVE spicy food. It's kind of addiction of mine.)  I really wanted to try level 10, but I was worried that it would be like drinking Wings' Bobby Wing sauce. Also, the waitress told us some guy cried after eating level 10...Interesting. So I tried level 8 and David tried level 5 :D  



Level 5 

Level 8 - It's basically the same but more red than 5. 

The spiciness of level 8 was enough to make me sweat and create temporary botoxed lip effect. When you first have a sip of the soup, it is not that bad - it's not kick-in-your-throat kind of heat (You know those kind where you have it while inhaling  and you will choke on the spiciness) This one was quite mild in flavor but the heat will very soon build up in your mouth. As usual, their soup base was very rich and flavorful but I wished they had little more veggie and meat in the soup. I am too used to Motomachi Shokudo's ramen, so Ramen Jinya's ramen seemed to have less variety of things to chew on while enjoying the noodle itself. Overall, we enjoyed the Red label Spicy Ramen and next time, I shall challenge level 10...haha! 

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Afternoon meal at Giovane Cafe + Winebar

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Since I got a birthday party of my close friend Duy last night, we couldn't spend our Friday night together. However, we tried to meet up and had some very good afternoon meal at Giovane Cafe + Winebar located in Pacific Rim Hotel near Coal Harbour. It is such a nice cafe with great foods and wine. I have been looking for cafes like this in Vancouver because I'm not a big fan of the chain coffee shops like Starbucks in which the food sucks and coffee is average. I want some cafes with different characteristics and different experiences on their food and services. We got really nice seats near the window so we can watch people while enjoying our good food. The food is totally made in house, fresh and impressive.

"I'm so hungry but I will try to smile..." 


Jeanette: Giovane has AMAZING pizza - the one we ordered was Funghi (mushroom) and the aroma of truffle oil was to die for...I'm still drooling thinking of it...lol
Giovane is well-known for its hot chocolate and wine bar as well. We should come back here in the evening for wine & cheese here. I am 1000% sure that you will like it :)

The Funghi Pizza 

Daily Special Sandwich - was it turkey with cranberry sauce and prosciutto? 

Pizza was way too amazing and wiped out all the memory about this sandwich lol 
but this was good too!


Handmade pastas 

We were surprised to see the chef to come out and display & dry their handmade pasta.

 
Ahhh, daily dose of self portrait lol 

Everything seems to be done right here ;) 

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