Aqua Riva

A birthday dinner with KD at the Aqua Riva, Jas and I shared the Seafood Trio, omg so delicious! It was a good time for Jas and KD to catch up since they hadn't seen each other in over a year. All in all, the meal was decent altho the dessert was gross! And expensive :( Oh well, next time, no dessert! It was a great way to end the long work week.....

Happy 91st Birthday Grandma!

Tonite, we celebrated my grandma's 91st birthday at Shanghai River Restaurant in Richmond. The start of the dinner wasn't very good as they pushed our 7:30pm reservation to almost 8pm! We also came to this restaurant cos we wanted to eat crispy duck skin and mom had reserved a plate when she made our resos but apparently, they had sold out and didn't have a dish for us! Gosh, mom was super angry and wanted to leave the restaurant for another place. But we thought it was best to stay since we've already sat down which we had to wait 30 minutes for this table and it's a Saturday which means all the restaurants in the area would be super busy and we'd have to wait another 30 minutes for another table! But it was such a disappointment that we did not have the crispy duck skin since it was a birthday request. The manager seemed to be very apologetic altho mom didn't think so and he offered us a shredded duck dish served with lettuce wrap. This is kinda ironic since we did not want to eat this dish and was only going to go for the crispy skin. We ordered a few of the main dishes to share but we found the dishes very bland and such a disappointment. We will not be coming back to this place and we will try Northern Delicacy in Aberdeen the next time we want to eat Shanghainese cuisine or Xiao Long Baos (steamed pork dumplings). After dinner, we asked for our fresh mango cake to be served and the waitress looked confused. My goodness, the service is not great at all but can't expect much from an asian restaurant. I can't believe a year has past since my sister was here :( Makes me kinda sad but I'm sure I'll see her soon, hopefully next Spring!

Happy 16th Birthday Kay!

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY KAY!!

OMG, I can't believe she's finally 16! It's so crazy how quickly time has passed esp when you have kids. She can now get her DL and her very own passport! She looks so grown up and I can't believe my little girl is not so little anymore.

We had dinner reservations at Lux at the Caprice on Granville Street with just our best buds. It was really nice to have HonHon here to celebrate Kay's 16th birthday as well since he has missed most of her birthdays when he left for Taiwan. Altho the food wasn't that great, at least the decor was very chic and it was about spending a great evening with our besties! I let Kay pick out a birthday cake from Cupcakes or Cheesecake Etc. and she choose the Cupcake cake, there is plenty of leftovers and I'm sure I'll be eating a slice every day til it's finished, oh gawd, will be hard to dine out daily and eat sugary stuff while on vacation! I will probably get no exercise in at all this week that HonHon is in town! But in the end, it's all worth it (even the weight gain) cos we get to spend time with HonHon :)

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Warren!!

Tonite, we celebrated my brother's 31st birthday at Vivacity in Richmond cos he didn't want to have a huge dinner but instead planned a night out (drinking at the club) with his buddies. Originally I figured he would want to have steak for dinner but his fave place is HSG and that is in the heart of Yaletown (aka Olympic Party Central) so we decided on his next fave meal being Peking Duck. I made reservations at Viviacity for 8pm so there was plenty of time for him and Tomina to get ready. I was to pick up Tomina before heading out to Richmond for dinner cos they were planning to take my brother's car tonite. Before picking up T, I headed over to Dairy Queen to get my brother a DQ ice cream cake cos you can't celebrate your birthday without a cake! I lucked out cos DQ had a golf themed ice cream cake! Tomina and I arrived right on time but of course, they were fashionably late, we didn't order anything but tea as I have no idea on how to order at these places. My dad went all out for my brother's dinner, as always he ordered way too many dishes again and one of the features of dinner was the lobster, mmmmm so yummy! The Peking duck was pretty good altho the duck meat dish with lettuce wrap was just ok. Poor T, she doesn't eat meat but will eat chicken occasionally so she didn't eat that much. Altho she did eat a little bit of the lobster and we did order a veggie dish consisting of snow pea shoots with dried scallops and mushrooms. She's going to be hungry later! Overall, the customer service at the restaurant was pretty awesome (think cos my dad was there earlier in the day for dim sum!) and the dishes were relatively good. More photos on my flickr account.

Happy (early) Birthday Rhoda!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHODA!!

We celebrated Rhoda's birthday with dinner at Nu Restaurant under the Granville Street bridge with a group of friends but our party was so large that we had our own room to dine in, this room is meant for small events and such, bonus is that it's complimentary. This turned out to be really nice and it was so awesome to see and catch up with everyone even though it was such a large group, I did find it a bit hard to mingle with everyone. The menu was simple and it was cool to see a number of 100 mile entrees. The food wasn't too bad but I def think brunch at Nu is much better than dinner. The service was not too bad altho by the end of the nite, we had some issues with our bills and it took them forever to get them organized and straightened out. Right before the end of the dinner, our friend, Tim picked up a 3 D Hello Kitty birthday cake for her and it was the coolest birthday cake ever but it was super sweet and the cake inside was just so so. After dinner, some of us headed into the downtown core.....

...to a new club called Barcelona (previous known as Crush) night club. It was a bit difficult to find parking but Rhoda and I found a small and shady lot not too far (walking distance) from the club. The front entrance of the club was crazy packed and even tho we were on the guest list, we'd still have to wait in the VIP line up! OMG, I am too old to wait in line to get into a club!! Some of the girls "greased" the bouncers to get in first but I would never ever grease to get into a club! Luckily, Fel managed to track down a friend of hers and he managed to get 7 girls in but the guys had to wait and it was suppose to be only about a 15 or 20 minute wait time but they ended up waiting for almost an hour!! They were not pleased and left even tho they were the next ones to get in but it was a super freezing nite so I don't blame them for leaving :( Once inside the club, we manage to get free cover and it was time to party. Since I was in charge of the birthday girl, i did not drink one ounce of alcohol and kept a close eye on her, many people were buying her birthday shots, I even had a guy from Calgary buy her a birthday shot altho I manage to give it to one of the other girls cos by that time, Rhoda was too wasted to be drinking any more alcohol!! There was a guy who seemed to like Rhoda cos he was very protective over her :) It was a fun nite and I don't club very often which I know why cos girls don't know how to hold onto their glasses nor do these drunk asses have any manners!! The floors were disgustingly sticky and lots of broken glass all over the floor plus people kept spilling their drinks all over the place or people were just shovers!! Besides all that, it wasn't too bad of a nite and all that was important was Rhoda had a great time! She looked like she had an awesome time and everyone came out for her tonite and she totally deserved it! Every year, she looks younger - amazing!! I got her home at the end of the nite safely and almost into her bed :) Happy birthday and love you tons!!

Happy Birthday E!

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY E!

Today is E's birthday but I am not at the office to help celebrate this milestone birthday! I can't wait to hear all about her big day!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

Tonite, we celebrated my mom's birthday and she doesn't look a day over 40! We made reservations at Boston Steakhouse in Richmond cos my mom wanted to have steak on her birthday. At first, mom wanted to go to Stone Grill (under the Granville Street bridge) but she knew my brother and I were going to pay for dinner so she decided against it cos she didn't want us to spend that much money. We told her the next time she wants to eat steak, we are going to take her to The Keg instead cos they actually cook the steak for you! Mom, grams, my brother ordered from the stone grill menu (its a set meal that comes with a drink, sides and dessert - fresh mango "from the Philippines" cake) while Kay, HonHon and I choose from the regular menu ordering a fried noodle and Korean ribs hot plate. Before dinner, Kay and I headed over to Richmond first cos we had to pick up the fresh mango birthday cake from Regent bakery (yes that is how good it is!) and since we had some time, we shopped a bit in Aberdeen Centre but more on that later. After the meals, I had asked the waitress to bring the "cakes" which meant the birthday cake as well but she didn't get it and only brought over the 3 slices of mango cake with the stone grill meal. After 5 minutes, another waiter brought over the birthday cake with a candle and mom was pretty shocked by it! I told her, now she's got a whole mango cake to herself (well no not really, I'm pretty sure we are gonna finish it in a day or so!) but there is a lot of mango cake leftover. Once we were all stuffed with cake, mom opened her b'day gift, we had bought her a Kensignton laptop mouse cos hers broke and she couldn't justify paying that amount of money for it cos she got hers at a really great price! I didn't wait for the sale and decided if that mouse would make it easier and happier then it's worth the price. She of course loved it and I told her ENJOY IT. Hahaha, this family are so geeky! After dinner, we all went our separate ways (brother going out to party, mom and grams in their own car) but before we headed home, Kay wanted to stop over to Welltea so she could get a passion fruit slushie with pearls. I'm pretty sure she's gonna have a problem sleeping cos she has already had 2 large glasses of ice HK milk tea! Oh well, she's a teenager, she can handle it. Hopefully, my mom had a great time and she enjoyed herself even tho the dinner wasn't that great!

Before Dinner: Kay and I were at Aberdeen Centre to walk around a bit cos we had a bit of time left before going to the airport to pick up HonHon. We went over to Daiso and I picked up a few items for the house like a mini garbage can for the washroom, a file folder with many pockets for my recipes, and a remote control caddy for all our remotes. We also discovered a new Hello Kitty store on the 3rd floor called Memory Collection, omg, so many cute Hello Kitty items and all from Japan! I have not seen so many cool Hello Kitty items, I ended up buying a eye mask, new chopsticks and a cute Hello Kitty charm for my coin purse and she is tanned!! This is Hello Kitty from Hawaii! So cute! I must go back to the store, we didn't have much time left so I quickly picked a few items but def going back again to buy a cellphone charm, there was just too much to choose from and I couldn't decide on which one to get!!!

Happy 1st Birthday Colin!

Today, we celebrated Colin's first birthday, I can't believe he's already one! Time flies by so fast when you have children and everyone is having babies! I finally met Cyrus (Olivia's first child) and he is adorable but then most babies are adorable! It was a nice b'day gathering and it was nice to catch up with everyone. After the celebration, Rhoda and I headed over to Metrotown to do a bit of shopping cos she is in need to buy something, she hasn't bought anything in 3 weeks! We headed over to Aritzia and she found a beautiful boyfriend blazer in a metallic colour which looked really awesome on her and it is much dressier than her other boyfriend blazer. I picked out a Talula black sleeveless dress with pockets and a sweetheart neckline which I did not think I would like cos it looked kinda short on the hanger. Surprisingly, it fit me perfectly and was not at all too short! I really should not have bought anything but I couldn't help it, the dress is so pretty and so me! After shopping thru the mall, we headed over to Superstore cos I needed to pick up some items before dropping Rhoda off at her house. My brother dropped by our place to chill out cos he was in the area and he hadn't seen my mom and grams in a couple of weeks. We stayed in for dinner and I introduced him to the Fringe series, he is now hooked! He is going to go out and purchase the blu ray dvds for the first season. I can only imagine how cool it will look on his TV, the series has some really awesome special effects in the show!

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Wow, I can't believe Jordan turned 4 (actually his real birthday was a couple weeks ago) and it seems like yesterday that I went to his 2nd birthday party! Gosh, how time flies esp when you have children, Kay will be turning 16 next year and that to me is still so unreal! Rhoda and I headed over there together cos it made sense to take one car into Langley. Surprisingly we made it to their place without having to call Travis for directions! It was a smaller gathering this year and it was really nice to see everyone. Grace, Colin and Isabella were there and those two are so big! Isabella is holding mini conversations and it's so cool. I remember when Kay used to talk like that, gosh how time flies. Jordan, Tristan and Travis's niece are also growing up so fast and getting so big plus those kids are just so adorable. After the party, we headed over to Superstore on Lougheed cos I needed to pick up a few items. Brentwood was our next stop to enjoy some air conditioning cos it was soooo hot today! We also picked up an iced drink from Starbucks to help cool us down. We stayed a bit before heading home, Rhoda had dinner plans and I needed to get home to watch the complete first season of Fringe cos season premiere is this Thursday! I love this show!

Belated Birthday Dinner

Tonite, Kay and I met up with Jes for my belated birthday dinner cos she was not able to make my birthday dinner. She asked me to choose a place and since I was craving Thai, she suggested Chilli Thai Bistro or Wimaan Thai Restaurant on Broadway. I wanted to try Chilli Thai Bistro on Beach Avenue cos I had read good reviews and I've never been there for dinner. The food was pretty good and I tried a new dish (Jes suggested it cos she always orders this), a whole fish with a candle/fire to keep warm served with vermicelli/veggies and very spicy soup! We ordered a lot food and I ate more than I usually would but it's my birthday dinner so I figured it was alrite. Rhoda wasn't too impressed with the food tho and I think she had a bit of a tummy ache. After dinner, we headed over to Qoola for dessert (even tho we were stuffed and with a tummy ache) cos Kay and I hadn't tried it yet and it's suppose to be very delicious, Jes has been raving about this frozen yogurt so I had high expectations. I have to say, it was pretty yummy but I should have tried the chocolate frozen yogurt cos the plain one is just like Yogen Fruz. After Qoola, we stopped by Smiley's cos I saw the Hello Kitty sign in the window and I wanted to check out the store, I have never been it there even tho I have driven past it so many times! There was so much Hello Kitty items and so many cute little knick knacks too! Jes picked up a HK tape dispenser and stuffie sleeping in a sleeping bag / zippered pouch. So cute! It was a lovely evening with my girls and I'm so glad we got the chance to catch up! Next Wednesday, Jes wants us to take her to the Main Street Farmer's Market cos we kept talking about all the great stuff we got today!!

Market by Jean-Georges

For my birthday lunch, Val took me to Market by Jean-Georges and it was such an amazing experience and meal. The decor and the food were divine and at $28 / person (3 plates), it was def a great price for lunch downtown. I wish I had brought my camera cos the presentation of the dishes were so beautiful like pieces of art. I had such a lovely time and it is def one of my fave places to go for lunch!

Appetizer: Seared Scallops Caramelized Cauliflower Caper-Raisin Emulsion

Entree: Slowly Cooked Arctic Char Mashed Potatoes Sugar Snap Peas Truffle Vinaigrette

Dessert: Chocolate Pudding Softly Whipped Cream Crystallized Violets

Saturday Nite

Tonite, Kay and I went to my dad's place for dinner, a late birthday dinner, cos we didn't get a chance to celebrate my birthday the day before. Dad decided it would be a good idea to stay in for dinner cos my brother was not home and he wanted to make lasagna for dinner cos he did not have it in a long time. The Safeway lasagna was pretty yummy and for dessert, my dad picked up a fresh fruit birthday cake for me. Mmmm... cake! I didn't get cake yesterday so it is a perfect way to end my birthday. After dinner/cake, we stayed a bit longer before I dropped Kay off at her BFF's place so she could hang out with her and then I met up with my BFF and friends. Earlier in the afternoon, I stopped by the BC liquor store to pick up some white wine for everyone. It was really nice spending time with everyone esp Lina and Andy who are visiting Vancouver for another week. I also love hearing G spin so that was pretty cool. Everyone is so nice and cool to hang out with, I'm going to miss these moments but I'm sure the next time I'm visiting HK, I'll get to party with them again!

My 34th Birthday!

Today I celebrated my 34th birthday with my bestest buds! Even old friends from Hong Kong visiting Vancouver came out to celebrate with me tonite! I feel so very lucky and special to have such wonderful friends in my life! Dinner reservations were at Irashai Grill on Pender Street, I really wanted to try to this place cos I heard some really great reviews on it. Also, very coincidental that Lina (friend from HK) had gone here for a dinner a few days before cos her friend's friend had opened this restaurant. She also gave it a good review so I was excited to try all the different types of rolls being offered on the menu and not realizing this was Japanese fusion. Loved the decor, very modern and sleek. Presentation of the food was beautiful and def super yummy delish. It was a great dinner with everyone enjoying great conversations with good food and drinks. It was so nice to that G and Lina could make it cos Lina lives in HK and I never get to see her! After a couple of hours at the restaurant, Vince and Meryl invited us all over to their place to enjoy some wine and more chit chat. I appreciated the hospitality and it was a shame that Charly and Rosa couldn't make it cos we all had an awesome time! Andy came by to join us after his dinner and it was so cool to hang out with everyone. It was def one of the best birthdays ever! Thank you Kayesha, Rhoda, Jasmine, G, Lina, Charly, Rosa, Vince, Meryl and Andy!!

Birthday Lunch at Thai House

This morning I was surprised to see a beautiful bouquet of carnations with a pretty birthday card and a Cineplex Odean movie gift card on my desk from my dear friend, Erica!

For lunch, a few of the lovely ladies in the office wanted to go out for lunch and we decided on the Thai House on Robson street. At first, there were no plans for lunch cos Rae and Val had mentioned I was adamant about not celebrating or going out for lunch on my birthday! Even tho, I didn't want to make a big deal about my birthday, I still wanted to go out for lunch and we did! Thai House has some really great lunch specials for under $10 and it comes with a soup and spring roll. The service is efficient and food comes out quickly so after our lunch we still had 20 minutes to spare. We decided to end lunch with a sweet note, picking up a cupcake from Cupcakes by Lori and Heather on Thurlow street. I treated the ladies to a cupcake since they took me out for lunch (actually Erica treated us all to lunch, she is such a sweet lady). It was a nice way to start my birthday!

White Spot Early B'day Dinner

Tonite, Kay was craving for a white spot burger so we (mom, kay and I) headed over to WS after I got back from the Grouse Grind and after a shower! WS had a $9.99 special - burger, fries and a milkshake but to our surprise it was no longer available but they did have another good special, burger, ceasar salad and a fresh BC blueberry pie with real cream! Kay ordered that with fries and mom had it the way it was, both added a slice of real cheddar cheese of course. I decided to go with a chicken chevre pizza which was a thin crust pizza topped with WS house-made Arrabbiata sauce, roasted BC chicken, basil goat cheese, grilled and marinated sweet golden bell peppers and red onions and a special blend of cheeses. It was pretty large and the toppings were pretty yummy altho I still prefer my own pizza crust cos this one was a bit too soggy for my liking. My mom treated this meal cos it is my b'day tomorrow and I won't be home to celebrate with her and grams. A very thoughtful gesture and if I had known, I would have picked a nicer place to eat! =) After our dinner, we dropped Kay at home cos she has a unit test to study for and mom and I headed over to Superstore to pick up some items. Wow Superstore was super quiet so nice to shop there when it's so empty. We picked up a few things and headed home, in time to see my grams. She had won $7 at her mahjong game and was quite happy to have won and not lost another game! Both of them gave me lucky money and they really shouldn't have. My grams told me she was going to give me a big one and that I should buy something nice for myself. My grams is so sweet!!! =)

Happy (early) Birthday Lunch

Thank you RaeRae for an early birthday lunch! We headed over to Tropika cos they have some good lunch specials plus I really like Lunch Combo C =) (white rice with curry beef, sambal egg and indonesian spring roll - yummy!). We celebrated early cos Rae is going on a trip to San Fran, she flies out tomorrow and won't back in the office until Monday, August 10. It was nice to finally have lunch cos we have been meaning to do this for a while but both have been busy. We caught up on each other's lives and what was going on. It was really nice! I don't see Rae as much any more cos she is on the 14th floor =( After lunch, we headed over to the Gap cos I had a 30% off coupon and I wanted to pick up some tank tops for this heat! Plus my fave tank top (Old Navy) is getting worn out and it needs to be replaced (well I don't know if I can get rid of it cos it's my FAVE!!) and I manage to get 2 solid colour tank tops for $17.50 (with the discount!). Nice! I think I will have to go over to Old Navy after the GG and before I head over to Rhoda's to see if I can find anything there as well. I'm happy to say the weather has finally cooled down a bit and hopefully it will not be too hot during the afternoon for Jes & B's wedding! Wow, only 1 more sleep!

Happy Perforated Paper Day!

Tonite, we celebrated Perforated Paper Day instead of Val's birthday! Hehehe, she did not want to make a big fuss about her birthday so even tho we gathered for dinner at Lao Shan Dong Noodle House by Metrotown to celebrate, we cheered Perforated Paper. Before heading over to the restaurant, I had some time and wanted to pick up something at Metrotown. I had an Element Eden summer dress on hold at Below the Belt and lucky for me it was on sale! Reg $50 to $39.99 =) But like the dress in BTB on Robson (which was NOT on sale), a button is missing so I'm gonna have to jack one from the Robson BTB. After picking up my dress and walking thru the mall, it was time to head over to the restaurant and I decided to walk over instead of driving 2 blocks and looking for parking cos it is across the street from HBC. This restaurant is so small and always so busy (esp dinner time) but thankfully, the food gets out quickly so the turnaround rate for tables are within 20 minutes. I think this place serves the best Taiwanese soup noodles! Mmmm.... yummy! After dinner, all of us headed over to Val's house for drinks cos she needed to be at home in case her mom needed her (she just had a minor operation and could not be on her feet). It was really nice catching up with her and friends but I had to leave around 10 to pick up Kay at Tashna's house. It was a such a fun and entertaining evening plus they are sooo funny!!

Happy Birthday Diana! (and GG)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANA!

Gosh, what a way to celebrate your birthday .... hiking up the Grouse Grind! Yikes! But she really wanted to do it and what a super hot day for it! I can usually finish the GG in under 60 mins but today, I was having some difficulty cos it was so hot and twice I almost slipped! FInished in 1 h 2 m 47 s - not too please but at least I didn't pass out on the trail which I thought I would. After the GG, we surprised Diana by taking her over to Debbie's (Charly's mom) cos she made a grand feast for the occasion, ohmy so much food! Debbie is so sweet and thoughtful, cooking all that food for us and making separate items for me cos Charly told her I was on a no fat or oil diet. Everything was so delicious and I loved the white fish she steamed for me! Super yummy! After dinner, we surprised her again with a birthday cake that I picked up from Saint Germain Bakery at Metro last nite. It was a really great nite with great conversations! It was so nice to meet Diana and one day (maybe next year), I will visit her (and Ivan) in Mexico!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My dad turned 69 this year, wow I can't believe he's celebrating a "dai" birthday next year! This year, we (my brother and I) wanted to buy him a new 32" LCD TV for his birthday but the Samsung we wanted to buy was sold out cos it was on sale at a really good price. But then, we realized neither one of us could really afford it so it was decided that next year we would buy it for his "dai" birthday and something this extravagant would be nice cos he doesn't want us to throw him a big party. My brother was suppose to order and pick up a fresh mango birthday cake but I couldn't remember the name of the bakery that my dad liked nor could I find it on google. I ended up with a fresh strawberry napoleon cake at Harvest Moon Bakery which is closely located to the Wheat Garden Bakery (which I know now) on Westminster Highway. Daddy made dinner reservations for 7pm at this place we've been to a few times on Alexandra Road (can't remember the name of the restaurant). The dishes are tasty, the lobster was super delish and at a pretty good price! After dinner, we headed home with lots of leftovers for cake and present. We didn't realize the lady had bought a birthday cake for daddy too so he had 2 birthday cakes! Daddy really liked the Sony digital photo frame (he likes anything Sony or electronic) we gave him (I guess I will get one for myself the next time it's on sale) and hopefully, he will use it! He's going on an Alaskan cruise next month so I'm sure he'll have tons of photos to display =)

Happy Birthday Princess!

Happy Birthday Jess!

Today, we celebrated Jess's birthday at Joey's in Coquitlam. Kay and I headed over to Rhoda's place around 6.30 and we all headed down to Joey's together. It was a nice dinner and it was auntie's first time at Joey's. B managed to join us and there was a lot of wedding talk, hopefully, it's not getting too stressful for Jess or Rhoda! We ordered appetizers, a main entree, and dessert of course! I hope Jess liked her birthday gift and it was nice to see her wearing the Tinker Bell necklace cos she can see what a pretty match the earrings are to her necklace. It was a late night and I have an early morning meeting tomorrow but def worth it. It is always so nice to spend time with my "other" family :) (Photos to follow... I didn't take any with mine!)