Smooch Food: Love Letters to Every Bite

Last September 2020, I wrote a post on why HelloFresh doesn't work for my household. This week we gave HelloFresh another shot because I'm on a "diet," and HelloFresh provides nutritional information that helps manage my food intake. I address each counterpoint below. 1. Hack to make HelloFresh feel less expensive This time I ordered 3 meals per week for 2 persons. I still think it's expensive, but I found a hack that will make it more tolerable. The serving portion and calories for each meal are big (when you're on a diet), so I divide each meal into four instead of dividing each meal into the recommended two. We eat half for dinner, and the rest I put in the fridge for lunch the following day. This technique allows me to stay under my calorie intake, making spending for HelloFresh more acceptable.  It solves both lunch and dinner! If you're working from home and have to think about meals ...

One of our after-work entertainment is watching Mikey Chen and Strictly Dumplings on YouTube. In the most recent video we watched, he enjoyed a bowl of pho and other Vietnamese dishes. Thus, we decided to go to the closest Vietnamese restaurant to our place: Viet Flavour Restaurant. We used to have Express Pho a couple blocks away, but it has closed down to give way for the new sky train station. Today, we ordered two main dishes, an appetizer, and a dessert. Pho Dac Biet Special beef noodle soup (pho) with rare beef, brisket, beef balls, and tripe Delicious! It's so delicious I want to cry. I tried adding Sriracha to see its flavour, and I am not a fan of adding it to my pho. It adds heat, but that's about it. I love my pho bowl as is. Com Suon, Cha, Cha Gio Grilled lemongrass pork, chicken, and spring roll on rice This is hubby's order. Of course, I would order my favourite beef stew if he ordered pho, but that's just a good reason to come back. Cha Gio Vietnamese dee...

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building. Trying to catch a food truck is always a challenge. We went to TGIF today in hopes of enjoying dinner from The Jerk Shack. Unfortunately, when we got there at 6:30 PM, they're already gone. That said, we saw The Brownie Bakers. Thankfully, they have more brownie flavours still available, so I ordered one of each available flavour. Three different brownie flavours from The Brownie Bakers I mentioned in my previous, and I will reiterate that their brownie is fudgier (cake-like?) and quite different from brownies from stores. I should bring some for my youngest sister since she bakes brownies just to see what she thinks. Plai...

Today is my third time ordering from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery, and we have enjoyed all their dishes so far. Today we ordered three dishes and two desserts. Lunch delivery from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery For lunch, we enjoyed the fried  Daing na Bangus and Kaldereta . Then, we'll have the  Batil Patong  in the next couple of days. For desserts, we ordered Ube (purple yam) Brownie and Cassava Cake. Batil Patong Menu Description : From Roy's hometown, Tuguegarao. Stir fry egg noodles, pork belly, egg, cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, and ground beef It is the reason I love trying new dishes. Batil Patong is so delicious, and I hadn't heard of it before hubby pointed it out in the Kulinarya Filipino Eatery menu. It's saucy, and as you can see from the picture, the serving is tremendous - definitely good for sharing. Daing na Bangus Boneless milkfish with tomato and onion Ensalada The Ensalada is so delicious, and of course, boneless milkfish is my favourite fish from the Phil...

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building. Happy Saturday! I am going to let you in on a little secret. I started dieting again, and do you have any idea how hard it is to diet when you love good, delicious food? That's why the number of posts has slowed down this August because preparing meals at home would allow me to control portions and ingredients. That said, it's my goal to try as many food trucks as I could that's part of TGIF. Yesterday, they announced on Instagram that a new food truck is going to be participating today. Hence, we had lunch from Food Daddy Persian Cuisine. ...

It's been 2 years, 5 months, and 5 days since I last saw my former colleagues in the office because we started working from home at the start of the pandemic. We had dinner today because one of them is also leaving the company. As an immigrant, my first friends in Canada are my former colleagues turned friends and I couldn't be happier to see them again after more than two years and catch up. For dinner, I had my absolute favourite from The Wicklow Pub: Yorkshire Pudding Bowl. It's so delicious. I am already planning on when to come back with hubby to try their other items. Yorkshire Pudding Bowl Certified roast angus beef, house gravy, garlic mash potatoes, and horseradish aioli Before dinner view at around 5:30 PM After dinner view of the sunset at around 8:30 PM I can't wait to plan a reunion with them around Christmas time.

Happy Saturday! Hubby and I went shopping today at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Vancouver Airport, then for lunch, we decided to enjoy a meal at Japadog. We ordered two Japadog. Ebi Tempura Shrimp tempura, seasoned rice, and seaweed It's so unusual to see rice between hotdog buns. The only reason we ordered this is because we're going through their menu and this is the next one on the list. Love Meat Japadog Arabiki pork, torched cheese, special meat sauce (beef)  The Love Meat Japadog is perfect for those who wants a more familiar American hotdog. It's not as "out of this world" like other flavours. Plain Takoyaki Japanese octopus dumplings Butter & Shoyu (Soy Sauce) Shaked Fries The takoyaki and fries is pretty standard. If you crave for takoyaki or fries, this will hit the spot. Omatcha Parfait We ended our delicious meal with Omatcha Parfait. It has green tea ice cream, red beans paste, Japanese mochi, corn flakes, vanilla ice cream, and Japanese matcha je...

Once a quarter, hubby and I do a Costco grocery run with my parent's membership card. We usually buy hand soap, paper towels, toilet paper, tissue boxes, detergents, and other things that usually don't expire quickly. After the trip, we treat them to lunch as our way of saying thank you. My dad loves Redbeef Noodle Kitchen, and we do too. So hence, we had lunch here today. Redbeef is my second favourite restaurant in Vancouver, right after Suika. I also have a dish that I consistently order: Chicken Cutlet Rice and Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken.  Steamed Pork Soup Dumplings I prefer the ones from Lin Chinese Cuisine in West Broadway. Fried Spareribs with Rice Well-seasoned and tender. I enjoyed the pieces hubby shared with me. Malay Sponge Cake - if you want not sweet and extremely soft sponge cake, this is it! Chicken Cutlet Rice Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken I will always get the chicken cutlet rice and salt & pepper popcorn chicken - so good! Happy Saturday!