Maple Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches from Tim Hortons

As part of our Sunday routine, we had breakfast at Tim Hortons before heading to Mass.

For today, we tried the new Maple Bacon Breakfast Sandwiches. It comes with English Muffin by default which hubby enjoyed while I changed mine to Homestyle Biscuit.

Maple Bacon Breakfast Sandwich from Tim Hortons

Maple Bacon Breakfast Sandwich from Tim Hortons

As expected, the bacon is sweeter and works better with the English Muffin. Overall, I want it to stay because it's definitely a level up to Tims existing default bacon.

Breakfast at A&W

Happy Saturday! We're going to Richmond today to hangout with my siblings and parents. Before riding the train there, we had breakfast at A&W.

Orange Juice and Coffee

Pancakes with Syrup
Three light and fluffy pancakes topped with syrup

Classic Bacon and Eggs
Two freshly cracked eggs from hens fed a vegetarian diet served with three strips of naturally smoked bacon from pork raised without the use of antibiotics and two slices of warm toast.

The pancake was enjoyable and I love the orange juice.

Dinner from The Bake House in Metropolis at Metrotown food court

As if the dinner from Manchu Wok is insufficient we decided to try food the The Bake House since we haven't seen it in any of the food courts we've had the chance to visit.

It took as awhile to choose a dish, but settled on the Seafood Alfredo with a side of Croissant and Creamy Mushroom Soup.

Seafood Alfredo
Salmon, prawn, scallop, imitated crab meat, mushroom, and onion

The pasta is better than I imagined coming from a stand in the food court. It's not mind-blowing by any means, but delicious.

The same can be said about the Creamy Mushroom Soup and Croissant.

Dinner from Manchu Wok at Metropolis at Metrotown food court

I have an ear infection on my right ear and setup an appointment with our family doctor this afternoon. He looked at my ear and asked a bunch of questions and gave me a prescription for antibiotics.

After the appointment and buying medication, we went to the Metropolis at Metrotown food court for dinner. We looked at the available options and decided based on whether we've seen it in Pacific Center or Richmond Center food courts.

That's how I end up ordering from Manchu Wok. I'm in a lot of pain because of my ear and just want to shove food in my face. I also don't feel like writing in this blog which is sad because this is one of my happy place.

Dinner from Manchu Wok

I chose three items on top of fried rice. My three items were General Tso's Chicken, Salt & Pepper Fish, and BBQ Pork.

My favourite is the BBQ Pork. It's so fatty and delicious. What I ordered is too much for one person, so hubby and I shared it.

Brunch at Paul’s Omelettery

Happy Sunday! After Mass today, we went to Paul’s Omelettery for brunch since I am craving pancakes.

Lumberjack
2 Pancakes, maple syrup, three cheese omelette, pan fries, fruit cup, and Oktoberfest sausage

Corned Beef Hash
Sautéed potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, bacon and corned beef topped with two free-run poached eggs, and shredded cheddar & Edam cheese

Pancake craving satisfied! I also love the ketchup and hot sauce combination. It’s spicy and tangy.

Guest Post: Lunch at Cactus Club Coal Harbour

This post is written by my husband.

I met up with a high school friend and batchmate today in Downtown Vancouver. He's now based in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is on his way to pick up his family at the YVR Airport and he's got a few hours to spare. Plus, he asked if I can sign a copy of my book that he had bought.

We agreed to meet up at the Waterfront Station to make it easier for him to travel. It's his first time in Vancouver, so we walked to Canada Place then to the seawall to the Jack Poole Plaza. We ended up at the Cactus Club for lunch.

There was a line for walk-ins but we can see there are available tables inside and outside. The host still asked for my name and number to add to their waitlist app, then the app sent me a text message. There was no need to wait though as she referred us to another person who walked us to our table. I don't know what's the need for asking the name and number. This process was unnecessary and adding more time before guests can be seated. It's why there's a line outside, even after as we were going out, despite the number of available and clean tables.

I ordered the Four Mushroom steak for lunch. It was good but I think I would prefer their other steak options.

Four Mushroom Steak
8oz certified angus beef® sirloin, shiitake, portobello, button and crimini mushroom demi-glace, buttered mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus

For dessert, I ordered the Five Layer Coconut Cake (which is "New" according to the menu). It wasn't served vertically as the one on the menu so my enjoyment of it was decreased. They also labeled it as "made to share" but it was just the regular slice (which isn't even enough for me). It was good but I think the other desserts were better.

Five Layer Coconut Cake
cream cheese frosting, passion fruit mango purée, hand whipped cream

After lunch, we walked a bit to the Gastown Steam Clock and Vancouver Art Gallery before he went back to the Waterfront Station to return to the airport.

Dinner from ZAC-ZAC Japanese Curry House at H-Mart

While hubby spent time with his high school friend, I visited the Vancouver Public library to check travel guide books. I know it's "old school" to read travel guides because everything is online, but it feels nice to touch physical books.

After an hour or so, I met up with my husband, and we decided to have a food coma dinner at ZAC-ZAC Japanese Curry House inside the H-Mart. 

I ordered the Katsu Curry while hubby chose the Fish Furai Curry. We also ordered a basket of Chicken Karaage.

Fish Furai Curry
Panko breaded filet served with rice.

Chicken Karaage

Katsu Curry
Pork cutlet. Served with rice

I surprisingly preferred the fish curry. It's soft and delicate inside, which worked well with the crunchy outside. Meanwhile, the fried chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked.

When I first tried the curry here in 2016, I thought it was one of the best available in the city. Still, Suika and Mr. Japanese Curry totally raised my Japanese curry expectations that this is acceptable to satisfy your cravings but not meet your emotional needs that can only be satisfied with absolutely delicious food.

Dinner from Beast on Fire and Unleashed at BC Place | Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Houston Dynamo FC

I have purchased from every food stand at BC Place (you can check my progress here), so my goal is to go through the checklist and order as many food items as possible to make a list of my favourites.

So far, I conclude that anything with the short rib is delicious, whether in a rice bowl, with poutine, burger, or on top of mac and cheese.

For dinner tonight, we ordered the Chicken and Waffle from Beasts on Fire and Bao Burger from Beasts Unleashed.

Chicken and Waffle from Beasts on Fire

The waffle was surprisingly sweeter than I expected in a savoury dish. Since it's served without syrup, it makes sense. The chicken is not fried. It's roasted. I haven't seen a grilled, fried chicken with waffles before, but the sweetness of the waffle overpowers any flavour the chicken has. Thankfully, the chicken is not dry, and there's a mayo sauce that seems spicy, but it just doesn't work because of the sweet waffle.

Chicken and Waffles with a bag of Miss Vickie's Original Recipe chips

Chicken and Waffles from Beast on Fire
Tender roasted chicken, toasted waffle, aged cheddar, and chipotle aioli served with kettle chips.

Short Rib Bao Burger from Beast Unleased

This one is a winner! The short rib was juicy and well-seasoned, while the shell bun was soft and surprisingly delicious. Arugula is one of my favourite vegetables as it changes the flavour profile and acts like a palate cleanser. However, I wish there were more pickled carrots and radish to balance the fatty short rib.

Short Tib Bao Burger from Beast Unleashed
Pull short rib, arugula, pickled carrots, radish, and hoisin mayo on a steam shell bun.

Overall, it's a good food night, and somehow the Whitecaps pulled a last-minute win on an overall bad game.

Dinner at Mr. Japanese Curry

We're celebrating our 11th year as a couple today. So I asked my husband to choose where we should have dinner. It doesn't have to be fancy, and it could be Tim Hortons or McDonald's for all I care, as long as we have dinner outside our apartment.

He said Mr. Japanese Curry or Suika because he knows I am crazy about Japanese curry and love what both restaurants serve. So, after 5:00 PM, we started our walk to Cambie Street to the location of Mr. Japanese Curry.

Interior of Mr. Japanese Curry in Vancouver

We ordered a lot of things. First, I had the Menchi Katsu Curry, while my hubby had the Tonkatsu Curry. Then for our siders, I ordered a small chicken karaage (5 pieces) and curry poutine. Finally, to end our meal, we ordered the Matcha Tiramisu and Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée.

Menchi Katsu Curry
Beef curry with a fried hamburger patty

I can't believe it's possible to have too much fat flavour, but that's how the hamburger patty felt with the already delicious beef curry. The patty was juicy, so all the juiciness coming out of it goes to the beef curry changing its flavour to be oilier than it really is.

Tonkatsu Curry
Chicken curry with sliced pork cutlet

I feel like two toppings always go well with curry: fried pork (tonkatsu) and fried chicken (karaage). Tonkatsu with chicken curry or beef curry will always be delicious.

Curry Poutine
Crispy fries with beef curry sauce and melted cheese

You can not go wrong with a curry version of the poutine, but what makes this version from Mr. Japanese Curry standout is they use melted cheese instead of curds. The melted cheese works so well with the curry sauce.

Matcha Tiramisu

It's hard to pick just one dessert because they both have positives. The matcha flavour from the tiramisu is impressive, but the cake itself is dry, which is unfortunate. Meanwhile, the Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée is the perfect dessert after a curry. It cleanses and cools down your tongue and palate, but the flavour is not as strong.

Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée

While enjoying our dinner, we're already discussing strategies when we return.

Dinner at Genki Eki

Genki Eki opened maybe a couple weeks ago near the corner of West Broadway and Heather Street, sandwiched between Michael's and Blenz Coffee.

We entered the newly opened Japanese restaurant and loved the interior. Check out the bus (or train) stop-looking décor with a bench and carton box-designed vending machine.

inside Genki Eki

Genki Eki is Subway-like in the sense that you choose which bowl you want in five steps. I'll list down the available options when we were there today.

Step 1: Choose one noodle

Udon

Soba

Ramen

Step 2: Choose one protein

Beef with onion

Chicken breast

BBQ Pork

Duck breast

Step 3: Choose one sauce

Soy Base	Spicy Base	Curry Base
Wasabi Soy	Yuzu Miso	Sesame Base

Step 4: Choose two toppings

Tamago Egg	Fish Cake	House Kimchi
Sweet Corn	Bamboo	Bacon Crumble
Cucumber	Carrot	Snow Crab
Tomato	Ham	Broccoli

Vegetable Medley

Lettuce

Step 5: Choose three mix-ins

Green Onion

Crispy Tempura

Garlic

Pickled Ginger

Seaweed (Nori)

Below are the ingredients we picked for our bowls.

	For Me	For Hubby
Noodle	Udon	Ramen
Protein	Chicken Breast	BBQ Pork
Sauce	Curry Base	Yuzu Miso
Toppings	Carrot and Vegetable Medley	Tamago Egg and Bamboo
Mix-Ins	Garlic, Pickled Ginger, and Green Onion	Garlic, Seaweed (Nori), and Crispy Tempura

The bowl came with a delicious miso broth. It's the most subtle yet delicious broth I've ever had.

As you can see from our choices, we picked ingredients usually found in a curry rice bowl and ramen bowl. It was a great experience! Although, if you have social anxiety, picking ingredients might be a challenge. 

Udon Curry Chicken Bowl and Yuzu Miso Ramen Pork BBQ Bowl

After enjoying our meal, I looked at the Instagram account of Genki Eki and found that they have recommended bowls already, which are not yet in the store (or I could have missed it).

I hope to come back and enjoy the pre-designed bowl for maximum flavour and to try Oden.

Snacks from Wendy's

Happy BC Day! We have no work today. Yay! We're just lazily staying home most of the morning, but decided to take a walk in the afternoon and ended up at Wendy's. We enjoyed a couple large fries (I should have ordered a Biggie - is that size still a thing?) and two medium-size Frosty - one chocolate and one vanilla.

Vanilla and Chocolate Frosty and French Fries from Wendy's

Afterwards, we walked around Canadian Tire a block away to see if they had any stickers. Then, we ended up at Michael's, where I got stamps.

Dinner at Blenz Coffee

Happy Sunday! After my nap, the temperature inside and outside our apartment reached 30°C, so we decided to head to the nearest Blenz Coffee for drinks to keep cool.

I enjoyed my Lemon Shaken Iced Tea, while hubby likes his Caramel Sundae Chocochillo.

Lemon Shaken Iced Tea

Caramel Sundae Chocochillo

I was craving donuts and was pleasantly surprised that they offer beignets. It's alright.

Beignets from Blenz Coffee

For dinner, we ordered the beef roll and butter chicken wrap. The beef roll was unexpectedly delicious, while the butter chicken wrap was acceptable.

Beef Roll from Blenz

Butter Chicken Wrap.

Lunch from Costco Food Court

Happy Sunday! We're out of tortillas, so we went to Costco in Downtown Vancouver to buy in bulk alongside shredded cheese, cheese slices, and deli meat.

Before doing our grocery run, we had lunch at the Costco food court. We had two of the $1.50 hotdogs with drinks and French fries. I paid almost $7.00 for everything and was full afterwards.

Costco Hotdog and French Fries 

After groceries, we went home, and I took a nap with the background sound of the only MLS game today.

Bagel BLT breakfast sandwich for breakfast at Tim Hortons

Happy Sunday! As part of our usual routine, we grabbed breakfast at Tim Hortons before heading to Church.

There are no breakfast offers in the Tims app, so I ordered a sandwich that we haven't tried yet.

We ordered two Bagel BLT sandwiches, one with sausage and egg while the other with bacon and egg. I chose Everything Bagel for both.

It's alright. The bagel was denser than I remembered and wasn't toasted (there's no option to toast it when I ordered the sandwich in the app).

Bagel BLT with Sausage & Egg

Bagel BLT with Bacon & Egg

It's another hot day in Vancouver, so instead of coffee, we opted for Classic Lemonade and Strawberry Watermelon Real Fruit Quencher.

Dinner from Outtakes at Cineplex Marine Gateway

Happy Friday! It's movie date night, and we're finally watching Minions: Rise of Gru.

We planned to have dinner at Tims, but the lines were too long, so we went straight to the cinema and ordered at Outtakes for dinner.

Hubby had the Bacon Poutine while I had a Pulled Pork Hotdog. I love Outtakes pulled pork but prefer it on poutine.

Combo 3: 1x Large Popcorn and 2x Regular Soda

Bacon Poutine, French Fries, and Pulled Pork Hotdog 

Movie date night is incredible.

Dinner at Masa Japanese Restaurant

To end my day off, we had dinner at Masa Japanese Restaurant and I had my favourite Assorted Japanese Curry. We were also pleasantly surprised to see that they know have a Korean food section in the menu.

From the new section, we ordered the Kimchi Fried Rice and Korean fried chicken. I'm so happy for this addition!

Assorted Katsu Curry

Kimchi Fried Rice

The Kimchi Fried Rice is definitely better than Sushivan.

Korean Yangnyeom Chicken

I haven't had Korean fried chicken in a long time and I look forward to trying all the flavours that Masa has to offer.

Iced Chocolate and more at Waves Coffee House

Real-time writing is the best. To break from routine, I spent the rest of my afternoon at Waves Coffee House along West Broadway.

I absolutely love this branch. It's spacious and bright. The sun is blazing, and I am inside a relatively cooler coffee shop enjoying my Iced Dark Chocolate.

Iced Dark Chocolate 

Thank God for days like this when I can just enjoy and focus on my surroundings.

After a couple hours, where I was seated got sun rays, so I decided to move to one of the couches. I also ordered the Mango Fruit Shake (it's not good) and Chicken Fajitas Wrap (it's alright). I'll stick with chocolate from Waves. 😅

Mango Fruit Shake 

Chicken Fajitas Wrap

Lots of rice and cheese, a minimal amount of chicken.

After 5:00 PM, hubby also went to Waves and ordered Matcha Frapp-eh and the Breakfast Bagel, which is much better than the Fajita Wrap and Mango Fruit Shake.

Breakfast Bagel

Matcha Frapp-eh

We also ordered an oatmeal cookie and a double chocolate muffin.

Oatmeal Cookie and Double Chocolate Muffin

Breakfast at Lan Fong Yuen

Hubby and I are doing our best to support as many restaurants and coffee shops along West Broadway that are affected by the sky train's construction.

Today, I took another day off to be able to sleep in. Last night, we watched the Honda Celebration of Lights fireworks display at English Bay.

I happily woke up at 9 AM, and we had breakfast at 11 AM at Lan Fong Yuen. They close early (like 3 PM) and are not open on weekends, so this is our only chance to try their food.

I had the Guacamole Chicken Burrito while hubby ordered the Guacamole Sandwich. Unfortunately, they don't have guacamole since there's none in our breakfast.

If you're in the area, I recommend the Chicken Burrito. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and the sauce it came with was also delicious. Overall, I'll be happy to come back and order it again.

Guacamole Chicken Burrito 

Guacamole Breakfast Sandwich 

Red Bean Buns

Dessers at Fufú Café

After our salty lunch at Olive Garden, my youngest sister, mom, and dad drove to Vancouver to enjoy Japanese souffle pancakes at Fufú Café.

Ever since trying their soft pancakes for the first time, I have wanted to bring my youngest sister here. I knew she was going to love it. My mom loved it too. Even my dad who doesn't like sweets enjoyed the pancakes.

Tiramisu Souffle Pancake
3 stacked souffle pancakes, mascarpone cheese whipped cream, espresso sauce, almond chunks, dark chocolate curls, espresso flake ice cream, and cocoa powder

I love the crunch from the almond chunks. It's such a great contrast from the pillowy soft pancakes.

Tiramisu Souffle Pancake

Nutella & Caramelized Banana Souffle Pancake
Three souffle pancakes, Nutella whipped cream, caramelized banana, Nutella sauce, roasted hazelnut, double chocolate raspberry ice cream, and icing sugar

Nutella & Caramelized Banana Souffle Pancake

Yay! I am so grateful to spend time with my parents and sisters today.