Smooch Food: Love Letters to Every Bite

There's an ongoing campaign on Twitter to make every Wednesday of the week starting April 15, #TakeOutDay in Canada to support restaurants. Instead of using delivery apps that eat up most of a restaurant's margin, give them a call to place your order, and when possible, pick them up. Right now, there's only a handful of restaurants open in our neighbourhood, so supporting small, local restaurants at this time are crucial to ensure they survive the effects of COVID-19. For lunch and dinner today, I ordered food from Sushivan Japanese Restaurant. This morning I had difficulty deciding whether to order from Sushivan or from MASA. I checked their online pages and saw the news that someone broke inside Sushivan and stole all their credit card machines. It's sad for them to experience such loss, so I decided to give them a call and place my order for what I planned to be lunch, but way too much so we'll eat it for dinner too. The thief came last night. He stole a...

If you check my recent posts, I have been eating way too many fried chicken. We had some from Church's Chicken earlier into the work-from-home mandate. Then, I ordered some from Juke Fried Chicken to support local restaurants. Today, we decided to use Uber Eats and order from Hi Five Chicken. It's our first time trying it out and the fried chicken arrived hot, crispy, and juicy. I love it! We ordered the following: 4-pc regular roasted chicken 4-pc spicy fried chicken 10-pc cheddar cheese munchers 16oz (Large) potato wedges Gravy We ate a couple of the fried chicken, the munchers, and the potato wedges. The rest of the chicken went to containers and straight to the fridge for reheating tomorrow and possibly even the day after. Fried Chicken Munchers and Potato Wedges I'm ready to eat you chicken thigh. Yummy! I'm not good at plating and don't want to touch the food because of COVID-19, so sorry for this realistic photo of our lun...

I went to the grocery earlier. I want to say that I'm scared and paranoid, but in reality, I'm realistic and cautious. There's not a lot of people outside, so physical distancing is possible. I smiled at everyone I saw today, and almost everyone did the same. I went to Meinhardt Fine Food to grab ingredients to cook Pork Nilaga (onion soup), which I can cook tomorrow, and we can eat for a week. I also grabbed a couple of ready to eat items: Palak Paneer and Chicken Tandoori. Palak Paneer and Chicken Tandoori It was so delicious. Meinhardt gives you wipes when you enter so you can use it with your basket, then the cashier gave me a pump of sanitizer before I grab my bag ready to leave. It was a pleasant experience. After Meinhardt, I went to Shoppers Drug Mart a block away. I grabbed frozen chicken nuggets, biscuits, cream cheese, and bagel. It was a quick swift trip.  I walked a few more blocks to see hubby walking towards me to help with the plastic bags. The...

April Fool's day is the longest day we've been out of the house. We were out for nearly 2 hours - running errands. Cherry Blossoms trees in full bloom in our block. We went to RBC all the way near Cambie (1.7km) to withdraw coins. You're silly, coins are not "essential." Well, for renters like us, we need coins to do laundry. After getting coins, we grabbed groceries from Shoppers. Then, we decided to order online for pick-up 4-5 days worth of Indian food from New India Buffet + Bar & Restaurant. I've never eaten here, but I definitely will once this COVID-19 situation is over. It's beautiful inside. We ordered chicken vindaloo, beef saag (spinach), aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower), and fish masala. It's so delicious!

It's a happy Tuesday! Hubby said yes to ordering fried chicken and tomorrow, we'll pick up 5 days worth of food from New India Buffet + Bar & Restaurant. We'll be out for a couple of hours running errands (yes, we need to go to the bank too - coins are needed for laundry). Then, we'll be staying home again for the next week. Praying that a vaccine for COVID-19 is invented soon. Juke Fried Chicken Juke Fried Chicken for delivery Cheers to supporting small and local restaurants and their employees in these difficult times.

Hubby and I are blessed to have work in these difficult times. We both work in the tech industry, and as such, we can work from home. We get to keep our salaries, benefits, and everything that goes with it. Not everyone is as lucky. I always ask myself, how can we help. With the economy down, we need to help keep money going around. Today, I placed an order on Skip The Dishes from Broadway Chinese Restaurant. It's a small business in our neighbourhood. Skip also has the option to tip the restaurant, which I did. I ordered A LOT of food, more than enough for us to eat over the weekend up to early next week. I also gave a 20% tip to the Skip The Dishes driver. What's the point of this post? My point is if you did not lose your job and are still earning, please spend a bit more to help those small businesses and their employees. With my purchase today, I helped the restaurant, the delivery person, and Skip The Dishes. Let's help each other keep the economy going. Our...

To celebrate my sister's birthday, we ordered food from The Canadian Brewhouse for delivery at home. The food was surprisingly delicious. I can't wait for restaurants to be open again so we can come here and try the food. Little Italy Chicken Parmesan Brisket Shepherd's Pie Caramel Chocolate Dessert Poutine

Day 7 of mostly staying at home. Since last Monday, we've only been out of the house to grab groceries, then go back home. Today, I needed my fried chicken fix, and thankfully, Church's Chicken is on SkipTheDishes. What's inside the bag? Church's Chicken! Fried Chicken fix Butter Biscuit and Chicken Strips I tried the biscuit for the first time, and now I understand why people on Twitter are raving about this thing. It's so delicious.

Yay for Domino's Pizza delivery. It's making Monday work from home and marathon of meetings so much better. Pasta, Parm Bites, and Pizza Working from Home

After celebrating Pi Day and attending Mass, we decided to have dinner at Redbeef Noodle Kitchen. I want fried chicken. Crispy Spicy Chicken with Rice Sliced Garlic Pork with Rice Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken

We love Pi day! We celebrated it last year  and the year before as well. For 2020, Pi day is on a Saturday, so we had more time to explore and visit places. We walked around 4th Avenue between Maple and Burrard Avenue to eat pie and pizza slices. "I only have pies for you." La Ruota Authentic Neopolitan Pizza This is a relatively new place in this neighbourhood. We grabbed a couple of pizza slices each and found it surprising! I'm also surprised how quickly the area filled up after we sat down. Pizza slice for Pi day Pizza slices for Pi day The Pie Hole The perfect place to celebrate the pi day is in a restaurant dedicated to pie. There was a line up to the door! I completely forgot that they were doing a $3.14 for a 4" pie promo. By the time we're in front, they announced that the 4" pies are sold out. It was crazy! As with our tradition, we got our "usual" apple pie, pecan pie (in this case it was pecan tart), ...

It's Friday the 13th! I was planning to file my resignation today, but the universe has other plans. We did a tour of potential office space with my current work at the HSBC building. Afterwards, we decide to have lunch inside the Art Gallery building. Coastal BC Salmon Fillet Golden beets, roasted parsnips, carrots, purple potatoes, fennel, pumpkin seed pesto, citrus cauliflower sauce The food was delicious, and the service was excellent. I can't wait to come back.

I ended my previous post with our plans to resign was delayed because of an event. Well, at around three in the afternoon, we all received an email from HR that we will all be working from home for a month. After sorting things out at the office, hubby and I decided to have dinner outside. Barney's Nachos Barney's Nachos is terrific. It has tied the nachos from The Mexican in Downtown Vancouver. The primary difference is this one does not skimp on the toppings. It's overloaded for sure. The one at The Mexican is a winner as well because of the homemade chips. Moscow Mule Classic Poutine with pork belly Dessert of the Week! Let's see how I'll survive this month-long work from home.

It's been an exhausting day at work, and we went to grab lunch at Go Fish. I had my usual 2-pc salmon and fries. It was a beautiful cold day in Vancouver. The skies were clear, which is perfect for eating outside. 2-pc salmon and fries One of my colleagues said this is like the last supper for us, eh? We were planning to resign on Friday the 13th (i.e. tomorrow), but events later on the day will change our plans.