Hittin’ the Big City

Most Vancouver Islanders will tell you that the BC Ferries are the bane of their existence.  I, on the other hand, actually like taking the ferry!

If you go into it with a smile and some patience it’s actually a nice ride.  (An iPod is helpful too.)

On Thursday my timing for boarding was dead on. I somehow landed up being near the front of the pack of walk-ons and was literally the first person in the cafeteria.  This.never.happens.  EVER.

I had actually finished my [totally mandatory White Spot BC burger] dinner before the ferry left the dock.  I felt like I was in some alternate universe where BC ferries leave 2 minutes early and seats are a cinch to find.

Coffee and my newest iPod download, AWOLNation, helped.

Once the ride ended and I actually got to big ol’ Vancouver I got to spend the evening and all day Friday with Sarah!  Sarah and I became super close friends while living in Halifax…but now she’s a West Coast return too! 

Thursday night we sat up sipping beers and catching up on a year’s worth of girl talk.  If only our beloved Cosette was here too.  Coco: book a ticket…weeeee neeeeeed you!!!!

Friday morning Sarah and I hit up Starbucks so I could introduce her to the love affair that is a Cafe Mocha with coconut syrup.  Drool.  Oh, and finally add the Vancouver mug to my collection.

Sarah and I were avid sushi fiends while in Halifax. Every time we ordered a tempura yam roll at Doraku she would tell me about her favourite Vancouver sushi institution…Tsunami. On Friday we tried to go there only to find out that it has closed down!

Sad.

I immediately got to texting my friend Alecia since she works downtown Van and got her to recommend another place.  She offered up Kamei Royale as one of her boss’s favourites so we gave it a try.

Highlight of the meal was this Healthy California Roll with Mango.  Crab, avocado, mango and brown rice wrapped in a colourful soy curd paper.

My spicy tuna roll…Sarah’s salmon sashimi…our shared Agedashi Tofu…and yummy Goma Ae (which I really should order more often!).

Alecia totally lunch bombed us by showing up unannounced since she now knew exactly where I was. We haven’t seen each other in like ten years and I’m a jackass for not getting our photo.  She had to run back to work, but she did leave me with a super rad Trader Joe’s loot bag that I’ll share soon! 

After lunch we wandered the streets looking at all of the crazy Canucks fever and chatting until it was time to meet Cat.  Sadly, Sarah had family obligations but we parted ways promising not to wait a year to do this again!

What I know:  Living only a scenic ferry ride apart does not make it any easier to see good friends as often as you’d like. 

I need a teleporter.  Pronto.

Seattle, Sake, and Sushi

So when planning our visit to Seattle we both threw out the idea of sushi.  I hadn’t had sushi since returning to the West Coast (until Birthday Party #4) and John looks forward to it every time he ventures out here from Boston.

Since Seattle seems to have a thousand and one sushi restaurants we opted to visit one John had enjoyed on a previous business trip.  Umi Sake House in Belltown.

We mistakenly didn’t make reservations ahead of time so we had a fairly lengthy wait, but the restaurant offers a very nice bar where we sat and enjoyed a cocktail.  After a while the hostess came by and asked if we wanted to sit up at the sushi bar but we opted to wait for a table. Turned out it was only another five minutes and we were seated at a neat little low-seated table.  Our seats were more like comfy little love seats (cool…however my lower back wasn’t a big fan!).

We were immediately served complimentary edamame (I’ll apologize now for the terrible photos…it was very dark in there and even with a flash I was hard pressed to get an attractive photo of the food)…

John suggested sake…and my first reaction was “I don’t like sake”.  I promptly retracted my statement and said “actually I’ve only ever had it a few times and found it too strong and bitter”.  When our server came back I asked her if she could help us chose something smoother.

She really understood where I was coming from and recommended we order a flight of three varieties to share and that way we could make an informed decision about what we might actually like.

Such a great idea.  She recommended one unfiltered (very creamy and almost tropical tasting)(Kinkgasumi Nigori), a sparkling (slightly cloudy with a good sparkling zing)(Tsuki Usagi), and a regular popular sake (much smoother than any I’ve had before but still not my fave)(Mu Daiginjo).

While we sipped our appetizer choice arrived.  (So sad it’s a blurry picture!!).  How could we pass up the Lobster Tempura?  It was hot, buttery, melt in your mouth delicious. 

We then opted to order a bottle of the sparkling sake to share.  Yum!

We spent a lot of time haggling about which sashimi to order so in the end we decided on an assorted plate…but asked her to make sure there was Toro on the plate. 

Everything was soooo amazingly fresh and melt in your mouth fabulous.  Aside from the squid (which I gladly let John enjoy) it was a plate full of my favourites…sweet shrimp, tuna belly, salmon…all yum!!

We decided to order something a little different as our sushi roll.  It came from their special sheet…it was called something like “Big Girls Roll” and included crab, tuna, kiwi, strawberry ponzu and other crazy things I cannot for the life of me remember.

It was delicious but a tad too sweet for us.  More like dessert sushi.  We probably should have ordered a spicy tuna roll but were being adventurous.

After that John wanted something warmer and more comforting.  We were considering some sort of tempura dish but when he asked our server about these crisp prawns it was pretty clear we needed to order them.

These were awesome!  Four large prawns wrapped with egg noodle then fried…drizzled with a sweet chili lime sauce.  So deeelish…even if they were a little messy to bite into.

After all of that there was no way we were ordering dessert.  Remember we ate four large cups of chowder earlier in the day.  Oh boy. 

We did go on the hunt for one of Seattle’s little speakeasy spots.  Seems to be the new “big thing” down there…tiny little hidden gin joints.  It took a bit of scouring around and asking two different hot dog vendors to help us find it, but we did eventually find a random door in a random alleyway that turned out to be Bathtub Gin & Co.

Tiny little hole in the wall.  We enjoyed a quick Grey Goose and soda then called it a night.  Lord knows with all of that food and booze sleep was pending. Nom. zzzzzzzzzzz.

I’d like to thank Seattle for really fattening me up for the cold weather!

Birthday Party #4

Four! Whooop! :) Since my actual birthday fell on a Monday and I’d already been out and about for my fair share of birthday fun, I really had just planned to relax at home and do nothing last night.  But Tiffaney was having no part of it!

I asked around and couldn’t get a consensus on where the best sushi in Victoria is these days so opted to place a take-out order with Shiki Sushi because I know I’ve liked it in the past, and it was convenient for picking up.

Edamame (overcooked but still yum)…

Goma-Ae Salad (a much needed dish of greens!)…

Spicy Tuna Roll and Tempura Salmon Roll (both delicious…but the tuna in particular was excellent)…

Tiffaney also ordered the Pork Gyoza which were super yummy and her fish-free rolls hit the spot.  We’ve never met a tempura yam roll we didn’t like. :)

Overall pretty good for take-out…but I suspect I am going to be hard pressed to find a sushi spot I like as much as Doraku in Halifax.

Our friend Ingmarie joined us for conversation and cupcakes.  Being the fabulous friend she is, she never arrives empty handed and brought us this deeeeelish Ginger Perry from Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse.

We are not entirely sure what a perry is but this had a wonderful spicy ginger kick to it.  Somewhat light an alcoholic ginger ale but lighter. It paired well with our sushi…and our cupcakes!

Not that I need an excuse to buy cupcakes but they are a lot more guilt free when it is your birthday.  :)  I took a quick trip over to Oh La La and picked out a half dozen…. and promptly ate one as soon as I got home.

I thought the Just Vanilla would be my favourite because I often love the simplest ones…but it didn’t live up to the Suzie’s Classic.  Yummy for sure but I like the density of Suzie’s icing more.

The girls and I cut up three flavours to try and were all surprised which ones ended up being our favourites.

Red Velvet had lovely light cream cheesy icing…probably one of the best I’ve tasted.  We were all surprised that we really loved the strawberry icing on the Pink Ballerina…it tasted just like a fresh strawberry!  And even though all three of us are vanilla cake fans we were very impressed with how moist and delicious the Kiss Me I’m Irish (chocolate mint) was. 

We didn’t make it to the Oh La La (chocolate cherry) so I have saved that one for a friend.  I don’t usually go for chocolate and fruit baked goods but I’ll be stealing a bite just to be sure. :)

OK. Birthday fun is now over. The cold I woke up with this morning is my punishment for over indulging.  But it’s a small price to pay. :)  *achoo!

Wide Eyes

Classic mistake.  Go into favourite restaurant feeling ravenous.  Order way too much.

Everything on the Doraku menu looks sooooo good.  We couldn't help ourselves.  Eyes larger than stomachs.

Yummy, refreshing Japanese beer...

Shared:  Agedashi Tofu (as recommended by Tara).  Deeelish.  Although I would do without the bonito next time...a bit too fishy.

Shared:  Edamame

Shared:  Sweet Potato Tempura.  What a brilliant idea!  There is always something in the mixed veggie tempura I don't like.  This way everyone is happy!

Ordered for myself (honestly, what was I thinking?!):  Miso soup (deceivingly filling), spicy tuna roll, Philly roll, California roll.

 

Needless to say, I have leftovers.  Nom!!!

Time to Go

My ride to airport arrives at 5:30am!  That’s tooooo early for this girlie!  Good thing I’m generally good at sleeping on the plane.

The worst part is I’m nowhere near tired because I slept in today!

Late breakfast of teeny tiny multigrain toast with PB and Supercrack…

Hazelnut is the new Vanilla!  Had to run some last minute errands and took a trip through Starbucks along the way…

Triple grande half-sweet hazelnut non-fat latte.  Mouthful.

Because breaky was late, I didn’t really need lunch…so I snacked on an apple while catching up on some stuff for work.  What a nice girl I am…not leaving my co-workers to fend for themselves while I’m off condo hunting this coming week.  :)  haha.

Late afternoon I made time for a trip to the gym!  It’s been a week of overeating and next to no activity so I wanted to squeeze in one last sweat session before getting on the plane.  I should be able to get a few workouts in while I’m gone, but I can’t be counting on it!

On my way there I snacked on this Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bar.  I was expecting it to taste a little more “green” like the Amazing Grass bars, but this was pleasantly tasty and had lots of little crunchy bits in it.  I’m curious to try the other two flavours they sent me.

Started my workout by getting my heart rate up and my sweat on with 2.15 miles on the elliptical, cross-country style. Then did a full body push…

3 sets of 12:

• leg press
• calf press
• overhead press
• hammer curls
• planks (3 x 30 seconds)
• squats on bosu
• bicep curls on bosu
• lunges (first set on bosu)
• crunches
• reverse crunches
• leg lifts a la Jane Fonda and Booty Camp Fit
• side planks (30 seconds per side)

Finished up with stretchy stretch stretch stretch!

Since I have a totally bare fridge I grabbed dinner from the supermarket on my way home.

Sushi…spicy shrimp and spicy salmon rolls…

I prefer tuna.  The salmon were so-so…I tossed out 3 pieces.

Oriental Chicken Salad…

I ate about 3/4 of the actual veggies, 1/2 the cheese, 1/4 of the almonds, and all of the chicken and mandarins…

 

Actually a fairly tasty salad!  Although I really don’t know what cheese has to do with an Oriental salad?

The rest of my evening has been spent doing laundry, packing, cleaning the bathroom and vaccuming (anyone else hate going away and leaving a dirty house?), prepping my work stuff, and various other puttering.  I also washed, dried and flat ironed my hair because doing my hair at 5am just doesn’t seem appealing at all!

This time tomorrow night I’ll be arriving in Victoria!!  I land in Vancouver early in the day and get to spend the afternoon with my lovely girl Cat!!!  Then she will put me on the ferry to the island. I will try to blog but somehow I think I’ll probably just fall down and sleep as soon as I get settled.

If you don’t hear from me, I will be looking at potential new homes all day Monday!!  Eeeeeeeeeeeeek! 

Please cross all available digits that my home sweet home is out there!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx